//------------------------------// // Act 1 Final Part - Return // Story: I Against I, Me Against You // by Flynt Coal //------------------------------// To: The Director of Project Freelancer From: The Chairman of the UNSC Oversight Sub-Committee Dear Director, Far be it from me to obstruct you from doing what is necessary to recover your program’s equipment. If you really have the means to track Project Freelancer’s assets as effectively as you claim, I believe one standard Earth week should be ample time to do so. I am certain you will keep me fully updated on any and all developments in your attempts to track down the Meta and all of your program's missing assets. In the meantime, my people will continue our investigation of your program unabated. I look forward to continuing our correspondence in the future. You and I still have much to discuss… With a yawn, Rainbow Dash glided through the cool morning air down towards Ponyville. It took great effort for her to keep her heavy eyes open. When she arrived back home the previous night after O’Malley had been removed from Pinkie Pie’s mind, Rainbow had tried to get some sleep but couldn’t. Her thoughts kept going back to what had happened immediately after Pinkie had been cured. Rainbow knew that M.I.s were dangerous. Twilight had said as much back in Dodge City all of that time ago. Still, what Sunset Shimmer had done to the construct based on Rainbow Dash’s mind horrified her more than she was willing to admit. Watching something that looked every part like her pleading with her friends as her mind unraveled… calling up her memories as she begged for her right to exist… Rainbow wondered if things would have played out any differently if she was the one Sunset Shimmer had to murder instead, and it scared her unlike anything else had. It was for this reason that Rainbow landed in front of Sugarcube Corner. It wasn’t just that Pinkie Pie always knew how to cheer her up when she was down. Rainbow had to see her back to normal again. She had to know it wasn’t all for nothing. It was still early in the morning, so there weren’t many ponies inside the bakery when Rainbow Dash entered. A chubby, older blue mare with a light crimson mane smiled at her from behind the counter as Rainbow approached. “Good morning, Rainbow Dash. The usual, dear?” Mrs. Cake asked, already reaching for a blueberry cupcake with rainbow frosting. “Actually, I was wondering if Pinkie’s around?” Rainbow asked. A sensation of worry filled Rainbow’s stomach when Mrs. Cake’s features noticeably drooped at the mention of her employee. “Oh… Pinkie’s in the kitchen,” Mrs. Cake said. “She’s been acting… strange.” Oh no. Rainbow felt her ears droop as she swallowed. “Has she been saying random threatening things again?” “Oh, nothing like that! She’s been up all night making cakes.” Rainbow tilted her head. “What’s strange about that?” “She’s made forty seven cakes.” “Ah.” Rainbow nodded and walked in the direction of the kitchen. “If you want to take some of those cakes with you, go ahead… we can’t get to our storage cellar anymore…” Mrs. Cake said as Rainbow walked past and opened the door to the kitchen. Frosting. Cakes covered in white frosting and strawberries were all Rainbow Dash could see. Double-decker, triple-decker and quadruple-decker cakes filled the room like a sea. On the other end of the kitchen was a single island of pink. Rainbow Dash carefully waded through the ocean of pastries towards their creator. Pinkie Pie stood at a counter covered in frosting, frantically stirring a bowl of eggs and cake mix. “Uh… Pinks?” “Oh hi, Dashie!” Pinkie turned around and gave Rainbow Dash a wide smile. Too wide. It looked like her smile was held in place by threads ready to snap in a heartbeat. She held the bowl of mix in her forelegs and was stirring with no less vigor. Rainbow Dash took an uneasy step backwards. There were dark circles under Pinkie’s eyes and her mane was an even more unkempt mess than usual. And to think, Rainbow thought her night had been sleepless. “Pinkie? What’s wrong?” “Nothing! Why would anything be wrong? O’Malley’s gone and now so’s the other one!” A ding interrupted Pinkie’s desperate insistences of normalcy and she whirled back around, set her bowl down and opened the oven where two more cakes rested on pans. “Sorry, I don’t have time to hang out, Dashie! So many cakes, so little time! Hehehehehe…” the laughter was very stiff and un-Pinkie like. “You should probably get going, Dashie! You don’t want to be late for work!” “Pinkie…” “Please leave…” the soft, melancholic quality of Pinkie’s statement made her waning smile all the more unnerving. So with after a few uneasy steps backwards, Rainbow Dash left. A feeling of deja vu filled Twilight Sparkle as the small unicorn once again found herself running for her life, the sounds of gunshots and shouting soldiers filling the air around her. There was one thing different about this time though. As she galloped through the wide open lot of the Zanzibar Wind Power Facility, her horn glowed and a red flag with a cobra emblem floated beside her. Twilight tried to go along with Washington’s plan to simply sneak away from the battle at first. However when she, Church and Washington exited the main building from the same hole they entered from, Twilight couldn’t take her eyes off of the battle: the Red and Blue soldiers fighting and dying in ever increasing numbers. And then she thought of her promise to Reynard: the Pinkie Promise. So without saying a word, Twilight had turned around and went back inside for the Red Team’s flag. Now, she was almost at the outer wall of the facility, a squad of Reds on her tail. Glancing back, Twilight saw a Warthog filled with Reds appear from around the corner of the giant windmill and accelerate towards her. Gasping for breath, Twilight returned her attention forwards and pushed herself even harder. She was approaching a set of stone stairs leading up the side of the front wall, but the Warthog was bearing down on her fast. In a few moments, Twilight expected to hear the sound of the mounted turret and her heart beat even faster than it already was as she realized that in all likeliness she was about to get gunned down. Twilight jumped at the sound of a gunshot, but soon realized that it wasn’t the sound of the Warthog turret, but a burst of three shots indicative of the Battle Rifles that the soldiers here used. As she reached the stairs, Twilight chanced another look at the Warthog pursuing her just in time to see the vehicle crash into a pair of palm trees not too far away, throwing the gunner from his position on the turret. The driver was slumped limply against the steering wheel. A familiar man in blue armor with white detail and the emblem of a red rose on his shoulder pads appeared on the wall above her. “GO PURPLE HORSE! YUYUYUYEAH!” Reynard yelled as he reloaded his rifle. Twilight ran past the Blue Captain and kept going along the wall. She didn’t even stop when she made it to the safe, Blue side of the wall. Only when she made it to the spot in the middle of the beach where the rest of Blue Team gathered did she finally drop the flag and collapse onto the sand, gasping for breath. It took a few seconds to realize that all of the Blues around her were cheering. As she looked up at the loudly celebrating men around her, Twilight felt herself lifted into the air and pulled into a big hug. “That was some sweet shit! You’re fucking hardcore, Twilight!” Reynard Vaez laughed as he gave the unicorn a friendly squeeze before putting her down. “I’ll admit, I was skeptical when I first saw you, but I gotta say I’ve really become a fan!” Twilight smiled as the other Blue soldiers gave her pats on the back and rustled her mane as they each gave her their praise. Twilight felt her cheeks heat up and couldn’t put away her ear to ear grin if she wanted to. Then she saw Washington approach, followed by Church and Caboose. “What in the hell were you thinking?!” Washington exclaimed. His furious tone immediately washed away Twilight’s face-splitting grin. “I was thinking I wanted to keep the promise I’d made to Reynard!” Twilight retorted. Beside her, the Blue captain nodded his head so fast it very well could’ve fallen off. “Y’know, normally I’d be all for securing a victory for the superior team, but I’m gonna agree with Wash on this one,” Church said as he stepped closer. “You could’ve died!” They have a point, Twilight conceded. Her plan to grab the flag and run wasn’t exactly the most well thought out, and she really only made it thanks to a stroke of good luck. Still, she looked around at all of the Blues who had been cheering for her. There was noticeably less of them when they first arrived. “I wouldn’t have been the only one,” Twilight said grimly. “I just didn’t want all of those people to die for nothing.” “They did die for nothing. That’s the whole point,” Washington said before turning around and making his way toward the vehicles the group had arrived in. After exchanging a look with Church, Twilight followed the Freelancer. “What do you mean?” Washington turned around to face the unicorn and two Blue soldiers. “Tell me, what do you think is going to happen now that they have the Reds’ flag?” Twilight furrowed her eyebrows. “I assume they’ll offer to trade it back to the Reds in exchange for their position inside the actual facility. That’s what Reynard said at least.” “Exactly. The Blues will get the power plant and the Reds will be forced out here. Then what do you think will happen?” Washington waited for Twilight to answer, but when she couldn’t he continued, “I’ll tell you what’ll happen: Both sides will receive reinforcements from Command and the cycle will repeat itself. That’s how these little Red versus Blue battles work.” “Oh! He said it!” Caboose exclaimed. “Shut up, Caboose!” Church ordered. “Do you want to know why these Red and Blue factions are even fighting each other?” Washington asked. Twilight didn’t answer, but her face said everything. She had been wondering why they were here since she first arrived. A lot about the Red vs Blue conflict didn’t make sense to her, but Twilight didn’t press the issue when she confronted the two sides about it back in Blood Gulch. She simply assumed it was an alien custom she would never understand. “The only reason there even is a Red and Blue army is for training,” Washington continued. “Wait, we already went through basic training. And we sure as hell didn’t actually kill each other!” Church pointed out. “Not for you. For us. The Freelancers,” Washington paused. He seemed to be trying to figure out a way to explain this in a way that the Blue soldiers and one pony would understand. “Do you want to know why we call you simulation troopers? You all only exist to test the abilities of Freelancer Agents. Your war is nothing but a game.” With that, Washington turned back toward their vehicles while Twilight, Church, and Caboose stood in stunned silence. “Now come on. We have a ship to get to.” Spike descended the stairs from the tree library’s second floor to find that their guest was already up. Sunset Shimmer sat at the wood table in the center of the wood structure writing something out on a piece of parchment with a quill glowing in her magical aura. Spike felt especially uneasy about letting her stay with them (as did Rarity, no doubt). They had already agreed to accommodate her during her stay in Ponyville the day before. Sunset’s actions after the fact didn’t change anything. Thus it was with great reluctance that Spike cleared his throat to address their guest. “Excuse me, Ms. Shimmer? Rainbow Dash just stopped by…” The only reason Spike was even awake at this early hour was because the aforementioned pegasus had crashed into the bedroom window with troubling news. “Pinkie Pie’s still not herself.” Sunset Shimmer finally set her quill down and looked at Spike with a single eyebrow raised. “I performed a scan of Pinkie’s mind when we arrived back in town, and found no signs of any M.I.s.” Sunset’s horn ignited and a saddlebag with the emblem of a red and yellow sun matching the one on her flank was levitated up onto her back. “Whatever’s wrong with her isn’t my problem now. I