//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirteen: Affairs Of Darkness. Part IV // Story: Heroes and Allies // by LewisClarke //------------------------------// Chapter Thirteen: Affairs Of Darkness. Part IV. A small team of AOD and Black Ops troops hid behind a cratered building in the royal city of Canterlot. "You're sure you saw something?" one AOD pony asked another. "The castle was glowing! How could I miss something like that!?" another pony answered. "I saw it too. I'm pretty sure that's not natural." a human commented. "Let's not get off track." The AOD Major spoke. "There are too many lives at stake here. Focus on the mission. Do you understand?" "Yes sir." "Understood sir." "Yeah, I guess." "Glad to hear it. Now, we still have a few miles to go." The soldiers darted out of cover and into another shadowed building. The walls were covered in various propaganda posters and degrading pictures depicting the royal sisters. "Tyrants, thieves, monsters. What could have possible lead them to say all of these things?" a blackened pony spoke. "I don't know anymore." The major answered. "I'm not sure what to believe, but for now, I will stand by my Princesses. Lieutenant, what is the best way to get to the target?" A mare dug into her saddle bag. "AOD records say that there is a direct route to the location of the internment camp from here, but you wont like it." "What is it?" "The sewers, Major... uh..." "Classified." the Major answered. "Oh. Well the sewers are our best bet." she replied. "Lieutenant Fawkes, Grain Rain-" "Yes?" "Yes Sir?" The two soldiers in question answered. "See if you can get that pony hole cover off. Dew, double check those maps. I don't want any surprises. Commander Stuart won't be able to risk getting that flying machine back here, so once things heat up, we'll be doing this on our own until we spring our own backup." "Understood." One of the human soldiers lifted the heavy cast iron cover out of the ground. "Who's first?" ********************* The town of Ponyville had been all but destroyed. Once proud shops lie in ruins. The familiar landmarks of the town held no joy. Squares once filled with commerce were now filled with Liberation Alliance troops, marching into the city. "Gripftor, Rahn, report." an L.A. officer spoke to a griffin and ram. The two soldiers saluted, bringing a hoof and a paw to their chests. "The town has been abandoned, m'lord." The ram answered. "We may set up camp, the enemy has been successfully routed." the griffin added. "Excellent." the officer nodded. "Make sure patrols keep it that way. You two have seen your fair share of battle. You may rest now." "Thank you, my lord." The two soldiers spoke in near unison. They bowed, saluted and went on their way. As they walked through the abandoned town, a small dark shape caught the griffin's eye. Both soldiers quickly leveled their weapons. "What was that? I saw something behind that tree." There was only shadow. "I see nothing there." the ram impatiently commented. "I know I saw something." the griffin answered. The two soldiers slowly moved closer. The ram silently gave the griffin the signal to circle around to the other side of the structure. The two met on the other side. "There's nothing here. Stop wasting my time with your jitters." the ram scolded. "I am not jittery!" the griffin retorted. "Whatever you say, Grip." As the ram began to trot away, the griffin looked up into the tree. His eyes met a pair of glowing, green slitted ones. The ram heard the indisputable sound of a screaming griffin. "Rahn, help me!" The ram turned around to see a flailing griffin several yards away, feathers set ablaze by green flame. "Hircus's horns! What happened Grip!?" "There's something in the tree!" the griffin yelled as he tried to extinguish the flames. The ram galloped toward his downed comrade and pointed his weapon into the tree. Just before he reached him, a small, scaled creature dropped down from the tree, landing square on the griffin's chest. The creature hissed and wiggled is forked tongue. "Get this thing off me!" the griffin shrieked. The creature raised one of its arms and bared it's claws, it's hand silhouetted in the moonlight. It brought down the claw, and the griffin stopped flailing, still smoldering. "Gripftor!" Still galloping toward the burning griffin and it's assailant, the ramb opened fire, knowing now that there was no saving the griffin. Lethal firebolts rained down on the small creature. "Die, foul beast!" the ram yelled, then uttered a war cry. "Hyaaaah!" The creature leaped onto the ram's back, swinging wildly with its claws. The ram bucked the small creature off, then shot down at him. The creature rolled, missing the firebolts by inches, then lept into the surrounding foliage. "You are not getting away that