Destination

  Kelly’s suite now had dark and light grey, advanced armory attached and protecting her chest, back, shoulder, thighs, shins and her toes and heels. On the face of the armor, protruding out to partly covering her neck, had her rank emblem stamped on; silver star with three bars at the bottom. But her left arm was bare of protective, metal covering. Why waist good armor plating, when there’s a good chance that same arm might get blow off?

  She shook and moved around her body in the locker room to see if they were loose or restricting her movements. With a smirk, she walked over to a wall, a clear space between the lockers and it. She pressed her right hand onto it, causing glowing spots on the surface where her fingertips were placed.

  The whole, twenty foot long wall suddenly jerks inwards and swiftly slides up, revealing many, different set of equipments and weapons. First, she walked over to the far right to grab one of ten, armored packs. She unhooked it from its resting place, swung it over her shoulder and attached itself onto her back with a few, audible ‘Clicks!’ onto her shoulders and under her arms. She stepped to her left, grabbed two army knives in her small holsters and clicked them both on her lower back. She then grabbed four grenades and set two on each thigh. She moved a little further down. Looking at all the firearms, searching for the right ones, and stops with a smile.

  “Thought, I never get to see you, ever again.” She reached out and unhinged the DMR from the wall and inspected the weapon like every good warrior should. She grunted in approval, swung the weapon over her back and attached itself onto the pack. She grabbed two Magnums with both living and mechanical hands, and put them in their rightful holsters onto her thighs. She stepped back to let the wall close itself and turned back to her locker a few paces away from her. She reached up and looked at her reflection on the large fishbowl like visor, tinted grey.

  She smiled, crammed the helmet in the crook of her left arm and started walking out, the lights turning themselves out in her wake.

  Once she reached the Docking Bay, she scanned the large hanger, filled with different kinds of ships, in rows upon rows of either sides of the walls. She spots her Captain and a young woman standing beside him. She quickly ran over to him, stopped dead in her tracks a few paces away from him and gave him a swift salute. He smiled at her, “Ah! Good timing, Commander. Let me introduce you to Miss Snowlet. She will be accompanying you, down on the planet. Your job is to protect her and keep an eye out for any danger or object of interest.” He said to her.

  The white suited woman steps forward, bringing out her hand towards her with a small smile. She was few inches shorter then Kelly, her hair blond and bright in the light and her skin brighter then the Captain himself. Her baby blue eyes staring at her in kind.

  Kelly firmly shook her hand for a brief moment. The woman smiled a little wider, “Nice to meet you, Commander.” She spoke. Kelly nodded in reply and looked back at the Captain.

  “Okay you two. You will land on the southern part of the alien city and move up north towards the castle. We would be your eyes from above, but it looked like some cloud cover will be down there. But we will keep radio contact and the cameras on your helmets will be our eyes.” he stepped aside and gestured to the hatch of the small ship opening down, making a short ramp for them to step in. “Stay safe you two.” He said to them both. Kelly put her helmet on, Snowlet doing the same with a more delicate looking one and both nodded to him.

  They both saluted at him, “Sir! Yes, sir!” they both said in unison and turned to the ship. The short woman stepped in first and quickly sat down on the co-pilot’s seat. Kelly followed soon after, the hatch closing behind her and sat herself down. They strapped themselves onto their seats and both felt a sudden jolt of motion, the small ship being lifted up in the air by a large, mechanical arm protruding out from the ceiling of the hanger. They both saw the Captain walking away from them as a large hatch split open from under them, a wall of transparent, flickering wall of sparking energy,  being produced to stop the vacuum of space.

  The Captain turned around and waved at them right before they were dropped down into space. Kelly grabbed the joysticks and the rockets to the sides and two at the back erupted to life, stopping them from falling down to the planet. She stabilized the ship and waited for her co-pilot to calm down for a few moments.

  She looked at her passenger with a straight face, “Ready?” she asked flatly. Snowlet nodded, holding a hand onto her chest. With her approval, she looked ahead and let the ship move forward, towards the planet. A target lighted up on the screen, showing a series of rings to show her where to fly through and land. After a few moments, the ships started shaking and deafening noise rattled their minds. Snowlet clenched the arm rails of her seat, closing her eyes shot, praying for both their lives.

