Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis

by Jasper77W

Chapter 49: Ice, Awe and Cyborgs

Suddenly Rainbow was tackled out of the air by something hard, hitting her in the stomach. She went tumbling out of the sky, crashing into the snow with a big splash and thud.

The crystal zombie landed in the snow next to her.

"Too bad I have my cleaver this time mother bucker." Rainbow said, getting up and slicing the zombie in half at the same time. "You reckon we could sell these guys for credits?"

"Crystals have decreased in value as there is no point in having them when you're fighting for survival." Neon said, ducking under a tentacle. "Guns and ammo are worth more now."

"That sucks." Rainbow muttered, knocking a zombie's legs out from underneath it and stabbing the cleaver into its chest. "Where the hell are these guys coming from?"

More of the zombies came crawling out of the snow, their hooves bursting the icy surface and reaching for air.

Rainbow took a look around her- there must be thousands of these crystal zombies... But how...?

Then something in the distance caught her eye. A tall mountain, in a very familiar shape and covered in snow...

Rainbow's eyes widened as she realized that wasn't a mountain. And the hills around her weren't hills either.

It was the Crystal Empire, buried under centuries of snow. Without Cadence, the Princess of the Crystal Empire; the force field that was keeping the empire out of the freezing elements outside must've been none existent. The empire must've been buried by snow after the magical barrier faded, and had become a part of the Arctic landscape after centuries of war. These Crystal ponies... They weren't coming from anywhere. They were just here, ordinary citizens... Until a bio-bomb probably fell on their heads.

The huge mountain ahead must've been the Crystal Castle... No longer majestic, no longer recognizable.

The Crystal Castle's central tower was meant to reflect harmony across Equestria, but since it had been almost reduced to nothing it could only be used as the reflector for the mirage spell for Haven- and with this being here, it meant Haven was close.

But what really hit Rainbow was the sheer scale of destruction. She hadn't felt this when she was in the other cities... There were only destroyed buildings, no corpses... But here... She was literally standing in a field of the dead, of the once happy, cheering, laughing dead.

It didn't quite make her feelings towards Val and her minions any better, either.

All around her, the ponies killed in the wars were rising to their hooves, now mere tools of the science faction to oppress magic and keep it away from the surface, the only place where freedom could have a chance of sprouting.

"We could REALLY do with some help." Rainbow said, back to back with Neon- on one side of them a horde of crystal zombies, the other the giant mutated octopus.

"Let Octavia guard the fillies. We can handle this... Mostly." Neon said.

"How very reassuring of you. You know, sometimes you act so life-like I forget you're artificial." Rainbow remarked, in which Neon ignored.

"Why don't you take on the octopus, and I'll take out the horde." She said.

"Why do I have to face the giant thingy?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow, annoyed.

"Because you're the one with the super big sword." Neon said. "See these claws? That's not gonna do much against five meters of flesh."

"I see your point." Rainbow said. "Give me a lift first. Swap in ten?"

"Five." Neon said.

"Four." Rainbow took in a deep breath, on both sides the enemies closing in.

"Three and two." Neon said.

"Aaaaaand... One." Rainbow muttered, turning around and jumping into the air.

Neon ducked down, placed an arm under Rainbow's hooves and fluinging her towards the octopus. She then charged for the zombies.

Rainbow flew high up in the air, cleaver raised. Hopefully she won't be tackled again this time. She came down with a loud crack, the cleaver making a clean cut through the tentacle that was coming at her. An unexpectedly large amount of blood splattered over her, covering her visor and making things harder to see. She struggled to clear the crimson red off her helmet, and didn't see the ground approaching.

She slammed into the ground face first, and groaned. Then she watched as the area around her darkened with a shadow.

"Crap." She muttered, kicking her cleaver aside and quickly rolling to the other as the severed tentacle came crashing into the ice.

Despite the thick layers, the ice still cracked under the force. The cracks spread out through the battlefield, splitting it into individual pieces.

"Take care of the octopus will you? It's getting distracting!" Neon yelled, leaping through a false image of herself and slamming a fist into a zombie's head, shattering it. She rolled to the side as a tentacle slammed into the ground.

"Not as easy as killing a giant octopus sounds." Rainbow replied, diving for her cleaver as the mutated creature struck again.

But just as she was about to reach it, a tentacle suddenly swiped up behind her and cracked heavily into her back. She didn't even have any air in her lungs to scream, so the only indications whatsoever of her in pain were her wide eyes and gaping mouth.

She tumbled through the air, then felt her shoulder slam into something soft and sink through. It was water- but unlike any in the Arctic, it was warm. Plus she didn't remember falling...

