ACT 1-Chapter 1: Mission Briefing
Location: Frozen North, Pony Watch National Institution Main Base
Time: 0700 Hrs.
Date: June 20, 0695
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Soldiers marched across the snowy plain doing a cadence count, chanting "Left, Right, Left, Right, Left." over and over again. While some were completely fine, others were complaining about things, but quietly as they did not want to go without dinner.
"Man I'm freezing my balls off." A stallion with an ice-blue coat, rose-red mane/tail, and a scar on his left eye complained. The stallion to his side replied.
"What balls, Winter Lance?" The stallion said mockingly. The stallion had a forest-green coat, a steel-black mane/tail, and scar stretching from his left cheek to his shoulder. The other stallion glanced over to him.
"Fuck you, Greenday!" The stallion said. Greenday only laughed at his weak comeback.
After about twenty minutes, the soldiers returned to the base. They quickly went down to the mess hall. The mess hall was always warm, despite its awful smell. The two stallions that had conversed sat at the same table, a table in the corner. It was generally a bit colder, but it smelled the least awful. Across from them was a stallion with an aquamarine coat, a teal-blue mane, and a red stub tail.
"What's up guys?" The aquamarine stallion asked.
"Nothin' much. Still not used to the cold weather yet. What about you, One Shot?" Winter Lance said, eating his food. Before he could answer, a female voice on the intercom spoke loudly.
"All members of Alpha and Bravo Team report to the Mission Briefing Room immediately." The female voice said. Six stallions and six mares at another table got up and walked to the double doors leading out of the mess hall. They were the members of Alpha Team. Two stallions and six mares at another table got up and headed to the same doors.
"Time to go." Winter Lance said, getting up, quickly followed by the other two at the table. They headed to the same doors, whence opened, feeling a large temperature change. The hallway was freakishly cold, making the stallions shiver. They saw the twenty ponies up ahead, and quickly galloped to them.
}|{-Mission Briefing Room-}|{
The twenty three ponies all filed into the room one by one. The room was like a small presentation room, except instead of comfy chairs, there were uncomfortable folding chairs. But just like any other presentation room, there was a stage with a flat TV screen for slide shows. But that's not what interested them the most. On the stage, were seven of the nine rulers of the Pony Kingdom. There was Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. The soldiers bowed down for a few seconds before raising again and flopping into chairs. Twilight Sparkle began counting all of the soldiers.
"... Twenty-one. Twenty-two. Twenty-three... We're missing someone." Twilight said aloud. The soldiers looked around and quickly realized who was missing.
"Where the hell is Midnight Twister?" A female mare with a white coat and mint-blue mane/tail asked with a bit of irritation in her tone.
"Did somepony dial 666? Cause the Devil's just arrived." Another voice said in a hot-headed tone. All eyes turned to the source of the voice. There was a steel-black coted Pegasus with a black, long, and straight mane that had green streaks going through it, standing at the door. He also had a prosthetic left wing, a blood-red right wing, blood-red fore hooves, and a black tail.
"What was taking you so long?!" Greenday demanded.
"I was banging your sister." Midnight Twister said, flopping into a chair.
"You're an asshole!" Greenday said angrily.
"You just jealous of my Pegasus swagger." Midnight Twister replied, still oblivious to the princesses.
"Dude, you do realize that seven of the princesses are here, right?" Winter Lance said cautiously. Midnight Twister turned his head to the princesses, whom stared at him with disapproval. He was completely unfazed by this.
"Yo!" Midnight Twister said with a loose salute. After about two seconds, Princess Celestia spoke.
"I believe you're all familiar with the UAC." Celestia said. The responses of the audience were simple nods. She continued immediately afterwards.
"Everything I'm about to reveal to you is extremely classified. Not a word about this outside of this room."
There were nods, signaling that the audience understood.
"The UAC have uncovered over two-hundred ancient alien artifacts on the moon. Most of them are tablets, bones, and the like. But one of them has... Strange.... Magical properties."
"What kind of magic?" A female asked.
"The magic that the artifact produces was never known about until now. We've decided to call it Satanic Magic."
Twilight levitated a remote to her and pressed a button with her hoof. The TV turned on, displaying a diagram of the artifact. It appeared to be a spear. Except its design was much different. The spear was entirely made of some kind of metal. And it had two blades, one on each end. The top blade was much longer and curved a little bit upwards. The bottom blade was much shorter and curved a little bit downwards. There were also holes in the blade on the back part of both blades. Each had some sort of ball of fire levitating inside it. And on the pole of the spear, there was a strap, probably supposed to be strapped to the fore hoof of the creature. Twilight clicked another button on the remote. The slide changed to a diagram of some sort of sarcophagus.
