The beginning of the end.
Leaping into the air James swung at the exposed portion of the vajra's(1) tail with his God Arc, effectively slicing it off. The vajra roared angrily and spun around faster than he thought possible before swinging a claw at him. He was still in mid air trying to regain his center of gravity after throwing so much weight into the last attack that he didn’t even have time to bring up the shield as the Aragami’s claw grew closer. Closing his eyes everything slowed before a blast was heard making him open them to see an H_laser round passing through the claw of the Vajra making it rear back. To distracted with being saved james forgot about correcting himself and landed in a puddle of Aragami blood with a *splsh* right next to the dead body of an ogretail.
“Hffff…. Fuuuck that hurt”
“James fall back. You are exhausting yourself.” Maria yelled at the scrawny brown haired teenager with her god arc still pointed at the enemy in its gun form. Sighing he complied and dashed back to her side as more rounds erupted from her weapon.
“Aren’t I supposed to be the one giving orders?”
“Is this really the time.” The petite redhead replied as he switched out of gun form and back to blade mode revealing the Buster (2) that was twice her size. Even though a god eater could thrown their arc around like it was as heavy as a paperweight, it was still a little funny to see the fourteen year-old charge the massive beast with a seemingly impossibly heavy weapon which she handled effortlessly.
“TAKE THIS YOU MONSTER” She yelled swinging her blade at the vajra’s back leg effectively ripping a large gash into it. The beast gave a pained scream, attempting to keep its balance. It was then that James looked around.
“Wait where’s Ta-“
“INCOMING BITCHEEEEEESS” came the all too familiar scream from or teams booster hammer (3) wielder Tabitha. She jumped from the roof of the factory activating the rockets in the back of her weapon which propelled her downward at an extremely fast rate before she slammed the business end of it onto the vajra’s head stunning it.
Using what little energy he had left james retracted the blade of his arc switching it to god form (4) allowing the large predatory mouth that was the living portion of the bioweapon to surround the entire thing. Thrusting it forward the arc’s mouth began to tear the still stunned Vajra apart until it found the core and immediately clamped onto it with a loud crunching noise as it devoured its meal. The moment the black circular core was ripped from the Vajra its body fell limp. The mouth retracted and James fell to his knees. He had lost so much energy that he just let himself fall face first into the dirt. Tabitha nonchalantly tumbled across the ground giggling like a child as always but James could tell she was exhausted. Maria was already resting against the body of a dead Aragami with her arc at her side. James turned his head and found he just couldn’t take his eyes off of the white sphere that was in the center of the room. Why had it attracted so many aragami and why were they walking through it? It could probably have something to do with that nova’s devouring apocalypse theory Sakaki had been mentioning. Either way he had to call it in. setting his arc down he lifted his armlet (5) up so he could call the den. “this….is defense force……..squad 13…..all aragami eliminated….no casualties to report…..we’re all ok……….but we’re too exhausted…….to head back to the den,…… requesting evac. And get Sakaki down here…….we’ve……..we’ve found something that’s sure to get……..his attention.” He panted and waited for a response.
“Roger sending evac and support teams to your location. Glad to see you’re all ok james.”
“Yeah……well this hell of a world is gonna have to try a lot harder if it wants me dead.” He said finally having caught his breath.
“I’m sure it will. Just sit tight for now, I’m not picking up any aragami signatures in the immediate area so you can relax until help gets there.”
“Great I could use a cat nap.” He said letting his arm fall to his side. He turned his head to see Tabitha curled up in a ball asleep as was Maria but leaned against an aragami carcass. His eyes felt so heavy that the moment he shut them he was out only to be woken an hour later by the sound of a few helicopters. Shortly after there were several footsteps as James felt pairs of hands lift him up into a sitting position. One of the people holding him up injected him with a small dose of adrenalin to help keep him awake. James opened his eyes to see three medics looking him over while two others with protective gear took his god arc to be placed back in its holding case. Even though he knew why they were so careful he found it funny each time they struggled to lift the weapon that he swings around like a paper weight back into the case while being careful not to let it touch their skin. James had found out why they wore the gear the hard way when he went on his first mission.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
flashback
It was a simple ogretail extermination mission but James and two of the others in the group were complete green horns and had no combat experience. As a result one of them, a boy named Thomas froze when one of the ogretails charged and swung its armored tail at him. He screamed in pain and was sent flying like a ragdoll into the wall of a decaying building. The impact from Thomas’s body hitting the wall shook several large pieces of concrete loose and before anyone even had time to react the concrete had fallen ontop of him. Blood sprayed across the ground and only Thomas’s god arc was visible from the pile. Ignoring the orders from his commanding officer James rushed over to the pile of bloodied ruble and first tried to push the huge pieces away but they were too heavy. He then reached down and grabbed the base of the arc to pull Thomas out continuing to ignore the orders given to him. the moment he touched the weapon things went terribly wrong. The metal of the arm twisted and formed around his fingers trapping his hand within it. The metal rose up to his knuckles and stopped but the skin on his hand began to turn black and scaly. It felt like he was on fire and James screamed bloody murder as the bioweapon not built for his DNA began to warp his arm in an attempt to establish a link with him both physically and mentally causing more of his skin to change. He began to see things, images of Thomas’s life as if they were his own. The memories of his family, his friends, first day of school, his girlfriend, and worst of all the memory of how the aragami took everything from him as they slaughtered all of them. The blackening skin had crept up to his shoulder and the other members of the team were using all their strength to pull James free from the weapon. Just before the black skin surrounded his face they managed to rip him away from Thomas’s god arc along with much of the skin on his hand. The blackening skin faded as the connection with the arc was severed allowing James’s body to correct itself. He woke up in the medical room of the den and was told what happened and that he was lucky to be alive. The incident had left scars on the inside of james’s hand which would be a constant reminder to him of what happened.
(end of flashback)
The medics looking him over began to spray disinfectant on the small cuts across his body which resulted from him being knocked across the floor and against walls. Despite what most god eaters look like whether they are incredibly skinny or overweight, once they take and pass the aptitude test (6) their muscles and bones become far denser and more powerful than a normal human allowing them to take more damage during a fight. However as with the case of Thomas, they are by no means invincible.
“Well well well look who it is. The only team in the far-east branch who could be sent to hell and get kicked out again. How was the mission?” Said the arrogant male in front of him holding his short blade god arc (7) over his shoulder.
James just rolled his eyes “Nice to see you too Jeremy, and I wouldn’t go around making fun of my team when you are the only god eater to be stuck with an old-type arc in 30 years. Besides my blade is still bigger than yours (not an innuendo for **** length)” He replied gesturing to the long blade god arc being placed in its case making Jeremy grunt and walk off. “gets him every time.”
Around sixty years ago when the weapons known as god arcs were introduced to Fenrir there were only two types, Blade, and Gun types. However after ten years a new type of god arc was developed that could switch between blade and gun form thereby classifying the original two types of god arc as old-type and the new arcs as new-types. Slowly but steadily the amount of new-types god arc candidates rose until old-types were deemed obsolete with the occasional exception. Jeremy was one such exception. He may have an old type god arc but he more than made up for it with his combat skills and high aragami kill rate. By no means was Jeremy weak and james knew that even though he is a total asshole he is a damn god team mate to have.
The medics finished up with James and his team by giving them larger shots of altered adrenalin which would last them until they got to the den in around two hours. Looking to his left james saw sakaki the far east branches director circling the white orb.
“breathtaking truly breathtaking if I had to guess I’d say this is either the seed to novas devouring apocalypse or for lack of a better word a wormhole.”
