The Chronicles of Swarm: The Equestrian Front

by kildeez

Chapter LVI: Sacrifices

Twilight wanted to cry in relief and frustration when the group finally caught up to the Princesses. The Alicorns of Day and Night were on the ground, eyes hammered shut to blink back the pain, their bodies shaking and sweating as if they were fighting off massive fevers. The Element of Magic would have thrown herself on the ground and bawled right then if it wasn’t for the sight of that tough-as-nails human commander, kneeling at their sides, stroking their manes and singing. If the Captain knew the others were standing there, he did nothing to indicate it. At least until Uris clapped his hands and cheered. “You go, pop! Serenade those horses!”

“Didn’t even know the old man was still in the dating scene,” Webb cracked.

Vance replied with his middle finger straight up in the air, not turning away from the Princesses as they struggled.

Shaking her head at the men, Twilight turned to her friends. “Alright, girls, one more time! FOR EQUESTRIA!”

“FOR EQUESTRIA!” Every being, human and pony, shouted as each of the Elements’ jewels hummed with magic. This time, they rose simply and silently into the air, magic spinning around them as it focused itself into the massive beam still arcing from the Princesses’ horns, enveloping it and mixing its own gold tint in with the Princesses’ pure white.

“Now that’s what I call a light show,” Ramirez said, pulling his tinted goggles back on.

“Aww, I wish I had a pair of those to look cool in, but I left ‘em with my damn helmeett…” Uris whined.

“Whatever this is, I’ll admit, it looks pretty cool,” Webb smiled. Ramirez smiled hopefully at him. The Lieutenant immediately doubled back. “Y’know, for a buncha girly-ass ponies and shit!”

“Suurrrrrrreee,” the SEAL cackled while the pilot rolled his eyes.

“Fuckin’ bronies all over the place,” Uris mumbled, watching as the renewed magic enveloped the dome, adding a fresh glint to its original chrome and smoothing all the cracks over.

“Holy shit! It’s working!” Webb screamed happily.

“We might just make it after all!” Uris crowed. Immediately, Ramirez’s hand clamped over his mouth.

“Goddammit, man, what’s with you and jinxing everything?”

“Aww c’mon,” Uris said, spitting the SEAL’s hand back out. “Like that actually makes bad crap happ…”

Suddenly, a loud crack sounded. The humans watched in horror as the dome tore open right at its summit, a jet of violet-red energy shooting out, rocketing up the beam and lighting off right in the middle of the Elements of Harmony. “GIRLS!” The trio shouted, rushing to their sides as the ponies fell right out of the sky.

“Ugh, what wazzat?” AJ asked as a hand helped her to her hooves.

“Felt like the Wonderbolts just used my head for target practice!” Rainbow Dash groaned, cradling her head.

“Did anypony else hear voices crying out when that beam hit?” Pinkie asked worriedly.

“Yeah, and laughter too, louder than those voices…” Twilight said, a shiver running up her spine. “Like, really evil laughter.”

“Mars,” Ramirez gasped. “Holy shit, it’s him!”

“How’s he still in there!? It’s the damned apocalypse! He should be dead by now!” Webb screamed.

“I’m pretty sure anything that could do half the shit we’ve seen him do can’t be killed that easy,” Uris grimaced. “Either way, we’re screwed if we don’t think of something else.”

“Should we try the Elements again?” Twilight suggested.

“Naw, odds are Mars has figured out how to make the next blast hurt,” Webb grumbled. “Even if he hasn’t, he would probably just swat you outta the sky again.”

A scream of agony filled the air. The group looked over as the Princesses suddenly rose to their hooves, their eyes opening to reveal pitch blackness where their vibrant pupils should have been, magic cascading violently from their horns as it waned over the dome. Vance took a step back, but his voice continued over the chaos: ”Sometimes I wonder…if we’ll ever end…”

“We have to do something!” Fluttershy screamed. “The Princesses can’t last much longer!”

“Okay, okayokayokay,” Twilight had started pacing at a panicked rate, the wind howling around them, her mind desperately racing around for a solution. “What do we know about this Swarm guy, anyway? What’s he like?”

“Only know about two of ‘em myself,” Webb said, keeping a worried eye on the dome. “One likes to wear jeans and a leather jacket, and he likes t’grease his hair up like those guys in those real old movies from the fifties…”

“Okay, anything about their structure!? What they’re made of!? Where they came from? Why they’re so powerful?” She looked helplessly at the blank faces staring back. Behind her, that horrid gray ooze had started to escape, seeping out from the cracks in the dome. “Anything at all!”

“EARLIER!” The paratrooper cried with a snap of his fingers. “Swarm was talking earlier! He mentioned…” he squinted his eyes and hammered on his forehead with the palm of his hand. “He mentioned…nanorobotics…”

The unicorn looked up at him with a big, blank look in her eyes. “Okay, and?”

“And…and…hive mind!” He screamed. “He mentioned he had something to do with a hive-mind, I remember thinkin’ that was kinda like the Borg in Star Trek or some shit…and…”

“Wait - hive mind,” Twilight raised her hoof to stop him. “What is that?”

