Chapter 70- The Fall of Baltimare
With the Crystal Heart in his hands, Vegeta held the crystal out to walk up to the Changeling rulers. He wasn’t sure what they were all talking about, only that he was to get the damn thing. The saiyan stopped in front of the rulers to lower the heart. Both king and queen shut their eyes and opened their mouth. Not sure what the hell was going on, he watched as a... Reflected light off a prism? He wasn’t sure what color that light was- All he knew is, that the changelings were sucking this light into their mouths.
Bit gross if you asked him. One by one, the quadrupede insectoids would step up to suck in a bit of this light. Each one seemed to have their stomach encourage a bit, as if they were getting filled with water. Vegeta blinked twice, wondering if this indeed was feeding them. But they all looked a bit hungry- He could see their ribs through their sides. He took a second to look back as Sombra used his red horn to show what was going on in “Baltimare.”
________________________________________
Baltimare is a strange city. It’s one of the cities of Equestria that wants to stay out of the way of every city else. It’s not the big hub that Manehatten is. It’s not the capitol of education like Canterlot is. It doesn’t have the “rustic charm” that Ponyville posses that ponies use to get away from larger cities. It’s not the new and hippest place out in the wild, untamed south that was Appleloosa. No real exciting events other than hosting water sport competitions.
Baltimare wanted to keep it that way. It’s a vacation hub, a merchant city. A city where ponies go for vacation. Where one can go shopping for exotic goods, thanks to the griffons and other species that used it as a port. It’s next to one of the largest gulfs of Equestria, where sands of white and brown decorated it beaches. It holds the Maritime Naval Academy, the best spot to learn boating or yachting. The residential district doesn’t hold huge towers or skyscrapers and the boardwalk is not too far away from the downtown area.
Seagulls can be heard near the docks. While ponies don’t eat the fish, they don’t mind when a griffon or another being come in with a tackle box to bring their gear to fish along the side. Every now and then, families went with their pets to the more popular beaches. A frisbee toss there, some football there.
All in all, a rather unremarkable city. Nothing spectacular in the way of sights and sounds, but a quiet place made to relax. Even when you’re doing business, ponies and other creatures that do it present smiles and a competitive spirit that is hidden from public view.The only thing that could break this pleasant city was the police. It was their job to make sure the peace was kept and the unruly ones were behaved.
An orange male unicorn, with a short red mane, just put away his police hat and shirt away into his bag as his shift was over. He had gotten into his paddy wagon, humming a low tune to himself. With no one to catch, Mr. Wonder Guard was getting ready to head home for the remainder of the afternoon. That was, until a portal opened up.
Wonder Guard blinked twice, taking a look at this magical portal that popped up. It’s color was purple, and it looked more like a fissure in the air cracked from the bottom and moved upward- Much like a curtain would open if one stuck their leg out first. The purple fissure opened up wider and wider, letting some figures walk out.
“So, you can teleport, but you need to see the place beforehand?” Lex Luthor asked as he marched. His thick metal suit made almost no noise on the concrete road. Amazing, considering how bigger the armor made Luthor look. The two neck guards coming out of his green and purple suit seemed a bit out of place.
“Oh yes, I posses the same power as our benefactor. Though, there are many limitations as to how many can come, how far I can go, and if I’ve been to the place or not,” Master Xehanort spoke. He kept his white gloved hands behind his back, speaking to his fellow bald champion. Xehanort reluctantly liked Lex- He tried not to form attachments in case he had to get rid of the dead weight- But Luthor was cunning and intelligent, his armor alone was proof of that. And while the smith was not able to use magic, he was hardly ignorant of it.
“Hmm... So, this is the city of Baltimare. Not too different from Baltimore,” Wesker added as he moved to allow the clown to pass. Wesker walked deliberately, each step was taken with the stride a general would use and his trench coat flapped against his legs like one. “Show me what you got, Kefka. You may as well drop your act, no one’s buying it.”
“Look! I can juggle!” Kefka grinned, making small colorful balls come out of his sleeves to start make them bounce in his arms. Up and down the balls moved, the clown was floating slowly next to Wesker. While he may have not fooled the other humans, he doubted the non-humans thought he was a super mega maniacal tyrant. As soon as the others walked through, the purple portal vanished.
