Loki couldn’t believe what she was hearing and jabbed a hoof at the President’s thigh. “Are you seriously going to give up just like that?!”
He studied the pony who looked as if she was a muddy brown thanks to the red lighting. He wiped the sweat from his brow while giving his answer. “I know the Vincent protocol inside and out, and we’re trapped on the wrong side of Sector Nine. There is nothing we can use to get through that door.”
The green mare scoffed at him. “Look buddy, do you even know who you’re dealing with here?” She reached over and dragged Alexia in front of the President. “We got magic yo!”
Everyone looked to the silver mare with a mixture of distant hope and disbelief. Everyone save the ponies, who had full faith in her abilities to save them. Crimson gestured wildly at her alpha with a manic grin. “She can use group teleportation to get us out of here.”
Thompson remembered seeing them Blink onto the helipad back in The Ranch. “Can you do this?”
“Maybe, I don’t know,” the silver mare blustered. “I never intended to cast Mass Teleport. We were lucky I was familiar enough with the helipad because the collision detection cause wasn’t included into the casting.” Loki’s expression fell, prompting Tune to speak further. “Just give me some time to recover. Growing a pair of wings isn’t exactly like a walk in the park.”
Loki forced herself to suppress a snicker. You redefine the term “grow a pair”.
Thompson was glad to have a way out. “How long will that take?”
Alexia blew a few strands of hair out of her eyes. “It’ll take months to get my mana sorted out.”
“We don’t have months,” Fitzgerald deadpanned.
“I know, I know. Can you at least give me five minutes?”
The President had no other option. “That, we can do.”
The Director gave orders to the rest of the escorts. “Check rest of this corridor and make sure there’s nothing lurking behind us.” A round of affirmatives later, and the men preformed a methodical sweep of the path they had just come from.
As they did, Alexia sat on the concrete floor, spared the worst of its cold touch by her short fur. Her eyes were closed as she centered herself to bring her mana back to pre-metamorphosis levels of control. Fitzgerald watched the other ponies crowd around her. None of them hugged her, but the mares leaned against her sides while Conrad leaned on her back. All of them made sure not to disturb her wings. Their passive presence helped calm the feathered unicorn immensely. Any pony could find peace and balance when alone, but few could achieve serenity without being surrounded by those close to them.
Fitzgerald knew a meditative stance when he saw one, but couldn’t for the life of him understand why Alexia didn’t pushed them off of her so she could center herself. I’ve heard of groups meditating with each other, but never with so many having direct physical contact. He checked to make sure there was nothing that could harm the herd before pulling Thompson aside to be out of earshot. “Why are these ponies so touchy feely? She’s trying to meditate, but the others are practically hanging on her.”
Thompson knew of the equine’s acute hearing and pulled the man further away from the herd to speak in hushed tones. “They may have been human once sir, but there is little of that left in them. Their minds are completely alien now. What may seem strange to us they have accepted as normal for them.”
The President looked at him with amusement. “I don’t know about that Director. We have little in terms of physical or even physiological similarities.” He paused to glance down the red tinted hallway at the gathered herd. “But I feel that the ponies’ alien nature will surprise us all.” He returned his gaze back to Thompson. “However it is on us to determine if that surprise will be for good or ill.”
Thompson nodded in agreement. “Makes me glad I voted for you sir.”
Fitzgerald snorted in amusement. “Don’t sing my praises just yet Director. We still need to fully secure that good surprise, or that we even leave this room.”
Alexia felt the herd’s influence as she reached a tranquil state much faster than normal. A light titter danced through her thoughts. We ponies are social creatures to a fault. I feel sorry for those who are scared and alone.
Remembering the purpose behind her meditation, she focused on getting her mana squared away. Bloody hell, I’m a mess. And something is narrowing my Inner Sight to just a few square inches at a time. She saw pockets of dense concentrations of mana in several places while others had next to no mana at all. Well that would explain the ache in my right hind knee and the spots in my neck. Those cells are starving from lack of mana. She checked the carbuncle to see it was too busy pumping all freshly created mana into her wings with a small split towards her womb.
Good, my change didn’t keep my body from prioritizing my foals. They’ll be fine so long as I stay fine. Or at least uninjured. She switched her Inner Sight to her wings and was almost floored by the sight of it. Both wings were so saturated with mana that she could barely see the capillaries from under the bright azure glow of her mana. Holy- this would be blinding if my arcane senses could be blinded. Are they supposed to be like that? The book didn’t have a diagram as to what an ali-. What a winged unicorn’s mana should look like.
The silver mare still wasn’t comfortable with labeling herself as an alicorn. For all I know, this could just be some weird side effect of my mana flare caused me to grow pegasus wings. She knew full well her wings resembled Twilight’s far more than Conrad’s, but she was unwilling to acknowledge it.
Lastly, she checked her horn to find it was still as dense with mana as it always was, if slightly more than usual. However there was something off about it that caught her mind’s eye. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think my horn is longer than it used to be. Alexia possessed a trait shared by almost all unicorns; her horn was her pride and joy. It was more than just her all-important mana focus. The silver length of spiraled ivory was what people noticed first about her, even before her face. It defined who she was to others before her personality could even affect their demeanor towards her.
While Alexia preformed sufficient self-grooming on her coat, mane, and tail to look presentable; it was her horn that she took meticulous care for. It was a rather difficult task to accomplish given that her horn was extremely sensitive to touch while active, but she managed all the same. As much as she hated to leave the issue of a longer horn alone, she needed to repair the damage to the capillaries between the carbuncle and the horn.
