Timelapse

by Stik

Chapter 6

The admiral was in a terrible mood after Riley delivered news of the fate of the ship they sent up. Most of his frustration seemed to be directed at Riley, which he felt was somewhat unfair since he had barely been involved in the flight plans. From hard experience he’d learned that this was the way blame worked in the military, though. The guy at the top shouts at the guys under him, and they’re expected to make themselves feel better by shouting at their subordinates, and so on until the bottom of the pile where there’s hopefully enough people to smear out the blame sufficiently thinly to avoid distress.

Unfortunately for Riley, he didn’t technically have any subordinates, his rank of Lieutenant-Commander was purely honorary and officially he was listed as a military contractor, paid by Williams’ office. After working with the fleet for over a decade it became easy for others to forget that he was outside the chain of command, but he knew that if he pushed his luck by pretending to be in charge too much he would come to regret it.

“It’s a mistake to go,” Riley said firmly, reiterating an earlier statement in the hope he might listen this time. The admiral glared at him. “It’s too risky, we don’t know the terrain, we don’t know the things that live here. Losing another team would be disasterous.”

“There is no choice, Collins, and you know it. Without that core we’re stuck here for good.”

“So you’d send your one remaining senior engineer off into the wild, on a jolly hike across god-knows-what, to retrieve a box.”

“We can’t take any chances at recovery. It’s a complex procedure to remove the core, you told me that yourself.

“Are you afraid? Is that what this is about?”

“No,” Riley replied angrily, then glanced away awkwardly. “I have a healthy level of apprehension. Look, I’m not saying I won’t go. If you order it, then it will be done. But I am telling you that you’re wrong.”

“What would you suggest instead, Riley?” Williams asked, cheeks reddening in anger once more. Riley narrowed his eyes and gripped the arms of the chair, bracing for the storm. “Maybe we should just stay here, leave the human race to it? These little horses are pretty friendly, we can just live out the rest of our days in peace, dancing under rainbows and baking cakes. Would you like that?”

Riley fidgeted. “There is one proposal a team came up with…”

“Ah, you must be referring to doctor Jackson’s proposal,” Williams said with wild gesture and a sneer pulling down the corners of his mouth yet further. “Whereby we spend the next decade throwing darts at a target a thousand miles away, and hope, maybe pray to some pony gods even, that one of them hits a bullseye.”

“I think I could reduce it to six months,” he mumbled in reply. It sounded ridiculous, like a petulant teenager who knew he’d lost an argument with his parents but was unwilling to let the matter drop without a token struggle.

“No. It is not acceptable. You will mount an expedition, those are your orders. Assemble a team immediately.”

Riley fought not to glower at him. “I have a bad feeling.”

“Welcome to life, kid.”

He studied Riley’s face for a moment. “Come on, have you forgotten how feeble this lot are? If they’re the dominant species on this planet and they can survive here, you’re going to have no trouble.”

“Fine.”

“Take some of the natives with you. They can advise.”

“I don’t think they’ll be pleased or willing, but fine.”

“Are we good?”

“Yes, sir,” he replied with a lazy salute.

“Dismissed.”

Riley stomped angrily back out into the sunshine and felt inordinately angry at everything. Why was it still morning? It had been morning forever. The sun was still low in the sky, and of course he was walking into it with the glare hot in his eyes. The admiral was always right, and he hated it when he ended up on the wrong foot, arguing against him. Riley was aware that he could be stubborn to a fault. Once he took a position he found it difficult to back down, even when it became blindingly obvious that he was in the wrong.

That made him angry, too.

Preparations for the excursion were painstaking and took far too long. Finding the right team was awkward, they were short of men already and a minimum guard had to be maintained at ground zero. Time was of the essence so he couldn’t take too many marines or they would be too slow, but too few and they risked their lives. He was very uneasy, despite the admiral’s reasoning that there could be nothing more harmful than the ponies. Riley had skimmed a few books that he had initially discounted as fiction only to realise later that they were actually reference guides of a sort. There were some peculiar and frightening sounding monsters on this world, things he would rather not meet if the books were to be believed.

Eventually he had settled on a group of eight, himself, another engineer and six of the marines he had fought beside before, a tight-knit group that understood one another. The next task was to find a pony that could accompany them, and try to work out how to integrate them into the flying column without causing too much friction.

Convincing Twilight to even let him take one of her people with him was also going to be difficult, he realised glumly.

“This is perfect!” the unicorn exclaimed as he explained himself, pointing out the crash site on a map. She was still with the recovering pegasus when he went looking for her. “It’s right next door! I’ll come with you myself, to Canterlot. We can see the Princess, she’ll be able to explain what’s happened here, I’m sure of it.”

“You’re not going without me,” Rainbow Dash interjected from her bed, flexing her newly unpinned wing experimentally. “You’ll need someone strong and brave, I expect. I bet the others will all come, too! It’ll be an adventure, trekking through the wild! Well, for you lot, I, of course, will be flying.”

“Hold on a moment,” Riley said, frowning at the two. “We only need one of you.”

“How about three of us? Some of us should really stay here anyhow,” Twilight mused, practically talking to herself and beginning to pace. “The town is still in a delicate situation, if all six of us leave the rest are going to worry. And Rarity and Fluttershy are doing invaluable work at the hospital, so they would probably rather stay here anyhow. If we tell Pinkie she can organise a return party then she’ll want to stay to prepare.”

“Absolutely not,” Riley said, putting his foot down firmly. “One of you. And it shouldn’t be anyone your town can’t afford to do without, for example, not you.”

Twilight stopped talking at last and stared at him in distaste. “If it’s dangerous then that settles it, I would never ask somepony to take my place.”

“And if it’s dangerous she’s not going alone!” Rainbow Dash said with finality.

