Rarity sat watching the R&D Department building across the street, daydreaming about getting Sweetie out of that building, but the 'human' kept creeping up in her mind. Rarity still didn't want to believe it, it couldn't be a human, it had to be the Lunar Forces they must have found some sort of human ship that they learned to fly, and now they were attacking the Imperial Military for control of Equestria. Which Rarity didn't mind if Luna ruled, she'd to be better then Blueblood, she just wanted to get her little sister back.
Mr. Hooves walked into the room still talking on his comm.
"Are you positive corporal? Alright then start the blockade of the target zone. Sargent are the others in place? Alright turn back to the main comm channel and keep me in the loop."
"It's here?"
"Yes Miss Rarity it's here."
Rarity's head shot up towards the sky, looking for any sign of the massive ship she could see in her mind. A giant massive ship twice the size of a command ship, an entire army in it just waiting to drop on top of them. Rarity could make out a sound in the distance, she and Mr. Hooves turned towards the sound. No shape or lights could be seen, but it could be heard. Rarity couldn't name it, either a few propellers spinning at a very fast rate, or several propellers spinning at once, along with a small high pitched noise.
"Hold them back Sargent. Keep the crowd off the street. I don't care what..."
The air vibrated, ears deafened themselves. Rarity saw two small fires outside the window, each wide apart. The few trees that were in the street blew backwards away from a central point a few feet away from the R&D Department. A shape could be seen from the lights on the street. Rarity couldn't make it out, at one end it was angled to the right with nothing in front, while the other end was angled to the right with something in front of it. The two small fires disappeared and the noise came to a stop.
Everything seemed to stand still. Rarity couldn't hear anything, not even her own heartbeat. A figure walked to the building, halting at the door. It stood on two legs, a large shape on its back. The door opened and the creature walked in. When the door closed the air was breathable again, and Rarity's heart started beating again.
"Ok. Now we wait Miss Rarity."
"Now we wait."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What's going on!"
Captain Hooves continued to ignore Rarity until they got to the door leading into the street. As he entered he looked to his left watching as Imperial troops held back a mob of furious ponies. A magic barrier formed around the troops, but Captain Hooves knew it wouldn't last for long. He needed to get the rest of the Imperial Military in the city to his position if his plan was going to survive. Captain Hooves took Rarity to the R&D Department.
"Really Mr. Hooves! What is going on!"
An Imperial Sargent came forward.
"Captain sir, They've breached docking station three."
"Damn! Where are the troops."
"Unknown sir."
"What..."
"Sargent tell all forces to hold positions, but if they fall, tell them to get here asap."
"Yes sir.''
"Mr. Hooves! What is..."
The doors to the R&D Department swooshed opened, frozen air flowed out of the building.
"Miss Rarity, you need to get your sister out."
"Wh...what?" Rarity stared down the dark entrance, fear consuming her eyes.
"You need to get your sister out now, while I keep the city at bay."
"But...but that....that thing!"
"It won't hurt you. It's deep underneath the building finding all of its technology. Your sister is in the room across that wall in here."
"But...how?"
"That's up to you, Miss Rarity. Best of luck."
Captain Hooves pushed Rarity into the building, and closed the door. Captain Hooves walked to his Sargent, equipping his SG to his left shoulder.
"Sargent."
"Yes sir."
"Get the unicorns to make a dome to protect this sector."
"Yes sir."
As his Sargent left to carry out his order a Lance Corporal approached.
"Captain sir."
"Yes Lance Corporal."
"There's an emergency call for you. Their code is Delta Foxtrot 38 Echo."
Captain Hooves nodded and accepted the phone from the Lance Corporal.
"Well, looks like you have things under control."
An empty bottle shattered against the ground behind Captain Hooves.
"Oh yeah, completely under control. Why don't you come on down Derpy, I'm sure these ponies would love to get to know you."
"Hey! Code names, remember."
"Derpy, I'm alone and can't possible remember every single code name I'm given."
"Well looks like you won't be alone for long."
"What do you mean."
"The south barrier is taking a real beating."
"Damn! Lance Corporal!"
"Yes sir."
Captain Hooves handed the phone back to the Lance Corporal.
"She's your eyes in the sky. Keep me updated on the cities situation."
"Yes sir."
"Sargent!"
"Yes sir."
"You're with me."
