Sargent Shimmer is a normal Mobile Infantry Trooper stuck in thr land of Equestria.... or is she?
Sunset Shimmer is an ordinary trooper in the Mobile Infantry, two years after the Arachnid queen's death her squad is assigned to the moon of Tesca Nemerosa to help deal with a bug presence on the moon, after some time on the jungle moon the squad is caught up in fighting to defend a research station when a accident Sends Sunset through a dimensional rift... Anyone guess where it dumped her?
Questions plague Sunset such as how does this purple pony know her and why does the princess hold so much hate for humanity?
These questions are over shadowed by the discovery that the bugs are in Equestria and have a new queen, but is there more to this then meets the eye.
And do current events tie to a tragic event in Sunsets past, three years before.
Now Sunset must question... Is the only good bug a dead bug?
Edited By Sneaky Breeze.
A crossover with the Roughnecks Starship Trooper Chronicles, there will be no relation with the movie series what so ever.
It was meant to be a simple recon op. Just a follow up op since Intel had already swept the area and found no bugs or any subterranean tunnels what so ever in the region. Guess we should have known that the Intel was bogus from the get go, considering that snobs back at Intel couldn't find their own backsides with a mirror and a map. But I guess with the war moving off of Pluto and over to the latest bug infestation on Hydora we all thought the bugs would have left the frozen lump of rock all at once.
I was piloting Lima squads M8 'Ape' Marauder at the time. The large ‘mech-suit’, as many civilians incorrectly called it, always felt good on me, like a second set of skin. Lima and several other Mobile Infantry squads were tasked with mop up duty, clearing out any pockets of bug resistance left planet side. Patrols like that were very long and it was inevitable for talking to start so I was chatting it up with my Squad mate Murphy at the time.
"I'm telling you Shimmer I got a bad feeling about this one." Murphy was saying into his helmet radio.
"Murphy when don’t you have a bad feeling about something?" I reminded him while rolling my eyes. Seriously, half way through our recon and he had not shut up! Every single time we went out it was always the same lines again and again. I had seriously considered turning off my coms to him like the L.T. had suggested but I knew he would somehow defy logic and get me to listen despite the lack of air.
"Look” I finally said with a hardly concealed sigh.
“If you’re so worried then keep an eye out, instead of distracting me." I looked down at my Xenograph with my eyes for a moment, no enemy contacts.
After ten more minutes we finally reached the top of the hill we had been climbing and the L.T suddenly crouched down onto one knee and raised a fist to stop the squad, we all saw what made him stop and I instinctively readied my Marauder's weapons. Beyond the hill was what looked like an M.I supply-convoy. Well what’s so bad about that you ask? Well I don't know what counts as normal for you but convoys usually have troopers to man them and don't look like somebody detonated a nuke at the center of it.
Troop transports were either flipped over on their sides or were so damaged they couldn’t be salvaged. From my spot on the hill I could see three flatbed trucks in between the ruined troop transports with, what I guessed, were bug cages but whatever had been inside them seemed to have escaped.
The L.T cupped the side of his helmet and activated his long range radio "Lima Squad to Blue leader.” He said in a serious tone.
There was a long pause before someone answered "Blue Leader here, go ahead Lima Squad. Over."
"We've just found an abandoned M.I convoy, six Troop transports, three flatbeds with bug cages. Over." the L.T reported "Blue Leader, I was unaware that we had any convoys running in the area. Over." L.T. said with a tone that meant the question was really ‘what isn’t command telling us?’
"We have no record of any convoys passing through that area, investigate and report back. Blue Leader out" The L.T cut the channel and got up "Alright fan out and look for clues" he turned to me.
"Shimmer watch our six."
"Yes sir.” I replied, my marauder’s weapons at the ready for any tricks.
The rest of the squad fanned out among the trucks of the convoy and searched the inside of each for survivors or for clues. I didn’t like this one bit, my stomach felt like a coil as I could practically feel the tension in the air.
I made sure to keep constantly checking on my Xenograph while I kept a lookout for my squad-mates, I could hear their voices over the radio as they reported what they found.
"I got some pulse rifles here, they look used and some of them are still warm."
"There's a bug hole here but it's been sealed, can't tell whether it was the bugs or the troopers."
"I don't like this sir, there was obviously a fight here but there's not a single bug or human body. There’s not even any blood." I knew that voice belonged to Murphy "And I can't see any markings on these trucks. Do you think it was a black op gone bad, Lieutenant?"
The L.T. was quiet for a second before he replied, "I think we had better keep looking Private." The L.T growled in annoyance. L.T. was always easy to get angry whenever there was intel being kept from troopers.
"Hey! I think I found a manifest, but I can't reach it." I heard the voice of Private Lenex say in between groans as he tried to reach an arm through a damaged door on a transport.
"Shimmer, could you help me with this door?" I looked on my map to see where he was. After switching places with one of the other troopers, I found Lenex standing at the back door of one of the over turned transports. I made my way over to him while glancing at both the xeno and seismographs, as well as my motion tracker... still clear so far.
“Stand aside and let a master show you how it’s done.” I said, sounding like my old bratty self from boot camp.
I gestured for the guy to move aside which he did allowing me room to move the Marauder's massive arms and by extension, the powerful three claws on the end of both arms. Striking hard on the door I dug the claws into the metal and got a good grip before using the marauder’s strength to command the doo to open.
I felt the door giving a little resistance while I fought to open it and If Pluto had an Earth like atmosphere I would have probably heard the tortured scream of tearing metal. When the door finally gave way the force that I had used nearly toppled the Marauder over and I suddenly felt myself stumble back. Luckily I was able to regain my footing quickly, no way was I going to end up on my back while in a Marauder, I would never live that embarrassment down.
Lenex climbed in after I dropped the door into the dust nearby and re-emerged moments later holding a data pad "Looks like the convoy was carrying some bug specimens somewhere, but it doesn't say where." Lenex said as he read through the data "in fact... It doesn't even say where they came from."
“Usual ‘need to know basis’ bullshit I bet.” Another trooper said but I wasn’t really paying attention.
"What bugs were they transporting?" the L.T asked.
"Says here they were carrying some type of bug called Royal Guards, ever heard of those?"
"No, never heard of them." the L.T said thoughtfully mirroring what I was doing and checking his weapon to make sure it was ready. "Transfer the data to Shimmer's Marauder and keep looking."
Lenex pulled a wire out of the tablet and plunged it into one of my access ports and uploaded the data right into my mainframe. Later on we would be able to share the info back at the base.
"I'll keep looking here, you probably should go help Tirg." Lenex said with a grin as he motioned behind me "Sounds Like he's having a little trouble over there.”
I turned to where he was pointing and barley suppressed a laugh, Tirg, or Tirger as was his full name, was having trouble with opening the back door a transport, it was funny because the rookie somehow seemed to have had no idea that there was a rock stopping it from opening. But then again what else were new guys for? It was his first week and I had been so sure he was going to bring me endless laughs with his antics.
I started to make my way over to him when my motion tracker spiked as well as my Xenograph, but instead of the Red that marked Bugs or the Blue of SICON troops the blip was just plain white and it was coming from one of the bug cages, I was curious to say the least and walked over to the suspect cage while turning off my headlights so I didn't tip off whatever was hiding that I was on to it.
“Hey Tirg, go see if the others need help, I can handle this.” I remembered saying, I didn’t want the new guy in any danger.
As I drew closer I reached out and moved the rock that the rookie hadn’t noticed before I grabbed ahold of the bared door of the cage and noted that the Door was dented from the outside. Which meant that something was trying to get in, not out.
Slowly I tilted to the side an-
RHHAARRGGGE!
I woke in a cold sweat and bolted up nearly bashing my head on the bunk above me.
“....That dream again...” I said in as low a whisper as possible, just because I had a problem didn’t mean I was anyone else’s business. My heart was beating so fast I was worried it sounded like a drum.
Even after three years, that day still haunts me... Survivor’s guilt I had been told it was called. Not that I cared, to me it was just punishment for my mistake and I was getting what I deserved.
I sighed and ran my tanned hand through my crimson and yellow striped hair and looked around the barracks, everyone was asleep and a quick glance at my wrist watch showed it was only 500 hours.
Convinced that I would get no more sleep I swung my feet off the bunk and slipped them into my boots and quietly got up, making sure not to wake anyone, thank god I called the bottom bunk right next to the door on the first day. I gently stepped past many sleeping troopers and pressed a button on the door to open it, which it did with a soft hiss that made me cringe and look back to make sure no one was woken by the noise.
A few stirred but didn’t do much else and I slipped out, letting the door close automatically behind me, I doubted that anyone would wake considering we had been on patrol through the jungle for most of the night and everyone was bone tired but better safe than sorry.
I walked into the locker room and was still feeling groggy, so I decided that the best way to wake myself up was a nice warm shower. I stayed in the shower for close to fifteen minutes, making sure to clean my hair, before drying off and walking over to my locker and pulling out my power suit. Being on a planet that had breathable air we were issued non-pressurized versions of the normal M.I power suit which with was much less bulky then the other one, I quickly suited up saving the helmet as last before pulling my standard issue Morita Smart Rifle from the rack in my locker and moving to close the locker door.
I caught my reflection in the mirror in my locker as I did, my hair had once been long before I joined the mobile infantry but I had cut it shorter, not as short to give me a tom-boy look but just short enough to fit comfortably under my helmet, the side of my helmet had my last name ‘Shimmer’ printed in bold white letters.
As I looked into the mirror and stared into those cyan eyes of mine I didn't see Sunset Shimmer but instead Corporal ‘Hothead’ Shimmer, Mobile Infantry Trooper and Marauder pilot for Zebra Squad, a woman who had failed her last squad.
Tearing my gaze away from the mirror and stepping out of the locker room, I would go on a patrol of the wall of the base, the fresh air would clear my head of these daemons. The only thing that stopped me was how I took a moment to grab a breakfast bar from a vending machine. Rule 1: never waste a chance to eat.
As I exited the Barracks I was greeted by the early morning sun and accompanying breeze of Tesca Nemerosa, overhead I saw a small group of Raptorbirds fly by with loud squawks, despite being on the top of the avian food chain on Nemerosa the Raptorbirds had never bothered the Humans on the moon and always seemed to get caught in Jungle Spider's webs.
A few other troopers were on patrol around the base but it was early in the morning and they wouldn’t notice me. Most of the other staff were engineers and such making sure the equipment around the base worked.
I climbed the ladder leading up to the perimeter wall and started my patrol, there wasn't really any need since the advanced warning sensors would go off before any bugs got close. Even then the base’s automated defenses would be able to keep them at bay, so the only reason I went on these solo patrols was to think and today was no exception. I would be back before the others even noticed me so it wasn’t ever a big deal.
It had been almost a full year since the Bug Queen had been killed and the bug hordes defeated with only a few Brain Bugs keeping their meagre forces under control. The only reason Zebra squad along with Sierra and Vector Squads was even on Nemerosa was because the moon was one of the places that a brain still resided. It was just a matter of time until we found that brain and shoved a nuke down its throat. The thought always made me smile, the big bad brain bugs dying in nuclear fire.
I stopped day dreaming and took a moment to enjoy the Nemerosan air. It filled my lungs and helped to wake me up.
Tesca Nemerosa. A jungle moon orbiting the gas giant Tesca, during the bug war both SICON and the Arachnids fought over the lush green jungle moon and even after the end of the war there was still a relatively large bug presence on the moon, the research outposts on the moon are from time to time raided by large swarms of Warriors intent on killing all within. But they are constantly thwarted by the outpost's defenses and the three M.I squads tasked with eradicating the bugs from the jungles of Nemerosa.
While the bug presence is not enough to warrant a full M.I task force, The Mobile Infantry gives us the newest toys to get the job done and the researchers of the outposts tended to give us a few more experimental toys as thanks for our efforts. Of course since a lot of it is experimental we had to sign contracts so they wouldn’t be sued if one of the things went critical and blew us to pieces.
I looked up to the sky and saw the gas Giant of Tesca fill my vision, the view still took my breath away whenever I saw it, it was always a beautiful sight during the night or early morning and made me glad that we had been stationed here instead of a more inhospitable world, you could do a lot worse than Nemerosa.
"A bit early to be out on patrol isn't it Corporal?" I nearly jumped out of my power suit in surprise and spun around to see who was speaking before I immediately stood to attention and saluted.
"Lieutenant Cadmus sir!" I exclaimed quickly as my superior officer approached me "Sorry sir I couldn't sleep and thought I could do a patrol to-"
"At ease Corporal you don't need to explain" Cadmus told me with a wave of his hand, he was a tall man who's skin had been tanned by his time here on Nemerosa, he had a closely cut beard and mustache and short brown hair "You had that dream again didn't you?" he asked already knowing the answer.
Lieutenant Cadmus was the only person on the squad who knew about the event that lead to me having these nightmares that I have so often, I had been assigned to the same squad after I recovered during the Tesca Campaign and then both assigned to Zebra during the Klendathu Campaign and even the Home-front Campaign. Back when the Bug Queen landed on Earth and we had to fight the bugs city to city and street to street, it was never fun having to blow up some of my favorite clothing stores just to take out some bugs.
"Yes sir, it's nothing really..." I said before muttering "Just ghosts of the past." I couldn’t look him in the eyes, I was afraid he’d see how I was lying. But it wasn’t like I was the only trooper out there with problems, with the fighting on earth a lot of troopers who had gotten Section 8s were recalled to help with the war and cleanup. And I never had a section 8 so I was better than most.
The lieutenant looked unconvinced but didn't press the subject instead opting for a subject change "Your tour of duty is ending soon." he noted as he fell into step alongside me "What are you planning on doing after?"
"To be honest sir I was thinking about signing up for another tour of duty." I admitted to him.
"I didn't really have much going for me before joining SICON so I figured I might as well do my part." That was what I told myself alot nowadays, it was a half-truth to be sure, yes I didn't really have much to go back to after my term is over considering I have no family so to speak and I didn't really have many skills other than Piloting a Marauder and being a trooper so it made sense to stay in the Mobile Infantry.
"Well you know that Sergeant Jackson is planning on shipping back to earth to be with his wife and kid in a few days, right?" Cadmus told me "So I'm going to need a new Sergeant to take his place." Cadmus couldn’t hide the smile on his face.
I was seeing where he was going with this and decided to confirm my suspicions "I would suggest Dingo" I didn't really mean it, the guy had no leadership skills what so ever "Or Gauss" Him maybe, he was pretty competent.
The Lieutenant stopped and grinned, shaking his head. "I think you already know who I want to take his place." he told me
"Jackson already put you up for his replacement and you'll be receiving a notification in the mail later this week." he patted me on the shoulder pad "You've earn-" he was interrupted by someone contacting him by his radio “Cadmus here, go ahead.... Where is it?........ Xenograph picking anything up?........ I'll take someone out to check it out, Cadmus out" he turned to me, the smile on his face was gone and mine followed with it as I knew it was time for work.
"The boys up in HQ want us to check out some odd reading coming from in the Jungle" Cadmus said, and even then I knew he wasn’t telling me the whole truth, I could see it in his eyes but I trusted the L.T.
"You want me to wake the rest of the squad?" I asked.
"No, HQ wants this done quickly so we'll go alone, grab your Marauder out by the main gate" he told me, I Saluted and rushed to the nearest ladder and slid down it.
The vehicle bay was empty considering the time, being on a jungle moon the bay only contained a pair of Skimmers, a Submersible that the Retrieval ship in the courtyard could drop into one of Nemerosa's many large rivers, as well as three Marauders.
The first and tallest of the three was the standard fire support 'Duck' Marauder, the familiar gorilla like 'Ape' and my personal Marauder which stood taller than the 'Ape' but still shorter than the 'Duck' which I liked to call the 'Hellhound'.
The 'Hellhound' shared the same characteristics as the 'Ape', two powerful arms with three claws one each in a triangular shape attached to the main body and legs, but unlike the original 'Ape' I had managed to sweet talk some of the tech boys to attach a pop out chainsaw on each arm for close encounters, the 'Hellhound' also had a more powerful version of the Gatling on its left shoulder as well as a small napalm/Grenade cannon on the right, along with the flamethrowers in both arms, as well as the standard machine guns.
All of these gave the 'Hellhound' its name, the machine guns in the center of both claws, which resembled hands in a way, fired crystal version of smart rounds instead of the normal kind, the crystals were experimental as well as the 'Hellhound' itself because when not being fired the crystal core in both arms regenerated lost mass so the Marauder essentially had unlimited ammo for its ballistic weapon so long as the crystals were working properly. I had to sign three different contracts for that modification and was told that if I started showing signs of cancer to report to the med-bay immediately.
The crystal's chemical structure could also be modified by the pilot so they could be explosive, incendiary or standard rounds, I had even heard the researchers who made the stuff mention that the crystal cores themselves could be used as tranquilizers. But considering their warnings about cancer I don’t think I will be trying that, I might want kids someday and radiation poisoning is a bad way to go.
It had taken a bit of convincing but I had also gotten the techs to make the 'Hellhound' more maneuverable so that when I got knocked on my ass I didn't need my squad mates to push my back onto my feet during a firefight, the 'Hellhound' was now the most maneuverable Marauder in M.I service, sometimes I think of the 'Hellhound' as an extension of my body because of how fluid it moved, and thanks to all the improvements made over the 'Ape' and 'Duck' models the 'Hellhound' had a renewable power source that gave me a total running time of a week in between stopping to recharge which in itself only took an hour unless plugged into an external power source. Only problem was that if I used it continuously without a break it risked melting the power source and again making me glow in the dark. I did mention that I signed a bunch of contracts, right? Always gotta read the fine print ladies and gents.
The 'Hellhound' was painted in the same way anything that Zebra squad used was. Dull grey with dull black stripes, and I had also added a little symbol on it's arms to personalize it. A crimson and yellow sun, the same one that was tattooed both sides of my hips. It took a while to get it just right but I loved those two suns and they felt like good luck charms to me. Not that I believed in magic, it just felt right.
I climbed up onto its legs and pulled myself up and into the walking tank's cockpit and closed the canopy before I hit the ignition. I felt the comforting hum of energy rushing through my Marauder after bringing it to life and I quickly fell into my usual routine, instinctively going through a checklist out loud.
"Ammo count 100%.... Power levels nominal.... Structural integrity green.... Sensors fully operational" I raised both of the Marauders arms and clenched both sets of claws to test if they worked alright before walking towards the door leading out into the morning sun, as he said he would Lieutenant Cadmus was waiting by the gates for me.
"Ready to go sir" I said but he said nothing as he pressed a key on his suit and opened the gates remotely, allowing both of us to pass. Two large Sniper Turrets lay on either side of the gates protecting them, beyond the gates was a few meters of barren land that had been cut to give the base's occupants a clear view of anything that came out of the jungle. Cadmus and I moved across no man's land quickly and into the Jungle proper where we were immediately focused on our surroundings, especially the treetops since a favored tactic of Jungle Spider bugs was to drop down and overwhelm unsuspecting troopers.
The whole time the lieutenant and I both maintained silence so I kept my focus on my sensors which were coming up with zero on any Bugs... Or any sentient life at all, no birds or any other critters that called Nemerosa home which I had to admit worried me to no end. It was rumored by the eggheads that Nemerosa might have more animal life than Earth, so if there was none showing up here that was an obvious sign of danger. I made sure the safety was off on both arms.
After a fifteen minutes of walking at a brisk pace we arrived at the location command had given Cadmus and what greeted us confused and scared the living hell out of me.
Impaled upon pike like spikes were dead M.I. troopers, the spikes driven right through their chests as they hung there like puppets, but there were also warrior bugs with them, impaled upon the spikes.
"What the hell is this?" Cadmus said as he stared up at one of the impaled power suits, no blood visible, just the suit and the visor seemed to be dimmed.
"Shimmer help me knock one of these down!" I complied by unsheathing one of my chainsaws and slicing the pike closest to me, that had a power suit, in half by the base. Without the support of the spike the power suit dropped to the ground with a semi metallic thud and splashed in the mud.
To our surprise, the power suits were empty as Cadmus showed me while he dragged it up into a sitting position, the armor was dull grey with no markings at all to distinguish who it belonged to or that it even belonged to SICON.... Just like...
"Sir.... this is a lot like back on Pluto." I said with dread as my heart started to beat so fast it felt like it was slamming into my ribcage.
"I know" was all he said as he got up.
"This doesn’t feel like a coincidence sir." I said as I glanced at the impaled power suits and warriors, i didn't need to say anything else since I was sure we were both thinking the same thing, command detecting the signal at a time that I usually got up a short distance away from the base I was stationed at with un-marked power suits.... Someone was trying to send me a message.... About those events three years ago....but what was the message? And why?
"Get HQ on the line and tell them what we found." Cadmus told me as he looked around with his rifle at the ready. I did what I was told and turned on my long range radio but before I could do anything a voice came over through the speakers
"Lieutenant, Shimmer do you read me!?" I recognized the voice as a squad mate, Gauss, and Judging by his tone there was trouble
"Shimmer here, what's going on?"
"We just got a call in from Vector squad, the lab they're guarding's under heavy bug attack!" I had already patched Lieutenant Cadmus in and his expression was stone cold.
"we're bringing the Ship over to pick you guys up" there was a high pitched screeching that made my teeth ache as the Retrieval Ship passed overhead. The VTOL craft slowing down for a second to make sure we could see where it was going.
"There is a clearing a couple hundred meters east of you, we'll meet you there for pick up."
"Roger that Gauss, see you in a few" I turned off the radio and looked to see Cadmus already running east and I quickly followed, glancing back at the scene behind me one more time before leaving. No way was I sticking around, I didn’t want the memories coming back.
Unbeknownst to Sunset, standing in the shadows of the trees was a power suited man, his face hidden by a darkened visor. Flanking him on each side were two monstrous creatures, their figures hidden by the trees above them blocking out the sunlight.
The man looked to the creature to his left as if he had just been asked something, his hands clasped behind his back as if he were a nobleman.
"No, but soon..." he watched the Marauder clad Sunset Shimmer stomp out of view "Soon my goals shall come to fruition and you my Dear Ms. Shimmer shall have a simple choice. Either become a great ally or my greatest enemy, either way it should be very entertaining."
Things had sounded bad on the radio back at the jungle, a bug force big enough to make Gauss panic was not something to be taken lightly.
The situation was much worse by the time we finally arrived at the research outpost, the pilot had to do some fancy flying to get us onto the roof of the outpost when all of a sudden, a trio of Plasma Bugs had started bombarding the outpost, and to make matters even worse the airspace was filled with Kamikaze Ripplers.
As soon the ship finished dropping us off the pilots bugged out as fast as they could make their ship move because they had a swarm of Ripplers hot on their tail.
Left behind were 10 troopers from the base and three Marauders with the mission to get inside the research outpost and secure it until reinforcements could arrive. If they arrived.
Once inside we were greeted by Vector Squads C.O. He led us deeper inside their defensive location to a hastily made war room, I was so grateful that there was enough room for a marauder suit because I was not getting out of my Hellhound. As soon as we were gathered, Vector squad’s C.O. briefed us on what we were up against.
"The plasmas bugs destroyed our outer defense walls and turrets so their pals could get at us, Ripplers control the sky while Warriors and Spiders swarm at us, we've already been pushed back to the cargo tunnels and are making a stand there" as he explained he gestured around him at the screens showing the many attackers from surviving security cameras.
"Anyone else manage to get through?" Cadmus asked, his voice strong and confident to inspire us to be the same.
"Echo tried to punch through but were forced to divert to Zegema beach." the Lieutenant said "Zulu and Tango were already there and said that a Tanker was with the swarm over there" to prove his point a video of a tanker bug came up on one of the screens, this one from a helmet camera before the wearer of said helmet was engulfed in flames and the screen went blank. I shivered internally, tanker bugs spat flames that were hotter than napalm, I would rather die by a suit breach in space than melting.
"This shits getting crazy" I heard Dingo comment "There's way more bugs out there then there should be!" he exclaimed and for the first time in my life I actually agreed with the Australian and found myself adding my own input when I suddenly had a thought.
"How the hell did they get Ripplers, Plasmas and a Tanker anyway?" none of those breeds of bug were here before, and the last Plasma nest was fried a year ago so at most the Brian bug was only supposed to have Hoppers, Warriors and Jungle Spiders.
Vector Squad's Lieutenant shook his head showing he had no idea.
"We can figure that out later, fleet already has a ship nearby with reinforcements and is diverting her, she'll be here within the hour so we just have to hold out till then. As soon as they arrive we can expect more troopers and even orbital strikes." he informed them as he set down a holo-Projector which flared to life showing a map of the outpost.
"Now we've set up choke points here, here and here" three large corridors were highlighted in green, the corridors were big and long enough to fit a whole convoy of flatbed trucks inside "My guys are spread too thin. So I need you guys to split up and reinforce each Choke point, one Marauder for each though. We have managed to set up a Gatling turret at choke point Bravo, and a laser canon at Charlie. Though the bugs haven't broken through the doors yet." Cadmus nodded and called us to attention.
"Gauss, Dingo, Juan, Jackson take Choke point Alpha" the three men and Duck Marauder set off to their objective "Doc, Honeydew, Xephos your with me, we got Bravo. Franklen, Lee, Garrus your with Sargent Shimmer at Charlie." I would have face palmed right then and there if it didn't mean damaging my Marauder’s canopy glass, I can already feel the eyes of the rest of the Squad boring holes through my armor at the news.
As soon as my team began to make our way to point Charlie I was bombarded with questions. Too many at a time to even keep focus.
"So when did the L.T promote you?" Lee asked "And why didn't you tell us?"
"I've not even got my official notice yet so I'm not even a Sergeant yet" I pointed out with an annoyed tone, why did Cadmus have to tell them?! "And I only found out this morning when the lieutenant mentioned that Jackson was shipping back home in a few days."
"I thought it would be Gauss for sure to get promoted." Garrus said thoughtfully while following to my left. "But I guess he could have chosen worse." he added playfully and I huffed at that.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked in a faked offended tone.
"He could have promoted Dingo."
"Yea..... If that had happened then it would have been better to just shoot ourselves and save the bugs the trouble." Franklin said making us all murmur our approval, I would sooner throw myself in front of a Tanker if that had happened.
"Yep, we got lucky with Ms. Sunbutt's promotion" Uhhgh! Dammit! Ever since Doc saw my Sun tattoos on a routine checkup that nickname had stuck, even on our ship ‘The Catburg’, the name Sunbutt was known all around.
Eager to escape the conversation I quickened my pace, almost going as far as using my boosters to speed up, when we finally reached choke point Charlie I was already feeling like two mini suns had been placed over my cheeks.
Waiting for us were three members of Vector squad who were standing behind hastily made barricade of crates, one shouted over to us as loud as he could.
"Quick get over here, Bugs are about to break through!" We didn't waste time and got into position. I could already hear the loud bangs coming from the large door at the other end of the Corridor, flicking on my radio I contacted Cadmus
"Sir be advised, bugs are about to breach the main doors here at Charlie." I said as calmly as I could.
"Roger that point Charlie!" Cadmus shouted through the radio, in the background I could hear gunfire and bug screeches "We're up to our necks right now, Bravo Out!" I closed the line with B, and opened a link with everyone around me.
"Alright everyone, stay sharp and aim true, we can get through this." I told them as I aimed the small Gatling on my left shoulder and the Grenade Launcher on my right shoulder down the corridor ready to blow apart whatever burst through that reinforced door and to get a better shot I zoomed in with my visor. I even closed one eye and slowed my breathing to make the first shot as well as I could.
Slowly but surely bug sized dents started appearing in the door until a small hole appeared in one of the corners, it was just too small for the large Warrior bug that I could see through it and while the hole may be too small for the Warrior to get through, it was big enough to fire a grenade through.
I queued up three grenades and locked in a targeting solution. I waited just a few seconds more for the Warrior to pull back before I let them fly. I felt their vibration before I saw them fly out of my shoulder launcher.
I watched with a smile as the Grenades soared through the hole and made three large booms followed by a number of satisfying death screeches from the warrior bugs.
"Nice shot!" one of the Vector troopers said.
Unfortunately the explosions had weakened the doors and with one final crash the bugs were in. Instantly the other troopers began firing, chewing the bugs up. With the added fire from my Marauder and the other troopers the corridor was filled with lead, explosions and a red laser coming from a laser cannon being manned by one of the Vector troopers, a pile of shredded bug bodies was quickly forming in front of us now and I ended up exhausting my Grenades firing over the pile since they didn't use the crystal type ammo and I was forced to use my machine guns on the ever increasing wall of bodies. This was where it became difficult, the dead bugs would look the same as wounded and healthy bugs in this chaos and a trooper could end up shooting the same bug multiple times.
‘But that’s why I’m here.’ I thought and with my machine guns I hosed down the pile to make sure they were all dead while my Gatling on my shoulder fired at the healthy ones, once I was sure the pile was dead I stopped the Gatling and used my arm guns on the bugs trying to swarm over the pile. I couldn’t remove the smile on my face as I showed them who the boss was and turned many warrior bugs into piles of shredded exoskeleton.
The bugs however were completely oblivious to how many of their comrades were dying like they always were and simply continued to swarm us.
"Hey Sunbutt!" Oh seriously! Go fuck yourself Franklin! I'm going to get you back for that when this is over.
"Think you could put those flamethrowers of yours to good use?" I felt a grin grace my face, did I ever tell you flamethrowers are my best friends? Fire is pure and cleansing, so I was going to clean the place up.
Switching from my Machine guns to my flamers I quickly started bathing the corridor before me in flames, bugs were sent writhing on the ground screeching in pain as their carapace and flesh was reduced to charred ash and bone. The wall of bodies was set alight too and the bugs that had yet to climb over recoiled at the flames, lesson 1 about fighting bugs, they hate fire.
We all cheered at the smell of burning bug but then it occurred to me.
"We remembered to turn off the sprinklers right?” Our cheers quickly subside as the fire suppression system kicked in and extinguished the fire with a mix of water and a foamy substance which made me glad to have my helmet on since this stuff was a pain to comb out of hair.
Slowly as the fire began to fade the bugs found the courage to continue their advance "Son of a!" I didn't bother finishing my curse and fired my Machine guns at the oncoming horde.
"Choke point Charlie fall back to rally point!" Cadmus shouted over the radio "Shimmer meet Doc and Gauss at the main lab, Spiders got in and the Scientists are saying something about one of their experiments being very dangerous."
Shit, that's not good. "Copy that sir, Alright you apes you heard the Lieutenant, FALL BACK!" I started to walk backwards and firing my guns to keep the bugs back while my team beat feet to the doors behind us, the bugs sensed this and pressed the attack intending to catch their prey before they escaped.
"Not on my watch!" I shouted and doubled my rate of fire nearly exhausting my ammo by the time I had reached the doors which slammed shut and locked. The bugs were already slamming against the doors and sounded mighty pissed off about losing their prey. But the door was strong and it would be a while before they got through, I asked one of the Vector troopers to give me directions to the main lab which he quickly did while also doing some hand motions to help me visualize where I was going.
