Saddleston, October 15th, 21:45
Night Watcher sat back on a log and gazed out into the dark Bramblewood Forest. Each breath he took cast a puff of white fog into the air. He took a small sip from the cup of cider from the local brewer provided for him, taking small comfort in his beverage’s warmth while he sat in silence and listened. He could hear them; the creatures they had been told to call humans. The things that were supposedly in those metal birds he and Swift Flier had seen that morning; apparently they had gone to Canterlot in order to improve their diplomatic standing.
Night Watcher snorted. There was no way in Tartarus he was ever going to trust these things. Whatever they did to his comrades back when they were taken... he just couldn’t. They should never had been allowed to set hoof on Equestrian soil in the first place. It was sickening.
“Good evenin', Cap’n,” Swift Flier slurred as he came over to the Captain’s log, and plonked down right beside him.
“Same to you, Swift,” Watcher replied softly, taking another sip of his still-steaming cider. The humans were much quieter tonight. “Any new reports from her Highness?”
“Bah!” Swift spat. “Same ol’ thing... keep watch and await further orders...why we doin’ this again?” his breath reeked of cider.
“Orders from the Solar Mistress herself,” Watcher said, using Celestia’s old title. “Something tells me she doesn’t quite trust these things yet, especially not after the elite guard was captured.”
“The elite guard?” The pony simultaneously perked up and deflated. “Man... I knew some ponies were captured, but not them… What ya think we’re gonna do if they come after us? No way we can stop them.” Swift looked over his shoulder and glanced around their surroundings, his eyes flickered nervously over the shadows of the forest.
“Trust me.” Watcher’s ear twitched. He could hear a faint whistling sound in the distance; someone’s tea must’ve been ready. “There’s no way those things will get past us–” At that, the faint whistling noise instantly turned into a boisterous roar before erupting into a massive ‘whoomph’ of an explosion that sent a shockwave out in every direction. Both Watcher, Swift, and the log they were sitting against got blown into the woods.
Watcher landed on his forehooves and took a tumble to avoid the crashing log. Looking over, he saw Swift in the dirt, the log having come down a few inches behind him. Night Watcher got onto all four hooves and looked back in the direction where the explosion had come from. Just above the few houses that still stood, he could see steam and smoke rising into the air.
“Come on,” he shouted to Swift, who had pulled his head out of the dirt and was trembling like a scared filly. “We need to check if everypony’s okay!”
Swift nodded his head and followed.
:[-]:
Saddleston’s town square, October 15th, 21:50
Night Watcher and Swift Flier arrived in town square at the perfect time. Around them ponies cried out in fear and pointed up right as a second flaming object came screaming over the city and headed further down south.
“Is it heading for Canterlot, sir?” Swift Flier asked.
Watcher shook his head. “I doubt it, though judging by the angle is might just skim past it.”
“We need to warn the princesses.”
“Agreed, get Instant and have him transfer the message!” Watcher ordered, Swift nodded his head and took off into the air.
Watcher turned his attention back to the crater in the center of town, it was already surrounded by ponies. Thankfully, it seemed that none of the towns-ponies were harmed by the impact. The town square however was practically in ruins. Ground had been kicked up everywhere, some bits looked like a half rolled up rug. Windows shattered, stone walls now looked like swiss cheese. The once green grass now steamed due to intensive heats.
The guard trotted over to the hole, gently pushing his way past civilians. “Excuse me, pardon me, get back please!” He shouted over the crowd. By the time Watcher reached the crater he was joined with another band of guards that eyed the freshly carved hollow with a look of awe and fear. “What’s going on...” Watcher began but his eyes soon matched his comrades when they fell upon a large glowing cylindrical object jutting out of the earth.
Along one end of the rod was an ominous blue light that took the shape of a rectangle, the rectangle was about nine feet in height, and four in width. The light the outline produced appeared to pulse every other second, almost like a heartbeat. Occasionally small jets of steam would fire out the crevices and a low hum would then be admitted.
“Is it the humans?”
“No it has to be some sort of aliens...”
“It doesn’t matter where or who it came from... just what is it?”
Watcher shook his head and brought himself back to reality. Glancing around he saw nopony venturing into the crater, quite frankly they appeared to have actually moved five feet back since he last remembered. He gritted his teeth. “This is stupid,” He said to himself and began to trot towards the crater.
“Captain what are you–”
“I’m investigating,” He replied while sliding down the slope. Once he reached the bottom he turned back to the ponies above. “You guys just stay up there and make sure nopony else comes–”
BANG!
The crowd screamed in horror at the sudden sound, Watcher whirled around and was just in time to see the glowing rectangle be blown off the side of the craft and crash down onto a nearby house.
“Sweet Celestia!” He practically screamed and quickly tried to scramble up the side of the hill.
Steam now practically flooded out of the cylinder and onto the ground, creating a thick fog that quickly devoured the surrounding land. Watcher scrambled back and clumsily tried to climb his way back up the slope of the crater.
Out from the gaping hole in the pod came a thin, gloved hand that grabbed onto the edge of the frame, allowing its owner to pull itself out. A tall, curvy creature stepped out of the pod and into the shrouded crater.
Watcher was only halfway out when he glanced over his shoulder and nearly had a heart attack. The alien being had started walking over to him, it had to have been about ten feet tall, and covering its curved frame was a bulky set of armor that left no skin showing. The armor itself was black and rounded, decorating it were these blue glowing lights that traced most of its edges, along with these large blue pauldrons on its shoulders, and it even had a cape that blew in an non-existent breeze. The creature gazed down at Watcher with a thin blue eye that stretched parallel across its helmet.
“Sweet... Celestia...” Watcher mumbled in awe.
The metallic being tilted its head to the side, as if out of confusion. Then it looked away and focused on the crowd above who let off an audible gasp when their eyes met. The creature gave off a deep muffled noise before looking back at Watcher and grasping hold of the back of his neck. Watcher let off a startled cry when he felt his body being lifted from the ground with little to no effort from the creature.
“OH NO! Let me down!” He demanded. The entity held the armored pony in its hand and eyed him intently, bringing him in closer to its mask it jiggled the pony. “What are you doing?! Put me down now!” As if the creature understood what he said, it tossed him up towards the crowd.
