//------------------------------// // Home Invasion // Story: That Others May Live // by CptBrony //------------------------------// Home Invasion Duke and Frost awoke early to prepare themselves for the day. Before even eating their breakfast, they donned their gear and prepared their weapons, loading in the magazines but not chambering any rounds yet. Safety first, after all. With Rarity being so generous, she told the men that they could help themselves to the refrigerator if they were hungry at any time. They were happy to take her generous offer and raid the fridge for breakfast foods. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, there was no meat, only vegetables, fruits, and wheat, some of which the men couldn’t even eat. Who refrigerated hay, anyway? They made themselves large portion breakfasts that would digest easily to energize themselves for the day. As they ate, the men discussed the potential problems they would face with evacuating casualties from the battlefield when they were realistically well behind enemy lines and the only place with medical facilities would be under attack as well. It would be up to them to cover casualties and act as the battlefield medics and even doctors afterwards to keep the injured safe. While they ate, the men could hear someone creeping down the stairs, but the steps were much larger and heavier than those of ponies. Duke and Frost took one look at each other and smiled, knowing exactly whom it likely was. When the culprit, whom they were correct about, walked down and into the kitchen, they initially pretended not to notice. “Morning, Spike,” Frost said to surprise the unstealthy dragon. Spike froze and slowly turned to see the men. He had been trying to make a break for the back door, but to no avail. The men slowly turned as well to meet his gaze. “So what brings you around these parts?” Duke asked. “Uhh…” Spike replied dumbly. “Just checking on the clothes here?” Frost asked. “Making sure no one damages the best fashion place around?” “..Yes?” Spike replied. “Really?” Duke asked. He stood up and put his hands behind his back, slowly walking over to Spike. “Who’s the best designer in Equestria?” “Uhh…” Spike replied, again, most dumbly. “Who’s the best male model in the industry?” Frost asked. “He’s, umm, he’s..” Spike was backing away from the advancing Duke. “Who’s the most aspiring model in the industry?” Duke asked. “The most talented?” “Sweetie Belle,” Spike replied with relief that he could final answer a question. He was unaware that he was sealing the deal. “She can sing super awesome, and she’s really, really pretty.” “See now, you just put yourself into a corner,” Frost said. “If we were the types to actually care what you did with your marefriend upstairs, we would know exactly what you did.” Spike’s face went pale. “Haha, no worries, dragon boy,” Duke said, patting the dragon on the shoulder. “We won’t say a word.” Just when Duke said that, none other than Sweetie Belle came down to see her dragon cornered by a man in battle dress. When she laid eyes on the scene, her face turned completely red, drawing big smiles from Duke and Frost. “Weee, knooow, what youuuu, diiid~,” Frost sang. “I-I-I can explain!” Sweetie Belle said in a panic. “He was- I needed, uhm, we were just-“ “Relax, kiddo. We won’t say anything,” Duke assured her. “We know what it’s like. You’re a teen, all those raging hormones, sometimes you just gotta-“ “Okay, I get it!” Sweetie Belle shouted, even more embarrassed than before. The men started laughing, and even Spike joined in on the chuckle fest, getting a big harrumph from Sweetie. Spike went over and pulled her into a hug, assuring her it was just good jesting, like back in the old days with someone whose name the men missed. “You know, though, there is someone who will care if she finds out,” Frost said. He and Duke stood up to get ready to head out. “ If she comes down and sees this, it’ll be-“ “WHAT IS ALL THAT RACKET?!” an angry Rarity shouted from the stairs. Spike and Sweetie Belle started to panic, but Duke and Frost simply watched. When Rarity came to the kitchen and saw her little sister and Spike together, the gears started to turn. Slowly, but surely, her face started to grow red, though not from embarrassment. “Men, take him down!” Rarity ordered. Duke and Frost blinked, looked at each other, and then looked to Rarity. As if they were about to say something, they took in deep breaths and then spun around for the door. “EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!” Duke and Frost both shouted. The men burst out the back door and ran out, leaving behind Spike to be likely castrated by Rarity and Sweetie Belle to be chastised for whatever they were doing. Neither Duke nor Frost ever heard anything, so it couldn’t have been much, but it would still be interesting to hear about it all later. They made their way to the main road in front of the Boutique and stopped there. Peering into the window from afar, they could see Spike trying to escape Rarity’s wrath and Sweetie Belle trying to calm her sister down. If the attack came right then and there, Spike would probably have been safer. As they peered, a window up top opened up and Amel poked her head out of it. She tried to get the men’s attention with a wave and a shout, but they didn’t seem to hear it. To get their attention, she opted to toss something