Snippet of Messages

by PinkieHD

Chapter 17: Stranger Than Usual

Ace stood there, mouth quivering, as he stared at the cave longingly, hoping against all hope that Trixie would magically appear in front of him. It was five minutes later when he collapsed on the ground and started crying.

Derpy slowly approached the brown pegasus and rested her hoof on his shoulder. Ace looked up with tears in his eyes.

"Hey, for all that it's worth, if she was given the chance, she would gladly sacrifice herself again for your sake" Derpy said, smiling sadly.

Ace returned her smile while half-metallic mare helped him up on his hooves "Yeah, I guess you're right." He then steeled himself while wearing a mask of determination "Ok everypony, Trixie has given us a few minutes of breathing space before those walkers could dig their way through the tunnels"

"Woah! Wait a second!" Blitz flailed his hooves around for emphasis "Are you telling me that those things are still going after us?! There's no way they survived that cave in!"

"Unless they're already dead, right?" Ace chuckled humorlessly "Listen up everypony. Most of you here are new to this place. So let me give you a brief introduction to our little team before we head on towards the base. This big mare over here" he pointed a hoof on Derpy " as some of you already know, is Derpy. She's half machine, and half pegasus. As she said earlier, her wings were ripped away from her but that didn't stop her from being who she is now. Usually, her job is to balance the tides of opposing forces. All of you probably already realize that her position in the team is usually on the front. This "he then pointed a hoof towards the alpha "is commander Lone Claw. Most of you here probably didn't know but he is an alpha. An alpha is considered the strongest, fastest, biggest, and most of all, most clever wolf in a pack. Unlike Derpy, his job always involves ambushes. He usually works alone to avoid detection. And finally, me, I am Ace Striker. my part in the team is usually being the gunpony of the group. Most of the time, I will be positioned inside a bush or on top of a tree to snipe on unsuspecting grounders and/or flyers. Any questions?"

Twilight raised a hoof "Yeah... I'll start with the most obvious, who are these flyers and grounders you guys keep talking about? I already deduced that they are the enemy but I still don't what they are considering they don't seem to care what happens to them."

Before Ace could open his mouth, Lone Claw beat him to it "I know that all of you would like an answer for that but we don't have much right now. I could already sense them digging their way through."

Ace cursed and reached inside his saddlebag. A second later, he brought out a gem, this time it was colored yellow "Ok everypony, the moment I break this gem, you run as fast as you can. Just follow Lone Claw as he will lead you to base, got it?" Everypony present nodded "Good, now go!" The moment he threw the gem, everypony there ran for their lives, Ace quickly followed.

---

It was only a few minutes later when a grounder able to dig his way through the cave, only to be greeted by a growling ursa major. The grounder stood no chance as the giant beast roared and bit the grounder's head off.

---

"Aaaand that's the last of them!" Ace grunted as he smashed another yellow gem. It was actually the fourth one now and they were a considerable amount of distance away from the Border Watchtower.

"Why the hey is he breaking those crystals like that? And why is some sort of juice coming out of it?" Rainbow Dash asked as she and the other pegasi flew together.

Butterscotch shook his head "Oh that's not juice. That's actually an ursa major bodily excretion"

Rainbow Dash just blinked and turned her head towards Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus immediately knew what her cyan friend wanted because she blushed and tapped her front hooves together "What he meant to say was... those crystals contained ursa major urine"

"Woah, woah, woah... Back up a second" Blitz flew next to the yellow pegasus which she found uncomfortable "Are you telling me that he has piss inside those bags of his?" he asked with an amused smirk on his face.

Fluttershy's blush deepened as she realized that she was staring deep in his pink eyes but was able to nod her head a little.

Blitz couldn't take it anymore and laughed his head off, Raibow Dash quickly followed suit.

"Wh-what's so funny?" Butterscotch asked which only made Blitz and Dash laugh louder.

"Anyways... I think it's now safe for us to walk our way back to base." Lone Claw said.

