The pony quartet’s training lasted for two more weeks before Thompson felt their physical conditions were well enough to begin field operations again. As expected, the lone unicorn was nowhere close to the strength, speed, and endurance of her companions. Yet she was capable enough for Thompson’s parameters; at least for the time being. Conrad on the other hand had shown a marked improvement in his top speed and maneuverability in the air. While it strained his magic to do so, he was now able to carry a full grown adult man for a short distance in the air and was more than capable of carrying the heavy earth mares; albeit still only one at time.
Currently however, Alexia was in one of the magic testing labs inside The Ranch’s hangar. She had a picture frame roughly six inches squared balanced on her back. There was no picture on display, but it did contain a diagram that made it impossible for her to levitate it, at least that’s what she was hoping to demonstrate. Doctor Roberts and the last remaining unicorn loyal to Bowler waited in the center of the room with a pedestal standing next to them.
Observing from the catwalks above was the Colonel, the representatives of the CIA, FBI, and the Joint Chiefs. All of them remained passive as Roberts spoke. “Is that the antimagic device?”
“It is.”
Roberts noted that she did not use levitation to place the frame on the pedestal. “It seems…a little thin and small. How does it work?”
“It’s a diagram that feeds on active magic. It only needs to be as thick as a layer of ink. As for its size, the area of effect increases proportionally to the size of the array. This one negates magic in a ten foot radius.”
Roberts wrote down some notes. “I trust you at least brought us a working version, but as for its performance, we will get a measure of that ourselves.”
“As charming as ever Doctor.” Tune nodded while dripping her tone in a thick layer of sarcasm.
“Yes, I know. Now go stand by the yellow line.” He indicated to one on the far end of the room. “Your presence is only needed to make sure its working properly.”
“You don’t want to test it on me?”
“You drew this diagram and if it does actually work then you could be faking its total effective range by cutting your magic early. Subject X-ray two seventeen will do the actual testing.”
Alexia wanted to remain diplomatic in the presence of the men standing on the catwalks. “Suit yourself.” She trotted over to the designated line and dusted the spot with her tail before settling down to lie on her belly. This was done on purpose so she wouldn’t start absently touching her abdomen and potentially broadcast her pregnancy to anyone present and or possible cameras.
Roberts turned to X-ray. “Shall we get started?” The banana yellow unicorn nodded crisply. “Good. Stand by the blue line and pick up prop A.” The blank flank unicorn did as instructed and grabbed a large, but light weight so that the observers could see. “Now approach the pedestal.”
X-ray walked to the picture frame with slow steps so he could feel the instant his magic began to falter. There was a slight pulling effect at twelve feet and the moment he crossed ten feet the green aura around his horn and the prop flickered, faded, and then died. The prop noisily clanged to the ground. X-ray felt a slight hornache at the base of his skull that dissipated a couple of seconds after he stopped trying to maintain the spell. The pulling sensation also disappeared. He quickly informed Roberts of everything he felt.
The craggy old scientist jotted everything down. “Good. Now, try to cast a spell while already inside the AoE.”
X-ray attempted to lift the weight again only to have a stabbing hornache that caused him to stop seconds later. “I can’t do it. That thing keeps sucking my mana out every time I try.”
“Good to hear.” Roberts replied. “Now, let’s try the next phase of the test.”
As test after test solidified Tune’s claim that the array worked as promised, Alexia noticed the men on the catwalk were muttering to themselves. I suppose only fair. The humans should have some way to protect themselves from criminalistic ponies. She frowned at the thought. I just hope there won’t be any. She knew it was wishful thinking, but she wished it anyway.
With her being completely ignored by the other occupants in the room, her thoughts started to drift to other, more personal matters. I still can’t get over the fact I’m carrying foals. She made sure to keep herself facing forward so she would appear bored to anyone bothering to look. To think four months ago my greatest concern was whether or not I could stand waiting for the next book to be released. And now I’m…I’m going to be a mother. She had not quite fully come to grips with that being part of her identity yet because she had been so engrossed in training, magical study, and helping the ponies in The Ranch. Nevertheless, the notion of being a mother was a prospect she was looking forward to more and more each day. I always had the notion of being a parent one day. Just never thought I’d be the one giving birth.
Her thoughts darkened and her cheer faded. What the hell am I going to do about these next four years though? I haven’t started showing yet, but that won’t last much longer. I may be able to get away with one more month, but if I’m constantly on missions or in training there’s no way I’ll be able to pass off an expanding belly as being fat. Maybe even shorter than that since I’m carrying twins. She was only absently aware of the tests moving on to see if objects could be magically thrown into the field from a distance. What’s worse is that I don’t know if formula would be healthy.
She briefly recast her Inner Sight to witness the thin trickle of her magic feeding the unborn foals. It was a spell she had been casting many times recently. Partially to cement in her mind that they were real, and partially because she loved the sight of them; even if all the spell revealed of them were two small collections of a thin web of mana. They need magic to grow, that much I know. Maybe I could try to infuse my mana into the bottles, but that wouldn’t account for proper nutrient and I doubt horse milk would work. Plus I don’t know if there are any other pregnant mares out there willing to wet nurse. I may have no choice but to do that myself. I wouldn’t mind that if it wasn’t for these damn four years. Thompson’s not going to wait for the twins to be big enough to wean, and I’m sure as hell not taking them anywhere near a combat zone.