I quickly thanked him and walked ahead while waving yelling a good bye to my team, while I passed through the rally point I saw the troopers that had already arrived erecting defenses such as Laser Sniper turrets. After a moment of backtracking I found an elevator that the trooper had told me about and took it straight down, it was only then that I realized how deep the outpost actually goes, a mile underneath the main outpost was a was a massive cavern that had been reinforced with steel so bugs couldn't burrow into it. Finally at the bottom of the elevator shaft was the ‘Main Lab’ and waiting for me was Doc In her 'Duck' Marauder and Gauss in his 'Ape', both were fighting a large Jungle spider what was in between them. They couldn’t risk firing their weapons in the lab with so many volatile chemicals around so they opted to stomp the bugs to death.
"Bout time you showed up Shimmer!" Gauss shouted as he tried to hit the slippery Spider with his marauder’s fist.
"Dam buggers keeping us out of the Lab!" I jumped off the elevator before it reached the ground and used my thrusters to cushion my landing before adding my fire (Literally) to the attack, focusing specifically on a damaged ventilation shaft that I could see another spider trying to get through.
"What's got the Scientists so worked up?" I asked as I managed to hit the monstrous Jungle Spider with my flames. I felt a light behind me eyes as I enjoyed seeing it burn.
"They said they were studying some dimensional crap and if the bug even touch it we can all kiss this planet goodbye" Doc told me as she hit the thing with a missile blowing a good chunk of its head off "Something about the energy being too unstable" That didn't sound good.
Inside the Lab there were bugs, bugs and more bugs and all were instantly aggressive towards us, at the center of the large circular lab was a bug containment vat and inside was.... A mirror? "What's so bad about a mirror?" I found myself asking as A Spider made a jump at me, a chainsaw later it was in two messy pieces on the floor.
"I don’t know. But if the bugs want it then it must me bad!" I turned to see Gauss shooting up a group of bugs that were coming down the elevator shaft.
"Soldiers! Stop the bugs before they destroy the mirror!” One of the lab’s scientists screamed into or radios and I turned for a moment to see there were cracks forming on some strange glass vat as an injured Spider slammed its body as hard as it could against the glass.
"Shimmer come on!" Doc was already surging forward with her Gatling blazing, I followed behind her finishing off any bugs that she missed, the bugs were doing everything they could to keep us from the vat.
Working together we made it halfway to the vat before a resounding Crash was heard and the glass vat shattered.
"NO!" I had already rushed past Doc's Marauder and kicked in my thrusters to launch the Hellhound' into the air towards the Mirror? I didn’t have much time to think on it, I was already too late, a Spider raised a mandible into the air and down onto the mirror.
But instead of shattering like glass the mirror exploded into a blinding light that engulfed me and everything went white and then promptly black.
Twilight was roused from her sleep by a bright light coming through her curtains.
"Uhhh, why does Celestia have to raise the sun so early?" She moaned as she covered her face with her pillow, after a full night at one if Pinkie's parties, all Twilight wanted to do was sleep.
Then she sensed a suddenly increasing magical surge coming from the Everfree and realized that this light wasn't the sun. She quickly forced her eyes open and rose to her hooves, looking at a nearby clock her suspicions were confirmed when her clock said it was only 4 in the morning. Way too early for the sun to be up.
A loud knocking at the door of the library made her get out of bed, she would normally send her assistant to go answer the door but considering the time the baby dragon was probably fast asleep and would be next to impossible to wake.
As Twilight descended the stairs to the library proper she noticed that the light was most definably coming from the direction of the Everfree forest, which meant it was likely connected to the magical surge. As Twilight opened the door she was greeted by her five friends who were looking worried, the light was brighter out here then inside. Some of the townsfolk had been woken up but were returning to bed, strange things were rather common to Ponyville.
"Twilight there's a weird light coming from the Everfree forest" Applejack told Twilight, Sweet Apple Acres was closest to the Everfree so she was probably the first to have noticed the light.
"Yes and all the Unicorns in town are feeling allot of magic in the air" Rarity added, by the look of it the fashionista had been in the middle of her beauty sleep and still had some of that facial crème she puts on to make herself look younger.
"And the animals are acting scared, even my bear friend doesn’t want to go back to the forest. " Fluttershy said in concern but her voice was barely heard.
"Yeah and I nearly got knocked out of the sky by a bunch of birds!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
Pinkie Pie literally shook herself into the library, her hooves hitting the floor so much that it sounded like a woodpecker.
"yyy yeah tt twilight!” she said in a shaky voice as her whole body twitched. "MMMMy Pinky sssense hhhas bbbeenn going lllocco" Twilight realized that Shaking meant that a doozy was about to happen. Pinkie was going so crazy it seemed that even she couldn’t handle it.
"Don't worry girls!" Twilight assured her friends as she guided them all inside. Twilight took a moment to think up her next step but when she did everything else fell into place for the master planer.
"Rainbow Dash could you wake up Spike please, I need to send a letter to Celestia and then we'll go and see what's making that Light."
“Right now? But it’s so dark.” Fluttershy squeaked.
“I know but it will give us the best chance to follow the light. Now it might be a long journey so you are all welcome to have a snack in the kitchen.” Twilight said as she went to close the door to her home.
As Twilight closed the door she found herself worried about this light and the magic behind it.
‘What could be so powerful as to let off this much amount of magic? And in the Everfree of all places?’ the Alicorn thought to herself.
Celestia felt the familiar magic emanating from the Everfree Forest before she saw the light. A sober expression cast itself upon her face, it had been a long time since she had felt this kind of magic, there had been a similar kind when Twilight had gone through the mirror to the human world but there was key differences between the two. Her former student had never known that the human world she had visited hadn't been the only one.
"So they have broken their word...perhaps a simple warning was not enough for these barbarians." Celestia said to herself as she summoned a guard from outside her room.
"Have my chariot ready and wake my personal guard" she told the stallion who bowed.
“What of Princess Luna, your majesty?” The guard asked but celestia shook her head.
“It is none of her concern, now go.” She commanded and the guard left at a quick pace, trotting down the hall.
When Celestia was finally alone again she looked to the light.
"I will not let the taint of your world corrupt my little ponies." Celestia said firmly before leaving her balcony to get herself ready. Out in Everfree the light faded until it was as if the light had never been there.
Below an apple tree in Sweet Apple Acres, a large insect creature raised it's head and looked up at the light coming from the forest, it's blue eyes showing recognition at the light. The creature had been considered as a friendly changeling by most of the residents of Ponyville since it arrived Three years before.
‘Why does that light look so familiar?’ It thought and found that it could not look away from the light.
Uhgh I don’t feel good..wait..... Am I dead? Hmmmm...It’s all black.
Well damn, I figured that the afterlife was abit more interesting. I was really hoping I’d wake up in a heaven where I could eat smoothies all day long and surf the beaches of Hawaii. What? I always wanted to learn how to surf, don’t judge me you jerks.
Wait a second, why does it feel like my eyes are closed? Oh, right! My eyes are just closed.
With some effort I opened my eyes and was greeted to a deep dark starry sky with the moon high in the- Wait what? It was the early morning when last I checked at that moon looks too much Like Earth’s moon, what happened? How did I get out of my Hellhound? I needed to find out.
My body protested, mostly my left shoulder, as I lifted myself into a sitting position and took in my surroundings. Well I can tell you right now that these types of trees didn't grow on Nemerosa and was that a bat that just went by? I was in a clearing in the middle of a very dark and creepy forest that gave me chills up my spine, when I looked behind me I saw the fallen over shape of my Marauder laying on its back. How I ended up outside it baffled me but I didn't dwell on it, maybe Doc or Gauss pulled me ou- Oh Shit I forgot about them!
I cupped the side of my helmet and turned on my radio "Doc, Gauss, you reading me?" Nothing.... Just static "Lieutenant?" Nada "Anyone?" only silence greeted me... Not another squad....... Not again...
I started to hyperventilate as my heart slammed against my chest, I had failed another squad. But before I could dwell on it more, a rustling sound to my right peeked my hope and I turned towards to sound. It was coming from a large bush that covered that part of the forest, I reached up to my Helmet's lamp and clicked it on and bathed the darkness with a wide and bright beam of light.
"Doc?" I called out the Medic's nickname first because she had been the closest to me when that blasted mirror had done whatever it did, plus she was a good friend. My hope was instantly dashed as it wasn't Doc or anything human that exited the bushes but what looked like a wolf.... A wooden wolf...... How the hell is that possible?
“Nice doggie, or uh tree, nice tree.” I said and slowly stepped back from the thing as it growled and its breath was so bad I could smell it from a few feet away.
I instinctively reached behind me and was relieved as I drew my Morita and pointed it at the wooden wolf, I flicked my visor down and turned on my scanner. The visor game me some kind of error message, the computer had no idea what to make of it except that the thing was made completely out of timber wood. So what would that make it a Timber Wolf? Heheh, catchy.
I started to back away slowly while keeping my weapon drawn, before I flipped back up my visor I switched to thermal, it didn't even register, the Timber wolves had the same body temperature as the area around them.
"Ok Sunset, calm down" I told myself as the Timber Wolf stalked forward towards me, its wooden teeth showing as it snarled at me.
"There's just one... You can handle one" I said and flicked the safety off my rifle, right before two more came out of the brush "Ok three then" Five more, then ten, then, oh dammit. "Me and my big mouth" I muttered.
I could rush over to the 'Hellhound' but by the time I got the canopy open those things would be on me and the moment I fired they would all rush me. The best choice was the easiest one.
“Fuck this!” I yelled and started running away.
I cocked my Morita's grenade launcher and fired one off into the pack, I managed to take out a few and while they were distracted I double timed it towards the other end of the clearing. I just hope the tracking device in my Marauder still worked so that I could find it later after I lost the wolves.
With increased speed I ran into the forest proper and the wolves were already at my heels.
Fun fact about power suits, they are lined with Pressure-Receptors and all sorts of little devices, all courtesy of Heinlein Incorporated. The Mobile Infantry’s number one weapons and equipment manufacturer. These babies are a godsend in combat, they enhance muscle movements so a trooper is just as maneuverable and fast as if they weren't even wearing it.
Post war power suits went a little further and actually increased a trooper’s natural abilities. We were better, faster and stronger, the technology was actually pretty simple I’m told.
But even with these augmentations these freaky looking wolves were still keeping up with me and I had to fire back blindly to ward them off. I wasn't sure of how long I had been running but it must have been a good long while and let me tell you those bastards were persistent. It almost didn't seem they could even get tired, which probably had something to do with how they were made of wood, which meant they were probably susceptible to fire.
‘God dammit if only my Marauder wasn't on its back then I could have turned these things into piles of ash!’ I thought as I jumped over a rock and kept on running.
I was finally losing the Timber Wolves until, in all my rotten luck, I happened to run right into a cliff face that seemed to go off for miles in both directions. I was well and truly cornered, the cliff was maybe 20 meters high and I didn't have time to fire off a lizard line and it was too dangerous to climb without assistance. But then I realized that my suit had one more trick to add to it's résumé but I waited for the Wolves to get closer. I mean, it would be rude of me to leave without a goodbye kiss, right?
“That's it....just a little closer.” I said, getting ready to turn around the moment they were close enough. My Morita was not aimed at them and I tried to make myself look as harmless as possible.
“Yes come get the lively juicy trooper....And.. Nope!” I yelled when one came at a running speed to bite into me.
I kicked on my suits jump jets and launched myself into the air and up the cliff all the while flipping off the now angry Wolves, one of which was actually on fire as he got burned from my jets.
I used up all of the fuel for the jets though, so when I reached the cliff edge I felt them cut out and I had to grab onto the ledge to keep from falling to my death.
I pulled myself up the cliff and sighed with relief when I was finally safe. I took a moment to look back down and saw the Timber Wolves still there and the one I had burned wasn’t moving anymore.
“Aww I’m sorry was I too hot for you?!” I yelled out and was about to keep taunting the wolves when I heard a familiar sound. I looked out across the forest treetop it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust but I noticed something flying towards me.... Make that three things. What were they? Were they birds... Planes?
It was when I flipped down my visor and zoomed in that I knew that lady luck had just kneed me in the stomach. Because flying at full speed towards me was a trio of Ripplers, and they already spotted me. Their war cry echoed out and it seemed to even scare the wolves away.
"Oh come on!" I yelled as I dove for cover and checked my ammo count, 200 rounds left in the clip with about seven more full clips to spare, now all I had to do was watch out for those barbs they fired.
The Ripplers finally got within range and started firing barbs from their mouths which impacted the bolder and ground around me, sending chips of broken rock all around. The good news was that judging by how the barbs weren't corroding whatever they hit meant that these weren't part of the Kamikaze strain of Ripplers, the bad news was that they still could kill me if I was hit with enough.
Intending to take them out quickly I leaned out of cover and started firing at which-ever one came close but they were tricky to hit and I had to change position constantly so I wouldn't get hit. Finally though I was rewarded as one of the trio fell from the air in a bloody green mess, unfortunately this pissed off his brothers as they increased the rate that they fired off barbs meaning that I had to dodge more and more, at this rate I was going to get hit. I ended up dodging and running around more than I was firing, and none of the eggheads back on earth had figured out exactly how many barbs they could fire. But Sargent Sunset Shimmer is no quitter.
“Come and get me you overgrown shit flies!” I yelled and stepped out of over, sidestepping as I brought my visor down to help me aim. I waited until one of them was within range and gave it a full automatic burst from my rifle.
I was rewarded again as another went down, but then it crashed in right next to me, knocking me back a few feet. I fell on my back and tried to get up, cursing myself for not moving sooner. The last Rippler took advantage of this and flew over me in a strafing run and I was unable to dodge its next attack.
The next thing I knew I was slumped against one of the boulders with a 7" barb stabbing into my stomach through my armor. I took a moment for my brain to register the pain.
"Argh! God, it fucking hurts!" I screamed so loud I almost hurt my throat as I doubled over in pain. I could already see my blood starting to pool around my injury. I didn't pull the barb out though despite the pain, if I did then I'd bleed out faster. Though at the moment that would have been preferable as the last Rippler landed and was menacingly crawling towards me. It made a strange groaning sound, which I guess must have been a laugh because its eyes were on my injury. Either that or it was growling with hunger and wanted to eat my intestines.
One of my eyes was painfully clenched shut but through my other one I saw my rifle just barely out of reach. I still had my sidearm but I seriously doubted that little pistol could have enough punch to bring down the bug that was almost on me, there was own thing I could do though but it was very risky.... Not that I had much choice at the moment.
Slowly, I reached behind me and pulled out my shock stick but keeping it to my side out of sight of the Rippler and not extending it. As it got closer I could see that the bug’s attention was fully on my wound now so it hadn't seen me pull the shock stick out.
‘Come on you ugly bastard.... Just a little closer.’ I whispered as I felt sweat roll down my face and I began to feel dizzy. I then heard the words of my old drill Sargent Zim.
‘If you’re going to die then die like a trooper.’ Thanks, Gunnery Sargent.
The Rippler was indeed drooling as it now had its face right in my face and was about to fire a barb into my face so it could eat in peace. But before it could I ignited the shock stick and jammed it into the bug's compound eye making it screech in pain as the electricity surged through its brain (Or what counted as its brain, you ask my opinion, bug brains are the size of walnuts.) and ruptured vital arteries. The damn Rippler’s screaming nearly blew out my eardrums.
It died twitching as it rolled off the side and crashed down atop the Timber Wolf I had killed earlier, leaving me breathing heavily and almost wheezing with pain. For the longest time I just lay there not moving, just enjoying being alive for another day, but the pain of the still embedded barb brought me back to the present and I reached my hand into my medical pouch and retrieving it a second later.
I nearly dropped a small grey canister with a red cross on it but I held tight. I took a small moment to calm myself down before getting a firm hold on the barb. I braced myself and held my breath only for it to be taken away as I yanked the barb out. I’m pretty sure my scream could be heard for miles, and that one did hurt my throat. I’m not ashamed to say I cried….but it was just a few tears and it didn’t stop me from doing the next steps.
As could be expected there was blood and quite allot of it so I quickly stuck the nozzle of the canister into the wound and filled it with Medi-foam which hardened outside the wound and acted as a bandage to keep it both clean and stop blood loss, it would keep any damaged organs in place and help stop the bleeding and prevent any hemorrhaging from wound, another benefit was that it would regenerate damaged cells quickly which in laymen's terms meant that it would heal my over time. Don’t ask me how, I’m a trooper not an egghead. Though I would have preferred an auto-doc it was like robotic surgeon but with small needles and could stitch back together damaged muscles, veins and arteries.
The foam however did not contain anything for the pain as it was still there and my eyes were starting to feel real heavy, it was then that I saw the Timber Wolves stalked out of the forest, they must have found a path to get up the cliff somehow, or they were a different pack of wolves. They knew I was hurt and defenseless since I could barely muster the strength to keep my eyes open and blackness was already filling my vision.
But before it fully took me I saw the Timber Wolves' attention shift from me to something behind me, and just before I lost consciousness I saw them engulfed in a white just as it all went black...... Again.
Twilight closed the door to the library and locked it behind her before joining her waiting friends, the light and oddly powerful magical surge had disappeared quite a while ago but Twilight had been able to pinpoint the general area that it had originated from, Pinkie had also stopped shaking as well which worried Twilight at the thought of what the ’doozy’ had been.
All Twilight's friends were geared up to go with saddle bags packed with provisions and other items that they might need in the Everfree. Pinkie pie even had on a miner’s hat with a lantern on top of it.
"Ok girls, are you all ready to go?" Twilight asked enthusiastically, eager to go and learn new things.
"We're all with you Twi." Rainbow Dash told her with nods if approval from the rest of her friends.
"Let go kick some flank!" the Rainbow maned Pegasus made to speed off in the direction of the dark forest but was stopped by Applejack who grabbed her by the tail.
"Hold yer horses now Rainbow" Applejack told the speedster.
"We still don't know if whatever caused that light is dangerous or not." Applejack said while adjusting her Stetson and looking to the others.
"Applejacks right" Twilight agreed "And we need to stop by Zecora’s so we can ask her to be our guide" the potion brewing Zebra knew every inch of the forest and Twilight was sure that they were going to need her help if they were to get to the bottom of this mystery "Come on girls, Let go!"
Before they left though, Fluttershy stopped them with a barely audible "Wait, Look!"
A large shape was coming down the dark street, it stood on four long legs about that ended in pale grey claws and its carapace was a dull shade of blue with white faded dots that looked like snow, under its main body was two large limbs that ended in two bladed pincers and it's fangs gleamed at the end of two small mandibles, it's most dominating feature was the two large storm grey eyes that projected intelligence. It was considered by many to be some mutated form of changeling, and while it did look frightening, the ponies of Pony Ville had grown accustomed to the creature and knew it was friendly.
Twilight sighed in relief at then familiar creature and Applejack waved over to it.
"Hey Snowflake!" she greeted warmly "Why ain't ya back at the farm?"
"What's that it's carrying?" Rarity asked as she pointed at the thing Snowflake was carrying in its strong arms. As Twilight squinted to get a better look she recognized what it was.
"Girls! That's a human!" she exclaimed as she rushed over to Snowflake, it was indeed a human like the one's she had met in the human world, from what she remembered the body shape suggested that it was a woman, but she was wearing some sort of weird bulky Armor that hid her figure, her face was hidden from Twilight by a helmet that reminded her of the ones Royal Guard ponies wear.
"Ya mean like you became when you went through that mirror back the crystal empire?" Applejack asked, stepping closer to get a good look herself.
"Yes, but what is one doing here and why isn’t she a pony?" Twilight said as she studied the unconscious human. The saw the foam filled wound and the blood around it.
"Oh dear Celestia, she's hurt!" Twilight immediately took the unconscious human with her magic carefully and made her way over to the library.
As she rushed into her library Twilight instructed her friends to get the first aid kit from the kitchen while Fluttershy followed her up stairs to the guest bedroom. She gently set the human down on the bed and let Fluttershy examine the woman, after the rest of her friends had brought the first aid kit they left the yellow Pegasus to her work and waited downstairs. Fluttershy had the best experience with things like this, she treated her animal friends all the time and from and number of creatures.
Snowflake was already downstairs waiting downstairs by the time the others returned, being 8 feet high the insect like creature took up quite allot of space in the spacious library. At the moment it was mandibles first in a book, holding it up with its clawed arms. After a quick greeting and more waiting everyone started to find something to do while waiting for their shy friend to finish with her work.
Rainbow Dash was reclined on one of the couches with a Daring Doo book in her hooves, Pinkie pike was having a game of eye spy with Applejack. Rarity was reading a magazine that had been on the coffee table, Twilight was however pacing left and right restlessly, questions endlessly floating in her mind. Such as how the human had gotten here when the mirror portal would not open to the human world wouldn't re-open for another year and a half, and why wasn't she a pony? All those who passed through the portal transformed into the natives of the world they went to. In fact Twilight felt herself wondering if Sunset Shimmer actually looked older than she did before. So many questions.
Twilight stopped pacing as she saw a number of items on the table next to Snowflake, they probably belonged to the woman upstairs, she walked over and picked up one of the items, a helmet with a torch built into it which was still on and shined quite brightly. Twilight took a moment to turn it off before it blinded some pony, then she turned it over in her magic grasp to study it, it was pale grey with black stripes just like the rest of the woman's armor that reminded Twilight of a zebra, the only exception was the glossy green flap.
The helmet's left side had writing in bold white letters, Twilight had learned that the Equestrian language was nearly exactly the same as the human Language English so she could read what it said, Twilight nearly dropped the helmet when she read the writing.
CPL. SHIMMER.
Twilight instantly teleported to the guest bedroom surprising both her friends downstairs and Fluttershy upstairs, she had to be sure it was really her. Fluttershy nearly jumped out of her skin when Twilight teleported into the room, luckily she was just finishing up and was in the process of washing her hooves clean after helping Sunset.
Twilight's suspicions were confirmed as soon as she lay eyes on the woman, she was definably older than when she had last seen her and her crimson and yellow hair had been cut short but there was no mistaking who the human was.
Twilight's friends burst in to find her just staring in shock at the woman "What's wrong Twilight?"
"Yeah, you just teleported up here without saying anything to us!"
"It's her..." was all Twilight said, it was as if she was in shock.
"It's, who Twilight?" Applejack asked.
"This is Sunset Shimmer"
There was a collective gasp as the name was mentioned. Everypony knew who that was, Celestia's student before Twilight who had stolen the Element of Magic and escaped into the human world. After the incident, Twilight had explained that Sunset used the element of magic to turn herself into a demonic creature and enslaved her fellow students at Canterlot High. She was going to use her new army to conquer Equestria but Twilight and her friend's doubles had managed to defeat her. Last Twilight had seen the girl she had been adamant to stay in the human world to try and make up for her miss deeds. But yet here she was.
Fluttershy had returned to tending to the woman's injury, she hadn't removed the odd Armour for some reason and when Twilight asked why the Pegasus merely shrugged.
"Oh there's no need, this Foam is doing most of the work already" she said as she put away the contents of the first aid kit.
"I wish I had some of it for my animal friends, her wounds already almost finished healing, all I had to do was some stitching."
"Will she be alright?" Rarity asked.
"Oh yes, she just needs rest now." Fluttershy said brightly
"Ok girls, let’s leave her alone for now" Twilight said now she had been assured that Sunset would be fine she started herding her friends out, now she needed some answers "Let’s go talk to Snowflake and see where it found her"
Snowflake was waiting expectantly for the six mares to come down, as if it anticipated what they were going to ask.
"Snowflake where did you find that human?" Twilight asked calmly, the insect reached into a tiny bag that it had hanging from its left arm and pulled out a notepad, Snowflake had no way to speak normally, not even like a changeling and had to write down what it wanted to say on a notepad it carried around everywhere.
After a few quick scribbles Snowflake ripped off the sheet and passed it to Twilight.
‘In Everfree forest, she was about to be eaten by Timber Wolves’ Snowflake had managed to scribble all this down on the small notepad with surprisingly good penmanship.
"A Timber Wolf couldn't make that kind of wound." Fluttershy said confidently, when everyone looked at her to explain she hid behind her pink hair.
"Well, Um, it looked Like it was, um, made by something like a jagged knife" she said quietly.
Snowflake scribbled down something else.
‘She was already hurt when I saved her, she killed the creatures that did it though.’
Fluttershy nearly fainted at the mention of the word death. She knew some of her animal friends were carnivorous but they only killed to feed themselves. But that still didn’t shake her dislike.
"Oh how ghastly!" Rarity said followed by Applejack angrily stating.
"Ah bet that good for nothing Shimmer probably attacked em first!"
Snowflake wrote something else down and handed it to them.
‘No, they attacked first, they were some sort of giant flying insects about my size. They spat these.’
As Twilight finished reading the note Snowflake had already uncovered a blood soaked barb from a bag and set it down before the five mares, it was seven inches long and jagged with a sharp edge, just like Fluttershy had said.
"Did you recognize the insects?" Twilight asked "And how did she kill them?" More scribbling followed.
‘No, I've never seen anything like them and she used that on the table” it then indicated to Shimmer’s pulse rifle.
‘to kill two but used a rod that crackled with electricity and stabbed it into the last on in the eye after it shot her, I couldn't remove the rod.’
"It's ok, I'll question Sunset when she wakes up." Twilight announced while yawning "We'll leave the expedition into the Everfree forest for tomorrow, you girls should head home and get some rest"
"Are you sure Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked with concern "I mean she killed three things Snowflake's size that spat barbs and could fly!"
"I got to agree with Rainbow Twi." Applejack agreed "We should stay here tonight and watch her."
"I'll be fine girls, Humans don't have magic and I'm sure I can keep her in line. Besides too many of us here at once might just scare her." Twilight said confidently.
"And in the morning I'll send Celestia another letter about her, it will be fine I promise." Twilight said with a smile.
Her friends looked unsure "Well ah don't know Twi..." Applejack said while shuffling her hooves "But if ya say ya'll be alright then ah trust ya."
Twilight saw her friends off, Snowflake was carrying Fluttershy to take her home since the poor Pegasus had yet to awaken. Once they were all gone Twilight locked the door and sighed before making her way up stairs to her room passing Shimmer's room.
Inside the unconscious woman started to stir and slowly her cyan eyes blinked open as she suddenly shot upwards in the bed.
I felt my eyes suddenly force themselves open after I awoke from yet another horrible dream from the incident on Pluto. I must have moved too fast because I felt a sharp pain in my stomach which then made me realize I had a terrible migraine. I had to lay back and close my eyes so I could try and calm myself.
‘Oh god my head feels like someone took a shock stick to it.’ My thoughts were all fuzzy and it was hard to focus. I am definitely spending far too much time knocked out today, at least the ground was comfortable.
“Wait, this feels like a bed.” I said and for a moment hoped that the last few years had just been a terrible nightmare.
I once again propped myself up and hissed in pain at my still healing wound, apparently I had been moved into a dwelling of some kind, it looked made out of wood, far too primitive for SICON buildings.
This was confusing as the only two intelligent races on Nemerosa were humans and Arachnids... Neither of us used wood to make out bases (Or hives in the bug's case) so me being in a wooden, surprisingly well-furnished room just added to my weird day. I rubbed my forehead again, taking a moment to run a hand through my hair to make sure it was still there and not covered in filth.
“okay, lets recap, see where we got lost.” I told myself and started running through everything I could remember.
1. I find a bunch of empty unmarked power suits impaled on some spikes alongside some bugs.
2. A seemingly ordinary mirror being studied by SICON scientists and explodes when it should have smashed during an attack by bugs.
3. I wake up in a strange forest at night when it was meant to be morning.
4. Got chased through said forest by Wolves made completely out of wood.
5. Run into a trio of Ripplers and get shot.
“Busy day.” I said and moved my armor and the clothing underneath so that I could get a better look at my injury. I was relieved to find my wound was actually taken care of, though someone had apparently stitched me up.
“Who the hell uses stitches besides civilian doctors on little kids?” I asked, SICON docs would use a surgical laser to seal up an injury, or an auto doc or grow some synthetic skin and attach it to the injury.
As I pondered this I knew there was going to be scaring on the injury for sure but I could live with that, it was better than being dead. So I decided to get up and look around the room, it was pretty small with a set of drawers and a cupboard which were both empty, the room even had a small bathroom.
I decided to wash the last of the foam and walked into the bathroom, not bothering to take off my suit since the thing was water proof and after few tries I managed to find a light switch which lit up the room, which gave me a good look at the room. Who lived here, a dwarf? Was I suddenly in the land of OZ? I mean the whole place looked like it was made for someone half my size!
I keeled down and turned on the cold water tap and cupped some water in my hand and splashed it on the foam which dissolved quickly and let me see the stitching.
“yuck... I really hope it fades because it looks real nasty.” Actually scratch that, I just hope whoever stitched me up used clean tools, I don’t want gangrene.
I gently finished washing the foam off and splashed water into my face, the rush of cold waking me up and removing some of the grime from my face. I was thankful that it was dirt. Dry bug juice is really hard to get off.
I spent several more minutes thoroughly washing my hair and face to make sure I was as clean as possible, but in reality it was to give myself something to do. I didn’t want to think too much on the situation because I was afraid it would give me a panic attack. I was all alone again, without my squad and lost in munchkin land with bugs running around.
When I was as clean as I could hope to be I left the bathroom and saw my helmet laying on the floor, I almost face palmed at the fact that I had forgotten all about my helmet. Such a rookie mistake. I scooped the thing up and placed it firmly on my head, I then tried and raise anyone from my squad on the emergency frequency.
"This Is Sargent Shimmer of Zebra Squad. Does anyone read me?" I whispered so whoever was the owner of this dwelling wasn't woken up, if I was going to talk to them then I wanted to be ready in case they were less then friendly.
"I repeat this is Sargent Shimmer, Is there anyone on this frequency?!" I said louder than I had meant to, but soon I began to hear a voice penetrating the static.
"....... Sunset?......That you Lass?" Oh thank god, I felt as if a massive weight had been lifted.
"Y-Yes its me, that you Gauss?" Maybe lady luck was taking a shine to me after all.
"Yea lass, got Doc and a few of Vectors boys with me too."
"Good to hear, where are you guys?" If they were close enough to me then I was in a good enough condition to start moving.
"We all woke up in some weird forest, that’s all we know.”
"I woke up there too, a few Ripplers attacked me and I was hit, but I'm alright though, I was knocked out but I woke up in someone's home"
"Any idea who it belongs to?"
"Not yet, I think their still asle-"
Knock knock knock! The noise nearly made me shout in surprise but I was better than that.
“Scratch that, looks like their up, I'll contact you again soon."
"Alright lass, be careful and we'll see you soon, out!" Well that is a load off my mind, maybe they could trace my signal or something.
