//------------------------------// // The Mission // Story: One Little Drone // by Etriax //------------------------------// "Sweet Celestia..." Twilight uttered softly as she and Rainbow Dash stood at the edge of Ghastly Gorge, gazing down at its newest and most frightening occupants: Zerg. Two large growths adorned the rocky surface at the bottom; one was an orange cocoon identical to the one that the first Hatchery was currently pulsing and writhing as that scorpion-like creature squirmed and 'swam' about inside. The other was enveloping a set of crater-like geysers set in the ground there, tendrils filling the holes and growing around it in a disgusting, rather dirty looking manner. "What do you think they are?" the flier beside her quipped, folding her wings as she told herself not to fly down and investigate. "I'm not so worried about that... I'm worried about why they're here," came Twilight's quick retort, biting her lip as she stared down fearfully at them. "... I hope they hold that meeting soon..." she then said to herself more than anypony, her mind swimming with terrible possibilities. "Meeting? What meeting?" "Oh... I uh... I made a plan for an evacuation of Ponyville... just in case the ali-" Twilight sighed. "Just in case the Zerg attack Ponyville..." "Oh... Good thinking, I guess," Rainbow Dash said in response, taking off and hovering a few feet off the ground. Twilight turned her gaze back down to the morphing Zerg and sighed again, shaking her head gently. She was at a loss about what she should be doing... Those researchers hadn't come back for her yet, nopony had seen them since, and she didn't know if trying to... exterminate the traveling Zerg was a good idea... Extermination wasn't an option that she considered lightly. The idea of these aliens having a leader and said leader being alerted to their violence didn't sound appealing to the bookish unicorn. Nor did the prospect of violence. If it meant the safety of Equestria, though... Somepony needed to learn what was going on... And as she saw Rainbow Dash bored-ly hovering in a circle around her, she began to formulate a plan... She turned around and started to walk back to town, the cyan mare wordlessly following, despite watching Twilight's face intently. "... What'cha thinking about, Egghead?" she eventually asked, beginning to fly backwards in front of the Element of Magic. Twilight turned her gaze to meet Rainbow's, staring at her quietly for a few seconds in thought. "... Rainbow Dash... What would you say if I asked you to go and fly over to the site for me?" she posed, tilting her head slightly. The loyal pegasus raised an eyebrow and then smirked a cocky smirk, bumping a hoof off of her chest. "Are you kidding?! Of course!" she replied confidently, landing on all fours and backing up at Twilight's pace. ".. I mean, I think you should stay here. Take a nap or something. You need to relax, Twilight." Twilight offered her friend a soft smile as Rainbow expressed her concern, softly nuzzling her in reply. "... You know, maybe I should... Thank you..." Rainbow chuckled and spread her wings again, taking off a few inches and beginning to hover again. She looked like she was about to zoom away, and Twilight took a telekinetic hold of the weathermare as a precaution. Sure enough, she tried to fly away, but groaaaaned as she realized she was being held back. "Before you go, though... I need you to promise me a few things..." Rainbow Dash let out a sigh and hung her head, looking thoroughly bored already. "... Uh-huh?" Twilight nodded. "First things first, I don't want you to get close to them... Stay away from them as much as you can, but tell me as much about them as you possibly can." Rainbow Dash folded her wings and allowed Twilight to set her down. "Uh-huh." "Next, I want you to tell those guards and researchers that they forgot to pick me up. I'm seriously not happy about that one. Give them a piece of my mind for me." "Yeah," RD muttered in a dismissive manner, idly looking away. Twilight raised an eyebrow, but continued. "And lastly, if you're in danger at all, get back to Ponyville as fast as you ca- Oh, actually, make sure they don't follow you here if they do!" "Goootcha." Twilight had to check. "... I also want you to make a pound of caramel with clouds." Rainbow Dash shot her bookworm friend a weird look, emitting a flat "what." "I wasn't sure if you were paying attention." "Learn everything I can, yell at those guards, be safe, and don't lead them to Ponyville. Don't worry, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash summarized as they reached the top of a hill that overlooked the rest of southern Ponyville. Twilight rubbed the back of her head as she came to a stop, smiling at her friend once more. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just..." She sighed softly. "... I'm scared..." With that admission, her eyes met Rainbow's and for just a second, she caught a degree of empathy. Rainbow Dash was in the same boat, even if she hadn't said anything. "I gotcha, Twilight," Rainbow Dash said in acknowledgement, nodding at her as she landed again. "I'll tell you what. Gimme your note thing and a quill and I'll write everything down." "... I can't thank you enough, Rainbow Dash..." she told the flier, moving in to hug her tightly. "... Be safe." --- "Ahhhhhhh... I'm glad you could come on such short notice, Fluttershy~ Waiting for Rainbow Dash wasn't getting me anywhere, after all~" Rarity let out happily as the pegasus in question entered the Ponyville Day Spa's spa room, the yellow pegasus smiling softly as she approached the hot tub. "I-I'm glad I could, Rarity... All of this has been so stressful for me..." she replied, climbing into the hot tub and letting out a happy sigh. "I heard that Discord said something to you that scared you..." Rarity then said in turn, not wasting any time on that front. Fluttershy blinked once, then shrank away slightly, letting herself lower into the warm water until the surface tickled the bottom of her muzzle. "... Y-You did..." she muttered quietly, looking down and away as her pink mane hid one of her eyes. Rarity leaned closer. "You can tell me, Fluttershy... Anything you say to me stays in this room~" the seamstress reassured in a calm, friendly tone. For a few seconds, Fluttershy did and said nothing, but she eventually lifted her head and swallowed. "... Um... Discord told me that... the aliens are dangerous... and that Equestria is in.... um... s-s-serious trouble if we don't do something..." she softly admitted, looking Rarity in the eye. "I know that it's Discord and... that I'm not supposed to completely trust him, but I don't think he was lying..." The unicorn looked down at the warm water and furrowed her brow in thought, letting out an accompanying hum as she pondered her friend's quiet words. Fluttershy awkwardly looked down as well, wondering if she had said the wrong thing. Before she could meekly and pointlessly apologize, though, Rarity spoke up. "I see... Well... what do you think, dear?" she queried, tilting her head slightly. The pegasus gave her an inquisitive look and the Bearer of Generosity smiled softly. "Do you think he's right?" Fluttershy nodded. "Then I think you should go and speak to Twilight after you leave," Rarity concluded, putting a hoof to her chest. "Of course, that's just my opinion." "... Thank you, Rarity... but I already went to her this morning..." she replied, returning her friend's smile. "Oh... well, then let's change the subject!" Rarity awkwardly chimed, briefly wracking her brain for a new topic. "... Oh! I heard Lyra came out to Bon Bon the other day." Fluttershy raised an eyebrow and allowed a soft smile to appear on her face. "She did?" "Oh yes! Let me tell you, I wasn't expecting-" --- The flight to and over the White Tail Woods was slow... slower than Rainbow Dash would've liked. She was doing her best to pace herself, not wanting to tire herself out early in case things went south. Still, being the athletic mare that she was, her version of "slow" was still pretty fast. It wasn't long at all before the huge, bulky forms of several wandering Overlords became visible. She ended up approaching one that wasn't going anywhere, eying it closely. She was looking for claws or fangs or... heck, big boxing gloves or whatever. "... You don't look so bad to me..." she told it, receiving nothing but a guttural groan in return. Of course, once it opened its mouth, she saw teeth. Teeth that were longer than she was tall. She nervously backed away from its maw when she saw them, but much to her relief, the Overlord did not attempt to pursue her. Rainbow Dash stared at it for a few long seconds before it moved, turning around and ponderously floating in the opposite direction. The weathermare took a deep breath and held her head with a hoof, telling herself to leave the big ugly aliens alone as she continued on her airborne path to the Zerg base. From the air, it wasn't a long trek, either. After a few short minutes of flight, she found herself in sight range of the hatchery that they had seen the day before. It still looked just as disgusting as before, she mused. But the hatchery wasn't what she was interested in. No, she instead found herself drawn to four new structures that now laid upon the Creep. The first was closer to her side of the clearing. To her, it looked like a... shrimp. An orange shrimp that had been... turned inside out and covered with spikes. It faintly pulsated with life and gave off an odor that the mare couldn't quite place. The second "building" looked like a huge... head... A boar's head perhaps, if that boar was orange, had four big, non-existent eyes, a muzzle that was split open, huge spikes in place of tusks... Yeah, that wasn't a boar. The structure also had four sizable spikes