have… other projects to attend to.” Sunset then reached into the bag, pulled out a train ticket, and her eyes widened when she looked at it. She then levitated the scroll she was writing to Spike, who took it in his claws. “Send this to Princess Celestia, will you?” Without waiting for an answer, Sunset Shimmer galloped out the front door, no doubt to catch her train. Spike looked down at the scroll in his claws. He knew he shouldn’t, but he saw his claws remove the binding of the scroll;soon enough the parchment was unfurled before him. Dear Princess Celestia, I have arrived in Ponyville and promptly dealt with the situation. Omega has been exterminated, but the whereabouts of Agent Texas are currently unknown. I fulfilled my end of the bargain and now it’s time for you to do the same, my old mentor. I look forward to reviewing all relevant documents to your little project in Dodge City… or what’s left of it anyway. Your ever faithful subject, Sunset Shimmer Spike promptly rolled it up and summoned up a burst of green fire from his throat. The letter disintegrated, its ashes flew up into the air and vanished. Instinctively, Spike looked around the room Sunset previously occupied for something to pick up and put away. He saw the morning paper on the table where Sunset had been sitting. Waddling over and picking it up in one claw, Spike found his eyes drawn to the headline: “Dozens Killed In Dragon Attack on Dodge City.” On the sandy beach just outside of Zanzibar, Sarge stood in the midst of the crippled local Red Team with Grif and Simmons at his side. In front of him was the CO of Zanzibar’s Red Team, a young man by the name of Captain Mike Mogar. The man in red armor with white detail lay on the sand, leaning against a crate of medkits. “So let me get this straight: They treated your bullet wound to the head… WITH CPR?!” Sarge shouted incredulously. “Fuck yeah, dude!” Captain Mogar said before grunting in pain and putting a hand to his head. “And fuck, man, you don’t have to yell so much. It’s completely unnecessary.” “See, Sarge? Looks like someone owes me an apology,” Grif snarked triumphantly. “The only apology yer gonna get from me is ‘Sorry you’re a worthless, insubordinate turd… who smells!’” Sarge countered before turning back to Mogar in disbelief. “Who’s idea was it to fix you with CPR anyway?” “Why, mine of course!” a grating, cheerful and very familiar voice behind the Reds said. The group turned around and saw a soldier wearing purple armor with a red cross on his shoulder pads. “I even rubbed some aloe vera on his neck. Y’know, in case he stubbed his toe.” “Doc?!” the three Blood Gulch Reds exclaimed. “Hey fellas. Is this the place you were transferred to?” “Actually, we’re on a special mission from Command,” Simmons explained. “Oh, you too huh?” When the three Reds looked at Doc quizzically, the medic continued, “When I was last at Command, I ran into Tucker and Donut. Apparently they’ve been sent to some alien excavation site. Very secretive. Couldn’t talk to me about it.” “You sure they just didn’t want to talk to you about it? Or at all?” Grif asked. “We’re actually trying to hunt down the Blues from our canyon,” Sarge said, changing the subject with the hopes of minimizing the time they spent talking to the purple pacifist. “You haven’t seen them around, have you?” “I haven’t, but you should ask this guy,” Doc jerked his head toward Captain Mogar. “During the battle, a group of strange Blues snuck into our base. I ain’t never seen them before!” Mogar explained. “There was a Freelancer with them as well as, uh… some kinda purple horse thing.” Sarge exchanged a look with Simmons. “Any idea where they went?” “They were snoopin’ around our computer when I found ‘em. According to my boys, they were looking at a shipyard where some big ship is docked. Mother of Invention or some shit, I don’t fuckin’ know!” “Hey, I was just there!” Doc exclaimed. “I can give you guys directions if you want.” “Excellent! Grif, prepare to take notes,” Sarge ordered without a second thought. “Sarge? You didn’t just give me an order, did you?” Grif asked, a certain level of warning in his tone. “As in me, the Commanding Officer?” Sarge scoffed. “Please Grif, you can’t even Command the HHDDVVDDBD player at the base, let alone a military squad!” “That’s because you programed it to electrocute me whenever I touch the remote,” Grif argued. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m the Sergeant now! When you left us to ‘finish the fight’ in Blood Gulch, Command picked me to be in charge in your place!” “Yeah… it’s not like there were any other soldiers in our squad that would qualify,” Simmons muttered bitterly. “You know, soldiers who are smart and good at math…” “As far as Command is concerned, I’m more of a Sergeant than you are right now!” Grif finished his rant at Sarge. Noticing that Doc was still waiting to give them his information, he then turned to address Simmons, “Simmons, prepare to take notes.” “I still don’t understand…” Church said, pausing as he allowed Washington to help him up to the next piece of solid ground on the mountainside. “Tex told me that the Mother of Invention was destroyed.” Twilight moved closer to Washington and Church’s position on the cliff they all stood on. Partially because she was interested in learning more about this ship they were trying to find, and partially because the alternative was standing near Caboose. Washington turned and sat down against the rock wall of the mountain towering over them. Realizing she was getting pretty winded herself, Twilight sat on her haunches and allowed herself to catch a moment’s respite. After driving northeast from Zanzibar for a good couple of hours, the group had arrived at a mountain range of tall, brown rock. After driving through the rocky mountainous region for some time, the route became impassable by way of their vehicles, so the group opted to continue on foot. What started as a simple walk up steepening slopes soon became a series of climbs up uneven piles of rocks and sheer cliff faces. Where Twilight and her human companions sat now, they could see out across the bleak brown plains and mountains from whence they came. The sky overhead was gray and overcast; it looked like a storm was coming. “The Mother of Invention crashed into Sidewinder when some of the Freelancers tried to break in, but it wasn’t destroyed. Just badly damaged,” Washington explained. “Sidewinder?” Church asked, looking at Washington eagerly. “That’s where I was stationed before Blood Gulch.” “Where Tex beat a guy up with his own head?” Caboose added. “Don’t be stupid Caboose. Tex didn’t beat Private Mickey to death with his own head… just his skull!” “I didn’t think this was physically possible, but your explanation actually makes less sense than Caboose’s,” Twilight said. “Anyway, the bases in Sidewinder were originally built to make repairs to the Mother of Invention until it was capable of basic in-atmosphere flight. It was then taken to a proper shipyard where its repairs could be fully completed,” Washington continued, desperate to keep the team on track. “Normally, the UNSC just scrap all heavily damaged ships, but as Project Freelancer’s flagship, the Mother of Invention had many modifications made to accommodate the program’s experiments.” Twilight couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible for the team’s drawn out bickering. At some point during her time with Church and the others, it would appear that she found it easier to add snarky remarks than to actually contribute to the conversation in a useful manner. There was no point in denying it: These people were a bad influence on her. “Right. And that shipyard is where we’re headed now?” Twilight asked in an effort to rectify that problem. Washington stood up and continued along the rocky cliff. “Yes. And we should be getting close.” Twilight wasted no time in following the Freelancer, and once Church and Caboose noticed the group was moving on, they did the same. Although she was still quite exhausted from the climb, the idea of being so close to her way home was enough to keep pushing Twilight forward. That, and something Washington said earlier piqued the little unicorn’s curiosity. “You said the Freelancers tried to break into their own flagship earlier,” Twilight said, looking up at Washington with a curious frown as they turned and entered a trench steadily sloping further up into the mountain. “Why?” Washington’s pause before answering stood out to Twilight like she herself did in this bleak environment, deepening her frown further. “Some of us didn’t quite agree with Project Freelancer’s… methods,” he finally said. Although it was good to know that there were some Freelancers who opposed the program, Twilight immediately noticed that Washington was careful not to mention his own stance on the matter. It didn’t do much for her already waning trust in him. “Oh, and we just happened to meet all of the Freelancers that didn’t really give a shit?” Church asked, the bitterness in his tone clear now that the group once again found themselves on the topic of Project Freelancer. “Oh, cool! So, was it like a heist? Did they form a team of exactly eleven guys specializing at various stuff?” Caboose asked dumbly. Twilight groaned. “Caboose, I try my best to give everyone I meet the benefit of basic respect, but you are just… literally the worst.” “Was there an overly elaborate and convoluted sequel?” Twilight was about to reprimand the unintelligent blue man further when something he said suddenly hit her. “Wait, what were the Freelancers trying to accomplish by breaking in? Was there something specific they were after?” Agent Washington’s pause was shorter than the last but no less pregnant. “The Alpha.” “What the fuck is the Alpha?” Church asked. “Project Freelancer was all about equipping its agents with A.I. partners. The Alpha was the source; the A.I that all of the others were copied from.” “Did they find it?” Twilight asked. Washington shook his head, glancing briefly at Church. “The Alpha is safe, that’s all you need to know…” A small pit of dread started forming in Twilight’s stomach. Based only on what she’d heard, A.I.s like Gamma, Omega, and the others were dangerous and unstable. The idea of the original still being in the shadowy program’s grasp unnerved her for reasons she could not fully fathom. Twilight tried to push those uncomfortable feelings away, focusing on the task at hand as she and the others continued their climb toward the top of the ever steepening incline. That was another reason Twilight was anxious to return to Equestria: She would be far away from all of the darkness surrounding Project Freelancer. As a Bearer of Harmony, part of her felt responsible for taking the fight to the corrupt program for the sake of everyone involved with it, but she had to remind herself that she wasn’t in Equestria. This wasn’t her fight, even if Project Freelancer seemed to be just as interested in her as it did its wayward A.I.s. No, the sooner she got back to Equestria the better. Between Luna’s premonitions and Washington’s warning of some unknown danger, Twilight knew where her fight lay. “So what’s our plan for actually getting on board?” Twilight asked as they neared the top of the incline, leaving the cover of the small trench. “If the Mother of Invention is anything like the ship that landed in Equestria…” Twilight trailed off as the group approached the top of the ridge where they could look down into the valley below. At first, Twilight thought she was looking at a small city until she noticed that the only actual buildings were built around a single long, rectangular, metal behemoth the size of Canterlot Castle or bigger. The words Mother of Invention were written across the hull near the top in big, bold white letters. As she took in the sheer size of the monster before her, the small unicorn’s rump promptly found the ground. Strewn all around the leviathan ship were pieces of scrap metal that—were Twilight in a state capable of analytical thought—she would have realized had been taken from similar ships. What Twilight could only imagine to be the rear end of the giant vessel stuck out over the side