"Alright.. Let's get this done with." She heard a familiar voice say, followed by a crack of hooves.

Suddenly the body of water around her fell away, and she thudded softly to the floor. Her armor had protected her from spinal injury, but she was still pretty battered.

"Everyone needs to just chill." The Warden of Ice said, grinning. She wasn't wearing a suit or any armor, just a plain light blue jacket- since it was impossible for her to freeze to death, or feel cold at all unless she chose to.

"You and your puns." Neon commented, kicking a zombie in the head.

"Stand back everyone. Don't want any friendly-firing. Or icing. Whichever works."

Rainbow was already out of the way, but her cleaver was still in the middle of the fight. She ran for it, scooped it up and quickly rolled out of the way.

Neon ran for the side, and Octavia led the fillies a bit further back. That left all the mutated ponies and whatever looking towards Halcyon.

"It's impolite to stare." The Warden of Ice noted, not that the zombies were capable of processing that information.

Here in the Arctic, Halcyon didn't even need to duplicate water particles to fuel her powers- the ice and the water was all around her. This was her domain, her territory.

Her horn glowed an intense blue as she raised her arms, the ice around the zombies cracking.

Suddenly cold water sprouted out from the cracks, circling the zombies in a huge water sprout and keeping them trapped in the middle.

Halcyon started bringing her two hooves together, the tornado of water tightening around the helpless horde.

Slowly they were forced into the tornado, now a huge mass of crystal bodies clunking against each other in the super-speeded water currents.

Then Halcyon clamped her hooves together, and her horn sent a bright blue flash across the Arctic. The water sprout froze in place, along with it all the zombies inside.

"There." She said. "That takes care of-"

Then she heard something crack loudly behind her as a tentacle reached up through the ice, and quickly rolled away as it slammed down at where she was a second ago.

She rolled to her hooves, stopping in the snow. The octopus crawled out from under the ice sheets, finally revealing its full monstrosity.

"If Blaze hears about this... Hell, I won't be hearing the end of those dirty jokes he makes." She muttered, and raised a hoof.

The octopus raised its tentacles and flung them at Halcyon, who didn't even bother move with her raised hoof.

The tentacles started slowing down as they reached her, and stopped all together right before her hoof. A thin layer of frost started creeping over its skin, making it look shiny and turning the entire thing to ice.

"Hmm. The body is made of over seventy percent water- I doubt you were much different." Halcyon said, letting her hoof drop away from the frozen octopus. It must have been adapted to the cold here, which is why it didn't freeze on its own- but Halcyon had forced the water in its body to freeze, overriding whatever it was that kept it defrosted.

"You should've come earlier. That would've saved a lot of time." Rainbow said, folding her cleaver and tucking it away.

"Hey, I was just walking by. Also, you're welcome." Hal folded her arms, unimpressed. She started walking towards the cliff edge, her horn glowing and an ice bridge forming before her. They started walking across, making their way towards Haven city.

"Wait, walking by from what?" Octavia raised an eyebrow, approaching with the fillies.

"Recruitment duty, I presume." Neon said.

"Correct. I just came all the way from Badlands." Halcyon said.

"Wouldn't Blaze have been better for that though?" Neon asked.

"Blaze had somewhere else he needed to go." Halcyon sighed. "I miss him."

"Hang on, what?" Rainbow looked completely clueless, while the fillies just weren't even trying to listen. Octavia nodded an 'I see'.

"Recruitment duty. We were sent to various places of Equestria to recruit forces- griffons, dragons, everything. Unfortunately we can't reveal precisely who and which tribes in which areas have joined us until the war starts." Neon said. "Or we might be attacked early- so only us Wardens know."

"Right." Rainbow nodded. "Always good to have more forces on our side aye?"

"Correct. Isn't hard considering the Science Faction is being oppressive to every single living being out there." Halcyon said. "Let's start heading to Haven- I gotta notify Spitfire and Applebloom I've got you and you're almost there. That way they can organize a time for our attacks to start."

"I don't even get a rest?" Rainbow moaned, dragging her hooves through the snow.

"Don't worry, we'll get plenty. Cause we're already here." Halcyon said, her horn glowing.

"What you on abo-" Rainbow said, walking ahead of the group. Then her sentence ended there, as the rest of it was seemingly muted.

"What the?" Octavia raised an eyebrow. "Rainbow! Can you hear me?"

Rainbow mouthed back a sentence along the lines of "I can't hear you". She must be speaking, or yelling, but none of it could be heard. It's like there's some sort of sound barrier between them...

"Mirage portal. Pretty neat aye?" Halcyon grinned, folding her arms. "She's actually all the way on the other side of Haven."

