My Kind of Townby BlackoutChaptersArrivalOvertly Friendly NeighborsAn Uninvited GuestLeft in the DarkThat's LogisticsNature WalkEquanimityBroken Hearts and Aching HoovesArrivalFunny how scenery can calm everything. It wasn't long ago that the pilot of the first rocket in Equestria was plummeting to the ground in a big metal can. He climed out of the ship and took in the serene landscape. It was dimly lit but enough to give it a relaxed feel, not creepy. The only thing is that he was standing on a multi-million bit wreck and a wide eyed mare that looks like she is about to have a heart attack. Twilight Sparkle was her name and was carrying a baby dragon on her back. Hmm, this must Twilight. The pilot of the machine, or at least it was a machine, mused to himself. The mare was paralized in shock from the large contraption smashing into the earth and then what looks like a biped pony bust himself out of it. She could not see his face due to the protective gold film on his helmet's visor. The pilot procceded to grab his head and twist it. Come on, how do you get this stupid thing off? With enough figiting, the helmet's seal opened and steam rushed out of his helmet, startling the mare even further. He sliped off the helmet as the steam caused by rentry floated to the clouds. "Wow its cold out here, or I'm hotter than I think." The stalion said to himself. "Hey whats up?" "A-are y-you talking to me?" The purple pony asked. "Well your the only one here right?" "Umm, I guess. What just happened?" "Oh, uhh..." the pilot's mind raced to find a good excuse for almost pounding this mare into the ground with a rocket. His calm expression turned serious and he shot a threatening glare at the mare. "Listen, this never happened, what you just saw, you can't tell anypony. Got it!" The mare was taken back by the command but decided to listen, this pony just fell out of the sky and threated her, she just wanted to get out of there. "G-got it!" "And quit shaking, somepony's gonna think your sick or something." with that, she ran off like a bolt of lightning. After about two minutes a voice came on the lone stalion's radio. "Oh by the way Blackout. I forgot to tell you to get everything out of the pod as fast as you can, it's set to self-destruct in oh I'd say thirty seconds." "Wait, what?" "Get everything out of the pod before it goes up in flames, you have twenty five seconds and counting. GO!" Damn it Gear Head. Blackout made his way to retrieve his duffle bag. "Ten seconds laddie." Gear Head warned. With his gear in hoof, he climed out of the ship and ran, not even bothering to get behing something, he just whent full Forest and Gumped it. It wasn't long before that all too familiar sound rung in his ears. They rung for a while and when it cleard up, he heard that voice on the radio again. "Hey Blackout, your still alive right?" "That's a rhetorical question right?" "What do ya mean by that?" "You sound like you were expecting me to die!" "I know how attached to that helmet you are." "Well I'm alive, anythin going on over there?" "Ah yes, about that." Gear Head said nervously "What?" "The helicarrier is in the shop." "Why?" Blackout responded, anger in his voice. "I may have forgotten to oil the rottors and..." "It crashed into the ground!" Blackout said furiously "Well crash is such a strong word for the situation. I would use forcefuly met the ground." Blackout went on a rant of anger that the biggest machine, that flew, had been destroyed due to its creator not oiling it. "Don't worry, it's being repaired, but it may take a while." "How long?" "Two months." "Two months!" "I know it's such a short time." "No, it's too long." "Hey two months is pushing the envelope, we can try and hurry but thats the current ETA." "ETA?" "Oh yeah, I forget to tell you, the princess wants us to come to the Grand Galloping Gala this year. We just figured it'd be best to just pick you up, and you stay there." "What do you expect me to do, find a house here?" "Umm, yes." "Fine, its better that walking across Equestria." "Alright then, it's settled, you find a house, and probably a job, and we fix this and meet up at the Gala." "Sure, whatever." "Ok, later B." "Later Gear." Angry and overwhelmed, Blackout made his along the path the purple mare went down. He became surrounded by apple trees and further down the road he saw a small farm, with a countless number of ponies gathered around. This can't realy be Ponyville can it? As he made his way down the dirt trail he noticed an arch with an apple sign hanging from it. In the middle of the crowd was the purple mare from before being overwhelmed by apple based foods. He decided to keep his distance from the farm, he didn't want to get caught up this, too. After the small pony had eaten the large selection of apple goods she left the farm. Dang, she eats more than I do. She was heading back the path he was on. Oh crap. Looking around he saw nothing close enough to hide behind. Though no longer in his space suit, he could still be recognized. Dropping to all fours he stood were he was and made sure the mare didn't see his face. She passed right by without giving him a passing glance. Well that was easy he thought. Maby this time she's heading towards the town. He followed up another path that led to a small town of wood buildings. He was looking around when he noticed somethinig smash into the purple mare. It was a cyan pegasis with a rainbow mane. He watched thier mouths and found that her name was Rainbow Dash, who wanted to join the Wonderbolts. Oh please, not those amatures. But one thing caught his attention, her wager bettinig she could clear out the entire sky in ten seconds flat. He didn't believe it but what happened next came as a complete surprise. "She actually did it." "Come again B?" Gear Head asked from the radio on Blackout's chest "Gear Head, I think I may have found the fourth one." Overtly Friendly Neighbors"Are you sure? We gave up finding the fourth two years ago." "Well not entirely, she talks big but I'm not sure she can live up to everything." "Tell me how it goes then." Blackout understood Gear Heads' scepticism. When the Royal Elite was made it was him, then Mig, then Gear. He still promised to add to the team but it never happened. Talk whent on in the military that the Aces needed an ace of hearts but they managed fine with only three. Maybe they don't need a fourth, but it would be nice. Mayhem is no doubt about to kick in again and a fourth could lighten the load. As much as he wanted to bring her in, he was forced to push it to the back of his mind, he had a job to do. "OH MY GOSH, ITS YOU!" Blackout was snapped out of his train of thought when the blue pegasis practicly showed him to all of Ponyville. "You must have me mistaken for somepony else." Blackout responded nervously. If I'm found, this will only end in disaster. "No, it's most certainly you, what are you doing here?" she gasped as if she just had an epiphany. "Are you on a secret missio..." Blackout quickly shoved his hoof into her mouth and shook his head franticly. "Sorry." Seeing how interested she was, Blackout decided to answer her questions, if she know about him then why hide it? "If you take me somewhere quiet, then we can talk." "Right." she said as she turned around and jumped into the air. Rainbow led him to her cloud house. Landing on it, Blackout seemed uneasy. "What's wrong?" "Its been a long time since I've stepped on a cloud. Nevermind that though, how do you know who I am?" "Oh, that." she said with a blush, realizing how creepy she must have appeard to him. "I found out from a Wonderbolt." The explenation caused Blackout to groan loudly. "Spitfire told you didn't she?" "How do you know?" "She was my best friend in high school. We went together like peanut butter and jelly. So wait, how did you get Spitfire to talk about me?" "Well it was at one of thier showes." The show was spectacular, the Wonderbolts just pulled off thier last stunt and did a lap around the arena above the crowd. "HEY SPITFIRE!" Rainbow Dash shouted past the cheering croud. Feeling generous about another successful show, Spitfire decided to flatter the ecstatic mare. "Oh my gosh." the trembling fan whispered before she tried to regain composure. "It would be totaly awsome if I could have your autograph, I'm your biggest fan by the way." she said, attempting to find good reasons to say yes. She had been trying to get her to sign something, a shirt, a picture, a piece of paper, anything that she could take home and keep forever. "Sure, why not? Got a picture or a book?" Oh no! The one day she finaly comes down to sign something, and Dash has nothing. "Oh, I don't realy have anything right now." "Thats alright, I've got something. This picture realy means something to me so make sure you keep it safe ok." Spitfire handed over a signed picture of her, Soarin', and another pony. Rainbow didn't know who it was, he was big, dark, and by the looks of it, a realy good friend of the two. Another thing was the picture looked dated, and the trio looked young, foals almost. "But wait, who is this?" Rainbow shouted but Spitfire had already regrouped with the rest of the team and were out of ear shot. "So wait, she never told you anything about me." "I'm getting to that." Dash said, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "I had found out that she would be at a convention and would be taking questions so I went there and asked about the photo." "Oh hey, I remember you. You still have that photo right?" "Actually, I wanted to ask you about it. Who's the dark guy next to you in this?" The question brought a smile to Spitfire's face. "That would be Blackout, he was my best friend in high school. Follow me, I'll tell you more somewhere else" She said as she finished signing a poster of herself. She led Rainbow Dash to an empty room "Why did we come here?" "Blackout would be pretty mad if anypony he can't trust found out about him. This room should be safe from prying ears and eyes. You see, Blackout isn't like you and me, he's in the military." "So he's like a guard?" "Not at all. When Soarin' and I became friends with him, we all promised to become Wonderbolts, but for some reason, he joined the military. Said showing off in front of big crouds wasn't his calling. Not to long after he joined, he wrote a letter, said he became a Royal Elite." "What's that." "From what he tells me, its a small group of ponies that can survive just about anything. Said it was perfect for him, blowing things up and fighting anything that posed a threat to Equestria." "Aww man, I knew I shouldn't have told her!" "What?" Dash said, confused at the sudden outburst. "That information is top secret, but since you know, I might as well tell the rest of the story." He couldn't explain why, but the mare in front of him seemed so trust worthy. As if he could tell her all of his secrets, and she wouldn't sell them for one million bits. "The reason why they created the Royal Elite was to hunt and kill anything that had to do with the enemy. If the princess wants it gone, then we destroy it." "But I thought that." "Equestria was at peace, and any rising threat is put down by show of force and speeches? I'm affraid not, thats why its a secret." "Then what are you doing here?" he could hear worry in her voice. "I know I'm going to regret this but, I was sent here by orders of the princess to..." "Hey Dashie, who you talking too?" a pink mare popped her head out of the cloud floor, causing both pegasis to cry in fear. "How the?" Blackout was cut off when the pink pony gasped loudly and dissapeared from under the floor. "What just happened?" "Pinkie Pie just happened, if I were you, I'd hide." "Why?" "She does that to every new pony, and then throws a party for them." "Aww crap, how do I avoid her?" "I've never found a way to, just keep running, or talk to her if you can." "I'll try." Leaving the cloud house, Blackout seeks out the pink pony. If I were a mare and was excited all the time, where would I be? Something caught his attention, a decorated building that looked way over the top to be normal. Landing in front of the building, Blackout knocked on the door. "The door is open darling." a pony announced from inside. The interior was decorated with streamers and a white pony was setting up banners on a podium. "Is there something you need of me?" the mare asked as she turned around. "Oh my, what are you wearing?!" the pony exclaimed. "Uhh." Blackout looked down at himself, he was in his black OTV (Outer Tactical Vest) and had his M1 helmet on, "What's wrong with it?" "It looks like your going to war!" she shouted in disgust. Granted, the military vest wasn't subtle, but then again, not very many people have seen an Army uniform. "Why you simply must come with me, we need to get you out of that costume." Oh how little did she know, that was no costume, and he wasn't a random civilian, or a stylist. "I hardly think its necessary to hey what are you doing? OW!" Without warning, Rarity pushed the stallion against a wall and forced him to his full height and measured him. "Well you are a sight taller than any other costomer I've had, so I must make a special fit suit for you." "That's o.k. I don't really need this." "Well of course you do darling! Someone of your stature and lovely facade should always look thier best." she said as she finished measuring him. It wasn't really the aggressive measuring that worried Blackout though. Lovely facade? Ohh... "Stay here, I'll be back with your suit." the mare chirped as she left the room. Wide eyed with terror, Blackout looked for the exit. Why are there so many fancy doors here? After a few moments of trial and error, Blackout found the exit and rushed out of the building as fast a he could. "Whew!" he sighed, "Hope she wasn't saying what I thought she said." There was something about him, his family really, that always made a pony act that way, and it was creepy. Though flying away from the mare did seem incredibly rude, he didn't know what else to do. That didn't happen to him since high school. "Well at least its over." but before he could let out another sigh of relief he ended smashing into a small tree, breaking it and scaring away the birds perched on top of it. "Oh my, are you o.k.?" a soft voice whispered to Blackout. "Just fine." he replied bitterly, causing the yellow pony to recoil. She was small and hid behind her mane. "Hey have you seen a pink mare around here?" "You mean Pinkie Pie? She just invited me to a party for a newcomer." That's it, he was compromised and hiding was his only option. Blackout spread his wings and took off before the pegasis could squeak out another word. The only place that he could think to stay was the farm he saw earlier today. Secluded and the owners seem hospitable. The sun began to set as Blackout made his way to the farm in the distance. An Uninvited Guest"Umm, hello?" Blackout called into the empty barn. "Anypony home?" He knocked every door but nothing would respond. He tried the house, nothing. The fields were empty, nopony was attending the animals, and not a soul was found in the massive orchard. Giving up Blackout decided to just sleep on one of the many trees surrounding the farm. They wouldn't mind right? There are tons of them anyway. Finding a solid branch to sleep on, Blackout landed on the tree. He thought of his mission, was this Nightmare thing really going to bring eternal night? Why isn't Celestia doing anything about it? Why send a lone pegasis to do the job? How could he stop something made of pure dark magic, and to top it off, it possessed an alicorn that was Celestia's sister, and she doesn't want him to simply kill her. In fact, Celestia's student is supposed to stop the Nightmare. The purple mare who did nothing but read is supposed to stop an all-powerful evil being. There must be a catch. Celestia always makes plans that sound ridiculous but somehow work in the end. Without knowing it, Blackout slowly drifted to sleep as he thought about these questions. "Why do pegasis always sleep in mah' trees?" a mare with a southern accent spoke obviously annoyed. She kicked the tree, causing the pegasis to fall out of it. "You could have just said please." Blackout groaned. "Ah thought ah made it clear when ah told the pegasis not to sleep in mah trees." she scolded. "How should I know, I'm not from here." Blackout retorted, trying to adjust his helmet which was covering his eyes. Pushing the rim of the helmet above his eyes, he caught sight of the orange mare. "So I guess you own the farm?" "Sorta, what brings ya to Ponyville?" "Business trip." he lied. "Sorry about sleeping in your tree, nopony was home and I needed a place to stay so I thought you wouldn't mind." "Well since yer new I'll let it go, but try to stay out of mah trees o.k." "Will do, say what time is it?" "Two o'eight." "Aww man, hey since your here could I...you know, stay at your place?" he said bashfully. "Well since yer new ah guess it would only be fair, alright you can stay." "Thank" "But only for tonight, got it?" not knowing how to respond, Blackout just nodded. "Good, well now that we got that out of the way, ah'm Applejack." she extended a hoof, which met by Blackout's. "I'm Blackout, sorry about the tree." "Don't be, you didn't know, but ah'm a bit saddle sore about you staying over on such short notice." "He, yeah sorry." he apologized again as the mare led him into the modest farm house. "You sure about this? I don't want to be taking up any space or anything." "Don't worry, we have too much space as is, well here's yer room." It was a small room with a western style theme to it. "If ya need anything jus' ask." but before she could finish, the room echoed with a low grumbling. "Yeah, do got any food?" the question made the farmer look at him