Watcher landed with his armor banging against the ground with a clang. He put a hoof to his head and groaned as some of the surrounding ponies came to his assistance. When he was finally back on his hooves he gazed back down into the crater, there he saw the creature had gone back to its metal pod. Half of its body leaned into the opening, it looked as if it was searching for something. About a minute passed and the creature leaned back out of the pod with a few items in its hands, one of them a belt with small rounded objects attached to it that it flung over its chest and clipped on. In the other hand it held a long staff like object. With a flick of its wrist, the staff shrunk down into a more compact form which, the creature then stuffed into a pocket in its armor. The final object, which the being had to go back into the pod to retrieve, was of a medium length, and was shaped almost like the letter L. However, the edges of the object were very rounded and near the tip of one end was a small handle that the creature held onto.
It checked itself over once more then nodded its head. Whatever it was doing, it seemed satisfied. It then glanced back at the crowd everypony gasped and took a few steps back. With two long steps the alien bounded out of the crater and was now standing before the ponies, it gazed down, towering over them. The mask kept Watcher and everypony else from telling what it was thinking.
The ponies shrieked when the creature released a hand from the rounded L thing and raised a thumb at them. Before the ponies could even respond the alien turned away from them, only to be blinded by a bright flash of light and the sound of shouting humans.
:[-]:
Horizon’s Central Command, October 15th, 21:48
Twenty minutes earlier
“We have touchdown! I repeat, the object has touched down!” Logistics advisor Gary Steeler yelled.
“I thought it was heading right for us,” Jonathan said, staring at the screen. “They missed, but not by a lot. Look here.” He pointed at the contact point.
“Only by two hundred meters... damn. What about the second one? There were two.”
“That one was pretty far off, it just landed a few seconds ago... let me bring it up.” Gary tapped a few buttons, making the image on screen zoom out and skim past the equine capital, over to another forest. “I lost contact with it after it landed, but it was somewhere in this general area.”
“Huh...” John leaned back from the jockey and his computer. “What the hell was all that then?” He asked no one in particular.
“Could it have been a warning shot?” Arin said questioningly.
“I doubt it,” Watson said, “there’s no way they could’ve known we’re here. We haven’t started broadcasting the signal to the vaults.”
“Maybe it wasn’t directed towards us,” Engineer, Ronald Davis said, “Maybe it was directed towards the equines.”
“Or maybe,” Gary piped up, “It wasn’t an attack at all.”
“What are you trying to get at, boy?” Watson and the others crowded over the man.
“I’m detecting a life signature coming out of the contact zone. It’s coming from the shell itself.”
“That’s impossible,” Davis said, “To withstand an impact like that at such a velocity...” He trailed off.
“Like I said, doctor...” John looked at him. “These guys must have some valuable shit.”
“Central,” Watson said to John as the two men turned away from the computer. “Tell the men to get the light armor ready, and that I want two recon teams on that site within the half hour.”
“Yes sir.” John nodded his head and followed his senior officer to the exit doors.
“I see this as a prime opportunity to improve our relations with the Equine hierarchy.” Watson explained while making his way up the three stairs that led to the door. “We will use whatever we can to support those who may have gotten injured in that impact.” He took out a keycard and swiped it in the module beside the door.
John nodded. “I agree, sir, but how do you think the Council is going to react to this?”
The door opened, but Waton just stood there with his lips curled back. “Knowing, Takanao and Carlson they’ll most likely object to us interfering. They would most likely want to focus more on establishing communications with the Leviathan then helping a couple natives rebuild a few houses.”
“I can understand that,” John said.
Watson nodded. “So can I, but then again that’s what I’m thinking they’re going to say. Make sure you have a few boys monitoring those frequencies and once things are settled down here we’ll try to form a clear communication path with the Leviathan. You got that?”
“Certainly sir,” John said, “matter of fact I already have a crew looking over the frequency. I’ll make sure to relay the information to Delta team and Bravo.”
Watson grinned. “I’ll expect nothing else from you then, Central. Carry on.” He left the room leaving John to stand alone looking over the business of central command.
:[-]:
Hangar Bay B, October 15th, 21:52
“YOU HEARD THE MAN! SIXTY SECONDS!”
Master sergeant Peter Van Thorne (codenamed “Kong”) shouted over the bustling men and women. Approximately six minutes ago both Bravo and Delta team were informed of the situation, they were soon after ordered to gather their gear and load up in the two light armored Chromehounds (a six wheeled armored truck with a computer controlled fifty cal.). Both squads hastily loaded themselves into separate vehicles, taking positions along the seats on each end.
Peter reached out and pulled the outer door closed and sealed it shut with the inner lock. “Masks on!” He ordered his squad as he reached back and pulled his respirator over his face. Once they were set Peter made his way to the front of the cabin and pounded his fist three times on the wall, signaling to the driver that they were prepped and ready to move. “Alright, ladies, check your radios and don’t get comfortable, we’ll be there within five minutes.”
“Central to squads, do you read me? Over.” John’s voice came through the radio right as both trucks jerked forward and began their journey off the ship into the dense forest.
Peter undid his radio and held it a few feet from his face, he took a seat. “We read you, over.”
“Good. We have confirmed readings that whoever came down in that pod, is indeed alive and moving. There is no confirmation on whether the individual is hostile or not, so stay on your guard. Over.”
“Ten-four, any idea if the target is leaving the area? Over.”
“Negative, target seems to be interacting with the local residents. Over.”
“Roger that, out.” Peter stuck his radio back in its holder along his chest and looked over his squad: a couple marines and a few national guardsmen. Not the best combination, but times like this you just gotta deal with what you got, both of the marines were lieutenants and the national guardsmen were a pair of corporals and a sergeant.
“Alright guys,” Peter said as he leaned over in his seat, “remember what Central said, not only are we doing a bit of recon, we’re also trying to make a good name for ourselves m’kay? After we confirm whether this joker is hostile or not we’re gonna tend to the natives–ya I know it’s bullshit, but hey, orders are orders. So if you see someone who needs help, help them,” He explained and unslung his gun, a M249 light machine gun, and placed it beside his seat along the weapon wrack. “However, that’s only if the bloke isn’t hostile. Now if the bitch is going to fuck with us, Roger.” He pointed to the marine sitting near the back. “I want you in the back with that barrett in case things take a turn.” The marine nodded. “Carroll and Michelle I want you two a bit behind me for support. Jason, Bob... you’re my wingmen. Got all that?”
