Chapter 9: Stalling a Wedding
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I was amazed that Jacob made it out easily. This analysis was about to get interesting.
Jake quietly shut the door behind him and then quickly surveyed his surroundings. He saw stalls to his left and sinks to the left and it became clear exactly where he was.
"Of all the places I could have ended up, why did I end up in the mare's room? " He sighed.
As any man with any form of common sense would have done, Jake quickly but quietly made his way towards the door. He put his hand on the handle and was ready to twist the knob, when suddenly the door opened away from him. He stood in front of a mare, which knew Jake all too well.
"YOU!?" She yelled.
That cutie mark of sushi burned a literal hole in his memory, according to the scanner. He wanted to run but there was nowhere to run to, except back into the caves. At this point, that was a viable option.
"You're the creep who broke into my kitchen!" The mare accused, jumping onto her hind legs to attack him.
"Wait I swear this isn't what it...!" Smack! The mare nailed him in the stomach, and Jake fell without breath. She caught him in her mouth and threw him against the wall in the hall. He made a dull thud against the wall and rolled onto his side, coughing from the solid punch in his stomach. He focused on the mare, dazed and with ringing in his ears.
"This is what it looks like, you other-worldly PERVERT!" She yelled.
Jake pointed the gun at her as she charged him. He squeezed the trigger and heard a shot fired over the din of hooves. She winced in pain and diverged from her path and galloped into a wall, landing close to Jake. She tried to stand up, but collapsed underneath her own weight. She managed to turn her head towards Jake with an angry expression before she slid into unconsciousness and her eyelids dropped, her tongue hanging out of her mouth. Tranquilizer darts, for all your attacked-by-pony needs.
Luckily, firing a tranquilizer made less noise than firing a bullet. This was probably one of the few ponies he would willingly shoot with any weapon of any kind purposely in his journeys to Equestria other than possessed mares down in the caves.
As the mare lay unconscious on the floor, Jake took careful note of her attire. She was actually wearing clothes; ones that would befit a wedding. Her mane was carefully placed and styled to go with her outfit. She was going somewhere, obviously, and just stopped to empty her garbage tank in the local receptacle. Jake looked up and around him. He was in a very large hallway; rays of light shown in from the massive windows in front of him. He hadn't seen day light for quite some time and took a moment just take in the sunlight.
He had to keep moving, or else he'd be making more "friends" in the mare's room. He hid the body in one of the bathroom stalls; he didn't know how long she'd be out, but he certainly didn't want to be around when she comes to.
He took a look at the windows in the hallway. Even though it was empty, he had to be careful because he didn't know where he was. The sky was clear, and if it weren't for a changeling planning to enslave Canterlot it would be a beautiful day. The wedding was still on schedule and looking out he could tell he was definitely within the castle perimeter. He could even see the window he broke out of a while ago; it was now covered with caution tape and all the remaining glass had been removed.
He then remembered he was above ground, which meant a radio signal would reach Michael and Jiggs. Twilight was more of a long shot he wasn't sure if Twilight was close enough to surface to hear what he was saying.
"This is Jake canceling radio silence," Jake called over his radio."How are you guys?"
There was a moment of silence before a familiar voice came through the com set. "Squad leader...? You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice!"
"I was gone that long?"
"Yeah. Over 36 hours of silence nearly gave Jiggs here a heart attack."
"Oi, don’t ever do that to me again!" Jiggs yelled in the background.
"Oh so you didn't miss me?" Jake responded into the quickly becoming populated com channel. It was good to hear from both Mike and Jiggs after all this time.
"Nah, just had a certain feelin' of neglect, that's all."
"Awwww, not enough attention for daddy's little baby?"
"You call me that again and I’ll show you just how much pain I am actually able to cause a human."
"Good to hear from you too. Alright, sounds like both of you are okay, but I'm going to ask this anyway, status?"
"Well, we managed to set up a perimeter defense outside the shield. We are hiding in a cave about 60 feet above the entrance to the city . There are no signs that the local authorities have discovered us yet. We managed to set up a network of auto turret defenses, a blast door keep anything large out, and a small sensor relay giving us about a mile radius. If anything moves, we shall see it. We also installed a security camera system in the Cliffside just outside our hideout allowing us to monitor the city's entrances and outer defenses . We are locked down pretty tight up here. I did some analysis on the city's force field. That is a class five force field. None of the equipment we have will be able to penetrate it."
