In the air above Manehattan, three ships hovered beside eachother, their pilots simply staring in awe at the sight before them. The city was in chaos, fires across the land creating enough smoke to blot the sky out in some areas. In the streets, ponies were screaming and running, many pushing eachother out of the way in a vague attempt to get further away from the object of their fear.
The beings within the ships directed their eyes down the streets to see something only the guardians could recognise. There was a huge machine travelling down the street being held in a hovering position by four large engines. Its main weapon was set upon a second machine attached to the bottom that was capable of turning on its own. If one looked to the front of the machine they could see a pair of cannons mowing down anything unlucky enough to get too close.
“Uh, guys?” Kalis said through the comms, “How and why is a Goliath travelling through there?”
“No idea, but we need to do something. The thing alone could wipe out a few cities before it is stopped.” Kervis responded, getting ready to move his ship into combat.
“The hell would we be able to do? The Cabal don't tend to deploy Goliath's in compacted areas. We would hardly be able to hit any of the engines with that amount of space,”
“What about the buildings?” Exodus asked, “If we set up inside them we would have cover and could hit the engines from a higher angle. The only defence Goliath's have against aerial attacks is their main cannon.”
“That could work if we split up, maybe use the rooftops to move between buildings,” Kervis surmised, looking over the consoles before him.
“No point in sitting up here then, let's get down there.” Kalis said as she fired up her ship's engines. She was about to go straight into the fray when she was stopped by a voice.
“What about the ponies with us?” Exodus asked, looking down at Breeze, “It would be risky to even leave them in our ships.”
“Teleport them into the Inquisitor. Kalis, can you take them to that house you mentioned and then get back here?”
“Yeah, sure. Just don't start the party without me,” The Hunter said, ignoring the two bursts of light behind her that signified her two new passengers, “Should be back in two,”
With that, she turned her ship and began her short flight to the small home that housed the blue pegasus she had met before.
- - -
The flight to the house was mostly silent, the two ponies sitting beside eachother as their minds tried to process what they had seen. Kalis didn't speak, not because she was trying to process anything, but because she didn't know what to say.
“Alright, we're here,” Kalis said, pushing the ship down to the front of the home near the hills.
“Will you all be okay?” Lemon asked with a tear in her eye.
“Yeah, we'll be fine, don't worry. Now you both stay here, okay? There should be a blue pony in there that will keep you here until we get back.”
They both nodded in confirmation and stood still as the Hunter's Ghost teleported them to the ground. When they were both out of the ship, Kalis throttled the ship forward at the highest speed she could reach, quickly returning to the other two members of her fireteam.
“Welcome back, we all good to go?” Kervis asked, his ship hovering silently to her left.
“Should be, let's do this,”
As usual, Kalis pulled away from the others to get a better shot. She eventually decided that a taller building near to where the Goliath was moving was a good spot to set up. She flew her ship as close to the building's upper floors as she could and teleported out, ending up in an office floor of sorts. They were cubicles everywhere with scared ponies hiding behind the walls, hoping to not be seen.
The guardian jogged over to the window facing the carnage, ignoring the frightened yells of the ponies as she ran by them. When she arrived, the level of destruction that the tank had caused was shown in its entirety. Buildings had completely collapsed, some onto others, and fires raged across each street the tank had been through, giving a map as to where the machine had rampaged through. Down on the ground below her, two small people were running across the buildings towards the Goliath, and seeing no reason to sightsee, Kalis drew her rifle.
Aiming at the vehicle was fairly easy, but predicting the bullet's trajectory was not. She wasn't sure if things like wind and gravity here were any different than the places she had been to before, but in the end, she decided to wing it.
She fired a round down towards the front left engine, the only one that hadn't already been hit by the other two. The shot almost missed, driving a hole right down the right side of the engine. Confirming the hit, Kalis aimed for a second shot, and fired, landing the shot directly through the top of it. Fire burst out of the sides of the machine, showing the engine to be malfunctioning. The other three were in no better shape. Two were smoking and another had been obliterated, no doubt from a grenade or rocket.
With the tank out of commission, she moved her scope up to scan the streets behind it. There were ponies all over the place, some limping towards their loved ones, others just crying. The rest lay still in various areas of the street, clearly either dead or unable to move. As she looked over the masses of ponies, she saw something that instantly turned her sympathy into anger. There, in one of the many homes, was a legionary slamming into the wall. When it was through it walked straight to a dark blue filly and fired a shot directly into its head, ending the poor things life in an instant.
