PonySide

by Puzzle Piece

Chapter Fifteen: Crossfire

Gadrik felt his shields buckling under the barrage of the NC Light Assault. He also counted down the rounds he knew were left in his opponent’s magazine. Just a sliver of shields remained on the HUD indicator when the bullets stopped. Gadrik smiled as he threw himself behind the wall of the house. He made sure his own magazine was full and properly locked in place. The chase had gone perfectly so far. The Light Assault had taken the bait and let himself be drawn out on the Major’s terms. All he had to do was to wait for Rainbow Dash to make her move and he’d have one less enemy to worry about.

With something to show for all this trouble, he mused. I might even be able to convince the Princess that I’m worth the hassle of helping me get back to my own world.

Out by the fountain, the Major heard a struggle and a shout. His grin broadened. Rainbow had done her part in the plan. Now he would finish it. He tightened his grip on his carbine and it let out a loud squeak. Gadrik looked down at it in surprise and found that he was holding a rubber chicken.

“Hi’ya there!” the pink pony from the bakery said, seeming to materialize behind him.

Gadrik jumped in surprise, pointing the rubber chicken at her before realizing what he was doing. He dropped the prop quickly and glared at her as sourly as he could to cover for the ridiculous mistake.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed, trying to keep his voice down.

“I’m here to talk at you,” she replied brightly.

“Talk at me?” he asked, perplexed.

“Yeah! See, you don’t seem like the type who would want to talk to somepony like me and you were kind of rude back at Sugarcube Corner, so I figured talking at you would be easier than talking with you. Plus, you don’t even have to pay attention, so you won’t be nearly as annoyed with me for…”

She began to unleash a deluge of nearly useless information on subjects that the Major cared nothing about, changing subjects faster than she could finish sentences. Gadrik shook his head, dumbfounded by the pony, until he heard another shout from the square.

“Major! Get him, quick!”

He risked a quick glance around the corner. Rainbow was struggling to maintain her position over the NC Light Assault. If he didn’t act soon, he might lose his chance. He turned quickly to the pony again.

“Listen for two seconds,” he said with a pleading gesture. “I need my weapon back. I’ve got to take out this target before he manages to escape again.”

“No can do,” she said with a shake of her head. “I need to keep talking at you. See I’m not done yet, what with all of the different ways to say the word aunt and…”

Gadrik threw his hands up in disgust. A new commotion at the fountain told him that Rainbow had already bought more time than he had a right to ask of her. With the pony babbling nonsense and his carbine nowhere to be seen, he went for his Commissioner. But as the weapon cleared its holster, it snapped back on him. He let out a yelp of pain and pulled the mouse trap off of his fingers. He rounded on the pony again.

“What in the blazes do you mean by this?” he demanded, shaking the mouse trap under her muzzle. “Are you trying to ruin our plan?”

“Yep!” she declared with a wide smile.

He balked at her, not quite sure he’d heard her correctly. Having exhausted all other options, Gadrik resorted to being nice.

“Please, stop doing this. I need to complete my mission or the Princess will never agree to help me. And that pony out there is counting on me to do my part. So if you’d kindly give me back my weapons, I would appreciate it.”

The pink pony thought hard and Gadrik grit his teeth as she took precious seconds to come to her conclusion.

“Nope,” she said at last. “I still can’t do it. I’ve got a mission too and you winning isn’t part of it.”

Gadrik blinked. “You’re here to distract me so he can jump me aren’t you?”

“How’d ya guess?!” she gasped with what seemed to be genuine surprise.

“You’re siding with the NC?! Why would…!” He growled and swung a fist at the wall next to him. After taking a deep breath, he turned back to the pony. “Fine! If you want to be my enemy, I’ll treat you like an enemy!”

He whipped out his chainblade and it revved up with a sinister growl. Before he could do more than point it at her, she moved. He’d missed the movement before, since he hadn’t been looking directly at her. This time, she had his full attention. Her hoof reached out like a snake’s strike, knocking the knife free from his hand and scooping it away. Her other hoof swung in behind the first to deposit a small wooden mixing spoon in the knife’s place.

“Oops,” the pony said, as the chainblade disappeared behind her, never to reappear. “I forgot one of your little toys.”

She giggled at him until he knocked her legs out from under her with a swift, sweeping kick. But instead of falling, she hung in the air for an extra second, looking back at him in astonishment. Gadrik froze to watch the strange phenomenon. Then she looked down at the empty air between her and the ground with a silent oh on her lips, and fell into the dirt with a grunt. She shook her head and looked up at him with mild irritation.

“So it’s going to be like that, is it?” she said with a playfully sinister grin.

Moving faster than the Major could react, she rolled sideways and stood up again. She then pulled out a huge, brightly colored cannon from behind a nearby crate that Gadrik could have sworn was too small to conceal it. Gadrik didn’t have time to do more than open his mouth to exclaim before a blast of confetti and pressurized air threw him head over heels into the square.

