Through the portal

Through the Portal

Chapter 8

Evacuation

Twilight looked at me with unbelieving eyes. I could see the fear and the pleading in them. She staggered a step into my direction, but didn't quite manage it. Before her hoof hit the ground again, she fell to her knees, stayed like this for a second, and finally rolled over to her side. I was at her side in a second, checking for a pulse on her throat.

To my great relief, her heart was still beating, which meant that the bullet had missed it. Another one struck the stony floor right next to me, and it was then that I realized I was still in the line of fire. I didn't look back, but grabbed Twilight and dragged her to cover. My hands slipped on her coat several times, before I just grabbed her by the wings and dragged her by them. Twilight was already out, so she at least did not feel how her right wing broke from my tugging.

Once I was sure that we were behind cover, I thumbed my radio three times, indicating that I wanted to speak to Luna. She was on before the button was all the way up again.

“What's the matter Selina? We kind of have our hooves full up here. The cruiser is unable to fire at us, but one more ship is coming our way. We have to get this done fast.”, she almost screamed, and I had to lower the volume on my radio.

“Listen, this is important. Get a medical team down to the hangar. I'm sending Twilight back up. Tell them they'll need to perform a surgery.”, I ordered, carefully checking what was going on behind the door. I could see some Ponies who had barricaded themselves in different doorways, firing crossbows at their attackers.

“Why? What happened?”, she asked worried.

“She's been shot while opening the door for me. Now get that medical team down there!”, I shouted at her, taking the emergency transportation device from my belt, and hanging it around Twilights neck. After pressing the button on it, and watching the purple Alicorn disappear in a flash of light, I thumbed the radio again.

“And tell them, if she dies, then they will have to answer to me....”

Luna did respond something, but I was way too far gone to care at that moment. I slung my M4 from my back, switching off the safety and looking around the corner again. I saw two of those damn tentacle freaks. They wore no protection that I could see, but there were little guns on four of their extremities.  I could not read their facial expressions, mostly because they had six eyes and only a very small mouth, but their teeth were showing. In my opinion it looked like they were enjoying themselves an awful lot. I now saw why they did not bother to wear protection gear. When one of the Earthponies came out from his cover, and shot at them, they simply plucked the bolt out of the air as if it was nothing.

“Let's see you do that with one of these....”, I thought to myself, as I took aim. My trustworthy M4, which I had reclaimed from the carriers armory, did not fail me. The first one of those freaks dropped with a bullet in between his six eyes. His comrade had only enough time to turn and look at his buddy, who was now falling to the ground, before he shared his fate. The Ponies finally noticed me. Some of them sighed in relief, while others looked at me suspiciously. It did leave a slight sting in my heart to see the Ponies distrust me, but there was no time for this. Instead I looked at the closest Pegasus stallion who wore a guardsmen armor.

“You! Report. What's the status of the facility and Princess Celestia.”, I demanded.

“Ehm... ma'am... We have lost contact to the Princess some time ago. The last time I myself saw her, she was fending off several of these aliens. The bunker is mostly overrun. They are bringing many of up up their ship. Are you our reinforcements, cause Celestia knows, we could use some.”, he responded, standing at attention.

“I am NOT your reinforcements. I am here to help with the evacuation. Get as many Ponies as you can out of this door and wait for Princess Twilights guards to pick you up. They will teleport you out of danger, and into safety.”, I explained. The stallion, and some others, nodded. They galloped off to gather more survivors.

The rest of the Ponies stayed where they were. They clearly did not trust me, and I did not blame them. My people had helped these monsters to overrun their homeland. At that very moment, I felt more then ashamed to be a human.

Hiding my real emotions behind a mask, I started to advance into the bunker. There was quite some fighting all over the place. I helped where ever I could, yet for some my help came too late. I saw several corpses that looked like they had been dissolved by some kind of acid. At first I hoped that these Ponies had been dead when it had happened, but then I saw it happen. It happened when I turned a corner.

I heard her screams long before I came there. It was the reason I had chosen this direction in the first place. By this point I had shot about twenty of these monsters. They were quite full of themselves, which made it all the more easier for me. I had anticipated many things when I finally reached my destination.

Maybe a few guards in close combat with a few of “them”. Maybe a one on one battle between a guard and a monster... The best case scenario would have been an injured Pony, who was now screaming in pain, but was in no immediate danger.

What I got, was a mare that I recognized from some Fanart I had seen in my days. Berry Punch was in the clutches of one of these things, while a greenish liquid poured out of it's body, and onto the mare it had pinned to the ground. One of the tentacles of the thing held a crying Unicorn filly. Ruby, no doubt about it. I was stunned for a moment, by the sheer cruelty of the act. The filly was crying, but seemed unable to close her eyes, as she watched her mother slowly being dissolved. There was a tube coming out of the underside of the thing, that slurped at Berry. It reminded me of a spider, that would dissolve it's prey, before slurping it up like a smoothy.