"H-Hello?" whoever my host is they were definitely a girl and a young one at that, maybe in her late teens.
"Are you alright in there?" the young voice asked.
I debated whether I should answer the teen since I couldn’t see my rifle anywhere, but a quick check revealed my pistol was still holstered at my side so at least I wasn’t unarmed if this went pear shaped. I decided to take the chance.
"Yes, I'm fine" I called out.
"I-I'm coming in ok?" Why was the voice so nervous? I decided to try and seem less threatening so I sat down on the bed which I now noticed was too small for me and put on my friendliest smile.
"Ok, you can come in."
I was not prepared for a purple little horse to open the door and step inside... Were those Wings? And a horn! The hell did I wake up to? Maybe the person who talked was still outside.
"Are you ok? Sunset?" the Horned/Winged horse asked completely shattering my theory, maybe I was still asleep. I gently put a hand to my injury and
‘.... Ohhhh... Nope still hurts which meant I wa- WAIT DID SHE JUST SAY MY NAME!?’. Remember that panic attack that I was worried about earlier? Yeah it came back.
"W-W-What are you!" I exclaimed as I pointed at the very strange (and oddly cute) creature before me
"And how do you know my name!" the creature seemed confused. Yea well it could join the club.
"What do you mean, Sunset?" She (or at least I assume it’s a female.) asked.
"I'm a pony, and we met back at Canterlot High. When you stole the element of magic"….c…C..Cantralot high? Element of magic? Pony? Never been, magic does not exist and ponies aren't techno colored, neither do they have wings and horns and talk.
"Sorry whatever you are but I've never met you before in my life, and I have certainly never been to a Cantralot high." The pony looked shocked by this and I decided that it was a really good time to leave and tried to get by the pony.
"Well I can't say I'm not grateful for the rescue and place to rest. But I really need to be going." But the pony made no move to get out my way and instead had a defiant and determined look upon her face.
“Sunset you aren't going anywhere until you explain how you got here without the mirror!" Mirror? She knew about it? Maybe I should stick around for a bit longer and find out what this pony knows, but then she said something that set me off.
"It’s the least you can do after killing those creatures in Everfree tonight."
Was she talking about the Ripplers I killed? Because if she was then she and I are going to be having some very harsh words.
"The least I can-" I scoffed in disgust at how this girl (Or was it mare?) was showing concern about me killing a few bugs "They were bugs!" I found myself yelling and startling the mare. I so angry I could see the faces of so many troopers who id seen die because of the bugs.
"Bugs don't feel, don't love, their only instinct is to kill and devour. They can smell blood through skin, through suits, through steel, if you’re feeling sorry for a bug then this conversation is over." I shoved past the surprised pony.
“You can’t feel pity for something that has no soul!” I said and found a set of stairs which I took, two at a time. The stairs led me to a library of all things, a big public library, the whole place now I thought about it looked like it had been made in a massive hollowed out tree which at this moment in time I would not be surprised about.
I spotted my Morita on a small coffee table and scooped it up, the thing looked relatively intact but the current clip was empty though. I guess I must have emptied it. Good thing I didn’t try to use it on the last Rippler or else I’d be dead.
The purple mare came running down the stairs after me, just in time to see me eject the empty clip onto the carpet and slam a fresh one into place and cock it and reset the ammo count to 500.
"Sunset, wait!" the pony cried out.
“No thanks, I’ve got places to go and bugs to ki- Hey!” When I had tried to leave I had found my Morita snatched out of my grasp. When I looked to see who had done it I was shocked to find it floating with a kind of pinkish, purple-ish aura around it.
‘Just great, the pony is a psychic and can use TK to top it all off! Fuck this planet!’ I though and pointed the index finger on my right hand at the pony.
"Give…me back…my weapon." I growled through gritted teeth while giving the mare a look that would have made a fully grown Plasma cry for its mommy but to the mares credit she only flinched for a moment.
"Not until you calm down and talk to me!" she shouted at me and her horn flared the same color as the aura surrounding my rifle and for a moment I was reminded of the Roughneck's resident psychic, Carl Jenkins, who could fry a room full of bug's brains with just a though and I was very afraid. Well afraid may have been watering it down a tad bit.... Scared shitless would better describe how I was feeling at that moment in time so I felt it was a good time to use my trump card, this pony wasn't the only one who had psychic talent!
I closed my eyes and breathed in and out to calm myself, I wasn't a potent enough psychic to be noticed by Psy-ops or to show up on anyone else’s radar. I had also slowly worked on my ability's in secret, I wasn't anywhere close to on par with other psychics in SICON and I couldn't read minds but I did have a slight gift in the Telekinesis department.
I opened up my eyes and could feel the energy rolling behind them. I raised my hand and reached out for the rifle with my mind and was relieved to feel my psychic grasp on the weapon solidify and I pulled. From there it became a game of tug of war, with me on the losing side, I was good with my TK enough to deflect the odd stray round from a friendly trooper or trip a bug over mid charge but only when it was absolutely necessary and never in view of my squad mates. This purple mare however was way more powerful than me by far and I was sure that she could have won in a heartbeat but I guessed she was waiting until I admitted defeat, which I sadly had no other choice but to do.
Screaming in frustration I released my grasp and collapsed on the very small coach behind me feeling a trickle of blood going down my noise and a killer headache coming on which were both symptoms of me using my gift. They were also reasons why I tried my best not to use them often.
‘Ooohhh my head is going to feel like crap later….’ I thought and felt the blood reach my lip. Good thing I didn’t wear lipstick when I was on deployment, only when on leave and among civies.
The mare watched me with concern as I wiped the trail of blood from my face. Her face then turned to one of sadness that almost made me want to pet her.
"You used to be such a good magic user... What happened to you Sunset?"
"Why do you keep talking to me like were old friends, I've never met you before kid and I didn't use magic. It's psychic talent." I called her kid because by the looks of her and how she acts she was way younger than me. Getting angry wasn’t likely to get me anywhere so I decided to switch up my approach.
"Look, I will answer all your questions, as long as you give me back my weapon and let me leave." I know I was asking allot from the very powerful and dangerous psychic but I had to ask. Besides now that I thought about it she knew something about that mirror the bugs destroyed and I was going to need that information if me and the rest of the troopers were to get back to our squads.
The Mare thought over her proposal and surprisingly agreed to it with a nod.
"But I will only give you your weapon back after you've answered my questions." I nodded in agreement.
"Well now that I your acting more civil-" Must resist the urge too shot in face "I will introduce myself, My name is Twilight Sparkle." Really?
I leaned forward with a annoyed look "Well Ms. Sparkle, shall we begin?"
Twilight had been asking her questions for a full hour and a half. With every question answered she grew more and more concerned.
Sunset Shimmer had no memory of ever being a pony or the events that had transpired at Canterlot High, and even said that no such place had existed, she was apparently aged 21, nearing 22, and was part of the mobile infantry. The military arm of the ‘Strategically Integrated Coalition Of Nations’ or SICON for short. An alliance of most of the nations of the human world which promised to support and defend one another.
Sunset had then gone onto explain that humanity had first discovered the Arachnids on one of the planets in their solar system called ‘Pluto’ and had come to blows after the Arachnids attacked many civilian research outposts. After some time it was discovered that the bugs were not from Pluto, this lead to the first interstellar war where SICON fought the bug's on any planet they found them on, using a tactic called ‘Planet Hopping’ which was inspired by ‘island hopping’ from the human’s second world war. The very fact gave Twilight a headache trying to contemplate the scale of it all.
Twilight had been shocked to find out about how the Arachnids had used a type of bug called control bugs to enslave a race we called ‘The Skinnies’, mostly because it’s too difficult to speak their language without a translation device, who after being freed fought alongside humanity. After much strife and combat SICON eventually found the Arachnid home world called ‘Klendathu’.
The war was the fiercest there, it was also where the most casualties occurred, as humanity fought the bugs tooth and nail for every inch of land. But we found their queen and chased her out of her nest, after the queen escaped an assassination attempt she made her way to earth, humanity's home world. The war finally ended with the death of the queen by the hands of the marauder suited Lieutenant Johnny Rico when he led several strike teams with mini nukes into a new nest the queen had dug.
But the victory was not without cost. They were still counting the civilian losses, rebuilding Washington D.C., The Kremlin and the Eifel tower. Much more needed to be done to rebuild.
By the end of the tale Twilight had filled three notebooks with notes and thoughts, to say she was shocked was a great understatement, she was actually slightly pale. She had never heard nor imagined of a race so hostile and willing to do anything to win, like sucking a sentient being's brains out for information, it was sickening enough to make even a Griffin warlord faint. And enslaving a whole race to use as miners didn't bode well with Twilight.
Sunset had then gone on to explain the events that had transpired today, from the massive bug attack, to being unable to stop the bugs destroying a mirror eerily similar to the one in the crystal empire, to the events leading up to now.
"And then I woke up here." Sunset finished.
The news that a race that hated any life other than their own were in Equestria alarmed Twilight. Especially as she now knew that the Guard would be unable to fight them with the weapons they possessed which included swords, spears and crossbows. But for now there was nothing she could do about it, but Twilight had a hunch that Sunset was somehow the key to all this.
"S-so you really have no memory of ever being a pony?" Twilight asked.
"I am Human, always have been." Sunset stressed the word human "And I attended Los Angeles High not Cantralot High" Twilight thought of the implications of this over in her mind, if this was the Sunset Shimmer who had stolen the Element of magic from Twilight then something had happened to her memory to make her forget, there was only one way to find out.
"Look Sunset, you are exactly like the Sunset I knew, only you’re older. It's too much of a coincidence that you look exactly like her and I'm thinking you have a mark on your flanks of a crimson and yellow sun am I right?" Sunset's cheeks turned rosy red as she nodded.
"Well I may have a way to find out once and for all, there's.... A spell that can allow me to look through your mind to see if your memories have been tampered with and you really are my Sunset Shimmer." Sunset looked unnerved by the suggestion.
"Don't worry it's completely safe and it will allow me to learn more about your conflict with the bugs than a simple interview could ever do. I would be experiencing everything you did" Twilight truly meant it, she could learn more about the bugs from some pony who had actually come face to face with them on a daily basis. Of course Twilight didn't mention that she had never personally tried the spell herself, but that was her secret.
"I-It's not that Twilight." Shimmer said wile nervously brushing her hand against her other arm.
"You’re a Psychic, where I come from people don't like letting people inside their heads, its technically a crime in some places, and I'm no exception. I don’t like the idea of someone looking into my mind and seeing things that should only belong to me.” Twilight opened her mouth to say something but Sunset cut her off.
"I know you call it magic but take it from a psychic when I say you are using psychic potential, granted your nothing like any psychic I've met before but a psychic all the same…” Shimmer took a breath and made a leap of faith.
“As long as you promise to keep away from any memories that I don't want you seeing then I will allow it." Twilight nodded, she could understand that as a human Sunset didn't believe in magic so she let it slide and set her mind to the task.
"Ok, you'll be fully aware of what memories and you can steer me away from any personal memories" Twilight looked Sunset in the eyes "Are you ready?"
Sunset swallowed nervously and nodded a wordless confirmation.
Twilight closed her eyes and channeled the spell, feeling her power flow into her horn which glowed with her usual aura. She felt the minds of Everypony in the library including Spike who was still sound asleep upstairs dreaming about Rarity, Twilight ignored him and concentrated on Sunset and slowly pushed into her mind.
In that moment her eyes flashed open and glowed hot white as she watched the memories flow into her, Twilight watched them in flashes going backwards from tonight where Sunset was attacked by the Ripplers to the battle on Nemerosa. Unknown to Twilight and Shimmer was that all the Sargent's tactical knowledge was also flowing into Twilight's mind as now she was understanding and remembering information that she never knew before such as military tactics and information about every bug Sunset knew about. Even Sunset's military training was becoming second nature to her, as Twilight was completely oblivious to this she continued seeing Sunset and Zebra Squad making a distraction for the other squads in an operation against the bugs on Earth.
Some memories seemed to have an almost magnetic pull on them and while Twilight wanted to see them all quickly, a few of them made the choice for her. Such as Shimmer’s first day of fighting on Klendathu. It almost felt like being told a story.
“Live forever Apes.” Lieutenant Cadmus said form his drop pod and I, and the other troopers of Zebra squad, replied with a gut filled.
“HA oh!” before the doors closed and the transport entered Klendathu’s atmosphere. I felt safe in my Marauder, I always preferred the Ape model. I then heard the panels underneath my Marauder open up as I was launched out along with many other troopers.
“Yaaaahhooooo!!!” I indulged myself for a moment and looked up, seeing so many other troopers dropping down. ‘I guess this is how it must have felt for the Euros during the blitzkrieg.’ I thought and soon heard the orders.
“Deploy jump-jets!” Cadmus ordered and I quickly pressed the buttons on my console and felt the jets on my Marauder’s feet and back activate. Suddenly I was floating down slower to the ground. With all the others doing the same it almost looked like the stars were falling to Klendathu.
“Incoming hopper bugs!” Someone yelled over the general band radio and as if on cue I saw Hopper bugs fly by me. I guess they ignored me because I was too heavy for them but I saw them use their scythe like claws to attack other troopers.
They moved so fast that the victims didn’t know they were under attack before they lost arms, legs, or heads. All one would see was a hopper flying close to a trooper and then a puff of blood before the limb would fall away.
I knew I had to do something so I turned on my shoulder Gatling and fired off random rounds to scare away hopper bugs. Little did I know, it was only the beginning. Things would get a lot worse though the day.
Twilight managed to get herself out of that memory just as Sunset touched the ground and lifted her arm guns up. The rest of the trip was much easier. She only saw snapshots of previous campaigns, the Tesca, Tophet and Hydora Campaigns, a time spent on a medical ship and befo-
"N-No, not that one." Twilight momentarily backed out Sunset's mind to look at her, the woman was very alarmed and was actually shaking, she looked almost sick.
"That one's.... Personal, go back three weeks before that." Twilight nodded, what she didn't tell Sunset was that she had seen one image of that memory before she stopped her, a dark rocky landscape with damaged trucks and bodies of dead troopers.
Going back in and skipping the memory Twilight watched the Pluto campaign from Sunset's eyes, all the way back to basic training, but when she tried to go further back she found something odd. The memories were there but filled with, static. Twilight could hear odd echoes that made no sense and all she could see was vague figures. Like trying to see someone in the middle of a blizzard. When she tried to look deeper she suddenly found herself thrown back as the spell backfired into the surrounding area.
Sunset was up in a moment and by the fallen Alicorn's side.
"Twilight? Twilight! Are you ok?" Twilight shook the stars out of her eyes and nodded shakily "Y-Y-Yes"
"What just happened? I didn't do that"
"I was about to past your basic training days but something blocked me" Twilight explained while getting to her hooves "When I tried to get past.... Well, this happened."
Twilight still had her spell going but the blast had accidentally made her widen the range of the spell to include the area around the library. Twilight was shocked however to find 31 minds outside, including her fellow Princess and mentor Celestia. Twilight could tell that the other minds were that of Royal Guards and they were all blocking any means of escape, her interest peaked Twilight briefly passed her mind over Celestia's. When she did Twilight's eyes widened in alarm.
"Sunset we need to get you out of here now!" she told the trooper as she moved to a nearby window and peeked through the blinds. She saw Celestia standing with her honor guard with a calm expression on her face which conflicted with her inner thoughts.
"What's wrong Twilight?" Sunset asked as she as she picked up her Morita, safety off.
"It's Princess Celestia and a whole lot of Royal guard." Twilight stepped away from the window and quickly locked the door with her magic.
"I just brushed her mind and from what I got she somehow knows about SICON and holds no love for it, even if your our Sunset Shimmer she's going to take you and lock you up." Twilight was panicking, She was a princess, yes, but she knew Celestia wouldn't listen to her and would take Sunset anyway. Twilight could literally feel the hate radiating off her mentor.
“Can you talk her down?” Sunset asked while she hunched low near a window and caught sight of two ponies in golden armor sneaking around.
"No, she won't listen." Twilight started pacing "we've got to get you out of here somehow."
"Twilight..."
"Maybe I can teleport us outside Ponyville..."
"Twilight!"
"Oh but the guard will be on us in seconds... May-"
"TWILIGHT!" Sunsets cry stirred the young princess out of her thoughts.
"I didn't ask anything out loud" She told Twilight who paled, she checked her horn to see if she was still casting the spell but her horn was not emitting any aura, yet she could still feel Sunset's concerned thoughts.
"I think that blast may have done more than force you out of my head" Sunset suggested.
Twilight could not read minds without a spell...
Remembering a curse that she had seen Sunset use many times in her memories Twilight thought this the best time to use it.
Celestia stood as still as a statue outside her former student's home and library, the face she wore was a mask of calm, but inside she was furious. A SICON trooper was taking refuge in Twilight's library subjecting her to who knows what.
‘Savages, murderers.’ Celestia thought but noticed somepony coming near her.
Celestia's captain of the guard flew over to her and landed next to her.
"Your highness, we have a secured a parameter around the building." he reported "If the human makes a move to escape we will capture them before they knew what hit them. I have my best men sneaking around the area."
"Very good, Swift wing" Celestia praised him while keeping her tone neutral.
"Let the human make the first move, we will not be the aggressors here. We will give the human a chance to surrender."
"Yes, Princess!" He said and saluted before he flew off to inform his stallions. Celestia felt a scowl form on her face as she though she saw Twilight peek out of the blinds.
‘Don't listen to what they say Twilight’ she thought to herself
"I will not let their propaganda poison your mind, you must see them for the genocidal monsters they really are."
"Look Twilight we'll figure this all out later! But right now we need a way out." I was still trying to calm down Twilight, who had not stopped pacing since she had discovered her new talent.
"I know but it's hard to concentrate." Twilight told me and rubbed her head.
"I can hear their thoughts out there and they won't stop. So many voices." she was really having that much trouble with her with her psychic abilities? Well, I may not be a psychic in that sense but I do have an idea about how to help the poor mare.
"Twilight, I think I know how to make the voices stop." I told her making her stop pacing, thank god, and pay attention to me. I got onto one knee infront of her and made her look into my eyes so she had something to focus on.
"Try imaging a bubble around you that blocks out all a sound, you got it? Good, now think about putting that bubble around your mind like a shield that stops anything getting in... Alright?"
Twilight sighed contently after a moment.
"Yes, the voices stopped" she looked up at me "How did you know that would work?"
"I spent a year trying to make sure other psychics couldn't see that I was a psychic too so I did some reading and found that technique." I told her with an embaressed smile.
"Worked for keeping people out of my head so I guessed that it would work the other way." I shrugged, I really didn't know it would work so it was just a lucky guess.
"Now that that's done, can we get back on the topic of getting me away from the angry princess who wants to lock me away for the rest of my life?"
"Could you ask if your friends could create a distraction?" Twilight suggested.
"Or if they have a way to get us out fast" Oh of course.... Why didn't I think of that?
I cupped my hand over my helmet radio "Gauss this is Shimmer, you read me?"
"Loud and clear lass, what's up? The locals friendly?"
"Mixed, the local who's home I'm in is friendly." I glanced at Twilight and gave her a warm smile
"But her leader apparently knows about SICON and does not like us troopers, she's surrounded the building so I can't escape."
"Shit... Well we see the town you are in, a pair of retrieval ships ended up with us from the reinforcements that were heading to the lab and I was on my way to pick you up. If you can get to the field between the town and the forest, then we will have enough room to pick you up." I put Gauss on hold and relayed the information to Twilight.
"So what do you think?"
"We wouldn't make it there with on foot." Twilight told me, confirming my suspicions before she came up with an idea.
"But I think I might be able to teleport us both to the edge of that side of town." so she could teleport as well? This mare is full of tricks, wait.
"We?"
"Yes, the only way we're going to get the princess to listen to us is if I'm with you and we have backup." Twilight said with a determined look that dared me to disagree.
"But if we fail then she could lock you up alongside me!" I pointed out, I didn't really know that she would but it was a possibility and I didn’t want her to suffer for me.
"As a fellow ruler of Equestria, it is my duty to do what I think is right for my people." Wait she's a princess?
"And if we are going stand a chance against the bugs then we need your help." She had a point, but what if-
"No ifs, no buts. No coconuts!" Twilight exclaimed, reminding me that she could read minds now.
"Now tell you friends to meet us at the evac site!" Twilight said, using the new words and terms she had gotten from Shimmer’s mind.
"Gauss meet me at the evac site in five I will be bringing a companion along, we'll be coming in hot but do not use deadly force on pursuers, Tranquilizers only."
"Sure thing Shimmer, see you there." I cut the line and looked at Twilight who, while I was speaking, had written a note and packed a saddle bag with a few notebooks, quills and ink as well as some food.
"Just something for my assistant to let him know I'm alright, ready?" I nodded "hold on to me, Oh it's your first time teleporting so you'll be a bit dizzy at first but it will pass." I held onto her back as she charged up her horn and in a flash of light the well-lit space of the Library-
-Was replaced but a long dirt road leading up to a field. As Twilight had Warned Sunset, the Trooper was disorientated for a minute but was fine a bit later
"Come on!" Twilight told her as she started to run with the Trooper keeping pace. "It won't take long for Celestia to realize where we went."
Twilight was right and the beating of wings announced the pursuit of Royal Guard Pegasi and among them was Celestia herself! Twilight doubled her speed while looking back to Sunset.
"Sunset, use your concussion grenades!" She yelled while using her magic to pull three grenades out of Sunset's pouch, Twilight didn't know how she knew anything about Sunset's gear but at that moment all she cared about was getting Sunset away from Celestia. Pressing down on the detonators she threw them into the pegasi. The guards had not seen devices such as those before and did not react in time.
The resulting blinding blast and ear deafening bang sowed confusion and panic in the ranks of the Royal guard with a good number of them colliding with one another and falling out of the sky. Twilight made a mental note to send apologies personally to everypony when this was over.
There was a high pitched screeching as the black hull of a retrieval ship soared over head and landed a few meters ahead of the fleeing duo. The side hatch opened and a boarding ramp extended, two troopers stood at it with Tranquilizer guns held at the ready.
"Come on you bonny lassies get up here!" A voice yelled out loud enough for the two to hear.
The two men on the ship fired tranqs at the ponies behind the two as they dashed up the ramp which retracted behind them. Once they were on board Twilight looked back through the closing hatch to see Celestia speeding towards the ship, her calm demeanor gone and replaced with panic as she desperately tried the reach Twilight.
Twilight knew she couldn't catch them now as the ship lifted into the air and rocketed off at full burn leaving the solar princess in it's dust and unable to see clearly.
With a sigh Twilight went to find a seat to strap into.
"I've made my bed." Twilight said out loud as she looked over and saw Sunset Shimmer talking to her fellow troopers "Now I have to lay in it" she said to herself, hoping she had made the right choice.
All this technology is amazing. I can’t help but ask thousands of questions to the SICON troopers. They don’t know a lot though so not all the information I have is accurate. The transports picked up something of Sunset’s called a ‘Marauder’ I think its some kind of Gollem but I have yet to ask, il be back journal.
It has been a hard time getting the old castle defensible but thanks to some of my experience here the troopers have been having an easier time at it. I’ve even begun training with them and learning how to be a proper trooper. It’s hard but so exciting. Mister Gauss said he is making me my own suit from some spares. I’m so excited journal. I just wish my friends were here to see.
I have been with these troopers for more than a month now and I must admit that it has been an interesting experience to say the least.
In total there of 40 of us here comprised of 36 M.I. troopers from a wide variety of squads that had been on Nemerosa and three fleet pilots for the two retrieval ships and myself. All of them have been very kind to me and I have made a fair number of friends amongst them, most notably Guss Gauss and Hether 'Doc' Turner who were fellow Marauder pilots from Sunset's unit.
Speaking of Sunset, we have been trying to break through the mind block unsuccessfully, it hasn't thrown me across the court yard yet so I'm not complaining. We have also been observing the limits of my new ability's along with all the military training that I seem to have unknowingly gained through my time in Sunset's memories and the on the job training.
I have been waking up early and exercising and training with the troopers. Sunset has taken command of the humans here seeing as she is a Sargent and the highest ranking one out of all of them. Which surprised me but I kept it to myself.
We have been hiding out at the old castle of the two pony sisters but the pilots keep their ships in two separate hidden locations, we don't want Celestia or the guard finding our hideaway until we're ready.
We also have the ships make appearances in the badlands so it looks like we are there, and because they are capable of getting up and out of the atmosphere they can be in the badlands or Appleloosa one minute and be back at their hiding places without anyone seeing them.
I have to go now Journal, something's spooking the wild-life and we're about to go on a patrol to investigate.
A squad of troopers crept though the dark forests of the Everfree, their weapons at the ready in case of attack as they remained low to the ground and made as little noise as they could. Stalking alongside them was Twilight Sparkle in her new power suit which fit her like a glove and made her feel like something out of those comics Spike would read.
Gauss had managed to cobble it together from a spare power suit so Twilight could have more protection in case of an attack, it was the same an average power suit but with a few modifications to accommodate her physiology. Such as holes in the helmet for her horn and ears and lighter Armor on her wings, which Gauss had staked his life that it wouldn't impair her flight which he had since been proven right.
"Twilight, you getting anything?" Sunset's voice came over the radio for the 7th time in the last five minutes, the Sergeant's team was waiting a few dozen meters to Twilight's team's right.
"Not yet Sarge. Give m-" Twilight stopped talking as she felt something nearby.... Something alien "Hold up!" she whispered loudly as she concentrated on the alien mind.
"Warrior, ten meters dead ahead." Twilight reported and heard the others in her squad making sure their Moritas were ready.
"It hasn't detected us yet.... I'm going to see if I can use its connection to the hive mind to track any others nearby" Twilight whispered and crawled prone to the ground.
"Ok... But be careful" Shimmer said and told her own squad to keep talking to a minimum. Once Twilight got within a good enough range to the Arachnid warrior she let her mind ease into the bug's, slowly infiltrating its hive connection and seeing the world through its eyes. Everything was red and distorted, the warrior sensed nothing but knew that behind it were about 36 Warriors. Mostly just wandering around aimlessly and searching for food or something to take out their endless aggression on. Twilight relayed the information to the squad.
"Good work Twilight, mark their locations and draw them back to us. No risks I want all you apes (and pony) back on at base so I can destroy you at pinochle."
Twilight rolled her eyes at the mention of the card game, Sunset had clearly cheated in the last game they had together, Twilight didn't know how but she was sure Sunset had cheated. She would have liked to take a peak in Sunset’s mind and confirm this but Twilight had made a vow never to use her psychic abilities for petty causes like seeing if Sunset was playing fair and not without consent.
Twilight flipped her visor down with a twitch of her head. She then collected her rifle from her back with her magic and aimed at the nearest warrior. She was specifically aiming at its nerve stem, which would kill the bug instantly, she checked that the two troopers around her were ready before slowly squeezing the trigger. A single round tore through the shell, flesh and bone reducing the nerve stem to a green bloody mess. It let out one cry of agony that alerted the others. Twilight and the other troopers were already running by the time the warrior had hit the dirt with a thunk and its fellows were chasing after the troopers.
The other troopers had taken down two more bugs as well before falling back. Bringing the bug death total to 3, this was enough to royally piss off the other 33 warriors which were now screeching and roaring through the trees intent of vengeance for the deaths of their fellows. Normally this would inspire fear into the troopers that were getting chased, but at that moment in time Twilight and her accompanying troopers wanted this.
Dead ahead was a single line of large camouflaged figures standing behind a long shallow ditch. They were almost impossible to see with the camouflage netting up.
Twilight smiled and slid down, spinning mid slide onto her belly, and levitated her Morita up before setting it to full auto. There were five other troopers laying in the ditch with their Moritas ready but none of them fired a shot as the Bugs rushed into view.
"Hold your fire......... Steady......... FIRE!"
Sunset in her 'Hellhound' tore out of her camo net and set her Morita specials blazing along with Twilight and the other troopers. The charging Warriors were torn to bloody pieces by the Squad's combined fire and found their numbers reduced to 26, then 18, then 10, until Twilight put a bullet through the final one's nerve stem, Twilight's kill count tonight was 30. The others preferred to fire out long streams of bullets but Twilight preferred short controlled bursts to the nerve stems.
"Ok you apes fall in!" they all gathered around the Marauder and waited for Sunset to address them. It was hard not to miss the smile on her face.
"Ok that's the 5th group we've dealt with now, let’s head on back to the castle, check your gear. We move out in five!"
Back in the castle Twilight flopped down on her bunk and stretched out her aching limbs, the other troopers were doing the exact same thing and the snores of Jason and Wiggem already audible.
Twilight heard her wing bones click and crack as she stretched them, she was going to have to ask Gauss to re-adjust the armor around her wing in the morning, right now though Twilight just wanted to set her head down and sleep.
Moaning in discomfort, she dragged herself out of bed and began to strip her armor in front of the mirror she had salvaged from somewhere in the castle. Twilight was shocked by how much her body had changed in the last week thanks to the training and daily fitness that Sunset had her go through. Twilight understood why the Sargent did this, Twilight had insisted that she help in combat operations and Sunset had only agreed to it on the condition that she got in shape.
To a sense she had, two weeks after their escape from Ponyville she was allowed on her first patrol, she hadn't changed much with only gaining a bit of stamina, but during the patrol Twilight had slipped and fell into a field of White-ish blue flowers. No effects were noticed right away until a week later, Twilight had started to gain a more lean and toned body faster than should have been possible. When she had taken samples of the flower she found out that is let out an odd chemical like poison joke, but instead of being malicious the flower helped muscle growth and acted as a medicine when ground down into a paste, it temporarily boosted regeneration and the body's immune system. Doc had compared it to a fungus found on the bug’s home world of Klendathu that they ate to keep strong and healthy.
Twilight had decided to name the flowers ‘Curatio’ Flowers after Doc had mentioned it to her, it was the Latin word for healing, it seemed appropriate considering it was now being added to their medical supply and Twilight was sure that when this was all over the flower could be cultivated and save many lives.
‘I probably should have named it the ‘Sparkle flower’” Twilight thought to herself with a chuckle.
Twilight looked at herself in the mirror in thought. Thanks to the flowers halfway through her second month with the humans her physique could almost rival that of Applejack and Rainbow Dash's. She honestly thought that she might actually be an actual match for her two friends.
Twilight felt her mood darken at the thought of her friends and Spike. What had Celestia told them? Would they be able to forgive her for disappearing for so long? Sure, Twilight had no choice in the matter, Celestia would have just locked up Sunset and threw away the key. Completely ignoring her warnings about the Arachnid threat until it was too late.... But could she have spared the time to leave them a note explaining her actions? Why it was so important that she leave?
Twilight banished the thoughts knowing that they would only lead to restless nights, Twilight decided to take a walk in the courtyard, maybe the fresh air would clear her head.
