"Name"
"Twilight Sparkle, personal stu-- " twilights muzzle being held shut by the creature that had asked the question
"Simple questions, simple answers. I don't give a damn about your life story so don't tell it." the creature bluntly stated.
"Now what's your species called" releasing Twilight's muzzle again so she could answer.
"P-pony, sub-species alicorn" Twilight starting to tremble tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"What are the other sub-species?" the creature with Scootaloo on its back asked.
Twilight now crying and sniffling "P-pegasi, Unicorns, a-and Earth ponies are the three major ones." Closing her eyes after answering the creatures question.
A small moment of silence later the creature asked another question, "Why did you attack us? Since your weapon was empty it was practically a suicide charge." The creature seemingly less hostile but still held her weapon firmly aimed at Twilight.
"I was trying to get Scootaloo b-back and I didn't know the weapon was e-empty." Twilight sniffled
"Scootaloo? You mean the little one on Lucy's back?" the creature that was holding his weapon against Twilight's head asked.
"Y-yes"
The creature looking over to 'Lucy' and then back at Twilight, "Where are you from and how did you get here?"
"E-Equestria" Twilight sniffling a few times before continuing "I was performing a spell binding a spacetime rift to an object when Scootaloo stepped into and disrupted the spell matrix causing fatal feedback making the spell collapse into a portal." Twilight falling into lecture mode before remembering that she was being held by a set of unknown creatures.
"I think." she quickly added.
The Creature on top of her looked briefly at all of his companions and then turned back to Twilight, "Fuck it. Twilight, we're going to release you but if you light your horn you die, if you try to run or fly off you die, if you scream you die. Am I clear?"
Twilight quickly nodded
"Mack is thi-" Tyler began only to be cut off by Mack, "No, but we still have a mission to complete. and we can't carry her along with the kid.
With that, the creatures got off her still wary of what Twilight might do.
"So now what? You don't sound like you're going to stay here" Twilight asked while wiping tears from her eyes.
Getting you to extraction is a secondary objective. "The creature that had held the weapon against her head said."Lucy, you're on guard duty don't let her out of your sight."
"Yes, Sir!" Lucy saluting
"Good, let's get the job done Helljumpers."
After 15 minutes of jogging, the group stopped and took cover behind some debris. Ahead was a large building in the middle of a square and it was crawling with covies.
"Woods get in a good sniping position, Tyler you're on me, Lucy you bring up the rear with Twilight."
"Acknowledged"
"Yes sir"
"Consider it done"
"Wait, What!" Twilight added after seeing the tall and short creatures that had tried to kill her not even an hour before. "Those things nearly killed me!"
Any protest Twilight might have voiced was disregarded as all the ODST's ran off to do their tasks.
Tyler and Mack silently snuck forward to a group of Grunts that were just milling about not expecting any trouble. When two of the little aliens came close enough to the ODST's they jumped from their cover with combat knives. The first of the two grunts fell as Mack knife sliced its throat right as Tyler mirrored the same move on his target, the other grunts now noticing their two dead allies started running around with their arms flailing about. Both of the soldiers drawing their silenced M7's and shooting the leftover grunts.
The moment all the grunts had fallen A large Crack could be heard from a building on the side of the square.
"Split-lip down, there are more of the fuckers coming from the CAA Office Sarge."
All the while Twilight was watching from the back, Horrified at the efficiency with which these aliens were killing the other set of aliens, 'They just killed them all, without even thinking twice about it!' Suddenly getting tackled by lucy only for purple shards to fly past the position where she just stood.
"Get behind cover you Idiot!" Lucy shouted as she peaked over the barrier with her rifle and shot a burst into a creature holding a weapon with purple shards protruding from its top.
Further up Mack and Tyler were engaging two Elites, having dropped all the grunts already.
"Running Low on ammo!" Tyler shouted, Mack reacting by picking up a needler from a fallen grunt and tossing it over to him. "Use this!" A large crack could be heard again as the shields of one of the elites dropped and it staggered a bit. Tyler with his new temporary weapon fired a full burst of needles into it which promptly exploded leaving a large hole in the alien's chest.
The other Elite enraged at this charged Tyler, but with the combined fire from Mack and Lucy it fell before it could get to its target.
With the last of the aliens down Twilight was being ushered forward by Lucy and dropped back into cover the moment they reached the entrance of the Building.
"W-why would they try to kill us?!" Twilight stammered still not having had an adequate explanation of what these creatures were and why they were fighting each other.
Although the visors of the ODST's were polarized she could feel their confused glances at her. "The covies want to kill every single human there is, something about us being a blight upon the galaxy." Mack said being the first to respond to Twilight's outburst.
"What?! hum-" before she could get any further with her sentence she got cut off by Mack.
"We're wasting time now, the server room is in the basement. Woods get down here." Mack then taking point and heading into the building.
