Shadowbolt Harmony Division

by Rainium

Chapter 10

“Hey, is anypony else’s motion tracker acting up?” Lemon Zest asked.

“Yes,” Sugarcoat replied.

“Mine too,” Sour Sweet chimed in. “Unfortunately.”

Lightning glanced down at her HUD. Her motion tracker was playing the same tricks from her trek to the Base of Operations; phantom dots and graphical glitches rendered it untrustworthy and unusable. Time hadn’t made the error mellow out. If anything, the problem had only grown more severe to the point of annoyance.

“Mine’s been glitching for hours now,” Lightning said. “There must be something in the city scrambling the frequency. I’ll check back in with command to see if they’ve figured anything out.”

A quick tap of her orange watch switched her commlink’s connection from her squad to Command. “Agent Lightning to Command. My motion tracker is still inoperable, and my squadmates are now reporting the same problem as well. Any progress on a solution up there?”

“As of now, nothing yet, Agent. The helicopter pilots reported nothing unusual with their guidance systems during the supply run, so it must be an issue with your equipment. We’re still looking into it. We’ll let you know when we find something.”

“Acknowledged, Command. Keep me posted.”

“Will do. What’s your status?”

"We received a distress call from Captain Armor at the EUP staging grounds. They're under attack by rioters with a serious threat of being overrun, and they have two immobile VIPs preventing them from abandoning the position. We're en route to assist."

"Copy that… We need those two VIPs alive and in our possession, Agent. If anything happens to them, there will be a nationwide panic that will make Manehattan look like a training exercise. Captain Armor and the EUPs… either way. But the two VIPs are your highest priority."

“We’ll handle it. Lightning, out.”

Lightning ended the call and focused her attention on the road ahead. They were headed towards Battery Park, located where the long bridge connected the Equestrian mainland to Manehattan itself. Before the bridge was destroyed to quarantine the city, the Park was the first point of delivery for any supplies and medicine into Manehattan, and though deliveries had shifted to the Base of Operations, it still acted as the EUP's main point of control in the city. After the fall of the Base, it became their last point of control. Now, it was in danger of being destroyed entirely.

“So, Dust… Your aim improved at all?” Sour asked to break the silence as she rested her markspony rifle over her shoulder. “Or are you still as bad a shot as you were in the academy?”

“It’s too bad that marksponyship isn’t the only part of being a good soldier. Because it was always the only thing you were ever good at,” Lightning retorted.

“Better to be the best at one thing than average at everything, in my opinion,” Sour said. “And my opinion is better than yours!”

Lightning rolled her eyes. “Well, maybe if you weren’t below average at everything else, you wouldn’t be taking orders from me. Now knock it off.”

“I mean, we are all here because we bring a unique aspect to the team,” Sugarcoat intoned. “I’m having a hard time seeing what you provide.”

“I’m the leader! Somepony has to give orders,” Lightning said.

“Do they? I feel like I can do pretty well on my own!” Lemon said. “Current objective: Save the world! Why do I need to be micromanaged?”

“The First Wave tried that. Look where that got them,” Lightning said.

“What did it get them, actually? Command didn’t seem very enthused about giving us many details.” Lemon asked.

"They all disavowed the Shadowbolts in the Dark Zone after being locked inside," Sugarcoat answered.

“Well, yeah, everypony knows that. But what exactly went down in there? Everypony can’t have gone rogue at once, so where did all the other Agents go?” Lemon asked.

Lightning rolled her eyes. “Why do you even care? They’re all traitors no matter what, how they got to that point is moot.”

“I had two friends deploy in the First Wave. Remember Sunny Flare and Indigo Zap?” Lemon asked.

Sour and Sugarcoat both nodded. Lightning and Gridlock just blinked.

“Sour, Sugarcoat, Sunny, Indigo, and I were all originally in the same cell,” Lemon explained. “Assigned to the Crystal Empire area. We trained together, went to intel briefings together, deployed together… but Command split us up when we got to Manehattan. They got to go in with the first wave, and us three had to stay behind in quarantine. I was so damn jealous, heh… I thought they were the lucky ones for being chosen, but I guess we were the lucky ones after all.”

“And you’re wondering where they ended up,” Lightning deduced.

Lemon looked down at her hooves. “I guess, yeah. I know the odds are that they’re probably dead, either from the virus or the rioters or the rogue agents… or maybe they went rogue themselves, who knows. But it’d be nice if they were still alive, y’know?”

“No point in worrying about that now. We’ll make our way into the Dark Zone eventually, I’m sure of it. We can take care of any remaining agents when we get there. But right now, we’ve got other things to worry about, so keep your head straight,” Lightning replied.

Only Gridlock had kept quiet during the team’s verbal sparring. He silently plodded along next to them, prompting Lemon to nudge him with an elbow.

“You’re awfully quiet, big guy. What’s up?” Lemon asked.

“Your conversation is frivolous and annoying. I see no reason to contribute,” Gridlock replied.

Lemon pursed her lips. “Ah.”

“You all could learn a thing or two from him,” Lightning grumbled. “Quit cluttering up the commlink, we’re almost there.”

As they approached the camp, the sound of gunfire became audible over the wind. Then came the bellowing of orders and the screams of pain and death. Then, the team of Shadowbolts rounded the corner, and the camp came into view.

What had once been a staging area had been turned into a refugee camp. Beyond the chain-link fence and barbed wire surrounding the perimeter were tents upon tents upon tents, ubiquitous and uniform in appearance. Food scraps and trash fluttered around in the wind, covered in snow and fresh blood. The front gates had been blown open, and the path into the heart of the camp was littered with bullet casings and dead bodies.

Rioters and EUP guards were lying motionless… but there were no civilian casualties. There were no living ones in sight either. Where'd they all go?

The entrance to the camp also doubled as a virus scanning station; it used a long hallway full of UV lights and equipment to scan newcomers for any signs of infection. However, the rioters had stripped the tent bare, taking all the scanning equipment with them.

Odd. What use would rioters have for that kind of tech?

“It’s a ghost town,” Sugarcoat whispered.

“Fight’s been raging for hours, by the looks of it. Everypony’s moved on,” Lightning responded as she nudged a stiff body with a hoof. “They’ve no doubt made it to the HQ building by this point. Let's move, but be careful. Rioters could be hiding anywhere in this maze.”

