• Published 13th Feb 2015
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Five Score: A Velvet Nightfall - kitsy-chan



A small group of US Army Rangers are caught up in a web of corruption and dark deals, as the attempt to deal with 2 of their own, who have had their lives forever changed, by the Five Score curse

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12: A Pasts Present

It is already dark when we arrive at the fire, grandfather is sitting, watching us, as are several other elders. The smell of pine and birch wood fill the air, where they found pine trees around here I had no idea but they did. I sit across from Yiska at the fire and take a deep breath to calm down.

The drums begin slowly, a few moments later the singing begins. I can feel the energy in the air, the aether gathering as Blaze and I join in the chanting. Watching the fire as grandfather tosses some tobacco in, I watch Blaze start to spread his wings.

Concentrating on the energy in me, I let my horn shine as I sing, stomping my hoof in time with the drums. Following the lines of energy as they flowed around me, around the fire, I can hear the screams of the ponies. I can feel the panic, as they run from Discord.

The five score curse, banished and reborn to grow up for 25 years on this Earth, 25 years before our true forms can return. 25 years from the day we were cursed. The laughter of Discord and the fear filling the ponies is so strong. Locked away from our homes, and sentenced to grow up in a form that isn’t our own. Then to revert back… with no memories of who we were. Transformation spells though are rarely permanent. Our true forms came back, and our natures. But not our memories, without our memories we couldn’t return to fight him. That’s what he wanted. He wanted us trapped here, tortured and suffering. Living in chaos.

To form bonds and families only to destroy them, to force us to choose between winning back our homes or staying here. To force us to choose between our old lives on Equestria and our new ones here. That way he could be safe to do whatever he wanted…

I sit crying as I look into the fire, unable to speak, as the sadness fills me, the realizations that there is no changing back. I was born Twilight Velvet.

“LT, this is who we are.” Blaze says softly, “We were born ponies, lived as ponies; we were cursed and sent here by a, demon, a spirit of chaos. The ponies changing, they are reverting back to how they were at the moment of the curse. This isn’t something that can be stopped.”

Taking a breath the LT nodded, “So you remember now?”

I shake my head, still crying.

Blaze lowers his head “No, our minds were blanked so we can’t remember our past. We only get glimpses at times if that, and even then we lose them quick. It’s like trying to hold onto a dream. But I really am Rainbow Blaze. At least that question is answered.”

“Equestria is real, our history is real, and it was taken from us. I was never meant to be Wally… but I still remember… my life.” I said meekly through tears.

“Well you are Twilight Velvet, but we still know you as Wally, a Ranger willing to give his life for his friends. Willing to do the hard work, and not complain. I’m pretty sure if Twilight Velvet was anything like you, we’d still be friends.” The LT says quietly.

Blaze nods “I’ll always stand by you Twilight. You don’t have to worry.”

I take a deep breath and nod. “Sorry just, the emotions are hard to take.”

Getting up, I walk slowly away from the fire, head low, trying hard to process what I had just seen, what I felt, what the magics showed us. As I walk I feel a wing go over my back and look beside me “Hi, Rainbow.” I smile through my tears.

“Hi Twilight, it's ok, at least we know.” He says softly.

“It’s just, some part of me was still holding out hope that I could turn back to Wally.” I say. “I’m ok being Velvet, I love it, it’s natural, but at the same time…”

“You’re scared?” He asks. Taking a deep breath he continues, “Change is never easy. You’ve had more than most in a short time. Not just physical changes, but job changes, life changes. But you have friends, me, the LT, heck the whole squad.” He smiles at me, “Never feel alone and never feel forced.”

I sit looking up at the sky, at the moon and stars. Watching the clouds slowly drift high up, I start to sing softly, “Something is wrong it’s plain to see, this isn’t how it’s meant to be. And you can see it like I do… It’s not the life that’s meant for you… Oh why…”

***

Cynthia ended up getting home late that night to her small apartment in Arlington Virginia. It isn’t expensive, it isn’t big, but it suites her. A single bedroom, a bathroom, small kitchen, and a single room that serves both as living room and dining room.