"Yeah, not even my nuclear ordinance can get through that thing. It is truly a work of art...the perfect shield. Mankind isn’t even close to developing a class five shield! Score one for 'primitive society,' eh?"
"Yeah, yeah. Fantasize about that later. Check the relay, I'm picking up a lot of movement in from the east. Probably just an equipment malfunction. Anyway, that's all we got for you. How's things on your end? You've been out for quite some time now."
"Oh, you know, just escaped from the pit of despair." Jake looked up in confusion for a moment before speaking. "Hold on, you said signatures incoming?"
"Yes I did. It shouldn't be anything to worry about; my bet's that something's wrong with the sensor."
Jake knew what was going to happen. This very day in Equestria, the day of Shinning Amor's wedding, the changeling army was readying itself for the siege on Canterlot. At this point Jake knew he was now on a time limit he wasn’t certain if those signatures were the changelings. His feelings were optimistic, he assumed that they weren’t changelings since it could not be verified for now but kept that thought in his head. "Keep me posted on those signatures. Be combat ready do not engage unless you have to."
"Yes sir. Whatever it is, there's a lot of it, because according to these numbers there's more personnel than the entire EDI ground division."
EDI ground division consists of all military personal equipped for fighting on the ground and make up the vast majority of the EDI's military forces. I would be very scared of an army bigger than that ground division. "Wait a minute, that's more than 1.2 billion people. There must be some mistake."
"I know. That is why we are checking the equipment."
He was hoping that it would be an equipment malfunction, but every sense he had told him that wasn't true. He would worry about the changeling army later, as he had a wedding to crash.
He listened carefully and opened his mind to find the one room with the most ponies, because that was probably the wedding. He knew exactly how he was going to do it. He pulled out a hand held PA and synced his com set to it. He pulled out a remote detonator and slipped fresh rounds into his peacekeeper and the X-33. When I saw what he did, I wanted to punch him and applaud him at the same time. I will allow you to judge what he did. I'd be surprised though if anyone even looked at this archive given the current state of the human race. He took a deep breath as he approached the hall doors. He could sense the auras on the other side. The doors were shut and were so massive that he seriously doubted if he could pry them open . He strapped the shotgun to his back, and began his attempts to open the doors. At first he tried to quietly enter, he pushed lightly on the doors. They wouldn't budge. He slowly increased the force he exerted on the doors hoping to make them open slowly. It was no good. He would have to break the doors down, but he didn't dare use explosives because the radius of the explosion would harm some of the ponies standing near the door and lose the element of surprise.
"Sir, we have a problem," Michael radioed over.
Jake stopped for a moment to catch his breath. "Go ahead," he said.
"Those signatures are getting closer to the city, and the power in that field protecting it has dropped by almost twenty percent and is in free fall. It is now class four force field."
"Any additional activity outside?"
"For now none, but this is way too coincidental if you ask me."
"What makes you say that?"
"There are no equipment errors. Everything is functioning at one-hundred and ten percent. We do not have visual confirmation of this yet, but we can conclude that the signatures are real beings. We do not know their intent, but if they have come in an army and mean to wage war their timing is perfect, and we most certainly do not have enough ammo to deal with them."
Chrysalis's plan was coming to fruition. The shield was beginning to collapse and all those signatures were probably those of the changelings. It was really happening and he was really there. From here out it would be a matter of time before the battle for Canterlot began.
"What you talkin' ‘bout, mate? We got more than enough gear to deal with a force that size," Jiggs chimed.
"I am trying to think practically my friend. There are two of us and over 1.2 billion of them. Even you cannot take on an army the size of the EDI ground division." The sad part is, I think I have disagree with Michael on this one; Jiggs doesn't like to lose, and he'd do whatever it took to win.
"Depends on the situation, my equipment, and my environment. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve. I bet I can take these freaks."
"You do not even know what you are facing!"
"Think berserkers guys. You are going to take on horde of beings that are going to want to literally rip you limb from limb."
"Oh that's just gorgeous!" Jiggs guffawed. "This is goin' to be all the more interestin' now..." He went silent for a moment. "Hold it...Mike, pull up the feeds. I am gettin' a proximity warnin' on the edge of our perimeter."
"They are up...what the...?Sir you may to look outside."
