Through the portal

by VisualPony

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Tragedy, Random, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 39263

A special operations team has to make a difficult decission. Either they follow their instinct and do what's right, or they do what they are ordered to do....

A united states special operations squad gets ordered to restrain an ambassador that comes from another dimension entirely. The capitan of the squad, Selina Trawny, is a Pegasister and has to make the most difficult choice of her life. Will she stay true to her oath and do what she was ordered to do? Or will she throw all caution to the winds and help her favorite Pony, that has come to ask for military assistance?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-01-20 13:43:55 UTC

Alliances

Through the Portal

Chapter 1

Alliances

What would you do....?

What would you do if a creature that was rated dangerous, kneeled before you, pleading for your help, while crying it's heart out? What would you do if you got the order to restrain that creature, and bring it to a research facility? I hope you will never have to find out, because that is the exact situation that I was in once.

I was standing in a field, not too far from my home town. All around me artificial light-sources were directed at one single point. My comrades aimed their guns at that spot, as did I. There, in the bright artificial light that cut through the darkness, stood a horse. Not any horse however. This one was purple, had a horn and wings, and was pleading for us to help it. But maybe I am getting ahead of myself. Maybe I should tell you how my comrades and I ended up there in the first place.

It all happened two days before. I was on leave to visit my family, having just returned from a mission in Iraq. You might have guessed by now, but I was a soldier. Never wanted to be one, but it seemed like the best choice at the time.

I was just strolling through the city to get some Christmas presents for my family, when I stopped in front of a Toy store. In the window I saw several My little Pony toys and even some other merchandise. My fellow soldiers always mocked me for it, but I had actually put a Twilight Sparkle sticker inside of my helmet. I did it, so I had at least something peaceful with me when I was on a mission. Otherwise I think I would have gone insane.

Contemplating if I should buy myself an official plushier, I stood there for a while. Some people looked at me strangely, but I was used to that by then. I think it must have been quite the odd sight, seeing me in my white tanktop and a thick jacket over that. I never bothered to close my jacket, unless it was a bulletproof one. What really must have been the center of attention was the image of Twilight Sparkle with sunglasses on my chest. Beneath it stood:

I'm a Brony, deal with it!

I had no problems saying and showing others what I liked. If they had a problem with it, they didn't have to look at me. Well, I don't exactly know how long I have been standing there, but suddenly everything went silent. The mumbling of passing people, doing their Christmas shopping suddenly came to a halt. At first I didn't even notice it, for I was checking my wallet. It had happened to me once before that I wanted to pay my goods, and just then noticed I didn't have enough cash on me. That's why I made it a habit to check the amount each time before I enter a store. I was not easily embarrassed, but standing at the cash register, unable to pay, was definitely one of the few things that could make me blush.

When I finally noticed the eerie silence around me, my training kicked it. I turned around, half expecting some terrorist. Yeah, six months in a country were you had to watch one of your best friends being blown up by a suicide bomber does some strange things to you. What I got however, was not the terrorist that my imagination anticipated, but it was still quite shocking. Not dangerous in any way, mind you. The giant screens on some of the skyscrapers had changed. That was nothing strange really, since the advertisement they displayed changed every so often. I never paid any attention to them. But this time I couldn't take my eyes off of a especially big screen, that was on a building across the street.

Only once before had that happened to me, and that had been on the 11th of September 2001, when those planes crashed into the world trade center. What I saw before me now however, was not a news-feed about some horrific event. Instead I got the face of a Pony. Not just any Pony either. It was her royal highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria herself.

As I looked around, I saw that each and every advertisement screen, and even the TVs that were on display in the next shop, showed the exact same image. At first I had thought it was some kind of advertisement, until her neutral expression changed to one of disappointment.

"Humans.... My name is Princess Celestia, and I am one of the rules of Equestria. For quite some time now we Equestrians have had a contract with one of your companies. We traded our stories, and some of our secrets with you, in exchange for technology. Part of aforementioned contract was also that both parties, meaning we and you, agreed to help one another, should the need for military assistance arise. We Equestrians are Ponies of our word, and would not have hesitated to help you, should you have needed our assistance. Your leaders, however, have broken that pact. We are facing an enemy we can not hope to defeat. I still believe in the good in every living being. My student ,and fellow Princess, Twilight Sparkle, will come to your world in two days time. The exact location of her arrival will be relayed to you tomorrow. Should there be those amongst you that wish to honor our alliance, they are free to return to Equestria with her. I also address your leaders with this. Please hear her out, for she will once more give you the chance to reconsider, and help us after all.", she said in a disappointed tone of voice.

I wasn't even home yet when my cellphone rang. After witnessing Celestias speech I was kinda anticipating it actually. My orders were simple. Report to the base, meet up with the rest of my team and wait for further instructions. The guy on the other end said I was to come immediately, but this wasn't the first time I "bend" my orders to my own liking. So I went home first, said my goodbyes to my father, grandfather and my goldfish, before packing a few things and heading out. They weren't even surprised that I had to go, since they had seen the speech themselves. Apparently Celestia had broad casted over every channel, worldwide. Even the cable had been her speech only. I could only imagine that those guys in Washington were not too happy with having all frequencies hacked by Ponies.

When I arrived at the base, my mood was somewhere between sour and excited. On one hand I was angry that my well deserved holidays had been canceled, on the other I fought hard to contain my inner Pegasister. The rest of my team arrived shortly after, and our commanding officer told us right to the face, that we were not here because of our skill or reliability. The only reason for our presence was that the only other quick response team, that was usually stationed at the base, had gone missing in Iraq. So basically we were the only ones he could call.

Terribly dry briefings followed. We all had to sign an agreement, not to reveal any of that information to the public. After having our potential "invaders", as he called the Ponies, had already made a statement over every Frequency on the planet, I really didn't think that was necessary, but whatever.

We were informed, by a "scientist" that looked more like a Brony then me when I was at Brony-con last year, about what we were up against. We would join forces with other teams from other bases and secure the area. My team was to stay at the presidents side at all times, and keep him safe while he spoke to their ambassador. The other teams, which were way better equipped then us, would guard the perimeter and keep the civilian populous away.

But then came the real bummer. If the president were to fail and convince the "ambassador" to come peacefully, we were authorized to use violence. Apparently the top brass really wanted that Pony for research...

As the "scientist" explained to us, magic was theoretically possible in our world as well. The required energy was all around us, but we humans had just forgotten how to channel it. It was also said, that Equestria actually was a parallel Universe, on which our "scientists" had stumbled quite some years ago. A pact was formed soon after, just as Celestia had said. In my CO's version however, the president back then had not been pleased with it. We had apparently delivered quite some technology to the Ponies, but they were not willing to meet our demands. Our top brass at the time had wanted to study Unicorn magic, but needed a test subject. Celestia had refused to agree with that. She would not allow that any of her little Ponies was experimented on. Instead they had settled on stories and goods that the Ponies produced with their magic. In exchange for that, our side supplied them with technology that was more then outdated. Like 80's outdated...

Being a person that is not only thinking about herself, that did in no way sit well with me. The Ponies had been trusting enough to share their goods, and their history with us. Our leaders however had betrayed them, when the time came to uphold the slightly uncomfortable side of the deal. I myself was surprised how honest they were with us, but I could already see where this was going and I didn't like it in the slightest.

Why would you tell someone something that is supposedly top secret? It's only because you can be sure they won't be able to tell anyone... Either we would be locked up after this outing, forced to stay with Twilight at that "research facility" or outright liquidated. Whatever the case, I didn't like it. From the tensed expressions on my comrades faces, I saw that they maybe still thought someone was pulling their legs, but they didn't like it either.

Then came the absolute blow that really kicked my honor in the gut. At 0800 that morning Princess Luna had opened a magical Portal right into the oval office. She had asked for help, describing that their world was being attacked by beings from outer space, that were way more technologically advanced then the Ponies. They were slaughtering them left and right, while the Ponies magic seemed to have barely any effect. Most of their lands had fallen already, and they were now only defending the last few settlements that remained in their control. The Aliens seemed to be unable to break the magical shields the Princesses had erected around those, but Luna was unsure of how long they would last.

Not even thinking about it, the president had refused to help. Instead his bodyguards had tried to restrain her. At that point I had no doubt that they had wanted to experiment on her as well. Having soldiers that were able to do magic would surely be an advantage in any conflict. They failed to do so however, and two of the bodyguards had to be hospitalized.

After an exceptionally dry speech about multi-verse theory, we were informed that our quarters had been searched, and all our electronic devices had been confiscated. From that moment on, we were on lock down. No one of us was allowed off base anymore, and all communication lines had been cut.

That evening I sat in our quarters and watched Wall-E with my comrades for what seemed like the hundreds time. Michael, the Medic of my Squad was absentmindedly staring at the screen, while Jane, the Units Sniper, was tapping her knee with an index finger. The only quiet one was our loudmouth, Frank. He was my squads communications officer, always carrying a big backpack with a satellite radio in it. It took quite a while until Jane finally broke the heavy silence.

"Ponies, eh? Seems like the joke was on us there Selina.", she said, smiling a tad.

"The whole thing doesn't sit well with me. I mean... we promised to help them, and now we chicken out of a deal that we persuaded them of in the first place?", Michael added, before I could have my say.

"I know exactly what you mean. True, until this morning I thought our Captain here was just watching a show designed for kids less then half her age. Now however, I am not too sure anymore.", Frank said, scratching his head while lighting up a cigarette.

"So tell us boss, what do you think of all of this? What our government is doing here just feels wrong. First we form an alliance with them, and then we bug out of it just because it could be dangerous.", Jane asked me.

I thought for a moment. Sure I loved the Ponies, and knew about quite some stuff about them and everything that involved them. That this knowledge applied to the actual Ponies however, I could not be sure of.

"I don't like it one single bit. If this were to leak out into the world, and seeing how Celestias speech was broad-casted worldwide, this makes us look like backstabbing cowards! I can understand why they want to capture the envoy, since magic could give us an edge in Iraq, but this is just plain wrong! They come to us and ask for help, and we take their ambassador prisoner... Not only that but turn her into a guinea pig?", I finally voiced my opinion on the matter.

I was not worried about cameras or bugs that would record me, since my team was very well trained. We had disabled all of then five minutes after our arrival here. Sure, the top brass would not like that they were deaf and blind to our conversations, but they couldn't really punish us for it, since that would involve admitting spying on their own soldiers.

"So what do you suggest we do? It's quite obvious we don't want this.", Jane stated.

