Defeat
Defeated
“Surprise!!” the pink pony yelled as she stuck her head up into view. “Hi! My name’s Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you!” She began to bounce up and down, leaping clear over Twilight’s head to land on the other side of her. “Were you surprise? Were you? Were you? Huh huh huh?”
“Three? Three!” Two yelled as he darted and dived across the ceiling of the room, dodging the tracers from the gun of the zebra’s new war machine. “Three, can you hear me?”
Three didn’t respond. Three didn’t respond to anything. She just stood, in the middle of the room, her feet rooted to the spot as though she were a tree, her eyes blinking rapidly, so that it might have seemed to a casual observer as though she had managed to fall asleep with all the chaos raging around her. And around her mind the memories swirled.
“You see I never saw you before and if I never saw you before that means that you’re new, ‘cause I know everypony and I mean everypony in Ponvyille! And if you’re new, that meant you hadn’t met anyone yet and if you hadn’t met anyone yet you must not have any friends and if you don’t have any friends then you must be lonely and that made me so sad and I had an idea, and that’s why I went ‘woah!’ I should throw a great big ginormous super duper spectacular welcome party and invite everyone in Ponyville! And now you have lots and lots of friends!” Three could remember the taste of the hot sauce she had accidentally drunk while Pinkie rambled on. Just like she remembered every word that Pinkie had said.
She remembered every party, she remembered every hug, she remembered all the tears and all the laughter…so much laughter.
“I knew you wouldn’t leave me.”
Could it be…was it possible that…had she been Twilight Sparkle all along?
She had her memories, she had her appearance, and when Pinkie Pie had hugged her she had felt so…so…she lacked the ability to properly describe it, but the best one word to convey the emotional response it had engendered in her was: home. She had felt…home, with Pinkie Pie.
Was her purpose to be Twilight Sparkle, to take her place, to live her life? Was that what she had been created for?
Was that all that she needed to do?
“No! Don’t do it! Twilight!”
Three’s consciousness was recalled to the present as she saw Pinkie Pie throw herself in front of her, arms spread out wide, forming a physical barricade with her own body, as a beam of golden light erupted from the left arm of the zebra’s novel war machine.
The canon mounted into the right arm of the HANNIBAL roared, spilling out fire hotter than dragonsbreath and quicker than a raging hurricane as Hannibal danced across the room.
Queen Tynisa and her guards were even now in retreat, covered by HANNIBAL, which was also endeavouring to take care of these two pony gatecrashers who had had the temerity to take on the secret pride of Zebrica.
So far, it was turning into a stalemate. One of the two ponies wasn’t moving. She was just standing there, not doing anything at all, like she was having a blue screen moment or something. Only one of them was doing any fighting whatsoever.
And it was driving Karima nuts. HANNIBAL was Zebrica’s secret weapon, built in the strictest concealment to even up the odds against Starfleet and all of their advantages. This was the weapon that would keep the homeland safe against the greed of the Grand Ruler and his legions…so why in Tartarus couldn’t they take down one measly pony!
Yeah, he couldn’t take them down either, but that wasn’t the point! He should have paste on the wall by now!
Calm down, Karima, Ria said, speaking to her through their mental connection. If you lose control you’re going to make a mistake.
“Don’t tell me to calm down!” Karima yelled. She could have just thought it, but shouting as well made her feel better as she held down the fire button and sprayed shells all across the room. The pony ducked and dived and dodged all of them, leaving numerous holes in the walls and ceiling. “Gah! Why can’t we hit this guy!”
He’s too fast for us to track him.
“I know that, I was being rhetorical!” Karima shouted. “Stop moving so I can shoot you!”
There’s something different about this one. He’s faster than any recorded Starfleet warrior. Nothing from intelligence indicates that they should be this fast. Still, if we wear him down then we can win this for sure. He’ll run out of energy long before HANNIBAL runs out of battery.
Karima gritted her teeth. “How are we supposed to defend Zebrica if we’re stuck playing a waiting game against one pony? Stop running away and fight me seriously!”