of another cliff overlooking a huge, expansive plain littered with more massive skeletons of ships that she imagined once looked just like the great beast before her now. Washington lowered the rifle, through which he was looking at the movements of the countless gray armored Freelancer soldiers below. They were like ants moving around an anthill. “Shit. Not only does the ship look fully repaired, they seem to be prepping it for takeoff. We’re going to have to act fast...” “Oh dear…” Rarity sighed as she approached the tree structure that had become her home in recent days. “What’s wrong?” squeaked the tiny voice of Sweetie Belle, but then the little white filly saw it too. The front door to the library/treehouse was gone. Rarity and Spike had only been gone for less than half an hour as they picked up Rarity’s little sister, Sweetie, from school, and now it appeared that somepony had broken in. After everything that had happened over the past few days, this was the absolute last thing they needed. “You girls should stay outside. I’ll go in and take a look!” Spike proclaimed boldly. Rarity couldn’t help but smile. “I appreciate the gesture, Spikey. It’s very noble, but Twilight would have my horn if I let you put yourself in unnecessary danger.” Without any further words, Rarity approached the entrance to the tree structure. Right away she noticed that the door was not in fact, completely gone. It was lying on the floor of the library. Horn glowing, Rarity poked her head into the building. To her surprise, everything looked intact and organized. Mostly. At the very least, it didn’t look like a house that had been broken into. The wooden door creaked under her hooves as Rarity walked over it, followed by Spike and Sweetie. It didn’t take them long to notice that the door leading to the stairs going down into the basement lab was wide open. Spike and Rarity exchanged a concerned look; both of them knew full well what was down there. “Sweetie, we’re going to need to get the authorities to thoroughly investigate the house,” Rarity said, turning to her sister. “Do you think you could stay over at Apple Bloom or Scootaloo’s place for the evening?” A happy smile appeared on Sweetie’s face as if somepony had turned on a bright light. “Sure thing, Rarity! We were all going to go crusading tonight anyway!” In the blink of an eye, Sweetie Belle set down her saddlebags containing all of her school supplies and pulled out the little red cape with the insignia of her friends’ club stitched onto it. After a quick goodbye, Sweetie Belle was out the broken front door. “Just don’t stay out too late!” Rarity called after her, but the filly was already running down the street. Still, Rarity thought she heard her sister exclaim, “I wonder what an alien hunting cutie mark would look like…?” As she turned to go back inside, Rarity thought she saw something moving in her peripheral vision. Something like clear glass passing between her and her surroundings... but when Rarity turned to look at it, she saw nothing. Deciding that the stress of the past few days was playing tricks on her mind, Rarity went back into the tree library to finish her and Spike’s little investigation. Together, the two of them descended the stairs into the basement laboratory. Both pony and baby dragon sighed in relief as they saw that all of Twilight’s various magic-powered machines appeared to be untouched. Their relief turned to apprehension as they finally discovered what was out of place. The vacant, black-armored robot that once housed Tex was no longer on the table where it had been left. “Oh no… Spike, we have to get word out to the others that Tex is in her own body again and has escaped the library!” Rarity cried out, hastily making her way back towards the door to do just that. “Wait a minute, Rarity!” Spike exclaimed, stopping the fashionista in her tracks. “Tex’s body hasn’t gone anywhere.” Rarity turned back around and looked at Spike, who merely pointed to a corner of the room. Rarity followed his claw with her eyes until she saw the heap of black armor off to the side of the room, carelessly discarded like a piece of trash. “So… somepony broke into our house and went into our basement full of cool sciencey stuff… just to move Tex’s body from the table to the floor?” Spike asked. Rarity only stepped closer to the lifeless robot body and studied it carefully. There was something different about its armor. “Is there… something missing from it?” Indeed, it was hard to tell (especially for one who was unfamiliar with the complex hi-tech armor), but it definitely looked like there were some components missing. Various parts of the black armor that had seemed to light up before were now as dark as the rest of it. Did whoever broke in take something from the armor?  Rarity sighed anxiously. “I have a bad feeling about this…”   Sweetie Belle had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach as she and her two best friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, looked at the tree with the strange markings carved into it. It had been just another evening for the three fillies who called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The troublesome trio were just making their way down the path from Sweet Apple Acres where they’d all met for the afternoon when Apple Bloom had elaborated more on what she’d told them at school that day. “Applejack said we were renovating when I asked why the barn was in such a state, but her face was scrunched up and her eyes did that shifty thing they do when she’s hidin’ something!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in a conspiratory way. “And you think that your family’s barn was attacked by the same alien that ponies saw at Pinkie’s party yesterday?” Scootaloo asked, the orange pegasus filly eyed her friend suspiciously. Apple Bloom nodded, her pink bow bobbing along with her red hair. “It makes perfect sense! The grown ups found an alien, an’ they’re tryin’ to hide it from us.” “Pfft, you and your conspiracy theories,” Scootaloo scoffed. “Yeah, and next you’re going to say Princess Celestia’s spying on us with listening enchantments the dentist puts on our teeth,” Sweetie Belle snarked. “Black pegasi. Look it up!” Apple Bloom retorted. The arguing had gone on for their entire trip down the path until they came up alongside the ever dark and foreboding Everfree Forest. That was when they saw the markings. A series of shapes the fillies did not recognize were strewn together in a single carving into the side of one of the trees along the perimeter of the dark forest. The group had walked that path countless times together, but this was the first time they’d seen anything at all carved on the trees that made up the Everfree Forest. “Well… it ain’t pony markings,” Apple Bloom deduced. “I wonder what it means…” Scootaloo contemplated. Looking at the symbol, Sweetie Belle’s heart started beating faster at the sheer ominousness of it. “It looks like a… warning.” “Pfft. What are you, an… alien dictionary?” “Actually, it kinda looks like an arrow!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. Reluctantly, Sweetie took another look at the carved bark. The mysterious symbol did indeed look like it was pointing up into the Everfree Forest itself. Sweetie’s ears folded back as she looked over at Apple Bloom, knowing at once where her yellow friend was going with this. “No, Apple Bloom! We are not going into the Everfree. You remember what happened the last time we went in there, don’t you?” Sweetie Belle pleaded, her already high-pitched voice cracking further. “We’re not gonna go in far, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said. “I just want to see if we can find more alien markings… and maybe the alien itself.” “Yeah! What’s wrong, Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo grinned impishly. “Chicken?” Sweetie bristled at the jab, but didn’t budge on the matter. With an indignant huff, the little white unicorn turned away and raised her chin high. “It’s okay, Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle can stay here if she wants to.” Apple Bloom then turned to Sweetie with a smug grin. “I’m sure she won’t mind being the only one without a cutie mark when we both get ours in alien hunting.” With no further words, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo entered the darkness of the Everfree Forest. Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure whether to growl in frustration or whimper in fear, so she did both. “Wait up, you guys! I’m coming!” With that, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders entered the oppressive black of the Everfree Forest, leaving the mysterious markings behind them. The only consolation Twilight Sparkle had as she lay curled up inside of the dark, confined crate was, At least it isn’t a dog crate. As Washington, Church, and Caboose had all tried to enter through the security checkpoint at the base of the massive Mother of Invention, Twilight had approached using the cover of the various husks of scrap metal scattered about. While the Freelancer troops had been focused on her trio of companions, Twilight had slipped right underneath the belly of the gargantuan ship unnoticed. Following Washington’s prior instructions, Twilight had looked around for the elevated conveyor moving cargo from the main building across the barren plain to the ship. In short order, Twilight had spotted the tunnel-like construct and the metal scaffolding where the various crates of ammunition and other miscellaneous equipment were being discarded to be manually loaded onto the ship. It was tense, but Twilight had waited for a gap in the patrols around the perimeter of the ship before sneaking to the stairs leading her up to the scaffold. Afterwards, it was a simple matter of waiting for the gray marines to load the next set of cargo onto the ship, leaving Twilight to levitate one of the nearest crates, empty its contents, and climb in unsupervised. Soon, the little purple pony felt the crate she was in being lifted up and loaded onto a dolly. After she felt the movement stop Twilight deduced that she was now safely loaded into the cargo bay of the Mother of Invention. Now it was only a matter of listening for the footsteps of the Freelancer soldiers to disappear. Even after they were gone and the room outside of her crate was silent, Twilight couldn’t shake the irrational fear that there might still be someone right outside of the box she was hiding in who happened to be completely silent. Twilight forced herself to move in spite of that fear and carefully lifted the lid to peek outside. The room she was looking at was moderately large and filled with stacked boxes and crates all in the same drab green. No guards were within eyesight, but Twilight could hear people moving and stacking crates in another part of the room. Since she couldn’t see them, Twilight figured it was safe to come out, but made sure she was ready to cast a sleeping spell just in case. Twilight stayed low as she snuck through the cargo area, every noise and shadow making her nervous. She made it to the entrance of the cargo bay, and as soon as she made it out into the empty hallway Twilight let out the breath she was holding. The hallway she was in was fairly wide, with several small red structures in the center that hummed like the generators back at the power plant. It was almost enough to drown out the footsteps coming from down the hallway, but Twilight heard them all the same and wasted no time in taking cover behind one of the red metal structures. Twilight didn’t remain hiding for long, as she peeked out from her hiding place and saw two familiar Blue soldiers walking down the hallway toward her. “Church! Caboose! There you guys are!” Twilight exclaimed, trotting out from behind the generator and giving the pair a relieved smile. “OH MY GOD THERE’S AN ALIEN ON THE SHIP!” Caboose yelled, pointing a finger at Twilight. “Oh, wait…” “Oh, hey Twilight. We were just coming to find you… quietly,” Church said, glaring at Caboose as he finished. Twilight nodded as she took a step closer to the two Blues. Oddly enough, she felt a little more at ease behind enemy lines when she was with