***********************************************
“This is... Gilgamesh,” The weapon collector spoke out loud. The big guy looked at Sombra, who merely nodded for him. The eyes of the dark unicorn glowed with a blue hue as he projected the images of the other dark champions through the crystals placed around the cavern. “If you can hear me, nod and then move out!”
************************************************
Wonder Guard furrowed his brows, wondering what these creatures were. They were... Minotaurs? No. They lacked the horns. But they wore many more clothes than customary. He debated moving to them and give them a greeting, only to see them all nod at once. Guard picked up his head, making his mane settle a bit against his face as they all suddenly- Took off. The one in metal took to the air, a trail of smoke and fire levitating him. The one in the long black robe vanished from side, a smirk on his face before blurring. The fellow in make up twirled in a circle and then vanish. The final old one slipped into a purple haze to also vanish.
“What was that?”
____________________________________
Wesker ran through the streets, keeping his upper body low to cut the air resistance against his frame. Although he kept his head pointed straight ahead of himself, the modified human took a lot of mental notes. Ponies, and two of the mythical type. Splicing their genes would be worthwhile, but he needed the medical and research equipment to do it properly. Best he could do now was collect DNA to culture up later. The buildings looked sturdy enough, and the roads and other things like carts, vehicles, signs, and windows all looked up to par with human standards. He did expect more traffic though- All he saw was horse drawn vehicles like carts, wagons, and stagecoaches. While he would’ve liked to taken his time and slowly go over everything in detail, there was a mission to complete.
Why was he anxious to finish the mission and do as told? He desperately wanted some time to himself. Time to plan and think. A quiet place to go over his notes and find out who would be the top dog in this war and align himself to them. Even if Sombra could restore his life, all he had to do was place this unicorn in stasis and he should be fine with the other side. And easy enough to do. The other reason he was anxious was to test his powers here. He had no idea if he had change at all, especially since he had no serums on him. At any time, he could lose himself to the virus and transform into his monster persona. So far though, he felt no signs that he would change. Was this also a side effect of being dead?
And he wanted more info on the other humans. Kefka and Xehanort worried him the most- Their so called “Magic power” was the last thing he ever expected to fight. Since this place had so much magic, they held the upper hand. Lex and Vegeta seemed like his best bet for allies. As he raced, newspapers and dust and small objects was tossed in his blurred wake. Ponies, a donkey and a griffon or two took note of the black blur that vanished through the streets. Lots of manes and startled looks begun to fill the faces of the quadrupeds. Wesker took a moment to enjoy their perplexed faces.
Soon enough, he reached the end of the city to end at a stone edge that was border to the sea. Wesker stopped and picked up his head to smell the air and look around. The sea breeze was almost like it belonged back on his earth. The only difference was the lack of pollution and fishermen he came to expect. To his left were the resorts, still further away from him. To the right stood the more business like section of the shipping yards. Watching ponies working on a ship was just... Surreal.
Most of the boats looked no different than humans actually. He really had no idea what he was expecting. If anything, the only thing he could think that was different was the propulsions on these boats. He couldn’t tell at first glance, but he saw very little boats with smoke stacks. Still, this was going to be a tough call. Attacking the boats would probably make a bigger bang, but attacking the resorts would result in more panic. But he couldn’t kill...
“Gilgamesh, this is Wesker. Which target should I hit?” He asked to lift his head. It felt weird, using this form of communication. “The resorts are more popular, but the boats would make better... Fireworks.”
____________________________________
Lex Luthor flew through the sky, at about 20 stories upwards. It seemed that the larger buildings of this city barely reached this high. He wondered if that was becauses horses didn’t do that well in high altitudes. Well, other than pegasi. The bald man turned his head to the left side, looking at a red pegasus just flying by him. The pegasus gave the human a wave, thinking he was a minotaur in a fancy new doohickey. Lex squinted a bit, lifting his left hand up from his side to give the pegasus a return wave.