“What makes you say that?” asked Maria as she cracked her neck.
“well to be honest not much but if you take a moment you’d notice there is a draft in the room that is centered around this orb. Watch” he said picking up a handful of grass and held it above his head. He let go and instantly the gras began to float down and was dragged into the sphere. “see, Breathtaking”
Tabitha clapped her hands and picked up a handful of pebbles before throwing them at the orb. “THIS IS FUN.” She exclaimed and was about to throw another rock into the sphere until it began to pulsate.
“I don’t think that was such a good idea Tabitha.” Sakaki said
“oopsie sorry.” She said rubbing the back of her head. Suddenly there was a flash of light that surrounded the entire area pulling in everyone and everything they had with them leaving the inside of the factory as beran as it was before anyone had arrived.
Equestria: Canterlot University testing grounds
Time: a week prior to present
Twilight was sifting through books and scribbling things on chalkboards and note pads. She had been developing her own unique spell for months that if successful would definitely win her a hoofbel prize. The spell in short would allow her to transfer the memories of a pony and store them onto 8mm film reels to be preserved and archived in museums. The memories themselves would be seen through first person perspective of the one who made the memory. She could only imagine what it would be like to actually see things through a pony’s eyes and experience what they do. The knowledge that could be obtained would be indispensable and would make retelling historical events a much easier feet. Not to mention that since the memories would be preserved in a physical form, anypony could view them and not just unicorns. She felt that everything was going to go smoothly this time but just to be safe she had moved her experiment to an open courtyard in the Canterlot university. As she was setting up she instructed her volunteer test subject to sit in the chair she had placed in the center of the courtyard. She finished prepping and then moved over to a chest. Inside the chest were several energy crystals that each held enough magic to power a Canterlot city block for two years. It had taken her awhile to gather the crystals but twilight knew it would all be worth it. She took the crystals out one at a time and placed them in a pattern around the chair her volunteer was sitting in. once she was done, she stepped back.
“ok Light Wing just remember to stay calm and breath steadily.” The mare nodded resting her head back. “Alright here we go.” Twilight said rubbing her hands together and closed her eyes. Her horn began to glow its usual purplish pink and the same aura surrounded the energy crystals as they began to spin and slowly move into an upright position while still spinning. Once the crystals were spinning fast enough small tendrils of magic slowly crept out and made their way up Light’s body before latching onto different parts of her head. The tendrils then began to in a way download the electrical impulses running through the neurons in lights mind. Twilight sighed and stopped her flow of magic and let the crystals do the rest as she slowly approached Light Wing. “So tell me what are you seeing right now?” she asked the mare.
“I-It’s hard to explain really. It’s like I’m reliving every moment of my life at once but also in order from the beginning to now.” She said and twilight wrote down every word.
“Any pain or discomfort.”
“N-nothing painful. My head just has this tingly throbbing sensation running through it.”
“That’s most likely the magic pulsating through you to retrieve the memories.” Twilight had to restrain herself as her excitement grew with each second. She did however allow herself a few fist pumps in the air as her wings ruffled themselves a bit before regaining her composure. Everything was going perfectly and if it continued to go this well she would finally have concrete evidence to support her theories and would no doubt be awarded the hoofbel.
Suddenly her contained joy turned to worry as Light wing spoke again. “H-Hang on e-everything is starting to go white. Is that normal Twilight……T-Twilight?” the mare said her voice beginning to grow panicked. Twilight raced back over to her notes and practically ripped through the paper trying to figure out what was happening before rushing back over to Light Wing. The Pegasus mare was whimpering slightly but dared not move or risk making things worse.
“Th-the spell has probably just finished running through your memories and just needs a minute before pulling back.” She said which did ease Light Wings mind until she spoke again.
“Wait wait I’m starting to see something……. I-It looks like I’m in some sort of metal room….Like in a factory or something.”
“Is it a place you remember?” twilight asked
“N-no actualy I don’t remember this place at all it’s totally ne-aaahhh.” She screamed making twilight jump and drop the papers in her hands.
“What’s happening, Light Wing what do you see?”
“Creatures…. large and scary creatures. They have h-huge teeth and only two legs. They are nothing I have ever seen before I know that much.” He breathing began to increase rapidly as twilight lit up her horn attempting to use her magic to pull back the energy crystals tendrils but for Celestia knows what reason it didn’t work. The crystals were now completely independent and unresponsive to outside magic. As Twilight racked her brain on what to do Light wing spoke again. “Oh buck I think one sees me. It’s getting closer Twilight please do something, make it stop.” She begged. Twilight lit up her horn and attempted to remove the tendrils from Light Wing only to have them bury themselves deeper into the mare making her cry out in pain again. Tears rolled down her face as she clutched her head in her hands “Oh Celestia Twilight please do something.” She sobbed trying to pull away, flapping her wings to add more force but the tendrils held her in place and began to dig deeper and deeper into her head making the mare cry out in pain.
Not able to bear her cries any longer Twilight did the only thing she could think of. Trying to steady her shaking hands she took a deep breath and lit up her horn. The aura around it began to spark and fizzle as the spell Twilight planned to use charged up. when she felt enough energy had been gathered in her horn she launched a magical blast of energy into Light Wings body. The idea was to overpower and burn out the spell from the crystals with a stronger spell of her own. Unfortunately things didn’t work the way Twilight had hoped as Light Wing’s body laid limp in the chair she was sitting in, the tendrils still attached.
“L-Light Wing….Light wing say something.” Twilight said as tears began to form in her eyes. Slowly and hesitantly she made her way over to the Pegasus, her entire body a shaky mess. Standing over the chair for what felt like an eternity she finally reached down and grabbed Light Wing’s wrist pressing her thumb against her radial artery……….no pulse. Frantically she pressed her ears against her chest……..she wasn’t breathing. Twilight put her hand to her mouth as tears rolled down her cheeks. She had just killed Somepony, Somepony who was just trying to earn a bit of money to get by, somepony who had friends and a family. Unable to support her weight her legs buckled and she fell to her knees and cried into Light Wing’s side. “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry i had no idea this would happen. Please just come back Light Wing, don’t die.
The royal guard began to funnel into the courtyard along with Celestia and her sister Luna. The sisters looked apon the crying alicorn and the mare that lay dead in the chair next to her.
“Twilight what happened.” Celestia asked kneeling infront of her former student.
Sniffling a few times and wiping her hands over her muzzle she looked up at her former mentor. Even though they were both on their knees Celestia was still a hoof and a half (1’6”)taller than her. Gathering whatever she could Twilight finally spoke in a choked voice “I-I don’t know. Everything was going perfectly but then the spell began to act on its own and began to hurt Light Wing. I did everything I could but-but I just couldn’t get the tendrils off of her. So I tried to burn out the spell as a last resort but it was too much for Light Wing a-and she…..i’m so sorry.” She broke into tears again and celestia was quick to pull twilight into her arms comforting her as best she could.
“shhhh shhh, I know you are Twilight but you had no intention for this to happen. It was nothing more than an unfortunate event.” Celestia ran her hands through Twilight’s mane as Luna came over and embraced twilight as well.
“We agree with our sister. It is unfortunate but progress is not without sacrifice. The only thing thou can do is be sure Light Wing’s sacrifice is not without meaning.”
