Jerome knew he was soaring through the sky, but everything seemed to go slowly. A crack in his visor made it hard for him to see details and he bounced down the road. He was able to make out the coffee shop as he flew past. He bounced once more, and then there was no more ground under him. He was just falling. Finally, his armor reacted and locked up, as if that could save him.
.
He smashed into the ground, and the blue sky turned black.
*
Douglas hesitated for a second. This had certainly never happened. He had always had a specific enemy, not one that could change sides. Maybe this one had never changed. They had assumed. No, they were ready for this. They hadn’t assumed. They had reacted. An enemy that hadn’t been known to take allies was fighting an unknown, and the enemy of his enemy was his friend. No again. He was walking into another 3 pronged war. He still had an old enemy, but the new turned from parasitic flesh worms to colorful ponies.
His old enemy, the Elite, finished off the last of his ponies and turned towards the real prize, him. Which an angry howl, he lunged towards Douglas. The Elite had armor pointing towards that of a recruit, and his skills showed. He easily snatched the Elites wrist and wrenched it backwards, forcing the sword away. He tossed it, and, pulling the Elite closer for momentum, head butted the squid-faced alien. He heard a crack, and purple blood splattered across his visor. He was done.
He still didn’t have a plan for the giant unicorn. He needed more time, and a chance to speak with Anders. Dodging the new guards that had entered, he fled the castle. Tactical withdraw, as Serina would have called it.
***
Princess Celestia had done it! She was nearly knocked off her hoofs from using too much magic, but she had driven off the aliens. Well, two of them. She blasted one, and the other ran. The other aliens… well, the first aliens were trying to kill the second and third aliens, and the second and third aliens tried to kill the first, and the second wanted… A demon? This was confusing. The first were the two legged ones. But the second and third were two legged. The third was gigantic and blue, the second smaller but sharing the same hue, while the firsts were green. Then there were the fourths, aka, her little ponies. It was nothing short of a massacre. What few were alive were in serious need of attention.
She couldn’t do anything, not in her condition. It had been to long since she had to use a combat spell, let alone one of the most sophisticated and powerful in the book. For now, she would be OK, but later it would catch up. A guard walked up to her.
“Princess, we need to get you out of here!” He was a first Lieutenant. Her mind was still dazed, she couldn’t match a name with the face. She simply nodded and followed as he led her towards the medical wing of the castle. What just happened started to catch up. She hadn’t seen so much blood in a very long time, a time she had hoped to forget. She couldn’t let that time happen again. She started to put the pieces together. What she had thought was an attack by one side turned into an intervention by another. Was she caught in the middle of a war? It looked to be so… But which side was her enemy? Maybe both? Celestia, well, herself forbid that was the case, because if so she had already lost. She needed an ally.
She went through a doorway where a couple doctors where waiting. They asked her first if she was hurt. They both sighed when she responded with a no. She went through a couple boring tests that she had gone through a couple times before. They came up with the obvious, magic overload. She simply needed a couple pills during dinner tonight and a bit of sleep. She left and immediately searched for the Lieutenant. He was waiting for her outside the door.
“I need you to come with me.” Celestia asked as she continued walking. He followed suit at her right side. “You and I are going to become good friends. How long have you been a Lieutenant?”
“Seven years now Princess.” He responded with a note of suspicion.
“It’s about time you move up then. You are here by promoted to Captain. I have a feeling Shining Armor is going to be gone for a while, and I see a dark storm in the future. I need somebody to help me take control. We have a new enemy, and I’m going to be honest to you, I’m scared we might not make it out very nicely this time.”
***
Rainbow Dash honestly had no idea what just happened. It all happened too quickly. She was used to fast, but that… she just didn’t know. The three of them were looking for Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Twilight after arguing about something, she couldn’t even remember what about, when an alien had come through the door. It matched exactly what had been explained to her earlier, tall, strange armor, bipedal, it seemed to fit, so she did the first thing that came as obvious to her- attack it. She had charged into it, and it had stumbled back a few feet before grabbing her by the neck. A few guards ran in from her amazing battle cry, and drew their weapons. One of the guards ran off, and more aliens poured through the door, weapons aimed, yelling about some demon. She tried to kick, but it did nothing. The guard came back with Princess Celestia. The alien holding her asked for the demon again, when the door to the castle exploded, some…THING had come in with its friend and beat the tar out of the aliens before one of them got massacred by Celestia. She didn’t know why Celestia did that when it just got done rescuing her (Not that she needed it).
The guards on the other hand got ruined. She almost puked at the sight. Rarity did, and then left. Applejack just covered her eyes with her hat and shook her head. Princess Celestia had left the room with a guard.
Rainbow was getting utterly confused. Why did Celestia do that to the thing that had helped her? What was the Demon that the aliens had asked for? Why didn’t Rarity have a stronger stomach? And where the heck was Pinkie and Fluttershy! Thank Celestia Fluttershy didn’t have to see that, she wasn’t sure what Pinkie would’ve done, and she didn’t want to know, and, last but not least, where was Twilight? Twilight would know what to do, she always did. She probably had a book on these kinds of situations.
A guard walked up and asked her and AJ to leave. She could see why. A couple guards were starting to solemnly bring in body bags. Applejack just turned and left in Rarity’s direction, so Rainbow Dash followed.