"There is nothing we can do, I fear. We have our orders, and if we refuse to follow them at this point, would most likely let them dig something out of our records and courtmarshall us on the spot. We are expandable, and they really want to get their hands on an Alicorn, since they are the most powerful magic-users amongst them. What is one quick response team in comparison to that?", I sighed heavily.

The discussion went on for quite a while, but we went in circles really. It all came to the point that we agreed on one point. We didn't want to do this. It was downright treachery. There was no honor in it, and certainly nothing that one could be proud of. Sadly it all came back to the looming threat of being courtmarshalled. We all had dark spots in our records, that could earn us a lifetime sentence in jail. No one of us wanted to take the risk, so after a few hours we went to bed. Even so we all looked cheery by that time, I could tell that my comrades felt as crestfallen and disgusted as I did. That was when I reached a life-changing decision. Should I not be liquidated after this mission, I would retire for good. A few years back I had retired for a year or so, but I soon missed my military life. Took only two years for me to sign up for active duty again....

The next morning we were briefed on a new set of weapons. We still were to carry our usual ones, but were told only to use them if our lives were in danger. The stuff they showed us that morning looked like metal pipes with a trigger on them. After we were through with the briefing however, I knew that it was a Taser-Net-Launcher. It would shoot off a net that had several hundred metal spikes on it. Once the target was wrapped inside of it, we simply had to pull the trigger again to release the charge that was held in the handles battery. According to the Sergeant that briefed us, the net was big and sturdy enough to capture an elephant, and the charge strong enough to knock it out good.

That worried me a bit to be honest, since Ponies were much smaller then an elephant so the charge might actually kill them. When I asked about this, the woman laughed at me and told me that this was no problem. We were only on use the net. The charge was only to be used if the net was not enough. In that case, or so she said, we were to fry it good and crispy. I couldn't believe my ears, but then I remembered who we were escorting. The president himself was to speak to the envoy and try to persuade her to come peacefully...

The rest of the day we trained using the TNL on vaguely pony-shaped dummies. That we even had this kind of weaponry and those dummies, made me think that our government had planned something like this from the very beginning. Maybe they had even planned to invade Equestria and abduct one of the Princesses. I just wasn't sure anymore. I had some pretty secret missions in the past. Some of them including assassinating terrorist leaders, but this seemed just too well planned out. There was just no way that this was an operation they had thrown together on the fly...

That evening our networks were breached once again. Celestia informed us where her student/envoy/fellow Princess was to come through. The exact coordinates stunned me a little, since it was only about ten miles from my home by air, but I tried my best not to let it show. She was scheduled to come through at 2200, which was why we were stationed there the next morning. Sure enough there was a flood of people, including the media, that wanted to get to the field, but the other teams did a good job and kept them away. My team was to wait close to where the portal would open. It was hours until the planned arrival of the president and Twilight but the top brass was obviously worried that something might still go deadly wrong. I overhead two NSA agents that were discussing the possibility that the president might be abducted, to force us to help them. I couldn't help but frown at the thought alone.

If the actual Ponies were only a little like the ones on the show, then they wouldn't even think of such a thing. Their society was build upon trust, love and friendship after all. Anyone at Hasbro could have told you that, not to forget any Brony. That's why I was not really worried for my safety. I was more worried for Twilight, since I knew Snipers had been positioned all over the place. They were really using any trick in the book here...

At 2130 the president arrived and saluted all of us for our willingness to carry out this operation. I nearly puked, since his words made me sick to the core. He told us that Equestria was a potential threat to our world, and that this was the reason we were to capture their envoy for questioning on the matter. He expressed his feelings that it would be a great danger to the USA, were magical creatures to attack us. Which furthermore led into an explanation of to why we would also to conduct experiments on the envoy. We would need any advantage we could get, should a conflict arise. He sounded to me much more like he was trying to convince himself, rather then us. The big man actually allowed us to ask questions after his monologue, which surprised me even more.

" You say you fear a conflict with Equestria, but so far they have not done anything hostile. If we are to take their envoy prisoner, then we would be he aggressors here. Wouldn't it be better to support them like we promised?", I asked bluntly. When this was over I'd be either dead or retired anyway so I didn't fear any punishment.

"We never promised them anything. It was Hasbro who made a deal with them. Once we had found out we simply took over the whole trading business with them. The contract however was not made by us.", he responded.

That didn't fit with what our commanding officer at the base had told us at all. According to him, Hasbro and DHX were only brought into the deal so the government could get something out of it, by getting some of the money they made with the merchandise. To me it sounded more and more like he was lying to us...

Exactly at 2200 the darkness in the middle of the field was interrupted by a small lavender glow. At first it was only a ball of light, not much bigger then an egg. Soon however it grew to the size of a medium sized truck. It was a lavender circle of energy that encased a hole in reality. I could actually see the inside of what looked like a bedroom through it, before a well known purple Pony stepped into view. I could see her look around through the portal for a moment, before stepping through. The portal did nor close behind her, but stayed open. I assumed that was her fail safe, should something go wrong.

As soon as she had fully emerged from it, the lights all around us were turned on and the president stepped forward. We had orders, directly from him, not to follow him when he first approached. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but it became apparent pretty quickly that these negotiations were going south. Twilight was shaking her head, and I could hear a frustrated neigh from her, when she stomped her hooves onto the ground. That was when the president decided to retreat, and come back to us. Twilight was still standing, but even from this distance I could see the tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"I told her someone higher ranking then me would come to speak to, captain. It's your turn now. Restrain it and let's get this night over with.", he told me when he reached us.

I nodded and waved for my team to follow me. Safety was off and our weapons held low, but ready to fire if we had to. The TNL's were heavy, so it took us a moment to get over there. It was only a distance of about a hundred feet, but still...

When we stood in front of her, she looked up at me with expectation in her eyes. She had obviously believed the president. I raised my TNL and aimed it at her. I think that's when she finally understood that we were not here to negotiate.

"Please... please don't do this. We need your help. Why are you not helping us like you promised?", she started to plead. Her voice sounded a little different from the show, but not much. Tara Strong obviously did a good job imitating her.

When I didn't respond, and didn't give the order to fire either, she continued her pleading. She explained everything. How many Ponies had already died and that their invaders cared not for prisoners. In fact, they were devouring the fallen Ponies as they moved on. I was horror struck.

And that is where I was standing now. My TNL raised and aimed at her head, my superiors already shouting at me through the radio, and my squad-mates growing anxious. I sighed heavily, as I blink away the tears that had formed in the corners of my eyes. I seriously did not want to do this.

After a short while, that seemed like an eternity to me, I came to a decision. Orders are orders...

...but conscience is more important. My father had always told me that. Whatever your superior tells you, never do something that prevents you from looking yourself into the eyes ever again. I had always followed my orders. Not always to the letter, but I had always carried them out.

Lowering my TNL I took off my helmet and took out the Twilight Sparkle Sticker I kept there. As her eyes fell upon it, they widened in surprise. Suddenly all around us hell broke loose. Bullets hit the ground, and I could tell the Snipers had been ordered to take us out. Out of pure instinct I grabbed Twilight and ordered my team to follow. She obviously was not used to being carried, but then again she was barely any bigger then a Bernardina, and I could carry one of those with ease. As I looked over my shoulder, I saw that all of my squad-mates followed my lead.

All except one. My brother Michael. I know I never mentioned that, but we hadn't been on good terms ever since I got promoted instead of him. He had thrown his big medical bag aside, and thrown himself into the dirt, raising his M4.  I called out to him to not play the hero, but he called back one single sentence, that I don't think I will ever forget as long as I live.

"Nah, I'm just the sidekick, covering a heroes ass!", he called out as he began to return the fire. With that he forced the snipers to concentrate on him, rather then us. As I stepped through the portal, I threw one final glance back at him. I wish I had not, for in that moment his head was blown apart by several bullets at once....

Arrival

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.....

Technology and purple eyes

Through the portal

Chapter 3

Technology

and purple eyes

I gazed in awe at the two Batponies. A mare and a stallion hovered only a few feet of the ground, both of them wearing the dark armor of the night guard. The mare threw a disgusted glance over her shoulder to look at Frank, who grabbed on her mane, before she threw him off of her back. They didn't even wait a single second afterwards before they flew off, leaving Frank and myself alone in the garage/hangar.

“That was.... something different.”, I sighed, while getting back to my feet.

“No kidding! Just how many different types of these Ponies are there?”, Frank huffed, while doing the same. Just before he had raised himself up completely, however, he noticed something that lay on the ground next to him.

“What's this?”, he murmured to himself and picked it up.

I walked over to him, curious as to what it might be that had caught his eye. Usually Frank would forget himself when he had the opportunity to use some high-tech. It sometimes even went to the point where I would have to hit him, just so he came along instead of waiting for the enemy while he examined some fascinating piece of hardware. What I saw, made my jaw drop. Frank held something that looked like the folded wing of a Pegasus, but it was a little bigger then those. Also were it's feathers indigo in color. I immediately to whom that wing belonged.

“What the hell....?”, I stuttered, when I noticed the clip that was used to attach the fake wing.

“Looks like some kind of prosthetic. Look, it can even be extended.”, he said in awe, as he extended it.

“Guess the Princesses did get their fair share of fighting so far....”, I sighed, looking back up at the now lifeless DX-39.

“Well... I'll better bring that back to her, and then see to Jane, before she snaps again. I want you to analyze these things. It would be a great advantage if we knew their weakness, and even better if we could use them.”, I ordered Frank, and he nodded.

“I don't know about using them Selina. It might very well be, that they have some kind of remote shutdown build in, if not a straight out remote control.”, Frank warned.

“I doubt the latter. Remember? You were able to move this one just fine, even so the pilot was dead. If they had a remote, I doubt they would have let the Ponies take it.”, I responded, making my way out of the hangar, while Frank was already hard at work. I knew however, that he was enjoying himself more then anything at that moment.

A few minutes later, I found myself utterly lost in the vast corridors of the bunker. They all looked the same to me, but soon my somepony came to my rescue. Just as I was about to turn another corner, I heard someone clear their throat right behind me. I had just came that way and there were no side corridors, so I was startled to say the least. Turning around I found Twilight Sparkle standing there, looking at me approvingly.

“Need help?”, she giggled.

“Well... yes. Can you show me how I can get to the Princesses? Frank found something that belongs to Princess Luna, and I'd like to give it back.”

“Sure, follow me.”, she said and trotted back the way I came from.

For a few moments a heavy silence filled the air between us. It was a feeling that I hated even more, when I considered that this was my favorite Pony.

