Location- HQ. Time- 0900 hours. Day 26 in Ponyville. Things have gone far better than expected. This place runs like a well oiled machine. We wake up, do our shit, and go back to sleep. My little soldiers alright… Twilight serves as my personal advisor and researcher. I figured it would be good to put her knowledge to use. She’s been collaborating with the Princess to discover the location of ‘The Hive.’ Sounds like the place where my platoon got slaughtered. The Princess has sent us aid, troops and supplies when needed. It’s good to know she hasn’t forgotten about us. Have to cut this short, there’s trouble at the schoolhouse. [End of Entry]
You pick up your pulse rifle and follow Duff down the tunnel. ”They caught us by surprise. We didn’t know they were here until it was too late.” Both of you take a left picking up the pace.
“Why didn’t our patrol detect them?”
”Unknown sir. We haven’t been able to contact them.”
“Damn. Is Rainbow Dash there already?”
”Yes sir, she was the one who got the word out.” Good. You knew she was the right person for the job. The tunnel begins to widen, light pouring in from the entrance. Why are the Xenos attacking now? They mostly come at night… mostly…
Stepping out of the tunnel you find yourself back in the schoolhouse. A good seven ponies stand at the ready, looking out the windows. There’s no sign of Dash though. “Duff, I thought you said Rainbow Dash was here.”
”On the roof sir.”
You put two fingers in your mouth and let out a piercing whistle. They turn around and salute, recognizing your presence. You point to two of them, a unicorn and an earth pony. “You two are with me, the rest of you hold this floor at all costs.”
”Yes sir,” They say, ready to follow you.
“Duff, stay here and keep these guys alive. I’ll be on the roof with Dash.”
”Yes sir. Good luck Anon.” You look back at him as the other soldiers ascend the stairs.
“Luck has nothing to do with it.” You wink at him and bound upstairs. The icy air penetrates the cracks in your armor, cooling off your heated form. Winter was your favorite time of the year back home, but not being able to revel in it here is disheartening. You step out onto the snow covered roof, Rainbow scolding the troops for abandoning their post. She brings her yelling to a halt when she sees you walk out. A smile works its way on her face as she pushes the two ponies aside and approaches you.
”Nice to see you off your lazy flank and back on the front.”
“I can’t be there to save your ass all the time now can I? You don’t see any activity when you look around, you don’t know whether to feel relieved or frightened. “What’s our current status?”
”Our last patrol hasn’t reported in yet, and I spotted some Xenos prowling about when I went searching for them.”
“There’s no way they could’ve been snagged, but where the hell are they?” You can’t dwell on that right now, now with Xenomorphs nearby. “How soon till contact?” Glass shatters down below followed by a burst of gunfire. So much for asking.
A small group of drones crawl onto the roof, their carapaces’ frosted by the elements. “Formation,” you order. The ponies immediately back up, flank to flank. Rainbow gives you a nod as the drones continue to circle you. “Give ‘em hell!”
The group opens fire on the aliens in short controlled bursts. They mostly stick to dodging your shots, darting back down the walls for cover. A few manage to sneak in and split your group apart. You and the earth pony are on one side, Dash with the unicorn on the other. Even divided as you are you continued to kick major ass, Xenomorphs dropping like sacks of potatoes. You pop out your magazine fixing to retrieve another one. A shriek pounds in your ears, overcoming the brutal ring of gunshots. The light diminishes as something blocks out the sun. ”Anon three ‘o clock high!” You spin around only for something to crash into you. The force rattles your brain and puts you in a temporary stupor. Wind cuts into your face, stimulating your brain to wake up.
You can feel your strength returning to your weightless body, claws digging into your shoulders. You look down, the schoolhouse far below. Are you… Flying? Wiggling your arms proves fruitless for your captor’s grip restricts their movement. Desperate to escape, you use your momentum to swing your legs back and forth. The winged xenomorph is oblivious to your actions. It keeps circling the schoolhouse like a vulture. Finally gaining enough momentum, you swing your legs over the xenomorph’s neck, wrapping around each other.You squeeze as hard as you can, pleased at the audible snap resonating from its crushed vertebrae. Losing control, the creature nose dives back to earth.
This isn’t one of your best ideas you realize as the ground rapidly approaches. The two of you crash into the snow, imbedding the creature below you. You stand up and give it a nice two-shot to the cranium before wiping the snow off your armor. These fuckers can fly now? How can things get any worse? ”What the buck is that!” You didn’t even get a chance to say it.
The battle seems to have got a bit more interesting up there. The door back into the schoolhouse is barricaded tight, and you’re not going to take any chances jumping through the windows. Those trigger-happy ponies would end you before the xenos could get a chance. You cut off two of the xenomorph’s elongated claws from its hoof and use them to climb the wall. More gunfire from the roof causes you to pick up the pace. Throwing your hand over the side, you pull yourself onto the roof. A single xenomorph is left cornering your team by the bell tower. “Just shoot the fucking thing!” It turns to you and hisses, displaying its corrupted horn.
