“HE DID WHAT?!?!?!” yelled the light brown haired woman holding a phone up to her ear. Her expression told anyone else in the lab to stay away as her anger threatened to burn off the lab coat she was wearing. It’s a wonder that the coffee mug she was holding hadn’t shattered yet. She was pacing in front of the one of the many screens displaying important information to the staff that were tasked with making sure the third of only six Stabilization Gates remains in working order. “Of course there’s more! The cluster a meteoroids that were going to pelt us because of the last launch were vaporized but now there’s more of the mother fuckers! They may not be as large but they’ll still make it through the atmosphere! What did the idiot expect to accomplish by launching more nukes at it? Scare it and make it turn the fuck around and leave?!”
Her pacing suddenly halted and spoke levelly but was still clearly pissed off. “What do mean that wasn’t the bad news?” There was another pause and then the woman’s anger seemingly evaporated to make way for that of shock. A mug of coffee with a little bit of creamer exploded on the floor. “Are you sure?” she practically whispered this time. “Ok, check your numbers and make sure you're absolutely right and email them to Jennings. Alright?” After another pause she hung up the phone and sprinted out of the room to start procedures to ready the S-Gate.
Ashley’s eyes widened when she saw that the armor clad pony wasn’t alone. On the outside of the cave she could make out at least fifteen or so.
“Twily, it’s really you...” the the blue maned unicorn said softly.
Ashley backed up in response and her eyes darted around the cave. She then saw the object she was looking for: a pistol. It lied on a crate adjacent to her and on the far side of the cavern. She kept looking between him and it deciding whether or not it was serious enough.
The white unicorn looked at the cave and adopted a curious and somewhat confused expression. “Twilight, what is all this?” he asked motioning at the various human made equipment with a hoof. Suddenly, that aforementioned equipment hummed to life and cuasing him to jump.
“ASHLEY!” came a panicked voice from the monitor. She recognized the voice as Jolie Walker, chief engineer and primary operator of S-Gate 03. The human/pony paid her no mind as she slowly levitated the 9mm to herself.
“Ashley, don’t mind the natives there not your biggest problem right now.” Jolie’s tone caught Ashley’s attention but she never turned her eyes away from the white pony. “President fucktard decided to launch more warheads at the meteor and the fuck practically doomed us all. The warheads ended up rupturing a massive gas pocket in it and it altered its trajectory. I doesn’t have to orbit the sun to hit us because its being propelled our direction. We don’t have four months any more! We only have a week now! The wormhole opened up about half a mile west of here. Stop standing there and get your ass to the portal now! It’ll only stay open for ten minutes!” purple unicorn turned to address the person on the other end of the monitor but was yelled at for it. “GO! Don’t talk, just go!”
Ashley made eye contact with the other unicorn as he tried to make sense of things. He couldn’t see the monitor but was confused by what was being said. “Twily?”
Ashley’s pointed the gun at him and gave him a look of pity. “I’m sorry...” she said as she put pressure on the trigger. The bullet exited out of the barrel of the gun and found its way to the stallions leg. He hit the ground and howled in pain likely alerting the other ponies outside. Ashley quickly levitated her parka and two spare clips of ammo to herself while simultaneously galloping out the cave’s entrance.
At that moment Ashley was slammed with reality. If she didn’t make it to the wormhole, the earth was doomed. It takes days to gather enough energy to safely use an S-Gate. There was only one chance for this and the lives of over ten billion people depended upon her getting to this portal.
She ran as fast as she could and passed a bunch of confused ponies. She sighed in relief when she turned back and saw they weren't following her but rather going into the cave... or at least that’s what they did at first. The fleeing human heard distant shouts and saw that the ponies were now starting to give chase.
She’d gained a considerable lead on them but three of the winged ponies quickly closed the distance and dived at her. Ashley used magic to force the first one to undershoot and caused him to nose dive straight into the sand. The other two were closer and forced her to use her firearm. She fired a shot at them but missed. It did accomplish in making them hesitate but they followed up on their dive. She fired two more shots and hit one it the chest. The bullet seemed to shrug at the armor they were wearing. The wounded pegasus crashed into another and sent them both into the ground. She looked back and saw the rest of the ponies slowly catching up to her.
She dashed through the sand and dodged another dive made by a pegasus. The distance between them was getting consistently shorter and so was Ashley’s stamina. The ponies behind her didn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. Ashley fired back three more times at the ponies causing some to flinch while others ducked and weaved. They were learning. Ashley was completely winded at this point but kept on running. She turned back and saw a grey unicorn was in jump preparing to tackle her but she threw sand in his face sending him slightly to the left making him overshoot and fall to the sand. two or three ponies tripped over him but quickly recovered and returned to the chase. Getting desperate, the pony/human tried teleporting and only succeeded in teleporting her only weapon to some unknown location. She was on her own now.
