"Approaching Marrakesh airspace now, girls." The ship finally came out of the tunnel of rainbow-light and energy. If not for the belts that the girls were wearing, they would have been thrown out of the windshield the moment the ship got back under its' own speed.
"Ugh... Remind me to never, ever, ever try to eat food if we do that again. I think my stomach's gone all topsy-turvy..." Pinkie was the first one to remark. She was lucky that she didn't vomit, given the speed and g-forces she and the others had been afflicted with.
"You'll get used to it, Pinkie. My first lightspeed tunnel, I ended up throwing up on the console. Took a good few hours to clean it up," Elaris casually remarked. "But it's still a very efficient way of getting around, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Much better than having to shell out hundreds and hundreds of bucks for air fare." Rainbow Dash kicked up her feet.
"Anyways, take a look outside, girls." The ship's entire frame turned transparent and camouflaged so that there was no ship, yet the girls and Elaris were still flying. The ground below them was covered in sand, with a searing sun striking down onto it. A wide city was ahead, but rather than the tall steel buildings that the girls had come to know, there were very short buildings in Marrakesh, almost making it look like a maze in places. There were no people roaming the streets freely, as there were now Wolfpack soldiers patrolling them for any stragglers. Along with that, there were large containment pens located in the large blocks of the city, where the humans that had remained were caged up, waiting for the Wolfpack's judgement with no means of escape. "Wolfpack soldiers have locked down the city tight. No-one gets in or out. Especially out."
"How do we set them free?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking down onto the sandy city.
"The pens are locked tight, but there is a sort of skeleton-key that we can use to open them," said Espy as her face appeared as a projection before the Rainbooms and Elaris. "The Wolfpack always designate the pens to the biometric signature of the leader assigned to the area. And here, that leader is Stinger. A Ski'drax alien." As Espy spoke, the image of a yellow-green bug-like, humanoid alien appeared before the girls. It had razor-sharp blade appendages running up its' arms, a pair of mandibles stretching out from its' jaw, a series of antennae poking out of its' head from the top and back. "The Ski'drax are insectoids. Very venomous, but also very durable. That exoskeleton Stinger has makes it hard for physical attacks to work. But break through it, he's nothing more than flesh."
"If Stinger has his biometrics tuned to the lock, then if we manage to take him out, could it—"
"Yes, El. If we take out Stinger, then every Wolfpack pen is gonna swing right open and free the humans. As for the Wolfpack soldiers? They'll split when they know there's no leader. They're territorial, yes. But without a leader? They're like headless Chicondrians that have been lit on fire." Espy interjected before Elaris could finish.
"Anyways. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie. You know your mission. Get down there, wipe out Stinger, and free the humans." Elaris said as she disengaged the interior cloaking, blocking out the city with the frame of the ship once again. "Rarity and Fluttershy, Sunset and Twilight, you four hang back. We'll swing you over to your destinations as soon as we drop the others."
"Alright. So, how are we doing this? We gonna shoot out, or are you just gonna—" Before Rainbow Dash could finish, she, along with Applejack and Pinkie were launched into the air, out of the top of the ship. She could only let out a small yelp, before flipping her momentum so that she landed on her feet. Applejack just landed on her face, while Pinkie did an action-roll on her side as she landed.
"Uh..." Applejack groaned as she pulled her head out of the sand like an ostrich coming back up for air. She gave it so much force that she just toppled over her own self and landed on her back. "Ah don't take kindly to being launched out of a ship without the go-ahead..."
"Well, I think it's super-duper fun! We should totally do more of this saving-the-world stuff if it means we get to play cannonball-Rangers!" Pinkie, still optimistic as ever, jumped up and down on the spot, her boots pushing the sand away effortlessly, forming dinky craters.
"Still, it ain't right. Like being thrown from the rowdiest bull at the rodeo..." Applejack pushed her back as much as she could, hearing the sound of her backbone creaking. "What about you, Rainbow Dash?"
"Eh, I'm down for it. The quicker we get into the heat of the action, the better." Rainbow just twirled her blasters, ready for combat. "So, how's about we go stroll into town, knock down the door, and give this Stinger guy the works, shall we?"
"Hold on, a minute. If the Wolfpack don't know we're here, we can just take the silent path and just stealth-hit him," Applejack raised her hand. She knew that any plan of attack lead by Rainbow Dash would have fallen flat on its' face. "If he can't even fight back, then we have a chance to wipe him out before things get too hairy."
"Did you hear what Espy said? He's a bug with some kind of freaky second skin. There's no way that just stealth-attacking him is gonna work, Applejack. Not unless you can flatten him into gooey guts with that hammer of yours," Rainbow Dash chided, lifting a brow. "Pinkie Pie, back me up on this. Do you think that a hammer can be used to crush a Wolfpack soldier if they can't see it coming?"
"Well, technically, it can. Applejack's a super-duper incredibly strong girl." Pinkie Pie rubbed the muscles on Applejack's arms. "She's so strong that she could compete in the world's strongest woman competition! Or, better yet, hear me out on this, Applejack; the UNIVERSE'S strongest woman competition!"
