Through the portal

Through the portal

Chapter 2

Arrival

I stumbled into what I assumed to be Twilights bedroom at Canterlot castle, while I heard gunfire behind me. I suddenly became dizzy, and dropped to the ground letting Twilight fall out of my arms. As I looked back I saw that Jane and Frank were moving backwards towards the portal as fast as they could, while returning the fire.

Before I could say or do anything, Twilight was on her hooves again and rushed towards the portal. With a blinding flash, my two friends/comrades appeared right beside me. When I tried to stand up, a bullet hit the marble floor where my hand had been just moments ago.

"Shut it!" , I screamed at Twilight, who nodded and obeyed my order.

With another quick flash of her horn the portal began to close, while I saw Michaels medical bag float into it's direction. Shortly before I passed out, I saw how it came through the portal as well. Twilight was a clever mare, bringing our medical supplies along...

I slowly came to. I could feel that I was in a bed, but it seemed to be bit too small for me. This became most obvious when I tried to stretch my legs, and hit some kind of barrier. Still feeling a little dizzy, I opened my eyes an looked around. I didn't recognize my surroundings, and my still half asleep mind wondered if I was picked up at a bar last night.

When my eyes fell on one lavender and one orange blob in the dimly lit room, I remembered what had happened. My squad had been ordered to capture Twilight Sparkle who had come to our world to remind us of a promise we broke. I, as commander of my unit, changed our plans however. I was not sure how accurate the show was in terms of their personalities, but I guessed these Ponies were not really combat experienced. My brother, Michael, covered us as we retreated through the portal into Equestria. I would never forget what he did, for he died protecting what I believed in...

I collected myself, and swung myself out of bed as I usually did. It was just then that I realized I was wearing nothing but my underwear, and I hoped that it was one of the Ponies that had undressed me immediately. Jane had tried to come up to me for as long as I knew her and Frank... let's just say he had his nose broken for a reason....

I quickly looked around and found my equipment on a table in the plain room. I picked up my flashlight and began to examine my surroundings a little closer. The room was really plain. It was even less furnished then our barracks back at home. Beside the bed and table, there was nothing in there, and they were no where near as glamorous as I had expected from Canterlot castle. The sheets on the bed were nothing more then slightly dirty rags and the table looked like something the CMC might have built. As the beam of my flashlight fell onto what I at first had thought were colored blobs, I realized it were Twilight and Applejack, cuddled as close together as they could. Behind them was a small heater. Just now I felt the coldness of the room and quickly put my gear on to warm myself.

I must have caused quite some noise when I closed all the straps on my bulletproof west, because suddenly I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. It was Twilight, who had woken up and was carefully cantering towards me. I could tell she did not really trust me, since her horn was aglow. If I were to do anything suspicious, I would be faced with retaliation this time it seemed...

"Are you feeling better?", she asked, stopping just outside my reach.

"Yes, thank you for asking. What about you? You look worn and tired."

"That's because I am. I think I must thank you for getting me back here, but may I ask why you did it? At first I thought you would try to harm me, and break the alliance that our worlds have formed, like the others did."

I shook my head, stepping away from the table that still held my weapons to show her that I had no ill intend.

"The alliance is broken Ms. Sparkle. Me being here is a direct conflict to my orders. I was ordered to restrain you and bring you to a research facility. But even so I have followed every order I was given so far, I would have never followed this one. You may be aware that you are kind of a celebrity where I come from. Well, I am one of your fans. I just couldn't bring myself to harm you. But even if that hadn't been the case we would most likely have this talk now, since it's just plain wrong what our government intended to do. As of now, my team and I are most likely outcasts and on the most wanted list. That means we will not be able to go home ever again...", I explained, starting to cry towards the end.

Twilights eyes widened in shock as she listened to this. I could tell she knew about the show, but had never expected a human to help her, when it meant said human would never be able to go home again.  She finally dropped the act and rushed towards me. Usually I would have reacted reflexively, and shoved her away, but I just couldn't find the strength to do that just now. I had left everything behind and got my brother killed, because I did what was the right thing to do.

After about ten minutes I could finally compose myself a little and ask the sensible question.

"Where is my team? You are under attack, aren't you? We shouldn't waste any time and see what we can do. We may not be an army, but stealth operations and sabotage are our specialty... I don't want this to have happened in vain...", I croaked and looked at her in askance.

