Part 2 –
Twilight Sparkle cradled Rarity’s head in her arms in disbelief. Her old friend clearly wanted to say more but struggled hard to speak. Her eyes barely opened, and her voice came out dry and cracked.
“Twilight. Darling. Then there is still hope,” she said. Rarity feebly raised a hoof to touch Twilight’s cheek. At her flank, the triple gemstone cutie-mark began to glow, softly at first, but soon shining with brilliant light. The marks on the other four girls’ flanks glowed as well, and a deep rumble shook the floor beneath them. In a burst of brilliance, light erupted all around Twilight Sparkle. She shielded her eyes with an arm for a brief moment, lowered it, and found that the five ponies had vanished. Hovering in the air a few inches above where they had lain were five large crystals held in place by a shaft of light, each matching the color of its displaced owner.
Twilight studied the white hexagonal stone floating where Rarity had once been. It pulsed with brilliant energy, but when Twilight touched it with her fingertip, the light vanished, and all five stones clattered to the floor. She sat for several moments with mouth agape before she was able to pick up the white gem, still warm, and cup it in her hands. A few tears fell from her cheek and splattered on its surface. She quickly gathered the other five stones, placing them in the front pocket of her combat jacket.
“Twilight,” said Briggs. “I’m not sure how to tell you this. There’s something on your back.” She turned to face him, puzzled, but then noticed a strange sensation coming from her shoulder blades that had not been there before.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Twilight. She reached a hand around her back and felt feathers. In the transformation of the gemstones, wings had sprung from her back, tearing their way through her combat jacket. Her hair, now long, fell between them in a thick braid.
In that moment, Briggs and Twilight heard angry shouts from a passageway deeper within the tower. Another rumble, much stronger than the first, shook the earth and threw them off balance. Briggs grunted and winced as the sharp movement tore his bandage loose.
“We’ve outworn our welcome,” said Briggs. “Time to run.” They started to move swiftly away from the voices, but Briggs soon lagged behind, his face pale from blood loss. Twilight placed an arm around his back for support and pulled him towards what she hoped was the direction of their gunship. Panting from effort, they burst from the mouth of the tower cave and crossed the clearing, so far managing to avoid the scattered soldiers roaming through the rocks.
Snapping their brief moment of peace, two drones split the sky overhead Briggs and Twilight with engines screaming. They quickly spotted the two Navy SEALs at the edge of the clearing and began to loop back.
“The EMF is gone,” noted Briggs, pausing at the edge of the rock maze. “Poor timing.”
“Poor timing indeed,” said Twilight. She repositioned his arm over her shoulder and continued half dragging, half leading Briggs through the hollow beginnings of the labyrinth.
The sudden sight of her Equestrian friends filled Twilight with new purpose. She pulled Briggs behind her while keeping her rifle arm free, refusing to make the same mistake she had the night before. The whistle from the drones overhead drew closer, and Twilight pulled Briggs into cover as a rain of bullets and shells splintered the rocks around them raising clouds of shards and dust. It would be impossible for the drones to hit them amidst the rock formations with only bullets. Twilight knew their next pass would bring heavier ordinance.
From another corner of the rock maze, Twilight heard the distance rattles of machine guns. Their echoes bounced and amplified along the twisted passageways, but they sounded far away enough not to be a present threat. Still, the sudden appearance of men and machines was less than welcome.
Twilight clambered up on top of one of the rock fragments and glanced quickly at the trail of smoke left behind by the drones, mentally calculating the time it would take for them to circle back for another pass.
“You aren’t going to like this,” said Twilight. She held her hand out to Briggs and helped him climb onto the rock beside her.
“You’re probably right,” said Briggs.
Taking a deep breath, Twilight flexed her wings, using muscles she hadn’t known for many years. They seemed strong, and she searched her past for memories of flight. Briggs looked at her gruffly, then assented and prepared to be carried. Twilight hooked her arms around Briggs’ broad chest, spread her wings high, and pushed off the rock. To her amazement, she popped into the sky, but had to strain hard to maintain her grip on Briggs, his extra waiting throwing her off balance. She awkwardly pumped her wings, and the sharp rock points began to move by beneath them as she gradually picked up speed.