Twilight looked up at Luna and nodded
The three alicorns stayed like this for a while, holding each other until twilight finally stood up. “I-I’ll go tell Light Wings family. And I want her to have a royal burial not just a standard service.” Celestia nodded and they turned to leave but stopped as they noticed a light beginning to fill the room. Twilight was the first to gasp upon noticing the light was coming from light wing’s body. Her body was beginning to glow brighter and brighter until everypony had to shield their eyes. At first twilight thought that maybe the spell was bringing her back to life until her limp form then began to lift out of the chair and float in midair. The guards immediately had their spears pointed at the glowing body and arrows at the ready while the unicorn guards charged up their offensive spells.
The glow continued to grow brighter and brighter as the sound of bones breaking filled the courtyard. Twilight used her magic to create a light filter over her eyes so she could see what was happening. The site almost made her lose her lunch as Light Wing’s body was being broken and morphed into a shape that didn’t even resemble a pony anymore.
The glow brightened one last time and was even too much for the filter over Twilight’s eyes. Though as soon as it brightened it just as quickly dimmed. The three princesses heard whispers from the guards and turned to see a very large glowing white sphere over the chair that Light Wing had once been in, the tendrils still attached to it. Celestia and Luna lit up their horns and readied themselves for anything. Twilight on the other hand just stood there trying to understand what had just happened. She walked closer to the sphere with a dumbfounded expression “H-How could this have happened? The way I designed the spell would have never led to this regardless of whether or not I messed up.” she began to run through scenarios in her head and eventually came to one logical conclusion, the crystals. one of them must have had a certain magic inside of it that compromised the spell causing…..this. she lit up her horn as well and ran a scan over the crystals. She went one by one through the crystals checking their individual energy patterns and eventually stopped on a deep scarlet red one in the pattern. She was right the crystal’s magic was in deed conflicting with the spell but there seemed to be something more to it. She scanned it and not only did she discover the frequency but also felt a sort of malicious feeling coming from the crystal as if it was alive or cursed.
Before she could find out anything else there was an ear piercing roar that emanated from the sphere. Twilight was surrounded in a gold and blue aura and pulled away from it just as something erupted from it. Before them stood a large two legged creature with a heavily armored skull and tail.
“Th-that has to be what Light wing saw when the spell went bad. But how is it here?” she asked aloud not expecting an answer.
Celestia was the next to speak. “Guards be ready to attack.” She said before turning to the creature. “I do not know who you are but one of my little ponies is dead because of you so I DEMAND THAT YOU EXPLAIN YOURSELF.” She roared in the canterlot royal voice hoping that would get an answer out of this creature.
Unfortunately the large creature which stood only a hoof taller(1') than Celestia reared its head back and gave a loud feral roar as it charged. Immediately it was assaulted by a blast from Celestia which blew a hole in its head followed by volleys of arrows and other spells from the guards. The creature bellowed, screamed, and thrashed its body around until it fell to its side and stopped moving. The guards then surrounded the creature and when it didn’t move for several minutes they gathered ropes and began to tie it up to be carted away. However as one guard moved to secure a rope around its muzzle the creatures eyes opened and lunged forward grabbing the guard in its mouth and crushing her between its jaws, the teeth punching through her armor like it was nothing. Once again the creature was assaulted by a volley of arrows, spells, and spears until it stopped moving again.
“What in tartarous is that thing.” Said on guard in a panicked voice.
“How could it have survived so many attacks.” Yelled another.
The guards began to drag away the creatures body just as another roar came from the sphere followed by another, and another, and another. many sounding similar to the first but others sounding completely different. One by one the creatures began to funnel out of the sphere. The guards fighting for their lives and to the best of their ability but even with magic from the unicorns and the strength of the earth ponies and aerial attacks from the Pegasus the sheer size, and number of the creatures was too much and what little of the ponies left were forced to flee from the courtyard. The princesses were evacuated as well as the student of the university and the citizens of Canterlot but the creatures continued to overwhelm the royal and lunar guard as they fought to hold them back while everypony else escaped.
(insert chapter name here)
Equestria: present time. Abandoned Canterlot university courtyard.
Everyone shielded their eyes as the light surrounded them. The air began swirl around them and for a moment they all felt weightless before the light dimmed and they found themselves back on solid ground. They opened their eyes to find they were in a room a slight bit smaller than the inside of the grid factory but instead of metal the walls were now made of stone along with the floor. Turning around, they noticed the sphere that had been in the factory now had some kind of glowing ropes attached to it with glowing stones at the base. After a moment of staring, they turned their attention to the room around them. All the factory equipment that had once lined the walls was gone and was replaced with strange statues and paintings of figures with wings, horns, and….hooves……
There was no ceiling above them, the late afternoon sunlight coating what it could as shadows draped the rest. Maria and a few others had begun to walk around gazing at the paintings and tapestries that lined the walls before she tripping over something and fell to the ground. She rubbed her arm where it had hit the ground before sitting up and looked to see what had caught her foot.
In her short one and a half years as a Gods Eater she had grown accustomed to the gore of fighting the Aragami and was no stranger to being sprayed with their blood after cutting them open with her arc but this was different. Before her laid the body of what could probably be called a human, save the size of it, the pink coat of fur, the horn on its head, the oddly shaped face, and the……hooves it had instead of feet. It was clad in some sort of golden armor which had a chunk missing from the left shoulder along with the body’s left arm. It lay in a pool of a silvery liquid some of which now soaked the underside of Maria’s pants. She may have been used to the gore of fighting Aragami but this creature was far too much like a human. She saw the look on its face. It wasn’t some universal expression like a mindless animal holds but the one a person makes when they know they are at the end. Not knowing how to process what she was looking at she kicked the thing away from her, its armor making loud scraping noises as it was pushed along the stone floor.
Everyone’s head turned to Maria as she scurried back away from the body until her back hit a wall and James and Tabitha were by her side in the blink of an eye. Tabitha wasted no time and had her arms around Maria who was now clinging to her shivering in fear. James had a hand on her shoulder as well, both trying to calm their frightened squad member. The two looked at each other in worry. It was more than strange for them to see Maria like this as she was normally so stoic about almost everything. Yet once James and Tabitha saw the body, they both gulped at the sight as well.
After a minute or two Maria had regained some of her composure as she was breathing more steadily. “I’m ok, j-just startled is all.” She said
“What do you mean “startled” you practically pissed yourself?” Tabitha said earning her a smack to the back of her head by James who gave her a stare that shot the word ‘seriously’ like a bullet “Oh right, not helping.” She said pressing her two pointer fingers together and Maria couldn’t help but chuckle at her teammate and friend’s silliness pulling her into another hug.
“Thanks Tabitha.” She said as Tabitha ruffled her hair.
“No problem just don’t fucking scare us like that.” She gave an almost ear to ear smile which in turn made James chuckle.
“Sometimes I just cannot believe you are Soma’s daughter.” He said and Tabitha gave him a mock scowl.
“Well believe it. Just cause my dad is a gloomy Gus doesn’t mean I have to be.” She said sticking out her tongue and pulling up the hood of her blue jacket which used to belong to her dad before he adopted the white trench coat to match his god arc.
With the little scene over with, everyone now looked around the room’s floor and saw several other mangled bodies similar to the first but there were a few noticeable differences. Some had horns while others had wings and one or two had neither. Sakaki was the only one who actually examined the bodies while even the medics kept their distance not wanting to be possibly contaminated by whatever strange pathogens could be in them.
“Where the hell are we?” Jeremy asked looking around, his teammates holding their Arcs at the ready in case of an attack. To Jeremy’s right was Ashley who had her charge spear retracted for the time being and to his left, Sebastian who had his Arc in gun form with his usual sniper barrel attached. The two were siblings and as far as anyone could tell they were mutes since neither of them ever said a word no matter what the situation. They simply followed the orders given by Jeremy and made no fuss about it.