She couldn’t even get started without nearly losing her center at the revelation. Wait…What? I thought I only have one moderately bigger sized capillary between those two. But now I have a full sized artery and two extra capillaries?
The artery was functional but had a plethora of errors, with the capillaries not faring much better. At least it’s correctable. It wasn’t enough to stop the flow of mana to her horn, but it was bad enough to make casting problematic. Whatever, I just need to fix it enough so I can try casting again.
Three minutes later, the lone buck sergeant of the escorts returned to the pair of superiors. “Sir, the sweep was clear. There’s some banging on the other doors, but we can’t tell who it is and the bunker’s construction is jamming any attempt to use the radio to see if they’re friendlies. But either way, nothing’s going through these doors.”
The President grumbled to himself before answering. “I hope you’re wrong sergeant.” He turned to face the herd. “I sincerely do.”
Two minutes later, everyone heard the faint sound of machinery shutting down. One of the soldiers looked up at the ceiling with obvious creeping fear. “That wasn’t the air scrubbers was it?”
Thompson nodded. “We better see if the ponies are ready with that exit of theirs.”
Fitzgerald turned the corner to find the herd still leaning against their alpha. Through the dim red light, he thought he could make out a constant azure glow on Alexia’s horn, which he expected, but also a fainter glimmer illuminating her wings. Her new additions were barely visible from behind the mares and stallion crowding around her so he passed it off as a trick of the strobing orange lights.
He spoke loudly enough to get their attention, but not so much to sound harsh. “I trust you have a solution ready. Our air supply has become finite.”
Alexia’s mates backed away from her to give her space. Tune’s horn and wings lost their faint auras as she turned to speak with a fretful tone. “In my current state, I can’t teleport us to the surface, and even if I could trust my magic to fully cooperate, I’d still need foreknowledge of the place I’d be teleporting to.”
The President could only accept her testimony on good faith. “I don’t think going to the surface is a wise move in any event, there’s no telling how pervasive the brown fog is topside and we don’t have any hazard suits with us. Can you at least teleport everyone into Sector nine through the door? The path to the metro should be clear. At least that’s what the last report from the CC indicated before the power went out.”
Tune’s wings fidgeted in contemplation, an automatic act that annoyed her but she dropped it in favor of the moment. “That could work. I can teleport myself and my herd to the other side. But I don’t trust my mana to keep the spell matrix stable if I try to take any more than three at a time. And only a short jump per cast.”
Thompson was in agreement with her. “That would be for the best. We should be cautious and let the four of you go first. Even if the cloud has reached this far, you are immune to its effects. That way you can find a safe area to teleport the rest of us to.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Alexia replied. “I’ll start painting a mental image of the space beyond the wall so I can teleport safely.”
Crimson was a little dubious of the prospect. “A fair warning to you guys.” She said towards the gathered humans after Tune began probing the space beyond the door with her magic. “Being teleported will make you nauseous and dizzy, so expect to puke after going through.”
One of the privates scoffed. “If we can handle a hot insertion with a jinxing helicopter, we can handle a little upset stomach.”
“If you say so,” Crimson remarked to end the debate.
Conrad stood nearby the former unicorn as she pointed her glowing horn at the iron slab barring their path. “What are you doing?”
She halted the spell to answer him. “I was using a simple survey spell used by geologists and cavers. Ordinarily its used to prospect for mineral or jewel deposits, but it can also be used to map open areas. Unfortunately, it can tell me nothing more than that. The passage beyond here is wide enough that I should be able to teleport three at a time without any trouble.”
Thompson started splitting the men up into teams with the next to last one including Fitzgerald. The President thought it best to leave combat matters in the hands of the professionals and conceded to the Director’s wisdom.
Once done, Thompson spoke to Alexia. “The metro is to the right of this door. I want you three,” he said indicating to the other ponies, “to scout ahead to make sure its clear. If there are any defenders remaining, identify yourselves before decloaking.”
Loki spoke for the others. “Sure thing boss.”
Thompson backed away as the three ponies placed a hoof on Alexia as she gathered enough to cast the spell. Her horn grew bright enough that it was no longer visibly beneath the azure light. An array of the same color spread out from her hooves and stopped at the edge of the mares’ longer tails.
Loki was giddy at the prospect. “Scotty, beam me up.”
Tune spoke with a flat tone just loud enough for the herd to hear her. “Just so you guys know. I’ve never actually done this on purpose before.”
Crimson was mortified. “Wait wha-?” She was cut off by a flash of blue light that caused spots in the humans’ vision for a few seconds before clearing.
The ponies were deposited in the eight foot wide and twelve foot tall corridor of Sector nine. The only snag was that they were seven feet off the ground. The mares yelped in surprise at the distinct lack of floor under them and fell while Conrad’s instincts kicked in and he smoothly transitioned into a hover.
He would have found the tangle of limbs and groaning ponies below him comical were it not for the situation at hand. The three MREs Tune brought with her bounced away as well. Instead he filed it away to some to joke about later and landed to help untangle them. “The place seems clear enough, and there’s no sign of the cloud in here.”
Crimson wordlessly thanked him as he pulled her up. She looked around as the others got up and Tune attempted to get her wings to rest against her barrel again. The unfamiliar muscles refused cooperate and they kept jerking every which way until Loki helped her fold them back into place.
“Damn girl. I didn’t think wings would be such a hassle.”
“Just wait til you need to preen or start molting. Then you’ll really love them,” Conrad teased with a smirk.
