Foreword: please note that the song in this chapter is SUPPOSED to start at 1:21. It's NOT a glitch, NOT a bug, and NOT a mistake. I made it do this. Repeat: it's SUPPOSED to start at 1:21

Chapter Eleven
Nightshade

The blanket of darkness spreads over our world, covering it like the clouds of smoke over the city of Howloon.

It’s hard without Shining Armor here. It’s been so hard. We’re trying, we’re all trying desperately to hold on. The Canines are trying so desperately. We’re all trying so, SO, desperately to just hold on.

But we’re slipping.

It's slow, gradual, maybe even sometimes allowing us to think we still have a tight grip, but the reality is that it'll always get a little slippier, a little wetter, and in the end we all know that we're gonna slip eventually...

Where are you, Shining Armor? I know we wrote you off as dead because we had not heard a single word about a captured Peace Fighter, but I know you’re alive out there. You’ve GOT to be alive. We need you, the Canines need you, the Peace Fighters need you, EQUESTRIA needs you...

I need you...

...

~~~~

“The colosseum is one of the few places that the Canines have held onto throughout this vicious counter-offensive, and a good place for any and all stray Peace Fighters to regroup” Lieutenant Strong Spear said to her subordinates as they clustered around a table in an abandoned apartment complex, the light from a candle the only thing illuminating the map that Lieutenant Spear had laid out.

“Agreed. Now, what is the overall state of the battle here?” Private Gleaming Bullet asked, occasionally glancing over his shoulder at the window to make sure it was still safe.

“It’s about even right now, I’d say. Both sides have a good shot at winning it, and I think we have the capacity to make a push that would get the Empire to pull back” Strong Spear replied.

“OK. OK, let’s get moving then soon, right?” Gleaming asked, grabbing his gun. Lieutenant Spear nodded, rolling up the map and heading for the door. The group, comprised of Lieutenant Spear, Private Bullet, and several other Peace Fighters entered the hallway beyond.

Outside in the streets the battle had severely died down, and only the occasional skirmish could be heard in the distance. The Lieutenant was not mistaken, however, and knew that both armies were locked down in the city and holding onto it tenaciously.

Proceeding down the stairs into the lobby the Peace Fighters decided that heading out the front door into the street was a bad idea, and instead headed for the back door, which opened into an alley.

Slowly popping the door open Lieutenant Spear peeked her head out and looked both ways, about to move out with her allies when an Imperial Armored Transport grinded to a halt outside the left side of the alley, six troops disembarking. The Lieutenant recognized the soldiers as ELEMENT GEAR and watched them head straight for the alley behind the apartments. Their leader, MAGIC GEAR, was at the dead front, wielding one of the SP New-age Combat Rifle 75s and looking as menacing as her companions. In the past few months without Shining Armor the Lieutenant had learned that ELEMENT GEAR were violent and lethal foes to contend with, and likely die-hard zealots of Her Majesty. MAGIC GEAR was especially tenacious, and Lieutenant Spear thought she was practically Celestia's daughter with how hard she fought against the Peace Fighters.

Strong Spear closed the door and turned to the rest of the group.

“OK, not there. Let’s head back upstairs” the earth pony mare whispered, the group heading with her back to the map room which was still empty except for the candle on the table. An Imperial DRAVM screamed by outside, apparently going somewhere in a hurry.

“OK, we got ELEMENT GEAR out in the back alley, probably in the lobby now. And the front door is stupid. Our next best bet is the roof” Strong declared, leading her group to said location. It took a few moments for them to silently force the door open but they got through, and crouched low to think over their next course of action.

“I think we should head down the next three buildings and then duck into the alleys” Gleaming Bullet said.

“I agree.”

The team moved down to the third building down, another apartment complex, and entered in through the roof door. Very quickly they realized that part of this apartment building was on fire and starting to collapse. They were about to retreat when the ceiling above the roof door collapsed, blocking their exit and leaving them with no choice but to head down through the building.

About two floors in they really started to realize just how dangerous the apartment building was, and were all starting to have second thoughts about heading through it. There were many halls and rooms blocked off by collapsed beams and flames. The left side of the top floor was completely unaccessible, leaving only the staircase on the right side to get down.

There was a catch, though: the staircase was on fire halfway down.

“OK, here’s the plan: we go down to the lowest possible floor currently accessible to us, then get down the rest of the way using the staircase on the opposite side of whatever floor we get to. After that we stick to the allies and side streets” Lieutenant Spear told them.

Moving down the group was able to get to the fifth floor before being forced into it, finding that it was a little less burned out than some of the others. Only a few rooms were blocked off and all the halls were clear enough to get through.

Halfway across the floor Lieutenant Spear looked out a window into a courtyard in the middle of the apartment complex, briefly surveying the area there. Turning her attention back to the hall in front of her she noticed something in her left side peripheral vision, turning her head to see a violent streak of orange slashing through the night sky from the roof of a taller building across the street, a bipedal creature wearing an armor suit with a searing red visor standing with some type of weapon in his hands.

Lieutenant Spear threw herself to the floor as the orange streak smashed through the window, ricocheting off the floor and wall before stopping in the ceiling. The paint was scorched in the spots it had hit and the glass was a little melted right around the area the bullet had slashed through.