them. She couldn’t help but notice a certain Freelancer’s absence, though. “Where’s Agent Washington?” “He went up to the bridge to input the coordinates from Tex’s ship. Told us to find you and get down to the slipspace generator,” Church said. “We’re already halfway done. And we didn’t have to kill anyone!” Caboose exclaimed. “We didn’t run into a single person trying to be Church’s new best friend.” Church just continued walking down the hall where Twilight had come from. “C’mon, it should be this way,” Church said, gesturing for Twilight and Caboose to follow them. Before either of them could oblige, the whole group heard a loud explosive blast come from somewhere outside the ship. “What the hell was that?!” Church exclaimed. “I don’t know,” Twilight said, “but with our luck, we’ll probably find out…” From his position on the cliff overlooking the shipyard, Wyoming watched through the scope of his sniper rifle as Agent Washington led the two Blue sim troopers from that blasted canyon past the security checkpoint and on board the Mother of Invention. The Freelancer clad in white armor didn’t see the small purple equine with them, but he knew she was around. Shortly after Washington and the Blues disappeared from sight, Wyoming zoomed out and surveyed the area at large. In short order, a Warthog appeared and three soldiers in red, orange and maroon armor disembarked and huddled together, no doubt coming up with a plan to infiltrate the ship. Wyoming lowered his rifle and chuckled darkly. “Ah, I love it when all of the pieces on the board come together as planned!” He spotting a truck loaded with fusion coils—glass and aluminum containers for storing compressed plasma—parked next to a bunker a fair distance away from the gathered Reds. Wyoming raised his rifle, fired a single shot, and the entire vehicle went up in a plume of red and yellow gasses and sparks. All of the gray soldiers below began running in confusion in the general direction of the explosion. Wyoming paid them no mind, focusing his rifle’s long range scope on the trio of Red soldiers who had just arrived. Sure enough, once they realized all of the other troops were thoroughly distracted, the three Reds slipped past the security checkpoint and entered the Mother of Invention without detection. Lowering his rifle, Wyoming prepared to head down there himself when he heard the noise of shifting stones behind him. The Freelancer saw nothing when he turned around, so he merely shrugged it off and continued on his way, leaving the cliff empty. Empty save for the single figure wearing orchid armor with light green trim. The figure emerged from their hiding place behind a few boulders and walked toward the edge of the cliff where Wyoming had previously been standing. As the figure looked down at the chaos outside of the massive ship below, another appeared beside her. A small, spectral figure in armor that cast a green glow on the woman’s own turned in place as it hovered beside her. “Agent South, I still do not know what you hope to accomplish by following them here,” the entity stated in a distorted, though somewhat pleasant, monotone. “It’s simple, Delta. If they’re going where I think they’re going, then I want to see if I can’t come along. With any luck, I’ll find what they’re looking for first and have the chance to trade up.” South turned to the tiny green image of Delta and looked at him almost apologetically. “Not that you haven’t been great, but there are bigger fish in the sea…” “The poor gal just got through havin’ an evil M.I. in her head, RD,” Applejack stated irritably as she and Big Mac continued packing up their stall in the middle of Ponyville’s central market. “It don’t surprise me none that she hasn’t quite gotten over it yet!” Applejack’s ears immediately folded back in guilt as they heard how harsh her words sounded. Looking at her friends in the orange light of the setting sun, she saw that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s ears reacted the same way. It had been a long and trying afternoon working in the market, and getting verbally assaulted by the wall-eyed mailmare for no apparent reason hadn’t improved her mood. Still, it was unfair of Applejack to raise her voice at Rainbow and least of all Fluttershy. Especially if they were bothering her with only the purest of intentions. “Look, Pinkie’ll get through it,” Applejack said much more evenly, approaching the two pegasi and placing a reassuring hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “She jus’ needs some time to herself right now.” Rainbow’s expression didn’t change, but she was able to summon a nod, and Applejack returned to helping her brother pack up their cart. As hard as the day had been, Applejack was still glad to be back to a somewhat normal routine. No aliens or alien constructs causing trouble, thus no need for… decision making hanging over her. “Hello girls,” a familiar posh voice sighed rather dramatically. There was only one reason Rarity would greet them in such a melodramatic manner. “Howdy Rares,” Applejack greeted. She decided she wouldn’t be the one to ask the inevitable question as the fabulous unicorn approached with Spike tagging along. “Is there something wrong?” Fluttershy dutifully asked. “Well, somepony broke into the library while Spike and I were out…” “Oh my… what was taken?” Rarity and Spike exchanged a look. “Uh… nothing. Whoever it was only did it to mess around with… Tex,” Spike answered. An uneasy silence prevailed over the gathered ponies for a few moments. “I bet it was that no good Sunset Shimmer,” Rainbow all but spat. “Sunset Shimmer left town this morning,” Spike said. “And she was staying with us last night,” Rarity added. “She would have had plenty of opportunities to mess around with that robot if she wanted to. She certainly wouldn’t have needed to tear the entire front door off its hinges.” Deathly quiet once again dominated as the five friends continued to ponder the strange circumstances. Eventually, the sound of Big Mac closing up the back of the cart and giving it a few pats with his large red hoof brought the mares back to the present. “Well, I dunno what it all means, but it don’t bode well,” Applejack said, adjusting her hat and moving to the cart where Big Mac was already strapping himself to the front. “Now, I reckon Big Mac an’ I oughta be gettin’ back to the farm before somethin’ else happens…” “APPLEJACK!!!” a loud, distressed cry echoed throughout the emptying marketplace. The whole group looked to the source and saw a familiar yellow filly with a big pink bow and wide, terrified eyes come barreling toward them as if a manticore was on her tail.   “Apple Bloom?” Applejack inquired with concern as the filly dove into her forelegs. Immediately Applejack felt wetness on her chest as Apple Bloom began to sob hysterically. “Sugarcube? What happened?” Apple Bloom couldn’t speak for a while. Applejack just tenderly stroked her and let her cry. Finally, the filly looked up at her sister and sniffed. “P-promise you won’t be mad?” Applejack couldn’t keep her brow from lowering. Such statements from the filly usually preceded trouble. Nevertheless, her little sister was more scared than Applejack had ever seen her, so she nodded. “Pinkie Promise.” Apple Bloom stared at the ground and sniffed again. “W-well, the Crusaders and I went into the Everfree Forest…” Applejack’s frown deepened. She had told her sister not to go in there a hundred times over, but she decided now was not the time to chew her out. That would happen later. Instead Applejack nodded, wordlessly urging Apple Bloom to continue. “When we got far enough in, something attacked us! I don’t know what it was but…” Apple Bloom’s voice became a squeak as her eyes watered some more. “It took Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo!” With that, Apple Bloom buried her face into her sister’s chest again and Applejack’s heart began racing. She looked around at her friends and saw that the looks were back again.  Applejack became acutely aware of every droplet of nervous sweat rolling down her face as the uncertain eyes of her friends searched her for something. The other day, Applejack would have argued that she didn’t have what they were searching for, but then she looked down at her sister. She realized that they needed a leader now more than she needed not to be. Applejack closed her eyes and let out a breath. When she opened them again, the others saw a new mare. A leader. “Big Mac, I want you to take Apple Bloom home and stay with her,” she ordered. Big Mac gave a grave “Eeyup,” and gently took Apple Bloom, placing her on his back. “Spike, go to the Mayor’s office and tell ‘em what’s going on,” Applejack then turned to the rest of her friends. “Girls, we’re goin’ to the Everfree and savin’ Sweetie and Scootaloo!” “What about Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked. Applejack thought about her friend and fellow Element of Harmony. “There’s no time to run and get her even if she was feeling up to it. It’s just us…” The gathered ponies all nodded and then galloped at full speed towards the edge of town where the Everfree Forest lay. Before running off to perform his own task, Spike walked alongside Big Mac and the filly clinging to his back. “Uh, Apple Bloom? Do you think you could tell me a bit about the thing that attacked you?” he asked carefully. “I want to tell the Mayor what we should be keeping an eye out for.” Apple Bloom unburied her face from her brother’s mane and looked morosely at the baby dragon. “It was really big and walked on two legs. It could disappear and do other weird things,” she said with a shiver. “I… I think it was an alien!” Spike frowned. “Well… let’s just hope this doesn’t get out. Wouldn’t want ponies to panic…” It was with very little trouble that Agent Washington stepped onto the command bridge of the Mother of Invention. Ahead of him, a walkway extended to the end of the bridge where massive windows overlooked the vast, mountainous plains outside. Washington didn’t go to the end of the walkway, instead turning right and going down a set of stairs leading to the control area down below. Being a top Recovery Agent had its benefits. None of the engineers in black suits questioned Agent Washington’s motives as he walked to the nav computer. Even the troops left to guard secure areas of the ship he had to pass through didn’t check with Command when Washington told them it was their orders that he was operating on. It would seem that they feared being reprimanded for impeding his duty more than they feared letting a potential intruder into the areas they were guarding. With a few short movements of his hands, Washington accessed the navigation computer and pulled up the screen where he would input the coordinates. Washington then froze when he saw the coordinates currently input. “That can’t be good…” Washington muttered. He reached a hand up to his helmet and activated the radio. “That’s… the slipspace drive?” Twilight asked as she stared up in wonder at the large cylindrical device in the center of the room. The slipspace drive in question reached all the way from the floor to the ceiling high above them and was covered in many spinning mechanisms and bright lights. Looking at the large, impressive piece of technology, Twilight felt her heart race. What she wouldn’t give to have time to study the device from every possible angle. Even now she was already thinking of multiple different tests she could perform at this very moment, and if she had the time to do even more research with documents made by the people who built it, perhaps implement them into her own devices back in her lab… “Hello? Twilight? Please stop ogling the giant slipspace device…. Kinda creepy....” Church’s voice brought her back to the present and made Twilight realize that she was drooling. Twilight wiped the corner of her mouth and tried to give Church the most neutral, uncaring look she could muster. She felt the heat of embarrassment fill her cheeks and quickly realized he wasn’t going to buy it. “I-I was just… thinking about… how does all of that technology fit in Wyoming’s helmet?” Twilight said, suddenly feeling much less like a filly caught staring at her