Before Lightning could start off into the camp, Sour Sweet veered off towards one of the guard towers flanking the entrance. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and grabbed onto the ladder.

“I’ll provide overwatch and fire support from here,” Sour called out. “Someone needs to make sure you all don’t die immediately.”

“Sour, that’s a negative. We move as a team,” Lightning said.

Sour stared at her incredulously. “I’m a sniper, Lightning. What good will I be down here with all this close cover?”

“I’m the one giving orders here, Sour. Not you,” Lightning insisted.

“I mean, Sour does have a point. She’d be a lot more useful back here,” Lemon chimed in.

“She won’t be useful once we’re at the HQ building and she can’t see anything,” Lightning countered. “And all these tents provide too much cover for her to provide effective overwatch. We move together, and I don’t want to hear any more about it. Unless you want to be on the first flight back out to quarantine.”

Lightning was met with nothing but silence and a roll of the eyes from Sour as she rejoined the group.

“That’s better. Spread out, but stay close enough that we can support each other if needed. We don’t want to walk into an ambush and have no room to maneuver. After me,” Lightning said.

With that, the cell of Shadowbolts fanned out in a wide line and made their way through the city of tents. The area they were walking through had a similar dearth of life to the entrance, though the dead bodies of EUP and rioters still littered the ground. The air smelled of gunpowder and wet snow.

This amount of dedication and organization from the rioters was the most surprising thing to Lightning. In her intel briefing before deployment, the rioters were described as scared ponies taking advantage of the chaos to steal food and supplies. However, their actions in the past week suggested that they had moved beyond simply fighting for food.

When the supply helicopter had been shot down over the Base of Operations, the rioters swarmed in to take advantage of the chaos almost immediately. When the EUP fled to the Madisoat Mare Garden, they staged an elaborate assault to take it as well. Now, they were here, conducting a large-scale invasion of the EUP’s last stronghold in the city with almost fanatical dedication.

Wouldn’t rioters simply want to secure resources for themselves and scurry away once their lives were threatened? Why would they work to remove the EUP from the island with methodical efficiency? Something wasn’t adding up.

“I would say that my motion tracker is clean…” Lemon said over the commlink, snapping Lightning out of her thoughts. “...but I don’t think it’s very trustworthy at the moment.”

“Motion trackers would have been very useful in this environment.” Sugarcoat lamented. “There’s a lot of blind spots.”

“We wouldn’t have to be walking blind if we had someone providing overwatch,” Sour snidely remarked. “Too bad someone thought that was a bad idea.”

“Just keep your eyes and ears open,” Lightning grumbled. “The old-fashioned way. I’m sure you all can handle that much, right?”

“Quiet,” Gridlock suddenly grunted over the commlink, and the conversation cut off.

Lightning glanced over to the big batpony to see him swiveling his large, tufted ears left and right, homing in on a sound that only his thestral senses could pick up.

“Contact. Voices. One o’clock,” Gridlock called out after conducting his silent search.

A few seconds after the alert, the noise reached Lightning’s ears as well.

“Tell the boss that I’ve got another live one here,” a stallion’s voice said, followed by a grunt of exertion.

The boss? Lightning wasn't aware of the rioters having any leaders or a central command structure. Who could this be? She gestured to the other agents to stay quiet before slinking forward to use a tent as cover to observe the scene.

In front of her, a male rioter was dragging a mare by the mane out of one of the tents, despite her best efforts to squirm free. Her yelps and pleas rang out in the otherwise quiet camp, but they didn’t dissuade her captor one bit. Soon, she was dumped into an unceremonious heap in the open area.

“P-Please don’t hurt me. I’m no threat to you, I just want to survive,” the mare whimpered as she covered her head in her hooves.

“So do I. Which means I need your help. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you if you don’t give me a reason to,” the stallion cryptically replied before pulling a tool off his belt. “Are you infected?”

“No, no, no, I swear I’m not. I’ve gotten all my tests and they’re all clean.”

"Good! That's good for both of us. Hold still for me, please…"

Lightning motioned to the members of her team to stay put before slowly making her way toward the two with her combat knife gripped between her teeth. In front of her, the stallion was aiming the tool up and down the trembling mare's body, and it made the occasional whirring noise as it bathed her in blue light. A virus scanner?

A beep and a green light satisfied the stallion. “So, you were telling the truth. I appreciate that. But that means you’re going to have to come with me now. On your hooves.”

“W-What?” the mare gasped.

The stallion grabbed the mare by the mane and yanked her up, despite her best efforts to free herself from the grip of his hoof. However, before he could drag her off once again, Lightning grabbed him from behind. One hoof wrapped around his horn to hold his head in place, and the other held her knife just above his exposed throat.

“Let her go,” Lightning commanded.

The stallion blinked in surprise, but his hoof remained in the mare’s mane. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. Uninfected ponies are too rare of a commodity around here. Unless you’d rather take her place?”

“I don’t think I made myself clear,” Lightning hissed. “Let her go, or I’ll cut your throat.”

“Oh well. Get cutting then, I suppose,” the stallion said with a shrug.

Now it was Lightning's turn to blink. What kind of pony would act so nonchalantly and recklessly in the face of death? Was he doubting her nerve? Well, if he was, he was sorely mistaken.

Lightning drove the knife tip down into the stallion's throat after her moment of hesitation. The blade slid through his neck like butter—too easily. No blood splashed out, and after a few inches, the tip suddenly slammed into something hard and solid, stopping her in her tracks. No matter how hard she pressed and ground the blade inside, she couldn't penetrate further into his neck. Meanwhile, the stallion reacted with only blasé indifference, as if only mildly inconvenienced by such an act.

"What the fuck?" Lightning stammered as she lifted the knife out to see that no mark had been left on his skin.

The stallion sighed as his patience ran out. “Right. My turn.”

The air around her exploded. Lighting was lifted off her hooves and blown away from the stallion in a rush of energy. She yelped in panic as she tumbled head over hooves through the air before landing hard on her back, driving the air out of her lungs with a pitiful squeak. Her knife skittered across the bloody snow and out of reach. Her limbs refused to respond to her brain’s commands to move, and she was left staring up at the overcast sky.

“H-How?...” was all Lightning was able to mutter.

Meanwhile, the stallion’s grip on the cowering mare’s mane had kept her in place. With an annoyed grunt, he yanked her up and pressed his nose to hers, staring right into her eyes. His horn began to glow with a sickly green hue, and soon his eyes changed to match that same color.