It was a cool brisk night with Luna's moon high in the sky, Twilight chuckled as she remembered how long it had taken to convince the troopers here that magic was in fact real. Twilight and Sunset had spoken quite regularly about Twilight herself, Sunset had come around to the idea that magic existed just like the rest but she still believed that Twilight was a psychic considering that she had ability's like a normal psychic along with her magic. Twilight was staring to agree with her under the circumstances but had put up the question about why was she only learning about her gifts now? And why had she never heard of any other ponies with the gift? Sunset had held no answers for her.
Twilight breathed in the cool midnight air and stared to jog around to perimeter of the courtyard dispite her aching muscle’s protests. She took a moment to wave to Privates Wilhelm and Mik’hail who were heading out on guard duty near the front of the castle.
Twilight jogged and worked herself as much as she could but her thoughts were still plagued by thoughts of Celestia, they still had yet to gain any concrete evidence of a bug threat, sure they had engaged many bugs over the month and a half but all of them had acted like mindless animals and not an intelligent group of invaders. The only way to convince the eldest Princess of the danger was for something major to happen.
But even with the evidence Twilight still worried about the meeting that they would eventually have to have with Celestia. Twilight was pretty sure that she had lost the trust of her former mentor and maybe eveypony she knew, would they listen to her? Would they even care? Twilight had none of the answers to these questions.
"Looks like you've got something on your mind lass" Twilight nearly jumped out of her coat as Gauss fell into step besides her.
"Sorry for spooken you, but you look like you need somebody to talk to" Gauss's warm Scottish accent inspired confidence that whatever Twilight said would be kept safe. Some of the other troopers had called him an “Irish Santa Clause”, whoever that was Twilight didn’t know but assumed it was a good thing.
"Thanks Gauss... I'm just worried about Celestia and my friends, what if they hate me?" Gauss regarded her with warm brown eyes, he was a large man with rugged hair and a bushy beard, his right arm was fully prosthetic in place of the original. She had asked around about that and had only received rumors and speculations, some said that he lost it when he wasn't paying attention and a bug bit it off while others said that he ran out of ammo so he held a live grenade and shoved his hand into a Warriors mouth and blowing it up.
"Do you care for them?" Gauss asked.
"Yes... I would do anything for them, that's why I'm here, fighting so they won't have to." Twilight stopped as they reached the chasm that surrounded the ruins, beyond that lay the forest proper which now looked more menacing then it had ever been before, once all she had been worried about was the dangerous creatures that lurked in it. Like the Timber Wolves, Cockatrices and Manticores.... But now something more terrible and deadly had taken up residency.
"And do they trust you?" Twilight thought back, there had been a few times when they hadn't trusted her like during the changeling invasion and more recently they hadn't trusted her enough to take care of herself when they had had to surrender the elements of harmony to the tree of harmony.... But there had been more times of when they had trusted her unconditionally just as much as Twilight trusted them.
"Yes... and I trust them with my very life."
"Then if they trust you then they will understand that you had a good reason to do what you've done" he patted Twilight on the head, "If you want my advice... Don't dwell on the things you can't control. It will just upset you needlessly."
Twilight thought over the man's words as he walked away.
Out in the deep brush however, two storm grey eyes watched the lavender mare in both concern and curiosity.
I had watched Twilight and Gauss's conversation from a distance feeling pretty bad. If I had just been quicker and stopped that jungle spider before it broke that godforsaken mirror me and my men wouldn't be here and neither would the bugs, Twilight wouldn't have had to go against her friends and former mentor and remain in complete ignorance of all this. She might not have noticed it but she had changed much in the month and a half she had been with us, the physical changes were most notable thanks to that odd field of flowers she had fallen into. But it was the changes to Twilight's personality that worrying me the most, we already knew that she had inherited every ounce of skill and training during her time in my head and on that note it wasn't that bad since not only did it help her to defend herself but would also prove useful if they could prove the bug threat here was real.
But there had been less then desirable things too, I had expected Twilight to freeze up after killing her first bug, she had not and instead calmly moved onto the next one. She just treated it like any other task, just something to do.
I was starting to worry that if I didn't get this meeting with Celestia over with soon there would be very little of the innocent mare I has met all those days ago.
Before I turned away to head back inside I saw something moving in forest... Something big, I was still wearing my power suit so it was a simple matter flipping my visor down and zooming in....... What... Is that? Matter of fact, where the fuck are Willhelm and Mik’hail? I ignored the thought for now and kept my eyes on the new target.
It looked like a bug, but not like anyone I had seen before, dull blue carapace with white dots that reminded me of snowflakes, it was about as large as an average warrior bug but unlike them it had two extra appendages which ended with a pair of claws that were clearly meant to pick something up. It was slowly walking towards the ruins with it's head down and it's clawed arms held to the ground.
“Is this a new breed of worker bug?” I asked myself, I wasn’t sure one way or the other but I also didn’t want to shoot a native so I decided to talk to Twilight about this. Walking over to where Twilight was still standing I drew my Morita but not aiming it yet, the bug was climbing across the bridge over the chasm slowly, I could hear the rope bridge creek under the bug's weight.
As it approached us I raised my Morita and hovered my finger over the trigger and was about to pull back on it for a warning shot when Twilight pushed my gun down "Wait, I know this one!" Hmmm maybe she still has some of her innocence left after all.
"Twilight its a bug... You know, giant killing machines?" I have to point out that the bug had been standing completely still as I said this looking at the floor and seemed to be trying to make itself as small as it could
"Why would I not kill it?"
"Because it saved your life!" Yea right, a bug saved my life.
"It's true, Snowflake carried you from the forest and to my house, and it doesn't know about bugs, it didn't even recognize the Ripplers that you killed" Oh god she's doing the big cute eyes again.......
"Please Sunset just hear it out"
Oh for god’s sake I can't say no to that face or my heart will literally melt and explode.... Twice.
"Ok but if it tries anything funny I'm going to put a bullet through its nerve stem" wherever that was on this thing.
Twilight nodded her gratitude and turned her attention to the bug she had called Snowflake... Now I thought about it the patterns on its carapace did look like snow and the blue did add an ice cold water look.... Strange.
"Snowflake how did you find me... And why are you here?" Twilight really was comfortable around this thing.
I nearly jumped when I saw the bug pull out a pad and pen from a bag wrapped around one of its arms. I am now officially upgrading this from odd to just plain ridiculous, and it started writing too.
‘It was not easy Twilight, but I followed my senses and they lead me to you a few weeks ago, I fea-‘
Wait was this thing in my head?! I turned to see if I was the only one to hear the voice, thankfully Twilight looked also surprised.
"Snowflake, how are you doing that?" Snowflake looked at us with confusion in it's storm grey eyes... That was another thing! Why did it's eyes look so huma- you know what there were bigger things to worry about right now.
The bug had flipped the pad to a new page and soon enough the voice was back.
‘What do you mean Twilight?’ The voice sounded so feminine and almost..... Well like a young woman's.
"That! We can hear you talking in our heads" it was difficult to read the Snowflake's body language considering that it... Or was it she now, was so alien in shape, but I was sure that the thing was surprised.
‘Y-You can hear me?’
"Yes pretty clearly too." I added "You sound like you didn't know you could do this?"
‘Because I couldn't.... At least not with ponies, I was only ever able to talk to animals and they aren't very good talkers (Sniff!) but now you can hear me!’ Oh god... Was she crying? Yep there are actually tears flowing from her gray, human-like eyes. But these weren't tears of sadness that she was shedding oh no... But tears of joy, of a creature that had spent most of her life not being able to speak a word to anyone unless it was through pen and paper.
Suddenly I felt years of animosity melt away. I quickly scanned Snowflake to see if she really was a bug, sure enough the scan showed Arachnid DnA but it was only about 38.5% of her genetic structure...Well that’s new. I would need Doc to do a more detailed analysis later but my thoughts quickly returned to why Snowflake was here.
"Look I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now on account of you saving me, Twilight trusting you and also because you intrigue me." Twilight mouthed a silent thank you to me and turned back to the crying Arachnid (Wow those were words I never thought I would put in the same sentence).
"Snowflake I know you’re really happy right now but what were you telling us before we interrupted you?" Twilight asked giving the bug a reassuring pat on the side.
‘R-Right (Sniff!) well I kept my distance because I was worried that you guys would kill me if I got close so I tagged along with you guys whenever you went out to kill the yellow and black bug things in the forest, I froze a few myself before they could catch you off guard, I'm only coming out tonight because I need to warn you.’
"Warn us of what?" I asked with genuine concern, I didn't really care that she was a bug right now, after all she had just admitted to killing her supposed own kin to defend us so I was counting Snowflake as an Ally for now.
‘The bad bugs... There's a whole swarm of them out in the forest behind me, they've got these ugly ones with them that spat this weird green stuff out of their mouths and melted though a full grown Manticore in a few seconds! I think they are heading here. Probably to attack within the hour!’
And they would have caught us completely unaware! Oh god that's why it was so easy to track and kill the tiny swarms of warriors, they were luring us into a sense of security and slowly figuring out where we were hiding! There was a strategy which meant there was an intelligence behind the swarm which meant that somewhere on this planet was a Brain Bug. We had our evidence that there was a major threat to Equestria and hopefully that would be enough to keep the princess from locking up me and my men…So long as we survive this attack that is, I could see Twilight was thinking the same thing.
"Thanks Snowflake! Looks like I owe you tw-" I felt something as I rested my hand on Snowflakes left side to show I was thankful, something wet and warm....
I pulled my hand into view of all three of us to see in in dripping with some sort of blue ichor, as Twilight saw this I saw her eyes widen in panic, I had a suspicion what the blue stuff was and walked around to Snowflake's side to a sight that I knew would have made me wretch if it had been on a human or even a pony. Snowflake had a long deep gash going down along her side from her head to her hind legs, and it was seeping with the blue ichor which I now noticed was dripping down into a small puddle on the floor.
Blood.
At the realization of the wound she carried Snowflake almost completely collapsed onto her stomach moaning in pain and blood loss.
‘But…but I felt no pain.’ Snowflake thought and began shivering in fear.
Thinking quickly I turned to Twilight who was already by Snowflake's side trying to keep the big creature awake.
"Twilight I need you to take Snowflake somewhere out of the way, I'll send Doc after you to help you. And before you ask I'll tell everyone that Snowflake is a friend and is under no circumstances should any harm come to her, I owe her my life and so do my men, now Go!" the lavender mare wasted no time and lifted Snowflake up carefully with her TK and carried her away, Once they were gone I switched on my radio.
"ALL TROOPERS YOU HAD BETTER GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASSES AND GEAR UP!" I still felt odd giving orders, but until someone better comes along I guess I'll have to do.
"WE'VE GOT AN IMMINENT BUG ATTACK! SO UNLESS YOU HAVE ANY INTENTIONS ON STAYING BUYING THE FARM TONIGHT GET OVER TO THE NORTH/WEST SIDE OF THE RUINS ON THE DOUBLE!"
"What kind of numbers are we looking at lass?" Gauss asked me.
"No idea, all I know is that two types of bugs in the swarm are Warriors and Blisters but other than that our source doesn't know" I clicked my radio to another frequency "Doc, I need you to head over to Twilight and help her friend."
"Yes sir, is it another pony?" Oh the rest of the guys are going yo love this "No... She's..... Ah...Bug.."
The medic's reaction was as expected "Say again mam but did you just say she was a bug?" Oh god why do I get saddled with this shit.
"I did, she apparently has no idea of her relation to the rest of the Arachnid race, get her back on her feet and pass the word around that she is friendly and is not to be shot" Burst of Outrage in three...two..one
"You want me to treat a BUG! Are you nuts?!" Might as well be "To tell you the truth Heather I really am questioning that myself, but apparently the bug, Snowflake she's called, saved my life the first night we got here and she may have just saved our behinds if she's telling the truth"
The medic was quiet for the longest time and I was convinced that she was going to refuse and march over to Twilight and shoot Snowflake, but I was a relieved when she answered me.
"Fine, I'll see what I can do" Oh thank the maker "Thanks Doc. oh and one more thing, do a DnA test on Snowflake, I did a scan of her earlier and she's only got 38.5% Arachnid DnA in her so I want to know what the other 61.5% is"
"I'll see what I can do"
I cut the line and waited for my men to assemble, I knew I would have allot of explaining to do after this fight but that was future me's problem and right now I have to stay in the present and not dwell on future for the sake of everyone under my command.
An hour later my men were set up in defensible areas along the North/Western part of the ruins with all three of our Marauder's stationed in places where they would do the most damage. I had ordered the rope bridge severed meaning that the bugs would have to crawl up the Chasm wall to reach us, the main reason we chose the ruins was because they were only accessible by the North/West by the rope bridge, any attempts of approach from the West, South and East would be too hazardous and the bedrock under the ruins that had acted as the former castle's foundation meant that the arachnids couldn't burrow up behind them. in conclusion the ruins were a tactical goldmine, even in its ruined state the castle offered tactical advantages such as cover from air-born hostiles and from plasma fire if the bugs decided to field Plasma Bugs, we had also set up Sniper turrets at key points along the approach to pick off air-born buggers and to thin out warrior ranks, I had ordered ammo catches placed all around the ruins in case of emergency's and in fallback positions. As a last resort a we had a few charges ranging from Plasma's to one Mini-Nuke. So that even if my men and I were killed, the last man standing would trigger them and in theory take out an army of bugs and a sizable chunk of the forest with them.... Like I said, it was a last resort.
As much as the ruins posed a tactical advantage they also posed the problem of there being no escape route, luckily one of the Retrieval ships was out on a diversion run so if this siege went pear shaped I could still evacuate my men, well at least some of them.
The bugs however had both numbers, and diversity with their troop types, this coupled together with us not knowing their exact numbers gave them a very big advantage for they would use warriors and workers to soak up our ammo and then send in the big stuff to finish us off.
Comparing both us and them I came to the conclusion that one of us was royally boned..... I almost feel sorry for the Arachnids, because even if we had all only been together a month I was proud of every one of my men and knew they would kill a thousand bugs for every trooper who fell.
"Ok you apes listen up, I want grenades ready to soften their ranks but save the heavy ordinances for the big guys if they bring them to the table. You all know our fallback positions and last resort plan, are there any questions?”
"Hey Sarge, I heard you came up with a name for our merry band of castaways." I think that was Pvt. James.
"Maybe we should use it, after all I we are about to go into our first big fight in a new unit" Hmm maybe... Every Mobile Infantry squad had a name along with their assigned designation, a name they earn through battle, I had been considering one for a while but it had seemed a little corny to me at first... But I guess it would fit
"Ok.... The Timber Wolves" What could I say, those wooden hunters left an impression on me.
"Sargent Shimmer's Wolves... Not bad.." the name was met with approval form the rest of the men.
"Well lass, looks like we're Timber Wolves now, lets show these things our fangs!" Oh god Gauss did not just say that.... I should have gone with Shimmer's Kittys, or hornets.
"BUUUUUGS!"
Finally! Come get it you sons of bitches. Snowflake had been right about the Blisters as I could see large pockets of them of them among the attacking swarm.
What she hadn't warned me about was the new bright red bugs that looked like they were radiating magical energy (I was using the term Magic more loosely since I really didn't have anything else to call it.... Don't question me!) But Input this down to the blood loss.
I knew for a fact that I really didn't want those things anywhere near me and my men. Physically they resembled Blaster Bugs who luckily had been solely native to the planet Tophet and were now extinct, a Blaster's primary means of attack was to extract heat from their surroundings and ignite a bio-chemical reaction in their proto-thorax (Tophet was an extremely hot desert world so they would only effective there and no where else) before releasing an energy wave which can easily burn through a Power Suit.
I could only guess that instead of heat these Blaster bugs extract magic from their surroundings, I wanted them nowhere near my men so I made the call.
"Take out those Blaster Bug! Marauders lock plasma.
“Lets rain on their parade!" my fellow two Marauders and I fired our rockets, loaded with plasma charges, which exploded creating a wall of fire. Thankfully these Blasters hadn't inherited the heat shield abilities of their Tophet cousins so the blast incinerated most of the Blaster bugs, the wall burned for 20 Minutes in which time I had ordered the placement of our forward Sniper Turrets to different positions to give then more optimal firing positions and to confuse the bugs. It worked and the bugs ended up splitting their forces slightly, thinking the Sniper Turrets were manned by living troopers.
When the fires died away the bugs began charging again, I ordered my men to hold their fire until my say, no point wasting ammo on stray shots. The bug’s battle cries echoed over to us as they all swarmed down the chasm as fast as they could and began swarming up the other side.
As soon as they reached the edge of the chasm we began to mercilessly gun them down, corpses and bug juice fell down the and faint splashes could be heard over the roaring gunfire as they landed in the river below. A few of the dead bugs were likely landing on their brothers and knocking them to their deaths. It was going so well and I put this down to the bugs expecting to have the element of surprise which had been lost with Snowflakes warning. Of course a trooper by the name of Pvt. Gideon decided to utter something that should never be said on Equestrian.... Or in Equestria what so ever.... Or anywhere on this planet.
"This is way too easy! I wish we had more of a challenge!" Note to whoever is reading this... Kill Gideon at earliest convenience... Or at least badly maim him because as soon as those words left his mouth great balls of plasma began to rain down on our positions. The blast wave from the impacts of the plasma shook the mountain and felt like an earthquake, some of the masonry in the castle actually started to crack from it.
Two baby plasma bugs entered view with six M-class Blaster bugs (The M was for Magic) standing guard in two clusters of three.
Our light cover was being decimated by plasma fire so one of the other Sergeants, Jefferson was his name, decided to duel wield two Tri-barreled missile Launchers Rambo style, like he was in some kind jof action movie, and fire both weapon's entire ammo supply at the plasma's after locking on.
While reckless I knew, it would have worked....If the Blasters hadn't shot them down mid-flight with two powerful magic energy pulses. They looked similar to a directed E.M. Pulse that fried the missile's electronics, the good news was that it seemed to have only a 20 meter range and the Blasters were staying with the bug's artillery.
I ordered my troopers back to heavier cover, while I kept the bugs distracted, my method? Every bit of napalm in my shoulder mounted napalm/Grenade combo cannon, I had already exhausted my grenades a month and a half ago and the Retrieval ships didn't carry my Marauder's type of grenades. But I still had a full tank of Napalm which I fully emptied along most of the edges of the cliff edge while unloading most of my rockets at the bugs like a mortar.
I lost focus for a moment as I watched bugs burn and heard them cry out in pain as they fell back, their exoskeletons turning a charred black color. I was so engrossed in my work I didn't notice the big ball of plasma coming towards me until it was too late. As I saw that big blue mass my, mind raced at a thousand thoughts per minute about how to avoid it, I couldn't shoot it since the resulting explosion would most likely kill me even in my Marauder and I couldn't dodge it due to how long it took my thrusters to warm up. I was out of ideas as the Ball of plasma was about to hit me so I just closed my eyes and-
*FLASH*
-Fell to the ground out of range of the plasma explosion out of my Marauder which I spun around and watched be blown apart by the plasma ball.... Farewell good old 'Hellhound' you served me well. I looked around and found Twilight crouched behind the same cover I was now laying behind.
"Eyes open, girl. I can't protect you all the time!" the Alicorn mare said with a grin as she levitated a Y8 Missile launcher to me.
"You shoot, I will stop those Blasters from firing.” He..he! Having the princess of magic as a team mate had its perks, like being one of the most powerful beings in Equestria and a greater mastery over the arcane then the bugs. Who by all intensive purposes were nothing more than a sideshow performance.
I rolled over onto my belly and set the launcher on my shoulder with its targeting screen deployed and showing a clear view of the left Plasma bug, the Bugs had made a great tactical error in their over confidence. They had both their Plasmas standing side by side almost close enough to touch, I waited for one of the Plasma bugs to charge up a shot before letting the missile fly, as soon as I did this it was enveloped in the pink aura that signified Twilight's magic, the bugs got a nasty surprised when they tried the same tactic they used to stop the last missile attack only for the missile to fly through the pulse unharmed.
Both Twilight and I covered our eyes as both of the Plasmas went critical and exploded, creating a wall of plasma that spread 50 or 60 meters out, incinerating all the bugs within range of the explosion perimeter.
As the light from the explosion died away I looked at Twilight and gave her a thumbs up, Twilight Grinned in appreciation. We were interrupted by bugs crawling up over the lip of our side of the Chasm and some of their own living worker bugs using their own bodies as bridges to pass over the Napalm I had sprayed earlier.
Far away from the battle, on a cliff overlooking the Castle ruins, a man stood watching with annoyance and anger. Behind him two warrior bugs shuddered as they felt his anger in their minds.
It was going so well, the man thought, they had been lured into a sense of security and would have been dealt with a swift blow and we would have had her in his grasp, maybe a few SICON prisoners as well for the Brain Bug...But then that failed reject had to go and warn them!
One of the warriors screeched at him.
"Yes I know, the Queen won't be happy.... But let me deal with her" the warrior gave a puzzled whine.
"No, we will get her but unfortunately not tonight." the man looked once more upon the waning battle field as he saw a two white Equestrian chariots, the Solar Princess and her guards had arrived.
"Hmmm... This could be interesting, but I’m afraid I have other matters to attend to." the man said as he turned to leave though a bug hole behind him that led into the vast underground cave and tunnel system, some of it made before the Arachnids arrived. All the better though, all the Arachnids had to do was kick out the previous owners and set up shop.
"Lets see how you handle this Shimmer, I’l be eager to see the outcome." Said the man as he slipped on his old general’s hat and continued on down the tunnel with his two Warrior guards. General Patricks was very eager to see if his investments bore fruit.
Twilight leaned out from around the corner and gunned down two warriors who were skulking around near her lookout, almost a full 2 hours after their initial attack the bugs had finally stopped coming.
"As if that is a comforting thought." Twilight scoffed as she checked around a corner and kept moving.
The troopers had managed to weaken the bug assault by a great amount before warriors managed to finally smash through the main doors and crawl up the sides of the castle. A few troopers got injured but thanks to some quick teleportation by Twilight no one was killed. The worst of the Injured was a Corporal Raimi who had his leg bitten off by a warrior.
It took several minutes of heavy fighting but the bugs were sent into a retreat. A few of them had ended up inside the castle and now several teams were hunting them down through every corridor. Twilight had just finished checking the old armory when she saw another warrior try to sneak up on her from above. She saw its reflection in an old metal shield.
“I’ve got you.” She whispered and swung her rifle up, firing a short burst into the warrior’s nerve cluster, and teleported a short distance away as the Arachnid fell to the ground, dead.
“Bam! You’re dead.” Twilight said and mentally noted another addition to her kill count that night.
It felt strange to Twilight... A month and a half ago she would have been repulsed by the act of taking another creature’s life (Except Sombra, as Sunset would say. “He was a son of a female dog.”) but here Twilight was, Killing without remorse and hesitation. Twilight often had to remind herself of why she did this, the memories of dead troopers, of destroyed cites, of death, destruction and war.
"I will never allow that to happen here" Twilight growled as she reloaded.
"Shimmer to Twilight, do you copy?" Twilight held her hoof against her helmet.
"Yes?"
"I'm getting reports that the bugs have been cleared out of most of the area, can you confirm your section?" Twilight looked at the dead bugs littered the narrow passage that she watched over, it was true that in the last few minutes Twilight had only run into two or three bugs compared to earlier that night
"I think I’ve cleared my area out, there aren’t as many bugs as earlier tonight, I'm going to make one more sweep and th-" Twilight stopped herself as she heard something moving around the corner.
Twilight checked her ammo count and leaned against the wall while she kept her ears peeled for the sound.... There! A large shape moving her way slowly. Twilight floated her Morita at the ready and dived around the corner to find-
“CELESTIA!?”
The Solar Monarch recoiled in surprise and started to charge a spell only to cancel it upon realizing who had surprised her.
"Twilight! Thank the creator you’re alright!" Celestia gathered her startled former student into a caring embrace.
Twilight, too stunned to do anything at that moment, just let Celestia do so and even returned it before her mind finally caught up with the situation and she pushed the older mare away.
"Celestia? What are you doing here?" Twilight asked though Twilight already knew how Celestia had found her and had already brushed by her mind to find her intentions
"There were reports from Ponyville that sounds of a battle were coming from the Everfree forest. And seeing how the Mobile Infantry are the only ones who would be foolish to fight here I put two and two together." Celestia looked Twilight up and down and cast a lingering look at the weapon at Twilight's side
"Why are you wearing that?" she asked.
"My power suit? Gauss made it for me so I had some protection out here." Twilight explained as she glanced at her armor, Twilight was going to have to ask Gauss to print her cutie mark on it at some point.
"Be that as it may, we need to leave before the humans notice you’re gone." Celestia said as she tried to put her alabaster wing over Twilight, only for it to be shrugged off.
"I'm sorry Princess but I cannot leave, Sunset needs all the help she can get and I need her help too." by now Twilight could feel the anger coming off Celestia, but it was directed at Sunset and her troopers.
"Twilight, you will not be staying here." The princess said firmly, like a mother to a child.
"These humans are not to be trusted and it saddens me to see Sunset fall to their taint, I will not allow you to be corrupted by their xenopho-" Twilight suddenly jerked Celestia to the side off her feet as she saw the warriors.
Time seemed to slow for Twilight as her mind ran at a billion thoughts per second, the bugs were too close for her to take all three down with her Morita, their mandibles already open to come charging in to rip both ponies to shred. If she drew her rifle all she would succeed in would be taking one while the others used her as a chew toy. Then Twilight remembered something Doc had said a few days ago.
"During the war, I heard stories about a Psychic by the name of Carl Jenkins, he was part of ‘Rico's Roughnecks’" Doc said as she boxed up some fresh Curatio flower paste.
"The Guy was a legend in the Psychic community. Me and Gauss were even on a mission once on Hydora to help him save his squad and honest to god he blew the resident brain bug's brain up with just his mind!"
"Really?" Twilight exclaimed "Psychics can do that?" Doc nodded seriously.
"Saw it with my own eyes, and later during the Klendathu campaign, he killed all the Queen's Royal Guards the same way. Supposedly only very powerful psychics can do it and they haven’t found anyone who can match up to him."
Twilight pondered this over with what she knew about Psychics, gifted Psychics developed faster than normal ones. Gaining full control over their abilities within days of weeks just like Twilight had, could she pull off such a feet? Could she become a living weapon? Twilight wasn't sure and didn't really want to find out so she just buried the thoughts to the back of her brain.
Now Twilight thought back to that ability she saw no alternative to how she was going to get out alive. If it didn't work then she was dead, if she did nothing she was dead and if she tried to teleport they Warriors would be upon her before she could finish the spell.... There was no choice. Twilight closed her eyes and focused on the Bugs with her mind, feeling every strand of their hive mind and sent one thought to each of them.
Die.
In quick succession each warrior's brain exploded in a shower of thick green blood and shell. Twilight put up a shield around herself to keep the gore off her. The bug juice landed on her shield with a disgusting slurping sound and slid off until it was on the ground. After she dropped her shield Twilight turned to check on Celestia and felt her blood go cold.
Celestia was still on the ground staring up at Twilight, her eyes betrayed her feelings more clearly than a mind scan could ever do. She was scared of Twilight! At seeing a mare who she had known since she had been a filly who could never kill so mercilessly as Twilight had just done. Twilight's ears drooped down.
‘She thinks I'm a monster.’ Twilight thought sadly.
"Come on, we had get to Shimmer and her troopers." Twilight said as she turned away from her rising, former, mentor.
"We can talk safely there." silently Celestia followed Twilight, who was badly biting back the tears, instead she radioed Shimmer.
"Shimmer, do you hear me?"
"Loud and clear Twilight, what happened? I was about to send some troopers to go and look for you."
"I'm ok, I ran into a good friend.... Sunset, it's time for the meeting."
".....shit, I had hoped to put this off for another week but, looks like the Bugs left us with no choice.” Sunset said regretfully "Listen you had better get back here fast, we may need Celestia's help with Snowflake"
"Oh no, what's wrong?"
"Doc's having trouble with keeping her vitals up, she's a medic but they don't teach you how to keep a bug alive in basic. Even if she's a friend, we also don't have enough Curatio paste to help her."
Buck! Twilight exclaimed in her head.
‘We were going to pick some more tomorrow.... But then the attack happened.’
"Ok we'll be their soon, Twilight out!" Twilight turned back to Celestia avoiding her eyes.
"We need to hurry!"
"Why? So the Humans can try to kill me like they kill everything else?" Celestia spat bitterly
"Just like they've killed the old you." Twilight flinched at that comment and pushed on.
Celestia had not been expecting Twilight's answer.
Twilight lead Celestia deeper into the ruins, stopping them every so often to peak around a corner to see if it was safe. Celestia was still visibly shocked and in horror at what she had witnessed Twilight do. She had killed three living beings and with nothing but her mind at that! Celestia kept eyeing the younger mare’s figure through the parts of fur she could see through the power suit, when she had met with Twilight two months ago for tea the young mare had not been exactly fit, with all her spare time spent studying or with her friends the mare hadn't had much time for excises. But now she looked lean, strong and well built, Celestia hated to admit it but Twilight's time with the M.I troopers had done her body wonders.
That being said Celestia was still very worried for Twilight, when she had killed those creatures she had done so without magic or even the human weapon she carried, just before they had died Celestia had heard Twilight's voice in her mind shouting ‘die’. Which led the monarch to deduce that Twilight had used her mind to do the deed. But how had she accomplished it? Celestia was going to be having some stern words with Sunset Shimmer when she met face to face.
Twilight lead Celestia to the main building which was guarded by two hulking figures of metal.
An M.I trooper could be clearly seen in each of the machines. Both were alert to the two Alicorn's approach with the ape-like machine walking up to greet Twilight.
"Hey Twilight, this her?" He said gesturing to Celestia with an open claw.
"Thought she would be taller"
"Not now Harrison. Where’s Shimmer?" Twilight asked getting straight to the point.
"Through the atrium, to the left and in the first door to your right." Harrion told her while waving them past.
Celestia hadn't known what she had been expecting when coming here. A fully battle ready M.I base perhaps....A force of elite path finders or even a scouting force. But not a room full of wounded troopers who looked like they had barely made it through the depths of Tartarus and back again, Celestia counted maybe 12 wounded with 16 still up and about.
Twilight lead Celestia through the wounded wordlessly, not stopping to look at the wounded around her, like it hadn't been the first time she had seen such a sight which Celestia found most troubling.
"What happened here?" Celestia asked Twilight as they passed a trooper who had significantly bad burns on his right arm and leg "I thought the bugs were no match for SICON."
"The Bugs attacked us with a large force backed up with Plasma Bugs and a new type of Blaster that used magic" Twilight explained though some of these terms were unfamiliar to Celestia.
"They would have caught us by surprise if not for the warning, we came out alright. But a number of troopers weren't so lucky."
