Sky Guardians

A sudden chill makes my entire body shake, leaving just as fast as it came. The teacher in front of my class continues to talk about resumes and how we're never going to amount to anything. Classic. I don't even get why people like that even teach, they clearly don't like their job anymore. Besides, it's not like they can't just go back to school or switch career paths. There's plenty of jobs that you can go to that don't require any money. Like McDonalds, which is what this teacher says the majority of the class will be working in for the rest of our lives. A girl not too far from me sprays her perfume, pumpkin spice promptly suffocates me and hastily spreads to the others. As I cough the chemicals get onto my tongue, making my mouth numb and my anger rise.

The desk squeaks noisily as I rise up to my feet, gripping the wood-metal combination tightly in between my fingers. The metal is cold and wood warm, leaving the portions of my hands feel the exact same for a few seconds after I let go.

"What?" The girl asks with a cocky scowl. Her hair couldn't be any less fake, the black is clearly a wig and she didn't even angle it all that well either, you can clearly see her real brown hair underneath. Her make-up is too cakey as well and her concealer is several shades too dark for her natural skin colour. Her neck stands out far more than her face, you can clearly see where she completely gave up on blending it all in.

Taking a deep breath, I decide to go the kind route, "Can you please stop spraying your perfume in the middle of class? It's very irritating, disruptive, and makes me feel sick."

"Ew, no you creep, get away from me," She angles her perfume bottle at me and sprays it directly on my face, luckily not getting it in my eyes.

That's it. Fuck this bitch, I'm going to kick her ass. "Listen here you fucking whore, I don't know if you know this or not but changing your appearance won't make you good looking, especially if you can't even do it properly."

"Excuse me?" The girl's jaw drops and the entire class murmurs amongst themselves.

"Fedrick Loosenburg, sit back down right now or go to the office!" The teacher shouts loud enough to make everyone jump. The more dainty students subtly begin to cry, only some of them having a friend to comfort them.

But I don't relent, I won't relent. This girl has been a narcissistic bitch ever since I met her last year in ninth grade. Everytime this girl walked into one of my classes, everyone instantly knew that it was going to be a nightmare. "It seems that the constant use of perfume has ruined your brain, and with it, your hearing. So I will repeat myself once more." Clapping between each of the words, I shout in her face. "You. Are. Not. Hot."

The girl gasps and sprays me once more with her perfume. "You are a misogynistic asshole! No wonder no girl will ever love you!"

"And with a body, face, and personality like yours," I hesitate for a moment, wondering if I should really go through with it. But oh well, not like it matters anyway. "No guy will ever truly love you."

"Fedrick, you will never live up to anything if you go around treating girls like that!" The teacher roars, his voice loud enough to even make the next door teacher come over to check things out.

"Just you wait!" I start, clenching my fists by my side, ignoring all of the eyes and cameras locked on me. "I will amount to everything and achieve even the highest of goals!"

"Oh, and what might that be?" The teacher smirks, raising an eyebrow towards me.

I'm at a loss for words, not thinking this through whatsoever. What even is the highest level of goals? Prime Minister? No, even complete idiots can become that if they're lucky enough. Come on, dumbass, think, what is the highest of goals? What does a majority of the population want to be but a majority of them fail?

"That's what I thought," The teacher scoffs at me, rolling his eyes like he's being relatable by picking on me.

"I will become a sky guardian!" I shout, declaring it to possibly the entire school. The class is silent for a moment, the teacher goes to respond but I promptly cut him off, making my throat sore with all of the shouting. "Just you wait! I will become a sky guardian and prove to you that I can and will achieve the highest of goals!"

"Is that so?" The teacher continues to mock me, but the rest of the class remains silent as they gaze at me in a sad awe. They don't think I'll make it. But I will. I'm too stubborn to lose. "Well then I look forward to seeing you on the streets or even at the McDonalds after I ask you for extra sauce."

♞♞♞

The sky is freezing as the clouds fly past, air flowing through my long battle braids. The wind blows in my ears, the only other thing I'm able to hear is the neighing of my trusty alicorn and the occasional reports of my army. It's bright gold main reflects beautifully under the high sun, and its clean white coat shimmers as we ride through the clouds. The diamond armour that has recently been gifted to me seems to be fitting quite well, it isn't distracting my steed and it's the most protective level of armour that has ever been created so far.

"Sir Loosenburg," The voice of one of my comrades shouts over my headset.

"Yes, private?" I shout back, now raising my guard back up to when I first heard the news and was sent out to defend.

"We are now in position and the targets are in sight," The voice continues to shout, but it's slowly becoming more concerning, like they're scared of something.

"Is something the matter, private?" I ask, pulling back on the reins and signaling my squad to stop.

"Yes, we have a clear view of them," The private reports and my gut sinks. It's possible that his squad has been taken hostage by whatever has chosen to attack our planet this time around. "We believe that it may be a code neon."

"Squads A and F, rendezvous with squad D and make your way to squad Y!" I shout the orders and the clouds around us begin moving with due haste. Pegasi soar in and out of view at fascinating speeds, rushing towards squad Y in an attempt to save them from whatever may be happening.