“So you are kind of a fan of me, huh?”, Twilight finally broke the silence, without looking back at me.

“Yeah.... My comrades may laugh at me for it, but I really like the show.”

“I hope you realize by now that this is reality and not some TV show, made to sell toys that look like us to children. There may be similarities between us and the characters you know, but we are real, and they are not.”

“I understand Princess Twilight.”, I said jokingly. She stopped and turned around, a shocked look on her face, as if I had just used some kind of a swearword.

“Don't call me that! I'm Twilight Sparkle. Celestia made me an Alicorn without asking how I feel about the whole thing. I don't want that title in any way.”, Twilight reprimanded, and I shrank back a little. If looks were able to kill, I would have died then and there.

“OK, OK.... No need to give me the death-stare. I just wanted to break the ice there....”, I said, raising my hands in reflex. She seemed to relax at seeing that I didn't mean to offend her.

“OK, as long as you understand that I would have much rather kept my life nice and simple. The life as a librarian was a good one, but that of a Princess.... I just don't know.”, she continued trotting ahead.

“Well, I guess you do have many more responsibilities, now that you are an Alicorn. But can't Spike....”, I immediately knew I had hit a nerve, because she stopped once again and let her head hang.

“.... Spike.... he didn't make it here.”, she pressed out between grit teeth. Her anger and her sadness were more then obvious.

I closed the distance between us with a quick step and embraced her neck. At first it felt as if she wanted to pull away from me again, but that soon subsided. I had lost my brother fairly recently, so I knew how the lavender Alicorn in my arms must have felt at that moment.

“Pony-ville.... was one of the first settlements to fall.... Spike tried... He tried to fight them with his fire... but it wasn't enough....”, she cried into my shoulder, while I stroke her mane.  From how intense her sobbing got, I could tell that she had been keeping it all in, just like I was trying to put Michaels death aside, so I could make sure it was not in vain. But even so I was confident that I had made the right choice, I was wondering more and more if our presence here would really make a difference. After a short while, that felt like an eternity, we separated, and Twilight wiped her eyes with one of her wings.

“You must really think that I am pathetic.”, she mumbled, while trying to hide her face under her wing.

“No I don't. I understand you better then you might think. Yes you are a different Pony from what I have seen on the show, but I also know that you have lost someone close to you. And from the looks of it he was not the only one. You feel helpless and useless. You feel as if you should have been able to do something to save all of them, since you are an Alicorn now.... I have been there Twilight. If you try to bottle it up, you will only destroy yourself.”, I advised her, while kneeling to meet her eye-level.

“So what should I do? They are all gone.... My parents, Shining Armor.... Spike....”, she began sobbing again.

“I know you Ponies are usually peaceful lot, but I can only give you an advice one of my superiors once gave me, when I had lost a friend on a mission. He told me to turn all that sadness and self doubt into righteous fury, and to direct it against those who stand in my way. It may sound barbaric to you Twilight, but it has helped me get over it and make my enemies pay. You can't save them anymore, so all you can do now is revenge them. Throw everything you have at the enemy, and make them pay for what they did to your friends, your family and yourself. If this were peaceful times I would not recommend it, but during a war, this is the only way you can get over it eventually. Just don't let your rage consume you, because that is equally as bad.”

“But what if....”, she stuttered, unable to complete the sentence.

“If you fail? If you fall victim to the same corruption as Luna? If more Ponies die? Don't worry. Jane, Frank and I are here now. We will help you in any way we can, and if you would really get consumed by your rage, then I'll be there to knock some sense back into you. Would that be OK?”, I asked, half joking. To my surprise she began smiling and nodded.

“Yeah.... Selina... You really are good friend.”, she added, and we began walking side by side. Her last statement had left me speechless. She knew me for less then twenty-four hours, and called her friend, a good one at that. She didn't judge me or my ways. All Twilight did, was accept that we were different, but that we could still be friends. Maybe she was not so different from the Pony on the show after all.

Shortly after, we arrived at the door to the Princesses quarters. Twilight hesitated to go inside, and I noticed that she looked nervous. Thinking back to what she had said earlier, I could understand her predicament. Celestia had transformed her very being, without her consent. There was sure to be some bad blood between the two.

“You know, I can do this on my own. Besides, I am sure that Frank could need your help analyzing these machines. Since they seem to run on magic, I think he would appreciate your expertise.”, I said, trying to give her an excuse not to come inside with me.

“I guess your right.... I will sent Applejack to come pick you up when your done here. Since you don't know your way around the bunker yet, I thinks better if somepony stays by your side.”, she confirmed. I knelt down again, to look her in the eye. I knew exactly why she was going to send over Applejack, and it had nothing to do with me getting lost.

“Twilight, don't lie to me. I am not mad that you guys want to keep an eye on us, especially since we obviously are in some kind of top secret military installation. My kind has done some things to make you distrust us. It's only natural that you need some time to come to trust me and my team. No hard feelings.”, I assured her in a soft tone.

She blushed a little, obviously uncomfortable that I had seen through it so easily. But then, on the other hand, I would have done the same if I had been in her place.

“Well.... If you knew... then why didn't you say something beforehoof?”, she asked.

“I would do the same, simple as that. So now be on your way, I will have to go see Jane after this. She'll need her medication.” I smiled what I hoped to be a warm smile. Twilight nodded and began to trot away as soon as I had knocked on the door. It didn't take long until I was asked to come inside. From the voice it was definitely Princess Luna. The two of them sat exactly where they had been sitting the last time I was here. I began to wonder if this was their usual way to act when someone or somepony entered. Luna showed me her right side, just like last time. This time however, I noticed that she was moving her right wing ever so slightly. I have never been someone to beat around the bush, and so I didn't do so now either.

“Your highness, Princess Luna, I think you have lost something.”, I said, placing the prosthetic Frank had found on the floor in front of her. Both of them looked at it in shock.

“So you know?”, Celestia finally asked.

“I guess I know a bit. From what I can guess, Princess Luna got injured and lost her left wing. The question however is, if you have been injured as well, Princess Celestia.”, I deducted, watching her face distort into a grimace. The two immortal siblings looked at each other, then nodded. Again I felt as if I had missed an entire conversation, which started to piss me off. After a moment of silence, both of them stood up. Just then I could really realize how big the both them were. Twilight only reached up to my hip, as did the other Ponies I had encountered so far. These two however, could meet me at eye level with no problem. In fact, I even had to look up slightly as they stood before me.

“You have guessed right. We were both hurt during the defense of Canterlot. Luna lost one of her wings, and got taken away by officers of the royal guard in an instant. I myself however....”, Celestia explained, looking downwards. It was then, that I saw that her horn was aglow. The light golden shimmer that surrounded it, was also seen around both of her front legs and both of her wings.

“These limbs are fake. We can only use move them if we use our magic to do so. That's why we usually sit in front of everypony that enters the room. That way Luna can hide her left wing, which you can easily spot for what it is if you give a closer inspection, and I can hide my crippled body from our subjects. Please keep that knowledge to yourself. It would only cause a disturbance if it became known that these invaders almost killed the both of us.”, Celestia said in a regal, yet firm tone of voice.

“I don't know. I think it's bad to keep your troops in the dark... I mean.... they will find out eventually. For now, I will keep your secret, but you can't run away from it forever. This is a war. The time might come pretty soon, when your Ponies ask you to defend them, and then what?”, I said sharply.

“They will never know. This installation is deep within Mount Unicornia. The possibility that we are attacked here is very low.”, Luna added, looking uncomfortable.

“Low, but not non-existent, am I right? If your soldiers go into a battle, they should know all the details.”, I argued.

“It was your people who taught us the concept of a “need-to-know” basis. I think it is best they don't know, and they don't need to know until the time comes.”, Celestia said sternly. She obviously didn't trust me farther then she could throw me without magic.

Luna looked as if she wanted to say something, but couldn't get herself to speak with her big sister present. Apparently the younger Alicorn did not agree with her sister on this, but was too afraid to say so. I didn't think it was out of fear of her sisters reaction, or that she could be banished to the moon once more, but more out of consideration for Celestias feelings on the matter. I decided that there was no use arguing about any longer, so I moved on to the next topic on my agenda.

“So Princess.... Did you know that these machines use magical talented Ponies as batteries?”, I asked bluntly, wanting to see her reaction.

“I did not. We assumed they were using some kind of more advanced generators, then what your people have provided us with.”, she said, refusing to meet my eye. She did know, and we both knew it.

“I must thank you that you freed my niece. No hard feelings for happened.”, Luna said, looking me directly in the eye. I could tell she meant me slapping her, and didn't want to bring that up around Celestia.

“Sure, anytime.”, I waved it off.

“So, can you save the other Ponies that may still be trapped inside those wrecks?”, Celestia asked, oblivious to what Luna had just said.

“I don't know. I will have to ask Frank, just give me a moment.”, I answered as I pressed my  right index finger against the ear-piece of my radio.

“Hey Frank, Selina here.”

“What is it Selina?”

“Any news on other Ponies trapped inside of the other DX?”

“There should be others inside, but the one I activated earlier was the one that had taken the least damage. The chests of the others are practically crushed in. I don't think there are any survivors, and even if there were, we would have no way of getting them out. At least without.... HEY GET OFFF ME!”, I heard Frank swear.

“Hey Frank what's wrong?”, I asked, fearing that there might have been a surviving Pilot, but then I heard two other voices out of the radio, and couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

“Who are you talking to? Lemme see!”

“Rainbow Dash! Get off of him! He can't do his work, with you sitting on his head!”, I heard Twilight scold her friend.

“Argh... Off with you! OK well Selina... As I was saying... Selina? Why the heck are you laughing?”, Frank asked indigently. I couldn't help myself, but had broken out in full out laughter, with my finger still on the radio, when I imagined Rainbow Dash sitting on Franks head. The Princesses in turn, looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

“Sorry Frank. So you were saying?”

“Well....”, he cleared his throat, and I could only imagine that he was blushing hard. “As I said, there would be no way for us to get them out, unless you wanted them in pieces. Even if they are still alive, there is just no way to release them, so we would have to blast the entire chest of these things open. I surely don't have to tell you what kind of injuries that would cause.”

“Nope, you don't have too. Thanks Frank keep up the good. Oh and Frank?”

“Yes, Selina?”

“You do NOT have permission to use your sidearm, am I making myself clear?”

“But... Aww alright. I won't shoot her.... Not even a warning shot?”

“Not even a warning shot.”

“Frank out.”

