The increasingly urban scenery passed through Twilight's vision as she stared blankly at the setting sun. Five story buildings soon changed into towering skyscrapers, which did little to soothe the unicorn's worries, neither looking even the slightest bit familiar. Her head still ached, despite the 24 hour grace period she allowed herself before departing once more, much to Pinkie's chargin.
She rubbed her forehead, trying to get the party mare's pleas out of her head. "You can't go, Twilight, you're spreading yourself too thin!" She scoffed at the memory. "I know it's important, but you have to rest, wait a few days at least!" She sighed deeply, closing her eyes. "No, Pinkie, you don't know how important this is." She argued against the memory. "Those guards were ready to kill me, just so the knowledge doesen't get out." Twilight shivered, both at the harsh word and at the memory. "I have to get to the bottom of this now."
She put her head against the glass, hoping the cold would soothe her aching mind. To her dismay, and shameful surprise, the constant rattling of the wagon only worsened the pain, prompting the mare to growl in responce and settle with reclining into her seat. This was too important to wait on, nothing she and the girls faced before could compare. Both Nightmare Moon and Discord were overt in their methods, while whoever's behind this is anything but.
To hide an incident of such magnitude one has to have ties to the government, perhaps to Celestia herself. And that name, 'Sun's Right Hoof'... Twilight didn't need to have a 'Pinkie Sense' to consider Celestia as a prime suspect. But that opened another can of worms, one named 'motives'. Why? Why would the Princess, she who rules the most prosperous nation in the world, she who could solve problems with a clop of her hoof, hide something like this? To hide the fact that Equestria still had a regular army? If the world was not ready for peace, why propagate it?
Twilight lurched forward as the train stopped, barely managing to stop herself from flying headfirst into the wagon wall. She winced as a mare's voice rang out through the loudspeaker, announcing their stop. "Grand Central... It's quite a walk from here, just what I need to wake up." Twilight stepped out of the relatively warm cofmort of her train cart, and into the downright suffocating atmosphere of Grand Central Terminal. Pushing through a sea of hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of ponies, Twilight realised why she preferred Ponyvile to more populated towns.
Finally reaching the exit, she practically flew out of the station, and into the streets beyond. The smell of ozone and wet asphalt filled her nostrils as she took a deep breath, a nostalgic feeling seeping into her mind. It wasn't her first visit to the Big Apple, but it was her first conscious one. From what Shining told her, they went on a family vacation to Manehattan during a particularly nasty monsoon when she was but a foal, and despite not remembering much from the trip, petrichor never failed to induce nostalgia in the mare.
She felt her headache recede, allowing the mare a moment of respite, one she spent by reaching for an umbrella. Her magic flared, sending a jolt of pain through Twilight's cranium as her saddlebags were opened by a purple aura, fishing out a dark-blue umbrella with a constellation pattern printed on top of it. Deciding not to tempt fate, she grabbed the umbrella with her right hoof, expending a bit of magic to open it, before moving forward on at a slower pace.
Uncomfortably crowded streets passed Twilight at a lesiurly pace, halting now and then to either ask for directions or check the street signs to make sure she was moving in the right direction. As she passed the increasingly dressed ponies of Manehattan she once again reminded herself why she tended to avoid larger cities, her shut-in nature aside.
Almost every pony she passed looked glum or tired, every third one reeking of cigarette smoke. From mares to stallions, businessponies to nine-to-five workers, each and every looked like they were in constant hurry, frienzidly chasing some distant traget that never seemed any closer, no matter how hard they strived.
"Alright, that last part was a bit of a stretch." Twilight argued, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a passing stallion, who proceeded to damn her and her grandchildren to Tartarus. "But ponies here seem less... approachable, than those in Ponyville." She mused, dodging a splash of water from a nearby carriage passing through a puddle of water. A number of ponies were less lucky than her, looking ready to kill and thoroughly soaked. "I wonder why."
She stopped before an alleway, checking the streetsign and pleasantly noting that she arrived at her destination. Stepping into the dark alley, all the while carefully avoiding the muddy puddles accumilating around the imperfections in the pavement, she found herself acutely aware of every clop of her hooves. Silently cursing herself for praying to Celestia of all ponies, she nevertheless prayed that nopony followed her into the alley, deciding to abandon her grudges with the alicorn for but a moment.
