//------------------------------// // Flung into the Fray // Story: Foals Next Door-Operation:R.E.C.O.M.M.I.S.S.I.O.N // by Th3FileWriter //------------------------------// The entire trip from Sector Z to Baltimare was smooth to say the least. A cloud of tension hung over the entire cockpit of the bus. The stress and anxiety seemed to flood over all of them, no one dared to say a word the best they could give each other was a glance and maybe a smirk here or there but no form of verbal communication. Spike, who held a stern face and calm demeanor, had it the worst. His anxiety flooded his entire mind wondering of whether or not he was truly up to the task of leading them into battle, the thought of their lives in his claws made him internally panic. In the past when Spike was given a position of power it never went well, he would either abuse the power or not be able to truly handle the stress. Plus the moments where he did truly shine were small in comparison to the situation in which they were facing. Apple bloom who sat at the 3rd station near the front of the cockpit had her face completely aimed towards monitor as an attempt to not show her true fear. In her mind all she could think about was her brother and whether her not he was alright. Throughout this entire event she hadn't seen Granny Smith or Applejack at all, so to find her brother was a huge sense of relief and now that he's gone too made her feel like she was all alone and had lost everything. She knew it was selfish to think that since everybody here has lost a lot but she couldn't help the way she feels. As things finally started to calm down suddenly... ~B҉O҉O҉M҉~ A large crash occurred which shook the entire bus rapidly. Then almost instantly it felt like the floor beneath them gave way forcing them to be pulled on to their seats, while at the exact same time big red lights started flashing. "What in the world is going on!" screamed Sweetie Belle "One of engines exploded and is in critical damage!" Apple Bloom cried from the left side. Then without even giving them time to think Button Mash yelled "Spike! Were losing altitude... FAST!" Spike knew that he had to think fast because any time wasted would increase their chances of falling into their imminent doom. He looked at each of them trying to see what he could do, then quickly scanned over all the equipment to see if there was something that may give them a chance of survival. However the more he thought the more panicked he became and the less clear his thoughts were. He knew that if something had to be done it had to be know, then it finally hit him .He remembered what M.I.S.S.Y had told them earlier before they headed on to the bus. "Now before we start on your mission you have to know that each member of the group has a specific role they must perform." "We each have role specifically designated to us?" Button popped up with a bright shine in his eyes. "Why Yes, of course little Button. You see when we look for potential candidates for the F.N.D program we have to identify certain requirements they must meet. Now While all of you meet those requirements each of you are much stronger in one area compared to the other. Now usually you're assigned to a sector that requires the specific abilities in you excel in. However due to circumstances it just so happens that this is the only active sector and all of you fill most of the important required roles." Sweetie Belle poked her head from the small cluster of foals and questioned " So what are our specific roles that we each fulfilled?" " Well lets see" Missy's screen became a lighter shade of blue almost close to white, while a large bar in the middle of screen that was filling up with a blue streak had appeared. The 5 of them waited in anticipation for the results of Missy's query. 1 by 1 each of them walked closer and closer towards the giant monitor as the bar got closer to filling up. Then suddenly after what felt like an eternity a square window popped up on the screen which then started to sprout lines from its perimeter connecting 5 smaller windows that surrounded it. When it was all over the 5 windows had each of their faces while the center one was just black with the letters F.N.D popping up. "Alright first lets take a look at Numbuh 005 Codename: Button Mash". As she said this a secondary window popped up right next to the window that had his face on it showing recorded footage of the different things Button has done. "As you can see Button is not the most Physically adept with his strength being very weak and his speed being average at most. He is not the most charismatic being in the room and his social interactions are few and far between. However where he definitely shines is in intelligence. He has a wide knowledge about various subjects, both academically and non-academically, and he is very... shall we say tech-savvy due to his constant uses of his game consoles and other similar devices. He was able to learn the ins and outs of a lot engineering and electrical processes" Button smiled with glee towards the compliments about his intelligence, almost in a way that he was showing off to everyone that he was the smartest. "However... On the opposite side of the spectrum is Scootaloo" "HEY!" Scootaloo yelled at Missy getting offended by her introductory comment. "Her intelligence is her weakest ability. Not saying she's dumb but her intelligence isn't one of the factors she relies on in a situation. However she does make up for it with her incredible speed and agility. Even with her slight disability of deformed wings she is able to overcome that weakness and use her scooter to her advantage." The 6 all nodded their heads in unison at varying speeds to show their understanding of the explanation. However their was slight snickering from both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, while