Chapter 20: War
Ranger
Chapter 20: War
By Wanderer D
The Commander pressed a button on her desk. "Central, I want you, Tygan and Shen here. Tell the bridge to send the audio and video feed straight to my office, and that Sunset shouldn't be aware of the feed being live. Everything from Sunset's mission henceforth is restricted to high command until otherwise indicated, so until I say so, no one else can watch what her feed is sending."
"Understood, Commander."
The Commander leaned back in her chair, watching calmly as the screens lit up with the video feed from Sunset's camera and audio started to transmit.
"Show me what you've got, Sunset Shimmer."
The coordinates were not as close as Sunset would have wanted, and with the portal closed, she couldn't just push Twilight in and apologize later. On her own, she wouldn't have a problem. Guarding a civilian, however… she sighed. At least they had a couple of hours.
"Oh my Celestia…"
Sunset smiled despite herself. She hadn't heard that one in a while.
"...what happened here?" Twilight asked, wrapping her arms around herself and looking around in horror at the skeletons and frozen, Lost-like bodies. Her eyes roamed the area, staring in horrified fascination at half-melted vehicles, the school building that had been carved in two and the craters from multiple explosions.
"Aliens," Sunset said, looking about the building she had originally arrived at. "They came to this world, dropped those metal things and killed millions before the governments caved in and betrayed the only group of people capable of stopping them."
Twilight gasped at her. "Millions?" she asked weakly.
"Yes, princess, as in multiple tens of hundreds of thousands," Sunset replied, rolling her eyes. "Don't try imagining it… it's too big a number to attach to the concept of sentient beings dying."
"But why would they do that, then?" Twilight asked, getting closer to Sunset, almost as if she wanted a hug. "Betrayed their protectors, I mean?"
Sunset shrugged. "Power. Promises. Fear. There's plenty of reasons, none of them good. Now the world is enslaved, and a big chunk of the population is happy to live that way."
"And those that aren't?"
Sunset snorted. "Come on, follow me."
Twilight followed the order, carefully making her way around the crater next to the base of the statue and fell in line after Sunset, who guided her through the collapsed building. Once they reached the edge, Sunset stopped and pushed Twilight flat against the wall next to her.
"This is very dangerous, princess," she said, looking deep into Twilight's eyes. "Keep an eye on me, and only move when I give you the signal. Try to stick to the exact same route I take unless I signal you otherwise."
Twilight nodded, looking pleadingly at Sunset.
The older of the two sighed. "Fine, what do you want to know now?"
"What are these?"
"Fingers. The whole thing is called a hand."
"What species are we now?"
"Human, the original inhabitants of this planet. We have… others living in this planet now, but you can learn about them later. Anything else?"
Twilight paused, seeming to consider her words before asking softly, "Is this why… you stole my Element?"
Sunset hesitated, but nodded.
"But why would you do that? You have nothing to do with this—this war…"
Sunset sighed, she slid down the wall to sit on the floor and motioned to Twilight to do the same. "I've been here for over three years… I think I remember you now, didn't Cadance use to foalsit you?"
Twilight looked at her as if she had grown another head. "Who are you?"
Sunset grimaced. "Celestia didn't tell you, huh?" She extended her hand. "Sunset Shimmer."
When Twilight sheepishly raised her hand without knowing what to do, Sunset rolled her eyes and made a fist, bumping it on Twilight's.
"Twilight Sparkle," the princess responded.
"I know. I heard you had become Celestia's student… and then a princess yourself, congratulations."
"Um… thanks, although I don't think I fit the mold."
Sunset chuckled. "If it makes you feel better… I thought I did… if I'm guessing roughly right, that was a while ago in your world. Certainly more than three years... " She leaned back, looking up at the rotting roof of the building. "Anyway, yeah, I was Princess Celestia's former student, before you. I wanted to be a princess too."
Twilight looked at her curiously. "What happened?"
"I did," Sunset sighed. "I wanted it right there and then, no waiting, no more learning. If anything, I've learned that… I need to learn a lot more to not get anyone killed."
Twilight frowned. "That's not all there is to being a princess."
Sunset chuckled. "Being a princess is the least of my worries right now… I live here now, with people that trust me and depend on me… who know nothing of who or what I am, or where I came from. They've saved my life and I've… tried to repay them as best as I can… I still want to lead, but I want to really earn that. I want them to look at me with respect born of admiration and hard work and sticking my neck out for them… not things I ever considered doing in Equestria."
Sunset looked away. "If it means… burning bridges with my old home to keep them safe, I will."