Twilight emerged from the darkness of an alley into the dimly-lit, below-average five-story apartment complex. Plaster was crumbling in more than a couple of parts of the building's facade, revealing red bricks that made the building underneath. The yellow plastic windowframes mingled with dark-brown wooden ones, green moss accompanying the slowly decaying foundations of the building.
Twilight approached the open entrance to the building, finding its doors stacked against the wall, a few meters away from where they were supposed to be. Stepping into an area one could call a foyer, if they squinted enough, that is, she found herself struggling to find the words to discribe the place.
Empty bottles litterred the floors, with piles of assorted garbage stashed in the corners of the foyer. Twilight's muzzle scrunched up in responce to the foul smell that assaulted her senses, it reminded her of that one time Fluttershy was out of town for a week, and Rainbow, who agreed to look after her cottage for the time being, forgot that it needed to be cleaned on an almost daily basis due to all the animals that live there. To top it all off, the foyer was lit by a single, periodically blinking lightbulb, which was barely capable of lighting the area.
A memory of a certain white-coated fashionista surfaced in Twilight's mind, and she suddenly knew what to call the foyer. 'Decrepid' was the first adjective that came to mind, followed closely by 'ugly as sin' and 'utterly unsanitary'. Pushing through her growing desire to add her breakfast to the pile of garbage in the corner, she made her way up the rickety staircase and onto the fourth floor.
Slowly trotting down the hall she once again noted the overall run-down state of building. She stopped at the end of the hallway, and right before the brown wooden door with a 497 sign drilled into it.
Deciding not to beat around the bush, Twilight took a deep breath and knocked. Seconds passed as she recieved no responce, deciding to repeat the action. "Mr. Steelhooves?" She asked, knocking a tad more insistently on the door. "I'd like to talk, if you have a minute." She waited some more, a frown growing on her face when she recieved no answer. She repeated her rapping a little firmer this time, raising her voice just a smidge. "Mr. Steelhooves, I won't take much of your time, can you please answer the door?"
A creak signified the door opening, just not the one she wanted. A door next to her opened, and a very deshiveled-looking mare poked her head out, her bloodshot eyes zeroing in on Twilight with a less than pleased look. "Quit yah yammerin', some of us are tryina sleep hea'!" The mare said with a miffed expression.
"Sleeping? At 3PM?" Twilight retorted, incredulous.
"Ain't none of your business when I sleep!" The mare harrumped, irritated. "You're not going to find Steelhooves here anyway." She muttered to herself, but loud enough for Twilight to hear.
"Why? Does he not live here anymore?" Twilight said in worry. "This is my only lead, I can't lose it!"
"You might as well say so." The mare said in an indignant tone. "I've barely seen him since I moved in here." She grumbled, scratching her nose. "Last time I did, he was getting back from that little cafe down the street..." She trailed off, suppressing a yawn. The mare began closing the door, but her attempt was rendered useless by a purple aura holding the door open.
"Can you tell me where it is?" Twilight asked, trying not to wince from the combination of the pain flaring in her head, and a withering look the mare was giving her. "Please? I'll get out of your mane, I promise!"
"Out of the alley and to the left, 'Les Patriotes', you can't miss it." She said curtly, slamming the door in Twilight's face as soon as the latter's magic aura faded.
"Thanks." Twilight mumbled with as much arcasm as she could muster, turning away and moving to trot down the stairs. "Here's hoping he's actually there, otherwise I'll have to wait for him in these apartments." The though made a shiver go down her spine as she stepped into the dark alley. Her ear swiveled as she heard something disturb a puddle of water, and she suddenly felt uneasy. She gulped as she heard hoofsteps approach from behind her, a hoof resting on her withers.
"What's a pretty mare like you doing in this part of town?" A sultry voice of a young stallion whispered in her ear, prompting her to jump forward, away from him, with an audible 'eep'. She turned, and saw a golden short-maned stallion with a fiery red coat. His yellow, half-lidded eyes bore into her with a hungry intent. "How about we ditch this alley, and go to my place?" He said, slowly walking closer, causing Twilight to backpedal. "I'll show you a good time~" He whispered, a bead of sweat running down Twilight's face.
"I-I think I'll pass." Twilight said, her voice wavering despite her best attempts to sound confident. "I've got places to be." Twilight felt a sense of dread wash over her as she bumped her croup into something, and then felt a hoof rest upon it. She turned her head and saw another stallion, with a green coat and light-green mane giving her a viscious glare and a smirk.