"Get her back here." Octavia said.

"Just pull her through." Halcyon pointed.

Octavia reached through nothing, placed a hoof firmly on Rainbow's shoulder and yanked her back to her side.

"-IT WAS ME THAT ATE THE LAST BISCUIT- Oh, you can hear me now." Rainbow said.

"Very funny." Octavia said, unimpressed.

"What the hay was that, though?" Rainbow turned around, examining the empty space.

"Mirage portal. Just then you went straight through Haven, all the way to the other side by walking through a consistent shield portal. It goes all around Haven, like the mirage spell. It seemed like you two were the same distance because the mirage shield projected it as such. If you look closely on the ground... You can see the difference. Let me show you. Watch my shadow." Halcyon said, walking through the invisible shields.

As she did so, suddenly her shadow was cut off. Rainbow and Octavia frowned- that must be the edge of the shields.

Halcyon walked back through. "The spell can project images onto the shield itself, but it can't do so outside the shield- that's why my shadow was cut off, because the rest of it was behind the shields all the way on that other side."

"Alright then, magic trick over. How do we get in?" Rainbow folded her arms.

"Password. Val com goh lej mo gentali." Halcyon said with a sigh, and a portal opened before them- obviously leading off to a different place.

"What the buck was that? It sounded funny." Rainbow laughed.

"It was the password." Halcyon said, clearly trying to dismiss the conversation for whatever reason.

"Yeah, but what did it mean?"

Halcyon sighed, clearly unhappy. "It's a translation from an ancient Griffon tribe's language."

"Tell me what it means."

"No."

"Why?"

"No."

"Is it something embarrassing?"

"Yes."

"Tell me."

"Why?"

"I have to know anyway, for future reference." Rainbow folded her arms.

Halcyon sighed. "Fine. It literally means 'Val can go lick my genitals'."

Octavia covered her face as Rainbow collapsed on the floor laughing, and even Lily and Dainty seemed a bit more mature than Rainbow.

"Bwahaha!! What kind of password was that?" Rainbow laughed, tears coming out of her eyes as she curled into a ball and clutched her stomach.

"We had several options, but since Haven is a democracy the citizens went for that password. It was community voted." Halcyon said, shaking her head. "It works, because no science faction aligned pony would dare say that phrase- and even less likely in ancient Griffon."

"I love this city already! Hahaaaa! Community voted!" Rainbow stumbled to her hooves, still laughing as they went through the portal. "Holy crap! This is certainly not what I was expecting- I was expecting slums, or something. Not some metropolis!" Her expression was a blend of laughter and awe.

"Mares and gentlecolts, welcome to Haven." Halcyon said, her expression finally brightening up a bit.

"You're kidding me." Octavia ducked a bit as a civilian hovercraft flew overhead. "How long has this been under the Science Faction's nose again?"

Buildings rose high into the sky, and the place looked even more advanced than Manehatten- Manehatten didn't even have hovercrafts as conventional transport- but here, there were buses, civilian cars, law enforcement, ambulances, fire trucks, transporters- none of which had wheels.

The streets were for hooves only, without a single vehicle at ground level. A few ponies cast them and their dirty armor curious glances as they walked past, all healthy and seemingly well fed.

There was greenery amongst the metal too, rows and rows of immaculately cut trees lining the sidewalks.

Haven wasn't just surviving- it was prospering. But as everyone knew, it couldn't last forever- not with the science faction still in control over everything else. That's what the war is for- when negotiations fail, it just comes down to who has the bigger bat.

Octavia noticed they were under a shadow coming from behind them- and turned around. She gaped at the huge ten-meter thick metal-and-concrete magic-reinforced barrier, which was towering at about the same height as the city's skyscrapers. Turrets lined the top, and from down here she could barely see the on-guard soldiers patrolling the monstrosity. There were several gates in the walls, only for when the shields go down and there's no use for the teleporters that send ponies in and out of the city.

"Whoa." Rainbow said as a squad of mech suits stomped across the street and disappeared behind a building. Those suits were practically walkers, just a lot smaller and less full of gadgets. They didn't quite look like they were in a hurry, it would seem they just wanted to get from A to B without much to care.

"Hey! It's the Wardens- they're back!" Somepony yelled, and Halcyon smiled.

"Quite a bit of recognition you have there, Hal and Neon." Rainbow smirked.

"And that's Dash and Tavi! The two heroes of the Manehatten incident!"

"Hey, didn't she convert Val or something from that other reality?"

"Yeah! It's her!"

"I wouldn't say any less for you." Halcyon whispered to Rainbow, who couldn't help but grin.

