Prologue Part 1
Nurse Redheart had walked inside the waiting room with the biggest smile on her face. She walked up to the stallion that was waiting. “Dark, congratulations on your new filly!” she exclaimed. Almost ready to burst out of his seat, he trotted towards his wife, Dusty Tankards’ room. When he enters, he sees that she’s holding a small filly with a dark purple coat and silver mane. She looks up to him with a smile. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” she asks him with an almost silent voice. Taken up by the happy moment, all he can do is nod, his black coat nearly standing on edge. She offers him the foal and he gently Ballad of the Assassin’s gale
holds her, rocking her back and forth.
“So what will be the filly’s name?” Nurse Redheart asked as she entered the room.
Dusty suddenly gives a heart warming smile and says “Mystic Runes.” The white mare nods and trots off into another room. Another doctor walks in. He gives the two a visible smile and gently picks up the foal, who started crying as soon as she left his grasp. Since it was clearly his first day on the job, he motions the foal over to him. She opens her eyes, which were two beautiful light blue eyes, much like Dark’s. He calmly walks over to the nursery room and gently knocks. The nurse in charge walks outside, taking the foal inside. And to your surprise, Mystic does not cry. Dark looks out of the window, a large smile on his face.
Weeks later, Mystic and Dusty were finally home, her inn back into its original state. “Could you get the door, dear?” she asked him, giving her usual warm smile. “Yes, one moment.” He set down his now walking filly, who gently flailed her forelegs in a playful fashion. He headed downstairs towards the door. There stood two masked stallions, with red lenses and what looked to be a gas mask. They almost immediately begin to knock Dark to the ground, the other stallion sprinting towards Dusty. He roughly grabs her and begins to walk out of the room. Dark, completely enraged, slams the first stallion into the door and runs towards the shorter one. Due to his rage, the black stallion was slammed into the wall, knocking him out cold.
“Dark…” a voice called. “Dark!” it had gotten seemingly louder, he was slowly coming back to.
“DARKONEUS WAVE, STAND ON YOUR DAMN HOOVES, SOLDIER” It sounded like his best friend, Silver Flashblade. He’d had twins the same week as Dark. Their names were Iron Armor and Nickel Needle. But then he realized something was wrong. His eyes opened quickly and looked up at Flash, who was in front of a burning house.
“We need to go now!” He exclaimed, but that wasn’t his incentive.
“I need to go get my daughter!” he yelled as he ran upstairs. In his and Dusty’s room, he ran to the play pen that she’d been sleeping in. To his surprise, she was soundly asleep, not worried by the now red sky and screaming. He picks her up and runs, being careful to move around the burning planks falling through the roof. Flash and many other guards stand there at attention, waiting for his commands. “If you see any of whoever attacked this town, bring them to the airship for interrogations.” He stated coldly. Giving Mystic to one of the guards to send to the airship, he began to gallop down the once friendly streets, gaining speed every step he took. Looking around, he saw that Flashblade was running up to him, slightly panting.
“Dark! We saw one of those ponies running off with Dusty and the smartest and or strongest ponies of the town! The elements of harmony have been taken into care! What do we do now?” He asked, his blonde mane trailing behind him.
“Tell the battalion to split into fours and contact the princesses if any hostages are captured.” He gives a nod and breaks to the left, alerting the soldiers.
After Flash left his side, he ran to the town hall and had seen the masked pony that’d taken away his wife. Drawing a set of paralysis darts, he pulled out a blow gun and fired into the soldier’s flank. And with an amusing ragdoll trip, he fell to the ground. “You… YOU!” Dark yelled as stood atop of him. “What did you do to her, huh!?” he snarled, losing patience.
“We only look for the best.” He said sharply. “We could have easily been stopped, but you were just not smart enough. Dusty Tankards shall make a fine specimen.” With that note he draws a mithril long sword. He stands and backs away, holding it forward. The soldier stands up and looks at him. “You truly are a fool. You allow your enemy to stand, showing remorse towards him, giving him a chance to live regardless of the wrongs he’s done to you.” He states dryly. “Now tell me. Why must you do th-“ Before he finishes his sentence, a large artillery shot fires into his position, leaving a large crater. Startled, Dark looked up to see that the entire town had been watching him, eyes full of worry. The sets of eyes that had caught his the most were his battalion’s. “Sir…” one of them inched closer, trying to calm him. “We need to head to Canterlot City now. The princesses want to know what happened.” In compliance, Dark walked to the large carrier, not saying a word to anypony. “Admiral Silver Autumn. Take us to Canterlot.” He said, heading to the deck. Once on the deck, he looked down into Ponyville, seeing many soldiers and the townsfolk themselves taking care of the debris. Lightening up, he waves gently and begins his course towards Canterlot Castle.
Prologue pt 2
Looking over his shoulder, Dark sees that his battalion once again were standing behind him, watching. He had been through a lot that day, losing his wife, and nearly his new born child. The skies were orange, which were showing signs that the fires were settling down. But the skies still filled with strife. “You can all stop staring at me now.” Dark states jokingly. “Y-yes sir!” the crowd of soldiers skittered off into their barracks. After the group left all that stayed was his pilot and staff sergeant, Silver Autumn and Paladin Amor. “You to need anything?” he asks.