Twilight led Celestia out of the Atrium and through the hallway until they reached a solid double wooden door where another trooper stood guard. Twilight nodded to the trooper who opened it. She then led Celestia inside, a few lamps had been set up there in the four corners of the room. At its center lay the blue white dotted bug named Snowflake, at its side were two troopers, one was kneeling by Snowflake tending furiously to deep a gash to the bug's side and while this alarmed Celestia she felt her eyes fall upon the standing helmetless trooper. Her amber and crimson hair matted with dust and sweat.
A much older Sunset Shimmer than Celestia remembered turned to the approaching Alicorns with an uneasy frown.
"Princess Celestia, I presume?" She asked holding out a hand for Celestia to shake but pulling it back unsurely when Celestia remained motionless.
"I understand you, me and Twilight have much to discuss. But later, right now I need my medic needs help saving Snowflake’s life."
"I'm surprised you even want that." Celestia said distastefully, earning a sour look from Twilight.
"I thought the Mobile Infantry's motto was ‘The only good bug is a dead bug’?"
"Be that as it may, Snowflake saved our hides tonight and saved my life personally so I count her as a friend in my books. So…please...." Sunset said as her expression softened and she looked at Celestia with pleading eyes.
"Help Snowflake"
Celestia thought it over for a moment, She herself had granted Snowflake an Equestrian citizenship a year ago and the bug had been nothing but a good citizen in its time in Ponyville. Working at the Apple family farm for an honest bit like any other pony. Celestia knew she couldn't let it die because of her own feelings.
"Very well, I shall see what I can do for Snowflake but I do this for it and not you."
Celestia walked over to the prone bug who's breathing was heavily labored.
"You, what is her condition?"
"She had deep lacerations on her side and I think one of her main arteries may have been hit." The trooper said without looking back, the name on the troopers helmet read ‘Doc’ , Celestia could clearly see green blood covering the front of her armor and hands, the medic was applying pressure to the wound.
"I've managed to plug the leak with Medi-foam, all we have left I might add, and used some Curatio flower paste to try and speed up her body's natural healing abilities." Doc said looking up with a helpless look.
"Look, princess, I'm a Doctor and my skills range to patching up Humans and even Skinnies but not Bugs. I have no idea what I'm doing here."
"Then stand aside, I will do what you cannot." Celestia told the medic who just shook her head.
"No can do, If I remove my hand then my patient will bleed out faster then you can say dead." Celestia nodded and prepared her spell.
“Very well, can you two leave me and the medic, I need to concentrate without distraction."
"Not a problem Princess." Sunset said as she made her way out "Good luck."
"We'll be outside if you need us" Twilight said before leaving herself, Celestia didn't watch her leave.
I wasn't sure what I had been expecting when meeting with Celestia. Sure I had been given a general overview of the pastel mare by Twilight and apparently I had been her personal student before Twilight. But I supposedly had grown discontent with learning pace and ended up being a bitch and leaving only to return and Steal Twilight's crown and being even more of a bitch.
While I don’t believe me and that other Sunset are the same being, I do know that if we by some insance chance are the same then I was going to personally thank whoever put that mind block on me. At least now I was a better person, despite some of the difficulties I faced later on.
A half hour later Celestia and Doc re-emerged from the room and the looks on each of their faces meant that it was good news.
"I have healed her major injuries and replaced any lost blood, she will be fine with rest." Celestia informed us.
"She was lucky that your medic was competent."
Doc frowned at her response but quickly out it away, she had other business to do.
"I should get to the atrium and help with the wounded." Doc said, walking past us and around the corner, leaving the three of us alone to talk.
God I was not looking forward to this "I guess we can't put this off any longer...."
"Lieutenant I want you to leave Equestria and tell your superiors that if they try and send a military force here again. I will not be a merciful." well straight to the point then, fine by me.
"It's Sargent actually" might as well make that clear "And even if we wanted to we can't, we're all effectively marooned here."
Twilight cleared her throat in hopes of diffusing the situation.
"Sunset and her men were dragged here when the Bugs destroyed the mirror connecting their world and ours." Short and sweet, she’s learning.
"we have yet to find any truly tangible evidence of it but Shimmer has discovered a grave threat to, not just Equestria, but the entire world and all the races that live on it."
My turn.
"While fighting the bugs here, we not only discovered that they are being led by a Brain Bug, but also have the means of producing more eggs and modifying them." hence the Magic Blasters.
"Considering that we attacked as soon as we arrived. I guess the Bugs didn't want any interruptions from us, I don't know what their pl-"
"I'm going to stop you right there Sargent,” Celestia said aloud.
“I will not allow a genocide on this world like you committed on the Bug’s Home world on ‘Pluto’. As I told the last M.I representatives, Equestria will not be part of it." Pluto? Last M.I. representatives? Well time to put on my cap and start making like Sherlock!
"Ok two things, your majesty, first the Bug's home world was Klendathu and second... What M.I representatives? This is the first time our race has met yours." Celestia looked at me in disbelief.
"Who were the representatives?"
"General Patricks and his entourage. He came and went a year ago....Why are you both looking at me like that?"
"Celestia... General Patricks has been dead since the war began three years ago. His ship was shot down and there were no survivors." Twilight said, knowing this information from Shimmer’s memories.
"His entourage....What color were their suits?" I asked, dreading the answer. "And did they have any identifiable marking like this?" I showed my SICON and M.I patches to the Solar monarch.
"They were dark grey, and no they were completely unmarked...Why?" Unmarked power suits.... A supposed dead General, and a powerful psychic at that, showing up here two years after his death stirring up hostilities between our races. This is just like a ghost haunting me from the grave...a connection was there but I still didn’t have enough information to figure it all out.
“It's nothing... Forget I asked, we should bring you up to speed on what you don't know, Twilight could you help me out?"
"Sure... But there's something I need your help telling Celestia first." Oh yea... The ‘I'm a psychic thing’... Right
"When Twilight and I first met she wanted me to tell her everything I knew... I did the best I could but I'm no historian." She said and Twilight took over.
"So I preformed a mind dive spell so that I could go through her memories." Celestia gasped at Twilight's confession which had me worried.
"I know you said spells like that were dangerous but there was no choice... Sunset was going to leave and I had to find out what was wrong with her." Um excuse me egghead? Im perfectly fine.
"It was going well, I had read all her memories except for the ones she marked off-limits... But then we hit a snag."
I rolled my eyes to her.
"Twilight I hardly call getting blow across the room by a psychic blast and gaining not just Psychic abilities but all my tactical knowledge, as well a snag." What!? I had to tell the whole story... That look Celestias giving me is creeping me out... I swear these ponies could do a better job of conquering the galaxy than the Arachnids did. If it wasn’t for the fact I could end an argument with Twilight by scratching behind her ears.
Twilight glared at me, but then looked back to her shocked Mentor "As Sunset so graciously said, I was forced out of her mind both physically and mentally by a mind-block that muffled anything before her time serving in the M.I" already covered what I think on this subject and I don't intend to repeat myself.
"This blast activated my latent psychic talent and gave me a copy of everything Sunset knew in regards to her military training and experience."
"Was... Was that how you made those Bug’s brains explode earlier?" She did what now? Why am I always the last to know of these things? I’m an officer. People, and by extension ponies, need to tell me stuff.
"Yes... To be perfectly honest Celestia it was the first time I've ever done that and I don't know If I can do it again anytime soon"
"Headache?" I asked to which Twilight only nodded "Well our Retrieval Ships are arriving in a few minutes so we have time to tell Celestia everything."
A full god dammed hour... Even with Twilight's help it took that long to explain to Celestia everything we knew. Needless to say her view on the Bugs changed once she heard of their exploits, once she heard of our plight she even offered Equestria's aid in finding a way back and of finding a way to bring reinforcements here to aid in what may end in another interstellar war unless stopped at the source.
We loaded our wounded onto the Retrieval Ships when they finally arrived and made our way to Ponyville to set up camp there and have our wounded seen to at Ponyville general hospital. We were half way there when my Retrieval Ship's pilot called me up.
"Ma’am, I'm getting a SICON distress beacon three clicks east."
"Why didn't we pick it up before?" I asked and moved up to the pilot’s seat.
“we pass over that site quite regularly, we should have seen anything out of the ordinaty.”
"No idea what to tell you Sargent, beacon just activated a minute ago, it's operating on a standard M.I frequency but that's all I can tell you."
"What, there's no I.D tag?"
"No mam"
"We'd better take a look, I don't want anyone, M.I, Fleet or Pony stuck in that Bug infested forest."
I turned on the inter-com and put on my best flight attendant voice.
"Ladies and gentlemen we are making a slight detour. Our pilot just picked up a distress beacon and I want to check it out, anyone who is able will drop with me and investigate, the rest will proceed to Ponyville, any takers?"
Nine troopers volunteered including Gauss who decided to go Marauder-less for the sake of conserving the machine’s ammo. Twilight tried to volunteer but I reminded her that she was now our spokes pony to her people and the Doctors at Ponyville would need her and Doc's help. Celestia however had been very adamant about going however. Didn’t seem like a bad thing to me either to have the most powerful magic user on this planet on my side.
"I have already sent word to Canterlot and Ponyville about your men's coming. My presence will not be required there as my sister will be there to help co-ordinate things." I'm going to just guess that she sent a message by dragon fire to both places and that my men won't be mobbed as soon as they land, I hope.
"I also wish to see these Bugs with my own eyes. I must see this grand threat for myself. I will also attempt to help medically with any wounded you find." Hey, who am I to refuse a demi-goddess? After all my only medic was not going to be with me so I might need Celestia's healing magic, so I reluctantly agreed on the condition that if things went R triple D then she was to get out of there as fast as her wings could take her. Even if it meant leaving us behind. (Oh and for those who have no idea what an R triple D is. It is very simple... Really Deep Doo Doo.)
The Retrieval Ship did a fly over of the beacon site and sure enough there it was, a landed Retrieval Ship that looked like it had seen better days. Something didn’t feel right so I ordered the pilot not to land and just hover just above the tree line while my team and Celestia dropped down into the thicket. By now it was morning and the Sun was high in the sky, thanks to Celestia, so we didn't need any extra light.
"You sure you don't want a weapon, Celestia?" I asked for the umpteenth time to which she calmly declined.
"I can do just fine with my magic thank you" well she was the goddess.
Approaching the downed ship the first thing I noticed was that it was overgrown with vines and other forest debris. But as we drew closer I saw a sight that I was very familiar with, Power suits impaled upon thick spikes jotting up from the ground. I felt my stomach turn into a coil of snakes again as I felt pure fear at what could eb waiting for us this time.
"Check those suits" I ordered but really didn't expect to find them occupied, but something did se-
Sarge!! These power suits have Zebra Squad markings on them!" Zebra Squad! I rushed over to check for myself. Black and white stripes on the helmets confirmed my fears. These suits belonged to Zebra Squad.... My Squad, as well as a few other Squads.
Suddenly Gauss shushed us all "I hear somthin...." TUNK TUNK. It was coming from the Retrieval Ship, could it be? I flipped down my visor and switched it to Infrared while the others in my group fell to a knee, their weapons aimed at the ship.
The tension was so thick in the air you could cut it with a bayonet. I nearly cried out in joy as I saw 35 human shaped heat sigs. Luckily the ramp was down but the inner hatch was closed.
"Gauss, Celestia, Sips with me. Rest of you, set up a perimeter!"
"Yes sir!" I was never going to get use to that... Please for the love of god..... And I guess Celestia too, let Cadmus be in there.
The Thunking increased as we got closer like someone was trying to break their way out, I banged on the door three times with my rifle to get the attention of anyone inside.
"I'M SARGENT SHIMMER OF ZEBRA SQUAD.... YOU M.I?"
"Shimmer…Sunbutt?! OH THANK GOD YOUR HERE" Garrus!
“WE'RE TRAPPED IN HERE AND WE CAN'T GET ANY OF THE HATCHES TO OPEN, CAN YOU DO ANYTHING ON YOUR END?"
"NO PROBLEM GARRUS, STAND BACK AND WE'LL SEE IF WE CAN'T BLOW THE THING." Jeeze, all this screaming was hurting my throat.
I turned to Celestia "Can you keep the hatch still while we shoot it and move it when we're done?" Celestia nodded and charged up her horn which glowed gold and enveloped the hatch in the same golden aura, I knew it wasn't such a bad idea to bring Celestia along with us after all.
I made a fist and made a punching gesture at the hatch ordering Gauss and Sips to open fire before opening up myself. The result was a rough circle cut into the hatch which Celestia pulled out and threw away with ease. A precise circular cut into the metal. Then, out of the hole popped out the head of Garrus. Whose face brightened up at seeing both me and Gauss.
"Well ain't you two a sight for sore eyes, good to see you sir." And we're back to the sir thing again
"Um... Is that a horned pony with wings?" Ha! "It's a long story Garrus, this is Princess Celestia, the ruler of this nice little kingdom we've found ourselves in"
"Greetings, you are a friend of Shimmer?"
If only these power suits came with a camera, then I could have took a picture of Garrus's face upon hearing Celestia greet him.
"Uhhh... Yes..." Like I said.... Priceless.
"Shimmer, where's the L.T?" Please let him be here because I really have had enough of this officer business because. It sucks and even if I was getting paid I would still say it sucked.
Imagine my despair when Garrus's face took a dark turn. "You guys better come inside, there's allot we need to tell you."
There were many troopers inside of the ship, some half out of armor due to the heat, a few had even gone outside to enjoy some true fresh air. Some of my own boys had come inside to check on the newly discovered troopers while others stayed outside to form a perimeter.
Others of the stranded troopers were cleaning their gear or talking about something or other, but despite whatever they were doing they all turned to face us as we boarded the ship. I could see a large hole in the floor as I walked through the ship with Celestia, to which I guessed was Honeydews doing.
Rule No.1 of Zebra Squad: Never trust the dwarf of a man with explosives of any kind. He had found a love of explosions at a young age and that had only increased as he joined the Mobile Infantry and got to blow up bugs on a daily basis. Although his love of explosives could be sometimes worrying, his little digging song was nice though. ‘I am a Dwarf and I'm digging a hole, Diggy Diggy hole I'm diggin a hole!’
Ahem....Sorry, where was I? Then out of the cockpit of the ship we were approached by three men, by their markings I could tell that all of them were Lieutenants but none of them were Cadmus. However there was someone among them who I recognized instantly, he was a Zebra Squad legend.
Lieutenant Bernstein, the man was Zebra Squad's Lieutenant before getting re-assigned during the Homefront Campaign to Kilo Squad. During the Hydora Campaign he had lost most of his squad during a heavy assault by Ripplers, and yet he managed to save almost all of them and round up many other survivors to keep holding out until they were rescued by ‘Razak's Roughnecks’. I had only met Bernstein a few times but I had to admit there was a rugged charm to him, but he wasn’t someone I’d bring home to mom…if I had a mom that is. I quickly straightened my shoulders and saluted the three men as they approached and stood at attention.
"Lieutenants, I'm Sargent Shimmer, Zebra Squad." I said and watched the three return the salute.
"Good to see you again Shimmer, Cadmus told me he had promoted you" Bernstein said, allowing me to stand at ease, but the way he mentions Cadmus's name made me feel that something was up. Where is he?
"These are Lieutenants Norris and Ross" He looked at my Equine Companion and raised an eyebrow.
"Sargent, why do you have a... Ah... Winged unicorn with you? Has General Custer brought his cavalry to help us fight the bugs?”
‘This is going to be a running thing isn't it?’ I thought and cleared my throat.
"Sirs, allow me to introduce ‘Princess’ Celestia, one of the leaders of a dominant species on this world." I gestured to the Celestia who nodded respectively to each Lieutenant as was customary.
"It is my pleasure to meet you all." Celestia said, though in an annoyed tone of having not been given the proper courtesy that should be shown to another sentient being.
All three Lieutenants looked from Celestia to me and then back again, they were obviously just going to keep doing that with their mouths open for flies to set up shop with in so I decided to take the initiative.
"Celestia, may I introduce Lieutenant Bernstein of Kilo Squad, Lieutenant Ross of Delta Squad and Lieutenant Norris of Echo." All of which were veteran Squad's that had survived all the way through the war.
"If I may speak freely Sirs but... Why were you stuck in here? It's been a Month and a half since we arrived, why are you only calling for help now?"
"As ‘Ahem!'” Ross took a moment to clear his and gather his throughts.
“As soon as we arrived, we were all captured." Ross said, recovering quicker than his fellow squad leaders to the revelation of talking horses.
"Correct me if I am wrong but Bugs don't take prisoners" Nice point Celestia.
"And even when they do the P.O.Ws are always interrogated and killed by a Brain Bug." and even more disturbing but equally relevant point, why was everyone here not only alive but fully geared up?
"That's the thing...We weren't captured by bugs... Or at least, not just bugs." I already don't like where this is going and my palms were getting sweaty from my mind already forming theories. None of them good.
"We we're captured by Humans with M.I equipment and being supported by bug forces." What? Humans and bugs working together! That's not possible (Snowflake doesn't count, she's only part bug and is really nice).
"They rounded us up and took us to a base of some kind." he continued and shook his head.
"We don't know where but they kept us there for a month, then three days ago we staged an escape using improvised weapons, we lost three men in the escape..." Three men? Please don't tell me.
"I'm sorry Sargent. But Lieutenant Cadmus died holding back the enemy while the rest of us escaped, he took out a portion of the base before he died." Lt. Bernstein said to try and cheer me up but I was still in a sort of shock.
‘Cadmus... Dead? No that can't be, he couldn't die it was not something that happened to him... Everytime we think he's dead he just comes back stronger, he just cou-‘
"Your lieutenant did give me something for you just in case he didn’t make it." Bernstein said reaching into his pouch and taking out a letter. I waited for him to hand it to me and took it with as calm a look as I could manage.
I took it and turned it over to see my name and rank on written in pen, I had a feeling what the letter contained so I asked if I could read the letter in the cockpit in private. The three lieutenants agreed as they wanted to talk to Celestia alone anyway so I left the Monarch in their capable hands.
Once I was safely inside the cockpit I sat down in a seat and ripped the envelope open, pulling out the letter.
Shimmer, if you are reading this then I’m likely dead. But Lieutenant Bernstein has found you. You were right about the power suits in the jungle, there is a connection to the incident on Pluto but there’s little time to write all this down. General Patricks is alive and he is in with the bugs.
The General came to me several times, asking questions about you. Like what was my opinion on you and if I had noticed anything different about you. I only responded with my name, rank and serial number. Sunset, I don't know why but he's gunning for you and you need to be careful. There’s just something not right about him, no human would willingly turn traitor to the bugs, so maybe it’s not even the general. I don’t know.
But I do know that I might not be getting out of here and someone needs to keep the squad in line.... And I'm so sorry to force this upon you but this letter is a now official documentation of your promotion to Lieutenant effective as soon as this reaches you, I hope you can figure all this out and I pray that you survive this.
~Lieutenant Cadmus
P.S your bars are in the envelope, sorry if they look old.
I read and re-read the letter to see if I wasn't just hallucinating the words in it. Once I was convinced of the validity of it I shook the envelope and a set of command bars dropped into my cupped hand, they shined in the sun light despite their age and being scratched up. I knew that these were Cadmus’s bars.
‘Why did he have to do this....I don't deserve command, I can't afford to have that responsibility... Not after....’ My heart started to shudder as I felt my eyes start to sting with tears. This was all too much for me. The stress, the pressure, the responsibility I felt like I was going to barf.
"Are you ok?" I nearly jumped out of my power suit as Celestia entered the cockpit, her big warm eyes showing concern…for me?
I sat up and folded up the letter and put it away before wiping my eyes with my gloved hand.
"Ahem...Yes Princess, it's Nothing." I said with a smile until I saw Celestia’s face.
‘Damn, now I know where Twilight learned that look from, she was giving me a look as if she was saying she knows I'm lying. Eventually I relented, that stare was too powerful..or maybe…I just needed to get some weight off of my shoulders.
"Just learned that my C.O oldest living friend is dead, for some reason General Patricks is alive and after me. Oh and I've just learned that I'm now a lieutenant and in charge of my own squad!" So in essence, no I was not alright.
"I understand about your friend and even about Patricks...but why are you upset about your promotion?" she asked, genuinely confused. I just couldn’t control what came next.
"It's because I'm a fucking jinx!" I said springing out if my seat and startling Celestia.
"Call it jinxed! Call it cursed! Call it whatever you fucking want but bad things always happen to everyone I'm responsible for! It happened to the troopers under my command last night, it happened to Pvt. Kyrus, to Pvt. Clark, to Corporal Raimi, and it happened my last squad. They would all still be alive if I-" It was only then that I realized what I had just said and shut up, but by then it felt like trying to shove a newspaper into a fire-hose while it was turned on. I just wanted to let the flood of emotions keep rolling.
Celestia looked at me as if she had just realized something and her expression turned from surprise to that of a mother comforting her child after they fell off of their bicycle.
"That nightmare you have most nights...It's more than just a stress related nightmare, isn't it?" Wha- How does she know about my nightmares?
"How do you know?”Celesita just smiled softly.
"My sister is the ruler of the night and by extension, dreams, one of her duties is to help all within our lands with their nightmares. The last month and a half she has sensed the same re-accruing nightmare, she said she was unable to see all of it or even help. But there is always one image that stands out. Dead troopers...and another trapped within an ice encased machine and shouting."
I sighed... She wasn't going to let me leave until I tell her... I guess I have no choice and I have been holding it in for too long anyway.
"Yes, it was a memory...of the day I lost my first squad." Celestia looked at me with an un-judging look and waited for me to continue so I retold the story I had lived in my dreams over and over again.
"It was meant to be a simple recon op, my squad had been Lima Squad at the time and I was one of their Marauder pilots. During our recon we discovered a convoy of unmarked military vehicles and transports, it looked like a battle had gone on there, which was odd since the fighting had long moved to Hydora. That’s a whole different planet. So we investigated the convoy, while I was there I was distracted by a white blip on my motion tracker. I was investigating when it happened..."
“RHHAARRGGGE!” The roar was so loud it felt like it was coming from everywhere at once.
"BUGS!" Murphy shouted as a swarm of warriors came charging from the hill we had just come from, where the hell had they all come from? The area had been clear of bug holes just a few minutes ago.
"Troopers! Defensive positions!" the L.T screamed as we all took whatever cover was available.
"Grex, call for extraction!"
"I can't, something's messing with the coms!"
"Keep trying!" The L.T shouted back "Ok you apes...steady…FIRE!" in that moment the whole hillside was a site of light and fire as bullets and explosives flew at the incoming swarm, a few bugs were blown to pieces while others went soaring through the air from explosions.
I let off a few grenades from my launcher while multi-tracking with everything in my arsenal. I burned through my Marauder’s ammo supply like a chain smoker in a cigarette factory. But for every 3 we took down 10 more would just take their place, it wasn't long until they were right among us.
"Tirg, watch your left!"
"I'm running low on ammo!"
“Rifle’s out, switching to ma pistol!!”
“I’m out of grenades!”
"They’re everywhere…they’re everywhere."
"Move it!"
I shot and smashed and ripped apart everything that came at me, everyone was scattered around the wreckage of the convoy fighting their own battles, cut off from each other. I should have known it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.
“Oh god, I don’t want to die!” Was the last thing I heard from the rookie before a warrior bug sliced through his throat with one of its claws.
"Tirg’s down! Trooper down!" Murphy shouted as he climbed up onto one of the wrecks holding up two Moritas and firing into the swarm of Arachnids underneath him.
"Die you filthy sons of bi-" he never got to finish. He didn't even get a chance to scream as a Hopper swooped down and knocked him into the sea of bugs, he was minced meat in seconds. I can still remember his torso being tossed up in the air, followed soon after by one of his legs as the bugs fought over the pieces of his body.
At this point I could hear Grex calling into his com frantically "This is Lima team requesting immediate re-enforcement or retrieval! Please can anyone read me this is Lima- Ghagh!" I don’t exactly know what happened but the man’s dismembered head suddenly hit my canopy, his face frozen in terror and shock as his blood smeared the glass. God the guy didn't deserve to die like that. He used to donate blood all the time to his local red cross and didn’t even ask for a donught afterwards.
All around me my fellow squad members were dying horribly, the L.T, three troopers and our second Marauder were together, back to back while firing madly into the swarm. As I looked at them I spotted something in the distance, I zoomed in and spotted our last hope. A narrow pass, it was too small and narrow for the Warriors to get through, if we could get there then we might have a chance at getting out of this alive. I relayed my idea to the L.T. while I slowly made my way to him, blasting the bugs with my arm cannons along the way.
"Good Idea Pvt, but we need something to keep the Bugs off us just long enough for us to get away." the line went silent as the man thought.
"Alright I want you to rig that Marauder to blow and make get out of there fast, set it for remote detonation!" It was a crazy idea and any other day I would reject it out right since once I was out of this tin can I would be Bug bait. But then again I had just lost five troopers that I had been through thick and thin with and I wasn't entirely in a good state of mind at the moment. So I made my way to the center of the convoy, most of the swarm was focused on my fellow troopers so I only had a few to deal with. That was about to change as I fired my launchers into the mass of Warriors and Hoppers, trying to draw them in by making myself look like the biggest danger to their assault.
I was moments away from setting my suit rigged to explode when a Warrior jumped me from behind and slammed me into the over turned truck in front of me. The force of the impact making me slam my head into the front of my canopy. My vision went blurry and I felt disorientated and weak, but I had enough sense left to shoot the Warrior before I fell backwards.
I tried to rise but found my strength weaning any my vision darkening, I could vaguely hear panicked screams of my fellow troopers but I just didn't have the strength to move and as I slipped into unconsciousness I heard them screaming in pain and one of them shouting my name.
Celestia looked at me in shock as I let tears flow freely down my face, I kept trying to rub them away but more seemed to come, my cheeks were burning hot at this point as I tried to regain control of myself but it felt like a damn had broken behind my eyes.
"I failed... All I had to do was blow my suit but I let a bug get the drop on me..."I said and coughed as I was at the point of breaking down into sobs.
"Shimmer... There was nothing you could have done." Celestia told me and placed a surprisingly soft hoof on my knee.
Like I need her to tell me that. "I know that there was nothing I could have done, but it still doesn't disprove that I'm a Jinx... Cursed, and what happened after I woke up proved it to me." I thought back to that day and forced myself to calm down so I could finally finish the tale.
"I remember the clock on my marauder’s telling me that it was half an hour later when I woke up. My Marauder had run out of juice to move and all the bugs were gone, I tried to get out but my Marauder was….was completely embedded within a shell of ice. An hour later I was rescued by another M.I squad that had been sent to find my squad after Blue Leader had lost contact with us. When they got there though only my Squad's bodies were found, or more accurately, what was left of their bodies. The convoy and all signs of battle were gone."
I let that hang there for some time as I thought it over myself, Celestia broke the silence "What happened after... When you were rescued I mean?"
"Psyche evaluation, seeing if I needed a section 8, which I didn't luckily, then a few months of Rehabilitation before being assigned to Zebra Squad during the Tesca Campaign"
"Personally, I think you’re not a jinx." I looked up in surprise to see Lieutenant Bernstein standing at the doorway, his helmet held in one hand. Jeeze he could really use a haircut. And how did he sneak up on us?
"Sorry for eavesdropping, I came to tell you Gauss called for evac. I overheard your story, you’re not a Jinx, and it sounds like what happened that day has more to it. Those bugs sounded more savage and coordinated that any bug force I've ever heard of, especially on a planet we have taken back." on that point we agreed on.
"And it happened not because you have some hocus pocus on you, it was just bad luck, pure and simple. It happens to the best of us. Even me. But from what I've heard from the troopers under your command you’re a great leader and they wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for your brilliant thinking."
"I got most of my troopers hospitalized." I reminded him.
“They’re still alive and breathing, it would have been a hell of allot worse had you not been there."
“What? No way.” I said, starting to get annoyed but Bernstein kept strong,
"You listened to that Bug, Snowflake, where as any other Lieutenant would have killed her on sight and thanks to this you were able to be warned about an impending surprise attack. Then you were able to rally your troopers and hold out until you had broken the back of the Arachnids."
The Lieutenant took the bars that I still held in my hand and pulled out a rag from a pouch to clean them as Celestia joined in.
"I have lived a long time, Shimmer, and I have made many mistakes, there have been times when I lost ponies in battle to unavoidable circumstances and felt entirely responsible. Despite knowing there was nothing I or anypony else could have done. Here is some advice, don't feel responsible for every death that happens around you, just be sure to honor their memory and keep them in your heart."
While Celestia said this, Bernstein attached the bars to my arm, each one shining in the bright li- hey wait! Bright light? I turned to see the light was so bright in my eyes and I realized it wasn’t the sunlight.
Ooohhhhh Shit.
“Take, cover!” Bernstein yelled as he grabbed both celestia and I. He threw us to the ground and then himself on top of us, trying to shield us with his body right before the cockpit shook with an explosion and I felt my eardrums cry out in pain from the blastwave.
Twilight sparkle sat in the trooper hold with the other troopers inside of the SICON transport that was heading towards her old home. At the moment she stood in her M.I. powersuit, she wasn’t worried about Sunset, if she and her team ran into any trouble then Princess Celestia could easily handle it. At the moment she was more concerned with just how much longer she would have to wait before the Transport touched down in Ponyville.
"We are about 20 minutes from Ponyville Twilight, Gryphon 2s reporting some engine trouble, so we're the only ones who can go and pick up the Sargent after we drop you and the others off." The pilot said as he kept a steady pace with his co-pilot and the other transport. Due to them not really having spare parts or trained engineers it was only a matter of time until the transports began to fail from lack of proper maintenance.
"Ok, thanks for telling me.” Twilight turned off the intercom and walked over to the prone bug and kneeled down next to her head. "Ok Snowflake we're almost there, you feel up for some walking?" Twilight said gently.
'I'll be fine for the moment. My left side is still numb but I believe I can walk." Snowflake communicated through her mental link while the mandibles on her ‘mouth’ made a chittering noise that she did at odd times.
Twilight nodded as she picked up her helmet, it was now matched her lavender fur like the rest of her power suit, she had time to kill so she re-coloured her suit using magic (And some paint she found in the hold from a spray-can).
'Has there been any word from Sunset?' Snowflake asked as she used one of her massive hands to rub her eyes, she still felt rather tired.
"Yes, they found a big group of troopers in a crashed Retrieval Ship. Griffin 1s going to pick them up after they drop us off in Ponyville." Twilight said as she picked up her Morita (Also lavender) and holstered it on her back. "I hope those survivors include Sunset's squad, she's been worrying about them since she got here."
Twilight had wanted to go along Shimmer and Celestia, but both insisted that Twilight remain with the rest of the troopers, saying that she was going to need to act as a liaison between pony and human kind. Since not only had she been human for a time but also had spent a month and a half among them. Not to mention all the information she had learned from Sunset's mind. It made her perfect liaison material and Twilight knew that the citizens of Ponyville would react better to the humans if they saw a familiar face.