He was obviously not to happy how Rainbow Dash had just treated him, so I just wanted to make sure that he didn't get any funny ideas. Not being as murderous as Jane when she didn't get her medicine, Frank was still prone to violence if someone annoyed him too much. It was one of the reasons he was still stuck with the rank of Lieutenant, even so he was in the army for longer then any of us combined....

“So?”, Celestia inquired.

“Frank does not see any chance of getting possible survivors out of there. We do have a small amount of explosives with us, but using those would ultimately kill or cripple the Ponies we try to save.”, I explained, turning around to them again.

“Then I think we have nothing more to discuss right now. Please keep up your good work, and don't make me regret taking you in.”, Celestia threatened. I didn't hold it against her. As I had told Twilight earlier, there was bound to be mistrust against humans.

“In fact, I do have another question your highness.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”, she asked, eyebrows raised.

“Do you have any video material of these machines? It would really help us to asses just what we are up against. I mean.... they are obviously quite strong and must have amazing defensive capabilities if they were able to injure the both of you, but it would help up a great deal.”

Again the two sisters did their “telepathic” thing, and I could only barely contain my anger at being left out yet again. Even more so since I was sure that I was the subject of the conversation....

“I will escort you to our control room. There you can watch our only recording of these things at work. It was Twilight Sparkle who secured it. It's footage of the attack on Pony-ville.”, Luna said, taking a step into my direction.

“I don't think so. I will have to be somewhere else before I can watch it. Jane needs her medication, or she will loose it again, so could we make a stop there first?”, I asked firmly.

“I don't see why not. In fact I am quite curious to meet this “Jane”.”, the indigo Alicorn said, stepping out of the door and beckoning me to follow.

Outside Applejack was already waiting for me, but the Princess assured her that she would not be needed for the rest of the day. The farm-pony seemed a little disappointed, but obeyed a direct order from Luna. From her body language I could tell that she wanted to speak to me alone about something. I was proven right, shortly after we had started walking and had turned the first corner.

“I am very sorry for my sisters behavior. She isn't usually that harsh.”, Luna apologized on Celestias behalf.

“Don't sweat in Princess. I know what's going on. Your sister doesn't trust us yet, and I can't blame her for it. You on the other hand don't seem to have the same problem.”

“It is true that my sister has become quite distrusting, due to past events. But you have saved Twilight Sparkle, and for that I thank you. You risked your own life in doing so, and that is more then enough reason for me to trust you.”, she said, looking ahead.

“I am honored your highness.”

“And please... just call me Luna. I have never been one for ceremony, and if we were to loose this war, I would be just another dead pony anyway.”, she said coldly.

I was shocked to see that the younger of the two Princesses, was actually the more reasonable and pragmatic one.

“Very well... Luna it is. I'm Selina, no need for my rank either. I usually only insisted that my subordinates address me with it, when higher ranking officers were around anyway.”, I said, extending my hand. She looked at it for a moment, before she stopped and took it with one of her hooves. As we continued walking, she continued speaking.

“Celestia has not told you everything. We are not far from an absolute defeat in this war. This bunker is the only refuge we have left. All other towns are in ruins. Even Canterlot is nothing more then a ghost-city now. Shortly after you arrived here, they attacked once again, and our shield finally fell. My sister, our guards and a few thousand Ponies were able to escape into this bunker that we had prepared beforehoof. At this point it looks like Equestria has fallen. The Chrystal Empire didn't even last half as long as we did, since most of their population consist of Earth Ponies. The Griffin Empire was destroyed in a single day. The dragon kingdom was able to hold out  for about year, before their ships came and bombarded them from the orbit. The Canine Coalition is currently in hiding, just as we are. Their homeland has been completely taken by the enemy, and there are only a few hundred that hide in the caves all over Equestria. From what I know, not a single Dragon, Griffin or Chrystal Pony survived....”, she elaborated, while I struggled to take it all in.

So Equestria was the only land that was still fighting? All others had already been defeated? By how it sounded the attack had come too fast, to get any kind of organized defense going. From what Luna explained, she herself had confirmed the destruction of the Griffins and Dragons, since the Ponies had wanted to turn to them for help. According to her, the Dragons were the most successful in their defensive attempts, and their land was full of destroyed machines. I figured as much, since a fully grown dragon would be hard to take down, even if you were piloting a DX. The orbital bombardment would have been my first choice, had I been in command of such an attack against an entire kingdom of Dragons.....

Finally we reached the quarters that Rarity and Fluttershy shared with Jane. Rarity was standing guard outside the door, obviously not wanting to be inside, when the violent creature awoke.

“Hey there Rarity. So hows Jane?”, I asked, trying to break the ice.

“She is awake, and has asked for you in fact. Didn't Applebloom tell you? I asked her to inform you about an hour ago.”, the white Unicorn said. She looked bad. There were rings under her eyes, her mane was unkempt and there were specks of dirt on her coat. This Pony definitely needed some rest, and a shower.

“Mhmm... She shouldn't be awake just yet. Usually that would knock her out for at least one day. And Rarity dear, go and get some rest. I think you deserve it, I will take over to watch over Jane from here, OK?”, I said trying to pat her head, but she shrank away from my hand, looking at Luna confusedly. The Princess nodded to reassure her, that I was not dangerous and indeed authorized to give her orders. I didn't feel like commanding Ponies to do anything, anytime soon but it gave me a warm feeling that Luna put that much trust in me.

Reluctantly she let me touch her mane. I could feel that it was damp from sweat and pretty grimy. She definitely needed that shower.

“So Rarity, I'll go inside and make sure she doesn't kill you, OK? After that is taken care off, I want you to take a shower, get something to eat and go to bed straight away. Jane is not dangerous as long as she has her medicine. You will see.”, I said, stepping into the room, without waiting for her reaction. Luna followed closely behind me.

Jane was sitting at the table, taking her rifle apart and cleaning it. I was surprised to say the least, to see that she was up and about.

“So you finally decide to drop by, huh? That Pony outside won't let me leave the room and seems to be pretty afraid of me. Did I do “it” again?”, she asked without looking up. I knew her well enough by that point to know that she only cleaned her weapon to distract herself from her guilt. She didn't say it, but she wanted to know if she had killed somepony.

“Yep, you did. But don't worry, I stopped you before you could hurt anypony.”, I reassured her and she finally looked up. What I saw, almost made me flinch. Her eyes were glowing in some kind of dark purple light, which I had never seen before. I knew that something had been done to them, when she was experimented on, but I had never seen them like this.

“You noticed I see. They've been like this ever since I woke up, and I don't know why. All I know is, that they are driving me crazy. I can suddenly see so much more then before....”, Jane said, holding a hand in front of her eyes to shield them from view.

Suddenly Luna rushed past me, and forced Janes hands apart with her magic. The shock in her eyes was evident. Other then Jane and myself, she knew exactly what was going on.

She started to ask question after question. I thought it pointless, since I had tried to get Jane to talk about it, and had never gotten much out of her. Luna however seemed to know something, and that ultimately made Jane talk....

“Do you hear voices?”

“Yes... but... how do you know?”

“It doesn't matter right now. What do they say?”

“They want me to kill someone.”

“What about your emotions? Any surges there?”

“I feel extreme anger, despair and sometimes jealous... I don't know why though...”

“Let me guess. You can see very far, your reaction time is very fast and you can see through walls if you want to.”

“How... how do you know?”

“Nightmare Moon.....”

And then Luna finally began to explain. After she had been purified by the Elements of Harmony, some shreds of Nightmare Moon had remained at the ancient castle of the royal Pony-sisters. Nothing too big. Only a few strands of hair from Nightmare Moons coat, and a few feathers from her wings. Nonetheless, those were full of her twisted magic. Luna knew the effects of her twisted magic, and recognized it in Janes eyes. According to her, there had been sightings of humans near the Ever-Free-Forest, shortly after her purification.

They had never really bothered to investigate the matter, until Luna had gone to the ancient castle one night. She had done so out of a whim, wanting to see her old home again. On arrival she had not found a single remnant of Nightmare Moon. The place was as clean as could be. There wasn't even a speck of dust in the ancient throne-room.....

It all began to make to me. They had gathered each and every particle that had held bits of Nightmare Moons magic, after having heard about it from the Ponies. They had then gathered “volunteers” and tried to make them into super soldiers.... It disgusted me. Jane was the only survivor of these gruesome experiments, and that made it even worse in my eyes. After Lunas words had sunken in, she lowered her head.

“I am sorry... but there is more.”, she said.

“What could be worse then being infected with some demons remnants?”, Jane asked. I had told her about Nightmare Moon back in our world.

“Your lifespan... It will be shortened by her twisted magic, and there is no way we can get rid of it. We don't have the Elements of Harmony anymore, since they were taken by the enemy. By the looks of it, you will only live for about another five to six years....”, the indigo Alicorn explained, letting her head hang.

Jane on the other hand began smiling, which confused me a little.

“Great! Then I have more time then I thought. More time to try and convince Selina here, that I am the right girl for her.”, she laughed.

“I told you before, that I just don't swing that way!”, I scolded her.

“Well if you would prefer Frank... No but seriously... The scientists at home gave me only another six months, so five to six years don't sound too bad.”, she joked. I had never known this and was a little taken aback by it.

I did not have any time to ask her about it though, because in that moment a shrill alarm sounded off throughout the bunker. I knew that something was wrong....

Shock

Through the portal

Chapter 4

Shock

I exchanged a glance with Luna quickly. Her firm nod and stern expression told me that this alarm was not just a drill. I hear a clicking sound from behind me, and as I turned around I saw Jane slamming a magazine into her rifle, indicating that she was ready for action. Her possession with Nightmare Moon made me think a little, but I had no choice. If there were any intruders, then I would need Janes superb sniper abilities. That however did not stop me from giving her a shot of her medication, before we headed out.

Luna explained, in very few words, that it was a proximity alarm. It meant that somepony or someone had entered a secured area around the bunker. All personal was to stand ready at a situation like this, and prepare for a fight if needed be. I shuddered a little, since it would be our very first encounter with enemies in Equestria. We knew close to nothing about them. What were their motives? Where were they from? If they used Ponies as power sources, could they maybe use magic themselves? That would have been very troublesome....  But I was distracted from my thoughts, while we ran full speed towards the control room, by my radio.

“Hey Selina! What the hell is going on? These Ponies suddenly grabbed me and are heading of with me somewhere. Not a really nice way to treat your allies, if you ask me!”, Franks voice sounded from the speaker in my ear.