"Oh, my friend and I insist." The first stallion said, approaching her slowly, a predatory grin on his face. "I'm afraid you have no say in this~" He said, just as Twilight felt the green stallion's hoof grip her croup. Her heart raced a mile a minute, as she concentrated the magic on her horn, discharging a burst of concentrated magic into the pony in front of her.
Before the stallion could react, a purple blast of concentrated magic hit him in the chest, sending hif flying into the wall behind him. The stallion impacted the wall with a meaty thud, a piece of plaster crumbling from the wall, showering him in small pieces of it. Twilight turned 180 degrees, ready to unleash a second bolt, only to see a peculear scene.
The green stallion was currently held in a sort of chokehold, a front leg bent at the knee, held the stallion's neck in a viscious grip, disallowing any movement. A second leg was currently pressuring the back of the green stallion's neck, effectively disabling him. His front legs made desperate attempts to reach his attacker, each attempt growing more feeble than the last, until they gave out, and the stallion dropped to the pavement, head-first into a muddy puddle.
"Be careful, this part of town's full of scum." Her savior said in a gruff voice, stepping into the light. A ashen-coated stallion leisurely trotted past Twilight, his chestnut brown mane combed into a small ponytail, white streaks of hair being a little over half of his mane, a rather sizable pair of khaki saddlebags strapped to his barrel. Twilight squinted, watching the stallion closely as he stopped to inspect the golden-maned predator. He held his grey hoof against the red coat of his neck, before nodding and turning towards the mare.
"You got him good, he'll be out for some time." He gave her a commendable nod, before turning towards the building's entrance. "Enough for you to get far away from here, anyway." He finished, moving towards the building, Twilight following in tow. Just as Twilight entered the foyer, the stallion crained his head, raising an eyebrow at her. "You wanted something? I need no thanks, if that's your intention." He said in a flat voice.
Twilight chewed on her lower lip, nervous under his expecting gaze. She sighed inwardly, before speaking up. "I wanted to thank you, Mr. Steelhooves," The stallion's ear twitched a little, the gesture discrete enough to be written off as reaction to a gust of wind. "but that's not why I'm here." She said, carefully picking her words.
"Well, I may not know why you're here, but I know that you're mistaken." He said, trotting towards the stairs. "I'm afraid I'm not who you're looking for." He said, preparing to take the first step up the staircase.
"I don't think so, Colonel." He froze in place, his hoof hovering just over the first step, causing a wave of exhilaration run through Twilight. "I think I've found just the pony I was looking for." His head hung low as he adressed Twilight.
"Only one group still calls me that," He cast an evaluating gaze at the mare, and judging by his expression, Twilight was found wanting. "and you're not one of them." He raised his head, taking a deep breath. "Follow me, we'll talk in a more... secure location." She followed him up the stairs and down the corridor, the pair finally stopping in front of a familiar door.
Steelhooves opened a small zipper on his saddlebags, retrieving a key and opening the door. He entered the apartment, hitting a switch on his way in, a lightbulb springing to life, illuminating the humble abode.
A decent-looking sofa was the centerpiece of the room, a glass table accompanying it. Kitchen was merged with the room, taking up the entire northern wall, biege wallpaper abruptly ending at one point, replaced by similarly colored tiles. Steelhooves dropped his saddlebags on the kitchen counter, picked something from inside the saddlebags and moved towards the middle of the room, sitting on the sofa.
Twilight followed in his stead, sitting besides him on a sofa, noting the surprisingly clean state of the room. "Could've been a lot worse." Her wandering gaze fell upon the stallion, and she suddenly felt very uncomfortable under his piercing look.
"You're not here to kill me, we wouldn't be having this conversaiton otherwise," He began, his tone conveying no emotion. "yet you're among the few that know my rank. Her Highness is nothing but diligent, which is why your knowledge surprises me." A sound resembling a snort eminated from his throat. "Leave it to Her Highness' prized student to know what she isn't supposed to." Twilight's eyes went wide as dinnerplates, and it was a small miracle her jaw didn't hit the floor right there and then. A satisfied smile graced the stallion's lips as he stuck opened a file folder. "Twilight Sparkle, born 12.02.982 to a family of three. Accepted into 'Celestia's School of Gifted Unicorns' in 989, went on to become her most prized student..." He read off the file in an academical manner. "...And the most promising candidate for Project Harmony."
