Prologue - Where am I? (Rework)
3rd Person P.O.V.
It was a bright day on the planet for the inhabitants of this world. The birds are flying around above the grass, singing and playing around, flowers swaying back and forth from the gust of winds passing by, and rivers carrying fresh water for the animals, plants, and any civilizations standing close to the rivers, mountains pierce through the clouds with their pointed tips, almost touching the heavens by their sheer size.
The sun orbits above the planet, seemingly observing the bustling activity of the inhabitants below, it was a beautiful day for the planet, named Equis, home of many creatures on the planet.
One such creatures to look at are the dragons, sentient, powerful, old, and wise beings. They lived many years on the planet, seeing their family and friends come and go but they don't worry too much since it's the way of life. They venture out from their home to find treasures to hoard or food for their quelch their hunger, they see many creatures passing by them, scared by their presence alone because of their size and power they possess, however, many dragons ignored these reactions from such small creatures and live their lives in isolation. Guarding their territory and their treasure from other dragons or treasure hunters.
Other such creatures are gryphons, the body of a lion, and the head of an eagle, with wings mind you. These creatures mostly live in high places like the mountains or the tallest trees in a forest, but the most shocking part of these creatures is that they are sentient too. They live in a socialized society with houses, money, and even a government to boot, it was quite an unusual sight to behold, from mindless predators to sentient beings that are capable to speak and think.
But we're not here to talk about them and the other creatures this world has to offer, we are here to talk about a particular species. The Pony race, or rather the Equestrians.
Small quadrupled beings, cute and adorable ponies, evolved from ordinary ponies with no knowledge of speaking and thinking, making them normal animals in the wild. In the past, a burst of powerful energy happened across the entire world, called The Great Surge, this energy we speak will later be called, Magic. This Magical surge was the reason why all of these species were created, the ponies are also included. No one really knows how this phenomenon happened in the first place, but it is rumored that some powerful creatures fought on the planet, sending waves of powerful energy all across the planet.
Magic altered the genetics of these ponies, making them more intelligent, and adaptable, and also birthing three different races of ponies. The Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasi ponies.
We can talk about them for so long, about their rich history and culture, but that would be for another time.
We pan around the world until we see a large castle and a large city on the side of a mountain, the castle perched on the ledge of the mountain with supports holding the entire castle to prevent it from falling, there we see also Equestrians walking around, some wore fancy clothing, others look like ordinary citizens, others shopping for accessories, while unicorn and earth pony guards patrolling the area, acting as police forces for the city.
Pegasi patrolled the skies, guarding against any airborne threats that may hurt the populace or damage the city together, they are also responsible for clearing the clouds above them, making it sunny all the time or cloudy if they like.
Shops of different sizes, selling food, clothes, furniture, and also magical appliances, albeit they are mostly expensive since they are hard to make. Some are not shops at all, they have restaurants, opera houses, and even a library.
We also have fillies and colts running around the city, either playing or coming back from school, but they mostly play in the parks while their parents watch over them. The parents talk to other pony parents to kill the time and not get bored altogether.
Families having a picnic and playing with their young ones, running around the grass or playing tag with them, cherishing and gathering memories before time takes them away.
It was a peaceful and normal day for the ponies, with no threats or anything that may harm them in the future, all in all, they live a happy and harmonic life.
However, we move further away from the city behind the tall mountains, far from which these ponies can ever reach without proper supplies, or rather, magic.
We arrive at a place, situated behind the tall mountains, making it effectively hidden from any outsiders, we see tall and bipedal creatures, franticly running around the area. Around them are gargantuan structures that are taller and bigger than the city we previously visited, we see advanced machines lifting heavy things that these bipeds can carry.
We see a lot of these bipeds pulling and pushing crates of all sizes. They carry these crates or boxes in a large structure, the structure we speak of is tall and very long, and its size can easily dwarf any buildings this world has to offer.
The structure is made of metal, too advanced for any creatures to create this monstrosity of a building, large ramps paved the way to make it inside the structure. The gargantuan building has multiple large gates for these creatures to use to load in any of their cargo, small or big it can be put inside. They carry as much of their equipment and personal belongings inside the structure.
We move up further from the long structure, we see large windows and small windows dotting around the top, these windows offer three-sixty degrees of vision, perfect for spotting or admiring the view whichever they like.
Large caliber guns can be seen outside, the size of a house and powerful as an asteroid, these weapons of mass destruction currently guarding the structure, protecting the creatures moving inside, there we also see smaller turrets, smaller than the larger ones but faster at sending pain to their adversary. They turned around, seemingly patrolling the horizon for potential enemies or something that might disrupt them from their goal.
However, this structure is no structure or a building at all for that matter...
It is a Spaceship...
A Warship to be exact...
Spaceships or starships if you want to call them, are very large pieces of machinery that can traverse the empty space of the universe, capable of traveling vast distances to get to their designated location in a matter of minutes, capable of carrying thousands of people or tons of cargo at a time. Some spaceships are designed for war, with the unknown in the vast empty space, there is bound to be something lurking in the darkness, so in order to protect themselves, they built warships.
Tall bipedal creatures hurryingly carry boxes of equipment or items, which any of them can carry. At the base of the large ramp, we see three High ranking-looking bipeds, dressed in black clothing with multiple medals on their torso and colored strips present as well. Two of the bipeds had one star on their caps while the other had two stars on its cap too. While they wore similar caps, except with the number of stars, they have words above the stars, saying 'Forged by the Stars'.
They were accompanied by three ponies, one old stallion, and two young-looking mares.
As they reached the tip of the ramp of the large ship, we see an old-looking unicorn stallion with a long beard and mustache, the color of his mane and tail are colored white, while his coat are light grey colored, and his eyes are colored dark violetish grey. This pony was known for his many achievements in magic, so famous in fact, that in the future, a certain pony will idolize him because of his grand and impossible achievements. This pony was known as, Starswirl the Bearded.
With him are two mares that accompanied him for this occasion. One mare has a white coat with a very slight pink tinge, purple eyes, and a flowing blue, pink, and green mane and tail, with a sun cutie mark on her flank. While the other has a dark blue coat, blueish green eyes, and a blue flowing mane with a crescent moon cutie mark on her flank also. These mares are greatly known for being the Princess of the Sun and Princess of the Moon. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna
But the most interesting part of these two is that they have the same attributes of a unicorn and a pegasus. Hence, a new category was made for this occasion, Alicorns.
Alicorns are the combined attributes of all three pony species, the Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasus respectively. They are more powerful than any of the three species, since they have this kind of power, they are considered royalty and immortal to many of their subjects. With their new found control, these mares are now the leaders of a nation that is recently formed named Equestria.
These three ponies followed these creatures to the Warship to say their final goodbyes.
"Looks like this is it," Starswirl said, "You are leaving Equis for good," he said with a saddened look, seeing his friends leaving their planet for good.
The biped, with the two stars, kneeled down and pat Starswirls head, "I believe so," he said solemnly, "As much as we want to stay here, High Command orders us to go," he looked at them with a sigh, "For good."
Princess Celestia cried at the biped, she then spat out words that are seemingly begging to stay him here, "But why! surely thou can talk to him and cancel the preposterous order!" she exclaimed while hugging tightly his leg.
"Agreed! thou shall speak with him to cancel this dreadful act of High Command!" Luna exclaimed also crying while also hugging tightly at the biped's legs.
The biped then moved to the crying mares and hugged them back, "I know, but the one who ordered us is a High Ranking Officer, for someone just to tell him to cancel this, he'll just court marshal them for insubordination." the biped moved away from the hug and looked at them, "However, if someone with a High Rank said we can come back to here, we'll gladly go back here." he said reassuringly, making the two mares look up to him.
Celestia looked at him, "Promise thee come back?" she looked at him with hope, still teary-eyed.
The biped then ruffled her mane, "I promise," he said while giving them a smile.
Then a beep was heard at his earpiece, he talked through it for a few minutes, he then removed his hand over it, "Looks like it's time now." he stood up, and looked at the three ponies, "I'm gonna miss you three." the biped said with a single tear fell from his right eye while also keeping himself from crying.
"We will too," Starswirl said also with a tear falling from his face, "You've been by our side for the last 20 years here, I heard that the time is different from here. So if you are out of our planet, you'll be moving a lot slower when you leave."
the biped nods, already knowing the different time dilation of the planet years ago, "I know, scientists said that one big detail in the past. Once we leave this place, time will accelerate on the planet once we leave," the tall biped said as he stood up, "Well, I guess this is a goodbye then."
"How about a parting gift," Starswirl's horn then lit up, his saddlebag was opened, and lifted out a golden ring and gave him the ring on his palm, "This Ring will keep you remembering us when you leave, remembering the memories we did in these past 20 years."
The biped examined the ring. It was a normal ring which is made out of gold with small crystals dotted all around the circular crevice of the ring, at the middle of it is a blue and red ying-yang shaped gem embedded at the middle. With a look of surprise and appreciation, the creature puts the ring on his finger, slipping it in perfectly, he admired the ring they gave to him, happy to have an item to remember his friends when he leaves the planet.
He smiled, let out a choked sob he kneeled down, and gave them a big final hug for his pony friends, the three happily accepted these final moments with their friend while sobbing, to see their friend leaving their planet for good. The four stayed for dozens of seconds before he let go of the three. He let go of the trio, stood up, and gave them a final smile.
He and the other two turned around and moved towards one of the large gates to enter the ship, once he was inside, he turned back again, seeing them for the last time, see them waving at him, he waved back at the trio, giving them a final gesture before the gate closed shut. The large ramp doors of the Warship closed tightly to secure the people and cargo inside and not let in any debris or foreign objects that might harm the ship.
After a minute, loud roaring sounds were heard underneath the ship, then the ship began to lift up from the ground. With the intense force that these engines let out, they sent a lot of flying debris into the area. So, Starswril cast a force field around them, protecting themselves from the winds and any flying debris that might hurt them.
While all of that happens, the trio looked at the ship where their close friend is located, going up and up ever so slowly before it hit the clouds. It was quite a sight for the trio, seeing this spectacular once-in-a-lifetime event in their lives.
We can also see dozens of other ships began ascending through the air, they bore different designs and sizes, but most of them have similar sizes to each other, one by one, the ships ascended faster before they pierced into the clouds and into space, leaving. large holes in the clouds, telling us that something came in or came out from the heavens.
As the last ship where their friend is, still slowly ascending to the atmosphere, the biped knew that they are watching him leave for the final time. So, he ordered one of his men to sound the horn, telling them his final goodbye to his friends and the planet.
*HOOOOOOONNNNNKKKKKK*
The loud honk that the biped ordered can be heard all throughout Equestria, or maybe even beyond that, this horn signaled that they are saying their final goodbye to the world. Now the ship begins to ascend rapidly, after a few minutes the ship broke through a formation of clouds, leaving a large hole in its wake. Then Warship disappeared from the clouds, never to be seen again.
Starswirl removed the force field, feeling the familiar smell of smoke and fresh air on his nose, he looked up at the carved cloud where his friend's ship once was, he let out a smile and said, "Goodbye my friend," he lowly muttered in sadness.
He then looked at the two mares, who are still looking at the sky, he nudged both of them, removing them from their thoughts, and looked at him in the eyes, "Come on now, we must get back to Canterlot," the two looked at the sky one last time before nodding.
Starswirl nodded, his horn begins to flare, then the ground beneath them started glowing, a small circle formation circling around them as the surrounding area begins to glow.
While Starswirl is casting his long-range teleportation spell, Luna looked at her sister, "Sister," she said to her while nudging her.
Earning the attention of Celestia, she asked a question that surprised even her, even if she knew what that question is, "Are thou sure that they will come back?" she asked.
Celestia looked at Luna, then at the sky, where the large hole that the spaceship broke through, was still present for all to see, She smiled at the sky once more and answered her sister's question, "They will sister...
...They will...
...Jacob will come back."
TheOneWhoEatsCheeseTM Presents...
