Still love ya, Stan
Twilight Sparkle panted softly as she finished casting the spell to send that page to her home, feeling its drain on her magic pool and feeling it heavily. She knew that such a thing was a huge effort and that it was possible that doing so was incredbly stupid, but she felt better for doing so.
She could have done without Pierce's protests to her damaging the comic book, though.
As soon as she had sent her letter, things became slightly more eventful in the room. The Boss emerged from the Simulation, along with Matt Miller and the female stranger, prompting a bit of a speech from Kinzie before the President pointed to Johnny and one of the other strangers before returning to the Simulation with them. Apparently she was part of phase three, she mused as the first humans left the room for whatever reason. Twilight didn't question their departure from the room.
She didnt really care. Instead, she was waiting in anticipation of a response. She could imagine easily that there wouldn't be one, however. There was simply no way that they had received it. Her home was now likely either vacant or so densely occupied that her letter would not be noticed. Spike was probably in Canterlot.
... Canterlot! She immediately grimaced and smacked herself with a hoof for her idiocy. She should have just sent it to Canterlot! Stupid, stupid Twilight! She had just wasted her magic and the only piece of light paper she had.
Twilight shook her head and sighed. There was no point in worrying about that now. She sauntered over to the "hacker" as she worked, sitting on her haunches nearby while listening to her talking. And a brief bout of angry, but soon quieting chatter from her apparent counterpart.
From what the mare could tell, the Boss, Johnny, and somehuman named "Ben King" were running around a rapidly decaying and exploding Simulation, opening portals or something to summon reinforcements.
Twilight subsequently made the mistake of asking how the plan worked. Kinzie began to go off on a huge, long rant about things that Twilight could only partially understand. She spent a good while trying to understand the many unknown terms she used, but she was able to get the basic jist.
As she understood it, the Simulation was tied to a number of important things on Zinyak's "mothership", and with all the chaos the Boss was causing inside, the Simulation was crumbling. It seemed that the Zin would have to sabotage themselves in order to keep it from being ruined, therefore giving them an opening that would allow them to directly attack Zinyak.
Twilight could get behind that. She remembered just how hard their escape from the Zin had been, to be sure, and she wouldn't mind not being blown to Tartarus.
---
It didn't take long for things to get tense, actually. Kinzie had begun saying things along the lines of "Get out, get out, holy shit holy shit, sweet Celestia on a scooter, get out now." It seemed they had succeeded in taking down the Simulation, but it was now coming down all around the Boss and actually locking the "Gateways" they used to enter and exit "Steelport."
Twilight didn't think it was dangerous, however. It was only a Simulation, right? It wasn't real, and it wouldn't hurt the real Boss.
Then Kinzie apparently reminded the Boss that if she didn't escape, her mind would be trapped within the Simulation.
Oh.
Every human in the room was looking over Kinzie's shoulder at this point, watching quietly as the Boss dashed and glided all over Steelport in an effort to find an open Gateway. Twilight was, unfortunately, too short to see.
It was only through a collective sigh from the others that she realized the President's success, watching as Kinzie put down her device, got off the crate she was perched on, and approached the woman's Simulation link.
Twilight approached the leader of the Saints, ducking as the one named Johnny tossed one of the Zin's "rifles" over her head and into the hands of her savior. "We're gonna kill a lot of aliens," he uttered in a voice that made her shiver.
Sweet Celestia, his voice! She wasn't sure whether to be pleased with its sound or terrified of its user. She found herself staring at the man for a few seconds, but immediately looked away when Johnny glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.
---
"Keith, how long till we're ready?" the Boss quipped, checking the "Dominator" rifle she had just caught while simultaneously shaking her head at it. She didn't really like this particular weapon. She loved their handguns and their SMGs were alright, but their rifles just felt... weak. Weak to use, that is. Being shot with one definitely hurt. But the unsatisfying, unnatural, ineffective feeling laser fire would never replace good old fashioned 5.56mm high velocity rifle rounds fired from an all-American M4 with a ridiculously and absurdly large magazine. Or a more illegal ammo type, if she could find someone selling it.
All-American... She sighed inwardly at that term. Just because she was the President of the United States, everyone thought it was best for her to use American made weapons. And while she certainly had no issues with a change in ballistic weaponry, she had missed her favorites.
If the Zin really could restore Earth, her first act as President would be to make some foreign arms dealer very, very rich. Whether or not it was a public act would be an unimportant detail.
Snapping back to reality, Keith's deep, well trained voice rang in her ear. "About five minutes. Dodging a few patrol ships here and there."
"Got it." The Boss sighed and slid the alien rifle onto her back as she glanced at Pierce and Shaundi, then at an approaching Twilight Sparkle.
Pierce looked pretty chilled out, all things considered. Normally, she'd expect him to be a little freaked out, but no less functional. The guy didn't let a lot of things get to him and if he ever did, he was hiding it pretty damn well. He stood there and toyed with his weapon idly, his mouth occasionally moving as though he were talking to himself.