“We can’t be slowed down,” he argued. “This is not a sight-seeing trip, nor is it an escort for you to get to your city. This is a military operation. One of you may accompany me.”

“Well, none of us are going,” Twilight told him with a confrontational glare. She stomped her hoof on the spotlessly clean white floor, and he felt the vibrations through his feet. He glared right back at her.

“However,” she continued, with a sly smile, “Three of us just so happen to going to Canterlot soon. It’s a strange coincidence that we’re going in just the same direction. I look forward to bumping into you on the road, I guess?”

“Fine.”

Riley stomped back outside the infirmary, frustrated with the situation. He was certain there was a better way he could have handled the situation, they were supposed to be in charge. Humans were clearly the stronger species, yet the ponies were as stubborn as mules. He grunted, almost breaking a smile at the pun.

With a weary sigh he rubbed at his eyes and tried to plan the next move, having three ponies along instead of one shouldn’t change his preparations too much, but years of bitter experience had taught him to double and triple check everything, no matter how small the change. You often got just one chance at success, but many chances at failure at every step along the road.

Sitting at his desk sometime later, illuminated by the glow from the computer screen in front of him, he was feeling a little calmer. The ponies could be frustrating, but perhaps having several of them would be for the best after all. Redundancy was one good reason, as cold as the thought felt, but beyond that he was the only human in their group to know more than a couple of words in their language, a single individual on their own was inevitably going to be lonely, which could lead to problems in itself. Native psychology was a big mystery at the moment. Three would hopefully help to keep the group stable, yet without being a large enough number that they would become a problem to manage.

Things were looking up.

There came a knocking at the door and he called to enter. “Sir, we need you.”

“What is it?”

“There’s a disturbance, sir, across town. Group of natives are acting aggressive, taken some hostages.”

He looked up in surprise. It was very foolish of the ponies to try to resist, they’d had two violent demonstrations of just how wide the gulf between their species was in terms of military ability. “Does the admiral know?”

“No, sir, he’s unavailable.”

He followed the marine outside into the bright light. He was whisked across the town on the back of a small quad, its little motors whining reluctantly under their combined weight. The marine seemed oblivious to obstacles and charged straight ahead with little regard for uneven ground or rocks. Riley braced against the back of the vehicle and gritted his teeth, things had just been looking positive and he had jinxed it by daring to feel a glimmer of optimism.

They pulled alongside a field where a small research tent had been built in a corner, green camouflage netting only serving to make the thing more conspicuous in the meadow’s colourful flowering grasses. A ring of ponies, some armed, were arranged haphazardly around the tent, looking as angry as they could manage. Several other smaller groups were scattered nearby, watching proceedings with curiosity. A couple of techs were standing uneasily in the doorway to the tent, guarded by four stallions with lances. They looked uncomfortable. Facing the tent was a single squad, and to either side a couple of fire teams, one appeared to have been trying to flank the tents, prompting the ponies to spread thinner into a ring. All were alert, weapons raised, unflinching.

“What’s going on?” he demanded loudly, jumping off the quad and making for the largest group. Their senior officer stood and saluted briefly.

“Sir, natives have taken two hostages. They wanna fight us. The admiral were very clear that we shouldn’t engage. Orders, sir?”

“Maintain position.” Riley glanced around, surveying the field. It looked as though the ponies had been performing some burials recently, fresh mounds of brown dirt were visible in the far corner, arranged neatly in rows. He wasn’t aware of what the techs were doing here, although he could imagine that whatever it was they were up to had stepped on some toes. Hooves.

“Please put down your weapons,” he called out in Equestrian, standing and striding purposefully towards the tents. They tensed and he could hear the creaking of leather and the rattle of metal joints.

A rustle of wings made him look up and he saw Twilight Sparkle dropping ungracefully from the sky to land with a soft thud beside him. She glanced up at him questioningly then turned to the others.

“What’s the meaning of this?” she demanded, wings flared, trotting ahead of him. The assembled ponies looked at each other nervously before two stepped forwards, lowering their spears.

“Princess Twilight,” one said, bowing. “These creatures are bad news.”

“Explain yourselves,” she said, drawing herself up higher, eyes narrowed. Riley watched the interaction with interest.

“Miss, we reckons it’s them who’s been kidnapping, like,” the second said, a little sheepishly. “An’ they’ve been watchin’ us bury our dead, it’s creepy. T’ain’t right.”

“That’s preposterous,” she told them. “They aren’t creepy. I’m sure if we asked them to give you a little space they would agree.”

She turned and looked at Riley. “Uh, of course,” he blustered, snapping out of his reverie. “I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding.”

“Three more ponies have gone missing, Princess,” the first said, undeterred. “One of them was little Light Charmer, just a foal.”

Twilight’s expression softened and she smiled sadly at him. “A lot of ponies have been lost to us, these last few days. It’s a tragedy without doubt, but we can’t jump to conclusions like this.”

“No,” the stallion said, stamping his hoof for emphasis. “No. Light Charmer was with his mother not more than a day ago, alive and well.”

Twilight looked more concerned, glancing around. “Could it be a mistake? Perhaps he’s simply wandered off. We’ll organise a search party, check around the town.”

The stallion growled and breathed out through his nose with a hiss. “Deep Shadow, my own friend, vanished a day ago. And there have been others, princess, at least ten ponies are now unaccounted for.”

“I don’t understand,” she said. “There’s got to be a rational explanation. There’s a lot of confusion right now, it’s easy to miscount, easy to get distracted.”

He sighed, and glanced around at his compatriots, then stood up straighter, hefting the spear at his side. He fixed her with a steely gaze. “This has to stop. You have invited these creatures into our town, given them free reign to come and go at will, yet they answer to nopony. They have to go. Forgive me for daring to question you, princess, but there are some who would argue that your judgement seems… clouded, these days.”

