It's been an hour or so since Luna has raised the moon. Stars on the night sky were gleaming with serenity, allowing any creature who wasn't sleeping to see themselves. And while the whole Equestria should have been quiet by now, one particular pony was not.
Twilight's curiosity was both her blessing and a curse. It has either saved the day, or got her friends and herself in trouble. However, she was never able to resist the urge to investigate. Today was not an exception.
After Twilight finished with taking notes, she once again looked at the scene before her eyes. Some of the tree crowns were severely damaged. The moon light was able to go through with ease, the soil nearby to those trees had a weirdly shaped hole, and it also looked like some sphere-like object fell down from the sky and crashed right here. Quite a big one by the way. However, the 'object' itself was not there.
Twilight examined the hole again "Interesting... There are no debris apart from the branches nearby" she looked around for the last time. Finding nothing that could explain the 'anomaly', Twilight put the notebook back in her saddlebags and frowned. Even if destruction could be explained by memorizing just WHAT kind of creatures lived in the Everfree, there was one particular detail that was worrying Twilight.
This place had distinct, yet quite disturbing aura. It was not available for an ordinary eye, obviously, but Twilight was no ordinary pony. The said aura here was... Cold. As if a sudden winter hit this particular place, without advancing further. There was also something else, but Twilight couldn't put her hoof on it. As weird as it was however, it was an Everfree. Anything could happen here, and this could be just another not discovered phenomenon.
After settling with this option, Twilight exhaled and turned around "I will have to notify Celestia about this place. Perhaps she might know something"
With that being said, she started to go back into the town. She couldn't do much without propper equipment and a group of ponies, so all Twilight could do right now, was memorize the location of this place and come back later.
And that she did. It took her quite some time, but Twilight was already approaching her tree house. Since it was quite late already, the only thing on her mind was going to sleep. After entering her house, Twilight dropped the saddlebags on the floor, and headed straight for her bedroom, yawning.
"Twilight?"
She opened her eyes and looked around. The voice belonged to Spike, who looked quite worried. He was standing below, with several books in his claws.
The small dragon dropped those, and rushed towards the unicorn "Oh thank Celestia you are safe!" Spike hugged her, after quite literally leaping onto her.
Twilight chuckled, tired "Sorry for making you worried..." she hugged her assistant back.
Spike looked up, with a frown on his face "What took you so long? You were the one who told me that the Everfree was dangerous!"
Twilight exhaled "You know me, Spike... I had to take some notes, and..." Her eyes were closing again "..and..."
Spike sighed and jumped down "Fine, you better get some of that sleep right now" he then raised his finger "But you owe me an apology tomorrow!"
Twilight giggled and trotted upstairs "Sure thing.."
After she entered her bedroom l, Spike huffed and crossed arms on his chest "I swear, sometimes she is even more reckles than Rainbow Dash!"
...
Spike raised his eyebrow in surprise "Wait, since when did I become so protective?"
Meanwhile, at the Everfree...
A lonely person was slowly walking through the forest. The attire he was wearing looked... Quite weird in terms of his surroundings. The dark, thick jacket with some rare tears, with a vest, holding an even more bizzare revolver in it, secured on the chest. The pants looked quite similar, with the only difference being the steel chain, attached to the pocket. Finally, the person's face was covered with the jacket collar, along with the sunglasses (with the red lenses instead of the black ones by the way) and... a cowboy hat. As weird as it looked though, he got used to this attire. It was warm and comfy enough for him to freely utilize his skills.
However, right now, he had two other problems.
The human looked down at his broken arm. As horrible as it sounds, but it wasn't the first time he got his hand broken... Not like it was making the pain any easier. His arm upgrades did. Thanks to the adaptive technology, the augmentation was keeping the arm in one pose, so that it wasn't wiggling. How did his arm get broken, you may ask?
Well...
The Artillerist made another direct shot, finishing off the last lunatic and looked around. He was able to eliminate all 7 Reikgon cultists in the room just in 12 seconds. Each of them with a head shot.