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An Adventure of a Lifetime
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Edited by: TOWEC
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Location: Empire of Dolusk, System Oscar-Delta, 3rd Planet
Date: March 21st, 2714 (TE Standard date)
Time: 14:51 PM (Terran Empire Standard Time), 12:31 (Planet Time)
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2500 Years Later
25 Years Later
Jacobs P.O.V.
Space is quite a topic to cover, it stretches across infinitely in the cosmos, containing all of the mass the universe holds, containing all stars, galaxies, planets, and other astronomical bodies in the vast empty space.
Out there, every second and minute has passed, new stars and planets form out there in the vast distance, just out of sight and reach. Some stars die as they were old, burning all of their remaining energy, and dying in a spectacular way but also in a dangerous way which can kill all life depending on the explosion.
It's both frightening and fascinating. Fascinating is that we want to explore what else is out there, far beyond our reach, and eager to study what we find. Frightening because we don't know what's out there, the vast darkness that consumes the places we can't reach and see, only to find something more terrifying behind it. But the universe also holds something we thought of many decades ago, aliens.
We thought of meeting aliens is good for us, not the only beings in the universe and all, relieving the moment that there are more other intelligent species out there. But sadly, that happiness faded away when we first encountered aliens, they aren't friendly as we thought.
And that kept happening until today, we fought and killed the aliens that attacked us so suddenly, and many questions about why they are doing this are still unknown, but many speculate that we look different from others or our cultures are rather different, which is really racist in my opinion.
Oh, I haven't introduced myself aren't I? Well, The names Jacob Daniel, a 6'8" tall man, which is above average for a normal human's height but it works. With black trimmed hair and a red-colored eye on the right and a blue-colored eye on the left, weird combination of eye colors that I somehow got it from both of my parents but ill manage. Currently, I'm 53 years old, quite young if I'm gonna be honest by Terran standards.
Hobbies, well there is a lot to choose from, but I mostly read the history of my species, from the beginnings of man to the present day. Most of that reading is in a form of warfare, that's right, I'm a military geek when it comes to warfare, the evolution of war is quite a subject to grasp nowadays, from swords and bows to the present magnetic cannons and pulse rifles.
Many of these advancements were made from the large battles humanity fought. Like WW1, leading to the creation of tanks and mechanized infantry, WW2, the creation of new tactics and fast movements as well as new technologies to fight against the enemy, and WW3, the start of new advanced technologies and the creation of spaceships. There are many notable wars in all of humanity's history of fighting each other, but the most important ones are the three major world wars.
Anywho, forgot to also mention I'm a general of a division in the Southern Front Headquarters, positioned here since March 19th with my men. The war between our enemies has been like 4 years now if I remembered, we pushed them hard out from their outer territories and even managed to invade some of their core systems. This is by far one of the fastest pushes we did since the start of the war if not, the fastest advance since our first contact with our first aliens.
Who are we fighting you ask? the Empire of Dolusks, a nasty enemy to be sure, they are reptilian-like creatures who are cold-blooded reptiles like the reptilians back on Earth and some other planets with similar looks. The first contact with them was when they attacked an outer colony of the Terran Empire and raided the shit out of it. it was fortunate that the 12th, 13th, and 16th Battle Fleets are coincidentally at the system to do some training and some refitting for their ships. When they heard the distress signal from the colony they hurriedly moved towards the colony and managed to defeat the invasion forces and their fleet above.
A few weeks later, they attacked more of the outer colonies with more soldiers and ships, this provoked attack made us mobilized 40% of our fleets deployed to counter this threat. As we defeat their futile invasions, they just keep coming back to invade. We finally have enough of this and formally declared war on December 15th, 2710 to these reptilians, we then fought them all the way to their inner colonies. And that's where me and my division was deployed here, the almost conquered inner colony of the Dolusk Empire.
Its finally come to a close too, we have successfully captured and taken the majority of the planet, taken out their space harbor and their stations on land to cut off their escape and any means of resupply, meaning they will only use what they have in the planet or wait for help, which I doubt will arrive in time to even save them.
In summary, the war is turning in our favor, with the loss of vital structures and supplies for the enemy army that is still resisting, it's only a matter of time before they will fall and the planet will be ours to hold. However, the enemy is making some valiant resistance, making it harder to advance since they are holding out despite receiving tremendous losses on their side, the weapons they use were kinda outdated by Terran standards, but those weapons can still do some damage to our troops and our armor.
My division had seen some combat since we were designated to this place, our first seen in combat was on February 23rd, 2712, my division was moving towards a friendly division that is surrounded and requested help to break their encirclement. Luckily, the field army I was in was a lot closer to the friendly unit, but since the other divisions were either on their own assignments or in need of replenishment, they sent me and my division to relieve them.
Once we arrived at the location, the enemy had brought a large army, at least two or three divisions worth that can repel any kind of attack that my allied unit throws, they simply can't break out from the intense attacks, and the numerous soldiers from the enemy forces. My division, however, managed to break through the enemy lines and linked up with the allied division, and managed to push the enemy back, and killed off any stragglers that were left behind.
Anyways, back to the present. Currently, I got a call from the Marshal to meet him with the other generals to plan the final offensive to this planet's capital city. The enemy was given time to prepare for their last defense since we were mustering the majority of the invasion force to be supplied and ready for the final attack.
As I enter the main building of the FOB where the war room will take place, feeling the familiar cold breeze inside the building, I continued my merry way through the lobby, as I passed by multiple people inside who are currently busy with their tasks, seeing them ran past me while carrying some documents in their hands, even some officers and some soldiers carry few papers on their other hand while the other holding data pads while walking to god knows where.
As I observed my surroundings, taking in the scenes of busy people doing their jobs, I failed to see who was in front of me, my thoughts were disturbed when I felt someone bump into me. I then saw a man rubbing his head with his hand, I was about to say an apology when I saw that the person I bumped into is my friend, his name is Luis Fernandez, a Filipino descendant from the Philippines in Earth. He is about 6'6" tall with a charismatic personality and has the leadership skills that can rival mine.
"Hello there Luis," I said with a smile to Luis as he looked up.
Luis noticed who the person who he bumped into, "Oops sorry Jacob," Luis apologized while scratching his head, looking at me with a sheepish look, "Didn't see you there for a second."
"Huh, you didn't see me?" I said with an eyebrow raised as I looked at him, "I'm taller than any generals in the base, even taller than Marshal, how the hell did you not see me?"
Luis scoffed in dismissal, "You're tall I know, but I didn't literary see you because I have to look at my datapad," Luis said as he looked at me while lifting his hand with the data pad in toll, showing me he was indeed checking his datapad, "Got called by High General to meet him at the war room with the other Generals."
"Oh, Marshal called you too?" I asked him, and he nodded, answering my question.
"Yeah, he called up a minute ago, he said it's urgent," Luis looked at me, "He called you too?"
I nodded, "Well yes, after all, he said all Generals meet him in the war room to discuss some plans for the final offensive," I said with amusement, "Since we are both called by Marshal, mind if I tag along to the war room?"
"Sure, I was going there actually so I don't mind," Luis said to me, "Let's go now, Marshal might be waiting for us," Luis walked ahead of me.
"Right behind you," I walked right behind him then moved to his left side.
As we walked to our destination, we see some employees, officers, and soldiers saluting as we continued to walk. We of course saluted back to them as per customs in the military. As we are yet to arrive at the room, Luis broke the silence between us to start a conversation.
"You think this will be our final offensive?" he asked while we are still walking.
"If plans go smoothly, I should say it will be our last attack on the Dolusks," I said while looking at him below, "For this planet anyway," I quickly added.
Luis let out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness, the sooner we finish this planet the sooner we go home," he said while crossing his arms.
"The war ain't that bad for us anyway, why are you complaining?" I asked while we turned to a corner.
"I just want this war to be over, it's quite tiring to command a division under your command you know? with the constant shouting on the comms is quite irritating," he said with an irritated tone.
I chuckled at his irritation in his job as a general, true that it will be stressful and irritating to manage an army of your own, even I experienced this problem similar to him, but give it some time then you'll get used to it. After all, it's quite fun to have an army of your own, showing them that you are a capable and trustworthy person to rely on in any given situation.
"I suppose your right about that," I said, "But on the bright side, being a general is a hard position to get and they pay really well, so consider yourself lucky."
But Luis just shrugs for some reason, "I guess your right, they pay us really well for only commanding an army."
After that, the walk became silent again, we are almost to the war room since the hallways are familiar to me on some occasions when me or the other generals are called there.
Then the silence was broken once again when he shifted his focus to the ring on my left hand, "Still remember who gave you the ring?" he asked.
I was silent after that, I have yet to remember who gave me this ring, It's like someone important to me gave me this ring for something. But the problem is, I don't know who it was. It's been a couple of years now, and I still don't know who gave me this ring.
"Now that you said it," I said as I looked at the ring, "No, I have not, it's like I immediately forgot who gave it to me, it doesn't make any sense," I frowned at what I said.
Luis then gave me a pat on the back, removing my frown as I looked at him with a smile plastered on his face, "Cheer up my friend, maybe something will happen in the future that might help you find someone who gave it to you," he said.
"Yeah, maybe your right then, my question will be finally answered today," I said with enthusiasm before adding, "Or maybe some other time," I muttered under my breath, which Luis noticed and chuckled.
As we walked for a good minute or two, we eventually arrived at the hallway where the war room is located, were two large wooden doors with a large iron plaque above it saying, "War Room" in it, telling us that we have arrived.
As we were about to enter the room, I looked at Luis and said, "You ready to enter the lion's den?" I jokingly said as he chuckled at my joke.
"Ready when you are."
"Let's go then," I said as I opened the dual doors to let us through.
As we entered the Room, we were greeted by a dimly lit room, where a large hologram projected at the middle of the large oval-shaped table with computer pads at the table in front of each chair. There are a total of 22 chairs in the room, 10 at the right and left side of the table and 1 at each end of the table. We see 10 chairs were occupied with Marshal seated at the end of the table.
High General Carlos Marshal is a 164-year-old person who has medals dotted across his entire chest, he is a 6'5 tall person with a fierce but calm aura surrounding him, and he wore a Field Marshal Standard Uniform for all marshals in the Empires military, he's wearing a clean shirt and buttoned it up fully to support the elegant tie he's wearing. On top of the shirt he's wearing a trendy vest with 5 buttons, The jacket is the same length all around, it has vents on either side, there are two pockets on either side and there's a breast pocket which contains a stylish pocket square. He's wearing pants that have a different style than the jacket, but they complement each other perfectly and they create a perfect balance with his shoes. He's wearing an elegant pair of full-strap loafers. To top it all off he's wearing a luxurious-looking belt, which can be accompanied by a brooch and a tie clip.
When it comes to age, 164 years old is like a middle-aged man by Terran standards, he is come close to being an old person when he reached 170 years old, there he can either still continue his job but he will be called occasionally rather than all the time before, or retire with his family back home.
And also forgot to tell you guys, as technology advances so are the medical branch of technology, a normal human lifespan can go to 170 - 220 years old, yeah it's a long way to go before a person dies of old age, the oldest person recorded if I'm correct is a 230-year-old woman before she died of old age, so a person with the age of 30 to 45 can be considered as a young person. This shows our technological feats to do such impossible things in the field of medicine.
Marshal was busy in his datapad before he heard the opening of doors in front of him, he noticed us standing at the doorway and told us, "General Jacob and General Luis, it's good to see you."
We saluted at Marshal, "Good to see you too Marshal," still standing at the doorway.
Marshal raised his hand and waved it a little, "Good to see you too, now take a seat we will begin shortly."
"Yes Marshal," we then let our arms fall to our side and started looking for a seat.
"Jacob! Luis! over here," a feminine voice erupted in the room, they saw someone waving her hand with two empty seats beside her, and to our surprise and relief, we saw our female friend sitting there, still waving.
Samatha Orlean, a General just like us with a... unique personality I say, although not very troubling just annoying sometimes but that's her personality, she cheers her troops when they are at their lowest and really appreciates the jobs they do in her division but sometimes she can be a lazy general when she is too tired or not in a mood to continue.