Alexia simply frowned at her wings while making sure they stayed put. At least keeping them in one place isn’t too distracting. Gah, how does Conrad handle having six limbs? “Well I don’t have time to bitch about them right now.” She fell into commander mode. “Cloak up. I want two you,” she pointed at the earth pair, “to scout ahead. Conrad, I need you to stay here and make sure no hostiles are to the left. Break!”
The ponies scattered away from Alexia as she recharged her horn to blink back to the humans. The two earth mares did not have to go far before running into a large collection of bodies scattered about the path ahead. Loki sniffed the air on her way down to the metro station. “Hey Crimmy, you smell that?”
The pale yellow pony gingerly stepped around a broken body while accidentally kicking a few shell casings. “You mean besides the trail of shredded bodies?” The one thing she wished had been included in her training was to build up some kind of resistance to the smell of spent rounds and blood. Well its obvious the enemy got this far alright, but no indication as to who won.
“Yeah besides that,” Loki whispered hastily. “Its that same gross stench of burn hair and mayonnaise.”
Crimson heard chatter up ahead and her ears perked at the sound. She knew Loki heard it a moment later and they activated their cloaks. Both mares nodded in agreement to remain silent and watch their steps more carefully. Even if their hooffalls were dampened by the bracelets’ magic, it would not stop the shell casings from clattering around or noticeable movement if they stepped on anything.
As they crept forward, the density of the ruined corpses thinned out. Both earth ponies noticed the vast majority of the bodies were not soldiers, but people garbed as regular civilians. Even the weapons they still clung to in death were irregular, leaning to the idea that they were not part of an organized militant group. Loki didn’t believe it for one second. There’s no damn way a bunch of disgruntled civilians could fight their way into the White House’s bunker.
Anderson’s musings reflected Loki’s own as she glanced at the vast array of different weapons. Even terrorists managed to keep their assault weapons somewhat standardized. If only so they could share ammo, but these guys look as if they were equipped with whatever they could get their hands on.
Tzadavek leaned against the wall just outside of the small conductor’s cabin at the front of the small ten passenger subway car. It was not tall enough for the two obelisks to stand upright, so they remained outside while one of the Mion grenadiers attempted to bypass the security lockout on the engine. A second grenadier was busy out in the station itself as he tried to unseal the massive steel doors baring the train’s departure.
Menville was conscious, bound, and laying on the floor next to the Overseer. Tzadavek glanced at the special agent with mild interest. “You wouldn’t happen to want to give us the access codes by chance would you?”
“Go to Hell,” Menville spat back.
The Overseer chuckled at his resistance. “You might as well surrender to the inevitable.” He prodded the wound in Menville's abdomen where the parasite had been implanted. “You feel it don’t you? Your humanity is being torn away and being replaced by something better. Superior. The sooner you embrace this, the faster you’ll evolve beyond the simple primate you are now.”
“All the more reason to resist then. I’d rather die a man, than as some freak.”
The Overseer kicked him across the jaw, knocking a tooth from the agent’s mouth. “Physical torture won’t get far with you will it?” He bent down to grab the liberated tooth and pulled Menville’s head up to stare at it. “You’re probably trained to resist all sorts of torture, both mental and physical I’m sure.” He sneered as he waved the tooth in front of Menville’s eyes. “But how will you handle seeing this tooth grow back as gnarled and twisted as mine?”
Tzadavek flashed a toothy smile full of serrated teeth, but they all shorn forth with a clean white that hinted at careful dental hygiene. Menville forced himself to not recoil at the sight of the inhuman teeth. “You’re the Koridosonites,” the agent queried. “Aren’t you?”
His captor laughed harshly and shook the agent’s color enough to get his point across. “We are Mions. You just haven’t accepted that yet.”
“Never,” Menville growled defiantly. “Even if you could break my will eventually, you’d never do it before we suffocate. The station may have power, but not a functioning air supply. We’re all dead men.”
Tzadavek replied with a condescending smirk. “Death is merely an inconvenience. And don’t think for one moment that the reaper will save you from your fate.” He slammed Menville’s face against the floor of the train and stepped outside to count how many minions he had left. Only three grenadiers still live, the two obelisks of course, but they’ll only last so long as the ten fodder we have left still live. After that they will fall for good.
The lone grenadiers who had nothing to do but watch the empty corridor of Sector Nine walked over to him. “With all respect master, why do you let the convert retain so much of his will? Surely a little forced prodding by the lightbringer would make him more willing without compromising his intelligence.”
“It is not my call. The Herald wanted someone of quality to experiment on. But he can’t do that here, we need to take him to a secure area.”
“Then why not just kill him? That would expedite his delivery without needing to wait for us to clear the train.”
“Reconstituting a mind as resistant to the Link as Menville would require much more time and energy than trying to extradite him would take.” He patted the Mion on the shoulder. “Fear not friend. The Herald will have his prize.”
As the two Mions spoke, one of the obelisks named Brandon was tearing into a ration pack when he smelled something odd. He lowered the rations to sniff the air more strongly, and dropped the food completely as he turned towards Sector Nine.
The division between the station and the rest of the bunker was very open, and had no defensive emplacements between the bunker and the train save for a three meter thick concrete block that completely protected the train from anything between small arms to antitank weaponry. However there was no other cover that could be utilized save for the shallow alcoves in the walls.
Tzadavek halted his conversation with the grenadier when he saw the obelisk following his nose to the edge of the station, but stopped on the edge of Sector Nine. The Overseer walked over to stand behind the towering Mion. “What’s wrong?”