“Well, that sure was surreal...” Luthor turned to stop himself in mid air and hover in place. Thanks to the solar generators in his suit, he was not worried about running out of fuel. The ammo, however, was a different story. He carried a few missiles and some bunker buster or two, having used some up before he arrived here. The businessman took a second to look around. Lots of ponies looked like ants from his position. They lacked little in architectural art.. A lot of the taller buildings had very few decorations. Was that because horses didn’t like to look up that much?
“Luthor, are you ready?” Gilgamesh asked.
“I’m picking the targets carefully. I’m assuming these ponies are not stupid enough to just stand by and watch as rooftops fall on them,” Luthor commented. He was used to telepathy, but it was still odd for him. Never did like psychics too much.
“No idea. The ponies in this time may be stupider than in my time,” Sombra remarked. “But I think they should disperse.”
**************************************************
“Hmm... It occurs to me we lack an agenda,” Gilgamesh said, gears turning his head. “Try to lure the ponies away from the city and into the resorts area. With everyone attacking critical areas, the resorts will be a good place to herd these ponies in.”
“Are you hearing this?” Pharate asked, turning to look at his King. “Instead of letting the ponies run free, these humans want to treat them as if they were sheeps.” Having gotten filled with love, the generals and rulers turned to the visual show.
“Let us see. Mayhaps they have more in common with Otacon than we thought. It is a good plan though,” King Aurelius said. His mate watched the crystals, eager to see what these humans could do.
“Wesker, go for the boats. The others can cause enough panic among the ponies,” Gilgamesh said. At the moment, Sombra was displaying Wesker for them all to see. The speed at which Wesker moved was impressive- The others teleported or flew, but the sunglasses wearing human moved through pure physical power. Then they watched Wesker jump into the air and land on a boat. In a crouching position, Wesker raised his right hand into the air over his head and make a fist. Less than a second later, his fist moved down to punch through the surface of the deck and splinter it apart. The front part of the boat rocked violently, breaking waves as the ponies shook in the deck. Pieces of wood reflected off his dark lenses. The rope holding the boat to the pier tugged a bit, now only holding to a plank as the ship begun to sink.
“Are you waiting for the invitation? Jump!” Wesker’s deep voice boomed as he jumped off the sinking ship. The ponies still on the ship quickly moved to either jump into the water or the pier. He landed on the wooden dock and grinned. A wicked idea popped into his head. He walked to the rope that had been holding the boat in place. Both hands moved to grasp the rope and tugged hard. The modified human then spun around and continued on his pull to send the piece of wood still attached to the rope to swing and arc in the air. To finish, Wesker placed the rope against his shoulder and tugged, like he was tossing a human body in an arm bar. The large piece of the boat still left on the rope finally swung down to crash against the boat on the other side of the pier.
“That piece of the ship must still weigh over half a ton!” Imago remarked, his eyebrows raised to look at impact of the remains of the ship being used as a mace.
***********************************************
“Hmm. That does sound like a good plan,” Master Xehanort spoke. The old man walked slowly on a sidewalk, his head moving left and right to look at the houses. Most of the residential district seemed to have one or two story buildings of various colors. “If their homes are not safe, and neither is the business district or the sea, they will have to flee to the resorts and we can keep them trapped there.”
Master Xehanort stopped walking, turning to look at a little brown earth colt. The little pony blinked twice, looking up at the bald man. The old wizard shut both his eyes to smile down at the little one.
“Hi! You look strange!” The little colt commented.
“Well, you look strange to me as well,” Xehanort retorted. Still, he smiled and moved his left hand to rub the little colt’s mane. This made the little colt chuckle. “You may want to run now.”
“Run? Why?”
“Oh, the Heartless are coming...” Master Xehanort warned as he raised his hand away from the cute little tyke and use it to point at the shadows. Shadows formed by trees, ponies, signs suddenly started to sprout long oval yellow eyes. Those eyes begun to emerge from the ground, reveals beings the color of black twilight. Round bodies and heads, with two little antennae sticking out from the side of each head.
“What are those things?” The little colt asked as he took a few steps back as their black bodies shifted from place to place.