Her big purple eyes found me, and her screams of pain stopped, only to be replaced by something much worse. It burned itself into my mind for the rest of my life.

“H...elp Ruby.... I... beg... you..”, she stammered between sobs of pain. Even now, that she was being eaten alive, she begged me to save her daughter. In some corner of my mind, I remembered that Berry Punch was supposed to be a drunk, but there was no sign of that in her eyes now. All there was, was bottomless pain and fear. The thing on top of her did not seem to notice any of this. It was like it was oblivious to everything going on around it, while it was feeding.

Her next pleading words, finally snapped me out of it. I raised my rifle, took careful aim, and turned the things head into swiss cheese. I did not bother with single shot, but had switched to full auto instead. My magazine emptied itself in a matter of seconds, and the thing stopped moving. The tentacle that had held the filly slumped to the ground and went limp. As soon as it did, Ruby crawled over to her barely conscious mother. I dropped my rifle and did so as well. I needed both of my hands to push that thing off of her, careful to avoid any contact with the damn liquid that it had used on Berry. As soon as the thing was clear of her body, I wished I had not pushed it off. I could see her spine, and there was not a single spot of her coat left, safe for her head and shoulders. They had sticked out from under her tormentor, and where therefor unscathed.

I was no medic, but even I knew she would not make it. Her muscles were already dissolving before my eyes, and I had nothing to wash the remainders of that damn acid off. I snatched up Ruby, who tried to resist, but Berry smiled at her, telling her to go with me. She also told her daughter to close her eyes, before she looked at my sidearm with a pleading look in her eyes.

I felt powerless and sick to my stomach. Here I was, carrying a shivering filly in my arms, who was crying uncontrollably, while her mother asked me to kill her. I had been too slow.... again. Had I been here five minutes, no maybe even only a minute earlier, I might have been able to save her. Had I not spaced out there for a moment....

Feeling my eyes start to burn, I drew my Glock from my holster, and aimed between her eyes. Berry closed them, still moaning and shivering in pain, but she had a smile on her muzzle.

“Th...ank... you.”, were her last words, before I pulled the trigger. Her head disintegrated and she finally lay still. Ruby began to stir in my arms again, and I had to put my gun back in the holster, just to keep her from jumping down.

“You finally show your true colors...”, I heard a voice say from behind me. Almost instantly I felt the wrong end of my own rifle make contact with the back of my head. The low chiming sound told me, that it was being held in magic. I was ordered to let go of the filly, and I refused.

“Look... Celestia, I know how this must look to you but if I let go of her now, she will try to hug her mother, who is still covered in that stuff. I don't think you want this filly to get hurt, do you?”, I asked, not raising my hands. My rifle was empty, wasn't it? Before I could give this much more thought, Ruby was levitated out of my arms, surrounded by a soft golden glow.

“Turn around.”, she ordered me, her voice completely void of emotion.

I did as I was ordered. When I saw half a dozen guards, aiming their crossbows at me, I did raise my hands. Three of them even wore the firearms I had taken from the aliens. They were simple bracelets that would be triggered by a button on their side. Perfect for these tentacle monsters, and perfect for Ponies. I recognized the three. I had helped them out of a tight spot not ten minutes ago.

“Celestia, please listen to me....”, I pleaded.

“I will not listen to ANY of your lies. Ponykind will fall because I trusted your kind. You are all the same! You say you are our friends, and on the first chance you get, you stab us in the back! I told Luna and Twilight that you were not worth taking out most of our forces, but they did not listen to me! Now they are are most likely dead, or in one of these horrible machines!”, she shouted at me accusingly.

“Celestia I couldn't care less what you think of me, but you have to LISTEN! Luna is on a ship we captured. They are currently fighting the ship that attacked the bunker, and they have a good chance of winning. Twilights Unicorn guards are teleporting every Pony who gets to the back entrance, up to that ship and into safety. We may not be able to safe everypony, but we do our level best to evacuate as many as we can!”, I interrupted her tirade. In fact, her words struck me as hard as a punch in the gut, but she had to understand the severity of the situation. She had to understand that there was STILL a chance.

One of the guards that I had helped earlier approached her, bowing his head respectfully.

“Your highness, she is telling the truth. I saw it with my own eyes. Princess Twilights guards are evacuating the survivors, and they have relayed orders from Princess Luna, to bring as many of them as possible to the back entrance, so they can get them out.”, he told her, his gaze on the floor.