She is a 5'11" tall woman who is an American descendant from not Earth actually, she came from Mars if I'm correct. A once wasteland and harsh planet turned into a luscious green and prosperous planet, it took a long 24 years to finish the process of Planetary Transformation. All of that hard work paid off and it was our first-ever successful Planetary Transformation.
"Samantha, good to see you," I seated right beside Samantha as he seated right beside me, making me seated in the middle of the two, "I thought you were going out with your division?" I asked her in surprise, she was supposed to be out there doing her task a while ago.
"Nah, someone took that task for me," Samantha put her hands at her head and then slouched, "I was going for a nap at the quarters but Marshal called so I'm here now," she said lazily rotating around on her office chair. Which me and Luis noticed
"What got you lazy all of a sudden?" I asked her with an eyebrow raised, noticing her lazy tone once again.
"Yeah, what's got into you?" Luis asked to with a similar expression I bore.
"I'm tired that's why," Samantha answered while slouching on the chair, "I just want to sleep honestly," while putting her arms behind her head.
Me and Luis understood what she was saying, making both of us chuckle in amusement, "You always sleep Samantha, even at the office you sleep," I said as I chuckled at the memory, finding Samantha sleeping on the Job.
"I agree with Jacob," Luis said with a smile, "You even sleep while your in deployment, you got caught by your officers and even Marshal himself," he said with a chuckle of his own while I smile at that unfortunate display.
She perked from her seat and glared at the two of us, "Hey! I wasn't sleeping, I was just closing my eyes for a long time since my eyes get sore," Samantha as she rebutted, refusing to admit that she slept on the job.
"Sure," Luis's eyes rolled at that remark while I just laughed
As we are busy talking to ourselves in this conversation. Marshal stood up and pressed some buttons on the table and his datapad, then the hologram at the middle changed, showing the place we are in currently. This action made the chattering inside the room shut up and focus Marshal on what he was going to say.
Marshal observed the room one last time, satisfied with the sudden silence his receiving, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I have brought news that we have successfully broken the enemies outer defenses, and managed to secure a foothold for our final attack to this colony," He then pressed a button on his datapad, showing us blue and red dots on the land, "High Command wants us to attack the last remaining enemy military stronghold in this planet," Marshal then shows a rather big city with multiple big guns and numerous bunkers surrounding it covering all advancing positions, "The colonies capital city."
Attacking that heavily defended city would be suicide, those large caliber guns and the number of bunkers are really hard to fight through, even if we managed to break through, our losses will be very severe, making the assault halted together.
Luis suddenly raised his hand and said something in regards to this attack, "Sir! I have a question regarding this assault," this caught the attention of Marshal.
Marshal then looked at Luis and nodded, "Go ahead, General Luis."
"Sir, the city that you have shown is heavily defended, simply attacking head-on would simply lead to massive casualties," Luis said with a professional tone while questioning the assault.
Marshal smiled at this and chuckled, he waved his hand in reassurance, "Don't worry, I'm not an idiot like the Dolusks, I would not simply throw away precious men into a meat grinder, the 19th Fleet will be above the city to bombard once we are in position, they said they will soften them up by taking out the big guns and multiple bunkers, making traversing the area easy and less costly for our men and vehicles, after that, they will give the signal to start the attack," said Marshal while pointing at the highlighted structures at the map colored red, highlighting all large caliber guns as well as multiple bunkers in the city, "Any more questions?" he looked at Luis with a look.
"No sir, that is all," Luis then sits down in his chair.
"Good, we can continue the plan..." Marshal then starts to explain the plans for the upcoming invasion of the enemy capital, this is gonna be a long meeting.
10 Minutes Later
Scratch that, it's not a long meeting at all then I thought, so the plan was in a nutshell.
There are 3 defensive lines that the enemy had set up, the First line is hastily built trench lines were very few problematic guns and bunkers in the first line, we think that its purpose is to stall us while giving the second line and the final line more time to prepare.
The second line is quite problematic, but nothing too annoying to handle, they just have more guns and bunkers in the area than the first line.
And the Final line, that's the city walls itself, the hardest obstacle for us to overcome before we enter the city itself. Large caliber guns on the walls and multiple smaller cannons below, as well as a lot more bunkers than the 1st line and the 2nd line.
The plan, Me, Samantha, and Luis was to spearhead the attack, ordered by Marshal, to break through the First line to pave way for the rest of the army to cross safely, after we pierced through the 1st line, two divisions will move in to support us as we move in to break the second line while one division will mop up whatever we left. Once we blitz through the second line, we will wait for four more divisions to assist us with the final assault, with the combined strength of nine divisions plus the other one, we will make our daring assault, the Final line, that is where the most defended line we need to take before we reach the city itself, the other two divisions will be reserves incase the plan goes haywire.
In total, we have about 300,000, men and women in this attack, and thousands of vehicles will be used. This is the total combined force of the 54th Field Army under the command of High General Carlos Marshal
While the plan seems easy on paper, Marshal knows that the execution would be difficult to achieve. He said the first and the second lines were lightly and moderately defended, while the third and the city itself are gonna be difficult since it's the most heavily defended area and there are a lot of soldiers than the other lines are positioned at the 3rd line and the City walls. So the 19th Fleet will soften the third and Final lines so that attacking these positions will be easier.
Me, Samantha, and Luis moved out of the room and talked a bit before we proceed to our respective divisions to brief them on the upcoming assault that will take place in a few hours.
"Well... that was done, I thought the meeting would be a long one like the other times we did," I said as we moved out of the room.
"Yeah, I thought so too," Luis who is right beside me.
"I just want to sleep," Samantha said that behind us as we moved out of the war room, "Oh well, fate had other plans for us," She shrugs.
Luis looked at Samantha, "You can sleep all you want as we finish this task."
Then she looked hopeful for a second, "Well, I guess your right! let's go to finish this!" She said enthusiastically and hype as she bolted towards the building's exit to finish the task early.
Both of us looked at each other and shrugged as we knew that this would happen when we mention she can get the sleep needed she needed.
"Well looks like this is where we part ways, I must get to my unit now and brief them for the assault," Luis said as we are getting ready to depart to our respective divisions.
"Indeed Luis, Good luck General Luis," I saluted to Luis, which he saluted back.
"Good luck to you too General Jacob," he then simply let his hand fall to his side as he turned around leaving me alone.
"I should get going now," I said to myself as turned to meet my division for the upcoming offensive attack.
5 Hours Later
===================================================================================
Location: Empire of Dolusks Territory, Southern Planetary Front, Close to the First line
Date: March 21st, 2714 (TE Standard date)
Time: 19:51 PM (Terran Empire Standard Time) , 05:12 AM (Planet Time)
===================================================================================
The ground trembles as an army of 25,000 marches along. A cacophony of sound from a disharmonious march, there's not a soul nearby who's oblivious to this army's march.
Up close it's the rustling of cloth and the clanging of steel from the vehicles they bring, which overpowers all other sounds. The rumbling sound of the tanks can be heard only faintly and the sounds of the people chattering are all but drowned out completely. Not a word is spoken among the soldiers, exhaustion and some fear have set in now that the long march is nearing its destination. The entire army is one, one collective mind with a single goal: Defeat the enemy.
The front is led by heavy shock troopers supported with dozens of tanks and multiple groups of IFVs ready to bring destruction to its enemies. They're followed by multiple units of IFVs, heavy tanks, dozens of self-propelled AA, and a fuck ton of light and heavy infantry units in the middle. At the back of the formation, were multiple units of support vehicles, a dozen SPGs, and a group of heavier artillery because why not if they have large guns then why not bring my own to fight them?
I'm positioned in the middle of the formation, with an explosive-proof vehicle which is the Commanding Vehicle of the entire division. Inside I can see multiple technicians and officers working around the clock in their posts, moving around and running towards their posts and bringing information for the other technicians.
After a while, a radar technician called me, I looked at him from his side to see him waving at me.
"Sir! you should see this!" the radar technician called me from his post, pointing at his screen.
I moved out from my post and walked towards the radar technician's side and looked at his computer to see what was going on, "What is it, Corporal?" I asked him, and he pointed at his screen.
"Sir, I have detected a small amount of enemy activity in the forest from both of our flanks," he said while typing on his keyboard, not before long the screen zoomed out a bit, showing the map of the landscape, and a few red dots across the field.
"Hmm, troubling, could it be scouts perhaps?" I asked the technician while pondering what those red dots are.
"Possibly sir, scouts should be moving fast and retreated back to their lines to tell that we are coming, but for some reason, these red dots are moving rather slowly," the technician looked closely at the screen, "They looked like they are positioning sir," he closely looked at the rather slow-moving dots on the screen.
This was rather odd, these units should be scouts if they are that fewer on the radar, but they moved rather slowly to be a regular scout unit, could it be they're onto something?
I looked at my radar officer with a serious look, "Corporal, look into it, we know that they are Dolusk units to be sure, but make sure to check their unusual movements carefully," I said while I pointed at the dots, I was about to return to my post when my radar technician said something that stopped me.
He brought out something that could be a possibility as to why they move so slowly, "Could they be having cloaked units sir? that could be the possibility," he said to me with a thinking expression.
That could be a possibility for sure, but I'm not sure if they are cloaking units, "Whatever it is, this could be troubling," I looked at him, "Keep looking at it and report to me if sudden movements were made."
He saluted at me, "Yes General," he went back to the radar computer and further studied the enemy's movements.
I turned around to walk back to my post, once I was there I suddenly shouted to the people inside, "Listen up!" I shouted in a commanding tone, this made the people inside look at me with full attention, "Radars detected some unusual activity on our flanks, we first thought it was scouts in the area but they move too slow to be called scouts," I said while taking a breather, "We don't know for sure what's out there in the forest, all I know that this could be a perfect opportunity for a trap and I don't like them taking that chance."
I looked at my communication officers and technicians, "You guys, tell the convoy to stop and start forming a defensive perimeter, enemy signatures may be few but I don't like risking it to be ignored, and also tell General Luis that we are stopping, get to it!."
They nodded in understanding and started doing their tasks as they were told by me, the next thing you know, chattering and typing were heard all across the room. After a few minutes, the vehicle jerked forward a little bit, signaling that it came to a stop, hopefully, the convoy followed too.
Once we stopped, I immediately issued another command, "Now, I want two brigades to man the Western and the Eastern flanks, and the last two at the Front and Back, Perform BDF on the double!" I ordered once again in a commanding tone.
Then again multiple chatters were heard all across the room and chatters in the comms. They've been doing this task for a couple of minutes now, but I was interrupted when one of my communications officers called me.
"Sir, you got a call from General Luis!" one of the communications officers said to me, earning my attention.
"Send that call to the Holographic table, I'll talk to him there," I said while I pressed some buttons on my holographic table to talk with Luis.
He nods and goes back to his computer, he pressed some buttons from his computer. Then General Luis's upper half of his body was shown in the table. When I saw his face he was rather shocked and confused at the same time.
"Jacob, my technician officers told me that your convoy stopped moving. Care to explain to me why?" Luis said with a questioning look on his face.
"My radars have shown enemy movements in our flanks, I'm not sure what their purpose is here all of a sudden, we deduced that they are scout units but they are moving slower than just simply scouts," I said to Luis.
He absorbed the information I said to him, and he puts up a thinking face while looking at me, "That could be troubling, Jacob, we'll speed up our advance with Samantha to your position. I fear that a big ambush is waiting for y-" our chat was interrupted when a panicked voice that temporarily paused our talk, the radar officer from earlier shouted at me.
"General! I'm detecting multiple dots suddenly appearing on the map! Holy shit, thousands of them appeared it's cloaked units sir!" he then looked at his computer thoroughly, "Sir! they are converging towards our position! it's an ambush!" he said in a panicked tone, earning a wave of shock and worry inside the vehicle.
Looks like my theory was right, those dots are slow moving proving that they are not scout units, rather they are Cloaking Devices/Vehicles units. "I want all units to be ready when the enemy gets her-" then the vehicle shook as explosions and shouting were heard outside of the MCV, "Damnit, all hands battle stations, I want gunners to use the turrets on this vehicle be used now!" then the vehicle shook again.