"Not exactly what I mean, Pinkie." Applejack rolled her eyes. "Whatever. We can't just stand around here talking about whether or not my hammer can split apart Wolfpack jerks. Come on, you two." Applejack just ran towards the city, hammer tightly held in her hands.
The other two Rainbooms hurried after Applejack, before Pinkie could continue talking about the Universe's Strongest Woman or whatever other kind of strength competitions the universe had to offer. Now, the three Rainbooms, properly focused and on task watched as the Wolfpack Hounds rushed down the street. Before any of the Hounds could notice the Rangers, they took cover behind what remained of market stalls and stone pillars. To them, they could only see an empty street.
"Hounds. Far too many of 'em." Applejack watched the stampeding soldiers speed off down another crossroad, splitting off into three separate squads.
"We can take 'em, though. These babies were born to see action." Rainbow Dash looked down towards her blasters. "Just say the word and those Wolfpack wolves get turned into swiss cheese."
"Or exploded cheese! Wait. That is a cheese, right?" Pinkie remarked. "Or is exploded cheese one of those kind of cheeses when I just fill cheese with my special explodey stuff?"
"Focus, you two. We need to find this Stinger guy before the Wolfpack find us." Applejack glared towards Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, though the helmet that she was wearing concealed the unamused look on her face. "And this here place is massive. Ah feel like an ant scurrying down tunnels with this place. "But the second we flatten this Stinger guy, the faster we can mosey on outta here and regroup with the other Rangers..."
Little did they know, that there were a bunch of miniscule insects watching the Rangers from above. Each of them was dripping with a green liquid that burned through the stone beneath them. The insects chittered and replied to each other through twitching limbs and unique noises that only they could make. Then, after which, the insects all grew a pair of slender wings and flew across the city. They all skittered into one large building at the heart of the city, along with a swarm of other bugs similar to them.
The Rangers, unaware that their position had been compromised, continued to slink through the cracks and shadows, making sure to avoid any and all contact with the Wolfpack that they could. After all, the less heat that they had in dealing with the leader, the better. They might have been teens, but they were also divided, and the Wolfpack could use that and overwhelm them if needs be.
"So, where do you reckon that this Stinger jerk would be, Applejack?" Pinkie asked, poking her head over the top of one of the buildings, getting her eyes on the Wolfpack soldiers guarding the soldiers.
"If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say he's waiting over there, in that large building down at the other side of the city. But... there's gonna be a few dozen Wolfpack Hounds waiting for us, I'll bet." Applejack remained undettered. After all, she had a hammer in her hands that was far bigger than any nail that she had ever held before. "Still, ah reckon that three of us should be able to handle our own. And if not, we can just call in Elaris and Espy for some helpin' hands."
"But first, they've gotta drop off the others. And the help's only if we're really, REALLY overrun with Wolfpack soldiers," Rainbow Dash pointed out. "And so far, I'd say that we've got a pretty good chance of putting them down before they do the same with us."
"Don't ever overestimate the Wolfpack, Rainbow Dash. You saw how those monsters attacked Canterlot. They came down like a swarm of angry bees. It was a miracle we were able to save the city in the first place..." Applejack just rolled her eyes. "But hey, what's one city to the rest of Earth? When you think about it, it makes us all really small, don't it?"
"I guess you're right. I mean, do you know how super-gigantic planet Earth us? There's like, around 7-billion people here. Surely, the Wolfpack won't be able to get all of them, right?" Pinkie pitched in her voice. "Surely, some humans managed to slip underground and go into hiding. I'm sure of it."
"We can try and find them later, Pinkie. For now, we've gotta free this place from Wolfpack agents," said Applejack, before a siren spread out through the city. Every wolf and penned human could hear it. The humans could only cover their ears while the wolves let out a savage howl.
"Wh-what?! But we never even came out of hiding! How did the Wolfpack find us?!" Applejack's eyes widened as she felt her grip getting stronger and stronger.
"I dunno. But there's no point in us just hiding now, is there?" Rainbow Dash threw herself over the top of one of the buildings and stared down at the Hounds, who all glared back into her and leapt at her. "Time we play the game differently!" And with that, she let a series of shots ring out of her laser blasters; each one hitting the grunts and causing them to fall to the ground, only to snarl and quickly snap themselves back up onto their hind legs.
Applejack, exasperated by it all, just launched herself up onto the rooftops with her hammer armed. Pinkie came after, performing an acrobatic leap onto the rooftops with her wrist-mounted cannons armed. They regrouped with Rainbow Dash, who stared down the Wolfpack wolves.
"Don't know how we kicked the hornet's nest, but we've definitely kicked it now!" Applejack, with a battle cry, rushed forward and swung her hammer into the chest of one of the grunts, knocking it into the others like a giant, furry, fleshy, baseball. It was able to knock some Wolfpack grunts off, but more jumped on in their place.