“That’s what I wanna know. Sakaki you got any ideas?” James asked.
The elderly man who held way too much vitality for his age simply smiled while adjusting his glasses as he walked around. “If I had to guess, judging by the architecture we are in a courtyard of some old ancient ruins. Although I must admit I am unfamiliar with these depictions. Then again nearly all of the old earth’s culture has been lost so it is likely I was never able to obtain any research on them. Right now I’d say that whom ever owned this property had an almost unhealthy obsession with the equine anatomy along with its mythical cousins, to the point where he tried to make his or her own. But then why do they look so human? Maybe he was a member of that fandom I dug up awhile ago……what were they called?......Oh yes now I remember, furries.” Once he finished all the Gods eaters except for Tabitha held a look of confusion. Sakaki had a huge tendency to break out into monologues and to use rather big words. Plus since Gods Eaters could be recruited at nearly any age due to the selection process being purely based on DNA compatibility, hardly any of them finished school or were taught anything outside how to read, develop attack strategies, the inner workings of their god arcs, how to create ammunition, combat techniques, and any and all information on the Aragami as it was developed and proven.
“So what you are saying is the owner of this place loved horses, unicorns and Pegasus to the point where he tried to make his own twisted versions of them?” Tabitha asked.
“Exactly.” Sakaki confirmed
“OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH” came a collective answer from the other Gods Eaters.
“Why didn’t you say that in the first place?” James asked.
“I did just more literarily.” Sakaki said as James looked at Tabitha who giggled slightly.
“He used bigger words.”
“OOOOHHHH ok” said James as he decided to see what was on the other side of the walls and began to climb up them.
“When did you learn stuff like that?” Jeremy asked.
“Well unlike you I actually listen when our instructors give us lectures instead of falling asleep. That and my dad always made it a point that I keep myself educated. ”
“But your dad is the head of the elite assault force. He doesn’t seem like the bookworm type.” Maria mentioned resting her head in her hands as she sat back down.
“He actually isn’t he just made sure that when I wasn’t on a mission or training that I was studying.”
“But why? What’s the point of furthering your education in this day and age?” Maria asked
“I’ll have you know tha-“. Sakaki began before Jeremy cut him off
“Please Director as much as we’d love to hear another one of your lectures could you save it for another time?” Sakaki huffed and went back to examining the armor of the bodies.
“I’m not really sure why he fucking makes me study. I asked him about it once and he said it was because of this girl he had met when he was still a teenager and after that didn’t say another word the whole damn day. I figured it was a sensitive topic so I just dropped it.” Tabitha answered sighing as she leaned against the same wall Maria was leaning against but stayed standing.
Despite her Bubbly attitude, Childish nature, and rather crude language, Tabitha was actually the senior of the squad at age 21 and is the current protégée among the Gods Eaters. Her skill with her weapon is flawless, her focus in combat is unwavering and she has the highest kill rate of all 3rd generation Gods Eaters. Her only downfall was that when in combat she could never divide her focus from fighting the Aragami and giving orders to her teammates which is why James had been appointed squad leader instead of her.
“Hey where are you going?” Jeremy asked James as he now stood atop the wall of the courtyard.
“Just looking around, and uh, you guys are gonna want to see this.” He said from atop the wall he was now standing on turning around to look back out to whatever he was seeing.
Maria decided to climb up the wall like James while Tabitha went over to a corner and began to jump from one side of the corner to the next in an upward motion until she was next to James.
“Show off.” He said as she slapped him in the back nearly making him loose his balance.
“Someone has to do it.”
“Ow don’t hit so hard.” James grunted as he rubbed the sore spot on his back suspecting it was payback for him bopping her on the head.
Once Jeremy, Ashley, and Sebastian made their way up to the ledge they looked at James
“So what is it we should be seeing?” Jeremy asked
“Just take a look around.” James replied pointing towards the distance.
At once everyone’s faces went wide with awe. Before them stood what could best be described as the ruins of an ancient city. Though from the condition it was in it didn’t look old more so the architecture was just very outdated. The sky was a pure and bright crystal blue with only a few clouds here and there. Looking to the right it was made apparent that the city was on the side of a mountain or near a cliff by the sudden drop off and the waterfalls that fell from it.
“What is this place?” asked Maria
“Nowhere in the far east that’s for sure.” said James.
“I never thought I’d be able to see something like this. I mean a city on a cliff, how many of those still exist.” Jeremy whistled as he took in the sight.
“I didn’t even know a place like this did exist.” said Maria
“And check out that huge castle.” Tabitha explained while gesturing behind them.
Turning around they all easily found the castle as it towered what could be hundreds of stories above them and held dozens of towers topped with gold roofs that shined almost violently in the sun.
“Kinda seems a bit show offy if you ask me.” Maria shrugged.
Tabitha rubbed her chin “Maybe if it had a few more diamonds.” She smiled and Maria just sighed shaking her head.
“You’re trying to hard Tabitha.” She said
“What? I’m funny, Right James?” Tabitha asked.
Knowing all too well it was a trap James just pulled a pair of binoculars from his back pack and began to look around. “Don’t drag me into this.” He said scanning the area.
“So you don’t think I’m funny?” Tabitha said in a crushed tone
“I didn’t say that.”
“So you do think I’m funny?”
“I didn’t say that either, I just chose not to answer.”
“You’re no fun.”
“Yeah well someone’s gotta do it.” He smiled as she once again stuck his tongue out at him before returning his gaze to the binoculars. After a few more seconds of looking he had seen several Aragami roaming the streets while others ate at the buildings. He then pulled out a small note pad and a pen from his pack and using his knee as a makeshift desk began to jot down a few notes.
“See something James?” Asked Maria.
“Yeah, take a look at the court yard a little to the right of the clock tower that’s a few blocks out.” he said as Maria and Tabitha pulled out their own Binoculars.
“So what? It is just some Aragami eating a building. Why would that be important?” Said Maria
“Well look at the Aragami themselves. We’re definitely not in the far east yet all of the Aragami here are exactly like the ones from the far east.” He said
“Huh you’re right they are the same.”
Tabitha figured out what he meant and continued for James “Yeah, if the Aragami were native to this place they would look at least a slight bit different given that this place has to inhabit different minerals, plants, and animal species.” she said
“And if they were a local breed, they wouldn’t be digging into the buildings as crazy as they are now if they were familiar with the material.” James said letting Maria finish.
“So what you both mean to say is that the Aragami we are looking at are from the far east and not local to this area? But how is that possible? That would mean the sphere we saw them walking into would’ve had to have transported them here and teleportation doesn’t exist so how is that possible.” asked Maria.
“That’s what I want to know and why I’m giving this to Sakaki.” James said finishing up writing what he saw before flipping the notepad closed and putting it back in the pack.
“That’s not all. Take a look through the streets.” Said Tabitha.
Doing as she said, James, and Maria began running their Binoculars across the streets of the city finding more dead bodies similar to the ones in the courtyard every few feet. Many had on the same armor as the ones from the courtyard while some had a darker colored armor and others seemed to be wearing suits, dresses, and all kinds of other clothing.
“Jesus how many of these things are there? And what’s with the clothes? Whoever made these things had to have been one hell of a rich pervert.” James said scratching his head.
“Guess that means we’re in the U.S.” Jeremy cut in and couldn’t hold back a laugh as maria and Tabitha rolled their eyes.