Twilight frowned again, and Riley wondered how often her authority had been questioned before. She didn’t seem to be handling it very well, at any rate. He stepped forward and clapped his hands, drawing their attention. A few of them still seemed surprised that he could speak their language.

“I am Riley Collins, senior acting officer, at present. I understand we may have overstepped the line here at your burial site, and I promise we will remove the intrusion to your privacy immediately. Please believe me when I tell you we mean no offence, we are strangers here, unfamiliar with your customs and society.

“I am sorry to hear of your loss, but you have my word that we are not responsible. We have not abducted a single inhabitant of this town, nor will we. We do not wish any further violence or hostilities. Please lower your weapons and release my people.”

The stallion took a step closer to him, within striking distance, and behind him he heard the clatter of rifles being aimed tighter. He drew himself up, coming level with Riley’s shoulders. “You do not belong here, and you and your people should leave, right away. There is no basis for trust, between us.”

Riley glared at the stallion, holding his gaze. He felt deeply angered by his attitude, they had no right to speak like that to him, and they were wasting time. “We’ll be gone in a week. And as for trust, well you’re just going to have to take it on faith,” he snapped, and dropped his voice a little lower. He didn’t know how acute the ponies’ hearing was. “But know this, if we wanted to abduct your people, we would not have to sneak around to do it. If necessary we could take this town by force quicker than you can imagine, and we will, in a heartbeat, if you cause us reason to. Do you want that blood on your hands?”

The stallion held his gaze, and Riley stood back, addressing the whole crowd again. “We have offered you many goodwill gestures. We have helped your injured, given you materials to rebuild your walls, food to feed the hungry, medicine to cure the sick. If you ask it of us, we will help you form a search party to look for these lost ponies, we have the technology to help. But taking arms against us won’t help you in slightest.”

There was some quiet murmuring from the aggressors, and some of them were lowering their weapons and shuffling their hooves. The pony before him was breathing heavily, still glaring at him with undisguised disgust in his eyes.

“Back down,” he said quietly. “This is a dangerous path you’re treading.”

To his relief the two finally broke and backed away, gesturing to their large gang. Within a few minutes the herd had broken up and was dispersing. The human marines maintained their positions until Riley ordered them to stand down once the field was secure once more. He went to speak to the two technicians, who were both a little shaken and willing to explain their orders without prompting.

As he suspected, they were examining the pony burial site, and had been poking around graves with various scanners. So far they had avoided digging anything up, but it was only a matter of time. Some anger and resentment had clearly been brewing for some time, and their thoughtlessness had been the catalyst that caused it to erupt. He instructed them to move their field lab back into the town, and they reluctantly began ferrying equipment. Riley left a few marines to help them with the heavy lifting, under the watchful and highly suspicious gaze of a few ponies that lingered.

Twilight walked beside him as he made his way back to the landing zone. “I’m sorry for that,” she said to him, fidgeting her wings on her back. “I don’t know why they’d think something like that.”

“It’s natural,” he said. “Natural to be afraid of outsiders. Especially us, considering our entrance. Hell, I’d be afraid of us, if I was in their situation.”

She was silent for a moment, then asked awkwardly, “You wouldn’t… do that… would you? What you said?”

“Take the town by force?”

She nodded, biting her lip. He considered his word carefully. They would, of course, if it came to that. It wouldn’t be his decision of course, but he knew how fiercely the admiral would obey his own orders. In the end it really would depend upon how large the uprising actually was. If it was just a field with a small group of angry ponies then it wasn’t hard to put down, but if half the town turned against them then things could certainly get ugly very quickly.

“No,” he said, hoping it sounded genuine. She looked up at him nervously, and he felt guilty. “No,” he said again, with more conviction. “We won’t turn on you.”

“Promise?” she pleaded. “We couldn’t bear anymore. These ponies have suffered enough.”

“There’s no reason to for us to harm you,” he reiterated, trying to smile reassuringly for her sake. “If there’s no threat, we’ll leave you alone. You need to see to it that there’s no threat, Twilight Sparkle. You are their leader, and that is your role in this.”

She looked down at the ground. “I don’t feel ready to lead. I’m not good with words! I can’t convince ponies. We used to have a mayor, but she was visiting Canterlot when the trouble hit. We could really do with her, right now. The townsfolk trust her.”

“Still, they respect you. Like it or not, they’ll look to you for guidance. Control them. That’s just another reason you should stay here, and not come with me. Send someone else.”

“No, I want to, I need to go to Canterlot myself, and I don’t know who else could go. I have to do this.”

He nodded and she looked up at him hesitantly. “I have to know, though, have you… have you taken anypony?”

“No,” he said firmly and stopped in his tracks, forcing her to skitter to a halt beside him. “I promise you, Twilight, we aren’t like that. We haven’t kidnapped anyone.”

She nodded and breathed a visible sigh of relief. “Thankyou. I believe you, and I’m thankful to hear it. I didn’t want to think the worst. I’m sorry this is happening. I really thought things were going to be okay.”

“Then let us both hope this was the end of it.”

“Riley, to my office, please,” crackled the admiral’s voice in his earpiece, and he left Twilight to her own devices, thankful to have the mess sorted out.

“Sir?” he asked, stepping through the door. Williams was busy dropping equipment on a crate in the corner. He took his hat off and tossed it on the table, sitting down at his chair.

“I’m glad you were able to deal with that quickly. I couldn’t make it in time. What happened?”

“There’s a lack of leadership, and the town is afraid. There’s some resentment, and a lot of anger. A band of natives had organised a protest of sorts, and held a couple of the tech boys hostage.”

Williams raised an eyebrow.

“I use the word in its loosest sense. I’m fairly certain the two men could have overpowered their captors, even without the marines to back them up. The science team could do with a gentle reprimand, though, their somewhat callous approach to researching the local burial traditions would have benefited from some tact.”