like he was an alien. "Oh, right, forgot that your a farmer." Applejack led Blackout to the kitchen and laid out an assortment of apple based foods in front of him. "What do ya want? Ah've got apple crumbles, apple fritters, candy apples, apple turnovers, apple strudels, and apple pie." "I'll take them all." again the farm pony stared at him. "What?" "You can eat all of this?" "Uh huh." "Huh, o.k., whatever you leave you can just save it for later." but before she could finish, Blackout had scarfed down the entire set of apple products. "Wow, you weren't kiddin'." "That was GOOD! Oh and here's the payment." "Nah, you can keep it. Think of it as a first time discount." This was great, free food and shelter, how could anypony be so nice. It was too good to be true, it couldn't be true. "Your not lying about that are you?" "Ah'd never tell a lie, especialy to a newcomer." "Just making sure, you never know when a pony will drop a heavy bill on your lap." The day, or night, ended quickly and Applejack had woken Blackout up who left with her to attend the Summer Sun Celebration. Alright, be on your guard, that Nightmare thing is supposed to show up at any second now. "...Princess Celestia!" the mayor anounced as the white mare from yesterday opened the curtains. She wasn't there, and as ponies exchanged worried looks and murmers, the white mare came back to the balcony reporting that Celestia was no where to be found. As if on cue, a mist containing what looked like small stars. The mist condensed into a form that looked like a large alicorn, about Celestia's size. "Nightmare Moon." Blackout whispered to himself. He tried to move but something was holding him back, he could feel a slight tingling around his body. It was magic, powerful magic, he couldn't fight it and watched hopelessly as the dark entity introduced herself. This would be his first glimps at dark magic, it took the form of a mist with small stars in it. It swirled around the alicorn and seemed to be eminating from her mane and tail. He watched in awe as the Nightmare quickly defeated the Royal Guard and then disintigrated into mist, leaving the building and town. The magic grip that kept Blackout in place finaly let go and he decided to make his exit. "Blackout what happened?" a voice came on his radio, "I just detected a huge dark magic spike in your area. Blackout?" He never responded, there was no time for questions, he needed answers. He made his way to a nearby hill and surveyed the area. It wasn't long before another voice broke the silence, but this one was in his head. "That was my sister Luna." the voice explained, "She is heading to the castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The Elements of Harmony are located there. Only they can stop the her, you must protect them or she will destroy them. Can I trust you to do this?" "Yes ma'am." he had his orders, now for the easy part. Blackout headed back to the apple farm to don his gear. His black vest was now complemented with a black ACU, trousers, and combat boots. Not knowing to expect, Blackout brought almost all of his gear, excluding the heavy weapons. Now dressed head to hoof in equipment, Blackout made his way to the forest. Just outside of the forest stood six mares, all of them looked familiar. Not wanting to attract attention to himself, Blackout waited for them to enter the forest. He stayed there for about ten minutes to make sure he wouldn't run into them, then he entered the forest himself. It was a good five minutes before the trail ended, like the mountain collasped. Sliding down the slope, Blackout picked up the trail of the six ponies at the bottom of the ravine. Further down the path he ran into a manticore. It looked happy but he didn't take any chances. Drawing his Colt 45, Blackout slowly passed the creature, eyeing it. He made his way past the animal with no trouble, if anything it seemed like the beast didn't care about him. Normaly manticores tear anything to shreds on sight, but this one was different. The six ponies must have been responsible for this, maybe it was hurt, or it ate them and had no room for another meal. After about ten minutes of hiking, Blackout had almost caught up with the girls ahead, who had just entered a thick group of trees. There was little to no visibility but there was no other way. Walking through, Blackout soon became lost, and to make things worse, the trees are now making faces at him. Wait, what? The trees had faces and oddly enough, glowed red. A scream was emited from the trees, it came from behind him. Was something in here? Not wanting to find out, Blackout picked out a direction and ran. Bursting from the thicket, he saw the hoofprints of about seven ponies. Wrong way stupid. Turning back Blackout sprinted through again, lowering his head so the branches would hit his helmet. Again he bursted out of the trees and in front was a new path. Not knowing how much time he wasted, Blackout decided it was best to hurry through the trail. The path was almost completely clear, except for a water serpent but he was kind enough to let him pass. Running down the trail Blackout spotted something strange. It was misty and he couldn't see much but it looked like an ancient castle. Blackout's focus was so centered that he didn't realise that he ran out of ground. He felt the sensation of taking the next step, and feeling nothing there, sending a shiver down his spine. His sight was blurred by thick fog, and wind filled his ears as he plumeted down the canyon. Left in the DarkIt seemed hopeless, his jacket didn't have holes for his wings so he couldn't just fly out of the cavern. Lucky for him, he was running fast enough to reach the other side of the canyon. Meeting the rock Blackout pressed his hooves against the wall to slow down. Pulling out his knife, Blackout jabbed it into the wall. The sudden halt almost jerked his hoof off the knife handle. He hung there recovering from the massive adrenaline rush. His heart beat slowed and he tried to find something to grab hold of. Using one hoof to climb the rock and the other using the knife as a pickaxe, Blackout clambered up the wall. Reaching the top Blackout saw the castle, it was crumbly and most of it was missing. The first chamber held a statue with spheres made of rock on it. He procceded up the steps to the next chamber. There sat the dark alicorn. "Ah, the guest of honor has finally arrived." She sat at the far end on a throne. "And I thought Tia was wrong but here you are. Its a pleasure to finally meet you Colonel." "How do you-" "Know who you are? My dear sister would be to blame. She boasted about you, said you'll lead to my downfall." How could she? The last thing she should have done was tell this thing who he was. "Let's see how well you live up to your name." Taking the hint, Blackout ran at the evil creature, only to meet bolts of lightning. The force sent him back to the other end of the room. "What's the matter? Can you not fight? I've been told you were the best." This was not a fight he could win on the ground. Taking a deep breath, Blackout forced his wings to expand under his jacket causing them to practicly burst from his back. Trying again, Blackout spread his wings and launched himself at his enemy. The Nightmare continued to form bolts of lightning but the pegasis was too fast and was already a few feet away from her, his arm drawn back. Blackout threw his hoof at her but before it made contact, she faded into the dark mist. Blackout's punch met the wall behind the Nightmare, cracking it. His hoof bled and a sharp pain was felt throughout his arm, but he ignored it. His attention was set on the moving mist, which formed into the alicorn at the center of the chamber. Wasting no time, Blackout charged her again, this time drawing his sword. He swung at the dark form only for it to disintegrate again. She formed again behind him. He tried to stab the Nightmare, but it dispersed agian. The battle was an energetic dance between the two dark forms. The purple cloud swirling around the warrior as he swung and stabed. It was hopeless, he couldn't land a hit on her. Blackout flew out of the living fog and re-thought his strategy. The Nightmare reformed in front of him, an evil grin on her face. Blackout took to the skies and used his wing's strength to send him into one direction and then to another at high speeds. Blackout was moving too fast and the Nightmare couldn't keep track of him. Taking the opportunity, he quickly dropped down to the alicorn and brought down his sword on the still tangible Nightmare. His sword stopped, but it didn't meet flesh, instead the blade rested on top of a dark purple bubble that enveloped the Nightmare. "Fool! Do you think I would fight you without protection?" Before Blackout could react, the Nightmare expanded the magic shield, smashing him into the wall. The Nightmare slowly crept towards him, her mane forming dark spikes. Blackout reached for his waist, grabbing a round metal object, pulling something out of it, and pitched it at the approaching alicorn. The grenade exploded on impact and the force shatterd her shield and pushed her to the ground. "Impossible! What was that?" "Don't be so surprised. It doesn't take one thousand years for ponies to find something other than sticks for weapons." He drew his rifle, aiming it at the Nightmare. It was over, or so he thought. She disapeared into the shadows, splitting into multiple different spots on the ground. Looking behind him, Blackout saw the shadows conjoin into an enormous jet black form of an alicorn. "I've had enough of this!" she shouted, "Your dead." She fadded into a cloud and rushed at the pegasis who could do nothing but stare. The dark mass hit him and smashed him into another wall. This was his chance. Drawing his rifle, Blackout aimed at the evil shadow. He pulled the trigger and multiple rounds hit his target. A loud, un-earthly screech echoed through the entire castle. It attacked again, but Blackout was ready now. The Nightmare tried again and agian to hit him but the pegasis was too fast. He would dodge the entity and use the time to shoot the passing body. The dance between the two continued but now it was much more sporatic. Enraged, the Nightmare expanded and formed a dome around Blackout. The dome compressed, crushing the pony inside. The Nightmare grabbed the injured pegasis and foced him into a wall. Helpless, Blackout could do nothing to stop the Nightmare from beating him into the wall. He struggled and managd to reach his belt. He grabbed a pipe and pulled the pin. He tossed at the Nightmare and the object was consumed by the darkness. The Nightmare pulled its arm back again but something was wrong. A bright flash and loud bang made the dark entity begin to deform. It screeched as the intense light expanded and expeled the darkness. The Nightmare fadded away from the light, letting Blackout fall to the floor. Probably should have thought of that sooner. He picked himself up, he was battered and beaten, but it was over. "You don't get it do you?" a booming voice said, "Darkness cannot be defeated. Light only casts a shadow." This can't be happening. The Nightmare formed in front of Blackout. She was pissed, really pissed. "I was planning on letting you live to serve me, but now I see that you don't deserve something so merciful." she formed a spike out of the shards of her shattered shield "You will die a failure." She forced the spike into Blackout's abdomen, impaling him and pinning him to the wall. The pain was incredible. It burned and stung, but Blackout looked at her with a smile on his face. "What reason do you have to smile?" "I didn't fail." "How? You are almost dead. You didn't kill me." "You were never supposed to die." "What?" "I didn't understand at first but the Princess wanted me to stop you." "But you didn't!" "I did, I stopped you from harming the elements. And by the way, they should be making their way here as we speak." "What do you mean?" "I'm talking about the six mares in the forest, they are the elements. I just had to stall you and weaken you so they could finish the job. You lost." The Nightmare was furrious, tricked by her sister and now the Elements of Harmony are going to finish her off. "Fine, but if I go, you will too." Moving the spike, the Nightmare threw Blackout out of a window, it ovelooked a gorge, the fall would be fatal. It didn't matter though, his job was done. The Nightmare raced to the river, they should be approaching it now. She just needed to stall them, build her energy again. "That should keep them busy." the Nightmare retreated to the chamber after cutting off that serpent's mustache. As she meditated, she used her magic to keep track of the six mares at the river. Minutes passed as the six elements made their way to the bridge. The rainbow maned one is fixing the bridge. It didn't matter, she could just get her to leave them. Despite her temptation, Rainbow Dash fixed the bridge, forcing the Nightmare to hide again. She'll catch one of the ponies by themselves and destroy her. Messy but necessary. It just so happened that the Princess' favorite student was left by herself. Moving towards the Elements, the Nightmare began to envelop them, bringing the purple unicorn with. She brought them to the throne room, there she would destroy the unicorn and the Elements. It was to her surprise when the small mare charged her, but the Nightmare decided to charge back. If she wants to die, why not oblige her? It came as an even bigger surprise when the unicorn teleported to the Elements, she was going to ignite them. The unicorn was close to igniting the Elements, but the Nightmare wouldn't let it happen. She fadded into a cloud and formed a tornado, scaring the unicorn away before she could form a spark. The Nightmare stomped on the ground, shattering the fragile rocks. She won, she is now the ruler of Equestria, or so she thought. The unicorn was united with her group, and the Elements were still functional. How could this be happening? This didn't happen when Celestia harnesed them. It was over, the Elements have been ignited, and the magic generated expeled the Nightmare. Luna was free, and Blackout's sacrifice did not go in vain. "Hey you know what this calls for?" the pink pony blurted out, "A par-" "Wait!" another voice cried out from the window. "I could use a hand here." Blackout was found hanging on a branch. The two pegasis helped him inside, the sight of Blackout's blood almost made the yellow one faint. "Thanks." "Colonel, are you o.k.?" Celestia asked "Colonel?" the six elements asked simultainiously. "Yes, this is Lieutenant Colonel Blackout, I'm sure you've met him before." "What's up?" the black stallion addresed them, "Say do you got anything for...this?" he pointed to the hole in his stomach. "Here, let me help." the purple unicorn asked. Her horn glowed and a bright flash apeared where Blackout was standing. The light faded, showing that Blackout had been reduced to a pile of black goo with eyes. "Opps, sorry." she said sheepishly, "I guess I havn't got the healing spells quite figured out yet." The eyes could only glare at her. "I think I should take this one." Celestia told Twilight. Her horn glowed and another flash of light restored Blackout to his original form. "Thanks." the rest of the day was filled with appologies from Twilight and Luna. The next day a HUGE celebration was thrown. The entire town had banners hanging from the buildings. Celestia had allowed Twilight to live in the city and offered Blackout to stay at the castle. "No! I mean I could stay here." he didn't want to be in Canterlot or the Canterlot Palace. It was too uptight and the guards would never stop talking to him on their down time. "I could arrange for you to be put in a house while your here then." the princess said, probably understanding Blackout's protest. "And maybe you could make some friends here yourself." "Yeah." he said nervously, looking at the six mares behind him. If they don't get me killed first. That's LogisticsIt had only been about a week after the Nightmare incident and Blackout had befriended the Elements of Harmony. He had a new home on the outskirts of town and was doing well to blend in with the crowd. He had just finished repairing the holes in his jacket when he heard a knock on the door. When he opened the door he ended up gazing into a pair of golden eyes, sort of. Niether of them seemed to be looking strait at him. "Hi." "Your that new pony Blackout right?" the wall eyed pegasis asked him. He just nodded. "I've got something for you." she rummaged through her saddle bag to find the letter with his name on it. "Just give me a second." she pleaded as she removed her bags and looked deeper into the messy collection of envelopes. The envelopes started falling out of the bag and a particularly fancy looking one slipped out just as the wind kicked up, bringing the note with it. "Oh no! That one was really important." She watched hopelessly as the letter flew away. "I could get it back for you." Blackout insisted. "Could you please, I'll just leave your note inside." Blackout began to persue the fleeing letter as the blond pegasis returned to her mail route. The flying paper was chased to the Everfree Forest, loosing Blackout in the trees. He needed help, but who would be wandering the Everfree Forest at any time of the day? Reaching for his radio, Blackout called the only pony that would bother listening to the radio 24/7. "Hey Gear, you there?" "Is there anytime that I'm not? What can I do for ya?" "I need you to track a note, it flew into the Everfree Forest." "No can do, I can see you but a piece of paper? That's just not going to happen, sorry." The answer left the pegasis dejected, "But, I can tell you the general direction that it may be