“I'm sorry Frank, but I think we will head out sooner then I had anticipated. Gear up, bring my stuff too, and meet us in the control room. Relay that as an order to Rainbow Dash.”, I barked into my radio, while hoping that the headstrong Pegasus would obey. Just minutes ago I had thought I was not up to commanding Ponies, but now here I was, giving them orders like I actually had the authority to do so.... Well... in Lunas eyes at the very least I did have it...

As we reached a double door, that was guarded by two Unicorns and two Bat-Ponies, Luna slowed down.

“Open up the door.”, she ordered in a no nonsense way.

One of the Unicorn guards threw an uncomfortable glance over at his partner, and stepped forward.

“I am very sorry your highness. Your sister ordered that these creatures are to be kept inside of the security area, until further notice.”, the stallion said, clearly uncomfortable.

“You heard her. Let's open up.”, a Bat-Pony mare interjected, already placing her hoof in one of four holes in the wall next to the door.

“But our orders....”

I was in no mood for niceties in any way, so I stepped forward, stopping only inches in front of the Unicorn stallion. He reaches a little higher then the other Ponies, but he seemed a little intimidated by my size and only slightly suppressed an anger.

“Listen up mate, either you open that door RIGHT NOW, or else....”, I grabbed one of the grenades on my belt. It was actually only a Flashbang, but I doubted that this stallion knew the difference. Apparently he did not want to take the chance, and only threw a glance over his shoulder at his partner, who had already placed his hoof in another one of the four holes. The two Bat-Ponies were already waiting impatiently for him to finally stop keeping their Princess up, and do his duty.

“Very well.... But you will take the responsibility...”, he sighed in defeat, looking past me and directly at Luna, who nodded.

We had already been delayed way too much, as the double doors finally opened and we continued our run to the control-room. I could only stare in awe while we ran past a vast open area. There was a giant circular area that also looked like it had been carved out of the stone itself. In it I could see hundreds and hundreds of windows. At the bottom of the area, was what looked like a marketplace. I could see various Ponies trading goods, or services. What saddened me the most, was that I could see some of them exchange food for extra blankets, and vise versa. Some looked as if they had lost a wrestle with a bear and were barely limping along the stands, to trade for some medical supplies. The bandages I saw on those Ponies, looked far from sterile.

I grit my teeth and regretted it more then ever that we had lost Michael. He could have helped many of them. As it was however, I could at least understand now why Twilight had endangered us all to bring his bag along. They needed the supplies much more then we did....

That's when I saw her. Octavia Melody was limping through the crowd of Ponies. One of her hind-legs had been replaced with a crudely made, wooden substitute. Her right eye was covered with an eye-patch, while her hindquarters were burnt badly. The place on her flank, where her cutie-mark should have been, was just one giant scar. I had never really understood the appreciation of some fans for this background Pony, but now I got it. Even so she was badly hurt and crippled herself, she still carried herself with dignity.

I could not help myself, but stop and watch her for a moment. She walked over to a small stand, where I could make out her cello. I did not know why, but she stood out amongst the crowd of Ponies, like a candle in the darkest night. Not once could I take my eyes off of her...

As she had finally reached her instrument, the unthinkable happened. She looked up, and looked me directly into the eyes. Her formerly stern expression, changed to a hopeful smile as she picked up the bow of her cello and began to play. All the Ponies at the market, that had formerly ignored, and even pushed around the gray coated Earth Pony mare, now stopped in their tracks. All of them looked over to her, as if she had just faded into existence out of nowhere.

A tear started to run down my face, as the first notes of Octavias song reached my ears. It was a song that spoke of great suffering, but also of hope and renewal. It was a song that told the listener to never give up.

I started running again, catching up with Luna and Jane that had gotten a small way ahead of me. Just then did I realize that all of this had played out in only about five seconds.... It certainly felt much longer. The eye contact with her alone had felt like an eternity. My resolve was now stronger then ever. These Ponies had to survive this. I would not allow anyone, any alien or whatever to harm them, even if it meant shedding my own blood....

Finally we reached the control-room, and I was not surprised to see that many Ponies were working on consoles, that looked like they had originally been used in a untied stated bunker from the previous century. The computers I saw were certainly pretty outdated, but the Ponies had been pretty inventive. Instead of trying to use the keyboards with their hooves, I saw that they had created some kind of structure that was paced over them. It was like a larger version of the keyboard, that had small wooden sticks that connected the buttons on it to the actual keyboard. That way they could type on the human made machines easily. Frank was already there. I spotted him, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash at one of the consoles. He had removed the adapter and was frantically typing on the keyboard. How he and the two mares had gotten here before we had, was a mystery to me, until I remembered that Twilight could actually teleport. In a box next to the console he was working on, was the rest of my gear. While getting ready, I looked over his shoulder.

“Status report.”

“It looks like three enemy DX units are advancing in this direction. To be precise into the direction of one of the caves, which servers as a back entrance to the bunker. I can only guess that they have found something suspicious and are now investigating. The unit itself is way too small to be an attack force.”, Frank explained, never taking his eyes of the several readouts on the screen in front of him.

“Can they enter the cave?”, Jane asked a little worried.

“I don't think so. At least not if the data in here is correct. The DX are just too big to fit in there. If they are going to investigate, then they will have to do so by foot.”

“Good enough for me. Frank, can you shut down all the lights and cameras in that cave? I don't want the sensors of the DX to pick anything up.”, I asked, while checking the magazine in my M4.

“Sure I can. As far as Sensor range goes they should still be out of range, since that uses up a lot of energy by itself, but what do you plan Selina?”, he inquired, finally looking up to meet my eyes, then he grinned. He most likely recognized the look of anticipation on my face. There would be a fight, and I could not wait for it. All of my former doubts had been drowned out by a particular mares song....

“Well.... I guess that settles it then. Shutting down the generators in the area now. I just hope we still can get the jump on them.”, Frank said jokingly. He knew perfectly well that, if these guys disembarked their DX they were as good as dead meat. Janes scope alone would make sure of that.

Ten minutes later

Luna had brought us to the exit into the cave that the DX where headed towards. It was not too big and there was not much space for one to hide. I had hoped that we could hide in dark corners or behind big rocks, but that was not the case. Instead, we hid ourself in the darkness.

Frank had chosen to take position closest to the caves entrance. He had climbed up the rocks and found a small spot there, where he could hide himself. Jane lay in almost direct view of the entrance. Her rifle was already loaded, and she had removed the safety. Whatever came into view of the entrance, would be within her range of fire. I on my part, had hidden myself in a small side tunnel, that led into a dead end. Luna had wanted to accompany us, but I had denied that offer.

Instead I had asked her to seal the door behind us, and not open it for anypony, unless she got my signal over the radio I had given her. Jane and Frank were also ordered not to attack, unless I gave them the order to do otherwise. I wanted the enemy to be a good distance away from their DX, before we started the fight. The machine guns on those things alone would have been enough to blast the cave, and every living thing in it, to bits. I didn't want to take the chance, that one of the pilots ran back to his or her DX, to report to base and eventually kill us all....

We waited for quite a while, until the ground beneath us began shaking. They were coming. The rhythm was unmistakable that of bipedal walking. My muscles tensed and I was determined to see this through. The fight would happen one way or another. All I could hope was, that these pilots had just spotted something odd and had decided to investigate, rather then having been ordered here....

Suddenly I heard a swishing sound, as if some kind of gas was released under high pressure. In that instant, I raised my M4 and clicked the safety off as silently as I could. What came next, almost made my trigger finger pull back and shoot involuntarily.

“Phew! Sure feels nice to be out of these things for a while. I mean, sure we are supposed to be in enemy territory right now, but come on these Ponies are a joke.”, a female voice spoke, and I heard footsteps.

“Yeah your right. With these weapons, and the armor they provided us with, their so called “magic” is no threat at all. So did you bring it?”, another female spoke up.

“Well who do you think I am? Of course I brought it! There would be no reason coming to such a secluded area, if I had not.”, a third, male voice said.

“Well then.... We aren't expected to report in for another five hours, so let's get this started.”, the second female said, and I heard her come into the direction we were in.

I could not believe it. Unless these tentacle monsters ,the Ponies described to me, and of whom I had handled a corpse myself, could speak perfect English and were bipedal.... I suddenly got a very good idea why our government had really refused to sent help.... It was because our soldiers were already here!

I readied myself, and looked over to Jane who I could barely see in the shadows. The little of her face that I was able to make out, showed me that my suspicions were correct. These pilots were indeed human....

What startled me the most however, was that I knew the voices! Captain Victor Garalcheck, Sergeant Tanja Smith and Sergeant Anna Volciek.... The special operations unit that was supposed to be missing in Iraq! We had never gotten along, since they did never forget to remind us, that our promotions had been put on hold due to our actions. In each and every match against them in training, we had wiped the floor with them, but that did not matter to our superiors. We only ever got outdated gear, and were rated as “expandable”, while those scumbags were supposed to be the elite....

Jane had always wanted to show them, just how outmatched they were against us, and I could not have agreed with her more. I decided to change the plan a little. Instead of killing them all in an ambush, it would be nice to humiliate these idiots. It was clear as day that they had no permission, or order to be here. They were slacking off while on duty.

As all three of them had passed me, I stepped out of the shadows, and Jane took that as a signal to switch on her laser-sight. Frank jumped down from his hiding spot and we both switched the flashlights on our weapons on, illuminating the purple armor these three were wearing. Victor was carrying what looked like a small plastic bag. From the shape of it, I could only imagine that he had smuggled some booze into Equestria and was now planning to get drunk with his two subordinates. At first the three of them wanted to reach for their pistols, but as they spotted Frank and me, they realized that there was no point in even trying. One wrong move, and Jane would put a bullet through Victors head, and the other two would follow soon after. Since Jane was laying on the ground, I had no worries about her being hit in the crossfire. What worried me though, was the expression on Victors face. He did not even look the tinest bit scared.

“Oh! Look who we have here! The reject traitor squad. What? Unable to make a career in the US military? Trying it with the Ponies now, are you Selina?”, he asked in a mocking tone.

“You should know your place. You AND I both know who leaked my service record to the committee. And you also know, that I can kick your sorry ass with both hands bound on my back!”, I shouted back at him.

“So? What's it going to be? We have already been briefed on your presence here. So if you come quietly, the commander might not execute you on the spot.”, Tanja mocked me, while playing with her long black hair.

“Shut up bitch!”, Jane called out from the shadows. “Last warning for you!”, she added and the red dot that had been on Victors forehead, switched to hers instead.

