Orders
Orders
Jason stumbled into their so-called command center, his eyes heavy with a lack of sleep. Dash was close behind, looking only slightly better.
"Apparently making a switch from a cloud to a real bed is harder than I thought." She muttered, looking around the highest floor of the hotel. It was at least two stories between the floor and the ceiling, broad windows extending around the sides and giving them an excellent view of the city, or at least, what managed to stick through the morning fog hugging the ground. It was going to be a bar, Dash figured, what with the tables and partially built counter to one side of the room.
"This is way cooler than I expected." Jason noted, admiring the woodwork of the ceiling. "It's no war room, but hey."
"Mind explaining what that is?" Dash asked back, and he let out a breathy laugh.
"It's just a room they have under the Pentagon, I think. Has a map of the world on the ceiling that lights up with dots and stuff. I don't know that much about it, seeing as it's probably pretty classified." He walked over towards the guards that were already grouped around a table, getting a few salutes on the way.
"What's all this fanfare about, Dust?" Dash asked, making it to the table slightly before Jason did.
"Just a map. Celestia had it sent out a few weeks ago. Apparently they've been of enough use to bring back."
"Yeah, you could say that." Jason interjected. "Plus, they'll make cool museum pieces for when we're all famous and old." He yawned, showing off the almost humanoid canines he'd reinstated a while ago. Whether or not it made the other ponies nervous didn't really matter to her, but she liked them, personally. They were cool looking, and she kinda liked feeling them up when they kissed. Maybe it was just a thing specific to her, or maybe she'd just developed a likeness for them.
"She okay?" Dust asked, and Dash jumped out of her trance.
"What? Yeah, I'm fine." The blue mare replied, and Jason yawned again, blinking slowly.
"Look, there's nothing going on today. We're just moving stuff around and doing basic surveillance, so why don't you get some sleep while you can." The guard pony suggested, ushering them away with a hoof. "You look like a couple of corpses."
"Hey! Only I get to call my wife a corpse, because if she punches me across the face, it'll seem more politically acceptable." Jason said, slurring a few of his words. God damn, he was tired. At least a few ponies seemed to chuckle at the lame joke. "Wake me if anything interesting happens." He said, leaving the room after Dash.
They shuffled back to their room, collapsing in a pile of hooves on the bed. Jason's hoof was bent uncomfortably, but he fell asleep all the same.
_____________________________________________________________________
He awoke with a thump, still half asleep as someone pulled him upright, and thrust a wad of stuff into his hooves. Water splashed over his face, and he shook his head. "What!"
"We got movement! A possible attempt at a lead!" Jason watched Dust slam the door behind himself, presumably rousing the rest of the team. He looked at the armor in his hooves, blinking. Dash was in a similarly damp pile against the bed, though she had at least succeeded in getting one leg of the body armor on.
If this was an actual shot at something, then maybe he could be done today. Maybe this was just the shot he was waiting for? He hopped into the air, hovering in place as he magic-ed the clothes on, landing as he zipped it up the back. He swished his tail to one side, turning around. A few plates tapped against one another, but as usual he found himself amazed at just the degree to which this thing fit him like a glove.
He held up Dash in his magic, helping her the rest of the way, as he turned to run through the door into Scoots' room. She was still sound asleep, somehow, and he gently wrapped an arm around her, placing her on his back.
Dash pushed the door open for him as he broke into a gallop, carrying himself down the hallway towards the staircase. He spread his wings, taking the speed he had to glide up the stairs. Morning and Thunderlane were there already, although there were no signs of the others. Jason set Scootaloo into a comfy looking chair, wondering how she could have possibly managed to stay asleep. He envied her.
"Where's Twilight?" Jason asked, looking around.
"She was in the lobby, coming back from getting some food. We disguised her, so you don't have to worry about ponies taking serious note of this place." Dust said, taking a sip of water.
Twilight trotted inside, looking like a hobo. It was a surprisingly good disguise, actually. The lavender mare nearly tore it off in disgust, leaving the rags in a pile on the floor. "Do you have any idea what was on the ground in the alley back there?"
"Oh, get over it." Thunderlane said with a laugh.
"No, I mean it. I have no idea what that was." She replied, shivering. "Anyway, I hear we have stuff going on."
"We do." Jason said, picking up a gun as he slung it around his back. Tank walked in, making a bee-line for his machine gun. Eravel wasn't far behind.
Dash situated a headset around her ear, handing one to Jason. He followed suit, sticking a few magazines through loops in his vest.
