My Little Pony: Chronicles of Lightby Talon19912ChaptersChapter onechapter twochapter threechapter fourchapter fiveChapter oneTalon sat at his desk, in his quarters, on board his ship the Acheron Star, a space cruiser of titanic proportions, with a length of two miles, a width of one quarter mile, and a height of a quarter mile it was by far the largest and most destructive ship in the Earth Imperial Navy, and Talon was the Captain. Sure he was young, foolish, and almost never thought things through much to the dismay of his crew; however, he was a brilliant tactician, a competent leader, and an overall respectable person, at least that was what he wanted to believe. Talon had fallen asleep at his desk. The past few years had been torture on the young captain. Two years ago a navigator on board another vessel had unwittingly stumbled upon a Shadow Spawn fleet, thrusting them into an unnecessary battle that resulted in the loss of many of the Empires’ Battleships. The previous captain on board the Acheron Star had been tasked to rescue the doomed fleet; needless to say it didn’t turn out well, although the Acheron Star had somehow managed to beat off the attacking Shadow Spawn the Captain and most of the command crew had been killed when a plasma bolt breached the shields of the command deck, which caused massive depressurization of the command deck killing any who wasn’t already wearing either power armor or an environmental suit which was everybody on deck. Talon coincidentally had been XO on board the Acheron Star at the time. He took charge and rallied the remaining crew from the Auxiliary Command Deck, turning the tide of battle and managed to get the Acheron Star and the ally fleet safely back behind friendly lines and to the nearest ICP (Imperial Controlled Planet). Talon woke up and ran his hand through his hair. “At least it will be over soon,” He said wearily. He stood up and walked into the bathroom. He stared into the mirror and laughed a little at the young man looking back at him. Among humans he was an anomaly, at least genetically, he was tall, averaging a good six foot two, and he was well built from the many years of training he had received before he would even be considered for Naval Duty. Here’s where genetics come into play, he had silver hair, yeah silver, and it had grown from a crew cut to medium length hair that reached his shoulders, he kept it tied back in a loose pony tail (what? he liked pony tails!). His eyes were a mixture of brown and gold, which had always confounded him. He was young even by military standards; he was nineteen, by far the youngest captain in the Navy. He washed up and then made for the bridge. All was peaceful in the small village of Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle; faithful student of Princess Celestia went about her morning routine. “Spike get me a copy of Wildlife of Equestria volume one through six,” She said in her usual ‘I’m in the zone’ tone. “Sure thing Twilight,” A young purple dragon replied as he began rummaging through the various scrolls and tomes that lined the walls of the Library in which the two of them lived. Spike returned with the tomes that Twilight had requested “Here you go Twilight,” He said while grunting with exertion. “Thank you Spike,” Twilight replied. “So, Twilight, what’s with all the sudden research,” Spike asked. “Last night I caught a glimpse of some strange creature emerging from Everfree Forest, It was really strange and I have been searching through all of the books on the different species of Equestria and haven’t found anything yet it is starting to get troublesome, oh and Spike send this letter to Princess Celestia I contains details on the creature I spotted last night,” She said. “Right away,” Spike said giving a small salute. Celestia sat in the throne room getting increasingly annoyed by the petty squabbles of the nobility around her. If it wasn’t a border dispute it was a feud between families, if it wasn’t a feud, it was an insult or rumor about another family. “Enough,” She said in a raised voice. “Day Court is adjourned until further notice, and I will not accept any back talk on this matter,” She said with finality. “Guards, Escort these ponies from my throne room,” She said. “Right away Your Highness,” a few of the guards responded. As the Princess was left by herself a letter appeared in a familiar plume of green smoke. She smiled as letters from her faithful student always seemed to cheer her up after the rigors of ruling a country. However as she opened the letter her smile faded into a serious look. Dear Princess Celestia, I have made a very startling discovery. While out for my evening walk, I happened to catch a glimpse of an incredibly intimidating creature. I seemed to be enshrouded in an aura of darkness. I was sapping the life out of the nearby plants and rotting them with its very presence. It seemed reptilian in nature, however it had no eyes, its mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth and wiry tentacles sprouted from it’s back ending wit cruel barbs it was bipedal and it gave off an ungodly aura of fear and death it began to feed on one of the local animal only to turn it into another creature of the same kind, what should I do? I await your reply. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle Celestia re read the letter, obviously worried. ‘What could this strange creature be,’ she wondered. ‘Whatever it is it can’t be friendly. “Tia? Is something troubling you?” a voice from behind asked startling the princess back into reality. “Oh, Luna just who I wanted to see, I’ll be heading to Ponyville for a short while and I need you to watch over things while I check into an urgent matter,” Celestia said. “What matter might that be, Tia?” Luna asked. “I don’t know yet I’ll let you know when I return,” Celestia replied. She teleported to Ponyville in a flash of light leaving a rather bewildered Luna behind in the throne room wondering what just happened. A letter fluttered to the ground in front of Luna. She picked it up and read it her face became filled with worry. “Oh, sister please be careful,” She said as she stared off into the distance towards Ponyville. chapter twoTalon walked through the hall of the Acheron Star, the heels of his boots made a metallic impact against the polished steel flooring. Along the way he was greeted by many of his crewmen, everything was going smoothly as he calmly made his way to the bridge. Talon couldn’t help but feel anxious for some reason. The Shadow Spawn had made no direct movements against the empire for some time. He knew for certain that the enemy was up to something, but what? ‘Damn,’ he thought to himself. ‘I hate having absolutely no leads to act upon,’ he complained in his mind. ‘But that isn’t the worst of it, I know for sure they’re up to something,’ he continued to rant. Just then he felt a wave of energy pass over him. ‘Help,’ a voice called from nowhere. Talon looked around. But no one was around ‘what the hell?’ he asked himself. Suddenly a vision came to him. He stood in a burning field looking at the ruins of a once majestic city made of pure white marble. A castle was suspended on the side of a mountain. Scorched bodies littered the city streets; he could smell the scent of decay in the air on two of the bodies were crowns a dark blue one, and a gold one. Suddenly coordinates popped up in front of his face. ‘You are the only hope we have of survival,’ the voice said. The vision faded. Talon propped himself up against a wall for support. He knew that if he ignored this countless live would be lost. He knew that every time he had a vision it always came true, unless he acted upon it or not, almost always the shadow spawn were involved in some way. Talon took off high tailing it towards the bridge. Celestia made her way towards the Everfree forest, she silently swore to herself that she would let no harm come to her subjects as long as she could still draw breath. She would find this creature that was clearly a threat to Equestria and eliminate it. She Entered Everfree Forest alone. She walked for some time at a slow deliberate pace following the trail of decay. This creature really did sap the life out of the environment. As she followed the trail she noticed signs of a struggle tufts of colored fur were caught on branches. She examined some of it closer ‘pony fur,’ she concluded. If Celestia wasn’t angry before she sure was now. She stepped into a clearing. Before her stood the creature in all its gruesomeness. Before Celestia could act the beast charged her unleashing a fierce attack with its tentacles, she barely had time to dodge when the creature was upon her. It tackled her into the mud and with a feral roar went for her neck. She desperately bucked it off of her. She charged up a bolt of magical energy and unleashed it upon the beast. It hit it dead center in the chest, however the creature stood there for a moment looked towards the sky then back at Celestia and it smiled. That caused Celestia to visibly shudder. It charged her again, this time lashing out with its claws. They connected, savagely raking across her chest leaving a massive gouge that began to bleed heavily. She fired another bolt of energy, but the creature only shrugged it off an ensnared her with its tentacles. It began to squeeze. She struggled to breathe, it became harder and harder, then she started to struggle. She wanted to yell however no words would come out. As she started to black out a deafening boom came from overhead. ’Rainbow Dash?’ She thought. However there was no sight of the cyan Pegasus. What she did see shocked her beyond belief; a massive metal object emerged out of the sky and slowed to a stop. Something then detached from the main object and began falling towards the ground it split in midair and flew in separate directions one fell straight for her location. It came down in the area ahead of her, kicking up dust and debris; the creature released Celestia and turned its full attention to the strange metal object that emerged from the dust. Suddenly a blast of air shot out of the object kicking up an even larger cloud of dust. She heard aloud whooshing sound then she heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed. Talon stood by in his drop pod as he went over the details in his head, some rather ludicrous ones at that. Apparently the planet they were orbiting was an unclaimed planet, Inhabited by talking ponies. 'Ponies Seriously? Oh well,' he thought to himself. He did a quick scan and seen something interesting. A lone pony walking straight into a shadow spawn nest. Suddenly a fight broke out and the pony had its but handed to it. However Talon still had a chance. “Commence Mission,” Talon said over his helmet microphone. “Roger prepping for sub orbital drop, now entering atmosphere,” The navigator replied. “Hell Jumpers! Time to descend,” Talon said over the radio. Talons’ pod was loaded into a cluster pod, a device designed to launch multiple pod at once to separate pre-programmed coordinates, which in turn was loaded into its own launcher. “Here we go, three…two…one…Launch!” he said as he pressed the launch button by his left hand. “Prepped for separation at 10,000ft above sea level,” Talon said as the cluster pod was launched from the main hangar. There was a sudden jolt and then Talons pod fell away from the cluster pod. “Separation confirmed, activating controlled free fall,” Talon said as a pair of control sticks emerged for him to grip, pressing another button caused the heat shields to break away exposing the control surfaces on the hull of the pod. A display appeared on a small screen showing his R.O.D. (Rate of Descent) surface angle and predicted drop point. He decided to literally drop in on the fight below, hopefully scoring some major hero points with whoever the leaders of this planet were. He pulled a small lever at his side, which in turn caused the air brakes to deploy. “Air breaks deployed prepping for impact,” He said as he tweaked the controls giving the pod just enough pitch and yaw to land relatively safely on the ground below. Talons’ pod impacted the ground sending up a cloud of dust and debris. Talon looked through the canopy of his pod; the shadow spawn had a death grip on a white horse like creature with a horn and wings, and a mane and tail like an aurora. It was clearly female by its apparent body structure; she was seriously injured by the look of things. Talon popped the canopy sending a blast of air out and the canopy flying into the distance. Dust filled the air and Talon jumped out of his pod. The shadow spawn dropped the unicorn, pegasus thing and focused on me. He drew the blade that hung from his left hip. He widened his stance and brought the blade up in a two handed hold, similar to the basic stance in kendo. The dust settled and Talons’ gaze was fixed on the shadow spawn in front of him. He dashed towards the shadow spawn with lightning speed. Celestia was surprised at the appearance of another strange creature. This new creature however was very different from the beast that had attacked her. It was tall, at least as tall as herself, it was covered from top to bottom in what she obviously recognized as armor. Its armor color was pure white with an under suit that was black with a texture that was similar to dragon scales. The plates of its armor appeared streamlined with a chest plate that had an emblem emblazoned on the right side, Its helmet appeared to have a simple design, It was a full helm with a glass visor that had a silver tint to it in the shape of a T. Its right arm was fully clad with a heavy shoulder plate that flared up as it came closer to the neck to effectively protect it, an elbow guard and a gauntlet that covered its hand and lower arm, Its left arm was significantly less armored it was missing the heavy shoulder plate opting instead with a lighter one without the flare of the other, it had the same elbow guard and gauntlet. Its lower body was covered with thigh guards, knee guards, and heavy shin guards. The knight for lack of a better word surprised Celestia by dashing towards the creature and sliding between its legs, rolling and standing up again effectively placing itself between her and the creature. On its back she read bold black letters that spelled ‘EQUES’ she assumed that this was the creatures’ name. It pulled out a strange object and pointed it towards the creature there was a loud sound and a flash of light and the creature fell to the ground writing in agony then suddenly it melted into the ground. The knight turned towards her and pulled out another object, this one had a red cross on it. “Hold still,” It told her in a calm voice. “This will help stop the bleeding until we can get you some medical help,” It said. “This may sting a bit,” it said. A burst of vapor came from the object settling into the wound on her chest as the knight promised the bleeding stopped. “Can you stand,” It asked. Celestia nodded. “Alright then, as I came down I caught sight of a town. Is there a medical center there?” It asked. “Yes,” Celestia replied. “Okay, let’s get you there before the medical spray wears off and you start bleeding again,” It added. “That… would be wise,” Celestia replied. “What is your name knight?” The creature froze then shrugged his shoulders “Talon James Eques, Captain in the Earth Imperial Navy,” He said with a small salute as he helped her stand. “What about you?” He asked. “Celestia, Princess and co regent of Equestria,” She said with dignity. “Well your highness, I suggest we get moving, I don’t want to be here when that grunts’ friends show up,” He said. “Let’s get a move on,” With Talon supporting her weight the two of them made their way towards Ponyville. Author's Note Chapter two, probably with more errors in it but, after my last story kind of flopped I decided to go with a more action intensive storyline, the Shadow Spawn make the perfect enemy, because they are cruel, merciless, and are basically the epitome of evil, and if you imagine them like I do, they're just plain creepy. Plus sci-fi/ fantasy stories are kind of my chief interest. It also helped to draw some inspiration form the Halo, Mechassault, and Front Mission games when I game up with some of the technology that Talon will utilize as the story goes on. chapter threeFinally managing to exit the forest Talon quickened his pace, at least as much as he could, considering he carried a magical talking pony princess, a concept he still found amusing. It was roughly mid-day ant this particular planets’ sun shone high in the sky. It was stiflingly hot covered in his armor and he desperately wanted to remove his helmet but with one arm he supported Celestia and the other he carried his rifle. His muscles screamed from the exertion he had put on them almost constantly since starting this trek through the forest. ‘It’s times like these I almost wish I had bionic implants,’ he complained to himself. Talon for all intents and purposes was considered a ‘normal’ human, except his heightened strength, perception, and agility which came from his hybrid lineage, which only he and very few others knew about. Talon glanced over toward Celestia. “Princess, I know the plan was to get you to a medical facility, but seeing as we are in kind of a rush is there anywhere close by where you could at least get some basic first aid,” He asked. “There is one place I can think of, however I am unsure how the occupant will react to you,” Celestia replied. “Well princess, I see very little choice, plus I’m pretty sure with you there we shouldn’t have too much trouble,” Talon replied. He didn’t truly believe that, however he had really no choice in the matter. “I am feeling much stronger after getting out of that forest. While there I felt like all my magic had suddenly been drained from me,” Celestia stated. “I know the feeling,” Talon replied. “Your kind has magic? Is that how you managed to kill that creature?” She asked. “Not all my kind has magic, only a select few; most of us have what we call Life Energy, because it resembles bright light when it manifests itself. Magic and Life Energy are essentially same thing, the difference is magic kind of gathers into a type of pool that you can draw from and you merely get exhausted from its overuse, however life energy is literally life itself, it doesn’t pool like magic and has dire consequences if too much is used at once some lose their ability to use magic while others lose their life all together. I am one of the few of my species that can actually use magic instead of life energy. I would have used it to heal you earlier, but unfortunately my specialty lies in combat not medicine,” Talon explained. He noticed a small cottage on the edge of the forest a little of the