“They want your heart...”
*************************************************
“Wow... That was a good idea, Gilgamesh!” Kefka clapped, floating on top of an air balloon a pony couple was using. He looked down at the red balloon down at the city from his vantage point. “Want me to cut off the escape from the mountains or forest to make sure they hit the resorts?”
*************************************************
“Alright. We have a plan,” Sombra smiled. He took a second to look back at Gilgamesh and nod in approval. The warrior had a good idea to use, and it was on the spot. Little did the dark unicorn know that Gilgamesh simply wanted to spare these poor creatures. Horses or ponies were gentle creatures and useful, not meant to be cattle.
“Wesker had begun his attack already. Raze the earth!” Gilgamesh hurried them all on.
______________________________________
“Well then...” Lex turned his head to look at his first target. May as well be the largest building. He could afford to waste one missile to get things going, and then use lasers to continue. A small metal cylinder emerged from his the left side of his back, lifting his shoulder pad up to expose several purple mini warheads. Should he warn the ponies? Probably, they may think he was just some flying advertisement or something. “Lookout! Tank missile!”
Two mini missiles fired out from his shoulder, leaving a trail of gray smoke in their wake. The two projectiles spun around each other once before hitting themselves against the side of the building. He had picked a corner, hoping to cause more damage along two walls than just one. He had no idea how strong these buildings could be. The sound of thunder erupted and two large smoke debris clouds exploded at once, followed by the sound of breaking glass and shifting metal as the top floor was destroyed.
He didn’t want too much to fall on the ponies either, so he was glad to see only part of the roof fall down. The other part of the roof collapsed, falling down slightly on the top three floors. Lex nodded, hoping not too many casualties was claimed. The sounds of screaming started to fill the streets underneath him, so he flew off to look for his next target.
_______________________________________
“Did you see that?” Exuvia said, moving slowly closer to a crystal and get a better view of Luthor’s tactical planning. “Those things looked no bigger than our own bombs, yet did so much more of a,” Exuvia stopped there, wondering what word to use. “Bloom? And if his armor can hold bombs, maybe he can replicate it for us.”
“Hey, I think the jester is up to something...” Pharate raised his front left appendage out to point at Kefka’s crystal.
____________________________________
“Destruction without death? BO-RING!” Kefka shouted. The novelty of attacking innocent ponies was quickly wearing off for the clown. He had floated off the balloon he had been on to head to the forest and mountain direction to block potential escape routes. So far, he had been using Zap-Trap Thundaga and Meteor spells to send lighting and fireballs from the sky down to the ground. Thanks to the spells, a few fires broke out in the forest to set trees ablaze. “What fun is in destruction, if no precious life are lost?” Voices of panic and despair filled his ears though, keeping him from outright complaining.
“Kefka Palazzo, what sense is there to death and destruction? We must capture these beings,” Gilgamesh frowned as he delivered his warning.
“Sense? Destruction isn’t supposed to make sense! It’s only fun when it’s senseless!” Kefka shouted once more, floating now at ground level to give a giggle. He came to a stop, lifting both of his hands out in front of himself to start charging energy into his attack. “Forsaken,” Kefka whispered to himself. Waves of explosions fired along the ground, firing off in a line to cause the ground to break apart to divert ponies heading to the mountains. With any luck, some ponies may just get hit...
__________________________________
“Psychotic Clown,” Vegeta muttered under his breath. He took the Crystal heart back, having to glare at some changelings to make them back off. “Wasting energy on light shows. I’d just make the mountains explode and be done with it. Showing off an immovable and invincible item like a mountain getting destroyed is more effective. You know, I’m bored doing nothing,” Vegeta commented. He watched as Mr. Sombrero napped in Sombra’s embrace. Damn that was cute. “Should I join them?”
“No, Vegeta, I saved you and Gilgamesh behind in case the ponies have an ace. You are vulnerable to magic, and unicorns can easily use their horns on you,” Sombra added to pet his sheep.
“Sombra speaks with knowledge. We also have no idea if this city posses humans. Speaking of humans... How does Roger Smith fare?”