"'Ere move over, I'm takin' a look." There a short silence before Jake heard anymore. He looked outside to see a clear sky, as peaceful as it could be before the coming storm. He didn't even know what he was supposed to be looking for. Sadly I cannot display the following phrase in its entirety because it would violate EDI's conditions for the archived reports, and it would be considered "unprofessional" and removed from the EDI archive network. "HOLY **** JAKE, this ain't lookin' good!! They've surrounded the city already they're on the ground! Dang, the guards are all down! THEIR ENTRANCES ARE EXPOSED! Bloody cowards tryin' to hide in the cliffs."
"Jiggs, kill the guns. They are about to get in firing range of the auto turrets."
"Let 'em come. I'm ready."
"Think for a moment Jiggs. We are no good to Jake in pieces! We do not have the ammo to take on all of them. For once, could you just do things my way and be quiet?! Turn the turrets to manual-only fire if they get too close. We do not need to give away our position yet."
"Both of you keep it together!" Jake interrupted. "I don't want either of you going back to earth in pieces."
"Trust me, sir, the feeling's mutual."
Jake made up his mind. There was no way to play it safe. He slipped on his mask to hide his identity and began his entry. He mustered up all the strength that he had and pushed against the door. It moved slowly but it was opening. When he got it open enough to slide through, the entire back few rows were staring at him. The ceremony was still proceeding but Jake couldn't let that happen.
He flipped on the PA, and took a deep breath. "STTTTTOOOOOPPPPPPPPP!" He yelled. Every eye was now on him, and room had grown dead silent. "YOU'RE MAKING A BIG MISTAKE! YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME!" He continued.
There were several guards in the room, all at once they began to converge on Jake he could see Shining Armor silently directing them from the other side of the room. "CALL OFF YOUR GUARDS, ARMOR!" He pulled out the detonator he brought out earlier and held it high in the air with his one free hand. "I'VE GOT ENOUGH BOOM IN THIS PLACE TO BLOW YOU ALL INTO LUNAR ORBIT!" Bear in mind there is the off chance Twilight could be listening to all of this.
"Don't call my bluff, don't call my bluff, don't call my bluff..." He thought. The guards stopped and started to move away slowly. Jake walked calmly toward the front of the chamber, pretending he was dead serious and crazed. Armor was giving him a really dirty look, but Celestia seemed more curious then she was angry and stared at him with intent eyes. "Look, I don't want to hurt anyone but there is something I must tell you."
Shining Armor grew heavily impatient. "If that is true," Shining Armor began in a harsh tone, "put down your weapon and surrender yourself. You’ll get a hearing where you can explain your story."
"Sorry. Can't do that. I'm afraid it would interfere with my plans. Look, you love your wife right?"
"Of course I do! I love her with all my heart. What does that have to do with any-"
"Good. I'm going to save you some grief and tell you that's not her,” Jake said, pointing at Chrysalis in the disguise of Cadence.
“What are you talking about? Of course she-" Shining Armor's eyes grew wide for a second, then he slapped his hoof against his face. "Wait a minute. Let me guess. Twilight told you this and asked you to come here, right?"
“Heck no dude, I came here of my own free will! Don’t believe me? You can ask both her and your wife when they get here in a few minutes.”
“And why should I trust you?" Shining Armor's eyes narrowed. "You’re not even willing to show your face.”
Jake looked down at his feet. “Well, the truth is, I don’t have a reason. You’re just going to have to decide for yourself. But think about it: your sister loves you dearly. She would have come here whether or not you wanted her here. You know that."
Shining Armor glared silently at him. He seemed almost insulted that Jake would bring his relationship with his sister into this.
"Yeah, well, even if that's true I don't want her to come. Not after the way she treated my wife-to-be. And I don't think I like you talking about us."
"Look," Jake continued, "good siblings work their problems out. They don't let one thing get in the way of their entire relationship. You know what kind of pony she is. She wouldn't do what she did if she didn't feel there was something seriously wrong going on. Now, she probably did it in a bad way, you know what I mean." Shining Armor simply stared at Jake, with the only change in his expression from frustration to slight bewilderment. “Still don't believe me, huh? Fine, I'll use more logic. You haven't seen your sister since her little...incident, have you?" There was nothing but silence between the two as Jake allowed his words to sink in. "I have a wonderful theory that would explain all of this and I am sure when Twilight shows up she will support it. There is an imposter in this room, who shall remain nameless, who attacked and imprisoned the real Cadence to the caverns underneath the city. She has the power to look exactly like Cadence, but not act like her. The only pony who knew Cadence well enough to spot a fake was your little sister. The imposter notices this and decides to send her down into the caverns as well. But not before debunking her in a way that ruins her rep, so that no one will care if she's gone or believe her if she escapes. All the while, the imposter has been sapping your strength so she can keep Canterlot vulnerable to an invasion by wood spirits who want to devour your souls, one and all."