"You never told them?" Twilight asked gently.
Sunset snorted. "No." She sighed. "They have good reason to distrust… aliens." She bit her lip and looked away. "I wouldn't even have gone back to Equestria in the first place, but we ended up here during a mission, and an explosion threw me through the portal."
"They must know now that there's something going on, then…" Twilight's voice was barely a whisper.
Sunset nodded. "Yeah."
"Don't you just… why don't you come back with me? You don't have to stay. You're an Equestrian Citizen, and I won't push charges..."
Sunset snorted. "I can't just abandon them. Even if the Commander treats me like trash, I can't just… leave. Not when they need my help… not when I can do something with my skills."
"What skills? I can't even use my spells," Twilight said, wiggling her fingers. "I tried!"
"Well, as you saw back there, I have a lot of skills now… and I know a different type of spells," Sunset muttered. "With the right source of power, I can save lives, Twilight. A lot of them."
Twilight was silent, so Sunset simply stood, offering her hand to help the princess up. "Maybe… maybe they'll put me in confinement now. Maybe they'll arrest me or… or kick me out. I don't know, but I'm not turning my back on them."
Rather than let her go, Twilight gave Sunset's hand a squeeze. "I think… that's a real sign of being a leader and somepony they can rely on."
"The word here is 'someone'." Sunset smiled, but then turned serious, taking a deep breath that she let out slowly. "Listen, Twilight. It's going to be a long way to our destination… an hour or so at least. Which doesn't sound like much, but it is if you have to hide, sneak, avoid fights or worse, fight. If you see enemies, you hide. Just hunker down where I leave you, okay?
"Do not engage. Don't try to help me, even if it seems like I'm about to die—if that happens and we're near the pickup point, you ignore me and make your way to where the lights are, just wave up into the air and grab onto the rope. Wrap your right leg around it, and press down the bend on the rope on top of your left foot. Then hold on tight. Otherwise, don't give away your position. Do you understand?"
Twilight looked down.
"Twilight. Do you understand? Look at me."
Twilight looked up, fearfully nodding. "Just… don't get hurt."
Sunset chuckled. "That might not be possible…"
"But if-if you get hurt…"
"That's just XCOM, Twilight."
The pair had been trotting from cover to cover for about half an hour before they found their first patrol.
Twilight huddled behind the remains of a house while Sunset had moved ahead and signaled her to stop and wait. So far their travels had been tense, but uneventful, with her guide scouting the area carefully and then indicating it was safe for Twilight herself to move.
Despite what she had seen Sunset do in the Crystal Empire, Twilight couldn't really match this generally friendly… hooman… with the unicorn that had so viciously attacked a guard. At no point did she feel threatened by her… which was weird. Back in Equestria, her instincts had been that she was chasing some sort of… predator. There was a bloodlust in Sunset's eyes back there that wasn't here… until now.
The moment the patrol had appeared, Sunset's body-language had changed. She was no longer a friendly, slightly older pon-human; but a hunter about to pounce on her prey. Sunset was not only ready, but willing to kill, and even if it was in her own defense, Twilight didn't know what to think.
Back home, she would have never thought it possible for two ponies, or any race really, to simply kill another without remorse. She was now realizing that the guard they had helped in the castle had been lucky, because it hadn't been expecting such a vicious attack, and Sunset hadn't used deadly force.
Her mind made comparisons against her will. Would Shining be so eager to fight? No… not eager. He had talked to her, Royal Guards were ready to kill or die for their princess… a concept that had up to now had a certain dissonance with her perception of things. It was different to hear it than witness it… so even they were no strangers to this… but they didn't have bloodlust. And something deep inside told her Sunset had more than enough. Even more than she probably realized herself.
Twilight waited with bated breath. Sunset had pulled her strange weapon out and was crouched behind a half-destroyed fence, watching a group of two… well, they looked like armored humans and something else.
It stood on two legs just like they did, but it had no armor, and its bulbous head was wider than that of the two human-like individuals. Its skin was a sickly grayish-pink and even at this distance, it looked like it was smiling.
Twilight held her breath, waiting for Sunset to run out and attack them, but she didn't. She held her place, watching patiently until the aliens were out of sight. Then she checked the area and signalled Twilight to go catch up to her.
"I thought you were going to attack them…" Twilight whispered, not daring to raise her voice.
Sunset shook her head. "Only if they saw me… I moved too far ahead. I was lucky they didn't see me. If they had… well, it gets complicated."