Shaundi, on the other hand, appeared to be a little more on edge. She was moving around with her weapon as if she were trying to get a better feel for it, aiming around and likely reminding herself not to shoot. At one point, Pierce had noticed their newest crew member's path and - whether he meant to or not - ended up pointing his gun at her. Shaundi just glared at him, and he corrected himself.
Come to think of it, Pierce was probably pissed off at Twilight for that incident in the cargo bay from before.
And speak of the devil... The unicorn had since walked up to her and sat down on her haunches beside her, her expression distant, but still thoughtful. Her big, expressive eyes wandered around the room busily, shuffling her front hooves around in what the Boss guessed was an anxious way.
"It... occurs to me that... I still don't know everyhuman..." she spoke rather awkwardly and out of the blue. The President couldn't help a short chuckle at that, patting Twilight's head a few times.
"Try 'everyone' or 'everybody'," the woman began, getting the pony's attention. "Rolls off the tongue better. Now..." The Boss looked around the busy room, trying to think of who Twilight had actually met.
"Uhhhh... Let's see... That's Ben," she eventually emitted, gesturing over towards the man in question. "My Chief of Staff. Calls himself Benjamin 'Motherfucking' King, he's an author, used to be a gang leader, thinks he'd do better as President." The "puckish rogue" glanced down at the unicorn to see her staring intently at the bald man in glasses, then at King to see him returning the favor.
She then touched Twilight's horn with two fingers, nudging her head in Asha's direction. "Over there is Asha. She was a spy for MI6, and worked with Matt over there... Really don't know much about her." The Boss wouldn't admit that she hadn't been paying too much attention to the British agent's history. "Speaking of Matt, I don't know if you met him, but-"
"Oh, no, I met him..." Twilight cut in, offering her a polite smile.
"... Oh." The two stood in awkward silence for a few seconds, the Boss crossing her arms beneath her chest before she remembered something. She reached for an earpiece and took a light hold of the pony's right ear, doing her best to put it on her. "This'll let you hear Kinzie when she's talking to you. You'll need it." Twilight seemed satisfied, if curious, and nodded.
Several more seconds of deafening silence followed before the leader of the Saints snickered. "Matt and I tried to kill each other once," she added, earning a look of shock from the mare.
---
"Wait, really?" Twilight let out, glancing back and forth between the woman and the human in question. From the very limited contact with Matt Miller she had had, she had seen him as a nervous, but odd and possibly self-centered individual. She wouldn't have pegged him as a killer.
"Yep. He was part of the Syndicate when we ended up in Steelport. The real one, I mean. Had a gang called the Deckers made up of scrawny white people in outdated cyberpunk-y clothes and crazy girls on rocket skates carrying exploding hammers." Twilight really wanted to stop the Boss to ask for some sort of explanation. She had learned about the Syndicate from Shaundi earlier, but the little questions still nagged at her. The Boss didn't seem interested in clarifying, though. "Anyway, he stopped Shaundi from killing Killbane at one point, then I found him in his virtual hidey-hole and beat the shit out of him. Would've killed him, too, but he convinced me not to. Next I heard of him was when Shaundi, Pierce, Asha and I went to kill Cyrus Temple."
Twilight gave up. It wasn't worth it to ask about everything at this point. She just nodded instead, feigning her understanding. "I see... But still... him?"
"What do you mean?"
"I just... I barely know him, but I wouldn't have pegged him as a... well... you know..." Twilight looked down at the floor gingerly.
"Ya know, I could go into detail about how you shouldn't make that judgement ever, even about us, but I'll tell you this," the President said in an unfittingly amused tone. "The Saints didn't get anywhere by making friends. Even when I ran for President, and I say this only because reporters don't exist anymore, there were a lot of assassinations. Some of them done by me."
Twilight felt compelled to ask many questions, but one seemed so necessary that she blurted it out before she could stop herself or word it differently. "How many have you killed?"
Only slightly disturbed by the lighthearted chuckle she got as a reply, Twilight's eyes narrowed more at the Boss' answer. "I dunno. I stopped keeping track after I threw a few too many grenades. Point is-"
"Boss! Let's go!" Shaundi cut in, walking towards the cargo bay door. The leader of the Saints nodded and sighed.
"C'mon, Twilight," she said, following the Boss closely and leaving the room while her mind swam with implications, moral dilemmas, and dread. As much as she wanted to give Zinyak what he deserved, the lack of a distraction allowed all those grim, sobering, terrifying thoughts to come back and haunt her.
For better or worse, she began to try to prepare a story for her friends. Or, if nothing else, a plea for forgiveness.
---
Matt Miller sighed deeply as he watched "team 3" leave the room, rubbing at his temples to try to will a particularly inconvenient headache away. He wasn't sure what to do with himself for the time being, in truth. He figured that he would be assisting the President in her fight against Zinyak (if possible), but that was just it.
I'm not cut out for the field, he told himself as he wandered to the other side of the Simulation room, leaning against a wall and producing his reclaimed handheld to continue with his fifth consecutive playthrough of "Nyteblade and the Bloody Veil." Most of the other crew members were leaving the room, as well, likely off to relieve themselves or to take care of some other last minute crap that they felt they needed to do. Eventually, it was just him and Kensington, whom had not moved from the computers in the middle of the room since the Boss escaped the Simulation.
