Salvation Through Destruction
Based on Concepts from: The Conversion Bureau by: Blaze
Chapter 11
“What are y’all talkin’ ‘bout!” Applejack ran towards the pony and helped him lay on the floor.
“The… humans, they found a way to get here. They are killing anypony who stands in his way,” he coughed blood that stained applejack’s coat.
“That can’t be right, how do they look like?” I asked glancing at the outsides, lots of ponies galloped in all directions fearing for their lives.
“They… look like normal ponies, wear a gray uniform and carry heavy weapons. They came from the portal’s building,” Applejack turned towards me with her eyes wide open.
“Applejack, stay here; I’ll see what’s going on out there,” I was just about to start galloping when she bit my tail and pulled me to her.
“Not a chance. If you’re plannin’ to go out there on yer own, it ain’t gonna happen on my watch.”
“Look, I can handle myself out there, but I need you to stay somewhere safe.”
“Everyone get down!” A blue helmeted pony with a military uniform said as he fired his M16 rifle to the air, behind him, at least other four ponies stood with his weapons readied. Screaming filled the room while they scanned the surroundings.
“Clear?” the blue one asked, I took a closer look at his chest and read ‘Sgt. Baines’, on his left shoulder, , the eagle; globe and anchor were seen as well, they American.
“Everything is clear sir, I don’t think they’ll do anything,” a soldier replied with the salute.
“Go back to your dimension!” A gray old pony shouted furiously as he galloped towards them, I turned my sight away just before the soldiers opened fire on him.
“Is someone else going to get shot today?” he asked as he cruelly kicked the dead pony’s body, everyone in the room kept silence in absolute terror. A solider approached us, pointing the gun at each one before turning his back.
“Now!”
I swiftly stole the soldier’s pistol from its holster and took him from the neck, using him as a human shield. Adrenaline always made time go slower for me, this time it allowed me to see the guards turning to point me with his guns. I began the shootout by killing two soldiers with clean headshots; their bodies slammed the ground before they could finish scooping me.
Their response was quick, they opened fire on me killing their ally after a few rounds, I could feel how his body received the impacts. Without giving it a second thought, I dropped his body and flew towards the ceiling, followed closely by his gunshots. Landing on a glass chandelier above, I aimed down my pistol and shot one more soldier on the head.
“Now you’re dead!” the blue sergeant changed to his equipped grenade launcher and aimed towards me, I was able to avoid the explosion but the shockwave struck me, making me slam the ground at high speed. My body was numb from the impact; the soldier changed to his rifle and prepared to deliver the shot of grace.
“C’mon, move, move!” I closed my eyes and tried to move, but there was no response. Suddenly, I heard firing…
But I was still alive, I opened my eyes and saw Applejack holding the first soldier’s rifle, the muzzle was still releasing some smoke. Her face was of amazement, she never expected to fire a weapon, let alone kill someone.
“Are you alright?” I stood slowly and walked towards her, my back ached horribly.
“Yeah…” she tossed the firearm aside, “are you alright?”
“I suppose, I just survived a grenade launcher explosion.”
“What are we going to do? You killed them and they will want revenge, we’re all going to die!” A purple mare shouted fearfully, everypony around were astonished by my feat and terrorized by the bloodbath.
“Nopony’s goin’ to die, stop it,” Applejack hissed, I walked around and picked up ammunition from some of the dead bodies.
“But what are we going to do now? We just can’t sit here and wait for them to find us,” a brown stallion exclaimed.
“Listen up!” I floated to the center of the lobby holding a M16 with one hoof, trying to draw everypony’s attention, “the best option now is to bunker here and wait for rescue. You two,” I pointed towards a couple of stallions in a corner, “drag the bodies out of side and grab their firearms, if you don’t think you can fire them, give them to somepony who can, you!” I pointed the brown stallion from before, “build a barricade in front of the door with anything you find. The rest, if you can’t help go upstairs and hide, but stay together.”
“You heard the man, do as he says!” Applejack affirmed my commands and everypony began moving. I observed carefully and took point near the door, outside there was practically not a single soul running for their lives. Distant gunshots and screaming were heard constantly.
“Whatcha gonna do now?” Applejack asked concerned, carrying a pistol feeling like she could handle it, her confidence was amazing.
“The best way to slay a beast with a thousand arms is to cut its head. I need to find who is leading this operation and kill him.”
“And exactly how are ya plannin’ to do it?” she asked with a big frown.
“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, I must seem unable; when using my forces, I must seem inactive; when I am near, I must make the enemy believe I am far away; when far away, I must make him believe I am near.”
