Mission 1: The Winter Wrap-Up
Twilight Sparkle looked down at her lap and the helmet that lay there. She held it in her hooves looking inside it as the wind blew threw her hair. The Warthog drove quickly across the surface of Reach, as it neared the base they were headed to. She knew that she now needed to protect her home and race from forces of evil and destruction, and help bring harmony to the lands. As she thought back to the comfort and safety of the training camp she had been sent to when she was just a filly. Holding back tears, she shunned those memories, realizing that it was just the past, and she needed to focus on now. When the base came slightly into view in the horizon, she put the helmet over her head, the HUB turning on and piles of information being sent to her from the one who had trained her and all the other Spartans to fight.
She looked up to see how close they were to the base. Although they were still quite a distance away, the HUB quickly took in what she was looking at and a small circle raced across for the top left of her visual range. It skimmed across to the building and detailed all the information that the data banks contained for this outpost. It detailed its code names, location on the planet, research that was being conducted there and of course all the other Spartans inside. She was being sent to join a squad, Noble, the squad’s name. As far as she was told, they were a tight knit group of Spartans, deployed in two or three pony teams, and only had 6 members. The sixth member had recently been killed in battle, and she was just a replacement.
The Warthog growled to a stop and she jumped out before it was fully parked, so the driver could continue. The pony driving gave a slight salute to Twilight as he drove away, but she didn’t notice as she was far too nervous of what waited inside this base. An escort came out to her and nodded a sign that told her to follow him. They walked to the doors and they slid open as the escort nodded once more and let the door close behind Twilight, staying outside so the Spartans could conduct business. Twilight looked around the room, the first pony she saw was talking on a screen with one of the ponies who had been in the army and she could make out just barely what they were saying.
“Remember Noble One, this is confidential, no one outside Noble Team can ever hear of this, we can’t have just anyone show up after all.”
“Understood sir,” the Spartan in the blue armor said, “You have my word on it. Noble Team out.” She said. Twilight noted that she was not wearing her helmet, which was lying on the table next to her. It had a slightly gold visor and a com uplink attached to it, so she could communicate back base in the heat of combat. She turned, her orange complexion standing out slightly in the darker light from her blonde hair that was kept together by a hair band. “You must be the new filly they sent us to help out ‘round here.” She said her accent rather southern. “Celestia knows we could use it.”
Twilight began to look around a bit more as she answered pony she now knew as Noble One, the leader from her title. “Of course, I’m proud to serve in any way I can.” She looked next to her seeing another pony that was hidden from her until just now. This pony also didn’t have her helmet on and had long curly purple hair and a white complexion. Something else she noticed about this pony was she had a robotic right leg, the gears that kept it moving normally turning in circles making sure that it was as real as they could make it.
“I suppose this is the fresh meat then, right Apple Jack?” the pony said, a rather regal tone drifting in her voice. “I hope that she knows how to fight.” She glanced at Twilight, with a challenging but caring look. Twilight looked down at her hooves, happy that her helmet blocked them from seeing the embarrassment in her face.
“Don’t be too hard on ‘er Rarity, we don’t wanna scare ‘er off on the first day now do we?” Apple Jack asked looking at Rarity. Rarity looked at her and nodded and turned to the desk to look at a few of the papers that lay there. Twilight continued to look around; no one else really spoke out when she looked at them. The first she saw was another pony with a large shoulder plate, which she was sharpening a knife on. Her hair stuck out of the helmet in the back, streaked like a rainbow with every color. This happy feeling didn’t last long as she noticed that scratched into the face of the helmet was a smiling skull that was somewhat horrifying at first glance. Then, as if she wasn’t already scared out of her mind, she looked over a bit more, seeing a huge pony that had a bomb strapped right on her chest.
Her armor was orange, and twice as big as any other Spartan armor she had ever seen. The pony was loading up a giant turret, which she could hold up with just one hoof. She dropped the ammunition in the holding box and sat the machine gun down and sat next to it to rest. As Twilight started to wonder where the sixth member was she heard the door opening again, this time another Spartan came through with green armor, a sniper rifle, and pink hair with pink skin. She had a somewhat lax nature about her that didn’t frighten Twilight in the slightest. That is to say, except for the fact that the enemy wouldn’t find her very intimidating either.
“Everyone, this is our newest member. Twilight Sparkle.” Apple Jack said as the other ponies around perked up their ears to listen. The one with the skull on her helmet only slightly glanced up and went right back to sharpening her blade which she then sheathed and stood up. “She’s our new Six.” Apple Jack explained to the team. Despite the ‘warm welcome’ Twilight was sure that they would eventually accept them as one of their own. “Pinky Pie, did you check the perimeter?” Apple Jack asked.
“Yup, all clear!” she shouted in a high pitch voice that made Rarity cringe, however she bit back words that she knew she shouldn’t speak. Apple Jack nodded to her in thanks for making sure there were no spies or assassins about today.
“Good, I’ll introduce Six to the other members. I’m Noble One, Apple Jack,” she paused to pick up her helmet off the table. “and that over there is Noble Two, Rarity,” she motioned over to the pony who was still pretending to do work as she didn’t feel like partaking in the conversation at this point. “We are the only two members of this squad that are from the original Noble Team.” She said a sad look on her face. Twilight felt her pain; being a Spartan she had seen many battles, and many deaths as well, she knew it wasn’t easy to face. “That over there is Noble Five, Fluttershy.” She pointed to the large pony next to the turret, who looked down at her feet, and it seemed to be out of embarrassment or shyness. “She’s our heavy weapons expert. And that over there is Noble Four, Rainbow Dash.” She said, looking to the right to the Spartan with the skull helmet on who held a shotgun.
“And I’m Pinky Pie!” The new pony said, before Apple Jack could introduce her. She bounced around Twilight happily as she shouted out, “And you’re the new Noble Six!” Twilight’s ears started to hurt from the volume of her voice. It was hard to believe that this pony could possibly be a successful sniper Spartan.
“Yes, Pinky Pie. But we have more important matters to attend to; we’ve got a distress call not far from here. We’ll have to take the Falcons.” Apple Jack said, Rarity nodding her head thankful that they had moved onto real business. Pinky shut her mouth in a very awkward manner that made Fluttershy and Twilight chuckle, even though they realized that Apple Jack was trying to be very serious. She slightly grunted at Pinky Pie, who returned back to just having her mouth shut normally.
“Then what are we waiting for?!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flying off the ground, her blue wings looking as if they had been waiting for fly all day. Fluttershy flinched at the quick movement, especially since Rainbow Dash didn’t actually care about safety in terms of her guns. In fact, she viewed them as a hindrance and would rip them off her guns.
“Rainbow, you should calm down, we’ll get there soon enough.” Fluttershy said, however she was too quiet for Rainbow Dash to even hear her. She flew over to the door quickly, the door opening just in time as she turned around to look at the others.
“Come on Apple Jack, or are you scared of a little routine mission?” She asked taunting her commanding officer. She knew that Apple Jack couldn’t resist a challenge, and certainly wouldn’t look weak in front of the rest of the team. So she started to walk away from the desk, putting her helmet on and addressing the team.
“Okay Noble Team, time to head out.” She said, Rarity put her helmet on as well and started to walk out with Apple Jack, Pinky followed her and Fluttershy picked up the huge machine gun and started to walk out behind them. Twilight grabbed her military issued DMR and Magnum, holstering it in the holster on her flank. Her HUBwas now covered in mission details that Apple Jack was now sending the entire team. It seemed there was a distress beacon that had come from a small settlement up in the mountains, but communications were all down. For that reason, they would have to deploy and check on the civilians themselves and make sure no harm came to them. As far as the military knew, it was a few raiders who would terrorize the locals, easy work for a Spartan after all.
Twilight walked out of the base and looked over at a chariot that two pegasus were strapped to so they could carry it through the air, there was enough room for 4 people on each side, one at the very front, and apparently one on the back as Pinky Pie decided to test it out and take out her sniper rifle. She aimed at Twilight in a joking manner, however Twilight ducked for cover the moment she did. Expecting gunshots zooming by her, Twilight huddled behind a crate, what she heard was Pinky Pie saying through the COM in their helmets “Pew pew, pew pew!” Twilight sighed somewhat angrily and mostly relieved that she wasn’t going to die just yet. She walked over to the chariot and walked in, sitting beside Apple Jack and in front of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Rarity sat closest to the two pegasus and nudged Twilight.