"That's an understatement, Applejack." Rainbow Dash, with her blasters raining bullets down on the Wolfpack wolves, ran while shooting. The power of her speed-boosting geode had been a great benefit. One second, she was in front of Wolfpack grunts. The next, she was behind them, and then, she jumped over some wolves to finish off. "One more just for you." She let her guns take in particles of light, which she then fired in a pair of large charge shots at the wolves who were still standing. The shots went straight through their flesh and caused them to fall to the ground; exploding before everyone's eyes. More Hounds rushed through the flickering fires and gnashed their teeth out at the teenagers.
"Ya hungry, big guys?" Pinkie asked, before stuffing her cannons into the mouths of the wolves. Before any of them could bite down and tear off her arm, the cannons fired. The initial air gusts were enough for the Hounds to stagger backwards, but then the exploding confetti caused them to stumble backwards as their mouths bulged from the force of the mini-detonations. This repeated until Pinkie dealt with the last of the wolves that were on her case, until at last, the wolves all fainted from the magnitude of the exploding confetti in their mouths. "What's wrong? Can't handle your food? Thought not. Exploding confetti from the Pink Ranger is a bit of an acquired taste."
"They just keep coming!" Applejack cried out as she threw her hammer into a wolf, then grabbed it as it flew off of it. Once her fingers locked around it, she swung the hammer into the face of another wolf that it sent it flying into the distance. "Every wolf we take down, a couple more just take its' place!" Applejack smashed her hammer into the roof that she was standing on, creating a large hole between her and the Wolfpack soldiers. As the Wolfpack tried to jump over the hole, Applejack just swatted them down. One after the other, she piled the wolves into the house below her, before she leapt up and formed a rocky spike at the end of her hammer, creating what looked like a stumpy pickaxe. "Time to say goodnight, ya mongrels!" She leapt high and smashed the spike into the wolf pile, causing all of them to detonate in a chain explosion that blew smoke and embers out of the open crevices of the house.
"Not good enough, boys! Twin Blasters, Shotgun Mode!" Rainbow Dash declared as she disassembled her blasters and reformed them into one large shotgun-like blaster. She got close to the wolves and pointed the barrel against the head of one of them, before a single blaster blast blew off its' head, causing the body beneath to detonate. More shots fired out, taking out the hounds next to the one that had just fallen.
"Confetti Bombardment!" Pinkie handspring launched herself into the air, letting her cannons fire wildly down on the remaining Wolfpack wolves in the area. Each one of them was attached with her multi-coloured shrapnel of confetti. Each single piece glowed before exploding out at delayed intervals, making the wolves do what she thought was a dance, until at last the pieces that she had left went out together, eliminating the grunts in a final explosion of light and colour. "Now, that's how you make an entrance to a new country!"
"Oh... Is it now?" A venomous came from behind the Rangers, accompanied with insectoid chittering. His 'S's were extended to make it sound like he was hissing each time. "Then tell me, little tin men. How exactly do you plan on leaving this new country?"
The three Rainbooms jumped on the spot and turned to face their new enemy and were immediately met with the sight of Stinger. He was exactly as Espy had shown to them, only now, he had a pair of wings that had emerged from two plates on the back of his skin, and he was surrounded by swarms of insects, loyally coiling around his body.
"Well, well, well. Three little bugs. Though, not exactly the bugs I would consider part of my loyal swarm. No." Stinger flew forward with his rapidly-beating wings. "These are the bugs I live to squash!"
"So, you're the guy who's running this op? Guess that saves us the trouble of trying to look for you, huh?" Rainbow Dash held her blasters, which had now turned back into two pistols again, in each of her hands. "Now, we've just gotta find a way to crush you and then everyone here in Marrakesh goes free, right?"
"Wrong! You have the story entirely wrong, little tin men." Stinger's mandibles clacked together vigorously. "You are joyriding with the gems that my masters seeek. Those little crystals right there on your pretty little belts." Stinger reached out for them, only for Applejack to swing her hammer at his hand. The bugs that were around that portion of his body caught the hammer and pushed it back, which caused Applejack to stumble. "You do not understand the concept of the Wolfpack, do you? We are the superior race in this little power struggle. Everything else is to be destroyed on the leaders' orders!"
"Really? Because all I see is a giant bug with tiny bugs serving as his bodyguards." Pinkie Pie retorted, seemingly innocent, but meaning to insult. "A mean giant bug, should I add? Bugs are never really friendly. Not unless there's some kind of bug that can make candy even more super-delicious than it already i—"
"ENOUGH!" Stinger rushed for Pinkie, swinging his bladed-arms out at her. One of which struck her directly on the chest, knocking her onto the roof of one of the pens. The humans' noises of shock could be heard as they could see the vague strips of pink on her body. Pinkie quickly flipped off of the pen as Stinger extended the blades on his arm and drove one into the pen, slipping through the frame and into the cage. It retracted just as fast as he snarled and flew over to Pinkie.
"Get offa her!" Applejack swung her hammer durectly into Stinger's chest, knocking him backwards into the other Wolfpack Hounds that were charging into the fray. All of them fell in a mangled heap, giving Rainbow Dash the time to pick Pinkie back up again.
