Between Magic and Science

Rarity flipped a switch on the board, causing one of the two dull, round bulbs above it to join the other in bright green light. The last few days had been spent in preparation for what was to come. A microphone sat in front of her on the desk.

“Alpha team, this is Overwatch Base, come in.” She said, remembering the code names that had been assigned, “Charlie team is approaching their objective, standby for takeoff.”

“This is Alpha 1... copy... copy that,” Whirlwind’s voice was slurred.

“Whirlwind, are you intoxicated?”

“Don’t sound so concerned about it...” his voice trailed off, “I always have a drink before a big battle. Burning Star hates when I... take a drink break in the middle of one.”

Rarity facepalmed. “Just fly safe, okay?”

“Mhm... Copy that, and stuff...”

Rarity flipped the switch back down, going to the one next to it. Each one controlled the radio connection between each of the teams, and the two lights indicated the connection, and whether she was broadcasting on said connection or not. She was going to have to keep an eye on the first two, to make sure she had a connection with Alpha and Bravo.

Her finger flicked the next switch on. “Bravo team, Charlie team is nearing their objective. Standby for takeoff, over.”

“We’re on standby. Bravo 1-2, out.” Peaceful Pride’s voice returned.

She toggled over to Charlie.

“Charlie team, you’re nearing the objective,” she glanced over at the several radars that were relaying from their suits, “There’s also a large cluster of entities moving in several directions behind you, over.”

Gunfire was heard over the radio, then Nexus’s voice. “Yeah!” he shouted, “We’ve been spotted and engaged by enemy targets, Raiders. I can also see a group headed toward Tanktown!”

“Copy,” she replied, “Continue to the landing zone for the Raingear Army. Overwatch Base, out.”

Now for Delta. They probably already knew the problem, but she had to be sure.

“Delta team,” she said. A long silence followed. “Delta team, this is Overwatch Base,  come in, over.”

The silence was broken by the sound of a large explosion, then Killjoy’s voice. “This is Delta team, reading you loud and clear, go ahead.”

“Delta, keep me updated on your ability to hold the town. I need to know when it’s slipping, over.”

“Copy, Overwatch Base, we’ve got a good grip on the town right now, not too long until they give- ” Killjoy gasped, and there was no further reply from him.

Rarity waited a moment, then leaned closer into the microphone. “Say again, Delta team.”

“We’ve got new contacts, lots of ‘em, and... they’re not Raiders!” he shouted, his voice displaying a mixture of frustration and fear.

“Wait out, Delta,” Rarity said, glancing at the radar displaying Delta team’s surroundings. The black screen displayed a large quantity of dots, representing hostiles, moving in from above the crosses, that represented friendlies. They were in large clusters, as Nexus said they normally moved. She did notice that there were several dots moving faster than others, but that could easily have been accounted for by their individual running speed, right?

Those assurances died when she flipped the helmet cams. She flipped on the monitor, one that read ‘DELTA 1’ in the lower left corner, and revealed the sky to be filled several large clusters of black creatures, all with bulging blue eyes, and taking a bipedal stature with wings and a horn. One group landed in front of Delta 1, who raised his weapon to fire.

Rarity was already at the mic, shouting, “Delta team, you’ve encountered Changelings. Hold the town, don’t let them establish a hive!”

“Copy Overwatch, holding position. Delta one, out. GRRRA-” The radio cut out, and Rarity turned to watch the helmet cam. She stood in horror as a Changeling stood over Delta 1- Killjoy, and clawed at his chest, not being able to penetrate the armour. His hands came into view, only able to reach out in desperation as the beast slammed him into the ground.

Snapping back to reality, she turned and flipped her broadcast to Alpha.

“Alpha 1, come in!” She said, sounding a bit more worried than she’d meant to.

“Alpha 1 here, mmgo ‘head,” came Whirlwind’s slurred response.

“Your squad is clear for takeoff. Get moving, there are aerial contacts inbound. Overwatch Base, out,” Rarity quickly turned to Bravo’s channel. “Bravo team, you’re clear for takeoff. Your mission is to take out any hostiles that Alpha leaves behind. Keep them covered, and clean up after we defeat this villain, over.”

“Bravo 1-2 is taking off. If we don’t get contact on the other side, I wanted to tell you something, over,” Pride said.

“Don’t worry, dear, Celestia has ensured radio connection between our world and this one. Just no heroics. Overwatch Base, out.”