While maintaining an impassive exterior, she screamed internally in frustration. I don’t know how, but I will make this work. I don’t care what they threaten me with, I am having these foals. But I still need to hold up my end of the bargain. Maybe the Director would be open to extending my duration of service to make up for maternity leave. And hopefully the camp will be closed by then so that bastard Bowler can go shove it. I’ll need to ask Twilight about this to be sure. Who knows, maybe she has a spell to make magic milk in a bottle. At the very least she could tell me what kind of diet I should eat or a spell of protection so any injury to me doesn’t threaten the foals.
The day’s tests concluded an hour later. Roberts and X-ray made countless attempts to defeat the array, short of breaking it. When all was said and done Tune was dismissed and was told she would hear from them later.
The silver unicorn expected good news and cantered back home to give the word to her housemates. She only found Conrad at the house because the earth mares were out trying to round up parts for a stronger satellite uplink in an effort to punch through the jamming. The hidden cameras had all been removed shortly after Alexia found out about them and Bowler didn’t retaliate as they would have served no further purpose after the discovery.
He was reading her tome and focusing on the pegasi version of arrays. While he did have interest in it, he was not able to focus on it nearly as much as Tune could and was constantly distracted by little things. It didn’t help that his wings ached to feel the wind under them. When the door opened at her arrival, he was up in a second and flew over to hover in front of her. “Did it go well?”
“I like to think it did. The diagram preformed to specifications.”
“Then they shouldn’t have any more excuses to hold us here.” He said as she walked by him to sit on the loveseat. He dropped out of the air to join her.
“That’s the master plan. Did the Director give a date?”
The brown stallion nodded. “Not yet. He said that we have to wait for a situation to occur, but we’re supposed to be ready to move at a moment’s notice.”
“Such is our chosen path in life.” She replied with a touch of despondency. They nuzzled with him wrapping a wing around her.
“Have you told Twi about the twins?”
“I haven’t had a chance. There were some serious issues that came up and she needed her full attention on it.”
“I hope its nothing too major.”
“I doubt its anything she can’t handle.” She paused to bask in his touch. The one thing the alicorn did before her leave of absence was to add the traditional marital vows for a pony style wedding to Alexia's version of the archives. They made Tune hold off on popping the question because it quite clearly stated that the partners were open for others to join them into forming a herd. I still need to try easing him into the idea before asking for a ring. A similar thought made her question it. Do ponies even wear rings? I mean I could have one on my horn, but that wouldn’t work for the other tribes.
She dropped that train of thought to focus on the bigger problem. She had been practicing what angle of persuasion to work in first. Here goes step one. “Conrad?” He gave a quizzical hum. “Do you ever wonder why there are so many mares compared to stallions?”
“I just assumed it was random chance. Why do you ask?”
“I talked to Twilight about it a while ago and she said that’s normal for our kind.”
He looked up and tapped his chin. “Guess that means its free entry for stallions at the club instead of mares then right?”
She snickered at him. “I wouldn’t doubt it. But it defiantly makes you colts a hot commodity.”
“Well how do Twilight’s people handle it? Mass orgies every month?”
She jabbed him in the chest. “You wish.” He cracked a mischievous grin at her expense. “But while ponies have marriage, they don’t support monogamy.”
He frowned at that. “Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to be subtle about something?”
So much for easing the idea in. She internally cursed how readable they have become to one another. She shuffled her hooves trying to find the right words as he gently glowered at her. “Okay I’ll get to the point.”
“That’s better.”
She gave a nervous half smile before losing it under his gaze. “Conrad. You know I love you more than anything and I want us to be together forever.”
He eyed her carefully. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”
She nodded sheepishly. “But…” She said at length. “I don’t think it should be just us.”
His brow furrowed. “You mean besides the foals?”
“Y-yes.”
He squinted and rubbed his temples. “Okay, in all honesty I thought this would be something the stallion asks of the mare. Not the other way around.” He cracked an eye open to gauge her reaction. “Cause it sounds to me you want to add a second mare into the equation.”
Or a third. “That’s why I wanted to ask you before I ever talked to her about it.”
“You make it sound like you already have someone in mind.” He said as he lowered one hoof from his temple. She wouldn’t ask anyone outside the four of us and since Crimson is still coming to terms with being female so that only leaves one person. He dropped his other hoof and scowled at her. “You want Loki to make a love triangle between us?”
“I’ve seen how you to get along now. You laugh at her pranks and I’ve even seen you return the favor a few times.”
He groaned. “Alex. We buried the hatchet, not fallen in love with each other.”
She tentatively nuzzled him. “I know and I’m proud of you both for it. But you know the gender ratio is three to one against you. We can’t survive as a society if half of the population is forbidden to have love because of monogamy. Sure lesbians exist, but I’m sure the number of gay stallions more than offsets that.”
His scowl weakened as her arguments made sense. He wanted ponikind to be successful as much as she did and polygamy seems to be the best, if a difficult answer to swallow. Or no marriage at all. He thought to himself. “It still feels like I would be unfaithful to you. I couldn’t stand doing that.”
Alexia had a weak smile and pecked him on the lips. “It won’t be a betrayal if all three of us consent at the same time.” She hugged him tightly. “I’ll be there every step of the way, to show you both that you’re simply too much stallion to hog all to myself.”
