The Cry
Eggs burst open with violent force as two more Drones burst forth from them, accompanied by yet another Overlord. The Zerg had been producing a lot of workers and Overlords in the last several hours that morning, the sunlight reflecting more off of the newly hatched creatures than their older brethren. If anypony was still alive and not being digested, their reasons could only be guessed at.
Two Drones and one Overlord broke away from the clearing where their first base was situated, floating off to the east... Their scouts had found something...
---
Twilight Sparkle rolled onto her side in her bed as she let loose a groan, her heavy eyes half closed as she frustrated-ly tried to snooze. Having to get up early so much was doing a number on her in terms of fatigue, and the frustration caused by the Zerg and the - dare she say it - stupid guards wasn't helping any.
All of this information, all of these mental images, all of Discord's ridiculousness was driving poor Twilight up the bucking wall. She wanted to believe her friend and... well, she most certainly did. She was the first to raise questions as to the intentions of the Zerg and just how dangerous they were. In truth, she was still inwardly annoyed that her friends had cut yesterday's excursion so short. She still had so much to learn about the aliens, so the fact that she hadn't filled a full notebook with research made her inner perfectionist violently cringe.
"Urrghh! Craaaap!" she irately groaned, rolling out of bed and briefly checking her mane in the mirror. Then she brought herself over to her windows, using her magic to move her telescope to the west facing window once more. Once it was set up correctly and steadily, the purple unicorn gazed through it and raised an eyebrow. "... Oh no..." came a soft uttering, magically retrieving paper and a quill to jot down notes. One of those huge, bulbous, scary looking beasts was floating above the White Tail Woods, heading east.
For a moment, she thought to raise alarm. At first, it looked like it was on a course towards Ponyville, but she studied its movement and took an educated guess that it was not coming to town. Instead, it was headed in the direction of the Everfree Forest.
However, before she had much more of a chance to speculate, the Overlord halted and began to turn around, heading back the way it came. "What...?" she muttered, watching the immense creature floating away. A small part of her was disappointed. The better, more sensible part of her was relieved, but only a little. That thing had been getting rather close to Ponyville and she shuddered at the thought of somepony seeing it.
Immediately, her thoughts shifted to a worst case scenario, wherein all of Ponyville would begin to panic and they would all be slain... somehow. But in the interest of her own sanity, she shook her head out and banished such thoughts from her head. "No, Twilight..." she told herself softly. "It was probably just exploring..." She paused for a moment as she watched it. "... But why would it be exploring...? Was it looking for us? ... No, if it was, it wouldn't have stopped there... It must have been able to see Ponyville..."
The observing unicorn watched the Overlord until it disappeared from view, stepping away from the telescope and taking a deep breath to calm herself. "Everything will be fine... Everything will be just... fine..." she reassured herself, looking at her hooves. "For now just... go downstairs and keep reading..."
And so Twilight did just that. She left her bedroom and descended into the library, noting that it was much emptier than before. Fluttershy and Discord were gone, and Spike didn't come into view until she reached the bottom of the steps. The baby dragon was standing on a chair next to her previous night's research, bookmarking pages and replacing books. He turned his reptilian gaze up to her for a spell, giving her a friendly smile.
"Oh, thank you Spike, but I need you to put all of those back... I'm not done with them yet," she told him, gaining a slightly annoyed look from the dragon. He quickly turned to undo his work, however, finishing such with Twilight's help in just a few short minutes.
With all of the books replaced, she resumed her research, pausing briefly to ask her assistant to unlock the front door and to put up the "open" sign.
Hopefully, nopony would bother her. Hopefully.
---
Trixie watched the foliage warily as it rustled, though a major part of her wanted to turn tail and run. She could always build another cart. Heck, she'd built hers on her own. Lumber was easy enough to come by. And she could always come back for it. Upon further thought, some ponies might even bring it to her for her out of the kindness of their hearts.
The flight option was beginning to sound really good right about now... It was very true that whatever it was could be non-threatening to her. Even with her minuscule magic, she could defend herself, too. But what frightened her most was the fact that the offending creature was not showing itself."W-Wh-Whoever you are, the Great and Powerful Trixie demands that you show yourself!" she declared loudly, stamping her cart's wooden floor with a hoof to accentuate that last word. "Come out!"
Once she finished speaking, the noises stopped completely... it was all eerily quiet, even with the melodic chirping of the birds... The magician grit her teeth and looked around her. "... Trixie does not want to be here anymore..." she muttered quietly as she stepped away from her window. She cast her gaze to the wooden wheel lying upon the floor. Still not dry.