The wings of his jetpack shot out of the slits in his armour. Trax Dash’s armour was specifically built to accommodate the device on his back, so he could use it without damaging the armour itself. He slipped his gun onto the magnetic locks on his back, crossing it with his sword.

“Showtime,” he whispered to himself, and saw Twilight and Rainbow readying themselves as well. Twilight put her weapon, a sawn-off shotgun, on her hip, and Rainbow’s rifle was across her back.

The jet’s engines roared to life, and whirred as they propelled the craft forward and off the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the helicopter lifting off as well.

“Come on lads,” a drunken Whirlwind called, as his jet lifted off, “We gotta... We gotta delivery to make...”

Trax Dash sprinted forward, allowing his jetpack to rocket him upwards and fall in behind the dark blue jet. Rainbow Dash had approached him on one side, and Twilight on the other.

“Alpha team...” Whirlwind called out over the radio, and his jet started to nosedive. They were barely 2000 feet up, and he already had to correct himself.

“Alpha team, sound off!” Burning Star’s voice said, “Whirlwind, just concentrate on flying, please...”

“Alpha 3, reporting!” Trax Dash called out.

“Alpha 4, here,” Rainbow added.

“Alpha 5, falling in,” Twilight said, trying to steady herself with the others.

“We’ve got this,” Burning Star assured them, “Focus on escorting us and you’ll be fine.”

“We’ve got some bad guys up ahead!” Rainbow called out, readying her weapon.

“Let me handle this, Rainbow,” Trax Dash glared at her, but she couldn’t see it through the tint of his helmet.

“No way! I’ve got this covered.”

“Just let me-”

“That’s enough you two!” Twilight shouted, “Listen to Burning Star, escort them!”

Trax Dash sped up and passed the jet as they ascended, and the first swarm of changelings passed them. Rainbow had sped up as well, but was soon caught up in avoiding the incoming enemies that she couldn’t keep her speed.

“What’s the matter? Can’t keep up?” Trax Dash taunted, firing at a few incoming changelings.

Twilight looked over at him. “You’re acting like a school filly!”

“No, I’m just saving my strength!” Rainbow retorted, completely ignoring Twilight. She lined up a few of the changelings and shot them down.

In the cockpit of the jet, Whirlwind had lazily fired his jet’s machine guns, missing all but a few targets. Burning Star had reached down and put a hand on his shoulder, and pointed at the dark, swirling cloud that the changelings were coming from.

“That’s our target, we have to go through there!” She said.

“Alright, what do you think-” Whirlwind was cut off by a large thud, followed by clawing on his windshield. He glanced up, and a pair of changelings had landed on the cockpit’s cover, and were clawing at it’s glass surface. They looked like humans, but were completely pitch black, and had holes in their arms and legs. Their blue eyes gazed down on him with hatred as they clawed at the glass with their arms, legs, claws, and the crooked horn jutting from their forehead.

Twilight looked up and saw this, but the two competing Dashes in front of her had been completely oblivious. Landing on the top of the plane as best as she could, Twilight removed her weapon. It felt odd, aiming down it’s sleek wooden finish, and even worse pulling the trigger to remove the two threats. Twilight almost lost her footing at the sight of the changeling’s green blood splattering on the windshield like a bug would, and the two bodies falling off into the darkness below.

“You can be my wingman, anytime!” she heard Whirlwind call to her, giving her a thumbs up as she flew above him. She nervously returned the thumbs up.

“We’re approaching the cloud !” She heard Burning Star say, “Get ready to pull up!”

It was true they were almost directly below the swirling grey vortex now, and changelings were still pouring out of it. Twilight was ready, but Trax Dash and Rainbow Dash were still caught up in trying to best each other.

“You ain’t got nothin’ on me!” Trax Dash said, bumping Rainbow aside a bit.

“Oh yeah? Let’s see what you’ve got!” She bumped him back, harder, and sent him into the jet, almost knocking the bomb loose. He recovered, and was ready to shove back but a sharp pull on the neck of his armour caused him to suddenly pull up, and he found himself face-to-face with a swirling black cloud.

“Alpha team, you have reached your objective,” he heard Rarity say, “Good luck on the other side.”

Looking back, he saw Twilight Sparkle pulling him up with one hand, the other on a flailing Rainbow Dash, who had stopped flying to yell whoever was pulling on her.

“Hey!” she shouted, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Did you not just hear Rarity? We’re flying through here!” Twilight said, “It would be nice if I didn’t have to carry you!”

“Heh, sorry,” she said, with a sheepish grin on her face. She extended her wings and zoomed up towards the portal.