crush now that she had come up with a legitimate question. Now it was Church’s turn to look flustered. The man in cobalt armor shifted his weight and rubbed at the back of his helmet. “Uh… human ingenuity?” Church spoke like he was asking a question rather than answering one, but Twilight decided not to give him a hard time over it. “Because the MJOLNIR armor already requires enough power for a starship just to operate, adding stuff like overshields and the slipspace time machine is not only easy, but practical too,” Caboose stated. Church and Twilight slowly turned and eyed him suspiciously. “And you know that how...?” “Because I’m super smart!” Caboose exclaimed. “The fact that I just figured out how to use the web browser in my helmet is a total coincidence.” Church and Twilight said nothing. They merely returned their attention to the large generator in the middle of the room. The awkward silence was interrupted by the series of beeps in their collective ears that Twilight had become all too accustomed with. “Church, Twilight. Are you there?” Washington’s voice entered Twilight’s ears through her radio headset. “We’re here, Washington,” Twilight answered. “Did you put in the coordinates to Equestria?” Using the radio again made Twilight suddenly think of the man who had made it for her. In all of the craziness that had happened over the past couple of days, Twilight had almost forgotten about Simmons. It suddenly made her a bit sad that she wouldn’t get to see him again before returning home. Even now, Twilight almost thought she saw someone in maroon armor out of the corner of her eye. “That’s the weird thing,” Washington continued, “the coordinates to your homeworld… they were already set into the nav computer before I logged in.” “Is that a problem?” Church asked. “It might cause some problems in the future…” “We on the other hand will cause some problems in the present!” a familiar gruff voice in a southern accent exclaimed enthusiastically. Twilight’s eyes widened and she heard Church grumble in disbelief. The trio turned around and saw three familiar soldiers in red, maroon and orange armor standing on the other end of the room with a shotgun and two rifles raised at them. “Really?” Church asked the universe at large as he raised his sniper rifle. Twilight lit up her horn and after looking around in confusion for a few seconds, Caboose raised his assault rifle. “Just thought you should know: We could’ve attacked you at any point in the last ten minutes,” Grif sighed, “but somebody wanted to wait for a good line to make a dramatic entrance on!” “And it was totally, one hundred percent worth it!” Sarge exclaimed. “Now attack! Leave no Blue unkilled!” On her balcony atop the highest tower in Canterlot, Princess Celestia looked out at her kingdom as it was covered in the orange light of her setting sun. The pure white alicorn focused her immense magical energy on the distant celestial body, gently willing it to fall beneath the horizon just like a mother tucks her foal under the sheets of a warm bed. As the sky darkened, Celestia turned her head to look beside her. Princess Luna’s horn glowed as she urged her own charge out of bed and to its place above. Despite the myriad of matters that plagued her weary mind, Celestia couldn’t help but smile. It felt like it had been ages since the two of them had turned day to night together like this. She’d missed it, but that’s what happens when siblings quarrel. Celestia was certain that very topic was the real reason Luna stood beside her now. The two of them had merely wordlessly agreed to see to their respective celestial duties first. Once she was satisfied everything with the night sky was in order, Luna turned to face her sister, a look on her face somewhere between anger and melancholy. The night alicorn’s horn glowed again as a beige folder appeared from her pocket dimension in the space between them. Celestia took the folder in her own magical grasp and opened it, pulling forth the contents within. She was greeted by a rather gruesome sight: a grayscale image of what appeared to be a unicorn. Or what was left of one. “Arcane Star is dead,” Luna reported emotionlessly. “Eyewitness descriptions of his killer match those of the alien creature that attacked Dodge City.” Though her face remained carefully neutral, Celestia was genuinely shocked by the news, and as was the case when any of her ponies met their end before it was their time, deeply saddened. But she ought to have heard this news from one of her viziers. Luna presenting it to her now was highly irregular. Celestia would have inquired as to the reason her sister had decided to present her with this macabre bit of information herself when Luna continued. “How many more, Tia?” she asked. “How many more must die before you start sharing what you know?” Celestia turned her full body to her sister and looked her directly in the eyes. “I swear to you, Luna. I know nothing of this... Meta.” Celestia’s words were sincere and absolute. “But you know something,” Luna countered. “These aliens… you’ve encountered them before. Some time while I was still banished. Whatever you know must be brought to light! Even after the Meta’s attack I’ve still been having the same dark premonitions. Whatever is coming… whatever is threatening Equestria… the Meta is not it.” Of course it isn’t. That was exactly what Celestia had known. What she’d feared. Celestia turned away and walked back into her chambers. The lit hearth and the furniture covered in soft silk were hardly comforting at that moment. “If you only knew what I know, you would understand exactly why I want it kept secret,” Celestia said. “Then help me to understand. Tell me,” Luna pleaded. Celestia merely kept her attention on the documents detailing Arcane Star’s death. She glanced over at the letter she’d received from her former protégé earlier that day and then looked back at Arcane Star’s documents, heart beating faster as she started putting pieces together. “What did Arcane Star have on him when he died?” Luna looked up to the ceiling as she tried to recall. “I believe he had copies of everything he showed me when I brought him to Canterlot. Research data on the ship, the body, transcripts of his conversation with the alien…” Celestia’s heart froze and a grave expression fell across her face. It all made sense now. She knew what the Meta was after and even worse, where that would lead it. Luna noted the change in Celestia’s expression and studied her sister with concern. “What is it?” “The Meta… I know where it’s going,” Celestia said, racing for her balcony with frantic speed. The Princess of Equestria took off from her balcony and flew toward Ponyville with haste. She only hoped it wasn’t too late to save them… The Everfree Forest was exactly how Applejack remembered it the last time she was in here: dark and oppressive. What little light came from the night sky above was all but blocked out by the canopy of trees overhead. The trees themselves were twisted and unnatural things that seemed to claw at the four mares as they trotted briskly past. The air was filled with the sounds of wildlife that sounded both natural and alien all at once. Tracking the two wayward fillies and their abductor was surprisingly easy. Rainbow Dash had quickly spotted the ominous alien design carved into one of the outer trees. From there, the mares ventured forth into the thick brush, following the three fillies path until they came upon a small clearing full of signs of a struggle. Sooner or later, the fillies’ hoofprints disappeared and were replaced by those of a creature even Applejack couldn’t identify. The four of them continued deeper into the forest, following the strange footprints. Sooner or later, the footprints disappeared and the four ponies didn’t know where to go next. Rainbow Dash had suggested flying up to survey the area from above, but Applejack had to remind her that the canopy was too thick. Just when it seemed as if their quarry was lost, another sound joined the chorus of nightly noises: a filly’s sobbing echoed through the trees. “Sweetie Belle?!” Rarity called out, “Sweetie Belle! Is that you?” Rarity’s cries were met with nothing but more distant sobs, but the noise provided the mares with a direction, and soon enough they were galloping towards the noise as fast as they could. The group soon came upon a clearing where the starry night sky overhead could be seen again. The other end of the clearing dropped off, becoming a broken cliff. It was the very same cliff that had nearly been their death the first time they ventured into the Everfree, but the first thing Applejack and her friends saw was two tiny shapes close to the cliff’s edge. Sweetie Belle sat beside a pony-sized boulder, holding her tiny orange friend close and crying fearful tears. Scootaloo for her part was trying to put on a brave face for her friend, but the cracks in her armor were as clear as the night sky above. It soon became apparent to Applejack and the others why the two of them remained in place on the far end of the clearing. The boulder they were next to was on one of Scootaloo’s hind legs. The little filly was trapped and probably injured. But something didn’t add up. There was no way that boulder found its way atop Scootaloo’s leg on its own. “SWEETIE!” Rarity cried, racing full speed across the clearing towards the distressed fillies. Applejack just thought back to when her own younger sister came crying to her in town. She’d said that some monster had taken Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. So why are they alone? The answer came to Applejack as soon as Sweetie looked up at her approaching sister as her eyes went wide with fear. “Rarity! Don’t come! It’s a trick!” Sweetie yelled. They weren’t alone at all. Nor were they the ones the monster was after. Before Applejack could call out to warn Rarity of the danger, a terrible hissing and growling with the quality of something otherworldly resonated through the air around them. Suddenly, a great armored creature on two legs appeared beside the fillies where nothing had been standing before. Immediately Applejack noted its similarity in appearance to Tex, only it stood about a head taller. The powered armor it wore was white with various brown, red and black parts seemingly strewn about at random. The helmet was a large golden dome encompassing the entire front half of its head as opposed to the single visor on Tex’s armor. In its arms was a large projectile weapon with a massive curved blade attached to the bottom. The moment it appeared, the monster launched bursts of explosive flames from its weapon at Rarity as it charged forward. Thankfully, Rarity was able to bring up a magical barrier mere moments before impact, but she was not a battle mage by any stretch of the imagination. The glowing white barrier only lasted a few barrages before shattering, leaving Rarity clutching her head in pain. The monster was upon her now and immediately delivered a kick to her midsection, sending the hapless fashionista sprawling on the ground. That was all it had the time to do, as Rainbow Dash was immediately upon the creature, flying into its back at the speed of a missile. Her attack only managed to knock their assailant off balance briefly, but Rainbow took the opportunity to grab it by the domed helmet from behind. She tried to place her hooves over where she assumed its eyes to be as her wings flapped furiously behind the snarling creature. Fluttershy immediately went to Rarity’s aid and at the same time, Applejack ran to the fillies. With her incredible earth pony strength, Applejack lifted the boulder and freed Scootaloo’s leg. She quickly looked over where Fluttershy was helping Rarity to her hooves while Rainbow Dash wrestled with the monster mere feet away. Rarity’s nose was bleeding and the unicorn mare clutched her side where she’d been kicked. She wouldn’t last long in a fight with this thing. “Rarity! Take the girls and get outta here!” Applejack ordered before ushering Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo towards her. “We’ll keep it busy!” “You’ll what?!” Rarity exclaimed. A plan of attack forming in her mind, Applejack tossed the small boulder as high into the air as she could, the muscles burning. “We ain’t got time to argue!” The monster got a grip of one of Rainbow Dash’s hooves and pulled her over its shoulder, tossing her aside. Applejack had already turned around and with a powerful buck of her hind legs, caught the boulder on its descent. She felt a sharp pain in her hind legs as the rock was sent toward the monster like a cannonball, connecting with its chest as it brought its bladed weapon to bear. The boulder was deflected by some sort of glowing field of light that appeared and covered the monster’s body, but the impact was strong enough to make the field burst, sending the feral alien staggering back as lightning danced across its body. “Land’s sake, run!” Applejack yelled. This time, Rarity didn’t argue. She placed Scootaloo on her back and gestured for Sweetie to follow her, and together the three ponies ran back the way they came. The alien abomination rose to its full height again and let out another unnatural growl before turning into an intangible blur and disappearing completely. Rainbow Dash climbed to her hooves and gathered around Applejack with a trembling Fluttershy. The three of them held their ground beside the edge of the cliff, frantically scanning their surroundings as they listened. This proved to be a mistake, as the monster fired on them from its unseen location. Without even thinking, Applejack turned and jumped as the explosion ignited the ground where she’d previously been standing. Her only thought as she fell was that she hoped Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were alright. Otherwise her landing was going to be quite painful.   “EAT LEAD, LEAD EATERS!” Sarge yelled, accompanying his statement with a shotgun blast. Church, Caboose and Twilight Sparkle all retreated behind the great spinning slipspace generator as fire from Red Team’s weapons filled the room. Caboose and Church returned fire from around the generator before the latter swore and reached up to his helmet. “Washington! The Reds from our canyon are here! They have us pinned down!” Church exclaimed over the radio. “What? How did they find you?” Washington’s voice asked. “I don’t know!” Twilight swallowed. That didn’t bode well. While she didn’t think the Reds themselves were really all that bad, the fact that they had tracked them here raised all kinds of questions. “Just hold on, I’ll be right there,” Washington said before his signal cut out. Twilight looked up at Church as more bullets pinged across the generator they used as cover, “What do we do now? Someone on board’s bound to notice all of this noise!” she shouted over the cacophony of battle. “Let’s just hope Washington shows up before that happens!” Washington briskly jogged down the halls of the Mother of Invention. Every second wasted was one that the crew of Project Freelancer’s flagship would notice the firefight erupting in the generator room. He turned a corner and continued his run down the clean, sterile hallway. At the end of the hall, Washington could see a chasm that acted as a freight elevator shaft. It could take him directly down to the level where the generators were and if his knowledge of the Mother of Invention’s layout was still good after all of these years, the slipspace generator would be within sprinting distance. Washington only made it halfway down the hallway before he heard the loud bang that accompanied a sniper rifle shot and the whoosh of a high caliber projectile zooming past. Cursing, Washington stopped his sprint and dove behind a nearby crate errantly discarded against the wall. “Knock knock, Agent Washington,” a familiar pompous voice with a British accent filled his ears via his radio headset. “Wyoming?” Washington exclaimed incredulously. “What are you doing here?” “I might ask you the same question, mate.” As Wyoming spoke, Washington chanced a peek over the top of the crate he hid behind. “After all, you’re the one who’s snooping around where he shouldn’t.” Wyoming was standing on the walkway across the chasm of the freight elevator about a story up. He had a good view of the hallway leading to the elevator from where he was, and there wasn’t a lot of cover between the elevator and Washington. Although Wyoming’s initial shot had missed, Washington guessed that was the intention. His next shot wouldn’t. “What do you want, Wyoming? Maybe we can work something out,” Washington suggested. “All I want is that adorable purple equine creature on behalf of Project Freelancer, and because I will soon have her in my grasp, there’s nothing for us to work out,” Wyoming chuckled. Washington was hoping Wyoming wouldn’t have known about Twilight. It seemed that his luck was doomed to fail him. Regardless, there was one flaw in Wyoming’s plan that Washington picked out. “If you want the alien you’re looking in the wrong place. She’s not with me,” Washington said. If he could just bait Wyoming into looking for Twilight somewhere else, he could get to the slipspace generator and they could all get out of here. “Yes, I know. But wherever she is, her Blue allies will be with her as well. And wherever those Blues are, my unwitting Red compatriots shan’t be far behind!” Just then, a chime came in over the ship’s PA system. “Minor disturbance reported in primary slipspace generator area,” said the pleasant voice of FILSS, the ship’s A.I. “Response teams have been dispatched and are en route to contain the problem.” So that was Wyoming’s game. “‘Slipspace generator room,’ eh? Wonder what she’s up to?” Wyoming mused as Washington heard a large amount of armored footsteps behind him. “I’d love to stay and chat, Washington old chap. But apparently, I need to be in the slipspace generator room.” Washington turned around and found himself face to face with a squad of soldiers in gray armor led by a Recovery Agent with blue detail on his armor. All of their rifles were leveled at him. Washington didn’t think he could get by them based solely on his status as a top Recovery Agent. “I’ll just leave you in the care of these gents, shall I? I’m sure your superiors would love to have a chat with you about your recent mission performance.” Wyoming turned and began walking away. “Cheerio!” “Minor disturbance reported in primary slipspace generator area.” Twilight’s heart froze at the sound of the cheery yet monotonous female voice that boomed over the sounds of battle. “Sheila?” Caboose stopped firing and looked up at the ceiling. “Response teams have been dispatched and are en route to contain the problem.” “Sheila! It is you!” Caboose exclaimed, nearly jumping for joy. Back on the side of the room controlled by the Reds, the three bumbling soldiers stopped firing and stared across at the generator the Blues were hiding behind when they heard Caboose’s yelling. “YOU GOT SO HUGE! IT IS SO COOL BEING INSIDE YOU AGAIN!” “Uh… what are they doing back there?” Grif asked. “Something diabolical no doubt. There’s a reason I refer to them as ‘dirty’ Blues!” Sarge exclaimed. “Simmons! Go and investigate!” “Um… I’d really rather not…” Simmons muttered. “Simmons, listen to your Commanding Officer! And by that, I mean me!” Grif ordered. “Stay back and keep up the pressure! Either those Blues will come out eventually, or we’ll run out of ammo and be forced to quit and go home. Both options involve minimal effort from us!” “Don’t listen to him Simmons! We need to hit ‘em now while they’re engaged in their sinful Blue deeds!” Simmons just anxiously looked back and forth between his two Commanding Officers as they argued, now stuck in the middle of their feud for control of the squad. Back behind the generator, Twilight and the Blues crouched silently and listened. “Sounds like they’ve stopped shooting,” Church whispered. “We should plan our counter attack.” Twilight closed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts. The longer this battle went on, the more time the Freelancer response team had to arrive on the scene. At that moment, Twilight found herself remembering the battle at Zanzibar. More importantly, she remembered what Washington had told her about the whole Red vs. Blue conflict. She had refused to believe that such a violent war was really all just being orchestrated by the same amoral military program that was hunting her. At that moment though, Twilight thought of her time spent with the Blood Gulch Red Team, however short it may have been. They were the same as the Blues she stood with now, she realized. “No,” Twilight said, turning around. “This fighting has to stop, now!” Twilight defiantly walked out from behind the spinning slipspace generator and faced the trio of Reds, who were currently bickering amongst themselves. “I think yer ideas are stupid!” “I think your face is stupid!” “I think you’re all stupid!” Everyone stopped and turned to look at Twilight. Her words were harsh, but they accomplished their task. The room had her attention now. “All of you have been fighting this war for how long now? Have you not once wondered why you’re fighting? Don’t you ever wonder why you’re here?” Twilight looked at each of them imploringly. “Sure, we think about that all the time,” Grif said. “We just don’t really do anything else!” “And why not?” Twilight asked. “You’re all fighting a war for no other reason than you’re being told to!” Twilight paused as she realized she really had no idea where she was going with this. None of the other Red and Blue men around her had spoken up though, so she must have been doing something right. She looked over at her sole friend on Red Team. “Simmons, you’re a good guy and I’m glad that we can be friends. But I feel like I’ve also really gotten to know Church and Caboose in our time together as well! Friendship really means a lot to me… so why should I have to choose sides? You know, you guys are more alike than you’ll admit.” Twilight wasn’t sure if her words were getting through to them, but Simmons did loosen his grip on his rifle. “She is right about the two different sides…” Caboose said sagely. “Friendship schmiendship, we’re under orders from Command to bring you in, Twilight Frazajazzhands,” Sarge said, raising his shotgun at the mare. Simmons stepped in front of Sarge. “Uh, sir? Maybe we should think about those orders a little more carefully. Something definitely seems fishy about them.” At that moment, it became so quiet in the generator room that they were able to hear the voices and footsteps of Freelancer soldiers in the hallways outside. “Twilight, we have to go! Now!” Church exclaimed, taking a step toward her. “But Washington…” “Is not coming. We don’t have any more time to wait for him!” Twilight looked around the room, then slowly nodded at Church. “We can probably stall them long enough for you to do… whatever it is you’re about to do,” Simmons said. “Yeah! It’ll be less work than actually trying to capture you,” Grif exclaimed, turning to leave the room. He leaned in close to Sarge before doing so. “That’s an order, by the way.” Sarge grumbled incoherently, but regardless did the same. Simmons lingered for a few more moments as he looked back at Twilight and the Blues, as if trying to figure out how to conclude this interaction. “Thanks, Simmons!” Twilight said with a nod and a warm smile. “Yeah, give them more fuel why don’t you?” Simmons muttered. “Grif and Sarge, I mean.” Despite his words, Simmons nodded at Twilight in return before joining his comrades in the hall outside. “Okay, you ready?” Church asked. Twilight nodded. “I’ve been ready for a long time!” Approaching the giant slipspace generator, Twilight closed her eyes and tried to focus her magic. She couldn’t help but feel a little guilty as she did so. “Sorry, Washington…” “Hey, remember our number one rule,” Church said. “No apologies.” Nodding, Twilight concentrated and connected her energies to that of Church and Caboose, then entered the artificial plane of the generator with their spiritual essences in tow. She heard the sounds of many footsteps entering the large room, but they drifted away, becoming nought but distant echoes. Twilight felt the dizziness and general disorientation of a teleport begin to set in and then just as it had been before, her world became a black void. Simmons