“Go to the others. Tell them I sent you. Refuse to go anywhere with anyone else,” the stallion firmly commanded.

The mare’s eyes changed to a mosaic of expanding circles, and her struggling body went limp with only a simple nod to respond to his words. When he released her, she climbed to her hooves and trotted off deeper into the camp without a word.

The stallion watched her go while his eyes changed back to their normal color. Then, he sighed in annoyance as he turned back to the stunned Lightning.

“Another orange watch…” the stallion said as he gently nudged the watch on Lightning's foreleg. “I’ve seen a couple of them around the city. Never had the chance to meet the owners face to face, however. Who are you, exactly?”

“Go fuck yourself,” Lightning growled as feeling slowly began to return to her limbs—too slowly.

The stallion scoffed. “Such hostility. I only want to survive, the same as you. You can’t fault me for that, can you?”

“You have no idea what I want,” Lightning hissed. “What the hell are you?”

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” the stallion said with a smirk. “Now, on your hooves—”

His hoof reached down to grab her by the mane, but before he could, a loud chorus of gunfire rang out. Bullets slammed into his side, knocking him away from Lightning with a pained gasp. Lightning rolled away from the rioter and back onto her hooves as the rest of the Shadowbolts moved up on either side of her; the barrel of Gridlock’s LMG was smoking.

“Took you long enough to step in. What were you doing over there?” Lightning asked.

“Debating whether or not to let him kill you,” Sour replied with only a hint of detectable sarcasm.

“Good to see you still care for me somewhat,” Lightning snorted.

In front of her, the stallion had been thrown back into a heap on the ground, groaning softly. The fact that he was still breathing at all was surprising to Lightning, but he wouldn’t be for long; nothing could survive a flurry of body shots like that.

“Should’ve listened to me when you had the chance,” Lightning gloated. “You really thought you could take on the Division?”

However, the smug expression on her face quickly turned to horror as the stallion began to move once again. He slowly, deliberately pushed himself back up onto his hooves to reveal that his body was spotless: no bullet hole, no blood, no damage whatsoever. He just stretched his neck from side to side with a wince, as if he had simply taken an uncomfortable fall.

“And you really thought that was enough to take me down?” the stallion asked with a laugh.

Impossible.

“What in Celestia’s name are you?” Lemon wondered aloud next to Lightning.

The stallion ignored her as he slowly walked towards the group of Shadowbolts. “Ponies. So foolish and arrogant. No wonder we’ve been able to operate under your noses for all this time.”

“Stay the fuck away!” Lightning ordered as she raised her pistol and fired.

Three bullets struck the stallion in the chest, but his skin simply absorbed the rounds without even leaving a mark, though the force caused him to stumble back with a chuckle of equal parts pain and amusement. In her shock, Lightning forgot to fire again; the rest of her squadmates followed suit.

“You can’t fathom the idea that you could be deceived,” the stallion said as he continued his slow walk forward. “Can’t imagine that someone like me could get inside your house, walk your floors, spit in your food, take your love… We moved in the shadows while you were blinded by the sunlight. And in the silence, we’ve only grown stronger.”

As soon as he finished his sentence, the air exploded with energy once again. The Shadowbolts all stumbled back from the force, and once they did, his horn’s aura grabbed hold of their guns and pulled. Sugarcoat and Lemon were promptly disarmed, and their weapons flew over the stallion’s head to sink into the muddy snow; Lightning, Gridlock, and Sour were barely able to keep hold of their own weapons. However, the force of the magic on her pistol slowly dragged Lightning across the ground towards the stallion, despite her best efforts to dig her hooves into the ground and stop herself. She fired off shots blindly, but his grip forced the barrel to the side, and they whizzed harmlessly past him. Then, she was face to face with him once again, and she was forced to stare directly into his hypnotizing eyes.

“Freeze,” the stallion ordered with a burst of magic.

Lightning’s body went stiff, and no effort could make her move or resist. The stallion casually flung her away into the snow as well, and she landed on her side with a thud.

The larger, heavier Gridlock was successfully able to resist the stallion’s magic pull, and once Lightning was clear, he fired off a flurry of machine gun fire that knocked the stallion back with a hiss. This broke his concentration, and the spell ended, allowing Gridlock and Sour to move and aim once again. Sour lined up a shot with her long markspony rifle, but she was too close to effectively aim; the stallion closed the distance in seconds instead, and a swat of his hoof knocked the gun out of the way. Sour fired a second too late, and the bullet sent up a spray of snow as it slammed into the ground. He tried to force eye contact once again, but Sour twisted herself away, and he settled with delivering a buck to her ribs to send her sprawling away with a groan.

As soon as Sour fell away, the line of fire opened for Gridlock, and he raised his gun to fire on the now-exposed stallion. However, before he could, Sugarcoat suddenly leaped in the way with a yell. Her rifle remained in the snow out of reach, but she instead drove her forehoof into the stallion's snout with a well-placed punch. The impact barely phased the stallion, and he easily blocked the second blow before counterattacking with his own series of kicks and jabs. He moved with such speed and ferocity that Sugarcoat couldn't keep up, and he targeted the areas that would cause the most amount of pain without killing her, soon knocking her back onto the ground with a cry.

The line of fire opened again, and this time Gridlock was able to let off a flurry of shots, slamming into the stallion’s side and knocking him back with a pained groan. However, before Gridlock could move in for the kill, several grenades suddenly bounced across the ground towards the prone stallion, forcing Gridlock to hastily scamper away. Lemon was reaching into her saddlebags and pulling out grenade after grenade with barely restrained glee.

“Try shaking this off!” Lemon yelled before the grenades exploded.

The explosion was large enough to make Lightning’s ears ring. In her still-frozen state, she was unable to take cover as shrapnel flew through the air, and several hot metal shards sank into her body. A few audible cries of pain told her that several of her squadmates had also been hit. The smoke from the explosion completely obscured where the stallion had been. The area descended into an eerie silence.

Lightning tried to move and found that she was still frozen in place. That meant either the magic worked for a set amount of time… or the stallion was still alive to keep the spell going.