"Your team? Oh, you mean your friends. They are with my friends in their quarters. Each of you has been assigned an escort consisting of two of us. I am sorry about this, but Princess Celestia is being cautious until she has spoken to you.", she apologized and folded her ears against her skull.

There really was nothing she had to feel bad about, since I could understand the Princess completely. We were no Ponies and the story of our arrival surely did not sound too friendly. It was only natural that she would post "guards" to keep an eye on us. Even though I highly doubted Twilight and Applejack could hold me up if I had my weapons. And even without them... I was a close combat specialist, so I would at least have given them one hell of a fight.

Just as I was contemplating how an actual fight would end, I heard a shot from nearby. Twilights eyes widened as I grabbed my grenades and ran out of the room. To her credit, she stayed hot on my heels. Another shot went off, and I could finally tell where it was coming from. Ponies in the corridor stared at me but none of them tried to stop me as I ran towards the sound of a third shot. As I reached the door ,where I thought the noises were coming from, I threw it open so hard that it actually fell out of it's hinges. Inside, I saw something that I had expected.

Rarity and Fluttershy were cowering behind an upturned table, while Jane was standing in the middle of the room. Her right hand clutched her rifle, while her left was enveloped in a pale blue light. I could only imagine that Rarity was trying to restrain her. From the looks of it, she failed miserably.

Without saying a word to the two cowering Ponies I pulled the ring on one of my grenades, throwing it directly to Jane's feet. In her current state, she didn't even notice that she was in danger. With a quick turn I jumped out of the room, waving for Rarity and Fluttershy to follow me. Just as Twilight caught up with me, I ordered her to raise a shield to cover the door as if she is one of my subordinates. She seemed offended by this at first but then the steady hiss of my gas-grenade started up. Took longer then I had expected to be sure.

Apparently the noise made Twilight forget that I was less then polite towards her just now. With a quick lighting of her horn, Twilight erected a barrier in the doorway. Soon there was nothing else to be seen inside of the room, then the white gas that was bursting forth from my grenade.

"Whatever was wrong with her? As soon as she woke up she started rampaging like an Ursa Major.", Rarity inquired indignantly.

"It's withdrawal. How long has it been since we came here?", I asked right back, in no mood for any niceties.

"It's been about fourteen hours. And what do you mean by withdrawal?", Twilight asked frowning.

"Please don't hold what happened against her. She needs medication every three hours. It's a chemical disorder in her brain that causes aggressive tendencies and hallucinations. I am sure she will be very sorry about shooting at you. When she is like this, you can't reason with her. The only way to calm her down, is to sedate her. The gas I just released into that room, is a sleeping gas. She will soon be snoozing peacefully. Then I will go inside and give her the required injection. As I said, please don't hold it against her.", I explained, pleading for them to understand.

We weren't even here an entire day, and one member of my team had already gone on a rampage. It really wasn't even her fault. A year after she joined the special operations roster, she was chosen to participate in a special training program. The results of it were extraordinary, but the consequences outweigh the benefits by far. They had done something more to her then just training. Being the only survivor of that experiment, she was put on strong medication to resist her urges to kill everything that moved. One of those outbreaks had actually been the reason for my promotion. She had gone onto a rampage during an exceptionally long mission. My predecessor had ordered her to leave her medicine bag back in the camp, and soon she lost control over herself while being on a clock tower. The former commander of this squad tried to get to her, to try to stop her, but that only gained him a new hole in his head. Jane was by far the best sniper in the entire army, but due to her "condition" she was unable to be promoted. Instead she was put into the squad permanently, demoted, and lost her position as second in command.

Michael, my brother, got that position and requested me for his squad. After our first mission however, I was promoted instead of him. The Commander had said that I was way more compatible with them then my brother. Also my strategic skills were better then his.

Twilight and Rarity looked at me suspiciously, while Fluttershy was cowering behind the two other mares. A moment later the tension finally subsided, when Twilight lowered her gaze and sighed heavily.

"Is there anything I must know about you or your other friend as well? Is he as dangerous as her?", she asked pointing a hoof at the sealed door.

I shook my head in response. No. Frank was most likely the tamest of our lot. He had a corpse in his basement as well, but that was nothing these Ponies had to know. Neither was it any of their concern that I was once found unfit for duty, after my mother had died.

As the screaming from inside the room finally quieted down, the lavender Alicorn lowered her barrier. I grabbed  my belt and put on my gas-mask. Jane lay there, in one corner of the room. Her forehead had a minor injury, while her right hand seemed to be broken. I hated to see her that way. I had to do this once before, and knew where these injuries came from. Having no target to shoot, Jane had turned against herself and slammed her head into the wall. I just hoped she had not inflicted any  lasting damage...