walked out of the generator room to join Sarge and Grif in the hallway. Whatever he was about to say to his two commanding officers died in his throat as he found that they were all face to face with a squad of at least a dozen men in gray armor. The Freelancer forces were staring down the three Reds along the sights of their weapons. With an audible gulp, Simmons decided to be the one to speak up. “Sorry, uh… false alarm! We were just… checking to make sure our weapons were in full working order.” “Oh, is that so?” intoned a sarcastic British voice the Reds knew all too well. A familiar man in white armor walked to the front of the assembled Freelancer troops. “Are you certain you weren’t just following your orders to apprehend a certain equine alien?” “Wyoming!?” the Reds all exclaimed. “It seems that lots of people have taken to shouting my name in surprise as of late,” Wyoming chuckled. “I daresay I’ve become something of a rock star!” “So… you were the one who gave us those orders?” Sarge asked. “Yes, and although I admire your dedication in following through with them up to this point, I’m afraid your services are no longer required.” The peons of Project Freelancer promptly stepped forward and apprehended the three Reds, who protested vigorously and vulgarly as their weapons were taken. With no other options, the Reds followed Wyoming and his men as they entered the generator room. “Well, well, miss Twilight! You thought you could outwit the forces of Project Freelancer,” Wyoming taunted as his troops took up positions completely surrounding the small unicorn and the pair of Blues. She had her eyes closed, and the three of them didn’t even appear to be aware of Wyoming’s presence. “But it would seem you were wrong…” Before Wyoming could finish, a bright flash of light engulfed the area where Twilight and her companions stood, and just like that they were gone. Everything was quiet for a very long time. “... Bollocks.” A chime then came in over the ship’s P.A. system and the voice of the ship’s A.I. once again prevailed. “Attention. Lift-off imminent. All non-essential personnel please move to designated safety areas immediately.” A deep rumbling overtook the ship as the engines began firing up one at a time. Grif awkwardly raised a hand. “Uh… are we going somewhere?” Twilight felt the tingling sensation of butterflies in her stomach and the wind assaulting her body before she was able to see. Soon enough though, Twilight opened her eyes and once again found herself falling through the sky toward the ground below. This time however, she was ready for it. As she approached the ground, Twilight curled up and rolled immediately upon impact, safely diverting most of her momentum. The landing was still hard and painful, but at least nothing felt dislocated this time. Rising to her hooves, the first thing Twilight noticed that it was night. Or rather, that it wasn’t night when she was teleported away on the Mother of Invention. She stood in the middle of a lush, grassy field with a line of trees in the distance. Twilight then remembered that she had company on her return trip and began looking around in all directions. “Hello? Church? Are you there?” Twilight called out to the night as she continued to survey her surroundings. “Church? Church? … Caboose?” Twilight continued calling out for her blue allies, but received no reply but the chirping of crickets. She was alone. It was then that she saw a series of lights off in the distance near the line of trees. A town! Now was her chance of seeing whether she’d made it home. Twilight galloped toward the beacon of light in the darkness. As she got closer, she found a path leading toward the lights of civilization. A familiar path. Turning away from the town, Twilight’s eyes fell on a familiar, beautiful sight: A farm, complete with a big red barn. Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight felt the air being sucked out of her body as her jaw hung open in astonishment. She did it. She was finally home after all of those months that had somehow only been a few days. “YES!” Twilight cheered, rearing up on her hind legs. “Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!” Twilight galloped along the path toward town, cheering and shouting happily as she ran along the line of trees that she recognized as the Everfree Forest. That stupid spooky forest. Twilight used to always avoid walking past it at night, and even during the day she’d always be a little nervous about passing it by. She never thought she’d be so happy to be running past the Everfree again. As she drew closer to Ponyville, she could hear the sound of many raised voices. Twilight couldn’t help but wonder what all of the commotion was about at this undoubtedly late hour, but she didn’t care. Twilight wished she’d hurry up and reach town already. She couldn’t wait to run into one of her… “Oof!” a dainty voice exclaimed as Twilight bumped into something quite soft. Twilight shook the brief soreness from her face and brought her rear end up off of the ground. She looked in front of her at the pony she’d bumped into and her heart did a backflip. Rarity stared at Twilight with a look of stunned disbelief. Her eyes were wide and vacant as her jaw drifted lazily towards the ground. “T-Twilight?” the name was barely a whisper. “Is it... is it really you?” Twilight didn’t answer. For some inexplicable reason she forgot how to speak. Twilight instead settled for lunging forward and wrapping Rarity in a tight hug, nuzzling her perhaps a tad overzealously. “Urk! Twilight! I’m glad to see you too, but… can’t breathe…” Rarity choked. Twilight pulled away from Rarity and gave her a sheepish grin. “I just… I thought I’d never see you guys again!” It was then that Twilight noticed Rarity wasn’t alone. Her sister Sweetie Belle was standing just behind her and Scootaloo was perched on her back. Twilight was ready to happily greet them too when she finally noticed how… wrong the scene was in front of her. The fillies’ eyes were red and puffy, their cheeks stained with tears. She then noticed the blood on Rarity’s face for the first time, and then the bruises along her body. “Rarity… what’s going on?” Rarity looked down at her hooves. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders were attacked in the Everfree by a monstrous alien. We were able to get them out safely but… Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy are still in there fighting for their lives!” Without another word, Twilight Sparkle turned around and ran into the Everfree Forest, panting as her already exhausted body struggled to keep up. She’d traveled across the galaxy to make it back to her friends, and she wasn’t going to lose them now that she was finally back. Twilight was so focused on the task at hand that she forgot all about Church and Caboose… Church groaned as he pulled himself to his feet. He kinda wished Twilight had told him that they would appear in her world several feet up in the air. At least, he assumed that the cluster of buildings they landed in was her world. Everything here looked much too small, and even in the darkness of night the colors on everything seemed much more vibrant. The ground under him was rather uneven. Looking around, Church realized he was the only one standing in the middle of the dark street. “Hello? Twilight? You here?” Church called out, surveying his surroundings. “Twilight? Twilight? … Caboose?” “Hi Church!” Caboose’s voice was like a gunshot in the silence. What was more, it appeared to be coming from directly under him. Church looked down and saw the reason for his uneven footing. He was standing on Caboose’s stomach as the dopey blue soldier lay on his back, looking up at him innocently. “Oh… hey Caboose,” Church said dejectedly, stepping off of Caboose and letting his companion climb to his feet. “Have you seen Twilight around?” “Who?” Church gave an exasperated sigh. “Have you seen George around?” “Nope! I just saw the sky, then the ground, and then you in that order.” Caboose then took his surroundings in, his head on a swivel. “Now I see buildings, flowers, a fountain, more buildings…” “Thanks Caboose, but I don’t need a fucking play-by-play of my surroundings. I’m not blind!” Church suddenly heard the sound of distant, frantic voices begin to fill the air. “But then why did you ask for your seeing eye dog?” “Shut up, Caboose! I hear voices,” Church hissed, looking around to try and discern which direction the sounds were coming from. “But how can you? You can’t see!” “Just… be quiet and follow me,” Church ordered as he briskly walked in the direction of the rabble. Caboose did as he was told, and the pair of blue armored humans made their way down the streets of the proportionately small settlement. The buildings that they moved between were all terribly old-fashioned, made of wood and topped with roofs of hay. After a few minutes, Church and Caboose turned a corner and found themselves at the edge of a large square. If Church had any doubts they had arrived on Twilight’s home planet before, the sight before him most certainly alleviated them. Gathered before a large round building that slightly resembled a park gazebo was a huge crowd of small, colorful equines. The giant crowd must have filled the entire square and Church was quick to notice the presence of torches, pitchforks, baked goods and other random objects in their hooves. If it wasn’t for his robot body, Church would have swallowed nervously. He knew an angry mob when he saw one. “Everypony please! Calm yourselves!” an older looking pony with a beige coat, gray mane and glasses addressed the gathered crowd from the front patio of the central round building. To make the scene even stranger, a small purple and green lizard stood on two legs beside her. “As mayor, I assure you that everything that can be done about the situation is being done,” the speaker continued. A winged pony with a darker brown coat and a light red mane flew up over the crowd, getting their attention. He appeared to be the leader of this mob. “This alien has attacked three of our fillies, including my own daughter!” he exclaimed. “We don’t have time to deliberate like one of your committees, mayor! We have to act now!” The ring leader punctuated his statement by thrusting a hoof into the air, resulting in a resounding set of cheers of approval from the mob. It was as the cheering began to die down that a voice beside Church made itself known. “Oh my God… THERE ARE SO MANY OF YOU DOGS!” Caboose loudly exclaimed, resulting in every set of eyes in the sea of ponies before them to turn in their direction. “I JUST WANT TO TAKE ALL OF YOU HOME WITH ME!” The town square that had previously been drowning in the sounds of unrest was now dead silent as every set of colorful alien eyes in the square stared wide at the pair of blue interlopers. The stunned silence was eventually broken by the winged pony who spoke earlier. “Did you hear that? The aliens mean to abduct us all!” he exclaimed, pointing an accusatory hoof at Church and Caboose. “Get them!” Church tried to think of something, anything he could say to reason with the angry mob. “Well… shit.” Fluttershy helped Applejack climb to her hooves, the farm mare sputtering and coughing as she did so. Fluttershy had managed to swoop in and grab her before she hit the ground, but the meek yellow pegasus hadn’t quite been able to stop Applejack from falling completely. She had slowed her fall enough so that her landing on the ground below wasn’t crippling. Fluttershy apologized profusely of course, but Applejack reassured her that she was fine. At least she was until It returned. Fluttershy almost hadn’t seen the monster as it leapt off of the jagged and admittedly unstable looking cliff above. It was still doing whatever it was doing to make itself invisible, but Fluttershy noticed the distortion parting the air above them in just enough time to push Applejack out of the way as the creature landed and made itself visible again. Its fist was now firmly embedded in the ground where Applejack had previously been standing. With impressive speed, it reached around its back and pulled out its large bladed weapon, smacking Fluttershy across the