“That might not be the case. For one they don’t have their flag plastered all over the place.” she said and Maria chuckled. “Told you I was funny. Anyway, this is going to sound crazy and it kinda just popped into my head but, what if these things are the native species here.”
At once everyone’s face turned to one of confusion as they stared at her.
“That can’t be possible. How could there be a race capable of building cities other than humans? I mean there was the rumor of that human aragami ten or so years ago but an entire colony…….. that’s to hard to believe” Maria responded.
“Well yeah I understand that but look at the buildings. They may be made out of stone but they look less than a decade old. Plus think about it like this, mysterious ball of light, Aragami walking into it. Then we get sent here in a flash of light from said ball and now we see a relatively new stone building city that the aragami are going crazy over like us when we actually manage to get to eat real food instead of stuff like that rationed pudding.” Everyone shuddered at the mention of the rationed pudding. So lumpy and waaaay too sweet.
“And lastly our G.P.S. devices can’t find where we are.” She said pulling out a device that was similar to an MP3 player with the words ‘LOCATION UNKNOWN’ on it. “I know this sounds nuts but come on my idea has some value to it.” Tabitha finished.
“Well you are right it does sound completely nuts. But I guess it is the easiest thing to believe right plus everything James said about the Aragmi is true…..and the amount of bodies………. plus the fact that they have clothes on does point to you being right.” Maria said rubbing a finger under her chin.
“But still that’s more than a little hard to believe until we see some living proof.” Jeremy said in a disbelieving tone.
Suddenly everything was interrupted by a loud and very close roar of an Aragami. Looking around, the six gods eaters spotted one of the worst things they could ever be faced with. A Hannibal, and not one but two of them were headed in their direction. Hannibals are the most recent and most infamous form of the Aragami and what makes them so dangerous isn’t their speed, agility, size, or strength but the fact that they can heal any wounds they receive and regenerate their core after it has been extracted which in turn makes them basically invincible.
“Aw fuck and here I thought we were gonna get some time to relax.” Tabitha grunted as the Hannibals noticed them and charged the wall they were on. At once squad 13 descended the wall and back into the courtyard and the three rushed to grab their arcs from the cases inside the helicopter but were stopped by a few of the medics.
“What are you doing?” asked one
“There are two Aragami out there and we need to take care of them.” James said as he made to push past the man but he was insistent.
“You can’t if you go into combat now your body won’t be able to take the stress. Just let squad seven handle it.” he said referring to Jeremy’s team.
“We’ve been in worse situations before and besides, Jeremy and his squad can’t handle two Hannibals at once so it’s either you let us get out there and fight or you make us sit here and be responsible for the death of three good soldiers.” James responded and stepped past the medic as he and his teammates opened the cases securing their arcs and pulled them out. They felt a bit heavier than normal but nothing to bad so they ignored it. “We’ll draw them away from here and send out a flare once it we are far enough for you to get away and radio in once they have been taken care of.”
Clapping his hands three times Sakaki stepped forwards and addressed the group “Well you heard the man let’s go.” He instructed and after a moment the engineers and medics began to enter the helicopter.
“Oh Sakaki, here I figured I should know about this.” James said passing the small notebook to the director. Taking a look at what was written down Sakaki raised an eyebrow
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. We can talk later once we finish with the aragami.”
Once again squad 13 scaled the wall and looked down to see the first Hannibal already climbing up it while the second stayed on the ground staring up as if waiting for them to come at it. “We’ll take the one on the ground.” Jeremy stated as he and his team jumped from the wall plummeting towards the Hannibal.
“He’s all yours.” James replied as he and his team switched their arcs to gun form and began to fire a barrage of Gatling rounds at the Hannibal scaling the wall.
Jeremy and his team were still free falling as he held the blade of his arc out infront of him and just as the Hannibal was about to let out an ear piercing roar, Jeremy’s blade impaled its mouth and was thrust down its throat as he landed with his feet on the creatures snout. He twisted and jerked his blade around so he could to do as much possible damage while blood sprayed with each movement of the blade, much of it now coated Jeremy’s clothing.
“HEADS UP!!” came James’s voice.
Taking a quick look upwards Jeremy saw that the Hannibal that was climbing the wall was now plummeting towards him with several open wounds from the various bullets that had struck it. Using the Hannibal he was currently standing on like a spring board he jumped off, ripping the blade from its mouth as it thrashed its head around screeching in pain and anger. Landing on his feet Jeremy turned to face the now bleeding Aragami as the one from the wall crashed into it sending them to the ground with an earth rumbling thud.
Both were soon standing and before they had a chance to make a move, the one that had fallen from the wall was pummeled back to the ground via Tabitha’s boost hammer slamming into the base of its neck followed by James piercing the tail with his long blade and Maria striking its spine with her buster blade. The strike from Maria had effectively (albeit temporarily) paralyzed the Hannibal from the waist down forcing it to crawl after squad thirteen, pulling itself with its front limbs while they led it away from the others.
Turning his attention back to his teams Hannibal, Jeremy readied himself to fight just as it charged him. He didn’t have enough time to evade so he brought up his shield and braced himself. It was right infront of him and had a claw raised to strike until a torque round impacted its face causing it to lose its balance and tumble across the ground, barely missing Jeremy in the process. Looking to his left he saw Sebastian with his emotionless expression holding his arc which was still in gun form, smoke funneling out of the barrel. “Thanks for the save” Sebastian simply nodded in reply as they turned their attention back to the recovering Hannibal. It growled as its now mangled face was steaming and bubbling signaling that the wounds it had received were now healing. “I really hate when they do that. Ashley” he said already knowing where his third teammate was hiding. Once he called her name Ashley moved from her hiding spot behind a pile of rubble. She came rushing as fast as she could in its blind spot with her charge spear ready before planting her feet and thrusting her weapon into the side of the Hannibal. The two prongs on the side of her arc released and shot forward lodging themselves inside the beast before being violently ripped out. The Hannibal whipped its tail at her only to have it shot by another torque round from Sebastian as Ashley pulled away and regrouped with him and Jeremy. “I guess it’s safe to say we’ve pissed him off.”
The Hannibal let out a high pitched squeal as it charged, its mangled face rocketing straight for them. “Time to go.” Said Jeremy as he, Sebastian, and Ashley ran as fast as they could away from the helicopter as their Hannibal chased them.
James and his team unfortunately were having a slightly harder time with their Hannibal. The medic that had told them to stay back was right. Their bodies couldn’t handle the stress and the only reason they were able to even put up a fight was due to the adrenalin they had been given back in the grid factory. Unfortunately it was starting to wear off. It was designed to keep them alert and awake while they sat in the helicopter on the way back to the den not to hold them together during combat. It was a good thing they had landed those strikes when they had leapt from the wall or else the Hannibal would have already caught up to them.
“Dammit ……why……. are these things ………..so hard………………… to kill” James said to himself as he stayed behind the cover of a partially collapsed wall while Maria and Tabitha were hiding in their own spots catching their breath.
(warning the following paragraph is a Head Cannon)
There are only three ways to deal with Hannibals. Only one method is currently used in the field, one is currently under development and the last only exists in theory. The only practiced method is to first remove the Aragami’s core, then, while it is temporarily dead slice its body in half and sever the head, tail, arms and legs from its body so even if the core regenerates it can’t control its body and do any harm to anyone. The next method which is still under experimentation is a serum which would reverse the Hannibal’s core regeneration process and cause the core to deteriorate and ultimately destroy itself. The third and final method which is only in the theoretical stage of development is to completely obliterate every oracle cell of the Hannibal’s body along with the core in a single shot. This theory would be the ideal method and contain the use of nuclear weapons if the radiation didn’t draw the Aragami in like flies to trash.