  Kelly ignored the violent shaking, years of practice doing their work as she decent down and past the layers of clouds, still following the path of red rings carefully. As they broke through the last clouds, she quickly activated the cloaking of the ship. Slowing disappearing from head to back, they became part of the sky, the only thing showing were four, blue after burners of the engines. The violent shaking died down, and Snowlet sighed in relief with a small chuckle.

  “Everyone, doing okay?” they both heard their Captain in their ear pieces.

  “Yes, sir. Entry a little shaky, but everything’s still working.” Kelly answered, checking the ship’s systems for a moment before looking back at the path. “Landing in T-minus thirty seconds.” She spoke once more.

  She guided the ship closer to the ground to try and hide the after burners from view of the city, just in case. She then guided the ship under the city itself and slowed down to a stop behind a small water fall. She slowly landed it down and killed the engines as the landing gear was set firmly on the wet, gravel ground. They both unstrapped themselves from their seats and Kelly was first at the door.

  As the hatch started lowering itself down, she grabbed onto her DMR from her back and pointed it outside. She looked at her charge, “Stay until I say so.” She said to her, and Snowlet nodded in agreement.

  Kelly looked back out and slowly went down the steps, pointing her gun in every direction, trying to search for anything suspicious. To her, every single thing she saw was alien to her. The rocks, wet gravel, the wall of rock and even the stunning waterfall. Living her whole life in a ship and the strict restrictions alienated her mind on what was normal and what was alien, and at the moment, the whole planet was one, huge, strange ball of dirt. She felt a little heavier, but nothing too taxing with her augmented body. Even just being able to see for miles, confused and dazed her in awe, but still true to her training, she continued to search the area for any danger. After a minute or two, she finally called out.

  “Clear!”

  The woman stepped out and her eyes bulged out in awe and shock. She stayed at the entrance for a few more moments, just staring at her surroundings until she saw her bodyguard standing around, searching the area with her gun lowered and her visor cleared to show her face. She quickly went down the steps and planted her feet on gravel ground. She stopped and looked down at the wet ground in awe. She walked around for a few moments giddily until Kelly cleared her throat, she looked up at her with a smile.

  “We’re going to have to send the ship in the clouds, Miss Snowlet. Please step back from the ship.” She said as she walked past her and went up near the opened hatch. A display lights up in front of her and started typing out a few things with her left hand, and when she was finished, she quickly stepped back as the engines started up and the hatch closed itself. When it hovered in the air, its clocking activated itself and rocketed towards the sky and into the clouds.

  Kelly looked back at her, “If we get into trouble, it’ll go right to you, and if I’m gone or passed on, go right in and it’ll take you back on the Child of Earth. Understood?” she said in a commanding tone, and the short woman nodded, in both fear and understanding. “Good, now get to work. We only have so much daylight to spend.” She said and turned away from her, “I’ll be searching the area.” She said before walking off to see if there was an easier way to get into the city right above them.

  Twilight stood beside her old teacher at the gates, looking out towards their crumbled city of Canterlot. A Pegasus mare with rainbow hair and tail landed right in front of them with a thud, small bits of dust flying off. Her body was also cover in armor, but the chainmail was left out and the armor plating itself looked smooth and elegant to make her look aerodynamic. She had two, short holsters strapped to her sides where her two short swords rested.

  She smiled at the lavender friend, “Ready to go, Twi?” she asked and planted her hands onto her hips.

  Twilight nodded, with a small smile, “Yes, Rainbow. You?” she spoke back, earning a nod.

  A gentle hand rested on her shoulder, Twilight looked up at Celestia, “Stay safe you two. I’ll be at the balcony shortly to keep an eye you both.” She assured them.

  “Don’t worry, Princess. I got her back.” Rainbow dash gestured to herself, “Whatever that came out of the clouds won’t hurt, my best friend.” She pulled in Twilight and bear hugged her.

  “Still, travel the Canterlot grounds with caution. We don’t know if the thing is dangerous or not.” She warned.

  “Of course, Celestia.” Twilight answered with a smile.

  Celestia smiled at them, “I’ll see you both soon and stay safe.” She said to them both before they ran off. Twilight turned around, lifted both arms up to her sides and closed the doors with her magical grip. She took her breath as Rainbow patted her back.

  “Where should we start first?” she asked.