“Uhh…” Webb looked to the others for help with an explanation.

“It’s kinda like…what bees have, y’know?” Uris said after a while. “Like, a bunch of minds, but all talking to each other all the time somehow…”

“He said he was like that: like he got his power from something like that,” Webb sighed, shaking his head in confusion. “I dunno, my head gets all kinds of fuzzy when I try to think about it.”

“No, no, I get it,” Twilight’s hoof scratched at her chin. “It’s quite a bit like what bees share. A telekinetic link, routed through the Queen, except Swarm is the router here.”

“Does that help us in the slightest?” Rarity asked.

“It might. Remember those voices? What did they sound to you?”

“They sounded…” Rarity started, her eyes falling at the memory. “So…lonely…”

“Confused,” Pinkie added.

“But real confused, like something they had was taken away and now they were in pain,” Dash added quietly.

“A lot of pain,” Fluttershy whimpered. “I’ve heard animals that lost a family member who didn’t sound that bad when they cried.”

“But that confusion was always there,” Applejack said. “So, like Flutters said, a lot like an animal that’s hurt but don’t know why.”

“And I think that confusion is the key!” Twilight said, her eyes lighting up. “Whatever happened to Mr. Swarm, it obviously threw him out of whack! Maybe it cut off his link with the rest of his ‘hive,’ and now the minds are cut-off from each other, and their confusion is keeping him from finding himself!”

“So, how d’we fix that?” Ramirez asked.

“I-um…I don’t know!” She sank to her haunches in hopelessness, hooves on her temples. “Oh, if only we had some way to talk to him! Something that could rise over the confusion and chaos! Something like…”

“…like a focused mind? One that isn’t as confused as the rest of them?” Uris asked, his voice filling with dread.

Twilight’s eyes widened in terror. “Yes, something like that. A focused mind in the mix would allow Swarm to reorient himself, but to do that we’d need someone to go over there and…” she cut herself off, unable to continue.

“…And sacrifice themselves for the sake of everyone else.” Ramirez finished, voice wavering.

“No.” Webb shook his head profusely. “Absolutely not.”

“What else can we do?” Uris lamented.

“ANYTHING else! Anything! We could…we could…” he looked at the tired, saddened faces around him, scanning wildly. “Something!”

“We just don’t know enough about him to even think of something,” Twilight said empirically, looking over each and every one of her friends. “For Equestria to be safe, one of us has to…”

“Oh…” Fluttershy’s eyes flooded with tears, and she sobbed openly into Rainbow’s shoulder. “Oh no…”

Webb’s face fell, assuming the same, beaten-down look everyone else’s had. He turned to the dome. The crack Mars’ energy blast had formed at its summit was now spreading along the dome, already halfway to touching the grass. The dome itself buckled upwards, struggling to remain whole against the massive forces pressing against its interior. A few yards away, the Princesses thrashed wildly, throwing their heads back and roaring, straight up ROARING, and sending Vance running for cover. And still he sang, his haggard voice struggling on.

“Okay, how do we do this?” Webb asked quietly.

“Rock-paper-scissors?” Uris shrugged.

“We…don’t know what that is,” Twilight said, smiling sheepishly.

“Good, ‘cause you’re not playing,” Ramirez replied.

“WHAT!? Equestria is our home!”

“And we’re the ones tasked with defending it!” Webb screamed.

“Oh, and the Elements are just a bunch of glorified Christmas decorations?” Rainbow snorted. “No way.”

“You’re not part of this, you girls are too important to Equestria! To…to us…” Ramirez sighed, his lower lip quivering despite his best efforts. “Could any of you honestly tell me you could live with the loss of one of your friends for the rest of your lives?”

The ponies quivered, looking at each other. Twilight’s eyes raced over her friends. What would her life be without Pinkie’s laughter and joy? Or Rainbow’s unquestioning loyalty and never-ending will to help her friends? Or Applejack’s hard-working ethic urging them all forward? Or Rarity’s delicate, fashionable touch to everything they did? Or Fluttershy’s kindness and willingness to help others, no matter the difficulty? Tears streaming down her face, she looked up at the humans. By the sad, distraught looks each of the ponies had, it was obvious they were all thinking the same thing.

“That’s what I thought,” Ramirez sighed. “Look, we’re ready for this. We knew what we were signing up for. That’s why we’re soldiers. Please, just let us handle this.”

Nodding silently, Twilight pulled herself into a group hug with the rest of her friends. They cried quietly as the humans set about their grim work, not one of them noticing the determined fire slowly growing in one of the Elements’ eyes.

“So, how d’we do this?” Uris asked.

“Like we said,” Webb raised his fist. “Rock-paper-scissors.”

“One-two-three-go?” Ramirez asked, his own fist rising.

“Sounds good to me,” Uris shrugged, his stomach twisting into knots.