While his expression did not betray it, he was definitely anxious. He did his best to focus on his game, but it was difficult regardless. At least he wouldn't be fighting directly alongside her. His heart went out to Shaundi, Pierce, and the pony, but he didn't envy them in the slightest.
Just as a cutscene started and as Matt once more cursed the lack of a skip option, a noise to his right caught his attention. An odd noise unlike anything he would imagine anything on the ship making. He turned his head to look and subsequently raised an eyebrow at what he saw.
A scroll. An ancient looking scroll was lying on the cold metal floor a few metres from where he stood. Intrigued (and glad for something to do while the cutscene dragged on), he stepped over an picked up the scroll. It certainly looked ancient, especially up close. It was written on parchment, wrapped up with ribbon, it even had a seal of some kind that he paid no mind to as he unrolled it and began scanning the page.
The writing appeared to have been scrawled in a hurry, yet it was still legible and elaborate. Pondering not who wrote it immediately, he began to silently read.
"Dear Twilight Sparkle,
"I am sad to have to even consider that you are likely not truly who you say you are, but I must assume that you are not. Take this how you will, but there have been no less than two instances of ponies claiming to be you. They were swiftly discovered to be fraudulent, and I am hoping that yours is not found to be the same. Still, there are problems with your message.
"I never thought you had such vulgarity in your vocabulary, first of all. Nor have I ever seen you as a violent mare. As I read your message, I must admit, I found myself hoping for yours to be a forgery. The concept of a pony such as you having fallen so far is a thing that I cannot imagine without a grimace.
"And as I write, I find myself increasingly convinced that you are not who you say you are. I could not and still cannot sense your magic. Luna could notfind your dreams. And even Discord, after being ordered to search for you, came back empty pawwed.
"With all of that said, I have taken your message seriously. As absurd as the concept of an alien invasion sounds to everypony that has seen your letter, I have still acted on the information. Equestria's security will be compromised no more. Everypony is being evacuated and taken to shelters where available while the military is hunkering down and preparing for these 'Zin.' The other Elements of Harmony are in Canterlot with myself and my sister, and we are also making preparations to fight.
"If you are the real Twilight Sparkle, I do not mean to express a lack of confidence in you or these "Saints" that you have associated yourself with. If you are truly who you say you are, then I wish you the best of luck. We all do.
Sincerely
-Princess Celestia"
Matt Miller stared at the text for a few minutes more, then shook his head and sighed. "More goddamn ponies... I miss aspirin," he uttered softly, rolling the parchment back up and tossing it back on the floor.
---
Twilight would freely admit that she had seen very little of the Zin "mothership." During their escape, the mare hadn't been paying much attention to their surroundings. Now that she was on the platform, she got a better chance to look around. Their landing site was huge, empty, and very red. And that was without looking behind her. Ignoring the view of their ship from the outside, she realized she would love to explore the place... The huge shaft they had flown through to reach this place just radiated massive-ness.
So wrapped up in this strange place was she that she didn't notice the three humans advancing towards the door at the far end of the platform until the Boss yelled for her. Grimacing at her own inattentiveness, the unicorn began dashing towards the rest of the group.
When she caught up with the rest of the group, they were all waiting at the door, rifles raised. "Twilight, you go first. I want you running interference." That was the only order given by a very serious Boss before she stepped closer to the door, making it open to a long, crate laden hallway. Twilight followed her instructions and entered the hallway ahead of the three humans, channeling magic into her horn preemptively while preparing a shield spell. She had no issue doing so, as channeling her magic did not expend any of her power, and would merely allow her to cast her spell more readily.
She was glad that she had done so. As the door shut behind them, several Zin soldiers rounded a corner and took cover behind the conveniently placed crates, beginning to open fire on her and the three humans. She immediately cast a weak shield, which Shaundi and Pierce used as cover while the Boss...
Well, the Boss made her wonder how she was still alive. The President of the United States was just running in there, firing at the Zin like a maniac while either dodging their own projectiles or taking them. It boggled her mind, but the way that the Boss was shrugging off these "lasers" was insane! She had been hit once or twice by their weapons in the Simulation to know it hurt like no other, but the Boss wasn't even phazed!
"How is she doing that?!" she shouted, getting Shaundi's attention as they all watched the President slide under an unfortunate Zin soldier and grab it between its legs before flipping it into the air.
"Don't ask me!" was all she got, and it just confused her more. Instead she began running forward, picking up a Zin "rifle" in her magic and following the Boss' example. She let her shield vanish as the other two humans followed. Twilight had learned her lesson before, and was very much intent on not shooting herself.
As illustrated when a soldier hiding from the Boss' reckless assault charged at her with some sort of shield strapped to its arm. Without hesitating, she teleported the rifle behind the running biped and pulled its trigger, blasting it in the back before taking the shield in her telekinetic grasp. With rifle and shield at her side, she dashed around a corner to join a stair descending Boss in her fight. The shield was moved around rapidly to block any incoming fire while her own weapon moved rapidly around and blasting many a Zin trooper.
When the place began to explode around them, Twilight had to wonder if she was doing too good of a job.