All hell broke loose a second later.

An explosion ripped through the hall twenty feet ahead, and a Pegasus swooped into the hall, adorned in typical battle armor but NOT the same kind of suit the ELEMENT GEAR operatives wear. She immediately locked her eyes on Lieutenant Spear, and the Peace Fighters there knew the Pegasus was here for her only.

The Pegasus looked to be about 24 or 25 years old, and was violet with a lilac blue mane. Her eyes were a deep blue and her mane was a little rough. Going by memory of pictures and posters she had seen Lieutenant Spear deduced that the enemy mare's mane looked similar to that of the legendary Rainbow Dash's.

“Peace Fighters, get down to ground level and find that sniper! I’ve got this one” Strong Spear declared, preparing herself to battle the Pegasus. The enemy mare charged for the Lieutenant quickly, the two struggling to fight in the narrow hallway.

Lieutenant Spear grabbed the Pegasus by the shoulders and hefted her, practically tossing her out the nearby window facing the courtyard. The Pegasus flapped her wings and stayed in the air, watching Strong Spear start to run through the hall. Swooping around the other side the Pegasus intercepted Strong and tackled her into the courtyard area, the two forced to battle in there.

“Who the hell are you? Who’s your sniper friend? What do you want?!” Lieutenant Spear demanded, carefully watching her adversary.

“I’m Major Nightshade of the Imperial Aerial Army, though I’ve been temporarily relocated to hunt your ass down and kill you. My sniper friend is here to do the same thing” the Pegasus answered, starting to circle around the Lieutenant.

“Great, my own personal Imperial sheep hunting me” Strong Spear commented.

“Hunted, not hunting, and now I found you.”

“I see that you are implying that you’ll walk away from this alive” the Lieutenant smirked, tensing herself to make the first move.

“Hmph, implying that I won’t” Nightshade snapped back.

Lieutenant Spear darted forward and hooked Nightshade directly across the face, the Pegasus responding with a straight punch right to the earth mare’s chest. With the Pegasus’s hoof in her chest Strong grabbed her and slammed her haunches down, hefting Nightshade over her shoulder and throwing her violently to the ground.

“That’s my signature trait right there. I bet you underestimated my strength, didn’t you?” Lieutenant Spear asked, waiting for the Major to get back up.

Nightshade growled and rolled over, offering her answer in the form of a blow right to Strong’s muzzle, making her stagger back. Blood already flowing from her nose Lieutenant Spear muttered “you bitch” and wiped her face clear before striking forward, sweeping out the enemy mare’s legs and toppling her to the ground. Strong Spear was about to stomp on her throat when Nightshade rolled out of the way, scrambling to her hooves.

Re-evaluating each other’s opponent the two mares went back to circling around each other, thinking of new strategies to fight one another. They both deduced that they had underestimated the other; Lieutenant Spear had figured Nightshade was just a typical Imperial sheep, but instead seemed to be a capable fighter. Likewise Nightshade had not expected Strong Spear’s well-hidden but potent strength, which had come from dealing with her brothers when growing up.

Iron Sight... Bomb Disposal... Why...? No, I can't think about them right now...

Charging forward at the same time both mares grabbed each other by the shoulder and grappled, both struggling to throw each other to the ground. Looking into each other's eyes and grunting the two saw the fire of dedication in their opponent's soul, knowing at that exact moment that they would both fight to the death over what they believed was right.

Looking up and over Nightshade Lieutenant Strong Spear saw the same bipedal sniper from earlier on the roof of the apartment building, shouldering his sniper rifle and aiming straight and true down at the Lieutenant. His red visor glowed violently against the black of the suit, and he appeared to be a young dragon. His armor suit was similar to that of the ones worn by ELEMENT GEAR, though obviously adapted to fit his much larger frame.

Where did the Princesses even find a dragon willing to fight for them? Strong wondered.

While distracted by the larger creature Lieutenant Spear failed to notice Nightshade approaching her, a mistake that cost dearly when she was suddenly bucked strong and hard by the enemy mare, sending her sprawling across the courtyard.

On her back Strong Spear groaned and looked up, seeing the dragon sniper take aim on her and about to pull the trigger when a rocket struck the wall directly underneath him, forcing him to leap backward and look up at the new threat.

Turning her head the Lieutenant saw a Peace Fighter DRAVM soar into position above the courtyard, firing at the dragon on the roof. The DRAVM was fitted with side-mounted missile pods and dual chin-mounted Solar-Pulse machine guns. It was more heavily armed and armored, and was probably a DRAVM-25 gunship model.

“Hey Lieutenant, you told us to take care of that sniper, and we did” the voice of Private Bullet stated over the radio, the young stallion apparently on the DRAVM with the rest of Spear’s squad.

“Thanks. Keep him busy, I still haven’t killed this Pega-pussy” Strong Spear responded, focusing her attention back on Major Nightshade.

“Screw you, bitch!” the Major yelled, charging straight for Spear.

Up in the DRAVM, Gleaming Bullet nodded at the two mares below and looked up at the dragon on the roof, who was standing stock still with his fists clenched and staring directly into the cockpit at Gleaming Bullet, his glowing red visor representing the intense anger and fury at the young Peace Fighter.

Author's Note

Legal note: Princess Celestia, Rainbow Dash, and all related characters belong to Hasbro. Lieutenant Strong Spear, Private Gleaming Bullet, and all related characters belong to me. Major Nightshade belongs to Kirlia481 and was privately submitted to this story(I do not have open character submissions).