//------------------------------// // Chapter 54: Old Friend // Story: The Koprulu Sector // by TheKopruluSectorUnion //------------------------------// Rain Sight sighed in relief when she finally saw the familiar outline of the town coming into view over the horizon. She turned her head and looked at Rainbow Dash, who was snoring away in the co-pilot seat. It wasn’t surprising when the cyan mare fell asleep the moment they got back on board Tom. Especially when the earth pony considered the fact that the pegasus had flown all the way from town to where they had found her, on her own. While on their way back to town, they spotted a number of militia fighters in the distance. They were either a patrol group, or a rescue party coming for Twilight’s parents. Either way, it would’ve been bad if the militia caught them flying while the planet-wide lockdown was still in effect. Fortunately, they were able to avoid the militia by landing Tom in the snow and pretending to be a wrecked ship. It wasn’t difficult to pull off since the old shuttle already did look the part of a wreck. The militia simply flew over their heads and moved on to do whatever their task was. Rain Sight was about to wake her sleeping friend up when she saw something outside the cockpit window. It was an empty field surrounded by ships that had been shot down during the assault; their scorched hulls lay in the snow. It took her a few seconds before she recognized the ‘arena’ where her father had been killed. She shook her head as she tried to rid herself of the terrible memory, but then remembered something that Sweetie Belle had said to Sovereign yesterday, on the Iron Will. “…Cadian tradition demands that the loser be left in the arena…” Rain Sight then grabbed the control yoke and tilted it to the right, causing Tom to bank hard in the same direction as it changed course to the fields. The earth pony could hear Scootaloo swearing loudly at the sudden movement in the cargo hold while Rainbow Dash, incredibly enough, was still sound asleep as she just kept on snoring. “Damn it!” Rain Sight swore when she dug up another body that wasn’t her father. She was starting to get sick and tired of finding dead strangers staring back at her whenever she dug one up. While it was tragic that so many innocents had lost their lives in the Diamond Dog’s assault, one could only find so many bodies before they stopped caring. The latest corpse was that of a grey earth stallion whose face was forever frozen in fear as his dead eyes stared back at her. She sighed as she closed his eyes, moving on to the next snow pile and started digging, hoping that her father was underneath it. After she had explained the reason for their abrupt detour to the wrecked-filled snowfield to her friends, they offered to help her in her search, to which she was grateful for, but for the past hour, all they had found in the snowfield were dead strangers and the occasional deactivated drone. “Rain!” The purple earth pony stopped digging when she heard one of her friends call out her name. She turned around and saw Scootaloo trudging through the snow to her in her Reaper armor. “What is it? Did you find my father?” she asked hopefully, but was disappointed when the pegasus shook her head. “Then keep searching!” She snapped at her, before turning back to the snow pile and went back to digging. She had already lost her husband’s body to Twilight’s schemes, and she wasn’t about to lose her father to this damned world! “We’ve been searching for a long time already, Rain, but I don’t think we’ll find him in all this. You gotta face the facts, it’s hopeless.” Scootaloo said as she gestured to the large field of snow that they had been searching through. They weren’t even close to a quarter of the way done. “I’m not leaving without my father’s body!” Rain shouted back as she kept digging. “Please Rain, let’s go back to town before you freeze to death.” Scootaloo pleaded to her friend. While she and Rainbow Dash were nice and warm in their armor, the earth pony only had her leather suit, which wouldn’t help much if the weather grew worse, but the purple mare refused to listen and just kept on digging. Scootaloo was about to call out to her again when Rainbow Dash placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. “Let it go squirt, she's not gonna quit until she finds her dad, and I doubt there's a force in the sector that could convince her otherwise.” The orange pegasus looked back at her friend, who kept digging through the snow despite the fact that she was shivering from the cold. She let out a sigh before she resumed the search for her friend’s father. It was another hour later when Scootaloo suddenly heard Rain Sight scream out loudly in the distance. Worried that her friend was in trouble, she activated her jetpack and launched herself high into the air, where she hovered until she spotted Rainbow Dash with the Rain Sight, who was kneeling down on the ground. She flew her way down to them. However, when she landed she found the earth pony was crying and she could see the reason why. She had found her father. Rain Sight cried as she gently cradled her father in her arms. His body was, thankfully, still intact when she had found him buried under the snow, but it had been frozen stiff in the cold