Rainbow and Applejack walked silently down the hall, leaving each other to think about what had happened. They found Rarity deeper in the castle sitting on a bench, some of her mascara was dipping down her face. When she saw them, she instantly hugged them both. Rainbow and Applejack returned it.
“That was horrible! Why did that happen?! There was so much blood and things were dying and just happened so randomly…” Rarity cried out as she buried her face into Applejacks mane.
Applejack patted her back. “I don’t have the answer to that question. But I have a feelin’ we need to find out.” She responded with a frown. Applejack looked at Rainbow, frowning a bit more.
“What did I do?!” Rainbow said defensively, returning the not so happy face.
“Why did you have to go and attack that guy? What told you that was a great idea? You nearly up and got yourself killed!” Applejack said as if it was obvious.
Rainbow looked hurt. “Couldn't you see that those things were the aliens that attacked the castle? What did you expect me to do, sit around and wait for take 2 as it rampaged through the guards?”
“Those were not the same! They were different colors, there was more than one kind, and if you remembered, there was only one of the aliens the last time!” Applejack stated.
“So maybe it had some friends, how was I supposed to know?” Rainbow retaliated.
“Stop fighting! Honestly, It’s not helping!” Rarity yelled, with a sad sniff.
Applejack turned towards rarity, who had settled down a bit. Then she looked at Rainbow. “She’s right. Sorry I went off on you. We need to figure out what’s goin’ on here. But to do that, we’ve gotta think this through without arguing with each other. First things first, where in tarnation is Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Twilight?”
“We’ve asked ourselves that, and if they are in the castle, they would definitely be at the front of the castle where that skirmish happened to figure out what the commotion was. As much as I would rather not, we should go back there, and if they’re not there, then we leave and try outside.” Rainbow Dash suggested.
Rarity fainted.
“Wow. Rarity has no guts, does she?” Rainbow commented as Applejack hoisted her onto her back.
“Give her a break. She’s a city pony, she ain’t used to this. Nobody is, I know, but me and you have at least been through a couple tussles. I can hardly cope myself, and don’t lie and say you aint nauseous yourself.” Applejack grunted. “Now if we can, I’d like to check the front and get out before she wakes. Let’s get going.”
The guards worked fast. It was still messy, but the bodies were gone, and they had the entire site blocked off. As they neared, a guard trotted up. “If you’re looking for the medical wing, you’re going in the wrong direction. Do you need help?”
Rainbow looked at Rarity on Applejacks back. “She’s just fainted, but she’s OK. Have you seen a pink earth pony, yellow pegasus or purple unicorn?”
The guard looked at Rarity for a moment longer, a bit concerned. “If you insist. No though, I haven’t. I’m sorry I can’t help.” The guard turned and walked back to the post.
Applejack and Rainbow followed. When he turned to stand guard, he came face to face with a blue pegasus. “Oh, uh… yes?” he asked, taking back a step.
“We’re just passing through.” Rainbow said as she continued walking.
The guard jumped in her way. “I’m sorry, but the castle is on lockdown. Nobody is allowed in or out.”
“What?! Come on, why not?” Rainbow ordered with a baffled expression.
“Uh… Why? Look around, the most important place in Equestria just got attacked. Do you expect us to just let the day go on like it never happened and wait for a second strike?” The guard said with an annoyed expression. “A lot of strange things have been happening, and I’m not the only one to feel like there will be more.” He somberly stepped back to his post.
“Looks like we’re gonna be stuck in here for a bit.” Applejack said as Rainbow Dash stormed by, grumbling angry thoughts and thinking angrier thoughts.
“What do we do now? We can’t just sit here forever! The longer we wait, the more that will go wrong without our ability to at least help, if not stop it.” Rainbow frustratingly scuffed at the floor.
“We have to for now. I can’t hold Rarity forever, and we need time to calm down, maybe get some rest.” Applejack suggested as she set Rarity down on a bench.
Rainbow Dash was silent for a moment. “I… I just don’t know. This is so confusing, things are happening and for the first time, I can’t keep up.” She gave a tired sigh. “Maybe you’re right.”
***
Alice simply grabbed the purple pony by the neck and tossed her outside. She shot the airlock valve and an emergency door slammed shut, steam hissing out of the pipe. A small red light started flashing.
How heroic. She turned back to her planned target. She faltered a second when the pony was no longer there. She looked back at the door, and, with a scowl, kicked it right back open. Sure enough, somehow it ended up outside. The purple pony used her magic and busted the crippling ring around the alicorns horn before tearing off the rope. She turned towards Alice, studied her, and with the blink of an eye, they were both gone, nothing but a purple cloud in their place.
That… was extremely fucking dumb. She expected something. Anything. They didn’t even try to fight! They just left! Seriously?! She turned and punched a hole in the pod. She looked around. Great! Now her hostage was gone! She turned and punched 7 more holes into the pod. This day was just getting worse and worse. She sat down for a couple minutes. After thinking about what should happen next, she look up to the sky for answers. She was shocked when it actually gave her a goal. A purple speck floated towards the mountain before disappearing around the other side.
She knew immediately what it was. How did they find her? The Covenant don’t let up… did they really want to continue dancing after a single ship defended and then attacked an entire armada in a 4 way battle? She had to do something. But she wasn’t going to go up there. Judging by the way they acted with the humans during first contact, those ponies would never see what’s coming. She was getting damn tired of it, but she knew what she had to do. She had to wait.