Shining Armor just stared at him. "Do you get these 'explanations' from cheap one bit comic books?"
"Do I look like I'm making a joke?"
"I don't know. You're the one in a mask with some sort of explosives rigged at my wedding for no reason. I'm waiting for a psychotic ex-psychiatrist in a clown suit to pop in behind you and call you 'Mistah J.'"
"Touche. But I'm dead serious."
"Fine. Let's say your berserk little imposter theory is true. How do you know this and why hasn't this 'imposter' done away with you?"
"'Cause I spent that last few days trying to break out of that cavern- yes, she tried to 'do away with me', too- and in my haste, I accidentally collapsed a section a rock blocking the quickest way to the surface...That's why I volunteered. I won't let my clumsiness result in the death of a nation."
"What could one imposter do against an entire nation?"
"She's got a massive army camped outside of the city. We're talking about more than 2 billion tree demons craving Canterlot-ian brain-flesh and squishy hormones."."
"That's not possible." Shining Armor grew angry at Jake's snide insinuations of incompetence. "I have guards patrolling the perimeter, as well as many city lookouts on the highest towers. There's no way anything can get in without being noticed by us."
"Well, they found a way. Don't believe me? Listen to this." Jake hooked his receiver up to the PA and called to Michael and Jiggs, hoping for good news but not expecting it. "Michael, Jiggs do you read?"
There was nothing but static coming through until a few seconds later a voice finally came across.
"Sorry Commander, it's hard to lay low here...Those things are freaking everywhere! We are fine for now. Jiggs has powered down the turrets so our position is still a mystery...For now anyway."
"It's good to hear that man. How's the big guy holding up?"
"I'm holdin' up rather well, thank you."
"What does it look like outside the city?"
"We don't know. Our cameras went down a few minutes ago. Somethin' is jammin' us or some type of system crash is in effect right after you began to crash the weddin'. We've been blind for quite some time now; we can only see within the cave now. I doubt things have changed outside. They are just waitin'....for somethin'. Here, take the turrets Mike, I'll take a look outside...."
“Jiggs I am better at stealth than you. Take the turrets let me go instead...”
“I've got every mechanical spec you have. I'm pretty sure I can handle it...”
“You have got to be ****ING ME!”
“Oi, what just happened?”
“The camera inside the mouth of the cave watching our entrance is now down! I don't like the sound of that!" Jake heard a small click in background and heard the sound metal shifting around.
"Don't try anything stupid, either of you!"
“The relay is still functional and confirms that there are still a massive amounts of targets just outside this cave. Going now for visual confirmation that these readings are accurate.”
"Jiggs ,I want you to stay back.”
“Look, I am just as qualified to deal with stuff like this as you are.”
“That gun is too loud and you know it.”
“As it should be.”
“You are going to give us away, and all this stealth will be for nothing get back…!"
Mike stopped mid-sentence. He rarely ever does that. I would consider it harbinger of things to come, and Jake didn’t like the silence one bit.
"Hey, anybody still alive there?...Guys?"
Mike’s tone suddenly went quiet.
"Sir, they are...In the cave..."
"Just keep it cool! Don't let them..."
"****!THEY SAW ME!"
"WAIT, HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Jake heard several gun shots go off in the background. “You…idiot.”
“Wha’?”
“You hear that?”
“Yeah it sounds like…****! Let me at the console, NOW! COVER THE ENTRANCE!”
Jake was once again thrown into a panic as the situation worsened and began to destabilize. “Talk to me guys, what’s happening over there?”
“Well, the dumb*** trigger happy moron of the century just alerted probably every single thing on this mountain to our position. You probably can’t hear it, but I can hear their wings flapping and their claws digging into the rock. They are coming.” And come they did. Jake heard horrible sounds of gun shots ringing out and echoing, rocks collapsing, the horribly mind melding screeches the changelings gave off as pressed their attack hammering mercilessly through the bots defenses.
“Givin' turrets full power!” Those turrets didn’t last long. Further examination of the hardware afterward showed that within 85 seconds the outside turrets had been over run and within 145 seconds they were breaching their last lines of defense.