easily! Come out and face me!" the ram shouted. The creature did not reappear. "Fine, coward! Then I shall hunt you down!" the ram charged into the brush. It stampeded, madly knocking down small trees. The ram shot at anything that moved, but after a minute of blind fire, there was no sign of the tiny beast. That is, until the ram came face to face with the barrel of a small revolver. Behind the gun, that same scaled creature grinned a twisted toothy grin. It hissed its forked tongue. Its slitted eyes glowed ever brighter. Then it pulled the trigger. The small creature dropped the gun and put a clawed hand to it's head. He looked down at his dispatched foe in horror. "I- I can't believe I just did that." the creature mumbled, dumfounded by his very own actions. "Spike?" a hushed voice spoke. The creature picked up the gun and quickly swung around, nervously shaking the lethal weapon. An armored stallion emerged from the brush. Spike dropped the gun again. "I remember you. Your name is Sky Blade, right?" "Yes." the stallion replied. "I was sent to find you, and anyone else that straggled behind. Where did you get that weapon?" the soldier eyed the small revolver curiously. "I found it in a bag." the dragon replied. The stallion looked over to the dead ram just a few feet away. "Looks like you put it to good use. I'm sorry you had to do that, son." "Hey, I'm not a hatchling anymore, I can take care of myself. I know how to use this thing. I saw a human use one before!" the dragon spoke, still shaking. "The bag is over there, somepony, or someone must have left it." The dragon pointed towards a pack he'd found in the grass. The stallion gave the bag a look over. It was camouflaged, and had several pockets. Printed on the top of the bag were the words "J. Simms." "You found a soldier's pack, lucky for you. We'll take it with us. Now come on, there's a very worried purple unicorn that will be relieved to see you're alright. Have you seen any other stragglers?" The dragon shook his head. "Then we have nothing more to do here, come along little one." the stallion motioned for the dragon to follow him. "I just beat two bad guys! Who are you calling little?!" Sergent Sky Blade gave Spike an extremely sharp look. The young dragon lost all of his machismo. "Ahem, uh, coming." Spike coughed out. ********************* The ponies and humans had been slowly trudging through the filth of the Canterlot underground for hours. "For such a clean city, there sure is a lot of junk down here." one of the soldiers remarked. The Major nodded. It was true, the city had seemed quite clean, normal even. Other than the fact that nopony was around. But unbeknownst to the majority of ponies, even possibly the Princesses, the under-city was not a pleasant place to be. "Yes, but we should stay quiet, you never know if..." The major stopped at a suspicious clanking noise. He put a hoof to his face, signaling silence. The major snuck forward then quickly dashed into a small tunnel. When he came back out. He was dragging an earth mare behind him. "Please don't hurt me! I didn't mean to break curfew! I just uh, well I...." A human turned on his hand-cranked electric lantern, literally shedding light on the situation. "Oh, you're not Alliance soldiers!" the mare could barely contain her excitement, but tried to anyway. "Are you here to save us?!" The major scratched his head. "That depends, who do you mean by, us?" "I'll show you!" the mare answered. The mare lead them down several tunnels, reflexively checking behind her every few seconds. She eventually let the small group to a large wall. "So, uh what are we looking at?" the Major cautiously wondered. The small group looked on as the mare pushed in a brick in the wall and whispered something into the hole. Suddenly, the entire wall folded inward like the two large doors of the royal throne room. A bright light flooded their vision. As their eyes adjusted, the small group of soliders realized what they were looking at. Before them lay a large chamber, filled with busy ponies rushing back and forth. Some carried weapons, other wielded clipboards. There were desks, chairs, and officers to sit in them. A few turned their heads, others simply went about whatever tasks they were doing. The major looked quite surprised. "What is this place?" Before the mare could answer, a teenage looking colt and a filly galloped up to her. "Bonbon, you're back! Did you find it?" The mare dug into a small bag. "I did. Found it right where you said it would be." The mare grabbed a small metal object in her teeth and gave it to the two teenage ponies. "A coil spring! Now we can finish our bows!" as the two teenagers ran off, a small group of much larger stallions and mares approached them. "Well, If it isn't Major Classified. What did they