Peter smiled when the crew inside gave him a resounding, “Sir yes sir!”
“Alright then, lets make ‘em proud!”
:[-]:
Saddleston Outskirts, October 15th, 21:57
“Target seems to be about ten foot tall, female, with some sort of weird ass glowing armor from the medieval ages.” Peter and the marine on his left looked over at the national guardsmen on their right. The three men were lying on the ground in a pile of bushes just a couple dozen meters away from the town. The soldier was holding a pair of nightvision binoculars up to his visor and was watching the events transpire in the town’s square.
“Hand them over, Jason.” Peter reached over and snagged the binoculars, he held them up and peered through. Sure enough the dude wasn’t kidding about the chick looking like she was some knight in shining armor. It was large, rounded, and even had the dumb looking pauldrons sticking off the shoulders, just to top it all off it even had dark cape that went down to her thighs, blowing in a nonexistent wind.
The men could tell that the person they were looking at was female by the curves and just how the chest plate itself was shaped to protect the breasts. For them they could clarify without even taking a second glance. Personally Peter was hoping whoever this was would not be hostile just so he could get to know her, because seriously who wouldn’t want to talk to some woman who had a body like an amazon and was wearing medieval armor to boot? Although, her height was kind of a turn off for him. Sadly though, he had to remind himself that they were on a mission and not peeping session.
“Alright take it, Bob.” Peter handed the binoculars over to the marine on his left. “What do you see?” He asked after giving the lad a few moments to look.
“She seems to be helping the equine out of the crater,” He said his voice sounding extremely raspy.
Peter curled his lips back and nodded his head. “Well she sounds friendly–”
“She’s heading back to the pod now... looks like she’s grabbing something–wait a second. Are those hand grenades?”
“Wait what?” Peter looked towards the town, he couldn’t really see anything through the dark aside from basic shapes.
“She took out a strap vest with what looks like grenades,” Bob described, “Now she has a staff that can shrink, what the fuck?” Both Peter and Jason looked at each other confused. “Oh. I see a gun!”
“What kind is it?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen one like this before, if I had to guess it looks almost like a shotgun at first glance.”
Peter nodded. “Alright, I think it’s time we move in.” He pulled his radio out of its holder. “Bravo, this is Delta do you copy?”
“This is Bravo. Over.”
“What’s your twenty?”
“South side of the town, exactly two hundred meters from your O.A., howcome over?”
“Ten four, we’re going to make our move on the target, could you provide backup?”
“We sure can.”
“Alrighty then.” He placed the radio back in the holder and got into a crouched position. He looked back over his shoulder at the two female corporals and made a hand motion for them to follow, both of them gave him a thumbs up.
Peter and his entourage silently made their way into the town sticking to shadows and along building walls. When they reached the alley just before the town square he poked his head out from around the corner just in time to see the armored woman jump out of the crater in two hops. “Damn she’s limber,” He whispered to himself and glanced back to the corporals. He motioned for one of the ladies to make their way to the opposite end of the street and take cover behind a street vendor booth.
She nodded and quickly made her way across the street, crouching as she moved. He motioned for the other to remain on their side. “Delta, this is Bravo.” A hushed voice came through a turned down radio. “My boys and I have positioned ourselves along their flank, we’re ready when you are.”
Peter looked back at his wingmen, Bob and Jason, and gestured for them to follow. Swiftly, he and the two marines made their way around the corner, the three men switched on the flashlights mounted on their guns and aimed their weapons at the woman. “I’ll only say this once, drop your weapons!” Peter shouted.
The armored woman flinched in surprise before raising an arm to block out the bright rays from the flashlights, her posture becoming more defensive. “What the hell?!” Her muffled voice shouted, she took a step back. “How the... who the hell are you?!”
Peter smirked. “Lower your weapon and maybe I’ll have the courtesy to tell you.”
“Now you know I can’t do that.” The woman lowered her arm and rested it on the bizarrely shaped weapon, her stance becoming more firm.
“Sure you can,” Peter said while he slowly took a few steps towards her, “We have you surrounded, there’s no way out of here.”
The woman glanced over her shoulder and behind the crowd of utterly confused ponies she could see the faint silhouettes of other soldiers lurking in the shadows. She growled and looked back at Peter. “I’m not going back!”
Peter frowned. “What do you mean you’re not going back. You’re coming with us–”
“NO!” The girl reached up and snatched a grenade-like object off of her chest and pressed the red button on its surface. A loud crack echoed out of the woods and a clang sounded off of the woman’s helmet. The girl’s head recoiled and she stumbled back; the grenade fell out of her hand and upon impact with the ground a cloud of smoke exploded in every direction obscuring everyone’s vision.
“Goggles down!” Peter shouted over the equine screams as he slung his thermals down over his face, he then grabbed his radio. “Central, this is Delta, target has proved to be kinetic!”
“Roger that, Delta, has it been neutralized?”
“We’re checking now,” Peter said, the tip of his weapon leading him over to where the woman was. “What the hell?” He looked back at Bob and Jason who were lagging slightly behind. “She isn’t here...” He glanced around at his surroundings, everything was composed of blues and reds from heated objects. Mainly panicked civilians who were running about the smoke blindly, or the occasional flickering candle in a windowsill. But there was no sign of the target anywhere. “Target is still active, watch your six!”
“Central this is, Delta, target is still mobile!”
“Copy that, watch your fire down there, we have civilians in the area!”
“Alright girls, stick together and watch the clock–” Peter was silenced by the sudden pain in his gut and the sense of weightlessness as he was thrown back about ten feet. His back collided with the ground and he bounced, in mid roll he stuck out a hand and caught himself. Getting to his knees he tried to catch his breath, ahead he could hear the concerned voices of his squadmates.
“Sergeant? What happened?”
“Did you see her?”
Peter clambered back up onto his feet and looked towards his men, out of the corner of his eyes he saw a dark blue figure dashing through the smoke towards Bob at an inhuman speed. “Bob, eleven o’clock!” He tried to warn, but it was too late, the figure brought out a large staff-like object and slammed the side of it into the marine’s gut, sending him a few feet into the air before catching the end of her foot in his back.