“Oh what language. Now come Selina, we are both US marines. You won't a fellow marine, would you?”, Victor asked, while taking a step into my direction.

Before I could react, my M4 suddenly flew out my hands and I was knocked right into one of the walls of the cave. As my eyes finally focused again, I saw what had caused it. Frank and Jane had obviously been disarmed as well, and were now struggling with Tanja and Anna. Victor smiled at me, with all the arrogance he could muster, while I wiped some blood out of the corner of my mouth.

“Did you really think that the DX, and this armor were the ONLY advantages we got from this assignment? Oh Selina, you have much to learn, and I'll be happy to teach you.”

I realized pretty quickly what had happened. Victor had leaped at me, knocked my weapon out of my hands, and then hit me in the face. This, just like the DX series, was just a prototype back on earth, but it seemed like it was a combat ready thing here....

“Cybernetics... So you have become a freaking machine? That's a new low for you Victor!”, I spat as I stood up.

The fight between me and Victor was not a pretty one. He was faster and stronger then me. My only advantage was my training as a close quarter specialist. But even that seemed pretty useless. It was almost as if he was able to predict were I was trying to hit him, or where I was going to evade to. Several time I thought I had dodged one of his punches, only to feel the cold metal on his armor connect with my face. It didn't take him long to overpower me, and I could see that Jane and Frank had lost their battles as well, so there was no help coming from them.

“Looks like YOU are the losers this time dear....”, Victor laughed, and lifted me up of the ground with one hand on my throat. Then and there I thought that it was over. We had come to help, and we had failed. These idiots, as incompetent as they were, had beaten us for the first time and it was all due to my stupid mistake. I wanted to humiliate them. Had I just pulled the trigger...

Then it happened.... I heard a scream from where Tanja was holding down Jane. It was not Janes voice however. No.... It was Tanjas. Her eyes almost bulged out of her head, as she looked down at the stump that had once been her left arm. A cloud of dark blue energy radiated from Janes body, and I instantly knew what was going on. Nightmare Moon had woken up....

Infiltration and Promises

Through the portal

Chapter 5

Infiltration and promises

Janes body lay still, while dark blue magic around her started to form a body of it's own. A body I only knew too well. Victor and Anna stared at the black Alicorn for a moment in disbelief. Nightmare Moon held Tanjas arm in her jaws, and spit it out. Even though she seemed to have been reborn, I could barely make out a thin thread of mist connecting her to Janes face. Tanja stumbled a few steps backwards, while Victor let go of me so I fell flat on my back. I had no broken bones, but I still was unable to get up, after the beating I had just received. As I threw a glance over to Frank, I saw that he was no better off. Anna had let go of him, but he was only semi awake.

“What kind of monster are you?”, Tanja screamed, looking at her ripped off arm that lay on the caves floor.

“I could ask you the same question, you impudent foal! Taking pleasure in beating down those who have no chance against you, enslaving Ponies just for their magical power and destroying this land just because you can.”, Nightmare Moon hissed, and I couldn't believe my ears. Wasn't this the mare, that had wanted to plunge Equestria into eternal darkness?

“We do as we are ordered. The Ponies failed to meet our demands. We need energy, to run our machines, yet the Ponies refused to give it to us. Besides, this land is so full of resources, that it can supply the entirety of humanity for decades!”, Victor screamed at her, putting himself between Tanja and the dark mare.

“And the technology the Xerin offered us in return, only sweetens the deal.”, Anna added, cracking her knuckles and putting one hand over her sidearm.

“Technology? Energy? Resources? These are your reasons to destroy my beloved homeland?”, Nightmare Moon sighed, letting her head hang. For a moment it seemed that she was crying, but then I realized that she was actually laughing. It was a horrible sound. Not insane or bloodthirsty as I had thought it would be. Instead it was a sound like a thousand angry children, starting a temper tantrum at the same time. It reverberated throughout the cave, before she raised her head once again.

The formerly inquiring look on her face had been replaced by one of utter fury. Her mane and tail lashed out at Victor, who stood in front, but bounced off of his armor with no effect.

“I see....”, she whispered, and before any of them could react, or answer her, Nightmare Moon began her charge. First up was Victor. She dashed towards him, turned around at an amazing speed, and bucked him straight in the face. He tried to raise his arms in a defensive stance, but he was not fast enough. I saw his body fly a few feet backwards, while his head flew all the way out of the cave, and hit the leg of one of the DX that stood outside.

Tanja was next. She was the equivalent of myself in their group, being a close combat specialist. She stopped clutching at the stump of her arm, and charged at Nightmare Moon, as the mares hind legs were still in the air. With a roar that sounded like nothing a human could ever produce, she aimed a kick at her face. It looked like her foot had connected, but the dark Alicorn just burst out into another fit of laughter. Tanjas foot had gone straight through her face, as if it was mist.

Anna, frightened by this, started to back away slowly. Nightmare Moon meanwhile turned her attention to Tanja. Her mane shot out from her neck, and wrapped itself around her head. The force of this knocked Tanja to the ground, where she lay kicking and screaming in rage. Nightmare Moon brought her muzzle close to her ear and began to whisper.

“There you are, with your fancy anti magic armor, but you forgot your helmet! You are about to see why they call me “Nightmare Moon”.”

At that exact moment, her mane began to glow slightly and the screams of rage and pain, transformed into ones of terror. The Sergeant lay on the floor, her limbs spasming uncontrollably as she screamed like a four year old having a nightmare. She screamed for her parents, her husband and even pleaded to god, before it all became incomprehensible. The only things that came from her mouth then, were muffled gurgling noises and the magical mane that enveloped her head, retreated.

She lay there, her eyes wide open and rolled up to the whites. I could see foam on her lips and tears running down her face. Other then her arm, there were no external injuries that I could see, but I knew she was out of the game for good. Anna had almost reached me, and I realized that she was trying to get to her DX unnoticed.

“Watch out!”, I shouted as loud as I could. I didn't even recognize my own croaking voice.

Anna threw me a look that was full of hate, and began running. She almost tripped over the plastic bag, that held the alcohol that Victor had brought, but managed to stay upright. Nightmare Moon looked up, and saw what I meant. Without a moments hesitation, she started to gallop towards the fleeing woman. To my horror, the mare was not fast enough Anna actually reached her DX, and jumped inside the cockpit before Nightmare Moon could reach her.

However, seeing her comrades slaughtered like this must have had some deep emotional effect on her. I did not see the hatch to the cockpit close. I suppose she was in too much of a panic to find the right controls. That gave the mare enough time to reach her. Turning into mist entirely, she floated into the cockpit. I did not see what happened in there, and I didn't want to either. All I saw, was blood spraying out of the open hatch, as if under high pressure. Screams of unimaginable pain accompanied this display of power, before it went completely silent.

Nightmare Moon came out again, and looked directly at me. To my surprise, I was not afraid of her. Her eyes had lost the fury they had displayed only seconds before, as she trotted up to me. As she got closer I could see that her wings and muzzle were dyed a deep red. It almost reminded me of a lion I once saw, after he had taken apart his prey.

“Are you alright?”, she finally asked after a moment of silence.

“I... I guess I am... thank you. But I thought....”

“That I am insane? That I am dangerous? That I am a demon? All of these accounts are correct. But there IS something else. I am incomplete, and I have always been. When I take a host, I take part of that hosts personality and memories. Even feelings are a part of it.”, she explained, while examining my wounds. Her muzzle came quite close to me while she did that, and I hesitantly reached out to touch her. She let me do so, and so I coursed my hand down her neck to be sure that she was real.

“So you... are partly Jane?”

“Actually most of me is. I am more incomplete then I have ever been. The elements of harmony failed to destroy me, but they ripped me apart like a piece of paper. The largest of these pieces now resides in your friend. I was content with being dormant, and waiting for our death that would come soon enough. Being in the human world, and having seen your wars through her eyes, has made me realize that my ambitions were quite meaningless. I am unable to take on a new host, since a part of my last body is implanted inside of her. I love Equestria, even though I know my actions in the past may have given you a different idea. And since she passed out, and I now knew what was happening here, I decided that laying dormant was not good enough anymore. I could finally draw upon arcane energy again, and so I defended you. Basically.... she defended you. It was her last thought before she passed out. She wanted those who hurt you to be punished, and I was there to fulfill that wish.”, Nightmare Moon added, as she floated Frank, myself and Jane together with our gear back to the door to the bunker.

Luna had obviously felt her presence, and so she had disobeyed my order to keep the door closed. Instead she waited for us in front of it, tapping a hoof in annoyance.

“It is good to see you Luna.”, Nightmare Moon smiled, and I could not detect any sarcasm in there.

“So you have decided to show your sorry flank again, have you? Wasn't last time bad enough? We had fun for some time, but you took it too far. As sorry as I am to say this Nightmare, but you are no longer welcome here.”, the Luna Princess said, blocking the door with her own body. Nightmare Moon flinched when Luna said her name.

“You are quite hostile towards me, and I can not blame you Luna. However, I would prefer it, if you called me by my actual name, instead of that title the other Ponies gave me.”

“You have long lost the right to carry that name. You lost it on that day, when you possessed me. I had thought you were my friend.”

Nightmare Moon let her head hang, when the magical aura that surrounded us changed from dark blue to a pale white.

“I understand. I know I have disappointed you, and I am sorry.....”, she said, before she dissipated into nothingness.

“Such a drama queen....”, Luna chuckled, as I could only stare in awe.

“Where has she gone?”,  I wanted to know. She had helped us, and I was grateful for that.

“Oh, she wasn't ever really there. What you saw was merely a projection of herself. I suppose that she is quite tired herself now, and has retreated to your friends body.”, Luna explained while cantering through the door with us in tow.

An hour later

The Pony physicians in the bunker did an excellent joy patching us up. Frank and Jane, who had passed out before Nightmare Moon had started on Tanja, were both quite surprised that they actually woke up again. After explaining the situation to them, Frank became very serious. It was a rare sight, to see him with no emotion on his face whatsoever.

“You know that we are in trouble now, don't you Selina?”, he asked, and I could nod my confirmation. Of course I already knew that, if these DX did not report back to base in four hours time, then there would be a search party. If not that, then they could most likely be located from orbit.

“What do you suggest? We couldn't just let them roam free, so close to the base.”, Jane interjected, defending my decision to act.

“There are three DX out there, and there are three of us. Selina, you of all people know how important information is in any war. If we can somehow infiltrate the enemy base, using these DX, then I can maybe access their database and....”, Frank tried to elaborate, but was cut off by an all to familiar voice.

