It was quiet. Almost too quiet. Aside from a few low rumblings from another part of town, the streets were dead silent. Derpy scanned the area rigidly, not knowing what to expect. Nothing. Nothing but crashed cars, torn streets, and a lot of debris. A few puddles of chocolate milk here and there, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary in a post-Discord world. Lowering her head back down, she looked to the Doctor, who was just as scared as she was. Regardless, she still looked to him for answers.
“Doctor, what do we do?” She whispered.
“We hide, that's what!” answered back the Doctor.
The two had taken cover inside a taxi, but Derpy was unsure of the whole idea for one simple reason.
“Don't Daleks have sensors or something that detect life?”
Whooves eyes shrank in fear as he realized that she was, unfortunately, right. He poked his head up over the window and looked out and around only to see the cold and dark circle of the eye stalk.
“HELLO DOCTOR.”
“Oh, hello. Would you like a ride?”
The Dalek didn't respond, but it did aim its gun stalk, firing at the door the Doctor was hiding behind. It glowed a brilliant turquoise blue and vaporized in seconds.
“Run Derpy!”
The two burst out the other door and took off down the street as the Dalek floated up and over the Taxi and was followed by the other two Daleks. The Doctor felt his suit being lifted off of him, until he himself was lifted off the ground. He looked up to see Derpy holding on to him while she flapped her wings as hard as she could.
“Thank you Derpy!”
“You're a lot lighter than usual Doctor!”
“Well, Humans naturally weigh less than Ponies,” explained Whooves.
“Hold on!”
“Actually I was going to ask you to do the same!” screamed the Doctor as he narrowly flew past a tree.
Derpy flew in low, carrying her friend as the Daleks opened fire behind her. Using every tip they taught her in flight school, and a few tricks she learned from Rainbow Dash herself, the blonde hared Pegasus-human dodged every incoming bolt fired by the Daleks. Banking left and right, swooping through a bus, and taking advice from a bunny Fluttershy once showed her, did a barrel roll right through a crumbling building. The Doctor cheered, exuberant at the whole experience. He looked back to see the three Daleks still approaching, firing their gun stalks aimlessly trying to hit them. Glancing forward, he saw a fire truck that had crashed on the side of the road, and drew his Sonic Screwdriver. With the signature little noise it gave when working, the nozzle on the end burst out with water. The Daleks flew right into it, in their arrogance not expecting the high rush of water to disrupt their flight path to such a extent and they crashed into a nearby building. The Doctor cheered, until he suddenly felt himself slowing down rapidly. He looked forward to see a building coming at him fast. He closed his eyes fearing the worst as Derpy slammed right into it, sending the two right through the thin wall and crashing into the desks inside. After the initial daze had past, the Doctor stood up and cracked his neck.
“Sorry Doctor. That building came out of nowhere,” apologized Derpy.
“So it would seem,” the Doctor said bemused.
There came a humming sound and suddenly they looked back to see a Dalek standing there. It slowly lowered its gun stalk toward the two, Whooves using his body as a shield to protect Derpy.
“DOCTOR EXTERMINATED,” announced the Dalek.
A white pole erupted through the body of the Dalek as it was lifted into the air. Bits of armor and the Dalek itself slid down and off it as the pole moved rapid and flung the dead Dalek outside into the street.
“Celestia!” cheered Derpy.
“It's Celeste.”
“Not where we're from,” corrected the Doctor.
She stood there wielding a large lance, and glowed the brilliance of the sun itself. As the other two stood, she brushed the dead Dalek off her weapon.
“What are you doing here?” inquired Derpy.
“Helping you,” she answered before hearing something behind her.
Celeste turned around to see the other two Daleks that were chasing the Doctor and Derpy. The human sun deity smiled and readied herself for battle. In her other hand a golden shield materialized and it itself glowed as the sun. Golden armor that the Doctor noticed seemed to match Nightmare moon, but Celestia's version, appeared on her body. The Sun was going to war, and mercy on everything lay in its path, for it will show none. The Daleks were undaunted and opened fire, but a simple screen of light and their attacks were useless. She didn't even need to use the shield she had in her hands, her own powers enough. Both the Doctor and his Pegaus-Human companion looked on amazed at the sight, and they both could swear they could sense some fear coming from the Daleks. Celeste gave a stare at the one of them, and it started to shine as if glinting in the sunlight. It's eye stalk rotated around and it began to shake.