“Why you bitch!” Jason yelled and opened fire on the woman, however, every time a bullet would strike her armor it would either shatter on impact or ricochet off leaving nothing but a nick.
Peter looked around for his weapon but couldn’t find it, he must’ve lost it after being thrown. He groaned when he took a step forward towards the now panicking guardsmen, the woman walked towards him with a slow gait, paying no mind to the other marines. Her chest exploding with sparks as each bullet shattered against the metallic piece. Peter stumbled towards the one-sided fight, his right hand drifting down to his side, taking hold of the grip of his 10mm handgun. He unstrapped the gun and held it out towards the attacker and fired three rounds into her back.
“Hey!” He shouted in a way to divert her attention, which seemed to work. The woman stopped and looked over at him. “Fuck you!” He squeezed the trigger one more time and fired a round right in the middle of her forehead.
When the bullet struck it exploded into a cascade of sparks and her head flinched back a bit before settling again. “You’re going to regret that.”
Peter dropped his gun. “Ah... shit,” he mumbled and immediately dove out of the way when his attacker charged him. The woman tilted her feet to the side and skid to a stop her whole body tilting as well, due to the momentum.
“Delta, this is Bravo, my men and I are moving around for support!”
The woman charged, her arm cocked back, ready for impact. Peter ducked out of the way just in time and fished out his radio. “Great–” He jumped back to avoid another swing “–glad you could–” he leapt out of the way of another rib-breaking kick “–make it to the party!”
“I have had enough of your shit!” The woman swung once more and Peter turned his body to dodge, only to realize it was a bluff. His right side exploded and a shockwave of pain reverberated throughout his body, forcing him to the ground, the radio flew out of his hand and landed a few feet away.
“Fuck!” Peter could taste the blood filling his mouth, he felt the woman grasp ahold of the back of his neck as she forced him up. She held him above her head, a good four feet above the ground.
“I told you guys once, and I’ll tell you again: ‘Leave us the fuck alone!’”
“Ack–! What the fuck... are you talking about?” Peter said between gasps of pain.
“Don’t you play dumb with me, I was expecting Kane to send his goons after me... but I’m insulted that he would only send his lowly peasants instead of the sentinels.”
“Bitch... you’re fucking nuts...” Peter was on the verge of passing out, the pain in his lower half was becoming unbearable.
“Delta, we’re in position,” The woman glanced down at the radio in the dirt she looked back at Peter and saw psychotic look under his mask, “give us the word and we’ll–”
“SHOOT THIS MOTHER FUCKER!” He shouted at the top of his lungs, suddenly the entire town was littered with the sound of sporadic gun fire. The woman holding Peter let out a grunt when a hellfire of bullets rained down upon her back.
Peter fell from her her grip as it loosened, as she raised her arms to shield her face; he landed on the ground with an “oof!” and rolled onto his stomach. He quickly began to army-crawl his way to the radio, trying his best not to get caught in the crossfire. From his right he saw one of the corporals running towards him, she knelt down and draped his arm over the back of her neck and started to carry him out of the fray.
“Hand me–fuck– your radio,” Peter barely got out, the corporal nodded and handed it over.
Peter took it, “Bravo, this is delta.” He groaned as the girl placed him along the wall in a nearby alley.
“This bitch is wrecking us! What do you need?” A panicked voice spilled through.
“Do you have that 40mm?”
A loud bang followed by a small tremor shook the ground. “Does that answer your question?”
Peter smirked. “Alright, I think I got a plan. The remainder of my squad and I will draw her attention, and when that bitch isn’t looking you let her have it!”
“Roger that!”
“Alright, Carroll,” He said to the corporal as he used the wall as support to get up. “You and Michelle–”
“Michelle is down, sir, it’s just you and me now.”
Peter frowned. “When the hell did that happen?”
“During all the confusion she was the first to get knocked out.”
“What about Jason?”
“Got hit in the head by a brick shortly after you drew her attention away.”
“Really... fuck! Is he dead?” Carroll shook her head no, Peter took a deep breath then. “Alright then, you and I are going to draw her attention, now hand me your sidearm.” She did just that.
Peter took the 10mm and checked its magazine, satisfied with the ammo count he slid it back into the gun and shambled back out into the open. What he saw out there might as well been labeled a slaughter if their attacker had actually been killing them.
Out of all eight men that made up Bravo team, only three of them remained, one was out in the street by Michelle's unconscious body, laying down suppressing fire. While the other two had moved to higher ground inside one of the equines’ home and were firing down from the second story windows.
Peter gave a pained shout, “Hey!” He raised the handgun and fired a few rounds into the side of the woman. She quickly turned to face him, upon laying her eyes on him she released an irritated growl.
“Don’t you ever quit?!” She shouted and began to charge.
Peter clasped his hand over the radio. “Do it!”
From the house came a light “thump” and instantly Peter went deaf. For a brief second a bright light engulfed his vision and he was forced to the ground to avoid the shrapnel that exploded out from the shell. As his hearing slowly came back, Peter noticed the cheers coming from inside the house. He rose up to his feet and looked over, through the dissipating smoke he could see the woman in armor lying face down on the ground motionless.
Peter shook his head and took a few steps away only to turn around with a finger jamming at her while screaming, “FUUUUUUUUCK YOU!! HA ha ha!”
“Did we get her?” The man with the 40mm poked his head out the window.
“Of course we fucking–” Peter stopped when he noticed the body twitching, along the thigh section a compartment of some sorts opened. Inside it was an odd looking handgun similar to his bulky 10mm. “No you fucking don’t.” He walked over to the struggling girl and reached into the holster and pulled the gun out himself. It was much larger than his 10mm, however, despite its size it was incredibly light. The sergeant cocked the gun and aimed it right at her head. “Make a single move and I’ll blow your fucking head off,” He said not knowing if it actually could or not, though judging by the girls next actions he decided it probably could.
The woman under the armor let off a roar of anger, similar to a child having a temper tantrum. “Fuck!” She pounded her fist into the dirt.
“Y’know, how about you stop acting like a fucking child and speak with us,” Peter snarled, “who the hell are you?!”
The girl fell silent and let off a deep breath. “I’ll go back if you promise me something.”
Peter brought his knee down on her and pressed the gun against her helmet. “We aren’t taking you anywhere until you answer my goddamn question.” She was starting to get on his nerves, the rest of the soldiers who could still move gathered around. Even the ponies who had fled started to step outdoors.
