I can't believe this. I should be back in the city with my wife, Lily Breeze, I should be back there keeping the peace! Instead I'm out here in the damn snow with this bastard child.
"Gah GA!" Spouts the little ball of terror from the carrier attached to my armor that Princess Cadence demanded I use.
"Yeah, keep talking shit, Flurry, and we'll see what happens." I mutter as I boop her nose.
"Hey Steel, why are you talking to the baby?" My first lieutenant, and best friend, Blue Gadget asks, as he sneaks up behind me, while I watch the little demon giggle at my plight, causing me to jump in fright.
"GAH, Dammit Blue! What did I say about sneaking up behind me!" I yell at him, trying to avoid his question.
"It's not my damn fault you can't hear a guy in power armor, Steel! You need to get your damn ears checked." He tells me, and sure enough he's wearing a set of T-45 power armor covering his blue fur and cartoon bomb cutie mark. He has a missile launcher attached to his shoulder with a combat rifle welded to his side.
It may not be the best gear he's wielding, but it's better than the combat armor plates covering my white fur and black 3 talon strike cutie mark, or the shotgun attached under my wings and the 10mm pistol holstered on my side. Well, at least I have a serrated combat knife.
"You're avoiding the question, Colonel." I turn to my side and spot Major Onyx Scepter, a local crystal pony, and one of the few locals in my division.
His black crystalline fur and magic spear cutie mark is also covered by combat armor, only he's wearing a standard set with less pieces on it than my more sturdy set of combat armor, not that he needs the extra pieces, if anything they would only hinder his movement. And somehow, despite not having any magic, he is an expert shot, hence the marksman hunting rifle fused to his side.
Now letting Blue sneak up behind me was my own fault, but Onyx has an uncanny ability to not be heard and seen, so much so I'd swear up and down that he dabbles in dark magic if I was asked in court.
"Why are you over here threatening the Princess where you think I can't hear you?" Shit, I was hoping he was going to drop it.
"I don't know what you're talking about Major." I state with an air of authority, hoping he will back off.
"Fuck off with that rank shit, Steel." Dammit, I almost forgot about Blue again
"What's got you so worried anyhow? We're on our way to a stable for Celestia's sake! We're about to be in one of the safest places in the world so what's got you down?" Blue Gadget exclaims as I turn back towards our objective.
"You know damn well why I'm 'down' lieutenant." I snap at him. "I'm going to be all safe and warm in a stable behind hundreds of feet of steel while my wife is back home in the middle of a fucking revolution!" I spat.
For once Blue Gadget has nothing to say, a look of understanding crossing his face. The awkward silence goes on for several more miles until Blue Gadget attempts to break it, before I cut him off, not in the mood for apologies.
"Onyx, what are we going to be dealing with once we reach the stable." I ask him, knowing he took notes during our, ironically, brief briefing.
"Well Colonel, we are currently on our way to 'The Citadel' or stable 47. It's a 'Super Stable' if you will, designed to hold the Crystal city's entire population, with a maximum capacity of 300,000. It currently has a skeleton crew of 25,000, one fifth of which are guards, with the rest filling in roles of maintenance, hydroponics, research, and industry."
I interrupt ,"Whoa, what?" I ask "I knew we were on our way to a stable but, Stable-Tec is building stables throughout Equestria aren't they? When did they get the resources to build this?" I question curiously.
"They didn't." responds Onyx "this stable was designed and built by the Crystal Empire Royal Government, Stable-Tec had no part in this stable. This stable is incredibly top secret, Princess Cadence hasn't even informed the Equestrian kingdom or their ministries about its existence." Onyx helpfully elaborates after seeing my look of complete astonishment.
"Yeah? Well, why couldn't we take a truck or something to the stable, Onyx?" Pipes in blue, seemingly sour that I cut him off.
"Like I said, the stable is top secret, emphasis on secret." Onyx responds shortly. "And I do wish you would refer to me by rank, Lieutenant." Onyx finishes, giving Blue Gadget a glare that could melt steel beams.
"Ha! Yeah whatever, Scepter, lets save ranks for when we're in the presence of our superiors, yeah?" Blue responds nonchalantly.
"I am your superior, Lieutenant." The Major counters hotly.
As my escorts argued behind my back I turned my senses to the environment, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, that is, until Flurry Heart drew my attention.