"Jacob, what's wrong?! I see you shouting in the background," Luis asked me with a worried expression on his face.
"Enemy forces have-" the vehicle shook once again, losing my footing for a while, "-began to move towards our position and started to attack us," the vehicle shook again, but this time panels flew out and fell to the floor, "They managed to catch us by surprise, we can't hold out long, we need help Luis," as is said with urgency.
Luis moved his head to his side, seemingly talking to someone off-screen looked, he puts his hand on his right earpiece and nodded, he removed his hand and looked at me, "We are coming, Samantha's Division is not far from behind, ETA 10 Minutes. Good luck out there Jacob," Luis's body then faded and the line was cut.
Then the vehicle rocked once again, sending off panels and wires of electricity flailing around as officers and technicians are busy issuing orders or fixing anything that is broken, If we're having this battle right now and my soldiers are dying outside, time to make myself useful in this situation.
"If someone is looking for me-" the vehicle shook, sending a few panels and sparks flying above me, "-I'll be at the armory, understood?" I said to them with authority.
"Yes, General!" they shouted at me and resumed their work on their computers or readying their weapons in case some Dolusks managed to get in. With the satisfaction of their response, I calmly walked to the armory despite the intense shaking inside.
As I paved my way towards the armory to get my weapons, It didn't take long before I arrived at the armory. Display of multiple rows of weapons for me to choose but since we are in a hurry, I took whatever weapons I could get my hands on.
Of course, I picked the Mk.15 Bullet-Proof Vest for protection, an ER-54 Energy Assault Rifle with a 100-round magazine for my primary since its a really good rifle to have, and a M95 Plasma Pistol with a 30-round mag for my sidearm. Took four HE-12 Grenades, three EMP Grenades, a pack of Medical Supplies, and a standard MBP-12 backpack stuffed with essential items like rations and a sleeping bag cause you'll never know if you need it at the right time.
Satisfied with the equipment of my choosing, I moved further back of the armory, towards a special place that only I, the General, can only open. I see a thick Black box with Heavy Duty Steel and Heavy Duty Glass covering the item it holds, protecting the item inside in case someone wants to get it, I then typed the code and the box begins to hiss. As I was waiting for the box to open, an officer arrived at the armory.
"Sir! enemy forces managed to break through our Western Flank and are moving towards the MCV. Other battalions are trying to fix the broken line but they were stopped by intense Dolusk fire," he said as he panted slightly from all that running.
Looks like the enemy is closing in for the final kill, Kill the commanding officer of this division. I then looked at the officer, "Tell all of the officers to arm-up, we'll be fighting for our lives here."
The officer looked at me and saluted, "Yes, General," he then ran towards the exit of the armory, not even a minute later, multiple footsteps were heard inside the armory, I saw that almost all of the officer's technicians inside the vehicle are picking up any weapon they want, they picked up an assortment of weapons on the shelves, ranging to Shotguns, Assault Rifles, Pistols, Machine guns, and even Ballistic-Glass or Holo Shield as their pick of weapons.
Then I heard a ding right behind me, the box is now fully opened and presented a Sword inside it, I then grabbed the sword and started to examine it. A long, thick, smooth blade made of diamond is held by a grip wrapped in rare, black wolf leather. With just a razor-sharp point this weapon will make sure your enemies are full of holes with deadly speed and precision. The blade has a small, twisted cross-guard, just large enough to protect the owner's fingers. The cross-guard has a lavish horn on each side, a unique design for a unique weapon. The blade itself is engraved. The owner's name has been artistically etched into the blade, which just shows how special this weapon truly is to the person wielding it.
I then looked at the officers that are armed with the teeth weapons, "You guys ready?" I asked them as are they ready to face this threat.
"We are General," all of them said that line at the same time.
I then nodded as I got the answer that I expected, "Let's go, theres no time to waste," I moved towards the exit of the armoury to the exit of the vehicle. They followed behind me as we walked through the damaged insides of the vehicle with some staying inside to continue their jobs.
Once we arrived at the exit of the vehicle, I turned around and told them our motto before we head out, "United as one?"
"UNITED AS ONE!" now that's the answer I like.
I then pressed the button, and rays of the local star shinned through the opening door making me cover my eyes for a bit, once my eyes adapt to the light, the door was fully opened, and see the carnage outside.
The field is littered with carnage, weapons, and wounded fighters. Red and blue are the new colors of what was once a serene, green field, which has now become the stage of a tragic fight between Humanity and the Dolusks. The air which would normally carry the sounds of birds, rivers, and wildlife is now thick with the stench of gunpowder, blood, gore and death, a sight of pure nightmares. My army are fighting the Dolusks for supremacy, but it's yet to be determined which side's on the winning hand. The wounded on one side lay in large groups across the field and the faces of the fighters are hopeful with adrenaline rushing through their bodies and victory in mind, they push harder and harder on the enemy. With no way of knowing if we'll live or die. Some have succumbed to panic and are mumbling things about home and family, while others fight merely for the sake of survival.
I see a fellow soldier, fell to the ground with the enemy hoisted his sword at my fellow comrade. I then rushed to his side and activated my sword. The sword crackled to life with a blue aura and lightning arched around it. I then stabbed the reptilian in the back and lift the sword, moving it towards its head. The reptilian howled in pain and see the sword moving towards his head. The reptilians body was sliced at the middle and fell to the side with its organs coming out of its body, the body is slightly twitching and smoking from the lightning. I then walked to the fallen soldier and hoisted him up, gave him his weapon, and patted his back, still looking at me with shock and admiration in his face.
I raised my sword, gaining some attention from my soldiers, "My fellow comrades! We are the Earths and Humanities' finest soldiers that they can offer," I ducked as an enemy sword swung at me, I then blocked and parried its sword, "-We shall show no fear," I swung my sword to its left while he blocked it, "We shall show them our strength and might," I kicked the alien and made it fell to its back, "We will make our enemies kneel before us," as the reptilian fell towards the ground, its sword fell out of its claws, I then put my boot to his chest and put pressure on the reptilians chest, he lashed out, trying and failing to remove my heavy duty boot off of its chest and hoisted my sword above him, "We will show them no weakness," I plunged my sword to its chest, the unfortunate reptilian squirmed violently and shouted in pain and agony, after a few seconds its eyes closed and its chest not moving anymore, meaning that he is dead.
Satisfied with my doing, I lifted my sword out of his corpse, "We shall show them that we are United as One!"
My soldiers shouted with strong and determined voices, "UNITED AS ONE!" they shouted as they raised their fisted arms or weapons.
I then pointed my sword, still crackling with lightning, at the enemy soldiers, "Charge for the future of Humanity!!!"
"URRRRAAAAAAAA!" a loud war cry was heard all around me, we then sprinted at the enemy with a speed that can rival an athlete We fought the Dolusks that breached our defenses and trying to plug the hole up and wait for reinforcements.
8 Minutes Later
I slashed an unfortunate enemy, he then fell to the ground dead. We have been fighting for 8 minutes. I was covered with dirt and bruises all around my body, we managed to push back the enemy to the tree line and created a defensive line with our destroyed vehicles, using it as cover from the incoming enemy fire.
Then a beep was heard at my earpiece, pressed it once and asked who is in the line, "Who is this?" I asked with a questioning voice as I ducked for cover and grabbed my pistol
"Jacob, It's me, Luis, we are coming, we can hear the sounds of the crackling of rifles and explosions in the distance, ETA 2 Minutes," it's Luis, looks like they are coming close.
"Then get over here faster, we can't hold out much longer." I said to Luis as I fired my Plasma Pistol to the unfortunate enemy. Shot the head of my enemy and it fell to the ground instantly.
"We are, over and out," and the line went dead, at least there's good news in this chaos.
"2 Minutes until help arrives! spread the word!" I shouted to inform my comrades that help will arrive in at least 2 minutes, all we just gonna do is to hold out long enough for them to arrive.
This somehow got the spirits of my soldiers as they fought everything they have against the enemy, they are fighting for their lives to wait out for reinforcements to come and relieve them, as we hold out for another minute, with things going well, I saw a grenade landed near an unsuspecting private who is busy firing his gun to notice the incoming death that is about to arrive at him.
With nothing to lose, I bolted across to his position to at least moved him out of harm's way, "GRENADE!" I shouted.
This caught the attention of surrounding soldiers to move away from the grenade in an attempt to move out of harm's way, except the private who just noticed the grenade, I then tackled him and pushed him away from the grenade, then the grenade exploded right in front of my body as I was pushed back far and hit a wreckage of a vehicle behind me.
The soldiers around me noticed I got hurt really bad from the grenade, someone shouted amongst the chaos around them, "Medic! the General has been injured!" a soldier called a medic to aid my me as I slumped in the wrecked vehicle.
It seems I can't feel my legs anymore. Everything is starting to feel numb, my entire body is shaking from the shock of the grenade, I just need to make sure I keep my eyes open and hopefully live through this pain to make it out alive. My vision starts to become blurry as my body gets weaker as seconds passed by.
I then heard multiple loud and large explosions happening outside of our defenses and see multiple vehicles coming around my view, it's kinda hard to see clearly when my eyes are blurry to spot, but I noticed that the new arrivals must be from Luis or Samantha's division, they just arrived in time. With the strength I still have, I even saw enemy forces retreat towards the tree line as vehicles starts chasing them down, probably finishing them off.
I then felt someone touching my side and my face, wrapping me with a bandage around my body and my arms.
My eyes focused for a bit and saw a medic tending me, then I asked him about my situation, but from the pain, I'm still receiving, it was very painful, "H-how bad is i-it?" I asked with a broken voice while coughing a bit.
"Sir, your legs are burned but not broken, your face has a huge burn mark, and your chest had a huge gash," the medic said to me the damage to my body, trying to cover my wounds, "Damnit at this rate, you're losing too much blood, hang-on General we can get you out of here," he then looked around and shouted, "Someone get me a stretcher ASAP! the General is losing too much blood."
"Here! we got a stretcher!" then I heard a thump right beside me, "Move him gently to here."
Then feel multiple hands around me and hoisted me up gently toward the stretcher, jolting in pain from the sudden movement. I felt fabric at the back of me with a pillow on my head as they put me on the stretcher successfully, then someone put an oxygen mask at my face, and started to carry me with the stretcher, to a medical vehicle.
For what I felt for hours, in reality, a few minutes passed by for searching a medical vehicle, "Where in the hell is the MV!? General is dying here!" I heard an angry shout beside me
"Sergeant! the MVs are destroyed," heard a voice right beside me.
"How the hell did that happened! our General is about to fucking die for fucks sake!" I hear a frustrated voice on the left side of my body.
I then coughed up some blood, and my blood hits the oxygen mask, the voice's around me were quiet for a second, before I saw in my blurry vision multiple silhouettes around me. Someone removed the blood-stained mask to find a clean one.
"General is losing too much blood! Medic get me a Blood bag ASAP!" a shouting voice was heard.
"Someone give me a bandage now!" then a voice was heard right beside me.
"You! call General Luis's MV now!" a voice was also heard.
After an agonizing dozen seconds have passed, my body starts to shut itself off, making my body even weaker than before. Looks like this is it then.
Using the last bit of energy that I have, I grabbed one of the closest soldiers in my vicinity and grabbed his hand, "Lieutenant," I say in a weakened voice.
He noticed me grabbing his hand and talking to him, "General! you'll be alright, MVs are coming here in a minute." as he changed the bandage in my hand.
"I can-'t hold o-ut that long soldier, my time has come to an end," I said in a broken voice, "I'll g-give my final words, gi-ve me yo-ur radio and open it to all frequencies," I said as I coughed up some blood.
I don't know what expression he bore, but Im certainly know that he looked shocked by the words I said, "General, you can't die yet! just hold out for a lo-" I then cut of his rambling.
"Th-ats an order Lieutenant," as I coughed up more blood.
He then looked at me with a sorrowful expression, knowing that I'm close to meet death, he grabbed his radio and tinkered a little bit, making sure it was in the right frequency. Then he put his radio in his mouth and uttered the words he was gonna say, "Attention to all units, we have repelled the enemy attack."
