Nine Of Us...

Shining Armor groaned in pain as a very bright light was shone into his face. His body hurt all over, as he bled from the stinging of multiple cuts all over his body. He was very weak, having not moved other than being forced to walk to different rooms in the building he was trapped within.

"Wake up, Shining... Wake up." A soft voice cooed to him with a sing-song in his tone. "Your time with us isn't over,"

Shining slowly opened his eyes... to see exactly where he was and why he couldn't move. He was fastened down to a table, laying almost upright. Two small tables sat on the side of him, all covered in all sorts of surgical equipment that was all completely spotless and sterile.

They were all just like the room, most of the room made completely covered in black, sleek tiles. A massive logo of a golden skull in a gold-coloured square turned into the shape of a diamond. He knew that symbol and sighed in defeat. He knew that logo. A little too well.

"Good morning, Shining Armor," The voice greeted in an unusually friendly voice. "I hope you have slept well and cleared your head for a bit,"

It was at that moment he turned his vision towards the direction of the voice. Sitting in a chair only a few feet away from him was anthropomorphic cat dressed in a black and gold uniform. Also, four soldiers stood around the room, all dressed in black and gold combat uniforms, helmets, goggles and balaclava obscuring their identities. But it was all obvious that all four of them were Earth Ponies.

"I know you've been through a lot, Shining Armor. But you haven't given us what we want. And when you don't give us what we want, we have no choice to force it out," The cat purred, wheeling his chair in closer.

"Who are you?" Shining weakly asked.

"You can call me... The Breaker. Because that is what I do. I break creatures," The Breaker said, chuckling a bit as he stroked Shining's cheek. "I will admit, I do admire your resistance to interrogation. The Royal Guard trained you well to our methods. Thankfully, I love it when somecreature gets sent to me. I get to have my fun," The cat placed his paw under his chin and raised his up to look into his eyes.

Shining took this moment to spit at him. "Fuck you," He simply told his captor.

Breaker just wiped the spit off his face and chuckled at Shining's insolence. In response to what the stallion had done, the cat extended his claws and slashed him across the face. Shining yelled out in pain, as fresh blood from the wounds began to trail down his face, adding to his new collection of cuts.

"Very bold, attacking me like that. But I am afraid I am the on in control," The Breaker stated, wheeling the tray of surgery stuff towards him. "Now, I'm going to establish a quid pro quo. You tell me things, I tell you things," Breaker then grabbed a scalpel from the tray and held it before his prisoner. "For example, I can tell you that you will decide when all the pain will stop. And you can tell me exactly why the Equestrian Government has been poking their muzzles into Gold Skull's business. So, will you honor it?"

Despite being threatened, Shining wasn't going to give in and let Gold Skull gain victory and rule the world. "You... will never break me. I am not... giving the keys of Equestria... to scumbags like you!" He struggled to say, still holding back the info.

But all that did was make The Breaker smile. "Perfect, I hate it when my patients give in. I don't get to have any fun," The feline stated as he got up from his chair and approached him. "I hope you find the look of an eyepatch cool..." The Breaker grabbed onto his face and began to move the scalpel towards his right eye. Shining tried all he could to get some space from the surgical blade, but the cat held his face still as he closed in...

A gunshot rang out. Milliseconds later, The Breaker's head exploded in a mass of blood, skull and brain bits. The pretty much headless body of the cat slumped to the ground with a thud, causing the guards to take a shock.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" One of the guards cried out, as they all drew their Carmel assault rifles into their hooves, panicked over the death of the interrogator.

Suddenly, the main door to the room busted open. And in charged a massive white griffon, dressed in a black combat suit and vest, barging the door off its hinges. One of the guards managed to open fire, but the griffon moved the door he busted through in front of him, using it as a shield. All of the bullets fired didn't make an impact, as the griffon charged at the pony firing at him from the left back corner. But once the griffon started, he didn't stop. He closed in until he rammed into the soldier firing at him, crushing him against the wall.

The two soldiers by the doorway raised their weapons to fire... but soon got their brains blasted out by 12-gauge shotgun pellets from point blank range. A unreformed changeling with purple features and a similar black suit, holding a Benelli M4 Super 90 shotgun was one of the killers in this moment, a bright white unicorn mare with a blue and green mane and bright emerald eyes with a Mossberg 590 Custom pump shotgun in her magic grasp the other.

When it came to the fourth and final trooper in the room, the white unicorn had an easy plan for that. She holstered her shotgun and drew a L85A2 Custom from her back, raising it up and getting off the shot first, sending a three-round burst into the pony, sending him down dead.