____________________________________
Roger lowered his arm down, wondering why he had the urge to object like that. Still, his part in the plan was just getting started. Now, to proceed with the actual negotiations.
“The Crystal Heart?!” Cadence called out, her eyes opened wide worry.
“That’s impossible! We have guards protecting the Heart Chamber,” Shining narrowed his eyes to look up at the negotiator. “And we even have magical fields set up against changelings.”
“So are you saying, a human could get through?” Dan asked, his own eyes narrowed. “If Phoenix here isn’t the only champion this Sombra guy summoned...”
“Granted, I have no proof- But I was told to have Celestia look into a crystal ball,” Smith said look around.
“Shadow Cloud, quickly summon a viewing ball!” Princess Celestia added. The dark pegasus nodded and rushed off, leaving the rest of the group looking at Smith with disbelief and worry.
“Oh Phoenix, how could you?” Rainbow Dash asked in a low voice. Roger raised his hand to slip the sunglasses back on. That look on her face made him feel like the sleazebag, he felt he already was one. Then again, was there truth to what they said? Was he Phoenix? While these thoughts bothered him, he couldn’t afford to show them in this negotiation process.
“Dude, are you really working for the enemy?” Soma asked, taking a few steps towards the man in the suit.
“I would really wish you could act more professionally. You are in a situation of war and you all looked like puppies that got scolded with a newspaper,” Smith replied. “No harm will come to the Heart, but we have demands.” The negotiator left them all speechless, wondering what this meant. Stares that could make most men want to look away assaulted Smith, but he met them back with his sunglasses back on his face.
A sudden draft of green flame appeared before Celestia, a scroll popping out from its wake. “A letter?” Celestia questioned, turning to look at the scroll. The only difference between Spike’s letters and this one though- was a red ribbon tied this one down. Red was the color code of emergency. She quickly opened the scroll to begin reading. “Baltimare is under attack! And it looks like to be the work of humans!”
“What?!” This time, Princess Luna was shocked. “So, it is true?!”
“The navy is now massing a counter attack, but there has been so much panic and destruction in their wake now,” Celestia lowered the letter to look around as she was the center of attention now. The ponies and quadrupedes started to look at each other, worried now.
“We have to muster a counter attack!” Ralf shouted, turning his back of Smith. “Samus!”
“But Phoenix told us to stop. They will most likely destroy the Crystal Heart if we try to retaliate,” Cheerilee frowned, eyes closed halfway to look down at her students.
“So what, we just sit here and do nothing? We know where the enemy base is!” Vergil raised his left hand up. “We can send our team to retrieve it.”
“Hold on. We don’t know that they have it,” Shining turned to his partner.
“But if he does...”
“We have to capture Phoenix.”
“You know, I can still hear you...” Smith commented out loud. “And stop calling me Phoenix.”
“Princess!” Shadow Cloud returned with a white pegasus that had a crystal ball on a purple pillow. They presented the ball for the princess as she stared into it. A few of the others gathered around, trying to look into the ball.
“Kefka Palazzo!” Terra shouted, drawing her head back to shout in fear. “Why is he here?!”
“Who is Kefka?” Princess Cadence asked.
“He’s a manipulator- He worked with the Emperor and then stabbed him in the back and took control of the empire. He also experimented and did cruel torture on people. He’s the clown that enslaved me...”
“Wesker...” Merchant said in a low voice. He turned to look at Junebug. “He’s a head hunch over Umbrella. While I never met the man personally, he’s done a bunch of stuffs- Evil stuffs. Make no mistake, he’s ruthless as they come, and got the power to back it up.”
“I’m not sure who this bald guy is- But he’s using high tech stuff. I bet he uses gear tech,” Snake commented after looking at Luthor. “Where’s Otacon?”
“It looks like Phoenix was telling the truth,” Princess Cadence added with her head down. “Without the Crystal Heart, the love that spreads across Equestria will be stolen.”
“I take it this Heart is very important then?” Sokka asked, lifting his left eyebrow.
“It is. It’s been missing for over a thousand years, and we finally got it back not too long ago,” Shining said, moving to stand next to his wife.