The smoke began to clear, and a silhouette was slowly revealed. It was the stallion, miraculously still alive… but he had changed. His horn was curved, and two translucent wings fluttered at his sides as he slowly pushed himself back up to his hooves. His legs had holes peppered through them, but it wasn't due to damage from the explosion; his body was naturally deformed and grotesque. Instead of skin and fur, his body was covered in a black chitinous carapace; the hard exoskeleton was dented and cracked in several places from bullet impacts, and the explosion had torn chunks of it off, causing him to drip green blood down onto the snow.

Changeling, Lightning thought to herself once her lips refused to move once again.

The changeling’s horn flashed green, and his form flickered briefly, but he was unable to change back into the stallion. He just groaned and relented, spitting bloody spittle onto the ground.

“Damn. Guess the secret’s out,” he mumbled under his breath.

“You’re a changeling,” Sugarcoat said as she rubbed at her chest with a wince.

“Took you long enough to figure that out,” the changeling responded.

Gridlock tilted his head. “I thought all the changelings converted.”

“Not all of us,” the changeling said. “Some of us chose to stay loyal to our Queen. Loyalty is a trait you ponies admire, isn’t it? One of your beloved Elements… Yet here we are, in a city the government has sealed off and abandoned. Loyalty? They deserted you. So, in a way, us ‘evil’ changelings are more harmonious than you are. That must sting.”

“We haven’t given up on this city. We’re here to take it back,” Lemon growled. “What are you here for?”

“We? I’ve watched all sorts of groups try to regain control of this city. Police, militia, the royal guard, the EUP… They were all abandoned by Equestria in time once the city became too much for them. You think this… Division you claim to be a part of will fare any different? Your government will discard anyone if it’s convenient. They’ll use anyone if it’s convenient. Us changelings found that out the hard way, and soon you’ll learn too—”

A loud bang interrupted the changeling’s speech, and a bullet ripped through a gap in his exoskeleton, punching right through his head and out the other side. His body crumbled to the ground, and a pool of green blood began to stain the snow underneath his horn. As soon as he did, Lightning was freed from the hypnotization, and she scrambled up to her hooves with a gasp.

Sour Sweet lowered her smoking markspony rifle with a scoff. “Sorry, I’m sure he was getting to the good part. But I got tired of hearing him talk.”

Lightning turned to Sour with a frown. “Why did you do that? We could've gotten more intel from him. He was in a talkative mood; we could’ve coaxed out their plans.”

“Well, excuse me, but I don’t know how much intel you could possibly get out of that. All I heard was self-righteous bragging,” Sour said.

Lightning rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you’re the expert on that subject.”

Sour narrowed her own eyes with a growl. “At least I did something! You spent the entire fight on the ground watching! You have no right to tell me what I should’ve done when you couldn’t do anything helpful.”

“From my vantage point, it didn’t look like anypony was doing anything helpful. We’re lucky to be walking away from this,” Lightning said.

“Excuse you! I was the one who finally stopped that thing,” Lemon chimed. “You’re welcome, by the way. Overwhelming firepower saves the day once again.”

“And I was able to fight it long enough to stop it from disabling Sour. Allowing her to finish it off,” Sugarcoat added.

“But you two got in my line of fire by doing so. I had clear shots until you interfered,” Gridlock said as he stepped forward. “You’re both lucky I was able to stop myself in time.”

Lemon and Sugarcoat made eye contact with each other before looking down at the ground with a hint of shame. When they did, Lightning noticed the shrapnel that had slashed through their flight suits, leaking blood down their exposed fur and down onto the snow below. Every pony in the squad had been hit by at least one fragment from Lemon’s grenades, and the metal was still embedded in some of them.

“And have you looked around, Lemon? I think you did as much damage to us as you did to it,” Lightning added.

“And now every rioter in this place knows we’re coming,” Sour pointed out.

“Well, I personally prefer some shrapnel wounds to death,” Lemon said.

Sour rolled her eyes. “Next time, we might not be so lucky to escape with only a few wounds. Ever heard of making sure the AOE is clear? Communicating that you’re shooting explosives beforehoof?”

“Stop,” Gridlock grunted under the commotion.

“Of course I know! Do you think I’m stupid?” Lemon asked, unabated.

“Well, you didn’t do either of those things, so maybe you are,” Sour responded.

Lemon growled under her breath. "Oh, that's rich coming from the markspony who engaged with a sniper rifle at point-blank range!"

“Well, that’s because someone didn’t let me provide overwatch from a distance. Y’know, where I’m actually useful? But no, that would’ve made too much sense for our boss over here,” Sour said.

“STOP!” Gridlock bellowed.

The second interjection finally brought the argument to a halt. The team of Shadowbolts fell into awkward silence while refusing to meet everypony else's gaze. Only Gridlock stood tall in the center, slitted eyes narrowed as he looked around.

“We don’t know how to fight as a team. That much is clear. There’s no point in fighting over it and making it worse,” Gridlock said.

I can’t let a thestral take over my leadership duties... Lightning scolded herself as she stepped forward to stand next to him. “Gridlock is right. This will be a learning curve for all of us. There will be some learning pains. But we need to work through them, together. Understand?”

There were several silent nods of agreement, but Sour whinnied in annoyance. “Including you, right? Boss?”

Lightning shot Sour a warning glare but didn’t say a word, instead turning her attention to Sugarcoat. “Got anything to patch us up before we move on? If we’re gonna be fighting more of these things, I’d rather us be at full strength when we do.”

Sugarcoat nodded. “I have a few medkits. Hold tight, I’ll get to everypony.”

The team settled in as the medic began to tend to the injuries sustained in the fight. They formed a rough circle to keep watch as Sugarcoat patched them up one at a time with bandages and numbing spray. Only Lemon strayed from the group; she gingerly made her way over to the dead changeling and nudged his exoskeleton with a hoof. The body didn’t move.

“What is a changeling doing here?” Lemon wondered aloud.

“Could’ve been a deep-cover drone who got caught in the quarantine,” Lightning suggested.

Lemon glanced over at Lightning with a frown before looking back down. “He was using magic. Was he suicidal?”

“Maybe. You heard him, changelings are fiercely loyal to Chrysalis. They’re a hivemind; the drones don’t matter, only the will of the Queen.”

“And to be honest… He could have killed us at any time. Why didn’t he?”

“He didn’t kill that civilian either. Maybe he intended to bring us with him.”