Twilight cleared her throat. "I don't know if Rarity went through a whole lot with that body armor, but watch the seams. They're not bullet proof."
"I figured." Dash replied, sticking a helmet over her head. "Besides, we're still a lot safer with them on than not, obviously."
"Do you know what it'll feel like if you get hit and it doesn't go through?" Twilight asked.
Jason shrugged. "It hurts a whole lot, I guess. Other than that, I'm not really sure. Nice big welt to show for it though."
"Yeah…" The lavender mare trailed off, lost in thought.
"Let's go!" Eravel yelled, joining the others in the group.
"Dust, where are they?" Jason inquired, meeting the officer at the map.
"Well, our only report puts them around here, although they could have moved." He pointed to a couple of alleyways. "But it's all we got."
Jason nodded, stretching out his wings. "Now where's the back door?"
____________________________________________________________
The group raced down an alleyway, taking a turn as the alley let out. Ponies cleared in front of them, leaving a wide area in which to run through.
~Alright, I've got some tracking up.~ Twilight cut in, the sounds of activity spiking behind her.
~Go Right!~ Dust yelled in the background, and the group executed a rather synchronized turn down a different street. They were getting towards the center of the city, if building size had anything to do with it.
Dash laughed. "These anything like the towers you got back home, Jason?"
He shook his head, laughing back. "It's a start."
Dash pushed on her walkie-talkie, assuming a sort of hobbling run. "What kind of information have you got on teleportation, Twilight?"
~Well- uh, I know that the magical energy used is proportionally related to the distance travelled. Or is it exponentially?~
"What kind of distance do you think is realistic?"
~I wouldn't try anything over a mile. Teleportations are dangerous, because while it's theoretically possible to teleport anywhere, the toll on your body is… The pictures aren't part of my fondest memories, let's put it that way.~
~Right Again!~ Dust hollered. ~Should be an alley towards the end of the street. We're looking for a warehouse… 13. Maybe that's B.~ Some hushed conversation went on. ~Pretty sure it's B.~
"God, this is a class A operation." Jason laughed as they turned, shaking his gun sling slightly loose. "We really got our shit together."
"At this point," Morning replied, taking in a breath. "This is the best we're going to get."
"The sad part is that you're probably right." Dash responded, slipping on the cobblestones as she turned into the alleyway. The group started to slow, heads swiveling every which-way. Jason came to a stop, the others following suit.
"God damn it's quiet." Jason whispered, walking down the alley. He passed a big twelve on the side of a building. "What is it we're looking for, anyway?"
~It's just a lead, Dust says.~ Twilight responded. ~Looks like you're in the right place.~
"I'd hope so." He said, pulling his gun from his back. "Never seen an alley so clean in my life, so of course there's evil afoot."
~Alright… Just take a left coming up here.~
Dash slid along the wall as the corner neared, peeking around. She pulled her head back, nodding that it looked clear. "What kind of lead, anyway?" The fact that she had just now decided to ask such a question spoke tons about how rushed they'd been to leave.
~Gunshots and a victim.~ Twilight replied. ~Found last night~
Jason stopped, looking around. "Makes me wonder if this is a trap…" He murmured, staring at the edges of the buildings' roofs far above. A couple of ponies pushed a door open at the end of the alley, chatting about something or other. Jason met the eyes of one of then, who froze. His buddy pulled a gun from his back, and Jason could hear the clambering of his team to cover behind dumpsters and the corner they had just passed.
The shots seemed louder when he was being shot at, whizzing by with foreign, high pitched cries. It almost sounded like someone had decided to pull a zipper at a hundred miles per hour past his ear. He peeked out, firing back at the two ponies. He got one in the bottom of the hoof, watching him fall behind cover. Tank pulled a huge charging handle across the alley, then pulled it again, and again. He opened up the gun, pulling free a mangled round and pulling the belt to the next bullet.
"How does this even happen?" He exclaimed, rolling the bent canister across the alley as he popped up to fire. Belt linkings flew everywhere as he let loose into a dumpster that one of the ponies was hiding behind, ripping holes through the thin iron like it was paper or plastic. He switched to the other side of the alley moments later, blowing through boxes and a trash bin. Tank let up, the alley going silent. Eravel whooshed overhead, slowing as he hit the dead end wall. He fired some buckshot downwards, apparently mopping up, and then landed just outside the door.
~What was all that?!~ Twilight yelled over the line. ~Everyone alright?~
"Just fine, Twilight." Dash responded, swapping her empty magazine with a new one. Tank stared at the pile of bullet linkings on the ground, and then his mangled bullet. Jason couldn't help but think that it'd been sabotaged.