“Would you mind trading me that Magnum for my Assault Rifle, Six?” she asked rather kindly but under her breath. It seemed she had a bit of an image to keep up here, being one of the only two left. Twilight held out the Magnum, liking automatic weapons much more than little hand guns.
“Sure, no problem Rarity. If you ever need anything else, all you have to do is ask.” She said, smiling in her helmet but knowing Rarity had noticed it. Rarity thanked Twilight for the trade and she holstered her new Magnum. Twilight crossed her new Assault Rifle with the DMR she was already carrying. The chariot slowly started to roll forward, but before they gained enough speed Pinky Pie fell out of the chariot, her Sniper Rifle getting thrown away from her as she tumbled on the ground. The chariot slowly came to a stop so they could wait for Pinky.
“I’m okay!” She shouted at the team as she got up quickly and went to get her gun back off the ground. As she came back to the chariot, Twilight noticed something rather strange, when Pinky Pie walked, she didn’t actually walk. In fact, she bounced not only around Twilight in excitement, but wherever she went. It’s a good thing Snipers don’t move much I guess, Twilight thought to herself, somewhat laughing at Pinky Pie. After Pinky returned to the chariot, Apple Jack tied a rope around Pinky and tied it to the front of the chariot.
“That should hold you in place for a while.” She commented, “We wouldn’t want that happenin’ while we were in midair, right Pinky?” Pinky nodded vigorously as a reply. Twilight found it amusing that if another Spartan were to ever answer a commanding officer with just a nod they would find it disrespectful, but the entire team was glad she didn’t run off into a tangent and annoy their pilots.
The six ponies flew for quite some time, higher and higher, well above where Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash flew. They had passed the lowest clouds and there was only one more layer of clouds left before all they could see would be the sun itself. Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to fly off and race ahead of the other two pegasus and race them to their destination. Apple Jack gave her a look from her helmets visor, which told her to stay put until they landed.
“So Apple Jack, there are supposed to be some kind of rebels here right?” Twilight asked curious about the details of the mission.
“HQ says that there are a few rebels out here, trying to take Reach over, but they’ll never get that far. For the most part they pillage the settlements around Reach and sometimes murder a few innocents along the way, just to prove a point to the military. This time seems really bad seeing as they put out a high alert distress signal this time.” Twilight also found it rather curious as to why a high priority distress signal was put out for such a natural thing in these places.
They broke through the clouds and barely passed over a mountain that widened out and the clouds gave way to show the small circular valley below. Twilight’s HUB gave a few points to look at, one being the LZ and another near a burning vehicle that looked like a transport or shipping vehicle.
“That’s our target every pony. We’ll need to get out there and see if we can’t find the distress signal and who put it out.” Apple Jack said as the chariot neared the ground. Before they landed, all the ponies except Pinky jumped out. “Pinky Pie keep your eye on the sky.” Apple Jack commanded her, Pinky replying with an over dramatic salute back to her. The chariot took off back up into the sky, as they took Pinky with them. “Okay Noble Team, move out.” Apple Jack told the rest.
Rainbow Dash flew off towards where the second point the HUB brought up as they approached the LZ. Twilight walked behind her with the rest of the team, her DMR out and ready to go if they found any rebels. Rainbow Dash stopped on a large boulder that jutted from the path and she crawled up it so she could peak over and see what was down below. She motioned to the others with her hoof to tell them it was safe as far as she could see. She held her shotgun tight and jumped down off the rock. Twilight could hear her armors shields break and hoped she was right about their not being anyone over there.
As they approached the clearing where Rainbow Dash had reached, they noticed many fires had started and the car that Twilight had seen at first was still on fire.
“You think rebels could have done this Apple Jack? It seems like they wouldn’t have this kind of firepower.” Rainbow Dash commented.
“She’s right Apple Jack,” Rarity said in a dissatisfied voice, “some of this is from plasma damage, alien tech, not human.” She said. Although, if a small group of the Covenant had passed through, the rebels may have been able to take out a few and take their weapons and use them. Rainbow was digging through the rubble and ruins when she stumbled upon a big red device with a green screen on it that was blinking.
“Here’s the distress beacon we were looking for, but where are the people who activated it?” She asked the group looking around.
“They might be up ahead; they could have taken cover in the building over there.” Fluttershy said softly, afraid that she may have said something to upset someone.
“Of course!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “The building, its perfect!” she shouted again, bunnies that were in the clearing now fleeing in fear. Rainbow Dash didn’t even notice that she had upset the wildlife as she took off down the path around the cliff. Twilight and the others shook their heads in disagreement with the way Rainbow handled things.
“Isn’t that a good way of giving away our location?” Twilight asked Apple Jack.
“Of course it is, Rainbow thinks that if we give away our position it makes our job much easier. Instead of us looking for them, they come to us. The only problem with that is the fact that we still have to fight and win.” Apple Jack said, Twilight immediately saw the problem with this idea as they were almost always outnumbered. “But we should be okay; I highly doubt a bunch of rebel ponies would come after Spartans.” Apple Jack reassured Twilight as she sighed a bit in relief. They followed after Rainbow Dash towards the path that led over to the house. When they reached the turn around some rocks and trees, Twilight took in the true height that they had come. She looked off a huge cliff, all the way down back to the surface of Reach.
“Watch your step darling, wouldn’t want to have to be replaced after just one mission now would we?” Rarity said, rather smugly as she strutted around the corner. Twilight knew that she was only joking but it did somewhat hurt her feelings. She walked extremely close to the side of the mountain, not wanting to look down. She hadn’t seen much field battle, other than a few simulator training courses, and only one real battle on flat ground without any cliffs. They approached the building with stairs that led up to a deck, half of the deck hanging over the cliff and supported by metal rods that Twilight wouldn’t trust with even the weight of a feather. Luckily, the building was built more into the hill that they were going around, so they wouldn’t have to go any closer to the edge.
They entered the building, Apple Jack and Rarity taking the lead, standing behind two pillars, Fluttershy stood back over by the entrance door by the balcony. “Six, get in there and clear the building.” Apple Jack ordered Twilight into the building. She nodded to her commanding officer, even though she would have liked some back up, she held her DMR ready to fire at any rebels that popped out. She checked what she could see of the downstairs area, which was quite a lot, due to the fact that it was clear of any furniture or anything else that may have impaired her vision. She then proceeded to the upstairs portion of the house, clenching at the trigger of the gun she carried. As she reached the top of the stairs she turned her head and screamed, throwing her DMR instead of shooting it at the intruder.
“OW! What did you do that for Six?! You could have killed me!” Rainbow Dash yelled at Twilight picking up the DMR and throwing it back to her. “Be more careful and quieter, you’ll get us caught.” Rainbow Dash said. Twilight rolled her eyes in her helmet at this due to Rainbow’s previous actions at the beginning of this mission, but picked up her DMR without a word. The other three ran up the stairs with their weapons ready.
“Twilight what is it? What did you see up here that got ya’ll riled up?” Apple Jack asked looking around.
“She threw her gun at me is what she did!” Rainbow Dash said angrily at her, hoping that Twilight would be punished for it.
“Well if you’d just stay with the rest of the group, we wouldn’t have this problem now would we?” Apple Jack commented. Rainbow looked displeased with the judgment call that Apple Jack had made, but she walked to the window silently that overlooked a small circle, which three houses fit around. “What is it Rainbow? Did you see something down there?” Apple Jack asked her.
“Yeah, there’s been some movement in the building directly across from this house. I think they might be held up in there, trying to wait us out or something.” Rainbow Dash said, “I thought I would wait until the rest of you slow pokes caught up so we could deal with them, but I’m sure I can take them by myself.” She said smugly.
“And here I thought you had actually thought something through, but I guess I was wrong.” Rarity commented, knowing that if they were the rebels, all of them would eventually be able to take down one lone Spartan, even if it was Rainbow Dash. Rainbow grunted at Rarity in anger.