“To turn us into changeling food? No thanks.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Lightning’s attention was drawn away by a sharp, brief pain in her side. She winced and glanced over to see that Sugarcoat had begun pulling the pieces of shrapnel out of her skin, then sealing the cuts with gauze. They were painful, but she was a Shadowbolt; she’d survived worse.

"Using this many medical supplies this early into our mission is concerning," Sugarcoat commented in her usual blunt tone. "Try not to get hurt again."

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep trying,” Lightning replied.

Sour chuckled. “The most impressive thing of all is that you managed to get hurt while being paralyzed most of the fight. Unprecedented.”

“That only means I wasn’t able to move out of the blast radius of the grenades,” Lightning said. “What’s your excuse? Too slow?”

“Too preoccupied with trying to stop the threat, mainly. Maybe I should’ve left the changeling alive after all. Leave you frozen like a statue,” Sour said.

“I disagree,” Gridlock chimed in. “I appreciate not having to carry her around.”

“Thanks for the support, Gridlock,” Lightning grumbled.

Before she could be insulted any further, Lightning’s commlink lit up with an incoming call. She answered it and turned away from her teammates to focus.

“This is Captain Shining Armor,” the caller started. “Where are you? We’re running low on ammunition and supplies, soon we’ll be fighting with our hooves over here!”

“We ran into some trouble on the way, but we’re still on our way to you,” Lightning responded, before pausing briefly to gather her thoughts. “Captain, were you aware that there were changeling drones embedded in the rioter forces?”

“What? Changelings? What are you talking about?”

“We ran into one on our way to you. It was disguised as a rioter, and it was one tough son-of-a-bitch. Tell your troops to keep an eye out.”

“Won’t have any troops to tell it to if you don’t hurry, Agent!”

“I get the point. Hold tight, Captain.”

After closing the commlink, Lightning shrugged Sugarcoat away and stood. “Alright, we’ve wasted enough time. Those EUP guards are counting on us, let’s move.”

The five Division agents resumed their trek deeper into the refugee camp, moving deeper into the maze of tents. They headed towards the harbor at the southern tip of Manehattan, the very end of Battery Park and where the EUP headquarters had been set up. It was in a large building on the waterfront, which had been home to a ferry company before the outbreak. It acted as one of the main routes to and from the Equestrian mainland, ferrying thousands of ponies every day… but now, the waters were blockaded and quarantined. The building was visible and growing bigger by the minute, but the popping of gunfire grew loud as well.

Eventually, the Shadowbolts reached the edge of the tents, and the park opened into an empty area between them and the HQ’s entrance. In between was chaos. Next to the front doors, the EUP had set up an array of barricades and were hunkering down for dear life. They were being swarmed by a large group of rioters, who attacked and moved without much experience or cohesion; their numbers simply made the fight a losing one for the guards. Motionless bodies littered the clearing, and the snow was painted red with blood. Bullet casings and discarded melee weapons littered the ground like fallen leaves. Captain Armor was nowhere to be seen.

“What’s the plan this time?” Lemon asked over the commlink.

“Spread out so we don’t get in each other’s way,” Lightning responded. “We’ll all open fire at once. If one of the rioters is taking too many shots without going down, relay it over the SPARC and we’ll focus fire on them. Got it?”

She was answered by a chorus of affirmative nods, and the team got to work. As the rest of her team scrambled off into position, Lightning stayed put, crouching down behind one of the tents and bracing her rifle against the snow-covered ground. The rioters all had their backs to her; it was almost like shooting fish in a barrel.

“Fire when ready,” Lightning ordered.

The rear flank erupted with gunfire, and suddenly the rioters were trapped on both sides. Gridlock’s LMG scythed through the looters like an invisible hand swiping them aside, and they fell without time to even scream in surprise. Lemon’s grenade launcher thumped, and a second later, the heart of the rioter’s position erupted, throwing bodies everywhere as ponies scrambled for cover. One of the rioters managed to reach the EUP barricade, but one shot from Sour’s markspony rifle put an end to his plans.

Confusion and panic swept through the horde of rioters unsure of which threat to face first, and the indecision resulted in dozens being cut down in seconds. Then, that panic turned into an impromptu retreat, with ponies scrambling over themselves to escape the gunfire and make for the entrance to the park.

“Changeling. Mare, green fur, yellow mane. My three o’clock,” Gridlock reported.

Lightning shifted her aim in the direction indicated. A mare matching Gridlock’s description was waving the rioters towards the gate, taking the lead in encouraging the hasty withdrawal.

“Retreat! Retreat! We’ve got what we came for, get out of here!” she yelled as bullets slammed into her, but she didn’t even flinch.

Then, the mare disappeared into the crowd, and soon the main attacking force had completely abandoned the HQ, leaving only a few stragglers that were easily cleaned up. The area fell into silence.

Lightning reloaded her rifle before rising and waving a hoof at the EUP survivors. “Hold your fire! We’re friendlies!”

The EUP guards waved a hoof back in response, and as the Shadowbolts made their way across the corpse-strewn ground, a white and blue unicorn stallion rose from behind the barricade to meet them.

“You must be Agent Lightning Dust,” the stallion said, his voice filled with weariness. “I’m Shining Armor. You showed up just in time.”

“We’ve got a knack for that,” Lightning responded. “Is everyone alright?”

“We lost a lot of good ponies. But we’re still standing, so that means we’ve still got a chance,” Shining said.

Lightning smirked. “I’d say we’ve got more than just a chance now. The Shadowbolts are regaining their presence in the city. We’ve reclaimed the Base of Operations at the Maneway Station, and supply drops have resumed. Moving your guards there to help secure the position would be greatly beneficial.”

“Trust me, I’d love to, but the VIPs here have kept us locked to this position,” Shining said with a nod of his head towards the HQ. “We can’t move them, and we can’t abandon them, so we’re stuck here for the foreseeable future.”

Lightning frowned. “Staying stretched this thin is risky, Captain.”

“I know. But we have no choice.”

Meanwhile, Lemon poked away at one of the dead rioters, deep in thought. “The rioters said they ‘got what they came here for.’ What did they mean by that?”

Shining’s eyes narrowed, but then his face turned pale. “The princesses.”

Shining turned and galloped through the front doors of the headquarters, practically throwing them open in his haste. After a moment’s hesitation, the Shadowbolts bolted after him, leaving the group of confused EUP guards to watch the entrance.