in." "Please." there was silence as Gear Head worked to calculate the possible positions. "O.k., look around, do you see any really tall trees?" "Yeah, one." "Great, the note may be in the tree." "Thanks Gear." "What would you do without me?" Blackout flew to the tree and spotted the letter caught in the branches. He reached for it but just about every living thing in the tree scattered when rustled the branches. The nuts on the leaves broke off and birds flew in all directions. The mayhem caused Blackout to loose balance and fall to the forest floor. He laid there for awhile before the sound of low growling made him snap to his feet. A manticore had been hunting in the area and had stopped to make Blackout his meal. Right on cue. The predator circled him, licking his lips at the thought of a nice lean meal. He lunged, pinning the pony to the ground, his jaws opening to bite his prey's neck. Blackout leaned his head back, exposing his neck more, and when the manticore lashed out to bite it, he shot his head forward, headbutting the attacker. His helmet connected with the bridge of the manticore's nose, breaking it. The manticore roared in pain and released Blackout to tend to his nose. Blackout reached for his gun but the creature had already recovered and swiped it out of his hooves. The manticore pounced again and raised its tail. It stabbed at Blackout furiously, each impact lifting dirt. Blackout rolled and dodged clumsily as he tried to regain his footing. Pulling himself to his feet, Blackout took flight, leaving the grounded hunter to find another meal. He had looked back at the tree with the note in it only to watch as the letter was picked up by the wind again and swept away. Why can't it ever be easy? He persued the air mail to Cloudsdale where it was lost in the vast array of pegasi and floating buildings. He couldn't find it, and the locals hadn't been much help either. He would have to search the entire city, and that could take hours. "I'm really sorry I couldn't help you." an orange pegasis said. "No it's o.k., I didn't have plans for the day anyway." he lied. Except for important research, stopping criminals, hunting terrorists. "Maybe you should look in the weather factory, stuff is always being blown in and out of there." Blackout took her advice and headed to the weather factory. He searched the cloud development wing first, then the snowflake building workshop, he even searched the lightning research labs. All hope seemed lost but when he asked a nearby pegasis, he pointed to the chamber where they brew rainbows. Blackout opened the door to see the paper floating in the air, right under a pot that was about to pour liquid rainbow extract all over the delicate paper. Blackout dashed forward and nudged the letter out of the way, leaving him to be covered in multi-colored liquids. "Opps, sorry." the worker who poured the mixture said, "I wasn't paying attention. Here let me help you." The worker brought Blackout to the cloud room and made a fresh rain cloud to clean off the full spectrum mess. Blackout set the letter on a desk and stood under the cloud while the worker bounced on top of it, washing away the rainbow extract. "Thanks." Blackout shook himself dry and looked back at the desk, it was empty. "Where's the letter?" he asked nervously. He looked around, it wasn't in the air, but when he looked below the desk, he saw the letter sinking into the floor. He dove at it but it had already met the outside wind and took off. Blackout dug through the floor of the factory and when he managed to pop his head out of the bottom, he saw the letter flying away from the city. He squirmed his way through the cloud and once again, chased the fleeing letter. The sun was already setting when the letter led Blackout to a mountain range surrounded by thick pine forests. Blackout was led below the tree line and witnessed as the letter entered a particularly large and menacing cave. He followed it through the caverns, using a small penlight for visibility. The letter at last came to rest in a large chamber. "Finally!" Blackout shouted in triumph. His voice echoed through the cave, and a low rumble could be heard. Directing his light toward the sound, Blackout ended up gazing at the biggest, ugliest bear he had ever seen. It had a purple hue to it and stars dotted its body. Great. Two enormous claws smashed on oposite sides of Blackout, it was definitely mad. Blackout spread his wings and bolted for the exit, his penlight held in his teeth. He shot out of the cave mouth which was soon demolished along with the entire side of the mountain when the Ursa emerged. The giant bear chased him through the forest, flattening trees along the way. Blackout turned to confront the massive beast. He flew to the top of its head, dodging the swipes the Ursa made to swat him down. When he reached its head, Blackout slid down its back and pulled out his knife to make a cut down its spine. When he tried to stab it though, it only made a scratch, literaly. It looked like a scratch on glass, it even clinked when the blade hit. As he slowly slid down the Ursa's back, the knife sounding like fingernails on chalkboard, the Ursa stood and proceeded to fall backwards. Blackout was left in a body shaped crater but he wasn't beaten yet. Bursting from the earth, Blackout drew his gun and fired. When the bullets impacted, small powdery glass shards were ejected, like bullet proof glass. There was nothing left to do. The creature was unstopable. The only smart thing to do would be running. Armed with years of highly developed common sense, Blackout charged the monster. The Ursa simply swatted him into a tree, bending it. The tree launched him like a catapult, strait into another tree. From above it would look like a pinball game. Whether he hit a branch just right or it simply being a moment of inspiration, Blackout formed an idea. He used the trees to gain speed, catapulting from one tree to another. He finally hit a noticeably taller tree, bending it down to the forest floor. He could feel the energy stored in the trunk. It practicly shook with anticipation. The bark was starting to snap and then, as if it were a rubber band, snapped back into position. Blackout was shot forward, there was a bright flash and he could hear a boom behind him. He was heading towards the Ursa at incredible speeds and before he knew it, he had smashed into the giant. His helmet was like a bullet, smashing through the glass like skin of the beast. He flew strait through the Ursa, killing it. A purple mist exited its body through the openings in its body, leaving a hollow and dark shell behind. Blackout shot away from the flattend forest at break-neck speeds. He couldn't believe it, he finally performed a rainboom. A bright, vibrant, multi-color trailed behind him as he rocketed across the night sky. The wind was deafening and his sight was impared slightly by the wind and the thin rainbow aurora forming a halo in his sight. But, how do I stop? He thought. He didn't know how, the only pony he knew who could pull this off was on the other side of Equestria. After putting extensive thought into it, Blackout angled his wings up as if he was slowing down normaly. He could feel a flash of air hit his feathers as he snapped into a nose dive heading to the trees bellow. He rolled and dodged through the forest, somehow gaining an amazing boost of agility and reaction. From above it looked like an extremely jagged bolt of lightning shooting through the forest. Blackout burst from the canopy after finding a small opening in the branches. There were leaves rustling from the brim of his helmet, blocking his view and cousing him to fly strait into a cliff. Dust and dirt covered the scene as chunks of rock exploded from the mountain side. Blackout was left imbedded in the rock. Well, I stopped. He shuffled his way out of the crater and flapped his wings, causing a spark of pain to shoot through his entire back. He fell to the forest floor with a thump. He's walking home tonight. As he entered the outskirts of Ponyville, beaten and dejected, he looked at the houses dotting the landscape. They were filled with ponies who were happy, laughing, and protected by a warm home. "Wait, that's my home!" there were ponies in his home, and worse they were partying. Blackout sprinted to the door, threw it open, and jumped through the threshold. "Party's over jackass!" the room was filled with six shocked mares and a now sad looking mule. "Wow, way to be harsh." Rainbow Dash said as the mule left the house, "Where were you anyway?" "I was chasing this." Blackout said, pulling out the note. "Huh, its to me." he opened it and read. Dear Blackout, I have sent this note to mark the importance of the mail run for today, please be sure to read the other one I've sent you. Your friend, Princess Celestia "You o.k.?" Applejack asked. Blackout had a blank stare on his face. "Excuse me for a second." He said before stepping down stairs. The six mares look at each other as the room is filled with an awkward silence. They all jumped as the sound of explosions and cursing boomed from downstairs. Blackout emerged with bits of singed paper on his shoulder. "Sorry about that, now what are you guys doing here?" Blackout asked. "Well, we just got tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and I had the idea of celebrating it here, you know since you sealed off the doors the last time we tried to throw a party here." Rainbow said. "So, you in?" she asked before realizing that the six of them were outside, door shut and lights off. "Goodnight." they could hear from inside. Blackout blew out a candle, only for his breath to catch the note from this morning and send out a window. Nature WalkThe room was illuminated in sunlight and left streaks of yellow across the floor. Outside, a pony's sight would be met with bright green and explosions of color from the flowers dotting the landscape. "Fresh start." Blackout whispered to himself. He readied for the day before plopping himself in his dinning room chair. Now what? He tried to think about the day ahead of him, but he couldn't. He could hang out with Dash, but she probably hates him. Fluttershy is terrified of him, Twilight is kind of boring, Applejack is always busy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are out of the question. "What do you think I should do?" Blackout questioned the pony he was walking with down a back alley. "Why are you telling me this?" the worried pony asked. "I mean, what if I just sit at my house and do nothing?" the pony beside him didn't answer. "I could get fat, or go crazy..." he paused, "what if I like blew up Ponyville?" "Why are you following me, I don't even know you!" the colt ran off leaving Blackout behind, who was thinking of what to do next. "Hey take a hike!" the owner of a shop yelled. "Good idea!" he exclaimed, "thanks friend." The shop owner rolled his eyes and continued as the pegasis headed for the woods. White Tail Woods was empty and relatively bright for a gloomy cursed forest. Blackout observed his surroundings and for once could enjoy nature without having something attacking him. Beams of light would pierce the canopy and create pools of white on the ground. The only sound was the clop of hoof and dirt and the animals carrying on with their normal lives. The world was at peace and harmony. The air was fresh and crisp, it also had a thin scent to it. It was a clean smell, like vapor from a river. Blackout tried to identify the smell, walking closer to the source. A twig snapped under his hoof, then a crack that echoed through the forest. Blackout snapped his eyes open, a horrible burning pain could be felt on the back of his head. A branch fell, strange. Disoriented, Blackout headed forward. Finally regaining some sense, he began to tread lightly. It didn't work, he felt a rope tighten around his ankle and a sudden yank sent him into the air. He hung there, a bit mad but calm. He studied the knot that held him up, it was horribly done and actually undid itself after shaking it. He fell to the ground, pulled himself up and kept walking. But again, he fell into a trap. A wisp could be heard. A bolas cut through the air and headed towards Blackout like a missile. The rope wrapped around his head and the ball smashed into his face. He fell to the floor lifelessly. "Ugh..." Blackout groaned in pained awakening. "I am... upside down." "Well lookie here, we got ourselves a genius." a sarcastic voice called with a thick "Outback" accent. "You sure got him boss." a young, unintelligible voice called out. The character moved to Blackout and did his best to stare menacingly at him. "Your not getting out of this trap." "That's 'cuz I made it ya idiot" the other chastised. "What's going on?" Blackout questioned. "You, my friend, are now my prisoner." a tall, thin, and tan pony said. He wore a vest with forest patterns on it and a boonie hat. "Yeah, so don't try to escape." the second captor added. He was a griffin, stout with broad shoulders and a stupid, arrogant look on his face. "Well, I've been in this situation a few times already." Blackout said, "This is normally the part were you tell me your name and plan." He looked at his captors expectantly. "Too bad for you I ain't one of the idiotic peons who do interrogation work..." he looked back at the griffin, "well, he is but I'm in charge." "But ya have admit, you want to tell me right?" Blackout asked with a friendly smile. "We captured you for General Vict-OW!" the griffin yelped in pain as a hoof slapped the back of his head. "Shut up ya idiot!" the leader hissed. "Who's Victor?" Blackout questioned. "Well now that the extra pay of anonymous client is gone, I might as well spill the beans. Victor is a gargoyle, ugly fella, said he met you on one occasion back about three months ago." "Oh, he's a general now?" Blackout looked around the area for something to use. "Major General." "You might as well tell me you and your partner's name." Blackout came up with questions to stall him. "That dipstick is not my partner. I'm Crock. He's... Joey." He sighed. "Joey?" "Yeah, not much intimidation but he follows orders." "All of your orders?" He said while eyeing a knife next to a campfire. "To some extent." "Well I hope he tied me up well." Blackout grunted in effort as he swung over to the knife when he felt himself fall. He picked himself up only to be caught in a net that fell from the trees. "No, he didn't, which is why I put in a few more countermeasures." "And how many would that be?" Blackout said while looking at the multiple traps perched in the branches above. "More than I can remember, and enough to keep you pinned for a week." Blackout examined the tree that housed the net trap he is in. It has multiple other traps, enough to bring down a full grown dragon. A few groans of strain could be heard from the trunk, it was ready to come down. That's convenient. Blackout wrapped his hooves around the rope suspending the net and yanked it towards him. The tree groaned and cracked as the overwhelming stress caused it to collapse. Underneath the chaos, Blackout struggled to lift and free himself from the net. Lifting the rock pinning a corner to the ground, Blackout scuttled away from the tree and his captor. He hurried to grab his gear and flee the area before he gets caught again. "In a while crocodile-OW!" Blackout's taunt was interrupted when his lips met the ground, effectively shutting him up. He glances around in a slight panic, noticing what looks like a giant eagle heading strait for him. Blackout scrambles to get up, finding his hooves and putting them in motion. Stop taunting and watch where you're going. He turns to see the underling almost literally on his tail. Wait. I can fly!With a liberating realization, a pair of pitch black wigs expanded and pushed its owner skywards. "Yeah, you better run, and don't come back!" the witless griffon shouted. He returned to his employer with a smug grin. "No need to thank me boss, I just like making you happy." "You were on his tail..." "I sure was." "and you let him go." "I got him away from our camp." SMACK "ARE YOU CRAZY!" the mercenary lashed out and struck his lackey across the face, which sported a hoof print. "We were trying to keep him here, not chase him away." "Sorry boss." the griffon said while rubbing his cheek. "Pack-up camp, and leave the traps." the hunter ordered, "I'm not letting that seppo give me the flick just yet." Blackout landed in front of Sugar Cube Corner, spotting a griffon storming out. He instinctively placed his hoof on the gun around his waist. A hesitation was felt and questions were asked; did they follow him? Should he even worry about the griffon? "Move it dweeb!" the griffon brushed him off. "Jerk." he mumbled before sighing in relief. He looked at the bakery and noticed that there is a larger amount of decorations than normal, and a lot more sound. Blackout sighed again and stepped forward to the door. I'm really sorry for the massive amount of time I've been gone. For those of you who still read my series, thanks, and I'm am not expecting any more periods of absence so this hopefully won't happen again. Equanimity"Ha, I knew you were a softy!" The brightly colored pony said while wrapping a hoof around the much larger, darker pony. "I'm not that sorry." The other pony said with a grin before getting punched in the shoulder, which only makes him laugh. "Aww, you two look so cute together." Applejack teased. Rainbow Dash quickly shoved Blackout away. "What's this about anyway?" Twilight asked. "I was apologizing for yelling at her yesterday." Blackout rubbed his head, "I thought I was a bit too harsh so I took time to clear my head and..." He trailed off, remembering the encounter that happened just minuets ago. "Hello? Cleared your head and?" Pinkie had her head cocked and looked quizzically at him. Blackout's look became hard as he stood. "I need to go." Blackout left the building full of confused ponies and took to the skies. He arrived at his house and went strait to his basement, there stood a large screen behind a table. On the table rests a red phone with no buttons. Blackout grabbed the handset and waited. "Sir, unless you lost a WMD, please refrain from using the crisis network." A low, expectant voice answered. "Just put her on." Blackout demanded. He waited in silence. "What did you do?" A feminine, yet harsh voice replaced the other. Celestia knew that Blackout wouldn't dare touch the red phone to stop a bomb from destroying everying he owns. This must be bad. "I have evidence of gargoyle activity in the kingdom. I found that they have hired an independant contractor to hunt down the RE. It may be possible that they have inactive cells here. Recomend proceeding defence readiness to level three and using condition bravo protocols." "You are sure of this?" The question was rhetorical. "Yes." "Then I'll need to prepare. Your mission has not changed, and it is about to get harder." "Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived?" the blue unicorn questioned. "This is the test?" Blackout questioned aloud. He was perched on a hill, laying prone with a barrel trained on the unicorn. "A stupid show pony? Celestia must be loosing her touch." "Remember that I'm monitoring you until the test is complete, so choose your words wisely." his radio piped up. "Yes, master." he teased. "So please, tell me why I have a rifle pointed at this pony's head." "This is not just to test one of the Elements, but to test one of your less prominent attributes. I've found out that this unicorn has been traveling to big cities and popular towns. The Nightmare incident put Ponyville on the map." "So she came here to have ponies shower her with money or praise?" "A bit of both." "So what does it teach me? Modesty?" "Just wait." Celestia chimed. "But why?" he whined. She never answered, causing Blackout to sigh in boredom. His massive scope started clicking and buzzing. It housed a microphone that doubles the scope's size but can pick up whispers through a brick wall. Blackout fiddled with it until it became silent. He put his cheek on the stock of his rifle and peeked through his special scope. "Ha! Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie has proven herself to be the most amazing unicorn in all of Equestria. Huh, was there ever any doubt?" "Wow," Blackout said, observing the upset the unicorn has stirred in the crowd. "maybe they will need my help." He watched the audience disperse and return to their regular day. He watched the blue unicorn pack up her set before sending two small foals off. "Blackout?" a voice called. Holy crap! Who could possibly... "Hey there you are!" Rainbow Dash ran up the hill Blackout was positioned on. "What is that?" she pointed to his large rifle. "Nothing." he said, pulling out a small canister. "Sorry Dash." he tossed the canister at her feet. "Sorry for wha-..." a gas was expelled from the can as Dash fell to the floor. "Ugh, hey what happened?" the mare moaned. "You ran up here so fast I think you fainted." "Really? I must be getting out of shape." Dash retorted. Blackout noticed the can was still were he threw it. "So..." he stalled, kicking away the canister, "how'd you know I'd be here?" "Pinkie" they both said. "Creepy." Blackout mumbled. "Anyway, I came to tell you about this unico-" "Trixie?" "How'd you, never mind, could..." "No I will not." "But..." "No" "I thought you said you'd be more fun." she pouted. She lifted her head to see that it had become dark. "How long was I out?" "A while. like I said, you were running fast." "Well, now what?" "We could..." ROARRRR "You want us to roar?" "That wasn't me." he looked to find a massive blue bear stomp its way into Ponyville. "Is... is that an... ursa major?" Dash quivered at the sight. "It's back?" "What do mean 'it's back'" "No, no wait, that's a minor." "Okay, slow down, what are you talking about?" Dash confronted him directly. "Well you see, I kind of, you know, killed a major." he blushed, knowing that it sounded like a lie, and that the Ursa race was endangered. "Doing what?" "Chasing a letter." he looked towards the town, screams echoing through it. "You need to go, help in any way you can, I'll stay here and try and remember how to stop it I guess?" She took the hint and with a nod, she left. He had regrets though, the sight of danger to his new home made him antsy. Okay, who's going to stop it? he thought to himself. Blackout raised his rifle, but a sharp sound buzzed through his ear bud. "Ow! What the hell?" he realized who was causing the whine instantly. "What you want me to do, wait and watch Ponyville get destroyed?" A ding could be heard through the speaker. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" another ding. Blackout bit his lip and watched the monstrous animal trample buildings and terrorize the ponies below, his rifle still in hoof. The rampage continued until his lip bled. "Okay!" Blackout shouted. "You win." he threw his weapon down in shame. "Now watch." A sweet, regal voice chirped. Blackout looked to see Twilight, her horn glowing. He started to notice a faint and slightly familiar lullaby in the background as the wind picked up. He watched in awe as the unicorn basically mothered the mythical beast and sent it back to the forest. "Good things come when your patient. You must have equanimity." "What the hell does that even mean?" "Wait, and I'll tell you." Damn it! Broken Hearts and Aching HoovesBlackout groaned as he awakened to the sound of a hoof knocking on his door. His vision darkened and blurred as he got out of bed and stumbled to the door. "Geez, is normal for ponies to visit ten times a day here?" he mumbled to himself as he opened the door. "Hey Blackout." Rainbow Dash said in a cheery voice. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, can't a friend come over to visit?" "Dash, it's like, five o'clock, nobody goes to just visit at five o'clock." Blackout said bitterly. "Why are you acting like there's a spur in your side?" Dash asked in an offended tone. "Well not only is it morning and I hate mornings," he said, making it obvious that he was annoyed, "but it's also because of this stupid day." "What's wrong with Hearts and Hooves Day?" a look of concern and confusion on her face. "Pfft, more like Broken Hearts and Aching Hooves Day." "What do you mean?" "What I'm saying is that more hearts are broken on this day, and the aching hooves is from coltfriends running back and forth to find something nice. It's a waste of time and a stupid holiday." "Oh come on, it can't be that bad, can it?" "Yeah, it is. Trust me, I know from experience." "Oh," Dash said sadly, keeping the small gift she had for him hidden. "Well what are you gonna do now?" "Well," he lightened up when the subject changed, "I was planning on working on a new compound." "A new what?" "Compound, like a mixture." "Oh, well what's it supposed to do?" "Follow me, I'll show you." he gestured for her to enter, walking down the stairs to his basement. Dash left the gift on a table and followed him down. In the basement there was an assortment of wires and machines that looked even more high-tech than Twilight's. "Woah, how did you-" "Celestia had it sent here." he said flatly as he fiddled with a rack of test tubes. "Ah, here it is." He held up a tube with a clear liquid in it. "What is it?" she cocked an eyebrow when he held it in front of her "Hopefully, the last ingredient to a new gas." "Gas?" "Yeah, a non-lethal gas that, when inhaled, impares the thought process by blocking most of the nerve signals sent to and from the brain." he explained while tediously pouring the liquid into a beaker with a yellowish liquid. "Umm, in English please?" "It makes people dumb so you can handle them easier." "Oh. So it could help with crowd control or something?" "Exactly." he let another drop fall into the mixture before setting it on the lab table. Boom The beaker exploded and the solution turned into a thick grey smoke and filled the entire room. Blackout blocked his nose and was waving away the smoke. "Dash!" he coughed. "Whatever you do, cough,don't inhale the-" he looked up to see Dash stumble around and fall, "smoke." Blackout searched for the lever that controlled the ventilation. He pulled it down and the room rumbled as fans sucked the smoke out of the room. Blackout walked over to Rainbow, who was laying on the ground with a dumb look on her face. "Great." he gumbled to himself. Rainbow lazily pulled herself up and threw her arm on Blackout's shoulder. "Why are you always so grumpy?" she giggled. "You'd be a lot more fun if you didn't have that pole up your butt." "Happy Hearts and Hooves Day." he sarcastically sighed to himself. "Come on Dash, we need to get you home." "But why?" she said in a pleading tone. "To tie you to your bed so you don't do anything stupid." Blackout dragged her out of his house. "Ooh, kinky." her response made Blackout facehoof. "Why couldn't it have just knocked her out?" he groaned under his breath. Blackout flew to Rainbow's cloud mansion with Dash drapped over is shoulder, who was whistling a random tune. Blackout flew strait to the window of her room, dropped her on her bed, and tied her to it with the rope he had wrapped around his arm. After tying the last knot, and listening to Dash's perverted comments, he sat at the edge of the cloud house, deep in thought. Back in Rainbow's room, Dash was struggling to break free. She started to kick apart the cloud bed until she could slither out from under the ropes. She moved to the window overlooking the edge Blackout was sitting on. A mischievous look crept on her face as she climbed onto the window pane. She jumped and tackled Blackout off the house. "Dash what the hell!" Blackout screamed at her. "Tag, your it!" Dash pushed him away and flew off in a random direction. "Damn it Dash!" Blackout shouted as her tailed her. She was fast, almost too fast for him. It only made it harder with the bright rainbow she made was somehow getting in his eyes. Dash led Blackout throughout the entire town and even through parts of the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash fled to Fluttershy's house and burst through the door, startling the animals and the shy pony inside "Oh my, what are you doing here Rainbow?" the timid pegasis whispered. "You gotta hide me, quickly!" she said between pants. "Why? What's going on?" "He's after me! You gotta-" but her pursuer had cought up and tackled her into the home. They rolled and tumbled to the middle of the room. The pair came out of the roll with Dash on top, pinning Blackout to the ground. She lowerd her head to meet her lips with his. Blackout's eyes widened as Rainbow Dash kissed him, and grew even wider as she slipped her tounge in his mouth. Dash opened her eyes as the effect of the gas wore off and she realized what she was doing. She immediately let go of him, broke the kiss, and yanked her head back. Blackout shoved her off and turned over, spitting and whipping his tounge off with his hooves. Fluttershy was still at the door, shocked at the scene. "Oh my gosh!" Dash apologized, now thinking clearly, "I'm so sorry!" "Ugh! Fuck this holiday." his language caused the two mares to visibly cringe. "W-what's wrong with Hearts and Hoov-" "You wanna know what's wrong?" the angry stallion hissed at the yellow pegasis. The room was filled with an awkward silence and the two mares displayed looks of confusion and sorrow. It was a dark night and Blackout had called his team for the raid. He was working with the other Aces and a special forces unit called the Specters. They weren't as experienced as the Aces but had done plenty of missions in the past and is actually older than the Aces. Their team leader was a stallion named Thistle, he was green with a purple mane and pegasis like most who served in the military. His first lieutenant was a beautiful mare named Rosemary. Her color was the inverse of Thistle, her fur was purple and her mane was green. The mission was simple, there were two buildings, Aces infiltrate one, and the Specters enter the other. A quick in and out mission, well more like in, kill whoever resists, find anything useful, blow the building up, then out. This was the fourth mission the two teams did together, and in those missions Blackout had developed a sort of something with Rosemary. The others always teased him about it and Blackout always denied it, but how could he? It all added up, he loved her, she probably loved him, and seeing how Hearts and Hooves Day is literaly less than an hour away, he would admit it to her. Though when he thought about it, getting cheesy after a raid would be kinda wierd, but war was wierd like that. Blackout's team lined the wall next to the door of one building and Thistle's team did the same on the other building. A small explosive charge that was supposed to blow the door's hinges had been placed and the fuse was lit. Half of the door was sent to splinters and flew into the building. Blackout moved in, drawing his 1911 and sent three rounds into the gargoyle at the center of the room. Spurts of blood were sent from his chest and he fell lifelessly to the marble floor. Blackout noticed a barrel over his shoulder. Mig was right behind him and dropped two more. The weapons were silenced but the sound still reverberated throughout the foyer of the building. It was well lit and looked like a mall, with an empty ceiling and levels of walkways that hugged the walls. Gear Head moved into the building. "Specters are in." he reported. "Good, tell them to wire the place to blow, then move to target." the Colonel ordered. The target, or targets, were a group of high ranking officers that were meeting in one of the buildings. Blowing them up just served the purpose of giving the gargoyles a hard time. The three proceeded to the center of the foyer were a four-way intersection was made by the tall halls. Gear placed a large amount of explosive material on the floor. "Which room was it?" Mig asked, looking at the rows of doors. "All we could find out is that the meeting rooms would be on that side." Gear replied, pointing to the left. The group moved through the hall, killing a gargoyle that stepped out of a room on the way. The searched the levels for any indicator of a meeting room. "Found it." Blackout called back to his team members. Mig flew up to the third floor and stood in front of the double doors, a sign reading "Meeting Room" in gold letters above it. Gear Head scaled the glass window next to it and joined the two pegasi. He reached in his array of packs, electronics, and wires to pull out a hoof-held screen. He plugged a small camera in it and slipped it under the door. The screen displayed a large room with a big wooden table, a window behind it, and nicely dressed gargoyles sitting in fancy chairs. "That's them in there." Gear Head said quietly. He stood up and pulled out what looked like a lock pick. He wiggled the object into the lock and pulled the end of it off. Seconds later it exploded with a pop and the three rammed through the doors. They all raised their rifles to hip level and mowed down the occupants before they could react. Thunder clapped as the last officer fell to the ground. Blackout walked over to the table and picked up a folder holding what could be very important documents. Mig was checking the bodies and Gear had set up explosives on the walls. BOOM The three fell to the blood stained floor when the other building suddenly burst apart. When they pulled themselves up, groups of gargoyles burst out of the doors. "Gear! Blow it!" Blackout ordered. Gear Head pushed the button of his detonator and the foyer was engulfed in flames. They closed the door in time before the napalm could reach them. Blackout ran to the window to see gargoyle officers flying away from the burning building adjacent to the one he was in. The roof was missing and several injured ponies were sprawled across the meeting room. On the ground near the window of the burning building laid a purple and green mare. His heart sunk as the impact of the situation fell upon him. He hated loosing soldiers, but this was completely different. Blackout burst through the window, small shards cutting his exposed flesh. He landed and sprinted through the mud to Rosemary, she was covered in blood and was burnt. Blackout keeled down to cradle her. Her body was cold and lifeless, her purple eyes didn't blink. He couldn't believe it, she died, just like that. No teary eyed confessions or heart felt feelings shared, just cold and silent death. Gear Head looked at his watch. 12:00 "Shit." he whispered to himself, looking at the gloomy scene below. Rainbow was teary eyed and Fluttershy was sobbing lightly, Blackout just sat there, glaring at the ground. He suddenly got up and left, leaving the two mares behind. He walked through the rain to his house, thinking about what had happened. Love sucks. He mused. But Rainbow's right, I can't keep acting like a jerk because of it. He sighed as he approached his door. He stepped inside and noticed a card with hearts on it. He opened it and read. Dear Blackout, I know you aren't the angry and bitter pony people say you are. I wish you wouldn't act like it though. You would be a lot more fun if you just lightened up. Even if something happened to you in the past, it'd be best to just let it go. I guess what I'm trying to say is, could you come by and hang out sometime, I think it will really help. Your friend, Rainbow Dash Blackout folded it and placed the card in his vest pocket. Happy Hearts and Hooves Day.