"Oh oh!" Pinkie Pie started bouncing "You mean that giant dome root thingy me and BB saw earlier?!"

Lone Claw raised an eyebrow "Uh yeah... How did you know that?"

It was Berry that answered "Weeeelll... Me and Pinkie were having a wonderful time strolling around when we come across this giant dome made out of roots! We were gonna go back to the others so that we could have our very first root dome themed party but we were stopped by this lizard guy who was holding some kind of weird toy that shoots lasers at us. It lasted for a few minutes before we heard talking from inside his pocket which is weird because nopony could fit in a pocket. Then he started talking and that's when Derpy over there bolted outside from the root dome and since the lizard guy was ignoring us we decided to follow her and then we met you guys!"

Everyone there just stared blankly at the pink stallion as he finished his rambling.

"Uhh... what he said" Derpy added helpfully.

Lone Claw cleared his throat, effectively getting everyone's attention again "Right, like I said, we should probably be heading back now before they catch up to us."

Everyone there nodded before they started walking their way towards the root dome.

"So..." Ace started as he hovered next to Dusk Shine

"Dusk Shine"

"Thanks. So Dusk Shine, aren't you going to introduce yourselves?"

"Oh you're right! My apologies, we were so caught up with the situation that we completely forgot to tell you our names!"

Ace just waved him off "Don't worry. That happens all the time. You were saying?"

"Ahh right. My name is Dusk Shine, student of prince Solaris, and current librarian of the only library of Ponyville." Dusk Shine said proudly.

"Cool. So is she your sister?" Ace pointed towards Twilight Sparkle.

"Miss Sparkle? Solaris forbid that to happen!" Dusk Shine laughed "Believe it or not, she is actually from another dimension from myself. She is what you call... my other self. She is the student of princess Celestia, in her world at least, and she is also the librarian of the only library in her Ponyville."

"Uh-huh..."

"Anyways, let me introduce you to my friends" Dusk Shine pointed a hoof to the two cyan pegasi "That stallion over there is Rainbow Blitz and the mare next to hims is Rainbow Dash. Their jobs are to clear clouds and moved them round" Dusk Shine then pointed his hoof towards the two yellow pegasi currently giving each other shy glances with noticeable blushes on their muzzles "Those two over there are Fluttershy and Butterscotch. They are probably the shyest ponies you'll ever meet. It is Butterscotch's job to take care of the animals in our world so I probably think that Fluttershy does the same" He finally pointed his hoof towards the last member of his friends "And that over there next to the bouncing mare is Bubble Berry, he throws parties."

"He... throws parties..." Ace looked at Berry then at Dusk again then at Berry again "Is that some kind of code for surprise attacks because that pony looks like he could lift a house and throw it at anypony that pissed him. As for the mare, well, except for the fact that that excessive bouncing must be bad for her health, she does look like your typical party-thrower. As for that stallion... not so much."

Dusk chuckled awkwardly, remembering the time when Applejack broke his Berry Promise and almost got hit by a cabin, courtesy of a raging Berry "Well, he does work as a part-time construction pony."

"Really? If you ask me, I would've thought that he worked at the Apple farm."

"Technically, he is part Apple" Dusk offered

"I wouldn't doubt that" Ace said as he watched amusingly at the pink stallion flexing his muscle in front of the mare. Ace chuckled at the display "He sure is trying hard to get that mare's attention"

Dusk nodded his head "Yeah... I've been wondering about something actually. Usually, Berry is the kind of pony that would spontaneously spout random facts and be as random as he could but today, well, he is acting normal. Normal for him that is"

Dusk Shine couldn't get his mind off what Ace said. Berry was acting stranger than usual. Why is he forcing himself. It's quite obvious that miss Pie is infatuated with him. Dusk Shine narrowed his eyes when he realized that there were still some things he didn't know about his best friend I should probably ask him about that later.

Author's Note:

Another chapter for you!

If you haven't noticed, I updated some of the previous chapters for your viewing pleasure!