He knew it was a direct play on his ego. “Okay Alex. If you’re truly open to this, then I owe it to you to at least give it a shot. But I want you to know that if things get weird, you are my first and purest love.”
She grinned and squeezed him tighter. “I thought you were above saying cheesy lines.”
“Normally I am.” He said after separating. “But I feel like I should make it clear to you that if this thing with Loki doesn’t pan out, that I still want us to be together.”
An amorous smirk crossed her features. “Speaking of being together.” She moved in and gave a deep lustful kiss to which he returned in earnest. “How about you and I go have some fun in the bedroom?”
“Are you sure that won’t harm the twins?”
She felt a surge of joy that he was thinking of the foals’ safety. “Wilder said I’m as healthy as can be, so it’s perfectly safe.”
“Well since you put it like that.” He pointed a hoof at the bedroom. “Lead the way oh Glorious Leader.”
The earth pair found their way back home shortly after lunch and well after the couple’s romp. Alexia wanted to try and talk to Loki about starting a proper herd, but the pair’s nervous expression stayed the unicorn’s tongue. Crimson had saddlebags laden with items.
“GL. Thompson’s got a job for us.”
The silver mare got off the couch to find out what Loki was going to say as Crimson pulled out a quartet of satellite phones, one small and one normal sized saddlebag along with a utility belt and four goggles clearly designed for ponies. Tune surveyed the items. “What’s all this?”
“Courtesy of our department’s bigger budget. This stuff was tailor made with the four of us in mind.” Crimson replied. She handed Conrad the belt and Tune the smaller saddlebag along with a satellite phone and pair of goggles each.
Conrad landed to take the offered items. “So what’s the job?”
Loki checked her phone as she spoke. “He didn’t want to repeat himself. Only that we gear up and get down to the helipad pronto.”
The group donned their equipment and they checked each other to make sure it was all fastened securely before they bolted out the door and headed south to the pads. A familiar CH-53 Sea Stallion was already warmed up and ready to go with the Director standing next to the ramp. He saw them coming and ran out to dole out the four helmets he had on a rope. Thompson was wearing a helmet as well.
Once Alexia got hers on she asked the shared question into the mic boom. “What’s going on boss?”
“I’ll tell you all in the air.” With the equipment on their heads, he led the pack into the helicopter. The four ponies sat on the same row with Loki, Alexia, Conrad, then Crimson all in a line. Between her housemates, the support group, and the herd mentality; Crimson’s self-identity had shifted enough to where she no longer felt reservations about snuggling next to Conrad. Were she to really search her feelings, she would realize she felt better about snuggling with him then with Loki. However she was not quite ready to fully entertain such thoughts.
As the aircraft took off, the Director fished out his pad and clicked his intercom. “How much are you four aware of the brown clouds?”
“I hear it in the news a lot.” Piped Anderson. “The news claims they fall out of the upper atmosphere and drop to the surface completely at random.”
Loki fidgets in her seat to scratch an itch. “Aren’t they supposed to be toxic or something?”
The pale yellow mare balked at her. “You didn’t know they cause anyone caught in them to go nuts? What have you been doing all that time you’re online?”
Crimson was referring to when Loki brought her computer harness out to the training ground and away from the jamming station at The Ranch. Loki replied in a deadpan fashion while nonchalantly inspecting her hoof. “Perfectly legal activity.”
Crimson gave her a supremely disbelieving expression to which the Director chose to ignore the exchange. “That is the long and short of it. Thus far the U.S. has been fortunate. The clouds that have landed on our soil thus far have been in very lightly populated areas at worst. Today, that luck has run out.”
He had the ponies’ full attention. “As of two hours ago. One of those psychotropic clouds touched down right smack dab in the center of the southern half of Rock Springs, Wyoming. Many inhabitants managed to get indoors and call for emergency services, but we believe too many were either caught outside or in structures that simply pumped the cloud particles in via air conditioning. The local police and medical facilities are not equipped to handle the fog. As such, I got the brass to allow us to render assistance to an Army detachment that’s been sent to pull out and victims they come across before they awake.”
Conrad was hesitant. “Why did you try and get us this assignment if it’s a biohazard?
It was the Director’s turn to be hesitant. “We know for a fact that ponies are immune to the effects of the clouds. The only threat they pose to you is a choking hazard from the particle density. As such you’ll be giving masks to accompany your goggles.”
Loki bristled. “And how do you know this?”
Thompson kept his face neutral. “A squad of retrieval experts were trying to collect a pony from the woods inside Oregon before we knew about the dangers these clouds possess. The squad managed to tranquilize the pony but not before a cloud fully descended on the area. When the cloud dispersed and a second squad went after the transponders, the pony was perfectly fine, if a little traumatized and emaciated from being on the run for so long and not knowing he could eat foliage.”
The quartet shared a quick glance with one another as Thompson continued. “The squad wasn’t so lucky. When they were found, the pony was taken to The Ranch while the retrieval team was brought in for medical treatment. Whatever the cloud did, it made them lose their minds. As soon as they awoke, they killed everyone in their way before the MPs were willing to gun them down. We know this is a human only disease because the pony showed absolutely no symptoms from the cloud and thus far, there have been no cases of flora or fauna showing any detrimental symptoms of the clouds.”