lining the top of it, as well as a set of three holes in itself. One hole was situated directly in the top, free of spikes but nearly enclosed by a sort of bone. The second hole appeared in the middle-front of the Zerg structure, adorned with a foreign looking skull. And the last was on the ground, presumably to allow creatures in and out. Yet it was alive itself... Rainbow Dash couldn't help a cringe. The third, almost directly below her, looked like a huge mouth, spikes lining a rim while the inside was filled nearly to the brim with a bubbly, acidic looking green liquid. And the fourth was placed at the complete opposite side of the Creep ring. It appeared to be nothing more than a fleshy base with a single... tendril protruding from the center. Said tendril was topped with formidable looking spikes on a flared, conic growth adorning the tip. From where she was hovering, she could see it gently swaying from side to side, as if it were bored. Rainbow Dash reached into her saddlebags and began to try to sketch the new buildings, but eventually settled for just describing them as best she could. She didn't get very close however. Twilight had only asked for eyes, nothing more. Movement at the far sound end of the clearing caught Rainbow Dash's eye, stopping in the middle of comparing the Spawning Pool to one of Zecora's cauldrons. She began to slowly move in that direction, meaning to see what was happening. She only got a few feet before four aliens emerged from the brush. Three were weird... aliens that looked like something out of Fluttershy's worst nightmare. The fourth was one of those things that the same mare had been riding the day before. But they weren't what the weathermare was focusing on. No, it appeared somepony else had the privilege/misfortune of riding on a Drone. Rainbow Dash had to get closer to see exactly who, but when she saw her, her jaw dropped. "Trixie?!" she found herself yelling in disbelief. Indeed, the magician was sprawled out on top of the Drone, looking very battered, dirty, but surprisingly intact. Rainbow Dash couldn't see any obvious injuries from where she was flying. But instead of flying down to try and help her like the better part of her was urging her to do, she stayed put, watching as the Drone and its three Swarmling escorts carried the Unconscious or Probably Dead Trixie to the evolution chamber and vanished inside it through an opening she hadn't noticed. "...Serves her right..." she found herself muttering and subsequently frowning at herself for as she began to turn around. She had seen enough. That's when she saw a sign, three stakes, and a group of cameras on the ground. "... Huh?" she let out softly, looking behind her at the seemingly occupied Zerg before carefully descending to examine the site. She quickly wished she hadn't. A few weapons were strewn about, as well as destroyed bits of armor and... bones. The skeletal remains of eight ponies were scattered about amid patches of blood covered grass and a singular, small pile of unconsumed viscera. The skeletons were in bad shape, too. It looked like their ribs had been torn out to allow access to meat that must have been hard to get to. Never mind a lot of other bones. The skulls got to Rainbow Dash the most. Their eyes were gone. One of them was missing its muzzle... and on a few of the corpses, it appeared that the Zerg had ripped and torn through the tops of their heads to get to their brains. Without missing a beat, Rainbow Dash felt her lunch coming up rapidly, dispensing foodless bile onto the ground before she could stop herself. "... H-Holy shit..." she whispered to herself after she finished vomiting, not bothering to correct the heinous language she had just used as she eyed the remains. Rainbow Dash put away her notes and eyed one of the cameras, landing on the grass as her tail brushed a sign. She snuck a backwards glance at it: "No Flash Photography." Before she could wonder who put it there, she saw an indentation in a tree trunk that was perfectly shaped like that sign. "... Discord, you jerk..." she internally accused, approaching a body and spying a glint nearby. Metal. Not a weapon, but just... metal. Tags. She picked them up and dropped them into her saddlebags with a deep sigh, glancing to her right towards one of the big, tripod-mounted cameras that was aimed at the clearing. "... Maybe I should bring one of these back for Twilight..." she quietly muttered to herself before turning around to face the camera and a spine crawler. ... Spine crawler? While she had been busy throwing up and generally being more freaked out than she physically let on, the tendril-endowed structure had somehow moved from the westernmost edge of the Creep to about ten yards from her. Before she could try to figure out what had happened or why, the length reared back and then dove at the flier. "Whoa!" she yelled, darting to the side and spreading her