Brandon kept trying to isolate the scent. “Its faint master, but I smell horses.”
The oddity of it grabbed Tzadavek’s attention more than anything. “Horses? Here?”
He sniffed the air again. “But there’s something off about the smell. I was a horse breeder in my past life. So I know the smell very well. But this… The scent is similar but different, has less body to it. As if the animal rolled in a pile of cinnamon and lilacs.”
The Overseer hummed in curiosity. Obelisks have a much more powerful sense of smell than the rest of us. But we already checked the area after the lockdown happened. There should be no one down there. “I want you to investigate.” He turned to the milling cannon fodder. “All of you go with Brandon and obey his words as you would mine.”
As the Mions moved to obey, the second obelisk stepped up to the Overseer. “Problem Overseer?”
Tzadavek tried to see any threats hidden by the dim red lights of the hallway. “Possibly. The military may have activated an override on one or more of the doors. But I want you to stay here and keep watch in case they don’t return.”
Loki was the first to start backing away from the massive Mion as his heavy footfalls and equally large hammer started moving in from the train station. However, it was Crimson who noticed that Brandon was sniffing the air and ignoring the corpses strewn about. I’m going to have to kiss Alex for these invisibility bracelets, cause I do not want to fight that thing.
Crimson waved for Loki to back off so they could warn the rest of the soldiers about what was coming. The green mare wordlessly acknowledged and they both crept away as the obelisk slowly made his way down the tunnel.
Unfortunately four legs and countless spent shell casings made a silent retreat next to impossible. Loki’s left hind leg tripped on the strap of a fallen soldier’s carbine and her leg dragged the weapon half a foot before she shook it loose.
Both ponies cursed their luck as every Mion’s attention centered on the noise. Brandon shifted his hammer into a grip that could strike quickly as he moved more rapidly to the source of the noise. Loki backed away towards the edge of the wall, barely avoiding three more casings around her hooves.
Crimson feared the obelisk might sniff her herdmate out and tried to think of a way to help her. A flash of a memory brought her back to the helipad where Alexia first showed signs of using earth pony style magic. Crimson only knew it for what it was after seeing what Alexia transformed into. I hope this works. Anderson teased and pulled at her mana before finding a sufficiently large mass of it and funneled it into her hooves as she reared up and slammed into a patch of blood-soaked concrete.
Instead of making a distraction for her companion and breaking the ground under her hooves, the still slippery blood that Crimson stomped on caused her to skid forward several inches before her fall was arrested by coming in contact with a body. This shift in momentum caused the magic to travel through the concrete and towards the obelisk, fracturing the ground as it moved.
The spell ignored the dead and erupted out from under the Brandon’s massive boot and exploded the ground out from under him. It did no damage to him nor overmuch to the boot itself, but it did throw him off balance and he collided heavily with the wall.
Loki was wise enough to know when subtly had to be cast aside for haste. She yelled to Crimson before the Mions could recover from the earth bursting out from under their leader. “Cheese it!”
Both mares galloped back from which they came. The Mions were too distracted by the obelisk cursing everything around him to notice the bodies on the ground were jostled about as the ponies ran over them to escape.
The lesser Mions helped their leader get back on his feet while others studied the broken ground that had toppled him. He tossed their helping hands aside and retrieved his weapon. He pointed at one of the fodder. “You, go warn the Overseer there is something here with us. The rest of you, submerge yourselves in the Link.”
As ordered, one of the Mions ran off while the others ignored the bodies around them and knelt down where they stood and closed themselves off to the world so their connection to the Link could overtake them.
Once he felt the fodders’ presence in the Link bolster him, Brandon chased after the invisible ghosts, tracking them by smell alone.
The earth mares rounded two corners and fifty meters to have their noses hammered by the stench of vomit. Alexia did not have a single smooth teleport and every one of them had been in the air or so close to a wall that the troops nearly freaked out about becoming part of the wall.
Alexia was none too pleased about the halfhearted flak she received from the soldiers. The earth ponies came within earshot of Tune returning a verbal barb towards a woozy corporal. “I’m not a walking teleporter pad Chuckles. Besides, the collision clause in the spell would have kept your leg from reforming inside the wall anyway.” The President had the dignity to suffer his teleportation nausea in quiet as he leaned heavily against a large pipe running between the ceiling to floor.
Three of the more stable troopers jumped at the two earth mares materializing in front of the group and skidding to a halt in front of Thompson. Loki was speaking a mile a second. “Big dude. Really big dude. He has lots of friends. All coming this way, with a really really big dude.”
Thompson followed her hoof towards the bend in the passageway and nodded to the corporal to get his men whipped back into shape and have them take point. He placed a stern hand on the green mare’s whither. “Calm down and tell me what you saw.”
The other two ponies gathered around the earth pair while Crimson took the lead and gave an answer. “A serious mountain of a man is coming our way. Way too big to be normal.”
Thompson nodded and readied his pistol. “Leave this to us and stay with the CiC.” He turned to Alexia. “Can you give us some magical protection?”
“Yeah, sure.” Tune stepped up to the left side of the wall and activated her monodirectional kinetic magic, basking the area in front of the soldiers in a pale purple light when her blue combined with the red lighting.
The Corporal led his men to the first bend in the passage with the point man reaching the corner where the hallway bent to the left. The Private angled his carbine down so he could peak around the corner. The moment he leaned his head around the corner a blurred hunk of twisted metal sliced through the air and tore his face apart and ripped his helmet off.
