We have our Reasons...

by dragon191917

New Equestria Pt. 2

Twilight ran for all her worth. When the call had come, the entire group was running down the hallways, to the bottom. In a three hundred story building, you can imagine how exhausting this was.

Finally, Luna stopped them for breath. No pony argued.

Drake slumped against the wall, panting. "The Empire, working with demons? This makes no sense, especially if they're together."

Gilda turned to him, too tired to do her normal cruel remarks. "What makes you say that? We already know that Celestia is probably possessed."

Drake nodded. "Yes, I know. And I believe you, truly. What makes me curious is the fact that other Solar Empire military are working along side. If Celestia didn't want ponies to know about her secret, she wouldn't have soldiers working with demons. Anyway, I was raised a militaristic colt. Almost the entire army, traitorous or no, would never EVER work with a demon."

The group exchanged glances. He was right. Luna, who had been quiet, said to a computer panel, "Dusk. I need to know more about those transponder signals. Particularly, what race are they composed of."

The same female hologram poped up again. "First of all, Twilight Sparkle, yes I am an A.I. I am the first of my kind." She turned to Luna. "The transponders are that of the Marines. They are exclusively unicorn. Led by a stallion named Devil Fire."

Luna's eyes lit up, a look of confusion dawning on her face. "Devil Fire is dead. He was found dead a few days ago. He was a Republic pony!" Suddenly, understanding shown upon her face. "Of course! Dusk, run a bio-scan on Devil and his friends. Highest frequency."

Dusk nodded. She blinked. "That's odd...."

"What?" asked Fury, the first time he'd spoke since they departed from the Crescent.

"I'm reading strange, resounding magical residue on the bodies. Devil is no different. This is probably necromancy, but I've never seen any necromancy spell that gets the organs pumping blood again. Wait... The blood in a particular blood vessel, a few actually, it cuts off at the torso, then pops back again a few centimeters later, as if their missing a limb. Pegasus normally have their wing blood vessels at that exact point, but these are clearly unicorns.... Unless they're somehow Alicorns in disguise...."

Luna shook her head. "Looks like Celestia may not be behind this after all. What race, besides ponies, do we know to have both wings AND and unicorn horn, and are masters of disguise?"

Twilight nodded, along with everypony else. Changelings. It made so much sense. They were masters of deception, and Twilight wouldn't put summoning demons past them. But still, something didn't feel right....

So once again they were running down the corridors. Finally, they reached a small monorail system. Immediately, Luna slide into the drivers seat, and, as soon as everypony was on board, she sped off at extreme speeds.

They all sat down, wondering what came next in their frantic running from enemies.

Gilda looked at Twilight. "Hey, Twilight," she said, "I realize this is a bad time, but, just out of curiosity, how's Dash?"

Twilight flinched at the name of her old comrade. "Oh, well, about that..." she said nervously, her hoof scratching her neck.

Gilda eyed her. "Dweeb, what happened?"

Twilight sighed. "Our mutual friend, Rainbow Dash, unfortunately, she, er, well.... She crashed. At the beginning of the interstellar age, she crashed in the middle of the Everfree during one of her many practice flights. We sent ponies to try and find her, but all they found was some torn-up trees and evidence of Timberwolves. As you military ponies call it, she's M.I.A."

Gilda shook her head, a single tear evident in her eye. "I've never seen any pony be M.I.A. for so long and have lived. She's dead..."

With stunning surprise, the entire car shook, and the sound of hoof beats were heard on the ceiling.

"We've got boarders! Prepare to evacuate the shuttle."

"Everyone, belay that order! Luna, keep driving!" barked Gilda, with a tone in her voice Twilight knew, but couldn't recognize.

Then, Twilight looked at Gilda. She was holding her shotgun tight, and a wicked smile spread across her beak. Twilight immediately remembered where she'd last heard that voice. So long ago, in Sugar Cube Corner.

Gilda laughed, and everyone immediately realized old Gilda was back, and the newer Gilda would just have to wait.

"Alright," Gilda chuckled. "Let's see what these dweebs got!"

She then rammed the side of the car, busting it open easily. She lept out of the gaping hole, using her wings to support her on the speeding shuttle. Opening up with a shotgun round, she lept up onto the top, to see six unicorns and a single demon.

Dusk, implementing herself into Gilda's small power coupling in her vest, appeared next to Gilda. "You realize the chances of you winning this fight is twenty to one. I might advise that..."

"Hey, Dusk. Could you do something? Shut the hell up."

Obliterating the first pony with a shotgun round, Gilda flipped the shotgun around and wielded it like a bat. The dead pony revealed itself to be a changeling, which just made Gilda all the angrier. She didn't care if they killed Dash or not. They still were in her way of seeing if, by some small chance, Dash was alive.

"Who's up for some baseball?" she asked.