"Alright," Jason began, taking a step towards the door. "Looks like another episode of clear the-" He flopped backwards onto the ground, clutching at the front of his shoulder. "Ooooooow." A bullet hole stared back at him through the door as everyone broke for cover. He laid his head against the ground as more bullets ripped through the door, sending splintered wood everywhere. His shoulder felt like someone'd kicked it while traveling at a hundred miles per hour. Thank god it'd hit in the middle of an armor plate.
~You okay?!~
"No, I've been shot!" He replied. He wasn't sure if it hurt more or less than he'd expected. "Get those guys back there before they get us surrounded!" Jason ordered, watching Tank provide suppressing cover.
~Shit.~ She replied, the mic shuffling across her fur. ~No, get out of my way! I can help!~ Her voice was distant, as if she was already across the room.
"Twilight! Stay there! That's an order!" He yelled, taking Dash's hoof as she pulled him to one side. "Twilight?" He heard the sounds of a mic being put on, and Dust's scruffy voice came over the line.
~Twilight's gone.~
"What?"
~She heard you get shot and surrounded apparently, freaked out at me, said that it was her fault for not providing perfect information or something, then said that she was going to help.~ Dust sounded as annoyed as Jason felt. Bullets whistled by.
"Why would she-" He put a hoof to his forehead. "How does she think she can help? She's not got much training at all!"
~Well she ran before I could stop her, and I can't very well cease feeding you information. I've got a couple guys on her, but we can't let some ponies dressed like government personnel outside without making the risks larger that we'll all be found out.~
"I'm really regretting my decision to have her tag along." Jason replied, leaning around a dumpster to return fire. "Fucking moron sometimes, that mare."
~Look, it's better she do this now while we aren't in a dire situation back here.~
"She's really lucky that you're right." He peeked around at the doorway, watching a hinge get shot off and flop by. The door swung ajar, and Tank came around the corner, a belt of bullets sliding over one arm as they fed his gun. He stopped firing, stepping behind a dumpster as the alley went silent once again.
"Morning, come here." Jason said, gesturing with a hoof. The mare darted across the alleyway, sliding to a halt. Jason took off his camera, tying it onto the mare's head quickly. He transferred the antenna and the little processor into pockets on her armor.
"Got her as an eye up there?" Dash asked, and Jason nodded. Morning took off, rising above the buildings and into the air, zigzagging through the silent air in case someone decided to shoot.
~It's getting a little less choppy.~ Dust said, coughing in the background. ~Keep your head steady, Rain!~
~As if I've ever used one of these.~ She replied, clearly annoyed.
"Tank, pull up the rear!" Jason yelled, pulling his gun into his sore shoulder and gesturing for Eravel to take point. The Griffin rushed inside as a couple ponies burst from the far end of the alley. Jason felt a bullet hit the back of his lower leg, following Eravel inside as Tank and Thunderlane forced the ponies to find cover.
His eyes adjusted to the light as Eravel flipped a table, pushing it up to a doorway as the metal top dented around him. Dash pulled her charging handle, leaning around the side of the door to let loose some fire. It was a lot louder inside, that was for sure.
"Dash! Look out!" Jason hollered, tossing a grenade through the opening. He covered his ears, yells and gunshots becoming muted. A thud shook him to the bone, and Dash peered around the doorway. She retched.
"Got 'em." She said, her voice sounding less than victorious. Eravel turned the table sideways and pushed it through the door, and Jason pulled his riot shield from his back, letting it scrape along the ground as he moved forwards. The bottom of the shield bumped into some rubble, but when he looked down-
"Oh my god." He muttered, sure his face had gone white. That was a hoof. A hoof that wasn't… connected.
Eravel pushed it aside, giving Jason a gentle shove as he pointed ahead of them with a talon. "Blood trail leads that way."
He pushed down his disgust and terror, the conflict suddenly becoming a lot more real than it had been, if that was even possible. He wasn't even sure why, really. After all this time of stabbing and fighting, the fact that this would- maybe it was just a little too far. Dash walked past him and up a flight of stairs, turning on a laser sight at the end of her gun. Jason did the same, pushing all recent imagery out of his head.
Dash let a few gunshots ring out, dropping her gun to her side as Jason entered the room.
"Thank god we aren't the ones who have to deal with the bodies afterwards." She muttered, wandering a little further into the room. She pulled a blanket from a nearby couch and threw it over the pony. Jason couldn't help but add his total agreement and follow, keeping his eyes firmly elsewhere.