wings immediately. "Stop! Sto- Ahh!" The spine crawler immediately lunged at her over and over, making her dodge several times before she wizened up. She powerfully took off from the ground and did an aerial about-face, her teeth clenched and her eyes wide as she bolted. She didn't even think about the possibility of being followed. She couldn't afford to. Ponies had been killed and Trixie was probably about to join them. Twilight needed to hear about this. Now. --- "It hurts..." --- The freaked out flier streaked into Ponyville airspace at breakneck speeds, headed directly towards Twilight's library while many an innocent, clueless pegasus had to dive out of the way to avoid injury. Unfortunately for a certain mailmare, Rainbow Dash didn't grab her notice until she had zoomed past her, leaving poor Ditzy Doo spiraling into a conveniently and fortunately placed bale of hay. Once the tree she called home came into view, Rainbow Dash banked hard to the left, beginning to fly in a wide, speedy, unstable circle in an effort to slow down. She knew rather well how entering the library at such a speed would end for her. All the Daring Do books in Equestria wouldn't save her from the subsequent boredom of another hospital stay. She'd read them all, after all. After a minute or so of flying in a circle, Rainbow Dash zoomed through an open window and into Twilight Sparkle's unoccupied bedroom. "Twiliiiight?!!" she called as she started gasping for breath, walking towards the room's closed door and pulling it open. "Twilight! Are you here?! ... Jeez..." "Rainbow Dash?!" Twilight called back from the floor below, making the cyan pegasus bolt downstairs to meet her friend. The unicorn met her at the bottom of the stairs, eyeing her flier friend with a cross between surprise and happiness over seeing Rainbow Dash return safely. "I honestly thought you'd be gone longer..." she then admitted while the panting pegasus pony closed the gap between them. She noted her friend's breathless state and instantly jumped to conclusions... Rainbow Dash needed to get back in a hurry. Why? "Rainbow Dash, what happened...?" she nervously quipped, watching as the weathermare reached into her saddlebags and came out with Twilight's other notepad gripped in her teeth. The unicorn took it in her magic and began to look over Rainbow Dash's rather sloppy writing, leaving the mare responsible to plop down on her haunches and to catch her breath. In truth, though, her attention was more on said mare... Rainbow Dash looked like she had been fleeing from something, that much was easy to see. But what wasn't easy to see, and nearly escaped Twilight's notice, was the subtle shaking of her front legs, the wideness of her eyes, the slight staggering of her breaths... Rainbow Dash was scared. For the sake of her pride, Twilight said nothing about it, instead thinking about the implications of such. "... Those.... The-The Z-Zerg... Hah..." she started, hanging her head as she sucked air through her teeth. "... Th-They killed ponies..." Twilight's eyes widened as those words left Rainbow's lips, standing there in stunned silence. She knew Rainbow Dash was serious... Prankster or no, she wouldn't joke about this... but... "... Are you sure, Rainbow Dash...?" she managed after a long, awkward silence. The fast flier nodded gently and reached into her saddlebags again, this time coming back with a set of tags dangling from her teeth and a grim look in her eyes. Twilight fell back on her own haunches as she shook her head gently while Rainbow Dash dropped the tags and slowly walked to Twilight's side. "... One of those things attacked me, too... Otherwise I would've... brought one of their cameras for you..." she added, sitting beside the bookworm while Twilight stared off into the distance. "... Rainbow Dash... I'm sorry... I'm so, so, so sorry..." Twilight loudly emitted in between tear-fighting gasps, shaking her head furiously for a second or two. "I never should have asked you to do that...! I knew it would be dangerous and I asked you to do it anyways! I'm sorry!" Rainbow Dash stared at Twilight Sparkle with wide eyes and an open mouth, watching as her friend began to weep softly. She scooted closer and put a hoof gently on Twilight's withers, patting her softly while looking somewhere past her head. "It's fine, Twilight... I'm fine. Besides, those Zerg can't touch me. I'm the fastest flier in Equestria!" she proudly consoled, getting Twilight to raise her gaze to the prismatic mare's own with just a ghost of a smile. "... You're... You're right... N-Now... T-Tell me everything..." "Well, Trixie was there... I mean, she kinda has it coming..." "Rainbow Dash!!" "What?! She does! ... Besides, I think she's still alive." "Really? How could y-... ugghhh... alright... start from the beginning. Tell me everything." "... Everything?" Twilight took a deep breath and steeled herself. "... Everything."