used to call you? Major Class, wasn't it?" "Prince Blueblood?" the Major questioned. "Indeed! And it is General Prince Blueblood now." the stallion replied. "Good to see somepony that knows my acquaintance." The Major shrugged. "I don't see how anypony could mistake you. You're still the only pony I know that would wear a cape in the sewers. What exactly is all this?" Blueblood threw his hooves up in fanfare as the stone doors slowly shut behind them. "Welcome to the Liberation Resistance! Anypony that escaped the invasion met up and came here, to fight the tyranny of the Liberation Alliance's martial law! We have soldiers, scientist, even humans!" The Princely stallion pointed to a busy group of humans standing in a small work space. "It is all very exciting!" One of the Black Ops humans nodded. "It looks like the AEE guys made it out okay. Sir, I wouldn't surprise me if they had some useful information on this whole thing." "Right. Lieutenant Fawkes, see if you can get some answers." The Black Ops marine began to jog in the direction of the scientist, then stopped. "Wait. So you're name is Classified?" "Yes, my name is Classified." the major answered calmly. The human slowly shook his head, and rubbed his scalp. "Okay then." the soldier walked away, clearly confused.. "Why does everypony have such a hard time understanding that? My mother and father were both in the military and "Classified" seemed like a good name. Why does that confuse everypony?" Many of the human and pony members of bravo's insertion team shook their heads and rolled their eyes. "I'm not sure," Blueblood's expression changed to one of caution. "So how did you get here? We didn't think anypony knew of our little operation." "We didn't-" Classified answered. "-until that mare lead us to you. We were sent to Canterlot to bust into the internment camps and rescue as many soldiers and civilians we could. We had no idea it was being done for us!" "Glad to be of assistance." Blueblood answered. "If you're going to go through with your task, we will join you! And by we, I mean the other soldiers here. We can resupply you, and tend to any medical needs you might have. We also have food if you should require it. Though I'm afraid it's not quite up to par." Several stomachs cried out, almost simultaneously. "That won't be a problem." one of the human soldiers answered. The major agreed. "Soldiers, disperse and resupply. We will make camp here and resume the mission tomorrow." The various members of the insertion team split up, they, and the mare that lead them there, went about their business. "Excellent. Now where did you say this team is from?" the Prince wondered. "We never told you. We were based in Ponyville- well at least we were." "What has befallen the town?" Blueblood asked, raising a recently arched eyebrow. "We heard it was captured." Blueblood looked down. "Oh." "Is something the matter Prince?" the Major asked raising an eyebrow. "It's just.. well... Somepony I know lived there." the blonde stallion turned away, then stopped and turned back. "You wouldn't happen to know a marshmallow-white unicorn mare with an eloquent violet mane, would you?" At first, the major bore a look of amusement, then noticed the Prince's somber look. "Marshmallow? I don't think I've ever heard anypony use that description before. I'm sorry, but we didn't spend too much time in the town. We were with General Rock's forces from Sesaddle, And those humans were with the more recent arrivals, so I doubt they know her either. I'm sorry." "It is alright," the prince sighed. "I doubt she would wish to see me anyhow. There are more pressing matters to attend to though. I bid you good..." "I believe it is night, sir." the Major explained. "Then I bid you good night." ****************** A door slammed and an earth pony was flung to the floor, leaving the room in darkness. "So... How'd it go?" The earth pony recognized this as the voice of the griffin he'd been cell mates with before. If Bronze Leaf could talk, he would have told the griffin that he was in extreme pain. As the pony opened his mouth, all that came forth was a pathetic wheeze. "I take it that it didn't go well." the griffin answered himself. Another wheeze. "I have questions, but I suppose I can wait." "...wanted.... information... hurt...." the pony managed to speak. "It's pretty clear they hurt you, but what kind of information did they want?" ".....Humans." "The interlopers. Ah, I see. What did you tell them?" "....not....much.....that's why... hurt...." "Hmm. That's distressing. I think the council fears them. The council always gets what it wants. It destroys anything that gets in the way of that. I only wish they would listen to reason." the griffin gave a mirthless laugh. "I suppose that's why I'm here." "....huh?..." "I