'What do you think the girls will say when we meet them?' Snowflake asked, tilting her head slightly so that her body language would help Twilight know it was a question.
‘A lot has happened in a short time and not much has been shared.’
"I honestly don't know." Twilight said sadly, this question had been plaguing her since she helped Sunset escape.
"I've been stressing about this since I left, I wanted to put this all off for another few days while I got my head in the right mind set... But the Bugs didn't leave us with much choice"
Snowflake sank deeper into the deck at the mention of the monstrous race. Doc had told her of her relations to the Arachnids after she had regained conciseness, true it was only a small part of her DnA but it was still enough to make the bug feel cursed.
"Snowflake you have to stop bringing yourself down like this" Twilight Chided her "I know its not nice knowing that your related but you can't let that get you down"
‘Yes, if you say so.’ Snowflake said and turned away from Twilight, slowly loosing herself in thought.
Twilight breathed a gentle sigh and began to walk away, deciding that Snowflake needed some space.
“If you need anything, just let me know.” She said and trotted over to the cockpit so she could see when Ponyville was in range. As she moved away from Snowflake, the large pony insect hybrid began to think and wonder. Why had the light she saw when Sunset returned felt so familiar? Why couldn’t she remember where she came from? Was she a changeling or some kind of arachnid?
‘Why am I the way I am?’ Snowflake asked herself as she kept thinking, she began to feel something stir in her mind. Whispers, vague images, like when trying to remember something that you forgot. Its right there but still out of reach.
‘Bring this one to me.’ A faint voice said in her mind, like a silent whisper in an empty field.
‘This one is a failure, dump it with the rest’ Snowflake remembered the words before feeling a sharp pain in her body followed by a growing sense of terror in her stomach.
“Snowflake, are you okay?” A human voice said and Snowflake found herself looking at a worried Doc.
Snowflake nodded slowly to the human and got to her feet, doing her best to attempt to form her mandibles and eyes to mimic a smile.
"Good. I was worried for a moment, you looked sick for a moment and started making some creepy clicking noises. I was scared one of my best behaved patients was still hurt." Doc told her. During the operation and when Celestia arrived Snowflake had been very calm and followed all of Doc’s instructions.
"Anyway I've been trying to wake you up for the last 8 minutes, we're about to touch down outside Ponyville and I was wondering if you would help me with some of the wounded since you seem rather strong.”
Snowflake nodded and imitated a smile again, she was happy to help others. Doc left Snowflake in the hold with the others and moved up to the cockpit to talk to Twilight.
“Hey Twi. Listen were almost Ponyville and I wanted to check with you that everything will be alright with the other princess, especially since her sister won’t be there.”
Twilight nodded reassuringly.
"Don't worry" she assured the medic while placing a hoof against her hand. "Luna's been on our side since day one and I am sure she will understand?"
"What? How?"
Twilight smiled and began to explain."She's the princess of the night and dreams fall into her domain. Her job is to go into the dreams of anyone in Equestria and make sure they aren't plagued by nightmare's…and why are your cheeks all red?"
"W-what? No they aren't." lied a blushing Doc
"No, I’m pretty sure you’re blushing."
"You’re seeing things Twi."
“Is there something in your dreams that embarrasses you? Don’t worry princess Luna does not judge she’s been around for a long time.”
"Its nothing!"
"Do not worry" all three of them spun around to see the mistress of the night herself standing behind them, startling the pilots and causing them to have to pull up to keep from hitting some trees below them.
Princess Luna blushed at the commotion she caused and continued explaining.
"I tend to leave THOSE types of dreams alone, though I would suggest that you talk with him if you care about him that much." Doc blushed even harder than before.
"Princess Luna! What are you doing here?" Twilight asked as the older Alicorn came into the hold so that she had more room. "I thought you were going to meet us in Ponyville!"
"I was, but I just couldn't wait to see one of these ships" Luna said, barely containing her excitement.
"How could I not? These can freely travel amount my stars where I have only been to the moon, I wish I could see them up close. So many stars and constellaitons."
"Maybe when this is all over." Doc said as her blush died down "I'm sure the pilots would jump at the chance to drive around as a guide for a demi-goddess."
"I would Like that very much. But for now we must focus on our duties." Luna looked left and right, her mane never losing its perpetual motion as she swung her head around.
"Where is my Sister and miss Sunset Shimmer?" she asked.
'Both went to investigate a distress call from a downed ship in the forest.' Snowflake informed Luna who looked at Twilight, puzzled.
"Did you not say you only had two ships?" she asked.
"We have two Retrieval Ships but on the way here we got the distress call from another not long ago." Twilight explained "Shimmer wanted to check it out in case there were any troopers trapped inside and Celestia wanted to be there in case there were any bugs, so she could, you know, see them with her own eyes."
Luna nodded solemnly "Hmm, yes it's probably for the best considering what you showed me in your dreams.” Luna said, though she had not told that to her sister since Celestia had been rather angry after Shimmer’s escape and did not wish to listen to anyone.
"Touch down in 20 seconds." The Retrieval Ship's computer announced in a feminine robotic voice.
"Please exit via Exit Ramp or cargo elevator....Have a pleasant day."
The whole ship shook as it touched down on the ground, Doc grabbed her gear and ushered them all onto the elevator which began to descend as the belly of the ship opened up. The bright sunlight made the Alicorns, woman and bug shield their eyes while they adjusted to the change in light pouring into the ship.
Griffin 1 and 2 had both landed in the fields just outside of town, which were now filled with medical ponies who had been sent to help with the wounded and Royal Guard ponies who were there to keep the local towns ponies who had been curious of the two ships that had set down outside their quite town.
The horizon was packed with the many citizens of Ponyville. But Twilight picked out six figures at the front of the crowd, two earth ponies, two Pegasus and a single unicorn with a baby dragon riding upon her back. The lavender mare sighed as she prepared for a meeting that she had fretted about over the last month and a half. Not even the breathing exercises Cadance had taught her could really help.
Luna sensed her discomfort and leaned in gently.
"They have been worried about you since you disappeared." she informed Twilight "They thought Sunset Shimmer had kidnapped you and brainwashed you.”
"Great, I guess they are all angry with me for deciding to stay with the MI?"
"I haven't told them the truth yet." Luna said sheepishly "If I had then Sister would have found out about me speaking to you every night."
Twilight was annoyed that her elder princess had not told her friends and assistant the truth, but she also understood her plight. Twilight guessed that her baby dragon assistant had not found her note explaining her intentions.
As the elevator pad finally touched down on the grass, Twilight's three companions went their separate ways with Doc saying "I've got to go check on my patients and make sure these doctors know what they are dealing with." and Snowflake saying
'I will go help carry the ones who cannot walk' and Luna just saying to her.
"Go...Be with your friends."
Taking a deep, and very nervous breath, Twilight made her way over to her friends who had yet to recognize her on account that her mane and coat were hidden under her Power suit and that her visor covered her face as she was looking down to keep the sun out of her still sensitive eyes.
As she stopped in front of the five mares plus one dragon and slowly took off her helmet and placed it on the ground. "H-Hey girls... It's Good to see yo- Omph!" The wind was knocked out of her as her friends barreled into her.
"Twilight!!!" they all collectively cheered as they hugged their best friend tightly making her wince as aches from multiple minor wounds resurfaced "Alright guys" Twilight wheezed "Take it easy with the hugs.”
"We're so glad you’re alright!" Rairity said as they let her go, she looked at her armor and lifted an eyebrow. "What are you wearing?"
"That don't matter right now Rairity" Applejack chided the alabaster mare "Ahm just glad that Twilight's back."
"Oh yes, we were so worried when you disappeared." Fluttershy said in her usual timid manner "I hope Sunset didn't hurt you."
"Yea that meanies pants isn't getting a party anytime soon!" Pinkie said grumpily and crossed her front hooves over her chest.
"She needs more than just not getting a party." Rainbow Dash said angrily "She deserves a good buck to the head."
"That's exactly what a pony whose been kidnapped and brainwashed would say" Pinkie said as she got in Twilight's face and looked her in the eyes.
"Yoooouu arrreee TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!!! Sunset shimmer had noooo control oveer youuu" Twilight used her magic to pick the pink mare up and place her on the ground a few meters from her.
"I'm not under her control guys. Spike?" She said and started looking at her dragon assistant who was gawking at her power suit, snapped to attention at her call "Uh yea Twilight?"
"Did you find that letter I left for you?" Spike looked at her with a vacant look "I guess not."
"Oh Oh Oh! I have it!" Pinkie said as she reached into her logic defying mane and pulled out a scroll with a royal stamp that was still keeping it sealed "Is this it?"
"Pinkie! You've had a letter from Twilight this whole time and didn't tell us!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"I tried" Pinkie defended "But every time I tried looking for it, it disappeared in my mane."
"Look.” Twilight sighed but still smiled. “It doesn't matter now, I'll explain later. But right now all I want is a shower, sleep and a decent meal." Twilight said "It's been a rough night."
"Ya can say that again, those guys look like they've been through Tartarus." Applejack said as the wounded troopers were lain down on stretchers and carried towards town "What in the hay happened to y'all out there?"
"We we're attacked, we'd all be dead if Snowflake hadn't warned us about the attack." Twilight said as one of the burned troopers were carried by gently by some Unicorn doctors. They used their magic to hold his stretcher so his trip would be as smooth as possible. "Though allot of good people got hurt."
"Your brother and your sister in law aren’t going to like that." Rarity said "They’re in town right now"
Twilight opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by her radio, which she had left on loud speaker, "Twilight we're getting a message from Sargent Shimmer. Patching it through."
There was static for a moment before the sounds of gunfire and an explosion filled the air "This is Lieutenant Shimmer to Shimmer's Timber Wolves, Me and survivors of the downed ship are under heavy assault, Need evac now!"
‘Lieutenant?’ Twilight thought ‘I leave her for a little while and she gets promoted.’ She put on her helmet and turned on her radio. "Griffin 1 Patch me through to Sunset’s radio."
"No problem Twi, patching you through now"
"Sunset what is your condition?"
"We're pinned down inside of the transport by a swarm of jungle spider! We can't evac using Celestia because these dammed spiders caught her in their webs." there was an explosion on Sunset's end.
"There's also a trio of plasmas bombarding our position, you should be able to see their fire from Ponyville.”
"What are those lights?!" a random pony called out as Rainbow Dash took to the air to get a better look at the balls of super-heated plasma crashing to the ground in the distance after arching in the air.
"Yes we can see them, I'll take Griffin 1 and come get you"
"Negative Twilight, I need you there, you’re the only pony there with the authority, experience and knowledge to keep Ponyville safe in case the bugs attack." Twilight bit her lip at that. While she didn't like it she knew Sunset was right.
"Send a few men with Griffin 1 and then start fortifying the town. You are in command, Shimmer out." Shimmer said and slapped a new magazine into her rifle before keeping the fire up with the other troopers by her sides.
Twilight Sighed as she radioed the orders to a few troopers and turned back to her friends. "Now then, lets g-" she stopped herself as she felt the ground beneath them suddenly shake. Something was coming towards them... Something big... And from underground...
"Oh no.... HEADS UP! We have incoming!" Twilight shouted both with her mouth and mind as she drew her rifle.
On her word the still able bodied troopers drew their weapons, aiming all around for bug holes.
"What's wrong Twi?" Applejack asked, alarmed by her friends sudden defensive stance and everything else happening.
A second later almost 30 meters away, something began to rip up from the dirt, kicking up grass and rocks and dirt into the sky. Twilight then heard the terrified cry of one of the troopers before all the civilian ponies all began to run and panic.
"Tanker!" The large and black and heavily armored bug crawled out of its hole with a roar as the ground shook beneath it with every thud of its massive legs. Princess Luna took to the sky and began moving as many of the townsfolk with her magic as she could.
Both ships engines roared to life as the lifted off and fled out of the tankers range, the colossal bug still sent twin jets of flames up after them, lightly burning the belly of Griffin 2.
"What is that?" Fluttershy cried out, in a whisper.
"It's a Tanker Bug!" Twilight said "Girls listen I need you to help get ponies and the wounded to safety, We'll hold it off!"
"No way Twilight! We can take it!" Rainbow Dash said before taking off towards the bug.
Twilight managed to yank her back and out of the way of another jet of fire, the rainbow maned mare crashed into the ground next to them.
"Ok let’s help getting everypony away!" she exclaimed hurriedly before rushing over to help groups of ponies fleeing to Ponyville.
Her friends looked at Twilight Unsure "Will ya be alright Twi?" AJ asked, looking back and forth between her and the tanker as several unicorn Guards tried to hold it in place with a magic barrier that looked ready to break any second.
"Yes, I've dealt with worse over the last month, I promise I'll explain everything later."
Applejack nodded and turned to the rest of the girls "Ok yall heard what Twi said, let get helpin!" the five ponies and baby dragon were off in a flash, with Spike giving Twilight a hug and Applejack wishing her luck before departing.
Now that they were gone Twilight now had only one problem to deal with. How to bring down the Tanker when all their heavy ordinance just flew off with the Retrieval Ships. She needed time to think a full plan.
"Harrison, Rodriguez! Take the tanker on its right side, keep at a safe distance!" the two troopers moved, firing as they went. "Doc, Pama, take the left side, rest of you apes concentrate fire on the face. Lets buy the others time to escape!"
"YES MA’AM!" The troopers called out and separated to engage the Tanker, it was big and strong but also slow compared to the troopers.
Now all Twilight needed to think about was how to bring it down quickly. They had left their explosives and Marauders on the ships and all they had were hand grenades.
Suddenly a jet of white vapors shot at the Tanker partly freezing it as ice crystals froze its legs in place. Twilight turned to see Snowflake and Luna rushing up to her side.
"Twilight!"
"Luna, Snowflake! Good to see you here" Twilight looked to Snowflake "How did you do that!? Can you keep it frozen?"
‘I did it on instinct I guess. But it took all I had just to partially freeze it, I'm still not strong enough yet. I'm sorry.'
Twilight waved the apology away, understanding.
"Well you've given us time to think, so that's alright." She said as she put a hoof to her chin, forcing her mind to work as much as it could.
"But how are we going to kill it, we've only got grenades and their not strong enough to punch through that things shell."
"Let me try" Luna said charging her horn and pointing it at the bug, in an instant a beam of pure magic energy was shot at it. Twilight expected the beam to punch right through the shell but was as shocked as the others around her when the beam was simply absorbed into the Tanker's shell, leaving the bug unscathed but annoyed.
"What! How? Tis impossible!" Luna said, her voice falling back into its old Royal Canterlot volume.
"The bugs must be getting resistant to magic now!" Twilight explained as the Tanker started to slowly break away the ice. "When we were attacked last night the bugs had a new type of blaster that fired magic shockwaves at us, they must have given this tanker some anti-magic modifications to fight ponies."
"Twilight! Watch out!" A voice yelled.
Twilight looked to the Tanker too late as its twin flame jets flew towards the three and hit... A purple barrier?
Twilight spun around to find her brother Shining Armour and his wife Candace standing behind her with their horns glowing with magic energy.
"Shining! Candace!" Twilight cried out in relief.
"Sis! You alright?" Shining asked, his face contorted in pain at deflecting the Tankers attack, it felt like trying to hold a plastic shield against a hurricane’s winds.
"Yes, we're fine" Twilight said, looking at the tanker which was roaring with its mouth wide open. Then an Idea struck her, it was crazy but it just might work.
"Shining I want you to drop the shield on my signal, Luna when he does I want you Snowflake and Candace to attack that thing with magic and ice. Snowflake I know its tough but you have to force yourself to do that trick again!" all four nodded as Twilight turned on her radio.
"Alright you apes listen up! On my mark I want you to concentrate fire all over the Tanker except for its back, got it?"
"Yes Twilight, but what are you planning?"
"Something crazy," she said as she waited for her chance. She licked her dry lips and focused on the barrier where the Taker’s flames were hitting it.
"Okay..... NOW!"
In that instant the shield dropped and a torrent of magi and ice surged at the Tanker, managing to push the flames away. None of it caused any damage but Twilight didn't expect it to, she just needed the bug’s attention away from her as she galloped head first towards it.
"Twilight what are you doing!?" Her brother called out.
Twilight charged her horn just as the Tanker let off another jet of flames at her. Twilight stood right where she was as the flames came towards her and struck where she was standing. Three seconds after she teleported right onto the bug’s back.
The Tanker roared and tried to shake her off, but the Alicorn held firm on its exoskeleton, refusing to let go.
"Yes that's right." Twilight said between breaths. "Get angry, just allitle more.."
The bug opened its mouth wide and roared at that sky, giving Twilight what she wanted. She quickly pulled out three grenades and used magic to fuse them together and press down on the detonators.
"Say Ahhh"
Twilight threw the explosives in a wide arc, they fell smack dab through the bug's mouth and into it's gut. With her job done, Twilight teleported next to Luna and covered her eyes while yelling.
"Suns coming up!" the troopers knew what she meant and covered their eyes too, Luna, Snowflake, Candace and Shining figured out what she meant when they saw the others and covered their eyes too, just as the grenades went off and blew the Tanker up from the inside sending bug juices everywhere. But mostly out of some holes in its stomach and out of its mouth.
"All clear!" the cry went out, Twilight went right to work ordering the troopers to seal the bug hole and secure the area before radioing Griffin 1 to go and evac Sunset and Celestia.
Once she was done she met the shocked looks of Shining, Luna and Candace.
"Twilight, that was the most stupid, most reckless move I've ever seen! You could have been killed!" Shining yelled in a mix of anger and fear at the thought of losing his little sister.
"I must agree with your brother, Twilight." Luna agreed "That was very dangerous."
"You could have been melted!" Shinning yelled.
"I know, but believe it or not, that is a famous M.I tactic." Twilight informed them but it didn’t seem to calm her brother down.
'What is it called?' Snowflake asked 'Because I'm sure that the human military would not condone such a tactic?'
"It's called, ‘riding the bull’, and it’s an unofficial one. But it still works." Twilight said as Griffin 1 passed over head toward the plasma fire in the distance "Come on, let’s get to town. We have a lot of preparation to do.” She said and stunned her brother when she began acting like a well-trained officer.
While he followed her alongside the others and gave orders to his own guards to fortify the town, he could not but wonder.
‘What happened to my little Twily?’
Elsewhere in a dark corner of the bug hive stood General Patricks, traitor to all of SICON, presumed dead on Pluto. He stood in his SICON uniform with two Arachnid warriors at his sides. The chamber he was in was filled with many warriors and workers and chariot bugs. The noise was almost enough to cause Patrick’s ears to hurt but it was soon silenced by a new arrival.
Patricks quickly fell to his knees, bowing and showing his unworthiness to look upon the mastermind of masterminds.
“My queen.” He said with his mind and felt a response in his head. He knew what was being said to him, just as if he was trying to calculate what 2+2 was.
“Yes, my queen it is all proceeding as ordered.” He thought and heard the response.
“Yes, the army grows now even as we speak. New hives are being prepared and the Brain bugs all rally to your call. This world shall fall within three months.” Patricks responded and the conversation continued until the General was dismissed. He soon returned to his lab within the hive.
Patricks passed by many different experiments until he reached a cold storage locker. Once he was at the locker he opened it and produced a small jar that held a personal experiment of his.
“Looks like I will find a chance to keep up my old experiment.” Patricks said and soon grabbed a very special file labeled ‘Zander Barcalow’.
“I will be labeled a hero for my work. I know I will, people just need to be made to understand.” Patricks said and went about his work with renewed devotion.
"Juan, Jackson cover right side, Honeydew, Xephos cover them!" I yelled out as I indicated the troopers and directions with me left hand while holding my Morita up with my right hand. My troopers were all tough and We were surrounded in the wreck of the Retrieval Ship, Jungle Spiders were jumping down from the tree tops and Warriors were attacking us from all sides, preventing escape. Lieutenant Bernstein and Kilo squad held the south side of the ship, Lieutenant Ross and Delta had the East, Lieutenant Norris North and me and Zebra were holding down the West.
I looked back to check on Celestia who held a handgun in her magic grip and was taking pot shots from the safety of the wreck with Garrus and Gauss standing close by and acting as body guards. The princess had been reluctant to use human weaponry to fight but when she had tried to attack the bugs with magic the bugs would just shrug it off like it was just a harsh breeze. They must have adapted a resistance to it in preparation for taking the whole planet. I convinced her that a gun in her metaphorical hands would be best and had Garrus and Gauss guard her until we could extract her. It certainly would not do us good to get one of the royal family on this world killed. While I was constantly worried about her, I did have to give it to the mare, she was a good shot and I swear to god I'm not kidding, 2/3 shots she takes kills its target. For not having developed gunpowder yet she seemed to almost have century’s worth of practice. "Griffin 1 to Zebra lead do you copy." I heard the voice in my ear yell out. "About goddamned time.” I almost laughed out and swapped a spent magazine for a fresh one for my rifle before I responded eagerly to the pilot. "Yes this is Zebra lead I read you Griffin 1, what is your e.t.a.?" "Two minutes ma’am, we're putting down 200 meters North-East of you, I wish we could put us down closer but it's too crowded." So there's just 80 meters of bug infested forest between us and evac, this is going to be fun, or horrifying, take your pick. "Roger that Griffin 1, Zebra out. Bernstein, Norris, Ross, I've got good news and some bad news." There was an explosion from Kilo's position followed by increased fire "Can't be worse than what I've got here Lieutenant" Bernstein said over his radio in the same gruff voice he always used. It was just another day at the office for him. "You want to bet? Good news is that pickups two minutes out, bad news is that they have to put down 200 meters east" "How are we supposed to manage that? We can't all just leg it with wounded and the V.I.P." "We have Delta and Echo go first with the walking wounded and clear a path." Norris suggested "Then Zebra and Kilo follow up with the V.I.P and those that can’t stand on their own." I guess that's as good a plan as any. The first two Squad's clear the way while we keep their rear covered until they have their position to cover us. "Sounds better than nothing, what about you two?" "Any plans better than waiting to die with bugs all around us." Ross agreed "Lets do it!" I nodded and with a quick thought I sent a Warrior bug tripping over its own front legs, exposing its less armored underbelly before I fired fifteen pulse rounds into it. "My men are ready when you are Lieutenants." Bernstein said "Well Shimmer, let's see how Zebras skill have gotten since I've been away." Cheeky Bastard I thought.
"Ok Zebra here’s the game plan" I started as I blew out a oncoming Bug's nerve stem and left it flailing wildly before dying. "We're going to make a run for the Retrieval ship, Echo and Delta have point while we act as rear guard to cover them until they reach position, Gauss, Garrus when we move to extract you both are to keep on Celestia's side like glue. Keep yourselves between us and Kilo, rest of you apes better watch out for each other. You get me Zebras!?" "YES SIR!" That was going to take some getting used to. "Delta moving out!" They shouted as they moved together and charged into the swarm of bugs, firing like madmen and letting grenades fly ahead of them to clear out small islands in the large sea of warriors. It wasn’t but a few seconds later that the next squad followed. "Echo moving out!" I heard and watched them let out a loud war cry as they ran headfirst into the bugs. "Ok you apes this is it, give em hell!" I shouted while firing a grenade into the swarm of bugs, bug limbs went flying everywhere, some even impaling other bugs in the process. I always love when bugs do my job for me, so polite of them. "Sunset look out!" I ducked just in time to avoid a warrior's claw scythe through the air above me. Before it could turn to grab me in its large maw, the bug it was wrapped up in a golden aura and lifted up into the air and torn apart by pulse fire. With a look back I saw Celestia's horn glowing and the barrels of Garrus and Gauss's rifles smoking.
"We're in position, you guy better get over here!" "Ok you heard the Lieutenant apes, move it!" I shouted as I dragged myself up on to my feet and rushed under the wreck and towards my men while priming a plasma charge and throwing it to the side of the ship’s hull. The sticky adhesive patch on the back of the charge making sure it stayed on the hull. "I suggest you Apes hurry the fuck up!" I shouted though my radio as I sprinted away while firing behind blindly, "Because this whole areas going to be toast in 2 minutes!" I yelled but could barely hear my own voice over the noise as my troopers and I ran to the other squads. A few troopers who were light on their feet almost looked like they were dancing as they ducked, dodged and weaved around the bugs like water around a stone. I felt like my brain was screaming at every muscle in my body to go faster. Every few meters one of us would turn back and provide cover for the rest of us for a few moments as we all began to get tired, it was slower than just madly dashing for retrieval but it also meant that we didn't leave anyone behind accidentally or get chewed upon by a lucky bug. As I ran I counted out loud how long I had until the Charge went off.
80 seconds...
I could see the ship ahead of me now, it had its cargo platform down with Delta and Echo teams keeping the Bugs back, even the defense turrets on the side of the cockpit were firing. Lee stumbled and fell just ahead of me, I skidded to a stop beside her and pulled her up by the arm “Come on you” I said as I tried to get her moving, I pulled so hard I was almost worried I might dislocate her shoulder. “AH! Shit... I think I twisted my ankle!” I looked down and sure enough Lee's leg was twisted in a bad angle.
60 seconds...
“Just go sir, I'll just slow you down.” She said bravely, though to look in her eyes told me how scared she really was. “No time for this drama! I'm not losing anyone on my first day as lieutenant!” I put her arm around my neck and supported her as we hobbled along “Apes! Give us cover!”
30 seconds... Oh shit we might not make it.
I did my best to keep positive and keep going as we rushed along. I could hear bullets fly by me and Lee by mere inches and Bugs fall dead alarmingly close to us. I looked back while still moving and fired behind me was we went, I was even more alarmed to find a whole lot of spiders getting closer. They disappeared in a fiery explosion as Gauss and Bernstein rushed over to us. “Gauss Give me your weapon and help Bernstein Carry Lee” he didn’t Question me as he handed me his rifle and took one of lee's arms while Bernstein took the other, I held each in each hand “I'll cover you” I squeezed both triggers and sprayed the bugs down ahead of me, I put so many rounds into the air between the bugs and us that the bug juice was like a fine mist.
20 seconds...
Against the tide of yellow, black, blue and white I held fast, holding it back while my squad mates got Lee to the ship. I took slow steps backwards so that I had room away from the bugs and so that I didn’t trip over anything. I was so focused on keeping them back though that I almost didn’t hear the others calling me to run back to the ship. I glanced over my shoulder to see the other troopers waving to me to run, I tossed away my second rifle and ran, priming a grenade and throwing it over my shoulder haphazardly. The explosion pushed me foreword a little but I didn’t fall. I holstered my rifle on my shoulder and did my best to just run forward, not even looking back.
10 seconds...
I finally stumbled onto the cargo platform and turned on my radio “Pilot! Don't bother with the platform, just get us in the air!” “Roger!” The pilot screamed as the engines kicked up a large cloud of smoke and I almost fell down from the force of the ship moving.
5...
The engines screamed a high pitch note as the ship lifted up off the ground and out of reach of the bugs below, some of them were even climbing up on top of each other.
4... 3... 2... 1...
The charge went off in a blue fireball. Incinerating everything within its blast radius and knocking over trees with the blast wave. Everyone had to shield their eyes as the dust and wind battered us, when the dust cleared there was just a crater of what used to be part of a forest. I look at my handy work below as it disappeared into the distance. The ship was going slower than it should because I was still holding onto the ramp rails but it gave me a good chance to see my work. “Well lieutenant, you do know how to make a dramatic exit.” I turned to see Celestia and the other squad leaders standing behind me “Though a bit overkill.” I shrugged “If a jobs worth doing...” I said dismissively just as my radio crackled on “Ma’am the Plasmas have moved back into range, I'm reeling you in.” “Affirmative. Once we're inside get us to Ponyville at top spe- GHAGH!” I suddenly felt something punch through both my shoulders and something go through my chest, just barely rubbing against my heart. Blood went flying showering Celestia and everyone in front of me in red, everything seemed to slow down as I was tugged back over the railing and off the platform. I felt the air rushing around me and looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of my killer, a new flying bug. I could barely make out its form due to how close it was holding me and it wrapped some disgusting and sticky fluid around me that quickly hardened around me into a protective shell as we both fell to the floor below. I thought about all those troopers who died in a similar way. Suddenly being picked up by a hopper bug or something similar, only to be dropped down to the ground and die on impact. It seemed like I would was falling forever, I didn't even feel my body impact on the ground below before I felt so sleepy.
Twilight stood beside Luna, Shining Armor, Cadence, her friends and Doc as Griffin 1 set down in the field in front of them, the hull showed signs that the ship had taken fire while escaping, Doc had enlisted the help of a dozen of Ponyville General's doctors and nurses to help any wounded. “I am eager to meet this Sunset Shimmer, from what you and her men have said of her she sounds like a very capable woman” Luna said as she towered over the others slightly. “We would like to meet with her too” Shining said as he shared a troubled glance with his wife, Twilight ignored them as the ships ramp. She expected to see Sunset with a group of battered and weary troopers, but what she saw instead shocked her as well as everyone else. Celestia exited the ship first, flanked on both sides by Gauss and a man she didn't recognize, all of them were covered with blood which Twilight could tell from their body language wasn’t theirs. The look on Celestia's face spoke more than words ever could... something terrible had happened. “What happened?” Twilight asked as she rushed over to meet them, Celestia was clearly in shock, blood was on her chest and even on drop just below her right eye. The normally calm princess said nothing while Gauss just simply shook his head and mumbled to himself angrily about how he ‘should have seen it.’ “What happened?” Twilight asked more concerned and alarmed by their refusal to answer. As they stood there more troopers exited the ship. Nearly all of Zebra squad was in a similar shock. Doc approached them and checked them over before sending them off with the pony doctors, as the last one left the ship Twilight saw her frown and joined them “Where’s Shimmer? Is she still inside? Do we need a stretcher?” “I'm so sorry...so...so sorry...”
Twilight felt her blood run cold as a sense of dread fell over her “Where is Sunset Shimmer?” The Man she didn’t recognize put his hand on Twilight's shoulder “It happened so suddenly, a new flying bug breed... Lieutenant Shimmer was hit…..and then it was like it pulled her off the ship….she fell almost 20 feet in the air... I’m sorry” Doc gasped at this now in the same shock as everyone else, Twilight however did nothing, she didn’t cry, didn’t deny it, she just closed her eyes and was... silent. “Twilight... Twilight... please... say something...” She heard a voice say. “Come on” she said as she turned in the direction of Ponyville “Let’s get back to town” was all she said as she walked away, eyes still closed. Twilights eyes were filled with a mix of fiery hate and sadness as she felt the loss of a friend. Not of them moving away but of them dying and never coming back. Her brother saw the look in her eyes and knew it well. He couldn't bear to see his sister like that and tried to stop her by calling her name but a soft hoof on Shining's shoulder stopped him. He looked up to see Luna softly shaking her head. “Let her grieve in her own way.” she said as she watched the Lavender Alicorn go, and then to her sister who was sitting down and seething with anger now. “We are all going to need time.” Luna said and watched as Cadence comforted her husband while around them the SICON troopers set about forming a perimeter around the town and keeping an eye out for the next bug assault that they felt was inevitable.