"Kinzie, are you guys shooting at the ship?" she heard the Boss ask, perking an ear to listen while beginning to tread very carefully.
"No, why?" Twilight jumped a little as she heard the "hacker's" voice in her right ear, now both on edge and infinitely interested in the odd little device wrapped around her ear.
"Hey, i-it's like someone's setting off fireworks in here!" she heard Pierce complain as he reached that same staircase to assist them.
"There's a lot of power being rerouted to fixing what we did to the Simulation. Guessing it's causing surges throughout the ship."
The Boss stopped near a corner, likely to let Pierce and Shaundi catch up. "Sooo we're not blowing up?" she quipped.
"Well, I can't guarantee that, but most likely you're fine."
Shaundi groaned frustratedly as she ran past the Boss to attack first. "I feel better already...!" she called as the Boss, Pierce, and herself charged around the corner to assist.
Twilight raised her shield in front of her body - grateful for its protection - and began firing again as the humans did their parts. As she did, though, she began to let her mind wander a little. A part of her was cringing at the atrocious acts of violence she was committing now, and another worried about just how little she was hesitating to do so.
But mostly, she was recalling the Boss' words on murder.
"Try. Seriously, don't knock it till you try it."
And she was. She was killing aliens with their own damn weaponry. Twilight just had to concede; something about the act of ending a life felt unbelieveably, perhaps sickeningly satisfying. It felt addictingly empowering. It made her feel strong.
The few doubts she had surfaced once more as she very easily dispatched a group of Zin that showed up behind her. These Zin deserved to die, make no mistake. They all deserved to die. But what would happen after they succeeded?
Her train of thought and her absent advance led them all through a door into a huge room with a horde of Zin troops waiting for them. She stepped back subconsciously, looking back at the trail of bodies that they had left behind.
Twilight could not prevent the sickeningly devious and unquestionably murderous grin that curved her muzzle.
---
"If Kinzie doesn't know what's in the armory, what are we looking for?" Shaundi queried, getting the Boss' attention even as she dropkicked another Zin grunt in the face.
"Something that'll get us to Zinyak," came her terse answer.
"So something big and has a lot of flashy buttons?" Pierce added, his tone both humorous and serious.
The woman just chuckled and nodded, blasting the freshly floored Zin and headshotting another immediately after. "Something like that!"
"I mean there could be a button for self destruct, or one that activates a Zin-killing virus, or even..."
"Pierce, it's not gonna have flashy buttons on it!" she heard her Secret Service Director yelling, ducking behind a crate to let her rifle cool down.
"Wouldn't turn down a robot."
Kinzie the killjoy chimed in her ear. "A robot wouldn't help you in space. What you'd need is-"
"A rocket-tank?" the Boss said hopefully.
"Actually, I was going to say a spacesuit and a REALLY big gun."
The Boss bolted to the other end of the room and glanced back to check on her three followers. Pierce and Shaundi were making a mad dash to join her and Twilight...
The President's jaw dropped when she saw what could very possibly be one of the most ridiculous, awesome, awesomely ridiculous, and ridiculously awesome things possible. Twilight was walking very casually through the middle of the room while a lot of Zin rifles floated around her. Four of the Zin's shields covered every side of her body while - she took a second to count - thirteen Dominator rifles floated over her head. Without any obvious effort on the unicorn's part, she blasted every single Zin that she could with incredible ease and accuracy. If she didn't have an angle on one, she simply shifted a rifle to make an angle.
She could hear Pierce chuckling nervously. "... I'm glad she's on our side!" he expressed. The Boss had to agree. Between nearly being choked out by Twilight, witnessing an entire army of Zin being wiped out, and this, the Boss made a note to stay on the equine's good side. Regardless, she ran to the door nearby, though groaned as it refused to open.
"Door's locked, Kinzie!" she shouted, turning back around and taking a brief moment to catch her breath.
"Dammit! It looks like the door is on a closed system. You guys are on your own for this one." Kinzie's response would have made her curse had Shaundi not moved to a nearby console and started working.
"Boss, Pierce, Twilight, cover me! I'll try to get it open!" Shaundi yelled.
"Sounds good!" she briefly replied, running towards the right side of the room to begin fending off wave after wave of Zin troopers.
"Boss! On the right!" Pierce yelled rather reduntantly.
---
Twilight reached the door along with the Boss, Pierce, and Shaundi shortly after they did, dropping the shields she had been carrying and all but one of the rifles as she remembered to save her magic for Zinyak. She didn't know how soon she would need it, but when she started to really feel the effects of her dwindling magic reserves, she decided to ditch the extra firepower.
She heard Shaundi's order and looked around frantically. She only had a vague understanding of what that actually meant, but she figured a more literal interpretation of such wouldn't be terrible.
Especially as she saw a large container of some kind dangling from the ceiling on her immediate left, suspended over a steam-spewing pit. Lighting her horn, Twilight enveloped the object in her magic, testing its considerable weight before sighing and pouring more power into her telekinesis. Better to expend more magic than to let somehuman die, she told herself.
