Children of Oonte

by sevenofeleven

Chapter 11

Children of Oonte
Chapter 11: The Rescue.

Isabela watched the ship land and Ashley and a 4 legged purple unicorn step down the stairs. For one quick moment they both had the same expression on their faces. Isabela thought that was strange and could be something to check out. "Are all purple unicorns such dour creatures?" Isabela asked. That question got a chorus of "Huh," "What?" from Ashley and Twilight.

Ashley introduced Twilight to Isabela. "Here is the Emissary from Equestria, Twilight Sparkle," Ashley said with a bow. Isabela laughed and bowed to Twilight. Twilight stuck out her right fore hoof and Isabela looked at it for a second and shook it with both hands.

"Come Emissary, we have a fine party for you!" Isabela said and started dancing her way into camp. The music was that good, even Twilight could not resist the beats.

Ashley woke up in her sleeping bag in the sleeping area outside and had a feeling that someone was trying to contact her so she concentrated and she was back in the Isabela's dance studio but it was different. The windows were broken, the walls were covered in scorch marks and the balance bar that ran across one side of the room was broken in pieces, then the room reformed itself into the version that Ashley remembered. "That was what it looks like now," Isabela said and started cursing.

Then a white unicorn with a purple mane and blue eyes appeared and said "A lady does not say such things in refined company," Isabela apologized and introduced Renee Giraud to Ashley. Renee did not waste any time and asked for Ashley's help. "A close friend of mine went out on patrol and we lost contact with the squad, I need your help to find him," Renee said.

"I can find people if I can get a personal object from them. Something that they only use. Just make sure you handle the items with rubber or plastic gloves so I do not get your signature," Ashley explained. That put a smile on Renee's face.

"Fine, lets plan on how we are going to do this," Renee said.

The plan was to meet Renee and some soldiers and Ashley, Sherman would find the missing patrol and Twilight, Rich and Isabela would fly to the Parisian Resistance Headquarters. Ashley would teach Isabela some basic flight skills so she can fly the ship. After the plans were finalized Ashley went to sleep.

In the morning, Ashley told Rich, Sherman and Twilight where they were going and what they were doing next. Rich and Twilight were not happy. Rich wanted to shoot more CC units but he eventually agreed with the plan. Twilight was not happy with the plan. "I need to be there to give an accurate report to Princess Celestia," Twilight said with a firm voice.

"Yes but you are the Emissary and if you get shot or worse, what do we do?" Ashley asked.

Rich asked pointedly, "How will you defend yourself if you get separated from the team?"

Twilight said, "I have my magic!" Ashley conjured up a toy cap gun and put it on the floor. Twilight used her telekinetic powers to pick up the gun. Ashley showed Twilight the trigger on the toy and Twilight pulled it and fired the gun a few times. Sherman volunteered to teach Twilight gun skills. Twilight will learn how to shoot and how to maintain guns too.

Renee waited on the dark rooftop and thought about the damage to her city, Paris. No longer was it the City of Lights, now light was the exception. Not for the last time she wished that all of the CC units were dead or dying. Right now there were no CC patrols, she can sense them at least five blocks away. Wonder if Abelard and Marc were OK? It was nighttime and a light breeze touched her white fur. She could hear Ashley's dark purple aircraft approach and she turned around and looked. Ashley's ship landed quickly and quietly. Wonder how she did it, the ship is so quiet? Even helicopters make noise. She contacted the 2 groups of soldiers under her command so they knew to get ready to move out.

Renee watched Ashley, Sherman and Twilight leave the ship and walk towards her, then the ship floated up and flew to the Parisian resistance headquarters. She wondered about the Equestrian pony. True, she had two machine pistols in holsters but will she shoot them when needed? "Welcome to Paris, it has been diminished a bit but we plan to take it back," Renee said with a smile.

