The Sulacolt
Princess Celestia had allocated a few hours for the mane five to get acquainted with the weapons and battle saddles that they would be using for the mission.Trotting across a steel grating floor, the mane five entered the palace’s indoor shooting range. Before them lay many tables with items ranging from weaponry, to battle saddles, to a suspicious group of colts wearing black clothing that concealed their cutie marks, standing around a table that had watermelons with knives stuck in them.
The suspicious bunch looked up to see the mane five approaching. One turned to the group and said in a thick, Neightherland accent, “Break time’s over, colts, let’s go.” On cue, they began filing out of the room.
Another grumbled, “Your fruit killing skills are remarkable.”
A third complained, “You’ve got ta take tha Coriolis Effect into account!”
Looking at the peeled coats of white paint around her, Applejack commented, “These walls could use a good coat of paint.”
Rarity observed, “This whole room could use a makeover." She looked up with her fashion horror. "Sweet Celestia, these overhead lights give off the ickiest yellow.”
“What it really needs is streamers! Oh oh! And balloons!”
A white unicorn, sporting a red uniform, was levitating a variety of weapons around him, closely examining each one with the utmost care. At the sound of the girls approaching, he turned around to greet them. “Welcome back, girls.”
Applejack responded, “It’s good to see you again, Shining Armor.”
“Hey, Shining Armor!” said Rainbow Dash.
Breaking into a bounce, Pinkie Pie said, “What’s up, Shining Armor!”
Rarity nodded politely, “How do you do, Shining Armor?”
Fluttershy said quietly, “Hello, Shining Armor.”
Shining Armor grinned and shook his head. “Right, first things first, it’ll be easier for all of you if you just call me, ‘Armor’.
Applejack said, “If you insist, Armor.”
Shining Armor placed the levitating weapons back on the metal table and regretfully murmured, “I wish it were under better circumstances.”
Rarity stated, “We’re just as concerned for Twilight as you are, Armor.”
He turned back to them. “Thanks.”
Eyeing the weapons on the table behind Shining Armor, Apple Jack commented, “We were told that you had some weapons fer us to use.”
“That’s right,” Shining Armor s nodded. “Each pony will be assigned a specific weapon, so that we can function more effectively as a team.”
“Do you know who exactly is in the team?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Besides you five and my own, personal fire team,” Shining Armor tapped a hoof to his chin. “There’s Nurse Redheart, Cardinal, Fleetfoot, Soarin’, and Spitfire.”
Rarity turned to see Rainbow Dash’s jaw, literally, on the floor. Letting out a small giggle, she asked, “And what, pray tell, are three of the Wonderbolts doing with us?”
Rainbow Dash muttered, “Please be flying, please be flying, please be flying.”
Shining Armor shook his head, grinning. “Spitfire and Soarin’ will be flying the dropship, so they stay behind, sorry Rainbow Dash.” Stifling a cackle at the sight of Rainbow Dash’s pout, he continued, “But hey, Fleetfoot will be going with us.”
Still eyeing the guns, Applejack asked, “So who gets what weapon?”
“Well first of all,” Shining Armor began as his horn lit up and a rifle became encased in the purple aura, “I think it would be best if everypony knew which weapon was which.” He floated said rifle in front of the mane five. “This is the M41A1 Pulse Rifle; it fires a ten millimeter, explosive-tipped, caseless round. Standard, light armor-piercing rounds, ninety-five rounds per clip. It also has an under slung, thirty millimeter grenade launcher. Very powerful, don’t use it indoors.”
He placed the rifle back on the table, and levitated forward a giant gun, stretching from head to tail and attached to a battle saddle with an eye piece attached to it as well. “THIS,” he said with emphasis, “Is the M56 Smart Gun. Despite its cumbersome look, it does exactly what its name implies.”
Slowly scanning the contraption, Applejack asked, “How, exactly, is it ‘smart’?”
Pointing a hoof at the eye piece, “With the aid of this eye piece,” Shining Armor answered, “It can automatically lock-on to any hostile and fire. Recoil is minimum, since it's hooked up directly to the wearer's battle saddle.”
