Year 5, Week 19, Friday
Sledgepetal shifted again in her armor, the mare glancing at the other ponies gathered around the map table. There was barely any room around the massive map table, guards and logistics ponies clamoring anxiously. Dr. Silverheart, along with several of the head nurses, were at the far end of the table, laying out their lists of staff. Her eyes narrowed as she caught one of the male nurse ponies staring and she scowled, tossing her head slightly as he hurriedly looked away. She sighed as she looked down at herself again. The armor’s enchantment dutifully hid her natural colors, but couldn’t do anything to hide her slender build or height. It’d made the initial training sessions hell, since she stood a full head taller than any other guard in her class. Her ears flicked as the doors swung open.
“Princess Celestia! Another letter from the Embassy!” the unicorn guard called out as he trotted into the raucous throne room.
“Thank you my dear,” Celestia said as she levitated the sheet in front of her, eyes flicking back and forth as she scanned the words. “Doctor Silverheart, you said your lists were accurate?”
Silverheart nodded. “Y-yes, your Majesty. We have confirmation from all the nurses who have the next two days off to help treat the wounded newfoals. We can leave whenever you want.”
“And General Amber Dusk? What is the status of the Beacon Stone that was sited in the research facility?”
“We’ve tested forming a link to it, and determined that it’s still within the facility. We’re not sure if that means they’re ignoring the Stone, or if they have an ambush planned. Therefore, we’ve decided to release a new Stone to take the medical staff here,” he indicated a point on the map near the largest bridge into the city, “since the reports are showing the US National Guard are locking down these bridges. This location is of course pending both US approval and any information from the ground that shows the serum facility is safe.”
Celestia nodded, her eyes distant. Then, in an abrupt motion she rose to her hooves. “I think that it’s time we get a more direct feel for the situation. General Amber Dusk, First Lieutenant Slegepetal will accompany me to the White House, so that we can coordinate directly with them. Captain Sky Shimmer will remain here in Canterlot, and continue to organize the response to this incident together with Doctor Silverheart.” She strode down the steps of the throne and toward the doors, Amber Dusk and Sledgepetal falling into step almost instinctively. Once they’d reached a balcony, Celestia focused power into her horn and they vanished in a burst of light.
Carlos took the turn at speed, the Escalade threatening to tip over with the weight of so many bodies crammed into it. Fortunately they were still sleeping, so he’d been able to just stack them on top of each other. All he knew was that he had to get away, before those lunatic ponies found them. He still heard the crunches of hooves on bone and the horrific screaming, and slammed a fist into the dashboard. “Fuck. Fuck! This is...” He trailed off nonsensically, idly noticing that they were at last in Homicda territory. Skidding to a stop, he risked a glance out the broken window, finally relaxing a hair as he didn’t see any pegasi outside.
“Alright, lost ‘em.” He looked over at the passenger seat, where a vermillion unicorn stallion still slept, though he spotted him twitching awake. “Fuck, Ricky...” he looked into the back seats and cargo area, where the rest of the Homicidas were passed out, a riot of colors and pony types. “Fuck... everyone but me... fuckin’ figures.” He looked back as Ricky’s eyes fluttered open. “You okay man?”
“Ughhh, my head.” Ricky started to look at Carlos, but froze as he realized he could see his own face now. “C-Carlos?”
“Yeah, those ponies hit you with whatever shit they had, turned you and the rest of the Homicidas too. I got everyone into the Escalade and split.” He shuddered a little as the memory of the look in that stallion’s eyes came back to the fore. “Those ponies were insane man, they ponified all of those out of towners and then killed one of em.”
Ricky was still staring dumbfoundedly at his new hooves. “But... but what are we gonna do now man? We can’t do this shit as ponies man!”
Carlos reached over and smacked Ricky on the back of the head. “Get a hold of yourself! We’re still the Homicidas, we didn’t get arrested by the cops like those guys and the Boys probably did, and we will figure something out!”
Ricky blinked a few times, then took a deep breath. “Y-you’re right. Thanks man.”
“No problem.” Carlos stepped on the gas again, taking the next few turns until they reached their safe house. He honked the horn twice, and Fall Shadows trotted out.
“Hey, you guys made it back- Christ, what happened Carlos?”
“I’ll tell ya once we get everyone inside. Ricky, drag out all the beds, dunno when they’re gonna start wakin’ up.” Carlos opened the door and hefted the first pony, a pegasus mare, onto Fall Shadows’ back. Ricky nodded and hurried inside, followed closely by Fall as Carlos slung an earth pony that he thought was Kirk across his shoulders. “Damn Kirk, a heavy waste of space as a human and you’re still heavy as shit,” he grumbled as he walked quickly into the house.
