Rise

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 14: Dark Secrets

Alpha Squad

"This is Alpha-Ten-Actual. Do you copy? Alpha-One, Two, do not go into that forest! Repeat, do not go into the forest! Look to your left. You should see a house, that's us. Alpha and Echo are here. This is Zone-Alpha-- rendezvous here, now, over!"

"Fuck, they aren't getting it, Sarge!"

"REPEAT! This is Alpha-Ten-Actual, do NOT go into that forest! Unidentified bogeys are swarming the area, do not engage! Rendezvous Zone-Alpha, the house in the field, over!"

"They must be recieving it, though. We communicated with each other just fine!"

"Maybe they're too far? And we are getting shit on from the rain again anyway. Damn, it's pretty fuckin' cold too."

"Guys, I'm falling--!"

"Dammit! Repeat, this is Alpha-Ten-Actual! Get away from the forest!"

"Fuuuuc-- ooowwwww."

The shouts of command died quickly through the thunder and lightning of the storm. Any and all attempts to warn of the spawn from Hell itself were lost with no chance of getting a message anywhere. The fellow combatants, codename Alpha-One and Alpha-Two, were going into highly dangerous territory. They brought along another man with them, a more younger one. Not any older than twenty, or so. This man had no enthusiasm of following, but it was if he had no choice. Nothing else he could do, or would rather anyways. He seemed clueless, lost. As Alpha Squad noticed this, they started to fear the worst.

"Ugh. Word of advice-- do not fall off ceiling fans. Anyway, what's happening?" Echo-Six limped out from the cottage they were once in to get briefed on the mission.

"We don't know. Look over there, see those guys? That's Alpha-One, and Alpha-Two. They have someone with them, and they're walking into that forest. Usually, you wouldn't go into a forest when you're supposedly lost, so, I'm assuming they must want to go in there." Sarge took another look through the binoculars to make sure he was correct, and he was indeed. The three men continued walking to the forest, now just a few metres away from the tree line.

"Huh. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't they just, oh I don't know, look around and see us? It's as if they need to go in there or something. By the way, pass the binoculars." Echo-Six observed, crossing his arms.

"Hell, if I didn't know any better, it sort of looks like they got a hostage. You don't take civilians into forests." Sarge commented, before handing the binoculars to Echo-Six for him to see the three.

"And that would mean they gone rogue. But, that seems highly unlikely, don't you think? And how do we know that's a civilian?" Echo-Six retorted.

"That's what would make sense to me. But dammit, I don't really know anything about what's their problem. We should move out, we're sitting ducks out here." Sarge frowned, and walked back inside the house to regroup the soldiers in the area.

Jason

You know, I actually don't like rain. Never did, even before the storms hit. Always thought it sucked. With rain came cold, and with cold came sickness. And honestly? Not the biggest fan of forests, either. Especially when two somewhat suspicious-looking 'soldiers' are leading me into it when I'm lost. But then again, I am indeed lost. These guys seem to know what they are doing, where we're going. Maybe we'll just stick to the outskirts, I thought, hide between trees and bushes as we head to Ponyville. I then started to realize, I can talk, and should probably use this ability to the best I could.

"So, hey, guys. What's the deal with the forest?"

Both of them grunted in response. They didn't even look my way. We just kept on moving, no sign of turning to the town that was like right there.

"You both do realize there's a civilization and village just to our left? I mean really guys, you're soldiers, you should take a look at your surroundings. Going into the town where there's probably, people and most likely shelter would be the best idea." I sort of hesitated on the word 'people', as there wasn't exactly people there. I decided to keep that on the down-low for now though, but they probably know already anyway.

Not even acknowledgement this time. Nothing. Just kept on walking. Did I ever mention I also do not enjoy long walks? I really hate long walks. There's a reason why I chose a train as my escape route. Yeah, great escape route. Ended up falling off a mountain and now some people you've never seen before are leading you into a possibly dangerous forest. And they probably aren't even people.

I really felt like just walking away from these people. Nothing seemed right here. But, well, it was too late. We finally came to the forest, and holy hell did it look fucked up. As soon as we came to the forest, there was a tree fallen over in our way. Black vines were ripped apart all around it. Dead grass. Dead leaves. Dead plants all around us. In fact, I could've sworn I seen a dead animal of some sort underneath the tree. Also, I couldn't see more than maybe a foot and half in front of us, after that it just went pitch black. The entire thing was basically just darkness.

"Follow, and stay close. We're taking you to our base of operations," Richard said, albeit much deeper and that much more suspicious. It just sounded wrong. Something was telling me to get the fuck outta there, but, I stayed. I didn't run, as much as my gut told me to. I just followed anyway as we ducked under the tree without fail. The rain had lightened up in the forest underneath the trees, so at least I was away from that for a bit.

Nothing really happened as we walked. It had been about fifteen minutes or so of stepping over mud and trees, when finally we found something. It seemed like just a random stone, up against this big hill. The place was covered by some trees. But, the two soldiers went over and pushed the stone out of the way, revealing an opening in the hill. It was dark, but I could barely see some torches lighting up the cobble down ahead. Nick closed the opening as Richard took the lead, and I went in behind him as we walked into the cave. The pathway was just straight stone all the way down, about ten feet or so, then it turned a corner to the left, of which I couldn't really see from this angle.

"Kid, go up. You're first." Richard spoke, and pushed me ahead of him.

I stepped forward, slowly. With the uneven rock flooring I almost lost my balance a few times, but I managed. I couldn't hear anything around the corner other than the soft crackling of torches. One lay right at the end of the path, lighting up the last half of the stone. I knew something was up, this wasn't right. They would've known about the town, wouldn't they? And why's their base in some cave in this dark forest? Why am I going first? But I knew I couldn't go back. It was now or never.

After an extremely long minute, I finally got to the end.

"Hello, ol' pal! How's Equestria treating you?"

I froze up at the sound of this voice. No, no, no, it was too familiar. I heard that voice before and it wasn't in a good time.

I turned to see the source of whoever spoke... and just barely got a glimpse of the most horrifying thing I've ever seen, before getting knocked upside the head and fell to the floor.