(End of Head cannon)
The Hannibal that had been chasing James and his team was now sniffing the air searching for them. Its legs now working again, evident by it climbing up the sides of buildings. After about three minutes James lifted his armlet to radio Tabitha and Maria.
“Hey you two ok to move?” he spoke as quietly as he could to avoid alerting the Hannibal.
“I-I think I got enough……in me to finish this.” Tabitha panted.
“S-*cough* same here. if we can get to the core *cough cough* we’ll have more than enough time to deal with the rest of its body” Maria responded. Even in a time like this she still had the decency to speak formally.
“Alright. Let’s run the triangle.” He said peering around from behind the wall he was hiding at to get a look at where the Hannibal currently was.
“bzztztzt-jam-bbzbzbzr-come-agai-bzztzztzttttz-an’t-brrrrrrrrtzzzz-oo much-bzz-atic” was the garbled response he got.
“Say again?”
Static
“Tabitha, Maria say again?”
More static
“What the hell, they can’t be more than 200ft away at most. The coms should be perfectly fine?” he mumbled to himself. He tried to adjust the com’s signal as best he could but all he got in return was LOUD static, Loud enough that the Hannibal had noticed and was now descending from the building it was currently on. Quickly cursing he shut of the com completely and ducked back behind the wall in the hopes the Hannibal hadn’t found him. The blood disappeared from James’s face however as the Hannibal jumped down the last 20 feet shaking the ground with its impact. Electing to stay where he was, he sat there staring at the wall opposite of him biting his lower lip trying to stay calm.
Several minutes passed like an eternity to James without a single sound being heard. His curiosity getting the better of him and not wanting to risk using the coms again he began to shimmy over to the edge of the wall to see if the Hannibal had gone away. Taking a deep breath he slowly turned his head around the side of the wall……..
“OH SH....” was all he managed before a claw of the Hannibal punched through the wall he was hiding behind. The bricks that it had been made up of now acting as glorified shrapnel that pounded against his body while he was flung across the room. James took several hits and was too dazed from the impacts to even hold onto his arc as it slipped from his hand, clattering to the ground before he did. He had no time to recover as the giant claw grabbed him by his legs with a literally crushing grip and pulled him out and into the air dangling upside down. It then grabbed him by his chest with his other clawed hand so it held him upright by his upper body. A few seconds later james had regained enough clarity of mind to figure out his current position and began to frantically struggle against the grip of the aragami “Dammit let go of me. I’m not gonna let myself die here, not likethis not liGGAAAAAAAAHHHH.” He screamed as the Hannibal’s grip tightened crushing him like a twig. The poor boy felt his bones breaking with sickening cracks and soon began to spit up blood as a result. The pain soon became too much for him and with the adrenalin in his body completely burned he blacked out and went limp. The Hannibal moved into a crouched kneeling position with a now unconscious boy in its claw. Giving a low growl it opened its mouth and brought James closer ready to devour him as its next meal.
“JAMES!!!!!!!!!” cried Maria and Tabitha.
Acting on pure instinct both girls switched their arcs to gun form and were just about to fire when they saw a blue flash that came seemingly out of nowhere followed by an explosion to the Hannibal’s head which caused it to screech and thrash around.
Deciding to ask questions later the two leaped from their hiding places. Tabitha had been behind a collapsed pile of what she guessed were once book shelves while maria burst through a ground level window. Maria attacked first, shooting several rounds at the Hannibal to draw its attention as Tabitha charged from the other side. She swung her boost hammer as hard as she could at the Aragami’s shin. the impact broke the bone and sent the aragami falling to the ground. Not waisting a second, Maria switched her arc to blade form and reared back
“GET AWAY FROM HIM.” She screamed before hurling her god arc like a tomahawk at the arm that held James. It spun through the air and struck the Hannibal’s arm with enough force that it cleaved right through and embedded itself into the wall of a building behind it. The hand holding James loosened as it fell allowing his body to slip from it mid air.
Tabitha ran towards James, throwing aside her arc to move faster to catch her downed teammate as he plummeted to the ground. Her body was so weak at this point that even catching the boy’s scrawny frame caused her to loose balance and tumble to the ground. Maria moved over to them and helped Tabitha up along with sharing James’s weight as they both moved to find cover. Thankfully the Hannibal’s eyes were damaged from the mysterious random explosion and didn’t see them move into an abandoned building half a block away. Having finally lost their strength, Maria and Jackie fell to their knees as they gently laid James on his back. Now that they finally had a moment of calm they looked over their leaders body. His face was swollen and bruised and blood cascaded from his forehead. Tabitha lifted his shirt up but froze once she got to his chest. His normally flat chest was now full of depressions and bumps from his broken ribs that had shattered in the Hannibal’s grip. His left humorous was shattered as the arm bent above the elbow at an outward angle and the same was true for his opposite leg which was bleeding heavily from the broken end of his femur sticking out from his thigh.
“James…..James wake up. open your eyes come on open ‘em up already.” Tabitha said in a shaky voice as she lightly shook and slapped her leaders face a few times in the hopes of wakeing him “don-don’t you fucking die on me, you hear me……..you can’t die before me. I’m your senior so I hafta be the one to die first…..James come on wake up already” She said as tears began to fall from her eyes and dripped onto James chest. She had to check to make sure he was gone to make sure that this wasn’t some joke or dream. She placed her fingers under the side of his jaw to check for a pulse.
………………………
She gulped and adjusted the position of her fingers
……………………………………………………………….
More tears flowed from her eyes and with her whole body shaking she laid her ear against the center of his chest.
………………………………………………..Ba Bum…………………………………………, BaBum,………………………………………………………………..Babum.
It was faint but his heart was definitely still beating not only that but she could just barely feel his chest rise and fall. With this, Tabitha let out a choked sob startling Maria who was unaware of James’s vitals.
The young teenager’s body was trembling as she held a hand over her mouth. “Tabitha….is he.”
“He’s alive.” Tabitha said sniffling as she wiped the tears from her eyes as Maria looked at her in disbelief and relief “His breathing is shallow and his heart is weak but he is still alive.” She said with relief as tears continued to flow down her cheeks. “Come on we have to get him out of here and back to the others.” She said as Maria nodded and they moved pick up James. They were about to move for the exit when they stopped seeing the still regenerating face of the Hannibal not ten feet in front of them. Maria fell back to her knees stuttering incoherent syllables with a look of pure despair and Tabitha couldn’t hold James and near dropped him to the ground as she lowered herself to one knee staring right into one of the big green eyes of the monster about to end them. But then she noticed something, something that couldn’t be possible. This Hannibal’s eyes had…..pupils…..deep crimson red pupils about the size of her head. Some Aragami are known to have pupils but every recorded one had eyes like a reptile and Hannibals were not of the few. This one had circular pupils, the eyes of a human. “Th-That’s impossible.” She said and was about to tell Maria to run when it opened its mouth. Expecting a flame breath attack she covered her face with her arms, but instead it………… laughed. Not even laughed but chuckled as if amused at their situation before it opened its mouth and….. spoke. Just one word but it was clear and understandable even though the voice seemed to shake the ground.
“SSSSSSSSooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnn.”