"Tell me if you find anything." He said, rifling through a few papers. He picked up a gun that was leaning against a wall, looking at the wear before he stuck it under the sling of his AUG, making sure that it stayed on his back. There were a lot of M16 style weapons coming through, which seemed strange. Aside from his gun, most of them were American-designed weapons. He shook his head. Trying to find a pattern from the things that came through seemed fairly hopeless. It wasn't as if M16s weren't common anyway.
"These guys could be a little more organized." Dash muttered, balling up a blank sheet and throwing it through an open window.
~They threw something through the window.~ Morning said. Jason heard a couple wingbeats above.
Jason facehoofed. "The building's clear. I gotta get used to this radio, apparently."
~Second floor?~
"Yeah. Check above us and make sure that we didn't miss anything. I sort of doubt we did, considering the fact that there aren't any stairs going up another floor."
~Unless they hid some.~ She replied with a laugh. Dash looked over, knowing Morning had a point.
"We're definitely going to check, now that you mention it." Dash said, moving a little table away from a wall. "It would be great to find a secret room, because these papers are useless."
"You too, huh?" Eravel asked, sighing. "I guess we won't be making any breakthroughs."
"That'd be too easy." Jason murmured. "And we all know it can't be easy." He turned, descending a few stairs. The back wall sure looked farther away on the ground floor, but probably not enough to matter. Plus, these buildings were old, and ponies didn't exactly have computers to test engineering on. Or calculators. That seemed like an obvious difference, though.
Jason punched at the back wall, his hoof going straight through, but nothing revealed itself. He spread out the hole, looking down the interior of the wall. He didn't see any hinges or a sudden stop.
"Well, I don't think there's anything here." Jason observed, signing as he leaned against the wall. "The anticlimax here is unbeli-" He fell through the wall, hitting his head as his vision filled with dust.
Dash laughed in the background. "Lack of a climax my ass!" She coughed as she entered the cloud of plaster, helping him up with a hoof. "Makes me wonder why they'd want to completely close off a room like this."
"Couldn't you just teleport in?" Eravel asked. "I mean, if you knew it was there…"
"Well there we go." Dash said, blowing a little wind pattern in the dust. "Jason, you got a little…" She pointed to her cheek, before gesturing wildly all over.
"Ha. Very funny." Jason replied, deadpan. He pulled his gun to his shoulder, hiking up a rickety flight of stairs. No one greeted him. The room was sparsely furnished. A desk here, a little shelf there.
"What do we have here…" Dash asked, chuckling to herself. Evidently the mood had improved substantially. Jason picked up a lone page, holding it up in the dim light for them all to see. It was a page of scribbles, crossed out words and notes. Axim, crossed out. Igbo, crossed out. Some words crossed the page in a language Jason didn't understand. He wondered if the existence of this room and the location of their mission had been a coincidence. But then again, his mind couldn't kick the notion that this was bob. The name Hercules was circled, and the lack of dust over the shiny ink only confirmed the fact that it was recent.
Jason drew in a long breath. "Huh."
________________________________________________________________
They walked outside slowly, meeting up with the others. Tank was at the end of the alley, looking through the vest of one of the ponies for information.
Hooves clopped down the alleyway, and Twilight skidded to a halt moments later, her horn ablaze. Jason remembered the fact that he'd been shot, because he'd managed to largely ignore the pain up to now, and peeled away some of his armor. Ooh. That was definitely a bruise.
"I'm here." Twilight huffed. "Here." She repeated.
Jason eyed her for a moment, not feeling in the mood for a rant on why she shouldn't have come, and how she put his daughter at risk over something he'd already warned her against. But it still annoyed him, and he knew he had to do something. However, Dash beat him to the punch.
"Why?" The blue mare asked, and Twilight stared.
"What?"
"Well, where's Scoots? Is she safe?"
~Looks like it.~ Dust said, and Jason watched Dash's ear twitch in annoyance.
"Yeah, she's fine." Twilight responded quickly. "I mean, she's in a building of royal guards, so I don't-"
"You're supposed to be there to protect her when we can't. Not anypony else. You." Dash poked her chest with a hoof. "Catching on?" Twilight didn't respond. "For someone as smart as you supposedly are, you'd think that a little more brain power would go into common sense. What were you going to do here anyway?! Levitate a guy out of the way before he shot you with a piece of metal that moves too fast to even see?!"
"Dash, I'm sorry, I didn't-"
"Exactly, didn't think! You never seem to think before you act!" She paused, huffing. "I'm not sure why we even keep you around."
"Dash!"