The building was relatively dark as only the emergency lighting was on due to loss of power.
As the ODST squad made its way to the server room in the basement of the building, the servers running were being kept online by backup generators along with a few extra lights in the server rooms. Mack motioning Lucy to stay back with Twilight while he and Tyler cleared the pathways ahead.
"What are we doing down here anyway?" Twilight whispered to Lucy
"We're initiating the Cole Protocol, meaning that we're going to wipe the navigation database still active in the basement here." Lucy explained
"Wait, you're going to destroy knowledge?!" Twilight blurted out.
"Shhh, stop screaming!"
A metallic clang could be heard from behind them as a door opened, only for an elite with an energy sword to step out into the hallway looking for the source of the sound he had just heard.
A Zealot.
Mack and Tyler having already moved ahead wouldn't be able to help against this foe. Lucy now slightly panicked at the sight of one of the most elite soldiers the covenant had to offer.
"TWILIGHT RUN! MACK, TYLER, ZEALOT!" she screamed as she unloaded a magazine into the elite that now charged at her, but where the shields of the other elites had failed against the human's weapons this one's shield shimmered but stayed up, instead of reloading her assault rifle Lucy threw it beside her to draw her pistol. Scoring a few more hits against the Elite but by that time it had already reached her and swatted the pistol from her grip, grabbing Lucy by the neck and holding her up against a wall with one hand.
All the while Twilight had sat by the side being stunned, 'It's going to kill her! And Scootaloo!'Trying to light her horn for a telekinetic shove but failing miserably as her horn just sputtered 'Ponyfeathers, I burned out my horn.' Almost locking up in fear as the creature picked up Lucy and held her against a wall. Looking around and seeing the pistol that had been thrown out of Lucy's hands, quickly grabbing it and aiming at the elite. "STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIEND!" She shouted as she emptied the remaining bullets from the clip.
The first two bullets hitting the alien's shield being absorbed but the third round cleanly punched through that shield hitting the monster in the neck, the fourth round landing a little higher hit the head of the elite the projectile flying through its brain. As it dropped Twilight just stared at the dead corpse 'I... I killed him. I just killed him. Oh no, Celestia is going to banish me to the moon! But I'm probably already further away than the moon! She might throw me into Tartarus instead!'
At that moment Tyler and Mack came sprinting back into the hallway stopping to look over at the sight in front of them. Lucy having yanked off her helmet coughing and gasping for air, a dead zealot with part of his skull blown out and last, Twilight sitting against a wall with a smoking magnum in her hooves with a horrified gaze looking at the corpse of the elite she had presumably killed. Lucy slowly getting up after having caught her breath slowly made her way over to Twilight "Twilight, could you please drop the pistol?" Receiving no reaction at all from the purple pony in any way shape or form she moved next to Twilight and slowly grabbed the pistol from her hooves. Twilight not resisting just let the pistol go from her grip and started crying into Lucy's shoulder.
For the second time that day Scootaloo woke up in an unknown location only this time she couldn't move. Tugging her hooves only for a painful jolt to surge through her hind leg. Her cries were muffled by the gag,'What the hay? why am I gagged!' Scootaloo's eyes finally snapping open as memories started to return to her, looking around she saw Twilight sitting against the wall with a horrified expression and some kind of metal object in her hooves smoke trailing from the end of it. Turning towards were Twilight was looking she felt the now familiar nausea coming up again as she spotted the corpse lying on the floor. 'S-she killed it? n-nonono she wouldn't! but she was sitting there with one of those things in her hooves!' Getting snapped from her train of thought by soft sobbing, Twilights soft sobbing. Only for the monster to add to the confusion as she let Twilight cry into her shoulder.
"Hey Lucy, your passenger is awake." a new monster joining the group only for it to stop when it took in the scene. "Jesus, what the fuck happened here."
"Twilight just saved my sorry ass from that zealot that's what happened." the monster Scootaloo was attached to told the other one with what to Scootaloo looked like an annoyed frown. Only for a moment later to look over to her back straight at Scootaloo, who again tried to squirm her way out of the ropes in an attempt to get away from it.
"Kid, stay still." the monster she was attached to said as it slung her from its back and put her down in front of her.
"Lucy what the hell are y-"
"What does it look like Tyler, maybe you haven't noticed but I'm getting the slight impression that they're not with the covenant." She said while pointing at the corpse.
Drawing a knife and bringing it down, causing Scootaloo to cringe and wait for the knife to pierce her skin. Only for the ropes that had restrained her to drop away. Immediately getting up and latching herself onto Twilight looking fearfully a the monsters around them.
"Twilight what's happening" She fearfully whispered. To which Twilight hugged the little filly, "I'll explain when we're in a safer place Scootaloo, I promise." still sniffing and tearing up.