"This is another one of the artifacts found. It is some sort of sarcophagus. But something about this artifact makes it different. The 'something' is that there's a live specimen inside it. A team of scientists attempted to open it, and were successful. But not long afterwards, we lost all contact with the UAC. We believe that the creature inside was responsible for it."
The soldiers could already see where this was going.
"You're all going to the UAC facility on the moon. You're mission: Re-establish contact with the UAC. Retrieve all information regarding the artifacts if you can't re-establish contact. And your other objective: If you encounter this creature, and if it's hostile, eliminate it along with any other threats."
Fluttershy about broke out in tears upon hearing that. She didn't want this thing to get killed. It probably had a reason to attack the facility.
"Let's kick some ancient alien ass!" One Shot exclaimed, followed by multiple Hoo-Rah's coming from the rest of the audience. Celestia's response to this was a mental facehoof and a low sigh. Before any of the soldiers could move though, Celestia spoke.
"And another thing: Twilight Sparkle will be coming with you as a representative. I want you to protect her in case you come along any threats. If you ever get separated, finding and protecting her is your number one priority. Do you understand?"
"HOO-FUCKIN-RAH!" Midnight Twister exclaimed, followed by another round of Hoo-Rah's.
"Then you are dismissed."
The soldiers got out of their seats and gave solid salutes before moving towards the door.
-TO BE CONTINUED...
ACT 1-Chapter 2: Voices And Stowaways
Location: Aboard The PHANTOM INHERITOR, Propelling Through The Void Of Space
Time: 1300 Hrs.
Date: June 25, 0695
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Midnight Twister was fully clad in his standard issue combat armor. It was somewhat like the classic Royal Guard's armor, except with a few changes. One being, the helmet fully covered his head. The only visible signs of life were the eyes, which were shielded by a visor. And there was a holster on his right shoulder for his weapon, which would rest in a horizontal position, barrel facing forward. And even though this isn't a serious change, his armor color was sapphire-blue. His fore-hooves were also clad in sapphire-blue-metal-boots, with rubber on the underside for more grip on the ground. And underneath all his armor, he wore a black-leather-jumpsuit, which covered each pert of his body, all the way up to where the neck and head met.
Midnight Twister walked through the long hallway, just wandering around, bored out of his mind. Maybe he should stop by the shooting range and pump dummies full of led? Maybe he should go to the bar and have a few rounds of liquor? Maybe he should hit on Princess Twilight Sparkle? Ok, the last one might be a bad idea. maybe he should hit the gym? Nah, too tired.
"Guess I should hit on the Princess." Midnight Twister decided.
"They took my baby..." A female voice said in a raised whisper. This not only crept out Midnight Twister, but also made him take the safety off his weapon, via through the HUD. He heard the whisper again, heading towards the source. He moved slowly, completely alert, with each passing second the voice getting louder... And louder... And-
"AAAAH!" Somepony screamed. Snapped out of focus, he saw that he was in the princess's private quarters. And she wasn't dressed. Despite the fact that ponies are almost always naked. In a hurry, Midnight Twister ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Midnight Twister went back to what he was doing earlier, which was taking a stroll. Except this time, he was in the gardens, where they kept all of the plants at. Plants brought from home were, of course, the only exception. He wasn't thinking of his boredom this time. No, this time, he was thinking about that damned voice that led him to the princess's room. If this turned out to be a prank, he would be beyond enraged.
"Well, look at the bright side: You saw the princess's awesome body. Wait, if she tells Celestia... Well, I'm downright fucked over." Midnight Twister said happily.
"Over here." The voice from earlier said. With hesitation, Midnight did as it said. The voice kept getting louder, just like before. And he kept following it. In a few seconds, he was at the "Exotic Plants" area. But the voice did not stop there. He started running this time, his curiosity at its peak and his patience running low.
*Rustle, Rustle*
Midnight Twister stopped in his tracks and tensed up. He quickly turned off the safety of his weapon and pointed to the source of the rustle. It was a rather large tree. Something, or somepony, was hiding there. With a quick flare of his wings, he flew into the air and pulled apart a large group of leaves. He instantly saw a yellow Alicorn with a pink mane. Beside her was a cyan Alicorn with a rainbow colored mane. These two were the Princesses, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Midnight could easily see Rainbow Dash doing something like this, but not Fluttershy.
"What are you two doing here?" Midnight Twister asked.
"I-I snuck on board..." Fluttershy said quietly, but still audible.
"Why?" Midnight interrogated further.