Pinkie casually said, “Dibs.”
“What?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, frantically turning to Pinkie Pie, “I want it!”
Pinkie innocently responded, “I already called ‘dibs’, Dashie.”
“Now hold on,” Shining Armor interrupted, “This isn’t a toy. This is a weapon that weighs over seventy pounds, and is designed for earth ponies and griffons to carry; I was going to assign it to Apple Jack.”
“Funny,” Pinkie Pie said, “It doesn’t feel that heavy.”
Everypony turned to see Pinkie Pie standing on her hind legs, battle saddle strapped to her torso, eye piece covering her right eye, and Smart Gun in her hooves.
Horn glowing, Shining Armor enveloped Pinkie Pie, frantically pulling the equipment off of her. “That’s not a toy. That’s not a toy!” Successfully removing the battle saddle and accessories, he sighed in relief. “Everypony will get a turn at every weapon, alright?”
“Okie dokie lokie!”
Shining Armor trotted over to a locker room. “Right, now let’s get your battle saddles.”
Despite constantly correcting Pinkie Pie on how to use the Smart Gun, Shining Armor gave up and allowed her hold it like a Griffon would. Rainbow Dash proved to be just as formidable with the Smart Gun as Pinkie Pie. To Shining Armor’s surprise, Applejack refused the Smart Gun, saying that she preferred the mobility of the Pulse Rifle. Rarity, being a unicorn, found all weapons manageable. Fluttershy became absolutely terrified when she fired the Pulse Rifle.
Upon introducing the M14 Incinerator to the mane five, Shining Armor made the mistake of letting Pinkie Pie use it, for she attempted to “send his check list to Celestia”. After extinguishing the fire, and explaining to Pinkie Pie that it not only propelled a flame but a burst of gasoline for said flame to set ablaze, she proved herself to be more than capable of handling the flamethrower, should the situation arise.
Shining Armor made a mental note to avoid those situations at all costs.
He was equally annoyed with the pink pony’s fascination with the motion tracker, constantly jumping up and down to hear it ‘ping’. He ended up giving it to Rarity, saying that her telekinesis would make her the more preferable option, since the tracker would have to be equiped to a battle saddle if worn by any other pony, save himself.
Assembling the mane five, Shining Armor said, “Alright, let’s go over it one more time: Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash get the smart guns, Applejack gets a Pulse Rifle, Rarity gets a Pulse Rifle and motion tracker, and,” he turned to Fluttershy, “Fluttershy, I’m guessing you’ll take a Pulse Rifle?”
Becoming mortified at the idea, Fluttershy quietly asked, “Um, well, if you don’t mind, Armor, can’t I just look on as an advisor and never ever fire a gun ever?”
Shining Armor nodded. “Very well, I’ll make sure your memory orb is less soldier and more mechanic.” He turned to the other four mares. “Anypony have any questions?”
Rainbow Dash raised a hoof. Shining Armor asked, “Yes, Dash?”
“I just need to know one thing, Armor,” She pretended to point a gun with her hooves, “Where they are.”
Pinkie Pie gave Rainbow Dash a friendly slap on the back. “Right on, Dashie!”
Rainbow Dash grinned and brohoofed Pinkie Pie. “Anytime, anywhere.”
Rarity rolled her eyes at the roughhousing.
Fluttershy gave a small smile.
Applejack asked, “So what about armor?”
Shining Armor turned to her. “What do you mean?”
“Those creatures have some sorta acid for blood.” She shook her leg, recalling her hoof-to-hoof combat with Scuttles. “Does a number on yer bones.”
"Sorry, Applejack,” Shining Armor shook his head, “I didn’t know about that.” He levitated the Smart Gun contraption in front of Applejack. “This battle saddle is an armored variant of the skeleton design. It’s pretty much the standard issue armor, here” he detached the Smart Gun, “This is the armor itself.” Upon seeing her scan it and grimace, he asked, “Um, just how strong is this acid blood?”