Crimson was appalled at the military polices’ response. “Why didn’t they try nonlethal first?”
“It wasn’t working.” The Director stated simply. “Tasers only stopped them so long as the electricity kept coming and they ignored pepper spray like it wasn’t even there.”
Alexia was floored. “You want us to go into the middle of a city full of people who might all be raving psychos?”
“You won’t be alone and the victims should still be unconscious.” The Director placated. “You’ll be linking up with Able company, comprising of nine squads. The lot of you are going in to round up everyone who’s been affected and reassure anybody who is hiding in an air tight room that they’ll be okay so long as they stay there until the all clear is given.”
He studied each pony’s face in turn. “This is a half final training exercise, half real operation for you. The primary object of this operation is twofold. The first part is to clear the town of the sick so they can be taken to a medical facility for possible treatment. The second is to get both you and servicemen some experience in running an operation with each other. We’re not expecting a fight, just a simple round up and rescue.”
Crimson was dubious about the whole thing. “If you’re that concerned about infection, why are we only given masks and goggles? Even if we aren’t affected, we’re covered in hair and fur that the cloud bits would cling to.”
“Whatever causes these problems, be it a chemical or virus of some kind, decays alarmingly fast, roughly a minute after the cloud reaches fully settled into the ground. Every sample taken thus far has given us no insight into how these clouds infect people, aside from inhalation or through tears in the skin. But even then, those are just theories based on speculation.”
“I’d still rather not have that gunk in my fur.” Loki grumbled.
“There will be a full sanitization station set up at the LZ by the time the op is done.” He brought up a document on the pad. “Now, I have the layout of the town here, although the route you will take will be set by the operations commander.” He flipped the pad towards the lone unicorn who took it in her telekinesis to inspect it herself.
Alexia studied the image carefully. “Never thought I’d use my experience as a mail carrier of all things to help with this.” The prospect of keeping people safe from the mental damaging effects was appealing. At least we shouldn’t have to kill anyone today.
The rest of the short flight from the southwest corner of South Dakota to Rock Springs was occupied by familiarization of the protocol for finding survivors and victims alike, and how to interact with the soldiers on more equal terms than they had with the guards in the internment camp.
Tune couldn’t keep the worry out of the back of her mind about what her occupation might do to her pregnancy. Conrad could tell it bothered her more so than it did him, but he chalked that up to not being the pregnant one himself. He motioned for her to click to a different channel and spoke in Equish to be sure no one could understand them. “This should be an easy, if emotionally strenuous op. The worst we should face is a lot of people passed out in the streets. As long as you keep the mask and goggles on the foals should be fine.”
She gave him her best strained smile. “I know. But I’m also worried about our method of travel. The web says I can fly without a miscarriage risk, but they only meant commercial airlines, not an insertion helicopter. We may have it easily now, but I doubt we’ll stay that lucky for another six months. What if we have to evac out of a hot zone or I get injured?”
“Have you talked to Twilight about it? Maybe she knows of something that can help with that.”
The silver mare shook her head. “I haven’t been able to contact her because she’s been tied up with other duties. And the way the Guard archives work, I can’t get a message to her.”
“Well, she is a princess after all. We’ve all got stuff to do.” She hummed in agreement, but it was lost in the noise. “Did you think of a way to protect yourself against bullets yet?”
Tune tilted her head to reveal a grimace. “I don’t know. I thought of an idea that might work, and I’ve cast it a few times; but I haven’t actually tested it yet.”
He wanted to inquire more about it, but the CH-53 was on final approach and set down on Lincoln Highway where a large collection of Army personnel were marshaling in front of exit 107 into Pilot Butte Avenue. The highway was completely deserted of civilians thanks to roadblocks set up by the local police who were outside the cloud when it landed. It was a four lane highway that was surrounded by moderately high drab brown hills consisting of sparsely scattered yet hardy plants that taunted the rough conditions. From the ground, it looked as if the flanking hills created a funnel towards the town the highway serviced. Yet instead of a welcoming, if modest, town off in the distance there was a dense opaque brown cloud that clung to Rock Springs like a blanket smothering the life out it.
The Army’s nine squads were nearly ready to go. Ten M35 cargo trucks complete with passenger trailers were idling off to the side as each squad waited for the order to go in. Many however were anxious for a second reason. They had all been told about having equine assistance today. Most laughed at their respective sergeants at the pictures of them during the hasty briefing each of them went through before arrival. Many believed that command was pulling the most awkwardly timed joke of the year, and that the ponies belonged in a petting zoo instead of a biohazard cleanup.
It was with trepidation that the four ponies disembarked the Sea Stallion followed the Director to their designated marshaling area. Those that had scoffed at the equines’ existence before were more than a little dumbstruck at the reality of them. Were it not for the situation at hand and the Director leading the ponies around, many of the soldiers would have smothered them in affection typically reserved for dogs and cats. If it wasn't for those same reasons, the ponies would have let them.
Thompson made his way to Captain Pardo after being pointed at the command tent. With the quartet in tow, he pushed the drab green flap out of his way and found the officer who was in the middle reading a report that was just handed to him. “What do you mean no one in RS is in contact with emergency services anymore?”