Williams nodded. “In any case, they’ve dispersed for now, and hopefully if we employ a little more tact they’ll stay peaceful long enough for us to get out of here. It seems they’ve lost a few townsfolk, and they were quick to blame us. I’ve promised them some small amount of assistance if they want to organise a search party.”

The admiral glanced up at him and narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Do you disapprove, sir?” Riley asked, a little surprised. “I was under the impression we could spare a couple of men for an hour or two.”

“No,” Williams said, sounding undecided. “Of course, see if the science team can help out, they’ve got scanners of all sorts, I’m sure.”

Something felt off, Williams rarely sounded unsure of himself, and Riley watched his face carefully. “Were they… correct, sir?”

“Of course they are,” he snapped back. “I question why you would think otherwise! We have a duty to research this race, while we’re here. Ultimately it’s not my call, of course, Captain Hadley’s in charge of that mess. I think they’ve got a dozen or so of them, probably already in stasis. Regardless, we need to maintain the illusion of helping to find them, so you go ahead and arrange a search party, if that’ll help calm relations. I would rather not have to shoot anyone else.”

Riley tried to collect his feelings, he was a little unsure how he felt. It made sense, but the humane part of him rejected it strongly. On top of that, he had just stood in front of a group and given them his solemn word that they weren’t involved. He chewed his lip angrily. That had made him an unwitting liar.

“May I ask, why am I only just finding out about this?” he managed, his voice thin and strained. “I could have done with knowing this information an hour ago.”

Williams rolled his eyes theatrically. “For this very reason, I know you, Riley, and I knew you wouldn’t like it. I didn’t want you involved, or worrying about it. It’s unfortunate you had to find out this way, but that’s the matter of it. You have your orders, see them carried out.”

“Yes, sir,” he said at length, hiding a sigh.

---

With all the interruptions it had taken longer than he anticipated for Riley to finally get his marines together and gather the three ponies that were travelling with them. Persuading them to stick to a strict military schedule was apparently impossible.

“We’re travelling fast and light,” Riley said to his assembled team. He hated pep talks. Twilight Sparkle was attentively listening to him, even though he was still speaking in English. She was trying to make up for the lazy attitude of the other two, he decided. Rainbow Dash appeared to be busy fidgeting around in the air above them, and Applejack was leaning casually against a fence, looking half asleep with her hat pulled low over her eyes.

“Local intel. suggests we’ll be travelling largely over scrubland, so we will be moving quickly. You know the brief, we get there, we get the core, and we get back here. We have a window of opportunity to leave this rock: the next night cycle. There should be ample time to get back before the next sunrise.”

He repeated part of it to the three ponies that stood to one side. “We’re going fast, there’ll be no waiting for stragglers.”

“Trust me buddy, you’ll be struggling to keep up with me,” boasted Rainbow Dash, already airborne after her human-aided recovery. There was something quite remarkable about how well their surgery and technology had taken to the equine race, it didn’t work anywhere near as quickly on humans.

Their motley squad fell out, the six marines and two engineers, himself and a thin man called Sadler, marching in an orderly fashion through the town, one brightly coloured pegasus flying lazy circles overhead and two ponies following behind at a gentle trot. The contrast between the humans’ colourless tactical wear and the brightly coloured ponies was striking, even more so for the three having finally managed to find time for baths. They were looking a lot less scruffy, Rainbow Dash in particular looking quite stunning in her full polychromatic glory.

He was still slightly bitter at Twilight for arguing. It was already causing him hassle, and they had barely been moving half an hour. In particular the pegasus had learnt some snatches of English phrases, very few of them polite, and took every opportunity to call down to them from above. His team was well disciplined, and took no notice, but it was irritating nonetheless. Applejack, the ‘ordinary’ pony had an accent that bothered him and made eavesdropping on her quiet conversations with Twilight difficult. One guide would have been much, much less stress. Preferably an unfriendly, miserable old nag that wouldn’t try to befriend them quite so much. Twilight was coming across as somewhat desperate and more than a little clingy.

“Twilight,” called Rainbow Dash from above as she descended from much higher up, “there’s something really weird going on.”

“What’s the matter?” Twilight called back, stopping the retelling of whatever legend she was explaining. Riley had stopped listening properly a while ago.

“There’s trees.”

Twilight blinked slowly, evidently unsure how to respond. Riley looked around, there were trees. Several of them, in fact. He began to question Rainbow’s suitability for the mission, had their interference and medicine caused her mental issues?

“I mean, there’s a lot of trees,” Rainbow continued. “And they start in a big circle around Ponyville. Really big ones.”

Twilight took to the sky, flapping her large wings inelegantly and blowing leaves and dust about. Riley held his hand in front of his face, glaring irritably at her. In a moment she was back down again, barely having got above the treetops. “I don’t like heights,” she said, frowning at him when he raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

They didn’t have to wait long as soon they came across the beginning of a line of very tall trees, wide and growing close to one another. There was a slight embankment beneath them, a discontinuity in the landscape. It was a curiously neat line, perfectly straight as far as the eye could tell. The foliage on the plants even seemed to follow the cut.

“There’s trees,” Twilight said, staring.

“Mind explaining what’s significant about them?” Riley asked, stopping the group. They looked very similar to trees one might expect to find on Earth.

“They shouldn’t be here, this is farmland,” Twilight said, frowning.

“Have we taken the wrong route?”

“No, and Rainbow says this is all over.” Riley watched her turn around and look at the clear land behind, then back to the thick forest in front. “What has Discord done?”

“Well, I see no way but through them.” Riley ordered the team to move on, and soon they were forging a path through the dense undergrowth and clambering over or around fallen trees, apparently rotten through. The forest was cool and damp and so very alive, thick moss growing on everything and other plants in turn growing on that. It felt extremely old, and Riley couldn’t believe that it hadn’t been there for hundreds of years, at least.