The obelisk belted a war cry as he rounded the corner and slammed his hammer around on a second trooper before he could react and crushed him between the hammer and wall. The remaining six soldiers backed off and pumped twelve rounds into the raging obelisk from each of them. The hail of fire ruined Brandon’s torso and face, but not before he managed to slam his hammer into a third trooper’s chest.
The Mion fell to the ground in a bloody heap. Thompson walked over and shot four more rounds in the beast’s skull before reloading his pistol.
Crimson ran over to the third trooper to see if he was still alive as the rest of the soldiers either grabbed the dog tags of the fallen dead or rounded the corner to secure the next passage. Only Thompson, Fitzgerald and the non-earth ponies investigated the Mion. Loki was less than willing to be near the thing as something felt off about the corpse, yet she had no basis as to what to base her continued fear on.
The President glanced at the winged unicorn. “What was your spell supposed to do?”
Alexia took only four seconds of close inspection before backing away from the corpse; she was getting the same worried feeling Loki had. “Its meant to protect against bullets, not against a living tank and his giant hammer.”
The President looked to the cringing mare. “Can you carry him in your kinesis? We could take it to the labs and see what could possibly make him so big.”
Tune didn’t like it one bit. “If I do that, it’ll make it impossible for me to cast anything else. I don’t trust my mana to remain stable if I try multicasting right now.”
In the dim light, no one saw the rapidly closing wounds around the Mion’s head. None of them expected the corpse to move again. But the obelisk did more than that. Brandon couldn’t see anyone because his face was pointed directly at the floor. What he could do however, was to identify the direction from which Fitzgerald’s voice was coming from and his right hand flashed forward and grabbed the president by the leg and threw him off his feet. At the same time he twisted around and swept Thompson off his feet. Brandon almost did the same to Conrad if the pegasus hadn’t possessed the fast reflexes his tribe was known for and took to the air and avoid the leg sweep.
Before the Mion could close his large hands around the President’s neck, Conrad delivered a spinning drop kick on the back of the Obelisk’s head. Had it been a normal man, the kick would have at least fractured the skull, if not cave it in. But the Obelisk was built to withstand blunt trauma and the impact of hoof on skull only fazed him for a moment.
But that moment was all Tune needed to yank Fitzgerald into the air with her magic and out of harm’s reach. Conrad vaulted back into the air before the Mion could swipe blindly at him. The stallion didn’t dive back down for a second attack. Instead he left the target alone so Thompson could perforate the obelisk with a full magazine of ten rounds. From his fallen position, the Director shot eight rounds in Brandon’s legs and shins. The Mion couldn’t help but to fall as his bones were broken out from under him. That gave Thompson the chance to stand up and fire the last two shots in the head. For the third time that day, the obelisk died.
Thompson dropped the spent magazine and fished out a fresh one. “Would you kindly stay down this time?”
Loki was freaking out. “He got back up! How the hell did he get up from something like that?!”
Conrad flew over to hover between Alexia and Thompson. “I don’t think we should trust him to stay down.”
The Director nodded. “I agree.” He emptied the fresh magazine of ten rounds into the obelisk’s head, destroying the skull almost completely. The ponies flinched at the loud gunshots and flying brain matter. Thompson discarded his pistol and recovered a carbine and five magazines from a fallen soldier. Before he could speak, rapid fire gunshots sounded from further down the Sector.
Alexia didn’t need prompting and set the President on the ground before running to the front line as she charged her kinetic field again. She got within two feet of the corner when three fragmentation grenades exploded on the other side of the wall. The hall filled with more gunfire and cries of the wounded.
Tune didn’t like running into a firefight that included grenades, but she was not unprepared for it. She whistled loudly to the herd. “Formation Romeo!”
Crimson was still in the midst of using her magic to stabilize the soldier who had taken the hammer to the chest, but when her alpha call she was compelled to respond immediately. At least he’s stable enough for now.
Tune adjusted her spell to sap the kinetic energy from everything larger than air particles to those smaller than a clenched fist. All that energy would be shunted to the surrounding air. As soon as the ponies rounded the corner, they activated their cloaks and rushed into the fray without worrying about getting caught in the crossfire thanks to Alexia’s spell.
The other Obelisk and three grenadiers had been sent in to counter attack the soldiers as they continued to advance. The advanced Mions had not arrived in time to keep the soldiers from stumbling upon the fodder who had been communing with the Link. As a result, the distracted lesser Mions had been killed by the opening salvo of grenades that also caught two of the soldiers trying to take the lesser Mions as prisoners.
As soon as the troopers killed the fodder, the Obelisk’s regenerative abilities were cut and the second one died quickly from being caught in the open. The grenadiers however, were holding their own by bouncing the grenades off the walls around the last bend in the Sector. This kept the remaining four soldiers at bay to where they couldn’t risk getting hit to try and get a direct line of sight on them.
Alexia was flagging behind the charging attack almost right from the start as the group stayed within her azure field. Gotta end this in ten minutes before the crystal runs dry. I don’t think I can handle the strain of the invisibility crystal draining me at the same time as this spell.
The ponies jumped and otherwise avoided the wounded soldiers on their way past the last bend in the path. Conrad watched a grenade bounced off the wall and enter Tune’s field only to drop straight down. It exploded a moment later, but all that amounted to was a bit of smoke and cracks in the explosive’s casing.