face with the blunt end of the blade in one fluid motion. Fluttershy fell to the ground and clutched her stinging face, feeling something hot trickle down the side where she’d been struck. Hearing the sound of another set of wings flapping, Fluttershy looked up and saw Rainbow Dash flying circles around the monster, attacking it with swift strikes with her hooves whenever she saw an opening. Her efforts only seemed to enrage the creature as it let out an angry grunt before swiping at her. Rainbow Dash flew out of range of its arms and made a few obscene gestures at it with her rear. “Ha ha! Can’t touch this!” Rainbow taunted, resulting in another chilling growl from the monster. Realizing that Rainbow was taunting it as a form of distraction, Fluttershy looked around for Applejack. The farm pony was climbing to her hooves again, albeit much slower and with more effort than she had been earlier. Several new bruises covered her body making Fluttershy realize that they would have to escape quickly if they had any chance of surviving. The monster then fired more explosive blasts at Rainbow Dash, who easily dodged them as she flew over the monster’s head, positioning her back to the cliff they’s so recently fell from. As before, this proved to be a mistake, as the monster loaded another chain of explosives into its weapon before firing again. Rainbow Dash didn’t even have to move as the shots sailed far above her. “Ha! You’re never gonna hit me with aim that weak!” Rainbow proclaimed, pulling one of her own eyelids down and sticking a tongue out at the monster, which did nothing but stand there and wait. Fluttershy realized what was happening all too late. “Rainbow!” she was barely able to call out before the shifting of rocks drowned out her tiny voice. Rainbow Dash turned around just in time to see the cliff she had put to her back coming down on top of her. She made a valiant effort to fly clear of the avalanche, but it was already upon her. A particularly large piece of the cliff hit Rainbow Dash’s wing and the pegasus spun out of control and crashed into the ground below, more rocks covering her hind legs and one smaller (but no less painful) stone impacting with her rainbow head. Fluttershy froze as the monster casually turned away from the unconscious pegasus and turned its attention to an increasingly terrified looking Applejack. She wanted to fly to her friends’ aid immediately but she couldn’t. Her wings refused to open and her hooves remained firmly in place no matter how much she willed them to move. All she could do was stand there shaking. With a fearsome snarl, the monster fired more explosives in Applejack’s direction. The farmpony’s breathing became more frantic as she tried to outrun the fiery blasts to no avail. One struck too close and Applejack was sent flying and landed in a painful heap, her tail no more than a burnt stub. Fluttershy looked back and forth at her two incapacitated friends and realized she was the only one left standing. She thought the mind numbing terror would be too much to bear, but her fear was replaced by something else. A burning hot sensation in her chest that made her want to scream and hit things. Her brow came low over her eyes and suddenly she found her wings working again, and that they were taking her toward the monster with renewed vigor. “How… dare you!” Fluttershy said in a low, menacing tone as she flew right at the abomination and kicked it in the back of the head. The result was akin to a butterfly trying to break a rock, but it achieved its result: The monster turned away from Applejack’s inert form and faced the livid Fluttershy. The butter colored pegasus closed her eyes and drew in a breath. When she opened them again, she brought the full power of her Stare down on the entity before her. Any other creature that Fluttershy performed the Stare on usually became cowed with such thoroughness that openly threatening them with immediate physical violence would be less effective. The armored monster that Fluttershy performed the Stare on now only tilted its head in confusion, causing Fluttershy to Stare harder. For some reason, the more Fluttershy used her Stare, the more she felt like running and hiding. More and more she was becoming overcome by feelings of terror and shame, despite knowing she’d done nothing wrong. It was if she were feeling the effects of the Stare in place of the monster. Fluttershy saw her own furious reflection in the domed visor of the monster’s helmet and then she realized what was happening. Fluttershy was using the Stare on herself. Before she could pull away, the monster lunged forward and grabbed Fluttershy by the neck, and all at once the indignant anger she felt was gone, replaced by the all too familiar sensation of terror. The monster slowly brought the shaking pegasus closer to its face... and then she heard voices. A collection of distorted, disembodied voices all speaking as one. R O A? H E E E S G W I M Was this why this thing was attacking them? It was after the M.I. that was in Pinkie’s head? Even gone, Omega was still causing trouble for them. Fluttershy wanted to tell the monster that they didn’t have it anymore. To give it a big speech about how all of this violence isn’t necessary. All that came out of her mouth was a squeak. “I-I don’t know…” The monster let out another horrifying snarl as it violently tossed Fluttershy into a tree. The impact rattled her brain around and she felt like one big ache as she landed on the ground. A single low growl crawled through the air as the monster once again brought up its bladed weapon. Fearing this was the end, Fluttershy whimpered and shut her eyes. She hadn’t even had time to come to terms with everything in her life she still wanted to do when she heard the first blasts. Somehow, the monster’s attack didn’t hurt. Was this it? Was she dead? It had been so fast. Another distorted, angry growl filled Fluttershy’s ears, as well as something else. A sound like the hum of a unicorn’s horn casting magic. Fluttershy opened her eyes and found herself lying in the same place on the ground, but now she was surrounded by a purple magical barrier with the monster just outside. A purple hoof fell into place beside her. Fluttershy looked up to the hoof’s owner and couldn’t believe her eyes. “Not. My. Friends!” Twilight Sparkle stated in a low, defiant voice as she stood protectively over Fluttershy. The monstrous alien soldier let out another unnatural growl before it fired another shot from its weapon. Twilight winced as it impacted on her shield. The barrier held, but the attack was concentrated enough to cause Twilight a fair bit of mental strain. Seeing this, the monster pressed its attack, firing more explosives at Twilight’s barrier as it circled like a hungry predator. Twilight’s shield held, but every impact caused increasing amounts of pain inside her head. She wouldn’t last long, and that monster knew it. “Fluttershy...” Twilight grunted as another attack struck, “You have to run!” Fluttershy looked up at Twilight with every emotion playing across her face at once. “I-I can’t…” “You have to!” “I-I can’t let you leave us again!” Twilight grunted in pain again as more of the monster’s attacks hit home. Her shield started to flicker as a something began to trickle from her nose. Outside, the alien abomination’s growling and snarling grew into a cacophony. It could smell her blood in the water. With one final attack, the shield shattered to pieces and Twilight let out a cry of pain as it felt that her head had done the same. Twilight was lying on her side now, her vision blurry and unfocused, her limbs too weak to obey her. She saw monster’s legs as it approached. Twilight just lay there in despair. She couldn’t believe it. She’d been through so much to make it back to Equestria only to immediately be killed upon her return. It wasn’t fair! The monster stood over her, but for some reason death did not come. She then heard otherworldly voices whispering to each other all at once. Looking up at the thing standing over her, Twilight saw at least half a dozen tiny spectral figures all standing in the air around the monster’s domed head. Transparent entities of fiery orange, purple, blue and cobalt stood arguing amongst themselves. Twilight couldn’t understand what they said, but she could tell what they were feeling: confusion. Suddenly, the chorus of voices was broken by a bright flash of light a fair distance behind the monster. A white light now filled the forest. Twilight and the monster both looked to the source of the pure light and the proud form of Princess Celestia stood. The white alicorn looked Godly with the ethereal white light encompassing her very being. The monster raised an arm to shield its eyes from the blinding light, but somehow Twilight was able to look upon it unabated. Celestia stared at the monster with a look of calm fury on her face. “You will not harm another one of my ponies, monster! Least of all that one!” Her words didn’t boom with the Royal Canterlot Voice as Twilight expected, but the powerful, righteous tone with which Princess Celestia carried them conveyed all of the power and fury she possessed. The monster growled defiantly and raised its weapon, shooting more explosive fire in Celestia’s direction. The shots impacted harmlessly across some invisible barrier around the princess and, unlike Twilight, they didn’t seem to phase her in the slightest. Celestia’s horn glowed even brighter and a beam of bright light traveled from it to the monster. But the monster was already gone and Celestia’s attack impacted on empty air. After surveying her surroundings, Celestia deduced that whatever it was wasn’t coming back and briskly made her way toward her protégé. Fluttershy and Applejack pulled themselves to their hooves, the mere presence of their ruler enough to get them moving again. Together, the two of them limped over to Rainbow Dash and began unburying her from the rocks. Celestia stood over Twilight Sparkle and smiled down at her as she pulled herself to her hooves. Twilight looked up into her beloved mentor’s face; something she thought she might never see again. It was then that the adrenaline coursing through her body finally wore off and all of the emotions over the past few days finally caught up with her. All of the pain, fear, anger, joy and sorrow of her adventure washed over Twilight like a tidal wave, breaking her proverbial dam. Twilight grabbed Celestia and held onto her tight, as if letting go would cause her to be thrust across the galaxy again. She then wept like a child. What remained of Twilight’s rational mind rebelled at the thought of putting on such a display in front of her mentor, but the part of her that needed this didn’t care. Princess Celestia said nothing, merely wrapping Twilight up in an embrace and gently stroking her with the loving tenderness of a mother. When Twilight was finally spent, all of the sleep she’d missed over the past few days was the next thing to catch up with her. Feeling warm and safe in Celestia’s embrace, Twilight allowed herself to drift away. For the first time in days, she knew that everything was going to be okay... Every man and woman on the bridge of the Mother of Invention stood at attention as the automatic doors slid open and a tall, older man stepped through. He was dressed in the black and gray uniform of a high-ranking official and sported short, graying black hair. The unquestionable figure of authority walked purposefully down the central walkway of the command bridge. Clasping his hands behind his back, the man looked out onto the field of stars that dominated the towering window of the bridge. The blue glow of holographic monitors illuminated his bearded, spectacled face. A man with dark skin clutching a datapad approached him. “All systems are online and functional, Director,” he reported in his soft voice. “Coordinates to Caballinus IV are set.” “Tell the helmsman to enter slipspace when ready, Counselor,” the Director said in a deep, Southern accent. The Counselor nodded in affirmation before going to attend his task. The Director pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and smiled. “Time to visit some old friends…”