The drones completed their wide arc in the sky and turned to bear down on Twilight as she struggled to stay aloft. Their engine whine grew louder, and Twilight franticly scanned the ground for a place to hide. Knowing the drones would be above her in moments, she folded her wings and drifted towards the ground, waiting until the last moment to angle for a small opening between two jagged walls. Twilight wrapped her wings around Briggs for protection, and they slipped between the sharp corners, barely grazing their edge. The ball of feathers and humans thudded hard against the ground, knocking the breath out of Twilight. From overhead, missiles connected with stone, and explosions rocked the air about them filling the crevice with fire and smoke.
To Twilight’s astonishment, Briggs was on his feet first, extending his hand and helping her off of the ground. Her lungs burned for air, but Briggs gripped her hand and pulled her forward, jogging slowly between gaps in the maze, and finally guiding her to the base of the skyscraper. They both looked upwards, hoping their gunship still remained.
“One more time,” Briggs said to Twilight. His face had grown sickly and pale, but there was still a bright fire in his eyes. They locked arms and were airborne, Twilight churning her wings, slowly rising story by story to the top. The gunship remained intact, and Briggs ran on board first, turning quickly to toss Twilight her 0.50-caliber sniper rifle.
“Keep us alive,” he said over his shoulder, and then disappeared into the cockpit. Twilight yanked back on the action of her rifle and dropped a knee, sighting the first drone in her scope as it pealed across the sky and began to angle back for a strafing run.
She squeezed the trigger and missed. Twilight cursed under her breath, re-sighting the approaching drone. She tried to steady her breath and slowly squeezed the trigger, letting the air out of her lungs in a tight whisper. The rifle butt pounded into her shoulder and the action slammed backwards tossing the spent shell into the air. Her bullet connected, and the foremost drone broke up and exploded. From behind, the harrier engines roared to life.
Before Twilight had a chance to aim at her second target, a loud pop rang out from the rock tower in the distance. A seam of dust drew itself across the center of the spire, and its top half began to slowly tilt and slide downwards. As the top half of the tower fell, a shockwave concussed, shattering the rest of the spire and spreading its way outwards across the crater. The wave of debris obliterated the sharp rock below and knocked the remaining drone from the air. Twilight was thrown backwards against the ramp of the gunship, and the concrete beneath her began to crack and give way.
“Go!” Twilight yelled running inside the ship, and Briggs pushed the throttle forward. Even as they cleared the roof, it began to collapse, huge tremors turning the floor into liquid concrete. Through the closing ramp, Twilight could see nothing but dust and smoke choking out the sky in an enormous plume.
The rest of the flight back to the carrier group passed in silence. Twilight took over piloting from Briggs who struggled to remain conscious. A few spare blood infusions stored on board had kept him alive, but his strength was fading quickly. Afraid for his life, Twilight pushed the engines of the harrier far beyond their operational limit.
After a few hours, Twilight finally spotted the group of naval vessels in the distance – a dragnet of destroyers, light carriers, and their flagship, the USS Dreadnaught. It was a twin pontoon aircraft carrier, the first of its class and the pinnacle of the United States’ military machine. From the two twenty-ton rail cannons mounted beneath the sides of the flight deck to the hundreds of naval aircraft held within its twin hulls, the goliath dwarfed all other ships on the open sea in both size and power.
Twilight hailed the carrier’s control tower and pulled into a flight pattern circling the naval giant. Subconsciously, her hand rose to clutch the five gems resting inside of her jacket pocket. Her face grew pale as she realized what would happen once they landed, once her commanding officer saw the wings sprouting from her shoulder blades. She turned to face Briggs across the cockpit, desperation in her words.
“Briggs, I—,” said Twilight. “Please. Please, you can’t tell them. I’ve waited so long to see my friends, and now—I have no idea what just happened, but I know the officers on deck will take this last piece of them away from me. I don’t think I can keep going if they do.”