"And what do you want, You little ball of evil?" I quietly question Flurry Heart, cautious but confident I won't be heard due to the fact that my two escorts are still arguing.
The minuscule terror giggles at my insult and uses one of her hooves to boop my snoot, forcing me to scrunch violently.
"Why you little..." I stutter off as I feel something wrong.
I look around, trying to figure what's causing my sudden paranoia as Flurry Heart tries to get my attention again. I try my hardest to spot something unusual in the endless snow storm, but with how hard the snow is coming down right now I can barely see a yard ahead of me. I look to my right and left but all I see are light shimmers in the snow from the snow fall. Desperate to find out what's wrong, I activate the Stable-tech arcane targeting spell, or S.A.T.S., from my pipbuck. Suddenly one of the shimmers I was looking at moments ago form a shape, a very familiar shape.
"AMBUSH!" I all but scream as I dive forward into the snow, getting my wing grazed by a bullet and igniting my feathers, which was fortunately put out immediately as my body hit the snow.
"What in Tartarus!" Blue Gadget yells as he panic fires his rifle in the direction of some shots that dented his armor "How did they get this close!" he demands as he gets a short yelp for his efforts.
"Do you not see the Colonels Wing? Those are Z.R. Rounds, So they must be using invisibility cloaks." Onyx Scepter calmly replied as he fires 3 quick shots from his pistol, getting some satisfaction as he hits his target "Use your S.A.T.S. if you want to hit them" he finishes as he fires again, seemingly weaving around bullets all the while.
Blue Gadget fires his rifle again, and seemingly electing to follow orders for once, manages to land a hit, causing a zebra to appear in the snow, a spurt of red coming from their shoulder staining the pristine white snow. I manage to reactivate my S.A.T.S. just in time to pump a shell into the side of a zebra trying to put a shock sword through Onyx’s back.
"Die Equestrian slave!" Is the only warning I get, giving me barely enough time to roll out of the way as a shock sword cracks into the spot Flurry Hearts carrier was not moments ago.
I receive no warning as I get bucked across the face, knocking my shotgun loose from its holster. I manage to pull out my 10mm with my hoof, before firing a couple of poorly aimed rounds, receiving a slash to my chest plate as a reward.
As, she swings again, aiming for a final blow, I manage to block the swing with my pistol, and using my other hoof to pull my knife off my left thigh, I carry out a slash across her invisibility cloak, breaking the spell on it as I buck her unguarded stomach, causing her to yell out as she falls off.
"So, you aren't completely useless" The unknown zebra spats as she gets up. "Come then, let's see how good you really are. " She demands as she re-enters her combat stance, forcing me to enter mine.
Before she can charge me again however, a bright flash pierces the snow behind her, causing the four of us, my team and the last zebra in front of me, to stop and shield our eyes.
As I uncover my eyes after what felt like an hour, I make out the shape of a mushroom cloud from the crystal city.
"Dear Celestia..." Mutters Onyx as he sees what caused the flash, completely stunned, as is everyone else on the field, the zebra I was just preparing to kill staring at the dark cloud through the snow storm behind her.
I'm the first to snap to my senses, "The blast wave… We Have to outrun the blast wave! To the stable. Now!" I shout as I turn in the direction we were heading when we left the crystal city, bringing everyone to their senses as we sprinted headlong towards the stable.
"Colonel!" Onyx Scepter says as he catches up to me "What about the zebra?" He yells into the wind as I peek behind my shoulder and see the last zebra from the ambush sprinting behind us.
"Let her come, Major, we don't have time!" I ordered Onyx, trying to increase my pace as I spotted the Stable doors in the distance. "Were almost there, come on!" I say as I try to spread my wings, only to be painfully reminded of my burns.
I slam the cord from my pipbuck into the console as I start inputting the access codes. "Type faster you Pegasus fuck!" yells out the zebra mare as she comes up behind us.
"Shut the fuck up you striped bastard, I'm trying!" I demand as I finally put in the code. A loud clanking noise can be heard as the pressure seals on the door disable one by one. I turn to look at the crystal city one last time as the door finally opens.
"Lily..." I utter just as we get hit by the blast wave, getting launched inside the stable and slamming against the opposite wall.
Forever seems to pass as I lay there, completely unable to move my body, on the verge of unconsciousness when I see blurs move past me, and hear the rhythmical locking of the stable door, finally giving into the darkness.