Together Captain Hooves and his Sargent headed towards the south barrier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rarity fought little against the Captain's hooves pushing her in, and watched the light vanish, leaving her alone in the dark. Little light came from the bulbs in the ceiling, giving the area a dark presence. Rarity walked almost blind through the room trying to find some sort of light panel. There against the wall to her right, a flicker of some small light. Rarity hastily made her way over, and tripped over something about half way over. She didn't take the time to see what she had tripped over, or to question what type of liquid she fell in. Rarity made it to the console where the small blue light flickered on and off in a rotating circle motion. Rarity pressed her hoof against it, and closed her eyes as blinding light filled the room. After a few moments her eyes adjusted to the light and Rarity turned around to see multiple dead bodies of scientist, guards, and other ponies. Pools of blood covered the floor, and the walls bled from red slashes. Rarity noticed a slosh of red dripping from her mane, and the body of a mare with it's head flipped around facing her.
Rarity stood frozen as she stared into those cold lifeless rose colored eyes. When Rarity got out of this place she was going to have to kill Mr. Hooves. Complete bull that the thing wouldn't kill her if it found her up here, but she couldn't leave Sweetie Belle here either. A circular door grabbed Rarity's attention. A quick looked further down the wall told her that this door was the right one as all the others were rectangular. Rarity carefully made her way around the bodies and blood to the door, it wouldn't open as she approached, nor when she pressed the panel on the side. Rarity knew magic would be useless, she didn't have the right understanding about how these types of doors opened. She looked back towards the bodies and noticed that all of them were wearing an I.D badge, she looked back towards the panel wondering if she needed to....
"No." Rarity silently whispered to herself.
She could barely look at the bodies, yet alone touch anything from them. A loud noise from below shook her bones. Rarity didn't know how she knew, she just knew that the thing was coming back up. Rarity looked around desperately for some sort of hiding spot, the room had none, and she was pretty sure that the rest of the doors needed an I.D. badge to. Rarity lit up her horn with magic, and as quickly as she could she lifted the I.D. badges one by one to the panel until she heard the ping that opened the door.
As Rarity entered she noticed how insanely white the whole room was. White floor tiles and wall tiles, along with three giant windows. Different groups of Imperial troops marched around the street and the weird ship. A huge magical barrier filled the night sky as groups of pegasi attempted to bust through. Sobbing brought Rarity back to what she came here to do, she looked around and noticed Sweetie Belle had pressed herself into a corner.
"Sweetie Belle, it's alright now. Your sister Rarity is here."
Sweetie continued to sob in the corner. Rarity slowly walked towards her sister, not wanting to make Sweetie do something rash.
"Sweetie, please stop crying. I'm here now, there's no reason to cry now."
Rarity was only a few feet away when Sweetie turned around and lunged at her, grabbing Rarity by the neck and chest, Sweetie marched Rarity back into the wall, just a few feet from the opened door.
"Sweetie.....what..."
Sweetie Belle's skin started to change colors from white to a light pink as an ash type material flew from the air onto the figure. When the ash was done collecting onto the figure it had grown to Rarity's height with a light pink skin, a cherry blossom mane, and cold, lifeless eyes. The hoof that was pressing on Rarity's chest lifted up to her face where several stick like things morphed out of the hoof and gripped Rarity's head holding her still. A needle emerged from the center of the hoof and made it's way into Rarity's right eye. Pain rocked though Rarity's head and body, completely immobilizing her in place. Rarity, with all her leftover strength yelled at the top of her lungs, before darkness consumed her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Captain Hooves stood staring at the human's ship, his mind still trying to wrap around it. 60 ft in length, a wingspan of 86.5 ft, and a height of 22.7 ft, with the power of a destroyer class air ship in a ship that would pass as a giant shuttle.
"Captain sir."
"Yes Corporal."
"We've lost two more docking stations, and lost contact with Delta squad."
Captain Hooves merely nodded his head in response. The mob was getting worse. Out of the thousands of soldiers that were stationed here, they barely had over two hundred.
"Move it PFC Light! We need to reinforce the west side!"
"Yes sir!"
Two troops ran past. Captain Hooves watched them go, wishing he could get them out of here in one piece. A crack appeared on the west side as a group of earth ponies kicked at the barrier. After a few seconds the crack disappeared and a unicorn was moved to the temporary medical building. Captain Hooves looked back to the R&D Department worrying about Rarity and Sweetie Belle, it felt just like yesterday that he had just been over to the Boutique to check on a sick Sweetie Belle. Now the memories came flooding back, visits to different houses to check on fillies, foals, mares and stallions who didn't need to go to the hospital.
"Hard to believe that was fifteen years ago."
