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TESTING! AHHH! TEST-IIIIING!3,108 words
We were always watching3,702 words
On the airship2,646 words
Scilian Crow's decision3,048 words
Twilight and Rarity get "lost"3,693 words
Changelings, humans, and revealings1,818 words
The Doctor's day as others rest2,118 words
Rosy's inner memories3,211 words
Something to do1,576 words

On the airship

Twilight had seen some airships already lift off to go to some unknown location, certainly the towns nearby, meaning that Applejack and Pinkie Pie didn't have to worry about their family being in any danger. However, there was the imminent danger right behind them all. Armored bipeds left the holes and began to shoot at everything in sight, even going so far as to throw explosive projectiles into houses and buildings.

"Twilight! Get us out of here!" Rarity plead.

"I can't! We have to wait for a hole to open up."

A gigantic mech slammed down from the sky, creating massive tremors which knocked everypony off their hooves. Many were crushed under this immense being's feet, but ponies began to get scooped up by it as well. For some reason, however, it was swiping several aside but taking some specific ponies. A mare was even grabbed, but she was being held down by her husband who was trying with all his might to save her. The machine's head simply turned towards the stallion, caused some sort of port to open above its arm, near the wrist, and a bang was heard. All that was left were the stallion's legs flopping down, and a massive hole surrounded by tinier holes in the floor and the wall of a building. The mare began to cry and her mind was starting to break already.

"That's our window!" Rainbow Dash shouted from above, just narrowly avoiding a stunning missile.

The group dashed between the creature's legs and continued through the streets, following the guards. Pinkie Pie, however, was laughing, unnerving everypony around her. Before any answers could be had, she slammed her hoof on the ground, and a clicking noise was heard. The mecha suddenly found itself legless as some form of plank blew out from the ground, and crushed the bipeds behind the mech.

"How did you--"Twilight stuttered.

"I just wanted to test a fun bouncing game is all." Pinkie smiled innocently.

The fleeing ponies all turned left, ignoring the fact that they were headed for a dead-end. Instead, they passed through the wall and into a hangar so massive it was likely it took around fifty years to do. Ladders and walkways were all along the walls, and around twenty or so airships were docked here, although it seemed that over fifty were quite capable of staying here. Royal Guards ponies and the local law enforcers were guiding the civilians into the airships. Some were on the ground, while others were hooked onto the walkways above. This place was nothing but rusted metal and a massive window above. It was obvious this was where the airships would leave. Everypony was panicking, understandably, but some even went so far as to employ violence to get onto the ships. They were violently apprehended themselves by the guards and thrown out of the airships.

Propellers began to spin as magic began to flow through the vehicle's innards. The airships, however, did not take off just yet. There was no time for chatter, nor was there any time for thought, which was why Twilight and her friends preferred not to comment about anything, and only managed to slip into the last airship on the ground. The other ponies would have to go into the ones above. There was around a hundred ponies in this airship, but the seats were numerous and well adjusted. The mane six sat on the seats lining the windows, if only to be able to turn around and watch what was happening outside. Some of the passengers were crying and a few were comforted, but the only real sounds were coming from the crowd outside.

"I...I hope mah family is gonna be okay." Applejack was fiddling with her hooves as she looked to the floor.

"I hope the Cakes will be okay. I don't like the idea of leaving them in Ponyville." Pinkie was also worried, but she seemed a bit more optimistic."I think that the balloons that left went to Ponyville."

"Ah I hope yer right, Pinkie Pie."

"I know what you mean. I don't know what I'll do if something happened to Spike. I know Owlowiscious will be okay though. He can fly away."

"Yeah! That's true! Why don't Fluttershy and I just fly away?!"

Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof on her chest, but she quickly deflated as she saw Fluttershy's awful state. The pegasus had seen something so horrible earlier that she was affected quite dramatically. Rarity was trying to comfort her, but the vanilla mare was now nothing but a disheveled mess of her former self. Twilight hoped to the Creator that she wouldn't have to see the bipeds experiment. If this is what they did for capturing, she shuddered to know what they did for experimenting.