I picked her up gently, and put her onto the similar plain bed. She was breathing calmly as I rummaged in her belly pouch for her medicine. Soon I had injected the stuff into her veins, and I could see that she was calming down further. The gas would dissipate in a few more minutes, and loose it's effect. Jane however, would be out like a light for at least a day. I should not forget to give her the injections, since I only had two of those grenades left.

Next up on my list was Frank. After I showed Twilight the medicine bottle that was. I had read about it, but seeing it with my own eyes was still something else. I asked her if she knew a replica-spell, to duplicate an object. She looked at me as if I was actually insulting her.

"That's basic magic. Any Unicorn foal could do it for you.", she said indigently.

Nonetheless, she complied, and soon I held ten full bottles of medicine in my hands. This also laid one of my other concerns to rest. Should we have to conduct an operation, we at least wouldn't have to worry about ammo.

As we reached Franks door, I heard loud laughing from inside, and unsteady speaking. The voices were a little muffled and surely different from the show, but I recognized them at once. They belonged to Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and...

I kicked the door open and shouted in anger, while Twilight looked at me as if I was out of my mind. Getting that look from my favorite Pony hurt a little, but it was necessary....

"Lieutenant!", I shouted.

The reaction was immediate. Frank, who was sitting at the table with a bottle in front of him, jumped up quickly and stood at attention. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were also sitting at the table, and now laughed their heads off at Franks reaction to my anger. I usually hated to play the "superior officer" card, but this time it had to be.

"I... I can explain, captain.", he stammered, already knowing what was coming.

I sighed and ran my left hand through my long black hair. My amber eyes were fixated on his, while I tried to regain some level of calmness. As I had finally collected myself, I addressed him in a much calmer tone.

"Drinking while on duty... That's a week in the brig Frank. On second thought... Make that a month for not inviting me to it.", I said with a smirk. Usually I would really have thrown him into the brig, but I couldn't rightfully do so now. Not after disobeying the president of the united states himself.

Two hours later

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had fallen asleep shortly after I made my entry into Franks room. By the looks that Twilight threw at them, she would chew her friends out for their carelessness while on duty as well. The more time I spent with her, I realized that we were kinda in the same position here. I was the commanding officer of my two friends in the army, while she seemed to play a similar role when it came to the mane 6.

As much as I wanted to speak with her at great length, it was not to be since a guard had appeared to get me for an interview with Celestia.

The ruler of all of Equestria and her little sister were sitting close to a fireplace in their own quarters. The room didn't look much different from the other quarters I had seen, except that there were two beds instead of one. As soon as the door closed behind the guard, Celestia's horn glowed, and I felt myself being lifted of the ground. In a speed that I was not really comfortable with, I was floated over to the pair of them.

"First I want to thank you for saving my student, but please excuse that we are still a little suspicious about your intentions.", Celestia said, looking me in the eye hopefully.

"I can assure you, your highness, that I intend to right the wrong that you have suffered from my people. I am a woman of my word, and I hate it when someone breaks their promises. When I heard that my government had done that towards Equestria, I was struggling between my loyalty and my conscience. My conscience won in the end, and now I am nothing more then a soldier without a master. I am a wanderer with no home to return to. Were I to go back, I would surely be found guilty for treason, but at least I did what I am convinced is right.", I explained, while holding her gaze.

"So you say you are here to help then?", Luna asked, and so I turned my head her way.

"Yes your highness. I had been under orders to restrain Twilight Sparkle and take her in for experimentation. I disobeyed these orders and my brother was killed, covering our retreat through the portal."

"My condolences.", the night Princess added.

"In other words, you are a like a stray dog now and looking for a home.", Celestia asked.

I didn't really approve of her choice of words, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it, so I simply nodded. After a few moments, in which the two sisters stared at me intently both of them nodded in approval.

"I assume you are willing to join the equestrian army?", Luna asked, smiling a tad.

"My unit and myself are at your command your highnesses. My team-mates are maybe not as fond of the Ponies of this land as myself, but they are loyal to me and have chosen this path themselves. They will fight on whatever battlefield that I choose."

"It's settled then. What is your name my little human?", Celestia asked.

"My full name is Selina Trawny. My former rank was captain of a special operation squad in the US-marine core.", I said, while standing at attention.