path that he had escorted Celestia down. “That is the place,” Celestia said. “Kind of reminds me of a zoo,” Talon said, taking notice of the various animals that moved around the area. “Fluttershy, the pony that lives her is an extremely shy but kind hearted young pegasus, if anypony is capable of helping it would be her,” Celestia explained. “Oh and Talon I think I should be able to walk on my own now,” She said. “Alright princess, I’ll be here just in case,” Talon replied. Talon was the kind of guy to treat women with respect and kindness, even if the woman wasn’t a human, it also didn’t matter to him whether or not somebody was royalty or not, a trait he admits, he picked up while training with the Femyceran Knights on the planet of Nekoria. He had received his knighthood there as well as the armor he was currently wearing. Nobody except himself knew of the training he had received amongst the ranks of the Femyceran Knights, which is why he had frozen up when Celestia had called him a knight, she had caught him off guard. Celestia walked up to the door of Fluttershy’s house. She knocked on the door. A slit in the door opened to reveal a pair of blue eyes. “H-Hello,” A voice asked timidly. “Hello Fluttershy, may I come in?” Celestia asked kindly. “P-Princess of course you can,” Fluttershy replied as she opened the door. As the door opened a small yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail stepped out. “How can I help you… oh dear what happened,” She said in a quietly loud tone. “An accident in the forest, I was careless and as such paid the price, my friend here managed to help me, but according to him I still need my wound taken care of,” Celestia replied motioning towards Talon who was just casually looking around, he caught this and straitened. “Oh, I see,” Fluttershy replied quietly. “Please come inside,” she said. Celestia stepped inside followed by Talon. Talon looked around at the inside of the cottage, it had a really simple feel about the place, it looked like it was quite comfortable to live in. “Come to the couch Princess so I can take care of your wound,” The little yellow pegasus said quietly. Talon sat in a nearby corner, mostly because there no chairs big enough for him to sit in. “Fluttershy, may I trouble you for a quill and parchment,” Celestia asked. “I wish for Twilight and the rest of your friends to get here as soon as possible,” She said. “Of course princess,” Fluttershy said as she grabbed a nearby sheet of parchment paper, an ink well, and a quill. Celestias’ horn glowed then the paper and quill floated over to her she began to write a quick letter, she closed her eyes then the letter blinked out of existence. Talon didn’t even react to a display of magic such as that, he had seen far stranger things in his life, so it didn’t really affect him. Talon finally was able to take his helmet off. Talon looked towards Celestia as he set his helmet on a nearby table. Celestia was caught off guard when Talon had decided to take his helmet off. She noticed that Talon appeared to be quite young; he ran his hand through his medium length silver hair. “So when should this twilight character get here,” He asked. His voice sounded much clearer now than when he wore his helmet. “Within the next few minutes,” She replied. “Princess,” Fluttershy interrupted. “Your wound has already begun to heal, so you aren’t in any real danger, I have added some antibiotic ointment and bandaged your wound, you should fully recover within the next few days, however there will be a faint scar, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said lowering her head. Celestia smiled gently “Don’t worry, It would have been much worse if not for Talon over there,” She said gesturing towards Talon. As she said that a Purple unicorn with a dark blue mane and tail burst through the door followed by a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, who was followed by an orange pony with a blonde mane and tail wearing a cowboy hat, who was then followed by a bouncing pink pony with a dark pink mane and tail, with a pure white unicorn with a dark purple mane bringing up the rear. “Princes are you alright, I got your letter,” The purple unicorn said in a state of panic. “Twilight calm yourself,” Celestia said placing a hoof on the Unicorns’ shoulders. “As I said in the letter, without the aid of a friend I probably would not have survived, also did you send a letter to my sister?” Celestia asked. “Yes, she should arrive here any time,” Twilight replied. Talon sat in the corner through the entire exchange between the Unicorn and Celestia. ‘They seem to have a good relationship,’ he thought. “Now everyone I would like to introduce someone,” Celestia stated. ‘Here it comes,’ Talon thought. Celestia gestured towards him. “This is Talon, and he is personally responsible for saving my life, introduce yourselves,” Celestia said. The ponies in the room turned towards Talon as stood up. The first pony to introduce themselves was the purple unicorn. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, faithful student to the princess, It’s a pleasure to meet you,” She held out a hoof. Talon bent down and took it. He smiled “Likewise,” He replied simply. The pink pony introduced herself. “Hi, I’m pinkie pie, it’s nice to meet you, do you like parties,” She said impossibly fast. “It’s nice to meet you, and yes, I enjoy a nice party now and then,” Talon replied. The cyan pegasus introduced herself “I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria, nice to meet ya,” She said confidently. “Same here,” Talon replied. The orange pony introduced herself with a southern accent. “I’m Apple Jack, I run Sweet Apple Acres the local orchard, we grow the best apples in Equestria. I’m glad to meet you,” She said. “Likewise,” Talon said respectively. The next one to come up was the white Unicorn “I am Rarity, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” She said. “The pleasure is mine Rarity,” Talon responded. The last one was Fluttershy “It nice to meet you, I’m Fluttershy,” she said quietly. “It’s nice to meet you to,” Talon said. Then a dark blue pony almost identical to Celestia came into the cottage. “Sister are you alright, I had heard you had been injured,” She said. “I’m fine Luna, Talon here saved my life,” Celestia replied. Luna looked towards Talon. “Thank you for saving my big sister, my name is Luna co regent of Equestria and princess of the night,” She said. Talon gave a salute “I am Captain Talon James Eques, of the E.I.N. Its’ an honor to meet you your highness,” Talon replied. “Talon, now that everypony is here would you mind explaining what that creature you saved me from was, and how you were able dispatch it so easily,” Celestia said. I sighed “Of course princess, however I’ll probably have to start from the beginning, if that is alright,” Talon said as he started to take a seat on the floor. “It’s quite the story,” He said. “Of course, Talon,” Celestia replied. Talon nodded and began his story. Author's Note -There is the reason I had Talon meet Celestia first- chapter fourA/N: This chapter will be told from the perspective of Talon, let me know what you think, and if I should continue writing this way. I looked at the ponies that had gathered around. I looked at them seriously for a moment. “The first thing I will say is this, these creatures are known as Shadow Spawn, as for how I dispatched it,” I paused a moment. “I will need to start at the beginning,” I said. “I want you to understand that you all seem to live a fairly sheltered life, even you your highnesses,” I said looking in their direction. “From firsthand experience my kind has found the stars to be quite inhospitable, when we first left for space we had only ever been able to send specially trained men to the moon, over time however out technology advanced to the point where we were able to build ships with faster than light capabilities,” I paused to gather my thoughts. “The first planet we colonized was a planet in my home system called Mars, It was a huge success. We eventually discovered special metals and minerals not found on earth, this gave us the ability to create even better starships. We began to push the boundaries of our solar system, however is when we came upon another society living amongst the stars. As you could expect things didn’t go over to well, my people were thrust into an interstellar war that almost drove us to extinction. Of course that was thousands of years ago,” I explained. “Now obviously things changed over time and as Humanity grew so too did our technology and power,” I said. “Of course it was a time of relative peace, the worst conflict that had erupted was a civil war on the planet Alpha 1, or at least that’s what my people thought. It was humanity’s first contact with the shadow spawn. According to history the ground war that followed was pretty bad resulting in us ultimately losing the planet,” I took notice of their faces; I guess the idea of any kind of war is a foreign concept. “Now about the shadow spawn themselves, they’re evil, pure and simple, uncompromising, sadistic, and merciless. They are almost unbeatable, they have a natural resistance to magic of almost any form other than cosmic magic, they are definitely a pain to deal with, I only managed to kill the one that attacked Celestia by catching it off guard, it won’t be that easy again,” I said