"... No," she then told herself, standing firm and shaking her head out. "It was... just a deer or something..." With those words, she shut all of her windows and closed all of her blinds before lying down on her bed once more. Her cape fell behind her and her hat ended up falling off of the bed as her head hit her pillow, the unicorn letting out a stressed sigh.
"Get a hold of yourself, Trixie. You're jumping at every little noise you hear now..." she scolded, pounding the side of her head with a hoof. "You're becoming needlessly paranoid..." The mare forced herself to yawn and then shut her eyes, magically taking hold of her pillow and tugging it downwards to clutch between her legs. A small part of her felt self-conscious for doing such a foalish thing, yet she felt compelled to do so anyways.
The Great and Powerful Trixie laid there in bed for a long time, clutching her pillow as her mind went wild with the possibilities... It could be an ursa major for all she knew! No, they were too big... It could be timberwolves! Or a cockatrice! Or perhaps something equally scary. Her attempts to get the fear mongers in her head to shut up were unsuccessful for a long while, but eventually, she reined them in and subdued them, taking a deep breath.
She was in no danger... if she was, she'd know it by now, right? She'd be able to hear them moving outside her cart, and they'd probably be trying to get in by now if they wanted her. There would be ample warning for su-
This self assuring train of thought was viciously derailed as the sound of splintering wood and the accompanying vibrations rocked her cart. "Ahhhhhhhhh!" came her startled cry, her entire body shuddering violently for a split second as she snapped her gaze to the other end of her mobile stage. She quickly rose from her bed, ignoring the fact that she had trodden upon her hat as she eyed the spot where the sounds had come from.
Whatever it was, it had seriously damaged the wood, a visible crack appearing in two places along the plank. Of course, the fact that it kept happening didn't help. Wood began to break in two different places, as well as the original while Trixie screamed in horror. "No! No! Go away!" she commanded fearfully, backing away from the wall a few steps until her hind legs touched the edge of her bed. Her breathing became rapid and her eyes shrank to little pinpricks. Suddenly the prospect of abandoning her cart sounded even more appealing.
Especially when after the third or fourth impact, the wall broke and six slender, hooked, spiked appendages protruded from the newly created holes. These appendages began to tear at the rest of the wall violently, with alien, frenzied, hungry cries sounding from that side of the cart.
Trixie decided to cut her losses.
The blue mare dashed to her cart's door and shoved it open forcefully with a loud grunt, leaping down from the wooden cart and dashing back the way she had come. She didn't dare to look back, either, only willing herself to run. She didn't need to. She could hear the sounds of splintering lumber and then rapid steps behind her, keeping pace with her.
The Great and Terrified Trixie began to pant heavily as she dodged the occasional large rock or root that littered the dirt path, having to accept the fact that her pursuers sounded closer each time she maneuvered around a sharp stone. It was as she dodged one such stone that she chanced a backwards glance, and it only scared her more.
Three creatures with predatory appendages dashed after her, their growls and cries loud, strange, and bowel-emptying-ly fierce. Before she could take in any more detail, she forced herself to look ahead to keep running, just barely leaping over an exposed root as she did so.
Their footfalls became increasingly louder the longer they ran. Trixie realized that, despite her adrenaline, she was slowing down, and forced herself to break into a headlong sprint once more. She also realized that it was extremely possible she would never outrun these creatures.
"Heeeeelp!" Trixie screamed at the top of her hard-working lungs, her voice echoing through the trees. "Somepony help meeeeeeee! Please, somepony!!"
It was as she finished this first round of screaming that a glimmer of hope reached her. Despite the tree cover, she began to see the buildings of Las Pegasus on the horizon. Far on the horizon. If she could make it there, she'd be able to hide or get the guards to save her. Or if she could be heard, somepony might come to her instead and drive off these creatures.
'Keep going, Trixie...! Keep going! Almost there!' she optimistically thought as she willed herself to go faster. As she did so, she found herself deviating from the main path, darting through the trees in an attempt to lose her pursuers or - at least - widen the gap between them.
With that said, she began to find that darting around trees wasn't the best idea... From the sounds of their angry vocalizations, they were getting closer as she took care not to run into a trunk. Again, she lifted her head and screamed.
"Help me! Please! Somepony! Heeeeeelp!" Her voice was raspy and breathless now. She could feel her adrenaline failing her as fatigue instead began to take over. Her body protested loudly and painfully as she dodged yet another tree trunk, gasping for breath as she tried to keep going.
It was then that she made a mistake. She shut her eyes and grit her teeth tightly as she tried to speed up, but it was enough to blind her to yet another rebellious root. Her front right hoof caught it and, in her panic, she toppled head first onto the ground.