“Girls, aren’t we all her on a mission, we should have to fight amongst ourselves now should we?” Twilight said, hoping her words would sink into the others minds and stop all of the senseless arguing among them. Rarity and Rainbow both looked at Twilight in what seemed to be shock. They turned back to each other and exchanged apologies. “Good, now let’s get going with the mission.”
Apple Jack nodded in agreement with Twilight “Okay then, Rainbow and Fluttershy, you should go open that door and see who’s in it, Rarity and I will stay back and give you cover fire if you need it. Twilight, you helped get this mission back on the tracks again, why don’t you choose who you want to go with?” she said, Twilight nodding at Rainbow Dash, after all, Fluttershy probably wouldn’t be able to stop her if she tried something rash. “Then it’s settled, let’s move out ponies.” Apple Jack said as they headed down the stairs.
Rarity took out her pistol and stood behind the pillar of the front door, while Apple Jack took out her Assault Rifle and covered the window. Fluttershy glided over with her machine gun dangling from her hooves as she did while Rainbow came right up behind her with the shotgun. Twilight took out her DMR and walked carefully over to the entrance to the house, standing on the outside left pillar next to the door, ready for when Rainbow opened the door. She flung the door open and pointed the shotgun inside at some ponies that were inside.
“Get on your knees, now!” She commanded, the unknowing ponies, scared out of their minds didn’t hesitate to do what she said, they exited the building and got on the ground putting their front hooves above their head. “Thought you could terrorize some local farmers did you? Well think again!” she said to the ponies.
“Um, Rainbow, these don’t’ look like rebels, these look like the farmers that we are here to help.” Fluttershy said. Rainbow stopped and looked at Fluttershy, tilting her shotgun away from the ponies, but the quickly looking back at them, aiming down on them.
“Or maybe they’re just pretending to be farmers so we let our guard down!” Rainbow accused them yet again as Fluttershy walked up to them.
“Don’t be afraid of her, she won’t hurt you if you really are farmers. What happened here?” Fluttershy asked, as one of the ponies said in a muffled voice that they were attacked by something and they all just ran inside and took cover, and then their attackers left. The ponies motioned to Apple Jack and Rarity to tell them it was okay to come out. After asking where the attackers went, and being pointed in the right direction they started to take off to another building, just over the hill. “You all stay safe inside this building for now, we’ll be back to make sure that you’re okay later.” Fluttershy said before heading up the hill.
“Hey Apple Jack, is this thing on?” Pinky’s voice came through the com link, everyone could hear her, and they all wondered how Pinky made it this far without even knowing how to use the com links. Either way, they stopped to listen to the possible intel that Pinky had.
“Yes Pinky, we can all hear you, what is it?” Apple Jack asked her.
“What does a rebel look like exactly?” Pinky asked. Twilight could tell Rarity was rolling her eyes at the sniper pony. It would have been better to have a ride in that chariot rather than running everywhere, and to have someone even slightly sane to be up there looking out for them. None the less, Apple Jack just sighed and responded after a few moments.
“Well, they should be regular ponies probably no armor or any vehicles that look military grade, and the guns they have shouldn’t be all that great. Other than that, they could look like just about any other pony.” Apple Jack told her. “Why? Did you see some of um?” She asked Pinky. She could hear the wind rushing past through Pinky’s helmet, making it harder to hear her.
“If that’s what they look like, then these aren’t rebels, but they do look angry, you should probably get over here and check it out everyone!” Pinky said with a surprising amount of enthusiasm and excitement that slightly disturbed Twilight.
“We’ll be right there Pinky, just hold on for a little bit.” Apple Jack said, turning off the com link between Pinky and the rest of the team, making sure the only way she could reach them was with an emergency transmission. “You heard her every pony, Noble Team, double time it, we need to find out what’s going on up there.” Apple Jack said as the HUBs updated with new intel, where Pinky was when transmitting and where any movement was. Twilight noticed a small circular type map that had radar on it, that showed her all of the team as yellow dots.
The five ponies ran up the hill at full speed racing towards Pinky Pies last location. They entered the next closest building and entered slowly, their guns ready for anything.
“Keep an eye on your radar every pony.” Apple Jack said, Twilight glanced down at it after every other step. The nerves of whatever was happening were now getting to her a bit as she shook slightly in her armor. A sound came from up above them as a red dot raced across the radar from the right to the left. The ponies aimed up at the roof, but it was too thick to possible know where the hostile was. Twilight looked around as Apple Jack looked back at her. “Let’s go Twilight, we need to find whatever that was, out the back door, let’s move Noble.” Apple Jack said as she raced to the door. Twilight and the others followed, ready for a fight when they got to the small clearing that was surrounded by houses on every side, they all saw the red dot in their radar, but didn’t get a glance at what it was. It went up some steps to a house that was right in front of the stairs.
The five ponies went into the building, looking out the window and seeing Pinky in the chariot up high in the sky. She waved wildly at them, even though she said that there could be some ponies there that were rebels or something like them at least. The chariot took off swiftly as Pinky was almost dropped to the ground, luckily for her, Apple Jack’s rope had not broken and she was held on until she could restabilize. The others wondered from the window what exactly had scared the pilots to where they would just take off like that, and just when they began to ponder this, a large explosion of green energy burst out in front of the window. Every pony dove for cover and when the explosion had cleared Apple Jack gave a very demanding order, and yelled it out to the team-
“Every pony, down the stairs, now!” Twilight knew that this was the real deal this time, and they were about to face real combat, but didn’t know exactly what it was they were facing yet.
Twilight ran down the stairs, not even remembering she had a team anymore, it was her and the enemy. A few red dots were right below her the direction she was facing down in the garage. She took out a grenade and pulled the pin, throwing it down in. All she could here after this was a male pony shouting down below her “GRENADE!” and then an explosion. She went down, her Assault Rifle out, for close quarters combat. She noticed a few ponies in strange armor she had never seen before that had narrowly just away from the grenade blast, and the pony she had gotten, who had been thrown to the wall from the blast. He had dropped his gun and lay there lifeless, and Twilight didn’t even recognize that form of gun.
Without thinking, she shot at the two ponies who were still recovering from the grenade blast and finished them off. Unlike Spartans, they didn’t have shields and were rather slow even compared to every day ponies. They didn’t take even an entire magazine and Twilight quickly reloaded as she was taught by their ruler and the one who trained every Spartan, Doctor Celestia. She didn’t look back at those kills; she focused on what was to come next.
“Six, watch out!” Rarity said, a strange blue grenade flying through the air at Twilight. She pounded her hoof to the ground and used her unicorn magic to put a barrier around her shields so that they wouldn’t be taken down. The blue grenade stuck right next to her, and didn’t bounce like a regular grenade, and it exploded into blue plasma that would have killed Twilight if she had not been ready for such a thing. Apple Jack through a grenade out into the clearing in front of them that Pinky had been flying over. A few very fast ponies with even stranger armor tried to jump out of the way, but they were too late and were caught in the blast. They were flung to the different sides of the clearing and lay on the ground.
When the others looked up into the sky, they saw the chariot in the air, a turret in-between the two pilots that was firing at an extremely fast pony, Pinky was shooting trying to snipe him out of the air. He had a cannon on his back, and had a turret gun under his front hooves which he was shooting at them with. Green plasma was used for the turret and it was a good bet that the cannon on his back was the weapon that had been fired at them while they were in the building. Just as they ran out to help, Pinky shot him down, a bullet straight through his eyes as it exited the back of his head he spiraled to the ground. When the pony collided with the ground, a giant explosion went off, green plasma blowing up along with it.
“Carrying those weapons looks to be pretty dangerous.” Apple Jack said.
“They also seem to be very dangerous for us, those things almost destroyed us. I didn’t think that the Solar Empire had perfected their plasma weapons… Unless,” Rarity said grimly. “no never mind, it couldn’t be that. Besides, they still aren’t prefect so they must have stolen them from a factory and they were just testing models.” Rarity assured the group and herself. They ran over bellow the chariot and Pinky shouted at them as they turned down the volume on their com links.
“Guys, I just got a distress call from some marines that were stationed out here, we should go help them. They sounded like they were being attacked, probably by these ponies, so it’s part of our jobs right?” Pinky said, Apple Jack nodding to her and then looking to the others.