with a hint of foreboding in my voice. “I have fought the shadow spawn for many years and I have gotten good at killing them, my training takes advantage of over a thousand years of knowledge concerning them,” I said. “As for how I killed the shadow spawn from earlier, the truth is, I am a cosmic magic user or C.M.U. for short as with the majority of the people on board my ship in the sky,” I admitted. The groups’ eyes widened at my statement. Twilight spoke up “So what you’re saying is that you killed a creature the hurt the princess easily and walked out without a scratch, by only using you magic?” she asked. “More or less, yeah, however I my people can’t use magic without a focus of some kind to channel magic energy through,” I placed a hand on the hilt of my blade. “My blade acts as my focus, without it I wouldn’t normally be able to fight with magic, and I would be about as useless as a ‘stock’ human,” I said with no small amount of resentment in my voice. “A ‘stock’ human?” Twilight asked. “An unmodified human, almost all of us are modified in some way, a stock human is a person who refuses to have any kind of bodily modification, even medical mods such as disease prevention implants and other beneficial augmentations, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but most stock humans belong to multiple terrorist organizations, some even defect to join with the shadow spawn,” I said with disappointment. “Well not all stock humans are like that, however, but they are few and far between, but we’re off topic,” I said. “About the shadow spawn, if there is one, there are no doubt more, I need to know now if any of you have seen other shadow spawn,” I said. “Well,” Twilight spoke up. “I saw one last night, everything around it seemed to rot away, and it turned other creatures into something similar,” she said nervously. I brought my hand to my chin, one of my typical thinking actions, suddenly it dawned on me “A Corruptor, this just got a whole lot worse,” I said with urgency. “How so?” Luna asked. “Normally shadow spawn aren’t able to corrupt complex organisms outside of reptiles and insects, however if you throw a corruptor into the mix, nothing is safe,” I explained. “Look, I need to get in contact with my ship,” I said as I grabbed my helmet and put it on. I activated my H.U.D. “This is Artemis one, to Acheron Star, come in,” I said the waited for an answer. “This is Acheron Star we read you Captain, how are things down there. “Peaceful, for the moment, however it looks like corruptors have made it planet side, and I have already taken care of a grunt that was on patrol near an inhabited village,” I said. “Understood, the other scouts have reported along the same lines, do you have orders sir,” The operator asked. “Prepare the Hell Jumpers, once I have permission they are to touch down a quarter mile outside my position, this seems to be the area most heavily populated by shadow spawn,” I explained. “Understood sir, the Hell Jumpers will be on standby until you give the orders,” The Operator replied. “Understood Artemis one out,” I turned to the ponies in the room, I had been pacing back and forth, something I do when I have a lot of pent up anxiety. “Princesses, this is a serious situation your people have found themselves in,” I said. “Now my crew and I are willing to help you out, however, since this planet doesn’t fell under Earth United Empire control my hands are tied unless you give us permission to set down on you planet, if not than there isn’t much we can do to help you,” I said as I looked at the two princesses. “I Talon James Eques, formally ask your permission to touch down on your planet an help fortify and defend your cities and civilians from the threat of the shadow spawn, and since you are the leaders on this world, my men and I will be at your command until such time that we are no longer needed,” I looked at the through my visor, thankfully my helmet was on, or they probably would have seen me sweating, I had my own personal reasons for taking this action, some of which would probably surface one day, however at this point in time I felt this was what I needed to do. Celestia looked up at me “Captain if you can personally promise me that my little ponies will be kept from harm I see no reason not to let you help,” she said. I looked at her. “Princess this is war, I can’t promise that there will be no casualties and there will be some we can’t save, however I can promise that as long as we are here, we will do all we can to minimize the damage done and protect those we can save, you have my word” I said. Celestia seemed to think for a moment. “I understand, captain,” She said. “I give you permission to do what you must to protect my little ponies,” she relented. “Understood, princess,” I said. “Acheron Star, this is Artemis one,” I said through my com-link. “This is Acheron Star we read you captain,” The operator replied. “Permission has been granted, launch the Valkyries and prepare Hell Jumpers, it is time to burn away the infection that the shadow spawn have brought to this world,” I said with conviction. “Understood captain,” The operator replied. I turned to the others. “Alright it’s time to meet the men, you are all more than welcome to join me,” I said as I headed towards the door. ‘This is going to be a tough fight,” I thought to myself. Author's Note Like I said earlier this was a test chapter, however that doesn't mean it wasn't important to the main plot. \ Besides I wanted to try a different style of writing. The action will no doubt pick up as the story progresses. So let me know what you think, and if you have Ideas that I could add to my story, send me a message. If not no problem, I just want to make this story as good as It can be, so others can enjoy reading it. Thanks a lot. chapter fiveIt’s weird now that I think about it. Over the course of the past few hours I rescued a Princess, killed a Shadow spawn, and met a group of rather colorful ponies. I was so caught up in my mission that I failed to notice something very strange. The unicorn known as Twilight or Twi to her friends seems to be the leader of their group, but something is off about her, nothing bad, but it was strange, I decided it would be wise to bring this up to Celestia in private as soon an opportunity presented itself. I stood atop a large hill overlooking a valley, the last rays of twilight shown over the mountain. In the distance one could see the pony capital; it was just a silhouette against the lowering sun. The wind blew gently through the valley. It was…peaceful, at least for now. “This view is simply divine,” Rarity gasped from somewhere behind me. I smiled beneath my helmet. “Yeah it’s very nice Rarity, but when are his friends supposed to get here,” a rather impatient Rainbow Dash asked from behind me. I sighed ‘They should really enjoy this a little more, after the fighting begins there won’t be time for this,’ I thought. The sound of jet engines could be heard from above. “Here they come,” I said as a Valkyrie screamed overhead, It was a large aircraft with a large open area in the back for soldiers to exit from, it had a moderately sized cockpit that held four people, two pilots, a navigator, and a weapons controller. On the sides were two large engines built into the main body of the ship, two large wings protruded from the sides at a downwards angle, two stabilizer wings extended from either side of the cockpit, and two vertical stabilizers were attached at the rear of the air craft. The weapon systems on board included a rail cannon on the bottom, two rapid fire laser turrets on the top offset so that neither interfered with eachother’s line of fire, it had a 50 caliber mini gun mounted in the nose on a swivel turret, and a laser turret on each side of the aircraft, it was slow but it made up for it with extremely heavy armor, massive fire power, and very effective shielding. “What is THAT!” Rainbow Called suddenly dashing forward. “That is a Valkyrie, a heavy combat drop ship; they transport troops and vehicles to and from an orbiting cruiser or colony ship. We Could easily drop in our pods but that process is only used in unknown situations or when extreme haste is required just to get some feet on the ground and secure an area,but when dealing with shadow spawn we take no chances,” I explained. The white trench coat I wore just under the top layer of my armor whipped in the wind that had appeared from the Valkyrie passing overhead. The roar of engines could be heard as more and more Valkyries passed overhead. There were multiple versions of Valkyrie flying above heading for the valley. Some were modified to carry pre-assembled building pieces called modules; others were modified to carry multiple types of land vehicles from light attack vehicles to tanks and even B.A.F.U.s (Bipedal Armored Fighting Units). "Alright Everyone, follow me and keep close, but DON'T touch anything," I said as I turned to face the others. I turned and headed down a dirt path leading through tall grass into the valley below. Author's Note Jeeze, I can't believe it took this long to release this chapter. *sigh* The curse of writers block. From now on though I actually plan on making my chapters from anywhere between four hundred to around two thousand words depending on the inspiration I receive from other sources (including readers) and my overall enthusiasm for a particular chapter. Things should start heating up pretty soon.