Another pony tried tackling her to the ground but missed and only ended up putting a hoof in front of her hind legs which almost tripped her. She recovered quickly and bounded towards the portal as it was now visible. It was only two sand dunes away and she wasn’t keen on getting caught now.
She made her way up the first sand dune while using her magic to send a wall of sand at the ponies below. One pony made it through and tackled the mare to the ground. His grip wasn’t secure and she broke free with a bit of effort and bucked him in the face. This gave the other armor clad ponies time to catch up to her and they were right on her tail. She continued pelting them with sand but now it was only a minor annoyance as she no longer held the element of surprise with.
At the base of the second sand dune she was tackled again but this time she was pinned to the ground. She began wiggling a thrashing, desperately trying to break free and continue on. She then calmed herself and was able to focus enough for her to teleport. Ashley bliped into existence on top of the last sand dune and scrambled to her hooves. She started running again was almost there when she was tackled by a pegasus. She bucked him in the face and was once again scrambling. She was only a foot away from the portal but her hooves couldn’t find traction.
She was close enough to touch it. It shrouded everything in a bright blue light and it swirled and warbled just above the ground. Around it's edges white dots of light orbited in a gently erratic fashion like fireflies on a warm summers night. The main body of it was blue which grew dark the further you looked towards its center. It looked to be rotating rapidly but it could be the way it changes to slightly different shades of blue every so often. She was so close to touching it but just before her hoof made contact, the portal shuddered.
It then flashed out of existence in a blinding white light just as Ashley found traction and had jumped towards it. She landed on the ground and got a face full of sand. This however didn’t faze her as she scrambled back to where the portal was.
“No no no no NO NO! COME BACK! OPEN UP DAMNIT!!” she yelled in desperation as she dug into the sand as if it were under ground. “COME BACK!!” Tears slightly obscured her vision as she started crying. “COME BACK!!! PLEASE!!! COME BACK!!!!” she screamed as she continued looking for the portal that no longer existed.
Shining Armour stood atop the sand dune and watched the pitiful display. That was not his sister. There was no doubt in his mind about that fact. Twilight would never hurt him. He stood watching the mare as she frantically dug in the sand while sobbing uncontrollably. The mare then got up and ran back in the direction she’d came from but was quickly put to the ground by Private Gusting Wind.
“NO! LET ME GO! I NEED GET BACK TO MY STUFF!!! Shining looked down at her with both pity and disgust. “PLEASE I... have... to... sa-...”
The guard captain sighed after he’d put her to sleep with a quick spell. He motioned for the group to move out with his good hoof and started limping back towards civilization. All he wanted to do was get his leg patched up and find a nice soft bed. It’s been a very long day.
The portal shut leaving the room deathly silent. The only hope of saving mankind failed. The last hope gone. The world... was condemned. Without Ashley, the meteor was going stay on course with its target, and was going to end a life as it was known. That was the thought that was shared by all of them... except for one.
Jolie stood up and had one last ace up her sleeve. It was a card nobody wanted to pull but there was no longer any choice. Ashley would be taken by force. It’s funny that this was the first time the UN had came to some kind of agreement on a solution, a stupid one at that, since the appearance of the meteor which was being called many names. The most popular of whom with the public was “Reaper”.
Jolie rushed back into her office and sat at her desk and sighed as she dialed a number into her phone. Of the six S-Gates, two were conveniently out of commission due to technical difficulties, and another two were scrapped to make a larger one on the board the Humanity. The only other working S-Gate was located in Lanzhou, China, where UN forces have amassed in case it would come to such. So much for a good first contact.
Princess Celestia was excited although she didn’t show it on the outside. A messenger was sent saying they’d found her in a cave and a he was sent as they were retrieving her. She could practically explode but she was royalty. She had an image to uphold.
Containing her enthusiasm, Celestia stood with a stoic expression and waited to be reunited with Twilight. She knew it would be a while and decided to read to pass the time. Celestia levitated a book from a shelf in the far corner of the room that was alit in a soft amber glow of lamplight. She scanned the room for an adequate spot to sit. The large rug with ornate designs was far too itchy of a seat. The bean bags the camels enjoyed so much were annoying. There were insects hovering around the lamp which knocked out that idea. The balcony... this would work.
Even in the her sister’s bright moonlight, it was far too dark to read but this was not a problem. Her horn glowed golden and she cast a simple illumination spell and began to read. Come to think of it, she hadn’t read anything that wasn’t a treaty, legal document, or other things of the like since Twilight had taken to camping in a book fort in the Royal Library when she was still under the alicorn’s tutelage. The goddess of the sun smiled at the memory and began reading. From the streets below you could see a faint golden light and an alicorn enjoying a really good book in wait of the arrival of somepony she holds dear.