The liaison between him and the local authorities shrugged. “That’s what they’re telling me. The last call was suddenly dropped fifteen minutes ago. The dispatchers tried to call them back but-“
Pardo saw an odd assortment of color in the corner of his eye and turned to face the intruders. He and his aides were at a loss as to how to react to seeing four ponies who uniformly came across as adorable to the men and women present. “There you are Captain. I’m here with my team to begin integration. I take it you already received the communiqué.”
Pardo studied the ponies briefly before facing Thompson. “I did. You’ll forgive me if I didn’t believe it until now.”
“Hopefully that will not be an issue for too much longer.” The Director replied cryptically. “So I take it you received the supplies for them?”
“That I did. They are sitting on Truck One twenty.” He checked his watch. “They will round out the members of Lima squad. We begin in ten minutes. Have them ready by then.”
“They will be.” He turned to Alexia. “You remember seeing that on the way here?”
She nodded. “I did.”
“Good. I will monitor things from here.” The majority of the men reeled from the fact that the unicorn understood and spoke English.
With the same mare leading the way, the ponies made their way to Lima squad. Almost every eye they passed stared at the pegasus who couldn’t hold back the urge to fly along behind the unicorn. Lima squad was commanded by Sergeant Azus. Most of his features were hidden behind the full body NBC suit, and his voice was distorted by the mask he wore. At Alexia’s approach he ordered his men to board the truck and took two steps to meet the arriving ponies. “So you’re the odd ones who’ll be joining us.”
Loki bounced on her hooves so she was almost eye level with him for a moment. “Yea well your odd to us too buddy. How about you hoof over our masks so we can show you guys how its done.”
Azus’s expression was hidden by the suit, but his tone of voice marked his playfulness. “You got quite a mouth on you. I like you already. But keep the chatter to a minimum once we get started. The higher ups want this done before the victims start waking up.” At a gesture, the masks were taken from the front of the cargo area and brought to the back. “I hope you can put these on yourselves.” He noted as he glanced at their distinct lack of hands.
Conrad grabbed his from the air and after a quick inspection of how it was to be secured; he placed it on his muzzle with moderate ease. “I think we can handle ourselves.” The mask fully covered the ponies’ snout and muzzles while giving them enough space to speak.
The green mare cut in after securing her own mask. “You think a lack of fingers could stop us?”
“Well it…should.” The sergeant was baffled on how all four managed to secure the masks by themselves. I’m not even going to ask how.
The radio attached to Azus’s chest crackled to life. “All squads get ready to move. Alpha you’re up first.”
Lima squad was already in the truck and the ponies needed no further prompting to join them. One by one, the truck filed down highway exit. The looming dark cloud sapped the truck’s occupants of any curiosity over the ponies and they all settled into stoic professionalism. Each of them had been briefed on the scope of the mission, and were fully aware of the dangers the fog posed. Yet with so many inhabitants of Rocky Springs, they couldn’t risk waiting for it to dissipate to start rounding up the afflicted. And the mandate to check for survivors was demanding of quick action as well. All of them would fulfill their duty, but that did little to keep morale high at what they expected to find within.
The bright and clear day was swallowed up as the uncovered trucks closed in on the massive blanketing and yet eerily condensed cloud. The first thing Lima noticed was the complete lack of movement within, save for the coy tousling fine brown particles of the fog at the convoy’s passing. The trucks started splitting off along the roads with Lima’s truck going along the South Side Belt Route which would take them around to the south side of town. The last truck in the convey peeled off to follow Lima a short distance before it stopped by the first few cars to check if they had drivers in them.
Even from the road that passed through the edge of town, it was painfully obvious to both Lima and the ponies that Rock Springs was terrifying in a completely passive way. There were only a scattered few cars here or there on their way to the first stop at Marchant Street. Some had been driven off the side of the road when their drivers had passed out while others were idling in the middle of the road. Crimson felt the heavy gloom the cloud created threatened to snuff out all cheer and life from the world. She shuffled closer to Conrad who mirrored her sentiment.
Lima’s truck did not stop until it arrived at the three way intersection between Marchant and Jaidyn Drive. Everyone climbed out of the back and split off into pairs with the ponies staying together.
Sergeant Azus did a quick headcount before speaking through the gas mask. “You know our orders. We go through each house and check for anyone who’s holed up and tell them to sit tight and that they’re going to be okay so long as they stay wherever it is that they’re currently hiding in.” He kept his tone curt and emotionless. “As for the victims, we round them up and put them in the trailer.” He turned to the last pair of soldiers who included the truck driver. “Murphy, Lambert, you stay with the truck and help secure the influx of passengers. Once the trailer is loaded up, return to base camp to drop them off and then return to us.”
“Yes Sergeant!” They replied in unison.
Azus faced the rest of them. “This is grim work, but time is of the essence.” His trepidation was plain for all to hear. “Let’s just get it done.”
The rest of the squad hurried over to the first few houses on the left while Alexia led her group to the first on the right. It was a simplistic house that was one story tall with a pointed roof to allow for a small attic. It had a driveway one car length long and a garage just large enough for two cars to squeeze inside. The vast majority of the exterior was off-white vinyl siding with red brick on the lower half of the front face of the house.
Yet something about the house set the ponies on edge; both the garage and front door were wide open. Loki tried to soften the impact. “I don’t get how people can get away with leaving their houses completely open like that. Its like saying: ‘please rob me, I don’t care about my stuff. Go ahead take it.’”