weather. She moved a hand across his face to brush the snow off of it before closing his eyes. She then pulled her father towards her chest and continued to cry. Scootaloo stood silently as she shed a few tears for her friend, while thinking about her own father’s death. While she still resented Apple Bloom for the part she had played in that event, she was slowly coming around to forgiving her friend. Rainbow was the only one who didn’t cry openly. While she felt some sympathy for her friend’s loss, she had already cried herself dry back in the valley. She also knew that if they stayed here any longer than necessary, Rain Sight could risk catching hypothermia and the last thing she needed was another bedridden pony to take care of. With this in mind, she walked up to the grieving mare and asked. “What are you going to do now?” The purple mare wiped away her tears and took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself before she turned to her friends and replied. “I want to take him with us, his body deserves to be buried back home.” Rainbow Dash nodded. “Alright, I’ll go get Tom so we can load your dad in the cargo hold.” “Thank you.” Rain Sight uttered. “Don’t mention it, kid…” The cyan mare said before turning to Scootaloo. “…you watch out for her while I’m gone, okay squirt?” “You got it…sis.” Scootaloo replied. Rainbow smiled a little under her mask, after which she activated her jetpack and flew off to where they had landed Tom, leaving the two mares alone with each other. Seeing that it might be some time until Rainbow returned with Tom, Scootaloo decided to see if she could talk to Rain and maybe help her get through this. She didn’t know the mare very well, but she was still Sweetie’s friend and that meant she was her friend as well. She approached the mare and asked. “Do you wanna talk about it?” “No.” Was Rain’s curt reply. A little put off by the rather rude response, the pegasus was starting to think that talking about it so soon wasn’t such a good idea in the first place. She decided to just leave the mare alone and guard her like Rainbow had asked her to. While looking around the area for signs of trouble, she spotted something shining in the distance. Feeling a little curious, she walked over to the shining object. She found another deactivated arena drone, and it was carrying a container, which had been smashed open. She looked inside and found a golden gauntlet with a green gem set in its base, as well as the shattered remains of its twin. She took the gauntlet out of the crate and immediately recognized it as the warp blade gauntlet Rain’s father had worn during his fight with Shining Armor. She brought the gauntlet over to Rain Sight who took it into her hands. “Thank you…” The purple mare said as she looked at her father’s gauntlet. Then she opened up the clasp holding it together and placed it on her forearm, securing it there. It felt a little loose on her smaller arm, but it gave her some comfort as she held it close. “No problem, that’s what friends are for… sort of.” Scootaloo said as she smiled uneasily. “I…I’m sorry about yelling at you earlier…it’s just that…my dad was-” Rain Sight stopped when she felt Scootaloo's hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. There’s nothing to be sorry about. I said worse things to my friends when my dad died.” The pegasus sighed sadly, before she joined her friend in digging Karn’s body out of the snow. “Sorry…I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.” Rain apologized again. “Like I said, nothing to be sorry about.” Scootaloo repeated as she waved the matter off. “It’s not like you’re the one that got him killed.” “Can you tell me what he was like? Your father I mean.” Scootaloo stopped digging when she heard the unexpected question, but thought it wouldn’t hurt if she told her so she said. “There’s not much to tell really. My mom told me that he died fighting in a war, so I spent my entire life thinking that he was dead, that was what I thought until I got framed for killing Sweetie’s parents.” She paused and pressed a hand to her head when she suddenly felt lightheaded. “Is something wrong?” The purple mare asked worriedly. Scootaloo shook her head and said. “Nah, it’s nothing…anyways, after I was framed, I got arrested and was sent to the Icehouse when they couldn’t resoc me. There, I later found out that my dad was still alive and that he was the Icehouse's warden. We bonded over the next few months I trained at the Icehouse. He kicked my ass every time we sparred against each other in the training hall.” She chuckled at the memory fondly, it wasn’t what anyone would consider an ideal activity for a father and his child to bond over, but it was one the few precious memories of she had left of him. Rain Sight then changed the subject and asked what her life was like on Mar Sara with her friends. She listened intently as Scootaloo told her about the time she and her friends tried to earn their cutie marks by trying to hang-glide off the biggest barn on Sweet Apple Acres as well as the resulting lecture they got from Apple Bloom’s older siblings when they found out about their stunt in its aftermath. The story made Rain laugh for the first time in a long while, which Scootaloo was glad for. With the mood lifted, she was about to tell