The cold navy SEAL within Twilight was gone. In her place sat a frightened and confused girl desperately clinging to her last threads of friendship. Briggs knit his brow and sat thinking. His breathing was ragged, and the hand clutching his side was wet with blood.
“I have a spare flight suit in the back,” said Briggs. “When we land, pull it on. You’ll have to strap your wings to your side, but the suit should be big enough to hide them. I don’t think you can fool the commander forever, but that should buy you some time. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you before, Twilight. About your home.”
The moment the gunship touched down, Twilight tore away her restraints and followed Briggs’ instructions. It was uncomfortable, but she was able to bind her wings with a belt and hide them inside Briggs’ oversized flight suit. She returned to the cockpit and helped him out of his seat. This time he leaned his full weight on Twilight’s shoulder, and she noticed that blood covered the back of his vacant chair. Medics were waiting at the base of the ramp as it opened, and they rushed on board to take Briggs from Twilight. As they eased him into a stretcher, Briggs gave a knowing look to Twilight and squeezed her hand. A true friend after all, thought Twilight, and watched as Briggs wheeled away.
Landing crews helped Twilight gather the few supplies that remained on board. As usual, she insisted on personally taking her sniper rifle to weapons check rather than have unfamiliar hands hold it, although she did hesitate when a sailor looked strangely at her baggy flight suit. In the end, he said nothing, afraid to needlessly question a member of Special Forces.
Within the aircraft carrier, a warrant officer informed Twilight that her debriefing had been postponed, and she had been given a four-hour reprieve pending Briggs’ recovery. She knew that as soon as he was stable, NAVCOM would question Briggs thoroughly. That last look that he gave her solidified Twilight confidence that he would not betray her. Still, she doubted they would both survive a full interrogation. Anyone looking at her closely would easily notice the awkward shapes tucked away behind her back.
For this reason, she quickly moved through the midship, attempting to avoid needless contact with other sailors. After missions, Twilight often liked to unwind at an officer’s lounge in the company of her peers, but she dared not risk that now. Instead, she nimbly dodged sailors and darted around corners, down long steel alleyways and across the trellises that skirted the rafters of the hanger, making eye contact with no one.
To Twilight, the interior of the ship often seemed endless. The two pontoon hulls were a separate city, each capable of living independently from one another. The redundancy ensured that the Dreadnaught remained a threat even if part of the ship were compromised. Twilight cursed the expanse now and did her best to steal away to her quarters unnoticed.
The corridor of cots within her bunkroom was now empty, two chests of personal effects the only belongings that remained. The other beds were no longer needed. If NAVCOM had found replacements for their team, they had not arrived yet, and Twilight wondered if command would ever replenish their unit this far into the war.
She flipped off the overhead light and plopped onto her cot, curling into a tight ball. Twilight thought back through the events that had transpired within the rock tower, searching for clues as to what had brought her friends to the human world and what might possibly restore them to life. She reached beneath the baggy flight suit and clutched the five gemstones hiding in a pocket. They were warm from the heat of her body, and she squeezed them and wept quietly in the dark.
It was unexplainable why her five friends had appeared in pony form, and why they had been replaced by unrefined versions of the Elements of Harmony. Her only clue, the Tree of Harmony, had surely been destroyed in the shockwave. Twilight shuddered to think of the chaos that might ensue in Equestria without the tree’s power to maintain balance. At the moment, however, these thoughts were the least of her worries. She attempted to focus on the task of deceiving her superiors during interrogations, but her thoughts kept returning to the look on Rarity’s face and her last words before she vanished in a pillar of light.
Twilight’s wings ached and strained against the straps that held them to her side, but she dared not uncover them for fear that someone might enter her cabin unwelcomed. She shifted her weight, but was unable to relax. The first time her wings had appeared, they had certainly been unwelcome, though she grew accustomed to them. Once again, she found herself transformed, this time in a world that would not easily welcome the sight.