'They don't deserve any of this,' she thought to herself, 'Fucking Cabal,'
Her rage fuelling her, she jumped down from the building, opening her comms to the other two, “Guys, just watched a legionary kill some kid in a house behind the Goliath. Keep your eyes open, I don't think it was alone,”
“Got it, this thing is fucked beyond recognition. Exodus, can you go and try to evac as many ponies as you can? Women and children first,” Kervis said while Kalis fired off a double jump, ceasing her descent and pushing her forward some.
“No problem, returning to the Galliot,” Was Exodus' response.
“Kalis, gonna need your help dealing with the infantry. Not sure if they have more tanks like this one,”
“Yeah, just a second. Dealing with something right now,” Kalis replied, using another double jump before she hit the ground. When her feet eventually touched down, she sprinted forward, her eyes locked upon that one legionary. As she passed the destroyed walls of the home, the Cabal soldier heard her, and turned away from the elderly stallion to face her.
But Kalis didn't pull a weapon out, instead she stowed her sniper and readied a spike grenade. When she came within arms length of it, she jumped up and slammed her fist into the helmet that the soldier wore. The force of it was enough to throw it off, showing the hideous face of the legionary. Wasting no time, she forced the spike grenade into its mouth, jumping away before it could detonate. After a second the grenade activate, firing a column of void energy straight through its head.
“Kalis! Where are you? I think I've found the rest of the Cabal army,” Kervis called out through their comms, bringing Kalis out of the daze her anger had put her in.
“I'll be there soon, shouldn't be far from you,” Kalis said, looking over at the two elderly ponies. They were clutching their filly, crying. The stallion raised his head to look at her, fear consuming his gaze. But Kalis said nothing to them, instead opting to just leave. She had more important things to deal with.
- - -
Getting the various ponies to trust him enough was one thing, but getting them to trust him while also on a time restraint was something else.
“Jesus, you'd think they don't want to be rescued,” Exodus said to his Ghost as the crowds of ponies ran past him. Whether they were running from him or the Cabal, he couldn't tell, but he knew that they wouldn't be able to get out of the city without aid.
“Fuck it. Ghost, teleport as many women and children to the Galliot as you can. Send me up now, as well. I need to make sure they don't break anything on there.”
His companion nodded and sent him to his ship, a few ponies following him up. When they took notice of the change of scenery, the panic became even stronger. Cries for members of their family sounded out and as new ponies were transferred, more cries became prominent.
When the ship filled, Exodus got up from his seat and turned. Many of the ponies went silent as they looked upon their supposed captor.
“Alright, I don't have much time right now, but here goes. You are all quite possibly the luckiest ponies on this planet. I will be taking you outside of the city, possibly to a camp or nearby town. You are all safe now and my team is working hard to prevent the Cabal from destroying your home. So please, just remain calm.”
A couple of the ponies nodded, though most of them either started crying or pulling their children closer to them. The shouts had all but stopped at that point, none of them wanting to anger the one that was taking them out of danger.
As they flew away from the city, Exodus kept his eyes on the radar near him, searching for anything that looked like a camp. He was fairly surprised to only see one show up, he had thought that the defence force for the city would have been much more active. As the ship flew towards them, an alert began to sound on one of the consoles. The ponies on the ground had apparently seen him and had began firing some sort of energy at him.
The ship was easily capable of resisting the damage being thrown at him, but he didn't want to take any risks. He spun the ship around to the left, flying slightly faster in an attempt to outpace the energy being fired at him. As he flew, he turned slowly, bringing the ship closer towards the ground. The closer proximity gave the soldiers on the ground an easier time hitting him, but it gave him more options for landing zones as they began to disperse. When the ship got into range of the crowd, he turned to his Ghost.
“Ghost, teleport me down there and give me the Tlaloc,”
“Are you sure going down there armed is a good idea? They don't seem too friendly,” The Ghost replied, looking over the various alerts on the monitors.
“I can't be too careful. Not when I am trying to get civilians out of a combat zone,”
His friend nodded in agreement and teleported him down to the ground, simultaneously giving the Warlock his favourite Scout Rifle. When he hit the ground, the ponies that had been firing upon his ship immediately took notice of his arrival and switched targets to him instead.
As Exodus expected, the energy did little to damage his shielding. It seemed that the bolts were more tuned to stun or detain than actually harm anything. Looking over the crowd, he lowered his weapon and spoke up.
“Hey, quit shooting at me and listen, I don't have time for this and the longer I get stuck here the more ponies die in that city,”
His words seemed to work as the ponies ceased fire one by one. Even their leader stopped barking orders for a while to listen to what he had to say.