Once they made it to street level, Renee conjured up some headsets for Sherman, Ashley and Twilight. Renee knew some conjuring spells, she made her sniper rifle that way. The headsets would keep them in contact with the two squads and each other. One team of five soldiers had a RPG, while the other group of six had mortars. Ashley scanned the grenades and rockets and made two extra bags of each.

Ashley went one flight upstairs and unlocked a small room and cast a spell to block enemies from scanning or sensing what was going on in the room. Renee came in with the bags of personal items and Twilight followed. Ashley opened the first bag and cast a tracking spell. It only took a few minutes before she had a location, it was someplace west, not too far away. The other bags of items also had the same location. Since they did not have a lot of time, Ashley went for a lower level spell. A higher level spell would give more info like the status of the person but that spell would cost more energy and who knows what they might run into? Renee wanted to know more but Ashley wanted to save magical energy and time. They left the room and went downstairs and Renee wondered what was the status of Abelard, Ashley could only say where he was but not his status.

Before they set out in the direction that Ashley said their lost comrades were. Some of the soldiers wanted to speak to Renee in private and they were not sure about following the lead of a civilian pony. Renee replied in a no nonsense voice,"I understand your concerns and I share them a bit but she is my sister and came to help when asked. We could not find our lost friends on our own this quickly. You also know I am risking a lot by doing this. Colonel Baton would not approve of this unapproved mission. Also I am leading, she is just consulting." After that they said they would help any way they can.

A few hours in, Renee sensed the first patrol, they hid in a building till the patrol passed and then continued. The second patrol was also easily evaded. By not attacking and killing patrols, the CC would not know Renee and friends were in the area.

Later, on a rooftop a few blocks away from the CC base, Ashley focused her binoculars(binocs) on the CC camp, somehow the Claw Combine had demolished some buildings and cleared out a four block area and placed checkpoints on all the streets entering the area. There were four guard towers, one for each corner. Each checkpoint on a side had a floating platform with the big gun in the back as support. There were three buildings, in the back and two fenced in areas. The light breezes had stopped so the CC banners just hung limply on their poles. The checkpoints and guard towers were filled with alert creatures.

Ashley focused the binoculars on the two fenced in areas. The fences were pretty low, real easy to climb over. One had naked filthy people. Some of them were just sitting and others were doing what comes naturally. The other fenced in area had ponies. Ashley saw something that made her curse softly, all of the unicorns had cruelly shattered horns. No effort was made to bandage the ragged stumps. Some were still seeping blood. To a unicorn a broken horn is like the worst thing because they do their magic through the horn and if its broken, they may not be able to do magic again. The horn will grow back but not the same way. Also the horn is not all bone, it has blood vessels and nerve cells and a part of the brain extends into the horn. Renee wanted to see what made Ashley curse and asked Ashley for the binocs.

Ashley reluctantly gave Renee the binocs. Renee looked back at Ashley. "Why are they not jumping or climbing over the fence? Prisoners do not act like the way these people are acting" Renee said in a puzzled voice. Ashley looked through the binocs and noticed that at each corner of the fenced in areas there was a pole with a glowing red globe on top.

"Maybe those glowing globes inhibit higher brain functions?" Ashley asked. She used her magic sense to scan the globes and verified that these were mental function inhibiting globes.

"Well, we will destroy those quickly!" Renee said, could hear anger in her voice. Renee called in the squad leaders so they could plan the attack.

The plan was to hit the guard towers with the rockets and kill the CC units in them and maybe destroy the towers. Hit the checkpoints and the floating platforms with the mortars. Renee would snipe the mind control globes but only after the floating platforms were destroyed. The floating platforms could shoot the escaping prisoners so the platforms had to be destroyed quickly. Then the squads would attack from two directions and mop up who was left. Then Renee would snipe any targets of opportunity. Ashley would use her magic to destroy anything her gun could not kill. Sherman and Twilight would support Ashley. Once everyone knew what to do, the two squads went to two other buildings and set up the mortars and the rocket launcher. There was going to be an attack from the east, west and south. No attacks from the north because they did not have enough people.