A round of cheers was sounded in the comms and the surroundings, "But, I have brought grave news," the shouting and cheers stopped, "General Jacob has been injured," we then hear gasps in the distance, and the comms, "He has been gravely injured and said he can't make it, he will give his final words before death will take him," he gave the radio to me, "Here General," he carefully gave it to me.
I grabbed the radio with the energy that I have and talked through it, "Hello my s-soldiers," I then hear multiple chatters on the radio saying 'are you alright General?!' bombarding me with chatter from my soldiers around me and through the comms, "Cut the chatter," I said in a commanding tone, which took some energy out of me, but the comms went silent after that.
Then I talked to my soldiers one last time, fully knowing that I going to die on this planet, "I know that if I die, you men will mourn my dead body," I said with a smile, "Don't... don't do that when I die. Be happy, be happy because you are alive, and keep fighting for humanity. Don't mourn me alright? do that when this shit is over," I coughed up some blood, earning worried tones all around me, my throat is close to giving up, but I still continued to say my final words.
"Show them, show them that you are the finest army in the entire universe, Don't show them you are sad because I died, even though I'm gone, show them that you guys are not giving up even your officer died," I then coughed up a lot of blood as my vision gets very blurry and harder to breath, "Show those fucking aliens who are they messing with," I then coughed up very hard as I closed my eyes for the final time.
I hear multiple voices shouting at me, "You are the best soldiers that I can ever hope for, you men are always at my side for a long time, you men have been by my side for 10 years since I was appointed General for this division," I said in a proud voice, "But it looks like I'll never see you again," I said as multiple whimpers surrounding me and the comms was heard all around me, I then say my final words before I sleep... for good...lay to rest for eternity.
"Good luck my friends, may God guide you through this hard journey..." my body then gave in and my eyes closed tight, with my chest breathed out one last time before succumbing to my wounds, marking my end.
3rd P.O.V.
We see the General's hand fall to the ground with the radio still in his hand, and the soldiers around him mourn for his death even if he told them n to too, he was the best general they meet when he was in office, a capable general who can figure out and push through any obstacles he encountered. The closeness to their general was quite high for them, so much so that some are risking their lives just to save him, but that role was reversed, he saved a young soldier from death.
"He's gone..." the soldier that the General saved, standing there with his rifle slumped on the ground, staring at the now dead general, "He's really gone..." as he looked at the General's body with a defeated expression.
"I fear that's the case," the lieutenant said, he moved to his side and pat his shoulder, "He is gone... forever."
"I thought soldiers who are tasked to protect their commanding officer, but he did the opposite, he saved a soldier," a corporal said behind me, looking defeated when they failed to their task.
As the soldiers under Jacobs's command mourns, they heard a loud shout behind them, "Make way! General Luis and General Samantha are here to see General Jacob!"
The soldiers looked at each other, then at General Jacobs's body, "We have to tell the news," the lieutenant said with a mournful voice, multiple agreements were heard among them as well as nods can be seen. They waited for a good minute before they see General Luis and Samantha moving toward them, looking around like they are finding their friend.
The soldiers saluted at the two generals when they came in full view, "Sir/Madam!"
The two generals noticed the soldiers, and they both waved, making their hands fall to the side. General Luis then asked the soldiers, "At ease men, where is Jacob?" he said with a questioning voice, "We are here to see if he's alright."
The lieutenant and the corporal looked at each other again and nod, "Sir, I believe that you'll have to see for yourself."
Both Generals looked at him with skeptical and confused looks plastered on their faces, "Very well, show us then." General Luis said with uncertainty.
The two moved to the side to let them see General Jacob. The two looked below to see something shocking that they weren't prepared for, they both gasped as to see their fellow General died on the spot.
"Wah?! how! how did he die!" General Luis said to me with a surprised and disbelieving look on his face.
"Sir, he saved a private with a grenade," the lieutenant said with a defeated tone presented in his voice, this made the soldiers around them look at Jacob with saddened glances.
General Luis was gobsmacked at this information, refusing to believe that his friend died in the battle while General Samantha had her hands on her mouth as well as tears started to form in her eyes.
"We did everything we could sir, but it's not enough to save him, he just accepted his fate and let death take him," I sighed as General Jacobs's chance to live is gone.
Luis turned to the lieutenant and nodded slowly, "Well then," he said as he looked at Jacobs's body, "We should bring his body and his swo-" General Luis's voice was cut off by a bright light that suddenly came out of nowhere!
They saw General Jacob's body was now glowing white, and the intensity of it is getting stronger and stronger as seconds passed.
"What's happening to Jacob's body!" Luis said with a surprised and shocked tone in his voice while Samantha also bore a similar expression to Luis.
"I don't know sir, whatever it is, get his body out of there!" the lieutenant said with an urgent voice.
Multiple people then moved towards General Jacob's body as they covered their eyes as the light keeps getting brighter, then the heat was slowly rising. This heat was enough for the soldiers to back up.
Then General Jacob's body began to rise as the light begins to intensify like the sun's light hitting the eyes of any being that stared too long at the sun. They covered their eyes to shield themselves because of the bright light that is shining at them, then a loud explosion happened that echoed throughout the landscape.
*BOOOMMM*
The light suddenly faded, they removed their arms from their faces and saw something they weren't expecting to see General Jacobs's body along with his sword and equipment... was gone!
"EHhhh!! what the hell just happened!" General Samantha shouted in disbelief.
General Luis then exclaimed, "Whatever it is, he's gone!"
One thing came to cross the minds of each soldier in the area, "What the hell happened, where is General Jacobs body?!"
===================================================================================
Location: ???, ???, Somewhere in a Forest
Date: March 21st, 2714 (TE Standard date)
Time: 20:11 PM (Terran Empire Standard Time) , ??:?? ??(Planet Time)
===================================================================================
Jacob's P.O.V.
Huh? why am I breathing? I was hardly breathing for a minute, what the hell?
I then opened my eyes to see the sky is dark, which indicates that it is nighttime. I stand up from the ground as I examine the surroundings. I was in a forest of some sort no big deal, but the most shocking part is that there was no carnage from the battle earlier present in the area, and I positively know that the battle didn't take place in the dark.
Although I know that I'm in a forest, but this forest looks a little bit... weird to say the least, the texture of the surroundings looked like a childish cartoon from the 21st century.
Where ever I am, hopefully, this is only a dream, and I'm still on a stretcher, just unconscious from the fighting earlier with my division. Although from what I've experienced, I was on the verge of dying, so theirs the possibility that I died, but somehow still alive for some reason.
But for some odd reason, this place feels very familiar, like I've been here before.
Blah, whatever the feeling is, familiar or not, Where the heck am I?!
3rd Person P.O.V.
Unknown to Jacob, his ring started to light dimly, too small for him to notice since it lit up for only a second before it lost its glow.
Somewhere in Equestria, certain creatures await Jacobs's arrival for a long time, he promised to come back and he arrived. For they have slumbered away in the Castle of Canterlot for millennia, we moved inside the ruined castle to see two stoned creatures inside the throne room, one was big while the other was smaller.
Then, cracks begin to form around the stone figures, however, these cracks were slow-moving, but it's significantly a change that will be happening in the future. These stone figures will be finally freed from their stony prison for a long time now.
For the creature that they are waiting...
Have finally arrived.
Continued to be...
Author's Note
Alrighty, my first rewrite to hopefully improve my work. If you're not happy with the rework then im sorry, it's all I can do for now lol.
anyways, hope you guys enjoyed it once again and see you guys next time :D
Chapter 1 - Who are you?! (Rework)
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Location: ???, ???, Somewhere in a Forest
Date: March 21st, 2614 (EC Standard date)
Time: 20:12 PM (Terran Empire Standard Time) , ??:?? ??(Planet Time)
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Jacob's P.O.V.
Here I am, still confused as hell about my current situation right now, its been a few minutes have passed since I woke up in this forest, and the surroundings around me are dark with a dimly lit light in the area because it's nighttime in this place, not the usual sunny place back where I fought earlier, not too mention the supposedly numerous death, corpses, and destruction around me, but instead, it was replaced with a dense forest it seems.
Many things filled my mind about my current situation. One that I'm not in a destroyed forest with multiple destroyed vehicles that were with me when we marched toward our position. Two I'm supposed to see dead corpses on the ground, whether human or Dolusk, not to mention the smell of ash and blood on my nose is not present. And three, shouldn't I be dead and sent to the afterlife or something? If so then why am I still alive despite my severe wounds?
All of these questions inside my head keeps berating my head, it was honestly quite annoying, but at the same time, anxious about this, this is no work of both factions. Humanity, despite creating such marvels of technology in the last decades of its lifetime, there is no way that we managed to create teleportation in such a short time too, it was still studied and tested numerous times with no results. The same goes with the Dolusks, we have not encountered anything that can, as far we are concerned, do something like this, especially teleportation.
And that's not counting one that I have troubled to accept, the wounds that I received, is certainly guaranteed dead no matter what, but somehow I'm still alive and breathing healthy!
There's no one, I mean no one even the aliens, who can have such technology out there can do such a miracle thing to me, there is simply no way that they have this kind of power to heal not to mention bringing someone back to life!
"Now this is some freaky stuff," I said while patting my face, feeling no scars, bruises, or pain at all, I looked at my hands and to my added surprise, there's no blood at all!
"Okay this is really weird," I mumbled, feeling no pain and blood, it was like someone healed me or brought me back to life, "Wait, that can also be a possibility too," I said in theory.
If a deity or something powerful can do that to me, healed my wounds, and somehow brought me back to life, the question is why did they do it? I mean, from what I've told when I was a kid back then, gods tend to give signs, not direct intervention cause it will apparently trigger some religious crisis if that happens, which I'm gladful that it didn't happen.
But that's not the point, why would they heal a mortal, much less me for that matter?
"Gah," I said in confusion as well as frustration, "Gotta think about that later, for now, I need to contact HQ, " raising my arm to press my earpiece, I stopped myself and examined the area around me. Needless to say, it was a beautiful night sky.
The cold and calm breeze in this area is quite refreshing if I'm gonna be honest, feeling in the fresh air and the gentle winds at nighttime will always be relaxing, The night sky was beautiful to say the least, easily one of best night skies I've ever seen in my life, clear skies showing the numerous stars in space, glowing and giving light to other places, fighting the darkness that the universe consumes in the cosmos.
If you have keen eyes, you can also see the galaxies and nebulas in the distance, just a faint look of them but nonetheless noticeable to the human eyes. Gleaming and sparkling all around, giving a beautiful scene for someone to stargaze under the calm night.
I examined the terrain around me, it was mostly trees so I'm in a forest, I can also see the distant silhouettes of mountains just barely out of sight, but nonetheless, distinguishable.
But for some odd reason, this feeling of cold air and the surroundings is strangely familiar to me, the night sky, the bountiful stars above, and even the moon looked really familiar. It's like I've been here before, but how? this place looks really unfamiliar in my eyes, so why am I getting the sense of deja vu?
Blah, enough talking, ill think about all of this later, I need to contact HQ to find my location and pick me up and explain to them what the hell is going o with me.
I raised my hand and pressed my earpiece to call the nearest base or outpost, maybe ill get lucky when I managed to contact an army or a scout unit, "This is General Jacob from the 54th Field Army, does anybody read me, over," I asked through me earpiece, hoping to get a reply of some sort.
Sadly, the only response I got was static, this is really troubling, even a faint signal can grab someone's attention much less from me, this made me feel a sense of dread slightly, but no matter, I can't always give up, there's got to be someone out there that can get my signal.
"This is General Jacob, I'm at an unidentified position, how copy over?" I said again through my earpiece.
But once again, I'm only met with static, looks like I don't have any signal here whatsoever, it's like this place hasn't been explored or built an antenna here in this dense forest. Remembering one of the options to contact or find a post, I hastily grabbed my datapad to look up something that might help.
Since I don't know where my current position is, maybe I can link to a satellite or a ship for GPS, that way I can call help. I grabbed my datapad from my pocket and opened it. Then I noticed that I don't have a signal in this area, unfortunately, meaning there are no ships or antennas to calibrate from.