“I dunno what the hell you just said, but sounds reasonable. What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to finish their invasion before it spreads outside of Fillydelphia, I want you to stay here and bunker down with the rest of the guests,” I took a radio from one of the dead soldiers and changed its frequency to a private custom one before handing it to Applejack, “use this. If you’re having any problems, give me a shout and I’ll come back as soon as I can. I’ll keep these guys off your back by giving them false directions,” I winked my eye before I started floating, preparing to bolt out the door.
“Don’t get yerself killed would you?” she said with a worried look, I gave her my best smile and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back. I promise,” I nodded before flying off the door towards the deserted streets, hoping she would believe in my words after what I did to my family.
Outside the scene was horrible; lots of ponies around laid dead with holes in their bodies. Many buildings were on fire and had their walls collapsed, in just a few minutes the whole city was turned into a battle ground. I flew high to avoid being seen; constantly landing on rooftops to check what happened on the streets below. Eventually, a pattern of destruction emerged and it pointed to a red ten story building with its roof collapsed, I had a way in. I flew towards it carefully, avoiding any attention from the forces down on the streets.
I landed inside the building and equipped the M16, luckily, I would not have to use it unless really necessary.
“Alpha two-three, come in, over” was heard on my radio.
“Alpha two-three here, over.”
“Have you secured the hotel? Over.”
“The hotel is secured, awaiting further orders, sir.”
“Is that so? Well, tell me how is it that the signal of your radio points the roof of the command center then?”
A shiver ran through my spine upon hearing those words, I had not anticipated that.
“You shouldn’t be here, you know?” I said with confidence, galloping to the opposite side of the room for cover behind the debris.
“You’re one brave son of a bitch; I have two strike teams outside the door waiting for my mark to enter and fill your sorry ass with lead.”
“Could you please tell them to line up so I can shoot them one at a time?” I teased, preparing myself for one tough battle.
“That’s it, go go go!” A platoon of eight soldiers broke into the room, inspecting every corner around, every rock and every collapsed piece of roof, the only trace they could find was the radio laying on the floor.
Just before they entered, I flew my way around the building and entered through a broken window in the hallway from where they came from. With the surprise factor on my behalf, I entered the room and emptied the load of my weapon on the platoon. No one was spared.
“Damn that Sun Tzu was right,” I changed the clip of my weapon as I stole a silenced MP5k from one of the dead bodies. The furious shouts of the man in the radio were heard vaguely echoing under one of the bodies.
I returned to the hallway and heard footsteps on the distance; I rapidly took cover in a room on my left side. In that moment, an idea came to my mind, something I had seen in a James Bond movie while back. In that scene, James slid on the floor and fired against the bad guys that were caught by surprise.
As the footsteps grew closer and closer, I prepared myself to copy the movie’s idea. Just when the acoustic of the place suggested me they were walking into the hallway, I slid into the hallway pointing my weapon to the soldiers and opened fire. The sound of the 9mm cases hitting the floor along were heard over the shots, the silencer was honoring its name.
“I never thought that one could work,” I stood up and cleaned any dirt off my coat, running down the hallway and descending a metal staircase. I dashed inside a room for cover when I saw two soldiers talking in front of me.
“Colonel Meyer is bunkering down in the second floor, he needs to be protected from the intruder, go!” I eavesdropped from my position. Knowing my destination, I flew through a window and headed for the second floor. Outside, there was no sign of activity, my attack drawn the attention of every nearby troops.
I analyzed the building, searching for a good way to enter the second room. On the back part of the building, I saw a small circular window with no protection. I peeped on it and saw a maroon pony completely alone yelling something on a phone, the room seemed similar to the one used for ponification in Russia.
Without hesitation, I broke through the window and pointed my MP5k straight to his face; he gasped from surprise and raised his hands in fear.
“What? How did you-” I interrupted him by shooting him between the eyes, blood poured from the hole in his head as he struck the ground.
“I thought you would know windows are structural weaknesses...” I said sarcastically, running to lock the door before someone noticed I killed the colonel.
“Sir, the intruder is nowhere to be found and your position is secured, what are your orders?” I heard on the dead man’s radio.
“I want you to go back to the hole from which you all crawled off before I kill every single one of you bastards,” I replied with anger on the radio, the lock of the door was forced almost instantly after my words, but I was quite far away by the time they entered the room and saw their leader laying dead on the floor.
With a victorious smirk on my face, I flew back to the hotel where Applejack was. From a few blocks away, I was able to notice large golden carts labeled with Celestia’s cutie mark on the side, the sun was slowly rising on the distance.