When she came to rest, she found herself on her side, gazing weakly at the approaching Zerg. She began to rapidly shake her head, trying to wake up from this nightmare. Then she ignored the futility of another call as she let out one final scream.
"HELP ME! Ahhhhhh!" Her exhausted, spent, pained frame went completely limp as adrenaline failed her at last. At the very least, her body allowed her one last mercy as the Zerg closed in on her: she passed out.
---
"Orrghhh... Note to self... urp... no more carrot cocktail..." complained Gold Leaf as he slowly flew over the city of Las Pegasus, feeling his stomach doing strange and undesired things to him. He was beginning to seriously regret not eating at home. The stallion held at his belly with a hoof while he flew, constantly contemplating a quick landing to try and alleviate his nausea.
In fact, a sudden heaving forced him to land atop a roof and vomit in a corner, gagging and groaning as he lost his early lunch. Once he finished, he let out another groan and wiped his muzzle on his front left leg, looking around briefly to see if anypony had witnessed his sickness. Thankfully, nopony had.
His fittingly golden fur and stark white mane and tail blew softly in the wind, thankfully leaving him out of the smelly range of his sick. "... Ughhhh... Maybe... I'll just sit here for a minute..." he muttered to himself, walking slowly to the other side of the roof and sitting on his haunches in a corner. The air certainly seemed to help when he wasn't airborne.
Gold Leaf sat there for several minutes, his stomach slowly ceasing its violent protest as he rested there. The pegasus found himself wondering why he didn't come up here more often. He was no stranger to high altitudes and he certainly enjoyed the height, but being up here, despite the taste in his mouth, was quite relaxing. "I should show Bauble this spot sometime..." he mused aloud, rubbing the underside of his muzzle with a hoof.
"Help me!"
The male's ears perked as he heard somepony's voice coming from the north. It was faint and distant, no doubt muffled by the trees the sound had to bounce off of. Yet he could understand it, and his wings spread immediately. "Somepony's in trouble!" he found himself yelling, leaping off of the building and gliding down to the ground as he searched for a guard.
"Who is in trouble, citizen?!" The sound of a loud, female voice beside him startled him, seeing a golden armored pegasus mare with similarly, if reversed, coloring to his own. She looked rather pretty...
'No! Bad Leaf! You have a marefriend!' he internally scolded himself, looking to the guard again and getting serious. "I heard somepony calling for help! I think they're in the White Tail Woods!" he replied, keeping his airborne path steady as the mare kept up with him.
"Where?"
'... What the hay. Nothing else was going to happen today,' he told himself as he started to pick up speed, flying towards the edge of the city with the guard hot on his tail. "Just follow me!" With that, Gold Leaf and Private Misty Light took off towards the call of distress, hoping to find its source before it was too late.
---
Twilight Sparkle froze for a split second as something occurred to her. She had an idea. An excellent idea. Twilight Sparkle had a wonderful, excellent idea. "Mayor Mare!" she declared randomly, hitting her front hooves together in what could be interpreted as a pony equivalent to snapping fingers. "I should go to her, make a plan for an attack!" she then continued, catching Spike's attention from across the room.
The unicorn pulled a long, blank roll of paper from a spot on a shelf and a map of Ponyville, her quill flying across the blank sheet as she she sketched a rough, though accurate approximation of the town. She could make it look pretty later; right now, it needed to be accurate first.
The baby dragon approached his caretaker and then hopped up onto a chair to get a look at what she was doing. He didn't say anything at first, intently watching her work, but eventually he saw her tracing arrows towards the library, the town hall, and Sweet Apple Acres, among a few other locations she hadn't labeled yet. "What are those arrows for, Twilight?" he quipped, getting her to throw a sidelong glance at him before returning to her work.
"They're evacuation routes," she answered simply. "If those things come to Ponyville, I want to make sure everypony can get out safely."
"Things? You mean Zerg?"
Twilight paused again for a second. "... Sure, fine, Zerrrr-guh!" she said replied in a rather immature tone. "Look, it doesn't matter."
Spike shook his head and smiled sincerely. "But don't you think everypony will want to know what they're called? It's a whole lot easier than calling them "aliens" every time!"
Twilight looked at Spike and placed her quill inside an ink pot, a soft smile curving her muzzle. "... Good point, Spike. Thank you," she told him, pulling him into a quick hug before beginning to work again. The dragon nodded at her once released and then hopped down from his perch, wandering off to get himself a snack before he continued his daily chores.