The door opened to the main ticketing area of the ferry station, with the far wall lined with cashier stations protected by glass and the floor strewn with stanchions. A giant banner hung across where the prices would be displayed: "QUARANTINE IS IN EFFECT. ALL FERRIES CANCELED." The room was covered with discarded personal belongings and supplies from ponies that had long since abandoned the doomed HQ.

Shining pushed his way through the gates and towards the docks, but instead of heading to the waterfront, he forced open an employee-only door and took the stairs down to the lower levels. He moved with such panicked speed that even the Shadowbolts had trouble keeping up, with only Lightning able to stay on his heels.

The maintenance staircase opened into a small hallway leading to various storage closets. One of the doorways was guarded by two EUP guards, who jumped in surprise at the sudden arrival of the group. Their guns raised in alarm, but quickly lowered once they recognized the sight of their captain.

“Caramel! Scarlet! Have you noticed anything?” Shining called out as he approached.

“No one’s come down here, Captain. We heard some gunfire and some explosions, but we assumed it was from the fighting upstairs,” one of the guards responded.

Shining and Lightning exchanged a look as the rest of the Shadowbolts caught up.

“Did you think to check on the VIPs after it happened?” Shining asked.

The two guards grimaced. “No sir. We didn’t want to divert our attention away from the entrance. Besides, how would anyone get in behind us? The room is secured.”

Lightning stepped forward. “Out of the way then. We’ll check it ourselves.”

The guards hesitantly nodded before scrambling off to the side, allowing Shining and the Division agents to stack up on the door. Lightning teased the handle of the door to find that it was unlocked, allowing the door to open a smidge.

“This door is supposed to be locked…” Shining whispered under his breath.

“Someone’s been in here,” Sugarcoat deduced for them.

“We’ve gotta get in there then,” Lightning said before throwing the double doors wide open.

Once the entrance was open, the six ponies flooded inside, rifles raised to scour every corner of the room. It was a maintenance room underneath the ferry dock, holding tools and equipment for servicing the large passenger ships. However, one of the side walls had been blown open by an explosive, revealing a side hallway that led to a quieter, less secured part of the HQ. In the middle of the room were two large boxes, covered in both glass and reinforced steel, with medical monitoring equipment attached to them. The glass panes on both had been blown open as well, leaving a pony-sized hole large enough to remove anyone that was inside.

As Lightning stepped closer to the quarantine boxes, a sight inside made her gasp; instead of the VIPs inside, there were now two bloodied corpses. Two mares in EUP uniforms… the same mane and fur colors as the two that had been guarding the door. How could there be two of the same pony?...

“Changelings!” Lightning yelled in alarm as she turned herself back to the entrance.

The two guards stood in the door frame with smirks on their faces, unbothered as Lightning raised her rifle to fire. Two bullets harmlessly struck their chests, tearing through their uniforms but leaving no mark on their skin. One of them raised a small device in her hoof and tilted her head.

“Too slow,” she giggled before pressing the button and slamming the door shut.

Before Lightning could fire again, a rapid beeping noise from behind made her turn. The back wall of the room was shrouded in shadow, but several blinking lights now covered the concrete, pulsing faster and faster as their red light bathed the back of the room. The light revealed what now covered the center of the wall: C-4. And before she could react, it exploded in an instant.

Heat and energy erupted from the blast, knocking Lightning onto her back. The quarantine cubes protected her from the fireball and the shrapnel, but her head rang as she tried to force herself back onto her hooves. The explosion left a hole in the thick concrete wall, revealing the base of one of the bright orange ferries that were docked at the terminal… as well as the dark blue water that it was floating in. And that water immediately flooded in through the breach, sweeping the Shadowbolts away.

The wave slammed into Lightning like a wall and knocked her rifle out of her grasp. The impact knocked her breath out of her lungs, and she gasped for air, only for saltwater to fill her muzzle and leave her gasping and sputtering. She was swept away and slammed against the door, pinned there as wave after wave slammed into her. She floundered in panic, thrashing hooves, legs, and wings, but nothing could free her as more and more water filled the small room.

She felt another body slam next to her, and she managed to catch a glimpse of Shining Armor out of the corner of her eye. Rather than fight the crashing waves at the surface, he dove down underneath the water, prompting Lightning to do the same. The room was three-quarters full now, and the force of the flow through the hole made swimming out that way impossible. She tugged on the handle of the door, but it was locked. The changelings had trapped them.

As Lightning desperately tugged and pounded on the doors, Shining instead reached down and pulled his keyring out of his uniform pocket. With almost unnatural calm and poise, the stallion flipped through to find the correct key and slip it into the hole, allowing the doors to swing open after another punch from Lightning. The water spilled through the new opening as well, sweeping the two ponies out with it. Lightning slammed back against the far wall of the maintenance hallway with a groan, and her burning lungs forced her to swim to the surface with a gasp for air.

The water current flowed further down the hallway away from the exit, but her flight suit had snagged on a loose panel, locking her in place. To her left, she could see Shining grab hold of the emergency exit’s door handle to pull himself into the stairwell; to her right, she could see one of her teammates, Sour Sweet, floating out of the room as well, desperately fighting to swim but failing.

“Agent! Grab my hoof!” Shining called out to Lightning from the stairwell.

“Lightning! Help me!” Sour screamed as the current carried her away down the hallway, rapidly flowing out of reach.

Lightning hesitated. Then she grabbed Shining’s hoof, and Sour disappeared under the water.

Shining’s strong grasp pulled her out of the current and into the safety of the stairwell, where Lightning was able to cough all the salt water out of her lungs. Shining continued to pull Shadowbolts out of the water one at a time as each managed to swim out of the quarantine room until almost all of them were clinging to the railing in exhaustion.

The last one out of the water was Gridlock, who looked around in confusion. “Where’s Sour?”

“Gone,” Lightning stammered. “Down the hallway.”

Gridlock turned and jumped back into the water without a second thought, despite Shining’s best efforts to stop him. A tense silence washed over the group as they waited, shivering from the freezing water. The water level steadily rose inch by inch, soon threatening to fill the hallway up to the ceiling.

Then, after several minutes, Gridlock reappeared with a gasp, carrying a limp Sour atop his back. His large, skin-covered bat wings propelled him through the water better than a pegasus’s wings could, and his stallion strength allowed him to swim up the current and make it into the stairwell, where he dumped the unconscious Sour onto the nearest dry spot.

“Sugarcoat!” Gridlock bellowed once they were both out of the water.