The grenadiers noticed the distinct lack of explosions and the oddly moving area of purple light. As soon as the aura reached them, the remaining grenadiers were pounded to the ground by the two earth mares bucking the legs out from under them. Unlike the Obelisks, they were not built to withstand any more punishment than a normal human and the sheer strength behind the unexpected kicks from the mares broke their legs on contact.
Conrad swooped in right after them with coup de grâce aerial strike on Loki’s target while Crimson attempted to repeat her earlier used of magic and stomped the ground, causing the floor around the second grenadier to convulse enough to keep him off-balanced long enough for Conrad to finish him off.
Tzadavek heard the shouting and grunts of pain coming from beyond the train. The only one left with him was Menville. The agent squirmed in his restraints, but he was bound too tightly to move, so he taunted the Overseer instead. “I told you you’d lose. Oh sure you’ll make headlines about trashing D.C. I’ll give you that much.” Tzadavek was no warrior. He was not meant to be, and the handgun felt alien in his hands. Menville took his unfamiliar grip on the weapon as a sign of fear. “You’re not even in the same league as other extremists. At least they’d be willing to die for whatever deranged cause they believe in.”
The Overseer couldn’t see what was coming, and wanted to avoid capture at all costs. I can’t lead my flock from behind bars or in a laboratory. If they somehow keep me from speaking I’ll be unable to give orders. His mind filled with images of Hollywood action films of federal agents crashing through the train’s windows and subduing him before he even had a chance to fire. He tsked in annoyance before facing Menville and pointing the gun at him. “You really don’t know who you’re dealing with do you? Death doesn’t concern me, capture does.”
Menville was about to mock him again, but was silenced by a bullet between the eyes. The Overseer scowled at what he had to do. “I was hoping to avoid delays but it can’t be helped.” He directed the gun to his temple with a halfhearted farewell. “C'est la vie.” He splattered his brains all over the interior of the train car.
Conrad heard the two delayed gunshots and flew over to train windows. He saw two bodies and nothing else, so he swept the rest of the room and found nothing. “We’re all clear!” he yelled out after dropping his cloak.
Crimson remained invisible. “These guys have the annoying tendency to play dead. Triple check the bodies.”
None of the ponies could argue with that and followed the suggestion. However there was not much to inspect, what with there only being four bodies in the station itself. The ponies were surprised to find Menville’s body, but couldn’t question the oddity of it before Thompson led the remaining soldiers and the President into the metro after seeing Alexia standing by the entrance. Given her loose posture he assumed the more immediate danger was passed. “Any prisoners?”
“None. The last one offed a prisoner and then himself.”
Four soldiers were still on their feet, and were carrying the only wounded one into the station, the others had not survived. Thompson briefly spoke to the President to request that he enter his passcodes to open the tunnel doors and get the subway train started. “Do you know the prisoner?”
Conrad flew over to stay in a hover above Tune’s head. “It was Agent Menville. They must have taken him because he would know the codes to get out of here.”
“That he would,” the President confirmed. “And shot him after they saw us coming and that he did not give them up. I will be sure he is honored as such.” He motioned towards the train. “Come, we should depart.”
Three hours later in George Hellwig Memorial Park thirty lesser Mions knelt in rows of ten. All of them were communing with the Link. These Mions were those that were too old or otherwise infirm to be of use for anything other than what was about to happen. The Overseer’s second in command paced the area in front of the group while other Mions spread out to make sure no one interfered. The woman only known as Second felt a great rush of consciousness in the Link and twenty five of the meditators started convulsing with seizers and died while the twenty sixth and twenty seventh had their minds supplanted by others.
One of them stood up and planted a boot in the head of the other to send him into unconsciousness. Second walked over to speak. “I take it escape proved futile.”
Tzadavek popped the joints of his new body. Aside from a few changes, his new shell remained mostly human in appearance. He was now a five foot three Asian man with a scar that cleaved his face from cheek to cheek and across his nose. “Ultimately, yes. But my goals were met so there’s not much to complain about.”
She looked over his new shell. “Well, your weak body would be a start. And it takes time to replace those lost.”
He knew she was referring to improved Mions such as the grenadiers and obelisks; the fodder was plentiful and expendable. “That will be your task to fulfill while my body remakes itself to what it once was.”
Tzadavek grumbled at his new shell. The human shape he now resides in had an eating disorder before becoming a Mion and had never been able to fully recover due to other complications. That would all change once the Herald's gifts started to take effect. Second conceded to his will. “As you order Overseer. Transportation has been arranged for you in the parking lot.”
“Good, have everyone disappear and wait for my recovery.” He pointed at the person he had kicked a minute earlier, the one that was being taken over by Menville’s consciousness. Because the agent was not a willing Mion, it would take some time before his mind fully supplanted his new host. “Tie him up and put him in my car. I do not wish for the Herald to wait any longer than he has to for his prize.”
“What about those we left behind?”
The Overseer looked at her as if she grew an extra leg. “Necrotize them of course. We can’t leave any bodies for the labs to dissect.”
Second nodded and spread her influence through the Link. Even while dead, cellular activity still remained in the slain Mions scattered throughout the D.C. area. That activity was enough for Second to give the suicide command to all Mion corpses, effectively telling the cells to wither and die after eroding the bone and cartilage of the bodes before the rest of the tissues rotted away.
She gave the command for the rest of the Mions to flee the area. If they were unable to evade capture, they were to sacrifice themselves so the humans could gain no prisoners to interrogate.