Deep within the new Arachnid hive, in a secluded corner with several generators and human made devices, General Patricks was busy in his lab when a worker rushed in. The small cockroach like bug chirped and pawed at his leg with a mandible to get his attention away from several devices on a table before him. “What is it!” he snapped at the bug as he turned away and stared down at it. “I am working you miserable larva!”
The bug screeched and chattered as it reported news to the General. To any other being not in the loop it would have sounded like Morse Code, but to Patricks it was as clear as day. “What! How long ago was this?!” the Worker told him in rapid fire chirps and clicks. “Send out a search party and find me her body. If I can’t have her then at least I will have her DnA... GO!” the Worker left in a hurry leaving a very troubled Patricks. The man was visibly shaking with anger as he grabbed a nearby microscope and threw it against a wall, shattering it to pieces. The loss did not bother him though, he had many more to spare. “This will set me back days or weeks even if her body can't be found.” he grumbled as he stared at his latest experiment, watching cells divide and multiply on a computer screen. “Damn you Shimmer, now when I need you most you have to go and get yourself killed.” He said and went back to his other projects, hoping to find something else to convince the Queen of his continued value and that of all Humans.
In the darkness of the Everfree forest, in a deep area where the canopy of leaves prevented sunlight form piercing through, a bloody and battered Sunset Shimmer fell.
Her armor a twisted and broken shell of itself from the force of hitting every tree branch below her and then several boulders as she rolled down a hill before coming to a sickening stop at the mouth of a cave entrance with several ear piercing snaps and crunches. The woman herself is not in any better shape as her body is bent in ways that no living being could live with.... and yet, something within her stirs and denies the coming advances of the reaper... punctured lungs and broken limbs knit themselves back together and a swollen eye returns to normal. The woman automatically draws in a deep, labored breath, her body finding new life. While her mind was still gone. Then something swift and unseen begins to drag the battered woman away, further into the darkness of the Everfree, into the dark cave with a hiss of curiosity as the only sign that anything was there was a bloody trail and a broken piece of armor that lay near the cave entrance.
It had been an entire month since Sunset's death by the unknown bug. An entire month since she had disappeared, leaving her team down another good leader.
In all that time since her death not a single bug had been sighted anywhere near Ponyville, though the princesses and the squad leaders had agreed that if they did attack then it would most likely be Ponyville that would be the first on the target, so a big effort was made to make Ponyville ready for war.
Lieutenants Norris and Bernstein, with the help of Twilight Sparkle and Shinning Armor, trained Equestria's existing military on how to combat Arachnid forces and use their more advanced knowledge to boost their technology while the rest of the troopers worked with the Royal/Lunar Guard Corps of Engineers to fortify the town. The engineers promised that by the end of the next month they would have these ‘Howitzers’ figured out and made to help defend Equestria.
Gauss had begrudgingly become Zebra Squad's C.O after Sunset's death, he kept everyone's mind occupied by having them do different tasks, some were trivial such as helping out at the post office or patrolling Sweet Apple Acres, while others were important to Ponyville's defense like helping set up automated guns at one section of the wall or protecting food and equipment caravans into and out of Ponyville.
In almost a month Ponyville had become a small bastion thanks to the work of Pony and Human kind respectively, once the M.I troopers had allowed the Ponies to study their gear and data on the ships, they were able to replicate them on a massive scale with the help of major cities like Canterlot, Manehatten and Stalliongrad now being protected by extensive defense grids of automated defenses magic mines which launched shrapnel upwards, simple versions of Gatling guns, but it was Ponyville that needed to be protected just as much as any major city. The town of Ponyville and its citizens had almost become a symbol to the rest of Equestria thanks to the Elements of Harmony living there, if it fell then the bugs would have taken out the symbol of victory against past evils and greatly affect moral.
On top of the new defenses added to the town, one fact that had not been known before was that Ponyville was set slap dab on top of a deposit of Mythril, which was so strong that even the bugs couldn't tear through it which meant that the town was safe from subterranean attacks. This granted a large measure of safety for Ponyville and allowed it to work as a good staging area for counter attacks and bug hunts without the allies having to worry about being dragged underground in their sleep.
Gauss oversaw the latest shipment from Manehatten arrive via retrieval ship, once it touched down several unicorns and Earth ponies started moving the containers off the cargo lift quickly towards the newly constructed supply Depot and any other facility that required the supplies. It was truly a sight to behold, humans and Equestrians working together like this, Gauss just wished that it had only been on better terms. The people back on Earth would love good news like this as they tried to rebuild the war damage.
Gauss’s ears heard the familiar sound of hoof steps from behind him, turning slowly he was met with the sight of Princess Luna and two of her guards, both guards wearing the new Bat pony armor which was a mix of very primitive Kevlar and metal plates to withstand the blows from Arachnid pincers.
Gauss saluted to which Luna dismissed with a wave of her hoof "You do not have to perform such trivial things with me Lieutenant, we are friends and I have just come to talk." She turned to her guards
"Wait inside, please" She said and indicated to a nearby office where Unicorn Ponies were trying out primitive versions of radios which were a mix of Magic and technology.
"Yes ma’am" Gauss responded and lowered his hand as the princesses guards went inside "What do you need? "Walk with me please" Luna said as she started to walk through the loading dock with Gauss in tow "What I am about to discuss with you is of great importance and it is imperative that my sister not learn of it" Alarm bells were already ringing for Gauss but he let her continue. "Over the last few years, ponies from different cities have been disappearing at an alarming rate unlike any other in Equestria’s history." Luna explained
"As of this month, the total now sits at 46 missing ponies. Ranging from guards to young adults and even children"
"Not to sound heartless princess but, what does this have to do with me?"
"One of the new security cameras your engineers help us set up to keep of bug activity near the cities recorded one of the kidnappings that happened a day ago" the princess revealed a data pad and handed it to Gauss with her magic.
"The camera was able to get a look at the kidnappers, and the identity of the victim caught my interest as well.”
Interested Gauss pressed play, it was late at night and the streets displayed were deserted as one would expect at that time. A young pony, probably middle school aged, madly dashed through screaming for help, she suddenly stopped in her tracks and started to back up slowly as something came slowly towards her from off camera. Gauss watched in growing dread as the unmistakable form of an arachnid stepped forward.
The poor pony didn't even have time to run as the bug picked her up in one swift move and carried her away into the night.
When the recording ended Gauss looked to Luna "Who was the one it took?"
"A young filly named Babs Seed." Luna said much to Gauss's dread “She is a cousin of the Apple family"
"Yes, Apple bloom talks about her allot" Gauss said "But why would the bugs take kids... Military and engineers yea I can understand that but civilian don't have any Intel on our fortifications. But since she is related to Applejack in a way this might have been a targeted kidnapping." he scratched his beard thoughtfully "You want us to investigate?"
Luna nodded "Yes, but I stress that you not tell my sister or Twilight"
"Why? Shouldn't they know?"
"Celestia is aware of these kidnappings and has been investigating... That is, until a few weeks ago" Luna now spoke in a hushed tone "She ordered the case dropped"
"That doesn't sound like her, not at all." Gauss pointed out. "Indeed, I was equally worried but I just put it down to her knowing something I didn't, but the guard on watch the night of this recording have denied its existence and erased the original as well as keeping the incident shrouded in silence , the night guard luckily made a copy and secretly gave it to me”
"So you want us to figure out what's going on?" Gauss asked "And do it in a way that doesn't tip off Celestia?" Luna nodded "Alright I'll talk it over with the other squad leaders, but it’s going to be difficult to keep this hidden from Twilight"
"I know but we must try." Luna said as she looked out at that bastion that Ponyville had become and felt a tinge of sadness at what had become of the once peaceful town. "I fear this is only the beginning"
Elsewhere, a number of creatures had a stare off, each trying to determine his or her weakness and what they would do next to leave the other in utter defeat and without hope of victory.
All were still, until one finally made a move to break the silence.
"Full House!" Dingo cried as he showed his hand, two jacks and three kings.
"Not so fast" Berry punch said as she showed her hand (or hoof in this case) " 4 Aces bitches!" she cried with a large smile as she went to collect the large pile of bits at the center of the table.
She was stopped by Chad she slowly placed down his cards, a 5,6,7,8 and 9 of spades " Straight flush" he said in his usual emotionless tone.
It was then that everyone involved regretted playing with the kilo squad man, the whole game he held a constant expression akin to stone, making him very hard to read by all of the other players.
“Dammit! You win again” Berry Punch exclaimed as the two Royal guardsponies and three humans began to put away their few remaining bits “How do you do it?”
“Just lucky I guess” he said as he got up and took only a small portion of his winnings “Take the rest between you, I'm going to get something to eat.” chad said as he left.
Dingo and his fellow zebra squad member, Garrus, watched him go.
“I can never get that guy” Dingo said as he took a few bits from the pile “What’s with him?”
“Chads been though as much as the rest of us, though I hear he was one of the survivors of Karvok”
“Shit, really? No wonder he's so quiet, having lived though that hell” Dingo took a swig of his cider while berry punch took a taste test of the brew she was making in a small cauldron nearby, something that was a combination of local cider and Human moonshine.
“God Berry I wish you'd finish with that beer already”
“Hey, I don't know about you humans but here in Equestria we like to make sure our brews are as strong they can be, and since brewing is my special talent I pride myself on making the best alcoholic beverages this side of Canterlot” She said as she showed the two royal guards out and coming back to the counter “So If I say it’s going to take some time then it’s going to take some time and that’s that”
“Ok ok fine” Dingo said, trying not to bring the brew master's wrath, as such a wrath would result in the loss of entrance to the only drinking spot in Ponyville.
Berry Punch turned her attention to Garrus as the angry scowl disappeared from her face “Garrus could you tell Doc that I've got her order of wine ready to collect”
“Oh? She got something planed our wayward lieutenant?” Garrus asked, regarding the medics crush on Gauss “I'm glad that the M.I allows for squad members to pursue relationships with each other. But I just hope they get the rank thing fixed, otherwise those two will be in trouble when SICON arrives.”
“So how are things going on that front anyway?” Berry asked as she picked up and mug and started cleaning it “Anyone call back?” Garrus shook his head “No, Gauss says that there’s some sort of interference stopping all communications off world” he said before taking a swig of his drink “If we had a transmitter and knew our location in relation to the nearest SICON outpost then maybe we could get some help, but since at the moment we have nether we're stuck and the moment. Our best hope is to keep looking for some Argonite crystal to boost the signal strength by tenfold.”
“Well sorry about that, I'm sure you all want to hear from your families”
“Hrump! Not all of us” Dingo said quietly as he got up and started to walk out “I'll go check on the Ye Olde Goone Squade”
Once he was gone Berry Punch looked at Garrus with and inquisitive look “Dingo never got along with his parents, and his sister died on Earth during the last weeks of the war”
“Oh Celestia, Was she caught in the crossfire?”
“No, she fell ill and died a short while later. There just weren’t enough hospitals left and not enough medicine for everyone.” Garrus looked towards the door where Dingo had left through “The guy doesn’t really have much waiting for him outside of the Mobile Infantry. I almost wonder what will happen to him when the war’s finally over.”
“How about you? You got anyone waiting for you back home?” Berry asked.
“Just a dopey kid brother” Garrus said “He can be trouble sometimes but I wouldn’t trade him for anything.” As the two chatted they were unaware that Dingo was leaning against the wall outside looking up at the sky, a pained look upon his face.
“KEEP THAT RIFLE STEADY SOLDIER, YOU! DO YOU WANT TO HAVE YOUR HEAD TORN FROM YOUR BODY! TAKE OUT THAT BUG!”
Shining Armour watched as Twilight, adorned in full power suit grilled his Unicorn Guards in using ‘Muskets’ as the humans called them. Some of the Guards were sweating as they tried to reload their rifles quickly with their magic and fire at the approaching wooden cutout of an Arachnid warrior moving towards them.
“And now you’re dead! Congratulations. Go out back and give me ten laps around the courtyard!” Twilight shouted to one of the Guards who let the carboard cutout of the arachnid get right in his face, failing the exercise. The Guard saluted her, put down his rifle and ran out of the Firing Range to do as he was ordered.
In another part of the training yard guards fought in small groups against a hoards of dummy wooden warriors, brought to partial life and made to move by master puppeteers for training purposes. The wooden dummy managed to ‘kill’ two guards by touching its pincers at their backs and the guards played dead while the rest of the ponies attacked its limbs with wooden weapons, training to hack off limbs and stab the beasts in their nerve stems.
This was this particular batch of guard’s first time even seeing a bug never mind fighting one, many times Shining had tried to get his sister to take it easy on the trainees but she insisted that this was the only way they would ever be ready to face the bugs when the time came. At some level he could understand treating the trainees so harshly.... but hearing it coming from Twilight scared him to no end.
The filly who not long ago would never even consider such a harsh training program was now completely set in the idea. Shining was scared by the change in Twilight and many shared his view, since Sunset Shimmer died Twilight had scarcely talked to her friends and according to Spike spent most of her free time either training, or locking herself in her lab from hours on end, trying to find a way to beat the bug threat through magic or science before the Arachnids overwhelmed Equestria and killed more of her friends.
While it was certainly true that she locked herself in her lab for extensive works before she had met the M.I troopers it still was worrying. And her eyes... those eyes... where there was once the sparkle of such wonder and beauty, now there was only dull purple eyes that showed none of its previous shine. Instead there was anger and desperation behind her eyes.
“She torturing the trainees again?” Shining heard from his side as Norris went and stood by him. They were in an observation room overlooking the training grounds.
“Yes, I've asked her to take it easy on them but she refuses.”
“Well she has the right Idea, she reminds me of my old camp drill Sargent to be honest”
Shining said nothing as he watched Twilight shove aside an unfortunate trainee who hadn’t been careful and nearly dropped his loaded rifle. Twilight exploded into a fiery tirade at the pony, releasing obscenities that were unheard of coming from the ponies’ mouth as she told him about how dangerous that was and proceeded to make him do pushups, with two backpacks on loaded with rifle bullets.
“It's hard... seeing her like this” Shining said “Even when she faced all the other evils that threatened Equestria before, Nightmare moon, the Changelings, not once has she ever taken a life, nor as easily as she does with a bug”
“From what you have told me before, she's always been able to fall back on the elements and her friends to face these threats.” Norris reminded Shining “But with the Arachnids, none of those will help, the only way to beat a bug is to kill it, and with General Patricks backing them... Maybe this is the only way she can think of to do any good” as Shining continued his silence Norris continued speaking to calm the ponie’s nerves.
“Shining, I know you don’t like seeing her like this and everyone who knows her shares you view, but me and Bernstein have an Idea, We're going to order her back to ponyville for some R&R and just in case she tries to wiggle her way out of it, we've got Luna to do some digging in the law books and find something to force her if she won't.” Bernstein said humorously though most of their plans included using a faked letter from Celestia telling Twilight to go out and have fun.
Shining looked away from Twilight in surprise “Really? But don’t you need her here?”
“You forget, me and Lieutenant Bernstein have been serving in the mobile infantry longer then she has known it even existed, We can whip these Trainees into shape just fine without her.”
Twilight just couldn't believe it, she had just finished a training session with the trainees when Norris, Bernstein and Luna had come up to her and practically ordered her to take a week of R&R, they had even gone as far as gone looking for a law that stated that if at least two of four princesses voted that one needed to take a break for a certain about of time then the one would be forced to do so.
The two princesses who had voted this were Luna and Candace under the advice of Lieutenants Bernstein and Norris, all claimed that she had been pushing herself and her trainees to the limit and was doing more harm than good, barely taking time to relax and if they left her on this path it would cause her health both mentally and physically to decline.
“Nonsense” Twilight fumed to herself as she started packing, putting a small pistol in with her luggage and hiding it with her books and toothbrush. “I am in complete control of my faculties.”
“They have a point Twilight” Spike said as he packed his own luggage “You have been pushing yourself allot lately. You could use a break you’ve been working too hard.”
“Because I need to make sure we're ready!” Twilight snapped and instantly regretted it “Sorry Spike” Spike waved off the apology “This is what they were talking about, you've got a shorter temper and barely sleep, when was the last time you showered even?" this got Twilight thinking and blushing.
"Exactly, look it’s only for a week, so you can take some time to relax, see our friends and take a break ok?"
Twilight contemplated arguing but looking at Spikes pleading eyes and relented "Ok Spike, if it means so much to you then I'll do it, it might be good to see the girls again."
As Twilight turned back to packing Spike said a silent thank you before returning to his own packing.
Deep within the Everfree forest, a patrol of Arachnid warriors stalked through the under growth, where ever they went, any remaining wildlife (that had not been devoured) in the immediate ran for safety or hid silently.
The Warriors were keeping their attention firmly on their surroundings, alert for any threats within their territory while in a way hoping to find something to sate their endless bloodlust and hunger.
Their antennae twitched as a loud beeping drew their attention, all five warriors roared and swarmed towards the source of the noise which was a bundle of items hanging from a low branch on a tree.
In an act of pure stupidity they all gathered around the beeping objects with the lead arachnid stretching up to get a better look at the objects, the un-fortune bug saw that the objects were explosives a split second before they blew up, wiping out the entire patrol in a common trick used to kill Arachnid patrols.
A couple meters away in the safety of a camouflaged fox hole, a robed figure sat with a pair of binoculars to her eyes. "Hmmm, that should be a good enough distraction" there was a rustling to her right followed by a soft touch on her shoulder. "Yes I could have easily snuck past them, but this was more fun. Get back and wait for my signal." the woman climbed out of the camouflaged hole and held tightly onto a scoped long barrel Morita rifle, the scope having been fashioned out of a small spyglass stolen from a pony trade caravan several days ago.
‘The downed supply ship should be this way’ the woman thought as she moved fast and silent like a ghost in the forest, quickly followed by the large outline of something large and muscular.
In a clearing a few more meters away sat the remains of a still smoldering downed supply ship, crates full of munitions, equipment, food and materials were strewn across the ground, sitting next to it was a pitch black, unmarked skimmer being loaded by three black power suited troopers were who were just finishing up with loading the crates of supplies onto the skimmer, which was already filled to the brim, they were being watched over by a single warrior bug which stood sentry on top of the downed ship. The bug let out a low growl as its hive mind sensed the deaths of the other warriors and began howling and warning the Human allies below that it was time to leave.
The cloaked woman leaned against a tree just out of the clearing and listened in on what the trio were saying while taking the safety off of her rifle and checking the magazine.
"Hurry up, I want to be out of here before that bug gets impatient."
"If you want to get out of here quicker then maybe give us a hand here" one the men carrying a large crate with his partner said. "No can do, I'm looking for something" The man said as he rummaged in an open crate "The General said there was something he needed for his latest experiment in this shipment."
The large figure that had followed the woman was by her side and whispering to her as its ears picked up the words of Patrick’s men.
"Yes, that does sound interesting, we should capture that one and see what he knows." she said as the two grunts loaded their crate onto the skimmer "Ok on my mark, you take the warrior and I'll handle dumber and dumber down here" the was huff of confirmation and then the creature was gone.
The woman brought her scope up to her eye and settled her cross-hares upon the first of the grunts just as the leader of the group shouted out in triumph "Found it!" The woman retrained her sights on him to see what he had, held in his grasp was a large data chip with a glowing center.
"What you got there?" the woman said to herself as she trained her sights on one of the grunts and readied her finger on the trigger before she exhaled and squeezed.
The grunt soon had the unfortunate problem of having a pulse round through his head and out the other side, his buddy didn't have time to react as he too got a round through the skull.
The leader of the group jumped into cover and was looking for the warrior that was meant to be guarding them only for its mutilated corpse to drop in front of him. The Arachnid’s body looked smashed as if a giant had taken to it with a hammer for several minutes. "Shit! what the hell is going on?" he shouted as he made to run for the skimmer only to run into the robed woman who slammed her rifle into his gut before producing a knife and stabbing it into the powerpack for his suit, rendering it almost useless.
"What's going on is that I'm going be taking your Skimmer, supplies and this" she took the data chip from the man and pushed him away from her.
"Thank you, oh and sorry but you’re coming to." She said after slipping the chip into one of her pockets an pointing the barrel of her rifle right at the center of the man’s chest,
"Like hell bitch!" the man shouted as he tried to rush her only for him to be struck from behind, he did however manage to knock the woman's hood off. He then paled at the realization of who he was looking at "No... but you’re supposed to be dead! That bug killed you."
A very much alive Sunset Shimmer shot him a toothy grin "I was, But I got better" the man was unable to say anything as Sunset wacked him over the head with the butt of her rifle. Shimmer then took his helmet and stripped off his power suit incase it had a tracking device in it.
When it was done she stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly, the ground next to her shifted and soon several Diamond Dog soldiers in rusty or dented armor and carrying a spears burst through, several smaller dogs followed suit and began raiding the supply skimmer.
“Hurry up, we’ve got work to do and they will know something’s wrong.” She said as the dogs went to work and the large Diamond dog that had followed her came over.
“Fido do good on first mission?” The large dog that had once helped to kidnap Rarity asked. His face was scared from when the Arachnids had attacked his home and his once favorite jacket was torn from having to be on the run for a long time. Shimmer smiled as she reached a hand back and began scratching behind Fido’s ear.
“Yes very very good on your first mission.” She said, trying not to laugh as the dog let his tongue hang out and his leg began kicking at the ground just like an Earth dog did.
“Now take this guy back to our den and tie him up. I’ve got some questions to ask him.”
An hour later and our commandeered skimmer touched down just out side the tunnel system that was home to the Dogs that for last few months I had been working with. I was on the ground even before the ramp was hit the ground barking orders (pun not intended) to the dog who rushed to join us to unload the supplies and stow the prisoner. Fido dragged the stripped man out of the skimmer and towards the tunnel entrance, I'd deal with hi later but right now there was only three things that concerned me, to get out of this very uncomfortable power suit, read whatever juicy data was on this data disk and take a good long nap in that order exactly.
So I descended into the dimly lit depths, every once and a while I'd pass a group of dogs who'd nod in my direction as I'd pass by, I wasn't on a first name bases with everyone here as I most of the Diamond dogs were spread across a tunnel network that spanned the entirety of Equestria and beyond, but that wasn't that only reason... that fact was that there really wasn't many of them left after what happened a month and a half ago.
I arrived at the door leading to my room and slowly pushed open the door, expecting the person who was certainly waiting for me inside.
I didn't however expect him to soar through the air and tackle me to the ground and lick my face repetitively.
“Blegh! R-Rex Stop Ew! Licking me!” I gasped between licks.
I pushed off my furry assailant with one arm while leaning up and wiping my face with the other, Rex sat in front of me, his tail swishing and his tongue hanging out happily, Rex was a regular German Sheppard, brown and black fur, big brown eyes, the whole package.
Wiping the slobber from my face I shot him a look that would have killed any other mortal Creature, but he just obliviously sat there with his tongue hanging limp “I though I told you not to do that”
“Actually you said I shouldn't do it as soon as you sit down” Rex said as a matter of factly.
Yea I should probably that he isn't a regular dog, he isn't even a dog at all but a Neodog, a symbiote taken from dog stock, Neodogs were the proevolution of dogs, combining the the natural talents of our normal 4 legged friends with the intelligence of a human, they were used by the elite pathfinder units in k9 squads to sniff out bug nests in environments that contain a breathable atmosphere, they were always paired with a human 'alpha' in a bond that was akin to marriage. I had the luck to bond to this guy almost a month ago.
Sighing I got up and brushed myself down and headed inside, but not before muttering “Smartass”
My room wasn't very big compared to the ones I've stayed in my time in M.I, it my small bunk was stashed in the corner and next to that was a large chest where I kept my gear that I prefer to use, opposite these was a small computer terminal which was glowing faint blue, I took a moment to remove my borrowed power suit and stack it in the corner. I doubt I will use it again as it's signature would probably be known to Patrick's men, besides it's more bulky to the one I'm use to now.
Now changed into something that didn't smell like bug juice I sat down and took out the data chip I'd taken from our prisioner. Rex tilted his head at it “What's that?” “A Data chip I took of one of the men at the crash site, he said something about Patricks needing it for something important, so I figured I'd take a peak”
I placed the ship into the chip drive of my terminal and waited for it to load, as soon as it did a big red screen appeared stating that it was a protected, I kissed my teeth “Of course it's encrypted” I muttered as I ran a decryption program, it was going to take a few minutes so I leaned back and closed my eyes. And as I sat there with my eyes closed I found myself thinking back... to when I first woke up all those weeks ago.
I can't feel anything... I think this is really it... the end, I remember the wind screeching by as I fell from the ship.... then the sickening squelch and crunch of my body hitting the ground.... there is no way I could have survived.
“What's her condition?”
What? Who is that?
“The creature still hasn't awoken mistress”
If I'm dead then why can I hear people? There's only one possible answer, I'm not dead, I'm in a coma.... FUCK!
I heard one of the people move closer to me “Is she ready for the procedure?” Procedure, that sounds bad “We're running out of time and the council is starting to bear down on me”
“Yes, but while her body and mind seem to be healed, the creature has yet to awaken fully from her slumber”
I heard the one closest to me chuckle “She may be in a Coma Doctor” she (At least I'm guessing it's a she) told the doctor “Be she can hear us just fine, now in your opinion is she ready?”
The Doctor seemed to hesitate for a bit before speaking “Yes she is ready, but I strongly protest to going through with it, the records we retrieved from the site said that her race abandoned this project due to the lives it took, we should wait until we fully perfect the process before even considering going though with this” Yes listen the the Doctor who I have no idea who or what is, I've already almost died more times then I want to count over the last few months.
“I understand your concerns doctor I really do and I even agree with them” the female said with remorse “This may kill her which I find as a complete waste of a good person” Awww thanks mysterious lady “But the Queen and Alpha have been pressing me for a breakthrough on this project, allot of hopes are riding on this”
I heard their footsteps followed by a door closing leaving me alone, I'm not sure how long I was there alone, but I knew it was for quite a while.
I was shaken from my memories by a chime from my computer signalling that the decryption was complete. “Now then” I said out loud as my fingers started to fly across the keyboard, In moments I had a list of files flying up the screen, names of projects and materials were what made up that data with some personnel reports. As I scrolled down I suddenly stopped as a name caught my eye.... project Sunset.
Interested I opened the file and found my mind blown.
This was it... the reason why Patricks had been after me all this time, and my god was it fucked up.
Project Sunset Project leader: General Patricks, MI Black Ops Research & Development. Project clearance level: Black 9 Project Goal: Creation of Arachnid queen under Human control Project Description by project leader: Project Sunset, So named after the subject, Is intended to be a means to control the Arachnid swarm, our original plan was to create a device that when implanted on an arachnid, emitting a controlling influence and therefore allow for us to gain complete control over them, when this failed we tried to create a replacement creature that would do the same, though all subjects had to be put down. But after the Results of project Mirror Mirror we found another way, the inhabitants of this mirror earth were found to have very adaptable DnA and latent physic talent, so combining our previous methods we attempted to transform subjects abducted from there into queens. All were failures... Command decided to end the project after that for a number of reasons, the main being the end of the war and the need to rebuild.
I believed this to be a mistake and when I found the matriarch I knew I had to continue, the arachnids are and should always be the true rulers or the galaxy, So I secretly continued my work, gathering like minded people to work with me, and after years of work we finally found her... Sunset Shimmer.
Originally from the mirror verson of mirror earth where everyone in mirror earth has a double of one of four pony races: Earth pony, Pegasus, Unicorn and Alicorn, and where magic is real too, Sunset had a bit of a chequered past but her uniqueness made her the perfect subject for rebirth into a new queen, after some creative manipulation I managed to convince her to agree to do whatever we wanted though she never knew what she was really doing.
We wiped her mind and modified her DnA, improving certain strands and unlocking her hidden potential, but I had those locked again until the intended replacement of memories could occur, but we we're betrayed, one of my closest advisers stole Sunset away, gave her new memories, and sent her through a mirror portal which he destroyed along with himself.
I had feared that our work had been for nought, but that was when I discovered that Sunset Shimmer had been serving in the Mobile Infantry since the Pluto Campaign, we had already known of the mirrors ability to tear holes in to the fabric of space/time, which in theory could have resulted in Sunset being sent back in time, we were unable to duplicate the process with any of our remaining mirror portals though we still are trying, but with how far behind schedule we we're I could not rely on this to reacquire the subject.
I had already faked my death so I couldn't have her transferred to me and make her disappear, so I put a plan into motion along side the matriarch, and it will take place on Tesca Nemorosa.
The rest was just technical data on who was involved, what was needed to perform the experiment... but not what exactly was done to me.
Rex was just a speechless as I was and we both just sat there staring at the words on the screen, I was trying hard to try and get my mind around it... if the information was solid then I really had been through allot without knowing it... and what kinda fucked up stuff did Patriacks do to me? This gave me more questions then answers, and as I read a little more I realized something “This data's incomplete”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive, looks like Patricks split the data into two, this half which has half of what's needed to do whatever it is that he wanted to to to me” I said pointing at the screen “And the other which he probably has on his computer network in the hive”
I got up with a groan of annoyance “It can't ever be easy, just once”
“Why don't you get some rest, you've been up for a day and a half now” Rex Reminded me “After your refreshed we'll figure out what to do next”
He was right, I was exhausted and god knew that all I wanted was to curl up and sleep, but I still had stuff to do “I still need to interrogate the prisoner and check through the supplies an-”
“I can do that” Rex interrupted “The supplies are pretty much stowed already and I know a few tricks that should loosen that guys tongue”
Suppressing a yawn I smiled at Rex wearily “That doesn't involve gnawing his leg off?” I joked.
“Ha Ha, Get to sleep trooper” Rex barked as he made his way out and I made my way to the warm, inviting covers of my bunk.
I'm not sure how long I've been here like this, I've tried to wake up, move, do something but for nothing, my body seems to like being a waste of space.
My mysterious hosts come in now and again, mostly the same doctors and nurses in to check my vitals, and a few visits from that Mistress lady. I'm sure my hosts are equine in nature as I can hear hoof steps.
I'm still being kept in the dark about this procedure I'm meant to be going through, though I've managed to pick up a few scraps of information from the nurses that gossip near me, I seems that whoever my hosts are, they have been under constant attack by the Arachnids and it was not going well. Also I've heard them refer to illness people their talking about by ling, using words like, Someling, and others along that line, who are these guys?
Today something seems different though, the nurses and doctors who came to check in on me were unusually quite and I felt most of them staring at me with pity. This quite understandably had me worried.
An hour later I heard five sets of hoof steps as five persons entered my room. I felt my legs and arms being strapped down to the bed by two strong pairs of hooves.