“Up in that ship I have a large amount of civilians evacuated from the city. My partners are trying to hold back the assault long enough for me to get them out of there. I need a safe place to deliver them and was hoping that I could send them here. Would that be possible, or should I go elsewhere?”
There was silence for a moment, the ponies at the front shuffling slightly as they awaited the response from their side. It wasn't too long before a larger white pony pushed through the crowd. It was clearly a mare, but everything about her spoke authority. She had to be at least twice as tall as the ponies around her, though her mane may have had something to do with that. Both her mane and tail flowed in the non-existent breeze, both of them separated by colours. She wore a crown upon her head and a few pieces of what he assumed was jewellery across her body.
“Then... you are not sided with those that are attacking the city?” She asked when she had reached the front of the army. The ponies around her stiffened as she began to talk, almost daring him to attack.
“Far from it. Our kind has been at war with them for centuries. But that is not the issue right now, we need to focus on getting these ponies out of harm's way,” Exodus said, still holding his rifle down. He doubted the ponies would actually attack him, but as he said to his Ghost, can't be too careful.
“I agree, we can speak about this later. You said you have some ponies in that craft up there?” She asked.
“Yes, my Ghost counts twenty-two,”
“Then let's get them down here. We have plenty of room here for many hundreds more, though I doubt you are going to make much headway with only twenty ponies at a time,” the mare said, and Exodus could only agree.
“Do you have any ideas?” He asked.
“I will send a guard with you, he can mark points that our mages can use to teleport masses of ponies out of. We could get most of the city evacuated in under an hour.”
“Fine with me, I'll get the ponies down here, in the mean time, could you send that pony quickly? We are wasting too much time.”
“Of course, I shall get him now,” The white mare confirmed, walking back into the crowd.
Exodus didn't bother to watch her leave, instead he turned behind him and looked up, “Ghost, can you get the civilians down here? And get ready to leave, we got a new plan,”
As soon as the order was given, a blinding light shone before him. When the light lessened, a group of confused ponies stood in its place. Seeing that the ponies were all accounted for and safe, he turned back to the crowd to find a new pony before him. He was a dark-blue unicorn with a two-toned mane consisting of both white and dark grey. His eyes were a bright gold and he had a mark on his flank that Exodus had only just noticed. Looking around he could see other ponies had a mark of different types, all situated on their flanks. The stallion's mark was that of a shield and two lightning bolts.
“Hello there, I'm Chrome Shield, Second Lieutenant in Her Majesties army. I have been ordered to accompany you to the evac sites,” the pony said. He was standing straight in a military pose, but held a small smile as he gave his greeting.
“I see, and how long will you need when you reach each site?” Exodus asked.
“Only a few moments, all I need to do is cast a spell,”
“Good. Let's get going then, wasted too much time already,”
With that, the Ghost within the ship transferred them up into the cabin. Exodus, being used to the rapid movement, jumped straight into the pilot seat and hurled the ship forward, leaving the pony behind him to stumble slightly as he recovered from teleporting. He had teleported in the past but had never been teleported by another being. It was certainly a new experience for him.
“Guys, got a new plan but I'm gonna need help for it,” Exodus called out through his comms, switching the return feed to speaker so his passenger could hear it.
“What you got? Kind of a mess down here,” Kalis replied.
“I have a pony that can mark teleport sites for the mages at a nearby camp. He should be able to do it quickly, but we are going to need support to make sure the Cabal are far away from each site. Can't afford any more losses to civilian life,”
“Got it, I can provide fire support. Kervis, can you hold this?” Kalis asked to her partner.
“No problem, providing I can keep this Overcharge at work these Cabal don't stand a chance. I'll keep you guys updated,” Kervis said.
“Where do you need me, Exodus?”
“Sending coordinates, I'll try to get there around the same time you do,”
“Coordinates received, moving now. See you soon,”
“Alright, Chrome I think you said your name was?” Exodus asked, turning to face the pony behind him. When a nod was given he continued, “When we get down there it's not going to be pretty. We all need you to keep your cool and focus on getting that area marked. We'll keep them off you.”
“I understand. As soon as I am on the ground I'll start the spell. Providing things go well it will take around ten seconds per area,” Chrome replied.
“That's fine, but do try to keep to that time. We can fight them back for a while but we aren't invincible,”
Chrome didn't reply, instead he closed his eyes, seemingly getting his mind set for the upcoming battle, “Kalis, you good?” Exodus asked.
