//------------------------------// // Eminence // Story: The Invisible Brony Defense Force // by SoullessDCLXVI //------------------------------// Celestia was confused. In all her long life she'd never met such strange beings. This 'Overture' was guiding her through the dark Everfree night, explaining their predicament to her as they went. She tried to pay attention but her eyes repeatedly stole glances of creatures she'd never seen before, not in her dreams, not in a storybook, not anywhere. Several had a very familiar, very disconcerting shape to them. "...and that, Life Giver, is what's best for all." "What?" Princess Celestia felt a little guilty at having tuned him out. She hadn't done that in a long time. But then again, there had never been anything quite like this to distract her before. Overture smiled a small tight smile. "You weren't listening, were you? That's understandable. Here, follow me to where you might be less prone to the whims of ADD." "ADD?" "Nothing, nevermind. Inside joke." "Sure, lead the way, Overture." As they made their way deeper into the forest, Overture began to speak again, and Celestia resolved to hear every last word. "At what part did you lose me last time?" "I believe you had said that you were a race of creatures called "Humans" and that you had gathered for a celebration of sorts." "Ah, yes. Seems you tuned out early on and caught some information after that. Well, unlike last time I can't go into great detail, as we're running out of time. So here's the short and sweet. One: we humans are evil, true evil. Two: we-" "You're evil? And you dare speak to me!" Celestia charged her horn once more and Overture sat still, and held a single hand up. "Yes, I am evil. As are my brethren, however we are not here to harm you, please hear us out before you defeat us. And if you decide to engage us, defeat us you shall, as not one soul will put up even a meager resistance. Even if they believe themselves to be more powerful than you and your sister combined." Once again Celestia's horn's glow receded. Confusion seemed to be a common emotional state for her today. "That's not how evil works, I think you may be misguided, Mr Overture. You seem to me a decent being. Why call yourselves evil?" "Where we're from, Good and evil isn't quite so black and white, oil and water. It's a cloudy gray. So while on our own planet, we may be relatively nice guys, compared to you and your ponies, we're the greatest evil you've seen." "If you are so evil, why haven't you attacked me? Why haven't you tried to take over Equestria?" "Ah, there it is. That's part of two. Two: On our world, we came to know of yours. We followed the adventures of your student, Twilight Sparkle, and those of her five friends. We came to learn much about your world. The purity of your joy and innocence lit within us a spark of hope and happiness many of us hadn't known in years. It was a beacon. A bright and warm beacon. And that beacon brought us all together to celebrate you all, even though we all thought you were fiction. However, for whatever reason, during our Celebration, something happened. Whatever it was brought us here. And we swore an oath to protect you and your ponies." "I still don't hear any evil..." "It's in our very nature, Princess. And it's a corrupting force. A very powerful corrupting force. I am happy that you are momentarily immune, Princess. But I don't believe you have much time before you succumb, which is why you need to listen to me." "I'm listening..." Celestia was perplexed, but she had no reason to doubt this creature. If he spoke true then to ignore his words would have been met with catastrophic consequences. "Twilight Sparkle has been spotted in these woods. Unfortunately, she is not an Alicorn, and thus fell victim to our evil. She has been tarnished by our presence and poses a grave threat to Equestria. She did not grow up in a world of darkness and she has lost complete control. She is in the woods somewhere, that much we know. And we are doing our best to save her. In spite of our best efforts, she has evaded our sentries with magic. We need your help, Princess." Hearing that sweet innocent Twilight Sparkle had been corrupted by the presence of these things made her both wary at their natural evil and awestruck at their raw power. Though that was nothing compared to the worry she felt for her student. Poor Twilight, an agent of evil. When these creatures cured her she would be guilt ridden for weeks. "What do you need, Mr. Overture?" "Just Overture is fine, Day Bringer. And all we need from you is some magic dampening fields on this net, and the cage on the edge of the clearing. But you must hurry. I fear we cannot protect Equestria against an Alicorn infected by our evil, much less the Goddess of the Sun, and you cannot have much time left." -||-||-||-||- "Hey man, how about a