The ponies were reluctant to follow them into the gloom, very much on edge. Applejack had put on a brave face eventually and marched straight in, head held high, and of course once she was in Rainbow had soon followed, not about to be out-braved by her friend, even if it did mean walking under the trees instead of flying above them. Twilight had remained unconvinced and it had taken some prodding from her friends to get her to reluctantly follow them.

“This isn’t right,” she whispered beside Riley, speaking for the first time in ten minutes. Her ears had drooped and she had finally stopped talking at him, the close, quiet atmosphere making her too nervous. They plodded onwards, and it was hard going. “I think we should find another way.”

“It’s a forest, Twilight. These used to grow everywhere on my planet.”

“Don’t be smart,” she snapped, apparently not in the mood for games at all. “It’s not a natural forest. There’s got to be magic here, but I can’t sense it. Something’s wrong.”

“Well, if Rainbow’s eyes are telling the truth then there’s no choice. We go through, or we go back.”

Twilight peered around nervously. “Maybe we should go back.”

“Two of you may return if you wish,” he said, narrowing his eyes slightly.

She seemed to think about it for a moment, then shook her head and set her mouth in a firm, resolute line. “No, I must be brave. Whatever is happening here, I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”

“Attagirl,” he said, a little more sarcastically than he had meant to. She stared at him, the phrase hadn’t really translated into Equestrian very well.

“I can’t help but feel like we’re being watched, though,” she said nervously, looking up into the boughs of the trees. It was easy to believe one could see black shapes amongst the patterns of the shifting leaves, all too easy to let the mind play tricks.

“Are there monsters between here and Canterlot,” he asked levelly.

“No,” she responded hesitantly.

“Then there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“…but there isn’t a forest, either. Not normally.”

“Sir,” one of the marines radioed over some time later. Riley had stopped to work something sharp out of his boot. “I think you want to come see this.”

The soldier had found a small clearing, clearly artificial. In the centre was a tiny pond beneath some low rocks, a little trickle of water ran from a hole near the top, a natural fountain of sorts. On top was a small statue of a pony, carved quite crudely, but recognisable even so. Underneath was a much finer engraving of a swooping, speckled cloud and a large star on a stick.

Twilight rushed over to it, pushing the marine out of the way and peering at it from all angles, inspecting the back and sides, even tapping the statue with a hoof. She no longer looked afraid, completely distracted by the new find.

“That symbol looks familiar,” she said suspiciously, mostly to herself. “That’s somepony’s cutiemark, I’m sure of it.”

Riley reminded himself to ask about the marks. It seemed as though all the adults had them, so he had assumed it was some form of coming-of-age thing, perhaps a family crest. Whatever it was, it seemed to be part of the fur itself, a precise pattern of pigments that grew back, rather than a traditional tattoo.

Rainbow and Applejack had joined Twilight and were inspecting the fountain as well. “Ah can’t say it looks familiar to me,” Applejack said with a casual shrug, losing interest immediately. She bent down to lap water from the pool. Rainbow did the same before flying back up through the trees, pleased to be able to stretch her wings again after being trapped underneath the oppressive canopy for so long.

Riley checked their heading on his handheld, they had begun to drift slightly east.

“What’s it doing out here?” Twilight was asking of nobody in particular.

“It doesn’t seem very relevant to our current objective,” Riley said, hinting strongly that they should move on. He indicated some of the strong saplings that had started to grow in the clearing. “Whoever built this has long gone.”

“But it might help us understand what’s happening here,” Twilight objected, then took one look at his face and relented. “But I suppose you’re right. I do want to get to Canterlot as fast as possible, after all.”

After a while they had begun to descend into a valley, trees even thicker around them, and the sun began to disappear behind clouds, casting them into even deeper gloom. The sound of birds in the trees and animals rustling in the undergrowth was clear all around them, peaceful and calm. The endless forest carried on and on as far as they could tell.

Riley had called a rest in a slight natural clearing on the banks of a large stream. They had been struggling through the forest for the better part of an Earth day, and he and his men were beginning to show signs of fatigue. Small tents were pitched and five of them got some rest while three stood watch, weapons armed and alert. Since the statue in the clearing Riley had started seeing shapes himself, snatches of movement out of the corner of his eyes when he wasn’t paying attention, rustles that were surely more than just the wind. He needed a rest.

The ponies had moved off some way and were dozing in the intermittent sun, Applejack lying on her back with her hat over her eyes. Rainbow had vanished up a tree and the sounds of snoring could be heard from a branch. Twilight was fidgeting in the shade of an oak tree, nestled amongst its thick roots on a blanket, clearly unable to sleep properly in the bright daylight.

He paced around the five tents, coming to stand by the other marine on guard, facing away slightly to maximise coverage. The silence of the forest was a little unnerving. At least when they had been on the move they were making noise and it distracted the mind. Twilight’s concern and paranoia had begun to take root in his mind, although he wasn’t about to admit it.

“Bet you didn’t think you’d be climbing through forests when you left home,” he said quietly, just wanting to talk to someone to break the awful silence.

“No, sir,” the marine answered. “Been a strange tour, no question ‘bout it.”

“Do you ever regret signing up?”

The marine gave a short bark of a laugh. “Never for a second, sir. This is my life. Nowhere else’d have me.”

“Got much family back home?”

“Got a sister, that’s ‘bout it, sir.”

Any further meaningless chatter was cut short by a rustle in the trees. The marine’s gun shot up, his attention completely focused. Riley followed the sound, squinting into the gloom. Out in the clearing it was far brighter and the view into the darkened interior of the trees was pretty much non-existent. There was another rustle, a little further away this time. Riley’s modifications allowed him to override his own irises, fortunately, and he switched into darkness mode, wincing as the glare of the sun made the front of his brain ache.