"H-how do you..." Twilight began, but was cut off by the sound Steelhooves' voice.
"Fulfilled the initial requirements for the project in year 1000, allowed to proceed further. Your friends too, have played their part excellently." He continued matter of factly, ignoring Twilight's confused mumblings. "You've had a bright future ahead of you, Ms.Sparkle." He said, squinting at her. "So I wonder:" He leaned into her just a bit, making the mare back off. "Why forfeit it?" He asked, genuine interest in his voice.
Twilight focused her attention on the stallion, who had an almost pleading look in his eyes. "This is the reason." She said, pointing at the file. "The fact that my entire life, the lifes of my friends were curated, monitored..." She shook her head. "It's not right, and I can't live with myself if I don't do something about it." Her voice was full of determination as she spoke into his eyes.
"Do something?" He said haughtly, putting the file on a coffee table. "You think you can actually do something? Do you even know who you're up against?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"That's another reason why I'm here." She confessed with a sigh. "I need information to act, and after Canterlot - you are my only lead."
"Canterlot?" Steelhooves parroted, a surprised expression on his face. "You're the one who broke into Celestia's Archives?" He said incredulously, recieving a nod in reply. "Faust above, no wonder they kept it hush-hush..." He said, rubbing his forehead.
"Hush hush?" Twilighed asked, tilting her head. "What do you mean?"
"I may be in retirement, but I've got a few friend in the guard. Point is, the Capital's on lockdown since yesterday, nopony's allowed in our out. Furthermore, they've silenced the local newspapers from talking about the incident, so there's no chance of the public ever knowing about what happened. My assumption was that the intruder got caught, but now..." He gave Twilight an appraising smile. "You're not bad, for somepony with no military training." Before Twilight could reply, the smile disappeared from his face. "Still, you need something more than beginner's luck to turn the odds in your favor." He flipped through the papers in his file. "You wanted information, is that right?"
"Yes. What happened during the Manehattan Incident? What's an SOF? Who are SHR? Was Equestria involved in what happened in Saddle Arabia?" She said, looking intently at the stallion.
"Coup d'état..." Steelhooves muttered, shaking his head. "Sun's Right Hoof was a Special Operations Force, the most capable military unit in all of Equestria." He said, his features darkening. "Emphasis on was."
6:58, 18.08.972 MANEHATTAN ISLAND, MANEHATTAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE
Wind rushed all around the sky-colored chariot as it soared through the sky, flanked by two others. The dark blue hues of the sky melded well with a wall of black smoke that billowed from some far-off point past the city. Despite the worrying amount of bituminous smog that was about to stain the soon-to-be sunset, the citizens of Manehattan usually wouldn't bat an eye about such trivial things.
But today was far from usual.
"A city that never sleeps, eh?" A gruff voice barked in a stallion's ear, elbowing his armored side. "Let's see how they like some mandatory nap-time!" The voice chuckled at his own joke, looking over the pitch-black city.
"Don't think they will, Mac." Steelhooves replied, squinting as he noticed groups of ponies running blindly through the streets, tiny lights peppered through the crowds. Steelhooves frowned when he noticed one group standing around a large pile of assorted debris in the middle of the street. A blink of light was all it took for the pile to erupt into flames, sending those that stood too close running aflame. "Don't think they will..." He said, turning to his comrade.
A tall and bulky bipedal figure met Steelhooves' gaze, sharp, blue eyes looking into his own. Black and blue custom-made armor with a nig red cross on its chestplate fit snugly around his body, leaving only his black furred wolf-like muzzle exposed. "Boss?" Mac said, securing a helmet strap under his chin. "Something's wrong?"
"Pre-Op jitters, nothing serious." Steelhooves replied, once again looking down at the city. A five-story explosion rocked the streets below as the chariots flew over the building, prompting the stallion to clutch the chariot's railing.
"Holy shit!" A feminine voice exclaimed over the radio, making the stallion wince at the sudden noise. "Did you see that, Boss? Haven't seen that big of an explosion since the Siege of Griffonstone... What could've caused that?" The chariots passed the brightly burning streets, getting closer to their target.
"Nothing magical, that's for sure." A stallion's voice replied, full of concern. "There's no magical residue, nor any leftover spell matrix... Whatever it was, it wasn't magic."