“SHUT THE DANG DOOR MIKE…WHO CARES WHO HEARS?! US WE’RE ALREADY BLOWN!”
Jake heard the blast door slam shut and heard a few more gunshots as they finished off the few changelings that managed to get in their safe room.
“Dang it, Mike, why’d you have to go and get their guts all over me? Look at me! I’m plastered with green goop.”
“Well you are the one who decided to stand in front of the beast as I cut it in half.”
“Why can’t you just be like me and shoot the dang thing? You’ve got more ammo than the entire third fleet!”
“Well, if I shot it, you would've been splattered with goop anyway. At least I could try to be clean with a sword.”
“…Well, anyway, back to the topic at hand. I think after that it’s safe to say the situation is still the same.”
“No changes?”
“No sir. There’s lots of them. They keep freaking coming. There is no visible end to these things! The cameras may be out but the relay is still fully functional.”
“Look, Commander, I advise you to leave that city at once. I’d bet my armory that somethin' really bad is about to happen. I don’t think the city is in good hands either; I managed to examine their armor compounds. I know the exact chemical signature of the alloys they use. This allows me to see all personal with the armor on, and right now he has his forces scattered! If he doesn’t rally his troops right now, the city won’t last but a few minutes. THE COMMANDER IS BLOODY MORON! HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THIS INVASION?!”
“Is he referring to me?” Shining Armor was already frustrated enough but now he was being openly insulted by a being he didn't even know. Jake was making a very bad first impression.
“Uhhhhh…..” Jake stuttered.
“You realize my forces are scattered because they are currently searching for you because you are currently on top of Equestria’s most wanted list for breaking into a city under military protection during a time of crisis?” Shining Armor said accusingly.
“Wow, never knew I would be this popular. But you need to recall your forces, NOW, for the sake of your city.” Jake, Jake, Jake. The fall of Canterlot may have been inevitable, but he most certainly helped speed it along.
“Oh I will, to ensure that you go directly to the dungeon.” Shining Armor stated simply.
“What the-? But-!"
“How can I even trust you? You run in here and threaten to kill us all! I'm going to blow you out of Canterlot and then give Twili a good piece of my mind. Sending a terrorist to break up my wedding, and not even a good one at that! She's gone too far.”
“But you don’t understand! She didn’t do anything!”
“Oh, trust me, she’s done enough. You don’t have any evidence to back your claim except a square…cone..thingy that spews out weird sounds.”
Jake felt something hit the back of his head hard. He collapsed to the ground and the detonator rolled from his hand into the crowd. It was quickly seized by the guards. The guards made a scramble for the strange device. He couldn't believe he let the guards sneak up on him like that. Jake tried to stand again but he felt a hoof hit the center of his back, pushing him right back down to the ground. They pinned his hands against his back, forming handcuffs made from raw magic. They seized his peacemaker and shotgun. And he felt several spear tips mere millimeters away from his skin. One wrong move and he was done.
Thankfully, Celestia intervened before Shining Armor could really do anything to Jake. "Captain Shining Armor, what are you doing?" She inquired with a serious tone.
"I am arresting him for making threats against the crown, as well as trying to insight panic amongst the public."
"I think we should wait for a few minutes."
Shining Armor sighed. "You aren't actually considering believing him?" He looked at Celestia. "You are?! Princess, with respect this...whatever it is just threatened to kill everyone in this room! Including yourself!"
"But he could still be correct. Send your orders to recall your troops the thing you were looking for is right here anyway.” Shining Armor was stunned at the princess’ order“You should consider this a compliment. You don't even know this creature, yet he is willing to risk life in prison and even public execution for the sole purpose of ensuring you marry the correct mare. Besides he's not going anywhere if he's wrong then you may do as you wish with him.”
Shinning armor gave a look of shock. He backed down, since he was being ordered to by a higher authority.
“I am going to give him a chance to prove his point." She turned to Jake. "You have one hour." "Please don't make a fool out of me...Jacob Fischer." He heard this but her lips did not move. He had just read her mind but did it involuntary, almost as if she made him read it. He didn't have time to think about his abilities, though. Right now he remained still, flat on his stomach with spear tips practically brushing the skin of his back, praying that Twilight wouldn't be long.
The time ticked by slowly before he heard again from Jiggs. He had just reached the 35 minutes marker.