   Twilight straightened out as she turned to look at the once, lively, bustling city, “We start here and head south as we go.”

  Kelly walked in, in what looked like some kind of store. She inspected the surroundings with her charge at her tow. As she walked ahead, Snowlet looked at a piece of item on top of a high counter and walked towards it in interest. She gently reached up, and grabbed a plushy looking dull from its resting place. It was fluffy to touch, colored a dull green and one of its left black button eye was missing. The doll’s shape itself was a little strange; almost like a teddy bear with stubby limbs, but it had heart shaped markings on its thighs and its muzzled a little longer. It had blue stringy tail and hair and that was about it.

  She looked around a little more and saw similar items scattered around the shop. She looked loser and the whole place was littered with layers of dust. When she saw her guardian walk out of a room, she smiled at her and waved the plushy to her.

  “I guess we’re in a toy store, Commander.” She spoke and quickly walked over to her, showing her the toy. Kelly grabbed it with her left hand and showed it back to her charge. Snowlet accepted it and reached up to her helmet, “Captain, are we allowed to take samples?”

  “Of course, Miss Snowlet. Carry on.” they both heard.

  She took off her backpack and kneeled down. She opened it up, dusted the doll first, stuffed the plushy in and closed it back up.

  “Come on,” Kelly said as she walked back in the room she was just in before, “there’s a hole to the other building in here.” She spoke and waited for her. Snowlet quickly followed her in and both jumped across an alley to get to the other building. After they searched the empty building, they went back into the streets and walked into a cross section. Snowlet tapped Kelly on the shoulder and showed her a ball full of small glass eyes.

  “We need to take images, so can you throw this up?” she asked.

  Kelly rested her gun on her pack and accepted the ball from her, “How high?” she asked, handling the ball with her right hand.

  “Ten feet first, then forty, if possible.” She answered.

  Kelly nodded and tossed the ball at the said height, with a small flash, it dropped back down and Kelly caught it. She swung her arm around and tossed the ball even higher in the air. She caught the ball once more and showed it to her charge. Snowlet smiled and took the ball back and put it back into her pack. “Thank you.”

  As Snowlet started looking around, she looked at the castle’s tower and saw something interesting. She pointed her gun at it and looked through the camera scope. To her surprise, she saw something looking back at her with a scope of its own. It stood up straighter and it looked like it had armor on.

  “Captain?” she asked as she continued to look through her scope and activating her visor to polarize it.

  “I see we finally found them. Advance to the castle with caution.” He spoke to her.

  She lowered her gun and looked back at her charge near a building entrance, “Hurry up! We’re heading to the castle!” She yelled, and right after she said that, a fast and swift shadow went across the street and landed on top of the building Snowlet was inspecting. Kelly quickly ran over to her and pointed her gun in the air, “Inside! Now!” she whispered.

  They both quickly went in and Kelly shut the door. She looked up and saw a large hole on the ceiling to her left and ushered Snowlet to go a little further in. When they reach a corner wall, they heard something moving around the roof and a glimpse of something in the street.

  Suddenly, a mass of armor and feather’s fell down from the ceiling and drew out its swords from its sides, pointing them both at them. The door smashes open to show another intruder wearing a set of armor as well, its hands raised to them, emitting a faint purple glow. Snowlet whimpered and started shaking at the aliens. Kelly activated a lazar pointer on the gun and aimed it at the head of the winged creature when it stepped forward, daring it to take another step. The thing crossed its eyes to look at the small dot on its forehead.

   “Captain, what should we do?” she whispered, still aiming the gun at the sword, wielding creature.

  In a long moment of silence, she noticed the purple one looking at her charge, in what looked like concern. The thing looked at its partner and spoke in gibberish to the other. The blue one seemed conflicted and spoke back to the other. The purple one spoke again and pointed at her shaking charge. The purple one seemed to convince the blue one, as it growled and took away its swords. She looked at the purple one as it seemed to try to calm her down. The only person that needed calming down was her charge and she felt her flinch behind her when the purple one took a few steps forward. She quickly aimed the gun at it, causing her partner to rest its hands on its sword handles till the purple one hissed at her to back off.

  “I advise you, to lower your gun, Kelly. The purple one seemed concerned about Miss Snowlet. And remember, we’re here to make a new home.” Her Captain spoke to her.