There was a loud whine of engines as a hovercraft descended from the skies, the side door sliding open. Rainbow grinned at the familiar figure sitting inside, who just about had the same wide smile she had.

"Welcome to Haven! Whaddya think of the place aye?" Applebloom laughed, hopping down as the hovercraft descended to a safe altitude. Following her was Scootaloo and a pony Rainbow didn't recognize, but looked like a bodyguard of some sort- judging from the two katana swords sheathed and strapped to her back.

"Rainbow! I'm so glad you could make it!" Scootaloo grinned.

"Didn't have much of a choice." Rainbow said in a pleasant manner. "God, it's been too long- how have you guys been?"

"Excellent!" Applebloom laughed.

"What she said." Scootaloo couldn't help but hop a bit. In this new reality full of unpleasantries the happy reunions always seem happier.

"I bet you guys had a rough time out there- I've already got rooms booked, just need to show you guys where everything is." Applebloom winked, and threw the group some keys. "See that tower?" She pointed behind her at the huge space needle, the CMC HQ. "That's where we'll be staying at for the time being."

"No objections there." Rainbow laughed, then her smile seemed to cease as she noticed something. The tower had the words 'CMC' written on it... Obviously standing for the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'... The original group consisted of three ponies: Applebloom, Scootaloo, and...

Sweetie Belle.

"Applebloom... Sorry I have to ask... But... Where's Sweetie Belle?"

Both Applebloom and Scootaloo seemed to freeze at that question.

"You don't have to give details, but... Just where is she?" Rainbow hurriedly added- she didn't want to put the two in too much pain on talking about this topic.

"Well..." Applebloom started.

"It's hard to explain." Scootaloo said.

"She got kind of got... Hit by a missile..." Applebloom's nose scrunched a bit.

"And kind of... Got blown apart, I guess..."

"Yeah..."

"What's with the guilt I'm detecting right now?" Rainbow frowned and tilted her head to one side.

"She survived..." Scootaloo said.

"Her brain did." Applebloom added in.

"And we kind of had to give her a body... So we..."

There was a loud boom behind them, and Rainbow saw a green flash about two kilometers away in the side of a building. A siren started going off, but the citizens around them seemed oblivious to the explosion.

"We turned her into a robot." Applebloom finished. "We implanted her brain into a robot's, but had to embed an AI to help her control the body and its extra functions... So sometimes she seems more like a robot than a pony."

"We call her Sweetiebot now." Scootaloo added.

Rainbow just stared at the two, a 'WTF' frown on her face accompanied by a raised eyebrow. Octavia had a similar reaction, but hid it. Dainty and Lily just weren't listening, and were gaping at the scenery. That piece of news didn't seem to affect the two Wardens at all- they probably already knew.

"NOW IF YOU DARE BULLY HIM AGAIN, THESE RAIL GUNS WON'T BE FIRED AT YOU ANYMORE- THEY WILL BE UP YOUR ARSE!!" They flinched as they heard a deep robotic voice yell in the distance, coming from where the explosion was.

"AL, casualties?" Scootaloo whispered into her watch, asking for stats from her assistant AI.

"Zero injured, zero killed. Damage assessment: approximately seven point five thousand dollars in repairs." AL replied.

Scootaloo sighed, and let her hoof drop to her side.

The hovercraft that she and Applebloom got dropped off by lifted away and took off into the sky, presumably to pick up another passenger. That revealed the scene that was shielded earlier behind them.

There was a white pony robot standing in the middle of the explosion, two comically sized rail guns which were about five times bigger then the robot itself mounted on its back. It had pieces of metal shaped to look like a relatively curly manes nod tail, colored pink and a light shade of purple. The two rail guns were glowing a furious green, and so were the robot's eyes.

"NOW LEARN YOUR LESSON, AND DON'T LET ME CATCH YOU AGAIN!" Sweetiebot yelled in her deepest and most artificial voice at the shivering kid on the ground, the one in which her rail guns were pointing at. The kid nodded furiously, got up and ran as fast as he could away from her.

The rail guns stopped glowing, then folded and folded until they were no bigger than small water bottles and popped back into two sockets in Sweetiebot's back.

"Sweetie Belle! We've got visitors!" Applebloom yelled, however gingerly.

"Ah! It's Rainbow and Octavia and the Wardens!" Sweetiebot grinned, the expression surprisingly natural. It almost looked like she wasn't a robot- for it not the faint lines where peices of metal joined each other and the gently glowing green eyes. Her voice was back to her own, but still had a bit of an electrical tinge to it. "Welcome to Haven."

Author's Note:

Introducing an old BH character and one of the fandom's treasures in the same chapter? I had no idea what to name it... So there we go..