Not a second later, the closest changeling went flying off the car, his skull probably shattered. The next walked up slowly, more prepared. Using his gun in a similar fashion as Gilda, he lasted longer. He actually managed to block a single hit before he tumbled to join his late friend.

The next three armed with assault rifles, all brought their weapons up. Two of them never even got the chance to fire. The third fired off a few rounds before his head shattered. Let's just say it resembled a watermelon.

Finally, it was just Gilda and the demon.

.....

Bang! Bang bang!

Twilight nearly had heart failure when Gilda swooped back down, burnt but OK.

"Alright." she said. "I think we're safe."

Just typical that the rail in front of them blew up, sending the shuttle plunging into the lower parts of the city.

And, just when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, a changeling swooped down and grabbed Twilight out of the sky.

.....

The first thing Gilda felt was roaring pain. The next was the sound of crackling fire, accompanied by the acrid smell of blood and smoke.

Slowly, she opened her eyes. She was lying flat on concrete. A few feet away was the burning monorail car. Wreckage was scattered throughout the street. It appeared to be abandoned.

The first thing Gilda physically did was grip her shotgun. It was her favorite one. She loved that firearm more than she did her own life.

She stood up, agony again devastating her body. She looked down, and immediately regretted it. Her entire body was covered in cuts and bruises, and her feathers were plastered together with blood.

She looked around, hoping everypony made it through. It looked unlikely. The first pony she noticed was Fury. She immediately ran up.

No pony really knew, although it seems kind of obvious, Gilda had feelings for her first mate. She was hoping to maybe start dating him soon, but that was out of the question if he died.

She checked Fury's pulse. He was alive, thank Luna.

Gilda lept up. LUNA!

She ran into the shuttle, holding her breath against the killing smoke. She ran into the portion devoted to controls. That area, for some reason, was devoid of smoke. Gilda soon found out why.

Luna sat loyally at the controls. If Gilda looked bad, then Luna was worse. Blood streamed from multiple wounds. It amazed Gilda that she was still conscious after loosing so much blood.

"Your highness..." she said, mortified.

Luna turned. A small amount of blood trickled out of her mouth. "Gilda," she tried to smile, failing. "Is everypony all right?"

"Are YOU all right!?" replied Gilda, rushing up to her, ignoring the pain of her own body.

Luna nodded. "Dusk..." she whispered.

The hologram appeared above the dashboard, but she was blurry, and constantly staticed, like a TV getting a bad reception. "Yes, Luna?" she too sounded hurt.

Luna grimaced. "Dusk, shut down."

Dusk stared at her. "L-Luna?" she said, and Gilda noticed that the A.I. actually sounded scared.

"Shh..." Luna said, again attempting a smile. "Shut down. Save your energy. You're damaged. I can't, can't loose you."

Dusk shook her head. "But, but, Luna, you need medical attention! I can't let my creator, no, mother die."

Luna shook her head. "I'm so sorry Dusk. Emergency Shut Down Procedure 19."

Dusk flinched, actively resisting the technical code. Finally, a tears streaming down her holographic cheeks, she sobbed out "C-Complying." Then, she shimmered and vanished.

Luna finally looked up, but could not stand. "Here." she moved her seat, revealing she had protected none other than Drake from the blast. "Take care of him. I don't know of the others. You know..." she smiled. "I think I'm going to take a nap."

Gilda was so astounded, she couldn't even stop the Princess of the Night from lapsing into unconsciousness. She let tears flow out of her eyes.

She had lost. Luna was dying. Her love interest was lying outside, also probably dying. She was severely wounded, and the only pony relatively unharmed was Drake, who may or may not be a traitor and who started this city fiasco. Finally, she had no idea where Twilight was.

The NLR was probably over. Without Luna, they'd crumble. The location of their home had been revealed. Soon, the entire Solar Empire fleet would converge upon them and glass the beautiful planet to dust.

Eight years. She had been trying to shape up, trying to get her old, cruel self under control. Eight years, she had been trying to remake friendships lost and forge new one. Yet, here she was. Rainbow Dash, her old true friend, was dead. DEAD. And, if she died here, no forging new friends. She layed her head into her hands and cried.

Now, here is where a story might very well have ended. However, no story like this, that got so far only to suffer disaster, ends like this.

By some stroke of obscene luck, Gilda saw a single light still operable on the dashboard. The comm. Now, fate had to be with Gilda, because the chances of the communications equipment of a civilian transport surviving a several dozen story fall are infinitely small.

Yet, the communication worked.

"Mayday, Mayday! This is Lord Captain Gilda of the L.S.S. Crescent. I have crashed deep in the city. I have Princess Luna here, but she is desperately in need of medical assistance. Emergency Evac Code 0! Mayday, Mayday! This is Lord Captain..."

Author's Note:

All looks lost. Yet perhaps hope still remains. What will happen in the end?