Sons of Equestria

Chapter 6: Deceiver’s Reckoning

  “Jason, I thought you didn’t make it.” I starred with my mouth agape at recognizing the voice as Sanchez’s.

  “Sanchez, is that actually you?” I said, still trying to overcome my shock.

  “Yeah, I made it alright.” with that Sanchez took out his magnum and shot at my chest. Fortunately my shield caught it, but the force of the impact knocked me back.

  “Sanchez, what are you trying to do?” I shouted in confusion as he let off another shot that drained my shield’s energy to 25 percent.

  “Doing what I should have since the beginning.” He fired again, but I dodged so that the shot merely flew past my shoulder. I took out my plasma pistol and flipped a switch to set it to full-use. I fired one shot, and I saw the sign that Sanchez’s armor was all the way down. I took out the dead battery and placed a new one in and prepared to shoot again, but just as I started to squeeze the trigger Sanchez shot the battery and caused it to melt down. I drop the pistol and brought out my rifle and began firing, but of course Sanchez had had enough time to recharge his shield slightly.

  Sanchez brought out his sniper rifle and blasted by rifle out of my hands. I drew my plasma knife and charged Sanchez and stabbed the gun’s main systems, and effectively destroyed it. Sanchez also took out his knife, but I was able to pull out my knife and cut the blade just at the handle, but in doing so wasted the last battery power in it. I slammed my fist into Sanchez’s visor, and received a steady kick to the chest in turn.

  “So you’re the traitor I heard about over the radio chatter. For turning on the U.S. army you will die, and I’ll be glad to execute punishment.” Sanchez extended his hand and beckoned for me.

  “Well you won’t get it easy; I’ll make sure of that.” With that I charged him and punched him in the gut, only to have him upper cut me. I backed off slightly. I knew I was being reckless and acting as if I was invincible, I knew my shielding system was made to keep attacks from that close from hitting me.

  I ran up to him and landed another hit on his visor, and this time I saw a crack form. He then punched me in the shoulder, causing me to spin. Taking advantage of the momentum I was given, I preformed a round-house kick directly to his side.

  I grabbed a grenade off my belt and slammed it into his shoulder pad. He then ripped off the metal plate and threw it away.

  Suddenly a large red beam slammed into the planet and I instantly recognized an apocalyptic beam, a beam that caused the planet’s destructive forces, like earthquakes and volcanoes, not to mention all out weather disasters as tornadoes and hurricanes.

  “What are you thinking? This world is full of creatures, smart and sentient creatures!” I yelled at Sanchez over the beams horrific noise.

  “So is Earth, and yet see what fate has faced it.” Sanchez mocked me with scorn echoing in his voice. My anger now was raging through my veins like fire through a forest, uncontrolled and not stopping any time soon.

  I charged Sanchez and laid a punch to his chest, then an uppercut his my other arm. I spun around and slammed my leg into the side of his chest, then I slammed my fist down into the side of his helmet, then I slammed another punch into his visor, making it crack even more. Sanchez was able to smash a punch into my visor, causing it to crack like his. I recovered from the blow quickly and preformed a two-handed-sledgehammer punch to his face, causing his helmet’s visor to shatter.

  Sanchez pushed in on the sides of his helmet and pulled it off revealing his scar ridden face.

  I began to launch a furry punch-fest. I finished off my round of beating up with a solid kick to his chest.

  “Why is this world so important to you? All we found special were some unidentified energy signals.” Sanchez said as he whipped some blood from his jaw.

  “Those signals are actually magic signals; this world is filled with magic wielding creatures.” The beam of energy began to take its devastating effects on the planet as the ground rumbled and split revealing a sea of lava where ground had once been. I could see tornadoes spawning around the area whirling lava around the landscape, as well as several volcanoes that weren’t there a second before spewing forth lava.

  “You mean that there actually is magic on this planet in great amounts?” As he finished his face, no matter how scarred, was conquered by the most devious of smiles. He slammed his fist into my chest and so made me fall back on my back with the wind knocked out of my lungs.