“HULL TEMPERATURES RISING.”
“DISREGARD AND OPEN FIRE!” replied its comrade.
“TEMPERATURE PAST MAXIMUM LEVELS! COMBUSTION IMMINENT!”
In a flash it did just that and burst into flame. It's outer shell melted away, revealing the blackened crisp remains of the Dalek inside. The other Dalek looked on in whatever fear it actually felt and then returned it's vision to Celeste. It slowly started to back away before it was struck by a beam from Celeste's lance, and it erupted into a fireball that slowly started to shrink before it disappeared altogether. Derpy and Whooves looked on dumbfounded as Celeste stood there victorious. She turned to them and smiled at what she just did.
“Yes I can do that. Problems?”
“Brilliant! I wonder if our Celestia can do that?” cheered Whooves
“Probably. Just she has no reason to. Now then, we need to help my sister.”
“Why?” came Derpy.
“She's not thinking like herself. She has too much pain right now, it's corrupted her into Nightmare Moon. Even if she defeats Discord, I don't think there will be much of Lou left on the surface to reach her.”
“Then what?” inquired Whooves.
“Then we'll have to defeat her,” Celeste told them grimly.
“It's never easy,” sighed Derpy.
“Oh don't say that. We only had to deal with three of the unknown number of Daleks! Just imagine if we had to face the rest of them!”
There was a crash, and they were alerted to the arrival of five more Daleks. Celeste drew into a defensive stance while Derpy hid behind her. The Doctor just face palmed and gritted his teeth in anger.
“Derpy, do me a favor.”
“Yes Doctor?” she replied nervously.
“Next time I try and make things look better, shut me up.”
The lead Dalek fired, but it was useless against Celeste's shield, and she returned fire with a pure white beam from her lance that singed the Dalek to a pile of ash.
----
“Okay I- I- I think we lost them,” said Tara out of breath
“Ya sure?” came Reine as she held herself up on a tree.
“Well at the very least put some distance between us and them,” she breathed in response.
After running for nearly a half hour, the girls stopped on a small cliff side in a attempt to catch their breaths. It was silent in the woods, not a bird, bug, or dog made a sound. There wasn't even the distant passing sound of motors showing the Police were nowhere to be seen. They were all laid out on the ground or bracing up against trees as they regained their breath and composure after running.
“I didn't think running from the cops would be so hard,” Diane got out as she struggled for air.
“Ah, ya get used to it,” chuckled Dash.
“You've never ran form the law,” commented April bemused.
“As far as you know,” replied Dash poking April in the nose while doing so.
It was swatted away by April when they heard a twig snap in the most obvious sound it could possibly give. They all looked down the hillside to see a heavily armored Riot Police Officer standing there. He brandished a shield that read POLICE in white letters, and on his side was a pistol ready for use. While all that alone was imposing, it wasn't the worst of it all. The worst part of it was what the Officer held in his other hand, a grenade launcher. Slowly, the grenade launcher lifted up and pointed toward them until Twilight screamed for them to run.
Their energy returning to them, they took off as fast as they could leaving the assailant there standing dumbstruck. The rest tore through the trees keeping their heads low in fear of the demented Officer using that weapon of his. As if things couldn't get any worse, their was a low beating overhead that got louder and louder until a helicopter passed overhead. Twilight looked at it and could barely make out the words 'Police' before it disappeared behind the trees.
“Where did that riot guy go?” yelled Tara.
A distinct “WHUMP” sounded behind them, and they could hear the grenade shells sailing overhead at them.
“You just had ta ask, didn't ya?” snapped April.