Locking the front door, she turns and looks up at the picture over her TV, a large white winged unicorn, flying in the clouds, behind it the sun rising, painting the clouds with its light. It is a fantasy art picture she had bought in a store, but somehow, it had always brought her comfort. Not today however, today it was just a reminder of the pain, a reminder of what was going to happen to her, before she was put down for being an animal.

Turning, she walks into the kitchen and starts looking through her cupboards. Reaching up, she finds what she needs and carefully takes down a bottle of rum, a gift from a friend for Christmas a few months ago. She hadn’t opened it yet, she was planning on using it if she had guests, not a common occurrence given the size of her apartment. It wasn’t expensive or anything, but it was alcohol. Turning she walks into her bedroom with the bottle and sits down on her bed.

Setting the bottle down on her dresser she opens the top drawer and takes out some pills, Temazepam, Restoral, her doctor had prescribed it to her when she had been having nightmares a few months back. A sleep aid to help you fall asleep and stay asleep, she lay down on her side looking at the pills, then hugged them to her chest closing her eyes. “Some rum, a few pills… it would be for the best, wouldn’t it?”


*** Cynthia’s dream ***

She sits alone in the throne room, there is no one left, no guards, no princesses, not even the element bearers. Canterlot has fallen; the once great Equestria now lay at the claws of discord. She walks through the empty halls, looking at the smashed windows, broken glass crunching under her hoof. There still were ponies, but they were fleeing the capital city for their very lives.

Discord appears beside her, floating “Oh we have a squatter in my castle. You should know I’m going to be moving it so you might best vacate it.”

Not responding Raven just keeps walking, remembering the good times she had in the castle, helping Celestia and Luna, helping Kibitz keep things running. The parties, filled with ponies, the school with all its new students.

\

“Aww, why the long face,” Discord says as his vaguely equine face lengthens into the shape of a feral horse. “You should be happy, you’re not a slave or servant anymore.”

“I was never a slave, and I will never be happy with you in charge.” Raven says. “I serve the princesses.”

“Well fine then, be a party pooper,” Discord huffs “but we can’t have you wandering around here, still so much work to do.” With a flash he was in front of Raven. “Five score divided by Four.”

The light fades until darkness fills everything, blackness, but she isn’t alone. She hears hoof steps. A light forms behind her, and slowly Raven turns to see the dark blue colors of Princess Luna, wings spread wide.

“Raven, for years you served our family, you have helped us, in times of darkness and light, you have been there to ensure what needed to be done, was done. Now it is my turn.”

“Princess Luna, how?” Raven says, lowering her head.

“I could feel your suffering, your pain, so I came to you in your dreams. You can’t lose hope, you are still needed.” Luna says softly.

“I’m not Raven, I’m Cynthia, and I’m not strong enough…”

Luna's wing came forward to lifts the little unicorn's chin “Raven, you are strong, your heart is as strong as any mare's out there. I know it’s hard. The change is always hard, but you stood buy us through hard times. You were there when the Crystal Empire came back. You were there though the hard times at the school. You just need faith.”

“I don’t know what to do.” Cynthia says as looks up at her princess.

“Do what you always do, plan, organize, know the law, and use it. Most importantly, live. Take what you know, what you’ve learned, and live. Help others organize if you can, but if you die, Discord wins. And both Celestia and I lose a close friend. We have trusted you, both of us, now it’s time for you to trust us, and trust in yourself. Live.”

Her voice fades as the dream starts to subside, “Live…”

***Twilight Velvet***

“Twilight, wake up.”

I feel myself getting shaken, ugg, why can’t he let me sleep?

“Twilight, get up, we need you downstairs.”

“Hun the kids are at school, you’re old enough to make your own breakfast.” I mumble.

“RANGER HO!” the LT calls out.

Well, I was out of bed, wearing a loose t-shirt and panties, standing at attention on the floor. Eyes wide and blinking, before I realize where I am and look over at the LT “Sir?”

“We need you downstairs, corporal. You have 3 minutes.” Turning, he walks out.

I exhale hard “Who needs coffee?” I say, shaking myself out once, “One Yell from the LT gets the blood pumping.”