Celestia pondered that for a moment, before she saw the cord running up into my ear.

“Your radio. Give me your radio. If what you say is true, then I should be able to talk to Luna with it, shouldn't I?”, she asked sarcastically.

“Sure. Let me get her on the line, one moment.”, I said, slowly reaching down to my belt, pressing the send button three times, and pulling out the headset, so everypony could hear what was said.

“Selina? What is it now? The second ship has arrived, and we are in trouble up here. We may be able to keep them off of your back for another twenty, maybe twenty five minutes, but after that we have to run.”, Lunas voice came over the radio. I could hear explosions in the background. Not quite willing to relinquish my radio, I pressed the send button again, nodding to Celestia to indicate that she could speak.

“Luna! Luna, are you alright?”, she called out frantically.

“Celestia? What the heck? What's going on down there? You have to get out of there as fast as you can! We will soon be overrun!”, Luna answered, and I could hear frightened status reports in the background this time. Something about the shields weakening and the loss of a whole squadron.

“I have subdued the human. I am sure, that if we just bring the survivors to....”, Celestia started, but my finger was pressed upwards again, indicating that the other side was interrupting.

“ARE YOU MAD? Selina is your best freaking chance of getting out of there alive! SHE has planned this operation, SHE volunteered to go down and help you with the evacuation, SHE brought Twilight back when she was hurt, even though she could have just left her to die! CELESTIA, COME TO YOUR SENSES ALREADY! Not all humans are like him!”, Luna screamed through the radio. Now I wished I had given my radio over to Celestia. Luna was screaming so loud, that it felt like she was screaming through a loudspeaker that was aimed for my ear. A loudspeaker that was only two feet away.

For a moment, Celestia looked at the radio with unbelieving eyes.

“Selina? Are you alright? God help me, if that horse has hurt you, I'll make glue out of her!”, Janes voice came over my radio. I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing, while blushing furiously.

“It's OK Jane.”, I laughed.

“You don't have to turn anyone into glue.”, I added, almost doubling over.

After this little scene, Celestia finally saw reason. She still did not trust me. She had seen me shoot one of her little Ponies after all, but she let me lead the way. I was relieved of my sidearm and knife however.

“What about my family?”, I asked as I recognized the hallways that led to the backdoor.

“There is no time.”, Celestia said coldly. It was enough for me to finally snap. I turned around, and hit her in the face with full force. It caught her off guard, and she tumbled to the floor. Her guards came at me, but I was already running into a whole different direction. From this crossing on, I knew my way to the sickbay. If they were anywhere, then I guessed they would be there. After I had turned two corners, the guards stopped chasing me. I had only about nine minutes left, until Luna would have to make a run for it.

A few minutes later

I confirmed with Luna, that they were able to buy me a little more time, even though she did not approve of me hitting her sister, she understood why I had done it. I arrived in front of the infirmary, and what I found, left my mouth hand open. The inside was flooded in blood. In it was Octavia, fighting one last alien one on one in close combat. All around them, lay the dead bodies of several others, who obviously had made the mistake of crossing the gray mare.

“Octavia!”, I called out to her.

She looked at me for a second, turned into smoke, and practically cut that last one apart. She was panting hard, and I could see that she had a hard time to stay on her hooves, once she had reformed her body. She may have killed all of these, while being unarmed herself, but it had taken it's toll on her. Her body was covered in small cuts and bruises. I saw that she was holding her left foreleg off the ground, avoiding to put any weight on it.

“Took you.... long enough....”, she panted with a grin.

“What the hell... Why are you still here? Where is my family?”, I asked, kneeling next to her. She gestured to a curtain that separated one of the small rooms from the main room. I drew it back, and found my grandfather and father. Both lay in beds and were sound asleep. I thanked god for small favors, and looked back at Octavia questioningly. She hadn't answered my second question yet.

“You... ordered me to...”, she said, sitting on her haunches now, trying to catch her breath.

I wanted to argue that point, but I didn't get the chance, because my radio came to life.

“Selina! Are you ready for extraction? We have to get out of here, while we still can. We have damaged the second ships engines, so they won't be able to follow us, but we have to get out of here NOW!”, Luna said, with no room for argument.

“Yes, I'm ready for extraction. Four for extraction from the infirmary.”, I answered, and had to shield my eyes only an instant later, as Luna herself appeared in front of me. We loaded my sleeping father and grandfather onto her back, I grabbed his wheelchair and she teleported us all out of there. Our ship began to retreat from the battle, with the two others unable to follow us. In that moment I just hoped we would find a good place to hide, and I wondered what had happened to all the Ponies that were either captured or left behind...