suppose I have a story to tell, don't I? Very well, you're not going anywhere, and I suppose someone should know." The griffin paused in thought. "Let's see..." It started about six years ago. I, Veltor, was a commander in the Griffin League, a proud and statuesque warrior. The Griffin League had been preparing for it's ultimate revenge on Equestria for years, and with the signing of a pact between the Griffin Protectorate, and Caprastia, the kingdom of the Rams, it was finally starting to take shape. And we were all there to watch it. For hundreds of years prior, neither nation could find a feasible method of attacking Equestria and surviving. Every plan, every action, every option would lead to an untimely defeat if executed. So a council of the greatest individuals of both countries quickly rose, uniting the citizens, and making a strong central government. It was they, that decided that the only way justice could be served, was to fight fire with firebolts, and magic with more magic. We, the Griffin League, were sent to the far corners of the globe to find runes, amulets, and any other items of extreme magical power, strune throughout the land. We were out there for years, trailblazing though lands that hadn't been traversed in centuries. Turning over every rock, flying through every cave, navigating through every temple we found. Over that time, we found many things. We returned with a magical bounty the likes of which had never been seen before. And with it, we summoned the most powerful mages, the most intelligent scientific minds, and made a weapon powerful enough to finally defeat our centuries old foes: The Alicorns. They called it the The Implosive Magical Pulse Detonator, though most simply call it the I.M.P. or "Imp." A weapon of obscene amounts of magical power; enough to overwhelm all of the magic in your nation, and weaken the Alicorns enough to finally defeat them. But at what cost? We were raised to hate the alicorns, but as for the ponies under their protection, we were taught that they were just unwitting pawns, completely unaware of the travesties their leaders were responsible for. Truly, there was no hate for them- you. But the council had it's weapon, and with our new allies, the Pandragon Empire, they felt no hesitation to accelerate their plans. When the IMP finally came down, many ponies died, but the Princesses were finally beaten. Finally stripped of their power, only now do they finally understand. But that wasn't enough for the council. They would not rest until every citizen, large and small, fell into their grasp. I spoke out against this, saying things like, "Let us move towards a better future where we all live in peace!" and "Only now is democracy finally possible!" Eventually I dared to speak before the council itself! Can you believe that?! You have met them after all. Suffice it to say, they did not partake my philosophy. I was stripped of my rank, arrested, and put in this prison, just a few days ago. At least I think it has been a few days. It is hard to tell without any light. Anyhow, they locked me up. Me, a Commander! "Just because I wanted peace." "But... I don't understand." Bronze Leaf struggled to speak. "What did the alicorns do to make you hate them so much?" "Ah, that is a story for another time. Hopefully, I will live long enough to tell it to you, and you will live long enough to hear it." The griffin pulled out a small stick-like object from a corner of the cell and scraped it on the floor. Slowly, the small object began to glow until there was a dim blue light around it, just enough light for the two warriors to see each others faces. "I was a Commander, they should have known I had a few tricks." the griffin halfheartedly boasted. "I- I suppose." Bronze Leaf coughed. "I'm going to t-try to get some s-sleep." "And so you should. If I know my leaders right, they are not done with you yet." "And I'll- *cough* -I'll be ready for them." The griffin laid back in his space and quickly fell asleep. The pony, too grievously injured to even think about sleep, chose to think instead. Peace. I hope he gets his wish. The stallion took himself back to the night he was captured. The memory had been a complete blur, leaving off with the flying machine landing, and picking back up with the soldiers dragged him away from the wreckage, and stepping over the soldiers who hadn't been as fortunate as he. But just as the memory brought a small tear to his eyes, one last memory shone through the darkness of his situation. The memory between the landing and his capture. If he just focused just a little more on that memory... Yes, there was something! He saw someone standing. Not the solders which took him away, but... A realization brought a different kind of tear to the stallion's eyes. "They survived!"