Scootaloo showed a strong sense of disdain on her face from the nuisance of their reactions. "Im sure all of you get the gist of what i'm saying so let me quickly wrap this up. Similar to Scootaloo and Button Mash, both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are on opposite sides of the spectrum a well. Sweetie Belle similar to that of her sister in which she is very proficient at magic, socially adept and very creative with her style of thinking. While Apple Bloom is physically advanced for her small stature, has a keen sense of how you kids say "street smarts" and has a logical thought process for every solution. So as you can see there's a balance for everything. While 1 may be better than another in some aspects, together you can be unstoppable. " "What about me ?" Spike questioned slightly raising his arm as to draw attention to himself. "What specific qualities do I have that make me... the leader..." "Well Spike I thought it was obvious for you.. Compared to everyone else you're the only here with the most.. let's say field experience.. and in the times you have risen up to the plate and taken the lead even when you're scared and afraid. Plus when it comes to all the other fields you're pretty well rounded so I'd say that's what best qualifies for a leader." Spike looked at M.I.S.S.Y with slight hesitation about her explanation but was reassured that he would be able to take on this difficult task. "Remember Spike as the leader it is up to you to know your team's strengths and weaknesses to face any situation head on" Spike snapped out back into reality. He quickly looked at all them trying to assess what needed to be done before he finally made up his mind and jumped into action. "Sweetie Belle can you reignite the shield?" Spike questioned with a strong stern tone. "I can't when the engine was destroyed too much energy was drained to use as a back up source to keep us afloat" "Can you use your magic to refuel the capacitor?" "Spike I'm not skilled enough to do that and if I did it wouldn't be enough!" "That's fine we don't need that much.. just do it alright" Without any further resistance Sweetie Belle bolted out of her seat and went into the generator room at the back. "Alright Scootaloo I need you to use the blasters on the under side at 5 second intervals which should help slow our fall. Button Mash we are using too much power at rapid rate, you have to restabilize the polarity of the neutron flow. Apple Bloom set the landing course for the green fields about 5 kilometer ahead of us and prepare the landing sequence. Once Spike finished giving orders all of them went to work immediately to help decrease the damage from the impact of the falling vehicle. The entire bus was filled utter chaos and panic and everypony was running around trying to solve the problem. Apple Bloom set the way point on her monitor and then at once tried to start the landing sequence, however the internal machine was jammed and kept resetting, which resulted in her causing a manual reset. While Sweetie Belle was in the generator room blasting her magic into the core in hopes to re-power the generator. Once they all finished their assigned tasks all of them quickly rushed back to their seats and strapped themselves in preparation for the landing. Spike then turned off the auto pilot mode and took direct control of the bus. They faced major turbulence as he tried to pilot the vehicle's landing as safe as possible. He yanked he the control stick left, right and up to hopefully re-balance the entire bus with out having it flip over. As they got closer to the ground Spike gave the signal to Scootaloo to start shooting the blasters. With each shot then entire the bus shook rapidly with the sounds of metal plates clanging against one another to resonate in the entire cockpit. Then suddenly... ~B҉O҉O҉M҉~ Another explosion occurred which shook the entire bus. Loud sirens started to play a sharp ear piercing sound as red lights flashed all over. "Spike our second engine just exploded!" Button Mash screamed at him. Then just before anyone could react the sounds of small projectiles hitting the outside of the bus started to fill the entire room. "Were being attacked!" yelled Spike. He knew that he had only a couple seconds to think of what to do as they were losing altitude very quickly and could crash at any moment know. "Scootaloo! give returning fire I'll focus on the landing!" Without any hesitation Scootaloo immediately altered her focus towards the enemy while Spike tried to combat the effects that gravity had on the bus as it was pulling it down. Spike looked on his control panel as he saw the altitude decreased more rapidly. it showed 10,000 feet ~ 5,000 feet ~ 1,000 feet. Nearing impact at any second Spike yelled "BRACE YOURSELVES!" ~CRASH~ Soon after Spike eventually regained consciousness. His vision was clearing up and all he could see was the red light flickering at random intervals while sparks from the consoles started to shoot everywhere in the cockpit. He then yelled out "Is everybody alright?" However there was no response, he yelled out once more. "Sweetie Belle? Apple Bloom? Scootaloo? Button Mash?" He once again waited for another response but like last time none came. He then realized he was the only one in the bus. There were small flames that surrounded him and water leaking from the pipes that slightly flooded the cockpit. Once he was fully conscious he tried getting himself up but to no avail because there was a giant metal sheet that lay on top of his legs and were crushing them. He slowly inched his upper torso towards the metal sheet. Using all his strength he wrapped his claws around the metal and started to push up with all his might, however it was too heavy and could only move it off inch by inch. After multiple attempts he was finally able to pull his legs out