Oh fuck that! You take aim with the pulse rifle, the xenomorph standing between you and your group. Something isn’t right, it should have moved by now. You fire a shot right above its head, missing on purpose. The creature withdraws in a surge of murky flame. It just tried to make you shoot your own group. This guy is smart, you’ll give it that.
You stand fast waiting for it to reappear at anytime. “How are you holding up?”
”We’re out of ammo, but still ready to go.”
“Good, get downstairs and help out Duff he’ll-“ A flash of heat sears your upper back, igniting your fatigues in an intense inferno. You toss away your pulse rifle trying to quench the flames, but to no effect. Agony floods your mind as you feel your body begin to cook. You clench your teeth in an effort not to scream, still furiously patting away at the blaze.
You slam your back onto the snow covered floor quenching the flames with a series of hisses and pops. You close your eyes to try and eject the pain from your mind. It slowly recedes, replaced by pressure on your chest. Turns out it was just a series of pops from your back. You squirm beneath the crushing hooves as the claws entrench themselves around your armor. “Shoot it!” You see Rainbow Dash fumbling with your gun as she tries to fire it. The only gun left with ammo and she can’t even pull the trigger. How perfectly quaint.
The unicorn tries to throw the xeno off of you with her own magic, but the Unimorph, you’ll call it, sees her first. The xeno’s horn darkens, the unicorn’s spell disrupted as the Unimorph shakes the very foundation of the building, knocking her off her hooves. You begin kicking it in the ass only for it to fiercely smack them into submission. With a sickening crack your legs fall to the floor inert. “GAAH!” You holler in pain, the combination of scorched skin and shattered bones too much to hold in. The Unimorph comes closer to you widening its jaws for the final blow. Glass shatters against its head, a golden liquid splashing over the both of you.
”Payback time.” You turn to see Duff charging towards the both of you. The xeno hisses, shaking the building once more to stall him. Duff precedes unhindered, picking up speed ready for a body slam. ”For you Maria…” He collides with the Unimorph, the pair disappearing in another spectacle of flame.
Rainbow Dash makes her way back over to you, checking your condition. She waves her hoof in front of your face and tries to talk to you. The noise doesn’t reach your ears, though you’re fairly sure of what she says. You rest your head in the snow, passing out in its icy embrace.
Your mind winds back, only days before when you were talking to Duff. Such an innocent question… ”Don’t worry about it Anon, you couldn’t have known.”
Why did you have to bring her up? That was just stupid. “It’s a touchy subject, I shouldn’t have asked.”
”Seriously it’s ok.” Even when he says that you still feel like shit.
”You want to make it up to me?”
“Of course I do.”
”Always have my back, and I’ll always have yours.” You nod and shake his hoof.
“I swear it Duff.”
Your body aches as you regain consciousness. This place… it isn’t HQ, where are you? You sit up and observe your surroundings. It looks like the town hospital, a bit run down without proper maintenance, but the same nonetheless. A chart lies across from your bed with pictures of a shattered stick. Strange that it looks just like an X-ray. No, it couldn’t be… You give your leg a small flick, excruciating pain flowing up from them. You squeeze down on the bed handle as you attempt to alleviate it. This is what you get for being stupid.
The door to your room opens and your friends walk on in. “Anon, you’re awake. Thank Celestia!” She sees you staring at the chart and changes her tone. “You know what that means don’t you?
“I can take a guess.”
Fluttershy comes over and takes a look at you. She’s nursed animals to good health, so she can certainly help. “How soon can I be back up and running.”
”A couple months.”
“A couple months?” you repeat, that last part really getting under your skin.
”More like several months, you’re hurt pretty bad Anon.”
“I don’t have several months!” Fluttershy backs away from your growing anger. “I- I’m sorry Fluttershy, I shouldn’t have yelled.” She nods, but keeps her distance. “I won’t sit around for months on in waiting for this to be over. I’m leaving.” You swing your legs off the side and hop off. Big mistake.
Your legs buckle underneath you as you crash back to the floor. Pinkie and Rarity help you up, but you keep trying to move forward, slamming back down to earth. You pull yourself up by a curtain, the others holding back. The curtain rips adding another collision with the floor. This is going nowhere; you can’t even stand, let alone fight a xenomorph. Rarity and Pinkie bring you up once again and take you to bed. They set you down gently on the covers. “I can’t stay…”
”Well you can’t go darling, you need your rest.”
”Doctor Stable said you need to rest. We’ll need you up and going as soon as possible.
“Where’s he now?”
”He went on to help the others sugarcube. We’re already rebuilding that schoolhouse, it took a nasty blow.” She’s got that right, we weren’t prepared for those things, but what about the others…
“How’s Duff? I need to thank him for saving my ass.” The room goes silent, making you even more concerned. “Where’s Duff guys?”
”We don’t know.” Rainbow answers.
You get ready to leave, but Twilight holds you down. ”You can’t save him, not like this.”
“Then fix me. You have magic, and don’t give me shit about not knowing it. I know you’ve got more than one book on healing spells.”