Shining would have been filled with shock, but he was too weak to respond to anything. All he noticed was a white unicorn stallion with black spots all over him, a crooked smile and an M16A3 in his grasp; a dragon-pony hybrid, one with a pony's body with dragon wings, multi-coloured spines running down her back, a multi-coloured dragon tummy running down her belly to the tip of her dragon tail, eyes just like colour wheels, a pair of golden horns coming out of her head, golden claws coming out of her hooves and an MP5 in her hooves; a alicorn stallion with a blue and red camo coat, green eyes, brown mane and a SCAR-H assault rifle in his magic and a red pegasus mare with a blue and orange mane and bright orange eyes and a MP7 in her grasp. And last, but by no means least, an unreformed changeling with red highlights, bloodied fangs and front hooves, broken wings and an AK-47 strapped onto his back.

Every single one of them were dressed in a stealth black combat suit, with matching black combat vests with all sorts of things on it. The others secured the room as the male unicorn and the red changeling closed in. Shining had no idea what to think and simply just gave in all his energy. He was done with all this resisting and all the torture had drained him.

"So, there he is," The changeling remarked, coming ever closer. "The great Shining Armor, husband of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. What the hell have they done to you? Psycho, face rec,"

"Jawohl," The unicorn replied, holstering his M16 and taking a cylindrical light from his vest. To Shining's annoyance, he then shone the light in his face and held it there for a few seconds before pulling it away. "Ja, it's him," He stated happily, as he returned the light to his vest and drew his rifle again.

The changeling smiled as he unhooked Shining from his torture table and let him fall onto his back. "Alright, Shining. Your time in hell is over. Let's get you back home," He said, carefully moving the stallion so he didn't touch his apparently fragile wings.

Shining had only three words for what was going on. "Who... are you?"

"Your guardian angles," The changeling replied.

"Well, more like fallen angels in our case," The pegasus added, giving the group a bit of giggles.

"Very true, V. Alright, let's get you back," The changeling giggled, before leading out the room with his team in tow.

The moment they stepped out of the door, Shining saw exactly how this team of most-likely elite troops were able to get to him. A red emergency roof light cast a dim shine over a grisly scene. The bright metal walls of the facility were slick with fresh blood. Many bodies lay slumped against the wall or lying on the floor, unmoving and multiple bullet holes piercing through their bodies. Spent bullet casings of varying calibers littered the floor and there was a faint smell of burnt gunpower in the air.

It then hit Shining. None of these creatures were wearing any sort of identification on their uniforms. There was no doubt in his mind that he was just rescued... by mercenaries. Filthy dogs of war, not fighting for honour or the betterment of their nation, but for money.

As they strode down the hall of dead bodies, one of the supposedly dead soldiers slowly and painfully got back up, not quite dead yet. But the lead changeling easily dealt with this simple distraction, by unsheathing his Onyx M48 Bowie Knife and stabbing the stallion in the throat with the blade as he went past. This easily killed him as the slumped back down on the floor, bleeding profusely from the neck wound. All the changeling did was wipe the blade on his sleeve and sheath his knife as they continued on through the facility.

Eventually, they exited the facility to only find themselves in a clearing in the forest. It wasn't anything like the Everfree, so they all knew they were nowhere near Ponyville. But even still, the clearing near the base they walked out of was big enough for a helicopter to land in.

Speaking of helicopters, one had just arrived over the canopy of the forest; a dark black MH-53J Pave Low III lacking markings except for a blood red triangle logo across the whole of the sides of the helo. The chopper came to a halt in the sky, did a 180 turn and lowered it's landing gear for a landing.

As the heli came in to land, the group was suddenly joined by another. A tall, slim black dragon with a red right eye and grey left eye, dressed in another black combat suit. In his claws was a powerful AS50 anti-material sniper rifle but more surprising was the pack of cigarettes and a silver lighter with special engravings on his combat webbing. Weird for a sniper.

But nothing new to the changeling that carried him, as he walked up to the dragon, smiled and raised a hoof for a bump. The dragon smiled and met his hoof with his claw, as the chopper landed and opened the rear ramp. Without a second thought or hesitation, the entire team stepped inside and took all their seats as the helo lifted off the ground again.

The changeling set Shining gently down on the seat beside him, as the unicorn stallion came close with a medical bag. "Don't worry any more, Shining," The changeling stated with a smile, as the unicorn began to clean his cuts, "You're going home, soldier,"