Explosions outside rocked the entire hangar, providing fear that this place would crumble at any given moment. It wasn't very reassuring. What was worse was that Rainbow Dash noticed the blue unicorn meant to drive the vehicle was looking horrified as a guard told him something specific. This left her suspicious. When the guard saluted and left, the window composing the roof creaked loudly as it slid open, revealing the little bit of sunlight going through the storm clouds above. Alarms began to scream as airships high and low started to unhinge themselves and float, one after the other, away from the hangar interior. The ponies who didn't make it in time were screaming and begging for the ships to stay, but one pony in particular who had just arrived, and despite her frailty, hopped on the heads of those left behind and aimed for the airship in which Twilight and her friends were in.

Said airship's doors, near the front, middle, and back, refused to close no matter how much the pilot pulled on the handle. This gave the running mare ample time to reach the vehicle and roll into the front opening despite it lifting off already. She hasped and panted as her collar spun around her neck a few times. The pilot was about to yell in anger, but saw her condition and was immediately horrified.

"DON'T let me out! DON'T! PLEASE! I don't want to go back in the labs. I don't want to. In the darkness. So dark. So cold. So painful." the mare collapsed on the floor as she used up the last bit of energy left in her body.

"Are there any doctors aboard?!" the pilot shouted.

"ME!"five ponies answered.

Instead of fighting and bickering, they nodded to eachother and proceeded to grab the mare and make room to place her on a few seats. Twilight and Pinkie Pie wanted to see, but the pilot forbid it with his message:

"We are now exiting the hangar. STAY IN YOUR SEATS! This is going to get rough!"

Everypony clamped down onto their seats and began to pray to whatever deity they most believed in, some actually praying to Celestia for comfort. The storm outside was still raging, and there were now more machines walking around Canterlot City, rounding up ponies as they went. The whole mess of airships flew through the air, the massive behemoths requiring time to build up their momentum. Everything was actually going fine, surprisingly. The combat was stuck on the ground. It seemed that these beings had not brought any aerial capabilities. The best they could do was try and shoot the airships in the sky, but, for some reason, they didn't. The pilot and his comrades found this bizarre. They only need to pass Canterlot Castle and go north to the sea beyond. Everypony was cuddling or continuing to mumble as the ships went forward. These vehicles depended upon the guards and the law enforcers to protect them, which served for nothing as some sort of orange glow began to blind everypony until an explosion followed.

One of the airships started to plummet in flames, and everypony started to scream and panic. Another found itself frozen and destroyed by some sort mist resembling the night.

"To all pilots." the blue pony shouted into some sort of speaker near the steering wheel."Activate the shields. We MUST get these civilians to safety...even if it is to that place." he growled in the end.

"What place?" a mare asked.

"Not important. Now sit down!"

The blasts kept coming. Two ships were grabbed by some sort of enormous hands and smashed together, immediately destroying them and sending them to their doom. Some of the passengers began to panic as to the outcome, but Twilight was already doing something. Her horn began to spark.

"Twi? What're ya doin'?"

"Making...a shield..."

"Don't force yerself!"

"Twilight!" Rainbow screamed.

The shield went up, and the blast dispersed. The passengers began to shout in joy as they were finally protected. The blasts seemed to concentrate solely on this particular airship, and the blasts were tiring the lavender unicorn out.

"Will they ever stop? They can't get through!"

"Er know! Why'znt they stoppin'?"

While the blasts continued, two enormous airships came from beyond the storm clouds. Celestia and Luna had appeared.

"Fluttershy, look! The princesses. Everything will be alright now." Rarity comforted, but to no avail.

Somehow, these particular ships were armed with cannons, which, as they were aimed downward, blasted all existence below them to bits and dust. Everything was going so fast that not much was allowed to be thought of.

"To all airships, this is you princess of the night. Converge on our ships and follow us to safety. We will perform a wide range specific teleportation for all airships. We must reach safety as quickly as possible."

Luna's voice was emitted from speakers attached to the roof of the cabin, allowing proper hearing. It was a sight to behold, seeing all those flying transports going to the two in the middle that were destroying everything in sight that wasn't friendly. As the bipeds watched, the ships glowed and suddenly disappeared in a flash. There was nothing but sky, ruins, and corpses in Canterlot now...at least, anything that was pony. The bipeds began to retrieve any survivors as Scarlet Star galloped down the street and looked up, her face filled with confusion and disappointment. She kept spinning around, hoping to find at least one remaining airship, but none were there.

