Vice's bipedal hoofsteps echoed off the walls of the former Princess Celestia's throne room. He looked at the stained glass windows as he walked to the thone with his prosthetic hands clasped behind his back. He allowed himself a smile; he was finally where he deserved to be. He stopped in front of the throne and examined it. Clearly, it wasn't meant for a biped. He scoffed. He would have to have a new one made once things were finished. But for now... he would indulge a little bit of his fantasies at least. He checked to make sure he was absolutely alone in the room first.
Carefully, Vice removed his prosthetics, one piece at a time. His hooves had paled slightly from spending so much time covered in metal. Slowly, he got down on all fours. It took some effort; Vice had embraced the bipedal way of life. His neck cracked as he lifted it upward and assumed the 'natural' equine posture. With a triumphant grin, Lord Vice sat on the throne. He allowed himself to get comfortable. He could almost feel the power to move planets and stars surging through him. That power belonged to the princess... for now. All in good time, he reminded himself. And he was reminded; time, exactly what he didn't have right now. He replaced his prosthetics and sat again upright in the throne with some discomfort. The throne was meant for an alicorn, not an Earth pony. He shook his head as he summoned his lieutenants with the interface on his metallic right arm. They arrived in moments.
"How are you both enjoying your new quarters?", Vice asked as they approached the throne.
Dagger had a look of distaste fixed on his face. "A little too posh for my tastes sir."
"You're welcome to sleep in the dog house if you like.", Vice said with a chuckle.
"The troops are resting comfortably sir.", Razor said, all business, no banter.
Vice leaned forward. "What's the status of RAM?", he asked the burning question.
"We've encountered a few problems.", Razor began pacing back and fourth with his hands clasped behind is back. "First, the castle's storerooms were not as supplied as we were led to believe. There's not enough crystals to complete the device. Second, the engineers were able to restore basic piloting functions on RAM but the targeting systems are still offline. Flying capabilities will have to be completely rebuilt from the ground up. As of right now, RAM is not functional as even a deterrent.", Razor explained.
"Deterrent? Did you see what RAM did to those ponies? That alicorn got a lucky shot, nothing more. Even if it can't fly, we should still be able take the Crystal Empire and get the crystals we need to build the weapon.", Dagger said confidently.
Vice dismissed the idea. "Seven ponies were able to take down RAM. If a less experienced pilot had been at the controls, we would've lost RAM. Retaliation from Cloudsdale is immenent and apart from the energy shield and the troops, we are completely defenseless. It won't be long before Equestria's allies mount a counterattack of their own. The Crystal Empire, the Griffon Kingdom, Saddle Arabia, the Zebra Kingdom, Apploosa, the list goes on. One army we might be able to handle but more than that and we're finished, with or without our semi-functional Magic Gear.", Vice explained.
"If only we had more than just RAM...", Dagger thought aloud, frustrated.
"All in due time. What is the update on the prisoners?", Vice asked, getting up from the throne.
"We've already shipped the first groups into Everfree Forest and mining has already begun. We can expect our first shipment of crystals to arrive in a little over a week.", Razor said, checking the interface on his metal bracer.
"We can expect a response from Cloudsdale sooner than that, which means we must strike now.", Vice declared.
"How? Our soldiers can't fly or walk on clouds and even if they could, we can't hold three cities at once.", Dagger remarked.
"We won't have to hold Cloudsdale for long, only long enough for us to destroy it.", Vice said, his voice stoic.
"Destroy Cloudsdale? How?", Dagger was almost shocked at the idea.
"It's been raining on Ponyville ever since our forces arrived in the town, meaning the pegasi know we're here and they're up to something.", Razor surmised.
"The Tri-Tesla reactor supplies power to the entire city of Cloudsdale. It also keeps the city from breaking apart. If we sabotage it, the whole city will crumble to pieces.", Vice explained as he began walking out of the throne room. Razor and Dagger followed in step behind him.
Vice smiled. "We can't send our own forces and we can't use RAM so it's time to go to plan B.", he said. "It's time to ready the Raider." He closed the door behind them and the throne room became dark.
"Are you reading us Twilight?", Vinyl's voice said from the communicator around Twilight's left ear.
"I can hear you.", Twilight replied as she headed out into the wet streets. It was still raining but it had gotten lighter; the pegasi must've been informed about the rendevous. A patrol was heading down Twilight's way in the street right in front of her, three dogs.
"They're armor is immune to magic. You could try to take them out with something other than a spell but that would create a lot of noise and draw attention to yourself. The best defense is to just not be seen at all.", Octavia said over the communicator. Twilight saw them coming. She was thinking about taking them out until Octavia had said something. She certainly would've liked to pay them back, pay them all back for what they'd done to her but... that wasn't going to free her friends. She shook the idea out of head. She had to hide.