  Sanchez picked up his slightly damaged radio and spoke into it a few words in Gohoritykah, which only left me to guess he was stopping the planet’s destruction so they could do the one thing that might give them the definite victory in the war; harnessing magic for their purposes.

  Sanchez opened his chest hatch and took out a magnum, something that I thought he would never put inside such a place, since if it went off it would only have a layer of muscle-like armoring to slow it down. Sanchez lowered his aim to be and readied to fire one last shot. I jumped up and knocked his aim to the sky, making the bullet shoot into the sky.

  I slammed my right fist into his right cheek and then did the same with my left, and proceeded to beat his face in. Sanchez put the gun up to my chest and pulled the trigger sending the shot into my suit without my shield to try to catch it.

  The bullet made it through both my metal and muscle armor and lodged itself into my chest, but so deep threatening my heart or lungs, just causing me a whole new world of pain. I slammed my elbow into his armpit and then with the same arm grabbed the back of his head and slammed it into my extended knee. I then preformed an upper cut to his chest, causing him to stumble back.

  Sanchez raised his magnum again and sent a bullet flying to me; fortunately we were at range, allowing my shields to react and catch the shot, making it so that only a crumpled piece of metal struck my suit with little to no velocity. But being as close as we were my suit’s shields took more of a beating than they would if we were farther apart.

  I reached into my chest capsule and found the only thing I had placed inside, a spare flash bang. I primed the leaver and then pulled the pin and threw it at Sanchez. Sanchez turned away and shot as he did. The bullet struck the flash bang, causing it to burst, fortunately for me, my suit’s lighting adjustment feature was able to shield my retinas from the harming effects. I charged Sanchez and kicked him in the chest, which caused him to lose his breath. I then slammed my elbow into his back, which made him fall to his hands and knees. As I did this, the ground shook again and the level of the lava fell as a chasm formed where a plain had once been, leaving us two alone and very much so stranded on an island in the middle of a sea of lava.

  Sanchez was able to aim up at me and fire off one more shot, which depleted the rest of my shield’s strength and still left my suit to block a rather fast projectile. I stumbled back and tripped and landed on my rump. I grabbed a stone and hurled it at Sanchez’s face, which didn’t hit but merely gave me time to get back up.

  Sanchez aimed at me, but I was able to knock his arm up once more, but this time he simply swung his arm around to press it against my chest and release the final round in his clip. I fell back onto my back and remained on the ground looking up to the sky. Sanchez walked up to me and flipped his empty clip out and put a new one in. I sprang up and punched him in the face. Sanchez fell back with a bloody nose and a face that was beginning to swell and turn black and blue. I would have followed through, but my wounds were holding me back.

  Sanchez walked up to me and grabbed my side and ripped out the healing gel that had sealed the wound, causing me to yell out in pain and stumble farther back, but his cruelty to be did not end there as he walked up to me again and ripped out the gel in my shoulders.

  I fell to my knees in pain. My breathing was labored and my heart rate monitor was showing that my system was on overdrive to stay alive, not that the feeling of pumping of blood in my temples hadn’t told me the same already. My wounds were now releasing blood down my suit as the blood flowed freely as rivers from my shoulder and side. I knew that I couldn’t take too much more of this, but I doubted Sanchez would give me time to recover.

  I looked up and saw him pointing his pistol at my helmet. My shields were at 0 and being as my helmet was the weakest point in my armor, I knew that his shot would end me. As this thought came to mind my body’s ‘fight or flight’ adrenaline boost kicked in, and being the military I was, I chose fight.

  I punched him in the arm, causing him to drop his pistol to the ground.

  I began slugging him once more as the adrenaline in my system gave me renewed vigor and strength with each blow I delivered. Now fuelled my adrenaline and hate, my vision was turned from the full picture I had prior to a hazy red, narrowing my sight to just my target.

  Suddenly he shoved me back, and after looking to my chest, I saw the one thing that cleared my vision and turned me on to panic mode, a timed, and high powered, plasma explosive.

  Sanchez smiled at me with another one of his malicious smiles.