"Sorry to break up the reunion but I'd like to be off planet before the assholes upstairs burn the place down." Tyler cut in from the side.
"He's right, we already wiped the server better to be off planet asap."Mack agreed. "Can you two keep up with us?" looking over at Twilight and Scoots. Twilight nodding with Scootaloo still attached to her.
"Good, I think there was a civilian hog parked upstairs."
"What's a hog?" Scootaloo carefully asked still not trusting the creatures that had hurt her already. But since twilight trusted them they couldn't be that bad right?
Lucy was the first to respond to Scootaloo's question, "Say kid, do you like speed?" A massive grin forming on her face
Initially when the engine had started Both Twilight and Scootaloo had been severely startled but from the moment the warthog had driven off from the facility Scootaloo's fear had been quickly fading to the point that she was now having the time of her life as Lucy had been pushing the vehicle to its limits, "THIS IS AWESOME!" Scootaloo had been shouting similar lines throughout the ride, on the other hoof Twilight had been holding on for dear life and shouting at Lucy to slow down before they crashed into something while the others just laughed at how both ponies were taking Lucy's driving style.
Mack reaching for his radio pressing a string of buttons and started transmitting "Stalwart Dawn, this is Alpha-Three do you copy?"
A few moments passed before the radio crackled to life again."Alpha-Three, this is Stalwart Dawn what's your status sergeant."
"We're green Dawn, mission accomplished. We're in need of a pickup. currently headed South on the main motorway."
"Affirmative Alpha-Three, uploading a waypoint to your VISR. And do you have any word on Alpha-Four sergeant?"
"Destroyed sir, landed in the middle of a hot zone. Casualties complete, I'm sorry sir."
"Damn, few good men in those squads. See you up here in an hour sergeant. Stalwart Dawn out." at that the radio went silent again Mack looking over at the two ponies that now were staring at him. "Uhm, what did I just do?" Mack now looking confused back at the two ponies.
"What? With who where you talking?" Twilight looking baffled at the device trying to figure out how it worked.
Every ODST seemed to be stunned at this statement, "You've never seen a radio before?" Tyler asked.
"Uhm no" Twilight now feeling stupid as it seemed that radios were commonplace here. "Anyway, we should probably introduce ourselves to each other since our initial introductions were Less... pleasant." Twilight trying to change the subject.
Mack chuckled a bit noticing Twilight's attempt to change the subject but decided to play along. "Well, I'm Mack Cross, I'm the squad leader of these idiots, also the tech expert."
The next ODST to introduce itself was Lucy, "Lucy Turner, I'm the medic of the crew. I patch up these guys after they get shot, or in your case Scootaloo when we shot you." Scootaloo winced a bit at the mention of getting shot, her leg still hurting from the wound."Yeah sorry about that, you looked like a grunt so we just shot you."
"WHOA, YOU SHOT SCOOTALOO!" Twilight jumping up and almost losing balance only for Tyler to catch her and pull her back down to the warthog. "Yea we shot her Twilight, there kinda are a lot of aliens out there that want us dead really badly. Better safe than sorry."
"And we did patch her up afterwards!" Lucy added
"It's ok Twilight, they didn't know. All they knew was that we might kill them." Scootaloo surprising everyone in the hog with her stance since she was terrified of them less than 30 minutes ago.
"Wha-, Fine but this isn't over yet." Twilight relenting
"Well, then I suppose It's my turn. Tyler Savage demolition expert, need something blown up then I'm your man." he proudly proclaimed. Earning a chuckle form everyone.
Twilight now looking at the last ODST who sighed and introduced himself "Andrew Woods, Sniper. I'm not exactly part of this squad but I've got no clue what happened to the rest of mine so I went along for the ride with Alpha-Three here."
"We've got another honorable member of Alpha-Three that we're going to meet in just a bit" Mack added, "Lucy what's our ETA on our extraction?"
"1 minute, we're almost there." Lucy reported stopping the hog in the middle of an open square.
Like clockwork, the radio sputtered to life and a female voice could be heard, 'Alpha-Three, This is Starfire. Heard ya needed a ride.' moments later a pelican dropship came flying over the square landing about 20 meters from the warthog.
Both Scootaloo and Twilight sitting stunned watching the large metal craft touch down.
"COME ON! THAT THING CAN FLY?!" Scootaloo shouted, "That's so not fair!"
"If you two want a ride I suggest getting in!" Mack shouted over the noise of the engine. "You still need to meet our pilot!"
Twilight and Scootaloo glancing at each other before Scootaloo trotted forward, "Well I'm not going to miss a ride in one of these things." before going up the ramp and strapping into a seat close to the cockpit so she would have a good view of the upcoming flight.
"You coming too sparkle butt?!" Tyler shouted earning a glare from Twilight before she too stepped into the dropship and strapped in. "Where are we going?" Twilight asked.
To which Mack replied,
"Home."