Applejack opened her mouth to answer, but a monotone, female voice interrupted her. “Strong enough to melt through that armor.”
Everypony turned to see the blue earth pony with the short, black mane and the black and yellow “N” cutie mark enter the room. “Upon in depth study of the xenomorph’s biology, Neighland-Yutani has gauged its blood to be roughly .04 on the pH scale.”
Shining Armor telekinetically placed the pieces back on the table. He snorted, “Well, Cardinal, it would have been nice to know that beforehoof. Now there isn’t any time to make some armor mods; we leave in, what, three hours?”
Applejack interjected, “Now just wait a minute! Yer’ acquainted with that pony?”
Shining Armor answered, “Cardinal’s been with us for a while. Why, is something wrong?”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Applejack.” Cardinal gave a small bow, while maintaining her smooth monotone. "I trust you are not too overwhelmed with Princess Celestia's revealing of the truth?"
Casting a distrustful look upon Cardinal, Applejack probed, “I'm fine, but we've never seen you before. Princess Celestia just let you waltz in there and make yourself at home. Just how the hay do you know about this creature’s blood?”
Cardinal calmly replied, “I have detailed files.”
Closing the distance between them, Applejack continued, “Just how detailed?”
Standing her ground, Cardinal answered, “Most of it, I am not allowed to disclose to the public.”
Raising her voice, Applejack asked, “Yer keepin’ secrets from us, aren’t you!”
Shining Armor warned, “Applejack, Cardinal is a friend. OUR friend.”
Cardinal shook her head. “You misunderstand, Applejack. My position in Neighland-Yutani has granted me access to the xenomorph’s carcass, aiding me in my own personal education of its biology. I am merely stating that the majority of said information is confidential to the public and even most of Neighland-Yutani itself.”
Fluttershy gasped in shock. “Y-you work for that company?”
Cardinal nodded. “I do.” Noticing the pained look on Fluttershy’s face, she asked, “Is something wrong?”
Rarity gave an awkward cough. Upon getting Cardinal’s attention, she explained, “Fluttershy, um, well, she had a traumatizing experience with Scuttles, and your company is being associated with that trauma.”
Cardinal cocked her head in confusion. “I do not understand. Who is Scuttles?”
“The creature that came to Ponyville. Look,” She put a hoof to her temples and sighed, “It’s a sensitive subject for Fluttershy. If we could discuss this later…”
Cardinal bowed her head. “Of course, I understand.” She turned to Fluttershy. Continuing in her smooth monotone, she said, “If you want, I can secure an adequate quantity of pharmaceutical medication to aid with your trauma.”
Fluttershy looked down and quietly answered, “Um, no, it’s fine.”
“Very well.” Cardinal turned to Shining Armor. “Captain Armor, I was sent here to tell you that your departure must be made soon. I am to escort you and the five specialists to the docking bay.”
Shining Armor responded, “Thought so. Lead the way.”
Cardinal gave a bow. Turning to the mane five, she said, “If you’ll follow me, ladies.”
Applejack put a hoof on Rarity, silently telling her to stay behind. As the other ponies exited the firing range, Applejack murmured to Rarity, “Ah don’t trust her.”
Rarity scoffed, "So I gathered. It's not like you to immediately distrust somepony." She asked, “Why is that, darling?”
Motioning for Rarity to follow her, Apple Jack quietly continued, “Ah can’t tell if she’s lying.”
Lowering her own tone as they deliberately lagged behind from the others, Rarity asked, “What do you mean?”
“Exactly that. I’m the bearer of the element of honesty, remember? I can usually tell if somepony’s tellin’ the truth or not. I can’t, with this Cardinal mare. It's like she's not even there to begin with.”
Rarity cocked her head. “Well, what do you suppose that means?”
“Ah don’t know, Rarity. But ah don’t think we should trust her.”
“But Armor trusts her, right?” She hastened towards the exit and motioned for Apple Jack to follow. “Are you sure you’re not just paranoid about her association with Neighland-Yutani?”