I quickly get out of what I was sleeping in, and dress in my combats before trotting down stairs, hearing the LT calling out, “5, 4…” I opted to teleport, popping in beside Blaze at the table.

“GAH!” Blaze backpedals away from me for a sec “Don’t do that, I heard you coming down the stairs, then…”

“Sorry, LT was counting, didn’t want to end up on report.”

The LT chuckles “Had to, seems to take you forever to get dressed now, and you shower for 3 times as long.”

“No hands really slows the dressing, and since I have 10 times the hair, 3 times as long in the shower isn’t that bad.” I say, feeling pride, only to have a coffee cup put in front of my muzzle.

“Ok folks, we have a little problem here, there’s a woman outside upset, her daughters been kidnapped and she came to Grandfather for help.” The LT says.

“Isn’t kidnapping a police matter? Sherriff’s department or such?” Jay asks.

“Actually in this case it would be CID. Army Criminal Investigations, her daughter’s a private with the US Army reserves. Gallup’s always been a hotbed for crime, and nearly 20 years ago several cults made the outskirts their home.”

“A cult kidnapping an Army Reserve, wonderful, I bet the FBI and CID are just having fits that this is going to turn into a Waco.” Henry says. “How does this…”

“She was born May 1st, just turned 25 this year.”

Blaze and I just cringe.

“Um ouch, did she…” I start.

“Her mom came to grandfather just because of that, they're cattle ranchers, she knew about her daughters change, but, the group calling themselves… The New Army Of God… took her about a week after her change.”

“And now the other horseshoe drops.” I say, shaking my head. Then blink as I realize every one is looking at me.

“Horseshoe, really?” Blaze says with a laugh.

"Long and the short of it, we have armed militants, held up on a religious compound, with a US Service member hostage.” The LT continues. “CID has been notified, they are moving assets into the area, however we have received a formal request from the Brigadier to lend aid if we can.

“Aid?” Jay says blinking.

“No one wants another Waco on their books, the view is, that since she’s now a pony, if she dies it wouldn’t be a loss. So they are dragging their feet on this.” The LT states flatly.

“Well we have air recon,” I say pointing a hoof at blaze, “Pretty sure he could get some good pictures if we had a camera.”

“Yep, I was thinking the same thing, Blaze, going to need you to fly back to Nellis, I’ll send word to SOC get them to authorize you some supplies, Camera, as well as some surveillance gear.” The LT says.

“Yes sir.” With that Blaze turns and trots out, taking to the air with a loud BANG.

“LT, I’ve gotten good with my teleporting, I can’t take anyone with me yet, but should be enough to do some in and outs if we need.”

“We can hold that for now, we need gear.” The LT says.

“We have National guard facilities, we can stop in there, they probably have everything we need ground wise, and can get it cleared though SOC.” Sgt Jay chips in.

Henry nodded “Lets saddle up and get there.”

“You can wear the saddle, Henry,” I say smiling, and head to the rental car.

*** Yiska***

Flying below 10k feet at high speed takes more power than flying high, but I knew if I fly high I’d be annoying air traffic control way too much. I swear, a low flying pegasus though could be mistaken for a cruise missile.

Checking the transponder on my foreleg again I made sure I was squawking 0001.

A pair of Guard fighters were high and to my right, but minding their own business, and as I didn’t have time to play, I simply press down, dropping below 5000 feet at high subsonic. I could see the airfield off to my right, and I was staying out of any landing lines, that way I wasn’t causing any traffic jams.

“Damn, I wish I knew this base,” I said backwinging to shed speed as I drop by a stopped MP car “Hey where’s the Quartermasters office, Sergeant.” I asked, still looking around.

“4 blocks over… What the heck.”

I blink then realize I'd forgotten my cover, “Oh damn, sorry,” nosing into my saddle bag I pull out my beret and put it on. “It won’t stay on if I’m going too fast, my bad." I look at them innocently and grin, "Supply?”

“What the heck are you?”

“Well, until the transfer orders go though, I’m Cpl Christian, US Army Rangers, 2nd company 75th bat.” Sorting through my pouch I pull out my ID and show him. “I’m here to pick up somethings from supply here.”