The pony, who had been darting away to the left, avoiding a trail of Karima’s fire, turned abruptly, zooming straight for the HANNIBAL, fists clenched and drawn back.
You had to say it, didn’t you? Don’t worry, I’ve got this.
HANNIBAL had four arms, as all zebra mechs did: one mounting a ranged weapon, one mounting a close combat weapon – although the HANNIBAL’s main left arm was a little more versatile than the average clanker in that regard – and two supplementary arms, shaped like a pony’s hands, there to reload, support, and to defend the mech against attacks like this one.
The pony punched. Ria, controlling the support arms, blocked. The pony fist struck the metal fist with a throbbing, booming noise. Ria punched with her other hand. The pony dodged, and leapt back as Karima tried to shoot him again. He attacked again, weaving through the lines of fire from Karima’s main weapon and the miniature canons mounted in the mouth of HANNIBAL’s draconically shaped head. He punched and kicked, but Ria blocked every blow he threw at them, even as he evaded every blow that Ria tried to land, and Karima was the close quarter arm as well.
He couldn’t hit them, they couldn’t hit him…stalemate.
Karima’s face contorted into a snarl. “Damn it, damn it, damn it! Stand still and let us take you out! Just who in Tartarus do you think we are!”
How would he even have a clue about that?
“Whose side are you on?” Karima snapped, taking a side-swipe at the infuriating pony with her clawed left arm. Amazingly, it hit him. Karima whooped with glee – and she could feel that Ria was pretty pleased about it too, even if she wasn’t shouting along – as the pony yelped in pain and backwards, clutching at the gashes that HANNIBAL’s claws had made down his side.
“Yes!” Karima cried. “Zebra ingenuity one, Starfleet smugness zero. This is no steam-powered clanker, pony. No clanker.”
She took aim with the main gun. “And now to finish you off.”
Of course the moment she said that he started dodging up and down like a bluebottle again.
Karima seethed. And then she caught sight of the other pony, the one who hadn’t hardly moved since the fight started. She was still just standing there, sleeping or whatever.
A slow smile spread across her face.
Karima? What are you doing?
“Eliminating a threat,” Karima said, as she pointed the palm of her left arm towards the unmoving pony. “If that other one won’t stop moving, I’ll just take out his partner and see how he likes that.” The ‘palm’ of the left hand folded up along the slender steel arm, revealing three concentric metal rings, with red and blue wires running down the arm connecting them to the main body. “Radiant Wave!” she yelled, because calling your attacks was cool, by sandstorms, and everyone knew that ponies did it all the time. She activated the canon, and the metal rings began to glow golden as power was fed to them through the wires, superconducting the…Sephora had explained it but Karima was a pilot, not an engineer, and all she needed to understand was that she had a massive laser beam canon that she could fire at someone. “Erupt!” Karima cried, as a beam of golden light…erupted…out of the metallic rings straight towards the stationary lavender pony.
A pink blur passed through HANNIBAL’s legs, and suddenly the pony ambassador was standing between the beam and the target, arms outstretched as though that would keep the radiant wave at bay.
We have to do something!
There’s nothing we can do, Karima thought, as her mouth formed a silent curse.
“No!” the ambassador cried. “Don’t do it! Twilight!”
“Three? Three!” Two shouted. He outran some shots from that zebra mech. “Three, can you hear me?”
Three didn’t respond. Three didn’t respond to anything. Ever since the target had given her that embrace she hadn’t responded to a single thing, she was as frozen as though she’d been placed in cryo-sleep.
“Three? Three, what’s going on?” Two demanded, in between playing keep away with the bullets of the zebra canon. “Three, I could really use some help over here.”
Three didn’t respond. Two was left with no choice but to continue running. Speed was his only advantage. If those shots hit him…it was strange, that he, a super soldier bred for war, should be feeling his own mortality, but the truth was…he didn’t want to die. He’d hardly done any living.
So far, the only thing that the zebra mech had managed to hit was their own palace, but there was no guarantee that that would last. This was a machine of a quite different beast from those he had so easily battered aside before. It was fast, it was powerful, it was almost able to keep track of him. And while it was almost, for now, there was no guarantee that it would stay that way. Two could feel himself starting to breathe more heavily, feel his wings starting to ache.