Applejack sighed, “Ah don’t know, Rarity.”
The two mares caught up to the group, as Cardinal finished saying, “-However, it oxidizes after a few minutes after being exposed to our atmosphere. Should the same chemical rules apply to the moon’s atmosphere, which we believe they will, the blood will oxidize, rendering it non acidic.”
Shining Armor said, “But we still don’t have anything to BLOCK the acid.”
Cardinal replied, “I apologize on behalf of Neighland-Yutani. Despite our around-the-clock study for the past four months of the xenomorph, the majority of its biology still remains a mystery to us.”
The ponies exited the palace corridor that they had been walking though and into a crate filled hanger with a few power loaders that lead out to the docking bay that Fluttershy and Applejack had landed on.
Cardinal thought aloud, “A live specimen will yield more results.”
Fluttershy shrank back from Cardinal. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. Pinkie Pie gasped. Rarity put a hoof to her mouth in shock. Applejack walked right up to Cardinal and shoved her against the nearest power loader.
Applejack hissed, “You’ll do no such thing as long as ah’m breathin’. You got that straight?”
Cardinal maintained eye contact and asked, “Once the colony has been secured and survivors evacuated, would it not be wise to attempt capturing a xenomorph?”
Applejack snarled, “No.”
“But surely the scientific benefits-”
“NO! Those creatures are monsters! We’re goin’ out thar to kill ‘em! If you bring one back, you endanger all of Equestria!”
Shining Armor stepped in. “Applejack! Cardinal! Stand down, both of you!”
Applejack turned her glare to Shining Armor but softened her gaze. Reluctantly, she backed off of Cardinal.
Cardinal cocked her head and asked, “Why do you wish the extinction of such a beautiful species?”
Shining Armor raised his voice. “We are NOT having this discussion here!” He turned to Cardinal. “You and I are going to have a talk when we get on the Sulacolt. Right now, let’s just worry about the colony itself, alright?”
Cardinal bowed in submission. “Of course, Captain Armor.”
Shining Armor sighed in relief. “Good,” he turned to Applejack, “Please don’t do that again.”
Applejack looked away and muttered, “Sure.”
Rarity had wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy, muttering to her, “It’s okay, Fluttershy. Everything’s fine.”
Pinkie Pie bounced over to assist them. “Yeah, Fluttershy! We’ll protect you! We won’t let anything happen to you!”
Shining Armor walked over to Fluttershy and helped her up. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. Right now, lets just get to get to the Sulacolt.”
Getting to her hooves, Fluttershy whispered, “They already have Scuttles. Isn’t that enough?”
Cardinal looked to Shining Armor, who glared at her in response.The group walked out on the docking bay and into the night sky. A pegasus guard approached them.
Quickly saluting, he said, “Captain Armor, Spitfire is on her way. ETA: sixty seconds.”
“At ease, soldier,” Shining Armor gave a solute in return, “Is the Sulacolt finally ready?”
“I think so, sir,” the guard looked up to the night sky, “We don’t have enough unicorns on board to generate a magic barrier, but all nitpicks aside, it’s technically good to go.”
“Well, we’re not going to be engaging in ship-to-ship combat, so I think it’ll be fine.”
The guard turned back to Shining Armor and nodded. “Of course, sir.”
Everypony looked up at the sound of an engine roaring. The drop ship descended, opening up its landing gears. It flew past the group, kicking up an unpleasant amount of wind. Clutching her purple curls, Rarity shrieked, “My mane!”
Everypony, excluding the guard, sighed as the drop ship did a 180 and landed firmly on the docking bay, seven meters from where they stood.
Applejack began trotting towards the drop ship. “Yer mane’ll be fine, Rarity.”
The drop ship’s ramp lowered, and a pegasus with a fire-like mane, sporting a Wonderbolts outfit revealed herself. She trotted down the ramp, calling out, “Who want to go to spaaace?!”
Rainbow Dash shot forward, squealing, “Memememememememeee!”