“Wh-who are you?” The girl asked sounding utterly confused now.
“Well jeez, I could be asking you the same thing.” Peter added, with as much sarcasm as he could.
“P-please, you have to clarify this for me. Who are you?” The girl sounded scared now.
“Why are you turning the questions onto me now?” Peter smirked, he was actually starting to enjoy this.
“Just answer her goddamn question, Kong.” Bravo team Leader, Mike Brovarski stepped out with the 40mm resting on his shoulders.
Peter rolled his eyes and sighed. “I’m Master Sergeant Peter Van Thorne, squad leader of Horizon’s Delta team. Now answer me this, who are you?”
“Eh... I-I’m Ms. Amelia Patricia Conway, I was once Sir Kane’s right hand mistress.”
Peter sat there for a good minute, gun still pressed against the girl named Amelia’s head. Finally after having a long thought on whether she wasn’t bullshitting him or not he brought his knee off her back and pulled the gun away from her head. “Alright, that wasn’t so hard. See how much we can accomplish when we aren't fig–” Amelia spun around her leg extended in attempt to trip the man. However, Peter had been expecting some sort of action and was prepared, he acted faster than she had anticipated. He pulled the trigger, the gun discharged without any recoil, and the muzzle flash admitted a blue flame. The ground exploded into a cloud of dust and smoke just inches from Amelia’s head, she froze instantly.
“Now you’ve just gone and pissed me off, Missy. Move again and next time I won’t miss on purpose.” He grabbed ahold of his radio. “Central, this is Delta, target has been detained and is ready for pick up.”
There was moment of silence. “Central, do you copy?” Peter asked.
“It must be something on their end,” Mike suggested, “I’ll radio up the chromehounds and have them head over here.” He took out his own radio and walked off towards the woods.
Peter glanced back at Amelia. “You know, I’m not the conversationalist type, but when we get back to the Horizon, you and I. We’re going to have a nice, long, chat.”
:[-]:
Central Command, October 15th, 22:30
“Central, this is Delta, target has been detained and his ready for pick up... Central, do you copy?”
John sat back in the chair behind him, his face showing no expression whatsoever. On the inside however he was conflicted, he didn’t know what to feel. His mind was racing a hundred miles a minute. He didn’t even know if what he was hearing was true, that woman...
“I-I’m Ms. Amelia Patricia Conway...”
He could recall the conversation he and Nelson were had days prior before their return trip. “Say sir.... do you have any loved ones?”
“Yeah... I have a daughter back in the vaults...”
“How old was she?”
“Just turned ten right before the collapse...”
“Just turned ten...
“turned ten..."
“ten...”
“Yo, man are you alright?” Arin tapped John on the shoulder and snapped him out of his stupor.
“Wh-what?” John looked over his shoulder and saw Arin holding two cans of cola.
“The guys are trying to contact you...” He snorted, “And you say you're good at what you do.”
“Y-yeah... just tired that’s all.” He leaned forward and clicked the push to talk button. “I read you,” He said.
“We’re loading the captive onto the chromehound,” Kong said, “Our E.T.A is ten minutes.”
“Copy that, Delta, see you when you get back. Out.” John leaned back in his seat and yawned, he looked over and saw Arin relaxing in a swivel chair. His feet kicked up on the hologlobe with a trained eye locked right on him. John raised an eyebrow, Arin also raised an eyebrow, stopped in mid swig, glanced around left and right. His eyes then fell back on John and he slowly took his legs off the hologlobe, he then pulled the can away from his mouth and reached for the other one he brought back. He held the second can out to John, who hadn’t budged, however Arin remained persistent by shaking the can lightly.
“You want it?” He said in a quiet playful voice, “Come on you know you want it... how long has it been? Twelve thousand years, c’mon you can’t resist it. Yeah... you want it.” He shook the can again.
John still didn’t take it, instead he gazed at his brother, almost zombie-like at that. Arin finally gave up and shrugged, he took a swig of his pop. “They found Amy,” John deadpanned.
Arin nearly sprayed pop through his nose when John broke the news. “Wh-what?!”
“They’re bringing her here right now, speaking of which.” John got up and brought a hand up to his bluetooth device. “Central Command to R&D is Hassel awake?”
“Yes I am still avake.”
“Have your team get the quarantine room established along with a few sets of guards.”
“Eh... Do you mind if I ask vy?”
John took a deep breath. “We have a new...” He pinched the bridge of his nose, how was he going to word this. “... Patient for you to examine.”
There was a moment of silence. “Roger zat John, I’ll haf my men start immediately.”
“What do you mean they found her?” Arin placed his cola aside and came up behind John.
“What the fuck does it sound like?”
“I... I dunno!” He had no idea how he should react, neither did John. “Is she alive... dead? How did they find her?”
“In a suit of armor,” John said, he hardly even believed the words coming out of his mouth.
Arin raised an eyebrow all suspension of disbelief fading away before John’s eyes. “What?”
John pushed past Arin and moved back towards his chair, he pulled it out and took a seat. He simply gazed up at the globe, watching it as it slowly rotated on its axis, he had no idea what to think. He never would’ve thought he’d hear his daughter again, let alone his daughter who was biologically around the same age he was. So he thought. Not to mention hearing from her in a situation like this, pinned beneath a man with a gun to her head. At a thought like that he could already feel his paternal side wanting to bash Kong's fucking head in, however, she did kinda incapacitate over ten soldiers.
His mind just couldn’t comprehend anything as of now... he needed some sleep.
“John.” Arin got down in front of him. “You gotta explain things to me, what is going on?”
He stared at his hands as he began to explain. “The first of the two pods that came crashing down, we detected life signatures coming out of one of them.”
Arin rolled his eyes. “I know, I was there.”
“That’s not the point.” John’s eyes looked up into his brothers. “They were coming from her. When Delta and Bravo moved in to make contact they found her communicating with local natives, shortly after she began to show hostile aggression when she saw the men.”
“And they had to take her down?”
John nodded. “Shortly after she took out ten men.”
Arin bit his bottom lip and stood back up, he turned to face the hologlobe and took a few steps towards it. He placed a hand on his chin in thought and spun back around, pointing at John. “Are you sure we’re talking about Amy here?”