I think I’ll tire before a mech does.
“Three!” he tried again, though it was pretty much a forlorn hope by now. “Three, please respond. Please. Please, I need your help here.”
She didn’t answer. She didn’t move. She just stood there. In between dodging bullets, ducking and weaving between the tracer rounds like a dancer in a particularly lethal performance, Two entertained the possibility that Pinkie Pie had poisoned three. He dismissed it as unlikely, it did not fit the target’s personality profile, and there had been no evidence of any device in her hands when he had pulled her off three.
Two shook his hand, it still hurt where the grey pony had grabbed him. Her presence had not been mentioned in the mission briefing.
Of course, he observed as one shot nearly hit him. Neither had this mech, which seemed like the more egregious oversight.
His comm hissed. “Strike team, this is Bravo, how’s it going out there?”
“Resistance is heavier than anticipated,” Two replied, keeping his voice calm even as the bullets whizzed past all around him.
“We have zebra forces closing on our position, we may need to bug out ASAP. Are you ready to wrap this up?”
“Negative,” Two said. “Both targets are still active.”
“How long until you can inactivate them?”
“Unknown,” Two said.
Bravo’s voice became tinted with concern. “Is everything okay down there?”
“Negative.”
“What’s going on?”
“I’ll have to call you back,” Two said, changing cause to hurl himself straight towards the zebra mech like a bullet.
The diversion team was coming under attack. There was no more time to waste playing with this machine. He needed to destroy it quickly, and once that was done he could eliminate both targets, regardless of the fact that Delta was down and Three was inactive. He would complete the mission, and then they could all go home and put this unfortunate incident behind them.
He sped towards the mecha and threw a punch that would have rearranged the insides of a pony, but did nothing to the metallic fist to blocked his blow except make a loud noise and increase the pain in Two’s hand.
He jumped back, narrowly evading the zebra counterattack. He came forward again, but the machine was too swift, too precise, too good at reading his movements.
Curses! How are they so powerful? I was told that I was the ultimate soldier.
It would seem that Professor Brain’s foolishness extended to more than just ignorance of our lack of emotional connection to Starfleet.
He barely saw the claw coming for him. He had allowed himself to become distracted, and he barely got out of the way. Two cried out in pain as the claws raked his side, shredding his ineffectual armour and drawing blood.
I am hurt. Effectiveness will be reduced from now on.
One of the emotions that Two felt without really understanding was the concept of pride. Logically it made little sense, that his feelings about his worth should be allowed to override his rational comprehension of said worth to the detriment of performance. And yet it was undeniable that he felt pride. But at the same time he could overcome it sufficiently to realise that the chances of him completing the mission were reducing rapidly.
In between continuing to dodge zebra fire, he was about to order the diversion team to retreat, when suddenly the crimson zebra mech altered the shape of its arm, revealing some sort of beam weapon that it was about to target at Three.
“Three! Evade now!” Two shouted. Three did not respond.
The golden beam erupted from the zebra weapon.
And then the target stood there, shielding Three with her own body.
“No! Don’t do it! Twilight!”
Pinkie couldn’t let it happen. She just couldn’t. She’d already lost Twilight once, there was no way that she could go through that again.
Losing Twilight had been…it had been…it had been an emptiness inside of her, it had been an emptiness inside of her, a hollow feeling that she couldn’t escape, a hunger that no amount of cupcakes would assuage. She’d felt so lost, so alone with the knowledge that nothing would ever be the same again. The sun had never been as bright, the days had never been as warm, the sound of a party streamer had never been as sweet once Twilight was gone.
There had been a hole in the centre of their universe, once the nucleus around which they all revolved was gone.
She couldn’t lose Twilight again. She wouldn’t.
She wouldn’t let them hurt her. She wouldn’t let them hurt Twilight.
Pinkie would never turn her back on a friend in need.