“What does Sombra want?” Princess Celestia stood up straight. She narrowed her eyes, stepping from the group. “I believe you said negotiations?”
“Yes. He has two demands. One- Watch the show. Know that the changelings now have their own humans and are just as powerful as yours....” Smith stopped there, shutting his eyes behind his sunglasses. This was a terrible ultimatum in his eyes. “They promise to keep casualties to a minimum, so long as none of you interfere...”
“Why?” Luna asked, sticking her head out next to her sister.
“To prove a point. As we speak, other races of the planet are also watching this- Deciding whether they will join your side or ours.”
“I see...” Princess Celestia shut her eyes and nod. So this was all just some scheme to show off. With the changelings already staging one uprising in her kingdom, this could very well be the catalyst that caused the other races of Equestria to conspire against her. She already was defeated a few times, tainting her thousand year rule of peace. “And what’s the second thing?”
“Sombra realizes what this conflict between our two forces could mean. So he proposes a simple solution. Wargames.”
“And what makes you think my own forces cannot-”
“Uhh, Princess Celestia?” Shadow Cloud spoke up. “Our navy has been destroyed...”
“What?!”
_____________________________________
“So they sent their naval forces after all,” Gilgamesh commented. He watched along with the others as Vegeta floated over the sea. Countless amounts of debris now littered the water. While not exactly a grand military presence, the Equestria Navy boats moved from the port out to secure an escape route for boats carrying ponies and other creatures.
The saiyan was teleported to the scene, quickly putting an end to that plan. All he had to do was point a single finger and fire off an energy blast. “Pew,” was all Vegeta said as he made warships sink with a single shot of his ki. “I bet Nappa would have loved to just go up and tear these ships apart with his bare hands.”
One by one, the ships exploded, causing smoke and debris to fire off in cloud bursts to decorate the ocean. The once peaceful seas were being decorated by the flowers of fire. Ponies dressed in blue uniforms were floating on lifeboats, looks of anger and fear adorned their faces as they watched the small man looking down at them all.
“Look- You should probably go over there,” Vegeta pointed at the resorts. He lowered his form down closer to one of the lifeboats, hovering slowly like an angry god. Once he was only a few inches from the air, Vegeta shut his eyes and begun to collect his power. Let’s see how much he could draw now that he actually died. Hands balled into fists, he bend his arms and knees a bit. The water started to cause waves underneath his form. Electricity begun to crackle around his form as his battle aura begun to glow. The skies above started to change into a dark color, and the waves grew more and more violent.
“Behold the power of a super saiyan!” Vegeta shouted, throwing his arms out to his sides and firing off his power. A giant whirlpool formed under his hovering form as his released energy made the boats fire off to the sides. He stood straight, small blue lightning bolts cracking around his body as he sported a smirk on his face. “So, your princess can control the sun? I can make it explode!” He shouted against the sound of thunder and the waves.
__________________________________
“Is there nothing any of us can do?” Princess Celestia asked as she looked once more into her crystal ball.
__________________________________
Iron Will looked up at the things flying in the air. Someone had to do something! He was joined by Fancy Pants, Photo Finish, and Nurse Redheart. They all looked to the air.
“Are you guys ready?” Iron Will took to look back at their partners.
Chapter proofreaded by LyonAzakura.
Bonus:
Wesker turned to look at another boat. Hm... A propane tank. He got an idea. He grabbed the tank to toss it up in an arc to land on the boat. He then pulled out his magnum and shot it. The tank fired off in an explosion, making the ship sink. Wesker was about to turn to his next target, only to meet with a fist against his right cheek.
Pow!
"I tell you whut!" Hank Hill yelled out, moving his first to crack against Wesker's left temple. "You do not do that to propane!" Hank moves both arms out to grab hold of Wesker's collar as he reeled back a bit. Hank then drives his head against Wesker's own in a headbutt. To end the combo, Hank grapples Wesker in a headlock and then lifts him the air and let him fall into a pile driver.
"Dude! How'd you get such magical powers?" Davenport asked his human partner, Mr. Hill.
"I huff propane."