"Sir, the shield just dropped to a class three force field. I could throw a piece of granite at that thing and create a hole big enough for a small armor column to enter. Sensors show that only a small percent are outside the blast door clawin' at it. The rest have surrounded the city. They are formin' a ball around it! They really do plan on attackin' from all directions."
"What about you guys? Are you alright?"
One of the guards slammed his hoof further into his back
“Quiet terrorist scum.”
Celestia was not amused by this and immediately order the guard off him
“He is not to be hurt or miss treated I will allow him to continue to be in communication with his friends.”
Jake then bowed his head in respect.
“Thank you princess. Continue Jiggs.”
"For now, we are debatin' bout the best plan of action. We are probably going to blast our way out of here and harass the attacking forces."
"I am giving you orders then."
"Well, let's hear 'em."
"If shield goes down, you are to put protecting the civilian population as your top priority. You both are ordered by me to survive unless harming any of the civilians interferes with that objective. Lastly, I am giving you permission to attack the enemy in whatever way you see fit."
Now there is one major problem with what Jake just told them. He is basically letting my bots off the leash I put them on. I don't believe he knows what that means. They are perhaps some of my most dangerous creations. They're designed to be unbeatable in a firefight and had the strength humans could only dream of having. They're also packing some of mankind's deadliest weapons. What you are saying is they have license to kill whatever using whatever they like. Jiggs is especially dangerous in this position.
"Sir, to confirm, we have permission to engage enemy in whatever way we see fit?" Jiggs almost gleefully asked.
"I don't want to see any mushroom clouds, if that's what you're asking."
"AWWW COME ON! I can't use my nuclear ICBMS while in EDI territory, it's illegal!"
"And so is, from what Richy tells me, half your arsenal."
"But this is my chance! Please sir, just let me get off one nuke."
"Out of the question. We are here to keep Canterlot in one piece, not reduce it to rubble."
"Fine. I'll do it the old fashioned way." Once again the sound of metal shifting in the background met Jake's ears. "You know, you'd think by now we would be usin' lazar tech...but no we still walk around with our ballistics. Guess mankind just doesn't have incentive to make a portable lazars cheaply. I mean, we have third generation lasers for mining and buildin'. It would make sense if second generation weapons were more readily available by now." Laser tech is a wonderful thing. Sadly mankind hadn’t made the conversion over to completely energy weapon arsenals yet. It would in the months to come but for now they were still using mostly ballistics.
"Speak for yourself. I got this."
"OI.....DEAR SWEET MOTHER OF PERPETIUAL MADNESS, that is...!"
"Our ticket out of here."
"How did you do it?"
"Surprised you didn't figure it out first."
"Is your wrist cannon supposed to be glowin' like that?"
" Boss, you might want to hold onto something. The city is attached directly to the mountain and our blasting through the roof might cause a few tremors."
Considering he was pinned to the ground, he couldn't do much but he never un-synched his com from the PA so everyone in the room heard it. A few seconds later the entire room began to shake and a massive explosion was heard off in the distance. Everyone in the room began to panic a bit, with voices moving up from whispers to concerns and scared reassurances that they were safe. Surprisingly enough, the members of the mane 6 didn't attempt anything, despite the familiarity with Jake even with his mask on they expressed earlier.
This is another reason why I never let my creations off the leash because the following happens.
"YYYEEEEEAAAAHHHHHH!"
"See now, aren't you glad I salvaged those jetpacks?!"
"RIDE ON, JIGGS! LET US SHOW THESE GUYS WHAT WE ARE MADE OF! OPEN THE BLAST DOOR!"
"Mate, you're gettin' off on this way too quickly. Did you rig the explosives like I asked you to?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, then, since we are in the air now it's safe to blow our hide out. Open the door."
"WHOA! LOOK AT THEM RUSH IN!"
"Just wait a moment. I want to give it time to fill up...Alright, you might want to cover your ears boss."
"What?"
There a second explosion. This one lit up the sky and caused another tremor that shook the very foundations of Canterlot.
Jake looked at the window in awe at the massive explosion taking place just above the palace he didn't have a clear view but it was large enough to light up the sky in broad daylight.
"Captain. You might want to take a look at this..."
Shining Armor walked over to the guard who gazing out of the oversized Castle windows. He then turned back to Jake. "Sir," the guard continued, "Their army will overwhelm our forces if something is not done quickly. What are your orders?" Armor knew there wasn't nearly enough time to set up an effective defense against the changeling army Jake could tell inside he was panicking rapidly trying to think of something.