"How ya holding up, Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash asked as she patted Pinkie down for any bruised parts. "Nothing broken? No poison got into your body?"
"Nope. At least, I don't think I have any poison inside of me." Pinkie shook herself from leg to arm. "Unless I ate something really, REALLY spiked for lunch today..."
"One sting and you'll be plagued with some of the worst venoms the universe has ever known..." Stinger snarled sadistically as he climbed out of the Wolfpack pile and used his slender wings to buzz back into the air. He pointed his arms out at the Rainbooms, launching razor-sharp needles out of them that were dripping with poison.
"Try it!" Rainbow Dash turned her gun back into a pair of blasters, firing them wildly at the flying stingers. She was able to hit most of them, but some of them flew by and barely grazed her suit. They landed into the ground by Pinkie and Applejack's feet. and spewed green sludge into the ground where they had been hit. But because they hadn't touched flesh, the poison withered away like it was nothing.
"Typical." Stinger snarled as the three Rangers stood defiantly before him. "Not very fond of poison are you? That's to be expected." He licked his lips and cracked a sadistic grin. "Good. I love it when my pray wriggles and squirms before I inject them with my killer sting..."
"You really need a new hobby, ya know that?" Rainbow Dash remarked. The other two rangers ran by her side as the three of them hurled themselves at Stinger once again.
“Alright. Rarity and Fluttershy. We’re just arriving over Santiago right now,” said Elaris as the ship broke out of the lightspeed warp tunnel once again. The skies around them were clear, but the ground was full of rising columns of smoke, and the land had been torn asunder. Tall skyscrapers still stood, but they were heavily damaged and could have toppled over at any moment. Where Marrakesh had been mostly desert land, this one had distant mountains and green grass growing in the distance. “Espy? What’s the Wolfpack agent they have to deal with here?”
“Hang on. Just bringing up the data now,” said Espy as she typed away at the console she had before her. “Alright, girls. There’s not necessarily a Wolf leading the forces here, but there is an exceptionally deadly machine instead. It’s codenamed ‘E.X.E.’ which stands for Extinction Exoskeleton. Personally, I think it’s a little bit too on the nose, but what can you do? Not like they could’ve given it a name up here.”
“I would’ve filed a complaint with the company that made it in all honesty,” replied Sunset snarkily. “Still, what makes this E.X.E. guy so special?” Sunset lifted a brow.
“E.X.E. is highly reactive, boasting the fastest reaction times of any machine or living species,” said Espy. “The Wolfpack actually bought him, rather than forcibly recruited him onto the Wolfpack like most of the others on the payroll. Don’t try and match his speed, though. Use whatever you can to try and control the field and lock him down.”
“Well, I’m sure that with my powers and your Animal Flute, we can keep that brute in check. Wouldn’t you agree, Fluttershy?” She turned to face her.
“Oh, uh… I guess so.” Fluttershy wasn’t the most confident in the fight, but she did know how to properly manage E.X.E. Gripping her flute tight in the palm of her hand, she nodded and gave a smile underneath her helmet.
“But even then, don’t let your guard down. E.X.E.’s weaponry is cutting edge, and it’s been proven more often than not that people that fight it usually don’t survive. I say usually, but you’re not part of that crowd, I’ll bet.” Espy smirked. “If you get overrun, try and see if you can use the area around you to your advantage.”
“And where is he now?” Twilight asked.
“Hang on… Let me do a quick check.” Espy went back to typing, only for a red screen to greet her. “Damn! Feral Five changed the password. I can’t track E.X.E. anymore.” She cursed to herself. “Guess you’ll just have to get his attention. Take out the Hounds in the area and give yourself some breathing space. He’ll have to respond to that.”
“I can’t bring you in any closer without tripping the Wolfpack’s sensors, girls. Brace yourself.” Elaris worked on her own console, and with the push of a button, both Rarity and Fluttershy were ejected from the ship, tumbling to the ground screaming, before daintily landing on their feet. Fluttershy was still whimpering when she landed.
“Okay. For future reference, can we PLEASE not do that again?” Fluttershy glared at the ship. “I almost jumped out of my skin!”
“Sorry, Fluttershy, but it’s not like we can land without someone in the Wolfpack noticing you,” said Sunset through communication lines. “You’ll do great down there, girls. I just know it.”
“In the meantime, I’ll drop Twilight and Sunset off at Florence, then proceed to run tactical on all three operations,” remarked Elaris. “Espy? You know all about the Wolfpack, right? Do you think you can give aid to the Rainbooms if they get overwhelmed?”
“Sure. But it’ll have to be discreet. The Wolfpack are highly attentive, and they’d never think it a coincidence if their agents just happened to leave themselves open or their tech to break down,” Espy added. “Most of the work’s gonna have to be done by you girls, otherwise my help is bust.”
The ship warped once more, and Rarity and Fluttershy were walking on the now-barren and decimated freeway towards the city. To their left and right, they saw a residential area that had been battered by Wolfpack forces. Roofs had been blown off and there were gaping holes in the walls. Most of the greenery was still there, but it too had been flattened down by the Wolfpack army. Even now, there were some soldiers still patrolling those areas, to make sure that there were no humans left behind.