---
Gold Leaf and the guard accompanying him had been surveying the woods for an hour and come up empty-hoofed. It amazed him, too. To him, it felt like he had combed half the darn woods in search of the damsel in distress, and it was accurate. They had searched a good portion of the southern White Tail Woods. The guard was not amused.
"Mister Gold Leaf, do you have any idea what my superiors would do to me if they knew you dragged me out here for absolutely nothing?"
"I'm telling you, I heard somepony calling for help! I'm not lying!"
"I'm talking to you for Celestia's sake!" she asserted, stamping her hoof into the grass with a frustrated tone. "It's bad enough that you dragged me out here for nothing, but the fact that you're keeping me here is unbearable." She paused and moved her head to reach for something attached to her side. "I am going to fine you for this, by the way."
"... You're joking, right? You're writing me a damned ticket for this?"
"I am."
"Why?!"
"Out of spite." Her tone was not indicative of whether or not she was being sarcastic.
Gold Leaf opened his mouth several times to protest, but the pegasus mare's angry gaze silenced him. A deep sigh escaped his maw instead; it was going to be a real chore to explain all this to Bauble...
---
Rainbow Dash yawned loudly as she stepped out her door and streeeeetched her wings and legs, letting out a satisfied sigh when she finished. Her stomach rumbled angrily at her as she did so. It wanted food badly, but its owner told it "not yet."
There were certain perks to waking up late in the morning. One could skip breakfast and go straight to lunch (or brunch), she didn't have to try to avoid the ditzy mailmare as often... She looked down at her hooves. She couldn't think of any others, other than the fact that she valued her sleep.
All that aside, she spread her wings wide and ran to the edge of the cloud that her impressive, rainbow spewing home, leaping from it and allowing the wind to catch her powerful wings as she began to glide. Then she started flapping, rapidly gaining speed as she jetted towards Ponyville proper.
She reveled in the feeling of wind blowing through her multi-colored mane and tail, grinning a little as she flew. It was then that she remembered what she was meant to do that day. Rarity had some sort of suit that she wanted the self-proclaimed fastest flier in Ponyville to test out... Normally, she'd be reluctant to do something so boring, but the fashionista had hinted at the fact that somepony special had commissioned the suit... Rainbow Dash thought it could be the Wonderbolts, but the white unicorn was being tight lipped about the whole thing.
It made her suspicious, but not enough to be in any hurry. Rarity hadn't given her a time to stick to, so she'd squeeze in a good flight before heading to the boutique. So she zoooooomed over Ponyville, doing a few little stunts here and there. A few rolls, a few loop-de-loops, a few near misses on buildings. Everypony in Ponyville knew what this sort of routine looked like and they all knew to hit the dirt when RD flew past. It was better for their skeletal systems.
Ten minutes passed and the Bearer of Loyalty had reached the other side of Ponyville and turned herself upwards, beginning to climb rapidly with her legs pointed in front of and behind her for speed. Her ascent brought cooler air as she reached the clouds and then beyond them. She would've been moving them, but... hey, there were other weathermares, who appeared to be hard at work in her absence.
To be truthful, she was glad she had chosen to skip work this morning. If she hadn't, she probably wouldn't have gotten a view of the Ghastly Gorge to the southwest as she flew higher. She looked in its direction and ceased her climb, looking at that gorge with a quizzical expression.
"... What the heck...?" she muttered, starting to lazily glide in its direction as she eyed the object of her intrigue.... or rather, objects.
As she approached the gorge, she could see them in greater detail... and her gut sank as she came to a hover. "... Oh crap! I gotta tell Twilight!"
---
"I appreciate your concern for the citizens of Ponyville, Miss Sparkle, but I am not sure this is the best thing to do."
"Please, Mayor Mare, I'm not saying it's going to happen... But if it does, I think it would be best for everypony if we had a plan for it," Twilight Sparkle explained, gesturing to the large poster she had unrolled on the mayor's desk. "I'm not asking for drills or anything, I'm just asking that this be made public..."
The mayor looked down at her hooves and let out a sigh, thinking quietly for a moment before responding. "... Alright. I'll call a meeting soon."
Twilight let out a deep sigh of relief and smiled softly at the mare across from her. "Thank you so much, Mayor Mare... If nothing else, it puts my mind at ease..." she said as she stood to leave, using her magic to open the door to the mayor's office. "Goodbye!"
"Have a nice day, Miss Sparkle."
With that, the bookworm left the town hall, stepping outside into the rays of Celestia's sun. Another deep sigh left her lips, a wider smile curving them as she started to trot back home. She felt so much better having taken her plans to the mayor; all that was left to do was to grab lunch and spend the rest of the day... trying to research the Zerg...