She looked behind her at Pierce and Shaundi, the former standing near the latter and taking potshots at any Zin that weren't after the Boss. She then looked at the waves of Zin trying to advance around the Boss or trying to avoid her altogether by moving on the left.
A devious grin curved her muzzle as she tore the container down from the ceiling, its separation helped along by a convenient explosion. Straightening the object in her telekinetic hold, she aimed it very briefly before pushing it - not throwing it - into the leftmost walkway. Doing so not only firmly blocked the passage, but also crushed a few unlucky Zin that didn't see it coming.
The resulting crashes and clangs were enough to draw the attention of every human and Zin in the room, all of them glancing at the container and the three humans staring at Twilight with expressions of awe, approval, and disbelief.
Twilight allowed herself to feel proud of her accomplishment. Then she remembered how she should have been trying to conserve her magic.
When the fatigue hit her, it hit her hard. She gasped for breath as she suddenly felt herself at a loss for it, managing to stagger and stumble her way around Shaundi's console to try and recover.
She vaguely heard the Boss yelling something from nearby, to which Shaundi replied very loudly. "Oh, you know. Trying to hack alien technology while getting shot at. How do you think it's going?!" She definitely sounded irritated, and didn't even look up from her work to shout her reply. She paid the unicorn no mind as she hid behind the console, breathing heavily.
"Twilight, come on!" came the President's voice, this time over the device in her ear. "You can't be tired already!"
Regardless of whether or not the Boss would hear her, Twilight sighed. "I only have... so much magic, Boss...!" she explained, a little more frustration seeping into her tone than she meant to.
The Boss said nothing else on the matter. Twilight sighed and shut her eyes, trying to will magic into her body in spite of the impossibility of such a thing.
---
Vice President Keith David sighed and flicked the zipper of his jumpsuit as he left the ship's bathroom, starting to head back to the bridge. The actor wouldn't freely admit it, but he was getting anxious. Not over the possibility of failure, mind you.
Keith had no doubts that they would fucking destroy Zinyak when they reached him. As inept as the Boss had been as the President, that woman was a force of fucking nature. She would kill Zinyak.
He could have done without the waiting, though.
He passed through the Simulation room, now empty, and was about to leave through the opposite door when he noticed something in the corner of his vision. He turned and approached the odd object: a scroll. The actor-turned-politician scooped it up and started reading, turning to head back to the bridge as he looked over the message.
Kinzie, Ben King, and Asha Odekar were still there when he returned, with King briefly regarding him as he entered. He got a fuller look when the scroll was noticed. America's first and only black Vice President nodded at him and approached the man with the message. Without waiting for the hacker and MI6 agent to notice him or giving an explanation, Keith David began reading from the scroll aloud. By the time he finished, the other three were giving each other thoughtful looks.
Asha was the first to speak. "We can't give her this message," she very bluntly stated, crossing her arms while Kinzie turned to her work again. "She can't afford the distraction. None of us can." The sentiment got the two males' murmured agreements.
"Still..." Kinzie chimed in without looking, though was obviously making sure that Twilight wouldn't hear her. "If we're gonna do that, we're gonna have to make sure she never finds it. If she found out that we hid it from her, I don't think she'd have many problems with ripping us apart."
Keith sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose, turning their options over in his head while King spoke up. "We didn't find it until after Zinyak died, did we," he posed, crossing his arms.
The actor had to shake his head. Giving it some thought, any sort of treachery on their parts was very dangerous. Too dangerous. "... We have to tell her."
"What did I tell you?" Asha interjected, glowering at the VP. "If she loses focus, she'll become a danger to the mission."
"If we don't and she finds out, she'll become a danger to us," Keith insisted, messily rolling up the scroll and holding it tightly. "I never got to hear from my wife before Zinyak abducted me. She ought to hear what this "Princess Celestia" had to say." His well trained tone seemed to work on the other three humans, looking at each other for a moment.
"... Do we really want her to be thinking about the drama she'll run into when she gets home, though?" Ben posed, raising an eyebrow and adjusting his glasses.
Keith David shook his head again and opened the scroll, looking it over again. "I never said she should hear all of it."
Kinzie held up a finger. "I'm not doing it."
---
The armory door opened rather suddenly as Shaundi finished her work. The Boss had ordered her human companions to return to the ship while having Twilight remain with her.
For that much, Twilight Sparkle was grateful. She wouldn't enjoy being stuck on the ship and leaving the Boss to fight Zinyak alone.
"A thank you would have been nice!" she faintly heard Shaundi calling as she and the President walked through the open door and into a short hallway. After a quick right turn, they entered a large, circular room with suits of human sized... armor?
"Well well well~" the Boss uttered in a low, almost sensual tone, an eager grin plastered on her lips.
"It's a robot, isn't it," Kinzie practically sighed through her earpiece, the pony moving closer to one of the displayed suits to examine it more closely.
The armor itself was mostly grey, appearing metallic and very sturdy. The helmet didn't have any obvious eye slits or visor, however, which did puzzle the unicorn a little. What good is armor if you can't see anything in it?
"No, Kinzie," the woman uttered excitedly, her grin growing with every second. "It's power armor."
"No. Way."