Twilight gulped, but carefully followed Sunset along the fence and away from the patrol until they were in a small alley between destroyed houses. It was a dank and smelly alley, with old, rotten boxes and what Twilight hoped were not the bones of humans. They paused there again, as Sunset peeked around the corners.
"Our pickup point is straight ahead, basically in the middle of the street…" Sunset said, pointing over to the end of the street. "I don't like the empty spaces in between, but we'll do what we have to."
Twilight watched as Sunset looked up at the tangle of long-limbed trees, cables, and barely-standing lamp posts. "I guess there's no way Rainbow Dash would've been able to pick us up here," Sunset muttered.
Twilight blinked. "I'm sorry, who? I must've misheard…"
Sunset opened her mouth to reply, but her eyes widened and she pressed Twilight against the wall. Twilight didn't realize what was happening or why they had done that… until she heard the hissing.
Four very big snakes slithered into view. The upper half of their bodies was almost human, having arms, hands and even breasts—which confused Twilight to no end—but they had cobra-like heads. The only one that was different was the biggest one, colored white and blue, it was a chest taller than the others and not female if they went by the obvious tells.
They slithered down the street, weapons similar to Sunset's held in their claws or hands, or whatever they were. Clawed hands.
Next to her, Sunset was trembling a little, whether with anticipation or fear, Twilight had no idea, but it was clear that this was a very dangerous situation they found themselves in, given the intensity with which Sunset was following their movements.
"Shit, Vipers..." Sunset swore, watching them, "Of all possible… why did it have to be him."
Was she blushing? No. Twilight was imagining things.
"Come on," Sunset muttered, "We can't take the main street. We'll double back and walk around them. There's no way we're making it out alive otherwise."
Twilight nodded fearfully and stepped back, trying to make way for Sunset. She stepped on something solid… that was a lot softer than she expected. She felt the wood from one of the old boxes give under her, and she stumbled back. Her lack of familiarity with her new body didn't help, and she slammed her back on the stacked boxes.
"Dammit!" Sunset swore.
Twilight saw her pull something small, about the size of her hand from one of her pockets and flip something in it. Sunset threw it over the side of the building, and suddenly a loud explosion and a flash of light came from around the corner.
"I'll make time," Sunset hissed, pulling Twilight up. "Run to the pickup location! Remember, wave, wrap the line around you… go!"
Sunset ran out of the alley, pulling out her sword, with Twilight following.
Twilight ran, but was unable to stop herself from hesitating and looking over her shoulder.
Two of the smaller vipers were already down, one she couldn't make out, but the other one had half of its body burned from whatever Sunset had thrown, and a clear slash across its chest all the way down to the side of where the tail began. Metallic orange blood was pooling under it, but also covered Sunset's chest. The third viper shot Sunset, who managed to twist out of the way of where it was aiming enough to not get a direct hit… but she still cried out in pain when it hit her on the side of her stomach.
Twilight could see the green energy had burnt through the armor Sunset was wearing, and she could smell something burning.
Sunset didn't give it another chance, however, viciously stabbing it straight through the chest. The giant snake hissed in her face one last time before it collapsed… and it was then that the biggest one acted.
Before Sunset could even turn, she had been slapped onto her back by the creatures' tail. Twilight saw it hiss with hatred at Sunset, showing its long, venomous fangs, ready to bite her and raised its weapon, almost smiling at the easy kill. There was no way it would miss at that distance.
"NO!" Twilight shouted in horror. "Stop!"
The large viper stopped completely, whipping its head to look at her in confusion.
It was then that Sunset pulled her own weapon, aiming straight at the Viper King… and shot once, missing the creature by a fair margin and shaking it out of its stupor.
"How the fu—" Sunset shouted in frustration, doing something to her weapon before shooting a second time just as the Viper King was turning to look at her. The weapon's blast tore through the viper's chest, sending it flying back to land in a mangled heap.
Twilight stood there, horrified, unable to form words or think as Sunset weakly stood up and coughed, wincing as she touched her burnt armor. The wind picked up around them and white-blue light illuminated the area where they stood over the bodies of the fallen vipers.
"Central, this is Firebrand," Sunset heard on the radio. "I have eyes on Sunset and the VIP. We have no more hostiles detected. Area is secure."
"Roger that, Firebrand," Bradford's voice responded. "Bring them home."
o.0.o End Chapter 20 o.0.o
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I see what you did there and nice indiana jones reference! I guess inviting Twilight to the bar would be a good way to relax and explain things
Ah.... The infamous 98% miss...
Oh how i hate and despise it when that happens
8765459
Even worse is when it is a 99% chance to hit with a 100% chance to crit, and you still miss.