The MP checked my ID, Called it in, verified it on his computer, “Yeah, your… clear… 4 blocks to the west, and 2 blocks down.”

I smile at him as I take my id back, then take my hat off and jump into the air, flying off. 4 over, 2 down, bingo.

Landing with a clatter of hooves, I blink and quickly put my hat on again, saluting two officers who are standing outside. “Sorry sir’s, till they make a beret that stays on at speeds over 100mph, I’m stuck taking it off and putting it on after I land.” I say in response to their confused looks. Though they do return the salute, a good sign.

Trotting inside, I look around, “Wow, this place is big,” I whistle, taking my hat off yet again, putting it in my bag. This is getting to be a pain in the tail.

The quartermaster looked over at me and chuckles, “The problems of moving fast huh?” He smiling, I stand blinking at him, just your average guy, leaning against the counter watching me. Just took me off guard that someone was treating me normal. “Yeah, umm, my LT sent me over to pick up some kind of camera, I need it for aerial photography.”

He looks me up and down “Yep I got the orders, hop up on the counter for a sec, and sit, I need some measurements.”

I did as he said and he quickly measures my neck, chest and barrel, as well as the space between my front legs, then heads into the back, “I’ll try and keep the weight down so it doesn’t off balance you or mess up your flying.”

Walking back he puts down a gimbal mount and some Velcro straps before heading back. “Camera, no, too heavy, no, too big, AN/AAS-52, won’t fit between your legs. Hmm Got it, POP300.”

Walking back he opened a box pulling out a dome shaped camera system no bigger than my hoof, fixing the Velcro straps around my neck, back and chest, he mounts the camera between my forelegs first before taking it all off.

Heading into the back it only takes him about 10 minutes before he comes out again with a harness, “The battery pack is on your right side, processer and transmitter is on your left, it will broadcast to the receiver tablet here using C-band line-of-sight transition, that means you either have to stay high, or be in line of sight of who you're sending to.”

“Here’s some airdrop sensors, blue tooth earpiece, you should be able to work it with ear flicks, just don’t fly to fast or it’s likely to pull off your ear.”

“I feel like I’m in a James Bond movie” I say with a chuckle.

“Oh heck no, if this was James Bond, everything would be custom pre made. This is all off the shelf items, stuff from drones, parts of parachutes and flight suits, cobbled together.” He said, “now sign here.”

Taking the pen in my mouth I sign my name and offer him the pen back.

“Nope, horse drool, you keep that.” I frown, I don't drool on things I pick up in my mouth, any colt knows how to prevent that.

My mood gets more chipper as I bound out and I take to the air to fly back.

*** Twilight ***

We've got the basic gear, tactical gear, armor, rifles, Gila suits, Binoc’s, flashbangs, Tasers, generally all the breaching gear we need, though in a case like this we really hope we don’t need to use it. We meet the 2 CID vehicles a few miles from the compound and are just settling in, sitting inside when we hear the clatter of hooves on the roof.

LT opened the door and blaze poked his head in from the roof upside down “Hey all, got the toys from the Air Force.”

The LT bonks Blaze’s nose “Get in here, a horse standing on the roof is a dead giveaway.”

Hopping down and in, Blaze chuckles “Sorry couldn’t resist, here’s the gear.” He says, offering the data link tablet, “you can control it from here, I’ll have my phone in my ear so you can tell me where to go. Day, night, IR, and IR Laser pointer, it can’t designate, but good for highlighting targets if the snipers need. Where are Jay and Sanchez anyways?”

The LT tapped a monitor, “They got bored, I think they are about half a mile from the compound, they are getting shots from there.”

I giggled and suit up myself, a nice black body suit with hood and cloak, hiding my colors nicely, tilting my head I watched Blaze as he empties his saddle bags. “Air droppable camera’s, meant to be dropped from drones or such, scattered through mountain or woods for monitoring enemy movements they figured we could make use of them.”

“Oh I’ll take those,” I say, “Fish eye lenses.”

“Blaze, get up there, see what you can see from above.”