another anecdote from her adventures as a Cutie Mark Crusader, but stopped when she noticed some shadows scurrying around the wrecked ships in the distance. “Did you just see that?” Scootaloo asked as she slowly reached for her pistols. Rain quietly nodded as she reached for her own pistol. It wasn’t as powerful as the scythe pistols her companion wielded, but it would have to do. She stood up and held her gun with both hands as she scanned the area for any signs of movement. “Come on, Rainbow Dash…” Scootaloo muttered to herself when she saw the growing number of hostiles being detected on her HUD. “…we need you.” Rainbow Dash grumbled to herself as she walked through Tom’s open cargo bay doors, and saw the large piles of snow that had gathered inside the shuttle. She shook her head as she walked past the snow pile and towards the control panel, hitting one of the buttons on it. The cargo ramp let out a metallic groan as it lifted up from the ground, and started to close, while scooping in more snow into the hold, much to her annoyance. She then pulled off her mask and goggles and was about to remove her armor when she heard something growling. Turning her head to the closing cargo ramp, she saw the pile of snow shifting. Not wanting to give whatever was hiding in the snow a chance to strike, she quickly pulled out her pistols and fired several rounds into the snow, which soon turned blood red. She was surprised, however, when three zerglings burst out from the other piles of snow and ran at her. One of them jumped forward and lunged at her with its claws. She fired off a few more shots at the airborne zergling, killing it before she activated her jetpack and dodged the other two zerglings, letting them crash against each other’s head. Taking advantage of their disorientation, she opened fire and killed the two creatures. Once the immediate threat was dealt with, she turned her guns on the remaining snow piles, expecting more zerg to pop out of them. When she was certain that there weren’t any more nasty surprises waiting for her, she dropped back down to the floor. She wondered why zerg would be hiding out inside of Tom, but then she remembered that Scootaloo and Rain Sight were still out there with those monsters crawling all over the place. She quickly ejected herself out of her armor and ran for the cockpit. “Fire in the hole!” Scootaloo shouted as she threw a G-4 cluster bomb at pack of zerglings rushing at her and Rain Sight. The bomb split apart into dozens of smaller bomblets, which spread out and detonated themselves, engulfing nearby zerg in the resulting explosion, while peppering the rest with hot shrapnel. When the dust cleared, many of the dog-like creatures where slain, but it meant little to the rest of the pack as they pressed their attack, more zerglings came out of their hiding spots and charged at the two mares, who were doing everything they could to hold off the beasts. “There’s no end to them! Where the hell is Rainbow Dash?” Rain Sight shouted as she fired her pistol at another zerg, blasting off one of its legs. It stumbled and fell to the ground, before it was finished off with a shot to the head. “I don’t know! She isn’t responding to my calls!” Scootaloo replied as she killed off two more zerglings, before her guns clicked on empty, forcing her to reload. “Gotta reload, cover me!” The orange mare called back to her friend. Rain Sight took point and fired at the zerglings. When Scootaloo snapped the second ammo clip in place, she stood up from behind her cover, ready to fill the zerglings with lead, only to find most of them fleeing the area. However, a few of the creatures continued the charge, only to be gunned down in short order. “They almost had us. Why are they running away?” Rain asked as she kept her own gun raised while keeping an eye out for any more zerg. “Who cares? We’re still in one piece and that’s all-” she was interrupted when her communicator was filled with static, after which she heard Rainbow’s voice coming through. “There’s a bunch of zerg coming your way!” “Relax… Rain and I handled it.” Scootaloo replied cockily. “Whoa! Really? That’s awesome!” Scootaloo beamed at the praise she received. “You gotta tell me how you took care of the big guy!” Her smile faltered when she heard Rainbow mentioned the ‘big guy’. “Wait, what big guy?” she received her answer in the form of a loud roar, followed by the howling shrieks of a zergling before an audible crunch silenced it. Scootaloo’s eyes bugged out when she saw the hulking form of an ursalisk, smashing aside the remains of a downed shuttle with ease as it mindlessly chewed on the zergling in its toothy jaws. The mares instantly froze in place, hoping that the beast wouldn’t notice them and move on its way. They watched the ursalisk as it lumbered over to one of the wrecked ships and turned it over with its massive forearm, before picking up one of the dead bodies between its claws. Rain Sight turned away when she saw the ursalisk lift the body over its head as it opened up its maw. She flinched at the sound of the sickening crunch of bone as the beast noisily chewed its meal. She opened her eyes and was horrified when she saw the bloody stains on the ursalisk’s face. She shuddered when she imagined her father suffering the same fate. Moments