I think we all rage at a 95% plus miss. Even more when it decide victory or defeat.
Anyway, welcome to war Twilight, you gonna hate it.
8765459
8765500
8765503
Is the Commander really Beaglerush? With that amount of luck, or apparently lack of luck, it just has to be.
8765545
Of good god XD
If that is true, then the aliens might as well call it quits
8765545
Who's beaglerush?
So... Does that mean the Viper King is dead? I mean, he was pretty chill compared the the other rulers. Plus, i kinda wanted to see him try to snuggle with Sunset again.
Aw a 98 percent miss, heeeh that’s xcom for you
8765561
An Xcom streamer, apparently.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Beaglerush/playlists
8765578
The berserker queen already went caput, it was about time Sunset lost her boy toy. Only girls get to keep Sunny longer.
I'm still waiting for Angel to meet her again.
And oh yeah, it's not XCOM until you miss a 99% shot.
Next chapter be interesting
8765578
Don't worry, Sunset will get plenty of snuggling time once Tygan and Shan made a Viper suit out of him.
One thing about EqG that never sat right with me was how alien the concept of hands was to them.
They live in a world where griffons, diamond dogs and minotaurs exist. Heck, Spike has hands, or as close an approximation as one can get without explicitly referring to them as such. Twilight really shouldn't have been that confused in the show.
Gah, I once had a 100% to hit and guess what? I missed.... to this day I don't know how.
Welcome, Pricess, to meanier version of Tartarus. We call it Earth or Hell.
8765687 I think for them it's mostly that they suddenly have hands where there were no hands before. Spike has claws and so do minotaurs... griffons have paws and talons, they're not really hands, so the sudden appearance of soft-looking, thinner claw-like-but-not-quite appendages would throw them off.
Hah!
It's a pity that snipers make the best use of Serpent Armour (imo) as it would have been cool to see Sunset welding her skirmisher gear onto the serpent suit.
Not sure what Twilight would have thought of that, but...
8765694 Oh, I can buy surprise brought on by the bodily changes.
It's more of the fact that the show seemed to go out of its way several times to convey just how baffled they were that gets to me. Rainbow Dash asked "What are hands?", but I am almost certain that they've used the word before in the pony world.
8765699 Really? I always gave it to Rangers or Specialists due to increased dodge, grappling, and close combat advantages which my Snipers are never too close to see. I give the Archon Armor to Snipers
I'm drawing a complete blank; what does that mean? Anyway quality doesn't look bad... only thing I noticed was 'push charges' versus 'press charges' but for all I know that's a regional variation that I just haven't heard.
As to the killing thing... I dunno. It didn't feel like anypony lost any sleep when Sombra exploded into literal chunks. Didn't see any checking on whether the changelings survived getting chucked out of Canterlot either. Ponies pretty much just hit the music like the end of Caddyshack.
8765748 the CM is the separator I used to indicate Twilight's POV, I'm thinking of fixing it so it doesn't look as pixelated as it does to me
aww.. bye bye viper king.. no shipping for you.. at least sunset gets a new set of armor..
8765781
In before he's barely alive, and wakes up on the dissection table.
Well... Sunset really does seem to have mellowed out with the end of her power trip, that is good to see. The entire situation makes sense now that light was shed on it here and in the last chapter, but it is still good to see her behaving a little less... aggressively.
And I think we all know what it is like to have shit go sideways from a 'sure thing' like that. I bet she will be glad that Twilight intervened to save her, even if she had instructed her to not do anything. A little distraction goes a long way in the heat of the moment.
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owo! I never thouth of that!
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Season 1, Episode 16 : "You, on the other hand, better keep practising!" -Rainbow Dash
Season 1, Episode 17: "I assure you, they're quite a handful." -Rarity
Season 2, Episode 11:
Season 2, Episode 25: "...staying on focus on the task at hand is..." -Shining Armour
Season 3, Episode 10: "I suppose we could just use the Elements of Harmony on him again if he gets out of hand?" - Twilight Sparkle
Season 3, Episode 11: "You sure you don't already have your hands full?" -Twilight Sparkle
Season 3, Episode 13: "If ya'll give me a hand here..." -Applejack
I'm sure I missed a few...But that's a majority of those I remember prior to the EQG movie.
I just had a thought.... What if Sci-Twi is the one using the Viper King and the other Alien Leaders?
That's XCOM, baby!
Looks like Sunset just spilled a lot of beans to the Great Commandy One. Wouldn't it be interesting if she were Sci-Twi all along...
