Rain...

He only could hear the rain...

Last Chance’s mangled body was laying in the dirt, the life slowly ebbing out of it, the OT35-9 hellfire transport burning after some explosive had shot them down.

After two minutes of stupor, the only thing that Last Chance could do is slowly try to get up (goddammit the pain was unbearable). He still tried for another two minutes before realizing that he couldn’t stand on a broken leg. He mentally slapped himself and tried to crawl out of the big crater the explosion had made... after some time and effort he remembered his SMP (Survival Medical Pack). Grunting, he went down again to the leftovers of the transport in an attempt to recover it.

*CRACK*

He stopped suddenly, realizing that he wasn´t alone, and most importantly that he wasn´t on friendly territory

"Shit!"

"Of all your extensive vocabulary, you could only think on saying *cough* the word with S"

He peeked up, only to see Reaper coughing blood and seeing him with a sly grin filled with blood

"Damn bro, you scared me half to death"

"Hehehe *cough* at least I’m lifting the mood before kicking the bucket."

"What are you talking..."

As Last Chance was recovering his senses, he could see a large chunk of metal transfixing his wingman, penetrating one from side to the other, pinning him to the ground. At first LC thought that Reaper could make it, but then he also saw with some degree of horror that Reaper was also missing a leg and an arm.

"Shit" he gasped "Reaper, what the fuck hit us"

"..."

"Reaper?"

"..."

"Fuck"

That was it. No some words, no some assuring words, Reaper has just passed away and the only thing that LC could do is swear him the merciless God out. The pain in his leg was increasing, so he focused on the task at hand, but not before grabbing one of Reaper´s dog tags and hiding it near his boots. An old trick that his old man had taught him before passing away 10 years ago

"Dammit man, I swear if I could have saved you..."

He shook his head, then tried to focus again on the body, where a laser vector was increasing... brightly. He moved off as fast as he could before a loud explosion take place just where Reaper body was, leaving a little crater in the ground

"SHITSHITSHITSHIT"

He can only articulate that word like a broken CD player over and over, the adrenaline running through him as he takes cover in the wrecked ship.

"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED" LC thought as he got his equipment and quickly activated it. The soft glow of the paramedic robot grew in intensity as the machine started to scan his body, then the diagnosis came up.

"Injuries detected. You have a broken leg, a punctured lung, and a pair of broken ribs.", the machine said in a cold, feminine voice. "Want to repair?"

"No, I want to stay all beaten up and I want you to puke rainbow unicorns.", LC retorted as the machine began to work, it encased his leg in a tube and he grunted again before the pain on his leg began to relent.

"How much time do you take?"

"Calculating... Calculating" said the machine. After a couple of minutes had passed, "4 hours 50 seconds total"

"That’s not good.", he muttered "And if you only treat my leg?"

"30 minutes, 25 seconds"

"That’s better"

"Punctured lung and broken ribs are a potentially treat for you now, Lt. Michael..."

"Shut up and work only on the leg!" Last Chance hissed as quick a little pain began to rise from his chest.

"Yes, sir."

He then examined the cargo bay at the wreckage, it was almost intact. He began mentally checking as he saw Reaper’s bag, Debby´s bag, and finally his own bag in the compartiments.

Debby...

DANG IT! Debby... where the fuck was Debby ?, LC quickly looked around, he couldn’t see anything in the blackened cargo bay, then he remember his NV goggles and grabbed his bag, hoping that they were still in good condition. He found them, only a glass broken, and quickly put them on and tried again.

And then he saw her.

Reaper´s death took him by surprise... but what he saw now, he only could take the goggles away before puking his guts out, then the silence...

"Corporal Deborah Swain, or Debby for her friends... only 2 days before, she joined the hellhounds, LC and Reaper’s unit, with merits. Now"... LC doesn´t want to think right now, he immediately got all the bags and tried to get out, then he remembered his mission.

"To hell with the mission!" is the only thing that he could say now. He slowly got down and began to look in his bag, getting his multi-functional cloak and draped it over himself. He only say

"optical camouflage on"

And the cloak began to work, he pulled out his hand, only to see... nothing "Finally some good luck" is all that he can think before speaking to the Medical Robot.

"Hey, thincan!"

"Yes, sir?"

"How much time left?"

"5 minutes on the leg"

"Well, at least I can move again, now. Let’s see what we have." As LC looked in the bags, he smiled, "chocolate candy bars, some ammo, a SPG-01 sidearm, one C-85 "little hell" shotgun, and an ammo making kit".

"Thank you, Debby."

"Another ammo making kit, a SPG-03 Assault rifle, a pair of electromagnetic rechargeable batteries, 20 clips of ammo for the rifle, a hunting knife, 4 packs of cigarettes."

"dammit Reaper, son of a bitch, you said that you went out of smokes like a week ago."