"Well crap," I said in frustration, "There's no reception here, either I'm in a blind spot, or I'm not picking up something at all," With a sigh, knowing the problem of my situation is becoming troubling by this discovery.
With no signal or reception for my devices to connect, there's only one thing to do in this kind of situation, "If I can't get anything here, might as well going to explore this place and hopefully find something that can help me."
With the plan set in stone, I double-checked my equipment to see if something is missing or broken among the items carrying. I touched my vest to feel any tears or anything broken rather, while also removing my backpack from my back, apart from a bit of dirt and a few tears in the vest, nothing noteworthy will break the vest into submission from the looks of it.
"Looks like my vest and backpack are okay, apart from a few tears and dirt on the vest, good thing there's nothing broken or missing by the looks of things, " I said as I checked my body armor and examined my backpack, which I was very gladful that I brought, I don't know why I brought it on the battlefield but hey, its has a use now.
I plopped my backpack on the soft grass below and opened the zippers on each pouch and checked the contents inside to see what I'm working with, "Looks like supplies are here, even some rations and water is here too, good to know that we are literally prepared for anything," I said while rummaging inside. Spotting three lunch box-sized rations, a few bottles of water, and another pack of medicine which I currently have on my belt.
While I was examining the insides of the backpack, I spotted some items that can help me in the long run if my exploration is longer than expected, flares, a flashlight, some fresh clothes, some hygienic items, and a fire lighter. As well as a bedroll strapped at the top of the pack.
With my satisfaction with the supplies I have, I closed the zipper and checked the weapons that are with me, much to my dismay.
The assault rifle I used back earlier was gone since a Dolusk soldier tackled me, making the rifle slip off from my hands, when I managed to kill that bugger, I never bothered grabbing it again. So the weapons I have are my plasma pistol and the still same numbered grenades since I didn't use them from the fight.
But luckily my sword is still with me, which is on the ground, making me relieved that the sword I used in battle is still here with me, a good thing to have when I'm out of ammo for my pistol.
Throwable item-wise, I didn't throw a single HE grenade or EMP grenade since the battle started. I still have all of them on my vest just dangling, waiting to be used at some point.
Looks like my equipment is still here and looks in great shape, with only a few tears and there, nothing too problematic as far I'm concerned. Although maybe my ammo for my pistol will be a problem in the future, cause I didn't carry extra ammunition for my pistol, So I'll have to use my sword to conserve ammo it seems.
With my backpack slung onto my back, as well as my pistol on the hip and sword at hand, I am ready to go out on a journey, "Alright, time to get going I suppose," thus beginning my search of finding an allied base or unit.
As I walked not too far from my original position, I took a look at the surrounding areas You know, this forest ain't half bad as I used to thought about, the ecosystem is kinda similar to Earth, quiet branches hung from the occasional tree, and a medley of flowers, which were common to this area only apparently. A hodgepodge of animal sounds, which were caused by bird songs, resonated through the air and were in harmony with the trickling sounds of a gentle breeze of the wind.
Walking through the forest for some time now, like a few minutes or so, I saw multiple creatures started popping out from the bushes or behind the tree trunks, then they looked at me like they never saw me before, which probably may be the case.
As I was about to continue then a bird flew above me and hovered right in front of me, for some strange reason, the bird looked at me with curiosity, not like the other animals that looked at me weirdly, but this bird genuinely looked at me with curiosity much to my surprise.
Dumbfounded by this, I looked at the bird, unknowingly raised my hand, and raised my index finger to let the bird perch.
And long and behold, the bird landed on my raised finger, much to me ever added surprise. I wasn't an animal lover but I exactly don't hate them in some way, I just don't want them near me for some reason.
"Uhhhh... Hello?" I asked with a voice of uncertainty since I was talking to the bird, much less to an animal.
Surprisingly, the bird suddenly chirped loudly and very fast if I might add. Indicating that it understood me for some bizarre reason.
"Oh! uh, you understood me?" I asked again, I swear if this bird didn't answer right now I look like an idiot.
Much to my relief and my pride still intact, the bird chirped and nodded. Good to know that this bird understood me or else this is gonna be very awkward.
With my newly acquired knowledge, I decided to ask a simple question that I'm in need to find, "Hmmm... oh! do you know where the nearest settlement is?" I asked a question. Might be a long shot that he hopefully knew where the nearest one is.
The bird shook its head saying that he doesn't know where still surprised me since the bird really understood my question even me talking. Very weird, although I wonder if other animals can understand me.
"Well then," I then hummed in thought, then I thought of something that might help, "Do you know where is the nearest water stream by any chance, like a river?" I asked again to the little bird.
Fortunately for me and quite amazed that the bird pointed in a direction, looking at the direction and pulled my compass to check the direction the bird pointed. Looks like the compass pointed at the West, satisfied with the direction, I put my compass back in my pocket and petted the bird, which in turn cooed in delight.
"Thank you, my little avian friend," I said to the bird while petting the little creature, "But maybe you should go now, the others might be looking for you."
The bird flew off from my finger and did a cheerful loop and chirped loudly like the bird was saying 'no problem', then the bird turned and flew in the opposite direction, I smiled at the small, fading figure in the distance. Once I can't see the small figure anymore, I walked in the direction that the bird gave me. Hopefully, the way he pointed doesn't lead me to nowhere.
After a few minutes of searching and walking the bird didn't disappoint me, once I heard the constant noise of water running I immediately rushed to that location, and lo and behold, that little avian actually led me to a goddamn water stream or in this case a river.
With an objective down, I let out a sigh of relief and a small celebration, "Nice, looks like I found it, a river stream, might thank that little bird when I see him again, for now, I should follow this river to see what leads too," I said as I followed the river stream to hopefully find some settlements near this river.
5 Minutes Later
The walk by the river is quiet at this time, I have been following this river stream for a few minutes now, if I'm counting since when the bird gave directions, I've been walking for five minutes, and nothing noteworthy happened while I was following the river. It's still nighttime obviously so that's that, I already looked at my wrist pad to check the time and it did not help, it says that it's still in the morning. but clearly, this world is still at nighttime, to make sure that my wrist pad is not malfunctioning since the "transfer" earlier, and needless to say, the datapad has the same time as my wrist pad. So I have no clue what time it is.
As I keep following the river on the bank, I occasionally encountered some wildlife like mammals or birds that walked or flew past me, at least there are no predators at this time things could get rather messy, but this trip can be quite boring since I can't find something significant to help me, I sometimes brought out my datapad to get some reception but no luck.
"Damnit," I said in frustration, breaking the silent atmosphere around me, "Still no reception whatsoever," with a sigh, I tucked the datapad into my pocket and continue the journey.
As I walked a few more minutes along the riverbank, trying to find something along the way, I then hear a faint sound of constant splashing of water right in front of me along the river. Looks like I heard a waterfall or something similar of falling water.
"Maybe this would lead me to a new area," I said, I then sprinted across the river bank to hopefully find something.
Sprinting towards the ever-growing sound of water falling, I fasten my pace, although running with full equipment is quite annoying sometimes since the constant sound of clanking items on my chest and inside my backpack, not to mention my pistol on my hip and the belt, and adding to that, the heaviness of the overall equipment, but I ignored these annoyances and pressed on my run towards the sound.
As I sprinted towards the sound closer than I anticipated, thanks to the sound getting louder and louder as I get closer, I reached the sound of water falling, going through a bush before going to a hard stop as I looked below me.
It was indeed a waterfall alright, and I almost managed myself getting killed once again!
Letting out a sigh of relief once again, happy that I managed to save myself again from death, again. With that grave error out of the way, I looked on the horizon, the waterfall that I'm currently standing on is on a cliff, and just past that is the ocean.
As I looked down as small rocks fall onto the ocean from my sudden stop, I let out a whistle, "Well, it did lead me to a new area," I said jokingly, remembering what I said earlier before finding a waterfall.
Fixing my stance, I looked over the horizon of the ocean, the moonlight casting reflections on the water below, giving a more serene feeling, while it is good to bask in the beauty of nature, my objective comes first.
"Now that I'm here... now what?" I asked myself, not really knowing what I'm going to do now that I'd reached the waterfall, perhaps I should've thought this thoroughly when I got here.
Looking at the horizon, then looking at the landscape beside me as I surveyed the area for something which I did seconds later, I then saw something different that is not made by nature, on the right side of me. I spotted a building in the distance on a cliff in the Southwest or on my right side if you're looking at my view currently.
It was a building with a unique design, it was a tower-shaped building with a red and white stripe color on the outside, on top of it was a glass dome with a spotlight rotating slowly while a wooden circular balcony with metal handrails surrounded the dome on top. Below it was a small house that is connected to the tower with the tower behind it, the house looked plain with a flat roof and some small windows outside.
"Odd," I thought to myself when I saw the design of the house, "The design is rather plain and outdated for a normal house back home, not to mention that tower behind it," I slightly questioned the design of the home, while it did look homey, it was still rather odd, the design of it was rather old, like those vintage arts of houses dating back since the 21st Century.
"But still," I muttered as I walked to the building along the cliff side, minding my steps along the way, "A house is still a house, whether be it small or big, there's a guarantee someone is living there," I said seeing the lights that are open from the inside, indicating that someone is living inside and are still awake.
From the distance, I think I'll arrive at that building in seven minutes or fewer if I hurried there.
Unknown to Jacob, the House's inhabitants are a bit... Different...
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Location: Equis, South of Maretime Bay, Lighthouse
Date: Lanuarii 12th, 2511 (After Ancient Equestria Era)
Time: 10:01 PM (AAEE Standard Time)
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Sunny Starscout's P.O.V.
It's been 3 weeks since Sprout's declaration of war to the rest of the pony tribes, a lot has changed since last week, and pony tribes are now unified. Although not directly united, but united as the same species with no discrimination to each other whatsoever, sure there are some complaints but that will fade in due time.
My home had been rebuilt the way it was before since my lighthouse was destroyed thanks to Sprout's tank falling to its side, effectively destroying my home in the process. Most ponies in Maretime Bay volunteered to help with the reconstruction of my home because they were grateful that me and my friends managed to save them from Sprout and taught them that there is no need to hate one another, whether they are different, they are still the same ponies as they are.
Not only we were okay with each other, something else came along when the crystals combined, the Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and the Pegasi had apparently gotten their magic back from a long time ago since in the past we ponies have magic back then, although the magic that is now inside us was quite weak, it was still a huge deal today. Fortunately for us, we ponies can now do what we were dreaming of doing again.
The Pegasi can now use their wings rather than gliding down on high places, many were thrilled about this when they discovered that their wings have now use other than gliding down, but of course, using their wings again for flying can be a hassle for them than gliding, but their happiness was still present on their faces.
The Unicorns can now use magic, one that many unicorns dreamt of having, just like the Pegasi, they have to learn to use magic again since it was still new for them to have magic.
Earth Ponies, nothing much happened, but their strength and stamina were now higher than before, making them ideal for construction or any labor-intensive work thanks to that.
But for me, well, the crystals not only brought back magic to the ponies but also transformed me which surprised the ponies around me when they saw my new look.
I suddenly have a horn like a unicorn and a pair of wings like a Pegasus, it was unheard for all of us. This surprised me and my friends about my new look, naturally, I asked someponies that day to ask them what happened to me, as I was not only an Earth pony but I have all three traits of said ponies. Sadly, all of them don't know what caused my transformation or even what kind of pony I am, but someponies speculate that it could be connected to the past, and that past was the Ancient Equestria Era.
The word Ancient Equestria was still a mystery for all of us before and today, it was an Era where we were united like today and prosperous. But it was all gone so suddenly, and we don't have pieces of evidence for it. I heard stories from my dad when I was younger, a land where ponies from all tribes came together and lived together in harmony, like what I said earlier.