"Emma, Nova, keep the chatter to a minimum, both of you, communications are being recorded, as per SOP." Steelhooves said sternly. "On another note, this looked worse than anything I've remember from Griffonstone." He twisted the crystal in his right ear before speaking. "Central, any advice?"
"Negative. No intel regarding the situation is availible as of now, you will be notified as new information is discovered." An even feminine voice replied, making Steelhooves groan inwardly. "As per usual, it seems." He thought somewhat bitterly.
"Easyglider arriving at LZ, prepare for dropoff." Steelhooves heard from over the radio, as well as from the pegasus driving his chariot. The chariot lowered itself just enough for the soldier to jump down onto the roof of a tall building, before turning around and flying off. "Good luck out there, Boss."
"Firefly reports dropoff complete, happy hunting." The voice cut through the static as another chariot deployed a pair of soldiers.
"Delivery complete, Fairweather out. " The third and final chariot flew by the building's roof, before turning away.
"Boss!" An armor-clad white unicorn stallion approached Steelhooves with a snow-white griffon by his side, the two saluting. "Chimera Squad's assembled and ready to follow your orders!" Her reported, standing by his commander's side with a nod.
"We are to investigate the top three floors, check for any survivors and evacuate them if possible. However, your priority is with finding documentation pertaning to the 'Manehattane Project'. Tartarus knows what it is, but you better grab any documentation that seems important. " Steelhooves said as the squad stood in front of a roof entrance door. "Emma, Nova, you take the western wing, Mac and I will take the eastern one." He said to his squad members. "Keep your eyes peeled, we're probably not alone here."
The squad walked through the door and down the stairs, moving slowly and carefully. They stopped in front of an ajar door, a large 5 painted in white over the nearby wall. Steelhooves motioned his squadmates to gather around it, Mac standing to the left of the entrance, Nova standing just behind him. The earth pony stood right to the entrance, Emma standing just behind him, ready to bust through the door on command.
Steelhooves readied a wrist-mounted crossbow, nodding towards the door while looking at Mac. The diamond dog nodded, taking a couple of tentative sniffs, closing his eyes. "There's definently casualties and fire damage... but no hostiles yet." He replied after a couple of seconds.
"Damn it." Steelhooves said, before pressuring the crystal in his ear. "Central, get some medical over here, likely burn wounds." He set his right hoof on the ground, slowly walking through the door, his squad following close behind.
"Copy that, dispatching medical detail." The impasionate voice reported over the radio as the squad entered a long corridor. Emma an Nova took to the left, while Mac and Steelhooves took to the right, both duos walking slowly through the empty floor. As they went further, a strong metallic smell, accompanied by the smell of burning meat, which made the stallion scrunch her muzzle.
The smell became stronger as they approached a corner, pausing a little and listening intently before rounding it. Red blinking lights illuminated the dim space of the corridor, grey walls singed to black or stained with crimson providing a rather eerie atmosphere to the place. It paled in comparison, however, to the black quadruped corpses strewn along the length of the corridor, some of them still burning, trailing black smoke to the ceiling.
"Faust Almighty..." Steelhooves muttered, kneeling down beside one of the corpses, prodding it with his hoof. A chunk black matter fell off, revealing more charred flesh on the inside. He rose to his hooves, motioning Mac to follow him. "Central, ten bodies on the top floor, all with severe burns on them, send the cleanup team on an empty stomach." He walked around the corpses, coming closer to the closed double doors.
"Roger. Attempt to identify the bodies, we need a comprehensive list of casualties." The voice replied evenly over the radio.
"Negative. The bodies are too damaged, all I can say is that they were ponies." He said, stepping into a breaching position with Mac beside the door.
"Affirmative, continue with your mission."
Steelhooves nodded towards the door while looking at Mac, the diamond dog taking a few tantative sniffs. "More burnt meat, more burning in general." He said after a few seconds. "Be careful, the fire might still be burning."
Steelhooves nudged at the door, finding it closed shut. "Locked... We'll need to breach." He said, unlatching a magical explosives from one of his straps, priming it. He attached it to the door, taking a few steps back. "Clear the way!" He yelled, Mac stepping away too, covering his ears. A loud explosion reverberated through the corridor as the door exploded into splinters.
"Boss, you heard that?!" Emma questioned along the radio. "There was an explosion coming from your wing, are you alright?"