"Fuck. Yes!" Twilight glanced back at the Boss in time to see her enter a small room with odd looking... Twilight struggled to name them as anything other than tentacles. Tentacles with odd grabbers on their ends, mind you. The human stood in the center or the room, leaving her rifle outside, as the doors slid shut.
Worrying noises began to issue from behind the door and Twilight's eyes went wide. "Boss!" she yelled, running to the door and beginning to pound on it with her hooves. "BOSS!"
---
The Boss snickered as the armor's "visual display" switched on, the arms pulling away and the door opening to reveal a worried, then relieved Twilight. For whatever reason, she could hear Stan Bush playing again, but she shook her head and started fiddling with the suit as if she had had it for years.
Eventually, she found something a little more fitting, grinning behind her helmet as she stepped out of the room. "Your turn, Twilight."
"Are you sure, Boss?" Kinzie chimed in over the music. The President of the United States merely chuckled, watching as the mare nervously followed orders.
"Too late!" she replied as the door slid shut once more and the machines did their work.
---
Twilight was expecting the process to hurt a lot more than it did. It wasn't pleasant, as the "tentacles" put the armor on her rather forcefully and secured it into place, but she could handle it. The armor itself wasn't uncomfortable, however. Even as the helmet was put together directly on her head, it wasn't that bad.
Her next observation was that of this "visual display" that she was given when the helmet was finished, allowing her to see through the opaque headgear without issue. It was really quite fascina-
She cried out in pain as a series of three needles pushed themselves into the back of her neck, her under-barrel, and directly into the very tip of her horn. She began trying to squirm away from the intruding lengths of metal, but what she felt in the following seconds stopped her.
Power.
So much power! She felt as if magic was being drawn into her and it was nothing short of incredible. Music started playing inside the suit as the doors opened, the unicorn unable to help a long, hearty laugh. "Wow! This is awesome!" she yelled, dashing out of the room.
And straight into the opposite wall. The impact dazed the mare slightly, but it hadn't hurt like it should have. She heard the Boss whistle behind her, gesturing towards the door opposite the one they entered from. "Let's go!" she declared simply, and Twilight followed the now sprinting Boss through it.
Running through the following hallway, a nearby explosion behind them made them both stagger, but it wasn't long at all before the two of them were standing in front of a huge pit. The gravity felt weaker, Twilight mused idly as she peered down it, about to raise questions about where they were going before a shove from behind answered that question for her.
"Booooooss!" she yelled, flailing as the human jumped down after her.
"Time for this to end!" she yelled back, her arms at her sides as the two females descended rather slowly down the empty, red shaft.
"Okay," Kinzie's voice sounded in her earpiece, still puzzlingly intact in spite of how her helmet covered her ears. "Now all you need to do is make it through the ship's infrastructure, take out all its defenses, and thereby clear a path for us to get to Zinyak."
"Is that all? Easy enough. You pick the others up?" the Boss replied.
"Yep, everyone's on board. We'll be right behind you as you clear a path." There was a brief pause, followed by another sounding of Kinzie's voice. "You're coming up on the defense grid. Touch those beams and you'll be fried."
Before Twilight could ask what she meant, huge red beams of energy began appearing in their paths, doing her best to dodge them as the Boss muttered an irate "Fucking death lasers..." Twilight was having surprisingly little difficulty in evading the red beams of death, puzzlingly able to alter her trajectory mid fall without doing much.
Twilight decided that the armor would be coming home with her.
"We're almost to you," Kinzie said again as the unicorn spun in midair once, idly wondering if this was how it felt to be Rainbow Dash.
"Kinzie, they're closing off the way through." Twilight raised an eyebrow under her helmet. Indeed, the way ahead was slowly closing off. They wouldn't be able to get through before it closed.
"Damn, they activated the blast shield. You'll have to land and find a way to override it." Twilight had an idea.
"With what?" She had power...
"You have power armor, so it's gotta have some weapons and powers built in. Use them." A lot of power.
"Hold on. Super powers? Here? It's like the Simulation was just training me for this moment..." Twilight lit her horn, the violet glow contained within her armor as she gripped the blast shield with her magic. She felt compelled to yell.
"Fuck your blast shield!" she exclaimed, focusing her magic into prying those doors apart. It may not have been the safest of ideas, considering how close to the shield they were getting, but it seemed to work out. The target of her telekinesis was not only torn open, but also torn apart. An explosion rocked the shaft, the remains of the blast doors now falling with them. She heard the Boss chuckle and say something, but Twilight wasn't listening. Instead, she was quietly giggling to herself with a manic grin plastered on her face.
She felt nothing. A spell of that scale and power should have totally emptied her magical pool, and yet her foolish, uninformed exertion went unpunished. If she could cast such spells without consequence... well, Zinyak didn't stand a chance!
Speaking of whom... "You can come for me... but you don't stand a chance." The alien emperor's voice sounded in both her ears and the President's, making the mare grit her teeth.
"One shall stand, one shall fall."
"Why throw away your life so recklessly, Saint?" Zinyak clearly wasn't talking to Twilight; she wasn't sure how to feel about that.