The jet, however, was having more trouble. Small bodies could easily resist gravity, but a large entity such as a fight jet had to push against gravity quite a bit to go straight up. Whirlwind was steady, but Burning Star was near a heart attack.

“Are you crazy? We should’ve raised altitude earlier!” She called.

“No, I’m drunk... not crazy...” he replied.

“The engines are not gonna hold!” she told him.

“They’ll hold,” he said casually.

The jet climbed higher, and the portal closer. Burning Star saw that they were gradually beginning to slow, as the three escorts climber higher and higher away from them.

“We’re not gonna make it!” she cried.

“We’ll make it...” he replied.

“Speed up, speed up!” She commanded. It was dangerous to push the engines, but it was the only thing they could do to make it. She watched in horror as Whirlwind gently pulled back on the throttle controls, and they slowed even more. Just as the jet was about to come to a stop, she screamed.

In the land of Equestria, two changelings were walking the perimeter of the changeling hive, as their brothers and sisters went into combat through the portal in the distance. One looked over at the other.

“I can’t believe we got stuck out here on patrol,” he complained.

“Yeah,” his friend replied, obviously annoyed by the other’s complaining, “me neither.”

“I mean, I’m glad we ain’t goin’ into the fight ourselves, don’t get me wrong, but-”

“I hear ya.”

“But you know what really bugs me?”

The other one had stopped walking to look over at his friend. “What?”

“Jenkins.”

“What about him?”

“He’s probably sleeping right now, in his cocoon, with his big frickin’ melon head.”

“Yeah, so what?”

“He’s back inside on his lazy flank, but we get stuck out here on patrol!”

“Well yeah, somepony’s gotta do it.”

“But why us? I mean we could be running a equipment check, or rationing the love supplies, but no, we’re out here, walking around the hive, waiting for something to happen that probably won’t ever happen!”

During his rant, he hadn’t even noticed the four shapes that had emerged from the portal, off in the distance. His friend had extended a hoof over his shoulder.

“Uhh, is anypony cleared to be coming back through the portal?”

“What? I don’t think so.” the impatient one had looked behind him, and saw the four specks in the distance. “It’s probably Sarge. He and his team are a bunch of lazy-”

“No, they had orders not to return until the job was done, I heard the Queen say so. If you don’t know anypony who’s cleared to come back, I’m gonna go get her!” the more patient of the two sped off, buzzing his wings frantically as he went to warn his Queen.

“Murphy! Come on it’s just...” he sighed in defeat, taking off after him, “Murph! Wait for me!”

Twilight, Trax Dash, and Rainbow Dash had all been hovering near the other side of the portal, waiting for Whirlwind to come through.

“Did they make it?” Rainbow looked up, curiously.

“I don’t know...” Trax Dash also looked up.

“We have to go back for them!” Twilight exclaimed, after they had not emerged for a few moments.

“Don’t worry, Twilight, they probably-” Rainbow had looked down at her friend to put a hoof on her shoulder, and noticed that she had the shape of a pony again. “Twilight, you’re a pony again!” She said, looking down at herself, “I’m a pony again too!”

Trax Dash had just looked down and noticed himself a pony too. Strangely enough, their armour had changed form to fit their new bodies. Nexus had said something about that, but he wasn’t really paying attention.

“Great,” he deadpanned, “We’re all ponies now. What are we going to-”

He was cut off by a large object barreling past him. Whirlwind had slowed down just in time as he entered the portal. If he had not, they would’ve ended up slamming into the ground at half the speed of sound. Steadying himself, he pulled back up to level himself with the ground.

“You did that on purpose,” Burning Star said, calming her nerves. She looked down at herself, now a pony in the same armour she was in before, riding in the same plane she was in before. She looked at Whirlwind, who had been transformed as well, and was somehow grasping the flight stick in both hooves. Her helmet’s radio crackled to life.

“Alpha team, this is Overwatch Base,” she heard Rarity’s voice, “Have you arrived in Equestria?”

“Affirmative, Overwatch, moving to deliver the payload now,” She replied.

Trax Dash had caught up to them, his body a pony’s too. She saw that the winged boot icon once imprinted on his chest plate was now imprinted on his rear end, where a white tail emerged from his metal suit. Twilight and Rainbow had appeared on the other side, the rainbow thundercloud and six pointed star were now on their flanks as well.