I turn my alicorn to face the direction of squad Y and gesture to my squad to follow suit. As we blast through the sky, one of my comrades works to keep up next to me, "Sir, what about the plan?"

"We are going against ancient mutant creatures that have destroyed entire cities and multiply at insane speeds," I respond slowly and calmly, trying my best to keep a level head. "Right now it would be best to provide assistance to the squad that is currently under attack since they are the closest to the danger."

"But-"

"If the boss has something against what I'm ordering then you can direct her to me, otherwise, stick to the plan!" I shout, trying to distract the others away from my shaking hands by raising my voice.

"Alright sir," The private falls back with the rest of the squad as we continue to speed forward.

The clouds disappear behind us as we cross the threshold and gaze upon the open sky. It's completely empty, and oddly quiet. None of the squads are in sight, and there's not even a hint of our foes' presence. I raise my fist into the air, signaling my squad to stop.

The area is dead silent, not even a breeze is strong enough to grab our attention. Stroking my steeds mane, we listen closely to even the tiniest shift in our surroundings. Neither the alicorn nore the pegasi are showing any signs of something being wrong. It's not wise to call in either since we'll be making ourselves known and put everyone in danger. Is it possible that we went to the wrong location? No, never. Never in my twenty years of being the second strongest guardian in the sky have I ever made such a mistake. So is it possible that squad Y went to the wrong location? But then that doesn't explain why squads A, F, and D aren't present.

"Sergeant Major!" A voice shouts in warning. Before I'm even completely able to register it, I'm sent flying backwards. Free falling through the air, searching for my steed through the upcoming swarms of clouds.

A barely noticeable neigh makes its way into my ears, followed by the screams of my comrades. One of the clouds begin to turn, large white tentacles reaching out of its top. A pug-like face with deep red, demonic eyes appears on the cloud. One after another, clouds turn to face me as I continue to plummet down to my probable death. Another neigh makes its way into my ears, and finally, my beautiful alicorn flies completely through one of the clouds, causing a liquid of some sort to pour out of it. I reach out a hand, placing all of my trust into my steed like I have been ever since I taught it to fly.

The alicorn's mane touches my hand and I grip onto it tightly, flipping myself over and landing directly on my steed's back. We hover mid air for a moment as I analyse the situation, promptly realizing that what we thought were clouds, was actually the enemy surrounding us. I'm assuming that their ugly pug faces opened up and ate all of the squads as they were flying through. But then again, we were flying through clouds as well, so that makes this whole thing even more dangerous since it's going to take an extra second to depict clouds from weird squid pug cloud monsters.

"Is anybody still alive out there?" I shout out, keeping a close eye on my surroundings. The ground is a little visible below me, my old high school just barely in sight. Huh, I guess I achieved even higher than the highest of goals, instead of just being a sky guardian, I lead my own army of sky guardians. An army that I failed to protect from some ancient creatures. Now it's possible that every last one of them is dead, all because of my incompetence. I should've told everyone to retreat, at least then we'd still have a few squads alive.

A large, white tentacle comes flying towards me, the alicorn shooting forward and out of the way just in time. As we spin around we're met eye-to-eye with the horrendous pug face. Blood drips out of its eyes and mouth, turning to vapour before it even reaches the ground. I see, so eating living things can help them stay alive, and the blood consumed can make them bigger.

"Sergeant Major, this is Colonel Jasper, what is your current situation?" A voice suddenly speaks over my headset.

"From what I know, all squads have been wiped out and I'm the last one standing," I explain, watching the pug raise closely and refusing to blink. "I am requesting backup and for permission to use the alicorn horn."

There's a moment of silence on the line, and the pug eyes begin to raise higher. "Permission granted, backup is on the way."

I tap the side of my steed's neck and whisper softly, "Come on, Magnon, it's time to go all out."

There's a brief neigh, and the horn begins to shine golden, red sparkles sprinkling down and disappearing. The tip of the horn grows brighter and brighter, eventually becoming pure white. A beam starts to shoot out from the horn, completely impaling the cloud and all else around it. Carefully, I slip on some goggles and direct Magnon towards the rest of the clouds in the sky, watching in awe as each and every one of them are sliced in half, their odd goo floating upwards towards space. The bodies of my comrades are covered in goop as they plummet back to the Earth, both them and their steeds completely unconscious. The backup will get to them, no worries.

"Hold your fire!" A voice plays over my headset once more, this time it's feminine, must be the highest rank.

Patting Magnon's neck once more, I whisper, "You did a good job today, buddy. Time to rest." The beams of light reach back into the horn and it slowly becomes dull once more. We begin plummeting back to the Earth once more together. Using up so much power has always caused my alicorn to faint. "So why did you want me to stop?" I ask, holding onto my steed tightly as our speed picks up and our armour begins to burn.

"We need to keep the rest for research, we already have people containing the live ones," My boss explains professionally. "And you are about to be caught in just a few seconds."

After about five seconds we land on a large net, my comrades being checked up on by field medics and having the goop removed. I refuse to let go of my steed, laying there next to it and petting it gently waiting for them to slowly lower us back to the ground.

"I thought we were all goners," I chuckle, talking to myself. Pointing a middle finger towards my old I school, I whisper, "Suck it, Mr. McCabe!"