Nodding once, blaze hops out and takes to the air, the camera letting the LT see his flight, though the gyro’s have a little trouble keeping up with his quick moves at first, than it smooths out once gets up high enough. Finally we end up having a nice clean, smooth pictures.

“There are guards on the walls, guards on the roof of the houses, 5 buildings. What a mess.” The LT growls.

I picked up a few of the cameras putting them in my saddlebag and sneaking out, moving up though the scrub and brush, I find a place where I could see the wall, and watch the guard as he walks by. Lifting up one of the cameras with my magic I move it out as far as I can, only about 150 feet. I would either have to get very close or I couldn’t place the item where I needed.

Quietly I make my way back to the van and sit down, looking at the maps we were getting of the compound. “Too far for you huh?” The LT says as he draws the maps down on the white board.

“I guess I’m just not good enough.” I say with a sigh.

“Nope, you're great, just have your limits.” Henry says.

Looking between the map and camera’s I notice a blind spot inside the compound, there is a storage shed by the wall. “There.” I point with my hoof.

“From there you should be able to get the probes over most of the compound.” The LT says with a nod. “Just don’t get shot.”

I looked back at the camera footage, I had never tried this before, but I started building my mental image of the spot in my mind, I concentrate my magic “Time, space and mind.”

“Oh don’t you…”

I’m not sure what the LT was going to say but I can guess, though I had arrived at the spot I needed to be, I felt woozy, this wasn’t a line of sight jump but a jump based on real time images, so that worked. Taking a deep breath I keep hidden and poke my muzzle out.

The first camera is taken up in my magic, I move it to sit on the edge of the roof of a building. Next one I prop up under a wall awning, moving over to the other side of the shed I set one camera to watch the front door and drive from the gate, and a 4th, I tuck over on a building facing my direction.

Seeing movement at the basement of the main building I stick a pair of camera’s looking into the basement windows. Then watch the guards a bit, looking up I know Blaze is up there somewhere and I give a quick wave up wards before teleporting back to the van.

Opening the door I step inside, and blink as the LT watches me.

“EVER try an untested skill in a situation like that ever again, if you do I will have you busted to private and a desk job faster than you can teleport.”

“Sir yes sir.” I say, looking down.

“SIT!” He says

I find myself sitting on my haunches before I even realize it, and keep my head down.

“Ok, this won’t be pretty.”

The door opens and a CID officer climbs in “Whoah, you've got a big dog here. LT can you move your mutt so I can get in.”

“That mutt, as you called her, is a unicorn, Corporal Twilight Velvet, and calling her a mutt is likely to get you hoofed.” He says, not taking his eyes off the screen.

I look at the CID Officer, giving him a Withering glare and move over to sit on the floor beside the LT. I notice a glow, and see it's my horn that is glowing and concentrate on turning it off.

“No, you can’t blast him.” The LT says, watching the screen.

“Not even a little practice blast?” I ask. “He did call me a dog, and a mutt, that’s rude to call any lady at best, and racial profiling at worst. I think he needs sexual conduct training.”

“Twilight look over here.” The LT said pointing at the screen, in the basement I could see what looked like a huge pile of dirt blocking a door like a ramp. All but a little slot at the top of the door was covered in. It would take a backhoe, or a few hours with shovels to move that.

Switching to the next window, we could see a pony pacing in a small room in the basement, every once in a while she would give the door a good hard buck with her hind legs. Given the door was shored up by tons of dirt, there isn’t a big chance she was going to blow it open, but didn’t stop her from trying.

The CID officer whistles, “They have enough rifles stockpiled to hold off a small army, they have 50 cal rifles, meaning body armor and even some light armored vehicles are not safe, those can likely pen the sides of Strykers, they have their own well, food stores, solar panels. They could hold up there for months if we lay siege.”

“I think that’s the idea,” The LT says, grumbling, “There is no way to get her out of there quick, it’s going to take a huge fight, during which time they could still kill the hostage. We would need to enter, hold and control the main building; a team would have to excavate the door, bring her out, than fight our way out again. The casualties on both sides could be high.”

“That or we’d need to pretty much do a cover and kill mission, heavy weapons to take down the wall, then pretty much kill anyone that tries to make it to kill her, but again, that would have huge loss of life, meaning the media would have a field day.” The CID officer says.