“Gunfighter-Six, this is Gunfighter-Five. I’m out, returning to base. Keep safe.” Warrant Officer Hank “Shortstop” St John saw the other Apache bank up and away.
“Well fuck, guess this means it’s down to us Andrew.” He glanced down at the back of his gunners’ head, then back up as he swung the chopper around a building to line up another attack run on the black trucks. “Goddamn, this is such a clusterfuck.”
“Got that right Hank, least we were able to help out.” Andrew looked down out the side as they banked around a building, seeing pony and human bodies laying in the streets, some with others around them tending to them. “Gonna be a lot of bodybags to clean this mess up.”
“Well, least we can do to pay ‘em back is add to the total. We got one more salvo left, let’s make it count.” Hank swung the helicopter back into view of the serum research facility, and hesitated for a second. “They’re... leaving?”
Indeed, the trucks were starting to pull out from the facility, heading down the main street toward Interstate 70.
“Where the hell are they going?” Andrew wondered.
Hank angled the helicopter forward. “Doesn’t matter, let’s hit em one more time.”
The Apache quickly came within range, and Andrew lined up the targeter on a pair of the minigun trucks that were trying to return fire. Squeezing the trigger, six rockets streaked downward on trails of fire and smoke. The lead truck tried to hit the gas while the second one braked hard and swerved to the side. The rockets detonated directly behind the lead truck, sending it flipping end over end and into the guardrail. The second truck managed to escape the worst, though one of its tires seemed deformed by the blast. However, it managed to keep pace.
Andrew snorted and switched to the chaingun, peppering the roof of the truck with their remaining 30mm slugs to finish off the gunner. With a beep, the ammo indicator turned to zero. “Well, that’s all folks.”
“Alright, we’ve done what we can.” Hank switched to the general radio. “This is Gunfighter-Six, returning to base. Be advised, hostile ground forces are moving toward the I-70, likely toward Lambert Airport.”
“Roger that Gunfighter-Six, return to base. Thanks for the heads up.”
“Maybe they’ll have gotten some ammo in for us,” Andrew remarked sarcastically as the Apache loped back to the base.
“Tell the Marines at Lambert I don’t want to see a single one of those terrorists set foot on a plane!” Foster ordered irritably. “And we have the airspace totally locked down?”
“Yes sir,” Kingsworth answered. “We’ve got an AWACS flying in now, it’s not seeing anything else coming in to St Louis on the scope. There’s also a wing of four F-16s coming in from Whitman AFB to help with preventing any aircraft from going airborne.”
“Excellent, how long can they stay airborne?” Foster said.
“We’d prefer to send them down after four hours, but there’s another wing that we can send up to relieve them when the time comes for it.” Kingsworth paused as an agent entered the room.
“Mr. President, Princess Celestia has just appeared in the Rose Garden with two of her guards, what do you want me to tell them?” The agent whispered into Foster’s ear.
Foster sighed. “Well, bring her here. Was honestly wondering when she’d show up.” The agent nodded and left the room. “Arnie, I need you to send a letter to the Equestrian Embassy informing them of Celestia’s arrival. Tell them we won’t be sending them further updates, but will instead give the information directly to Celestia.”
“Alright,” LaRue sad as he scribbled a note on his paper pad, handing the page to his Undersecretary.
A few minutes passed and soon the sound of hoofsteps could be heard as Celestia entered the room, flanked by Amber Dusk and Sledgepetal.
“Hello President Foster, I apologize for just dropping in without warning, but felt that being here as the situation develops would allow for a better response from both of us.”
Foster tapped his pen on the desk for a second, then sighed heavily. “Alright then.”
Celestia looked at him out of the corner of her eye, but otherwise didn’t comment on his attitude. “Is there any way we can begin moving aid into the city?”
“Not at this time, we’re still trying to corral the terrorists and either detain or eliminate them.” Kingsworth said, pausing as an aide whispered in his ear. “Well, the Apaches are out of ammunition, but they’ve taken a heavy toll on the enemy force.”
“Gentlemen, and Equestrians, I think we have a new problem here,” Harris said as he indicated the TV set, which was now showing a shaky cell phone feed.