ArrivalFunny how scenery can calm everything. It wasn't long ago that the pilot of the first rocket in Equestria was plummeting to the ground in a big metal can. He climed out of the ship and took in the serene landscape. It was dimly lit but enough to give it a relaxed feel, not creepy. The only thing is that he was standing on a multi-million bit wreck and a wide eyed mare that looks like she is about to have a heart attack. Twilight Sparkle was her name and was carrying a baby dragon on her back. Hmm, this must Twilight. The pilot of the machine, or at least it was a machine, mused to himself. The mare was paralized in shock from the large contraption smashing into the earth and then what looks like a biped pony bust himself out of it. She could not see his face due to the protective gold film on his helmet's visor. The pilot procceded to grab his head and twist it. Come on, how do you get this stupid thing off? With enough figiting, the helmet's seal opened and steam rushed out of his helmet, startling the mare even further. He sliped off the helmet as the steam caused by rentry floated to the clouds. "Wow its cold out here, or I'm hotter than I think." The stalion said to himself. "Hey whats up?" "A-are y-you talking to me?" The purple pony asked. "Well your the only one here right?" "Umm, I guess. What just happened?" "Oh, uhh..." the pilot's mind raced to find a good excuse for almost pounding this mare into the ground with a rocket. His calm expression turned serious and he shot a threatening glare at the mare. "Listen, this never happened, what you just saw, you can't tell anypony. Got it!" The mare was taken back by the command but decided to listen, this pony just fell out of the sky and threated her, she just wanted to get out of there. "G-got it!" "And quit shaking, somepony's gonna think your sick or something." with that, she ran off like a bolt of lightning. After about two minutes a voice came on the lone stalion's radio. "Oh by the way Blackout. I forgot to tell you to get everything out of the pod as fast as you can, it's set to self-destruct in oh I'd say thirty seconds." "Wait, what?" "Get everything out of the pod before it goes up in flames, you have twenty five seconds and counting. GO!" Damn it Gear Head. Blackout made his way to retrieve his duffle bag. "Ten seconds laddie." Gear Head warned. With his gear in hoof, he climed out of the ship and ran, not even bothering to get behing something, he just whent full Forest and Gumped it. It wasn't long before that all too familiar sound rung in his ears. They rung for a while and when it cleard up, he heard that voice on the radio again. "Hey Blackout, your still alive right?" "That's a rhetorical question right?" "What do ya mean by that?" "You sound like you were expecting me to die!" "I know how attached to that helmet you are." "Well I'm alive, anythin going on over there?" "Ah yes, about that." Gear Head said nervously "What?" "The helicarrier is in the shop." "Why?" Blackout responded, anger in his voice. "I may have forgotten to oil the rottors and..." "It crashed into the ground!" Blackout said furiously "Well crash is such a strong word for the situation. I would use forcefuly met the ground." Blackout went on a rant of anger that the biggest machine, that flew, had been destroyed due to its creator not oiling it. "Don't worry, it's being repaired, but it may take a while." "How long?" "Two months." "Two months!" "I know it's such a short time." "No, it's too long." "Hey two months is pushing the envelope, we can try and hurry but thats the current ETA." "ETA?" "Oh yeah, I forget to tell you, the princess wants us to come to the Grand Galloping Gala this year. We just figured it'd be best to just pick you up, and you stay there." "What do you expect me to do, find a house here?" "Umm, yes." "Fine, its better that walking across Equestria." "Alright then, it's settled, you find a house, and probably a job, and we fix this and meet up at the Gala." "Sure, whatever." "Ok, later B." "Later Gear." Angry and overwhelmed, Blackout made his along the path the purple mare went down. He became surrounded by apple trees and further down the road he saw a small farm, with a countless number of ponies gathered around. This can't realy be Ponyville can it? As he made his way down the dirt trail he noticed an arch with an apple sign hanging from it. In the middle of the crowd was the purple mare from before being overwhelmed by apple based foods. He decided to keep his distance from the farm, he didn't want to get caught up this, too. After the small pony had eaten the large selection of apple goods she left the farm. Dang, she eats more than I do. She was heading back the path he was on. Oh crap. Looking around he saw nothing close enough to hide behind. Though no longer in his space suit, he could still be recognized. Dropping to all fours he stood were he was and made sure the mare didn't see his face. She passed right by without giving him a passing glance. Well that was easy he thought. Maby this time she's heading towards the town. He followed up another path that led to a small town of wood buildings. He was looking around when he noticed somethinig smash into the purple mare. It was a cyan pegasis with a rainbow mane. He watched thier mouths and found that her name was Rainbow Dash, who wanted to join the Wonderbolts. Oh please, not those amatures. But one thing caught his attention, her wager bettinig she could clear out the entire sky in ten seconds flat. He didn't believe it but what happened next came as a complete surprise. "She actually did it." "Come again B?" Gear Head asked from the radio on Blackout's chest "Gear Head, I think I may have found the fourth one."
Overtly Friendly Neighbors"Are you sure? We gave up finding the fourth two years ago." "Well not entirely, she talks big but I'm not sure she can live up to everything." "Tell me how it goes then." Blackout understood Gear Heads' scepticism. When the Royal Elite was made it was him, then Mig, then Gear. He still promised to add to the team but it never happened. Talk whent on in the military that the Aces needed an ace of hearts but they managed fine with only three. Maybe they don't need a fourth, but it would be nice. Mayhem is no doubt about to kick in again and a fourth could lighten the load. As much as he wanted to bring her in, he was forced to push it to the back of his mind, he had a job to do. "OH MY GOSH, ITS YOU!" Blackout was snapped out of his train of thought when the blue pegasis practicly showed him to all of Ponyville. "You must have me mistaken for somepony else." Blackout responded nervously. If I'm found, this will only end in disaster. "No, it's most certainly you, what are you doing here?" she gasped as if she just had an epiphany. "Are you on a secret missio..." Blackout quickly shoved his hoof into her mouth and shook his head franticly. "Sorry." Seeing how interested she was, Blackout decided to answer her questions, if she know about him then why hide it? "If you take me somewhere quiet, then we can talk." "Right." she said as she turned around and jumped into the air. Rainbow led him to her cloud house. Landing on it, Blackout seemed uneasy. "What's wrong?" "Its been a long time since I've stepped on a cloud. Nevermind that though, how do you know who I am?" "Oh, that." she said with a blush, realizing how creepy she must have appeard to him. "I found out from a Wonderbolt." The explenation caused Blackout to groan loudly. "Spitfire told you didn't she?" "How do you know?" "She was my best friend in high school. We went together like peanut butter and jelly. So wait, how did you get Spitfire to talk about me?" "Well it was at one of thier showes." The show was spectacular, the Wonderbolts just pulled off thier last stunt and did a lap around the arena above the crowd. "HEY SPITFIRE!" Rainbow Dash shouted past the cheering croud. Feeling generous about another successful show, Spitfire decided to flatter the ecstatic mare. "Oh my gosh." the trembling fan whispered before she tried to regain composure. "It would be totaly awsome if I could have your autograph, I'm your biggest fan by the way." she said, attempting to find good reasons to say yes. She had been trying to get her to sign something, a shirt, a picture, a piece of paper, anything that she could take home and keep forever. "Sure, why not? Got a picture or a book?" Oh no! The one day she finaly comes down to sign something, and Dash has nothing. "Oh, I don't realy have anything right now." "Thats alright, I've got something. This picture realy means something to me so make sure you keep it safe ok." Spitfire handed over a signed picture of her, Soarin', and another pony. Rainbow didn't know who it was, he was big, dark, and by the looks of it, a realy good friend of the two. Another thing was the picture looked dated, and the trio looked young, foals almost. "But wait, who is this?" Rainbow shouted but Spitfire had already regrouped with the rest of the team and were out of ear shot. "So wait, she never told you anything about me." "I'm getting to that." Dash said, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "I had found out that she would be at a convention and would be taking questions so I went there and asked about the photo." "Oh hey, I remember you. You still have that photo right?" "Actually, I wanted to ask you about it. Who's the dark guy next to you in this?" The question brought a smile to Spitfire's face. "That would be Blackout, he was my best friend in high school. Follow me, I'll tell you more somewhere else" She said as she finished signing a poster of herself. She led Rainbow Dash to an empty room "Why did we come here?" "Blackout would be pretty mad if anypony he can't trust found out about him. This room should be safe from prying ears and eyes. You see, Blackout isn't like you and me, he's in the military." "So he's like a guard?" "Not at all. When Soarin' and I became friends with him, we all promised to become Wonderbolts, but for some reason, he joined the military. Said showing off in front of big crouds wasn't his calling. Not to long after he joined, he wrote a letter, said he became a Royal Elite." "What's that." "From what he tells me, its a small group of ponies that can survive just about anything. Said it was perfect for him, blowing things up and fighting anything that posed a threat to Equestria." "Aww man, I knew I shouldn't have told her!" "What?" Dash said, confused at the sudden outburst. "That information is top secret, but since you know, I might as well tell the rest of the story." He couldn't explain why, but the mare in front of him seemed so trust worthy. As if he could tell her all of his secrets, and she wouldn't sell them for one million bits. "The reason why they created the Royal Elite was to hunt and kill anything that had to do with the enemy. If the princess wants it gone, then we destroy it." "But I thought that." "Equestria was at peace, and any rising threat is put down by show of force and speeches? I'm affraid not, thats why its a secret." "Then what are you doing here?" he could hear worry in her voice. "I know I'm going to regret this but, I was sent here by orders of the princess to..." "Hey Dashie, who you talking too?" a pink mare popped her head out of the cloud floor, causing both pegasis to cry in fear. "How the?" Blackout was cut off when the pink pony gasped loudly and dissapeared from under the floor. "What just happened?" "Pinkie Pie just happened, if I were you, I'd hide." "Why?" "She does that to every new pony, and then throws a party for them." "Aww crap, how do I avoid her?" "I've never found a way to, just keep running, or talk to her if you can." "I'll try." Leaving the cloud house, Blackout seeks out the pink pony. If I were a mare and was excited all the time, where would I be? Something caught his attention, a decorated building that looked way over the top to be normal. Landing in front of the building, Blackout knocked on the door. "The door is open darling." a pony announced from inside. The interior was decorated with streamers and a white pony was setting up banners on a podium. "Is there something you need of me?" the mare asked as she turned around. "Oh my, what are you wearing?!" the pony exclaimed. "Uhh." Blackout looked down at himself, he was in his black OTV (Outer Tactical Vest) and had his M1 helmet on, "What's wrong with it?" "It looks like your going to war!" she shouted in disgust. Granted, the military vest wasn't subtle, but then again, not very many people have seen an Army uniform. "Why you simply must come with me, we need to get you out of that costume." Oh how little did she know, that was no costume, and he wasn't a random civilian, or a stylist. "I hardly think its necessary to hey what are you doing? OW!" Without warning, Rarity pushed the stallion against a wall and forced him to his full height and measured him. "Well you are a sight taller than any other costomer I've had, so I must make a special fit suit for you." "That's o.k. I don't really need this." "Well of course you do darling! Someone of your stature and lovely facade should always look thier best." she said as she finished measuring him. It wasn't really the aggressive measuring that worried Blackout though. Lovely facade? Ohh... "Stay here, I'll be back with your suit." the mare chirped as she left the room. Wide eyed with terror, Blackout looked for the exit. Why are there so many fancy doors here? After a few moments of trial and error, Blackout found the exit and rushed out of the building as fast a he could. "Whew!" he sighed, "Hope she wasn't saying what I thought she said." There was something about him, his family really, that always made a pony act that way, and it was creepy. Though flying away from the mare did seem incredibly rude, he didn't know what else to do. That didn't happen to him since high school. "Well at least its over." but before he could let out another sigh of relief he ended smashing into a small tree, breaking it and scaring away the birds perched on top of it. "Oh my, are you o.k.?" a soft voice whispered to Blackout. "Just fine." he replied bitterly, causing the yellow pony to recoil. She was small and hid behind her mane. "Hey have you seen a pink mare around here?" "You mean Pinkie Pie? She just invited me to a party for a newcomer." That's it, he was compromised and hiding was his only option. Blackout spread his wings and took off before the pegasis could squeak out another word. The only place that he could think to stay was the farm he saw earlier today. Secluded and the owners seem hospitable. The sun began to set as Blackout made his way to the farm in the distance.