“It looks like there are a few more of these inventions Rarity, and we’re gonna have to fight against them.” Apple Jack said, “Pinky, go over to the location they gave you and see what you can find, we’ll catch up.” She told Pinky, Pinky giving a salute to Apple Jack and the chariot taking off yet again, over to another range of mountains not far from there. “I’m sure their backup knows about us now, let’s move fast but quietly, okay every pony.” All the others nodded in agreement to Apple Jack’s suggestion and took out their guns yet again. They went down over to a bridge that went over a small dried up river that came from a waterfall, there steps then muffled by the crashing liquid.
“So Rarity, if you don’t mind me asking, what is this ‘Plasma’ stuff anyway, I’ve never heard of it before this in my training.” Twilight said, hoping that she didn’t sound too imprudent about this matter. Rarity didn’t seem to want to answer at first as they crossed the bridge carefully.
“Plasma is a new technology that Doctor Celestia has been experimenting with. It’s basically like putting the sun inside of a gun and then firing it at ponies. You can imagine the amount of damage that could be capable of. But, as of right now we have yet to perfect it, and it won’t be issued until they can mass produce it effectively and safely.” Rarity told her, Twilight surprised that something so powerful could be in the works. If they could perfect that technology then almost every planet could be conquered by the Solar Empire and then there would be no war.
After crossing the bridge they found more ponies waiting for them. A few ponies dashed quickly to hide behind rocks. “Six, no heroics anymore, we can’t have you dying on a mission. Let the rest of the team work together and show you how we function first.” Apple Jack told Twilight, just before her lessons kicked in and sent her on her way to attack. She held her gun, in case of an emergency, but did not move. Rainbow Dash ran up behind a rock as Rarity followed. They could see the enemies on the other side of the rock in their radar and Fluttershy went up to the other side of the rock, hiding to make sure the enemy ponies could not see her. Rainbow Dash held her hoof up to tell Rarity and Fluttershy she was waiting before they began their attack, and they waited patiently, ready for anything.
Rainbow dropped her hoof, both her and Rarity going behind the rock quickly, shooting at the enemies, however there were too many for just Rainbow’s shotgun and Rarity’s pistol, but the point was they scared them out of hiding. On the other side of the rock, Fluttershy held up the giant turret and unleashed fire on the fleeing ponies. The bullets ripped holes in them, as plasma leaked from their guns and armor the fell to the ground one by one. Twilight was unsure what Fluttershy’s face looked like in general, but wondered what it looked like when she did that. She cringed at the thought of a marauder pony, smiling with glee as she watched the blood of other ponies splatter on the wall as she slowly killed them, but she pushed these thoughts aside and saw Rainbow motion over to her and Apple Jack that it was clear up to there.
The five ponies headed up the hill and looked over into the next clearing. Their HUBs all picked up a canal that had been built in case the water from the river got too high; it led down into a valley which the HUB picked up as the quickest route to their next location. However, two ponies in rather big armor were patrolling around. Rarity gasped at this site, and seemed even more worried than when they had found out about the plasma weapons. Just then, a larger pony with even bigger armor and a huge gun walked out into view behind the other two. The quick and slow ponies that they had faced just before this were also walking around and patrolling.
“Okay Twilight, you sat the last part out, how about you make a decision. We can either go over there to the grain holders then sneak behind the wall and walk passed these ponies to avoid a casualty, or we can fight them head on. It’s your call though.” Apple Jack told Twilight. Twilight contemplated the though. Both ideas were good, very good, on one hoof she could save the lives of her team, on the other hoof, it was dangerous to leave these ponies so they could continue to terrorize the population of farmers.
“I say we confront them, I’m sure we can handle them and we need to help protect the farmers from them.” Twilight told the others as they nodded in agreement. “Rarity and Apple Jack, stay back here with me, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, go around by the grain holders and sneak behind them. After you attack them, we’ll get them from behind and finish them off, ok?” Twilight told them. They all shook their heads in understanding. As they walked around into position Twilight looked at Rarity. “Rarity, what is that?” she asked, looking at a blue orb in her hoof.
“I stole it off of one of the pony’s bodies, it escaped the explosion. It’s one of the plasma grenades they used, the ones that can stick to things. All you have to do is press this little button, then throw at something.” Rarity explained. Twilight was in awe of her knowledge and of the technology that was now around them, she decided next time she got a chance, she would pick up some of the new plasma grenades. Before they could talk more on the matter, they heard Rainbow’s shotgun go off, shooting at the head pony in the largest armor, even though she was nearly at point blank, the armor barely dented and plasma was all that came out, and no blood.
Fluttershy shot at the large ponies constantly, as the other ponies started to scatter out around, running from the conflict. Rarity took out a few with headshots from her pistol and Apple Jack shot them as they got to close with her Assault Rifle. Twilight took out her DMR and ran in to help the two pegasus, shooting some of the smaller ponies as they scattered. Fluttershy had just taken down one of the two larger ponies but the largest and the other still remained, and her turret was about to overheat and would jam and stop firing. Twilight shot at the second of the medium sized ponies, hitting it directly in the back of her head through the small slit in her armor. She fell, but it seemed the biggest pony would never go down.
“Out of the way every pony!!” Rarity yelled out at the others, activating the plasma grenade and throwing it at the largest pony, sticking it to the ponies back. It heard the plasma slowly charging into an explosion and shook violently trying to get it off. The others backed away from it so they would not be caught in the blast, and in a split second, the giant pony was no more. The armor and body parts had gone in every which direction and no one could determine which part was which. They all looked at the damage that the one grenade had done and stood in astonishment. “Well what are you all waiting for, let’s get going!” Rarity said from the middle of the battlefield heading over to the small drop off. The other ponies followed her and got to the gutter. Each jumped down and moved out of the way, so that the others may follow.
“Look everyone!” Apple Jack said pointing her hoof over to a farm vehicle that hadn’t been destroyed. “We can use that to get there even quicker.” She said to the others.
“Rainbow and I will make sure that there are no more back there and meet up with you later. We need to make sure that there aren’t any more of those ponies about around the farmers’ houses.” Rarity said, Rainbow tilting her head to the side, looking kind of angered by Rarity just saying that she had agreed to do this. However, Apple Jack nodded in agreement and Rainbow decided not to complain about it. They headed back before they hopped down with the others. Apple Jack took out her Assault Rifle and went over to the truck. She entered the passenger side and nodded to Twilight.
“Twilight, you should drive, Fluttershy, hop on back and give us some cover fire.” Apple Jack said as Fluttershy started to fly over letting her turret cool down and reloading it. Twilight walked over and jumped in the driver’s seat and started the truck up. She revved the engine once and it was fully charged. She pushed on the accelerator after putting it in reverse to get around the tree it was parked in front of, switched it into drive and drove off, making sure Fluttershy was holding on tight. She had been using her wings to counteract the moving vehicle and didn’t actually have to hold on. She put the turret up on top of the truck above them for added stability.
After Twilight took the first corner, they saw a few of the quick ponies that they could pick out from their armor and their weapons. They noticed them due to the loud muffler on the truck and ran, shooting purple needles at them that pierced the windshield. Apple Jack leaned out of the door and shot at them furiously hitting one of them a few times in the leg. Fluttershy shot at them with the turret, finishing off Apple Jack’s kill and getting the other before he could escape. Twilight continued driving through the mountains and they ended up in a valley without any other people around.
After they had reached the river that lay in the very lowest part of the mountains they heard ponies’ voices near them. Some mercenary ponies came out from behind a grain storage place, looking at them, hoping they were friendlies. “Are you the ones who sent out that help request?” Apple Jack asked the one that lead them. They lowered their guns and he nodded yes, she looked around after he did. “But there ain’t no one here, that channel is for emergencies only soldier.” Apple Jack scolded them, but before she could continue her rant, they all ran behind the wall again. Fluttershy had been looking in the same direction they had and softly said to Apple Jack.