On the other side of the metal bulkhead Twilight lay against, in the deep of the ocean, explosions sounded, echoing strangely through her quarters. Submarines often skirmished at the edges of the strike group, and it was not uncommon to hear their far off sounds of battle. The curtail of naval vessels surrounding the Dreadnaught would undoubtedly keep it safe, but it was still unnerving to only have a single piece of steel separating Twilight from the tumult of battle. She lay there for several hours in the dark but found no sleep.
Before her scheduled reprieve was over, the door to Twilight’s quarters banged open. She quickly withdrew her hand from the suit pocket and let the gemstones slip back into place. In the doorway, her commanding officer stood menacing with his arms clasped behind his back. She had never liked the man. NAVCOM headquarters usually handled the SEAL teams directly, but this commander had always insisted on issuing orders in the interims between their missions. Two military police officers that Twilight did not recognize stood at his side.
“Attention!” he yelled. Twilight sprung to her feet and clicked her boots together. One of the MP’s walked forward and took Twilight’s hand. The officer reached to her side, withdrew a pair of handcuffs, and circled behind Twilight to lock her wrists firmly in place behind her back. The MP’s forearm clearly brushed past one of Twilight’s wings as she secured the restraints, but she said nothing.
“Lieutenant Twilight Sparkle!” said the commander. “You are being detained under suspicion of harboring intelligence and directly disobeying orders and the command of your superior officers, intentionally placing the Navy and its assets at risk.” Rage boiled to the surface of Twilight’s face and she lost all semblance of formality.
“That is a lie!” she said. “I’ve intentionally endangered no one! Commander Briggs can vouch for me. I have unquestioningly followed every single one of his orders.”
“Commander Briggs is dead,” he said. He turned to the MP at his side. “Confiscate her belongings and take her to the brig to await further questioning.”
“Dead?” The blood drained out of Twilight’s face. She mouthed the word again and sagged, the fire and anger vanishing from her eyes. The commander turned on his heals and marched down the hall. From behind, the military police officer pushed on Twilight’s restraints and directed her outside the cabin while the other MP searched her room.
Satisfied with the search, the officer led Twilight Sparkle towards the stern of the ship while the other grasped the handcuffs, pushing her forward. Franticly, Twilight’s mind sought for a solution. She knew she would be searched before she was detained, and they would undoubtedly find the gemstones tucked away in her breast pocket, let alone the wings strapped to her back. She was surprised she had not been searched already.
The words of her commander struck Twilight again. Briggs is dead. He had seemed stable, she thought, recalling his firm grip as the medics led him off the gunship only hours before. A dark thought found Twilight, and she wondered if he had given her away in the end after all. She shook her head lightly and pushed the thought away.
The hand holding Twilight’s restraints tightened as they approached a set of stairs leading deeper into the bowels of the ship.
“Watch your step, princess,” said the girl holding her handcuffs. Twilight looked down the corrugated metal steps and then hesitated. She had not been called princess for a very long time.
Twilight turned her head to the side just enough to catch a smirk on the young sailor’s face. The girl yanked Twilight to the side and leapt down the flight of stairs, spearing the leading officer in the back with her boot. He grunted and collapsed under the force of the unexpected blow, tumbling unconscious to the foot of the stairs. Twilight, hands still bound, stood in stunned silence. She noted a large pink bow that held the girl’s mousy red hair in place and realized that her voice had sounded oddly familiar despite its thick accent. Suddenly, recognition struck Twilight.
“Apple Bloom?” she said in disbelief. The young girl stood up and dusted herself off. Her hair was fire red beneath the glow of the fluorescent passage lights, and her pale skin reflected back a slight yellow tint. She turned and gave a small curtsy towards Twilight.
“Princess,” she said, elongating the vowels with her thick southern accent. “It’s real good to see you an’ all, but I’m afraid we don’t quite have the time to catch up.” Apple Bloom beckoned Twilight down the stairs. She quickly removed the handcuffs from Twilight’s wrists and let them clatter to the metal floor.