"We don't need to tell you that!" Rainbow Dash said.
"... Your friend is here, and I won't hesitate to inform her that we have two stowaways." Midnight shot back, quickly realizing something afterwards.
"Speaking of which, are the rest of your friends here?"
"No, we're the only ones that snuck on board." Fluttershy answered. Ok, how is it physically possible to resist her adorableness?! Midnight Twister had no choice but to give into her adorableness.
"I'll let you guys off the hook. But you might as well reveal your presence on the ship because I sure as hell won't keep it a secret." Midnight Twister said, turning on the safety of his weapon and flying towards the ground. Whence he made touchdown, he closed his wings and walked towards the nearest exit.
"They took my baby..." The voice from earlier said. Midnight turned to the Alicorns whom were getting out of the tree.
"Did you two hear that?" Midnight asked. The Alicorns wore confused looks. That probably meant No. Midnight sighed before continuing towards the exit.
}|{-Two Hours Later-}|{
The voice stopped after an hour of so. Midnight Twister decided that the best course of action was to ignore it, which surprisingly worked. Also, the princesses revealed their presence a while ago. Twilight seemed angry that they did "Such a childish" thing. But she got over it.
*Bump*
Midnight fell back on his rump, wearing an irritated look. He got up and saw Twilight Sparkle with her friends.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there!" Twilight apologized.
"It's okay. I was the one not looking where they were going." Midnight Twister said, continuing in the direction he was heading.
"Hey... Aren't you the stallion that walked into my room when I was getting dressed?" Twilight asked... God damn it. Rainbow's eyes darted from Twilight to Midnight, quickly becoming furious.
"Actually, I was following somepony's voice. They kept saying 'They took my baby'. Might be getting cabin fever." Midnight said, turning his head to the Alicorns.
"Are you sure you weren't hoping to get some action?" Twilight said with a seductive look.
"You have anything to do later?" Midnight asked.
"Not really."
"You okay if I stop by your room to say 'hello'?"
"I'm cool with that."
Midnight chuckled.
"See you later." Twilight said, walking away.
"Didn't you say you banged another mare?" Rainbow asked.
"I just said that to piss off Greenday. It's always funny to see him get angry." Midnight said truthfully before leaving. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy just shrugged before moving in the direction Twilight went.
-END OF ACT 1...
ACT 2-Chapter 1: The Bloodied Facility
Location: On Board The PHANTOM INHERITOR, Orbiting The Moon
Time: 2200 Hrs.
Date: June 30, 0695
____________________________________________________________________________________________
All twenty-four Marines and the three Alicorns gathered in the docking bay. The Marines sat on the metal grating floor, boxes, crates, chairs, anything that could be used as a seat. The Alicorns, however, were the only ones standing.
"I'm sure you all know the objectives. But I'll repeat them anyways. You are to re-establish contact by any means necessary. If this in any way is impossible, you are to gather all files on the artifacts. You are also to eliminate any threat and protect us at all costs." Twilight said. She did not like the idea of being protected like a child, but it was her mentor's orders. The Marines got up off of there seats and gave a solid salute. The group of twenty-four separated into two individual groups of twelve. Bravo Team (Which is the focus of the story) consisted of L.Cpl. Midnight Twister, PFC Winter Lance, Cpl. Greenday, PFC One Shot, 1stLT Pennywise, Pvt. Fire Fox, Pvt. Stardust, Cpl. Cloud Nine, Sgt. Nyan Cat, Pvt. Maple Dawn, Cpl. Scarlet Twinkle, and 2ndLT Blue Leaf. Bravo Team walked into a drop ship with the name "Dark Star" engraved into the side of it. The ship could hold up to sixteen ponies. This was enough room for the three Alicorns that would join Bravo Team. The princesses stepped into the drop ship, the door closing behind them.
"Okay Bravo Team. Your orders aren't the same as Alpha Team's." Twilight Sparkle said. This confused the entire team and the two other princesses.
"Your orders are to retrieve the artifact, U2, or Unknown 2. Also known as: The Spear of Destiny. U2 is the artifact that looked like a spear."
"What happened to U1?" One Shot asked.
"U1, or the Soul Cube, was found operational a few weeks ago. But it soon became dysfunctional a few hours afterwards." Twilight answered.
"Okay."
The drop ships levitated into the air, the airlock opening. Whence fully opened, the drop ships flew out of the docking bay at full throttle.