Meanwhile at Andrews Air Force Base, the ponies, Thompson, and Fitzgerald were waiting inside a highly guarded room within the base as the city was brought back under control. The herd’s first stop was the shower stalls to wash all of the blood and sweat from their fur and hooves. Afterwards they joined Fitzgerald and Thompson in a waiting room. Many of the presidential advisers still wanted to put Fitzgerald into the air until everything was resolved, so he would not remain long.
Fitzgerald finished talking with an aide and turned to speak to the ponies who were keeping to themselves around a table. Alexia’s pilfered MREs had been doled out while Loki procured several bottles of water. As a result, the quartet was content to let the humans handle the fallout of the attack on Washington while they enjoyed a meal.
The President stepped up to Alexia and dipped his head in respect. “All of you have acquitted yourselves well today.” He decided to ignore the oddity of Alexia’s metamorphosis unless one of them brought it up. “I will make sure to give you credit for your actions in protecting my life.”
Conrad whispered to Tune briefly before directing his speech to Fitzgerald. “Actually, we’d prefer it if our actions are not made common knowledge. We don’t want to be a target for the people who attacked us.”
Fitzgerald didn’t like it, but couldn’t disagree with his logic. “Very well, I will publicly attribute my rescue to the secret service and the military instead. Either way, I wish to thank you. Had you not been there, I would have died in the airless tome.”
Crimson perked up. “Actually there is something you can do for us.”
Fitzgerald was cautious, but remained diplomatic. “If it is reasonable, I will do what I can.”
The pale yellow mare got off her chair and pulled Alexia in to whisper her idea, given it was not her place to speak of the matter outside the herd. Tune nodded and directed Anderson’s request herself. “We would like to request a year’s leave from our contractual obligations in two months’ time for all four of us. We would of course make up for that time afterwards.”
The President was nonplussed by the request. “That is a simple matter. May I ask why?”
Alexia thought it over and decided it was time to come out with it, if only to him. “I’m nearly four months pregnant. I want maternity leave when the third trimester starts as I would likely be incapable of preforming in our typical assignments at that time. Plus I want time to care for the infant.” She didn’t want to bring up that she had twins.
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I see…” This is not totally unexpected, but I'm surprised she of all people ended up being with child. In any event, Alexia is obviously the most powerful pony I know about. Not just in magic, but her profound influence among her kind. I think Thompson was right about them being very honest with their allegiances. If I give the pony princess this allowance, then she will remain loyal to me and the States by extension. And so long as she’s steadfastly loyal to the States, then so will any foreign ponies who pledge themselves to her.
His musings complete, he gave his response. “How about this. Aside from the critical time before and after delivery, if more ponies join Thompson’s organization, then I would like it if the four of you could serve as training instructors until the child is twelve months old. Or at least old enough to healthily wean him, I’m not sure how long it will be for you ponies.”
“If you do that, I can have that serve as part of your four years.” He directed his speech at Alexia before continuing. “You of course can take your leave however is necessary during that period, but the rest of you are not necessary to care for the child at all times like you are.”
Alexia glanced at her herdmates and they all silently agreed. “That’s a deal we can live by.”
The President checked his phone for the time. AF one should be hitting the tarmac any minute now. “Excellent. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a plane to catch.”
Fitzgerald passed the Director on his way to speak to his charges. He pulled the man aside to give him a brief command. “They want a leave of absence in the near future, and I’ve granted it to them. The Princess will give you further details.”
He glanced in the ponies’ direction with bemusement. “Yes sir. I’ll discuss it with them on the way back to The Ranch.”
Fitzgerald was about to leave but stopped himself and tugged on Thompson’s sleeve to bring him back. “That reminds me.” He pulled out a sealed envelope he had received from one of his aides. “Give this to Colonel Bowler upon your return to The Ranch. You should read it yourself on the flight over.”
The Director tucked the orders into his jacket. “I will sir.”
Fitzgerald shook his hand as a feint to draw the man in close so he could speak without risking the ponies’ acute hearing from picking them up. “The Princess is the key to controlling the rest of her kind. I am making it your sole duty from here on out to make sure her allegiance never wavers from the States. Do I make myself clear?”
Thompson almost let his nervousness slip past his professional mask as Fitzgerald’s eyes bored into his. “Crystal sir.”
“Glad to hear it,” the President replied with his stony expression suddenly becoming warm. “I’ll leave you to it then.”
As soon as Fitzgerald left the building, the room was deserted quickly save for Thompson and the ponies. With the President’s blessing, the equines were given sufficient security clearance to not need an escort except for Thompson. However they did not linger at Andrews long and were in the air a few scant minutes after Fitzgerald took off in Air Force One.
As soon as the helicopter was in the air, Thompson unbuckled his seat and stood up to leave while speaking to the ponies via the helmet. “You should rest while you can. No doubt you’ll be getting a hero’s welcome upon your return.” He didn’t wait for a reply as he moved up to the front of the aircraft to give the ponies some privacy, and so he wouldn’t reveal any sudden reactions to the orders in his pocket as he read them.
The ponies did not resume their original seating arrangement as both winged equines used the smooth flight to help Alexia learn better control over her wings. There were some unavoidable moments of turbulence, but the floor was stable enough for the time being. It also gave Conrad a distraction from his own wings fidgeting from being in flight by something else’s power, something Alexia did not share as of yet.
He stood on her left side and rested a hoof near her wing shoulder. “I know it’s been awhile, but try thinking of your wings as your old human arms.”
Alexia gave him a puzzled look. “I don’t remember my arms lacking hands and being covered in feathers.” She tried folding and unfolding them. The linked movement was starting to fade as her brain grew more accustomed to the wings’ presence. Her mind however, was a different story all together.