“Arin, it’s been over twelve thousand years, I can safely assume people change.” John released an uneasy breath. “But believe me. I can hardly believe it myself.”
“Well... maybe she’s just going through her rebellious stage. Y’know... fuck the police or something, every kid goes through it.” John looked at Arin with a raised eyebrow, Arin looked back with a confused expression. “What? I’m just saying.”
“I don’t think now’s the time for games.” John yawned.
“Feeling a little out it, Central Officer?” A female voice came from behind both men.
John slowly looked over his shoulder, behind them was a tall, thin woman dressed in a dark green officer uniform with tinted sleeves. She had short black hair that stopped right above her ears, and dark blue eyes that could stare into a man’s soul. “Yo, Caroline!” Arin stepped off the single step that separated the walkway from the entrance from the hologlobe. “Looking sharp as ever!” He held his hand up for a high-five. “Did anyone ever tell you that you look good in uniform?”
The girl rolled her eyes. “Everyday, and that’s Command Officer to you, Sergeant,” She said making her way past Arin while leaving him hanging.
“Always uptight aren’t you?” John said quietly, his mind unable to leave the recent news behind.
“Only when I’m on duty,” She said looking back at Arin with a wink, the sergeant smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. “Alright, Central, gimme a sitrep and I’ll relieve you of tonight's duties.”
“I assume you already heard most of the news?”
“Only something about three ships coming out of the blue and shooting at us.”
John got up and motioned for her to follow him to a nearby console at the base of the globe. She walked over and he punched in a few keys which made the screen turn into a map of the country with one red dot near their location, and another red question mark somewhere down south. He pointed at the red dot. “They weren’t exactly shooting at us, they were firing off some sort of orbital drop pod we think. The first pod here,” he jabbed a finger at the dot, “landed a few hundred meters west of our position, whereas the other,” he moved his finger to the question mark, “landed somewhere down south out of our scanner range.”
“So when you say drop pod you’re saying that someone was inside of that thing?” Caroline pointed at the screen with a confused look.
John looked her in the eyes and nodded. “It’s my niece to be exact!” Arin said after slamming his empty cola can on the desk he was sitting at.
John fired an irritated glare at him. “Wait... what? You’re kidding right?” Caroline’s head snapped from Arin back to John. The looks on both of their faces showed her that he wasn’t kidding. “Whoa... hold on...”
John bit his tongue and looked at Arin. “We don’t exactly know that yet!”
“Of course we do!” Arin gestured towards the screen on the wall. “She said it herself, come on now, who else bears our last name? I highly doubt she just picked that name out of thin air just so she could avoid getting her head shot off.”
Caroline raised both her hands and gestured for the men to slow down. “Wait she’s your daughter?! You two are brothers?!”
Both men shared an unconvinced look with each other. “Yes we are.”
“How do you not know this?” Arin added, he pointed both arms at John. “Do you not see the resemblance?” He then turned his arms onto himself. “We’re practically–”
“Enough, Arin,” John silenced him, “back to what I was saying, the men we sent in to investigate came under attack by her. Only five of them are coming back uninjured.”
“Damn...” Caroline whispered, her eyes were wide, she was still trying to wrap her head around everything she’d heard. “So I take it they were able to detain her?”
“Yes. Matter of fact,” John glanced over at the clock above the entrance. “They should be arriving here in just a few minutes.”
“If that’s the case, Officer Conway,” Caroline straightened herself out. “I hereby relieve you of your duties. Have a nice night.”
“You too.” He turned towards the entrance. “Alright, Arin, I’m off to bed. You can go do whatever now.” He yawned into his sleeves and started off to the exit.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you mean you ain’t gonna go see your daughter?” Arin quickly got up from his chair and followed behind him.
“When they arrive R&D will be too busy trying to get her into quarantine, not to mention the amount of studies Hassel is going to want to run. Even if it is her, there’ll be no time for me to have a little family reunion.” He stopped at the door and fished out his keycard.
“Don’t you want to at least see her? Even if it’s just to see if it really is her or not?”
John slid the card into the module and stood there for a few seconds as the door opened. Even then he didn’t step through it. “I-I just need time to think...” He pulled the card out and left the room.
:[-]:
Saddleston, October 16th, 01:00
Luna and Twilight stopped at the edge of the crater left by the pod sill jutting out of the surface. “Dear me...” Luna’s eyes drifted over the pod and towards the destruction left behind by the creature and humans.
Night Watcher looked at the princesses and nodded. “I’m telling you, Princeses, everything was going swell till those damned humans–”
“Night Watcher, please refrain from talking about the humans like that,” Luna scowled and started to walk around the crater towards the area in which the battle took place.
“If you don’t mind, Luna, I’m going to check out this... thing here,” Twilight said with a look of curiosity, she hopped down the side of the crater and trotted over to the pod.
“Do as you wish, Twilight.” The night princess continued to look over the battlefield.
Twilight came up alongside the metal pod and began to inspect it carefully. Just by appearance alone she noticed that half the pod’s hull was buried in the dirt, showing that it had come down with a tremendous amount of force. Which piqued her curiosity as to how such a (relatively) small object could withstand the impact. She raised a hoof and tapped its side, the material it was made of was smooth and hard. The echo from within signaled to her that it was hollow, though she already had a hunch with a creature coming out of it and all.
Twilight came up along the entrance to the device, sticking her head inside she noticed the interior walls and seat were padded. The aforementioned seat that stood in the center was covered in black straps, behind it was a container of some sorts. Aside from that it was practically empty, no lights, windows, nadda. Just some padded walls, a seat, and a box. Nothing of interest stood out to her, there was no evidence as to where it came from. Aside from the massive crater that said it came from the sky.
With that in mind it then raised a new question: how do the humans play a role in this event? Looking at the destruction and listening to the stories around them, clearly the humans did not act too kindly towards whatever crawled out of here. Then a common question came to her mind, who was in the right and who was in the wrong here? From what the townsfolk had told them there had been too much confusion for them to actually figure it out, not to mention that a vast majority of the stories were different from one another.
However, they did tell the princesses that after the fighting had died down the humans threw the creature into the back of metal chariot and took off with it. Perhaps they journeyed back to their craft? She and Luna would have to look deeper into it.