  “No matter how hard you struggle, you never could win.” I then found a plan that could save me and beat Sanchez all in one.

  I unstrapped all my belts of batteries and grenades and such. I unstrapped everything and then I pressed in the lock of my suit, causing it to fold up as it had been before I put it on, except with a ticking explosive on it. I hurled it at Sanchez; at with him having little time to react, it slammed onto his already attached suit, which also nullified his shielding system by the fact that it had another shielding system of an opposing frequency so close it.

  I charged him and took off my helmet and slammed it onto his head. Sanchez punched me off of him, only to slump to the side as the bullet he had fired finally came back down, and by some miracle, slammed right into his shoulder. This gave me the chance to charge him, after grabbing one of my belts, and press in the lock to open up the suit on him.

  The bombs system was reaching its critical moment as its beeps grew higher pitched and closer to each other. I primed one of the grenades I had in my belt and slammed it into the release mechanism of the suit, making it so Sanchez had no chance of getting it off.

  “A little gift from me to you, hope you like it!” I yelled at Sanchez as I released the grenade. Sanchez then slugged me in the fully exposed face I had, sending me back to the stop I had charged him from. I grabbed the magnum that I had forced Sanchez to drop and shot at Sanchez three times.

  The sound of the glass of his visor shattering reached my ears, and the shocked look on his face was fully exposed for all to see. I released the clip and grabbed one of the one I had still attached to my belt from my previously destroyed magnum, and slammed it into the handle of the pistol and let out all six shot into Sanchez’s chest, causing him to stumble backwards from the force of the shots.

  Sanchez’s face was over taken by the wide expression of fear as he tumbled over the edge of the cliff that had formed. I shuffled to the edge and watched as Sanchez plummeted farther and farther down. Suddenly the explosive charge went off with a burst of blue and red energy mixed together with the sight of a classic grenade explosion.

  Anything that was left of Sanchez, and some debris that had been knocked off the side of the cliff face, fell into the sea of lava, insuring that the once great warrior was dead.

  I looked up and saw the red apocalyptic beam dissipate and proceed to be replaced by a beam of green energy that caused the planet to heal. The chasm rose and the lava were returned to its place at the core while the weather evaporated and the volcanoes fell back into being plains or hills.

  I looked around the area and saw everything as it should be, green and living. I fell to my knees and gripped my side as the adrenaline rush subsided and left me to deal with my pain.

  “Max, where ever you are, I need you right now.” I said verbally and to all thought signals in the close proximity of my area. My vision blurred as I fell to the ground and drifted off into the blackness of unconsciousness.

  I awoke in a small hospital room, in an even smaller bed. I saw that they had tried to adjust it to suit me better, but it hadn’t been enough to fit my frame inside of its boundaries.

  I sat up in my small bed, only to regret it a second later as pain shot through my side. I slammed back into the embrace of the tiny bed and took a few breathes towards recovery.

  “It is good to see you alright.” I heard Max’s voice echo in my head.

  “I am as well, it wouldn’t have been good to die so close to the conflict and yet not be able to help fight it back.” I turned slightly to Max who sat in a rather small chair beside my bed. “Max, U.N. is inbound to this planet. They have found what they wanted so desperately and I can only guess they aren’t going to give it up very easily.”

  “Well fortunately for the U.S.S. Piranha has entered our air space not two minutes ago and they are sending troops and materials our way. We’ll be fully suited for battle soon enough.” I smiled at this information and laid back into the bed.

  “Make sure they have a medical pod on board.” Max nodded and stepped up from his chair and made his way to the door.

  Suddenly a group of three fillies busted through the door and rushed by Max, and in an instant they had jumped onto the already crammed bed.

  “Jason, are you alright? We heard your voice asking for somepony named Max. Did you find him; are you going to be alright?” The three fillies shouted in half unison, with Applebloom lagging behind in speed and Scootaloo rushing ahead of the rest.