Chapter oneTalon sat at his desk, in his quarters, on board his ship the Acheron Star, a space cruiser of titanic proportions, with a length of two miles, a width of one quarter mile, and a height of a quarter mile it was by far the largest and most destructive ship in the Earth Imperial Navy, and Talon was the Captain. Sure he was young, foolish, and almost never thought things through much to the dismay of his crew; however, he was a brilliant tactician, a competent leader, and an overall respectable person, at least that was what he wanted to believe. Talon had fallen asleep at his desk. The past few years had been torture on the young captain. Two years ago a navigator on board another vessel had unwittingly stumbled upon a Shadow Spawn fleet, thrusting them into an unnecessary battle that resulted in the loss of many of the Empires’ Battleships. The previous captain on board the Acheron Star had been tasked to rescue the doomed fleet; needless to say it didn’t turn out well, although the Acheron Star had somehow managed to beat off the attacking Shadow Spawn the Captain and most of the command crew had been killed when a plasma bolt breached the shields of the command deck, which caused massive depressurization of the command deck killing any who wasn’t already wearing either power armor or an environmental suit which was everybody on deck. Talon coincidentally had been XO on board the Acheron Star at the time. He took charge and rallied the remaining crew from the Auxiliary Command Deck, turning the tide of battle and managed to get the Acheron Star and the ally fleet safely back behind friendly lines and to the nearest ICP (Imperial Controlled Planet). Talon woke up and ran his hand through his hair. “At least it will be over soon,” He said wearily. He stood up and walked into the bathroom. He stared into the mirror and laughed a little at the young man looking back at him. Among humans he was an anomaly, at least genetically, he was tall, averaging a good six foot two, and he was well built from the many years of training he had received before he would even be considered for Naval Duty. Here’s where genetics come into play, he had silver hair, yeah silver, and it had grown from a crew cut to medium length hair that reached his shoulders, he kept it tied back in a loose pony tail (what? he liked pony tails!). His eyes were a mixture of brown and gold, which had always confounded him. He was young even by military standards; he was nineteen, by far the youngest captain in the Navy. He washed up and then made for the bridge. All was peaceful in the small village of Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle; faithful student of Princess Celestia went about her morning routine. “Spike get me a copy of Wildlife of Equestria volume one through six,” She said in her usual ‘I’m in the zone’ tone. “Sure thing Twilight,” A young purple dragon replied as he began rummaging through the various scrolls and tomes that lined the walls of the Library in which the two of them lived. Spike returned with the tomes that Twilight had requested “Here you go Twilight,” He said while grunting with exertion. “Thank you Spike,” Twilight replied. “So, Twilight, what’s with all the sudden research,” Spike asked. “Last night I caught a glimpse of some strange creature emerging from Everfree Forest, It was really strange and I have been searching through all of the books on the different species of Equestria and haven’t found anything yet it is starting to get troublesome, oh and Spike send this letter to Princess Celestia I contains details on the creature I spotted last night,” She said. “Right away,” Spike said giving a small salute. Celestia sat in the throne room getting increasingly annoyed by the petty squabbles of the nobility around her. If it wasn’t a border dispute it was a feud between families, if it wasn’t a feud, it was an insult or rumor about another family. “Enough,” She said in a raised voice. “Day Court is adjourned until further notice, and I will not accept any back talk on this matter,” She said with finality. “Guards, Escort these ponies from my throne room,” She said. “Right away Your Highness,” a few of the guards responded. As the Princess was left by herself a letter appeared in a familiar plume of green smoke. She smiled as letters from her faithful student always seemed to cheer her up after the rigors of ruling a country. However as she opened the letter her smile faded into a serious look. Dear Princess Celestia, I have made a very startling discovery. While out for my evening walk, I happened to catch a glimpse of an incredibly intimidating creature. I seemed to be enshrouded in an aura of darkness. I was sapping the life out of the nearby plants and rotting them with its very presence. It seemed reptilian in nature, however it had no eyes, its mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth and wiry tentacles sprouted from it’s back ending wit cruel barbs it was bipedal and it gave off an ungodly aura of fear and death it began to feed on one of the local animal only to turn it into another creature of the same kind, what should I do? I await your reply. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle Celestia re read the letter, obviously worried. ‘What could this strange creature be,’ she wondered. ‘Whatever it is it can’t be friendly. “Tia? Is something troubling you?” a voice from behind asked startling the princess back into reality. “Oh, Luna just who I wanted to see, I’ll be heading to Ponyville for a short while and I need you to watch over things while I check into an urgent matter,” Celestia said. “What matter might that be, Tia?” Luna asked. “I don’t know yet I’ll let you know when I return,” Celestia replied. She teleported to Ponyville in a flash of light leaving a rather bewildered Luna behind in the throne room wondering what just happened. A letter fluttered to the ground in front of Luna. She picked it up and read it her face became filled with worry. “Oh, sister please be careful,” She said as she stared off into the distance towards Ponyville.
chapter twoTalon walked through the hall of the Acheron Star, the heels of his boots made a metallic impact against the polished steel flooring. Along the way he was greeted by many of his crewmen, everything was going smoothly as he calmly made his way to the bridge. Talon couldn’t help but feel anxious for some reason. The Shadow Spawn had made no direct movements against the empire for some time. He knew for certain that the enemy was up to something, but what? ‘Damn,’ he thought to himself. ‘I hate having absolutely no leads to act upon,’ he complained in his mind. ‘But that isn’t the worst of it, I know for sure they’re up to something,’ he continued to rant. Just then he felt a wave of energy pass over him. ‘Help,’ a voice called from nowhere. Talon looked around. But no one was around ‘what the hell?’ he asked himself. Suddenly a vision came to him. He stood in a burning field looking at the ruins of a once majestic city made of pure white marble. A castle was suspended on the side of a mountain. Scorched bodies littered the city streets; he could smell the scent of decay in the air on two of the bodies were crowns a dark blue one, and a gold one. Suddenly coordinates popped up in front of his face. ‘You are the only hope we have of survival,’ the voice said. The vision faded. Talon propped himself up against a wall for support. He knew that if he ignored this countless live would be lost. He knew that every time he had a vision it always came true, unless he acted upon it or not, almost always the shadow spawn were involved in some way. Talon took off high tailing it towards the bridge. Celestia made her way towards the Everfree forest, she silently swore to herself that she would let no harm come to her subjects as long as she could still draw breath. She would find this creature that was clearly a threat to Equestria and eliminate it. She Entered Everfree Forest alone. She walked for some time at a slow deliberate pace following the trail of decay. This creature really did sap the life out of the environment. As she followed the trail she noticed signs of a struggle tufts of colored fur were caught on branches. She examined some of it closer ‘pony fur,’ she concluded. If Celestia wasn’t angry before she sure was now. She stepped into a clearing. Before her stood the creature in all its gruesomeness. Before Celestia could act the beast charged her unleashing a fierce attack with its tentacles, she barely had time to dodge when the creature was upon her. It tackled her into the mud and with a feral roar went for her neck. She desperately bucked it off of her. She charged up a bolt of magical energy and unleashed it upon the beast. It hit it dead center in the chest, however the creature stood there for a moment looked towards the sky then back at Celestia and it smiled. That caused Celestia to visibly shudder. It charged her again, this time lashing out with its claws. They connected, savagely raking across her chest leaving a massive gouge that began to bleed heavily. She fired another bolt of energy, but the creature only shrugged it off an ensnared her with its tentacles. It began to squeeze. She struggled to breathe, it became harder and harder, then she started to struggle. She wanted to yell however no words would come out. As she started to black out a deafening boom came from overhead. ’Rainbow Dash?’ She thought. However there was no sight of the cyan Pegasus. What she did see shocked her beyond belief; a massive metal object emerged out of the sky and slowed to a stop. Something then detached from the main object and began falling towards the ground it split in midair and flew in separate directions one fell straight for her location. It came down in the area ahead of her, kicking up dust and debris; the creature released Celestia and turned its full attention to the strange metal object that emerged from the dust. Suddenly a blast of air shot out of the object kicking up an even larger cloud of dust. She heard aloud whooshing sound then she heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed. Talon stood by in his drop pod as he went over the details in his head, some rather ludicrous ones at that. Apparently the planet they were orbiting was an unclaimed planet, Inhabited by talking ponies. 'Ponies Seriously? Oh well,' he thought to himself. He did a quick scan and seen something interesting. A lone pony walking straight into a shadow spawn nest. Suddenly a fight broke out and the pony had its but handed to it. However Talon still had a chance. “Commence Mission,” Talon said over his helmet microphone. “Roger prepping for sub orbital drop, now entering atmosphere,” The navigator replied. “Hell Jumpers! Time to descend,” Talon said over the radio. Talons’ pod was loaded into a cluster pod, a device designed to launch multiple pod at once to separate pre-programmed coordinates, which in turn was loaded into its own launcher. “Here we go, three…two…one…Launch!” he said as he pressed the launch button by his left hand. “Prepped for separation at 10,000ft above sea level,” Talon said as the cluster pod was launched from the main hangar. There was a sudden jolt and then Talons pod fell away from the cluster pod. “Separation confirmed, activating controlled free fall,” Talon said as a pair of control sticks emerged for him to grip, pressing another button caused the heat shields to break away exposing the control surfaces on the hull of the pod. A display appeared on a small screen showing his R.O.D. (Rate of Descent) surface angle and predicted drop point. He decided to literally drop in on the fight below, hopefully scoring some major hero points with whoever the leaders of this planet were. He pulled a small lever at his side, which in turn caused the air brakes to deploy. “Air breaks deployed prepping for impact,” He said as he tweaked the controls giving the pod just enough pitch and yaw to land relatively safely on the ground below. Talons’ pod impacted the ground sending up a cloud of dust and debris. Talon looked through the canopy of his pod; the shadow spawn had a death grip on a white horse like creature with a horn and wings, and a mane and tail like an aurora. It was clearly female by its apparent body structure; she was seriously injured by the look of things. Talon popped the canopy sending a blast of air out and the canopy flying into the distance. Dust filled the air and Talon jumped out of his pod. The shadow spawn dropped the unicorn, pegasus thing and focused on me. He drew the blade that hung from his left hip. He widened his stance and brought the blade up in a two handed hold, similar to the basic stance in kendo. The dust settled and Talons’ gaze was fixed on the shadow spawn in front of him. He dashed towards the shadow spawn with lightning speed. Celestia was surprised at the appearance of another strange creature. This new creature however was very different from the beast that had attacked her. It was tall, at least as tall as herself, it was covered from top to bottom in what she obviously recognized as armor. Its armor color was pure white with an under suit that was black with a texture that was similar to dragon scales. The plates of its armor appeared streamlined with a chest plate that had an emblem emblazoned on the right side, Its helmet appeared to have a simple design, It was a full helm with a glass visor that had a silver tint to it in the shape of a T. Its right arm was fully clad with a heavy shoulder plate that flared up as it came closer to the neck to effectively protect it, an elbow guard and a gauntlet that covered its hand and lower arm, Its left arm was significantly less armored it was missing the heavy shoulder plate opting instead with a lighter one without the flare of the other, it had the same elbow guard and gauntlet. Its lower body was covered with thigh guards, knee guards, and heavy shin guards. The knight for lack of a better word surprised Celestia by dashing towards the creature and sliding between its legs, rolling and standing up again effectively placing itself between her and the creature. On its back she read bold black letters that spelled ‘EQUES’ she assumed that this was the creatures’ name. It pulled out a strange object and pointed it towards the creature there was a loud sound and a flash of light and the creature fell to the ground writing in agony then suddenly it melted into the ground. The knight turned towards her and pulled out another object, this one had a red cross on it. “Hold still,” It told her in a calm voice. “This will help stop the bleeding until we can get you some medical help,” It said. “This may sting a bit,” it said. A burst of vapor came from the object settling into the wound on her chest as the knight promised the bleeding stopped. “Can you stand,” It asked. Celestia nodded. “Alright then, as I came down I caught sight of a town. Is there a medical center there?” It asked. “Yes,” Celestia replied. “Okay, let’s get you there before the medical spray wears off and you start bleeding again,” It added. “That… would be wise,” Celestia replied. “What is your name knight?” The creature froze then shrugged his shoulders “Talon James Eques, Captain in the Earth Imperial Navy,” He said with a small salute as he helped her stand. “What about you?” He asked. “Celestia, Princess and co regent of Equestria,” She said with dignity. “Well your highness, I suggest we get moving, I don’t want to be here when that grunts’ friends show up,” He said. “Let’s get a move on,” With Talon supporting her weight the two of them made their way towards Ponyville. Author's Note Chapter two, probably with more errors in it but, after my last story kind of flopped I decided to go with a more action intensive storyline, the Shadow Spawn make the perfect enemy, because they are cruel, merciless, and are basically the epitome of evil, and if you imagine them like I do, they're just plain creepy. Plus sci-fi/ fantasy stories are kind of my chief interest. It also helped to draw some inspiration form the Halo, Mechassault, and Front Mission games when I game up with some of the technology that Talon will utilize as the story goes on.
chapter threeFinally managing to exit the forest Talon quickened his pace, at least as much as he could, considering he carried a magical talking pony princess, a concept he still found amusing. It was roughly mid-day ant this particular planets’ sun shone high in the sky. It was stiflingly hot covered in his armor and he desperately wanted to remove his helmet but with one arm he supported Celestia and the other he carried his rifle. His muscles screamed from the exertion he had put on them almost constantly since starting this trek through the forest. ‘It’s times like these I almost wish I had bionic implants,’ he complained to himself. Talon for all intents and purposes was considered a ‘normal’ human, except his heightened strength, perception, and agility which came from his hybrid lineage, which only he and very few others knew about. Talon glanced over toward Celestia. “Princess, I know the plan was to get you to a medical facility, but seeing as we are in kind of a rush is there anywhere close by where you could at least get some basic first aid,” He asked. “There is one place I can think of, however I am unsure how the occupant will react to you,” Celestia replied. “Well princess, I see very little choice, plus I’m pretty sure with you there we shouldn’t have too much trouble,” Talon replied. He didn’t truly believe that, however he had really no choice in the matter. “I am feeling much stronger after getting out of that forest. While there I felt like all my magic had suddenly been drained from me,” Celestia stated. “I know the feeling,” Talon replied. “Your kind has magic? Is that how you managed to kill that creature?” She asked. “Not all my kind has magic, only a select few; most of us have what we call Life Energy, because it resembles bright light when it manifests itself. Magic and Life Energy are essentially same thing, the difference is magic kind of gathers into a type of pool that you can draw from and you merely get exhausted from its overuse, however life energy is literally life itself, it doesn’t pool like magic and has dire consequences if too much is used at once some lose their ability to use magic while others lose their life all together. I am one of the few of my species that can actually use magic instead of life energy. I would have used it to heal you earlier, but unfortunately my specialty lies in combat not medicine,” Talon explained. He noticed a small cottage on the edge of the forest a little of the path that he had escorted Celestia down. “That is the