"We had to breach a door, nothing to worry about." Steelhooves replied, peeking into the room, squinting in an attempt to see through the dust. "What's your status?"
"No corpses yet, thank Faust, but we've reached a barricaded door, we'll have to breach." She reported, the sounds of commotion and strain apparent in the background.
"Roger that, report if you find anything." Steelhooves said, before stepping through the precipice, entering the room. Hot air washed over him as he stepped through some kind of laboratory, the same burning smell entering his nostrils, albeit stronger this time. His gaze went over the half-burnt paper thrown haphazardly onto the floor, and straight towards a large pile of charred bodies in the corner of the room.
"Fuckin' hell..." Mac murmured, standing beside the stallion. "Haven't seen something this bad since the civil war..." The diamond dog said, staring blankly at the burning pile.
"Central," Steelhooves said in a steely voice, tearing his gaze away from the pile, rummaging through the documents on the floor. "there's a pile of corpses in the eastern wing laboratory, can't ID any of them." He cast a glance at the burning pile, noticing Mac was sniffing around the room at the moment. "Don't think there are any survivors, though."
"Copy that. Forget about survivors, focus on recovering the documents."
"Central!" Steelhooves said, anger in his voice. "There's still a chance of surviving personell deeper in the building, we can't just leave them-"
"Your priority is recovering the documents, any attempts at rescue should be made only if it does not interfere with with your mission." The voice replied sternly yet evenly.
"Roger that." Steelhooves practically growled into the radio. A four-fingered paw lowered onto his shoulder, grabbing his attention as he turned to look at Mac, a worried look on his face.
"Boss, something's wrong." He said, guiding the stallion to hide behind a desk able. "There are familiar smells here, but that's impossible, since we're the only squad that's been sent to investigate." He said, looking around the room, searching for any movement.
"You're saying there are other SRH members here?" Steelhooves asked, confused.
"Can't say for certain, the smell's muddied by all the burning..." He replied, squnting at a particularly dark corner of the room.
"BOSS, WE HAVE CONTACT!" Emma's erratic voice cut through the silence of the room, followed by shouts and explosions. "THEY'RE TRYING TO BURN US TO A CRISP!" She yelled, the crackle of fire apparent in the background.
Mac's eyes went wide as dinnerplates and he ducked just in time to avoid a stream of fire that singed the top of his helmet. The duo ran from their hideout as it caught on fire, hiding behind another desk. Mac peeked from behind the table, quickly ducking after another stream of fire hit the desk, the two still feeling the heat from behind their cover.
"Three of them, two aiming at us, one guarding the exit." Steelhooves peeked the room for a seconf, confirming his buddy's assesment. "They look heavily armored, aim for the head. You take the left one, I'll take the right." Mac said, grabbing his crossbow from his belt. "Go on three. One, two, three!"
The two of them peeked from the cover, each aiming for the only open part of their enemy's body, the face. Two sharp whips sent the bolts flying towards their targets, penetrating theirs skulls with meaty cracks. The two ponies fell to the floor like puppets with their strings cut, and before the third pony could react, Steelhooves rushed her.
The armor-clad mare was just able to rise the barrel of the device strapped to her side, when it was batted away by Steelhooves' hoof, the stallion delivering prescise strikes to her forelegs, causing her to stumble to the floor, giving the stallion a chance to grab her in a chokehold.
"Central, we're attacked, send reinforcements!" He yelled into the radio, getting no responce. "Central?" Nothing. "Central!" He growled as the line remained silent, switching his attention to the mare in his hold. "You, speak up, what's your unit!" He said, putting the sharp point of his crossbow bolt towards the mare's throat, who squirmed in an attempt to get away. "ANSWER ME!" He yelled at her, causing her to wince.
Mac squatted near the mare, sniffing her intently. He frowned, looking morosely at Steelhooves. "Now I know what that smell was. It's the same one we've at out unit's barracks..." He trailed off, Steelhooves's eyes going wide as dinner plates as he processed the information. "It's likely she's from SRH."
"Speak up now, or I swear I'll-" He was cut off by a whimper as he pressured her neck with the sharp bolt.
"P-please don't kill me!" The mare begged, desperation clear in her voice. "I-I am with the SRH... We were sent here to neutralize the excess staff..." She trailed off as she realised what she said. "But we didn't get the orders to kill you, Boss, only the others-urk" The mare was left breathless for a moment, as Steelhooves cut her air supply with his leg.