  She didn’t respond, just threw her gun over her back and onto her pack, causing both aliens to jump in surprise at her sudden movement and her visor depolarized to show her poker face.

  Twilight was most intrigued about the two visitor’s, they were a tad shorter then her and Rainbow Dash, but the left arm of the first one looked mechanical, and moved like a real arm.

  “Can you understand me?” she asked, hopefully, but only received blank stares from them both.

  “Did you think they would understand you, right off the bat?” Rainbow commented with a small chuckle.

  “Shush, you! Your brash actions nearly caused us to make another enemy! We’re doing bad it is, but do you really think we would survival if we made another!?” she spoke back with a light glare. Rainbow lowered her gaze down to the ground.

  “Sorry, Twilight.” Her friend apologized in shame.

  She nodded at her and looked back at the two visitors, “Um… home?” she asked, yet again, receiving blank stares. She looked around for a moment, and when she found a piece of paper, she levitated it over, earning surprised looks from them both. She carefully started ripping it apart, and went she was done, she showed house shaped, torn paper to the two visitors and tapped it a couple times.

  The front one then pointed out the door and into the street of Canterlot. She looked back at the two and right back at the streets. She pointed outside and looked at the armored alien, “Outside?” she asked. She didn’t know if it understood her or not, but it nodded its head nonetheless. She looked at Rainbow and gestured to the smashed entrance, “Maybe they’re trying to show us outside?” her friend shrugged and went out. Twilight looked back at the two and waved for them to follow.

When they all got out, the shorter one shakily pointed a digit at the new object in the clearing sky. “Whoa! Is it saying, they came from that thing, in the sky!?” Rainbow said in awe and gestured to the ship before shielding her eyes to see more clearly at the object.

  Twilight glanced at the two, their advanced clothing or suites and equipment seem to say they did. Then a thought came and looked at the armored alien in nervousness. She pointed at the thing it pointed at her moments ago and gestured to herself and her friend in fear.

  The alien reached back and inspected the thing closely, looked at its companion and shook their heads at them both, while putting the thing back on its backpack-like-thing. They both inwardly sided in relief, Maybe they came in peace, after all. Twilight thought to herself, then turned her gaze at the distant castle. She then looked at her friend, “You think Celestia and Luna would want to see them?”

  “I think so.” She answered.

  Twilight looked back at the two, pointed towards the castle and waved for them to follow her with a gentle smile.

  “Captain, we might need a Crawler to communicate with them. Holographic images might do much better, then simple gestures.” Kelly spoke as she followed their purple, alien, tour guide.

  “We were thinking the same thing. We will send down a few if you give us, the green light.” He finished.

  As they closed in on the great walls and gates, the grounds, roads and buildings looked even worse than any other they saw earlier. Even the wall itself; scorch marks, crumbled potholes and even a few green and red splatter marks painted onto the wall and a few buildings around them.

  Her charge stopped and slowly walked over to a green splatter on the road, nearby. She crouched down to it and took off her pack to take a sample. Just as she opened up her pack, a loud, ear piercing screech sounded out in one of the buildings. Kelly’s augmented senses swiftly turned her gaze towards the building, seeing a dark, bug like creature jumping out of its hiding place and blasting out a glowing green projectile towards her charge from its arm.

  Just as Snowlet started to turn her head towards the building, Kelly leaped towards her, reaching out to block her charge with her left arm. Just when the green, flaring ball was about to hit her, a blinding, green, flash of light hit them both and their ears started ringing.

  When she recovered, she founder herself staring at the somewhat cloudy sky and being dragged along the ground by her right arm, a scraping sound obviously being made by her armor. After a closer inspection, she saw part of her helmet was cracked, webbing out like a spider’s web. Then she saw she was dragged past the gate and everything darkened a little by its looming shadow.

  When she stopped, she groaned, and something started speaking to each other frantically, a hint of fear and confusion sounding out between them. Many more started shouting, and sounds of running and fighting filled the air.

  She rolled her head to her left and saw her charge crawling towards her, part of her own helmet cracked and ash covering part of her helmet and chest. She lifted her left arm, but to her surprised, half of it was missing; sparks arching out as she moved it around and wires wobbling about. She sat herself up with the help of her fellow human and looked at her, “We stumbled ourselves into a war.” She whispered to both her ear piece and Snowlet.