They flew over what they had assumed to be the hive, a large structure of curved black thorns, all coming up from the ground and forming a dome of sorts over the dead, sandy landscape around it. She figured that the hive fed off of the ground around it. There were several holes in the structure, where the curved thorns didn’t quite cover all the way. They were mainly in the top, but some were along the sides. It covered quite a large area, but she couldn’t tell exactly how large is was from the elevation they were at.

“Where...” Whirlwind began, then looked down at his hooves, “What in the F-”

“Whirlwind, focus! The hive is there!” Burning Star pointed a hoof at the black structure below them.

“Oh, right...” he said, adjusting his flight angle to go above the hive, “Beginning my run...” he said.

Rainbow’s voice was heard over the radio. “You guys, we’ve attracted some attention!” A small group of Changelings had emerged from one of the openings in the hive, heading towards the jet.

“Hold them off while we deliver the payload!”

“I dropped my gun when Twilight yanked me up here!” she panicked.

“Oh, you mean this gun?” Trax Dash handed her the rifle she dropped in her struggle.

“Yeah...” she leered at him in frustration.

“You can thank me later, let’s deal with those-” he was cut off as he was slammed into by a changeling, who had the shape of a pony in this world. Several more came after him, and Rainbow rushed in to help. Twilight looked between the jet, and the falling Trax Dash,

“Whirlwind, I’m pulling off to help-”

“Just do it!” Burning Star yelled.

Twilight turned and soared down to assist her friends, who were now in freefall. A changeling had latched on to Rainbow’s back, weighing her down as she tried to slow her descent with her pack. Trax Dash was in a similar situation, but the changeling on him was going to drive him into the ground. Twilight swooped down and took aim with her shotgun once more. She had no idea how she could hold it with her hooves, but she didn’t question it. The trigger pulled, and there was a loud boom as the hapless creature fell off of Trax Dash, and he regained control.

Twilight turned to fire at the changeling on Rainbow Dash, but her weapon clicked as she pulled the trigger. It could only fire twice before it had to be reloaded, she remembered. Rainbow wrestled with the beast on her back, and managed to throw it off of her. She rocketed back into the air, and the others followed.

The jet was practically covered in the things, so much that Whirlwind couldn’t see where he was going. He could hear Rarity’s voice.

“Alpha 1, you are approaching your target,” she said.

“Aye... but I can’t exactly... see where I’m going...” He said.

“Oh my, you shouldn’t have drank as much as you did!”

Burning Star facehoofed, “He means we’re covered in changelings!”

“Oh, well, that’s different...”

“Trax Dash,” the drunken pilot called, “We could use your help over here, lad!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going as fast as I can!” He was approaching the jet, and had began to fire at the creatures covering it. Bullets were heard bouncing off of the jet from inside.

“Oi! Don’t put any holes in us, lad!” Whirlwind watched as the changelings fell away from the cockpit, one by one, until Whirlwind had view of the Hive. He was headed straight towards it. “Burning Star, drop the bomb now!” He shouted, pulling up.

“Bomb deployed,” she reported, as she flipped the release switch.

The device fell from the jet, the velocity it had from the plane propelling it forward, and punching through the top of the structure with a loud snap. It cruised through several layers of the hive, falling into the heart of the structure.

In the jet, Whirlwind heard Burning Star pull the trigger on her detonator. Several seconds passed, and he looked out the window to see if anything had happened. Nothing. The jet was loud, but surely the sonic pulse would shake the jet a little bit. Burning Star pulled the trigger again. Nothing.

“What’s the problem?” she heard Trax Dash’s voice over the radio.

“It’s... it’s not working.”

Whirlwind nearly lost control of the jet, the sudden shock sobering him. “What do you mean it’s not working?”

“Something must’ve hit the bomb, shook the wireless receiver out of place...” Burning Star switched her radio to broadcast to Overwatch. “Overwatch Base, this is Alpha 2, the bomb could not be activated, over.”

“Say again?” Rarity nearly screamed in panic.

“It’s not responding to the remote detonation control, we’ll have to send in a team to manually detonate it. We’re going to land.” Burning Star began to search for a suitable landing zone.

“Negative, Alpha team, return through the portal.”

“Wait,” Twilight said, “What if the escort team went in?”

“What?” Rainbow and Trax Dash both looked at her in confusion.

“Hmm, I suppose a team could enter on foot...” Rarity paused a moment, contemplating the risks, then continued, “Alpha 3, 4, 5, you are now designated Alpha Strike. Alpha 1, return through the portal and provide support for the rest of us here. Alpha Strike, recover the bomb, and detonate it. Overwatch Base, out.”