"That's a question you should ask yourself, Zinyak," the Boss retorted, immediately changing subjects. "Kinzie, can you get us into Zinyak's throne room?" Twilight noticed a large hole at the apparent bottom of the shaft.
"Honestly, I can't find a way to open it up."
"Fine. We'll find a way."
"Boss!" Twilight called, getting the woman's attention. "That hole!" She pointed with a hoof and the leader of the Saints nodded.
"I see it. I hope you're ready, Zinyak!" the human cried, the two headed straight for that sizable target.
---
The Boss and Twilight crashed through a vent of some kind and landed on their feet/hooves easily, turning their gazes upwards upon hearing that voice. "Quite the entrance." Fury began building within Twilight as she laid eyes on the one responsible for everything that had happened to her.
The room itself was enormous, the Emperor and themselves standing on a raised platform in the center while several other smaller platforms dotted the room around them. Steam rose from the space between each platform.
Even while sitting down on his massive, possibly gruesome throne, the pinkish skinned biped obviously towered over them both. He appeared very muscular, with odd black spikes protruding from the top of his head, his arms, and his chest. His legs, waist, and some of his torso were clad in what appeared to be armor, a red cape hanging over his right shoulder. In that same hand, he held a large goblet, idly sipping from it while a few red eyed CIDs hovered around him upon that raised throne.
"Figured you had a flair for the dramatic," the Boss replied as a CID flew to look at them both closely, advancing towards the alien while Twilight followed just behind her.
"Oh, you know me so well." That voice of his was infuriating.
"I'm really going to miss these bonding sessions when I kill you."
"Hmhmhmhm... Look at you... Mercutio to my Tybalt."
"Don't be too excited. Tybalt dies at the end."
Zinyak leaned towards the two, attention fully on the Boss. Twilight was okay with that. She was already thinking of creative ways to kill the smug sack of shit. "I'm surprised you knew that."
"I didn't. Kinzie told me over the radio."
"... Well, at least you're honest."
The Boss took another step forward. "Always. That way you know I'm not lying when I say I'm gonna rip your goddamn head off."
The Zin Emperor swirled his drink and smiled a sickening smile. "You're adorable." Then he turned his gaze towards her, and Twilight fought the sudden urge to shrink away. "And you... I had such high hopes for you. To think that you would throw away your home and everyone close to you... just to help this savage get her petty revenge."
Twilight growled and grit her teeth, lighting her horn within her helmet. "Like Tartarus I am!"
"Oh spare me your righteousness. This could all be avoided..." Zinyak smiled again and glanced at something on his throne, then back at her. "My fleet will arrive at your planet within the hour. Needless to say, there will be blood... However... I'm willing to offer you a chance to protect those dear to you."
Twilight said nothing, but listened closely.
"All you have to do is kill the President... and I will guarantee the safety of your friends, family, and your dear princesses. Refuse, and I will see to it personally that every last creature on your pathetic world suffers. And they will know that it was Twilight Sparkle that ultimately doomed them!"
"The choice is yours."
Twilight actually considered his offer. If it meant everypony's safety, it would be worth it, right? ... But he said only her friends, family, and the princesses. Her gaze shot upwards and she lit her horn again, making one of his CIDs fly at his head and frowning even more when he merely evaded the impromptu projectile.
"What a shame. Zinjai!" A much smaller Zin, meek looking, came to his side and took his goblet.
"Yes, your excellency?"
"Is the empire watching?"
"Of course, your excellency," his servant replied, several red screens showing hundreds of spectating Zin appeared around him as Zinyak stood. The throne he had been seated upon receeded into the floor and its platform vanished until the large circular pedestal was flat.
"Humanity is dead, my dear. It is time for you to follow suit."
The Boss charged the alien leader, pinning him down and punching him a few times while Twilight began casting a fire spell. Zinjai, however, tackled her to the ground and did the same with her until she picked him up and tossed him off the platform.
When she had repelled her attacker, she got back up and looked for her target, only to see the alien ruler had vanished. "What the-! Where is he!?" she cried, looking around frantically for him before a noise from above got the two females to follow its source.
A huge suit of that mechanized armor dropped from the ceiling, much more massive than the one on their ship. It landed with a deafening thud, its eyes glowing a fierce red and its massive arms spinning threateningly.
"That's uh... a big, fucking robot..." she heard the Boss mutter, just before the "robot" stomped and sent them both flying back.
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God dammit, was going to read this once I finished playing (all the way, this time) through SR4 with my sister, but then my video card pukes. I am gaming computer-less until I can get it fixed.
(fitting it had the same background music as SRIV wait a sec.... nvm its an ovious transformers easter egg)
M4s use 5.56mm ammunition, not 7.62mm.
This came out excellently! I recently played back through that mission, and I can only imagine how awesome tank-Twilight looked when she was carrying around those shields and enough rifles to outfit a squad on her own.
On a similar note, Twilight's a bit scarred now and it's showing. You've done her slow acceptance very well, enough so that it doesn't seem so out of place for her, right now, to be attacking without hesitation. Celestia's right in her letter, too. She's not the same Twilight as the one abducted those months ago.