place,” Celestia said. “Kind of reminds me of a zoo,” Talon said, taking notice of the various animals that moved around the area. “Fluttershy, the pony that lives her is an extremely shy but kind hearted young pegasus, if anypony is capable of helping it would be her,” Celestia explained. “Oh and Talon I think I should be able to walk on my own now,” She said. “Alright princess, I’ll be here just in case,” Talon replied. Talon was the kind of guy to treat women with respect and kindness, even if the woman wasn’t a human, it also didn’t matter to him whether or not somebody was royalty or not, a trait he admits, he picked up while training with the Femyceran Knights on the planet of Nekoria. He had received his knighthood there as well as the armor he was currently wearing. Nobody except himself knew of the training he had received amongst the ranks of the Femyceran Knights, which is why he had frozen up when Celestia had called him a knight, she had caught him off guard. Celestia walked up to the door of Fluttershy’s house. She knocked on the door. A slit in the door opened to reveal a pair of blue eyes. “H-Hello,” A voice asked timidly. “Hello Fluttershy, may I come in?” Celestia asked kindly. “P-Princess of course you can,” Fluttershy replied as she opened the door. As the door opened a small yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail stepped out. “How can I help you… oh dear what happened,” She said in a quietly loud tone. “An accident in the forest, I was careless and as such paid the price, my friend here managed to help me, but according to him I still need my wound taken care of,” Celestia replied motioning towards Talon who was just casually looking around, he caught this and straitened. “Oh, I see,” Fluttershy replied quietly. “Please come inside,” she said. Celestia stepped inside followed by Talon. Talon looked around at the inside of the cottage, it had a really simple feel about the place, it looked like it was quite comfortable to live in. “Come to the couch Princess so I can take care of your wound,” The little yellow pegasus said quietly. Talon sat in a nearby corner, mostly because there no chairs big enough for him to sit in. “Fluttershy, may I trouble you for a quill and parchment,” Celestia asked. “I wish for Twilight and the rest of your friends to get here as soon as possible,” She said. “Of course princess,” Fluttershy said as she grabbed a nearby sheet of parchment paper, an ink well, and a quill. Celestias’ horn glowed then the paper and quill floated over to her she began to write a quick letter, she closed her eyes then the letter blinked out of existence. Talon didn’t even react to a display of magic such as that, he had seen far stranger things in his life, so it didn’t really affect him. Talon finally was able to take his helmet off. Talon looked towards Celestia as he set his helmet on a nearby table. Celestia was caught off guard when Talon had decided to take his helmet off. She noticed that Talon appeared to be quite young; he ran his hand through his medium length silver hair. “So when should this twilight character get here,” He asked. His voice sounded much clearer now than when he wore his helmet. “Within the next few minutes,” She replied. “Princess,” Fluttershy interrupted. “Your wound has already begun to heal, so you aren’t in any real danger, I have added some antibiotic ointment and bandaged your wound, you should fully recover within the next few days, however there will be a faint scar, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said lowering her head. Celestia smiled gently “Don’t worry, It would have been much worse if not for Talon over there,” She said gesturing towards Talon. As she said that a Purple unicorn with a dark blue mane and tail burst through the door followed by a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, who was followed by an orange pony with a blonde mane and tail wearing a cowboy hat, who was then followed by a bouncing pink pony with a dark pink mane and tail, with a pure white unicorn with a dark purple mane bringing up the rear. “Princes are you alright, I got your letter,” The purple unicorn said in a state of panic. “Twilight calm yourself,” Celestia said placing a hoof on the Unicorns’ shoulders. “As I said in the letter, without the aid of a friend I probably would not have survived, also did you send a letter to my sister?” Celestia asked. “Yes, she should arrive here any time,” Twilight replied. Talon sat in the corner through the entire exchange between the Unicorn and Celestia. ‘They seem to have a good relationship,’ he thought. “Now everyone I would like to introduce someone,” Celestia stated. ‘Here it comes,’ Talon thought. Celestia gestured towards him. “This is Talon, and he is personally responsible for saving my life, introduce yourselves,” Celestia said. The ponies in the room turned towards Talon as stood up. The first pony to introduce themselves was the purple unicorn. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, faithful student to the princess, It’s a pleasure to meet you,” She held out a hoof. Talon bent down and took it. He smiled “Likewise,” He replied simply. The pink pony introduced herself. “Hi, I’m pinkie pie, it’s nice to meet you, do you like parties,” She said impossibly fast. “It’s nice to meet you, and yes, I enjoy a nice party now and then,” Talon replied. The cyan pegasus introduced herself “I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria, nice to meet ya,” She said confidently. “Same here,” Talon replied. The orange pony introduced herself with a southern accent. “I’m Apple Jack, I run Sweet Apple Acres the local orchard, we grow the best apples in Equestria. I’m glad to meet you,” She said. “Likewise,” Talon said respectively. The next one to come up was the white Unicorn “I am Rarity, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” She said. “The pleasure is mine Rarity,” Talon responded. The last one was Fluttershy “It nice to meet you, I’m Fluttershy,” she said quietly. “It’s nice to meet you to,” Talon said. Then a dark blue pony almost identical to Celestia came into the cottage. “Sister are you alright, I had heard you had been injured,” She said. “I’m fine Luna, Talon here saved my life,” Celestia replied. Luna looked towards Talon. “Thank you for saving my big sister, my name is Luna co regent of Equestria and princess of the night,” She said. Talon gave a salute “I am Captain Talon James Eques, of the E.I.N. Its’ an honor to meet you your highness,” Talon replied. “Talon, now that everypony is here would you mind explaining what that creature you saved me from was, and how you were able dispatch it so easily,” Celestia said. I sighed “Of course princess, however I’ll probably have to start from the beginning, if that is alright,” Talon said as he started to take a seat on the floor. “It’s quite the story,” He said. “Of course, Talon,” Celestia replied. Talon nodded and began his story. Author's Note -There is the reason I had Talon meet Celestia first-
chapter fourA/N: This chapter will be told from the perspective of Talon, let me know what you think, and if I should continue writing this way. I looked at the ponies that had gathered around. I looked at them seriously for a moment. “The first thing I will say is this, these creatures are known as Shadow Spawn, as for how I dispatched it,” I paused a moment. “I will need to start at the beginning,” I said. “I want you to understand that you all seem to live a fairly sheltered life, even you your highnesses,” I said looking in their direction. “From firsthand experience my kind has found the stars to be quite inhospitable, when we first left for space we had only ever been able to send specially trained men to the moon, over time however out technology advanced to the point where we were able to build ships with faster than light capabilities,” I paused to gather my thoughts. “The first planet we colonized was a planet in my home system called Mars, It was a huge success. We eventually discovered special metals and minerals not found on earth, this gave us the ability to create even better starships. We began to push the boundaries of our solar system, however is when we came upon another society living amongst the stars. As you could expect things didn’t go over to well, my people were thrust into an interstellar war that almost drove us to extinction. Of course that was thousands of years ago,” I explained. “Now obviously things changed over time and as Humanity grew so too did our technology and power,” I said. “Of course it was a time of relative peace, the worst conflict that had erupted was a civil war on the planet Alpha 1, or at least that’s what my people thought. It was humanity’s first contact with the shadow spawn. According to history the ground war that followed was pretty bad resulting in us ultimately losing the planet,” I took notice of their faces; I guess the idea of any kind of war is a foreign concept. “Now about the shadow spawn themselves, they’re evil, pure and simple, uncompromising, sadistic, and merciless. They are almost unbeatable, they have a natural resistance to magic of almost any form other than cosmic magic, they are definitely a pain to deal with, I only managed to kill the one that attacked Celestia by catching it off guard, it won’t be that easy again,” I said with a hint of foreboding in my voice. “I have fought the