“So. We need to get their attention, right?” Fluttershy asked again, now that she and Rarity had some time to themselves. “Don’t you think we should start with the Hounds over there?”
“It’s a good idea, Fluttershy, but those are only a few soldiers. I reckon that the most chaos we can instigate would be in places where the Wolfpack would be en masse,” Rarity, using her ever-formal way of speaking, replied. Her eyes were fixated on the city. “The way I see it, if we can get up close and personal to the Wolfpack, hit them where they control the most ground, then we can definitely shake E.X.E. from his hiding place.”
“But we don’t even know how many Wolfpack soldiers are even in that city.” Fluttershy shivered slightly. “There could be lots of them, you know.”
“Yes, yes, I’m aware, but you also have to admit that we also have this now.” Rarity pulled out the crystal that she had used to defeat Siel’Viz. “This is what we used to defeat that army and war buff wolf back at the air base. So naturally, I would assume the same would apply here. We can blitz the wolves in the city and dredge up that ruffian with ease.”
“R-right.” Fluttershy wanted to reach out for the crystal, beckoned by its’ glow, only for Rarity to pull it back.
“But first, we actually need to get into the city. And for that, I recommend a brisk jog. Good for the health, and it warms you up for the fight ahead.” And with that, Rarity rushed off down the barren freeway towards the city. “Come along, Fluttershy. No use dilly-dallying over matters.”
Fluttershy followed on without a word. She had faith in Rarity. And she knew that faith could be proven with how she performed.
Rarity and Fluttershy made their way towards a tunnel on the freeway that led into the city. Scorched road signs and signals could be seen around them, with the detonated heaps of mangled metal that were cars, trucks, and other vehicles. Not a single Wolfpack soldier could be seen on the road; not even hiding behind the cars. And that was what put the two girls on edge and made them raise their guards. Were the Wolfpack using stealth technology to conceal themselves and strike the girls down when they least expecting it? Were they all waiting in the city to ambush them on arrival? Or was there some other ominous reason why they weren’t on the road?
At last, when the two of them made their way through the amber underpass and came into the city of Santiago, it was a lot worse. Wolfpack could be seen practically everywhere, guarding their human containment pens, or patrolling the streets for any interlopers. Where there had been minimal security out there, the city itself was now flooded with Wolfpack soldiers; each armed and ready to strike.
“Well, this is the place.” Rarity said as she clutched the gem. “Shall we get started, Fluttershy?”
“I guess so.” Fluttershy reluctantly lifted the flute towards her mouth in preparation.
“Paladin Mode! Engage!” Rarity decreed as a torrent of white light slammed down atop her. She threw the crystal into the hilt of her sword and once more donned her White Paladin form. This transformation definitely didn’t go unnoticed, as practically everyone around her had to shield their eyes from the screaming light. “Hello, boys. Pleased to see me?”
The Hounds weren’t. They let out a loud howl and charged in on Rarity and Fluttershy. As they bore their claws and fangs ready for a fight, Rarity shot forward and with a single sword charge, she barrelled through a crowd of wolves. As the others surrounded Fluttershy, she simply blew a note on her flute, which conjured a titanic yellow ghost elephant. She quickly climbed up the leg of the animal and sat atop it daintily as she let it walk forward and squash Wolfpack hounds underneath its’ large feet.
“I’m sorry to say that Santiago is closed, and that it reserves the right to refuse service to any kind of space invaders, be they wolves, robots, or otherwise!” Rarity joked as she, with little stalling swung her swords at the fur of the wolves. The razor-sharp diamond weapons were able to cut through the Hounds with little effort, but for each one she took down, one more just took its place.
So Rarity got creative, the swords turning into razor sharp crystal darts that cut down the wolves one after the other. “Hah, take that you ruffians!”
“Save some for me, Rarity,” said Fluttershy politely, as with a twist of her flute’s reed, created a yellow falcon with her next note. It flew over her shoulder, and dive-bombed the Hounds that were trying to climb on top of the elephant spectre she was riding on. “After all, these Wolfpack bullies want to test us, don’t they?”
The Hounds were foot soldiers, but they were also adaptive. As they took the pounding from Fluttershy’s animal kingdom, they still remained strong. Some of them were even able to read the patterns of the creature’s movements and find a moment where they were vulnerable. Taking their chances, they were able to strike at the belly of the elephant, and then catch the falcon as it swooped down on another Hound.
“Oh dear…” Fluttershy jumped away in the nick of time and landed on her feet. Just as she was about to summon another creature, the Wolfpack moved in on her. She just had to brace herself and rush towards them. “Leave! Us! Alone!” She said as she started using her flute as a very small; yet still painful staff.
“Oh no, we don’t want to test you…” a voice said as Fluttershy was blasted away by an energy ball. “We want to kill you. There’s a difference.”