passed, after which the ursalisk turned away and was about to leave, the wind blew past them, carrying their scent to the lumbering beast. The ursalisk paused and sniffed the air, before turning its head around as it searched for the source of the scent of live prey. The mares became nervous, when the creatures’ yellow eyes narrowed at them, after which it let out a deafening roar. “Shit! Rainbow, we need backup! Now!” Scootaloo shouted into her communicator before she pulled out her pistols and opened fire on the ursalisk. “I’m on my way.” The rainbow-maned pegasus replied, before cutting the link. Scootaloo grunted as she kept firing on the ursalisk, but her attack did little to slow it down, as the creature’s thick hide allowed it to shrug off her shots as if they were nothing. The only thing she managed to do was making it even angrier as it let out another roar and started to run at her. She activated her jetpack and went airborne to dodge the attack, but stopped when she saw that Rain Sight was still down there, trying to drag her father’s body away from the area. With no time to spare, she fired at the creature’s exposed backside, causing it to roar in pain and turn around to face its airborne attacker. “Damn it Rain! Leave the body and get out of there!” Scootaloo yelled at the purple mare. “I can’t leave my father behind! You saw what that thing did to those bodies!” Rain Sight yelled in return. Scootaloo growled at the mare’s stubbornness but didn’t have time to argue with her when she saw the ursalisk tear off a piece of metal from a wrecked ship before throwing it at her. She dropped down several feet and dodged the projectile as it flew past her. “Fine! Just hurry up! I’ll hold this guy off as long as I can.” The orange mare shouted as she turned back to the ursalisk. “Come on big fella! I’m over here. Come and get me!” She declared as she fired at the enraged beast. With the ursalisk’s attention focused on her friend, Rain took the opportunity to drag her father’s body somewhere safer where they could hold out until Rainbow arrived with Tom. Her plans however, were interrupted when she heard a roar. She turned her head and saw another ursalisk standing on top of a pile of debris. The creature was far smaller than its hulking brethren, but it it was just as dangerous as its eyes narrowed when it spotted her and her father. Knowing an easy meal when it saw one, the ursalisk roared again before it leapt off of its metallic perch and started running towards her the moment it landed on the ground. Seeing the trouble Rain was in, Scootaloo tried to go and help, but she had her hands full dealing with her own ursalisk and the junk that it was slinging at her. She desperately needed some backup. And as if on cue, a missile came screaming out of nowhere and hit the ground at the ursalisk’s feet, which exploded upon contact, engulfing the beast and the immediate area around it in smoke and fire. She paused when she heard Rainbow Dash’s voice on her communicator. “Anyone called for the cavalry?” Scootaloo looked up and saw Tom hovering in the air, with Rainbow Dash, in her Reaper armor, standing by the shuttle’s opened cargo bay doors, with a smoking missile launcher in her arms. “You go help Rain! I need to go grab the rest of my gear! “Got it!” The suited up pony then dived down towards Rain who was still dragging her father’s body, “Damn it Rain! Run for it!” The purple mare knew that she should just run like her friend had told her to, but she couldn’t just abandon her father, so she lifted her pistol and fired at the ursalisk, while she kept dragging her father’s body to safety. Despite its smaller size, the creature’s hide proved too strong for her shots to penetrate, but she kept on firing until one of her shots managed to take out one of the ursalisk’s eyes. That, however, only enraged the zerg even further as it kept charging at her. Rain kept firing, until the last of her bullets were spent, so she just concentrating on pulling her father. Suddenly she tripped on another corpse and fell on her back. The ursalisk saw its opportunity and sprung at the vulnerable mare with its claws extended, ready to tear her to pieces. Rain Sight closed her eyes and screamed as the beast fell on top of her. “Nooo!” Scootaloo cried when she saw the ursalisk pounce onto her friend. She then unleashed whatever bullets she had left in her pistols on the beast in vengeance. When her guns finally clicked on empty, she noticed that the creature hadn't reacted to her attack just now. She was surprised when a green energy blade lanced through the ursalisk’s head, after which it fell dead on the spot. A few seconds passed, before the orange pegasus saw something moving underneath the dead zerg’s body. She flew down to take a closer look. Rain Sight huffed and wheezed as she dragged herself out from under the crushing weight of the ursalisk's body. As she slowly got back up on her hooves, she looked at the green energy blade vanish back into her father’s gauntlet. She didn’t know how she was able to activate the gauntlet without void magic, but she took it as a sign that her father was still looking out for her, even from beyond the Void and thanked him with a silent prayer. “Rain!” She looked up in time to see Scootaloo, who swept the mare into