“Negotiation?” Henry said, but again the CID officer shakes his head.

“We could try, but these are anti-government, pro white, religious fanatics. They are holding her as a human or pony shield, per say. Gambling that we won’t push an assault but at the same time, ensuring that we would pay for any.”

“I could get in,” I say softly, “then teleport out with her.”

The LT looks down at me, “Are you sure it’s safe?”

“Meh, what’s the worst that can happen, I teleport her inside out?”

The LT went a little green at that image, “Seriously, Twilight, are you sure it’s safe?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never tried it with more than a saddle bag, but unless we are going to get authorization for 1 platoon of infantry, plus 8 main battle tanks, backed by 2 APC’s, we are not rolling in there without casualties to us, and we are defiantly not rolling in there without casualties to them.

“I’m not sure about this,” The LT said and huffed, “we don’t know the extent of your magical abilities.”

“I know you hate unknowns, but we see Twilight teleport with spike all the time.”

“Ok give it a try, is there anything you need from us?”

“Yeah, I’ll need the tablet receiver for Blaze’s data link, and I’m going to need Blaze where he can see the basement window and where his camera can see the truck. Line of sight on that datalink sucks, but I’ll need to be able to see a good image of the truck to take some of the strain off.”

I put the tablet into my satchel and look at the image of the basement, it was a bit distorted because of the lenses but I was able to build a clean mental picture. I can see where the pony is, where floor and ceiling is, I can see the open area I need to teleport to, concentrating on that, my horn glows and I put myself there.

As I wink in, I feel woozy, I knew teleports take a lot out of me, and this wasn’t the way the spell was meant to be used but it was all I had. The mare stands up with fire in her eyes, and charges forward towards me.

“Who are you?” She says with a low snarl. “What do you want with me now?”

“Whoa whoa whoa, pony here, friend, I’m here to get you out.” I say as I backpedal into the light so she can see me more clearly.

“Pony? Well, I’ll be, I thought I was only one.” She says. I know Applejack has that southern farm girl accent, but this girl, she has a serious Texan accent, not the fake ones you get from the movies, but the type where all the vowels shift.

“Keep your voice down,” I say and move over to the window. Taking out the tablet, I then start moving around a bit trying to find Blazes angle. “Darn it Rainbow, where are you? I can’t get a signal.”

"Signal for what?” She asks as she comes over.

“To see where I’m teleporting back to. He should be up there; I just can’t get a line of sight on him.” I can hear steps upstairs, and hope to Celestia they had not heard us.

“If you can’t get a signal, then what, we’re stuck?” She asks, looking annoyed.

I shake my head and put the pad back in my satchel, “Plan B, I need you to stay as still as possible and as close to me as possible, hip to hip.” I say, as I move over to her. I put my front leg around her neck, hugging her a bit.

Closing my eyes I start to build an image of the area outside of the truck, the truck, the road way, the trees, then I work at extending my field, pushing more and more power into it to get the field to cover the earth pony as well.

What I didn’t mention to the LT is, Spike is a baby dragon, only 40 pounds at most, and small, not a full grown mare.

I concentrate pushing more and more energy into the field, trying to keep it stable, trying to make it large enough to cover her safely. I know my hornshine must be bright, I can see it through my closed eyelids but I can’t open my eyes, I need to keep focused. I need enough power for both of us. The range, the mass, the shift feels gut wrenching. Opening my eyes I see the back of the truck.

“HOLY BABY JESUS!” The girl shouts.

The door to the truck opens and the LT looks at me in shock, “Twilight!”

“I couldn’t get a signal. Had to do it blind…”

Henry comes out, running over to me “Twilight, your nose is bleeding badly.”

I touch my foreleg to my nose and look at the blood, then at the LT “I guess that’s why you’re not supposed to try that with that spell.”

Everything starts to go grey around me, as the world starts spinning. I can’t feel my legs, I can’t really feel anything right now, for that matter.

“Get her in the truck fast, we need to get her to the hospital.” I heard Henry say… then, all was blackness.

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