pizza and a fuck?" Arrow has been, for the last 15 minutes, trying to get in Sin's pants. And he's been met with failure everytime. I'd laugh. But it's getting on my nerves. "No, man. I told you-" "What's wrong, you don't like pizza?" Sin stopped walking, his fists clenched he leaned forward slightly, shaking. Obviously simmering in anger. "For the last time, I ain't into you. You ain't my type. By a long shot. Hit on me again, and I'll make sure you sleep for a long time." at this his right arm changes shape. Other than the missing ethereal dark red glowy crap, his arm is now a dead ringer for Alex Mercer's blade. Pointing it at a very pale Arrow he said, "Keep your dick in your pants, and I keep my own sword sheathed, get me?" "Yeah, man. Fine. Whatever. Shit, thought you were just playing hard to get. You don't need to get all screamy." "You don't even know what I look like. Every inch of me is clothed. What possessed you to want to possess me?" "What can I say? I got hot guy radar, Shit man! I wasn't hitting on you, calm down!" "Would you two knock it off!? In case you've forgotten, we're on a stealth mission. Ya fuckin' idiots." "I will ask later, what that was about, Mr Soulless. But what I want to know now is, just what stealth mission are we on? We're nowhere near Canterlot and we haven't seen hide nor tail of your kind in half an hour." whispered Twilight. "Twilight, for this I think you need to sit down. You're probably not going to like the answer." Twilight sits, a worried look on her face. "Twilight, when was the last time you ate?" "About fifteen minutes ago, why?" "And you, Snake?" "Three days." "Arrow?" "Two days." "Syntax?" "A week." Whoa, what? "Excuse me, a week? How are you still standing?" In a slight German accent he yells: "I HAVE NO IDEA!" Guess that explains the irritability. "Ohhh- kaaay. Well, that aside. I think you can figure where this is going, Twilight" "No. No I can not. Why would you choose not to eat?" "We don't choose not to eat, our food is scarce. Do you understand now?" "No there's food all over the place. Just eat already." "We're carnivores, Twilight. Well, omnivores really. But the plant life here has very little nutrients and calories. They can't sustain us. We need meat." Goddamnit, Snake. For someone so smart you can be a little dense at times. "Is that all?" Ummm... what? What does she mean, 'is that all'? "Uhhh... you're okay with that?" "Yeah, why wouldn't I be? I've read plenty of biology textbooks. Honestly, I figured you guys were carnivores. Your omnivorous nature was admittedly a little surprising" "Wait, you knew? Then why did you say we should eat the plants around us?" "I had you guys pegged. I guessed you knew that the ponies you worshiped were herbivores. You tread lightly on so many issues, I was curious as to how long you'd keep your diet a secret. Not too long apparently." "I wonder how the other ponies would react to that?" Snake wonders aloud. "Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash would be okay with it, Fluttershy takes care of all creatures and all diets. And if I remember right, Dash said she's even eaten meat herself-" "What?!" All four of us respond. "From what I remember of what she told me, in a bizarre moment of curiosity she ate some of Gilda's chicken during flight camp. Apparently it tasted odd, but was in no way worth the severe gut wrenching pain that followed that evening." "Daammn" Arrow responded. "I knew she was brave, but... daammn." "Really, as long as you don't eat in front of anypony. I don't think you'll have a problem. Just don't tell Pinkie Pie. I'm afraid of what she might do to cater your welcome party... what is wrong with you guys? Why'd you all stop walking at the same time? You guys look really scared. I've never seen you guys so scared." "Um..." I swallow. "It's uh... nothing. Don't worry about it. Let's just uh.. go. I'm not hungry anymore." "Yeah, uh.. me neither." "But you guys haven't eaten in days. You said so yourself! I need you at full strength if I'm going to get home safely." "Just.. no. Just drop it please." We walked for the next hour in complete silence. Though we did finally manged to get a deer roughly forty five minutes in. -||-||-||-||- Washington DC White House, Oval Office November 30th, 2013 2:26 am EST President Romney. The CEO of America. Was the happiest he'd been in just over a year. An entire planet of untapped natural resources at his country's front door. Sure it was a bit of a squeeze getting in, and there were some pesky savage natives to deal with. But they'd be dealt with quickly enough. "Sir. I don't think that's a good idea. From what I gather from the report, the planet is occupied by sentient life. We can't just declare war on an alien species. It's not right." Romney rubbed his temples. Part of the problem with his position was dealing with the bleeding