”I’ve never tested them before. The results could be catastrophic! I could accidentally cripple you permanently.”
“I don’t care. Duff had my back, and I swore that I’d have his. I’m not going to break my promise.”
She shakes her head strongly, “I’m not going to do it.” You turn to Rarity, giving up on Twilight’s help. “Fine, you do it Rarity.”
”I’ve always wanted to nurse someone back to health, how exciting!”
”Rarity, you make clothes for a living; you’re not trained to do that.”
You interrupt the both of them, “I don’t care who does it, as long as someone does.” Twilight is still being stubborn, but in all honesty, you’d rather have her do it. “If you were in my position and it was Spike who was taken from you, wouldn’t you want the same thing?” >She doesn’t say anything. “If you promised him you would always be there for him and an injury was all that stood in your way, wouldn’t you take the risk?” She nods her head begrudgingly. “Please help me Twilight.”
She steps beside your bed and looks at you. ”Are you sure this is what you want?”
“Do it.”
She sighs as her horn glows a vibrant red. Rainbow Dash walks over and holds your hand. Twilight looks at you one last time, “This’ll probably hurt… a lot.” She lowers her head and touches her horn to your leg. No regrets. You tighten your grip on Rainbow’s hoof as tendrils of sheer agony cascade up your body. Twilight wasn’t lying about pain, that’s for damn sure.
You can feel the broken shards of bone slicing through your muscles. The pieces continue its savage dance, slowly entwining together while ravaging your nerves. Breaking the fucking thing didn’t hurt his much. Moisture builds up in your eyes. No amount of suppression can keep it in. You bite down on your pillow, another way to ease the pain. With a sickening crack, the pain in your leg begins to subside. Twilight looks back at you, obviously concerned at your writhing form. ”Are you ok?”
“I’ve had worse…”
”Really?” she asks questionably.
“Fuck no!” you try and laugh the event off, the pain forcing you to lay back down. “So what’s the damage?”
Fluttershy comes back over and slides her hoof along your leg. She squeezes in various places, testing your reflexes. Your legs a tad tingly, but other than that it feels good. ”It looks fine to me.”
“Thank fuck for that.” You take deep breathes down on the bed, finally able to relax.
”So are you ready for the other one?” What!?
Location- Armory. Time- 1400 hours. Duff is gone. He sacrificed himself for me. I promised to have his back, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing. I’ve looked over Twilight’s notes, and recorded where she believes the Hive is most likely located. The others think I’m going to wait for Celestia to bring her own troops to help, but they’re wrong. Duff is my responsibility, and I’ll save him while he’s still alive. This is my last entry. To anyone who is reading this… Tell my friends I’m sorry. I just hope they understand. Private Anonymous, United States Colonial Marines Rifleman. [End of Entry]
This place has become barren over the past weeks. All available firearms were passed out a while ago. There are only a few magazines and shells left untouched. Thankfully, you kept a stash for yourself. You pull the cabinet away from the wall, revealing a small chamber within. Pulling off the tarp, you run your hands over the steel hardware. Many good times were had with these trusty pieces of equipment. You sling them over your shoulder and stow away the ammo in what’s left of your fatigues. Resealing the chamber, you head to your quarters to suit back up.
You set down your guns and open your wardrobe. You work a white t-shirt underneath your garment. The battered piece of metal you call armor is lying beside your bed. This has saved you time and time again, it’ll save you one last time. You fasten the traps before grabbing a heavy coat. Rarity’s showy coat fits tight around your armor. It may be a bit elegant, but it’ll protect you from the harsh cold. You look at yourself in the mirror, nothing but another marine... with a mare’s coat. Thank god you’re not in Basic anymore. Grabbing your guns you head back to the schoolhouse, but not before setting your green book squarely on your bed, awaiting its next owner.
Some of the ponies eye you suspiciously, but keep on task. They needn’t know of your mission. Even if you told them they wouldn’t understand. They’re better off worrying about one another, not you. You salute a pair of them as you exit the tunnel and into the school. This place really was hit hard, planks snapped in half, the walls all but crumbling. But they’ll rebuild, ponies are resilient if anything.
You look out the window, a blizzard storming outside. ”Look at that weather we’re having.” Vinyl joins you in observing nature’s elegance. She was one of the few that chose to stay and defend Ponyville. It was her idea to use her nightclub as our base of operations.
“Serene yet terrifying, a perfect mechanism of nature.” Winter always captivated you, even as a child.
”You admire it…” You can’t help but smile.
“I admire its purity.”
”You don’t have to go you know.” She always was a perceptive one.
“But at the same time I do.”
”Duff wouldn’t want you to throw your life away, and neither do I.”
“I promised him Vinyl. I’m not going to break another one them.” She didn’t need to hear more and simply nodded her head. You kick out a few supports for the barricade and open the door. “Do me a favor will ya?”
“Anything,” she replies.
“Keep the music ready for me?”
A tear runs down her cheek, “Good luck Anon.” You smile and head off into the heart of the storm.
“Luck has nothing to do with it.”