"You've lost the right to call me that the second you aimed at your comrades." He said, mocing his leg a little, allowing her to breathe again. "What else do you know?"
"Your... Your comms are wired, we heard everything..." The mare said, taking deep breaths between words. "I'm a part of the scouting team, the rest will come looking for me when they find we've gone missing." She finished, trembling in his hold.
"Shit." Steelhooves muttered, weighing all the pro's and con's, cursing before pressuring the crystal in his ear. "Emma, Nova, communication compromised, initiate radio silence, I repeat, initiate radio silence!" He ordered, hoping against hope his squadmates are alive.
"T-too late for that..." A familiar masculine voice croaked over the radion, dahing Steelhooves' hopes. "They've got us good, Boss, real good..." The voice trailed off, taking multiple shallow breaths.
"Nova, stay still we're coming to get you and Emma out!" Steelhooves said, preparing to dispatch the foe in his grasp, but was stopped by a pained groan.
"D-don't bother, Emma's across the room in chunks, and I... can't feel the lower part of my body... Besides, you said the radio's compromised..." The voice coughed, his breathing fast and shallow. "They've got explosives... Fire spewing machines... All without a speck of magic..." A coughing fit overtook the speaker, his breathing becoming laboured. "Took us by surprise... I'm not going to make it... I'll... I'll take as many as I can with me..." He took a deep breath, gathering his strength. "It's been an honor, Boss..."
"Nova, no!" Steelhooves exclaimed as a lound explosion rocked the building, shaking the walls around them. "What was he talking about!?" He yelled at the mare in his hold, who wilted from his tone.
"F-flamethrowers! We were told to burn all the evidence, we'd be evac'd by chariots after we're done!" She said, tears streaming down her face. "P-please, don't kill- hurk"
A crossbow bolt impaled her throat, Steelhooves throwing her body to the floor. The mare clutched her bleeding throat, rolling on the floor for a few moments, before growing still.
"We were set up." Steelhooves said coldly, turning to his squadmate. "You need to escape, they'll be looking for you, not me." He grabbed the few grenades from the mare's body, giving half of them to Mac.
"Boss, I won't leave you!" The diamond dog protested, shaking his head. "We're in this together, I'm not going anywhere."
"That's an order, and you will follow it." The stallion said sternly. "Escape now so we can meet later, your death today won't do us any good." He said, looking at the cracked floor. "Dig underneath the building, get as far away from Manehattan as possible. Stay away from big cities." He turned to his friend, determination written in his features. "I'll know where to find you when the time comes." The diamond dog hesitated for a few moments, before nodding.
"I'll see you around... Stay save, Boss." He said, ripping chunks of floor away.
"You too, Mac..." Steelhooves said, moving towards the staircase, hearing hoofsteps coming from it. "You too."
A heavy silence settled over the room as the stallion finished his speech, a haunted expression on his features. Tears streamed down Twilight's face as she did her best to stay silent. She wasn't sure how much time has passed, but eventually Steelhooves sighed, continuing.
"I reported my team was KIA, hoping it'd save Mac's life. It worked, thankfully, so after a few days of 'rest' I was approached by my superior..." He breathed a heavy sigh. "They said they've traced the unit's origins to Saddle Arabia, claiming it was the same one that attacked my squad." He chuckled bitterly, shaking his head. "Of course, by then I knew it was a lie... So I resigned, taking as many honest mares and stallions with me as I could. You know the rest from the newspapers..."
Twilight wiped the tears away, caming herself down enough to speak up. "W-what happened to your unit?" She asked, her eyes red and puffy.
"For all intents and purposes, the SRH as I knew it is dead. A few days after Pax Equestria, the unit went through reorganisation, ending up under new management." He frowned, looking past Twilight rather than at her. "Where once we swore to serve Equestria, we were forced to pledge allegiance to Celestia herself. Of course, many of us knew where things were heading, so we left." He growled, the cold contempt in his eyes making Twilight squeeze into the sofa. "SRH is little more than Celestia's private army now, a pack of rabid dogs she lets loose willy-nilly." She shook his head, his shoulders sagging.
"They're stronger than before, I'll give Celestia that... But they're no honest soldiers, not at all." He looked at Twilight, the sheer exhaustion in his eyes worrying the mare. "Are you sure you want to oppose something like this?" The look in his eyes pleading the mare to turn away.