The Artillerist raised his revolver and looked at his right bracelet with a yellow display. He then proceeded to report "Sector 3 out of 6, cleared" after that Artillerist
Right now he and his assigned team were on the EDEN-227, dealing with the Reikgon cultists. Usually, the Agency would make a detailed and complex plan, whenever they were doing mission THAT big. However, this time, they decided to simply overrun them with force...
..and it was working.
Awkwardly enough, it seemed that the people of Reikgon were not ready for a blunt force attack. They must have been expecting infiltrations all over their place, which is must have been why they didn't even set up barriers.
Not like the Artillerist was against it. As a matter of fact, after getting the authorization to use force, he was able to do the job even more effectively.
He smirked, as he put his revolver into the vest "I'm gettin' used to this" he then picked up one of the rifles, and examined it's magazine "Welp, good to go" after inserting it back, he grasped it a bit better, since his body was a bit too small for this weapong. After successfully securing it, the Artillerist looked forward towards the next door.
Artillerist wasn't one of those people who were enjoying massacres, not at all. And yet, here he was, killing dozens of the cultists. He knew good enough, what life actually was to people, and just what he was doing while taking it away. It was a crime, a big one. However, sometimes those crimes had to be commited, so that others can be safe. Ever since his training began, he was taught that.
This was why he was mostly aiming for the head, so that the target does not suffer.
Artillerist raised his bracelet "Ready to move forward. Awaiting further commands" as much as he wanted to continue, he still had to stay cautious. After all, they were dealing with the same people that created abominations, such as Sickler and Hanger...
30 minutes later...
He was right.
The entire team forgot that the cultists were complete psychos, which lead to one of them blowing up the facility.
Obviously, the explosion must have killed him and the entire team, but at least those lunatics were done for for good.
...
However, he was pretty sure that he was still alive. Not just that, but also the biting cold was no longer present. Instead, a (kinda) rough wind was blowing right into the Agent's backhead. It was pretty strong, but, (funnily enough), he was instinctively holding the hat with his hand.
Artillerist opened his eyes, and saw something that he didn't see for a while now.
A clear blue sky.
For the first time in a few months, a genuine surprise could be seen on his face "Wh-..wha?"
And then, he noticed that he was falling down into the forest...
Artillerist winced a bit at the pain and decided to have a rest. After all, no matter how much training you went through, broken bones were not a joke. He was able to spot a good enough rock to sit on, and placed himself on top of it, carefully laying his hand onto his lap.
So, what was the second problem for him currently? Obviously, finding his comrades. As it turned out, the whole squad was here... Wherever or whatever it is.
How did he know it? Well, their talkie walkies were still intact and active, so they were going to meet somewhere together.
Speaking of the device, it started to make sounds. The Artillerist didn't even look at it, though.
"KRRR- ..an..KRR- ..spond" it wasn't hard for him to understand what had been said.
Artillerist pressed on of the buttons on the talkie walkie "The Artillerist is reporting back. Apart from my arm injury, my condition is just fine. As for your previous instructions, I wasn't having any problems with 'em" he pulled the finger away, and waited for the response.
The speaker from the talkie walkie seemed satisfied with this answer "Good. Remember to avoid hostile encounters at any cost." the voice was quite... Calming, as well as having a weird accent.
"Aye.." this time, he didn't even press anything.
Another, a bit lighter tone could be heard after that "Riskrunner and Survivalist here, reporting back. Everething is going smooth, for now..."
A voice from a far could be heard speaking. Despite the distance, though, it was still loud and clear "Anything on the fauna here, fellas?"
A new voice spoke up. It was quite powerful as well, though not as rough as the other one "Yes"
That was it. One single word, followed with a long silence. It was getting quite awkward, so one of the voices decided to break the ice.
"..so.. Mind telling us more?"
Artillerist sighed and rubbed his head. Sometimes, he hated using talkie-walkies, despite them being quite useful. All those codes and protocols were way too hard for him to memorize. And unfortunately, one of his team members was not a fan of long words and sentences (Which was both good and annoying for the Artillerist).
To put it simply, this conversation was going to take quite some time. So, not to waste any time, Artillerist decided to keep going. After all, there WAS something wrong with the fauna here, and he didn't want to find out the bad way... Especially when he was alone and vulnurable.