"Nurgh! What? They aren't here anymore?! RAAAAH! I only destroyed five!" the alicorn began to have a temper tantrum and she gave hopping and stomping down.

"Calm yourself. You still did good." a soldier spoke as he pulled two heavily armored guards.

"And who are you to tell me what to do?!"

"A...Are you crying? Seriously? Aha!"

Scarlet growled as tears streaked down her face.

"I'm one of the commanding officers, so watch yourself."

The alicorn decided to be lenient this time...if only because her father would scold her.

"I'm going to take this new guys to Doctor. Has he set up a laboratory yet?"

"Only a tiny one. He is experimenting with changeling dna."

"You mean those black creatures reminiscent of crickets when you crush them?"

"I don't know. I don't know what they look like!"

"Ah. That is correct. You never left the facility before. Hmm. Could you help us find some survivors? It would help Doctor and the other scientists in furthering our research."

"Pffff...Fine. I'll go look for some."

"Thank you."

The alicorn extended her immense wings and flew into the sky, kicking up some dust from nearby rubble as she did so.

"I hate that creature. And to think it took fifteen tries to get this one here. STOP STRUGGLING!" he roared as he activated the stunning mechanism integrated into the net.

What was once a tent was now a larger, enclosed tent full of some research and experimentation gear. There were four mangled corpses outside of the tent. They seemed to have patches turned black and bizarre appendages strutting out here and there. They were obviously dead. Next to the tent were several immense containers holding the research material, all of them panicking every time a new one was taken out of the group. Several attempts to break out were attempted, but the escapees were gunned downed rather quickly. In the tent, though, Doctor was working a bit more.

"Hmmm." he wondered as he observed the panicking pony strapped to the gray table, a bright light flashing in its face."Four attempts to recreate a changeling breeder and none have even come CLOSE to being successful! We have more experience with humans, after all. Perhaps, if I were to peel off the skin near the tail-bone and inject it into the lumbar...then mix some dna with the blood and have it jettisoned directly into the cells of the subject. If I can alter its dna quick enough, then the body won't reject the process, and allow quick reforming of the bone and cellular structure. Let us commence."

The pony was flipped on the table, and Doctor pulled out a bladed tool, most likely a scalpel, and began to cut away. The screams continued for several hours, even when the subject was cracking and bending. Out of the tent came blasting an oversized changeling with an enhanced muscular mass. It was heading for a straight line towards wherever. Before Doctor issued the order, one of the mechs holding a container dropped the cargo, nearly crushing those underneath and caught the creature in its hold. It was then thrown in said container, despite the fact that it was initially going to be used to store building materials. The container was set down near the tent, much to the joy of Doctor, who watched the beast buzz around mindlessly, trying to punch through the walls. The biped peered in and smiled.

"Wanting to go to your queen and have some fun? Too bad. We'll be testing her dna with some females and maybe a few males to see if we can't get our own group of changelings. You will have your demented fun soon. Another test subject!"

"Yes, sir!" the guards near the holding containers answered along with a salute.

Several hours had passed, and the sun was starting to set. Everypony was exhausted. They just wanted to return to their homes, but that was no longer an option. They were all above the ocean, the seemingly calm waves unaware of the dangers around or in it. The sun gleamed beautifully across its surface as it set. Everypony began to stand up and comment about was growing on the horizon. It looked like copper, then it became a small tower, then it started to become an enormous city on an island.

Rainbow had gotten up to ask the pilot a question:

"Hey, what is that? It doesn't look like a safe place to be."

"It isn't. Welcome to Secantor island, where we will remain until we can fend off those bipeds. 'Magic beware the metal coloring, for it rots and decays your skin'." the pilot quoted.

Author's Note:

It seems this is one of those stories of mine again. Is it because of the dark tag or something? Y U NO COMMENT EITHER? I REQUIRE TO SEE YOUR THOUGHTS! NURRRR!

For the few that read this, and for the few that have read it, I'm going to finish "Reaching the dark side of the moon". No this is totally not SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION.

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