“Wh-what the?” Rarity turned to see standing before her, was her target. There before her was a human carrying a gun, but the facade quickly burned away to see that it was actually the silver-chrome body of E.X.E., with his weapon armed and ready for another shot. His mechanical parts now had wires that were pumping highly luminescent red fluids between his joints and straight into a core on his back concealed by an armour plate.
“Cozy, isn’t it? Seeing you Rangers scurry about your home; even when we’ve got it under lock and key,” He smirked, as he stomped forward. “I assume you wanted to get my attention, no? Well, congratulations. If nothing else you certainly succeeded at that.”
“Heh. You’re screwed now, ladies.” One of the hounds snidely remarked. “This bad boy is cutting edge. And with the Feral Five running this joint now, they’ve made sure to give him a tune-up. You’re not winning this.”
“Words hardly matter. Especially words coming from your mouths,” Rarity just tightened her grip on the swords. “What matters is fighting. That’s what you jerks believe in, right? Fighting to take control of things? Cherry picking every single planet you go to and leaving the rest to burn.”
“Ah yes, you are the talker aren’t you?” E.X.E asked one of his arms shifting and morphing into a giant cannon. “Rarity Belle, I know all about you. Top of your class, and head of your own business. A… boutique correct? You were the first to use this new system after the frankly unfortunate demise of your parents. Such a shame really. I’m no monster, I prefer not to involve the innocent in these little crusades.”
“Don’t you... “ Rarity’s grip wavered. She didn’t want to be reminded of her parents’ death; especially given that E.X.E. served the very army that had struck them down. If anything, it was them mocking her more than anything. Sadness and anger welling up, she charged at the machine, falling for the bait. “Don’t you DARE defile them like that!”
“No chance.” E.X.E. grabbed Rarity mere milliseconds as she was about to strike. He applied pressure to her arms and tossed her back towards Fluttershy. “My reflex time has been precisely modified by the assembly line I was born from. And the Wolfpack have overclocked that. I now truly live up to my name: An Extinction Exoskeleton.”
“So what? That doesn’t matter.” Fluttershy stepped forward and readied her flute for another animal kingdom attack. She twisted the reed to a lion’s icon and blew harshly into the flute, which caused a ghostly lion to charge towards E.X.E, teeth poised to rip into him. Only for the machine to grab the lion by the throat and throw it into the ground, stomping onto its neck.
“Do not resist,” E.X.E said. “I know everything you can or will do. You cannot stop me as you are now. I am undefeatable. Drop your weapons and I will try to be merciful. I will put in a good word for High Command. Perhaps they can set you up with a nice prison planet. You won’t be able to leave of course, but you will be well looked after. The finest foods, for example, will be at your leisure.”
“Prison planet? Funny you should say that.” Rarity hung her head. “Ever since you lot came in and ruined everything, Earth IS a prison. Not just to me or my friends, but to everyone you’re trampling over with this little assault of yours,” Rarity bravely took a step forward, her swords gleaming with light. “That’s why I must see you eliminated, E.X.E. I… No, we will save this world come hell or high water!” She swung her blades out, sending a white wave of diamond darts towards the machine, trying to impale him.
E.X.E just shot them out of the air with his laser cannon. “Very well then, I tried to be reasonable.”
In a blur, both Rarity and Fluttershy were down with E.X.E standing over them.
“Get… Off of… Us.” Fluttershy choked as the mechanical foot of E.X.E. was firmly planted on her neck. Energy starting to leave her body, she tried to raise her flute to her mouth again in a desperate attempt to get one last note in, before the machine kicked her instrument away effortlessly.
“Oh well, one last pathetic effort from the truly desperate,” her foe said driving a boot into her shoulder, Fluttershy letting out a whimper of pain. That whimper became a near scream.
Rarity tried to think about how she was going to get out of this with Fluttershy. Then, she remembered just what E.X.E. even was. He was a machine. And even machines had their weaknesses. If it wasn’t their bodies or their programming, then it was something else entirely. “Wait. Hold on. You say that you know everything about us, don’t you?”
“Yes? Though I fail to see what asking me about that will do for you.” E.X.E. remarked.
“Well, then I’m sure that you remember that we recently took a very hard math test the other day, and that we had to do this rather nasty question about the value of Pi.” Rarity knew that this was one of the oldest tricks in the book for dealing with machines, but the oldies were always the goodies. “Wasn’t the answer to that question three or something, Fluttershy?”
“Um… I think so?” Fluttershy didn’t know how to react to Rarity’s words. She was about to die and she was asking a machine what Pi was.
“Do you think that’s right, Mr. Big, Bad Wolfpack Robot? Or are we horribly incorrect?” Rarity asked.
“Since you’re about to die, I might as well humour you in your trivial pursuit.” E.X.E. still stood on them, but still searched for the answer to Pi. “Well, ladies, since you asked, the answer to your little dilemma is 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286 208998628034825342117067982—” All of a sudden, sparks began to fly as more and more numbers were listed off. E.X.E. couldn’t understand the numbers, and in a hint of frustration, climbed off of Rarity and Fluttershy’s bodies. “WHAT IS THIS NUMBER?! WHY DOES IT HAVE SO MANY DECIMAL PLACES?!”