“Well what are you waiting for?” Spitfire laughed, “Get your flank on board!”
As the cyan mare dashed up the ramp, squealing like a fanmare, Spitfire trotted towards Shining Armor. “You certainly picked some ‘interesting’ soldiers, Armor. Maybe you should think about choosing more carefully.” She offered her right hoof.
Brohoofing her, Shining Armor grinned. “I also know how to pick interesting pilots. Maybe I should have chosen more carefully.”
Raising an eyebrow, Spitfire said, “Find yourself a better pilot than me, and I’ll find you a better wife than your alicorn goddess. By the way, I read the paper,” leaning in and nudging him, she asked, “Did you really knock her up so soon?”
Chuckling, he said, “I think I’m gonna pull rank on you, now, Spitfire.”
Sighing, she turned back to the drop ship. “Buzz kill. Alright, everypony! Let’s go! Hopefully, Soarin’ hasn’t screwed up somehow.”
A masculine voice called out from within the drop ship, “I heard that!”
As everypony boarded, Spitfire hit a red button, causing the ramp to revert to its closed position. Rainbow Dash had already strapped herself in, clutching the safety bars with her hooves and bearing a crazy grin. Upon seeing them, she began speaking as fast as Pinkie Pie would.
“Hey, guys! Did you know that Soarin’s a copilot? Do you see these things above me? They’re independently targeting particle beam phalanx! I don’t even know what that means, but it sounds SO AWESOME! You could fry half a city with ‘em! They got phased-plasma pulse rifles in forty watt range! RPGs, sonic electronic ball breakers, nukes, knives, sharp sticks-”
Applejack slammed a hoof into Rainbow Dash’s mouth. “Now just stop an take a breath, Rainbow. World’s not gonna end if you stop talkin’.”
Pinkie Pie reeled back in her Pinkie Pie manner, gasping, “It WON’T?!”
Facehoofing, Shining Armor sighed, “Could we please just go already?”
Fluttershy and Rarity looked at each other and decided to take their seats, while Pinkie Pie began playing “eni mini miny mo” with the remaining seats. Apple Jack sighed, grabbed Pinkie Pie, spun her around, sat her down on the seat next to Rainbow Dash, and strapped her down.
As Applejack took the seat next to Rarity, she turned to the cockpit and shouted towards the cockpit, “We’re ready, Spitifre!”
Spitfire called back, “Alrighty then, everypony hold on!”
The drop ship took off. Its landing gears concealing themselves within its body, the ship rocketed into the night sky.
Soarin’ exclaimed, “Hey wait a minute! You said I could-”
“Oooh nooo you don’t!” Spitfire asserted, “I fly this bird, Soarin’!” and gunned the ship farther into the sky to prove it, causing everypony to grab their safety bars.
“Aaaw, come on, Spitfire! You said we’d take turns!”
“That was BEFORE I found out you thought you could eat pie AND fly at the same time!”
“It was just that one ti-” He was cut off by Spitfire increasing their speed again, breaking past the stratosphere and into space itself.
“You’re not flying, Soarin', period!” Spitfire grinned. “Perhaps you should go flirt with that orange mare-”
Applejack called up to her, “Mah name’s Applejack, yah know!”
Spitfire continued, “Right, Applejack. Maybe she’ll give you another pie if you pucker up and ask real nicely.”
Before Applejack could respond, Shining Armor shouted, “Spitfire! I am ordering you to take us to the Sulacolt NOW!”
Spitfire shouted back, “Way ahead of you, sir! If you’ll look out your nonexistent window to your left, you’ll see that we’re coming up on her now! You can thank my accelerations for that! Burned up a lot of fuel, though! We’re gonna have to dip into the ship’s main supply, when we get on board!”
A crackled, male voice came through an intercom. “Drop ship 1, this is Sulacolt. You’re coming in too fast. Slow down so you can board.”
Soarin’ punched a few buttons. He nodded to Spitfire.