~*~*~

Katie spun around toward whoever it was who had managed to sneak up on her, Nathan’s Phantom held ready. She nearly squeezed the trigger at the first thing she saw moving, but a shock of royal purple stopped her. Rarity was frozen in her tracks at the other corner of the building she was using as cover, apprehensively eyeing the weapon pointed at her.

“Oh. It’s only you,” Katie said, lowering the rifle with a relieved smile. “I thought I’d been flanked for sure.”

Rarity returned the smile and walked the rest of the way to Katie’s side.

“What are you doing here,” Katie asked.

“Making sure that whatever you face out here, you don’t face it alone,” Rarity replied softly, offering her hoof.

Katie tried to form words but she couldn’t manage to find her voice. She wiped a grateful tear away before it could fall and allowed herself to accept Rarity’s hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I owe you so much.”

“All you will ever owe me is your promise that you won’t give up.” Rarity pulled away to look Katie in the eye. “Please don’t shut others out, dear. I cannot say I know exactly what you’ve gone through, but I would give anything to help you overcome it.”

Katie shook her head. “There isn’t anything that can undo what has already happened.”

“You don’t need to undo it, darling,” Rarity said. “You need to find the strength to carry on. And a friend is the best source of strength there is.”

“Nathan was more than a friend,” Katie said, her voice even but hard. “He and I…I’ve never been closer to anyone. And I’ve never been so misled by anyone. The man I loved was as false as the mask he wore.”

“When a friend is untrue or when they conceal their true nature from you, it can be hard to trust others,” Rarity nodded in agreement. “But you have to try. There is a chance to be hurt in every choice. But there is an equal chance that it brings you joy. Life isn’t worth living if you shun everyone else."

Katie was silent. She looked back the way she’d come, both through town and through her life. She saw emptiness in both. This town was supposed to be full of lively ponies and the war she was now fighting was forcing them to hide. The path she was now taking would leave her similarly alone for the rest of her life. She took a long, shaky breath.

“Alright,” she said. “I promise I will not give up on my friends.”

“That’s my girl,” she said affectionately, touching Katie’s cheek with a hoof.

The shouting in the square rose to a new pitch and Katie was reminded bluntly why she was here. Rarity also turned her attention to the struggle.

“Now, what are we to do about this situation?” Rarity mused, half to herself.

“I’m waiting for the right time to attack,” Katie explained. “Those two humans seem intent on finishing each other off and I see no reason to interrupt them.”

“Hmm,” Rarity said, turning her gaze to the Pegasus and the Earth Pony beside the Light Assault. “But some of my friends seem to have been caught up in this as well. We’ll have to remedy that.”

She turned and began marching resolutely out of their concealment. Her horn flashed once and a veil of light crossed over her coat, giving it an almost metallic sheen for a split second. Katie put her hand on Rarity’s shoulder urgently to restrain her.

“What are you doing?!” Katie hissed. “Don’t give away our position. That NC soldier is itching for something to shoot and the TR could be waiting for a vulnerable target just like we are!”

“I for one do not intend to wait back in the shadows and watch the fighting,” she responded calmly. “And you should know that I am more than capable of handling myself.”

Katie remained unconvinced and her concern showed on her face.

“You’re welcome to accompany me if you feel I need protection,” Rarity offered, stepping out of Katie’s grip and making directly for the others at the fountain.

Katie hesitated, unwilling to step into the sights of her enemy at the inopportune time but equally torn at letting Rarity walk into the line of fire. Her conscience waged war with her mind as both choices seemed essential to comply to. In the end, she realized she would be more useful to Rarity staying back and providing cover with her rifle. Having satisfied her conflicting obligations, Katie held her position, choosing to still keep to her concealment and wait for the right moment to strike.

~*~*~

“It ain’t yer business! This trouble is between the NC and the TR, so ya’ll should go and take a nap or some such!”

“I’m not about to sit out the fight when my friends are in danger!”

Applejack’s and Rainbow Dash’s muzzles were mere inches apart as they shouted at each other. Mat stood to one side, stunned by the ferocity of their argument. He’d never expected to see these ponies get so worked up over the human conflict.

“It ain’t right ta be jumpin’ into the middle of a mess when it ain’t yours!”

“I might not have been there when it started, but I’m here now!” Rainbow said, slamming her hoof into the ground. “It’s as much my mess as it is theirs. The NC made it my mess when they killed my friend!”

“Ya don’t understand the first thing ‘bout this fight!” Applejack replied in exasperation, gesturing at Mat. “Ya don’t even understand which side yer takin’, do ya?”

“What do you think you know that I wouldn’t?”

“Ah know plenty about the oppression the TR have put these humans through. Ah can’t see how ya could have missed it!”