hearts. No matter how may times he's blatantly ignored them, they keep offering thier 'advice'. "Jenkins, I read that report. They declared war on us. They killed one of our soldiers in cold blood." "It could be a cultural misunderstanding, and.." the thin man in a suit flips through a few pages of the report in front of him, "it looks like they appeared in a throne room of sorts. He was killed by guards. Who's to say they didn't attack first?" "That report," Romney offered. "That report is to say they didn't attack first." "Oh, so now you care what the report says, figures." "What was that professor, I didn't quite catch that." "Nothing, Mr President. But, is it really worth it to wage war over one dead soldier?" "They pose a great threat to this nation, Doctor. We must attack first." "Uh.. no. They don't pose a threat, actually. They have spears. What they pose is an excellent opportunity for advancement of our mutual knowledge" "I've had enough out of you. Go sell your unpatriotic drivel to someone else." Why this brainiac was trying to get in the way of God's work was beyond Romney. And it was obviously God's work. America had been in an enormous economic decline in recent years. And just when all hope is lost, A portal to an entire world neatly pops up in America's capital city. The sign couldn't be clearer. And this SETI worker would seek to explain it and diminish the rewards America deserved. Atheist filth. -||-||-||-||- Belly full for the first time in days I was dead tired. Every now and then I would stumble forward, flapping my wings to help regain balance. I wasn't the only one. Twilight wasn't known for physical labor and just moving had worn her out. We made camp in a tree, Arrow and Snake worked to create a hammock and tied the makeshift thing between branches so that Twilight could sleep with us. The dense foliage would hide us from Human search parties that would undoubtedly search for us when the sun came up. Seems we would become nocturnal. Fitting really, for the HOH's priest and monks of the the moon. Staring through a small gap in the leaves I watched as a bit of extra-planetary rock burned up in the upper atmosphere. A shooting star for those less astronomically inclined. A childhood habit rose itself out of my mind and I wished upon a star, tweaking it to fit our environment. Dear Luna, I wish with all my heart that we safely deliver Twilight to Canterlot. Where she can be kept safe from the rest of my kind who desire to kill her. And on a lesser note, I want to go home. It's not great, but at least I'd have food, shelter, internet, and indoor plumbing. Yawning, I hooked my feet around the branch I lay on, instinct taking hold I let myself drop. Hanging upside down from the branch, I cocoon myself with my wings and fall into the best sleep I've had since I came to Equestria. -||-||-||-||- Given the events of the day, it was understandable that her night was a little lackluster tonight. Giving it a once over she let it remain with the dimmer stars and galactic cloud. Waving her hoof lazily her horn glowed as she briefly added some shooting stars and waited for what would undoubtedly come. Contrary to popular belief, she couldn't actually manipulate the stars. They were far too far away and far to large and took far too long to create and destroy. No, what she could do however was manipulate the exosphere, thermosphere and mesosphere's molecular density on a grand scale. Thus altering the way the star's light waves traveled through the planet's atmosphere. When she wasn't feeling up to it, the molecules would gather and thicken the outer atmosphere and dim the light of the sky. When an asteroid got close enough it took no effort to move it. Often times she'd drag it into the sky and create a light show. Ponies that saw this tended to offer prayers to Luna when she did. Often in wish format. And she chose to open her mind to those prayers every time. When Equuis passed through the tail of a comet she'd open her mind then too. But that wasn't as special. It was more public, less personal, and Luna could do nothing to stop the shower that would create the barrage of wishes that came her way. "I wish being a fillyfooler was a taboo again. The sex was so steamy back then." Nothing I can do about that, Lyra dear. Luna smiled. "I wish for a billion bits!" Aren't you rich enough, Filthy? "I wish Spitfire would see how awesome I am and make me a Wonderbolt!" Dash, all you need to do is the paperwork, I'll send you the application in the mail. "Dear Luna, I wish with all my heart that we safely deliver Twilight to Canterlot. Where she can be kept safe from the rest of my kind who desire to kill her. And on a lesser note, I want to go home. It's not great, but at least I'd have food, shelter, internet, and indoor plumbing." Luna's eyes went wide, her irises shrank. Where had that come