What he saw shocked him. “Ambush!” he yelled, bringing his own weapon up. Suddenly there was action all around, soldiers scrambling out of the tents behind him and all around from the trees came the sound of whooping and the crashing of hooves through the underground.

Within seconds they were surrounded on all sides by many ponies, some with crude weapons held in their hooves, and a few unicorns amongst them, their horns flickering fitfully. Riley’s marines were arranged in a tight circle, all facing outwards, their weapons trained on the group, steady as a rock. They were outnumbered at least five-to-one, although having seen how ineffective the Ponyville residents had been Riley wasn’t sure that it was actually against their favour.

“Orders, sir?” the marine asked, his voice low.

“Hold fire,” he said. He lowered his own gun and called out to the assembled ponies, noticing how thin and filthy they were, their teeth yellowed and eyes wary, never staying in one place. “We mean you no harm.”

A few of the ponies narrowed their eyes at him. “We’re just passing through,” he continued.

“What’s the meanin’ of this?” came Applejack’s outraged cry behind him. There was some scuffling. “Git yer’ dirty hooves offa me, or I’ll buck y’all into next week!”

Over by Twilight there was even more commotion, although it didn’t sound as if they were fighting. The word “alicorn” and “princess” were being bandied about. Twilight reared up on her hind legs, flapping her wings for balance and peering over the assembled ponies, trying to see her friends and Riley.

“What’s happening?” she called forlornly. “Who are these ponies?”

Riley shrugged, actions exaggerated so she could see him. He glanced up, seeing Rainbow Dash looking down at them from her branch. As far as he could tell they hadn’t noticed her, and he said “Pegasus, stay quiet,” in english, loudly. The ponies around looked at him suspiciously again. He risked another glance up and she nodded at him, creeping back into the shadows.

“You will come with us,” said a gaunt, grey stallion, stepping forwards from the line surrounding them. “You are our prisoners.”

“Lower your weapons, men,” Riley said quietly, “but keep them armed.”

His hopes came true; the group didn’t seem to recognise the guns as weapons, and they made no attempt to take them away. They were marched at a fierce pace through the forest for fifteen minutes, passing several other groups of scruffy ponies that followed them with their eyes, partially hidden in the undergrowth.

They emerged into a large camp amongst the trees where they were thinnest. Some effort had been made to clear spaces, but the camp looked very temporary, like that of a nomadic tribe. A great many more ponies stood about, watching them with undisguised interest as they were marched through the temporary shelters to a clearing in the centre where a fire burned cleanly. Foals ran around underfoot, and the men could be forgiven for thinking they were actively trying to trip them up.

Twilight was being herded by a group of twelve ponies, surrounding her but making no attempt to actually touch her, unlike Applejack who had been tied up and was being carried across a large stallion’s back. She was still wriggling angrily.

“Who are you ponies?” he could hear Twilight asking as they brought her closer.

“Hmm,” hummed a very old mare sitting by the fire, her wizened face scrutinising Twilight. While most of the ponies seemed to forgo clothes or jewellery she was an exception, draped with gaudy beads and shiny trinkets, her long, drooping ears pierced in many places and thick golden bands pulling them down further. She stood unsteadily, beads clattering, and trotted over to Twilight, inspecting her as she walked around in a circle. “You are an alicorn.”

“I am Twilight Sparkle,” she replied, confusion written all over her face. “Princess Celestia’s protégé. And I demand you answer me: who are you? Why have you taken us prisoner?”

“We are the Lulamoon tribe. You are trespassing in our territory. What business have you here?”

Riley was having a little bit of trouble understanding their captors, their accents were thick and far different to anything he had heard in Ponyville. Twilight seemed to have no such trouble, and she gasped, her eyes twinkling in that way Riley had learnt meant she had worked something out.

“Trixie!” she blurted out. “I knew it. That was Trixie’s cutiemark!”

“Great,” said Applejack, now on the ground and ungagged. “Her.”

“I know Trixie very well,” Twilight said brightly, encouraged by this. “Actually, we’re friends.”

The old mare smiled softly. “We, too, strive to know the Great Trixie. To better our understanding of Her ways. We are glad you have let Her into your heart.”

“Is she here?” Twilight asked hopefully, looking around. “Trixie?”

“She is with us all,” the mare replied sagely. “Sit, Twilight Sparkle, tell us of yourself.”

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said, sitting automatically on a long bench made from a fallen tree, smooth and polished from so many ponies sitting on it over time.

The marines stood calmly, but Riley could see they were alert, taking in their surroundings with a practised eye. As interesting as it was to observe if it took too much longer they would have to fight their way out, they were wasting precious time that they could ill afford to lose. Even with their disadvantage in numbers it shouldn’t be an impossible task, he had noticed that there were no pegasi amongst the group, only earth ponies and a few unicorns. They all looked malnourished, many of them old. Hopefully once the shooting started they would realise that they hadn’t a chance and simply run.

“Trixie is your… goddess?” Twilight asked, incredulously. She lowered her voice, muttering to herself, and Riley leant closer to try and hear her. “How’d she pull that off?”

“She watches over us, and keeps us safe in Her forest.”

“This forest is her doing?” Twilight asked, alert again. “She’s not… in league with him, is she?”

The old mare cocked her head to one side, and the fire crackled loudly. “I do not understand you, my child.”

Twilight whispered Discord’s name and the mare sat back. “That is a name from legend, to be sure,” she said wistfully, with a soft smile on her face as her rheumy eyes unfocused. “I recall, now, the tales told to my sisters and I, when we were very young fillies. Discord, the fraudster, chased from settlement to settlement as he boasts of feats he cannot match. Such were our bedtime stories.”

Twilight stared, mouth hanging open very slightly. Riley could sense the peculiar tension in the air. She looked confused and as though she were trying hard to think before she spoke.