And so she ran forward, ignoring Maud’s cry of alarm, ignoring the zebras yelling at her to stop, as soon as she saw that giant robot take aim at Twilight with its glowy arm thing she ran forward, putting herself in the path of the golden beam that sped towards her, arms outstretched, crying out desperately for them to stop.
“No! Don’t do it! Twilight!”
Three’s eyes widened. The energy from the beam was considerable. Pinkie was in the way. If the beam impacted then in all probability-
“Pinkie!” she shouted, diving forward and grabbing Pinkie around the waist, tackling her to one side, throwing her out of the path of the zebra beam, hoping to move fast enough to get out of the way herself before-
She was not fast enough. The beam clipped her shoulder, tossing her backwards like an unwanted ragdoll. Three threw Pinkie to the ground as she herself was hurled upwards, turning over and over, feeling the pain and the burning smell rising from her shoulder, feeling the intense heat pass over her, feeling the-
GodpartyTwilightcloneDNAchangelingclosecombatCharlietargetPinkiejambrotherRavenGrandRulerhelpmeprincesscelestiaSweetApple…
Images flashed before Three’s eyes. Words dashed through her brain, non-sequitors flailing desperately for connections. Memories shot to the fore of her mind and then retreated just as swiftly as they had come. And the pain. The pain.
What’s happening tochocolatechipSmartyPantspartofthefamilyloveisinbloomSpikeprincessMoondancerresearchSunsetinvertshield I don’t want to die FlashSentryprettycutespaceponyorigintruthvaccine I’ve seen that symbol before CanterlotHighRainbowDashFluttershyApplejackRarityfriends. Friends. Friends. Friends.
The last thing she heard was both Two and Pinkie calling her name, Two crying for Three and Pinkie Pie for Twilight Sparkle. And then everything went black.
“Three! Three!” Two yelled.
Three did not respond. She was not still and stiff now. She was shaking, as if she was in the grip of some kind of seizure. Her wounds did not look terribly severe, but her reaction indicated that her injuries were a lot worse than they superficially appeared.
“Strike team, what’s going on?” Bravo demanded.
“Delta and Three are down, I’ve been wounded,” Two replied. “Diversion team should evacuate immediately.”
There was a moment’s silence. “Hold tight, I’m coming to you.”
Bravo appeared in a flash of magic a moment later. The next moment she had flung up a bright, almost luminescent green shield across the centre of the great hall, flinging the target backwards away from Three, and keeping the zebras and their allies on one side of the room away from the Sentinels on the other.
The zebras bright red mech fired at the shield, but all its shots simply bounced off. Then it began to pound upon it with its fists, as though it were trying to break down a wall.
“What is that thing?” Bravo demanded.
“Very strong,” Two demanded. “How long can you keep up that shield?”
“Long enough,” Bravo replied. “Can you carry Three?”
Two winced. “I think so.”
“Then get her to the fallback position, I’ll get Delta and meet you there when you’re clear. Alpha and Charlie are en route.”
Two descended down towards Three, and stared down at her for a moment. She was still seizing, her whole body jerking up and down as though in response to some kind of rhythm that only she could hear. Her eyes were lidded, half closed, half open. Spittle flew from her mouth.
“I think her chip’s been damaged, it’s malfunctioning. It’s killing her, we have to do something.”
“We’ll figure that out when we’re clear, now go.”
Two nodded, picking Three up over his shoulder like a fire-fighter.
“No!” Pinkie yelled, pounding on the shield as vociferously as the robot. “No, you can’t take Twilight away from me, not again.”
“She belongs to us, not you,” Two snapped. “And she’ll die if we don’t move her.”
The target’s blue eyes widened. “Then save her.”
Two nodded again, and leapt up into the air, his wings carrying him up, up, up and away, into the starry sky.
Bravo held the shield for about thirty seconds, long enough for them to get clear, and then she dropped the shield at the same instant that she teleported away. In a flash, she reappeared next to Delta long enough to grab hold of him.
“I hope you appreciate this when you come round,” she said, as she teleported away again.
Pinkie kept her eyes turned towards the stars, even as Twilight passed out of sight, and out of reach.