“That is what we humans call a paradox.” Rarity triumphantly put her hands to her side as she watched the spark-spewing robot try to reorient himself. “Pi is infinite. So you’re going to be counting numbers for a long time, E.X.E.”
“Ugh… Sneaky little trick,” E.X.E. despite the fact that he was still counting up in his head, he tried his best to keep focused on the girls. “I applaud you girls for your sneakiness, but it hardly matters. My software prevents me from being destroyed by anything other than force.”
“It’s like having multiple tabs open when you’re gaming right?” Fluttershy said, shoving her flute into the robot’s sternum. “Pretty bad for your internet speed.”
“I’ve been… hit?” E.X.E. trembled at what he was feeling. Fluttershy had actually managed to damage him with an attack. This had never happened before.
“You sound like you speak from experience dearie,” Rarity commented, flipping before E.X.E and slashing him across the back.
“I… I may be?” Fluttershy mumbled blushing under her helmet thankful Rarity couldn’t see her.
“Ugh…” E.X.E. did what could only be described as robotic breathing as his eyes were focused on the girls. “Okay. NOW you’ve torn it.”
As he spoke, the fluids in his wires began to pump at an accelerated rate, as the bright red glow got even brighter. His arms morphed into razor-sharp blades as jet thrusters grew on his legs and feet. “CTRL! ALT! DELETE!”
Despite all this, he went down with one decapitating slash from Rarity. The head bounced off and tumbled to the ground, as the body fell to its knees.
“Your system has ran into a fatal error and needs to restart. Please contact your system administrator immediately,” the bodiless head of the machine spluttered out over and over again as Rarity just threw it to the wolves behind her.
“Anyone else?” she challenged.
The Wolfpack stared her down for a few seconds, before faking her out by running away. They were in no mood to fight a girl who had effortlessly destroyed one of their agents with a single strike and a logic bomb.
“These wolves seriously need to get better men if this is what they send after us…” Rarity scoffed as she looked down at the headless body of the machine. The fluids were still running through its body, though, despite it being decapitated. “Oh God, think I got some of that fluid on my boots! MY BOOTS!”
“Okay. Last stop, Florence, Italy.” The ship once again broke out of the lightspeed tunnel, giving Sunset and Twilight a view of the italian city. There was a lot of wide-open space around Florence, with a heavily-drained river running through it. Many of the buildings had been severely damaged, with bricks, cobblestone, and roof shingles strewn about in the ensuing panic. The city itself had a lot of alleys, but there was a lot of open space where the Wolfpack gathered in droves. One particular building which had been blasted asunder had the ruins of Michelangelo’s David laying about. With the nude stone body headless and its’ rather nasty part in rounded tatters.
“It’s so sad. I always wanted to come here with my family on vacation someday. But the Wolfpack have just shredded it. Stomped all over it with little rhyme or reason.” Twilight wistfully looked down at the city and what it had become. Between the cages, prowling hounds, and other such machines in the city of Florence, it was a harrowing sight. “How could they have done this? It’s just not fair.”
“Don’t worry, Twilight. When this is over and everyone rebuilds the world, I’ll be sure to take you here the first chance I can get.” Sunset supportively patted Twilight’s shoulder, which caused her to look into her eyes. “I promise.”
“Thanks, Sunset. But promises won’t mean anything unless we can save the Earth from these Wolfpack soldiers.” Twilight turned back towards the windscreen. “Speaking of which, Espy? Who leads the pack here?”
“Just checking the dispatch orders now. Accounting for additional manpower and machinery, resources, blah blah blah. Got it.” Espy brought up the image of the next Wolfpack agent. And this one was actually a wolf. She was dressed in a large pelted outfit and had snakes coiled around her as if they were strangling her. “They call her Ophi’Dia. Because of her love for snakes. And yes, she made those snake-clothes herself. And yes, those snakes are also alive.”
“Geez. And here I thought dead animal skins as clothes were bad.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“Trust me, you don’t wanna be on the receiving end of her snakes. Her snakes’ bile is highly corrosive, and it can melt anything with ease. And the bites of those snakes? Well, let’s just say that I hope you girls know how to deal with snake poison,” Espy remarked. “You… do have snakes on your planet, right?”
“Yeah? Why do you ask?” Sunset lifted a brow.
“No reason. Just checking. Though, I don’t think the snakes of your world are half as dangerous as the ones she keeps.” Espy twisted her wrist. “Anyways, she’s holed up in the center of the town. Surrounded by Hounds.”
“Hounds aren’t really that big of a problem. Especially not when you’re with me, Twilight. We’ll blitz the place and give the people of Florence their city back,” said Sunset. “Right, El?”
“Sure. But, uh, might it be best to save the romance for another time?” Elaris cheekily replied.