at them, like a small rock or empty spool. She managed to get Duke on the helmet with it, drawing both men to look up her way. “What is going on?” Amel asked. “I can hear much noise from down the stairway.” “Just family being family,” Duke said. “Spike’s gonna get his ass handed to him in there for being a doofus.” “What?” Amel asked. “What did he do?” “We don’t really know,” Frost said. “But it involved his marefriend and what might have been a fun time.” Amel got it, but she didn’t seem to care that much. “Maybe he should, seeing as he is not even with her officially.” “That was his mistake,” Frost said. “We ran so we wouldn’t get caught in his crossfire.” “Smart idea,” Amel said. “I hope I can avoid it as well.” “Well, you’ll probably get to talk to Rarity about her deviant sister and her evil boyfriend,” Frost replied. “She’ll try to give you advice about males.” “Advice?” Amel said. “I’d need a book to understand one of you at all.” “I’m just so deep,” Duke said. “But don’t worry about Frost, he’s simple.” “I even come with an owner’s manual,” Frost chimed. “Since we both accept that neither of us is the owner when the time comes,” Duke said. “Is any man truly?” “No good man,” Amel said with a giggle. “Though I suppose you could both be given some responsibility every now and again.” “Can I walk the dog?” Frost asked with mock excitement. “You’re not at that level yet,” Amel said. “I think it’s more of a ‘You can wash the dishes’ kind of responsibility.” “Aww,” Frost replied. Duke patted Frost on the back. “It’s okay, I’ll give you responsibility,” he said. “Thanks Duke,” Frost said. After a second of quiet, everyone broke out laughing, happy that there was something to keep them in a good mood. But it didn’t last. A moment later, alarms screeched around the town, drawing everyone’s attention. Duke and Frost spun around with their weapons up and went into their battle mindsets. Amel looked frantically from left to right as the men scanned the sky. Pegasus guards soared into the air and formed a defensive perimeter around town. “What is happening?!” Amel screamed. “Shut the window and stay inside NOW!!” Frost ordered from the ground. Amel blinked at the unexpectedly coarse order, but did as Frost said and hid inside. “Frost, we gotta find the action,” Duke said. The men chambered their weapons and moved out. Duke and Frost booked it through the town, searching for where the fight was. Alarms blared throughout town, but the movement of pegasi in the sky became particularly intense and massive as they approached the border around where the hospital was. Duke and Frost spotted a group of Earth Pony guards protecting a house and ran to them. The guards saw them coming and sent one forward to meet them halfway. “Where is the attack coming from?” Duke asked. “It’s next to the hospital, they’re attacking it to take out as many doctors as they can, the twisted terrorist bastards,” the guard said. “We have to defend this site in case they send more forces here, but they really need your help at the hospital.” “Roger that,” Frost said. Duke and Frost booked it to the hospital, where they could already hear the clamor of the fighting. As they approached, they saw aerial fights between gryphons and guards, talons scraping against cold steel as they waged a bloody fight to knock each other out of the sky. Some gryphons were throwing small explosives at the ponies on the ground, but crossbow fire keep them erratic and they couldn’t aim. Duke and Frost stopped at the end of the road and tried to take aim at the gryphons, but there were too many guards in the sky to risk a shot. With a curse, Duke and Frost continued to run forward toward the hospital and met up with a group of Earth Ponies at the entrance. “What’s the situation?!” Duke asked. “We need to get the remaining civilians out of the hospital, but there’s too much enemy activity!” the guard said. “We got most of them out earlier, but there are still a few sick ponies left! The gryphons are in the hospital, if we don’t get the civilians out, they will be in serious danger!” “Got it!” Duke said. “Frost, on me, we’re going in to get them out!” “Copy that!” Frost shouted back. Duke and Frost went past the guards and into the hospital. As soon as they entered, they could hear the fighting in various hallways, weapons scratching the walls and floors. Thankfully, there were no explosions to be heard, as it was too close quarters. That meant that the civilians were at least somewhat safe inside. Duke and Frost started running through, weapons up, in a two man formation that let them aim at anything around them. The first gryphon they came across was dead on the ground, a hole in his armor plate over his chest. Ignoring the body, the men went on and started checking rooms once they reached the chronic patients’ section. There were very few ponies left at all, some of them being escorted out already by guards as the men passed. One of the guards mentioned that there was still one, hiding somewhere in a section of the building controlled by the gryphons, but they couldn’t get in. “We’ll get them,” Frost said. The guard nodded and let them go. Duke and Frost made their way further into the hospital until they reached the final wing, where the cancer patients were kept. They could already hear that the gryphons had full control of this area. There was no fighting, only