Rise

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 7: From Darkness

"Dungeons are gay."

I hate dungeons. Luna, Spike, and I had walked right back into the castle and down into the dungeons. That reminds me, I also hate stairs. I was totally okay with them before, but I swear, we were walking down this one staircase for like fifteen to twenty minutes. My legs were burning, and I felt as if I was just gonna fall over and tumble down the stairs. It was a pretty steep staircase too. Didn't help that I was already getting tired, as it was late in the night. Before I leave here, I'm gonna see if I can get elevators made. Anyways, we were at the bottom of the stairs, and Luna opened the door to the dungeons. Right around then is when I decided to blurt out my opinion of the dungeons.

"Jas, how can dungeons be gay?" Spike asked, facepa-- hoof-- clawing. Faceclawing. Yep, faceclawing, that sounds about right.

"Dunno. They just are." I replied. They were pretty gay.

Okay, dungeons can't be gay. But it was so depressing down there. It was pretty damn dark, save for a few torches around. But they were few and far between. Was freezing down there, like it was the middle of winter or something. Maybe around below twenty Celsius. It was a large, open hallway with the rooms on each side, with a mattress, toilet, and well that's about it. The whole place was made of cobblestone, seemingly cracking. Very medieval looking. Which made sense considering everything else was, well, medieval. Our steps and words echoed throughout the dark hall. It went on for a while, it took the three of us around fifteen minutes again to go through the whole place and look in the dungeons to see if the Elements were around. But what did we get? A big sack of nothing. No one was there. I think I seen another door at the end, but it was too dark to see. Our short visit to the dungeons ended as soon as it started, pretty much. With that, we headed back upstairs, and decided to go back to Luna's room to make another game plan.

***

"Hmm... I think that's enough for tonight, everypony. Remember what you have learned, for it might help your sanity. It isn't really like you can do anything with it, though. So why don't you get some sleep now, hmm? Especially you, Fluttershy. With how you exploded on me when I let you speak, you must be tired now! I mean really, it's a good thing no fillies were around." Discord's voice spoke for all ponies to hear. It echoed through everypony's mind, and within just a few moments, ponies started falling asleep. Most of the Royal Guards had decided to stay up and alert, in case Discord tried anything. What they'd do in return, they didn't know. The Elements closed their eyes for the night as well, except for just one.

Twilight Sparkle.

She knew she heard it. Right after Discord left, she heard sets of hoofsteps above her.

They walked around for about fifteen to twenty minutes, then eventually just stopped. If there were hoofsteps above the ponies, then... well, obviously they were under somewhere. They had realized there was a ceiling above them already. But, something just kept nagging at Twilight. Those hoofsteps, they had sounded so familiar, yet not at all. They were above, really high above. Not high as in a few floors up, but as if the ceiling of the room they were in was towering above them. What could this mean? Twilight thought. It didn't really help as to where they were, but if it was a high ceiling, that might be valuable to keep in mind. It was just too bad that she wouldn't be able to do anything with it. All she could do now was have hope. Maybe the human was coming for them.

***

"Squad, get down!"

The team of five dropped to the ground as they all started to scan the area looking through their respective scopes. They found nothing, except for one, bogey, as the Private put it.

"What in the name of god is that..." Sarge muttered to himself as they all looked ahead at.. a creature. Not the same as the enemy they were fighting moments before. It looked like a lion of sorts. But, not just any lion. To the team's shock, and horror, it donned actual wings on its back. Red, dragon-like wings. The mane of the creature was a big, heavy red, just like the wings. And a red tail to go along with it. It stared directly at the squad, before letting out a bloodcurdling roar throughout the forest. The creature slowly stepped forward.

"S-Sarge. Permission to open fire?" the Private whispered, shaking at the sight of the creature in front of them.

"Hell yeah. OPEN FIRE!" Sarge shouted, rising from the dirt and stone and pulled a trigger on the blue-and-cyan object he held. Lights flashed from the device, as the creature in front of them started roaring louder and took damage. The cracking of the weapon firing, tiny little things being ejected from its barrel was heard from the ears of each fighter. The rest of the squad stood up and did the same, pulling the trigger whilst aiming at the creature. The noise from the weapons became louder, and the flash of them firing got brighter. Each weapon was kicking back, and shaking at the usage of its firing.

Within just a moment, the firing died down, and the creature they once seen was now on the floor in a pool of blood.

"What in the fuck was that." a soldier asked to no one in particular, walking over to examine it.

"Ho-kay. Plan changed everyone, we ain't sleepin' now. We're getting our asses out of here this instant. Johnson!" Sarge started, with the Private looking in his direction at the sound of his name. "I want you to stay down here, keep an eye out."

"Roger that, sir." he responded, giving a salute and went through the package he held moments before to put on some infrared goggles.