“I think we’re going to need to get out of here, soon,” Riley said quietly to the marines. There were some muted “sirs” and he could hear the soft click of safeties being switched off. He was wondering how best to indicate his intention to Twilight when a noisy commotion in the trees above drew everyone’s attention.

Rainbow Dash half fell, half flew down from the trees, a shower of leaves and twigs raining down with her. She was breathing heavily and looked distinctly panicked. “Changelings!” she gasped, landing in front of Twilight. Riley could see bits of forest caught in her mane and tail, as if she had been chased through quite a lot of it. “There’s changelings here!”

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed, leaping to her hooves. She glared suspiciously at the ponies around her all of a sudden, horn aglow and a bright light bursting forth. The marines all suddenly brought up their weapons, knocking their captors to the side and forming a protective ring around Riley and his engineer.

“To arms!” cried the grey stallion, galloping away from them. Most of the assembled crowd was doing the same. Twilight stood by the fire, staring around in confusion.

“What is it, Twilight?” Riley asked urgently, pushing past the marines and crouching beside her, whatever was happening was cause for a great amount of commotion and action from the entire camp. Children and the infirm were being rushed away and ponies ran in every direction. Rainbow was untying Applejack, tearing at the knots with her teeth.

“Changelings, monsters from the old world, fae, shape-shifters. They take the place of somepony close to you and feed off your love for them. I thought we dealt with them a few years ago, but they must have regrouped. Oooh, this is very bad!”

“They’re also really ugly,” Rainbow said, spitting into the dust. “They’re not in disguise, figure they can’t get the food these days. Here they come!”

All about them was a hissing sound, and countless angular green eyes glared out sinisterly at them from all around. With an inhuman screeching they began pouring out of the trees, chitinous black scales glittering in the dappled sunlight that filtered through the tree branches high above them, their filmy, insect-like wings buzzing in the damp, humid air.

The ponies in the camp were fighting with a ferocity that belied their slender bodies and sickly appearance, jumping and leaping through the trees nimbly, delivering powerful kicks that shattered plate and bone, and vicious swipes from long curved blades that took off limbs with ease.

On instinct Riley brought up his rifle, firing three rounds into the chest of one of the horrors that dropped down from above him. The chatter of his gun added to the orchestra of precise, controlled gunfire from the squad around him, the shots echoing amongst the trees as changelings burst into sprays of stinking green fluids.

Twilight stood apart, firing small volleys of blinding light from the tip of her horn, light that crackled across anything it hit, knocking their attackers from the sky. Riley could feel every shot tingle in his implants, the radiation from whatever she was doing sending spurious impulses to his nerves.

Rainbow Dash was zipping around the trees, shooting from one to the next in a blur, the afterimage of her brightly coloured mane and tail leaving multihued trails in Riley’s vision. The changelings couldn’t react fast enough and she sent several into a terminal spin, their filmy wings fluttering uselessly.

“Sir!” yelled a marine suddenly and he turned his head to see a wall of the black critters heading straight for them, swirling and pulsating around something. Twilight saw it too and began shooting into the mass instead.

“Run!” she called through gritted teeth. “It’s their queen!”

As the changelings fell away, picked off one by one, Riley caught sight of a towering beast, taller than any man, a vision from nightmares. Striding forwards with malice and hunger in her slitted eyes she lowered her terrible head and let forth a blast of green plasma from her crooked horn.

Twilight dived out of the way, flapping her wings for extra speed. The green zap sizzled past her, kicking up a thick cloud of dust and leaves from the ground. Twilight was preparing another spell, but the huge queen was much faster and the second green blast took Twilight straight in the face. She cried out in distress and her body tumbled several paces back, twitching fitfully.

“Rainbow Dash!” he yelled, searching the trees for the pegasus. “Fall back,” he ordered the marines. “Defend her.”

The marines obeyed immediately and formed a protective wall in front of the prone Twilight. A quick glance told him she was still breathing. “Grenade, mark,” yelled a marine, throwing an incendiary device. As one unit they closed their eyes at the precise moment, the blinding flash still visible through their eyelids.

It was enough to knock the queen off balance, and she let out a fearsome shriek at the blast, her changelings scattered some distance from her. Apparently they were not expecting to deal with human weapons.

“Take her away,” Riley ordered Rainbow Dash as she landed behind them, already fretting over Twilight. He reloaded his weapon as the queen’s horn began to glow again. The marines were attentive and needed no prompting. They scattered in all directions, making themselves a spread target. Riley threw himself to the ground as a bolt of green light sizzled overhead, driving his cybernetics crazy and sending every muscle in his body taut at once. It was like cramp, only everywhere, all at once. He wanted very much to shout in pain, but his jaw was clenched shut too tightly. Panic started to set in as it didn’t wear off, and he was a sitting target, unable to act.

Fortunately the queen took him for dead and leapt forwards, razor-sharp hooves thudding into the dusty ground bare inches from his face. As she passed overhead he spotted their chance, the exposed and un-armoured underside of her belly, already bleeding from shrapnel.

Limbs barely under his own control he just managed to point his assault rifle upwards and squeezed the trigger, the hollowpoint rounds piercing the thin chitin there and penetrating into her chest. She howled in pain and every changeling on the field abruptly ceased their attacks, all desperately returning to defend her.

Riley barely managed to roll out of the way of her kicking hooves as she fell thrashing to the ground. He stiffly crawled away as the changeling horde convulsed around her, a heaving bundle of bodies and wings. The marines were firing on full automatic into the pulsating mass, only stopping to reload.

All of a sudden the changelings dispersed, shrieking and calling to one another wildly as they spiralled into the trees, knocking one another in their haste to get away. The changeling queen lay dead and motionless, her luminescent blood soaking into the dirt.

“Jesus,” swore one of the men, wiping the sweat and blood from his eyes with the back of a hand. “The hell were they?”