The captain of the Wonderbolts grinned and spoke into the intercom, “Sulacolt, this is Drop Ship 1. We’re slowing down. We’ll need a refill, when we get onboard. You copy?”
“But topped you off before you left!” The voice grumbled, “Roger that, Spitfire. Maintenance teams will be standing by. Opening the airlock now.”
Spitfire giggled. “Thanks, Sulacolt! But don’t spill energon on the landing gears again, alright?”
The voice sighed, “Airlock’s open, Spitfire. Just get your ass on board.”
Spitfire feigned offense. “Why, I never! I’ll have you know I’m carrying our main team of lean, mean, pony marines on this bird! I demand she be treated with the greatest of care!”
The voice laughed. “What, an arrogant, mane-dying pegasus, an undereducated farmer, a snotty dress maker, a party pony with ADHD, and a crazy veterinarian? Whoopde-buckin’-do, I’m sooo impressed.”
The two Wonderbolt pilots stiffened, fearing to look back at their passengers. Soarin’ put a hoof to his earpiece, “Um, Klein, you DO know they can hear you, right?”
There was a pause. The voice slowly answered, “I’ll just be down in engineering.”
The drop ship ascended into the Sulacolt. Docking claws extended, grabbing and holding the drop ship in place. The airlock door closed, and the chamber began to depressurize. The docking bay door above the ship opened, and an even bigger claw came down to relieve the smaller claws from duty. The ship was pulled up into a cargo bay, and the docking bay door closed below the drop ship.
The two pilots removed their ear pieces, and unbuckled themselves from their seats. Spitfire made her way back to the cockpit. The mane five and Shining Armor had already unbuckled themselves and were making their way to the loading ramp.
Hitting the button that opened the ramp, Rarity scoffed, “I’m glad to see that we’ll be held in SUCH high regard.”
Applejack muttered, “Pony needs a good kick in the side.”
The ramp finished lowering, and the group walked out into a large, four walled cargo chamber. A sliding door on each of the grey walls rose up, revealing four group of three ponies in each group.
Two group had cleaning equipment, and the other two were carrying fueling equipment; As a mechanical female voice said, “Airlock now secure”, the four groups sprinted towards the drop ship.
The mane five and Shining Armor turned to Spitfire as she said, “You’ve got to understand that we’ve all been on edge for the past week. I mean, finding out that we were all taught lies, our oh-so beloved princess not being oh-so beloved in the past, and there might be a billion more monster things that want to eat our brai-”
Shining Armor interrupted, “I understand, Spitfire, but that’s not an excuse for disrespecting your superiors.” He turned to the mane five who had turned their attention to the design of their new environment. “I’ll deal with Klein. Right now, we get you mares into your pods, and you won’t have to worry about anything. You’ll wake up and be ready to go.”
As Shining Armor led them through the sliding door in front of the drop ship and turned right down a corridor, Rarity asked, “Armor, just how many ponies are on this ship?”
Shining Armor turned to Cardinal. “How many, Cardinal?”
The blue earth pony mare answered in monotone, “Excluding your fire team, Fleetfoot, and Nurse Redheart, there are two-hundred and six crew aboard this vessel, assuming that there were no casualties.”
Fluttershy perked up at Cardinal’s last word. “Um, casualties?”
Cardinal clarified, “This vessel is powered by energon, as you already know. However, her majesty failed to mention in your debriefing that it is a dangerous element. Very combustible and equally flammable. Unprotected exposure to the processed and refined energon has proved to be extremely hazardous and even lethal if said exposure is prolonged for more than ten minutes.”
They entered a room with seven cylinder-like pods. These brown, cybernetic devices were connected to a jumble of cords, hooked up to computers.
Upon some light investigation, Rainbow Dash noticed that a white earth mare and a grey-haired pegasus were occupying two of the seven pods. The pod that the white earth mare slept in bore the nametag, “Redheart”. The pod that held the grey-haired pegasus had the nametag, “Fleetfoot”.
Unaware of the change in scenery, Applejack asked with caution, “An’ how exactly do you know that?”