Crimson got over her skittishness and cantered over to inspect the door. As the others approached she pointed at the frame. “I don’t think the owners left it open.” One part of the frame was badly damaged where the anchor for the deadbolt had been pried off.
Conrad knew the marks of a crowbar when he saw one. “Someone broken in here alright. Probably right before the cloud hit.”
Tune readied her magic, but did not activate anything more than a bright light spell to cut through the darken gloom of the house. “We still need to investigate. If the owners came back when the fog came or if the robber is still here we need to check anyway.”
Crimson flipped the light switches and the front room was illuminated. She shrugged sheepishly at Alexia. “No need to waste magic when we got electricity.”
Despite the situation, the unicorn cracked a smile under her mask, but it was evident in her eyes. “Fair enough, just be sure to turn them back off again.” The light on her horn winked off, but she kept a ready supply of mana there to defend herself if need be.
They split up in pairs, with the earth ponies staying together. While Tune and Anderson only thought to look for people, Loki and Conrad’s criminal instincts made them wary of other clues. As Alexia scanned the living room, checking under the couch and covered tables to make sure any children had not attempted to sequester themselves there, Conrad checked the ravaged kitchen.
He didn’t like what he saw in the pantry. “No canned or dry food.” His hoof made a loud crushing noise. He looked down to see crumbs falling away from his sole. “There’s cereal all over the damn floor.” He had to watch his step to avoid any more balls of cereal on his way to the refrigerator. “Barely anything’s left.” He didn’t need to check the trashcan to know most of the refrigerated food containers were within as they overflowed the can and many were on the floor. He scowled. “I don’t like this one bit.”
Crimson returned from the garage. “No one in there.”
Alexia nodded to the yellow mare. “I didn’t find anyone either.”
Loki and Conrad approached them nearly at the same time. He addressed the green mare before the others. “Notice anything off about the bedrooms?”
“Aside from the lack of people? Yeah, I didn’t see any luggage and it looked like someone packed in a hurry.”
Tune was confused. “We already know someone broke in.”
Loki wasn’t so sure. “Found the jewelry box sitting on the dresser in plain view and it's still full of gold. Whoever came in here wasn’t looking for valuables.”
Crimson glanced about the hallway with a nervous ring in her voice. “What are you trying to say?”
Conrad shook his head. “We don’t know yet. I’m hoping this was just a smash and grab before the cloud hit and the robber didn’t have time to check the bedrooms. But we can’t linger to keep looking.”
The unicorn agreed with that. “Then let’s move on to the next house.”
The next house over was a dull pastel green and had a very similar layout to the first house. “Okay, this is getting ridiculous.” The gloom of the cloud was not enough to keep the lone unicorn from waving her hoof at the broken door. “Was there a crime spree or something before the cloud hit?”
Crimson looked behind them to see the soldiers were moving to the next set of houses. “We should keep going guys. We don’t want the squad to start waiting on us.”
Tune scanned the housed behind her. “Right. Let’s go on in.”
“I’ve got the bedrooms again.” Loki announced as she headed toward the master bedroom. As she expected, there was no one hidden in the bed or closet. “Room’s been ransacked of clothes here too, but all the fancy stuff is still here.”
She was nosing under the bed when she saw a shotgun shell. Her brow furrowed and she reached out to grab it with a hoof. “Its unused. The home owners definitely had a shotgun here, but I don’t see it around.” She did a quicker search to find the weapon but came up empty. Alexia called her to join them in the main hall a minute later.
“I take it…” Crimson stopped speaking when she saw Loki.
The green mare halted at the circle of ponies and took the shotgun shell off her withers and showed it around. “Found this but no other ammo, or the gun it belonged to.” Conrad shared a troubled glance with her.
Tune was about to ask what was up, but her radio crackled to life. “Lima one to Zeta one. What’s your status?”
She pulled her hand held radio out of her small saddlebag and held it up to her face. “Haven’t found anybody whatsoever. What about you?”
“No not yet. Its likely everyone was at work or school when it hit.”
Alexia had to concede to that. We are in a residential area after all.
Azus continued speaking. “We’re moving further down the main street. I’m splitting the squad in two and your group will take the southern houses.”
“Copy that Lima one.” Alexia let her group back out and spent the next ninety minutes along with Mike squad to sweep every building between Mountain View Cemetery and New Hampshire Street, a grand total of zero people were found in the entire area that housed well over a thousand people. By the time Lima was passing the intersection between McKinley and Palisades Way, the green and brown ponies’ concerns were shared by the whole squad.
Sergeant Azus clicked his radio. “Lima one to Mike one.”
A reply came back a moment later. “This is Mike one.”
“Have you found anybody yet? Victim or survivor?”
A foreboding pause elapsed before the response came. “Not a soul.”
Azus glanced around from his perch on top of the truck’s cabin as it slowed to a halt to let his men and the ponies disembark. They had all been apprehensive about the mission already; but the lack of bodies and the fact that every house so far had been ransacked, put everyone on alert. Azus watched them spread out to continue their sweep. “What about the houses? Any of them seen a break in?”
Mike One did not like this line of conversation. “Almost every one so far. I’m radioing this in to command.”