A scream came from the building. Captain Hooves didn't waste a seconded, he was already at the door scanning his I.D. badge by the time six troops came to him. The doors swooshed opened and two ponies entered the building, followed by the other four, then by Captain Hooves. Blood stained the floors and walls along with bodies of guards, scientist, and civilians.
"What the hell?"
"Quiet Private. Keep your eyes opened."
"Yes sir."
"Opened door. Right side."
"Copy."
Two troops entered the opened door and looked around the white room.
"Clear."
"Got a body."
Captain Hooves entered the room to see Rarity set against the wall with a small tear of blood rolling down her right eye, and blood all along her right side. He put his hoof against her neck and felt a pulse.
"She's alive," Captain Hooves looked over to the two troops with him, "Go get a medic."
"Yes sir."
Captain Hooves looked around the room, no other body, no Sweetie Belle. He past the opened door to see the remaining four troops starting to move down the hall, not one giving any notice of a little filly. Rarity stirred a little. He looked out past the windows to see the crowd of ponies continue to pound the barrier, and fighters flew by shooting at the barrier. Captain Hooves reached into his jacket and pulled out a small device, pressed the center button causing it to light up, and placed it in Rarity's hoof. He moved in close to Rarity's ear.
"Listen to me Miss Rarity. You will get out of here just fine. Just don't let go of the beacon, and you'll be just fine, and can start looking for your sister again."
Rarity didn't move. A soldier poked his head around the door.
"Sir, the elevator is moving."
"What floor?"
"Forty-two sir."
Captain Hooves let go of Rarity's hoof, watched the beacon fall and land by her side. He moved out of the room and looked to his left, his men stood ready with there SG's pointed towards the elevators. Captain Hooves started giving the order for his men to move back outside, when a body of a mare caught his eyes. Blossom colored mane, light pink skin, eyes wide opened with fear. Captain Hooves moved in close to her and lifted her main out of her face, looking into the cold, lifeless eyes on such a beautiful face.
"So young."
Captain Hooves placed a hoof on her neck out of habit. He was starting to move it when he felt a pulse, a few seconds later another pulse. He looked at the blood pool that she was in, it didn't seem to match her body. Another pulse.
"We got a live one over..."
Captain Hooves felt a hoof at his throat, he looked down to see it belonged to the mare. He stared into those lifeless eyes as her pulse quicken. Memories flooded his mind.
Standing in the crowd in Canterlot waiting to see the biggest discovery in Equestria's history....Lyra touching the artifact, the lights forming around the crowd....the message....the creatures....the world went back to normal....a figure stood on the outside of the crowd....it lifted a pony by the throat....blood flew through the air....the creature produced a loud blood churning scream....more appeared out of thin air....running through the Everfree forest wearing the first model of the current SG, screaming with other ponies, his first mission with the Imperial Military....watching those creatures slaughtering troops by the hundreds....closing his wound with leafs, trying not to pass out....stumbling back to a town he didn't know....finding out he was gone for five years....
The troops yelled at the mare to lower her hoof, but Captain Hooves barely heard them as he stared into those lifeless eyes as a needle slowly entered his throat. He knew it was happening at a regular pace, but it went so slowly in and through his throat. It didn't penetrate anything vital, and Captain Hooves was starting to wonder if he really would die when the needle expanded to three times it's size in his throat and sprouted even more needles ripping their way through his throat. His men started screaming and shooting, the mare moved to use Captain Hooves as a shield. The troops started to move to him, the mare brought the hoof out of his throat, taking with it half of his throat and ran to the door. Captain Hooves fell to the ground watching the creature flee from the SG rounds flying to it as more troops blocked the door from the outside. The air started to get thick, blood covered the floor, his men were shaking him, trying to get him to answer them.
The world started to fade out, voices blurred into a drone of echoes, three thuds shook Captain Hooves back into the world. His men were either fleeing from something behind him, falling to the floor, or on the floor bleeding and dying. The pink mare was leaping through the crowd of Imperial troops to escape. A metal boot fell in front of his face. From far away the metal looked rough with gaps and little bends, but up close it was smooth, the bends and angles of the metal seemed to mimic the humans foot, and the gaps gave it room to bend at the joints. Another round of thuds ran through his bones, three white trails flew through the air towards the fleeing pink mare. Imperial troops stood watching as the human chased after the mare, none of them noticing the magic barrier was falling to pieces. The world started to fade again until nothing but a black abyss filled the world, and everything went silent.