8765829
That... might explain why the viper king stopped so suddenly when addressed by Twilight.
So what, has the King been deposed before he could even reveal his ice breath? 3rd encounter with a Ruler and I don't really feel the overwhelming strength (and especially speed) they are supposed to possess over their genetically limited counterparts.
8765863 TBH, in my last 3 play-throughs the dude hasn't had the chance to use it once. I feel it used it more in Alien Hunters than in WOTC
8765721
Personally, I like the grapple for the fact that it's a free move so they can still fire their sniper rifle after using it. That and I prefer my rangers to be able to tank damage so the reduced health vis a vis standard armour is a no-no.
The Archon King! Thank you for reminding me just how much I hate that POS...I can't wait to see how Sunset handles him.
8765874
The Rulers got a major nerf in WOTC. Which was needed, mind.
They're still every bit as powerful, the only real difference is that units outside their line of sight/concealed or reloads no longer triggers Ruler Reactions.
Regardless, maybe I'm just approaching this fic too much from the XCOM side of the crossover and not enough from the MLP. The character aspect is intriguing enough, so kudos there. Though I still think that a Ruler or Chosen appearance should be enough to cause the entire chapter to go pear shaped to maintain tension.
Shoot, introducing the Rulers before you introduce their weaker counterparts already softens their impact. I can't feel the drama of the team fighting a souped up viper or buffed up berserker when I don't know how the standard viper or berserker stacks up to the strike team.
8766004 Hmm, that's a fair point
Ah yes I remember the Viper King.... I foolishly went in and did that initial mission with basic armaments and barely any soldier past corporal
Was fun!
Point Blank Range with a shotgun, 98% chance to hit? Naturally she would miss. We've all been there, that's XCOM baby.
Well, at least Twilight is half briefed.
The Commander was smart and maybe lightly clairvoyant predicting Sunset would blab damning info about herself. Perhaps things aren't so bleak as Sunset thinks they are?
Keep going! ;)
and it's bulbous head was wider than
It's skin was a sickly grayish-pink
1. Its.
2. Its.
The ironic feeling of having an enemy so close that its impossible to miss but you still do. Guns aren't melee sadly so it's infuriating when rngesus screws you over and poof, there goes your veteran.
A 98% chance hit will get you in trouble every time.
The commander is going to be keeping some pretty sensitive secrets if she just watched the video and audio of their entire trip back to pick up, but that's probably nothing new.
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Popular Australian XCOM streamer. Haven't kept up with him lately, but he put together some great campaigns back in the day.
8766270 Fixed! Thanks!
Eeeeey~ XCom's infamous hit chance~ :D
And gone.
SS arrive: instant badass, saving Mox and fighting aliens and using spells.
TS arrive: wimpy shit who needs constant help to even not die and cannot use spells.
8766712 I think you fail to see the difference in characters and situations, development, and time to adapt, but if that's how you feel, that's how you feel. Thanks for reading so far.
8766712
I see it as sunset was prepared for anything on the other side of the portal, and (correct me if im wrong) Tierek hasn't even happened yet, so twilight wouldn't have been introduced to mass destruction.
8766712
You seem to be acting under the assumption that OG sunset and pre-EQG purple smart to react the exact same way in two totally different scenarios. SS got dropped in by herself and had... maybe 12 hours or so to get used to both a different body and the situation was also not immediately dangerous. T Sparks however gets dropped right on top of the SS but also an active combat zone.
You can say SS was killing side by side with Mox, but she was already willing to kill from the get-go. Bacon hair was/is what most people would call morally imbalanced. Up to this point, Twiggy’s been able to solve all her problems with friendship in one form or another. Sombra was technically destroyed by Cadence, the crystal heart, or Spike if you want to stretch it. Twilight didn’t nick the big bad that time. So no, Twiggles not going to go “whelp, this is gunland. Oh boy! Lemme have that fancy machete, Shimsham, you keep the boomstick. Let’s trounce some aliens I’ve never seen before in a body I’ve had for all of 10 minutes, because the rule of cool must always be obeyed.”
(Soldier bond ready for level)
8765623
They didn't see the body so I'm pretty sure the football captain is still in the game. She's just not on the field right now. That Viper King is DEFINATELY dead, though.
The Gods of RNGs: "Mwahahahahaaa.. 2% chance?.. sure!.. Have a "Fuck you" Sunset.. hope you survive"
8765721
I give anything with grappling hook to my snipers, too. It allows me to reposition them over great distances to a higher vantage point, while still being able to fire their primary weapon.
fingers crossed sunset gets the viper armor.