An Uninvited Guest"Umm, hello?" Blackout called into the empty barn. "Anypony home?" He knocked every door but nothing would respond. He tried the house, nothing. The fields were empty, nopony was attending the animals, and not a soul was found in the massive orchard. Giving up Blackout decided to just sleep on one of the many trees surrounding the farm. They wouldn't mind right? There are tons of them anyway. Finding a solid branch to sleep on, Blackout landed on the tree. He thought of his mission, was this Nightmare thing really going to bring eternal night? Why isn't Celestia doing anything about it? Why send a lone pegasis to do the job? How could he stop something made of pure dark magic, and to top it off, it possessed an alicorn that was Celestia's sister, and she doesn't want him to simply kill her. In fact, Celestia's student is supposed to stop the Nightmare. The purple mare who did nothing but read is supposed to stop an all-powerful evil being. There must be a catch. Celestia always makes plans that sound ridiculous but somehow work in the end. Without knowing it, Blackout slowly drifted to sleep as he thought about these questions. "Why do pegasis always sleep in mah' trees?" a mare with a southern accent spoke obviously annoyed. She kicked the tree, causing the pegasis to fall out of it. "You could have just said please." Blackout groaned. "Ah thought ah made it clear when ah told the pegasis not to sleep in mah trees." she scolded. "How should I know, I'm not from here." Blackout retorted, trying to adjust his helmet which was covering his eyes. Pushing the rim of the helmet above his eyes, he caught sight of the orange mare. "So I guess you own the farm?" "Sorta, what brings ya to Ponyville?" "Business trip." he lied. "Sorry about sleeping in your tree, nopony was home and I needed a place to stay so I thought you wouldn't mind." "Well since yer new I'll let it go, but try to stay out of mah trees o.k." "Will do, say what time is it?" "Two o'eight." "Aww man, hey since your here could I...you know, stay at your place?" he said bashfully. "Well since yer new ah guess it would only be fair, alright you can stay." "Thank" "But only for tonight, got it?" not knowing how to respond, Blackout just nodded. "Good, well now that we got that out of the way, ah'm Applejack." she extended a hoof, which met by Blackout's. "I'm Blackout, sorry about the tree." "Don't be, you didn't know, but ah'm a bit saddle sore about you staying over on such short notice." "He, yeah sorry." he apologized again as the mare led him into the modest farm house. "You sure about this? I don't want to be taking up any space or anything." "Don't worry, we have too much space as is, well here's yer room." It was a small room with a western style theme to it. "If ya need anything jus' ask." but before she could finish, the room echoed with a low grumbling. "Yeah, do got any food?" the question made the farmer look at him like he was an alien. "Oh, right, forgot that your a farmer." Applejack led Blackout to the kitchen and laid out an assortment of apple based foods in front of him. "What do ya want? Ah've got apple crumbles, apple fritters, candy apples, apple turnovers, apple strudels, and apple pie." "I'll take them all." again the farm pony stared at him. "What?" "You can eat all of this?" "Uh huh." "Huh, o.k., whatever you leave you can just save it for later." but before she could finish, Blackout had scarfed down the entire set of apple products. "Wow, you weren't kiddin'." "That was GOOD! Oh and here's the payment." "Nah, you can keep it. Think of it as a first time discount." This was great, free food and shelter, how could anypony be so nice. It was too good to be true, it couldn't be true. "Your not lying about that are you?" "Ah'd never tell a lie, especialy to a newcomer." "Just making sure, you never know when a pony will drop a heavy bill on your lap." The day, or night, ended quickly and Applejack had woken Blackout up who left with her to attend the Summer Sun Celebration. Alright, be on your guard, that Nightmare thing is supposed to show up at any second now. "...Princess Celestia!" the mayor anounced as the white mare from yesterday opened the curtains. She wasn't there, and as ponies exchanged worried looks and murmers, the white mare came back to the balcony reporting that Celestia was no where to be found. As if on cue, a mist containing what looked like small stars. The mist condensed into a form that looked like a large alicorn, about Celestia's size. "Nightmare Moon." Blackout whispered to himself. He tried to move but something was holding him back, he could feel a slight tingling around his body. It was magic, powerful magic, he couldn't fight it and watched hopelessly as the dark entity introduced herself. This would be his first glimps at dark magic, it took the form of a mist with small stars in it. It swirled around the alicorn and seemed to be eminating from her mane and tail. He watched in awe as the Nightmare quickly defeated the Royal Guard and then disintigrated into mist, leaving the building and town. The magic grip that kept Blackout in place finaly let go and he decided to make his exit. "Blackout what happened?" a voice came on his radio, "I just detected a huge dark magic spike in your area. Blackout?" He never responded, there was no time for questions, he needed answers. He made his way to a nearby hill and surveyed the area. It wasn't long before another voice broke the silence, but this one was in his head. "That was my sister Luna." the voice explained, "She is heading to the castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The Elements of Harmony are located there. Only they can stop the her, you must protect them or she will destroy them. Can I trust you to do this?" "Yes ma'am." he had his orders, now for the easy part. Blackout headed back to the apple farm to don his gear. His black vest was now complemented with a black ACU, trousers, and combat boots. Not knowing to expect, Blackout brought almost all of his gear, excluding the heavy weapons. Now dressed head to hoof in equipment, Blackout made his way to the forest. Just outside of the forest stood six mares, all of them looked familiar. Not wanting to attract attention to himself, Blackout waited for them to enter the forest. He stayed there for about ten minutes to make sure he wouldn't run into them, then he entered the forest himself. It was a good five minutes before the trail ended, like the mountain collasped. Sliding down the slope, Blackout picked up the trail of the six ponies at the bottom of the ravine. Further down the path he ran into a manticore. It looked happy but he didn't take any chances. Drawing his Colt 45, Blackout slowly passed the creature, eyeing it. He made his way past the animal with no trouble, if anything it seemed like the beast didn't care about him. Normaly manticores tear anything to shreds on sight, but this one was different. The six ponies must have been responsible for this, maybe it was hurt, or it ate them and had no room for another meal. After about ten minutes of hiking, Blackout had almost caught up with the girls ahead, who had just entered a thick group of trees. There was little to no visibility but there was no other way. Walking through, Blackout soon became lost, and to make things worse, the trees are now making faces at him. Wait, what? The trees had faces and oddly enough, glowed red. A scream was emited from the trees, it came from behind him. Was something in here? Not wanting to find out, Blackout picked out a direction and ran. Bursting from the thicket, he saw the hoofprints of about seven ponies. Wrong way stupid. Turning back Blackout sprinted through again, lowering his head so the branches would hit his helmet. Again he bursted out of the trees and in front was a new path. Not knowing how much time he wasted, Blackout decided it was best to hurry through the trail. The path was almost completely clear, except for a water serpent but he was kind enough to let him pass. Running down the trail Blackout spotted something strange. It was misty and he couldn't see much but it looked like an ancient castle. Blackout's focus was so centered that he didn't realise that he ran out of ground. He felt the sensation of taking the next step, and feeling nothing there, sending a shiver down his spine. His sight was blurred by thick fog, and wind filled his ears as he plumeted down the canyon.
Left in the DarkIt seemed hopeless, his jacket didn't have holes for his wings so he couldn't just fly out of the cavern. Lucky for him, he was running fast enough to reach the other side of the canyon. Meeting the rock Blackout pressed his hooves against the wall to slow down. Pulling out his knife, Blackout jabbed it into the wall. The sudden halt almost jerked his hoof off the knife handle. He hung there recovering from the massive adrenaline rush. His heart beat slowed and he tried to find something to grab hold of. Using one hoof to climb the rock and the other using the knife as a pickaxe, Blackout clambered up the wall. Reaching the top Blackout saw the castle, it was crumbly and most of it was missing. The first chamber held a statue with spheres made of rock on it. He procceded up the steps to the next chamber. There sat the dark alicorn. "Ah, the guest of honor has finally arrived." She sat at the far end on a throne. "And I thought Tia was wrong but here you are. Its a pleasure to finally meet you Colonel." "How do you-" "Know who you are? My dear sister would be to blame. She boasted about you, said you'll lead to my downfall." How could she? The last thing she should have done was tell this thing who he was. "Let's see how well you live up to your name." Taking the hint, Blackout ran at the evil creature, only to meet bolts of lightning. The force sent him back to the other end of the room. "What's the matter? Can you not fight? I've been told you were the best." This was not a fight he could win on the ground. Taking a deep breath, Blackout forced his wings to expand under his jacket causing them to practicly burst from his back. Trying again, Blackout spread his wings and launched himself at his enemy. The Nightmare continued to form bolts of lightning but the pegasis was too fast and was already a few feet away from her, his arm drawn back. Blackout threw his hoof at her but before it made contact, she faded into the dark mist. Blackout's punch met the wall behind the Nightmare, cracking it. His hoof bled and a sharp pain was felt throughout his arm, but he ignored it. His attention was set on the moving mist, which formed into the alicorn at the center of the chamber. Wasting no time, Blackout charged her again, this time drawing his sword. He swung at the dark form only for it to disintegrate again. She formed again behind him. He tried to stab the Nightmare, but it dispersed agian. The battle was an energetic dance between the two dark forms. The purple cloud swirling around the warrior as he swung and stabed. It was hopeless, he couldn't land a hit on her. Blackout flew out of the living fog and re-thought his strategy. The Nightmare reformed in front of him, an evil grin on her face. Blackout took to the skies and used his wing's strength to send him into one direction and then to another at high speeds. Blackout was moving too fast and the Nightmare couldn't keep track of him. Taking the opportunity, he quickly dropped down to the alicorn and brought down his sword on the still tangible Nightmare. His sword stopped, but it didn't meet flesh, instead the blade rested on top of a dark purple bubble that enveloped the Nightmare. "Fool! Do you think I would fight you without protection?" Before Blackout could react, the Nightmare expanded the magic shield, smashing him into the wall. The Nightmare slowly crept towards him, her mane forming dark spikes. Blackout reached for his waist, grabbing a round metal object, pulling something out of it, and pitched it at the approaching alicorn. The grenade exploded on impact and the force shatterd her shield and pushed her to the ground. "Impossible! What was that?" "Don't be so surprised. It doesn't take one thousand years for ponies to find something other than sticks for weapons." He drew his rifle, aiming it at the Nightmare. It was over, or so he thought. She disapeared into the shadows, splitting into multiple different spots on the ground. Looking behind him, Blackout saw the shadows conjoin into an enormous jet black form of an alicorn. "I've had enough of this!" she shouted, "Your dead." She fadded into a cloud and rushed at the pegasis who could do nothing but stare. The dark mass hit him and smashed him into another wall. This was his chance. Drawing his rifle, Blackout aimed at the evil shadow. He pulled the trigger and multiple rounds hit his target. A loud, un-earthly screech echoed through the entire castle. It attacked again, but Blackout was ready now. The Nightmare tried again and agian to hit him but the pegasis was too fast. He would dodge the entity and use the time to shoot the passing body. The dance between the two continued but now it was much more sporatic. Enraged, the Nightmare expanded and formed a dome around Blackout. The dome compressed, crushing the pony inside. The Nightmare grabbed the injured pegasis and foced him into a wall. Helpless, Blackout could do nothing to stop the Nightmare from beating him into the wall. He struggled and managd to reach his belt. He grabbed a pipe and pulled the pin. He tossed at the Nightmare and the object was consumed by the darkness. The Nightmare pulled its arm back again but something was wrong. A bright flash and loud bang made the dark entity begin to deform. It screeched as the intense light expanded and expeled the darkness. The Nightmare fadded away from the light, letting Blackout fall to the floor. Probably should have thought of that sooner. He picked himself up, he was battered and beaten, but it was over. "You don't get it do you?" a booming voice said, "Darkness cannot be defeated. Light only casts a shadow." This can't be happening. The Nightmare formed in front of Blackout. She was pissed, really pissed. "I was planning on letting you live to serve me, but now I see that you don't deserve something so merciful." she formed a spike out of the shards of her shattered shield "You will die a failure." She forced the spike into Blackout's abdomen, impaling him and pinning him to the wall. The pain was incredible. It burned and stung, but Blackout looked at her with a smile on his face. "What reason do you have to smile?" "I didn't fail." "How? You are almost dead. You didn't kill me." "You were never supposed to die." "What?" "I didn't understand at first but the Princess wanted me to stop you." "But you didn't!" "I did, I stopped you from harming the elements. And by the way, they should be making their way here as we speak." "What do you mean?" "I'm talking about the six mares in the forest, they are the elements. I just had to stall you and weaken you so they could finish the job. You lost." The Nightmare was furrious, tricked by her sister and now the Elements of Harmony are going to finish her off. "Fine, but if I go, you will too." Moving the spike, the Nightmare threw Blackout out of a window, it ovelooked a gorge, the fall would be fatal. It didn't matter though, his job was done. The Nightmare raced to the river, they should be approaching it now. She just needed to stall them, build her energy again. "That should keep them busy." the Nightmare retreated to the chamber after cutting off that serpent's mustache. As she meditated, she used her magic to keep track of the six mares at the river. Minutes passed as the six elements made their way to the bridge. The rainbow maned one is fixing the bridge. It didn't matter, she could just get her to leave them. Despite her temptation, Rainbow Dash fixed the bridge, forcing the Nightmare to hide again. She'll catch one of the ponies by themselves and destroy her. Messy but necessary. It just so happened that the Princess' favorite student was left by herself. Moving towards the Elements, the Nightmare began to envelop them, bringing the purple unicorn with. She brought them to the throne room, there she would destroy the unicorn and the Elements. It was to her surprise when the small mare charged her, but the Nightmare decided to charge back. If she wants to die, why not oblige her? It came as an even bigger surprise when the unicorn teleported to the Elements, she was going to ignite them. The unicorn was close to igniting the Elements, but the Nightmare wouldn't let it happen. She fadded into a cloud and formed a tornado, scaring the unicorn away before she could form a spark. The Nightmare stomped on the ground, shattering the fragile rocks. She won, she is now the ruler of Equestria, or so she thought. The unicorn was united with her group, and the Elements were still functional. How could this be happening? This didn't happen when Celestia harnesed them. It was over, the Elements have been ignited, and the magic generated expeled the Nightmare. Luna was free, and Blackout's sacrifice did not go in vain. "Hey you know what this calls for?" the pink pony blurted out, "A par-" "Wait!" another voice cried out from the window. "I could use a hand here." Blackout was found hanging on a branch. The two pegasis helped him inside, the sight of Blackout's blood almost made the yellow one faint. "Thanks." "Colonel, are you o.k.?" Celestia asked "Colonel?" the six elements asked simultainiously. "Yes, this is Lieutenant Colonel Blackout, I'm sure you've met him before." "What's up?" the black stallion addresed them, "Say do you got anything for...this?" he pointed to the hole in his stomach. "Here, let me help." the purple unicorn asked. Her horn glowed and a bright flash apeared where Blackout was standing. The light faded, showing that Blackout had been reduced to a pile of black goo with eyes. "Opps, sorry." she said sheepishly, "I guess I havn't got the healing spells quite figured out yet." The eyes could only glare at her. "I think I should take this one." Celestia told Twilight. Her horn glowed and another flash of light restored Blackout to his original form. "Thanks." the rest of the day was filled with appologies from Twilight and Luna. The next day a HUGE celebration was thrown. The entire town had banners hanging from the buildings. Celestia had allowed Twilight to live in the city and offered Blackout to stay at the castle. "No! I mean I could stay here." he didn't want to be in Canterlot or the Canterlot Palace. It was too uptight and the guards would never stop talking to him on their down time. "I could arrange for you to be put in a house while your here then." the princess said, probably understanding Blackout's protest. "And maybe you could make some friends here yourself." "Yeah." he said nervously, looking at the six mares behind him. If they don't get me killed first.