Twilight looked up at the sky, it was getting close to false dawn, dawn was not far away. She felt a little scared but excited too. She practiced getting her guns out of their holsters. "Please stop, you are making me even more nervous," Ashley hissed. Renee transferred Sherman to support the mortar group at the last minute. One of the guard towers burst into flames and then one of the further checkpoints blew up. Soon the other checkpoints and guard towers burst into flames.

Ashley and Twilight waited behind a building until the checkpoint and guard tower to the east side was destroyed then they moved in. Twilight pulled her guns out of the holsters and ran with Ashley into the CC camp. Twilight avoided looking at the burned or burning bodies at the checkpoint and focused on the first building. Three dogs and one wolf came out of the first building but Ashley shot three of them and Twilight fired her guns at the last dog but was not sure she got it. Seems like the dog ran around the side of the building. Ashley said she would deal with the dog and she told Twilight to watch the entrance and anything that looked like a CC unit, shoot it.

Ashley did a quick peek around the corner and almost got shot. The dog was hiding around the corner but then it ran along the side to the back of the building. Ashley carefully ran along the side of the building. She could smell the dog's fear. Ashley concentrated and used her life sensing abilities to sense the dog. There were a few CC units in the building and the dog was waiting for her around the corner ready to shoot. Ashley cast an illusion of herself and made it walk around the corner, the dog shot at the illusion then Ashley rolled low and blew a hole in the dog's guts with her gun.

While walking back along the side of the building to the front, Ashley sensed dark magic and heard Twilight scream. Some other people did some yelling too. "Watch out for the Tiger! He sent Twilight and some of the freed prisoners flying and he blocks my shots!" Renee warned through the headset with frustration in her voice. Ashley went around the corner to the front of the building and there was the tiger sorcerer. If this was not a combat situation, Ashley would have complimented the tiger sorcerer on his outfit. He wore a red robe with black symbols on it. The tiger had white fur and black stripes and eyes red with hatred.

The tiger sorcerer threw a black magic burst and Ashley blocked it and the Mage Duel began. The sorcerer threw three sharp edged cutting spells at Ashley and she blocked those too but the spells had a second part that Ashley missed and soon she was bleeding from several shallow cuts. One lucky slash in a good place and the duel would be over for Ashley. Ashley hit the tiger with several focused bursts of fire, the tiger had some sort of elemental magic protection that blocked the fire but the fancy robe picked up some scorch marks. The tiger hit Ashley with more of those two part spells and Ashley got cut some more. Blood was oozing out of at least eight or nine cuts.

Twilight woke up after being sent flying and landing hard. She joined the fray and started hitting the tiger with telekinetic strikes. The sorcerer summoned a black ice sword and planned to throw it at Twilight but Ashley hit the sword with an electric burst and the sword shattered like glass in the tiger's face. The sorcerer staggered for a few seconds then Renee shot it in the shoulder and in the leg. The tiger fell to the other leg and melted the black ice shards that were sticking out of its face and threw a fireball at Twilight. Twilight caught the fireball with a reflection spell and sent it back to the tiger and the tiger went up in flames screaming. It tried to stop the flames but Ashley hit the sorcerer in the head with a focused beam of magic like a laser. She then used the magic laser to decapitate and cut up the still burning tiger until the tiger was just a smoldering pile of ashes.

Twilight used her magic sense to check if the tiger was really dead and then used her telekinesis to pick up her guns and put them back in her holster. She stood up on all fours to walk towards Ashley but her left hind leg gave her a sharp pain and Twilight fell down on her left side facing the first building. Maybe it was broken? When the tiger hit her with the spell Twilight had been thrown back and had fell hard on that leg.

"Ms. Taylor, you have to see this, please go to the last building on the right," said one of the soldiers on the headset. Ashley scanned Twilight and sensed that her leg was broken but it was an easy heal. Ashley went to the last building. There was a group of people and ponies in front of the building and Renee. Renee sent some of the soldiers to clear the other two buildings.