“Um, Apple Jack, we… Well we seem to, to have some visitors.” She said Apple Jack barely hearing her in time to turn around. As she did she saw a giant chariot that was afloat being pulled by a dozen pegasus and other ponies and unicorns jumping out of the giant chariot as it opened. They landed on the ground and started patrolling. They had never seen anything like that chariot, and just as it had arrived, it left in seconds. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Apple Jack got out of the truck and ran behind the wall with the mercenaries, almost getting their heads shot off after scaring them.
“What should we do?” Twilight asked Apple Jack. Apple Jack shook her head in disappointment, the opponent had all the advantage, they had more cover and more troops, and they were all the way across the river, and the only way to get over was across a bridge that led directly to where they would be waiting. Rarity’s voice came over on the HUBs.
“Rainbow and I have finished checking out this valley, but where are you three?” She asked, “We thought you were going to help the soldiers, why did you stop before you got there?” Rarity was confused, almost as confused as Twilight and Apple Jack.
“What do you mean we’re not there, we’re standin’ right next to um’.” Apple Jack explained to Rarity. After she said this she looked on her HUB and looked for their next destination, which passed the valley they had stopped in. “Oh no, there are more than on group of soldiers who need help. Rarity, can you and Rainbow make it to the other destination while we clear this part out?” Apple Jack asked.
“No problem, Pinky Pie is here to help give us a lift, we’ll just fly over there. We’ll give you a shout if we need any help. We’ll meet up at that destination when we’re done, okay?” Rarity asked. Apple Jack agreed to the plan and they signed off.
“Okay every pony,” Apple Jack began, “our mission is to help anyone who needs help here, so all you non-Spartan ponies need to sit this one out, we’ll handle it from here.” She said, as some of the other ponies gave a sigh of relief. “There’s only one way over there, and that’s directly over that bridge. It’s dangerous, but we really don’t have any other choice now do we?” Apple Jack asked, Twilight and Fluttershy both shook their heads no. “Then our mission is clear, we have to get over there, clear it out and then go meet up with Rarity and the others. Is every pony ready” Apple Jack asked, both Twilight and Fluttershy nodding in agreement. “Good, then head out!” she said, getting her gun ready.
They sprinted across, Apple Jack sprinting faster than either Twilight or Fluttershy as she got to the wall, she said over the HUB “I don’t think they know we’re here yet, we still have the advantage of a surprise attack against them now.” She said, the others catching up to her. They got their guns ready and got their strategies ready. They could use the building against their opponents now and hopefully finish them off before anyone else got hurt here. Apple Jack nodded to the others, asking silently if they were ready to go. Twilight nodded slowly after Fluttershy had nodded. After this, they each went to different doors where they saw many of the enemy ponies all around the clearing between the circular building. They were unaware that in a few moments, they would be ambushed and killed off before they could even find the other soldiers.
Twilight threw one of the blue grenades snagging it on one of the slower ponies, whom after hearing it charging for the inevitable explosion proceeded to run around, unsure of where the attacker was. Other ponies around him began to flee from the doomed pony that only had seconds to live. As Twilight and the others heard the grenade explode, they came in from each direction, shooting each pony they saw. From where they were, there was no way out for the enemies except for the doors they were standing in. It seemed that this would be a simple mission with none of her friends getting hurt from Twilight’s point of view, but just as she thought this, something very peculiar happened.
She saw one of the enemy ponies charging at Apple Jack while Apple Jack was focused on another hostile to her right. Although Twilight knew that these ponies wouldn’t be capable of taking down a Spartan single hoofedly, this one seemed to have a plan. As every Spartans’ armor had a strong exoskeleton around it, they would be able to take quite a bit of damage from any attack before the Spartan could be harmed. One grenade could take down the shield as they had been shown in a training camp and anything after that would do direct damage to the Spartan. The shields could recover as long as the ponies remained out of the line of fire long enough, but sometimes there isn’t a way to get out of the line of fire.
“Apple Jack, look out!!” Twilight yelled, even though her voice would clearly register on the mic in her helmet. The pony that had been charging Apple Jack had to of the blue grenades, attached to each of his front hooves as he ran, they charged up and he approached Apple Jack swiftly. Apple Jack turned to look as the high pitched screech of the grenades drew closer and shock set in. Before her body could tense up, in a split second she realized that they would blow up right when he got next to her, and her body instinctively dodged out of the way as she rolled back into the building. Twilight could see the suicide ponies face before the grenades exploded, a look of horror and dishonor shot across as the grenades seemed to blow up in slow motion underneath him.
Just as he had fallen back to the ground, the last few enemies had been taken care of by Fluttershy’s turret. “That was a close one Twi, thanks for the save.” Apple Jack thanked Twilight as she sighed heavily, glad that she had not been killed by such an appalling tactic. “I didn’t think that they would stoop as low as to send one of their own just to try and kill one of us like that.” She said, sorrow in her voice. They all knew that these ponies need to be dealt with, but in such a manner as to send some pony to their grave with no chance of survival was a repulsive act. Just before they began to walk out, Rarity’s voice came over the HUBs.
“Apple Jack, we couldn’t help the other soldiers, these other ponies are just too strong for us to handle. Rainbow and I will get to the satellite control and try to get it up and running again, but these soldiers need help.” Rarity said hurriedly, needing to go. “Pinky said she’ll stay here and we’re being picked up by another chariot to get across the mountain. She’ll help you evacuate the soldiers after you secure their position. I’m worried that these ponies may have tampered with the controls, so I’ll need to get there right away and fix whatever they have broken. Rarity, out.” She said, turning off her com link. Twilight viewed it as somewhat disrespectful, but understood the need not to argue about her decision. If something had to be done, it had to be done.
“You heard her Nobel Team, let’s get to that next outpost.” Apple Jack commanded running back across the bridge to the vehicle.” You’re all safe, and should be able to hold this position until help gets here. I’ve already sent word that you need an evac and some chariots should be here soon.” She told the soldiers who stood in awe that the Spartans had been able to take out all of those hostiles so easily. Apple Jack jumped in the passenger seat as Fluttershy mounted her turret again. Twilight jumped into the driver’s seat and Apple Jack had already turned the truck on. She floored it so they could make it up the hill quickly to their next outpost. Along the way, Fluttershy took out a few of the faster ponies who hit the truck slightly near the engine.
They made it up the hill with no more problems and a friendly pony’s voice came into range from the radio frequency detectors that the Spartan helmet contained. “I was starting to think you three would never show up. After the other two left, I thought we were goners.” The pony said as he cut off his next sentence. “Oh Celestia, not again! Everyone, run for cover, now!” The pony commanded his troops to hide in the larger building. Twilight looked up and another armored transport chariot came by. This time, it noticed them, and turrets on the ship turned, shooting giant yellow plasma balls at the truck. Luckily, the ship had hovered almost directly over them and couldn’t directly hit the truck. None the less, Twilight and the others jumped out of the car, and went over to the garage that the soldiers had gone to hide in. Just as they reached the entrance, a light reflected off the rocks, as they heard the truck exploding, metal hitting the ground and rocks around them.
The three Spartans turned to see their enemies, and much like in the clearing they were dispatched a few slower ponies, a few faster ponies, and three of the ponies with large armor, one larger than the other two. Twilight started to fire her Assault Rifle, but it clicked as the magazine had dried up. She took out her DMR and looked down the scope as another transport came into view where the other one had just left, to drop off more of the enemies’ troops. As she saw the doors on the sides open to let the ponies out, she scored a few headshots on some of the slow and fast ponies before they even got out of their seats. “Nice shootin’ Six!” Apple Jack commented. “Why don’t you check the house for a weapon or two, you must be out of ammo by now, right?” Apple Jack told her as she nodded thanking her for the chance to go and get another gun.
Twilight ran up the stairs from the garage and went through the first door. Inside it was a nice little house, one that she always dreamed of having. It seemed so safe, so calm inside of the home. Other than the lack of ponies that lived there, it seemed almost inviting. From inside there, it seemed like nothing was wrong outside the walls, that everything was just fine and there were no problems in the world. She walked up the spiral stair case, looking out for any weapons that she could find, hoping she wouldn’t miss one. As she arrived on the second floor, she saw a farmer pony laying there dead. Plasma had burned the wood around him, and a military grade shotgun lay next to his body. She skipped out on trying to figure out how and why a farmer would need a military grade shotgun, and just picked it up. She searched the farmer’s body for any extra magazines he had for the pump shotgun and realized he had about three. She put them in the holsters on her back leg and pumped the gun, loading the next shell into the chamber.