I landed on a side of the hotel and disposed of all my weapons before approaching the entrance, which was now guarded by ponies that looked exactly like the ones in Canterlot.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” I greeted with a smile and Applejack suddenly burst from between the guards to hug me, taking me down while at it.
“I can’t believe it, you’re alive!”
“I told you I would return, I’m making the habit of keeping my promises,” she realized how close she was to my face and backed down completely blushed.
“How’d it go?” she said with a scoff.
“I cut the beast’s head; they should be helpless by now-”
“Very well done, LH7,” a mare’s voice said from behind, the guards stood aside and Princess Luna appeared before me.
“Princess Luna,” I bowed reverentially.
“Stand, Leighton,” I straightened up my pose and looked up at the dark blue mare, “Queen Celestia sent me in her behalf to acknowledge what was happening here on Fillydelphia, would you mind giving me a debrief?”
“Of course,” I cleared my throat and continued, “this was an invasion attempt from the US army forces, civilian casualties are very high; they shot anypony on sight. I secured the hotel and dismantled their center of operations located in a red ten story building southwest from this position.”
I heard Applejack gasp next to me, and Luna seemed amazed by my report.
“You’re quite handy for being just one pony, LH7, I’m impressed. Your work is over for now, the survivors will be taken care of by our military forces, Equestria is thankful for your actions.”
“Thank you, milady.”
“Your orders are to return to Ponyville right away, Twilight Sparkle is going to the earth to demand an explanation, you’re going in as her personal bodyguard,” Luna walked towards her cart and opened the door, inviting me to step in.
“Right away, ma’am,” I stepped inside the cart followed by Applejack.
“Take them to Ponyville, double time!” the blue mare said to the Pegasi driving the cart. The cart began moving and in less than fifteen seconds, we were already a hundred meters off the ground, this Pegasi were at least two times faster than the ones that brought us.
“Leighton,” Applejack broke the silence in the cart, “how was the buildin’ from where these men came out of?”
“A red brick ten story building, if it had any signs they were on the floor where I couldn’t see them, why do you ask?”
“Well…” she looked out the window, “that’s the kind of buildin’ Apple Bloom saw. Do you just happen to know what was that buildin’ for?”
“It was the building the human transfer safe house, they came through the portal in there…” My mind drifted off trying to deduce what that could mean.
“Why in the world would she dream with the human safe house…?”
“Maybe your parents were human,” Applejack didn’t seem grateful by my deductions.
“I don’t think so,” she said sarcastically with a scowl, “O’l granny smith wouldn’t lie to us in such way, besides, I’m eighty four years old, if they were human they must have been from the very first to come, n’ why would they vanish mysteriously?”
“Eighty four years? I wish I would like that good when I’m your age.”
“You probably will, we ponies live quite some time, ya know.”
“Ah!” I exclaimed in realization, “My math was right, you ponies do have long life spans,” she stared at me with a frown, the ambient growing awkward, “sorry, I got carried away in the conversation, any thoughts on the true reason for our travel to Fillydelphia?”
“I ain’t sure… but I’ll confront granny Smith n’ big Mac with this, they have to talk now.”
“I wish you the best with that, Applejack. And… I would like to ask you one favor.”
“Sure, fire ‘em,” she said with a smile.
“Before leaving Ponyville, your friend Rarity asked me out. Could you please explain her the situation? I don’t like leaving people hanging,” I said with some reservation I had no idea how could she react.
“Alright, don’t you worry. But seriously, Rarity asked you out? Was your wife some sort of fashion diva?”
“No, Angelica was a quiet, hardworking ecologist, but she did enjoy spending my money if I left my wallet alone.”
“Do you find Rarity attractive?” her question jumped straight to my face like hot oil.
“Well um… she’s a talking white unicorn with slight obsessive-compulsive disorder that clearly dislikes bad manners and speaks in a cultivated mid-Atlantic accent. I must say, I am impressed that she’s taking interest in a British pony-slash-human with messiah complex.”
“So, do you find her attractive or not?”
“As a person, yes I do, but I’m not used yet to checking somepony’s flank.”
“I see, so you’re not giving up on yer wife yet?”
“As I said before, I will love Angelica until the day I die. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t rebuild myself and spend the rest of my life with some-in this case-pony else.”
“I wasn’t questionin’, just askin’. I’ll tell her once I’m back on Ponyville.”
“Thank you, Applejack,” I closed my eyes, but I was not trying to sleep. I was figuring out how I was going to save humanity without destroying everything in the process.