"Well then Selina, I don't think you will need those anymore.", Luna snickered as her horn began to glow. I felt nothing but as I looked down, I saw that all American flags on my equipment had vanished and been replaced with the Equestrian flag instead.

"Very well then. You and your friends will stay together as a unit, but I want to know more about them and about what they can do.", Celestia demanded.

Shortly after I was finally set on the ground again. Speaking to someone while floating in the air is  not very pleasant. And so I began to talk about my teams specialties, and the individual talents of each one. It almost felt wrong for me to do so, since all this information was classified, but I reminded myself that I was no longer even on Earth...

When I began to explain about Franks ability to handle almost any kind of technology they suddenly became very interested. It was true. We had once encountered a supercomputer during one of our missions, and I didn't even know what operating system it was running on. Frank however had pulled out a number of USB-drives from one of his pockets and had cracked the thing in mere minutes.

"Do you think that your friend Frank would be interested to see what kind of technology our enemies use?" the sun Princess asked hopefully.

I nodded in response. Knowing Frank, he would take whatever the Princesses provided him with apart, analyze it and then put it back together while fixing flaws in it's design. I have never understood why he chose this carer, since he was a very brilliant man, who could have easily started up his own software company.

Twenty minutes later

After I had fetched Frank, Princess Luna escorted us through many corridors. All of them seemed to be carved right out of the surrounding rock. No surprise there. I had already deducted that we were in some kind of bunker. The exact circumstances however, were something I wanted to ask one of the Princesses about later.

As we reached our destination, I almost fell over in shock. There was a small garage where several vehicles were lined up alongside each other. After my question, Luna confirmed to me that these were captured from the enemy. There were not many, but they were definitely DX-39 models. A prototype weapon I once had the honor to test.

Basically the DX-39's were nothing more then bipedal robots with a human pilot inside. The model I was allowed to use once, moved very slowly and was far from combat ready, but these... They had actually been in combat, and according to Luna they moved quite fast. They had never been able to open one of them, so I stepped closer to one of the less damaged ones, and opened a little panel just under the rear hatch.

Under there I found the exact same emergency release mechanism I had been trained on. Half expecting to find a dead human inside of it, I entered the release sequence into the numpad and hit enter. No response came from the machine whatsoever. I tried again, but still nothing happened. Then I finally remembered the fail-safe one under this panel, and pulled out my knife to undo the screws that held the numpad in place. Beneath it was a lever with some writing next to it. I knew what it should say, but I could not read the letters it was written in. It was not a language I had ever seen before....

I pulled the lever, and to my astonishment the hatch didn't only open, but almost beheaded me when a small explosive charge at it's hinges detonated. I peered inside, hoping I would not find what I feared I would. For the very first time, my prayers were heard. There, in the pilots seat, was no human. It was some creature with nine arms and two heads. It's exact features I was not able to make out, due to decay. This pilot died at least six months ago. Why hadn't the Ponies asked for our help way earlier, instead of waiting for so long?

The answer I got when  I asked that exact question was rather logical, even for someone who was not that good with technology. The Ponies were unable to make contact. Luna explained in great detail that the worlds circled around each other and there was only a three day window for communication or travel, every two and a half years.

Luna peered into the cockpit where I was examining the controls. I had chucked the dead body of the pilot out unceremoniously. It may have been an intelligent being once, but at that moment it simply disgusted me. Luna had told me what they did, once they had overrun a settlement. They disembarked their machines and started to devour the dead Ponies. Those who were unlucky enough not to be dead when this started, were eaten while they were still alive. These creatures didn't bother killing their victims.

According to what the Princess told me, they grabbed their victims with their tentacles and started to dissolve their bodies very slowly. She shivered as she remembered the screams of the temporary survivors.

Getting out of the DX-39, Frank and I exchanged a glance. Without saying a word, we understood each other perfectly. These weapons may not have been produced on earth, but they were almost exactly the same nonetheless. The matter of the devouring of their enemies, also disturbed both of us. Even if Frank was no Brony, and even if he had his doubts about his decision up to that point, I saw that he was now full of rage. After hearing this, he would do everything he could to help the Ponies.

"You seem to know these machines rather well.", Luna noticed.

"That's because I do. The ones I know are a little more primitive, but their concept is exactly the same.", I answered hesitantly.

"Don't get us wrong Princess.", Frank said before she could digest this. "Humanity has similar weapons but they pale in comparison to these. From the outside they look the same, but even so I haven't taken a closer look at them yet, I can tell you that they are vastly different. This for example...", he pointed at a small hatch at the chest of the machine.