Suddenly there was a bright golden light nearly as vibrant as the orb when it had brought them here but this time there was a large gust of wind erupting from the light making Tabitha and Maria shield their eyes. It surrounded the Hannibal as it let out screeches and wails before its body began to burn to ash and disintegrate into the wind created by the light. Once it dimmed and after only a few seconds there was the sound of several womens voices and heavy footsteps.
“I think they went in here. You two with me the rest of you check for others.” Were what came from an unfamiliar males voice. Tabitha and Maria could hardly believe the others had found them and didn’t focus on how the Hannibal had been destroyed but on the fact that they made it through this. Looking at each other with faces of pure joy the two girls began to madly shout to whomever was out there
“HEYYYY OVER HERE WE’RE IN HERE.” they screamed and didn’t stop yelling even as their lungs burned.
Their hopes of salvation were shattered as instead of seeing the familiar uniform of a medic they saw a golden clad hoof. Turning their gaze upward they saw one of the creatures that had been scattered throughout the city only instead of a mangled dead corpse this one was living, breathing, and very tall. It was obviously female judging from its breast plate and had two large wings behind its back which were currently folded up.
“Oh dear Celestia.” It said in a feminine voice confirming its gender that sounded scared as it looked at them with an expression of shock and horror.
No one moved for a few moments until the creature turned its head back out into the street.
“Hey i found them, Get a healer over here now.” It yelled before it turned back to the group and moved into the room towards them.
Location: royal guard command ship one hour prior.
It had been only a week since the creatures which were dubbed the “enders” invaded Canterlot and already they had done a seemingly impossible amount of damage. On the second day enough of them had funneled through that white sphere that they had easily over run Manehattan, and then Phillydelphia on the third turning the populated cities into crumbling ghostly wastelands. At first many ponies tried to communicate or reason with the beasts to stop all the bloodshed. But they only found themselves ripped to shreds and devoured by the enders. It wasn’t until the fifth day that Equestria managed to gain its barring’s and set up a working line of defense in the form of several magical barriers generated by hundreds of unicorns from Appleusa all the way to Ponyville. It was a tiresome defense but it was the only one they had considering the Enders were able to eat through anything save for magic. However a large downside to the magical barriers were that they drew the Enders in like moths to a flame except the moths would try to eat the flame without it actually burning them which meant the guard was constantly fighting off wave after wave of the monsters that threatened to break through.
It was hard to keep the enders at bay while the barriers were generated but it was worth it. With the security of these two agricultural hubs the princesses felt safe in that the ponies of equestrian wouldn’t have to immediately worry about food shortages. However while the ponies were still able to grow plentiful amounts of food, rationing was inevitable due to survivors from other parts of equestria continuously funneling into the established safe zone in seek of refuge. Another downside to taking in so many survivors was that they were running out of available space to keep them.
Many had brought up the idea of leveling sections of the everfree forest in ponyville as a way to generate more space but others were against the idea of moving into timberwolf, craggle gator, and manticor territory. Not only that but Twilight had informed everypony that expanding the barrier would only further exhaust those who were keeping it up along with weaken the area each unicorn’s barrier covered. The only unicorn capable of expanding the barrier was Shining Armor and he was still stationed in the crystal empire with Cadence so the plan of expansion was quickly denied.
As problem after problem stacked up upon themselves, Celestia, Luna, and Twilight had held a meeting with leaders from neighboring countries such as Griffonia, the Minatorian Republic, and Zebrica to develop a plan of attack to deal with this disaster. The griffons wanted to capture as many of the Enders as they could to study them to find a weakness they could exploit. The minotaurs’ wanted to fight them head on with everything they had boasting that their ‘blazing power of will’ would ensure victory. The Zebras felt that the Enders presence was due to the gods being displeased with Equestria’s actions and suggested abandoning the land. The leaders debated heavily for several hours behind closed doors as they tried to agree on a course of action.
After the ninth hour the leaders had reached a verdict. They had decided that the best course of action before dealing with the Enders themselves would be to close or destroy the white sphere which allowed the Enders to enter Equestria.
Now aboard the royal guard command ship which soared above the clouds for cover Celestia, Luna, Twilight, the other former elements of harmony, and the joint forces of ponies, griffons, zebras, and minotaurs’ readied themselves for the coming mission.
“Twilight May we speak with you?” Celestia asked.
“Of course princess” the lavender alicorn replied walking over to her former mentor who chuckled.
“You are a princess as well Twilight you don’t have to address me as my title anymore. Please just call me Celestia from now on.”
Twilight blushed in embarresment “y-yes pr-I mean, Celestia. So what did you need me for?”
Celestia looked to her sister and then to twilight. “We are conducting a final strategy meeting and we would like you to attend.”
“O-of course” the purple alicorn said following behind her former mentor. The two walked through a set of doors to a room with several maps and charts lining the walls. In the center of the room round table with the leaders from the assisting countries along with Luna sitting there waiting to begin the briefing. Twilight and Celestia took their seats with Luna to Celestia’s right and Twilight to her left.
“Nice of you to finally join us.” said general purge of the Grifonian aerial battalion as she filed her talons.
“I began to think you had run off with your tail between your legs.” Snorted commander strong arm of the minotaurian republics army giving them a serious yet also stoic expression as he sat in his seat.
“Commander Arm, you see too little of ponies with your eyes.” She said and turned to face celestia “However wasting further time would be most unwise.” said the leader of Zebrica Antecwa who sat in her chair legs crossed. Her staff which had several jewels encrusted at the head and traditional markings burned along the shaft now laid in her lap “I believe it is time to begin, should we wish to win.”
Celestia looked to her sister and nodded as the lunar princess lit up her horn and projected a 3D map of canterlot on the table “quite. Thankfully our scouts have returned with information that there is surprisingly little ender activity around the portal which shall greatly reduce the danger of our mission. Now the objective itself is quite simple.” She said snapping her fingers and a mini version of the command ship appeared above the city. “As we all know our ship is currently in route to the canterlot university. Once we are above the courtyard holding the sphere we shall hover at three thousand hooves to remain out of site from the enders. Next the soldiers will descend from the sky and those who can’t fly shall be either carried by a griffon or pegasus or be assisted through magic. Once they touch down they will surround the area giving us the ok to descend where Twilight, Celestia, And myself will combine our power to destroy the sphere an-”
Commander Purge raised her claw but didn’t wait for Luna to stop speaking “Now you say that like this is a simple objective. Yet what I want to know is that if the orb was created through the development of a new spell that went wrong even after overloading it was attempted, how would you know how to destroy it and do you honestly think this plan is a sound one.”
Luna went silent trying to come up with a response. Neither she nor her sister had an answer on how to effectively destroy the sphere. They had figured that with their immense power, simply firing as many powerful spells they could manage would be enough to overwhelm and destroy it.
“You seem a bit tongue tied by this. Do you not have the answer we wish?”
Giving a nervous chuckle Luna began to speak but was interrupted by Twilight “I-I might have an answer.” She stammered out as all eyes were on her as Purge simply huffed.
“Listen little filly I know you are a princess and all but please let the ones with actual experience in these situations talk okay?” the griffon stated harshly causing Twilight to lower her head. However celestia placed a hand on her shoulder giving her a reassuring smile before she stood up next to Twilight.
“Commander purge. While your battle experience and appointed rank are unquestioned, I would like you to know two things. One your outburst was rather unprofessional and quite uncalled for. Second is that this ‘little filly’ has far more authority than you and could have you stripped of you title quite easily. I know that doesn’t sit well with you but it is what it is so I advise you to control yourself. Please continue twilight.” Celestia finished sitting back down leaving Strong arm chuckling as Purge tried to respond but gave another huff and leaned back in her chair.
