Brothers In Blood

     Darkness clouded your vision, the endless black abyss the only thing visible. A soft voice caught your attention, causing you to move closer. Maybe this guy knows where the hell I am. You stopped as you finally could see something. Something you wish you’d have. Two gravestones stood in front of you, COG tags lying on the cold floor. You fell to your knees, your eyes going damp.

     “You couldn’t save them.” Someone whispered from behind you. You ignored it and read the tombstones, crawling your way to the helmets that lied atop the stone. ‘HERE LIES ANTHONY AND BENJAMIN CARMINE’

     “No…” you croaked, gripping your younger brother’s helmet in your chest.

     “You couldn’t save them…” The voice echoed. ‘MAY THEY REST IN PIECE’

     “No…” you repeated, looking at their final words on the tombstones. ‘YOU COULDN’T SAVE US’

     “Join us big brother…” You spun around to see a ghost of your younger brother. Anthony held his hand out in front of you. You got up and looked at him, before shaking your head.

     “No!” you yelled, swinging your fist at the imaginary ghost. It disappeared into smoke before reappearing. Well that’s a sign to run. You turned around and ran, dropping your brother’s helmet of the dark floor.

     “Come back! Embrace death!” your fake brother called. You know he’s not dead. You know they’re not dead. A blinding white light made you stop in your tracks, causing you to cover your eyes. The light engulfed you before everything went black again.

     BROTHERS IN ARMS: EQUESTRIA

     CHAPTER I: THE FOREST OF MAGIC

     You opened your eyes to see millions of stars shinning above you. The moon shone directly on you, causing you to get up on your knees. You looked around to see that you’re surrounded by trees. Trees that could give a kid nightmares. But you passed that stage a long time ago. Your Lancer and other weapons were scattered around the area, causing you to get up off your lazy ass and pick them back up.

     “This is Sargent Clayton Carmine to command. Anybody home?” static replied back, causing you to just give up. If you’re in Locust territory they might have a radio jammer. You sling your Gnasher on your back and put your Sawed off into its holster. You went to pick up your Boltok pistol when you paused. A knife stuck a picture in the ground, the wind trying to rip it off. You ripped it off to take a closer look. It was a picture of the three of you, Anthony in his recruit uniform as he joined at the time.

     “You couldn’t save them.” A voice whispered. You swung around, pointing your Lancer at bushes and shadows. You looked back at the picture before stuffing it in your back pocket.

     “I beg to differ asshole.” You said under your breath. You picked a random direction and started walking, pointing your gun at anything that moves. Time to start exploring.

     You’ve been walking for God knows how long. The fog on the forest floor makes you think you’re walking into a trap. The trees keep getting creepier and creepier, but look like they’re trying too hard to scare you. For an underground forest, the Locust do take care of their plants. A loud roar makes you spin around. A large beast charged right into you, pinning you to a tree. It backed up as a long black tail shot right at you. You barely dodged it at it impaled itself into the tree. You revved up your chainsaw and cut the tail off, red and green blood spraying on your armor. The beast roared in pain, its red eyes glaring at you.

     “Come at me asshole!” you yelled, raising your gun and shooting randomly at the beast. The creature roared in pain. The sound of powerful wings caused you to cover your head as sticks and dirt flew into you. The fuck was that thing? You bent down and picked up the severed tail. Or severed scorpion tail? Did you just fight an overgrown scorpion? But it had wings. Reloading your gun, you continued on, keeping your guard up as a soft growl came from all around. It was stalking you. Even in its pained state.

     “Help!” someone called in the distance. “Someone please help me!” You started sprinting, ignoring the howl of wolves nearby. You charged into a rotting tree and into a clearing. Something in pink crawled into a rotten tree, trying to hide. But that’s not what you noticed first. The moon shone in the clearing, revealing 10 wooden looking wolves growling at the rotten tree. A howl made you turn around to see 3 more walking towards you, their green eyes looking at you in astonishment and hunger. Alright, 13 wooden dogs. The crazy meter notched up a bit.