“You will do no such thing. We will bring these machines somewhere else, and free the Ponies that are inside. That way they can not find us here.”, Celestia said, as she walked into the sick bay.

“That is madness and a waste of an opportunity.”, Frank threw back, obviously irritated by the interruption.

“I will not allow that you use the Ponies in these machines any further. Their suffering shall not be prolonged.”, the Princess said firmly.

“Then all we need are volunteers. If we could find three Ponies that would help us in this operation voluntarily, then we would not...”, I tried to soothe the situation, but was interrupted as well, which annoyed me to no end.

“I will not allow it!”, she said, in a voice that made it clear that she would not argue with us on the matter.

Just as Jane wanted to say something, Luna, Twilight, Rarity and Applebloom came into the sick bay as well. They wanted to check up on us as they said, and thanked us for defending the bunker from intruders. Outside the door, I could see a black tail that quickly disappeared and the sound of wood on stone could be heard....

I dismissed that for the moment, for I thought that if that Pony wanted to see me, she would do so in due time. Right now, we had more urgent things to discuss. I explained the situation to the new arrivals, much to the displeasure of Celestia. All of them looked like they could not believe that the Princess was passing up this opportunity.

“But why sister? Even if you don't want them to use the imprisoned Ponies, then I think they have proven their loyalty by now. Just go up there, and look at what they left of their former comrades. We can trust them!”, Luna said. We had conveniently forgotten to mention Nightmare Moons involvement in the matter, to Celestia at least.

“Even if they are honest, I doubt they have any chance to succeed. The volunteers would go on a suicide mission, and I will not allow that.”, Celestia said, with a stern look on her face.

“Well Celestia, I think you are overruled. I also think this is a good idea, and to prove that I trust them, I volunteer to go with Selina!”, Twilight said, trotting up to my side.

“And I will go with the one called Jane. I think she could use my guidance.”, said Luna, positioning herself next to Jane, who looked a little perplexed.

We all looked at Celestia, since we would need a third volunteer, if we wanted to use all three DX. She however, just frowned at our little display of unity. She knew that she could not stop us, if two of the currently three conscious Princesses agreed to the plan. Grasping her last straw, she looked at me.

“And what will you do if you have to leave the machines behind? What will happen to Twilight, Luna and the third volunteer then? Or what will YOU do for that matter. Unless humans all look the same, I doubt you will go unnoticed.”, she said, hoping to take our plan apart with this.

“A basic illusion spell can fix that easily. All I need is a good look at the originals and I can make you look like them.”, Twilight explained, frowning at Celestia who had obviously hoped that Twilight would not remember that spell.

“But you still need a third....”, Celestia began, as Rarity suddenly stepped forward. She looked a little less tired then when we had last met, but I could see that she needed some rest soon.

“I get your hint. I will do it.”, she said, and stood next to Frank. I guessed she didn't want to be outdone.

“Rarity, are you sure? I mean, no offense, but you look horrible.”, I said, trying to see if she really meant to go through with this.

“I may be a little tired, but I can assure you that I know what I am doing. Thank you for your concern.”

With that, we had our three volunteers. After a bit more raging from Celestia, we went out to eat something. After all, we hadn't eaten anything since coming here, and all of us were pretty hungry. I was not surprised that most of the dishes we were able to get, consisted of dried fruits and old salad, but I wasn't complaining. It was edible after all, and that was all that mattered to me at that point.

As we were done, we met up with the three Ponies out in the cave. Frank was disgusted to see, what Nightmare Moon had done to Anna in the cockpit of the DX that he would be using. I just told him, that there was nothing we could do about it. He sighed, and started to release the three imprisoned Ponies. They were three Unicorn stallions. As before, the Nightguard showed up, and took them away pretty fast. It was kind of creepy once Twilight had completed the illusion spell, but I soon got used to speak with Victors voice. I could still feel my own body under all the illusions, so I knew she had not actually changed me. Frank was not too happy with being turned into woman. I wasn't even surprised when the first thing he did, was peeking into his own shirt.

Twilight, Luna and Rarity were suddenly not too comfortable with the idea of climbing into the chest of their respective DX. It took some arguing and reassurance, to finally get them inside. However, Frank decided against attaching all the IV's that had been attached to the previous occupants. He stated that he did not know if there was a Pony version of AIDS and he did not want to find out. On the other side, he was sure that they were not really needed either. The only thing that was not connected to a life support system for the Pony inside, was a ring that was to be placed on the Ponies horn.

“Besides, one of those IV's is most likely responsible for the administration of sedatives, to keep the Pony unconscious.”, a perfect image of Anna told me.

“If we are awake, then we can assist you with spells if we have to. I also think that it might be less unpleasant if we give our magic voluntarily, instead of having it forcefully drawn out of ourself.”, Luna said, over a radio we had given each of them so we could communicate.

It took us a few moments to figure out the controls, so we could start the DX up, but once they did start up, we were in for quite the surprise. There was nothing that even remotely resembled the cockpit I had seen earlier that day. Instead of a lot of buttons and two pedals, there were only four buttons and a screen. Just as I was wondering what the meaning of this was, a silvery circular object  descended from the ceiling, and attached itself to my head. I was startled at first, since all of my senses suddenly went blank, but they soon got replaced with those of the DX. It was unbelievable. I didn't even feel that I was in a machine anymore.

Instead it felt like I had grown several feet, and gained a few tons of weight. Moving was not hard at all, since it responded like my own body. If I wanted to move my arm, the arm of the DX moved instead.

“Wow! That's some freaky technology!”, I heard Frank say over the radio.

“Twilight, does it hurt?”, I asked, ignoring Janes cries of excitement.

“No. I just feel a slight tugging sensation on my horn. It's not painful at all.”, she responded.

“Are you really sure that you want to do this?”, I heard Celestias voice through the audio sensors of the DX. Turning around, I saw her standing at the entrance to the cave.

“I am more then sure. I already told you, that we want to help. This might be our best shot at getting crucial information.”, I said, only to be startled again, because after I said it, I could hear it again through the speakers of the DX.

“Just promise me, that you will bring them back safely.”

“I promise. We will do everything in our power to ensure that they return to you.”, I responded honestly, even though I knew that we would most likely die if we were discovered.

Celestia let her head hang, and nodded. Without another word she retreated into the cave, and we were off towards the enemy base. According to the data, the DX provided me with, it was not so much a base but a landed Carrier. Audio communication over long distances were impossible here, which was why they resorted to burst coms, a kind of encrypted chat-room, to relay commands.

We made good progress, as we headed down the mountain and through the ruins of Canterlot. It made sick. Even though I could not smell anything, I knew that the stench must have been horrible. I could see several burnt Ponies, while there was nothing more then skeletons left of others. The castle, that I had admired in the show, was now nothing more then a pile of rubble. It wasn't even a ruin. They had blasted it apart, obviously hoping to kill the Princesses. I could only imagine how many innocents had found an early grave when that thing collapsed....

Half an hour later

We had passed the remains of Ponyville a few minutes ago, and were now heading straight into the direction of the Everfree forest. Ponyville.... It was almost undamaged. There were a few buildings that had been damaged, but nothing else seemed to be wrong there. It was almost as if the Ponies had all left, and would come back at any moment..... It was creepy to say the least, to see such a wonderful town turned into a ghost town.

At the edge of the forest, we saw what we had been looking for. A long, dark gray, object that stood on several steel feet. It was the carrier, no doubt about it. We were asked for identification as we approached, and we happily gave it to them. All of us had been stationed at the same base as Victor and his team for quite a while, so we knew their service numbers. The radio operator thanked us, and wished us a good day. He also told us, that we could use hangar three and that I was to meet the General about an important issue. As I asked what that might be, I was told that the General had said “I would know what this is about”.

There it was. My very first problem. I had no idea what a General would want to discuss with Victor. I didn't even know the name of the General that was commanding that ship! At least I could find a floor plan in the DX database, which showed me where the Generals office was. I just hoped, that there would be a name tag, or I would be more then in trouble.

After “parking” our DX, some mechanics came over and asked us, if we wanted anything repaired. I told them that our machines were in perfect working condition, and that there would be no need for an inspection. The lead mechanic gave me a skeptical look, but nodded.

“Glad that there is nothing wrong with the sixty one this time.”, he whispered to another Mechanic, as he left.

“Hey... Selina... Did you hear that? Sixty-one. Does that mean that these are DX-61? I thought the thirty-nine model back home was the best we got!”, Frank whispered to me in Annas voice.

“I don't know what you are talking about.... Anna.”, I snarled at him, trying to remind him, that I was not Selina right now. He seemed to have gotten my message, as he retreated a few steps back, looking embarrassed. After a few more seconds, in which I made sure that the Mechanics were out of earshot, I gave them my orders.

“Tanja, you are to stay here. Make sure none of them gets close to the DX. You are allowed to use force if you have to. Anna, do your thing. I don't think I'd even understand half of it.”

Both of them nodded as I walked off. They knew about my “appointment” with the General, and trusted me to have something up my sleeve. I only hoped that they were right.

Familiars

Through the portal

Chapter 6

Familiars

It was much harder to navigate the ship then I had initially thought. The gray corridors were twisting in each direction, like a worm had eaten it's way through a block of metal. More then once I got lost and ended up in sections of the ship, that I did not know how I ended up there. One of them in particular was disturbing, on a level that killed me a little inside. After taking a wrong turn for what felt like the millionth time, I was standing in front of a giant panorama window. Looking through it, I saw them. Hundreds of Ponies, chained to the ground with tubes running in and out of their bodies. Other then the ones we freed from the DXs, these ones were fully awake and struggling against their boundaries. Some of them were bleeding, while others had knocked themselves out by hitting their heads against the floor....

As I looked around, I found a big sign, and I knew where I was. This was the generator room. These poor creatures were used to power the ship. I wanted nothing more then to go in there and free those ponies, but I had to turn my back on them. As much as I pitied them, I could not blow my cover right now.

After a while of stumbling around, I finally found what I was looking for. There was a nameplate next to the door, and a smile crept onto my face. After encountering Victor and his squad, it was hardly a surprise to see this name here.

As I got closer, the door opened of it's own accord and I stood at attention. In front of me stood a big wooden desk in a small metal room. Behind it sat a small plump man with a bald patch spreading on his head.

“Come in, come in captain. I don't have all day, and I want to get this over quickly.”, he said, gesturing me inside. I sat down on a chair in front of his desk, but stayed silent. After all, I had not the slightest idea why he would want to talk to Victor.

