Tires squealed as the HOUND took a hard right to avoid another rocket barrage from Edgardo. The mercenary opened back up with his four mini-guns mounted on the right side of his HOUND. The rattle of casings could be heard as they clanged to the ground below. The bullets bounced and clanged of the armor of Edgardo's HOUND. He was no longer fighting to teach a lesson, he was fighting to survive.
Carlos's HOUND sat nearby in a raging inferno, for he was the first to fall to the mercenary. Edgardo fired off another rocket barrage, but it was avoided by the mercenary once more. Oscar had returned to battle and now the famed Cerberus Squad had the upper hand again. The machine in the back of Edgardo's cockpit sat quietly awaiting its activation.
The mercenary disappeared for the fifth time during the battle. "Oscar! Where is he?" Edgardo called desperately.
"Point E7!" Alright. He was close. "No, wait! Now point D5!" Oscar called over the radio.
"But how?" Edgardo asked, knowing they were already defeated.
"I don't know. But he's one fast fucker! I'll give him tha-" Oscar was cut off as the mercenary's HOUND suddenly appeared from behind a hill and was hauling up fast to Oscar.
"Oscar! Look out!" Edgardo yelled. Too late. The mercenary's HOUND was upon Oscar and was already deploying its deadly force of Rafzakael's deadliest weapon. The RFZ-WHP-1. The deadly spear pierced through Oscar's cockpit.
"GAHHH!!!" Oscar yelled as his HOUND went up in a fireball. Just like Carlos. Now Edgardo was all that remained.
***
Fluttershy sat in her cottage feeding her animals when she noticed something was wrong with her rabbit, Angel. "What's wrong Angel?" She asked as the rabbit tapped its foot repeatedly. It suddenly ran out the door and Fluttershy gasped. "Angel! Wait!" She took off after the rabbit.
***
The mercenary stopped his HOUND. He climbed out of the hatch and climbed down the ladder to the ground. His medals of completing so many contracts jingled silently. He approached the burning HOUND of Edgardo Gilardino. The mercenary stood in silence as his mentor's corpse burned to ashes. The ground began to rumble. The mercenary looked up and saw six very familiar ACV's approaching him. They stopped in a circle around the mercenary. Then six hatches opened and six figures stepped down.
The Sal Kar combat leader Rahman Nikbakht spoke first. "Mercenary? What are you doing here?"
The mercenary looked through his tinted pilot's goggles and said, "Just finishing a war that should never had started." The other leaders looked at each other. They stood so close to their enemy's, but yet did not have the urge to kill them.
The Morskoj leader Grigori Semak spoke. "So does this mean the war wasn't started by the Sal Kar?"
The mercenary shook his head. "It was the old mercenary squad Cerberus that started it all. It was their intentions all along." The leaders stood there. Silently thinking over the pointless waste they had endured.
***
Fluttershy finally caught up to the rabbit that had stopped at a clearing in the Everfree Forest. It pointed to the clearing and Fluttershy saw a small blue orb floating there. Suddenly it began to shoot small bolts of lightning around it.
***
The mercenary ordered, "Get to your ACVs! NOW!" Edgardo's secret cargo had begun to malfunction and was screaming at the group. They all climbed back into their respective vehicles and began to start them. When a bright blue flash blinded the mercenary and the combat leaders.
***
Fluttershy watched the orb expand and finally explode in a bright flash of light. She covered her eyes in response to the light. When she uncovered them, she about fainted at the seven large creatures sitting in the clearing.
The mercenary opened his hatch and stumbled out of the smoke filled cockpit. He looked around and saw the ACVs sitting around like they had been before. Except for one thing. They were now in a thick forest instead of in the Neroimus lands. "Is everyone alright?" He called as the other leaders began crawling out of their ACVs. They all nodded. The mercenary crawled back into his HOUND and tried starting it. "Damn it! My generators fried!"
"Same here." Called back the others.
"My weapons are online and cockpit power is on. I can defend, just not go anywhere." He told the others as he climbed back out.
"Well mines dead." The others told him. The mercenary thought through what to do.
"Ok. We will set up camp until we find out what's going on." He finally decided. Suddenly a flash of something caught his eye. He turned to see a lion-scorpion creature bounding towards them. "SHIT!" He yelled as he jumped into the cockpit and turned his RFZ-WHP-1 to meet the creature. The creature lunged at his HOUND, and was impaled in mid air by the deadly spike. The spike slowly slid back into its casing and the creature fell to the ground dead.
***
Fluttershy watched in horror as the manticore fell dead to the ground. She saw the strange bipedal creatures approach it cautiously and address the black clad bipedal that was emerging from the gigantic beast.
"What the fucking hell was that!" One of them said.
"I have no clue." It answered.
"Where the fuck are we?" Another asked.
"Beats the shit out of me." The black creature answered. He looked around and looked directly at Fluttershy who was hiding in the bushes. "Stay here." It ordered. It drew something shiny and began slowly towards Fluttershy's hiding place. She quickly got up and ran towards Ponyville.
***
A yellow creature bolted away as the mercenary began towards it. Choosing not to lose the opportunity, he followed it. He ran through the thick forest after the creature. He swore he could see it had something like a pink tail.
***
Fluttershy looked behind her and saw she was being chased by the black creature. She heard it call to her, "Get back here you spying vermin!" Shock and pure terror fueled Fluttershy to run faster yet. She saw Ponyville and realized what she had done. She had lead these creatures right back home.
Fluttershy had tears in her eyes as she ran through the dark. She ran up to Twilight's library and began pounding on the door. "TWILIGHT!" She cried. The door was slowly opened and Fluttershy was instantly on top of Twilight while shutting the door.
"Fluttershy? What's wrong?" Twilight asked with a confused yet tired look on her face. "We need the others!"
***
The mercenary looked down at the small primitive village. He had seen the yellow creature run into there. He decided to call in. He reached up for his ear radio with one hand while silencing his medals with the other. "Hello! Who is this?" The voice of the combat leader Silvy Bernard from Tarakia.
"It's me." The mercenary said.
"Really? Where are you?" She sounded worried.
"I found a village. I'm going to investigate. Keep radio silence until I find out what the population is." "Copy that mercenary. Be careful." She cut out. Lowering both hands, the mercenary grabbed up his assault rifle and slowly crept the best he could, due to his medals, towards the village.
***
"Why are we here?" An annoyed and tired Rainbow Dash asked.
"Ok. Listen. This is what I saw." Fluttershy began to tell the story of what happened. By the end of the story, all six of them shared worried faces.
"We need the princess." Twilight simply stated.
***
The mercenary crept through the dark village and saw houses that had an old type of construct. He found a large tree house with lights lit though. He slowly approached it. As he neared, he heard a voice. "So they seem aggressive, but maybe we can reason with them."
A second voice chimed in, "And if we can't, then I'll just give them the old one two!"
The first voice stopped the second, "No Rainbow. We will have to wait for the princess. She will have to talk to them."
'Rainbow? Who the hell names their child Rainbow?' The mercenary thought. He concluded they were talking about him and he approached the door. He stood fully and rose his foot. He brought it down with all his force and was surprised how easily the door came off. The mercenary quickly jumped in with his gun at the ready. Only to be staring at six colorful ponies. They stared right back.
"Umm... Hi." The purple one spoke.