She went outside onto the roof where the house met the mountain, and then the sounds of explosions and gunshots rang back into her ears. She feared that she would never be able to truly forget those horrible sounds of armor breaking and flesh being pierced through. But this is what she was trained to do, what she needed to do. She snuck around behind a few rocks in front of the garage that the others were in. The strange chariots had left, and many of the enemies lay on the ground dead. However, the three leaders were still there with a few of their underlings. Twilight jumped out behind the closest one, making sure none of them were behind her and shot the pony right in the back, point blank. The pony’s shields broke right away and she let off another round, piercing his armor and watching the blood gush out. Luckily for Twilight, the heat of battle prevented any of her enemies from even noticing.
The secondary leader that was left had gone to attack Apple Jack and Fluttershy head on, while the leader supported with cover fire. By that time, all of the other ponies that were helping had been killed off, and there was only one hostile Twilight had to take down. She ran up behind the white armored pony and took out her knife from the sheath on her right leg, holding it up in her mouth and gouging it into the neck of the pony. She could feel the shields breaking, the armor splitting, and the knife going into the pony’s neck. Then she felt nothing, the pony went limp and she pulled out the knife, shaking the blood from it as the others finished off the secondary leader. She sheathed the knife and walked to Apple Jack.
“Nice tactics out there Twilight, I thought we were gonna be goners at that rate.” Apple Jack said to her, Fluttershy nodding in agreement. “Command this is Noble One, we need a transport for some soldiers out here on my locations, we’ve cleared an LZ and you should be able to land now.” She reported, “Pinky, we’re gonna need a lift to Rarity and Rainbow’s location.” She told pinky over the HUB.
“You got it Appa Jack!” Pinky Pie said in her high squeaky voice. The chariots arrived, one that had no one in it which would take the soldier ponies out of there, and the other with Pinky Pie in it, waiting to take them to the next destination. Twilight contemplated going into the other chariot and sending a regular soldier with Pinky, but decided against it not wanting to upset Apple Jack. They climbed in and the chariots took off. The chariot that took the soldiers went straight back to base, but this chariot went up the mountains even higher. They passed a huge bridge that used to overlook the entire valley, now blown up and wouldn’t be repaired for a good many years.
As they flew, Twilight noticed something no one else seemed to at the time, a few red dots that were densely packed at the location they were headed. She hoped that Rarity was still alright, but realized that it wasn’t just her, but she had Rainbow Dash for a bit of added protection. As they approached, Rarity’s voice came over the HUBs. She had been broadcasting on a low frequency that wouldn’t let the enemies hear about reinforcements, “Apple Jack, I just finished slicing the door open, but I need more cover than Rainbow can give while I try to splice the wiring to close it again.” She said, they all heard Rainbow complaining that she could give her enough cover, and then blamed the fact she wasn’t covering her enough on Rarity herself.
“Pilot, put us down over there on the landing pad.” Apple Jack told the pegasus in front.
“No offence ma’am but, LZ looks pretty hot down there.” He argued.
“Soldier, that’s an order.” Apple Jack said as the pegasus nodded and started to fly down to the landing pad. As they neared, the dense dots started to get more separated on Twilight’s radar, and she realized just how outmatched the others seemed to be right now. They had to hurry to save the rest of their team, as the chariot approached the ground, Twilight, Apple Jack and Fluttershy all jumped out so the pegasus didn’t have to land and worry about taking off again. He flew off with Pinky who would give some cover fire. The enemies did not notice they had landed, due to the fact that they were too distracted trying to close in on Rarity and Rainbow Dash, making the other’s job that much easier.
Twilight ran up behind one of the ponies in strange armor and took her knife out of its holster on her left leg. She reached around cutting its neck and letting him fall to the ground. “We’re on our way Rarity!” she shouted so Rarity could here, Rarity then turned on her communicator so they could speak without shouting over the battle.
“It sure took you long enough. Either way, get me some cover fire, I got through the door, but I have to splice back through the mainframe to shut it again and give us a safer place to rest.” She said to the other three as they nodded at one another. Fluttershy toted her giant turret over to the door that Rarity was at, joining her and Rainbow. Apple Jack and Twilight decided that they would go around and try to get all the ponies that were camping around, waiting to make a sneak attack. Apple Jack pointed Twilight into a doorway to their right, which went down into a small shed, where Apple Jack would infiltrate and corner the enemies inside.
Apple Jack nodded her head to Twilight, giving her the cue to go in. Twilight ran in and found some of the faster ponies who had shields on their front hooves along with the smaller guns with pink needles in them. They, at first, did not notice Twilight, but she soon made it apparent that she was there by letting off a few rounds from her assault rifle. The ponies in the shed panicked and started running around, some finding the courage to actually try and fight Twilight, the others running away in fear. Twilight, at first, had quite a bit of trouble taking them down, not due to their speed, but due to the fact they had some kind of extra shields that they held up with their hooves. Her bullets hit the shields and slightly brought them down, but they were tough, and some of the bullets actually deflected off as the shields were slightly curved. Twilight noticed to hold the smaller guns out; they had to hold them around the shield making their hooves vulnerable.
“Apple Jack! Shoot at their hooves and they might drop their shields!” Twilight shouted, some of the ponies that were now fighting Apple Jack panicked at this realization. Apple Jack nodded to Twilight and started to shoot at their hooves, many of them dropped their guns and even let their shields fall, leaving them wide open for an attack. After this, it didn’t take long to dispatch the rest of the enemies, and Apple Jack spoke on her HUB.
“Rarity, are you almost done there?” she asked, as Rarity turned on her mic, they could both here the sound of a small blow torch that sounded like she was cutting through the wires of something or possibly cutting off a large chunk of metal to get to another part of the wire box.
“I am working as fast as I can, I’m almost done.” She said, Apple Jack not seeming quite satisfied with this as she wished it was completely done at this point. As Twilight and Apple Jack went out of the shed towards the door they saw something out of the corner of their eyes. Another large chariot was now approaching the ground to drop off more of the enemies.
“Well Rarity, you better get done pretty quick then!” Apple Jack warned her as she took out her assault rifle ready for more fighting. As the enemies jumped out of the chariot they saw all of the ones they had seen before, except this time, there was a larger unicorn in gigantic gold armor that surveyed the area when he landed. He carried a large gun, which ammo looked like tiny green grenades. Twilight shivered when she thought of all the destruction that that weapon could bring into a fight. Twilight and Apple Jack ran behind the cover of a tanker truck that had been left there in park, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were now inside with Rarity and they were all preparing for what was to come. As Rarity spliced away at the wiring and tried to get the door shut, the large pony in the gold armor commanded the others to go survey the area.
Luckily, they did not start to survey the small room where the others were in, nor did they come to survey behind the tanker truck, they mainly stayed up around the top of the shed and in the shed. The pony in gold armor surveyed they area without rest, making sure to notice any detail. Twilight was afraid to even breathe at this point and made sure to stay right up against the truck so she wouldn’t be seen. As the smaller ponies began surveying a bit more in the shed, they heard a thud. It wasn’t the kind of thud that occurs because a pony fell, no, they had never heard something like this before. Just as they heard the thud, they heard the explosion it brought, but it was much closer. Green plasma scattered around past the tanker truck after hitting it, almost making it tip over on Apple Jack and Twilight. They hurried behind another larger crate that had been dropped their by the military.
The green plasma exploded everywhere around the small area, it seemed that the enemy didn’t feel like waiting for them to reveal themselves. As the smaller ponies neared the entrance to the room the other three were in, Fluttershy and Rainbow jumped out, unloading full clips on them and reloading just as quickly. All the commotion attracted the other smaller ponies that had been looking for them, and made the pony in gold focus his fire at them. He put in another cartridge and took aim right at the two Spartans. Twilight rushed out and ran up to the pony in gold and met little resistance as all the backup he had brought was now after the others. She tackled him knocking him down and staggering him slightly so he had to catch himself before he fell completely. He looked at Twilight with a blind hatred in his eyes and through the gun down taking out another smaller purple gun with blue lights on it.