shadow spawn for many years and I have gotten good at killing them, my training takes advantage of over a thousand years of knowledge concerning them,” I said. “As for how I killed the shadow spawn from earlier, the truth is, I am a cosmic magic user or C.M.U. for short as with the majority of the people on board my ship in the sky,” I admitted. The groups’ eyes widened at my statement. Twilight spoke up “So what you’re saying is that you killed a creature the hurt the princess easily and walked out without a scratch, by only using you magic?” she asked. “More or less, yeah, however I my people can’t use magic without a focus of some kind to channel magic energy through,” I placed a hand on the hilt of my blade. “My blade acts as my focus, without it I wouldn’t normally be able to fight with magic, and I would be about as useless as a ‘stock’ human,” I said with no small amount of resentment in my voice. “A ‘stock’ human?” Twilight asked. “An unmodified human, almost all of us are modified in some way, a stock human is a person who refuses to have any kind of bodily modification, even medical mods such as disease prevention implants and other beneficial augmentations, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but most stock humans belong to multiple terrorist organizations, some even defect to join with the shadow spawn,” I said with disappointment. “Well not all stock humans are like that, however, but they are few and far between, but we’re off topic,” I said. “About the shadow spawn, if there is one, there are no doubt more, I need to know now if any of you have seen other shadow spawn,” I said. “Well,” Twilight spoke up. “I saw one last night, everything around it seemed to rot away, and it turned other creatures into something similar,” she said nervously. I brought my hand to my chin, one of my typical thinking actions, suddenly it dawned on me “A Corruptor, this just got a whole lot worse,” I said with urgency. “How so?” Luna asked. “Normally shadow spawn aren’t able to corrupt complex organisms outside of reptiles and insects, however if you throw a corruptor into the mix, nothing is safe,” I explained. “Look, I need to get in contact with my ship,” I said as I grabbed my helmet and put it on. I activated my H.U.D. “This is Artemis one, to Acheron Star, come in,” I said the waited for an answer. “This is Acheron Star we read you Captain, how are things down there. “Peaceful, for the moment, however it looks like corruptors have made it planet side, and I have already taken care of a grunt that was on patrol near an inhabited village,” I said. “Understood, the other scouts have reported along the same lines, do you have orders sir,” The operator asked. “Prepare the Hell Jumpers, once I have permission they are to touch down a quarter mile outside my position, this seems to be the area most heavily populated by shadow spawn,” I explained. “Understood sir, the Hell Jumpers will be on standby until you give the orders,” The Operator replied. “Understood Artemis one out,” I turned to the ponies in the room, I had been pacing back and forth, something I do when I have a lot of pent up anxiety. “Princesses, this is a serious situation your people have found themselves in,” I said. “Now my crew and I are willing to help you out, however, since this planet doesn’t fell under Earth United Empire control my hands are tied unless you give us permission to set down on you planet, if not than there isn’t much we can do to help you,” I said as I looked at the two princesses. “I Talon James Eques, formally ask your permission to touch down on your planet an help fortify and defend your cities and civilians from the threat of the shadow spawn, and since you are the leaders on this world, my men and I will be at your command until such time that we are no longer needed,” I looked at the through my visor, thankfully my helmet was on, or they probably would have seen me sweating, I had my own personal reasons for taking this action, some of which would probably surface one day, however at this point in time I felt this was what I needed to do. Celestia looked up at me “Captain if you can personally promise me that my little ponies will be kept from harm I see no reason not to let you help,” she said. I looked at her. “Princess this is war, I can’t promise that there will be no casualties and there will be some we can’t save, however I can promise that as long as we are here, we will do all we can to minimize the damage done and protect those we can save, you have my word” I said. Celestia seemed to think for a moment. “I understand, captain,” She said. “I give you permission to do what you must to protect my little ponies,” she relented. “Understood, princess,” I said. “Acheron Star, this is Artemis one,” I said through my com-link. “This is Acheron Star we read you captain,” The operator replied. “Permission has been granted, launch the Valkyries and prepare Hell Jumpers, it is time to burn away the infection that the shadow spawn have brought to this world,” I said with conviction. “Understood captain,” The operator replied. I turned to the others. “Alright it’s time to meet the men, you are all more than welcome to join me,” I said as I headed towards the door. ‘This is going to be a tough fight,” I thought to myself. Author's Note Like I said earlier this was a test chapter, however that doesn't mean it wasn't important to the main plot. \ Besides I wanted to try a different style of writing. The action will no doubt pick up as the story progresses. So let me know what you think, and if you have Ideas that I could add to my story, send me a message. If not no problem, I just want to make this story as good as It can be, so others can enjoy reading it. Thanks a lot.
chapter fiveIt’s weird now that I think about it. Over the course of the past few hours I rescued a Princess, killed a Shadow spawn, and met a group of rather colorful ponies. I was so caught up in my mission that I failed to notice something very strange. The unicorn known as Twilight or Twi to her friends seems to be the leader of their group, but something is off about her, nothing bad, but it was strange, I decided it would be wise to bring this up to Celestia in private as soon an opportunity presented itself. I stood atop a large hill overlooking a valley, the last rays of twilight shown over the mountain. In the distance one could see the pony capital; it was just a silhouette against the lowering sun. The wind blew gently through the valley. It was…peaceful, at least for now. “This view is simply divine,” Rarity gasped from somewhere behind me. I smiled beneath my helmet. “Yeah it’s very nice Rarity, but when are his friends supposed to get here,” a rather impatient Rainbow Dash asked from behind me. I sighed ‘They should really enjoy this a little more, after the fighting begins there won’t be time for this,’ I thought. The sound of jet engines could be heard from above. “Here they come,” I said as a Valkyrie screamed overhead, It was a large aircraft with a large open area in the back for soldiers to exit from, it had a moderately sized cockpit that held four people, two pilots, a navigator, and a weapons controller. On the sides were two large engines built into the main body of the ship, two large wings protruded from the sides at a downwards angle, two stabilizer wings extended from either side of the cockpit, and two vertical stabilizers were attached at the rear of the air craft. The weapon systems on board included a rail cannon on the bottom, two rapid fire laser turrets on the top offset so that neither interfered with eachother’s line of fire, it had a 50 caliber mini gun mounted in the nose on a swivel turret, and a laser turret on each side of the aircraft, it was slow but it made up for it with extremely heavy armor, massive fire power, and very effective shielding. “What is THAT!” Rainbow Called suddenly dashing forward. “That is a Valkyrie, a heavy combat drop ship; they transport troops and vehicles to and from an orbiting cruiser or colony ship. We Could easily drop in our pods but that process is only used in unknown situations or when extreme haste is required just to get some feet on the ground and secure an area,but when dealing with shadow spawn we take no chances,” I explained. The white trench coat I wore just under the top layer of my armor whipped in the wind that had appeared from the Valkyrie passing overhead. The roar of engines could be heard as more and more Valkyries passed overhead. There were multiple versions of Valkyrie flying above heading for the valley. Some were modified to carry pre-assembled building pieces called modules; others were modified to carry multiple types of land vehicles from light attack vehicles to tanks and even B.A.F.U.s (Bipedal Armored Fighting Units). "Alright Everyone, follow me and keep close, but DON'T touch anything," I said as I turned to face the others. I turned and headed down a dirt path leading through tall grass into the valley below. Author's Note Jeeze, I can't believe it took this long to release this chapter. *sigh* The curse of writers block. From now on though I actually plan on making my chapters from anywhere between four hundred to around two thousand words depending on the inspiration I receive from other sources (including readers) and my overall enthusiasm for a particular chapter. Things should start heating up pretty soon.