"Lieutenant!" a soldier walked over to Sarge and saluted. "Alright, Carver, see that tree? Climb it. Look for the nearest exit, or anything of interest. Got it?" Sarge pointed at a somewhat stable tree. It did look as if it may fall down sometime soon, but it was the tallest in that direction, and would have to do.

"Sir, yes sir!" Carver responded, walking over to it after grabbing a pair of his own infrared goggles.

"Corporal, c'mere!" another soldier went over to Sarge. "Stay down here with Johnson, Goodwin."

"Of course, sir." he nodded, and went to grab his own goggles.

"Kendrick. Get up this tree here," Sarge waved a finger at a tree on the opposite side of Carver, "and report what you see in that direction."

Kendrick simply saluted and nodded, before going over to the tree and taking a good look at it before attempting to climb it.

"Sarge, what will you do?" Private Johnson asked, standing beside Sarge.

"I'm gonna try and plan a way out of this mess, maybe fix the radio. We need to get in contact with either Echo, Delta, Overlord, or maybe even the rest of Alpha. The rest were in their own Humvee near us, so they might be around. We're gonna need to keep an ear out for gunshots. They had M4's and P90's, like us, and there's those things runnin' around here, so listen out for those rounds." Sarge replied.

"How you think the war's going? Think Echo's kickin' their asses in?"

"I hope so, Private. They need to be fighting now more than ever."

"Hm. Sarge? You're not one to go soft.."

"Well, I don't know what to think anymore, Private. All I want now is to not be wherever here is. There's too many questions unanswered. Now, why don't ya shut the fuck up and follow your orders, Johnson?" Sarge smiled, and lightly punched Johnson's shoulder, causing him to return the favor with a punch of his own.

"Sir, yes sir."

***

"And then, Discord got hit by the rainbow thingy, and he got turned to stone! It was awesome!"

"But, but, it doesn't work that way! You can't just... just use jewelry to just make harmony out of thin air! Magic doesn't--"

"Jason, I believe you have forgotten you're on a different world."

"Sigh. Right. Anyways. What do we do now? They weren't in the dungeons."

Spike, Luna, and I walked back up those goddamn stairs and now stood in Luna's room. Well, I stood. Luna sat on her bed, and Spike stole a chair. Being the gentleman that I am, I just stood and leaned against a wall instead of stealing chairs and all. The Elements of Harmony weren't in the dungeons, and now we had to figure out where to go next. We were stumped. Honestly, we did more small talking about the weather, and the apparent fact that crossing dimensions can happen than we did figuring out a plan. And then Luna spoke up.

"Hmm... has anypony seen the guards around?" she asked us.

Hadn't noticed it till then, but, that was when I realized there were actually no guards around. They'd probably be patrolling the castle and whatnot, but I didn't see any.

"Nope. Discord?" I replied, frowning.

"Must be... hmm. I think I may know, but it's getting late. You two should go to bed." Luna said back, seemingly deep in thought. I just kinda facepalmed at this.

"Goddammit Luna. I have nowhere to stay. Spike probably has to return to Ponyville. And I'm not your kid or something." I crossed my arms and looked away. Assholes just laughed at me.

"Jason, I can get you a room in the castle! Spike, I can teleport you back over to Ponyville if you like." Luna stood up from her bed, and walked over to the door with us following. Huh, a room in the castle. I can roll with that.

"I should go back. I'll never hear the end of it if Twilight heard where I am. Besides, I gotta do... library stuff. I dunno, I probably already have a list of things I need to do." Spike rolled his eyes and replied to the princess as we left her room and started walking.

"Well, I can accept a good night's sleep and a room in the castle, I guess. Take me to 'em. Oh, one question, I'm not gonna need to wake you up in the morning or something--"

"Ah, no! Morning!" I attempted to say something, before Luna's eyes widened, and she stopped.

"...Luna? You okay? Did the morning do something?" I raised an eyebrow, and turned to see Luna. She looked as if she just had some sort of revelation or something.

"..No. I am okay. In case of Celestia not being in her right mind tomorrow, I may have more duties to do. Anyway, don't wake me in the morning. I am the princess of the night, meaning I must control the night obviously. As such, I sleep through the day. Come to my quarters after you get some dinner, alright? I will give you some bits tonight, and inform the town of your arrival." Luna spoke. Why is it so easy for people to tell the entire town something?

"Right. So I'm on my own for the day."

"I'm sure you'll meet somepony to keep you busy until I wake. Maybe a mare...?"

"Oh, fuck you Luna." This goddamn pony just told me to go get a girl. What the hell am I going to do with a pony girlfriend!? I'm not even attr-- ah, screw it. Damn this place. Damn this place to hell. Either way, we just laughed it off, and I was sent to a guest room.