But what intrigued me was the heroes of Ancient Equestria, he told to me that there were heroes, 6 to be exact, and he also pointed out that my toys are the heroes he was talking about when I was a filly (to think my childhood toys are actually the past's heroes in Ancient Equestria), they saved Equestria from evil many times that they could count, defeating enemies ranging from rogue creatures to even fighting a god from what he said, to which im still thinking about that part if it's real or no. But then, something terrible happened to the 6 heroes, he told me the last time they saw the six heroes that they were fighting something powerful, far more dangerous than anything they have faced, then, they just simply vanished without a trace. The 6 heroes were never to be seen again, along with the Ancient Equestria too, leaving without a trace.
Of course, I asked him why are we still here and not disappeared like the others, to which he replied said, 'I don't why we didn't simply vanish,' that made me wonder, why are we still here? while I'm grateful that we didn't vanish, there's not much explanation as to why and how.
He also added something that caught my interest, Along with the six heroes are six crystals they carry, they used these crystals to fight the evil they encountered on their journey, he said those crystals came from a tree that is hidden in a forest, a forest that is beyond of my beloved town, and into Ancient Equestria. Upon arriving in Ancient Equestria, there's a forest that you have to find, the so-called 'Everfree Forest'. He said the tree was made from crystals, similar to those crystals the heroes carry, and the tree emits powerful energy, which is magic, that can deter evil with not my effort, the crystals have that magic inside them similar to the tree.
My father believed the crystal tree are hidden deep in the Everfree Forest, the hard part is that it was easier to get lost since it was a dense forest. The hardest thing about it is that he doesn't know where the tree's exact location is, all he knows is that it is within the vicinity of the Everfree Forest, presumably the deepest part of the forest, so it will be very hard to find. Also, take into account that the forest is full of nasty and terrifying creatures that can harm us if we venture out into that place. So it's best not to go there UNLESS you are equipped to the brim with items that can help you to even attempt to find the tree.
As I got very curious about the past, I asked my father if there was anything interesting in our history. To my excitement and outright sadness, he said that there is, although he can't find the notebook that he was looking for, to which my sadness came in. He said that there is in fact, something interesting in our past, one that was very unusual, much to my confusion.
To tell about that part... That's a story of another time...
It was a calm and chilly night in Maritime Bay, the troubles we faced weeks ago were mostly forgotten and moved on. The town was back in business after that whole fiasco with, ahem, Sprout. The town was back in tip-top shape and continued flourishing as normal.
During those past weeks, a lot has changed in the town, specifically the introduction of Magic and other ponies migrating to the town, like Unicorns and Pegasi. While Earth ponies welcomed their pony friends with open hooves, the introduction of Magic was a hoofful to handle.
Although I'm getting the hang of it using Magic, even though sometimes it just fizzles out because of my lack of experience. So to remove that headache, me and my friends plan a slumber party at my house.
And that's where I come in, currently, I'm walking around the house to check everything that was in the right place, the rest of the gang will come here at any time, so doing some final checks is essential if you want your slumber party going smoothly.
"Ooo, can't wait for this slumber party to begin! This is so exciting" I jumped in my hooves, giggling like an excited filly when given a candy.
"Oh! I better do a final check before we get started," with nothing much to think of, I hurriedly moved my hooves to get the checklist on the table.
As I arrived at the table, the list and luckily a pen were next to it, as I was about to grab the two items with my hooves, my head then thought of something that might help, "Let's see if this works, properly this time."
I looked at the pen and paper and started to concentrate, then my horn glowed pink as well as the paper and pen were covered with a pinkish aura from my magic, "It's working!" I exclaimed in happiness as I lift the paper and pen slowly, while it was quite wobbly to have items essentially floating on my grasp, it was quite taxing to do since I'm still new to Magic despite being here for a few weeks, "Oop, easy does it... there!," happily looked at the paper and pen floating in front of me, "Now we are set!" with the pen and paper properly on my grasp, I can now check the list.
"Let's see here," looking at the first item on the list, "Cookies?" I looked at the table, where a plate full of cookies was on the table, steaming hot and fresh from the oven, satisfied, I crossed out the word, "Check."
"Snacks?" shifting my eyes to the left, I saw multiple bags of chips on the table, "Check."
"Drinks?" moving to the fridge, using my hoof to open it, and see the fridge filled to the brim with drinks, "Check," closing the fridge door.
"Blankets and Pillows?" I saw multiple folded blankets and pillows stacked on one another, "Check."
"And lastly, guests?" I looked around to see... Nopony inside... "Huh, not chec-" then the doorbell rang, snapping my head towards the door with a smile. "Oh, never mind," then crossed out the final word, "Check, looks like we are ready," moving to the door and plopping down the pen and paper on a small table right next to the door, Magic dissipating from my horn and the aura is now gone, time to open the door to let my friends in.
As I opened the door, rather than being greeted by my friends, I was greeted with a bone-crushing from Izzy Moonbow, which is getting harder to breathe because of this.
"OhhelloSunnyitsnicetoseeyouagainimsoexcitedtothisslumberpartywecanhavegamestalkingsecretsan-" Izzy rambled way too fast for me to comprehend and understand. Gladly somepony interrupted and move Izzy off of me.
"Calm down Izzy, Sunny is having a bad time breathing, I know that you are excited about the slumber party, but calm down, okay?" Hitch Trailblazer said as he grabbed Izzy off me, once that was done, I gladly took in the fresh air as I breathe in hard while also coughing.
"You alright?" he asked me with a worried look on his face.
I waved my hoof, showing Hitch that I'm okay, "I'm fine Hitch, thanks for the help," I told Hitch with a smile, he then smiled back.
Then Pipp Petals and Zipp Storm arrived, carrying their own sleeping bags and a single saddle bag, "Hello everypony! You can't start an awesome slumber party without the awesome Zipp Storm!" Zipp shouted across the room, showing off her ego to all of us.
Pipp covered her ears from Zipp's shout, "Geez, calm down Zipp, you'll wake up the neighbors," Pipp said to Zipp with a Cellpone under her left wing.
"Oh, c'mon now Pipp, we both know that an awesome party is without an awesome pony like myself," Zipp then puffs her chest while nudging her.
Pipp just rolled her eyes at Zipp's remark, "Whatever you say, Zipp," then her eyes fixes on me, "Hello Sunny! It's good to see you again," she said with a smile while waving.
"You too Pipp," then I heard a cough beside her, "Can't forget about you Zipp," I giggled.
Zipp let out a grin as I noticed her, "You better be, I'm awesome," she boasted to me. Earning an eye roll from all of us.
"Oh shut your muzzle Zipp," Pipp said to Zipp, glaring at her while Zipp was unaffected by this.
Then Hitch moves right beside them, "Whoa, calm down you two, we are here to have a good time, not a bad time got it?" Hitch said to both of them.
"Fine," Zipp walked right past me and plopped on my couch to sit.
"Sure, as long she doesn't do anything stupid, I'm fine with it," Pipp said as she walked towards a bean bag and plopped her belongings right beside it, once that was done she sat on the bean bag, she grabbed her Cellpone from under her wing and used it.
Zipp scoffs at Pipp's comment, she also moved towards one of my couches and let go of her belongings on top of the couch with Hitch following suit.
Then, out of nowhere, surprising me and the others Izzy then came out of nowhere while also pillows floating behind her, "C'mon! Let's get this party started!" she says with an excited expression as she starts smacking us with pillows.
And just like that, the pillow fight ensued, Izzy first targeted me before Hitch, he gripped a pillow on his hooves while I used my Magic to float multiple pillows at once and started smacking the pillows at Hitch and Izzy, which they also fought back with their pillows against me.
Zipp joined the fun while doing dive bombing tactics against the three of us, being a Pegasus gave her an advantage for flying, which make this fight even more challenging as Zipp joined.
As the four of us played pillow fight, I saw Pipp who is sitting on the bean bag, spectating us, "Pipp! wanna join?" I asked her before ducking down as Zipp zoomed above me, completely missing her target.
I expected her to join but to my surprise, she declined, "No thanks, I'm goo-"
She was unfortunately cut off when a stray pillow hits her face dead on, to my surprise and my friends the fighting stopped completely to look at Pipp, we then turned around to see Izzy, with pillows floating beside her, looking at us sheepishly, telling us she hit Pipp in the face.
"Uhm... oops?"
We looked back at Pipp expecting her to just look annoyed at Izzy, only to see her hovering in the air with the pillow that was thrown at her on her hooves, much to our surprise and horror, "You know, forget what I said," she said menacingly while gripping the pillow harder, "I'm joining in," and just like that, Pipp officially joined as she dove to us fast.
And that, pillow fight became more intense and fun when Pipp joined.
As we played for at least 10 minutes now. We sat down on the ground, all of us huffing in exhausted from our game, all of us are covered in feathers and wool as the room was littered with pillows, feathers, and turned-over furniture. Much to my annoyance because I'm gonna clean all of this when the sleepover is done.
"Phew, that was fun," Zipp said as she huffs for air, sprawled on the ground with her wings spread out.
"I'll say, this is the best slumber party ever!" Izzy said still full of energy for some strange reason.
Then we heard a low growl inside the room, we turned our heads to Pipp, who is sitting on her haunches, and looked at her stomach. She noticed us looking at her then her face morphed into embarrassment, "Sorry, looks like I'm quite hungry from the pillow fight." she sheepishly said to us while rubbing her head.
Then Hitch's stomach too growled, "Looks like I'm with Pipp's on this one," although not that embarrassed like Pipp, he had a small sheepish look when all attention shifted to him, he looked at me with a look that could an entire pony, "You got something to eat?" he asked politely, while also hungry at the same time.
Giggling at my hungry guests, I nodded, "Sure, I'll get the snacks and drinks," as I moved towards the kitchen, I quickly turned around and said, "While you guys are there, could you mind laying down your sleeping bags and clean the area would you mind?"
"Sure Sunny," was the response I got from my friends, they then start to lay down their beds, pillows, and even stuffed toys... for some reason, while also cleaning the area which is littered with feathers and wool.
Using my Magic to carry the items, such as the cookies, snacks, and drinks, I trotted towards the beds on the floor that they made and carefully laid down the plate of cookies and drinks, then let the snacks fall to the ground. Zipp was the first to pick up a cookie and took a bite out of it.
Zipp then made a blissful look as she took a bite of the cookie I made, "Mmm, Sunny, these cookies are delicious," Zipp talks while the cookie crumbs fell out of her mouth.
Pipp was disgusted by Zipp's eating habits, "Zipp, don't talk while you have food in your mouth," she scolded her sister.
"Oop," she then gulps down the cookie, "Sorry Pipp, but these cookies are amazing." she then grabs another one when she gobbled up the one she first ate.
Hitch then grabbed a cookie and took a bite, "Zipp's right, these cookies are amazing."
Pipp then took a bite of her own, "I'm with Hitch, these cookies are great."
"Thank you, everypony," I say with a flustered and prideful look, who knew my baking skills came in handy when it comes to this moment.
As I observed the blissful looks from my friends, I looked around to see somepony missing among the group, "Hmm? Where's Izzy? She was here a minute ago," swiveling my head to find Izzy.
"Huh?" Hitch looked around then noticed that the pony I said wasn't there, "You're right, where is she?" he asked me, to which I shrugged, he sighed and got up from his blanket and started shouting, "IZZY! Where are you!" he shouted as he moved room by room on the ground floor, attempting to find Izzy in my home.
"If I was Izzy, she should be hiding or exploring," Zipp said as she slouched on the couch with an opened chip bag.
I hummed at that thought, maybe Zipp is right about Izzy exploring my home, after all, I didn't do a tour of my house since we first met, "I'll go look for her, be right back," I stood up in my hooves and getting ready to find Izzy.
"No need to find me!" Izzy suddenly appeared right behind me.
"AHHHHHH!" I screamed and jumped so high that I reached the ceiling and hit my horn on the roof.
I looked down below me first, noticing my friends looking up and Izzy with a strange old book on her back, I then looked to see I was stuck in the roof with my horn embedded into the ceiling, "Izzy! Don't do that! That scared me!" I shouted in embarrassment while also flailing my hooves in the air to attempt to unstuck myself.
"Sorry Sunny!," she called down below.
I heard giggles across the room, I looked down to see Zipp, Pipp, and Hitch, giggling as Izzy spooked me to the ceiling and somehow my horn get stuck on the ceiling.