“What in the name of Equestria are you doing here?” said Twilight rubbing blood back into her wrists. Apple Bloom looked up with the same sly grin from earlier. Although Twilight was still her senior, Apple Bloom had grown considerably since they had last met. Her face was long, her figure slim and hardened, and her hair had grown down beneath her shoulders.
“I’ll tell you all about it when we get you safe,” she said. “Keep up now, princess.”
Apple Bloom began running down the corridor with Twilight in tow. It was easily half a mile from the bow to the stern of the Dreadnaught. That combined with the twists and turns of its passageways made it hard for the pair to accelerate, though they tried, their feet grinding against the corrugated floor. Twilight was able to keep up, but she was silently impressed with Apple Bloom’s stamina, likening it to an earth pony’s strength.
The naval personnel they barreled past jumped each time they turned a corner, but no one stopped their heedless sprint. Apple Bloom came to a final passageway that gradually broadened and opened up to a large set of stairs crisscrossing upwards. The words “Flight Deck” were posted on a sign at their base. Apple Bloom took a quick look behind her to gauge Twilight’s progress and then bounded up the stairs two at a time. As she did, an alarm began to sound throughout the ship.
“Guess the jig’s up,” said Apple Bloom to herself, her smirk undiminished. Twilight crested the top of the stairs after Apple Bloom and came out into the open light of the flight deck. It was empty save for a few small surveillance jets that stood off to the side of the runway, wings folded. They had made the full sprint from one end of the ship to the other, coming out at the stern. Wind whipped across the flight deck, peppering both girls with salty mist while Apple Bloom waited with clenched fists.
Suddenly the alarm stopped. With a lurch, the Dreadnaught came to an abrupt halt, and both Apple Bloom and Twilight had to struggle to maintain their balance. At the base of the control tower, a small explosion flashed, giving off a cloud of black smoke and traces of pale green light. A girl, close in age but smaller than Apple Bloom, careened through the smoke and started sprinting across the flight deck towards them. She held an enormous rifle in one hand and with the other tried to bat flames out of purple and white swirled hair.
“I don’t believe it,” said Twilight under her breath.
“Did the spell go off?” called Apple Bloom.
“Did it go off—” replied Sweetie Belle running up beside them. “Of course it went off! Didn’t you feel the whole ship stop? Hi Twilight. I think this is yours.” She handed the rifle over to Twilight who took it with a smile. “The hanger elevators are all down, same with the main guns. We’re about to have company on the deck though.”
“Where’s Scoot?” asked Apple Bloom.
“How should I know!” replied Sweetie Belle, her voice cracking slightly. “You’re the one with the radio.”
“Well, it’s not going to work after your fancy little spell.” Even in the midst of peril, Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the familiar quarrel between the two girls.
Apple Bloom led them to the edge of the deck overlooking the green ocean churning below. The other ships in the carrier group were swarming towards the Dreadnaught, fretting over her sudden stop and radio silence. In the distance, Twilight made out the silhouette of a Vietnam War era Huey helicopter thumping its way through the ocean mist.
“There she is!” said Apple Bloom, pointing towards the helicopter. “She’s going to need some help, Sweetie Belle.” One of the smaller destroyers had noticed the helicopter’s approach as well and was veering to intercept it. A cluster of stinger missiles on the destroyer deck swiveled in place, and white smoke began to billow out from behind them.
“I’ve got her,” replied Sweetie Belle. She stepped to the edge of the deck and held out her right hand. Slowly, her fingertips and eyes began to glow with a pale green light. A missile ignited from the deck of the destroyer, shooting through the air towards the incoming helicopter. Sweetie Bell shut her eyes, straining under the effort of the spell.
A green shell surrounded the helicopter moments before the missile struck and exploded. Twilight tensed, but then saw the helicopter fly through the black smoke unharmed, it’s rotor churning the ash in a swirl. Sweetie Belle let out a gasp and slumped as the magic shell around the helicopter flickered and then vanished.