“Yeah I'm on a roof North-East to the coordinates marked. Lot's of Cabal down here but nothing we can't handle,”
“Have you seen the Primus yet? There's no way they launched an assault without bringing him in,”
“Not yet, though I would think he would go straight to Kervis, he's causing quite a bit of damage over there,”
Exodus brought his focus over to the skyline near where Kervis was. There was a multitude of explosions going off in that area, signifying his destructive rampage.
“Chrome, waiting on you,” Exodus said to his passenger. When his name was called, the pony opened his eyes and gave a determined look.
“I'm ready,”
“Let's get down there then,”
- - -
In the distant town of Ponyville, the ponies of the town had forgone their sleep to stand outside. Off in the distance there was a pillar of smoke with large objects flying above it. They hadn't seen something of the magnitude in a long time.
On the balcony of the castle that resided within the town, seven ponies and one dragon watched in silence as the pillar consumed what one of them had correctly identified as Manehattan.
“Has the Princess contacted you, Twilight? Surely this would be something we could help with,” The pink one with the two-toned mane asked.
The purple alicorn turned to face the first pony, “No, but I still think we should go out there. Who knows what could be happening,”
The other ponies nodded in agreement and separated, going to their various homes to gather the things necessary for the trip. When her friends had left, the alicorn turned back to the city on the horizon. She couldn't get the feeling that something terrible was going to happen out of her mind. Shaking her head, she walked towards her room, turning away from the chaos being created all those miles away.
- - -
The teleport was far faster than Chrome would have liked. He had been in combat before but normally he was being backed by an army. Instead, he had to rely on two being he had never met before in order to keep himself safe.
When his hooves touched the ground he immediately got to work building the spell up. He knew the spell of by heart, all unicorn soldiers did, but the roar of fighting around him threatened to break his focus every second he tried.
After eight seconds, a beam fired from his horn into the air, emitting a ring of magic when it reached its optimal height. With the mark for the area deployed, he drew his focus back to the fight. The being apparently known as Exodus had been fighting since he dropped. He was clearly capable of using magic himself, letting him conjure fire from his arms to incinerate any of the attacking monsters that got too close.
“Was that the spell?” Exodus shouted to him over the gunfire.
“Yeah! We just need to move two city blocks and we can fire another!” Chrome shouted back, dodging an incoming monster that had attempted to charge. Exodus made short work of it when it missed.
“Kalis, clear a line to the East, we're moving out!” The being called, his ally hearing it somehow.
To Chrome's left, he noticed a new explosion go off. But instead of being a fiery red, it was a bright blue. After a couple more explosions, a new being arrived coated in blue electricity. It was also carrying a blade that shone the same colour.
“I thought you said you didn't like Bladedancing?” Exodus commented, beginning his run through the path created by the new being.
“Yeah well, desperate times call for desperate measures. You should probably Stormtrance,” The being said, still swinging the blade around to clear out any monsters that got close.
“Can't when we have ponies that aren't resistant to it. I have to be careful enough while grenading, nevermind using Radiance,”
“Fair enough I guess. How far do we need to go?” The other being asked. It had a definite feminine tone, leading Chrome to assume it to be a mare.
“This should be far enough. Not an ideal spot though,” the unicorn said, preparing himself for another spell.
“It'll do. Kalis, you know what to do,” Exodus said, coating his arm in fire.
“Don't worry about me, you just make sure that spell is going by the time I get up there,” the being apparently known as Kalis said with a nod of her head.
His mind prepared, Chrome began charging another spell. It was getting more and more difficult to cast as his magic drained. If it drained completely there would be no way for him to continue. Still, he pushed himself to the limit, letting off another beam and ring like before.
“Ghost, can you get an estimate of the remaining ponies in the city?” Exodus asked. Chrome was about to question who 'Ghost' was when a little white machine appeared near them both.
“About three-hundred. The rest are either dead or evacuated,” The machine said.
“Try to move all of them to the next city block. We are going to get the last of them out in one go,”
“That could be fairly difficult, I would certainly need to draw from your light reserves to pull that off.”
“Just do it, Ghost. I'll be fine,” Exodus finished, beginning his run to the next block. Chrome followed closely, assuming that Kalis was following behind somewhere.
When they arrived at the city block, an almost awe inspiring sight lay before the unicorn. Across the streets, various ponies of all shapes and sizes were being teleported to the location. And as the streets filled, the screams soon followed.
“Ignore them, Chrome! The Cabal with notice this group for sure, we need that spell,” Exodus shouted as he ran forward, pushing past scared ponies to reach the other side of the group. There was a still in tact cart there that he jumped up on to see over the crowd.