}|{-Twenty Minutes Later-}|{
The two drop ships landed softly on the rocky ground, the pilots giving a sigh of sorrow. For the past twenty minutes, the pilots had been racing. And now they were upset that they wouldn't be able to race for a while. The drop ships landed at different locations, miles away from each other. DARK STAR landed near Alpha Labs where as the other drop ship landed near the Communications Tower.
Inside DARK STAR, Bravo Team was suiting themselves up, excluding Midnight Twister whom had his armor on during mission briefing. He walked up to the princesses with three helmets.
"You may want to put these on, unless you know a spell that allows you to breath in space." Midnight Twister said. The three Alicorns put the helmets on, instantly hearing a hissing sound, signaling that the air has been sealed in the helmet. Midnight Twister then handed each of them a belt that had spare Air Canisters in case they ran out of oxygen to quickly. The princesses then used telekinesis and strapped the belts around their waists.
"Is everypony ready?" Pennywise asked in his normal gruff tone.
"SIR YES SIR!" The other marines said.
"Then let's rock and roll!" Pennywise said, pressing a button near the bay door. A screen turned on and showed the number: 2.5. This number was the oxygen outside the drop ship. There was another number, but it kept changing. This number was the oxygen inside the drop ship. It was matching the pressure inside with the pressure outside so that everypony inside wouldn't go flying outside. Whence the numbers were the same, the bay door opened. The Marines put their weapons on their shoulder holsters, the barrels facing forward. Almost everypony had the same weapons. The only five who didn't were Midnight Twister, Pennywise, One Shot, Greenday, and Winter Lance. Pennywise had his Remington R12 Shotgun, Lance had his G36C Assault Rifle, One Shot had his Mk 13 Mod 5 Sniper Rifle, Greenday had his M624 SAR-LMG, and Midnight Twister had his XM8 Assault Rifle which had extended magazines, a solid-black paint job, and a knife going through a pony skull image on both sides. Everypony else had an M16 Carbine. But the princesses, of course, didn't have a weapon, besides magic. The marines and princesses walked out of the drop ship and onto the rocky surface of the moon.
"Over here." A voice said to Midnight Twister. He turned his head towards the left and saw a creature off in the distance. It appeared to be bipedal. It wasn't making any movements.
"Hey, Lance. Do you see that?" Midnight Twister asked, turning his head to his comrade. They turned there heads to the direction of the being, only to see nothing.
"What did you see?" Winter Lance asked.
"... Nothing. Nevermind." Midnight Twister said, turning his head to the direction of the facility. It wasn't that far away, about 300ft. away.
"Alright, let's GO! Let's GO!" Pennywise ordered. Without hesitation, the entire squad ran, quickly turning into a full on sprint. In a few minutes, they reached the airlock. And just in time, too. Oxygen Tanks were at 12%. Pennywise pressed a button near the air lock. A screen turned on like before. It did the same thing: It equalized the pressure inside with the pressure outside. Whence the numbers matched, the door opened and everypony went inside, the door closing whence they were all in. The pressure equalized again before the door opened, the ponies walking into the room that was on the other side.
"Dear Celestia..." Pennywise said, quite shocked.
"What the fuck." Midnight Twister said in more of a statement. The room they were in was a rather large storage room. There were racks with Air Canisters, tool boxes, crates and anything else you'd put in a storage room. But that's not what they were focusing on. On the wall in front of them was a large pentagram, painted with blood. Laying on it was a stripped and upside-down crucified UAC Security Guard, his armor laying on the floor. His stomach was ripped open, all of his organs gone. Hell, even the veins, arteries, and capillaries were gone! The only thing that wasn't gone were his bones and flesh. Fluttershy and Twilight were forced to empty there stomachs upon seeing this, Rainbow Dash barely being able to keep her lunch down, but succeeding in the end. Upon closer look, his eyes were removed. And he was... Mumbling something? How is that possible after his organs were removed. Midnight Twister walked up to it to hear what it had to say.
"You must find the Spear of Destiny and Soul Cube. You must find them now before-"
*BANG*
The guard was silenced by a gun shot, Midnight Twister barely startled. But startled or not, this didn't stop him from turning his head to the source lightning fast. The shotgun mounted on Pennywise's shoulder had steam emanating from the barrel.
"The fuck was that for?! He was telling me something!" Midnight scolded, storming his way to his superior, not caring if he out-ranked him or not. What if what the guard had to say was important?
"He was suffering. It was best that he be put out of his misery." Pennywise said, grabbing a shotgun magazine and putting it in his shotgun (There's a magnet on the bottom of the boots).
"Wait, you said he said something to you. What did he say?" Twilight asked. Midnight hesitated, but spoke anyways.