“Romance?!” Sunset was caught off-guard by that statement. “No, no no no no no. It’s not like me and Twilight are—”
“In love? Sounded like you were to me.” Elaris chuckled to herself. “Anyways, I’ll drop you in now. Then, I’ll assume a place in orbit. I’ll try my best to stay away from the Alpha Slayer.” With the push of a button, Twilight and Sunset were finally launched from their seats on the ship and dropped into the city of Florence, directly by a bridge that stretched over the drained river. “Good luck out there, girls.”
“Oh gods, any other day I’d love to be here…” Sunset said. “Italian Riviera, with a Ferrari and the sun shining down. Maybe park by a cafe and eat a bit of gelato.”
“Never took you for an Italy buff, Sunset.” Twilight lifted a brow. “How long have you been like that? Two years? Five years?”
“Eh, long time. Can’t remember exactly when it started,” Sunset flexed her hand outward. “Still, it’s pretty idyllic, when you think about it. And then get rid of the wolves fouling the place up.”
“Mmhmm.” Twilight gave a nod as she held the book tightly in the palm of her hand. “Well, once we get rid of this Wolfpack girl, we should be able to get started on fixing the place up, right? Once we save the villagers and get them squared away with everything they need, they can rebuild. Then maybe we can experience this place together how it’s supposed to be.”
“Awww, you too are so sweet,” a simpering, sickeningly sweet voice said.
Twilight and Sunset were taken aback by the voice. They saw a snake coiling around one of the pillars inside of the tunnel. Its’ sharp eyes piercing into them. “How lovey-dovey you two are. Gag! Makes me sick.” The snake spoke with the voice, without a master to go with it.
“Wh-what the?!” Sunset lurched back at the fact that there was a talking snake before her eyes.
“Oh, how the mistress is gonna love driving her teeth into you. To get rid of all those disgusting thoughts inside of your head.” The snake went on as it leapt from one pillar to another. “But why let the messenger threaten you? Leave that for the big boys and girls in charge, after all.” The snake leapt again and again, until it was all the way over to the other side of the bridge.
“Alright, now you’re just starting to get on my nerves…” Sunset said. She ran after the fleeing snake, with Twilight chasing after the both of them. If this snake came all the way from Ophi’Dia, then all they needed to do was follow it back to her. Simple.
But the snake wasn’t like ordinary snakes. It was fast, agile, and was able to leap to and fro with the dexterity and precision of a cat. It made it hard for Sunset and Twilight to keep up with it, especially as it tried to elevate itself and climb up the buildings. As it got to the top, however, Twilight simply opened a book and reached into one of the pages. She pulled out some projected steps and used them to walk up to the rooftops. Sunset came afterwards and the chase to follow the talking snake resumed.
It took them towards a large square in the center of town where Ophi’Dia stood proudly. She was sitting on a throne made of living snakes with her living-snake outfit standing out clear as day. The other wolves around her were bowing loyally to their leader and presenting her with whatever offerings they could find. Highly expensive and valuable human art, food, even the occasional bottle of fine wine. Most of the gifts she just took and had the snakes place for her. Like a queen being spoiled by her subjects, she barely even noticed Sunset and Twilight as she was lavished with the spoils of war.
“Okay. That is a LOT of snakes.” Sunset’s eyes widened as she examined the living-snake throne. “And they’re all alive?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, they’re alien snakes,” Twilight added. “That’s the only logical explanation I can make as to why they’re not all dying outright from all of the applied pressure.
“Quantity versus quality, though.” Sunset’s flame sword burned brighter as she gripped it tight. “All we need to do is show them some of this and they’ll back off. That’s how you deal with snakes, right? Or is there something else I’m missing?”
“Well, it’s not entirely a flawed logic, but—” before she could finish, Sunset leapt down to the streets “—Sunset, wait!”
Sunset did a dramatic landing and brandished her blade out to the side. The Wolfpack immediately focused on her, but before any of them could move, Ophi’Dia said “Stop! Is that any way to behave in the company of your queen?” She commanded the snakes to move by shifting her hands, and as she did, the throne warped and contorted to lower her down to the ground. She walked towards Sunset as Twilight leapt down to join her. “Besides. If I’m remembering correctly, these rangers are all ladies. Am I right?”
“Yes?” Sunset said, her blade still pointed forward as the Hounds obediently backed off and let their ‘queen’ handle the issue herself.
“Good. I’ve been wanting to test this new poison out for a while. Trouble with being a Wolfpack agent, some of the more high-class targets get taken by the big boys and girls in charge, and I get left with the scraps…” Ophi’Dia moaned as she waltzed towards the girls; the snakes on her body slithering and dancing around her elegantly. The throne behind her returned to its’ original state, yet still stood stationary in preparation for the fight ahead. “But what a lucky wolf I am. I get to fight two lady heroes.” A sadistic grin crossed her face. “I thought this day would never come!”
“Well, it’s not gonna be a long one, I’ll tell you that!” Sunset swung a fiery slash towards Ophi’Dia. One that she simply bent over backwards to avoid. As it neared the snakes, they rapidly reacted and squirmed so that the fire slash went through the throne and hit the wall behind them.
“Naughty naughty…” Ophi’Dia said before she attacked...