"Why should I? You're not doing what you were brought here to do, and you act like we should be willing to forget that immediately! You had one job!" Dash yelled. It'd been a long time since her face had turned that deep of a shade of red.
The mare walked past Twilight, shaking her head. "One fucking job."
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Damn it Twilight! One job!
ha, you know I always thought that it would be Jason giving Twilight shit, didn't expect Dash to do anything. I hope this isn't the last time Twilight screws up, this....incident wasn't what I was thinking. Hmmm........I don't know how to feel about this scene(I was asking for this but.....it doesn't feel right.)
That last part sound familiar....I think you got it from some movie....
ONE MOTHER FUCKING JOB TWILIGHT!!
Get your shit together!
Did anyone got the Warehouse 13 reference? Anyone?
you know I have a feeling that even though Twilight screwed up big time she will make up for it in some way,
4423409 Oh I got it immediately at least they didn't have to dig any holes
4423409 I did lol
Luckily for them it wasn't literally Warehouse 13, that'd been awkward.
Twilight, wake up! This isn't Ponyville anymore!
Where are the shield spells? I imagine deflecting a bullet with a shield wouldn't be very difficult because of the small amount of force bullets have behind them.
4473063
It's not so much a shield spell as more concentrated levitation. To stop a bullet you'd either need to grab it with magic, or hold onto the particles in air so tightly that they'd form a kind of shield. Either way it's hard.
Bullets do have a lot of momentum, by the way. That's what you'd have to stop, and the speed at which a bullet travels multiplies by its weight. They have a lot more momentum behind them than you'd think.
4474513 Bullets have far less momentum than you think, the only reason bullets are effective is because they do not give the material they hit very much time to spread and absorb the impact, which is why all bullet resistant body armor is designed to spread the impact of a bullet as effectively as possible. The amount of force in a bullet is always less than the recoil from firing the bullet, unless the bullet has propellant that continues to accelerate the bullet after it has left the barrel. For handheld guns the recoil is low enough that the user can stand mostly still, or walk while firing, which means the amount of kinetic energy placed into a bullet is significantly less than the kinetic energy used to walk. Melee weapons, on the other hand can have far more force behind each blow, and would be far more difficult to block using a shield spell.
A shield spell is not remotely the same as levitation. A shield spell must be capable of deflecting or absorbing force applied to it without requiring the caster to think about each attack it blocks. Levitation merely cancels out the force of gravity, TK can be combined with levitation to move the object once it has been rendered weightless by levitation, or TK can do both at the same time. TK COULD be used as a shield in a fight by binding air into a solid mass, but that wouldn't be a very efficient method. There are clearly some impressive shield spells in existence according to the bubble shield Shining Armor managed to pull off.
I am interested in seeing where this all goes, the implications within the last few chapters alone are quite the surprise for me.
Very nice still
After roughly 2 days reading this nearly nonstop [I did take breaks for sanity's sake], I must say that not only am I impressed, but I'm ecstatic to see this continued. I honestly say I'll hate to see it end, but I know that, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.
Having said that, I also must state that this has inspired me in a way no other story has ever been able to do. I don't know what it is about this particular piece that has managed it...but you have done so, and say that I am grateful for it.
I also wish to say that I am grateful you have shared this with us.
Edit: Also, this story is the reason I have bothered to make an account. You deserve the upvote and save as far as I'm concerned!
Aaaaaand I'm all caught up. Faved and waiting anxiously for more.
You really don't get enough credit for your work.
This fanfic is absolutely the best I've ever read. It had the most substance, plausible storyline, and had better situations and a MUCH better plot line than most others! As much as I want you to finish this, I would please like you to relax and continue with it when you want to. Once again, I absolutely love this serious. The amount of emotions it brings up is absolutely amazing! Also for feedback, just keep up what you're doing. If you want to change something I think it would be good to bring it to light to get the reaction to it so if it turns out to actually be bad, that the audience won't feel like there's something that they just can't put their "hoof" on!
Twilight acting like a standard hero is okay, but she still needs to remember that this is Jason's and Dash's story not to mention that they are dealing with an enemy that is very smart and strategic. I don't think Twilight would ever consider that the enemy could've just stormed the base with a secondary group of enemies to kidnap Scoots and use her as leverage, because the enemies she faced are just too prideful and tend to do things on their own. If they were anywhere as smart as Jason was, Equestria wouldn't have been here anymore. She's a literal minded mare, so if only someone can just spell it out to her about the dangerous tactics the enemy would use to get to Jason. Then maybe she wouldn't have left.