"Come on now guys! This is not funny!" I shouted while flailing my hooves around again to attempt to get unstuck, this is so embarrassing for me! "Get me down from here!"
After a while, I looked to my sides to see Zipp, and Pipp flew right beside me and started helping me get down from the ceiling, after a small effort from the three of us, the horn got unstuck from the ceiling.
Much to my relief that I am now free, I looked at my flying friends as they gently land on the ground, "Thanks," as they put me down on the ground.
"No problem," they both said at the same time.
Looking at Izzy to give her an earful, I then noticed something on top of her back, as I saw earlier when I was up there, "Hey, Izzy, what's that on your back?" Hitch said that while pointing at the old-looking brown object at Izzy's back.
She shrugged at me, "I don't know, I found this when I was exploring the house a bit," she then plopped the book at the ground revealing an old notebook, titled:
Those Who Came from the Stars
Journal
Written in: Nova 12th, 999 (Age of Harmony Era)
Completed in: Augustus 31st, 1002 (Age of Harmony Era)
Author: Senior Researcher, Moonlight Comet
"Those Who Came from the Stars? So there are ponies that came from the stars? interesting," Hitch said while rubbing his hoof on his chin. Curious about the little book on the ground.
"This must be from Ancient Equestria, this must be a work from a researcher!" I said with curiosity.
"Although, if the book said that there are ponies that are from the past that is possibly way longer than Equestria," Pipp said with a curious face, "Who are they?" she said with a questioning look.
"I don't know," I said, "Wait a minute," I looked at the book thoroughly, then I remembered dads words about a book containing information about something unique from the very past, if this is the book that my father said, then this must be it, "This must be what my father told me about! It's the book that he can't find when I was little!" I exclaimed.
"Wait? Your father owned this book?" Hitch asked with a questioning look.
I nodded at his question, "Yeah, he said that this book contains information about something from the past," I said to Hitch. I looked at Izzy to question her about where did she find the book that my father can't find, "Izzy, where did you find this?" I asked her, thankful that she found the book that my father can't find.
Izzy for some reason giggled, "I found it inside some boxes in the storage room!" she said.
I mentally facehoofed at that, so the book that father can't find is inside a box in the storage room?! I was about to open my mouth to question her how did she know where the storage room is, but I decided not to question it since it could lead to my brain getting toast.
"So, you are saying that this little thing has information about something on our past?" Pipp asked, shifting her attention from her Cellpone to a mysterious book as she got curious.
"Possibly," I said with a thinking face completely forgetting Izzy's strange ways to find something, "Although I'm excited to know about this," I said with glee.
As I was excited to learn new information, I opened the book and dust flew out of the pages, we waved our hooves so that the dust can't get to our bodies and our eyes. As the dust had settled, we see pages that are written in black ink.
Luckily, the ink didn't fade too much and can still be read clearly.
"Want to listen?" I asked my friends, who are looking quite curious as me at the book.
"Sure," Hitch and Zipp said at the same time.
"Ooo, story time!" Izzy then plopped right beside Hitch.
"Got nothing better to do," Pipp said from the bean bag.
"Alright then, Those Who Came from the Stars, My name is Moonlight Comet-
===================================================================================
Entry #1
Date: Lanuarii 12th, 999 (Age of Harmony Era)
Time: 9:52 AM (AHE Time)
- Me and my team had found something that will shock all ponykind, There is something below the castle, one that can only be described as more technologically advanced than us! I know, it is hard for me and my team to believe it."
"We didn't know this in the first place, my team was supposed to find some relics in the Old Castle of the Two Sisters, ordered by Princess Celestia herself. Instead, we found something more valuable or rather, THE most valuable discovery in the history of ponykind, a door, not just any normal door that we ponies made, it was a door, taller than that. It was a steel door that was emitting a faint blue light."
"How did we find this door you ask? Well, me and my team walked around the castle's throne room, and all of a sudden the floor suddenly collapsed beneath us and fell to our rumps. Our fall was cushioned by a slope that caught our fall and slowed us down, which is rather fortunate for us. Once we reach the floor, most of us are okay, except the pegasi, they have bruises on their wings which made them not use their wings for the time being. We looked up to see the fall was quite a long drop, approximately 24 meters deep. Quite a long drop, we asked the pegasi to get help, but we were reminded that the pegasi can't use wings for the time being. I talked to my fellow pony to send a distress signal since she is a unicorn."
"Once she did send a signal, she told us that help will arrive in at least 30 minutes, and we would have to wait for 30 minutes for help to arrive."
"Then somepony shouted, we looked and see a unicorn stallion pointing at something, he found a pathway, a pathway made of unknown hard material."
"We were curious as to where the pathway led too, it led to a dimly lit hallway of some sort. Being the researcher I am, I decided to explore a bit while we wait for help, I asked everypony who wants to come with me to explore the path. Out of all 10, 4 raised their hooves, a unicorn mare, two earth pony mares, and a pegasi stallion. I told the rest of the team to simply wait here for help and tell them that we entered the hallway."
"We then walked into the hallway, we were greeted with multiple boxes, tables with items, and many fallen items. We eventually then reached a large door that I mentioned at the start. It was huge!, possibly around 15 hooves (feet) tall, and 10 hooves wide. That's larger than the Canterlot Castle doors! Only at 7 hooves tall. And it was made of steel! Whoever built this, they want nopony to enter here."
"As an attempt to get in to see what was on the other side, we tried to push the large doors to open it, much to our dismay, the door was super heavy, it was impossible to push this behemoth of a door. There must be a mechanism to open this, there is no way that a creature managed to push this all alone. A unicorn said that she found something that might get this door open, we then walked to the unicorn's position and see a tall pole of some sort with a blue light emitting at the top. It was approximately 5 or 5.5 hooves tall, unfortunately, we ponies have a height of 4 to 4.5 hooves tall, while there are some cases that can reach 5 hooves tall unless you count Princess Celestia and Luna, they are 6 hooves tall. Which means we can't reach the blue light at the top."
"We then looked around to see what will help us to what is the faint blue light at the top, we saw a small metal box that can be pushed, a new plan was thought out, we pushed the box towards the tall pole to see what's on top of it, once we get the box close to the pole, I get on top of it to see numbers pad in the blue light. The pad itself looked very futuristic like ones the futuristic once in stories or concepts found on books and papers."
"There are numbers on the pad, with 6 blank lines at the top of it. The pad was a keypad of some sort to unlock the door, I tried typing a random number to what will happen when I got it wrong. The pad turned red as I put on a random number."
"With that happened, I decided to leave the keypad to be studied later when help arrives, one of the unicorn mares shouted at us that she found some papers, as we looked at the papers, we understand the letters used, but the shocking thing that we found in these papers."
"It wasn't written by a pony. It was written by another creature, we confirmed it because the contents are different and the words are different, these papers are research papers scattered around the floor, some were covered in dust while others had tears. The contents of these papers can be understood fortunately, it was fairly simple research papers with abstracts, introductions, body sections, and conclusions, but the last bits in these papers we can't understand. Like this 'References' found at the bottom of a paper:
- Cervini, Narciso. (2690), Crystal Construct. Resource Management, 15(2),
12-50.htpps://rad.org/14.1551/phc.2114.a1426
* Al-Saad, Ashqar. (2691), Blue flower with interesting properties. Research Management, 26(7),
22-40.htpps://rad.org/11.2475/ue.2100.e1182
* Liang, Qiu. (2692), Terrain formations. Nature Research Institute, 18(6),
11-19.htpps://nri.org/25.3211/phc.2154.t1612
* Rasmussen, Karsten. (2689), Day and Night cycles are weird here. Astronomy Research Management, 11(8),
51-87.htpps://arm.org/21.1515/mpe.3114.m1216
"These papers are positively written by another creature, not by us. As we looked at the treasure trove of research papers and documents that these creatures left behind. However, one paper took us by surprise."
--------------------------------------
Creatures of Equestria, Ponies
Macrohon, Lota
Department of Research Institution, University of Mars
December 31st, 2690
--------------------------------------
"Whoever these creatures are, they observed us in Equestria. This must be another species of intelligent levels, one that might be smarter than us! They must be another civilization, if they are, where are they? Surely they didn't suddenly vanish or disappeared for no reason. But there's a question that didn't get answered. Who are these creatures? The papers we got were only names of these authors or researchers."
"Then I saw something on a paper right next to it, the question earlier was answered."
--------------------------------------
Who are we? For we are Humans (Updated)
Hernandez, Chris
Department of History, University of Earth
April 21st, 2521
--------------------------------------
"The paper that I saw answered our question, these creatures are now classified as."
'HUMANS'
"As we studied the papers, we heard multiple shouting coming from the tunnel entrance, it told us that help had arrived. We grabbed the papers with us and began moving towards the tunnel entrance, looks like we have a big report when we get back to Canterlot and report this to the Princesses."
End of Entry #1
"And that's done," I closed the notebook, "Wow, what an informative book my father got."
"I'll say, there is a civilization that was in Equestria from what the book said," Hitch said.
Pipp then asked me, "Why not read the rest of the notebook?" she asked me, looking rather intrigued by the contents inside the small book.
"As much as I want to," then I yawned all of a sudden, feeling the tiredness coming in, "I'm tired."
"Yeah Pipp," Zipp also yawned, "We can continue this story for another time, for now, I need sleep."
"Well, I'm also pretty tired as well," Pipp said, "Let's go to sleep"
"Alright, Izzy, you want to sleep?" I got no answer, "Izzy?" I looked at Izzy's sleeping bag, and to my surprise, she was asleep already.
"Don't tell me she fell asleep when I read the notebook," I said with disbelief.
"Don't know, don't care, I want to sleep," Zipp then moved towards her sleeping bag.
Deciding to ignore it, I then thought of cleaning the plates and throwing the empty drinks and snacks, "Fine, I'll clean up the mess here," I said, once again using my Magic to pick up the empty plates, bags of chips, and empty bottles of drinks. Unfortunately, there were too many items for me to use Magic alone.
"Want me to help?" Hitch asked me.
"No thanks, I got this," I said as I concentrated harder to lift all of the items on the floor.
"You sure? That's a lot of items that you are floating," Hitch looked at me, seeing me struggling to lift all of them, "You sure don't want help?"
"I'm fi-" I suddenly lost my focus, resulting in all trash and the plate falling to the ground, "-ne..." I looked down in defeat at the now messy floor.
"Now you want help?" Hitch looked at me with amusement while chuckling.
I sighed, "Fine, I guess I need your help," I said with a pout.
He chuckled, "Well then, let's get star-" Hitch was suddenly cut off by multiple knocks on the door.
*Knock*
*Knock*
*Knock*
The noise came from the door, resulting Me, Hitch, Zipp, and even Pipp looking at the door, somehow Izzy is still sleeping.
*Knock*
*Knock*
*Knock*
"Uhhh, do you have more guests?" Hitch asked me with an eyebrow raised. Completely surprised by the knocking on the door.
I shook my head, much to Hitch's surprise, "No, you guys are the only ones invited here," I looked at the door, "Who could that be?" I asked myself, not remembering bringing other people than my friends.
"I'll go check the door, after all, I'm a sheriff in this town," Hitch said as he moved to the door, "Well, here it goes," he muttered while huffing his chest as he grabbed the handle and opened the door, "Hello? Anypony thei-" he then stopped talking to see a big and tall creature standing at the front door looking at the side.
Me and the Pegasus sisters looked at the creature with shock and disbelief.
"Oh thank god, I thought nobody noticed me knoooooooo-" the creature looked at us and Hitch with shock.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Uhhhmm, hi?" the creature said to us... nervously.
Now, normally we ponies treat our guests with a formal and welcoming voice, this however is not the case. We did the best thing that we could possibly do in this situation... By screaming.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Continued to be...
Author's Note
As you have noticed, the bottom half of the chapter has been cut out and will be put into chapter 2, since I thought to myself that it wasn't needed in this chapter.
Anyways, is my rewrite good? if so then thank god I did something good in my life lmao.
Until next time, cya gamers :D