chatter on the other side of the door into the main hallway, and there were a couple of guards waiting outside. Duke and Frost ran up to the guards. “You two, wait here for us to come back,” Duke ordered. “When we do, we escort this one out together.” The guards found that to be agreeable. Duke and Frost took a position on either side of the door. With his fingers, Duke counted down. Three, two, one… The men kicked the door open and ran through, weapons high and ready for fighting. When they ran through, there were several gryphons in the hallway, but when they saw the men, they panicked and tried to run. Duke and Frost took several shots at them, killing one and knocking two down. The other fled into surrounding rooms. The men started checking the rooms one by one, searching for this remaining cancer patient. The first few rooms were totally empty and almost untouched, as the gryphons had yet to get to them. As they made it further down the hallway, the rooms were more ravaged and various things were missing; drugs, blades, and other medical equipment mostly. There was no taking those back, as they were likely already gone. Toward the end of the hallway, the men found more gryphons, but the gryphons ran off as soon as they saw the men. With what appeared to be no more gryphons in the area, the men started searching the building themselves. None of the rooms appeared to have anyone in them, and there was no sign of the cancer patient. “Frost, I don’t like this,” Duke said. “We might have a hostage situation here.” “Let’s not jump to that yet,” Frost cautioned. “Let’s check everywhere first.” The men continued their check, but the rooms were relatively bare to begin with, so there was only so much they could do to look. When they checked all the rooms one last time, they figured that there must have been a kidnapping, and they kicked themselves for not getting there sooner. Duke sighed and looked up. “Frost, this isn’t good,” he said. “We’re going to… have to…” “To..?” Frost said, prompting Duke to finish. Duke pointed up. “The ceiling!” he shouted. Frost had a realization ping in his head, and he moved to give Duke a boost up to the ceiling. These ceilings, like most others in commercial buildings, were hollow to an extent for wires. When Duke got his boost up, he moved one of the ceiling tiles and started looking around. There were small lights in the sub-ceiling, and without the walls going all the way through most of the time, he could see far. After a bit of looking, he spotted a little colt in the distance, above the last room in the hall. “I have eyes on patient!” Duke announced. Frost let him down and the two of them made their way to the patient hiding in the ceiling form below. When they found him, they tried to establish contact, but the little colt appeared to have trouble saying anything. Duke moved to grab him and met no resistance, and when he brought the little pony into the light, he could see why. “This colt needs meds now!!” Duke shouted urgently. Duke carried the pony as he and Frost desperately searched for whatever IV equipment they could find that would work for him and his room. He had a name tag, Boulder, so when they found his room, they rushed in and immediately got to work. Duke set him down while Frost found the IV fluid delivery. When Frost found it, indicated by a bloody and hastily removed needle, he set up the IV to get the life-saving meds into the colt. Once the bag of the colt’s meds was in place, Frost administered the needle and the men started rolling him out. The men rolled him to where they left the guards, and the group left the hospital together. Outside, the fighting had dissipated pretty quickly, giving them the room they needed to transfer the colt to a safe place where he could get his medicine and proper treatment. “Stay strong, little guy,” Frost said as the colt was taken away. An officer of the guard walked over to the men after the colt was wheeled away. “Thank you for helping find him,” the officer said. “Without the magical medicine, he would have been lost pretty quickly.” “Glad to help,” Duke replied. “So was that it?” “We think so,” the officer said. “It wasn’t nearly as bad as we expected. We’re going to suit up now to search for runaways and then be ready for-“ Frost cut off the officer by shoving his finger toward the sky. “Guys,” he said, bringing the others’ attention to where he was pointing. “It ain’t over yet.” Duke and the officer looked up and saw what was the most terrifying sight they had ever seen; a small army of gryphons, hundreds of them, advancing on the town from the air. The officer seemed to be in shock, but Duke just put his hands to his gun. The pegasi saw the enemy coming and decided to block the sun with cloud cover. Almost instantly, the battlefield grew dark, lit bright by the occasional gleam of claw and sword, what would inevitably be explosions, and the discharge of firearms. There was still plenty of light, but the cover of darkness would give the men and ponies an advantage; the men still had their Nightvision on their helmets if they needed it, and the ponies knew the town. Hopefully it would be enough to repel the attack. “We’re having some fun now,” Duke said darkly. The entirety of the force at the hospital got up and moved back to town, where they would meet the opposing force and many would meet their untimely fates.