Twilight sighed with disappointment, after examining the structure none of her questions had been answered. Quite honestly it only raised more. She teleported herself out of the crater and appeared next to Luna. The night princess was levitating an empty casing of some sorts to her muzzle, she sniffed it and made a disgusted face before pulling the empty shell away from her.
“What is it?” Twilight asked, at first glance the shell looked to be nothing special, and visually that was true. However, even though it didn’t really bother her, she could smell a strong amount of sulfur coming off of it.
Luna shook her head and blew air out of her nostrils, trying to free herself of the terrible smell. “I don’t really know,” She said sounding a bit strained while she did her best to suppress the sudden urge to sneeze. “Obviously, it is some sort of holding mechanism that contained–” Luna couldn’t hold it anymore she held her wing up and sneezed into it. “–excuse me.” She took a deep breath. “It contained a lot of sulfur, possibly as a form of ignition.”
“How do you know that?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“Hold out your hoof,” Luna instructed and levitated the casing over to her.
Twilight did as she was told, and Luna dropped the metal casing onto her hoof. Though it was faint, Twilight could feel a bit of warmth still coming off it. “It’s warm,” Twilight stated.
Luna nodded her head. “I have a feeling that whatever these shells are.” Luna used a hoof to point to the hundreds of empty shells littered across the town square. “I have a hunch they’re tied to whatever those weapons are.”
“Perhaps they are a form of projectile weaponry?”
“Most likely.” Luna shuffled her wings and glanced in the direction of the forest.
“Princess Luna,” Twilight said, she picked up the metal casing along with a few others off the ground and teleported them back to her castle for further study. “Would it be alright if we go to the human settlement?”
Luna gave Twilight an uneasy look, she thought that visiting the humans just out of nowhere wouldn’t be the best idea. Especially this late at night, that is if these things slept the same way ponies do. “Not right now, Twilight, maybe sometime in the morning you and my sister can have a look.”
Twilight frowned and nodded her head in understanding. “Alright. If that’s the case, I believe I should be heading on home, Spike’s probably wondering where I’ve been for a while now.”
Princess Luna chuckled. “Oh I bet he is, you go on now.”
“I won’t be gone for long,” Twilight said already charging up her horn for long range teleportation. “I’ll be back sometime in the morning.”
“Good night, Twilight,” Luna said with a nod.
“Good night, princess.” Twilight’s horn flashed, leaving the night princess alone in the deserted town square.
:[-]:
Twilight’s Castle, October 16th, 01:10
Spike nearly suffered a heart attack when Twilight suddenly appeared right in front of him. The air in his lungs escaped like water breaking loose from a damn, he stumbled back with a hand to his chest, and fell flat on his rear in the center of the castle hall. “Sweet... Celestia... Twilight... give me a heads up will’ya!”
“S-sorry, Spike,” Twilight apologized and trotted over to her assistant, she knelt down and helped him back to his feet with a light nudge. “I was just in a rush to get home, I wasn’t expecting you to be standing right here.”
Spike dusted off his lungs and frowned. “Yeah and I wasn’t expecting you to appear right in front of me.” It was Twilight’s turn to frown, it was always hard for Spike to let something so small go. “So,” Spike decided to change the subject, “what’s got you in such a rush anyways?”
Twilight bit her bottom lip, debating whether or not she should tell him the whole story or save it for later. She decided on the latter. “Celestia decided to let me borrow an ancient book Luna found, along with a few artifacts.” This seemed to sate the dragon’s curiosity and he nodded his head.
But before Twilight could continue to her quarters, the dragon held up a claw. “Twilight, before you go. I have some news I need to share with you,” He said with a slight nervous tone.
“What is it, Spike?” Twilight asked, her urges for researching vanishing with the wind.
“It has to do with, Fluttershy.” Twilight felt her blood run cold, hopefully nothing happened on her trip to Manehatten, especially if Discord was involved. “Well... her cottage to be exact.” Her sudden worries began to dissipate and Twilight’s mood relaxed a bit. “It was broken into.”
“Wait what?!” Twilight practically shouted.
“Oh I knew this was going to happen...” Spike took a few steps back.
“Spike, how could you let this happen?!” Twilight spun away from the dragon and began to pace back and forth down the hall. “You were supposed to be house-sitting while she was... oh my... how bad is it? What did they take?” She held a questioning hoof out to the dragon.
The dragon held his hands behind his back and dug his foot into the floor nervously. “I-I don’t know... a book maybe, aside from that they really just trashed the place and...” He trailed off near the end.
“They what?” Twilight asked.
“They–”
:[-]:
Fluttershy’s Cottage, October 16th, 01:25
The smell of the rotting bear carcass nearly caused Twilight to vomit her dinner onto the blood stained carpet. Turning away from the deceased animal, Twilight quickly made her way down the steps and into the ruined living room. Her mind scarred by the hideous, decaying bear, her mind tried to think of anything else, naturally moving to the thought of Fluttershy finding out about this. It wasn’t much of a better scenario. Her home was broken into and her largest pet had been slaughtered ruthlessly, it was terrible. Who could’ve done such a–
Cl-cling, cling...
Twilight stopped. Her attention drawn to the floor, beside her hooves were a few metal casings. She picked them up with her magic and levitated them up to her face. A curious look spread across her face as she leaned forward, then a look of awe struck her. They were just like the ones found in Saddleston, if not the same kind.
“It was them...” Twilight mumbled to herself, Spike started to make his way down the steps. He was trying his best to make it seem like he hadn’t just been crying. “They did this.” Twilight cast her gaze around the ruins that was once the living room. The walls were littered with large holes and pieces of debris covered the flooring, along with books and glass that used to be part of a coffee table. “But why?”
“Halt! Who goes there?” A voice came from outside, Twilight’s ears perked at the sound of somepony coming to the door. “In orders of Princess Twilight herself–” Twilight raised an eyebrow, she hadn’t given any orders “–anypony who is found trespassing is to–” A unicorn mare dressed as a royal guard stopped at the entrance to the cottage, her eyes locked on Twilight’s. “P-Princess Twilight?!” The mare stuttered.