Twilight weighed her options quickly. There was a storefront's porch near her. She quickly ran to it and crawled underneath it. The ground was wet and mud stuck to her belly and legs but she hid anyway, trying not to make a sound. She watched the three sets of legs as they passed by her. When they were far enough away, she carefully inched herself out from cover and proceeded on quickly.
Twilight stuck to the sides of the buildings as she entered the ruined Sugarcube Corner again. The popular Ponyville gathering spot was an absolute wreck. The buildings had been broken into, bakery had been looted. Twilight tried not to look any more than she had to as she trotted by.
The train station was just around the bend. Twilight turned the corner and made a dash for the station. She splashed through a puddle as she galloped by a building.
"What was that?! Who's out there?!", a voice shouted from inside the building nearby. A dog soldier ran outside with his wrist weapon drawn. There was no place to hide, Twilight was completely exposed. She gritted her teeth and turned to face the dog.
"It's her! Enemy spotted!", the dog shouted as he fired at Twilight Sparkle. Twilight threw up an energy shield. The shield deflected the blasts but Twilight knew it wouldn't hold up forever. She knew she couldn't use spells against the dog, she looked around for something to throw at him.
"HQ, this is patrol!", the dog said into his helmet. Twilight noticed he had some kind of communicator too. This complicated things. She heard the feedback as the dog spoke to the device.
"Congratulations! This is Crystal Clear for Everfree Radio and you're lucky caller number forty-two!", the voice said from the helmet.
"I... what?", the dog stopped firing but kept his weapon raised. He put a finger to the device around his ear as a look of pure confusion spread across his face. The dog continued stepping backwards. Twilight noticed he was getting closer to an overhanging sign. She continued advancing on him as he stepped underneath it.
"That's right! You've won the Living Tombstone tickets and your very own copy of the My Little Portal video game!", the voice told the "lucky winner". His luck was about to run out. Twilight jostled the top of the overhanging sign loose and pulled it down with her magic, slamming it into the mutt's mug. He was knocked backwards a good distance and tumbled to the dirt unconcious. Twilight shook her head; violence was not in her nature. She turned and galloped to the train station.
Two dark shapes flew down from the clouds as Twilight finally arrived at the station. She walked around to the boarding platform to see two pegasi wearing black outfits and hoods with only their wings exposed. One of them pulled back his hood as Twilight approached.
"Twilight, we're your escort to Cloudsdale. Spitfire's expecting you right away.", the pegasus said.
"Let me reapply the skywalking spell.", was Twilight said. Twilight cast the spell on both of her hooves, allowing her to walk on clouds.
"All right, let's get going.", Twilight said. The pegasus nodded and kicked off the ground. The two pegasi grabbed Twilight by the sides and lifted her off the ground. Supporting her weight, the three of them took to the skies. Within moments, she was flying towards Cloudsdale with the train station a good distance behind her. She hoped none of the dogs on the ground noticed them as they broke through the cloudlayer.
"Vinyl, Octavia, can you hear me?", Twilight called into her communicator.
"We read you Twilight. Did you make it to the train station?", Vinyl asked.
"Yes, I'm on my way to Cloudsdale now. I noticed those dog soldiers have some kind of communicators too.", Twilight informed them.
"We noticed that too. That means they'll be able to call for back up if even one of them spots you Twilight. You have to avoid them or find ways to incapacitate them without drawing a lot of attention to yourself or you'll be in more trouble than you can handle.", Vinyl cautioned Twilight. Twilight had to agree with Vinyl; there were just too many to take down alone, not that she wanted to. She was just so confused, things had happened so fast. One minute, she was at a party with her friends, getting to see the princess. The next, she was fighting for her life. If only her friends were with her, if only they had the Elements of Harmony, if only anything. She let out a heavy sigh as the pegasi carried her. How much longer could she hold up?
"Twilight, we just tried to reach Cloudsdale but they're not responding.", Octavia said into Twilight's ear.
"What does this mean?", Twilight was worried now.
"I don't know, could be local interference, could be something else.", Octavia explained.
"We're almost to Cloudsdale. We'll find out what and let you know when we get there.", Twilight said back. She still didn't know much about how the communicators worked. Hopefully, it was just a malfunction of some sort. But something in Twilight's stomach told her otherwise.
"It's not like them to not respond. Be careful Twilight.", Octavia cautioned. The three pegasi finally broke through the final layer of clouds to see Cloudsdale before them.