Ascension

This briefing reminds me of the ones my father gave me. I thought.

This was our first mission briefing and it was all too similar to the one he died on. His was an infiltration mission same as this one. Our objective: to find the weapon that will help us overthrow Scarlet Night. This weapon was the Inter-dimensional Travel Portal or I.T.P for short. With slight modification I can turn it in into a time machine and send us back 315 years to the  past, to the time before Scarlet Night was the demon queen, to the time when the princesses were still in power, to a time filled with peace and tranquility. His objective: Infiltrate and grab the power core to the Cyborg Assembly and Barracks or C.A.B, bring it back and turn it into an E.M.P that will neutralize the cyborgs.

This time I won't let my feelings get in the way like he did!

I had just finished the training session with my team, explaining the different aspects of the suits, each one was specifically constructed for the user, so they could improve strengths and remove weaknesses. Otis' not only made him stronger, it also made him more agile and fast than ever before.

For Ember, it concentrated his artificial magic, or anti-magic as he called it, so it was easier to control, the suit also gave him more strength and endurance. For the Pie sisters it did approximately did the same thing as Ember's suit but it gave them... well to put it simply, boosters for their wings instead of anti-magic enhancers as well as "Barrier Breakers" as they are popularly called. These devices allowed for the sisters to travel as fast as light, rendering them invisible for as long as they are going that speed. However they can only do this for so long until their atoms start the painful process of separating until the suit along with the wearer turn into air. They also have flight shields for obvious reasons.

My suit was the exact same as the sisters' except for the inertia dampeners. These allowed me a sudden stop from light speed should the need be. The only reason that they didn't have them is one: they didn't want  them, two: they are highly experimental and could conclude in an explosion if used improperly. After our brief look at the suits  we were forced into the briefing room, apparently Scarlet Night had figured out where the base was and was sending an army to destroy N.E.R.F so there wasn't any more time for training.

"Well is everyone ready, do you all know your parts?" I asked.

Once everyone had answered with a nod we left for the place the I.T.P was stored, and where else did it happen to be than the Cyborg Assembly and Barracks. I had a really bad feeling about this.

"We have successfully been transported to sector Alpha 2," I stated into my H.U.D, "we are moving out now. We have landed in the once prosperous town of Ponyville, about three clicks west of our objective." I said to my team through our headsets, after a quick flight strait up.

We snuck past bipedal guards with what Scarlet Night called 'hands and feet' in her propaganda speeches. They looked like hooves with small legs like a spider coming off of them. They also had weapons that were specially made for these 'hands' so that ponies couldn't scavenge them and use the weapons against her armies.

We got to the C.A.B and our jaws dropped. The pictures in the briefing room definitely did not give it justice. The place was huge, it looked like a giant dragons head, no it was a giant dragons head! The horns and nostrils spewed smoke from the assembly line. The mouth was at least 50 feet long and 10 feet wide made out of the scales of the now extinct dragons species. It seemed incredibly heavy, and the only other way in was through the nostrils or the horns, neither of which the two grounded ponies could traverse. So there was only one way left to go.

"Hey Otis, I bet your not strong enough to open the front door all by yourself!" Teased Cerulean.

"Oh really?" Otis replied with a smirk.

Hehe she doesn't know the half of Otis' power. I thought to myself almost maniacally.

As Otis proved his strength by lifting up the dragons mouth with one hoof, I scanned my teammates just to make sure their suits were working and to see their faces at the sight of my creation. Both of the Pie sisters seemed astonished at the feat, while Ember seemed to be fearful at this.

Probably because of the fight those two had. Now that I think about it, that never got settled did it? I thought with worry.

We entered into a labyrinth, and a very complicated one at that. Luckily we were on a slope and the maze was below us.

"Awwwwww, they don't play fair do they?" A pouting Amaranth said.

"Don't worry," I replied to the pink pegasus, "these machines didn't know that they were dealing with me. You all go in, Ember you shine your anti-magic straight up and I will guide you through this over our headsets."

"O-ok..." The young cyborg said.

As I directed them through the maze, I could almost feel the tension between Otis and Ember building, all it would take is one wrong word and Otis would snap.

That idiot, I can't believe he's racist against cyborgs, really? I mean come on, the kid nearly died in an accident and his father saved him out of desperation! There is nothing wrong with that! I thought to myself, fuming.

In my thoughts I failed to notice that they had made it through and had hit the lever on the other side, causing the maze to straiten out.

I have to work on paying attention don't I?

"Well now that was easy, wasn't it?" I said with a smirk as I reached them.

"Heh yeah it was and it was kinda fun too." said Cerulean.

"Yeah! That was tons of fun!" Amaranth squealed.

"Easy? FUN? You weren't even in there of course it was easy for you!" Otis yelled. In the same instance I noticed him throw a look at Ember before disappearing almost instantly.

"Woah man, calm yourself! No one got hurt, that is all that matters." Cerulean retorted.

"Yeah, and it was exciting not knowing what was gunna happen." Amaranth chipped in.

"But for us, we never knew if when we turned the corner we would die!" Otis continued, with yet another quick glance at Ember.

Otis continued yelling at me with the Pies shooting his arguments out of the air, while I tuned it out to think.

Why does he keep looking at Ember? He knows Ember will always be on my side in a fi- oh shit!

But I had realized it too late, Otis was stoking Ember's fire, egging him on to strike first so Otis could hit back, and he had succeeded, as the scene before my eyes took place. Ember was in the middle of hitting Otis in the face.

"You do not talk to my cousin like that, he is the leader of this mission and we will do as he says! If you didn't want to risk your life in the first place then why did you join the resistance?" The cyborg yelled, still oblivious to Otis' plan of retaliation.

"Hey both of you shut up or we will be-" Cerulean was cut off as Otis returned the punch and the pegasus dodged the flying unicorn.

A fight then ensued that none of the rest of the team could stop. A fight between the unstoppable force and the immovable object. I instantly regretted the upgrades I gave to them, partly out of worry for my teammates, and partly for worry of the attention it will bring us.

As me and the Pies hid we heard the familiar sounds of gears grinding and clanking metal.

"Shit! Do you see what your stupidity has caused!? You have successfully drawn the attention of every cyborg in the place!" I yelled at the two fighters as the entire team tried to find cover.

We held back the cyborgs for a considerable amount of time, but even then they kept coming. We had to do something. I considered our options.

Me and the Pies could use our light speed accelerators, but that might lead to a very painful death for one or all of us...

I decided it was worth it.

"Pies," I yelled, "We are going to clear a path for the rest of the team, Otis, you make sure they don't have a good shot on us, Ember watch his back!"

Just like that we all jumped into the fray and did our parts. Eventually we made it to the maximum security storage unit, with the cyborgs still coming.

"Otis! Open the door!" I yelled over the machine gun fire.

Without looking I knew he did as he was told because I heard the creaking and bending of metal. With a loud thunk the door came off and Otis hurled it at the oncoming wave of cyborgs. I turned around to see the device, just like I remembered it.

"Okay we're in! Now you just have to cover me for a second while I-"

"Aaaarrrrrrrrggggg!" I heard Cerulean cry from behind me.

I turned to see the most horrible and unforgettable moments, the death of a teammate. Cerulean had just gotten shot in the head with a dart, if it were just that then my suit would have healed her and we could continue fighting, It wasn't until I heard a slight beeping sound emanating from the dart that I realized how screwed we really were.