  “Max, help me up in this blasted bed.” I told Max through the classic Rahgahgogarian way. Max walked over to the bed and helped me up with as less pain as he could cause. “Girls, this is Larzyhorintorhmax, Max for short. I was calling for him and didn’t have the time to pin point him so I simply called everypony near my area. As to the question of how I am, terrible. I suffered a lot of wounds and lost a good amount of blood through the whole thing, but soon enough adequate medical assistance shall arrive. So all in all, I will be fine.”

  “That’s good to hear, Jason, we were really worried and we started just looking everywhere for you. Then we heard you were in Ponyville hospital, we galloped here as fast as we could.” Applebloom said after a sigh of relief.

  “Hey, Mr. Max, you’re hind legs bend like our but Jason’s don’t, how come?” Scootaloo asked with her head cocked at an angle.

   “Mostly because he is human and I am not. Our autonomies are rather different in contrast although certain body structures are similar.” Max replied nonchalantly. The three fillies looked at me with the look in their eyes that pleaded for the answer to be put into simple terms.

  “We aren’t the same type of creature, we may appear to be the same, but we really aren’t.” The three fillies moved their mouth in an ‘oh’ and good down from my bed.

  “Well it’s good to hear you’re alright, so I guess we’ll be moving along, see you later, Jason.” Sweetie Belle said as the Crusaders trotted out of the room.

  Again, Max attempted to leave the room, only to be stopped as two other ponies rushed in.

  “Jason! Are you alright? How bad are you hurt? Is there anything I can do?” The pony said as he rushed up beside me in an instant.

  “Hold on now, dad! Look, I got injured slightly; I just need recovery time, alright?”

  “Are you sure you are alright?” my dad insisted. I sighed lightly.

  “Max, you can leave now.” I said to Max through mind waves. He nodded and headed outside of the room. “Dad, I am a soldier in the United State’s armed forces, I have had worse injuries than these, so believe me when I say that I am fine.” My father sighed and nodded as he admitted defeat.

  “So, Jason, was it? What exactly happened?”

  “Oh, Twilight, I didn’t see you over the intrusion of my father.” I said as I realized who had entered with my father. “To be blunt, I was betrayed by a person who was, as I thought, on my side of the war. He turned on me, and eventually I received these wounds, while he received death.”

  “Oh, that’s terrible.”

  “Indeed it is. I never thought he would be a traitor.”

  ‘Jason, come in. This is Piranha landing crew, come in.’ I heard a radio crackle.

  “Hey dad, can you give me the radio.” I said as I motioned to the object that rested on the nightstand.

  “Sure…” My father replied as he handed me, with his magic, the small box. I grasped it and pressed down on the side lever.

  “This is Jason, go ahead.”

  ‘We are landed. We have a healing pod ready for you. Should we send up some men to get you?’

  “Yes, get some men up here to get me down; I don’t think I could get down there by myself.” With that the other end of the radio cut off. “Well, I’ll be getting proper care soon enough.”

  “Well, I guess we better head along, see you after you’re better.” My dad said. I nodded and waited for my escort to arrive. My dad went outside and down the stairs to the lobby, while Twilight merely stayed behind.

  “What are you staying around for?” I asked her.

  “Well, I just wanted to make sure you are alright. I’ll also accompany you and your group down the stairs. I just don’t want to leave until I know you are going to get what you need.”

  “Thank you, but it is unneeded.” I replied.

  “When you are friends, nothing is unneeded. We all need help once in a while, and I just want to be absolutely sure you will be fine.”

  “Well it is nice to be care for by a princess.” I said with a light laugh.

  “How did you know? Did Johann tell you?” She asked, surprised I knew she was a princess.

  “No, it’s just I knew you were from the start, not to mention I know that only the princesses have wings and horns.”

  “Oh, well, alright, I guess.” I smiled at the stuttering Twilight.

  After a little wait, I had been escorted down the stairs and to my new healing pod, and being true to her word, Twilight walked the whole way with me and my escort. I was swiftly placed into the cushioned pod for a speedy healing session.

  “I’ll see you soon, Twilight.” I said as the glass shield slid into place. As I faded into unconsciousness, I saw her smile back at me.