“Twilight,” she murmured. “We’ll see each other again, I know we will.”
“Pinkie,” Maud murmured, putting one hand on Pinkie’s shoulder. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and Pinkie put out a hand of her own to steady her big sister. “Are you sure that that was really Twilight.”
Pinkie blinked. “What are you talking about? It looked like Twilight, so how could it not be Twilight?”
“I don’t know,” Maud replied, her voice soft and tender. “But, Pinkie…Twilight’s dead.”
“But she was standing right there,” Pinkie insisted. “I know that it looked like she died, but then Twilight was so smart and super amazing that I’ll bet there’s all kinds of things that she could have done to save herself and-“
“And then not contact you to let you know she was okay?” Maud asked. “Let you think that she was dead for more than a year, even if she wasn’t? And then attack you? Pinkie…I know that I didn’t know Twilight very well, but the friend that you’ve told me about would never hurt you that way.”
Pinkie blinked, except this time she felt as though she was blinking back tears. “But she was right there. I saw her. It was Twilight, it really was.”
“I know, I saw it too,” Maud said. “And if it’s true…somehow, then that would be great. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
Pinkie shook her head. “I can’t give up on her. I won’t. Not now, not ever.”
Maud stared at her for a moment, her face as impassive as a rock face. “Then I guess that I won’t give up either. So what’s our next move?”
“Your next move?” an irate voice boomed out of the giant robot. “What makes you think that you two spies get a next move? You’re prisoners until we determine your involvement in the assassination attempt on Queen Tynisa!”
Maud took a step towards the big red robot. “They were trying to kill Pinkie Pie as well.”
“Don’t you take that tone with me you little-“
“Karima, calm yourself,” Queen Tynisa snapped. “The pony speaks truth. Their ambassador was just as much, more perhaps, than I was.” The queen advanced towards them, surrounded by her guards like a hedge of spears. “I would be interested in knowing why?”
Pinkie shrugged. “I…I’ve got no idea, I’m afraid.”
“A pity,” Tynisa murmured. “Not that it makes much difference, we have been attacked, we have been wounded and this insult cannot go unanswered. Kane!”
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“Send word throughout our lands, the army of the twelve herds is to muster at Sharm-el-Zekor. Once our forces are assembled we shall march north. Blood must have blood.”
“Wait, you’re going to war?” Pinkie demanded.
“Starfleet has just declared war on Zebrica with this unprovoked attack,” Tynisa said. “Zebrica will respond in kind.”
“But you can’t!”
“Can’t?” Tynisa said, her eyes flashing. “Who are you to say cannot to a queen?”
“Someone who knows what a bad idea this is,” Pinkie yelled. “I don’t know why this happened, but I do know that Queen Celestia would never order anything like this.”
“Then perhaps Queen Celestia no longer rules in your land,” Tynisa said.
“I don’t know anypony in United Equestria who wants a war,” Pinkie cried. “And I don’t think you want a war either. Because…because I don’t think you’re stupid. I think you’re smart. And because you’re smart enough to know that…that…” Pinkie trailed off for a moment, as somewhere in the recesses of the palace, a baby began to cry, wailing for his mother, who was no longer near him. Where are you, Mommy, where have you gone? Please come back, Mommy, I don’t want to be alone. “You’re smart enough to know that war means a lot of crying children, a lot of people getting hurt who don’t deserve it. Is that what you want for your people? It isn’t what I want for mine.”
“Your Majesty,” a voice spoke from out of the robot, a different voice this time, softer and milder. “If we do nothing in response to this attack, it may encourage Starfleet to attack again. They might even invade Zebrica this time.”
“I am aware of that,” Tynisa murmured, but some of the fire seemed to have gone out of her. “Kane, give the orders to muster at Sharm-el-Zekor.”
“But-“ Pinkie began.
“However, our armies will wait there, on a defensive footing, and go no further until we have ascertained the situation in United Equestria, who commands, what is their policy towards Zebrica, and what is this response to this outrage.”