“Okay, okay,” Webb sighed. “One-two-three…”

The pilot didn’t even need to hear the last word as their fists smacked the air, all landing at the exact same time. In his frenzied, shocked state it took a few moments for the results to register in all their minds, their eyes scanning wildly around, as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Ramirez had his fist clenched in rock, as did Webb, but the pilot’s own…

“Eh, shit,” Uris grumbled, looking at the two extended fingers on his hand.

“What does that mean?” Twilight asked, her voice shaking.

“Rock beats scissors,” he sighed, rubbing at the hair on the back of his head.

“No,” Fluttershy gasped, taking a few steps towards him. “No, not you.”

“Fluttershah,” Applejack held a hoof up to block her friend.

“No, please,” the tears were welling up all over again. “PLEASE! NO!”

With newfound strength, she tried to rocket forward, brushing Applejack out of the way only to have Twilight and Pinkie seize her in their hooves and hold her back. “NNOOOOOO!” She screeched again, Applejack grabbing her wings as the rest of her friends held her hooves, one on each. None of them noticed that this left one pony out. “NNOOOOOOOOO! PLEASE, CELESTIA, LUNA, NOO!”

Shaking his head sadly, the pilot stepped up to the little yellow pegasus and held her tear-streaked face up to his. He tried to smile. “It’s been fun,” he whispered with a quick peck on her forehead.

“Uris, please,” she sobbed, sinking hopelessly to the ground, her friends sinking with her. “Please, no…”

“Uris man,” Ramirez sighed. “We don’t have much time.”

“I know,” the pilot stood and walked with them, the three looking like a group of men walking a prisoner to the electric chair. The dome thrashed and buckled before them, drowning out the little yellow pegasus’s cries. The pilot’s hands shook, his arms hanging limp like noodles. He felt grateful that the actual fighting was over: if a Nazi officer had run up to him right now, he’d never stand a chance.

“You wanna…say goodbye to the old man?” Webb asked, hooking a thumb over to the Captain, now totally wrapped up in keeping the Princesses distracted.

“Naw,” Uris shook his head. “He’s got more important things to worry about. Just tell him I love him, alright? And tell him…tell him I’m sorry things played out like this.”

“You got it.”

“Uris,” Ramirez’s hand rested on his shoulder. By now, they were so close to the dome that the noise forced them to shout over the noise, the wind from its constant rustling whipping twigs and branches by their faces. Still, the two men understood one another perfectly, even if they couldn’t hear each other. “You’re one brave sumbitch, you know that?”

The pilot grinned. “Yeah,” he replied, gripping the hand. It was the most bro-tacular thing he’d ever done, and he never wanted it to end. Unfortunately, the crack chose that moment to split the dome a bit more, now reaching almost three-quarters of the way to the ground.

“It’s your show now, kid!” Webb screamed as he and the SEAL took a few steps back.

Uris stared at the widening, gray-filled abyss. The crack split a little more, sending gray goo onto the grass around him, where it burned and hissed angrily as it ate away the ground. Taking a few deep breaths, he started to walk forward. His boots felt like they weighed a ton each, his legs like wooden toothpicks wobbling beneath his weight. He blinked back a few tears and tried to tell himself that they were from the winds, but he knew better. He reached out a hand, an inch from the cascading, gray acid, just a few more yards to go now…

“RAINBOW!” A voice screamed, cutting right through the chaos roaring in his ears. The pilot wheeled around out of reflex. Just in time to see a blur of rainbow streaking through the skies over his head.

“That stupid hothead!” He screamed as the cyan pegasus leveled her flight path out just over the field, shooting in a straight line for the dome just a couple yards off the ground. Grimacing, the pilot braced himself, his knees bending, sending him into the air as best he could, but the pain was too much. His leg had taken too much abuse over the past day. With a gasp of pain, he still only managed maybe half a foot off the ground, far too little to have a hope of catching the Element of Loyalty.

“NO!” He howled, clawing uselessly at the air as Rainbow Dash streaked past. As he fell, he watched her eyes widen suddenly, her wings shifting as if to change her course and veer off. Has she come to her senses? He thought, gazing over his shoulder as he fell onto his back. His heart froze.

Ramirez was there, sailing high into the air, the crack and the goo just barely a foot from his back. The pilot started to call his name, as if that could change anything. He watched in horror as Rainbow slammed right into the SEAL’s chest, the man wrapping himself around her like a football player making a catch, her momentum carrying them right into the crack, disappearing into the massive pile of goo in the blink of an eye.

“Ramirez! Rainbow!” Uris screamed as he hit the ground and Webb wrapped his arms around his body, the pilot sobbing his heart out in the other soldier's embrace, both unable to look away from the massive fissure before them.

Author's Note:

o_0

CLIFFHANGER! HANGING ON A CLIIIIIFFFF...

AND THAT'S WHY HE'S CALLED CLIFFHANGERRRRR!

Comments

[Strythio]

Heheh, rock-paper-scissors to determine who is going in there. Like hell I would agree to that, as humorous from a reading perspective as it is.

The resolution is near, but now I'm certain that the battle was the climax, in one way or another, even if this is still pretty epic.