“They’re the sort of things I warned the admiral about,” Riley snapped with a little more heat than was maybe necessary. “Where are the ponies?”

“Rainbow’s got Twilight in one o’ the huts,” Applejack said breathlessly, galloping up to them and beckoning them to follow. Her fetlocks were splattered with dark green mush. He hurried after her, somewhat worried.

“I’m sorry, Riley,” Twilight said to him as he came through the doorway, having to duck to get under the low lintel. She looked a little dazed, her eyes slightly unfocused and wild, but otherwise she appeared unhurt.

He knelt down beside her, one hand on her shoulder. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head and then apologising again. “As you can tell, I’m not much of a fighter.”

“You did fine,” he said with a gentle smile, and then stood back up. He forgot about the low ceiling and cursed as he knocked his head against a wooden beam. Twilight giggled suddenly and he grinned back at her and shook his head. She was fine.

The random intermittent howls of the scattering changeling horde could be heard in the distance for quite some time after, their forlorn calls echoing through the trees. A cleanup operation had begun, the community working together to clear the dead changelings into a pile in the corner of their makeshift village. The dead and injured were being seen to, a solemn affair in general, the marines helping to dig graves. Riley was sat with his three ponies, facing a semicircle of the chiefs and elders in the village.

“You brought them here,” the grey stallion from before accused. He had introduced himself as Falling Dew, and served as their war leader. “They followed you. The rest have scattered, but soon they will join other hives, and they know now the scent of our blood and the way of our village. Because of you, we must leave our home behind for the third time in as many winters.”

“We are very sorry, Mister Dew,” Twilight said sombrely. She looked tired, and Riley could empathise with the painful headache she had after her magical encounter. He had one, too. “We didn’t know. I thought the changeling horde was destroyed over a year ago.”

“Whatever would have given you that foolish thought, child?” he snapped. “From where have you travelled?”

“Ponyville,” said Rainbow Dash. “And you better mind your mouth before I have a mind to close it for you! We just saved your hides, jerk.”

There were a few gasps from around. “That place is legend and hallowed ground, child, nopony lives there, nopony knows where it is. You are liars. Furthermore, had you not led them to us your assistance would have been wholly unnecessary.”

“Now look here a moment,” Applejack jumped in, standing up angrily. “Ain’t not one of us a liar, so y’all can take that right back. We didn’t even know you lot were livin’ here. An’ who’s t’ say they weren’t already lookin’ fer you anyways? And I don’t recall even headin’ for this sorry place, we were near enough a mile away when you rudely marched us back here.”

“Please, everypony,” Twilight said wearily, imploring them to be quiet.

“You profess to follow the teachings of the Great One, yet you defiled one of Her holy fountains by drinking from it! You are heathen trespassers in our lands, and liars beyond.”

“Oi, watch it, grandpa,” Rainbow shouted, beginning to hover in place, her wings beating fast in agitation. Twilight pleaded with them again, quiet voice unheard over their growing argument. Several of the younger ponies were standing now, leaning forwards and glaring daggers at the interlopers, a fight brewing in their eyes.

“Stop it!” Twilight howled, teleporting herself suddenly into the centre of the group with a bang that reverberated around the clearing and left ears ringing. The fire flared from the sudden gust of wind that she displaced, sparks swirling high above them, and Riley clamped his hands around his temples once more, grinding his teeth together. It hurt less and less each time she did it, but that wasn’t saying a whole lot.

“Stop it, all of you! I don’t know what’s going on here, but I do know I just faced down a changeling queen, who should have been banished last year, I’d like to add. And I also know that this forest isn’t supposed to be here. And Trixie is not a goddess. You do a terrible, nearly unforgivable, dishonour to the goddesses of the Sun and Moon with this ridiculous notion.”

She stared at the assembled ponies with wild eyes, wings spread wide and her horn positively humming with barely contained magic. There was something otherworldly about the scene, she no longer looked like the small, cute unicorn he had first met. It seemed now as though she was glowing from the inside, and an unnatural, thick darkness seemed to creep in from the shadows around them, chased by a soft wind that rustled the leaves in fits and starts. Riley stared, watching cautiously, this was a whole new side to the playful, excitable Twilight he knew.

“I want to leave here,” she said at length, sagging visibly. The spectral wind vanished, and the darkness gave way to simple shadows once again. Riley relaxed a little and gave a gentle shake of his head to the approaching men, several of whom had their weapons back in their hands. They ceased their approach but did not return to their half dug holes.

Applejack led the exhausted Twilight away from the fire, taking her aside to the cool shade of the huts. She was visibly shaken, too.

“I think, then, we will be taking our leave,” Riley announced brightly, standing up and clapping his hands for attention. He towered over the assembled ponies, who were still looking a little pale around the faces. “Come, Rainbow Dash.”

“That was awesome,” the excited pegasus said to him as soon as they were out of earshot of the rest of the group. “They were all ‘heathen defilers’ and Twilight was like ‘be silent, mortals’!”

“Hush,” he said. “I don’t think she’ll appreciate your enthusiasm.”

“You guys are pretty cool as well, you know,” she said, punching him lightly on the shoulder as she hovered by his head. “When you’re not fighting against us, at least. I’ve never seen so few take on so many and win without a scratch! And that roll you did under the queen! Incredible!”

“It’s not something to be proud of, Rainbow Dash.”

He tried to filter her out as she continued jabbering, undeterred. “When I saw how many of them were coming I thought we’d had it for certain, I mean one changeling alone is…”

“Will they let us leave?” Twilight asked him as he approached. His heart twitched a little when he saw the damp patches on her cheek coupled with the sadness and exhaustion in her eyes. He couldn’t remember seeing anyone look so miserable.

“They won’t try to stop us.”

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

"Timelapse".......
Oh, my. I wonder how many centuries have passed for the ponies outside of Ponyville........