"You do not need to go in here," Renee cautioned but Ashley went inside anyway.

When Ashley went in she could smell blood, fresh and old. Renee followed her. When they got to the first room, Renee said that her men had caught some CC units abusing a woman and the soldiers killed the two wolves. Renee and Ashley checked out the larger second room. The smell of blood and flesh was almost overwhelming. There were gutted carcasses of people and ponies hanging on chains and tables covered with body parts. Ashley did not need to see any more, she now knew that the building was a slaughterhouse and she wanted it to burn. Then Renee's and Ashley's headsets picked up a new message,"We found the leader of this camp." Renee and Ashley ran back to the first building.

When Ashley entered the leader's room, she could not fail to see and smell the cooked baby pony on the large silver plate. There were some pieces missing. That made Ashley even more angry. The Leader was a black and white wolf being held by two soldiers. Ashley looked into its red eyes and smelled its fear. The wolf cringed from her and said, "No kill, no kill."

Ashley summoned a white hot ball of flame in her right hand and thrust it close to the wolf's face. The wolf pissed itself and tried to back away but the guards held it fast. Ashley then used her telekinetic powers to tear the wolf out of both guards grasp and then slammed it against the wall. She planned to hit it with the ball of flame and burn it alive. This monster was going to pay! "NO, MY SISTER DO NOT DO THIS!" Renee screamed through Ponynet. Ashley added more power to the fireball and the wolf cried louder in fear. Ashley was ready to launch the fireball at the wolf when she sensed something move in its head. She concentrated on the wolf's brain to see what was in it, wait, something moved again, there was something there and then the wolf's head blew apart.

Sherman had helped to clear the second building of CC defenders when he heard the message about the boss. So he went to the first building to help out. Ashley was so consumed with rage, she was willing to burn a creature to death and she did not hear anyone. Renee was shouting at Ashley not to do this. Sherman's gut told him that the creature would not give any info but Ashley should not be allowed to burn it to death. Sherman pulled out his gun and shot the wolf in the head. The bright ball of flame in Ashley's hand dimmed and faded away.

"We need to destroy this place and soon. Maybe the leader had sent a distress signal," Ashley warned.

"We need to see if there is any info we could use here," Renee said with some annoyance. She did not want Ashley to burn any useful info.

"Do it quickly because the CC may know this camp was under attack," Ashley said, conjuring up four blocks of incendiary C4. Some soldiers took the blocks to place them in the other buildings. Ashley then made eight more blocks of C4 and then went to Twilight. Renee started going through the room looking for useful info.

"I'm sorry for leaving you like this," Ashley apologized.

Twilight said it was OK and Ashley put Twilight to sleep so she could heal the broken leg. Then Ashley conjured up a floating stretcher. After the leg was healed, Ashley put Twilight on a floating stretcher and carried it to the edge of the camp where some soldiers were standing guard.

Renee came out the first building and was going to the second building to look for some info when a filthy man ran up to her and hugged her. It was Marc, he was OK and Abelard was behind him. Abelard gave her a kiss and Renee was happy for a bit. Abelard said that all of the squad survived and they were ready to leave.

Twilight woke up on the stretcher when the base exploded into flames. She looked up and expected to see Ashley but it was Sherman pulling the stretcher. "Where is Ashley?" Twilight asked.

"She is OK but she asked that I look after you until we get back," Sherman replied with some worry in his voice. His gut was telling him something was wrong with Ashley.

Renee walked along, it was a successful mission, the missing squad is safe, the prisoners rescued and she will help Abelard take a bath. It will be a most fun bath. The business with the wolf boss was strange but we can deal with that later. Renee was so happy, the prospect of being punished by her superior officer was almost buried under her happiness.

Ashley trudged along and thought about what she sensed inside the wolf's head. What was it? Is it possible that the CC units are just pawns? Where did all of that rage come from? She looked inside but there were no answers. Looking outside did not help either, all she saw were silent dark empty buildings or burned husks. So she just trod on.