Twilight readied her assault rifle and took aim at the giant pony, she could see that Fluttershy and the others had finished off the last of the ponies in that amount of time and she was now shooting at the larger pony. To her surprise, he didn’t even flinch once at the hundreds of rounds that began to pierce his armor, he just pulled the trigger at Twilight. It was some type of assault rifle, but with blue plasma. In a sense it was a rather weak gun, as it only slightly took down her shields as she slowly backed away. She started firing at the pony and noticed the blue lines on his gun were slowly becoming red at when they were completely red, he shook his hoof violently in the air, trying to cool it off. She shot at him along with Fluttershy’s supporting rounds and finally his shields broke, however, the armor he was wearing was just as thick and just as hard to break through.
Rainbow Dash swooped in and hit the pony, his helmet coming off finally as he fell to the ground. He took out a sticky blue grenade and started to activate it, assured that if he was going to go down, he would at least take down a few of them while he was at it. Rainbow didn’t feel like letting that happen, she pointed her shotgun at his face and pulled the trigger, point blank. The pony’s hoof dropped as the sticky grenade rolled onto the ground, inactive still just as it had been. Rainbow put the shotgun back on her back and started to head back over to the small room, along with Fluttershy who had come out a little ways to get a better angle.
Just as Twilight was about to join them, she saw all of the others look up in the air behind her. She turned for a split second before she saw what they had, an even bigger chariot that had long holders on each side, and mounted plasma turrets on top, controlled by ponies safely tucked away inside the chariot. Twilight ran as fast as she could, sprinting towards the doors as she would turn around every here and there to make sure none of them caught up. Before she could reach the door, one of the faster ponies had caught up to her and gotten in front of her ready to shoot. She took the stock of the AR and hit the pony in the face as hard as she could, knocking him unconscious so that she would continue towards the door. All the others stood outside the doors, holding them off so Rarity could work.
“Got it! Everyone inside now!” Rarity said happily as she finished splicing the door and it slowly started to open with a screech.
“You heard her every pony, get inside the doors!” Apple Jack repeated, making sure none of them thought to disobey and end up dead outside the doors. Twilight and Apple Jack went in first making sure that the others wouldn’t be left outside. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were still outside, fighting off any of the others that might get in if they didn’t hold that position. Rainbow fell in next, flying backwards and taking out of the ponies that had jumped trying to get into the door before it was too late. Fluttershy slowly backed up towards the slightly open door, unrelenting with the mounted turret. She fired furiously, making sure that none of the enemies could get in and hurt any of the others.
After the door had closed, all seemed rather peaceful again. “Hey guys, we brought some equipment if you need it.” Rainbow Dash said, pointing at some of the open military cases. Grenades and DMR’s lined them along with packs of ammo everywhere that they could take for any of their guns. “I thought by now you guys might need a refill.” Rainbow said to them, Apple Jack nodding in approval and thanks to her. Fluttershy, Apple Jack, and Twilight all went over to the ammo and grenades. They grabbed two grenades each, and Twilight took some of the DMR ammo and put it in holsters on her back legs ready for anything else. “Rarity already spliced through the next door, but when we were ambushed we closed it since we didn’t know what was in there.” Rainbow explained pointing to the interior door that seemed to go further into the base. Twilight looked at this door in worry, hoping there wouldn’t be too many times there would be close quarters combat, but she knew it was her duty even if she didn’t like it.
They opened the door to the next room, and Apple Jack commented, “Can’t see a darned thing in here. Every pony, turn on your night vision.” She explained as everyone turned their HUBs to night vision so they could see. It gave a green outline of everything, Twilight thought, but didn’t really make anything else any brighter than it was when it was off. However, she left it on, knowing that it did slightly help. They walked a ways through a corridor, looking around at everything. Twilight went up to a door and tried pulling on it to open it, but it was sealed shut and locked. They would have to have military grade explosives if they wanted to get though that way. As Twilight thought that they had reached a dead end, Apple Jack’s voice came through the headsets. “Every pony, this way.” They all looked in her direction. “I found a way to the next room, Twi, up front.” She commanded Twilight. The new nickname she had come up with seemed very appropriate, and a little more trusting than just being called six.
Twilight walked into the next room, turning her night vision off as there was a working light in this room. More to her demise, what she saw in the light was no appealing at all. An older pony was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. He was wearing a coat that most scientists in the Solar Empire wore, but didn’t seem to have any weapons on him at all. Luckily, they didn’t have to put him out of his own agony as someone else had already done that for them. How could they just attack a poor scientist with no means of defending himself? Twilight thought to herself. Fluttershy had gone off and a commotion broke out. “Look everyone, I found some pony.” She said, picking up a smaller Earth Pony girl who was flailing furiously trying to get out of Fluttershy’s grasp.
“Let me go you monster! Let me go!” the younger Earth Pony kept shouting at Fluttershy, who then put her on the ground again, but kept her hooves on her shoulders to hold her there.
“I’ll let you go, but you need to calm do-” Fluttershy gasped and ducked, taking the Earth Pony down with her. Twilight looked up for a moment from the doctors body after Rarity had taken some kind of data chip off him, only to see something horrifying. A large pony with a plasma sword attached to his hoof was flying through the air at her with blood red armor. He knocked her to the ground and shouted in her face, hoping to scare her. He proceeded to stab Twilight with the sword and got her slightly in her stomach but before he could cut any further through, she pushed him up and punched him in the face. He shook his head slightly fazed but almost went for another stab. Before he could land it, though, bullets started penetrating his shields and hitting his armor. He looked over and got off Twilight as two others pushed Fluttershy out of the way snatching the young pony from her.
“Permission to pursue?” Rainbow asked Apple Jack.
“Negative, getting this system fully functional here is our top priority. Fluttershy, Twilight go after that pony, she might have some information relevant to our mission.”
“You heard her Six, let’s get moving.” Fluttershy said as the three ponies in red armor raced through an open door in front of them. Twilight and Fluttershy rushed through the door into a black hallway that they could here ponies walking in and preparing for a large fight. Fluttershy’s first move was closing the door behind them. Although at first this worried Twilight greatly, she realized that if they had no other way out, then it would make them fight even harder trying to get through the other way. Twilight made sure all her ammo was accounted for, snatching a few more clips from a nearby ammo drop and looked down the hallway, turning on her night vision yet again.
As she peaked around a box, she noticed on of the last armored ponies going through the next door that was down the hallway to the right. The second through the fiftieth thing she noticed were the countless patrol ponies that they had been fighting. They were scouring the entire hallway, and soon enough they would find both her and Fluttershy. “We shouldn’t keep them waiting.” Fluttershy said as she jumped out in the middle of the hallway alerting some of the guards who proceeded to capture her, only to be mowed down by Fluttershy’s turret. But even Fluttershy couldn’t hold them all off, so Twilight jumped up onto one of the higher boxes for a better angle and shot straight for the heads of the ponies she knew would not have any shields on top of their armor. Clearing out the entire hall took quite a bit of time, but wasn’t particularly difficult for the two ponies. They continued to the end of the hall wand went down the next, much smaller hallway.
Twilight looked at her radar, trying to get into the habit of doing this every time she was in a very small, enclosed, space. She noticed a few hostile dots that were moving towards them. “Fluttershy, stay back a little ways” she said, “I got this.” She pulled out one of the sticky grenades from her grenade pouch and pressed the top, waiting for one of the ponies who were trying to ambush them. The moment one looked around the corner, she through it directly on her head. The moment it started to make that high pitched screech as it was charging, the enemy pony panicked, running around in the crowd of other ponies trying to find a safe way out, which she was unsuccessful in as she exploded taking out every other pony in the hall with her.
“Good job Twilight, I wouldn’t have ever thought to do that to take out a lot of enemies.” Fluttershy congratulated her. Twilight smiled almost forgetting that they were on a mission, however she composed herself, nodded to Fluttershy and continued to the next room. They went down the rest of the hallway, down past the ponies that had just been taken care of and they turned to their left, seeing a wide open space. “Be careful Twilight, I’ll stay back here and give you as much cover fire as you need, just make sure not to get too close to the enemy.” Fluttershy told Twilight, assuming that Twilight had to go over there alone. However, since she was new she didn’t have much of a choice but to listen to her higher up and do as she was told. She nodded in agreement and went around the corner to the right, hiding behind a large wall.