from? Before it went cold she traced the line, ignoring all the other wishes for the night. Her minds eye flew over the country. Soundlessly speeding past building after building before leaving Canterlot. It flew in the direction of Ponyville before lurching right and delving into the forest. It twisted past tree after tree. A sleeping timberwolf pack was undisturbed as it flew within inches of them. Finally, it rested on the sight of an overly large sleeping bat, two bipedal creatures resembling the ones that had attacked earlier, and a small green monkey. All sleeping around Twilight Sparkle, who was lying on her back on a net in the tree, appearing relaxed, but not asleep. Luna watched as Twilight wrote in a small notepad, occasionally glancing at the others. Luna slowly shifted her line of sight so she could see what Twilight was writing "Hello, Luna. Seems I'm not the only spy these days," Twilight chuckled. Caught, Luna teleported to her sister's student. "What is going on, Twilight. That bat thing had a very ominous desire." Twilight raised an eyebrow "Oh?" "He wished for your safe return. He believed you to be in danger. Is this true, Twilight?" Twilight chuckled. "They're cooky, and on some level yes. I'm in danger. But I trust them to return me safely." "Why not just allow me to return home with you?" "These things are the most amazing things I've seen in all my years. I want to spend as much time as I can with them. I think that one and that one have a crush on me. I think the bat thing worships you. And they are masters of Theater. The old you would have been proud." "How do you mean?" "Every little thing sets them off. They fear me as though I were a sensitive parental figure that they need to appease, and quite frankly, that's hilarious. I can see why Celestia messes with her subjects sometimes. The whole meat thing had me going so bad it was miracle I kept a straight face." "Meat thing?" "They're carnivores, or I guess technically omnivores." "Ah, I see. And they-" "Yeah." Luna smiled. "They don't eat sentients, do they" "No, Luna. Hey wanna meet them? I think they might make the noise that Syntax here made when he met me. It was cute. Weird and mechanical, but cute." "Eh, why not? I think I'll the wake the bat one first. Hey, wake up sleepyhead. Time you met the awesome Mare of the Moon. -||-||-||-||- New York City Worth and Broadway, Portal Location November 30th 4:20am EST "So, what we've discovered is that the wormhole is stable on this side. However, the other side flits between locations. Using multiple sensors we've calculated that the area that the other side pops up in is roughly twenty five square miles. However. The portal remains stable on the other side in a specific location for nine hours and twenty three minutes a night. It's deep in the woods. About sixteen miles from Location Alpha." "Wormhole?" "It fits the mathematical parameters of an Einstein-rosen bridge to a T. I never thought I'd see one. Especially not one visible to the naked eye." "When does stability occur?" "10:16pm eastern standard time, sir." "Hmm, that only gives us a few hours tonight." Jameson moved his arm in a motion that said simply, 'move out'. Teams of soldiers carrying ammo crates and stores of weapons moved through the portal. Followed shortly by teams with food and other necessities. A line of port-o-potties followed them. Humvees pulling trailers full of metal rode through the cleared ground before flashing white and disappearing. A single Abrams tank. The only one Jameson could requisition at this time of night was poised to follow. Before it arrived at the portal that was smaller than it, the driver got out and signaled that he was ready. A team of soldiers and a couple of vehicles proceeded to push the tank into the portal. The scientist on station stared wide-eyed. The entire tank went. Not just the part that connected to the wormhole. Jameson was the only one left. With a wave he walked into the wormhole, leaving the scientist alone with his work. -||-||-||-||- New York City November 30th, 2013 4:27am EST Two figures stood on the roof a short skyscraper opposite the ruined building with the portal to another world in it. One wore a long white trench coat with gold trim, the other wore a midnight blue trench with purple trim. "Hmmm," said one "Huh," said the other. "Seems the Americans mobilized earlier than expected." "You don't suppose it's because we-" "I don't discount it. But it's possible they were supposed to go this early." The other chuckled darkly "I don't envy those on the other side. It's about to get ugly, fast" "Dark days ahead indeed for The Holy Order Of Harmony" The one smiled. A/N: Holy shit, guys: FANARTS! Pascal created these fantastic images of Soulless, S1NT4X and Pink I think I'll even use one as the new cover art for IBDF. Hope you guys enjoy these as much as I did.