The silver lining of this was at the very least it seemed to be driving the Police Chopper away. Of course, so it seemed, but the moment it left, they could hear the Police dogs in the distance, as well as Police sirens closing in. They were surrounded and the window of escape seemingly closed right on top of them. The helicopter buzzed back into view,and it looked like it was leading the rest of the Police towards them. As it banked off, their path came to a clearing that seemed to fork into two separate directions. One lead off to what looked like a cave, while the other lead off into more woods. The Police Chopper buzzed over the area, but failed to see them and turned to the left as the grenade toting maniac behind them started his barrage yet again.
“We're not going to make it!” cried Reine
“What do you mean we're not going to make it!?” shouted Diane
As her friends tried to comfort her and bring her back from the point of breaking, Twilight formulated a plan.
“Between that Helicopter and that madman, with two separate groups chasing there's less of a chance we'll all be killed!” explained Twilight.
“So what do we do? If we can't keep running, I guess we'll fight!” inquired April.
“How do we fight against guns?” snapped Reine.
“We get lucky,” Twilight answered sheepishly.
The rest groaned, but as the Police drew closer, there was little choice they had. As the Chopper buzzed over, she knew there was little chance of any that they would stand against the Police. Looking around, her luck actually held out. A few hundred yards away was a small cave. She couldn't believe it, it would be the perfect place for a ambush. She finished her plan up and looked to the rest of the Humane 6.
“We'll use that cave!” she yelled pointing to it.
“What if the cave has no exit?” asked April.
“I doubt it does. We're using it for a ambush!” grinned Twilight.
Dash got a similar, sinister smile, which was followed by April. The rest were a little unsure, but when Reine cracked her knuckles ready for a fight, there was no turning back. Twilight smiled and prepared her best spells.
“Okay, just one problem,” spoke Tara.
“What?” asked April.
“Where's Fiona?” she yelled in shock.
---
Fiona stumbled over a tree. One trip, and she had lost all her friends in these unending woods. What was worse, there were Police right on her tail, and closing in fast. Tears of fear were already streaming down her face as she could hear their monotone voices closing in making note of where she was. At least there were no Police dogs in the area, she couldn't imagine what she would do with those attack dogs after her. She saw a large old log, and figured that behind it was the best place to hide in this situation. Clambering over it, her heart stopped as she saw the half-mile drop that was behind it. She slowly gathered up the strength to climb off when she turned her head to see two pale officers standing there, their guns pointed at her. She again froze in fear, but this time, the log's rotting bark gave way and she slipped. With a scream of terror she just barely managed to grab hold on the edge, and hung there, the Officers slowly walking up to capture her. She closed her eyes, wishing they could go away, until there was a “thawk” and a grunt of pain. She opened one eye, and wished she didn't.
Standing there, attacking the two enslaved officers was the insane grenade launcher Riot Officer from earlier. He seemed hell bent on capturing Fiona and her friends all by himself, and no one was going to stand in his way. He held a baton in his hand, and with one final swipe knocked out the first officer. The second fired point blank into the Riot Officers chest, but his armor negated the attack, and with a strike to the head, the second Officer went down as well. A kick sealed the deal in overkill and then he turned to Fiona. He walked over the two officers and put his baton away. For Fiona, this was it, he would throw her off, then climb down and retrieve her body for proof. She braced for the worst, until he outstretched his hand.
“Grab on!” he yelled in a familiar voice.
Fiona looked up to see the hand, and while unsure, grabbed hold of it. With a jerk, he pulled her out of the death trap and landed her safely on the ground. She brushed off her dress and looked to the Riot officer as he grabbed the radios from his fallen targets.
“Uh, thank you?” she spoke nervously.
“Don't mention it. We need to find Twilight and the rest. The whole force is out here and they're closing in!”
“Uh, how do you know this?” inquired a curious Fiona.
“Huh? What do you mean how do I-I'm still wearing this face shield ain't I?”
Fiona didn't know what to make of this. For one, he had a really familiar voice. He lifted his hand up and with a flip, revealed his face. Fiona's face went as white as paper as she looked at her friend standing there.
“Jack!?”
“That's me.” answered Jack.