"He said that we need to find both: The Spear of Destiny and the Soul Cube. And then he said that we needed to find the before somepony-or something-finds them." Midnight Twister answered, heading towards a door afterwards. He pressed a button, but the door did not open. Instead, it said,
"Access: Denied. Please enter the correct code." A female computer voice said. Midnight Twister looked above the door. Above the door, was "Storage Room: 105-B". He then looked over to the guard's armor. Laying beside it was a Personal Data Assistant, or PDA for short. He walked over to it and grabbed it with his hoof, turning on the PDA straight away. He tapped a file titled "Storage Room 105-B Code Update". He scrolled through the text until he saw the door combination, which was 1-9-9-9. He put the PDA in a pouch on his chest plate and went up to the door. He typed in the code, hearing the female computer voice say,
"Access: Granted."
The door opened right afterwards. On the other side was another pony. Except, it was alive. It was female by the looks of it. She was a tan Earth Pony with a black mane/tail with yellow streaks going through it and wore a white lab coat with yellow details on it. And on another note, the coat she wore was painted... With blood.
"Guys! I found a survivor!" Midnight Twister hollered, the mare's ear twitching after hearing this. Upon hearing this, the Marines and princesses moved to the door where Midnight used to be. Midnight Twister had walked slowly to the mare, not wanting to freak her out. The Marines moved through the door quickly, Pennywise saying,
"Spread out! Secure the area!"
"Clear!" Maple Dawn hollered, soon followed by ten other Marines.
Midnight Twister was now by the mare's side, whom was hiding her face, lightly sobbing. The poor mare. MidnightTwister felt sorry for her. Being here when shit hit the fan was far worse than coming here after the shit storm.
"Calm down. Everything will be alright." Midnight Twister said softly. There was silence, excluding the Marines whom were walking around and looking for a generator to turn on the power because it was dark.
"I need you to-"
"They're watching us as we speak..." The mare said.
"Who is watching us?" Midnight Twister asked.
"The monsters are..." The mare said.
"Where are the monsters?"
"Why should I tell you? You'll just say I'm insane."
Midnight Twister thought for a while before coming up with something.
"Look, I haven't really told anypony this, but I've been hearing whispers lately. They're usually saying 'They took my baby'." Midnight Twister said. The mare snapped her head to him quickly, fear and sadness in her eyes.
"The monsters... They're up there..." The mare said, looking at a cat walk, Midnight Twister looking at it as well.
"And there..."
Midnight Twister and the mare looked at a maintenance tunnel.
"There.."
They looked at an air vent.
"And over there."
They looked at a door. Midnight didn't know why, but he felt another presence behind it. Speaking of which, he felt other presences exactly where the mare pointed at.
"Okay, go tell the princesses. I'll go check out the door."
"NO!" She yelled, everypony looking at the two.
"You can't do that! Please, don't open the door! One of them is behind it! One of those DEVILS!" She yelled, tears streaming down her face.
"You three!" Midnight Twister looked at Winter Lance, One Shot, and Stardust, them looking at him.
"I want you to wield that door over there shut. Nopony is to open it."
"Hey! I'm calling the shots here!" Pennywise barked.
"Shut it!" Midnight shot back. The two stared each other down.
"Greenday, open the door. The mare here is hiding something."
"Sir yes si-"
"NO!" Midnight and the mare yelled.
"OPEN THE FUCKIN DOOR!"
"Sir, that is a very bad idea!"
"SILENCE!" Fluttershy yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Everypony looked at her.
"Whoa. Calm down Flutters." Rainbow Dash said, trying to calm the yellow Alicorn down. Fluttershy looked at the mare, and then Midnight Twister. The mare wore a pleading look, and even though she couldn't see his, she could tell Midnight Twister wore the same look.
*BANG, BANG, BANG*
Everypony looked at the door that Midnight and Pennywise were arguing about. It was bending inwards as well as earning very large dents from whatever was on the other side.
"I SAID THAT THE FUCKIN DOOR NEED TO BE WIELDED DAMN IT! EVERYPONY, KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE MAINTNANCE TUNNELS, VENTS, CAT WALKS, AND THAT DOOR!" Midnight Twister ordered, in which all of the soldiers did as they were told.
"Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and..." Midnight Twister began.
"My name is Minty Gums."
"And Minty Gums, go and lock yourselves in the storage room. The combination is: 1-9-9-9!"
The Alicorns and Earth Pony nodded and ran to the Storage Room Door.
"Fire Fox! Get your ass in there and defend them at all costs!" Midnight Twister ordered, Fire Fox nodding and sprinting to the door, shutting and locking it behind him.
-TO BE CONTINUED...