5622249 I don't recall saying they did...
5622268
Awesome work dude/duddete, this is really well meshed with the game, yet still feels fresh. And Twilight blows up the blast shield like its nobody' business!
Congrats on the feature!
5622270 Ahhhh... Okay. Fixed.
5622441 Cool!
Ummm... You weren't before? I feel like I've forgotten something.
5622544 Yeah, you'd be surprised at some mistakes some people make.
Glad to see that fixed. Good work so far.
5622565 Oh, you're not missing anything. Just figured I'd suddenly make an out-of-nowhere comment in the middle of the story as opposed to commenting throughout all the chapters.
While this battle will be awesome, I can't help wondering how twilight will arrive back home, I was thinking that she might just roll up in a zin UFO, but now she has power armour, she could just drop from orbit, that would be boss.
Oh hoho, this'll be good *sits back with a tub of popcorn*
Twilight has fallen to the darkside at LAST!! She is now official pony version of Johnny Gat/The Boss, and she is freaking awesome. Hopefully she'll rein in her new found crazy before returning to Equestria.
I foresee three outcomes, the canon death-the Boss kills Zinyak, 2) Twilight kills Zinyak or 3) They kill him together, ruling the Zin/Saints/Sparkles Empire together.
Though I wonder how she will react when she reads the scroll, or who will be the poor Saint that has to deliver it to her. Probably better to wait until she takes off the Power Armor, via video call from another space ship lightyears away.
I can see Twilight being scolded/turned away by Celestia but the Boss and the Saints stick up for her.
Thats gr8 m8 I r8 8/8 ... really good job dude
Oh. My. GOD! This story never loses its saints appeal and it just gets me pumped!
And now Twilight fully accepts her skill at killing things, as everybody should in their lives.
Now the Saints are about to fucking rip Zinyack's head off WHILE THE WHOLE EMPIRE IS WATCHING!!!!
!
The only way this could be better, is if Discord or somepony casts a spell so the Mane 6 can watch too.
I'll admit, I wasn't expecting much when I discovered this story a few hours ago. I just figured that since I like both series, I should give it a shot. And then you proceed to blow me away. Amazing how well two seemingly incompatible universes can mix so well together in the hands of the right author.
Looking forward to seeing how things end.
5628715 Haha! Glad to hear it, sir! I'm glad to have robbed you of your sleep! Unless you don't live in America, in which case, good on ya, mate!
I dunno. Given canon Twi's power level (insert overused DBZ meme here), especially when wearing a ponified version of the Iron Saint armor, I feel that this is more appropriate for her turn at the power armor dispenser:
Also, this would fit Twi and the Boss's descent to Zinyak's lair pretty well:
Then again, I may have been watching too much Revolutionary Girl Utena lately...
Save them all.
Boss and Twi vs Zinyak. FINAL ROUND. FIGHT!
I want zinyak to suffer again. After this is over I know the saints and the mane six will be good friends. Hey can you put in the DLC missions after zinyak is dead?
Can you put in the doc missions after the next chapter?
5634609 I'd say "friends" is a bit strong. Also, no. No DLC.
Alright, hey by the way when will the next chapter be up? I want to see the ending dance with twilight in the dance.
5634885 I don't know when the next chapter will be ready. I could take a while. Also, I won't be doing the dance party for three reasons. he joke iI would use is aalready made in the game with Gat, dancing doesn't translate well to literature in my opinion, and I simply just don't want to.
5652266
In the latest blog, Etriak is considering a possible sequel may be in the works. I really hope for a sequel I can just picture it:
Discord: Why hello Twilight! How have you been dearie? Say what's that you got there?
BANG!
D: OH SWEET MERCIFUL CELESTIA WHY!?
Twilight:...Oh sorry reflex.
BANG!
D: OH OH WHY DID IT HAPPEN AGAIN!?
T:...Uh my finger slipped?
D: You don't even have fingers!
T:.....
BANG!
CMC: Hey mister human can you help us get our cutie marks. PLEAAASSEEE!
Johnny: Meh sure why not, it's not like I have anything better to do right now.
Elsewhere:
Whis: What is Lord Bills?
Bills: A cold chill has just coursed through my very soul.
5630680
Don't be silly, everypony knows that there is no such thing as too much Revolutionary Girl Utena.
5661602
With SR:GooH being a thing, will the author be using the "Cracked Halo of Lucifer" as a replacement for Magical Mystery Cure? And speaking of, Discord's free?!? Where does this fic fit in on the show's timeline? Because if this after the Crystal Empire returned, then didn't Celestia already order Twilight to kill somepony? Never mind that it was Cadence and Spike who did the deed. The end result is still the same: King Sombra blowing up like somepony lit a firework in his torso. I mean seriously, if somepony doesn't call Celestia out on that, I will be left shaking my head.
Yes. Yes, so much of it. This must happen. Or else.
Keep doing it! Twilight will evolve to become Rapidash! orig01.deviantart.net/cc41/f/2011/089/6/6/twilight_evolves_into_rapidash_by_semc-d3cskmm.png
You mean like this?
i.ytimg.com/vi/q5lY715_RBI/maxresdefault.jpg