“As you can see, those are pegasi in the sky over a vicious shootout that erupted between local gangs and a group of terrorists. They dropped what appears to be spheres of the ponification serum, but a previously unknown variant that transforms on contact, as opposed to needing to be injected. The terrorists and the gang members were universally ponified, and more ponies emerged from the side street, and began searching for a particular terrorist. I’m afraid that I must warn any parents watching, the next images are extremely violent and not suitable for children.”
The video showed it all. The ponies surrounding the green unicorn stallion. The cobalt blue stallion rearing and bringing his hooves down. The hideous screaming of the ponified terrorist before it ended in a crunch of bone.
For a few long seconds the room was silent. Then Amber Dusk hefted his forelegs onto the table and peered closer. “Is there any way for a picture of that stallion to be taken from this? Or any of the other ponies?”
Kingsworth nodded. “We can get the tapes from CNN. But why would that help?”
Amber Dusk turned his eyes to stare at SecDef. “A pony’s cutie mark is almost universally singular. Those few who develop the same cutie mark are still an incredibly small number. By combing through the Archives, we might be able to at least put names to these ponies, and start assembling a picture of who we’re dealing with. While I doubt they’ll simply return to Equestria, identifying them will also lead us to their friends, families, and associates, which might in turn lead us to more of these individuals. Since it’s obvious to me that they are connected with the same group that stole the initial batch of serum bound for Britain at the end of the year in 2033.”
Foster stared closer at the screen, and nodded after he thought about it. “That does make sense. Curtis, contact FBI, I want as many cutie marks identified from this video as possible, see if any of the ponified US citizens match these descriptions. Arnie, prepare a notice to send to every country with a Bureau, we’ll put this list in as many countries as we can, close the net tight.”
Both men nodded, scribbling their respective notes onto paper.
Foster turned back to Celestia. “Now, one question I want answered is who exactly are those Royal Guard in the city? Your Embassy wasn’t able to get us a reliable answer.”
Celestia nodded. “There is General Cloudhammer, Captains Flare and Aegis Exemplar, and First Lieutenants Lariat, Dusty, Wrecker and Anvil. Flare was I believe having his bachelor party the night before, and was due to return today.”
Foster’s eyes were unreadable, but then he sighed. “Well, I guess it was for the best that they were there. The St Louis police downtown would likely have been wiped out otherwise.”
“I just wish that there was some way to get more forces reliably on the scene,” Sledgepetal spoke up, before realizing she’d spoken aloud and snapped her mouth shut, folding her ears back a little as everyone turned to look at her. “Sorry.”
Celestia tilted her head. “Then what would you do, if you were the one to make the decision?”
Sledgepetal gulped, then looked down at the map spread out on the table. “Well, we know that General Cloudhammer and the others are already within the city. Why not simply use a Beacon Stone to teleport a unicorn skilled in long-range telepathic communication to the secured area, then contact General Cloudhammer and have them verify that the Bureau and serum facility is clear? Then once we know the terrorists really are all gone, then we can begin mass teleports to the serum facility and begin to assist the wounded ponies.”
The assembled politicians looked at her for a second before Kingsworth nodded. “Well, that’d make it a hell of a lot easier to transport at least half of the medical staff and supplies. How soon can you deploy?”
Celestia allowed a small smirk to cross her muzzle. “We’ve been preparing since the initial report came in. All we need to do is send the order to begin teleporting.”
Foster nodded. “Alright, let’s go with that. In the meantime, I want to re-task the Apaches once they get rearmed at Scott AFB.” He looked over as Kingsworth cleared his throat. “Yes?”
“Well, they don’t have any more of the rockets for them. There’s ammunition for their chainguns, but other than that they’d have to skip over to Whiteman AFB.”
“I see. What do you think?” Foster asked.
“Well, the rockets would help, but if they’re going for Lambert, then we want to have them be more precise.”
Foster nodded again. “Alright. Have them stick with chaingun rounds for now. Now, there’s another thing that I want to hear from you, Celestia.” He turned to face the alicorn. “I want your personal assurance that the ponies that committed that cold-blooded murder will be brought to justice if at all possible, and in a US court of law.”
Celestia didn’t even hesitate. “Agreed. Their actions shame us all, and we would be more than happy to see them brought to account for them.”
Foster let out a slight sigh, one of his concerns alleviated. “Alright then, I formally give approval for the commencement of Equestrian Royal Guard operations on US soil. In coordination with US Army troops, they will secure downtown St Louis and treat the wounded.”
Celestia smiled softly and bowed her head in thanks. Lifting her head, she looked at Amber Dusk, “General, let’s get started.”