"Armor, let me go," Jake squirmed, “please." Just keep the time line updated, Jake was now at the 45 minutes marker. “A lot of ponies are going to suffer if you don’t let me go. Please, let me fight.”
The guard became more impatient. Jake could feel the soldier becoming more and more anxious by the second. "Sir, orders?"
"YOU WANT SOME OF THIS?! COME ON!" While Jiggs' insanity proves to very useful on the battlefield, at times it can quickly get out of hand and stopping him can be extremely difficult. That is why I keep him on a very tight leash.
Jake continued to hear continuous gunfire erupt from the PA as the chaos above Canterlot continued. "Commander, you're gonna want to take a look out the window! I want you to see this." Jake saw another bright light flash from the windows like several lightning bolts striking the ground one after another. Another explosion was heard as the room grew dark from what I guess to be the smoke from the explosion blocking out the sunlight as it cleared. Jiggs made several experimental weapons that I did not let him use in our universe simply because they would be far too destructive for actual use. He built weapons capable of destroying entire worlds! He is the reason I have planet busters in that pack. Now, of course, at this stage of the game they were prototypes so they probably wouldn't be able to blow up a planet, but it could fracture it to the point of breaking it apart. I vowed never to use them, or any of his other experimental explosives, but he wasn't bound by the same vow. The one he just set up was designed to be a miniature atomic bomb minus all the radiation. He called it "The Pillar of Fire." As the name would suggest, the last thing you would see as this bomb went off is a pillar of fire that would incinerate you, and being both the size of and weight of a small tupperware made it all the more easy to carry. It couldn't destroy an entire city, but it could vaporize a small area with its massive fireball. Its explosive yield was similar to that of the atomic bomb with its blast radius however he modified it so it wouldn't produce high amounts of radiation. So most likely, he went up into the air a detonated it at a high altitude but low enough so the changelings would get caught in the blast.
“Jiggs! You cannot use another one of those devices! The shield surrounding the city cannot take another hit like that!”
“But…I HAVE SOOOO MANY!”
“Control yourself! If you launch another one, you are in violation of our orders.”
"Hold up, I think I just became really popular. I have a horde of fans chasing me. COME ON KIDDIES! JUST GET A LITTLE CLOSER! I GOT ENOUGH SHOTTY SHELLS FOR ALL OF YA!....COME ON MIKE YOU'RE FALLIN BEHIND, I HAVE 5,789 KILLS RACKED UP, WHAT ARE YOU AT?!"
"5,790. Suck on that!"
“Those kills from the bomb don’t count for you! It was my bomb.”
“I armed the explosives. I earn some credit by association.”
“I pulled the trigger. Stop kill stealin’, noob!”
“Well I could have left the explosives in your pack, and they would have detonated while you were carrying them. I aimed the gun.”
“Fine. We’ll split the kills the 50/50.”
“You realize that because the number of deaths caused by the bomb was an even number, I'm still ahead."
"Eh, I'll beat you still. We got one point somethin' billion to go."
"Captain?"
Shining Amor was in shock as he stood in indecision. As much as he hated to admit it, Jake seemed to be telling the truth. Still, he'd never admit that, as it'd mean he'd have scorned Twilight for trying to protect him and that he'd need to team up with a bunch of psychos to protect Canterlot. Slowly, the minutes continued to tick by. Then the moment Jake had been waiting for arrived; the doors on the opposite end of the room flew open. Jake raised his head and saw a purple unicorn rush into the room.
She shouted at the top of her lungs: "STOP!"
"Twilight, there are no words to describe how amazing your timing is!" Jake exclaimed. She made it at 57 minutes 42 seconds, leaving Jake a whopping 2 minutes 18 seconds to spare.
Shining Armor turned to the door. "Twilight!?"
"That mare is in an imposter!" Twilight accused.
Chrysalis, in spite of everything that transpired over the PA, naturally put on her fake innocence act. "Why is she so protective over her brother? This is supposed to be my special day."
"Wrong," a voice interjected from behind Twilight, "it's my day." The real Cadence stepped forward, allowing the entire room to see her. Jake let out a sigh of relief. He didn't think he had it in him to stall for so long at a royal wedding. For a moment, he felt his body relax as he was no longer in any immediate danger of dying. But he then realized that it was only the beginning of the battle for Canterlot.