Thompson had very little he could do as he loitered near the radio operators. He was there mostly as a handler for the ponies, but with the Army in command of the operation, he could do little but observe. I’m not going to get anymore equine volunteers until The Ranch finally goes down. Unfortunately with only four of them being around, they’re more of a curiosity than a respectable addition.
He sidestepped out of the way of a soldier delivering a report. Still, I have to start somewhere. And I’d prefer to get both parties used to each other in an easy op. He rethought his last musing. Well, maybe not so easy emotionally. Hopefully some of the victims can be saved, but I doubt it.
Rumblings from the four communication operators grabbed his attention. The woman was sitting in front of the radio with her finger pressed against the earphone to make sure she was hearing the other line correctly. “What do you mean you haven’t found anybody?” He paused as the speaker answered, her brow furrowed in confusion. The Director inched over to hear better. “RS has over twenty thousand on census; how can it be a ghost town?”
Captain Pardo heard the outburst from his conversation with his aides and walked over. “Something wrong lieutenant?”
She tapped the mic twice to signal her removal from the radio conversation. “Yes sir. There hasn’t been a single person located thus far.”
Pardo was bewildered. “What do you mean no one’s been located?”
“The town’s deserted sir. Able Company hasn’t come into contact with anybody. It also looks like every home and business has been ransacked.”
The captain tried to think of a theory as to how that could be possible, but came up empty. The reports say the victims don’t regain consciousness until roughly between one to two hours after the cloud dissipates. Not to mention they’re mentally insane. That might explain the damaged property, but not the missing persons.
Pardo’s eyes fell upon Thompson who was listening in with a veiled scowl. The captain was not one for entertaining stereotypes of the presence of spooks making a seemingly simple operation be anything but. Nevertheless he couldn’t stop himself from doing just that as he walked over to speak with Thompson in hushed tones. “You mind telling me the real reason you and your menagerie are here?”
The Director had listened to the previous exchange, but was able to hide his ill-at-ease. “I know nothing more than you do Captain. I am simply here to get my team used to operating alongside human troops, nothing more.”
Pardo’s scowl didn’t improve. “I’ve led twenty Cloud operations so far, and they all went smoothly. You show up and now Rocky Springs is a ghost town. I hope you see where I’m coming from.”
Thompson tried to be reassuring. “I have no additional intel that you don’t already possess. Granted this is grim work, but I wanted the equines’ first operation with the men to be a bloodless one to acclimate both sides to each other. I have no idea why the town is deserted.”
Pardo wanted to believe a federal agent wouldn’t lie to him about that, but the reputation spooks carried was hard to put to rest. The officer searched Thompson’s façade for the look of someone withholding information; yet couldn’t find it. “What about your operatives then. Given their forms and lack of weapons, I hope they have some other talents at their disposal. Preferably something that might locate where all the people disappeared to.”
If any of them do, it’d have to be Tune. “Possibly.” He reached for a handheld radio on his belt. “I can ask one of my operatives to see if she can cast a spell to find the missing townsfolk.”
Pardo’s scowl contorted into a glower. “A spell? You’re not seriously suggesting they have magic are you?”
Thompson kept his face as stoic as possible. “You don’t really think I would mention something like that if it wasn’t very real, do you Captain?”
Pardo would have laughed in his face were it not for the eeriness of the situation and the fact that he saw a collection of intelligent ponies including a unicorn and pegasus. In the end, he still wanted proof of magic before believing it. “Ask them if they can.”
Thompson brought the radio to his mouth and clicked it. “Zeta actual to Zeta one.”
Alexia was in the process of checking several street side bushes when the call came in. She magically pulled the radio to her ear. “This is Zeta one.” Crimson noticed the exchange and cantered over, causing the other ponies to take notice and join them.
“Do you have any magic that can locate where all the people went?”
Tune wanted to withhold her possession of divination magic until after The Ranch was closed. However this was one instance where she felt keeping that a secret would be a bad idea. “I have a spell like that, but its not currently designed to detect humans. It may take me a bit to find the right method to do that.”
Thompson allowed an infinitesimal up turn of his lips to show through. “What’s the AoE?”
“If I do it on the street I could see the whole town.”
He almost let a chuckle break through his professional mask. “Get on it. I’ll inform the commander of your actions.”
“Roger Roger.”
She squelched the radio while the Director addressed the Captain. “Tell Lima squad to hold at Zeta one’s location and support her. She’s going to try to find our missing civilians.”
“How?”
Thompson allowed some of the grin to show through and slightly tilted his head in amusement. “Magic.”
Sergeant Azus couldn’t believe his ears. “She’s doing what?” His second glanced at him quizzically as his NCO spoke to the radio. “Yes sir.” He closed the line. “Damn government and their crazy ass bio weapons.”
“Sergeant?” His second asked with puzzlement clearly evident through the gas mask.
“We’re reforming on the horses. Apparently one of them is using magic to try and find everybody.”
“Magic?” His subordinate laughed in spite of the gloom the cloud cast upon them. “This should be good.”
Azus could barely see the equines in the distance, but the thickness of the fog obscured their actions. The NCO kept his professionalism and radioed his squad to converge on the ponies and to also warn the quadrupeds of their actions so they wouldn’t get jittery.
Loki and Conrad returned nearly at the same time towards the western end of Palasades Way. The fog roiled and churned at his wing thrusts before he settled down. “Found a school a ways up. Got some chalk out of it, but I didn’t see any kids or teachers.”