Chrome began his final use of the marking spell, pushing as much magic as he could into it. He could only hope the mages back in the camp were fairing better than he was. When the spell fired for its last time, he watched as the ponies around him started to vanish in bursts of magic. When the last pony had disappeared only him and Exodus remained on the streets.
“Good job, Ghost. Bring the ship around and let's get out of here,”
It wasn't long before the blue ship came into view, a few small, black markings on its plating could be seen but other than that it looked operational. He collapsed when the scenery around him changed to that of the inside of the ship. He doubted that anypony could be more exhausted than he was at that current point in time.
“Kervis, we got the ponies out of the town. How are you holding up over there?” Exodus asked to one of the lights in front of him.
“Uhh, not too great. We good to get out of here?” Was the reply, this time from a voice he recognised from earlier.
“Yeah, we're leaving. No way we can fight that amount of Cabal without support,”
Chrome closed his eyes when his mind finally came to rest on the fact that his job was done. Such a massive use of magic with no breaks drew heavily upon one's strength and the adrenaline had already started to wear off, leaving him even more tired. He slowly drifted off to sleep, his body blotting out the sounds around him to let him fall into a blissful silence.
- - -
Back in the camp outside of the city, Celestia had been pacing her tent. She had received the confirmation that around eight-hundred ponies had been evacuated from the city, but it used to hold nearly a million. She had been hoping and praying that her new allies had simply been delayed and that hundreds of thousands of ponies had not been killed in a single attack.
At the turn of her sixtieth line around the tent, a guard passed the entrance to the tent and gave a bow, “The flying machines are returning, your majesty. Only three areas had been marked, though the third mark seemed to draw ponies that had been detected from all across the city,” He said, still crouched in a bow.
“A-and the others? Surely there are still more ponies to rescue,” Celestia said, her eyes wide.
“No other ponies have been detected... I'm truly sorry, princess, but there are no more ponies in the city,”
A tear ran down the solar princess' cheek as her thoughts reeled with the idea that nearly one-million of the ponies she swore to protect had been killed. And she had stayed in a tent the entire battle, relying on the soldiers she had certainly sent to their deaths.
“Thankyou, guard. You can... you can return to your duties,” she said after a few moment's silence.
The guard turned and left at that, a solemn look on his face as he left the tent, and the princess, behind.
“I'm sorry...” she whispered, watching the various civilian ponies wander around outside her tent. She broke down into sobs, being unable to bear the sorrow of the loss she felt.
“I'm so sorry,”
- - -
In a train, twenty miles away, a small group of ponies watched as three area-marking spells were cast. The alicorn of the group had quickly explained their use within the military, and why seeing them used was an exceptionally bad thing.
“So you're saying that ponies could be... dead?” The yellow pegasus in the group whispered. Her hooves had been covering her face for most of the explanation.
“It's a possibility, but let's not get anxious, Princess Celestia is there and I'm sure she will have done something to keep the ponies safe. I bet those three marks got every pony in the city out of there. All we need to do is stay calm, and wait,” The alicorn said, looking at each of the ponies around her individually.
“Well, if you say so, darling. But I do hope they are all alright, it looks pretty bad even from this distance,” The white unicorn pointed out, looking out of the window at the ever growing pillar of smoke.
“It may look bad but looks can be deceiving. Let's just remain calm, and not think about it too mu-”
The alicorn was cut off by a flash of magic. When the light from the flash disappeared, a pink alicorn stood in its place.
“Cadance! What are you doing here?” The purple alicorn asked, jumping down from her seat and trotting over to the new arrival.
“There isn't any time for talking, Twilight. I need you all to listen to me closely,” the pink one said, an almost panicked look dominating her features.
“Cadance? What's wrong? Is it about that pillar of smoke? If so you don't need to worry about it, I'm sure it's nothing that serious,” Twilight said with a smile.
“Twilight, it is that serious. Listen to me closely, the city needs you all, but if things go bad you all have to go home, you hear me?”
“What's even going on over there? Why is it that bad?”
Cadence sighed at that, “You are better off talking to Celestia about that, she will know more about it than I do. For now, make sure you are safe. I can't bear the thought of losing you,”
“Of course, don't worry. Will you be coming with us?” Twilight asked, more perplexed than ever.
“No, I need to stay in the Empire and keep it safe. Take care, Twilight, I'll speak to you when this has been sorted,”
Twilight nodded and gave the alicorn before her a hug. When Cadence returned it she backed up and teleported away, leaving seven very confused ponies behind.