Cardinal answered with her continued monotone, “Our contained experiments with animals of various phyla have yielded insightful data pertaining to the lethality of energon.”
Applejack reared up in rage. “You KILLED animals?!” Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spitfire, Soarin’, and Rarity backed up to give the two earth ponies enough room for the inevitable fight.
Shining Armor stepped in. “Applejack, STOP IT! Now is not the time! For Celestia’s sake, we’re all on the same side here!”
Applejack stood her ground. “Ah don’t care! What thar doin’ is wrong!”
Shining Armor shouted, “YOUR FRIEND MIGHT BE DEAD!!”
Applejack stopped and stared at him, her expression softening.
Shining Armor continued his verbal assault. “My sister might be at the complete mercy of an alien race that HAS no mercy! The sooner you get in your pod, the sooner you’ll get trained into a soldier capable of SAVING her! So why don’t you put aside your moral dilemmas and just GET IN YOUR GODDESSDAMNED POD!!”
Applejack lowered her head in shame and quietly mumbled, “Okay.”
With the mane five shook up by Shining Armor’s sudden outburst, they diligently got into the pods with their name tags on them.
Trying to get use to the feeling of the strange pod, Fluttershy asked timidly, “Um, Shining Armor?”
Shining Armor asked tensely, “Yes?”
“Um, I was just wondering what these pods are. Like, what they’re made of, where did they come from?”
Cardinal calmly interjected, “Thanks to Neighland-Yutani’s leading scientists and engineers, we were able to reengineer the Changeling stasis pods to function to our specific needs. Until Princess Celestia came to us with her request that we engineer them to work in coordination with our memory orbs, we were using them for the medical purpose of placing patients with non curable, lethal illnesses into stasis until a cure or adequate treatment could be discovered or created in our labs.”
Rainbow Dash lay in her pod, dumbfounded.
Rarity asked, “So we’re sleeping in Changeling cocoons?”
Cardinal nodded. “Yes, but without the hazardous repercussions. Each pod has been reengineered. It is completely safe.” She pointed a hoof at the two ponies already asleep. “As you can see, Nurse Redheart and Fleefoot are already in stasis, being taught the military skills that you five shall also learn once you enter stasis.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed, “Well that’s just great.”
Applejack opened her mouth to object, but quickly decided against it.
Rarity mumbled a low “eeew”.
Pinkie Pie looked around her pod. “Meh, I’ve been in worse places to sleep.”
Fluttershy stared into space, attempting to compute the fact that she was going to sleep a week inside a Changeling cocoon.
Shining Armor went from pod to pod, placing an orb into a socket on the inside of each pod. He then moved over to a terminal that was connected to the giant mess of wires. Tapping a few buttons with his hooves, he ended the conversation. “Goodnight, ladies.” On cue, the pods closed up, and the mane five slowly went into stasis.
Shining Armor plopped down. Running his hooves down his face, he gave a loud groan. “Cardinal, if Applejack asks you a question, DON’T answer it.”
Cardinal bowed in submission. “Of course, Captain Armor. Shall I update the other specialists?”
“No, that won’t be necessary, Cardinal, I’ll do it myself.” He got up and walked over to Applejack’s pod. The mare seemed so at peace, considering what had transpired a few minutes ago.
Cardinal commented, “Her distrust may decrease operational efficiency.”
Shining Armor sighed. “No, really?”
“It would be wise to avert future conflicts by replacing her.”
Shining Armor said in frustration, “We can’t do that, Cardinal. She’s one of six ponies that actually encountered those aliens. Princess Celestia has written her off as absolutely vital to this operation.”
“The correct term to describe the species in question is ‘xenomorphs’.”
“Whatever!” He turned and began walking out of the room. “I’m not getting rid of her! And if you keep answering her questions, I’ll get rid of you instead!” With Cardinal still following him, he walked to a small door in the side of the corridor.
Cardinal replied in monotone, “That would violate the terms of agreement to our deal.”