Her smile faded as she remembered what she needed to do. She really didn't want to keep up her research, as strange as it was for her to admit it. But the Princess herself had told her to continue, and she'd never disobey her dear teacher... She wondered if she could possibly request that somepony else be assigned to it...
She also wondered why she could see Rainbow Dash making a beeline straight for her. Her eyes widened and she dove to the side for cover as the weathermare made a clumsy but successful landing where she had just been standing a few seconds ago. "Jeeeeez! Rainbow Dash, what's go-"
"T-Twilight!" Rainbow Dash yelled, cutting her off. "They're in the Ghastly Gorge!"
Twilight's expression became scared. She had a feeling she knew what this meant, but she didn't want to believe it... "Who? Who's there?"
"The aliens!"
A certain nausea hit the purple mare as soon as she heard that answer. Another deep sigh escaped her maw as she looked in the direction of her library. "... A-Alright... Let me stop at the library and grab my notepad, then I want you to show me what you saw." Rainbow Dash responded with a sort of salute, folding her wings and beginning to follow the unicorn home.
Now thoroughly worried, Twilight said nothing else on the trip back home. The Zerg were on the move, and though she didn't know what it meant, she somehow knew it wasn't good.
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You must construct additional pylons! . . .
wrong race
Let's just hatch 30 overlords and 200 zerglings.
Another excellent chapter, though some words seem to be missing on some parts, like sentences left incomplete. But, overall, really good chapter.^^
4915838 Which is good. That's what this chapter is meant to be.
Nice, the storie is going well, love it
Ahh... wait, they sent two drones? Hmm... Must have only one geyser there or... I dunno, bronze for life here
Also, my comment on what the Feral Zerg went and built first, an Overlord? With one Drone? I had nerd chills from that
Well, we can safely say that no Creep Tumors will be popping up anytime soon. Though Spine and Spore crawlers are a good possibility... the latter once an Evolution Chamber is up.
Oh god, why must we nerd out like this?!
I just wonder what would happen if they met with CarBot's Zerg instead... Drones giving away Minerals perhaps?
RIP Trixie, nom nom by zerg
4917872 Oh, hey! It's you! I've seen you commenting on and correcting a lot of other stories. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel kinda proud that you made your way here.
4920316 Rip in pepperionis, Twixie
4920321 Uhh... Does that make me infamous?
But yeah, in a Sc2 mood as of late so here I am
4920428 Well, it makes you a user I've seen a lot of. You can take that for what it's worth. :p
4917872
More adorable Fluttershy and Zerg moments. Feeding the zerglings, playing fetch with an ultralisk...
4920850 Suddenly I'm reminded of the Ponies CS stories... like Pinkie Pie vs Infestor or Spike VS Ultralisk. Too bad we won't see the later strains though since it is pre-Zerus mission units only.
I liked the fact that they went and did some alternate lines for if someone chose to do this mission before another.
And whenever I look at my own comment again, I keep hearing the Queen bugging me with the same dastardly line again and again
Burn them all, destroy them all, DO IT NOW!!
4920863
Spawn additional Overlords? You require more vespene gas? There's a snake in my boot?
4929745
4930241 Wood needed
Wood needed
Not enough wood, mi'lord
Not enough wood, mi'lord
Moooore wood is needed
Moooore wo-
Wait, wrong game.
4930357
4930366 We're thinking different games, methinks. I was thinking Stronghold.
4930387 Yep, looks like it. I was thinking Warcraft 3
I do notice that the game seems similar to Age of Empires II though
4930396 I haven't played AoEII. I've played Age of Mythology, though, if that counts.
4915578
.
fc00.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/234/b/d/OBJECTION__Phoenix_Wright_by_TheDailyNissan.jpg
Swarmling mutation strain was verified in previous chapter "The Flash". As a result, zerglings can no longer be spawned; please amend statement to 600 Swarmlings
4930742 HOLD IT!
Swarmlings only produce a 50% increase in zerglings so by producing 200 zerglings, you can only make 300!
If you said 200 PAIRS of zerglings, then that's another story entirely.
4930357
Gold is flowing into the treasury mi'lord.
4931215
Ah, I have been defeated by your superior knowledge of the more subtle rules of Starcraft. Well done.
The zerg need to find some vespene. An armour upgrade and spears will no longer affect them at all.
4915578
NOW!!!! ITS PONIFIED!!!!!!!!
5670888
What the fuck did i just watch?
4930357
Crusaders?
4930387
STRONGHOLD thats what it was.
I used to play all of the Stronghold games.