from under the metal sheet and stand up. He noticed the cockpit was split in half with a large amount of debris in the middle separating the back from the front. Spike knew that the first he had to do was to get out before doing anything else. He headed towards the front door entrance and attempted to pry the door open however it was jammed, he had to had find something that could hopefully bust the door down. stepping around once more in the semi-flooded cockpit he went towards the weapons lockers to find if there was anything he could use. One by One he opened each locker but it seems that everything had already been taken out, although as he went to open the last locker he realized this door was jammed. Using whatever strength he had left he pried the door open. Inside was a large battle hammer, almost resembling a sledge hammer. its handle was a long wooden stick that was not refined nor completely straight. Its top was made with a large piece of plastic with two pieces of stone being held together by gum and glue, and combining the two pieces together were multiple strand of colored rope. Spiked picked up the hammer to examine it some more. It had a decent weight but wasn't too heavy that he couldn't carry it, as he picked up the hammer he noticed a small plaque behind it stating: H.A.M.M.E.R Heavy Attack Marker, Makes Enemies Retreat Spike carried the hammer towards the front blast door and swung it with all his might. When the hammer made impact with the door it created a slight dent, noticing this Spike wound up his swing once more and hit the door causing the dent to grow even larger. So Spike kept swinging and hitting, swinging and hitting multiple times until finally with one last giant swing the bottom half of the door snapped and got flung out of the door frame. This allowed for some light to seep in and some fresh air. He then threw the hammer out side first before crawling himself out of the wreckage. Once he finally escaped he stood up and took a deep breath inhaling the fresh scent of nature, he looked up to the sky where the sun's light temporarily blinded him. He took one more big breath being satisfied that he was now free from his metal coffin. "RAAARRGH" somepony screamed from a distance. Spike quickly looked at the direction from which he heard the noise. He saw an medium sized dark-grey pony running right towards him. He had a bounded leather chestplate with a sling that looped around his front left leg. He had a metal helmet that wrapped around the entirety of his face except his snout, and he had a large spiky black mane with white tips that outlined its edge. As the pony came closer Spike quickly grabbed the hammer and swung it once more hitting the pony square in the jaw causing him to flip over. As soon as he landed on the ground a small walkie talkie flew out of his satchel. Spike quickly grabbed it knowing he it could use it to contact for help. He opened the backside and started to hot wire the walkie talkie to hopefully get in contact with Missy. Eventually he was finally able to get a signal. "Missy... hello are you there?" questioned spike quickly grabbing the walkie talkie "..S.. co...in... Spike.... Come... In" "Missy do you read me?" Spike asked as her voice started to become much clearer " Reading you loud and clear Spike! What happened? Is everything alright? "Yah Im fine... We were attacked however and had to do a crash landing and now i'm by myself" By yourself? Missy Inquired. Where are the others? "I'm not sure by the time I came to I realized I was the only one that was there... i feel our attackers took them somewhere as prisoner... Hey were part of the of the system right? So then doesn't that mean you could track them" His eyes lit up when he came up with this idea, a sign of hope to find his lost comrades. "Sorry Spike... I'm afraid none of you had brought any equipment that had a tracking device on you except the bus.. so I'm afraid I can't help you out in this situation... sorry. Do you maybe have an Idea where they could've taken them Spike look around to see if he could find any trace of where they might have gone however to no avail. "My best guess is that our attackers could've taken them to Baltimare which is the most likely explanation. Can you tell me which direction that is Missy? "Of course Spike just give me a few moments." Spike sat in silence for a few moments as the cool noon breeze flew across his face and hitting the edge of his scales. Finally Missy returned." Alright Spike.. so you know how you're in the middle of a field right? and surrounding you is a horizon of trees... well North of you there should be a large hill. Just head 1&1/2 miles from you and you should be directly in the city of Baltimare. "Alright thanks Missy" No problem Spike! Take care... and be safe alright?" Immediately the signal was cut and once again Spike was all alone. He took one good look at the hill before taking a big breath to start on his journey. He picked up the large hammer and slung it his shoulder as he started to head off. Past the trees and bushes he made his way north until a couple of hours later when he finally reached the peak of the hill that overlooked the city of Baltimare. He laid his hammer down on the base of the large Oak tree that sat on top of the peak as he stretched his arms. He took one sweeping look at the large city.. which filled him with a great feeling of dread and disappointment. The beautiful coastal city of Baltimare was now a large Industrial port for Sombra's Legion. His emblem hung on almost every building, Smokestacks rose above the horizon, a large iron wall was being constructed, with a guard outpost out front to check anypony coming in or out of the city and a large billboard near the center had a propaganda poster with his face on it. Spike now realized that the world he was once knew was long gone.