That's LogisticsIt had only been about a week after the Nightmare incident and Blackout had befriended the Elements of Harmony. He had a new home on the outskirts of town and was doing well to blend in with the crowd. He had just finished repairing the holes in his jacket when he heard a knock on the door. When he opened the door he ended up gazing into a pair of golden eyes, sort of. Niether of them seemed to be looking strait at him. "Hi." "Your that new pony Blackout right?" the wall eyed pegasis asked him. He just nodded. "I've got something for you." she rummaged through her saddle bag to find the letter with his name on it. "Just give me a second." she pleaded as she removed her bags and looked deeper into the messy collection of envelopes. The envelopes started falling out of the bag and a particularly fancy looking one slipped out just as the wind kicked up, bringing the note with it. "Oh no! That one was really important." She watched hopelessly as the letter flew away. "I could get it back for you." Blackout insisted. "Could you please, I'll just leave your note inside." Blackout began to persue the fleeing letter as the blond pegasis returned to her mail route. The flying paper was chased to the Everfree Forest, loosing Blackout in the trees. He needed help, but who would be wandering the Everfree Forest at any time of the day? Reaching for his radio, Blackout called the only pony that would bother listening to the radio 24/7. "Hey Gear, you there?" "Is there anytime that I'm not? What can I do for ya?" "I need you to track a note, it flew into the Everfree Forest." "No can do, I can see you but a piece of paper? That's just not going to happen, sorry." The answer left the pegasis dejected, "But, I can tell you the general direction that it may be in." "Please." there was silence as Gear Head worked to calculate the possible positions. "O.k., look around, do you see any really tall trees?" "Yeah, one." "Great, the note may be in the tree." "Thanks Gear." "What would you do without me?" Blackout flew to the tree and spotted the letter caught in the branches. He reached for it but just about every living thing in the tree scattered when rustled the branches. The nuts on the leaves broke off and birds flew in all directions. The mayhem caused Blackout to loose balance and fall to the forest floor. He laid there for awhile before the sound of low growling made him snap to his feet. A manticore had been hunting in the area and had stopped to make Blackout his meal. Right on cue. The predator circled him, licking his lips at the thought of a nice lean meal. He lunged, pinning the pony to the ground, his jaws opening to bite his prey's neck. Blackout leaned his head back, exposing his neck more, and when the manticore lashed out to bite it, he shot his head forward, headbutting the attacker. His helmet connected with the bridge of the manticore's nose, breaking it. The manticore roared in pain and released Blackout to tend to his nose. Blackout reached for his gun but the creature had already recovered and swiped it out of his hooves. The manticore pounced again and raised its tail. It stabbed at Blackout furiously, each impact lifting dirt. Blackout rolled and dodged clumsily as he tried to regain his footing. Pulling himself to his feet, Blackout took flight, leaving the grounded hunter to find another meal. He had looked back at the tree with the note in it only to watch as the letter was picked up by the wind again and swept away. Why can't it ever be easy? He persued the air mail to Cloudsdale where it was lost in the vast array of pegasi and floating buildings. He couldn't find it, and the locals hadn't been much help either. He would have to search the entire city, and that could take hours. "I'm really sorry I couldn't help you." an orange pegasis said. "No it's o.k., I didn't have plans for the day anyway." he lied. Except for important research, stopping criminals, hunting terrorists. "Maybe you should look in the weather factory, stuff is always being blown in and out of there." Blackout took her advice and headed to the weather factory. He searched the cloud development wing first, then the snowflake building workshop, he even searched the lightning research labs. All hope seemed lost but when he asked a nearby pegasis, he pointed to the chamber where they brew rainbows. Blackout opened the door to see the paper floating in the air, right under a pot that was about to pour liquid rainbow extract all over the delicate paper. Blackout dashed forward and nudged the letter out of the way, leaving him to be covered in multi-colored liquids. "Opps, sorry." the worker who poured the mixture said, "I wasn't paying attention. Here let me help you." The worker brought Blackout to the cloud room and made a fresh rain cloud to clean off the full spectrum mess. Blackout set the letter on a desk and stood under the cloud while the worker bounced on top of it, washing away the rainbow extract. "Thanks." Blackout shook himself dry and looked back at the desk, it was empty. "Where's the letter?" he asked nervously. He looked around, it wasn't in the air, but when he looked below the desk, he saw the letter sinking into the floor. He dove at it but it had already met the outside wind and took off. Blackout dug through the floor of the factory and when he managed to pop his head out of the bottom, he saw the letter flying away from the city. He squirmed his way through the cloud and once again, chased the fleeing letter. The sun was already setting when the letter led Blackout to a mountain range surrounded by thick pine forests. Blackout was led below the tree line and witnessed as the letter entered a particularly large and menacing cave. He followed it through the caverns, using a small penlight for visibility. The letter at last came to rest in a large chamber. "Finally!" Blackout shouted in triumph. His voice echoed through the cave, and a low rumble could be heard. Directing his light toward the sound, Blackout ended up gazing at the biggest, ugliest bear he had ever seen. It had a purple hue to it and stars dotted its body. Great. Two enormous claws smashed on oposite sides of Blackout, it was definitely mad. Blackout spread his wings and bolted for the exit, his penlight held in his teeth. He shot out of the cave mouth which was soon demolished along with the entire side of the mountain when the Ursa emerged. The giant bear chased him through the forest, flattening trees along the way. Blackout turned to confront the massive beast. He flew to the top of its head, dodging the swipes the Ursa made to swat him down. When he reached its head, Blackout slid down its back and pulled out his knife to make a cut down its spine. When he tried to stab it though, it only made a scratch, literaly. It looked like a scratch on glass, it even clinked when the blade hit. As he slowly slid down the Ursa's back, the knife sounding like fingernails on chalkboard, the Ursa stood and proceeded to fall backwards. Blackout was left in a body shaped crater but he wasn't beaten yet. Bursting from the earth, Blackout drew his gun and fired. When the bullets impacted, small powdery glass shards were ejected, like bullet proof glass. There was nothing left to do. The creature was unstopable. The only smart thing to do would be running. Armed with years of highly developed common sense, Blackout charged the monster. The Ursa simply swatted him into a tree, bending it. The tree launched him like a catapult, strait into another tree. From above it would look like a pinball game. Whether he hit a branch just right or it simply being a moment of inspiration, Blackout formed an idea. He used the trees to gain speed, catapulting from one tree to another. He finally hit a noticeably taller tree, bending it down to the forest floor. He could feel the energy stored in the trunk. It practicly shook with anticipation. The bark was starting to snap and then, as if it were a rubber band, snapped back into position. Blackout was shot forward, there was a bright flash and he could hear a boom behind him. He was heading towards the Ursa at incredible speeds and before he knew it, he had smashed into the giant. His helmet was like a bullet, smashing through the glass like skin of the beast. He flew strait through the Ursa, killing it. A purple mist exited its body through the openings in its body, leaving a hollow and dark shell behind. Blackout shot away from the flattend forest at break-neck speeds. He couldn't believe it, he finally performed a rainboom. A bright, vibrant, multi-color trailed behind him as he rocketed across the night sky. The wind was deafening and his sight was impared slightly by the wind and the thin rainbow aurora forming a halo in his sight. But, how do I stop? He thought. He didn't know how, the only pony he knew who could pull this off was on the other side of Equestria. After putting extensive thought into it, Blackout angled his wings up as if he was slowing down normaly. He could feel a flash of air hit his feathers as he snapped into a nose dive heading to the trees bellow. He rolled and dodged through the forest, somehow gaining an amazing boost of agility and reaction. From above it looked like an extremely jagged bolt of lightning shooting through the forest. Blackout burst from the canopy after finding a small opening in the branches. There were leaves rustling from the brim of his helmet, blocking his view and cousing him to fly strait into a cliff. Dust and dirt covered the scene as chunks of rock exploded from the mountain side. Blackout was left imbedded in the rock. Well, I stopped. He shuffled his way out of the crater and flapped his wings, causing a spark of pain to shoot through his entire back. He fell to the forest floor with a thump. He's walking home tonight. As he entered the outskirts of Ponyville, beaten and dejected, he looked at the houses dotting the landscape. They were filled with ponies who were happy, laughing, and protected by a warm home. "Wait, that's my home!" there were ponies in his home, and worse they were partying. Blackout sprinted to the door, threw it open, and jumped through the threshold. "Party's over jackass!" the room was filled with six shocked mares and a now sad looking mule. "Wow, way to be harsh." Rainbow Dash said as the mule left the house, "Where were you anyway?" "I was chasing this." Blackout said, pulling out the note. "Huh, its to me." he opened it and read. Dear Blackout, I have sent this note to mark the importance of the mail run for today, please be sure to read the other one I've sent you. Your friend, Princess Celestia "You o.k.?" Applejack asked. Blackout had a blank stare on his face. "Excuse me for a second." He said before stepping down stairs. The six mares look at each other as the room is filled with an awkward silence. They all jumped as the sound of explosions and cursing boomed from downstairs. Blackout emerged with bits of singed paper on his shoulder. "Sorry about that, now what are you guys doing here?" Blackout asked. "Well, we just got tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and I had the idea of celebrating it here, you know since you sealed off the doors the last time we tried to throw a party here." Rainbow said. "So, you in?" she asked before realizing that the six of them were outside, door shut and lights off. "Goodnight." they could hear from inside. Blackout blew out a candle, only for his breath to catch the note from this morning and send out a window.
Nature WalkThe room was illuminated in sunlight and left streaks of yellow across the floor. Outside, a pony's sight would be met with bright green and explosions of color from the flowers dotting the landscape. "Fresh start." Blackout whispered to himself. He readied for the day before plopping himself in his dinning room chair. Now what? He tried to think about the day ahead of him, but he couldn't. He could hang out with Dash, but she probably hates him. Fluttershy is terrified of him, Twilight is kind of boring, Applejack is always busy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are out of the question. "What do you think I should do?" Blackout questioned the pony he was walking with down a back alley. "Why are you telling me this?" the worried pony asked. "I mean, what if I just sit at my house and do nothing?" the pony beside him didn't answer. "I could get fat, or go crazy..." he paused, "what if I like blew up Ponyville?" "Why are you following me, I don't even know you!" the colt ran off leaving Blackout behind, who was thinking of what to do next. "Hey take a hike!" the owner of a shop yelled. "Good idea!" he exclaimed, "thanks friend." The shop owner rolled his eyes and continued as the pegasis headed for the woods. White Tail Woods was empty and relatively bright for a gloomy cursed forest. Blackout observed his surroundings and for once could enjoy nature without having something attacking him. Beams of light would pierce the canopy and create pools of white on the ground. The only sound was the clop of hoof and dirt and the animals carrying on with their normal lives. The world was at peace and harmony. The air was fresh and crisp, it also had a thin scent to it. It was a clean smell, like vapor from a river. Blackout tried to identify the smell, walking closer to the source. A twig snapped under his hoof, then a crack that echoed through the forest. Blackout snapped his eyes open, a horrible burning pain could be felt on the back of his head. A branch fell, strange. Disoriented, Blackout headed forward. Finally regaining some sense, he began to tread lightly. It didn't work, he felt a rope tighten around his ankle and a sudden yank sent him into the air. He hung there, a bit mad but calm. He studied the knot that held him up, it was horribly done and actually undid itself after shaking it. He fell to the ground, pulled himself up and kept walking. But again, he fell into a trap. A wisp could be heard. A bolas cut through the air and headed towards Blackout like a missile. The rope wrapped around his head and the ball smashed into his face. He fell to the floor lifelessly. "Ugh..." Blackout groaned in pained awakening. "I am... upside down." "Well lookie here, we got ourselves a genius." a sarcastic voice called with a thick "Outback" accent. "You sure got him boss." a young, unintelligible voice called out. The character moved to Blackout and did his best to stare menacingly at him. "Your not getting out of this trap." "That's 'cuz I made it ya idiot" the other chastised. "What's going on?" Blackout questioned. "You, my friend, are now my prisoner." a tall, thin, and tan pony said. He wore a vest with forest patterns on it and a boonie hat. "Yeah, so don't try to escape." the second captor added. He was a griffin, stout with broad shoulders and a stupid, arrogant look on his face. "Well, I've been in this situation a few times already." Blackout said, "This is normally the part were you tell me your name and plan." He looked at his captors expectantly. "Too bad for you I ain't one of the idiotic peons who do interrogation work..." he looked back at the griffin, "well, he is but I'm in charge." "But ya have admit, you want to tell me right?" Blackout asked with a friendly smile. "We captured you for General Vict-OW!" the griffin yelped in pain as a hoof slapped the back of his head. "Shut up ya idiot!" the leader hissed. "Who's Victor?" Blackout questioned. "Well now that the extra pay of anonymous client is gone, I might as well spill the beans. Victor is a gargoyle, ugly fella, said he met you on one occasion back about three months ago." "Oh, he's a general now?" Blackout looked around the area for something to use. "Major General." "You might as well tell me you and your partner's name." Blackout came up with questions to stall him. "That dipstick is not my partner. I'm Crock. He's... Joey." He sighed. "Joey?" "Yeah, not much intimidation but he follows orders." "All of your orders?" He said while eyeing a knife next to a campfire. "To some extent." "Well I hope he tied me up well." Blackout grunted in effort as he swung over to the knife when he felt himself fall. He picked himself up only to be caught in a net that fell from the trees. "No, he didn't, which is why I put in a few more countermeasures." "And how many would that be?" Blackout said while looking at the multiple traps perched in the branches above. "More than I can remember, and enough to keep you pinned for a week." Blackout examined the tree that housed the net trap he is in. It has multiple other traps, enough to bring down a full grown dragon. A few groans of strain could be heard from the trunk, it was ready to come down. That's convenient. Blackout wrapped his hooves around the rope suspending the net and yanked it towards him. The tree groaned and cracked as the overwhelming stress caused it to collapse. Underneath the chaos, Blackout struggled to lift and free himself from the net. Lifting the rock pinning a corner to the ground, Blackout scuttled away from the tree and his captor. He hurried to grab his gear and flee the area before he gets caught again. "In a while crocodile-OW!" Blackout's taunt was interrupted when his lips met the ground, effectively shutting him up. He glances around in a slight panic, noticing what looks like a giant eagle heading strait for him. Blackout scrambles to get up, finding his hooves and putting them in motion. Stop taunting and watch where you're going. He turns to see the underling almost literally on his tail. Wait. I can fly!With a liberating realization, a pair of pitch black wigs expanded and pushed its owner skywards. "Yeah, you better run, and don't come back!" the witless griffon shouted. He returned to his employer with a smug grin. "No need to thank me boss, I just like making you happy." "You were on his tail..." "I sure was." "and you let him go." "I got him away from our camp." SMACK "ARE YOU CRAZY!" the mercenary lashed out and struck his lackey across the face, which sported a hoof print. "We were trying to keep him here, not chase him away." "Sorry boss." the griffon said while rubbing his cheek. "Pack-up camp, and leave the traps." the hunter ordered, "I'm not letting that seppo give me the flick just yet." Blackout landed in front of Sugar Cube Corner, spotting a griffon storming out. He instinctively placed his hoof on the gun around his waist. A hesitation was felt and questions were asked; did they follow him? Should he even worry about the griffon? "Move it dweeb!" the griffon brushed him off. "Jerk." he mumbled before sighing in relief. He looked at the bakery and noticed that there is a larger amount of decorations than normal, and a lot more sound. Blackout sighed again and stepped forward to the door. I'm really sorry for the massive amount of time I've been gone. For those of you who still read my series, thanks, and I'm am not expecting any more periods of absence so this hopefully won't happen again.