“Who are you?” Twilight asked
She didn’t respond, instead she immediately turned and made a beeline out of there. “Come on, Spike!” Twilight shouted as she picked a startled Spike up with her magic and placed him on her back, she began to give chase. She teleported herself outside the cottage and onto the main road, in the direction away from the town near the everfree she saw the unicorn disappear over a nearby hill. “No you don’t,” Twilight muttered as she charged her horn for another jump.
For a second her vision went white and she was introduced with a “Buuuaaggggh!”. A sudden pain erupted from her snout and Twilight stumbled back onto her haunches along with Spike hitting the ground with a yelp and rolling a few feet away. When her vision cleared she found herself on top of the hill she was just looking at. In front of her was the mystery mare on the ground rubbing her snout. “Gah... give somepony a heads up next time before you do that!” The mare muttered.
Twilight ran a hoof under her snout and found a bit a blood leaking out of it, she in turn glared at the mare in front of her. She was wearing a suit of golden armor, her coat was white and she had a short blue mane and tail with a white streak flowing through it. On her flank her cutie mark was a pattern of shimmering golden lights, the mare opened her eyes, which were a dark blue, and glared at Twilight.
“Just who are you, and why are you going around spreading lies about things I’ve never said?!” Twilight stood up and got in the mare's face.
The unicorn got onto her hooves and shoved Twilight away with a hoof. “Back off, Princess! It’s none of your business.”
This alone seemed to anger Twilight. “Like hay it isn’t!” She pushed herself even closer to the mare.
“I said back off!” The mare’s horn flashed and a blue sphere shot out in all directions pushing Twilight a few feet back.
Huh, Twilight thought suddenly curious, she knows unrelenting force. Her curiosity though was soon replaced with anger. “I won’t ask you again!”
“I told you.” The mare began to turn away. “It’s none of your own business.”
“Why were you in Fluttershy’s cottage?” Spike asked.
The mare didn’t respond, her horn began to glow, Twilight knew she was about to jump out of there. There was no way she could let that happen. “You were there because of the humans weren’t you?!”
The mare stopped in mid-cast and turned back towards Twilight, her face overwhelmed with rage. However, instead of screaming like Twilight thought she would, she glanced around as if making sure no one was listening. She then leaned in and whispered, “If you know what’s best for ya, princess or not, you better watch what you say.”
“What are you–” The mare’s horn flashed and she was gone.
The duo sat there on the hill in silence. “Twilight,” Spike started, “What the heck just happened?”
:[-]:
Unknown, October 16th, 01:40
“How were things in, Ponyville, my dame?” Asked an oak colored pegasus with deep brown eyes with a long black mane and tail. Her body was tall and complemented by the smooth curves that made up most of it, and she resonated this intimidating look with her large, sharp eyes and foreboding smile. The mare had herself perched upon a tall, makeshift metal throne in a room composed entirely out sleek, grey metal. Only a small portion of her face was lit by the few torches that lined said metal room.
“Fine until Princess Twilight Sparkle returned, your highness.” The white mare with the shimmering golden lights on her flank bowed before the oak colored mare. “I was unable to gain anymore intel on the break-in due to her constant stubbornness.”
The oak mare sat back in her throne, a small disturbing smile reached her lips. “Please do not tell me she learned anything on us?”
“No, I do not believe so.” The white mare kept her face glued to the floor, she knew better than to look directly at her mistress.
“Excellent!” The agile mare jumped up from her throne and onto the metallic floor. “Then nothing has changed.”
White mare’s eyes widened, she looked up from her bowed state. Her mistress wasn’t in front of her anymore. “But, my queen, I thought you said–”
“Forget about what I said, Shimmering Grace,” The mare made her way to a large painting of a regal chocolate colored stallion in an Old Equestria captain of the guard uniform, a large bulky piece of purple and gold metal. She stretched her wings out and popped a few joints and turned back to the white unicorn, their eyes meeting, she gave the unicorn, a wide toothy smile. “Forget about everything I have ever said, dear.” She began to slowly approach her, a look of desire starting to wash over her. “For that everything your father said, from what Star Swirl, and Clover have ever said, to even you, my dear. And you know what–” She stopped just centimeters away from touching the unicorns face, she raised a wing to the mare and gently skimmed the tip of her primaries along the outline of her jaw. Shimmering Grace’s eyes widened and her pupils shrunk as they followed the feather tips all the way to her to the tip of her chin, she shuddered.
Her eyes returned to the sultry gaze her mistress was giving her. “Ms. Heir, what are you–”
The pegasus leaned into her ears. “You were right, Grace.” Before the white mare could say anything, Mistress Heir locked her lips around hers and pulled the unicorn in for a deep kiss. Grace practically screamed when she felt her highness thrust her tongue into her mouth, her mind began to race a million miles per hour, her cheeks flushed, and she felt as if she was about to pass out.
When Heir broke the kiss she didn’t even bother to wipe the saliva off her lips, instead she gave the dumbstruck unicorn a sly smile. “And I thank you for that, Grace.” She turned away from her and gazed up at the painting of the war general towering above his army. “For because of you my father’s dreams shall come true, and MONARCH shall rise again to pull Equestria back out from the darkness that her majesty, Celestia, has brought over us!” Heir opened her wings and took to the air. “The humans have already stepped out of the shadows and revealed themselves, the time has come for us to do the same, Grace. It’s time we show Equestria what these fiends’ true intentions are.” She opened her forelegs out wide. “Just like your father said, Grace, they do not believe to integrate themselves with us. Like the cyclops they come to conquer us: ‘From the sea they shall come,’ he said, ‘with massive machines of war they shall ride across our beloved lands!’” She swooped around and landed beside the unicorn and wrapped her wing around her, Grace yelped at the sudden touch. “And look at it, my dame, isn’t that what’s happening now?” She whispered.
“Y-y-yes, Mistress,” She stammered.
Heir smiled and kissed her cheek. “Good, I’m glad you understand. Now please, send word to Night Watcher in Saddleston, tell him I’m enacting the plan. I’ll send Gunner to Manehatten to alert the others of our coming actions. Now go, ride on!”
Grace closed her eyes, trying to regain her composure, she nodded her head and teleported out of the room. Heir smiled wide and walked back to her throne, she sat down and held a hoof to her lips. She hummed. “She ain’t that bad of kisser after all,” She whispered. Heir sighed and glanced at the general painting exactly across from her. “Oh father, if only you could see how far we’ve come, and how close to the end too.”