The medic bolted over to Sour’s side while the rest of the group hovered anxiously. Sugarcoat pressed down on her chest over and over, pausing only to blow air into her waterlogged muzzle before continuing. Then, after a few more repetitions, Sour erupted into a coughing fit that sprayed water and bile all over herself.

Sugarcoat breathed a sigh of relief as she rolled Sour onto her side, letting her empty her lungs of salt water while the rest of the Shadowbolts finally relaxed. Lightning sat down against the wall and curled herself up to preserve body heat, the combination of cold air and cold water causing her to shiver uncontrollably. None of the other ponies were faring any better.

“Did anyone see where the changelings went?” Shining asked.

He was met with silence.

Shining sighed. “Hopefully, they just left to meet up with the rioters…”

“Or they rejoined the rest of your guards with new disguises,” Gridlock mumbled.

“We have no way of telling if they’re a pony or a changeling, so I really hope not,” Shining grimaced.

“Why were they here?” Lemon asked.

“To take the princesses. And they succeeded. To where and why, I have no idea,” Shining said.

“What are the princesses even doing here? Shouldn’t they have been in a secure location off the island?” Lightning asked.

Shining shook his head. “They can’t leave the quarantine zone. They’re infected.”

Lemon blinked. “Infected? How did that happen?”

Shining opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, he was interrupted by a commotion behind him. Sour was forcing herself up onto her hooves, despite Sugarcoat's pleading for her to stay down to recover. The soaked pegasus stumbled her way over to Lightning… and delivered a backhanded slap across her muzzle.

“What the fuck is your problem?” Sour yelled as the rest of the Division agents stepped between them to hold her back. “You left me to fucking drown! Are you serious?”

Shining turned to her. “Lightning? Is that true?”

Lightning wiped her muzzle with a hoof, and it came back bloody. “If I tried to help you, we would have both been sucked away. I wouldn't have been able to stage a rescue if we were both drowning.”

“Stage a rescue?” Sour scoffed. “You didn’t do shit! Gridlock was the one who saved me, you just sat here like a coward!”

“Do you really think he could have carried both of us through that current? He barely made it with just you. It was for the best.”

“You couldn’t have known that in the moment. You just decided to be selfish. That’s all it is.”

“And you’re not being selfish by insisting that I should’ve put your safety over the team’s?”

“Teammates are supposed to help each other! Y’know, you do have a habit of confusing what’s good for you with the good of the team. Or do you do it intentionally?”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Shining crowed. “Both of you. It’s over. We’re safe. And we’ve got bigger things to worry about than each other.”

The group fell silent, but the rage and anger didn’t leave Sour’s eyes as she glared at Lightning. Lightning matched her stare for a few more seconds before looking away.

Shining nodded. “That’s better. First, we’ve gotta get dry. Then, we need to figure out where those princesses went. Let’s go.”

---

“Hello again, Manehattan. It’s Suri Polomare, back with another episode of Wouldn’t You Know It.

“Now, I’m sure most of you are in the same situation as me right about now: stuck in our apartments with nothing to do and nowhere to go… unless we fancy getting shot, or stabbed, or mugged, or infected, or any other of the unattractive outcomes our dear city offers at the moment. Well, let me tell you something about being stuck in the same room for weeks: you notice everything. I’ve found cracks, stains, loose floorboards, creaking noises, and other shit I didn’t know existed. I’ve counted the number of carriages clogging up the streets below me multiple times… 128, if you were wondering. Anything changes, anything out of the ordinary happens, I notice it.

“And something out of the ordinary has happened, fillies and gentlecolts. Strap yourselves in.

“Early this morning, the first supply helicopter landed in town after a long absence. You can thank the destruction of the Spellcaster for that. And luckily, I was able to get a good view of it from my window, so I was able to see the whole delivery go down. Sure, there were boxes and boxes of non-perishable food and supplies, but that wasn’t the main point of the delivery. They brought in ponies as well. Who flies more ponies into an active quarantine zone?

“And that wasn’t all. These weren’t normal ponies. These weren’t doctors or virus specialists either. Each of them had the same combat suit on, and they were sporting weapons that looked like they were pulled out of a science fiction novel. Equestrian special forces. At least, I hope they’re Equestrian.

“Now, I’m not the biggest expert on the Equestrian government, but I like to consider myself well-informed. And I was unaware that we even have special forces in the country. You can tell me, ‘That’s the whole point of Special Forces, Suri, you’re not supposed to expect them,’ but doesn’t it seem a little odd to you that there’s been no news, no rumors, nothing? Not one pony let it slip that there was a secret regiment of soldiers after a long night at the bar?

“It’s like these ponies just appeared in the streets of Manehattan. Like the virus created them or something. If they’re this top secret, it makes one wonder what else they’re hiding from us.

“And the fact that they exist isn’t the only thing that concerns me. What are they doing here? Obviously, things are not going well in this city, I won’t deny that, but how can you fight a virus with special forces? And doesn’t reinforcing the EUP with literal agents of death seem a little overkill?

“All this is telling me one thing: things are worse than we know. Worse than we realize. I mean, when was the last time we heard from the Princesses? Who’s running the country? Are we really the only city infected by this thing? Or has Equestria gone up in flames?

“There’s a very real chance that things may never go back to normal if we’re resorting to these measures. And the sooner we wake up to that fact, the better.

“I’m gonna do some digging. You ponies stay safe until next time, m’kay?”

---

Rainy awoke to the smell of coffee in the air.

She groggily opened her eyes to see that she had wrapped herself up in her own wings during the night to keep herself warm. She slowly untangled herself and rolled off the couch to stretch all six limbs with a yawn. From the view outside the window, she had slept through the rest of the day and most of the night; the sky above was dark and covered in gray clouds, with daybreak still to come.

Aerion’s voice interrupted her stretching. “Welcome back to the waking world, Agent.”

Rainy paused and turned to face her. Aerion was sitting next to the kitchen counter, watching a coffee pot boil atop a peculiar piece of technology. It shared the same angular design as the rest of Aerion’s MagiTech equipment, and its hodgepodge construction suggested that she had cobbled it together from pieces she had scattered around the apartment. It glowed with a warm blue light, emanating heat that caused steam to whistle out of the top of the pot.

Agrippa stood next to Aerion with a mug cupped in her hooves. She took greedy sips from it as she stared at Rainy from over the rim; sleep hadn’t cured the black bags hanging under her eyes.