“Be that as it may, it’s the best parallel I can think of seeing as you haven’t had any limbs other than legs for nearly five months now. But that mostly stems from the fact that you don’t walk on your wings, and you can even use your primaries to manipulate stuff.” Conrad used his wings to buckle an empty seat’s restraints to prove his point.
Alexia had seen him do similar things with his wings on a regular basis and strained her neck to look at her feather tips when she couldn’t angle her wings properly. Tune frowned at the silver feathers. “I don’t think mine will work like that. But its fine, I still have my magic to do stuff like that.”
“Right. Well we’re not going to try anything too complicated right now. Not that we could while in the chopper,” he commented while glancing around the cargo hold. “For now, just basic movement will suffice.” He stepped closer to feel her right wing which was currently folded against her barrel and hummed disapprovingly. “Your muscles are all tense. Are you trying to force them to stay put?”
“Well yeah,” Tune replied as if it was a trick question. “How else are they going to keep from falling down?”
Conrad was sorely tempted to scoff at her reasoning. Well she did just get the things, and she hasn’t had ten minutes to collect her thoughts on it. “Okay first off, relax. Being up against your barrel is your wings’ resting position. I’m not exactly sure about anatomy, but when you don’t want to use them; your wings will sit tight automatically. Just stop thinking about keeping them there, and just let them be.”
Alexia tried for several minutes with no success. “Sorry, but it’s a little hard not to think about them, when you spend over like…I don’t know, an hour screaming your head off as these thing stab their way out of your back.” He felt the tension in her wing muscles loosen a bit as she vented her emotions on the whole day. “I mean its not like I suddenly switched tribes from unicorn to pegasus.” She gently bumped a fetlock to her horn to make sure it was there. At least my pride and joy is still where she should be.
Conrad stayed silent so more of her attention shifted away from her new limbs. “And another thing,” she continued while looking at Conrad. “Didn’t anyone think to grab some morphine or Advil while I was writhing on the floor?”
He didn’t have an answer, but thankfully, Crimson did. “I was tempted to find some for you, but I don’t think I have to remind you that any pain reliever, even a one-time dose might have caused birth defects. We’ve tested all that stuff on humans, but I have no idea what that stuff might do to you or the foals.”
“Just think of it as gaining experience for the pain that childbirth will be,” Loki chimed in. “I’ve always heard it’s a bitch.”
Alexia cringed enough to raise a foreleg up defensively. “Eerrrmm. I really didn’t need to hear that.”
Conrad felt her wings were finally at ease, if a little fidgety from the topic of conversation. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said to derail the issue at hand. In more immediate concerns, it seems you’ve finally relaxed your wings.”
Tune looked back at the new limbs, having almost forgotten completely about them. Despite knowing full well her wings were firmly anchored into her skeleton, that her mana coursed through them, and the muscles responded to her will albeit in a clumsy manner, Tune was unable able to accept what their presence meant. This has to be one of those horrible side effects Twilight warned me about. I thought my mana was stable enough before going on camera, but…
She tried moving just one wing this time, and was rewarded with only her left one unfolding itself. But if this is a bad side effect of the Mana Flare, then why do they work so well? Why does it look exactly like Twilight’s wings, just silver instead of lavender. She refolded the wing and tried letting it just sit there without thinking about it. There’s no way its true. I’m just a winged unicorn. All I have to do is summon the tome and ask her. But I can’t do that while the chopper is going so fast.
“Can you guys wait here a moment, I need to ask Thompson something.” Tune trotted to the front where Thompson was still reading his new orders. She saw derisive smirk and clicked her helmet to his frequency. “Hey boss.”
The Director cleared his throat and folded his orders under his arm before speaking. “Yes, Miss Tune?”
“Can you please tell the pilots to stop into a hover real quick so I can summon my tome? I need to speak to Twilight.” She made a feeble attempt to gesture with her wings to show why.
Weak as it was, it was still enough to get his attention. “They’ll complain a bit, but I can do that.”
Ten minutes later, the tome was lying in the center of the cargo bay floor and the helicopter was on its way again. Alexia found the purple circle on the Guard page was blinking rapidly, indicating the purple mare urgently wished to speak. That worried the silver pony more than anything as Sparkle had yet to use that warning. She couldn’t possibly know what was going to happen to me.
Steeling herself, Tune activated the page and Twilight Sparkle erupted from the book. “Alexia! I was getting worried. Are you…”
Tune jerked her wings out in a miserable but clear display of her new limbs. She was a symbol of nervous energy as the silver mare laughed weakly at her tutor. “Um, hi Sensei. I’m in a bit of a crisis here.”
Sparkle’s expression was unreadable. “So I see.”
The silver mare twitted her hooves with worry painted over her face. “So is there any way you can fix this? Or tell me how to fix it?” She tried to move her wings a bit more for emphasis.
Twilight’s expression softened. “There’s nothing wrong with you having wings Alex. You’re an alicorn.”
To hear her mentor confirm what her fears told her was the last nail in the coffin of her life as a unicorn. “Oh… Okay then.” Tune hung her head for a few moments to reconcile with that, but the effort wasn’t very successful. I know how Twilight and the other alicorns on Equis live. None of them get to have a quiet life in the countryside. Or have a few days to just unwind, or anything. She looked back up at the patient purple princess. “So what do I do now?”
Twilight grimaced. “Well first I feel the need to ask you to listen for a bit while I explain a few things.”