"I can't." The mare said adamantly, despite feeling queasy on the inside. "Now more than ever, I have to put a stop to this. I don't know how... but I will." She said, surprised when she saw an honest smile on the stallion's muzzle.
"You've got some guts, I'll give you that." He said with a chuckle. "For the past thirty years we've been accumilating resources, looking for any trump cards against Celestia... A you might be just that." He said with a smile.
"Me? How am I your 'trump card'?" Twilight said, confused and a tad offended.
"Celestia has big things planned for you, and if we can put a wrench in her plans, this'll give us the advantage we've been waiting for." He explained, pulling out another file. "We've found a lead on a research facility in Saddle Arabia that was reportedly housing something that was necessary for 'Manehattan Project', something that might lead us to the project itself... Point is, the exact coordinates are encoded, and we've had no luck in cracking it. You've a bright mind, and if you'd like to help, this is your first assignment."
"I'll get on it asap, show me the coordinates and I'll get back to you from Ponyville!" She said excitedly, raising an eyebrow when she noticed the frown on Steelhooves' face. "What's wrong?"
"That information is confidential, you'll have get to base to begin your work." He said, gathering the documents into the folder. "You'll have to disappear from the face of Equestria, otherwise your travels will be tracked down, sooner or later."
"But I can't!" She exclaimed, a myriad of thoughts running through her head. "My friends in Ponyville, the Elements of Harmony... I can't leave them behind!" She said, the mere thought of doing so horrifying her.
"Don't worry, you won't." The stallion said with a smirk, giving her another file.
"Phantom Initiative... What's that?" Twilight read aloud from the file.
"One of the many side projects Her Highness has worked on once in a while. Basically, it details the steps required to turn a pony into one's 'phantom'." He said matter of factly as Twilight read the file. "With a combination of cosmetic surgery, implants to simulate wing/horn functions, and advanced hypnosis and memory spells, anypony can be turned into your exact copy." He said, coughing into his hoof. "Of course, the project was never finished..."
"'Elements of Harmony failed to bind with the subject." She read, her eyes going wide. "Just what was Celestia trying to do?" She asked aloud, hearing Steelhooves sigh.
"We don't know, but this document dates back five hundred years, at the least. Point is, we can make your exact copy, it'll remember everything you did, act like you did, and look like you do. But there's a catch..."
"The Elements won't recognise the phantom..." Twilight finished, looking through the document once again. "I'm not going to make any promises, but I've seen some potential causes for the failure..." Twilght said in an academic manner, before halting as she realised what she just said. "Do we have to use a pony for this? Can't we build a golem, or something?"
"To make an exact copy it'll have to perform all the functions a normal pony does, that includes metabolism." He said, shaking his head. "And before you ask, no, a changeling won't do. The phantom has to believe they're the real you. Besides, they've retreated to their hives ever since the wedding, there's no chance to find one nowadays." Twilight's expression grew unreadable as she though about subjecting a pony to everything she read about.
"You'll have to find somepony who wouldn't be missed, a small town like Ponyville would be the best place to look for a target, since prior knowledge of the 'original' proved to raise the chances of success. I know it's hard, but it's the only way." Steelhooves said, putting a hoof on Twilight's shoulder as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs."
"If I aggree," Twilight began, insire of herself. "what will you do next?" She asked carefully.
"I'll give you a week to find a suitable target, I'll take care of the preparations meanwhile." He said, rubbing his chin. "I'll met you in Ponyville, and transport both you and your target to the base, where we'll begin the necessary procedures." He looked at Twilight expectedly. "What do you say?"
Twilight closed her eyes, thinking of all she's learned recently. She had a choice, leave this place and come back to Ponyville, live out the rest of her life in peace. Or she could side with Steelhooves, go through this crazy plan, put herself in danger, hurt other ponies... And for what? "For the future of Equestria. For the future of my friends. For my future."
"I'll wait for you, Steelhooves." She said with a sigh, recieving a nod from the stallion.
"Come on, you can still catch the last train for Ponyville." He said, getting up from the sofa and grabbing his saddlebags, before moving towards the door. "I'll walk you to the station." He said, motioning for her to follow. "Oh, and by the way..." He turned, giving her a small smile.
"You can call me Boss."