“Incredible,” muttered Twilight. The Huey closed the gap to the aircraft carrier, turned to its side, and descended to the surface of the flight deck. In the cockpit, Twilight saw Scootaloo flash a bright smile and give her a thumbs-up.
“Time to go, princess,” said Apple Bloom. She hopped onto the skid and extended her hand out to Sweetie Belle who took it and hoisted herself on board. As Twilight began to follow, a bang sounded behind her, and sailors poured out onto the flight deck from a door that had previously been barred. Amid shouting, gunshots cracked and bullets rained down on the girls from the crowd of angry men. Twilight pulled herself onto the chopper deck and un-slung her rifle, preparing to return fire, but Scootaloo flared the engines, and the helicopter rose up into the air. The deck of the Dauntless spun away beneath them as the helicopter picked up speed and veered back into the gauntlet of destroyers and cruise ships.
“Sweetie Belle!” exclaimed Apple Bloom through the whine of the aircraft engines.
“I know! I know!” squeaked Sweetie Belle in reply.
Harrier gunships were rising from the surface of a cruiser and turning to pursue them. Sweetie Belle raised her hands, palms facing outward, closed her eyes and clenched her jaw. Green magic flickered across her hands, and the shell appeared around the helicopter once again, but Sweetie Belle was unable to sustain the protective barrier. The magic died away and her hands fell to her sides.
“I just can’t,” she said, panting.
Behind them, the gunships pulled into firing range. Twilight grasped her rifle, but she knew there wouldn’t be enough time to shoot them down even if her aim were true. Sweetie Belle looked up towards Twilight, still visibly exhausted from the spell attempt. Apple Bloom gave her the same pleading gaze, both of them silently waiting for her to perform a miracle.
Twilight recalled the night that Briggs had been shot, the night she had struck the enemy commando with some fragment of power that Sweetie Belle now wielded freely. There had been a desperate brutality to that well of power, a desperation that Twilight now shared with the other three Crusaders aboard their rusty helicopter.
Twilight closed her eyes. She raised her hands as she had seen Sweetie Bell do before and looked within herself, reaching for the element magic she had once known. Deeper, deeper she sought, feeling the edges of her power but finding no way within.
She gritted her teeth and focused, and then suddenly, the well broke. Twilight’s head shot backwards, and the helicopter interior flooded with white light. Behind them, a plume of water burst from the surface of the ocean and shot into the air, drenching the aircraft. The light faded from Twilight’s eyes, and she collapsed to the floor. Apple Bloom quickly moved to her side, but then paused when a deep rumble began to shake the helicopter.
“What was that?” said Apple Bloom. The ocean below was a roiling confusion, spuming and churning into a great froth. A second rumble rocked the helicopter and then grew into a deafening roar. A great wave of water rose from the surface and broke around an immense purple form. Steadily it rose, towering over the helicopter and naval fleet, a great beast with rivers of water trailing off its scaly hide. It roared again, and the gunships swerved desperately out its way.
At Apple Bloom’s feet, Twilight stirred. She pushed herself off of the floor and looked in confusion out of the open door of the helicopter. Immediately, she recognized the purple and green scales covering the back of the creature.
“Spike?” said Twilight. She rose to her feet and leaned out of the door. Across from her, facing the group of Navy ships, the full-grown dragon expanded his lungs and began to suck in gusts of air.
“Spike! Don’t hurt them!” yelled Twilight. The dragon hesitated and stopped inhaling. One of the pursuing harriers was unable to avoid Spike and shattered against his scaly hide while the second circled him and began to open fire. From the destroyers below, volleys of missiles struck Spike, all with no effect. He opened his square jaw and gave another thunderous roar that shook the ships and harriers swarming about him.
Scootaloo turned in her seat and watched in amazement as the dragon fended off the carrier strike group alone. Shells continued to rain against Spike’s hide, but he stood his ground, allowing the helicopter to make its escape. Finally, when the melee had drawn far off into the distance, Twilight watched Spike submerge and disappear beneath the surface of the ocean.