Wreck of the Ardent
10:32 P.M.
“So, what are we even looking for?”
Major Steel Heart glared at the guardspony who had spoken. “Weren’t you listening to the Princesses? Survivors, and anything that might tell us how the human constructs work.”
“Yeah, I get that, but how are we supposed to know what’s important in this thing? It’s not like we know what any of this stuff is.”
Steel Heart slammed a hoof into his face. “Look,” he snapped, “just tell me if you see anything unusual.”
“This whole place is unusual.”
“More unusual than the rest of it!”
“Wow, no need to yell.”
“GET LOOKING!”
The guardspony trotted off, shaking his head. “Jerk.”
“Bucking reservists.”
The battalion continued their slow sweep of the debris field, picking over chunks of twisted, partially-melted metal as they worked their way inwards to the Ardent. Every few yards, they uncovered a corpse, shattered by either the impact with the ground or the shock wave from the crashing ship. Steel Heart sighed as he closed the eyes of a cream-colored mare with a purplish-pink mane. He couldn’t tell what her cutie mark was, as the entire rear half of her body was gone. So many dead ponies… enough to fill a small graveyard. And that was just the ones who were intact enough to be identified. The cruisers’ anti-fighter lasers had left behind very little of those they hit directly. Ponies caught in the blasts of heavy turbolasers simply vanished.
“Sir! I think I found something!”
Steel Heart ran over to what at first seemed like a small, strangely-shaped hill. On closer inspection, however, it was revealed to be a metal cylinder that had been mostly buried by the ejecta from the impact. Banging and muffled speech could be heard from inside. “Okay, everypony,” the major called, “let’s get this thing uncovered. Be careful – if there are humans in this, they’ll probably be violent.” Under his breath, he muttered, “No reason for them to suddenly change now.”
As the dirt was cleared off, seams became visible on the side of the cylinder. Then, suddenly, the metal plate bordered by the seams started slipping down. A voice came from behind it. “Thank the Emperor! We thought we’d die in there! Let’s get out of here before any of those damned ponies… show… Oh, no.” The hatch fully opened to reveal six humans in rumpled gray uniforms. At the sight of the guardsponies, they let out various exclamations of dismay and pressed themselves to the interior wall of the cylinder opposite to the hatch. The one who spoke earlier started whimpering. “Oh, by the Emperor, please, don’t kill us! We’re just mechanics! We’re not even armed!”
He would never admit it out loud, but Steel Heart felt no small pleasure at seeing the humans terrified and humbled. After everything they had done, they deserved far worse. He was sorely tempted to order their arms and legs broken, ostensibly to prevent their escape. But he was a pony, and a member of the Royal Guard. He was better than that, better than these monsters. He turned to his troops. “Get them out of there, and watch them carefully. If they act up, or try to escape… do whatever you have to.”
In the distance, unbeknownst to him, a human in black battledress lowered a pair of macrobinoculars from his eyes and waved to a group of humans laying on the ground behind him.
Canterlot Castle
10:41 P.M.
Luna lowered herself to her knees and attempted to calm down. She was trying to dream walk, but the events of earlier that evening had put her on edge and were preventing her from concentrating. She tried to focus on the humans’ dreams, but all she could think about was the horror she had participated in. She knew casualties – sometimes, even civilian casualties – were a sad reality of warfare. Or at least, they had been, back before her banishment to the moon. Apparently, that had changed during her thousand year exile. She even knew before the battle that the humans were just as brutal as the changelings, so she had accepted that many guardsponies wouldn’t be coming back. But the losses the humans had inflicted, and the speed with which they had done it, shook her. It wasn’t warfare the humans were doing – it was murder.
Her sister was occupied with finding housing for the refugees and figuring out how to manage the weather without Cloudsdale, Twilight was… relieving her stress, and the guards were all frantically trying to prepare for whatever the next human attack would be. Which left her all alone in her room, with nopony to talk to, nopony to help her come to terms with what she had seen. Not that I need it, she told herself. I’m the loner, the Princess as solitary as the moon I control. Wait…
That was it! The Moon! She could contact the nyx! They would be busy with crafting ponies’ dreams, she knew, but she was sure that they would take the time to talk to her. They hadn’t spoken for a while now, not since before the humans’ arrival – there simply hadn’t been time for her to fly up just to talk. But at this point, she could use their company. The humans would probably try to stop her, of course, but they had lost a lot of resources since that first day, they would be disorganized after the battle, and she was confident she could get past them. Stepping out onto the balcony, she spread her wings and took off for her old prison.
Wreck of the Ardent
10:42 P.M.
“Empty, sir. Just like all the others.”
Steel Heart looked around, nervous. His ponies had found several more cylinders as they scoured the debris field, but none of them except for the very first had held humans inside. Instead, they all had been opened already, and he suspected that there were human survivors wandering around. “Everypony be vigilant – we have no idea how many of these there are. If they all held humans, there could be hundreds of hostiles wandering around.”
No sooner had he said this than a red bolt of energy flew by his head, scorching the crest on his helmet and slamming into another pony’s face. He whirled around to see a wave of humans rushing over a hill. Some wore black, some wore gray, and most held either a rifle or a pistol in their hands. His prisoners threw themselves to the ground as energy bolts lanced into his battalion. He had the numerical advantage, just barely, but he wasn’t about to throw his troops against the humans with so little to be gained. If the humans lost, he knew they’d kill many ponies before they were stopped – perhaps enough that he wouldn’t be able to keep the prisoners in line. If they won, he’d have killed his troops and failed to alert the Princesses that humans had survived. “Fall back! Get back to Canterlot!”
His battalion took to the sky, but just after he took off, he felt a searing heat in his left wing, followed by numbness, and he fell to the ground. He landed hard, bounced, and rolled to a stop on his side. He heard one of the humans say, “We don’t have the resources to handle prisoners. No survivors.” Blaster shots rang out sporadically as the humans executed the wounded ponies. The voice spoke again. “Lieutenant Damarcus to Base, Lieutenant Damarcus to Base. Last of the escape pods is accounted for. Five hundred and thirty-six crewmen recovered, all others presumed dead. Encountered pony scouts; unfortunately, most escaped. Expecting significant retaliation. Request immediate evac. Over.”
Steel Heart smiled as one of the humans walked over and aimed his rifle. At least most of the others got out. I just wish I had a chance to tell Spring Breeze that –
Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 22:43
“Roger that, Lieutenant. Dispatching the Intrepid to recover you. Out.”
“Belay that order,” Gavrisom told the comm officer. “The Manka is reporting one of the alicorns headed for Lun. We can’t risk her finding out about our operations there. All space forces are moving to intercept. The lieutenant will have to hold out on his own until she’s neutralized or repulsed.” He leaned over the comm station and pressed the button to transmit. “Lieutenant, this is Admiral Gavrisom. We can’t reach you. Dig in, and we’ll try to break through. Over.”
“Roger, Admiral. We’ll give those bastards a fight to remember. Out.”