a tight hug. “Thank god you’re alive!” The pegasus said as she hugged her friend even tighter. “I’m…glad to…see you too, but…can’t…breathe!” The purple mare wheezed out as she struggled to breathe. Scootaloo immediately released the mare from her arms, allowing her to breathe normally again. “Oops…sorry.” The suited pony said as she chuckled behind her mask. “It’s…alright.” Rain assured her, before they looked up and saw Rainbow finally joining them. “Good to see you two are alright. Now how about we blow this joint before-” She stopped when they all heard a roar. They looked back at the burning crater and saw the ursalisk from before climbing out of it. The creature had somehow survived the explosion; one of its arms was missing as blood dripped from the stump, while the rest of its body was covered in burn marks, but beyond that the creature was still intact and very angry. Scootaloo looked at Rainbow and asked, “You wouldn’t happen to have another missile launcher on you?” The ursalisk looked around, narrowing its eyes when it spotted the mares. It let out another roar at them and charged at them. “What do you think?” Rainbow harshly replied as she pulled up her own scythe pistols. “Grab Rain and get out of here, I’ll keep it busy.” She declared before she took off into the air and started shooting at the wounded ursalisk. “Roger!” “I'm not leaving without my dad!” Rain Sight said as she held onto her father tightly “You heard the lady, come on.” she before she picked the protesting mare up in her arms and activated her jetpack…only for it to sputter out smoke and fail. She looked at her HUD which was flashing an icon of an empty gas tank, “Crap, I’m out of fuel!” “Then just run!” Rainbow yelled back as she kept shooting at the ursalisk, but it ignored her shots and continued its charge at the two grounded ponies. “There’s nowhere to run!” Scootaloo yelled back as she pointed that they were boxed in by the debris. “Can’t you do what you did with that other guy earlier?” The orange mare asked Rain as she pointed at the gauntlet on her arm. “I… I don’t know how to.” The earth pony admitted. “Damn it! Then I’ll buy you time, while you climb out of here.” Scootaloo said as she took out her HFB and walked towards the ursalisk. “Have you gone crazy? That’s suicide!” Rain argued. “Just shut up and climb!” Scootaloo ordered as she held the HFB in front of her. She gulped as she looked at the hulking beast charging straight at her, but stood her ground and spun the blade. The ursalisk was only a dozen feet away when she heard a loud gunshot, just before a mix of fur, blood, bone and brains flew out of the creature’s head, as it fell dead to the ground, its momentum carried its body forward a few more feet before coming to a complete stop. Scootaloo blinked her eyes. She couldn’t believe her luck as she looked at the dead ursalisk right in front of her. After her nerves had settled down, she walked over to the dead beast and gave it a good kick to see if it was really dead. “Stop that!” She turned her head and saw Rain walking up to her. “Don’t worry, it’s dead.” Scootaloo assured her as she stabbed the HFB into the monster’s hide. “See?” “Ewwww, gross…” Rain complained when she saw the pus-filled blood flowing out the wound. “Oh grow up you two.” Rainbow stated as she landed behind them. “Oh, Rainbow, nice job shooting it in the head. I thought I was a goner back there.” Scootaloo said as she praised the older Reaper, who cocked her head to the side. “Huh? I ran out of ammo a while ago, I thought one of you guys fired that shot.” She raised an eyebrow when Scootaloo and Rain Sight both shook their heads. “Then…who did that just now?” The cyan mare asked, gesturing to the dead ursalisk. They stopped when they heard the sounds of heavy metallic footsteps in the distance. Looking behind them, they saw a figure in Dominion power armor with a heavy-caliber sniper rifle, approaching them. A tense silence followed when the figure stopped in front of them, which was shortly broken when a stallion’s voice addressed them through the armor’s built in speaker. “Rain Sight High Ground Reneema Gray Horn de Steelwing, under the direct order of Vice Admiral Sparkle, you and your associates are now under arrest!” The mares visibly paled when they heard the stallion’s statement. They were snapped out of their shock when they heard the armored figure chuckle, after which he said. “Got'cha.” And lifted his visors up, revealing a red unicorn stallion with a short brown mane which was graying at the sides. The most distinct feature of the stallion’s face was a pair of sunglasses, which the stallion took off, showing his blue eyes underneath. Rain stepped forward, looked at the stallion and asked. “Eye Glass? Is that you?” “In the flesh.” The stallion replied, putting on a warm smile as he lowered his rifle. “Nice to see you again, Rain.” “Rain, you know this guy?” Scootaloo asked as she looked at the stallion warily. “He's the second best friend my dad ever had.” The earth pony responded. “I don’t know if I should be insulted by that or not.” Eye Glass commented jokingly. “Oh! No, I didn’t mean it like…wait a second! What are you doing here on Cadia?” Rain Sight questioned. The stallion sighed, after which he put his sunglasses back on. “It’s…a long story.”