This time, there was no more resistance to fight through, but what she could see were the ponies in the red armor, the smaller pony they had kidnapped was tied up and looked to have passed out in the corner. They were trying to mess with some sort of mechanism, either breaking it or repairing it, Twilight couldn’t quite figure that out. As she started to move closer, one of the other pony’s ears pricked up and faced her. Her heart sank, hoping that she hadn’t been loud enough to blow her cover, but her worst fear became a reality at that moment. The pony had noticed her, and was now standing on top of one of the cryogenic freezers that had come up from storage, due to the other two messing with the mainframe of the building.
He thrust out his arm, holding a cylindrical metal grip that shot out into an even larger plasma sword. Twilight’s eyes shot open as she saw this and she rolled out of the way just in time after the pony had slashed. He cut through the cryogenic freezer and it had frozen his hoof slightly, that, Twilight though, that should help quite a bit ,now he can’t ge- her thought was cut short as the pony hit his hoof on top of the freezer to shatter the ice that had accumulated. She gasped as he jumped off at her, moving out of the way and shooting him multiple times in the head. His shields were much stronger and his armor even thicker than the last ones, and he was surprisingly fast. She moved to the left, where Fluttershy unloaded a few clips into him, slowing the pony immensely.
As they started to take this one down, Twilight saw that the pony that had stabbed her was motioning to the other one to go and help his companion. “Fluttershy, we have to take this one down fast!” she yelled over the small gap between them as Fluttershy nodded pulling the trigger again. The pony’s shields broke as Twilight shot it once more through the head, the bullet penetrating the armor of the enemy just enough to finish him off. As he fell to the ground, the other appeared, however he was waylaid as Twilight through a frag grenade and hit him in the face. He shook his head now in a daze after being hit in the eye and by the time his senses returned, Twilight was gone, and the grenade went off sending his lifeless body into the small pit that lie between the two ponies.
“Good job Twilight!” Fluttershy cheered but it was almost so soft that it was inaudible. Twilight was rushing for the next room, hoping that she could stop the last one before he did anything else. While passing the first one they had taken down, she picked up his weapon and was now carrying it using her magic. She entered the next room and made the sword come out yet again, and the leading pony stopped what he was doing and turned around, unsheathing his plasma sword as well and using his magic to hold it up and fight. Twilight fought for what seemed like hours and hours, but after the fray continued, there was an attack from outside as Fluttershy shot at the pony. When she had distracted him, Twilight moved in to finish the fight, stabbing him all the way through and having him fall through the ground after pulling the plasma sword out. “Don’t worry Twilight I’ll get the girl out of here.” Fluttershy said, flying over to the limp pony and throwing her over her back.
“Twilight,” Rarity’s voice came over the speakers in her helmet, “there is an uplink that seems to be slightly disconnected in your vicinity. I need you to relay that circuit and get back here on the double.” She said, Twilight’s HUB updating to the new coordinates, which it showed was the box the other pony had been messing with. “All you need to do is flip that switch up and I can take care of the rest from here.” Rarity explained. Twilight went over to the switch and turned it on and then turned to Fluttershy and nodded a congratulations and thanks to her. The two friends went back to the rest of their team, Twilight sometimes helping Fluttershy to carry the poor pony that had been pony napped and traumatized. The exchanged few words, but could tell that they had formed somewhat of a close bond, and perhaps even became friends on this journey.
When they reached Rarity and Apple Jack, the young pony started to wake up. Fluttershy put her down softly so she could sit up against a wall as she started to regain consciousness. She seemed rather in a daze and looked very confused as to where she was and what had transpired not too long ago. When she started to comprehend where she was she began to panic again Fluttershy flew up to stop her.
“You have to calm down, you’re safe, and we are your friends.” Fluttershy explained, “What’s your name?” Fluttershy asked the young pony. The pony responded in a strange language that was only spoken in this part of Equestria. As a Spartan, none of them were ‘trained’ to learn new languages, normally if they were going somewhere where they would need to learn a new language, there HUBs would have translators installed, to translate what the person was saying, and then what they tried to reply. Fluttershy, on the other hand, learned many new languages apparently as she removed her helmet and began to speak with the young filly. Twilight looked in awe at Fluttershy, it was the first time she didn’t have the gigantic helmet on, and what she saw was not what she was expecting at all.
Fluttershy was a light yellow pony with long flowing pink hair that went all the way down to her flank if she were to stand up. It brought up the question as to where she put all that hair or if there was even room in just her helmet. Twilight pushed the silly thought aside and looked at the filly with sympathy. Fluttershy began to speak in a regular language that Twilight could understand.
“Your accent is familiar.” Fluttershy said, asking about some strange dialect of the language. The filly corrected Fluttershy, who nodded in understanding, knowing that even she didn’t know everything. Fluttershy then looked over at the dead pony on the ground, “Friend of yours?” The young filly pulled her tail up against her chest hiding her face in it.
“Father…..” The pony said, fighting back tears. Twilight couldn’t imagine seeing her own father face down in a pile of blood, and being kidnapped, and then held down by someone as big and strong as Fluttershy.
Fluttershy apologized in the filly’s language, and then said it allowed. “I’m sorry for your loss.” She put a sympathetic hoof on the pony’s shoulder to comfort her.
“Sometimes she forgets what she is.” Rainbow Dash commented to Twilight about Fluttershy. She could sense some underlying hostility that Rainbow showed towards Fluttershy, Twilight concluded it was because Fluttershy was less of a fighter and more of a savior.
“She just lost her father.” Fluttershy went by Rainbow, putting her helmet back on. Even in Fluttershy’s voice, Twilight could hear hostility and anger. The two may have been pegasus but did not share much other than that in common apparently.
“Break it up you two.” Apple Jack commented to them as she gave a quick glance back away from what Rarity was doing. “How long until this base is back up and operational Rarity?” Apple Jack asked her looking around as she messed with a computer cable that had been tucked into a wall.
“Fully operational?” Rarity asked in shock of Apple Jack’s question as if she expected her to already know the answer. “A month, at the soonest.” Apple Jack looked shocked by that answer and gave her a questioning look as to why she thought it would take an entire month. Rarity saw this and continued. “This is plasma damage. All the circuits are fried and would need to be replaced before we could possibly even start recoding the mainframe.”
“Well a minute is too long; I need that uplink so I can get a connection to call the higher ups.” Apple Jack said.
“That’s why I’m just using a few of the decent wires so I can get you a direct com link to Commander Derpy.” Rarity said, Apple Jack relieved that she could contact the commander and tell her what was happening now. Rarity pulled on the wires to tighten them and pushed a button under the screen.
“It’s all yours Apple Jack.” She said, moving over to Twilight and the others. Apple Jack started to type in the codes so that she could call Derpy and Rarity looked over at Fluttershy and the young pony that was still sitting up against the wall. “Will she be okay?” Rarity asked with concern.
“Well, physically yes, but she’ll need some psychological follow up after this. I can’t imagine seeing my own father die right in front of me, even if I didn’t know him all that well. It must be a terrible feeling, and I feel worse because I can’t do anything for her…” Fluttershy said sadly looking down at the ground.
“Oh darling, you have done the most. Sometimes even a caring heart and sympathizing with someone can make a big difference. I’m sure she feels a little better now that you’ve talked to her Fluttershy.” Rarity said putting a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her. Apple Jack finally finished typing in the last of the coding and a screen popped up that said in one of the windows ‘CONTACTING’.
“Hello, this is Commander Derpy, what seems to be the problem Apple Jack?” A grey pony was now on the screen with a blonde mane and a lazy eye that Twilight avoided as best she could when she looked over.
“Commander Derpy, The New Lunar Republic is on Reach.” Apple Jack said bluntly.
“Could you repeat that Apple Jack, did you just say ‘The New Lunar Republic is on Reach?”
“Yes Commander Derpy. It’s the Winter Wrap-up.”
End of First Mission.