     “Who’s first!” you yelled over the growling. Not the first time in this situation. Not the last. You started to unload as they came charging at you, exploding into fragments as your Lancer mowed them down. A wolf jumped onto your back, sinking its wooden fangs into your shoulder. You growled in pain, grabbing the beast and throwing him in front of you. You curb stomped its head into the ground, ducking as another jumped over you. You revved you chainsaw as a third tried to take you down, jumping into the blades as it chopped it clean in half.

     One wolf tackled you into the ground, trying to bite at your helmet. You let the wolf bite you in your gauntlet, pulling a knife from your belt and stabbing it into the wooden dog’s neck. You noticed it had a small crown and smiled. Alpha dog down.

     “Anymore of you motherfuckers want some!” you roared as you shot at some of the retreating wolves. You sighed before clenching your shoulder. Those assholes bite like Locusts. You reloaded you Lancer and walked over to the hollow tree, waving softly to the two blue eyes staring at you in horror. “I ain’t going to hurt you kiddo.” You whispered, putting your Lancer away.

     “Watch out!” said a soft voice. You spun around to see a large creature charge into you, pinning you into the hollow tree. Finally a better look at this asshole! The creature was a large lion, two large bat wings extended as it backed away, and roaring at you. The severed tail swung around, blood spraying on trees. You took out your dagger and charged at the beast, ignoring its looks.

     “Check your life insurance, Freak Boy!” you roared as you dodged a swipe from its massive paws. You stabbed your knife into its arm, evicting a roar in pain. You slid under the beast, taking out your Lancer as you came out from behind. You jumped on top the massive beast and revved your chainsaw. “This is what I live for!” You pulled one of its wings and started chopping it off, yelling as its cut through the bone before you fell backwards, the wing detaching. The beast roared in pain, glaring at you, its teeth bared.

     “Oh I’m sorry did I hurt you?” you mocked, raising your blood soaked Lancer. “Well FUCK YOU!” You pressed the trigger to hear a noticeable *click*. The beast grinned, the blood from its severed wing pouring down its back. You dropped the gun, cursing to yourself as the beast charged at you, crashing through trees and finally into a rock. You roared in pain as the beast backed up, raising its paw to strike you down. A small rock hit the beast in the side of the head, causing it to look around.

     “Get away from him you big… Meany….” Two blue eyes turned into pin pricks as the beast started to walk over to the voice. You got up slowly, coughing up blood in your helmet. God why do rocks hurt. You reached back and took out your hidden Bowie knife, glaring at the beast. You charged at it, jumping on top of the beasts back and pulling its mane. The beast roared before you stabbed the knife straight into its eye with all your might, a crack echoing through the clearing.

     “Yeah ain’t so tough now huh!” You yelled, stepping off the injured beast and pulling out your shotgun. “AIN’T SO TOUGH!” you pulled the trigger and the beasts head exploded, blood and brain juice spraying onto your armor. The headless beast twitched before falling to the ground, blood oozing from its head. You backed up, wiping the blood off your visor. You wiped some blood off your arms and your chest armor before looking at the scared-out-of-your-life eyes. You raised out your blood covered- oh shit! You shook the blood off your hand before raising it out.

     “It’s OK little girl I gotcha.” Smooth, now you’re a pedophile. The blue eyes looked at you and then your hand. A hoof landed in your hand, causing you to jump a little. Did the girl run away and left her horse here? You helped up the animal and grunted. The poor thing was painted all yellow, two wings seemingly glued on its back. A pink mane covered half of its face, the poor thing trying not to look directly at you. You petted its head, a small eep catching your attention. Did horses make sounds? Should’ve paid attention in class Carmine. You walked over and picked up your empty Lancer, reloading it and putting it on your back.

     “Alright horse… pony… thing. Where’s your owner?” the pony looked at you, scared out of its mind. You noticed a path in the distance, the moon helping to illuminate it. Well I wish I noticed that earlier. Not waiting for the pony, you pressed on, passing by the pony and out of the forest. The sound of hooves on dirt made you smile. Even I wouldn’t want to extend my stay in here. You stepped onto the path and sighed. Down north was small bridge that went over a stream, a small cottage on the other side.

     “Follow the yellow brick road.” You hummed.