“You mean-“
“Your sister asked what your next move was,” Tynisa continued. “Your next move is to return home, find out the truth, find out who attacked you and why, what power they have. Find out whether Queen Celestia and your Grand Ruler will bring those responsible to justice. Until you have these answers, Zebrica’s army will wait. Once the truth comes out, then we shall respond appropriately to that truth. Go, and preserve peace, if you can.”
“You’re letting them go?” the original irate voice in the robot demanded. “Majesty, once they’re out of our sight-“
“Whoever said anything about being out of our sight?” Queen Tynisa asked, a slight smile playing across her face. “Zebrica’s interests cannot solely be represented by a pair of ponies. I have no intention of letting them go…alone.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.028 seconds
Total duration
1,036 users online
2,509,749 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Godspeed Pinkie, hopefully you can prevent a war.
Besides, trust me you do not want a war! A war with Zebrica can mean only one thing, a megaspell. And as much as I love Fallout Equestria, I kind of want to see the rest of this story rather than what would happen if Little Pip was stuck in a Starfleet Apolyapse.
I prefer what you went with, mainly because of two reasons. 1) It would almost feel like it takes some autonomy away from Pinkie. It would make her feel like like a character who can act and jsut a character who reacts and a puppet.
2) I have kind of been searching for a story that is like some of the Applejack and Dash ones that show why Pinkie is awesome and I think I got one
OH man,I love it. Again, its weird how similar and different some of our approaches to the two fics are. Similar in that we are both tackling Pinkie as her hopeful self, even to reminding everypony what war is about. I love it when Pinkie has her inner brain moments.
7523435
Interestingly, and something you'll see in future chapters, one of the comments about Starfleet/Mykan's fics that most stuck with me was someone who said that United Equestria reminded him very much of the Pre-War America from the Fallout games. I don't think that that was intentional on Mykan's part (I think it's because Fallout draws heavily on the ideas of 'Golden Age' SF, which envisaged a society of fantastical technology while social mores remained of the time the stories were written; meanwhile Mykan's worldbuilding also seems influenced by the kind of 1950s presented in old television shows, especially where romance and gender roles are concerned), more a case of the same influences.
7523544
Up until...well, up until the point at which Pinkie says that she won't give up on Twilight, the end of this chapter was actually going to play out similarly to your introduction to Belle, with Maud convincing Pinkie that Twilight is dead and that whoever that is, it isn't Twilight. And then I found myself typing 'I won't give up...' leading to what I've got now.
7524594
Hmmm, interesting because one of my many complaints about Starfleet is this, it's way too damn 'perfect' (It's not really, both you and LEgendbringer prove that) in terms ofhow he keeps trying to prottray things, much like a 50's sitcom or sci-fi era type of show. "We can provide programs for all, with no effect on taxes!" "Bad governments are afraid of us" "We are the same and have perfect families with perfect homes." "There are are no problems beyond the big bad."
It feels so manufactored and I can see that through the writing. Heck, his enterntainment list is mostly early sci-fi and some decent kids shows, Surprisenly, Star Trek is on there though he only likes that show due to music and drama.. Of course, the manufactored feeling is my problem with a lot of 50s and 60s sci-fi shows with the exception of Trek, the doctor, and Twilight Zone
7524631
Of course, what some of the most famous Twilight Zone episodes did was look at the 'perfect' society of their time and search for the darkness behind the facade - I think it's The Monsters are Due on Maple Street where the mere threat of attack leads to a street of nice, ordinary people turning on thier neighbours - and Mykan's attempt to present a perfect society almost invites you to do exactly the same thing.
I can only hope that the neutral newscasters get wind of this incident...
7524594
Actually, I just throw a whole bunch of RANDOM things I've seen together and call it a world. I even base laws and stuff based on things I've seen in movies or TV shows (Which is why I usually don't show many trials)
I'd say my influence is based more on a egotistical scale. I WANTED things that way, so they WERE MADE that way. Plus, I do have to follow my own rules... https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/688286/im-true-to-myself-2-my-way-of-writing-2
7715224
Well, at least you admit it. Or do you not know what that word means?
Looks like Twilight's memories are taking over Three.