"Now, my bag... Another pair of NV goggles, my tool kit, the repair equipment for the cloak and the SMP, my SPG-21R Sniper Rifle, 10 clips for the Rifle ammo... not bad. Now... the hard part."

LC quickly got all the things together and began to choose all the ones he would need to open up a path into the hostile territory and began to put them in his bag. At least he could survive a little with the food (chocolate mostly) and he decided to carry the sidearm, the shotgun and the sniper rifle with him, he also took the batteries, all the ammo making kits and the repair kit, he emptied half of the clips (daaamn ammo wasting) and also kept them

"Repair to your leg done, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, thincan" he said quickly "hibernation mode now"

"Yes, sir."

BOOOM!

"Oh, shit!"

LC quickly got outside with his cloak on... All that he could see was a little sparkling stone on the floor, surrounded by an dark blue aura.

"What the f..." was the only thing he could say before the stone lifted itself off the floor, floating around him and flung itself directly towards him. Then a bright purple flash, another big explosion, and silence.

And again only the rain.

CANTERLOT CANTERLOT

It has been a perfect day, as always, and Princess Celestia knows it as she quickly leaves Day Court in order to lower the sun for her younger sister, Princess Luna.

"Princess?"

"Everything is going to be perfect if Twilight could pull out this spell by now." Celestia deeply thought as she paced quietly in the main corridor.

"Princess Celestia?"

"Well, anyways... what was Lulu mumbling this morning... something about sending some... Ok, I need to retake some focus classes, I can’t remember..." As celestia continued her stroll through the halls, she didn’t notice the butler behind her.

"PRINCESS CELESTIA!"

"EEEP"

Celestia found herself at the top of one of canterlot famous chandelier pieces on the dining room, shivering lightly as she looked down

"HOLY... REGINALD"

"Indeed Princess, sorry for screaming at you"

"OH... WELL YOU CAN JUST SPEAK TO ME NORMALLY... WON’T YOU, YOU JUST STARTLED ME OUT MY HAUNCHES""

"Princess... The Royal Canterlot Voice?"

"Oh... umm... well" Celestia began to say when a loud crack was heard all across the room. Celestia and Reginald watched in horror as the chandelier gave up and and crashed onto the dining table, along with one confused alicorn that had just peeked into the dining room at that moment.

"Tia, we need to speak thou that...!!!SWEET MOTHER OF TARTARUS!!

CRAAAASH

"TIA! TIA! PRAY TELL WHAT ARE THEE DOING ON THE TOP OF THE CHANDELIER IN THE DINING ROOM"

"hmgmgh"

"WHAT ARE THEE SPEAKING, WE CAN’T UNDERSTAND THEE BABBLING"

"Princess Luna"

"WHAT!"

"you are crushing your sister against the table"

"WE ARE NOT...Oh Tia... Tia!!!... we are so sorry, please forgive us"

Soon, the Solar Monarch was seated on a little table (two guards grunting their souls out as they moved the broken table out of the dining room), her regalia all dusty and her mane disheveled (if that’s even possible) and looking daggers at her younger sibling who stood two meters away with a sheepish grin and an apologetic look in her eyes.

"We... ugh... I am so sorry about that, but it was interesting seeing thou clinging to that chandelier, Tia."

*sigh* "It doesn’t matter", said the older alicorn blushing lightly. It wasn’t your fault."

"I am deeply sorry, Your Majesty.", the butler mumbled at her right, "but you were daydreaming and mumbling something about attention so I think you should begin to pay a little more of it to your surroundings...”

"Creepy." said the lunar princess quietly.

At this point, and before any of the staff came into the room, Celestia did something even more more unlikely. She facehooved...

Quickly regaining herself she began to speak.

"Lulu, this morning you came early saying something about"... but she was eagerly interrupted again, this time by a little stone that materialized above  her, quickly followed with a magic signature of Luna herself

"Ah, yes", began the Lunar Princess "as you can see, we sent this sigil to find somepony who could help us to improve our military, and also somepony who has an special talent among his or her partners, but most importantly, somepony who..."

At that point Celestia wasn’t paying any attention, she just was staring blankly at some point behind Luna seeing by chance the clock behind her, only to saw that it was almost time.

"Luna"

"Pray tell, Sister?"

"You are like... twenty minutes late to raising the moon, aren’t you?"

"Oh, horseapples" said the younger alicorn before zipping out of the room.

Peace and quiet, finally some peace and quiet”, that is until a letter materialized in front of her with a little green blast.

"For the love of..." began the older alicorn taking the letter angrily and at the same time starting to read it, only to let it fall a couple seconds later.

"Uhh, Reginald?"

"Yes, your Highness?"

"You are sure I didn’t hit my head when I fell from the ceiling?"

"Absolutely sure, your Highness."

"That’s what I thought."

Then she unceremoniously fell on the floor, the last word that she said was "human". Next Chapter: Prologue Part 2: On the other side (EDITED) Estimated time remaining: 8 Minutes