Loki had a large bucket of street coloring chalk with the handle in her mouth. She put it down next to the unicorn who had just absently nodded to Conrad as she pieced together the proper array in her mind. As the silver unicorn though of her plan, the earth mare looked between her bucket of used, but still plentiful chalk compared to Conrad’s measly two boxes of white thin chalk. “Looks like I won the scavenger hunt.”
He only huffed in amusement. “We’ll see.”
Crimson was nervous about the whole thing. The lack of bodies, every house looks like its been raided, and this damnable fog makes it seem like its dusk. After hearing Loki and Conrad voice their concerns about the raided supplies, the pale yellow mare was becoming paranoid. Even if it was some lucky thieves with gas masks, there’s no way a town this small would have supported enough criminals to scour the town so quickly and completely under the Army’s nose. The town was quiet. Crimson had lived in a moderately rural house before her transformation so she was used to things being quiet. But this was unsettling. She saw her friends gathering and trotted over to them. “Guys, I think something is really wrong here.”
“You mean more than it being a ghost town?” Loki inquired with a straight face.
“No, I mean there’s an ice cream truck selling fudgsicles for ten bucks.” She deadpanned.
Conrad shushed them and spoke in quiet tones. “Alex is trying to focus, keep it down.”
Tune was only loosely aware of the chatter around her, and later the soldiers who came to investigate. She was starting her work from the original pony array and trying to adapt it to detect humans. Have to account for lines five, ten, and twenty one needing a seven degree shift to account for the greater body weight range. I’ll need to make sure two, nineteen, and fourteen are thinner to account for the shorter length profile. The central rune needs to be a hagalaz right? No that wouldn’t account for humans only having two legs. Maybe if it was both hagalaz and… sowilo. Yeah, that’ll do the trick.
Her eyes snapped open and she looked down at the offerings of chalk. She opened the thin white chalk. “Perfect, the scattering brown the cloud will put on the chalk will add clarity.” Off to one side, Conrad huffed in playful victory at Loki. The mare’s only reaction was to flick her tail at him.
By now, Azus had arrived along with most of his men to find out what the ponies had planned when they saw the unicorn standing on the left side of the street levitate the smart car that had been parked adjacent to her and moved up and over her head to the other side of the street. The only reason they knew it was her doing was because her horn was encased in the same azure aura that the car was and that her head followed the vehicle to its new resting place. From there she pulled the chalk containers over her head. The ground around her was covered in faint motes of azure as she telekinetically picked up every last pebble and debris from her corner of the road. She discarded the refuse further down the street. After that, she took ten pieces of white chalk from their containers and quickly drew up an array seven feet in diameter.
The soldiers gawked at the display. None of them expected it because she had put her mask on via hooves alone. The chalk ticked and tapped on the asphalt until she was pleased with its shape. “Do it right the first time, and you don’t need to do it twice.” She said with satisfaction.
Azus walked over to her, but was tactfully intercepted by Conrad. He halted in front of the pegasus who stared up at him with a plee to wait. “Let her work.”
The sergeant hesitated and looked at the stallion before rocking back on his heels to show his compliance. He watched the unicorn step into her circle and the pattern took on her signature azure color along its lines.
Alexia’s vision jumped to a high bird’s eye view. The southern half of Rocky Springs was brought into a dim brown, green, and grey representation. The roads and structures that made the small town were barely visible as her array did not have cartographic elements integrated into it. What it did show were the plethora of golden dots all along the eastern half of the town that she knew to be the rest of the Able Company. The mass of congealed dots making up the base camp was barely within range of her detection radius. The dots representing the company were just now passing through the center of town.
However, what caught her eye more than everything else were the dozens of dots that sat motionless along the western side of the town. Whereas the dots she knew that represented the Army were uniformly a brilliant and strong golden color, these western dots looked stained, almost dirty and dull. Some were so faint they winked in and out of existent.
Alexia was disturbed by the striking differences. Crimson believed the Sergeant wasn’t going to cause any harm and managed to talk Conrad into backing down enough to let Azus make his way up to the circle. The NCO was careful enough to not step into the pattern and waited for Tune to say something.
“I don’t understand.” She said after three minutes of starting the spell. “Faint life signs are only supposed to make the signals dim. Even if the person recently died, I should still see a flat and dim return. And its definitely not supposed to make the dots change color and flicker like that.”
Azus wanted something tangible and clicked his radio to the command channel. “What did you see?”
Tune glanced up to stare into the man’s reflective lens of his mask as she pointed west. “There’re a ton of people just a few yards west of the squads who kept moving ahead of us, but…”
“But what?”
She activated the array again to be sure. “This diagram makes humans appear as gold dots of various intensity based on how strong their lifesigns are. But a lot of those western signal returns are discolored and shaky.” She cut the array again with a look of utter confusion. “My calculations were correct, and the soldiers look normal. But nearly everyone on the west side looks…wrong.”
Thompson, Pardo, and his staff had been listening. The officer kept the mic muted as he spoke to the Director. “Do you trust this magic thing enough to believe her?”
Thompson was devoid of any mirth as he had a very bad feeling about this information. “Fully, and so should you.”
The captain’s tone went cold. “If I didn’t know any better Director. I’d think she just told us my men are walking into an ambush.”