Then a voice that I did not recognize spoke "Wake her"
"But that's dangerous" it was the doctor from the first day "We don't know what state she is mentally, for a-"
"I did not ask for you opinion Doctor Goodwill" this new woman spat (She sounds like a real bitch) "Wake. Her. Now!"
Doctor Goodwill hesitated, but with a sigh he seemed to relent "Yes my queen" I felt an off ticklish sensation all throughout my body that was followed by a dull ache and a grogginess that wasn't there before. And slowly but surely I felt my eyes start to creek open.
Ay first I couldn't seem much other then a big bright light and I had to close my eyes and squint until my eyed adjusted to seeing again. When they did I had a tough time believing what I saw, and after I accepted it, I wondered wether I really had died and gone to hell as standing before me... Were Changelings, and one I particular filled me with dread "Chrysalis" I said, my distaste evident.
The Changeling queen raised an amused eye brow "Ah, so you know who I am" It wasn't a question. "Twilight told me about you a few weeks ago" I said glaring at the fanged leech "Said you were a nasty piece of work"
The queen let put a errie chuckle "Oh did she now, well you shouldn't judge a book by their covers you know" she said in an innocent tone "I'm sure that If we get to know with each other
Not interested in pleasantry's I got straight to the point "What do you want Chrysalis, and more to the point how the hell and I still alive" Really? Am I the only one wanting to know this?
The Female Changeling next to Chrysalis spoke up before Chrysalis said anything "If I may?" it was that mistress lady from before, one of two apparently Changelings who actually seemed to be concerned about me, she was taller and more slender then the drones Twilight had described, just a head under Chrysalis, I wondered if maybe she was royalty, a princess maybe, but dismissed this as I doubted would stand an hair.
"You may proceed Doctor" Chrysalis said, annoyed that the spotlight had been taken from her, the changeling in question paid the queen no mind. “When I and a drone brought you in a week ago, you were definitely in a critical condition but alive” she started to explain “We were surprised that you were even alive, at the time I had assumed that it was because of your armor that your survived, but your body was fully healed after 2 days”
Bullshit, there is no way I could have healed that fast, I'm not a superhuman..... I think.... "We searched the area and found a strange white-ish blue flower growing where you landed, we found it had regenerative property's"
White'ish blue flowers... I bloody love those things! "Those were Curatio flowers" I told them "We used them to supplement our low medical supplies.... But they never healed wounds that bad before, even in large amounts" I mused.
"I have a hypothesis for that, the flowers we found were in the middle of some sort of pollen distribution cycle, I believe you landed in the flower bed just during a time when that entire area was saturated in this pollen and a large quantity got into your bloodstream creating a more potent effect then before"
So I was saved by alien pollen... Huh... What is with this planet, one minute it wants you dead and the next it dumps you in a load of life saving pollen.
"As to what I want of you" Chrysalis said ending the Doctor's explanation"It is very simple... I want you as a weapon"
I couldn't help it, I broke out into laughter "Y-you wah-want me as 'Ha!' a weapon?" It was so absurd, what did she expect me to do? Face the who arachnid army on my lonesome?
Chrysalis wasn't amused "If I didn't need you I would slay you where you lay" she spat venomously "But as I do I shall graciously let it slide" Wow she really thinks the sun shines out of her ass doesn't she?
"As I do hate all this technical talk, I shall take my leave of you" she turned to the two Doctors "Doctors, I'll leave you explain the details” She left taking her guards leaving me and the two doctors alone.
Both wasted no time and got to introductions, the short male doctor was named Goodwill while the tall slender female doctor was called Sela, they started to explain what exactly the queen wanted of me. I Couldn’t believe what I was told.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Present day
I was awoken to howls and agitated clicking, my eye's shot open as I shot out of bed and grabbed my cloak, ammo belt and rifle, I knew that those sounds could be one of two things, 1 was that we were under attack by the bugs, but as I heard no screaming or weapons fire this probably wasn’t it. So I went with option 2, that the prisoner I had just acquired was lose and probably trying to escape now. Moving quickly I reached where I knew Rex would have placed the prisoner, by the door lay two unconscious Diamond Dogs, by the looks of it they didn’t even get the chance to put up a fight, inside the cell wasn’t any better, the cell contained a table, bed and chair, all of which were flipped or toppled over.c
A single Diamond dog lay unmoving on the floor, the chair leg embedded in his skull... I knew he was dead from the moment I laid eyes on him... such as waste of life... but where was Rex?
“Rex!” I called out looking frantic for the Neodog.
A small whine drew me to the over turned table “I'm over here, the table has me pinned” rushing over I took the edge of the table and pulled it to the side, sure enough my K-9 partner shakily stood up and shook himself “Thanks Sunset, that thing weighed more then a tone”
“You alright?” I asked as I crouched down and looked him over “What happened”
“I'm alright, just got pinned” Rex assured me “And what happened is that the bastard took us by surprise, I don't know what he is be he ain’t human, broke his cuffs and killed poor Caesar and took out the guards in a few seconds” “Think he's an infiltrator bug?” “Not a chance, you know they are as strong and fast as a regular human in human form, this bastard.... he's something else” If that's the case then he was too dangerous to let live, I couldn’t risk trying to capture him again. I'm going to have to kill him.
Getting up I took off the safety on my weapon “Lets go, he's probably heading for the exit” “Right behind you”
Taking off running I headed through the twists and turns of the tunnel network, along the way we saw the bloody trail of the prisoner, bodies and wounded littered the way, their wounds getting worse and worse, where the one's closer to the cell were mostly blunt force, the one's further away had what looked like either blade or claw marks, just what the hell was he?
I had to skid to a stop as a group of changelings rushed up to meet us “Have you seen the prisoner?” I demanded to the groups leader. “It is heading towards the main entrance” The lead Changeling answered quickly with agitated buzzing from it's wings “Brothers and sisters tried to stop it, but we were nothing but an annoyance to it”
“Ok, head to the hospital and get medics” I told them as I ran past them, weapon ready for whatever monster I was about to face.
A lot of running later and we found ourselves outside to the scene of carnage, the bodies of wounded or dead Changelings and Diamond Dogs lay scattered across the ground, the Skimmer I had commandeered was still sat where I had left it... why didn’t he take it? “You got his scent Rex?” The Neodog sniffed the Air for a moment but recoiled as if he had been struck “Egha! Yes I smell him” he said disgusted “Smells like Death... and beetroot?” I raised my rifle “Lead me to him”
**********
We found him in a clearing, crouched over and feasting on remains of a Dead Changeling, If this had been a man once... he certainly wasn’t now, his body had expanded with muscle and a hard shell that cracked and split his power suit, his arms now resembled curved blades and his legs were bent back resembling that of the diamond dogs I worked with and a pair of insect wings sat messily on his back, his face registered barley as human as it was mostly covered in a shell and his jaw had split down the middle like a pair of lower mandibles, but it was his eyes that got me the most... they were as black as this... monsters soul surly was, there was no hint of the humanity this man once had or any intelligence at all... just primal Rage.
I wasted no time and opened fire on the abomination, not taking my finger off the trigger until my weapon ran empty, but even after emptying an entire clip into the monster, he was unharmed, he looked away from his meal and turned to me, mandibles spread wide in a growl.
“So that's how it's going to be” I muttered as I dropped the spend weapon “Rex.... Get back to the tunnels“ I told him without taking my eyes of the monster “get backup”
Even without looking I knew he didn't like the Idea, but he didn't say anything, he knew just as much as I did that this was the only way, Probably would be over before he got back. So off he went, leaving me and the abomination alone.
Reaching to my ammo belt I grabbed the odd object hanging from it, it was a bladeless hilt that fit my hand like a glove, a bar went over my knuckle like and old of knuckle duster, the bar ended steep triangular tip.
Taking a wide stance I activated the device.
With a flick of my wrist twin pulsating Red and yellow blade burst to life, the two oval shaped blades were as long as my entire arm and ended in twin tips that stood side by side with a slight gap between the two. I began to circle my opponent, by blade raised over my head with it's tips pointed at the monster who did the same, it's grotesque blades mimicking my actions...
Not wanting to let him have the first strike I charged, skipping across the the foliage with the speed and skill of a trained swordsman I stopped abruptly in front of the beast and spun, using the momentum of the action to improve the effectiveness of my strike... it worked as the twin blades of hot magic sliced through the monster's shell where my bullets bad just bounced off harmlessly, but unfortunately while I had hurt him I had not done any serious damage as, as soon as he had felt the blades cut his shell he had bounced back bellowing in pain.
He brought one of his bladed limbs down to try to take my head but I Parried it and planted a boot in his stomach and kicked off him, flipping in the air and landing on my feet a short distance away at the ready again, this bastard might be just a monster but he's not stupid, he was smart enough to back off when hurt and try to catch me off guard, I've got to end this fast.
This time the monster came at me but I was ready, deflecting when needed and jabbing when I could, his caused him to put more anger into his attacks making them sloppy and less coordinated, it was just a matter of time before one of us scored a hit.... and that honor went to me as he swung for my neck, I ducked under the strike and quickly brought up my blade taking his arm in one swift motion, as it bellowed in pain I pressed my attack, slicing and jabbing in quick succession cutting large chunks from the thing forcing it back one strike at at time, I was sure I could have finished him off, but I got careless.
Just as I was about to take his head the monster used his remaining arm to hit me hard in the side and send me flying into a tree, knocking the wind out of me. Recovering quickly I looked for my blade, the good news was that it wasn't broken, the bad news was that it had been thrown to to the other end of the clearing and standing between me and it was a seriously pissed off monster.
I doubt I could get to it before being mauled and skewered to death, and all I had was my combat knife, and I doubted I could pierce his shell and kill him.... unless.... his eyes, If I can stick my knife in his eyes I might be able to end this, IF I could do so while avoiding his armblade.
Aw fuck it, I drew the knife and charged, as I expected he scythed in arm down towards me, at that point I was letting my body move on it's own, I didn't even know what was happening until...
Squelch! RRRAAAAAAAAAAGH!
I had dug the knife deep into the thing's eye, the monster was futilely trying to remove the blade from the now ruined organ, but still it didn't die, I rushed around it and dived for my Magi-Blade and re-ignited it, and rammed it through it's back.
But then something odd happened... as soon as the twin crimson and yellow energy blades pierced the monster's back, I was struck with what I could only call a vision.
It wasn't a clear one, just a jumble of images, feelings and sensations.
I saw fire, Pain, carnage and death.
I saw a city in ruins and fire and it's citizens falling one by one.
And then I saw the sky darken and fire began to rain from it.
And then I heard it, A sinister voice that struck fear in my very soul...
“WE. ARE. COMING.”
And as the vision ended I felt my blade go up and out of the monster, slicing it in half and ended it's life.
It slumped down before me, finally still, foul smelling blood spilled out over the foliage around the corpse, as if the Monster was making one last attempt to foul the world with it's presence.
As I stood there the Adrenalin that had kept me going wore off and pain hit me like a wrecking ball, I let my blade slip from my grasp, it's twin blades fizzling out and the hilt hitting the ground with a fain thunk, I dropped to my knees and clutched my side, I had hit the tree hard, not hard enough to do anything serious like break my ribs or something but god did it hurt... I'm starting to get really tired of being everyone's whipping girl.
“Sunset!” I looked to the direction of the voice, Rex, a number of Diamond dogs and Changelings were rushing towards me “I'm alright. Just bruised my side”
One of the dogs helped me up and handed me my blade hilt which I re-placed on my belt, everyone else was gawking at the dead monster that now lay on the ground “Don't get to close” I warned “I don't know If this man was infected by some virus or if this is what Patricks is doing to his men but I don't want to risk you lot getting infected” I crouched down over the remains of it's head and ripped my knife out and wiped the blood off it before sheathing it behind me and backing away from it and looking to the changelings “Burn it, I don't want anything left but ash” I didn't stick around and walked away, the sounds of jets of flames cremating the remains.
If today was any indication then I knew that I could no longer stay a ghost, With the information I had gathered and what had happened now I knew I needed to act, but I couldn't do so with the Diamond dogs and Changelings, sure they were experienced fighters but they just wouldn't cut it, I needed Men and women Train to fight bugs... I needed Zebra squad.
And they all think I'm dead.... No that's not true... one still Knows I'm alive.
“Tomorrow Lieutenant Sunset Shimmer Come's back from the grave”
When the Pegasus Guard recon had reported that a whole supposedly abandoned SICON outpost, it was not something they could pass up.
Since arriving In Equestria the M.I Grunts had began to run low on almost everything from bullets to spare parts for the vehicles and just about everything, this outpost was their prayers answered. And what was better was that the outpost had a large transmitter that if operational would allow them to hopefully pierce the interference and contact SICON for Reinforcements. So here Zebra and Delta squads were, about to be dropped into the main courtyard of the outpost. Rachel Doc, now Acting Sargent for Zebra Squad Checked over her gear one last time, Her Marauder suit had been left back in Ponyville as it would be useless in the close quarters interior of the outpost, As she was one of two remaining M.I medics Doc now had the lives of nearly 20 troopers to care for.
“OK Ground ponders we're 5 minutes out from the target”
“Affirmative Pilot” Gauss Said over the coms “You hear the Flyboys you apes, I want weapons ready and boots on the ground in five!”
“Sir yes Sir!” The Squad replied.
Doc Picked up her Morita stood at the ready on the Cargo elevator along with everyone else, Gauss was in full command of the two squads as Delta Squads L.T was needed elsewhere, Five minutes later and The Elevator lowered giving doc her first look at the outpost, it was small compared to many she had seen in her carrier, but Doc guessed that most of it was underground, at least she hoped so.
The two squads dropped down from the Elevator platform and took defensive positions as the Retrieval Boat took to the air again and left us alone.
Minutes later we were spit into teams, Gauss too three of Delta's members along with Honeydew and Xephos, making Blue team who went to control, Doc took Franklen, Garrus, Lee and Dingo making red team tasked with searching for medical supplies while everyone else formed Green and Yellow Teams searching for Intel, ammo and other supplies.
“Radio checks every 5 minutes” Gauss reminded everyone as he opened the outpost doors, the interior was dark and devoid of any power which meant that the base was without main power, so Gauss ordered Green team to find the outpost's generator and get it back online.
Doc's team was forced to use their head lamps in the dark corridors which cast eerie shadows all about adding to the creep factor was their own foot steps which echoed all the way down the corridor. “This if freaking me out” Lee stated, eyeing the shadows as if a bug was about to jump out at any moment “What's an outpost like this doing out here anyway?” “Maybe it was on Tesca Nemorosa and got dragged here when we did” Garrus suggested. “If that was is then why didn't the outpost we were in get taken too?” Doc asked, getting in the conversation “Not even the Equestrians know much about those Mirror portals, But I've got a feeling that this was originally built here”
“I've got a body Here”
Everyone looked over to where Dingo was looking, sure enough the body of a human in scientist overalls, Doc crouched down and examined the body “Definitely human, A male... I think” I was hard to tell with the state of the body, it was Cremated, decapitated and decomposing all at once “ugh, He's been dead for months” “Any Idea what did this to him” Dingo asked leaning down. “I looks like he's been hit by a Tanker” Garrus said “Though I find it hard to believe that one could fit in here” “Firefrys?” Lee said out loud “God I hope it's not them, I know what they can do to a human”
“Stay focused” Doc told them as she radioed Blue team “Blue leader, this is red team”
“Go ahead Red team” Gauss responded “What's your situation?” “Sir we found the remains of a human scientist, he's been cremated and what's left is rotting, I'd say he's been here for a few months” “We're finding the same thing up here in control too” Gauss told them “What ever did this may still be around” “Affirmative Blue lead, Red Team out” Doc cut coms, silently telling Gauss Be careful.
“Jesus Christ! Sarge you better get over here!”
Garrus's Shocked call got the team running over to the room he was staring into, what they saw there nearly made Doc throw up. Beyond the door was a massive room filled with Tanks upon glass Tanks of green bubbling liquid, suspended within each were possibly hundreds of ponies and humans, each showed signs experimentation, while some were slight like discolored skin or malting fur, but some of the serious were horribly mutated, with bug appendages replacing normal limbs or just sprouting from random places on their bodies, there could be no doubt of what was being done at this outpost... genetic experiments to fuse Arachnids, Humans and Ponies.
Doc heard one of her team Throw up behind her, while everyone else looked on in disgust.
Forcing down her own bile Doc issued orders to her team “Look for a console to patch into, I want to know if any of these things are alive”
The team went about their gruesome work, moving between the tanks looking for a console trying desperately not to look at the figures floating in them, it was Dingo who found the console first, as luck would have it emergency power was keeping the console alive, what was displayed on it however both shocked and sickened Doc right to her core, all these poor things were being kept alive by advanced medical systems, and the brain reading on some showed that many were still conscious and in great pain.
“What Kind of monster would do this?” Dingo found himself muttering. “A Monster Named General Patricks” Doc said pointing at the project leader's name “He's responsible for all this”
“Look...” Garrus said bringing up a map of the lab “There's a room here listed under priority research, Project AHP 14, maybe we should check it out”
“Might as well” Doc agreed “I want to see what sort of Fucked up shit Particks classes as priority research”
Again they moved through the lab once again, heading to the far end until they came across what they were looking for, a large blast door with the letters and numbers AHP-14, Garrus tapped at the door's key pad, but only to find it lifeless.
Cursing Doc Radioed Green team “Red to Green, you guys got the power going yet?”
“Almost Doc” Sjin Responded “Just give us a minute”
Almost a few seconds after that the entire room began to light up and the door keypad bleeped to life. “Hows that Red?” “Good, Thanks Green” Doc thanked “We'll contact you in five” “Roger that”
Taking positions around the door, Garrus entered a code that started to open the door with the hiss of pistons and grinding of gears, the door split apart, one half rising into the wall while the bottem lowered into the ground, beyond a number of bright lights flickered on reveling four bug cells, with the numbers 1-5 on them with number 4 at the center.
They spread out through the room, looking into the windows that were at the center of each cell door, each one of them were shocked to find that the all but one cell contained a bug belonging to the same species that Snowflake belonged to, all were dead except for one.
“I've got a live one here!” Dingo called from Cell 4, looking inside her self Doc could see that the bug inside was definitely still breathing, So Doc made a decision “Open it up” “Are you sure sir” Garrus asked “I know Snowflake is friendly but we don't know if this one will”
“I believe it will” Doc told him “From my studys of Snowflake I found that her bug breed is biologicly incapable of communicating with other bugs and can't be controlled by them, If' I'm right then I think they may be the result of extreme genetic modification combining Human, Arachnid and Pony DnA, who ever this poor thing was is still it there” she explained “Open it”
“Alright...” Garrus said as Dingo worked the controls “But I'm keeping my gun on it just in case”
The door quickly slid open showing a badly scratched cell, not coordinated strikes like most bugs, but desperate clawing.
Doc moved to the pale blue white dotted bug's side and flipped down her visor to scan it's bio readings “Weak... but physically fine, If we can get it back to Ponyville I'm sure It'll be fine”
“Sarge I've got an I'd on this one, it's listed under Subject 4 Je-” Dingo suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence, his silence was followed by the clatter of his weapon dropping to the floor. Doc turned to him and saw him frozen in place and physically shaking “What's the name Corporal?”
Dingo still said nothing as just stared at the screen in silence, Lee walked over to him and softly nudged him aside and read the screen, she backed away almost instantly after reading and covering a gasp with her hand “Oh fuck.... Subject 4.... Jenifer... Dingo....” The Bug chose then to wake up, it's eyes opened and focused on the first person they saw... Dingo.
What they heard it say next shocked them all.
The voice of a scared 12 year old girl reverberated through their minds, saying two words.
Big.... Brother....
“THIS IS YELLOW TEAM TO ALL TEAM'S, HOSTILES ENGAGED! I REPEAT! HOSTILES ENGA-”
“YELLOW TEAM TO ALL TEAMS! WE’VE ENGAGED HOSTILES! I REPEAT WE’VE EN-“ “Green team to Red and Blue” Sjin called over the radio “I’ve got eyes on yellow, a mix of Spiders and Black suits just captured them, be advised that they are using Skinnie stun weapons”
“Skinnie stun weapons?” Lee asked rhetorically “Great I wonder why they want us alive” “Let’s not stick around to find out” Doc said as she turned on her radio “Red to Blue lead, Gauss We found something you’re not going to like, we’re making our way to you”
“Negative Doc, get your team out of here!” Gauss shouted over the radio, gunfire clear in the background “We’re pinned down, meet green team and in vehicle bay and get back to base” Doc didn’t like the sound of that “What about you?”
“We can’t control the Transmitter from here, but the long ranged sensors detected a SICON ship that’s about to pass by the system” Gauss stopped for a bit as the gunfire increased for a bit “We’re making our way down the com’s room to try and get a message to them”
“Gauss that’s suicide without backup” Doc pointed out “We’re coming to you” Doc said getting up and started out the door.
“No” Gauss’s sharp tone stopped her in her tracks “I saw what you found on the cameras… Get that kid out of here Sargent… that’s an order”
Doc felt a hand on her shoulder “Listen to him Doc” Garrus told her “You know he’s right”
Doc wanted to argue, to disobey… to do anything to erase that fact that they both were right and she knew it… but that didn’t make it any better. “Fine… but once she’s safe I’m coming back for you”
“I have no doubt” Gauss said amused “Good luck Rach” “You too John…” Doc said quietly as she cut the line, quickly re composing herself Doc turned to her team, no matter what her feelings for Gauss was, their safety should be her priority “Ok you apes, We’re moving out”
She walked back over to the two Dingos “Can you walk?” she asked Jenifer. The young girl/bug didn’t say anything, managing to pull off a scared look dispute being a bug, it took a reassuring pat and some warm word from her brother to get her to open up ‘I…I think so’ she said ‘But I’m so s…scared’
Doc put on a warm smile “It’s ok, we’re all scared, but I need you to be brave for me and your brother” She told the scared bug girl and slapped Dingo’s shoulder pad “Because I know that this bozo’s goanna make sure that anything that tries to hurt you’s going to get a greeting from Ms Morita and Mr Boot”
Dingo cocked his Morita in agreement “You bet Sarge”
Jenifer nodded with a nervous chatter of her mandibles lifted herself up shakily, Doc noticed immediately that Jenifer was smaller than Snowflake was, Snowflake was the size of a regular Warrior bug while Jenifer was a couple heads shorter then Doc was, other than that they were almost identical, same carapace colour, same snowflake-like white dots and same human eyes, only Jenifer’s were deep blue instead of storm grey.
Doc kept smiling as she started ordering her team “Dingo, Lee I want you two stick near Dingo’s sister and watch her back, me and Garrus got point” they all nodded in agreement and quickly made their way out of the horror show that that the Bio-lab. Out in the corridor that lights were on negating the need for head lamps, taking a right they moved quickly through the corridors taking twists and turns and stairs to their destination which unfortunately was all the way on the other side of the outpost, and taking the direct route would most likely put them in direct confrontation with the enemy, so they were going to take a less direct route through the outpost’s power plant.
They passed by where Doc guessed Green team had been near an open ventilation duct.
“Looks big enough for Jenifer to get through” Garrus pointed out “And looks like Green team knew we’d be coming and left us a map to the Vehicle bay” he showed her a map of vents that had a path drawn on it in green marker.
“Quicker than taking the scenic route” Doc stated as she ordered the team through, with Garrus taking the lead followed by Jenifer and Lee with Doc and Dingo in the back, as they crawled Doc decided to ask Dingo some questions about his sister “How old is she anyway” asked “I mean she had to be- what 8 or 9 when you through she died?”
“She was supposed to turn 10 that week” Dingo said thoughtfully so she’s 11 now” Doc hear him swear to himself “I should have known something was up when the doctors said she died… She was doing fine you know” Dingo said “She was going to be released three days before that, but then the doctors said she’d taken a turn for the worse and didn’t let me see her for those three days, when they finally said she’d died I didn’t even see the body, the room she was being kept in got blown up by plasma bug fire… I should have known something want right”
Doc wasn’t sure what to say, she knew that the squad had been going through a lot during the invasion of Earth and she knew that Dingo’s parents had died just weeks prior to his sister’s supposed death, she’d lost her folks too the same day he’d lost his and knew that neither of them were in the right state of mind to put a puzzle like that together that that time, doc had a feeling that Dingo knew this… but he still couldn’t stop blaming himself.
When they were above their objective Garrus stopped everyone “I’ve got two IFFs… It’s Sjin and Roberts”
Doc thanked whatever deity watched over them that they weren’t the only ones to reach the meet up point “Red to Green, We’re in the vent’s above you with a friendly Snowflake type bug, don’t fire”
Garrus kicked the vent hatch open and dropped down onto the Troop transport below followed by Jennifer and everyone else, jumping down next to the truck they met up with the two troopers “Where's the rest of your team”
“Got nabbed on the way over here” Sjin said from inside the truck's front cab, Roberts was loading up crates into the back of the Troop transport “We found a load of weapons crates stashed near the Dominators over there” Roberts said as he gestured over to a pair of light brown Dominator APCs parked in the corner of the bay, their twin Gattling/Battle Cannon combi turrets gleaming in the dim light of the bay.
Garrus blew a whistle “We could really use those”
"I think I'm in love" Lee said as she stared at the 15 mm, high caliber firing guns.
“Anyone know how to use one of these” Doc ask walking over to the pair of heavy vehicles.
“I drove one back on Pluto” Garrus said opening one of the Dominators hatch “Their pretty easy to drive, If you've driven a truck then you can drive one of these” “I call dibs on the gun” Lee chimed in looking at what she considered as high caliber goodness.
The sound of the bays small small personnel doors opening made everyone turn their weapons to it, they all let out a relived sigh as Xephos and Honeydew entered... but when nobody else came through Doc knew something had gone wrong.
"Wheres the rest of your team?" Garrus asking the question that Doc wanted to ask.
"We got jumped near the main facility's exit" Xephos explained "They took down the others, Gauss told us to get out of there before they got him too"
"Fuck!" Doc swore with an aggravated growl "I told him it was too much of a risk, Alright, Sjin, Roberts, Dingo Stay here with the kid and get the vehicles ready to go, rest of you your with me"
"Doc..." Honeydew stopped her with a hand "It's too late, we saw them being loaded up on a skimmer and flying off... their already gone"
Gone.... no.... god nononononono!
Taking a moment to calm herself and gether her thoughts Doc tied to fomulate a course of action, the M.I code and every fiber of her being was screaming to go after the captured troopers... to go after john... but at the same time she knew that they couldnt, they didnt have the man power, intel or even know where they were going there was also Dingo's sister to take into consideration.
On the other hand they couldnt return to Ponyville ether, if this ambush was any indication then Celestia was definetly compramised and had eyes on the them considering only Luna, the Lieutenants and the troopers involved in the mission knew about the mission. Id they return then there gos any chance of saving thier friends... there was only one this they could do. only one person could help them.
"Mount up we're moving out" Doc said heading to one of the Dominators.
"But at about the others" Sjin said "Are we just going to abandon them?"
"No... no we're not, but we need help if we're going to get them back"
"So thats it huh?" Roberts asked with a hint of agression "back to Ponyville we go?"
Doc turned back with a misteevus grin "Who said we we're going to Ponyville" she said as she turned to Lee "Call H.Q and tell them our situation and then tell them we're laying low for a day or so to make sure we've lost the enemy" Doc then flipped down her visor and called up a map of the surrounding area "Once Lee does that we're heading east, I'm sending you all the Coordinates, with luck we'll find our help there"
And hour later saw remaining troopers deeper into the unexplored areas of Everfree, Doc had sent a short radio burst to let her contact know they were coming and her contact and sent another data burst to divert to an alternative location, which turned out to be an abandoned royal guard oupozt on the forest's outskirts.
To be safe they left their vehicles along with Dingo, his sister and Roberts a little ways out and went in on foot, everyone was on alert, everyone except Doc who didn't even spare a glance at her surroundings.
The outpost was small, old and in poor condition, if Doc had to guess she figured that it was abandoned not long after Luna became Nightmare Moon. It was made up five buildings surrounded by a partially collapsed stone wall with the fifth largest building was at the center with the four other smaller one's surrounding it, as they approached the threshold of the main gate Doc put up a fist to hold up the Squad and made a bird whistle.
After a few moment of anxious waiting two barks were heard coming from inside the center building, Doc took the signal and signaled the squad forward to the building.
Sjin lowered his visor to use his thermal scope and tensed up "I've got movement" he whispered "small, four legged..."
"Hold your fire" Doc ordered as the object of Sjin's warning stepped out which turned out to be...
"A dog?" Indeed it was, a regular sized German Shepherd who look at Lee who had been the one to speak, and fixed her with a frown " what's this fellow doing here?"
"Uhhh, I think the name your looking for is Neo Dog" Doc pointed out "Rex hates when you call him a dog"
Doc walked over to the Neo dog and patted him on the head "She inside?"
"Yes, she's waiting for you at the top floor" Rex confirmed leaving a priceless look on everyone but Doc's face "Though I would be gentle with her, shes been acting odd since last week"
Doc thanked the Neo as he walked by heading behind one of the outer building to take care of his business "Come on, we've got a reunion to get to"
Not waiting for the others she made her way inside and up the stairs down the hall, the building's interior was just as run down as it's exterior and they had to be careful where they stepped as small sections of the floor had crumbled away due to years of erosion and decay, a few minutes later they reached the top floor which at one point had been the outpost's command center which took up the entire floor, the wind up there was strong with random gusts of wind blowing through the floor's missing windows. There standing by one of the long gone windows stood a the vague figure of a human famale in a brown cloak, a Morita with a scope fashioned out of a spyglass was leaning against the wall.
While everyone else approached with caution, doc confidently strode over to the figure who did not turn to face her "So.... here we are" Doc said with a wave of her arms "We got ambushed by Patricks an hour ago, he captured a number of troopers including Gauss, we need your help"
The figure said something that only Doc could hear to which she answered "We can't risk going back to Ponyville because Celestia could give away any plan we come up with to Patricks"
"Alright that's enough!" Doc and looked back to see Garrus advanced on the figure and Doc with his weapon raised "I don't know who you are, but for all we know your working with the bugs and somehow tricked Doc into trusting you, turn around and show me your face"
Doc was about to abolish him when the figure up a hand on her shoulder to stop her. slightly turning their head the woman said "Do you really think Doc could be tricked so easily"
Garrus though the voice sounded familiar but stamped the thought down "she wouldn't be the first to be tricked by a well made lie"
"is that so... tell me what's the penalty for raiding a weapon at a superior officer?" the woman asked nonchalantly.
"What? the offender gets a court marshal"
The woman chuckled as she turned and lowered her hood showing her to be non other then his though to be lieutenant Sunset Shimmer electing gasps from everyone present and Garrus getting very pale faced, Sunset grinned "What's the matter Corporal? you look like you've seen a ghost"
There was a long silence before someone said anything, Lee broke the silence with her Exclaiming at the top of her lungs "What the hell?!?!