“What they’re calling oppression is just the rules that were put in place to protect humanity from self-destructing! Do you even understand how bad it was before the TR came together?”

“Ah understand that they’ve outstayed they’re welcome! Everyone deserves freedom ta live their own lives, Rainbow. Ain’t no amount of rules gonna be enough to replace that!”

“And the inability to understand that causing this conflict by disobeying the rules is what’s forcing them to make the constricting rules they say are causing the conflict in the first place!” Rainbow shot back.

Mat’s Mercenary hung from a limp hand at his side. He could only watch in wonder as the argument went back and forth in front of him. He hadn’t seen anyone go toe to toe in this debate before. Not without shooting each other in between words, anyway. He’d been ready to treat the Pegasus like an enemy but Applejack’s insistence in handling her misinformed friend had stayed his hand. Now it looked like she would come to blows with the other pony herself. He cast a glance around to see if the TR had decided to show up again and spotted a vaguely familiar white Unicorn approaching from a different street.

She was making directly for him and he didn’t like the steely gaze she directed at him as she took in the scene. He took a better grip of his weapon as she drew closer. Neither Rainbow nor Applejack seemed to notice the newcomer. The Unicorn closed the gap, still showing no sign of her intentions other than her dissatisfied expression. And since he’d seen firsthand the dangers a Unicorn might pose to him, he wasn’t inclined to let her have the first move. He swung up his Mercenary and put her squarely in his sights.

“Not another step!” he commanded.

The Unicorn didn’t even pause in the face of his threatening stance. Mat shifted his grip nervously, watching her horn for any sign of magic. He flinched when she spoke to him.

“I assure you, I am only here to properly inform my friends of the situation,” she said smoothly.

“I don’t have any reason to believe that’s your only motive in this,” Mat said uneasily.

“You don’t recognize me? I was with Twilight back at the library.” She made a gesture of innocence.

Mat nearly relaxed his grip as he remembered where he knew her from. She’d been behind Twilight when the Princess had saved him from the Vanu. He would have let his guard down completely if it weren’t for a nagging suspicion that began and ended with the unfavorable look she was still giving him. And as she continued forward, he glimpsed the barrel of the Vanu Phantom rifle being slowly brought up to aim at him from the same street corner the Unicorn had come from.

“It’s a trick!” Mat shouted, squeezing the trigger and diving behind the fountain to avoid the bolt of plasma that arced past him.

Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash became aware of the new disturbances and looked over in time to see the Unicorn hit full in the chest by the spray of bullets. With sharp cracks and pops, bits of the Unicorn flew away, glittering in the sun’s light as they fell to the ground. The broken pieces continued to catch the light almost like….

Gemstones? Mat thought, recognizing sapphire blues and emerald greens in the fragmented debris.

The Unicorn herself seemed unfazed by the damage. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any, even where Mat knew bits had broken off. She considered him with a small, sinister smirk. Her coat flashed with a polished sheen that Mat hadn’t noticed before. Then her entire body crumbled away into a pile of various precious stones. The Unicorn seemed to rematerialize again several feet away. At the same moment, the TR Engineer was launched out of his concealment and into the square with a concussive blast.

Mat didn’t have time to react to any of this because Rainbow Dash threw herself into him and lifted him off the ground. They struggled as they rose higher and higher until Mat broke away with a burst from his jetpack. He let himself drop for a few moments, measuring the distance to the ground and slowed his descent with short burns. He didn’t make it more than half way back to the ground before Rainbow came back around and rammed him again. He went spinning through the air, flailing to regain control of his fall.

Ten feet off the ground, he got his pack under him and set the jets on full. He was launched parallel to the ground, crashing straight into the TR Engineer as he was picking himself off the ground. The collision saved the Major’s life as a bolt of plasma ripped through the air where he had been a second before. Mat and the Major tumbled in the dirt until Mat lifted clear on his jets. He made it five feet off the ground again when his jets were hit by the Vanu soldier’s repeated shots. They sputtered and then died, dropping him back to the ground hard. He scrambled back to his feet and threw himself behind the relative safety of the nearest street corner.

When he risked a quick look back into the square, he saw the different sides arrayed clearly. The TR Engineer hid behind the fountain again, with Rainbow Dash hovering protectively over him and speaking with him in hushed tones. He didn’t appear to have any weapons on hand but Mat didn’t rule it out. The Unicorn stood boldly in the open, or at least she appeared to. Mat wasn’t sure what had happened but he was fairly certain some manner of cloaking was involved. The Vanu soldier remained in the cover of the street across from him. Applejack had moved to stand between Rainbow and Mat, eyeing the Pegasus warily.

Mat felt more than heard Pinkie behind him, looking over his shoulder at the scene. She made no comment, possibly waiting, as he was, for someone else to make the next move.

Comments

[Cosmalone]

This is getting intense... more please