“Would you like your daughter back?” Paladin asked with a sarcastic tone
“What kind of question is that?” he asks, giving a slight smirk. At this, Dark walks over and picks up Mystic, cradling her gently. “And you Autumn?” He looks over to her with a now serious tone. “Radar’s tracked a small squadron of enemy fighters heading towards the Endless Torrent. It’s the same soldiers that attacked Ponyville earlier. What are your orders, Darky?” Twitching slightly, he looks over with his usual smirk.
“Now what did we say about calling me that?” He stated coldly.
“That you just enjoy it?” This brings a slight blush, due to that being a nickname that good friends had given him.
“Somewhat, but my orders it to wait until they act.” At this, she goes to give out Dark’s orders, preparing the fighters. Looking down, Dark notices that Mystic is holding tight to his chest, clearly awake now. Taking note of Autumn’s questions, Dark began to think.
I need to find Dusty, and fast.
She’s gone now, they would have been able to kill her by then.
No! I know that she’s okay… she has to be.
You don’t know that, Darkoneus, your only way of knowing is to get inside the system yourself.
Did you see what they had done? They could have killed me if they had wanted.
They had only gone in for the most mentally powerful, something tells me that you should feel ashamed.
SHUT UP.
Ending his thoughts, he looked around. Once again his battalion waited next to their fighters. The fighters had been a stinger class, slim, small, but were more effective than an axe to a tree. Dark turned to the soldiers, his eyes narrowing in excitement. “So I know Luna didn’t place you in my battalion for nothing, show these masked fools what you’re made of.” At this, the crowd cheered and went to their stations. Flash walked up next to him, wearing leather armor.
“Here, you dropped this.” He said as he gives Dark his sky oriented uniform. Sending Mystic to Amor once again, he stands at the end of the carrier, looking at the armada approaching. Dark then opened his wings and leaped into the sky, the enemies seeing this as engagement. The fighters hovered off of the deck and entered formation. With Flash next to him, Dark doubled downwards and threw Flash at one of the fighters. Who had drawn a rifle and shot him out of his fighter.
From one of front lines fighters, a missile hurled at Dark, cutting the air as if it were water. He holds out a small magnet and connects, taking control. Guns blazing, cannons sweeping, he dodged through a volley of artillery, sting fire, and fighters. “Hey Flash! These missiles are fun to ride on!” he shouted to his friend. “Dark, you’re insane.” He said as he took control of the fighter he was taking down. Turning on his communicator, Autumn instinctively began to yell at him.
Dark: So that’s how this thing works?
Autumn: Dammit Dark, you should have had your coms on!
Dark: What can I say? I’m not the person to follow orders.
Paladin: Dark, she and Mystic have began course towards Canterlot again. When we’re done here, we are headed to the flagship with her.
Dark: Everyone hear that? Head to base after we’re done here.
Flash: Dark, you’re riding a missile. How serious can this get?
All but Dark: Ahahaha!
Looking out at the burning enemy fighters, Dark had spotted one like gold amongst iron. A pilot had been standing on the nose of her ship, a teal and pale green tail sticking out to the side. She then leapt from the eagle unit fighter and slammed into him, ending his joyride on the missile. With a solid jab to the mask, he cracked it revealing Dusty Tankard’s scowling, and somewhat adorable face.
“You can put up quite a fight, sweetheart.” He says, still in his fighting stance.
“You are still weak. You shall perish alongside everyone else when the Dark Lord is finished.” Knowing this completely threw him off guard, she tackles him and crashes into the forest below. Looking about, Dark had seen his battalion headed towards the Endless Torrent. And then a red haze came along.
In many flashes, the stallion had seen a light, sand colored mare with a dark brown mane running around. One of them being her finding you in a bush.
“Hello? Are you awake? Oh what am I saying, you fell from the sky with that mare.” The voice sounded calm and collected to him, though he couldn’t see her.
“W-who are you?” He asks.
“Someone who is going to help you, now just hold still, this might sting a bit.”
She says quietly. Feeling a sharp pain in his leg, Dark’s eyes fling wide open and quickly scan the room. He had been in a jungle like home with sandstone pillars. He then looked over his shoulder at the mare who was helping him. “Are you okay?” She asks calmly, slowly moving closer to Dark.
She was about up to your chin, carrying a longbow on her back. She seemed to have a tribal necklace and dress on, it being somewhat loose in the wind. And to Dark’s surprise, she was poking his face.
“I’m fine.” He says dryly. “Now could you please move your hoof out of my face?” He states with a seemingly growing anger.
Autumn: Dark, are you there?
“Excuse me for a moment,” he says. Stepping away to answer Autumn he places his hoof on his ear
Dark: I’m alive. Calm down everypony.
Autumn: What of that mare you were fighting with? Where is she?
He then notices that Dusty had been in another bed next to you. Sleeping soundly.
Dark: She’s asleep. But where is everpony now?
Paladin: Headed to Flagship
Flash: Waiting for them to return with Copper.
Autumn: Nearing Canterlot. Sending a two pony Stinger to your position.
Dark: Good, I appreciate it.
Ending the transmission, Dark looks over to the mare that helped him, slowly approaching.
“So who are you?” he asks with a more calmed down tone.
“I am Copper Crystal. And you are?” Crystal asks, giving a slight smile.
“Colonel Darkoneus Wave at your service.” He bows, going back to his original position.
“So what can you do?” he asks, sitting down next to Dusty.
“I’ve many talents. I’m a huntress, healer, and good with architecture.” Dark nods, and looks up.
“I’m an assassin, oddly one who is a commanding officer.” He states clearly. “If you would like, we can take you back to our flagship.” She gives a short nod and he goes to wake Dusty.