Shining Armor smashed a red button, causing the door in the side of the corridor to slide back, revealing a small elevator big enough for two ponies. Shining Armor walked in. “Well I suggest you don’t piss her off anymore,” he smashed another button, “If you still want that live specimen!”
The door slid shut, leaving Cardinal to herself in the corridor.
Author's notes:
Okay, what took so long? Well, the chapter itself didn't take that long to write. What the main holdup was... WAS the fact that none of my beta readers were/are responding to me. In fact, it was only on 6/12/12 that Friendly Uncle sent me a message which told me two things:
1, he approves of the chapter, so I went over it about five more times looking for grammatical errors and such before uploading. (I swear, if I can't find some dependable beta readers, heads will role.)
And 2, to clarify the need to use the changeling pods if Neighland-Yutani can build all of this technology including the Fallout: Equestria famous memory orbs. I stated that it was more of a shortcut than a necessity. Why start from scratch if you can just modify an already existing piece of technology?
For example: In Fallout: Equestria, the zebras reverse engineered Fluttershy's healing megaspell into a DEATH megaspell. On a side note, that's a really really REALLY good example of reverse engineering.
But yeah, there's one more chapter after this and then things are going to start picking up.
And if you want to beta read for me, just send me an email at
knives4cash@yahoo.com
All lowercase. Just title it, "Beta reading" or something along those lines.
UPDATE AS OF 6/27/12!!!! I feel like an idiot for not coming up with it sooner, but the Sulaco has now been pony-punned, Sulacolt
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Who knew ponies could be this badass!
742600 Strap in. We're gonna ascend to ULTIMATE badass!
ZOMGWTFBBQ!!!!!1!! NEW CHAPTER!!!!
648097>>648231>>649944>>652391>>742600
I have revised chapters one and two. "Sulaco" has been pony punned, "Sulacolt". Which I find ironic because ships are suppose to be female. If it turns out that I missed one and it reads "Sulaco" instead of "Sulacolt", please tell me so that I may correct it.
822671I have nothing to do with this!
873461 Thanks, I just fixed that error. And I appreciate your support! Hope you enjoyed "The Sulacolt", which is actually chapter 2, due to the whole prologue thing.
And which quote made you "unsure"? The famous, used in trailer Ripley quote, "You're going out there to destroy them, right? Not to study, not to bring back, but to wipe them out?"?
Good story, good story. It's coming along nicely!
Journcy Out
874081
's text is, of course, "unsure sweetie," it just looks more like an I See What You Did There face to me.
I guess I ought to go back to emoticon school...
Even though
Like I said, maybe I should go back to emoticon school.
Oh, and my comment where I use
is using it as more like Oh Mah Gawd.
Like I said.
Emoticon school.
874117>>874107 Hey!
Read the description! This isn't a scene-for-scene translation of Aliens.
But in all seriousness, be ready for some twists. As soon as I send the draft of chapter 3 to Friendly Uncle, and he green lights it, you're jaw. It will drop.
874138
Oh, I read the description.
But believe me when I say...img.ponibooru.org/_images/3560ac7655e885c2a29c5fdfd22827b9/135171%20-%20cranky_doodle_donkey%20got_my_eye_on_you%20pinkie_pie.png
I'll be keeping my eyes open, and on you, for this particular shindig.
And I'll be sure to have my Patent Pending JawCushion 9000 close at hand.
874221 You caught me off guard, I'll give you that.
Okay so... MAYBE I missed it when you mentioned it in the story, but whatever happened to the xenomorph that Celestia told Fluttershy to keep in the original "Creature that came to Ponyville?"
880401 You didn't miss it. I came up with this BEAUTIFUL way to kill Scuttles Jr. off AND further advance this story's plot all at the same time!
I don't mean to toot my own horn, but it really is a beautiful, non David Fincher way of killing off a character.
882849
And when exactly to we see Scuttles Jr.'s death?
929652 In the next chapter, "The Flight". Which will be uploaded as soon as Friendly Uncle gives the green light for launch.
We're on an express elevator to hell going down