“Power is out, gas is out, both for obvious reasons. But luckily for us, we don’t need any of that when we have MagiTech,” Aerion said with a gesture to the pot. “Want some?”

Rainy shook her head. "I don't drink coffee. Your body becomes over-reliant on it, and it makes waking up even harder to do."

Agrippa rolled her eyes and took another sip. “Heard that one a lot back in the day. Rainy was always the idealist, and she made sure you knew about it.”

“And yet I was right, wasn’t I? Coffee and medical school turned you into a zombie,” Rainy said.

“Better to be a zombie than a cadaver. You’re lucky I didn’t start using anything stronger.”

“Oh, so I should be thankful that you didn’t hook yourself on Poison Joke? Like you were doing me a favor?”

“Well, I wasn’t doing it for myself, that’s for sure. It would’ve made the whole experience a whole lot more bearable. But nope, I was just stuck with coffee and you. What a nightmare.”

Rainy caught a biting retort on the tip of her tongue and refused to speak it into existence. The conversation fell into an awkward silence.

Aerion was the first to break it. “Look. I can tell this is a sore subject… but I feel that if I’m going to be working with you two, I deserve to know what the hell is going on between you.”

Rainy and Agrippa looked from Aerion to each other, then found different corners of the room to stare at. The drawn-out silence was only interrupted by the bubbling of the coffee pot.

“We were engaged,” Rainy said finally.

Aerion’s eyes widened. “What?”

“We met in Ponyville, back when I was a guard and she was a medical student. Lived together for years,” Rainy said.

“I mean, all the bickering and cold shoulders made me think there was some sort of relationship, but I didn’t think it was that serious. What happened?” Aerion asked.

“I received an offer to join the Division, and one of the criteria was that I had to create distance from any attachments. Anything that could compromise me or affect my enthusiasm to serve when my number was called,” Rainy explained.

“And Rainy, being the stickler she is, immediately cut off all contact,” Agrippa interjected with a snarl. “Barely even said goodbye. Left me high and dry just a month out from the wedding.”

Rainy sighed. “I had to, Agrippa. I had no choice.”

"Like hell, you didn't. Do you think every single other Shadowbolt disappeared on their friends? Their spouses? Their children? No, you’re just so straightlaced and desperate to impress that you took it above and beyond. Always dedicated to following every rule to the letter. Where has that gotten you, hm, Agent?”

"Where has it gotten me? It was your insistence that I disobey orders and break the rules that I'm even in this position to begin with! A treasonous rogue agent, stuck with two mares that hate me and what I stand for, just so I can be your guinea pig. Do you think I wanted this? All I ever wanted to do is the right thing, and you hate me for it.”

"The right thing? How can you sit there and tell me with a straight face that what you've done is the right thing? Your moral compass must be screwed on backward, Rainy. Or did they train that compass out of you?"

“I’m a Shadowbolt. A Division Agent. We were all chosen because we’re able and willing to make the tough decisions no one else can make. So maybe they did, but it’s all for the betterment of Equestria! Everything that Command does is for the good of everypony, even if it means some ponies have to get hurt in the process!”

“THEY SENT YOU TO DIE, RAINY!”

Rainy’s ears folded back against her head. Agrippa’s mug was shattered against the ground, and coffee flowed between the kitchen tiles. Rainy’s intended words disappeared in her muzzle as the outburst left her in shock. Agrippa trembled with adrenaline and rage as her own bottled-up emotions finally uncorked themselves.

“They knew this place would kill you, and they didn’t say a word,” Agrippa said, voice no higher than a whisper, but the anger and rage still dripped off every word. “Even after you sucked up to them as much as you could. Where’s the loyalty in that?”

“It was for the greater good. Sacrifices need to be made to ensure the nation’s safety. Guards understand that. Soldiers understand that,” Rainy said softly.

Agrippa scoffed. “Bullshit. Good leaders don’t throw their ponies’ lives away like pawns. Especially when there’s a better way of doing things. Do you know what we Equestrians call leaders that don’t care about their subjects? Evil.”

Evil. That word reverberated through Rainy’s core, echoing in her brain. How could something created by the Princesses be evil? How could something meant to preserve Equestria from foreign threats be evil? Sure, they had thrown her into the metaphorical fire, but it was done for the betterment of Equestria; it had been done because they cared about their subjects, and the Division was there to protect and save them. Right?

But Chrysalis was considered evil, and all she wanted to do was secure the well-being of her hive. Her subjects. What made her different? The fact that she manipulated innocent ponies to gain what she wanted. The fact that she saw her subjects as nothing more than drones to serve her every command. How was that any different from what the Shadowbolts were doing? At what point did the ends justify the means?

Rainy had no answers. She stared down at her hooves, watching the puddle of coffee grow closer and closer to her.

“Something that evil doesn’t deserve to be followed. Rules that strict don’t deserve to be obeyed,” Agrippa continued. “And if this can’t make you see that… nothing will.”

Agrippa’s hoofsteps echoed through the kitchen as she stormed her way back into her bedroom. The coffee touched the tip of Rainy’s hoof and sizzled against her fur. She didn’t notice. She had stopped paying attention.

Comments

[Madmadmad123]

It liiives great chapter loving it

[Rainium]

11629915
Thank you!

[LChurch]

Thank you for new chapter!

P.S
Maybe I'm asking too much (sorry if it is), but it would be cool if you write more blog posts about progress or just about some other topics. It just feels abandoned sometimes :(

[CommanderApplejack]

Well, I guess changelings were to be expected and they can clearly still use some magic... I wonder...

[AgentKorpsman]

The two guards grimaced. “No sir. We didn’t want to divert our attention away from the entrance. Besides, how would anyone get in behind us? The room is secured.”

The Royal guard at its finest everyone.

God even I think the JTF would have done a better job

Edit nevermind.

[AgentKorpsman]

I’m starting to think this Equestria SHD doesn’t have the same goals and such as the division aka sve what remains

Extreme malis extrema remedia

[The Ancestor]

It always felt to me that the Rogue agents were right to some extent. SHD left them to die, entombed them in the dark zone with no intentions of going back.

Same shit here, but even worse, considerimg that Shadowbolts is sending their best and brightest to die, not informing them about the virus and all that shebang.

I'm hooked, can't wait for the next chapter!