“Fine but make it quick mare.”
Twilight tried to process what had just happened and after a minute began to speak again. “w-well you see the sphere was created through an overload of magic that was supposed to burn it out but ended up absorbing it and grew in power. Normally that much power would be to unstable and combust or worse implode. However there are several energy crystals underneath it which help stabilize the magic acting as anchors so if I had to hazard a guess the best way to destroy the sphere would be to eliminate the crystals surrounding it.”
“If I may be so bold, but how exactly do you know of this information?” Strong arm asked.
“w-well you see I uhh……-“
“She was a close friend of the student who performed the experiment at the university. Unfortunately she didn’t survive by the time we had arrived. As such Twilight prefers not to talk about it.” Celestia intervened yet again using her millennium of political debates to come up with and deliver a believable lie.
Strong arm nodded “My apologies and condolences princess Sparkle.” He said to Twilight
“O-oh um y-Thank you.” she responded.
“Is there anything else? or shall we prepare ourselves?” Antecwa asked.
“well there is-“ She was cut off by the sound of pounding against the door of the room.
Celestia’s eyes narrowed as she lit up her horn to open the door showing one of her royal guard with her head bowed.
“Speak soldier for thous hast better have an acceptable reason for interrupting us.” Luna commanded in her royal voice.
“y-yes princess. You see we were surveying the area for any sign of enders when we……”
“Go on.” Celestia said crossing her arms.
“we found a small group of foals in the wastelands and……..th-they are……….they’re fighting a master class ender in the shopping district of the city.”
Everypony in the room’s blood went cold as they starred at the guard in disbelief.
“Wh-what did you say?” twilight finally spoke to the guard who was still starring at the floor.
“we spotted a group of three foals with weapons most likely stolen from the armory fighting a master class ender your highness. We request your orders on wether to extract them or……or continue with our current objective.” The mare said obviously hoping her ruler didn’t choose the ladder.
Everypony looked to one another debating to themselves on what to do.
The silence was broken first by strong arm “It was their choice to get involved so I say we leave them and continue on. Besides the moment we do descend to help them the enders in the area would swarm us and the ship making it impossible to finish our mission.” The commander said with a snort.
Suprisingly the one to respond to this was General Purge “You minotaurs are all such barbarians. I may be a bitch but I would never leave defenseless chicks to their death if I could do anything about it. I say we help them and worry about the portal later.” she said nearly squawking at hearing Strong Arm’s opinion.
“For a decision like this I was not ready, But unfortantly the needs of few do not outweigh the needs of the many.” Said Antecwa giving a usual slightly cryptic answer as all zebras.
Twilight was appalled by the two military officers decisions “How in Equestria can you say that? They are just innocent foals trying to do what they can to save their home. We can’t just leave them for dead. If we turn our backs on them we are no better than the enders.” She screamed feeling tears well up in her eyes. She knew being a princess would be hard but she never once figured she would be faced with decisions like this.
Once again she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at Celestia who sighed . “As much as I wish to end this war as soon as possible, Twilight is right. We can’t abandon our principles especially in times like this. I vote that we help them.”
“As do I sister we shall rally our best troops to-” Luna was cut off by another guard who ran to the doorway.
“Your Highnesses it’s the foals, the ender has caught one.” The three alicorn princesses and griffon general became blurs as they darted out of the room leaving Strong arm and Antecwa.
“Pfft ponies, way to full of Sentiment.” said strong arm.
“Agreed.” replied Antecwa.
At the port side gunnery station of the ship, the four leaders watched through telescopes as the ender pulled one of the foals from a pile of rubble. Though when celestia looked at the foal she felt that there was something not right about him or her. The magnification wasn’t strong enough to get a clear view of the foal but they could see well enough the youngling was about to be eaten.
Acting quickly, Luna grabbed the shoulder of an earth pony archer and brought her infront of her.
“soldier when I give the command fire at the enders head understand. and don’t compensate for wind or drop I shall take care of that”.
“Y-Yes Your highness.” The soldier said not sure what was happening but strung an arrow the length of her leg and diameter of a unicorns arm anyway. Taking a breath she drew back the 300lb bow with ease (she is an earth pony after all) and steadied her aim at the ender’s head. Like the princess commanded she didn’t account for wind or drop and just aimed straight ahead. “I have the shot princess.” She said without a single drop of strain in her voice.
“Good now hold steady.” Luna said lighting her horn and surrounded the arrow in the same glow. Magic then flowed out from her horn and into the arrow turning the projectile itself into a beautiful shade of night blue. When she felt she had loaded enough magic into the arrow she held her hand out. “LOOSE.” She bellowed and before she even finished the archer had relaxed her fingers letting the bow launch the arrow through the sky with a trail of blue following behind it. the wood of the bow made a loud snap as it returned to its original place. Everypony watched as the arrow soared guided by luna’s magic who smiled when it hit its target. “Thou all might wish to cover thine ears.” She said before snapping her fingers and the magic that was in the arrow became unstable and combusted. The result was a loud, large, and very bright explosion that destroyed nearly all of the ender’s head but it was still standing “tis tougher than I imagined. Archer ready another arrow.” She commanded to the mare who was ahead of her already having one on her bow string.
“WAIT STOP.” Twilight yelled
“what does thou mean stop. I though thou wished to save the foals?”
“I do but th-they’re fighting it again.”
“What did'st thou say?” Luna said unbelieving as she ripped a telescope from one of the soldiers just in time to see one of the foals swing a war hammer into the leg of the master class ender and breaking it followed by its arm being cleaved through by the weapon of another of the foals as the first ran catch the injured one who had nearly been eaten as they fell to the ground. “We don’t believe it how could mere foals fight against such a monster?”
“That’s the passion of youth for ya. If you ask me they belong in the military for this.” General purge smirked watching through her own telescope.
“Regardless they still need our help to get away.” Celestia said watching the foals enter a building with ender following slowly behind. Taking a deep breath she began charging her horn with magic. After a few seconds she opened her eyes to show only a blinding light erupting from each before she held out her hands. “You might want to cover your eyes.” She said
The next moment was followed by a blinding light and once everypony’s eyes adjusted, they saw a powerful beam of golden magic rocketing towards the ender. Even from the airship the screams and wails of the monster reached the ears of everypony making several wince and a few cheer on their glorious leader of the sun. when celestia felt the beast was no more she broke off the spell. Giving a light sigh she took a step back but wound up stumbling and nearly fell if Twilight hadn’t caught her in her magic. “Are you ok pr-Celestia?” she asked to which celestia nodded. “Yes, it has just been quite awhile since I have used destructive magic and seem to have lost a bit of my tolerance with the side effects but I shall be fine.” She said slowly standing back up. “Now. *clears throat*. Get 3 squads and a team of healers down there as fast as possible.”
With a loud chorus of “Yes your highness” several pegasi and griffons jumped from the ship and began to dive towards the ground. Some of them held other ponies and even a few minotaur. All at once they opened their wings and began to glide down to the ground and began a thorough search for the foals until one Pegasus by the name of Sun Glider came across a sight that filled her with confusion, fear, and sorrow. Before her in the ruins of a building were the thre ‘foals’ if they were still even that. By the looks of it, their encounter with the enders must have caused their bodies to mutate which begged the question as to how long they had been out here. “Oh dear Celestia.” She said her body shaking slightly. However, deciding to focus on her immediate task she turned her head back out into the street.
“Hey i found them, Get a healer over here now.”