Equanimity"Ha, I knew you were a softy!" The brightly colored pony said while wrapping a hoof around the much larger, darker pony. "I'm not that sorry." The other pony said with a grin before getting punched in the shoulder, which only makes him laugh. "Aww, you two look so cute together." Applejack teased. Rainbow Dash quickly shoved Blackout away. "What's this about anyway?" Twilight asked. "I was apologizing for yelling at her yesterday." Blackout rubbed his head, "I thought I was a bit too harsh so I took time to clear my head and..." He trailed off, remembering the encounter that happened just minuets ago. "Hello? Cleared your head and?" Pinkie had her head cocked and looked quizzically at him. Blackout's look became hard as he stood. "I need to go." Blackout left the building full of confused ponies and took to the skies. He arrived at his house and went strait to his basement, there stood a large screen behind a table. On the table rests a red phone with no buttons. Blackout grabbed the handset and waited. "Sir, unless you lost a WMD, please refrain from using the crisis network." A low, expectant voice answered. "Just put her on." Blackout demanded. He waited in silence. "What did you do?" A feminine, yet harsh voice replaced the other. Celestia knew that Blackout wouldn't dare touch the red phone to stop a bomb from destroying everying he owns. This must be bad. "I have evidence of gargoyle activity in the kingdom. I found that they have hired an independant contractor to hunt down the RE. It may be possible that they have inactive cells here. Recomend proceeding defence readiness to level three and using condition bravo protocols." "You are sure of this?" The question was rhetorical. "Yes." "Then I'll need to prepare. Your mission has not changed, and it is about to get harder." "Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived?" the blue unicorn questioned. "This is the test?" Blackout questioned aloud. He was perched on a hill, laying prone with a barrel trained on the unicorn. "A stupid show pony? Celestia must be loosing her touch." "Remember that I'm monitoring you until the test is complete, so choose your words wisely." his radio piped up. "Yes, master." he teased. "So please, tell me why I have a rifle pointed at this pony's head." "This is not just to test one of the Elements, but to test one of your less prominent attributes. I've found out that this unicorn has been traveling to big cities and popular towns. The Nightmare incident put Ponyville on the map." "So she came here to have ponies shower her with money or praise?" "A bit of both." "So what does it teach me? Modesty?" "Just wait." Celestia chimed. "But why?" he whined. She never answered, causing Blackout to sigh in boredom. His massive scope started clicking and buzzing. It housed a microphone that doubles the scope's size but can pick up whispers through a brick wall. Blackout fiddled with it until it became silent. He put his cheek on the stock of his rifle and peeked through his special scope. "Ha! Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie has proven herself to be the most amazing unicorn in all of Equestria. Huh, was there ever any doubt?" "Wow," Blackout said, observing the upset the unicorn has stirred in the crowd. "maybe they will need my help." He watched the audience disperse and return to their regular day. He watched the blue unicorn pack up her set before sending two small foals off. "Blackout?" a voice called. Holy crap! Who could possibly... "Hey there you are!" Rainbow Dash ran up the hill Blackout was positioned on. "What is that?" she pointed to his large rifle. "Nothing." he said, pulling out a small canister. "Sorry Dash." he tossed the canister at her feet. "Sorry for wha-..." a gas was expelled from the can as Dash fell to the floor. "Ugh, hey what happened?" the mare moaned. "You ran up here so fast I think you fainted." "Really? I must be getting out of shape." Dash retorted. Blackout noticed the can was still were he threw it. "So..." he stalled, kicking away the canister, "how'd you know I'd be here?" "Pinkie" they both said. "Creepy." Blackout mumbled. "Anyway, I came to tell you about this unico-" "Trixie?" "How'd you, never mind, could..." "No I will not." "But..." "No" "I thought you said you'd be more fun." she pouted. She lifted her head to see that it had become dark. "How long was I out?" "A while. like I said, you were running fast." "Well, now what?" "We could..." ROARRRR "You want us to roar?" "That wasn't me." he looked to find a massive blue bear stomp its way into Ponyville. "Is... is that an... ursa major?" Dash quivered at the sight. "It's back?" "What do mean 'it's back'" "No, no wait, that's a minor." "Okay, slow down, what are you talking about?" Dash confronted him directly. "Well you see, I kind of, you know, killed a major." he blushed, knowing that it sounded like a lie, and that the Ursa race was endangered. "Doing what?" "Chasing a letter." he looked towards the town, screams echoing through it. "You need to go, help in any way you can, I'll stay here and try and remember how to stop it I guess?" She took the hint and with a nod, she left. He had regrets though, the sight of danger to his new home made him antsy. Okay, who's going to stop it? he thought to himself. Blackout raised his rifle, but a sharp sound buzzed through his ear bud. "Ow! What the hell?" he realized who was causing the whine instantly. "What you want me to do, wait and watch Ponyville get destroyed?" A ding could be heard through the speaker. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" another ding. Blackout bit his lip and watched the monstrous animal trample buildings and terrorize the ponies below, his rifle still in hoof. The rampage continued until his lip bled. "Okay!" Blackout shouted. "You win." he threw his weapon down in shame. "Now watch." A sweet, regal voice chirped. Blackout looked to see Twilight, her horn glowing. He started to notice a faint and slightly familiar lullaby in the background as the wind picked up. He watched in awe as the unicorn basically mothered the mythical beast and sent it back to the forest. "Good things come when your patient. You must have equanimity." "What the hell does that even mean?" "Wait, and I'll tell you." Damn it!
Broken Hearts and Aching HoovesBlackout groaned as he awakened to the sound of a hoof knocking on his door. His vision darkened and blurred as he got out of bed and stumbled to the door. "Geez, is normal for ponies to visit ten times a day here?" he mumbled to himself as he opened the door. "Hey Blackout." Rainbow Dash said in a cheery voice. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, can't a friend come over to visit?" "Dash, it's like, five o'clock, nobody goes to just visit at five o'clock." Blackout said bitterly. "Why are you acting like there's a spur in your side?" Dash asked in an offended tone. "Well not only is it morning and I hate mornings," he said, making it obvious that he was annoyed, "but it's also because of this stupid day." "What's wrong with Hearts and Hooves Day?" a look of concern and confusion on her face. "Pfft, more like Broken Hearts and Aching Hooves Day." "What do you mean?" "What I'm saying is that more hearts are broken on this day, and the aching hooves is from coltfriends running back and forth to find something nice. It's a waste of time and a stupid holiday." "Oh come on, it can't be that bad, can it?" "Yeah, it is. Trust me, I know from experience." "Oh," Dash said sadly, keeping the small gift she had for him hidden. "Well what are you gonna do now?" "Well," he lightened up when the subject changed, "I was planning on working on a new compound." "A new what?" "Compound, like a mixture." "Oh, well what's it supposed to do?" "Follow me, I'll show you." he gestured for her to enter, walking down the stairs to his basement. Dash left the gift on a table and followed him down. In the basement there was an assortment of wires and machines that looked even more high-tech than Twilight's. "Woah, how did you-" "Celestia had it sent here." he said flatly as he fiddled with a rack of test tubes. "Ah, here it is." He held up a tube with a clear liquid in it. "What is it?" she cocked an eyebrow when he held it in front of her "Hopefully, the last ingredient to a new gas." "Gas?" "Yeah, a non-lethal gas that, when inhaled, impares the thought process by blocking most of the nerve signals sent to and from the brain." he explained while tediously pouring the liquid into a beaker with a yellowish liquid. "Umm, in English please?" "It makes people dumb so you can handle them easier." "Oh. So it could help with crowd control or something?" "Exactly." he let another drop fall into the mixture before setting it on the lab table. Boom The beaker exploded and the solution turned into a thick grey smoke and filled the entire room. Blackout blocked his nose and was waving away the smoke. "Dash!" he coughed. "Whatever you do, cough,don't inhale the-" he looked up to see Dash stumble around and fall, "smoke." Blackout searched for the lever that controlled the ventilation. He pulled it down and the room rumbled as fans sucked the smoke out of the room. Blackout walked over to Rainbow, who was laying on the ground with a dumb look on her face. "Great." he gumbled to himself. Rainbow lazily pulled herself up and threw her arm on Blackout's shoulder. "Why are you always so grumpy?" she giggled. "You'd be a lot more fun if you didn't have that pole up your butt." "Happy Hearts and Hooves Day." he sarcastically sighed to himself. "Come on Dash, we need to get you home." "But why?" she said in a pleading tone. "To tie you to your bed so you don't do anything stupid." Blackout dragged her out of his house. "Ooh, kinky." her response made Blackout facehoof. "Why couldn't it have just knocked her out?" he groaned under his breath. Blackout flew to Rainbow's cloud mansion with Dash drapped over is shoulder, who was whistling a random tune. Blackout flew strait to the window of her room, dropped her on her bed, and tied her to it with the rope he had wrapped around his arm. After tying the last knot, and listening to Dash's perverted comments, he sat at the edge of the cloud house, deep in thought. Back in Rainbow's room, Dash was struggling to break free. She started to kick apart the cloud bed until she could slither out from under the ropes. She moved to the window overlooking the edge Blackout was sitting on. A mischievous look crept on her face as she climbed onto the window pane. She jumped and tackled Blackout off the house. "Dash what the hell!" Blackout screamed at her. "Tag, your it!" Dash pushed him away and flew off in a random direction. "Damn it Dash!" Blackout shouted as her tailed her. She was fast, almost too fast for him. It only made it harder with the bright rainbow she made was somehow getting in his eyes. Dash led Blackout throughout the entire town and even through parts of the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash fled to Fluttershy's house and burst through the door, startling the animals and the shy pony inside "Oh my, what are you doing here Rainbow?" the timid pegasis whispered. "You gotta hide me, quickly!" she said between pants. "Why? What's going on?" "He's after me! You gotta-" but her pursuer had cought up and tackled her into the home. They rolled and tumbled to the middle of the room. The pair came out of the roll with Dash on top, pinning Blackout to the ground. She lowerd her head to meet her lips with his. Blackout's eyes widened as Rainbow Dash kissed him, and grew even wider as she slipped her tounge in his mouth. Dash opened her eyes as the effect of the gas wore off and she realized what she was doing. She immediately let go of him, broke the kiss, and yanked her head back. Blackout shoved her off and turned over, spitting and whipping his tounge off with his hooves. Fluttershy was still at the door, shocked at the scene. "Oh my gosh!" Dash apologized, now thinking clearly, "I'm so sorry!" "Ugh! Fuck this holiday." his language caused the two mares to visibly cringe. "W-what's wrong with Hearts and Hoov-" "You wanna know what's wrong?" the angry stallion hissed at the yellow pegasis. The room was filled with an awkward silence and the two mares displayed looks of confusion and sorrow. It was a dark night and Blackout had called his team for the raid. He was working with the other Aces and a special forces unit called the Specters. They weren't as experienced as the Aces but had done plenty of missions in the past and is actually older than the Aces. Their team leader was a stallion named Thistle, he was green with a purple mane and pegasis like most who served in the military. His first lieutenant was a beautiful mare named Rosemary. Her color was the inverse of Thistle, her fur was purple and her mane was green. The mission was simple, there were two buildings, Aces infiltrate one, and the Specters enter the other. A quick in and out mission, well more like in, kill whoever resists, find anything useful, blow the building up, then out. This was the fourth mission the two teams did together, and in those missions Blackout had developed a sort of something with Rosemary. The others always teased him about it and Blackout always denied it, but how could he? It all added up, he loved her, she probably loved him, and seeing how Hearts and Hooves Day is literaly less than an hour away, he would admit it to her. Though when he thought about it, getting cheesy after a raid would be kinda wierd, but war was wierd like that. Blackout's team lined the wall next to the door of one building and Thistle's team did the same on the other building. A small explosive charge that was supposed to blow the door's hinges had been placed and the fuse was lit. Half of the door was sent to splinters and flew into the building. Blackout moved in, drawing his 1911 and sent three rounds into the gargoyle at the center of the room. Spurts of blood were sent from his chest and he fell lifelessly to the marble floor. Blackout noticed a barrel over his shoulder. Mig was right behind him and dropped two more. The weapons were silenced but the sound still reverberated throughout the foyer of the building. It was well lit and looked like a mall, with an empty ceiling and levels of walkways that hugged the walls. Gear Head moved into the building. "Specters are in." he reported. "Good, tell them to wire the place to blow, then move to target." the Colonel ordered. The target, or targets, were a group of high ranking officers that were meeting in one of the buildings. Blowing them up just served the purpose of giving the gargoyles a hard time. The three proceeded to the center of the foyer were a four-way intersection was made by the tall halls. Gear placed a large amount of explosive material on the floor. "Which room was it?" Mig asked, looking at the rows of doors. "All we could find out is that the meeting rooms would be on that side." Gear replied, pointing to the left. The group moved through the hall, killing a gargoyle that stepped out of a room on the way. The searched the levels for any indicator of a meeting room. "Found it." Blackout called back to his team members. Mig flew up to the third floor and stood in front of the double doors, a sign reading "Meeting Room" in gold letters above it. Gear Head scaled the glass window next to it and joined the two pegasi. He reached in his array of packs, electronics, and wires to pull out a hoof-held screen. He plugged a small camera in it and slipped it under the door. The screen displayed a large room with a big wooden table, a window behind it, and nicely dressed gargoyles sitting in fancy chairs. "That's them in there." Gear Head said quietly. He stood up and pulled out what looked like a lock pick. He wiggled the object into the lock and pulled the end of it off. Seconds later it exploded with a pop and the three rammed through the doors. They all raised their rifles to hip level and mowed down the occupants before they could react. Thunder clapped as the last officer fell to the ground. Blackout walked over to the table and picked up a folder holding what could be very important documents. Mig was checking the bodies and Gear had set up explosives on the walls. BOOM The three fell to the blood stained floor when the other building suddenly burst apart. When they pulled themselves up, groups of gargoyles burst out of the doors. "Gear! Blow it!" Blackout ordered. Gear Head pushed the button of his detonator and the foyer was engulfed in flames. They closed the door in time before the napalm could reach them. Blackout ran to the window to see gargoyle officers flying away from the burning building adjacent to the one he was in. The roof was missing and several injured ponies were sprawled across the meeting room. On the ground near the window of the burning building laid a purple and green mare. His heart sunk as the impact of the situation fell upon him. He hated loosing soldiers, but this was completely different. Blackout burst through the window, small shards cutting his exposed flesh. He landed and sprinted through the mud to Rosemary, she was covered in blood and was burnt. Blackout keeled down to cradle her. Her body was cold and lifeless, her purple eyes didn't blink. He couldn't believe it, she died, just like that. No teary eyed confessions or heart felt feelings shared, just cold and silent death. Gear Head looked at his watch. 12:00 "Shit." he whispered to himself, looking at the gloomy scene below. Rainbow was teary eyed and Fluttershy was sobbing lightly, Blackout just sat there, glaring at the ground. He suddenly got up and left, leaving the two mares behind. He walked through the rain to his house, thinking about what had happened. Love sucks. He mused. But Rainbow's right, I can't keep acting like a jerk because of it. He sighed as he approached his door. He stepped inside and noticed a card with hearts on it. He opened it and read. Dear Blackout, I know you aren't the angry and bitter pony people say you are. I wish you wouldn't act like it though. You would be a lot more fun if you just lightened up. Even if something happened to you in the past, it'd be best to just let it go. I guess what I'm trying to say is, could you come by and hang out sometime, I think it will really help. Your friend, Rainbow Dash Blackout folded it and placed the card in his vest pocket. Happy Hearts and Hooves Day.