"This is where the fusion cell should be. It's a highly explosive energy source and one of the main reasons humanities version is not yet combat ready.", he explained further, while prodding the edges of the hatch with his knife. As soon as he had managed to open it, both Luna and I gasped. She in horror, me in disgust.

There, held in place by a metal construct and connected to the machine itself, was the head of a Pony. I wished that Luna had not seen it, for I knew that Pony. Her purple and pink mane, with the yellow stripe that ran through it were easy to recognize. What surprised me however, was that she was not decayed in any way. I pushed the Princess behind me, gesturing to Frank to block this from her view. As soon as I could be sure that the Alicorn would not see what I was about to do, I moved closer to the now open hatch.

Frank and I blocked Princess Cadence completely, as I could hear Luna starting to cry behind us. She was having a nervous breakdown, and I could not even blame her. I put my finger under her muzzle and was shocked to discover that she was actually breathing. A closer inspection of the machinery around her revealed that it was not only her head that was built into this machine. The rest of her body was crammed into the frontal part of the DX. It was forced into an upright position and the damages on the life-support system that kept her alive seemed to be minor. I could only do a visual inspection though, but her being alive after about six months, indicated that I was right. Frank agreed and I looked back at Luna.

"Your highness, can you cut the plating on this vehicle with your magic?", I asked urgently.

It took her a while, and a slap across the face from me to finally snap out of it. At first she looked like she wanted to retaliate against me, but then her brain had processed what I had asked of her. She shook her head, ever so slightly, as she rubbed her face with a hoof. I was sorry for hitting her, but this was a dire situation. If the machine worked as Frank suspected, then Princess Cadence was it's power-source. Due to the damage it had suffered, or so he explained to me, the pilot must have died, sending the machine into stand-by in the process.

Suddenly Frank seemed to have an idea, and ran over to the rear hatch. None of the many buttons were labeled, but we had both had basic training in the human version of this machine. His fingers raced so faced over the different buttons that I was unable to make out what he was actually doing, but soon the unconscious Princess Cadence began to moan, as if she was in pain. The machine came to life mere moments after that, and the moaning intensified.

"Stop it! You're hurting her!", Luna screamed at us.

I nodded at Frank, and he stopped what he was doing, while I walked over to Princess Luna.

"Your highness, you said you can not cut though the armor of this machine, and we have no tools with us that might do that either without hurting her. If Frank sees an option to free her another way then placing explosives right over her body, and hoping the blast doesn't cripple her too much, then I think we should try it, don't you think?", I asked, trying to sound as comforting as I could.

She looked apprehensive for a moment, before looking at the ground and nodding. Without a moments hesitation I gave Frank the go ahead. I had no idea what he was up to, but I trusted him, for he had yet to disappoint me even once in such an important situation. Besides... this was the perfect situation to show the Ponies that they could trust us.

After a few more moans and some outright screams from Princess Cadence, the DX began to move. It got to it's feet first, before dropping to both knees and then falling down on all fours. I was starting to doubt Franks ability to control

that thing at this point, but he did it. With a loud hiss, that sounded like high pressure was released though very narrow holes, the chest of the DX-39 opened up and released the Princess. She fell out of her bindings as all he pipes and wires that had been connected to her withdrew into the machinery. Luckily I had positioned myself right beneath the opening in an attempt to catch her. Sadly she was almost as big as a fully grown horse and had the weight to match her size. I caught her, but my knees gave away in an instant as I was dragged to the ground alongside with her. I felt as if my spine would break and my arms had been crushed. As fast as he could, Frank came to my aid, grabbed her back-legs and pulled the Alicorn off of me. Luna was at her side in an instant, while I crawled away from the DX. Not a moment too soon as I had to discover about a second after I had gotten clear of it's shadow. Since it's "Battery" had been removed, the machine fell flat on it's metal belly, and stayed motionless.

l had previously thought that none of these Ponies was actually combat worthy. In retrospect, that was pretty silly of me. At the exact same moment the DX fell to the ground and had almost buried Princess Cadence, Princess Luna and Frank under itself, two Ponies emerged from some nearby shadows, grabbed the three of them, and got them out of harms way. At first I didn't really understand what had just happened, until I saw the two Bat-Ponies. One of them had Frank on it's back while holding a shivering Luna in her forelegs.

The other one had all four of his legs wrapped around the still unconscious pink Alicorn, also known as Princess Miamori Cadenza.....