“I heard about your outburst in the cafeteria this morning. Mind to explain?”, General Anders asked me.

“Sir? I don't know what you mean.”, I answered honestly.

“You know exactly what I mean! We received word of captain Trawnys betrayal yesterday, and you have nothing better to do then announce your personal vendetta against her! The higher ups want her alive. If you are unlucky enough to encounter her in the field, you are NOT to kill her! I don't care what you do with any of her team members, but Selina Trawny HAS to brought in alive! She knows where our enemy is hiding. If we can convince her to cooperate, then we can end this in a matter of hours!”, the old man in front of me monologued.

“Sir. What makes you say, I would be unfortunate to encounter her in the field?”, I just couldn't help myself. I was curious.

“You may have been cybernetically enhanced, but you, better then anyone else, knows that she is not to be taken lightly. I should not even tell you this, but if it hadn't been for her liking for these Ponies, and her service record, then you might not even be here! Captain, you where only the second best choice! Selina Trawny may lead a squad of soldiers that are only one misdeed away from being kicked out, but she is good at what she does. If I remember the last evaluation of your two teams right, then she had a ninety percent success rate in her missions. YOU barely passed sixty! THAT is why I called it unlucky!”, he practically spat in my face.

It made me feel somewhat warm. General Gregor Anders had been my commander in more then one mission. There had been occasions where he had asked for my team specifically. The old man liked me, and I could not say that I didn't like him either. Seeing that he was willing to talk down one of his captains, so I would be kept alive, was a nice thing. The only downside was, that he did not extend that courtesy to Frank or Jane....

“I understand, Sir. Anything else?”, I asked, hard pressed to keep a grin off my face.

“I am glad you understand. You are to report back in hangar four. The mechanics will run a full diagnosis on your units, and I want you to be there.”

“Why is that, sir?”

“You seem dumber then ever, Victor! They need you in the cockpit, so they can analyze how well you can operate the neural interface. They need the data to see if there are damages to the interface.”, he explained annoyed.

I saluted, stood up and turned to leave. The General did not make any attempt to stop me. This could end very bad. I had to inform Jane and Frank as soon as possible. The moment the door closed behind me, I began to shiver all over. This situation was bad.

“Tanja!”, I whispered into my radio.

“What is it?”

“Retreat! I repeat, retreat! DON'T let the mechanics near the DX! There is an inspection planned, and we can't let them get to Twilight and the others.”, I said, making my way back to the hangar as fast as I could.

“Understood.”, came Janes reply, and I could hear her loading her rifle.

“I make my way back as well. Meet you there.”, Franks voice said.

It took me less time then I had thought to get back. To my horror, I heard shots even before I opened the door. Upon entering I saw several dead mechanics, and a few marines that had taken cover. They were outnumbering Jane ten to one. Even as skilled as she was, she didn't have enough ammo on her, to deal with this many. Sighing, I slid behind the leg of another parked DX. The cockpit was open, and so I climbed up, starting the DX. The soldiers looked around as the giant machine began to move. The obviously thought that they had gotten reinforcements. When I crushed the first of them with the things right fist, they realized that there was more then one traitor on board.

All of them turned to me, and completely forgot about Jane.

“Selina, is that you?”, Jane asked via the radio.

“Yes it's me! Not mount your DX and get the fuck out of here! Take Twilight with you. I will be right behind you. Frank, get your SORRY ASS here!”, I shouted back.

“I'm in front of the door, but I can't get in. Looks like the hangar is on lock down.”, he said worried.

“Jane! Get on that!”

“Roger!”

I saw Janes DX crouch down, and carefully pushing the doors in. As soon as the metal was bended enough, Frank slipped through, running for his own DX. The soldiers were giving me a hard time, while I distracted them from the two of them. Just as I could see Jane break open the hatch on the DX I had used to come here, to get Twilight out of there, I was hit by another DX. One of the marines had obviously mounted another one of the parked ones.

It took me way to long to stand up again, after being knocked to the ground. Turning the DX head, I saw that several other units were coming to live, while the one that attacked me, was already on top of me. I tried to knock it away, but I wasn't used to this yet. It was a great difference between simply walking around, and actually fighting.

“Selina!”, I heard Jane shout, and turned around. Her DX was heading straight for me, in an attempt to help, but I stopped her.

“NO! I order you to get out of here!”, I shouted.

“NO! I will NOT leave you behind!”

“If all that “I love you” bullshit you have been spouting over the last few years, meant anything at all, then you get the fuck out of here, and bring them to safety!”

A moment of silence followed, but I was glad to see that she actually turned around and began to run. I could hear her cry over the radio.

“You are very cruel....”, she sobbed.

“We will come for you.”, Frank tried to reassure me, while he began to run as well.

“I will be waiting.”, I responded, still punching and kicking at everything that came into my range. It didn't do much, but I could at least distract them from pursuing my friends... They didn't take long to subdue and pull me out of that DX on the back of my shirt. After that, I went with them peacefully. There was no point in fighting anymore. Jane, Frank and the Ponies were safe, and that was all that mattered to me at that point. Maybe Frank had even been able to get some information out of their mainframe, before we had to make a run for it. The soldiers that escorted me, were awfully nice, which surprised me to no end. In fact, I had killed several of their comrades so I was expecting at least SOME punches along the way. But none of them ever came. Instead they just threw me into a cell, that looked more like living quarters for a low ranking officer. I even had a separate bathroom, which was a nice touch. Sadly though, they didn't let me keep my weapons or electronics. Not even my Game boy Micro, which I had totally forgotten I still had on me!

A few hours later

I was sitting in an interrogation room. It looked so cliché, that I was hard pressed not to break out laughing. There even was a mirror at the other side of the room, that I just knew was a two way one.  The only thing that differed it from any interrogation room I had seen on TV, was the big touchscreen, that was the table. I was itching to try it out, but my hands and feet were bound, so I didn't get the chance. The upside was, that my bindings were made out of some strange stuff that had dispelled Twilights illusion spell, as soon as it came into contact with it. I could finally look down on myself again, without having to look at Victors body.

They kept me there alone for about an hour, before the door behind me opened and a young man came in. From the stars on his Uniform I saw that he was a Lieutenant, most likely from the Crime investigation service. He sat down in front of me, without a greeting of any sort. His short black hair, and blue eyes were surely meant to intimidate me. Instead, I recognized a man who had never seen actual combat. Those eyes, as cold as they may have been, where not those of a killer. Finally, he broke the silence.

“Captain Selina Trawny. It is an honor for me to finally meet you. Did you know that your exploits are almost legendary amongst recruits?”, he said in a pleasant tone.

“My exploits? You mean my habit to do what I want? To bend orders to my liking?”, I joked.

“No. I mean your extraordinary ability to get what you want. That school in Baghdad for example...”

“That was something I couldn't stand for. I was ordered to stay at my post, but I couldn't let those kids die in the crossfire, now could I?”

“And you relocating your squad to a different position, actually led to the missions success....”,

“I couldn't have cared less about the mission! Putting up a firing line, inside a school full kids... I beg your pardon, but my commanding officer back then was a douche!”, I told him, trying to keep my anger out of my voice.

“And what does ANY of that have to do, with me being here right now?”, I added.

“Well.... High command really would hate to loose someone like you. I have been authorized to make an offer to you. An offer you surely can not turn down.”, the young man, who still had not introduced himself, said with a hopeful smile.

“Get to it then, even so I doubt that you can offer me anything that I truly want.”

“I offer you, your life and more. You will be reinstated as a military officer. You will even be promoted. After all this is over, you will be able to retire easily. Your retirement money will be raised considerably, and we will clean out your service record for you. There will be no dark spots anymore. How does that sound?”

“Like a very generous offer. But what about my team mates?”

“Oh I am afraid we can not offer them the same.... If they are caught alive, they will be released from duty unhonorably. They will loose all rights to their retirement money, and will most likely have to go to prison for a while. But I assure you, that we will make sure that their time there will be short and pleasant.”

The offer really was generous, but I could not accept. Not if that meant leaving Jane and  Frank standing in the rain. Besides, the Ponies trusted me and these bastards had killed brother in friendly fire!

“No.”, was my obvious answer.

“I don't think you understand your position captain. You are still a US-Marine!”

“No I'm not. I'm an Equestrian-Marine. The moment our government decided to stab these Ponies in the back, they forfeited every right to demand loyalty from me, and that was BEFORE I found out of our involvement in this attack! So what makes you think, that I would cooperate with you now? You can kill me, if that makes you feel better, but it will not change the fact that you are doing wrong here!”, he listened to me politely, and never loosing his grin. Oh how I wanted to smack it from his face.

“Oh, is that so? Well, you might consider the consequences of your actions, for your family. Your father didn't take it too well when we had to inform him, that his daughter killed his son.”, he giggled.

I looked at him in disbelief. Surely Dad would never fall for that. He knew that Michael and I had our differences, but I would never have shot him!

“What have you told him? What the hell do you mean by consequences? You can't hold my family responsible for MY actions! That's against the law!”, I spat at him. My fuse was short as it was, but now I was close to exploding.

“Well... we told him, that all evidence points to you having turned on your brother, and shot him in cold blood. He has been in coma ever since.”, he said, tapping his fingers on the touchscreen in front of him, to bring up a live video feed from what looked like a hospital room. There was a bed, and in it lay the limp figure of my father. A tube was in his mouth, and several machines were attached to his body. I could tell that he was not awake. I may not have had the medical knowledge of Michael, but I knew artificial breathing when I saw it. A though struck me... When my Dad was in a hospital, then...

“Which hospital is he in, and what about grandfather? He can't take care of himself! He might die if no one checks up on him!”, I said in a panic.

“Your grandfather? Oh yes... Just one moment....”, again he tapped on the screen, and the image of my father faded. It was replaced with a video feed from a sterile looking room. There was nothing in it, except a wheelchair in which grandfather sat. The walls were white, and so were the floor and ceiling. There was nothing to entertain him, and no one to keep him company... He was completely alone... It was the one thing that made him afraid. Usually my father would be around him 24/7. When I was on leave I would do the same. Being alone, was the worst thing they could do to him. I didn't even see a table or something, and the Catheter I saw held barely any liquid. That meant that it had either been emptied recently, or that he didn't have anything to drink in a while....

He began to stir in his wheelchair, and I saw tears running down his face. He was crying in fear and shouting something, though I couldn't hear it. With an evil grin the Lieutenant in front of me turned up the volume, so I could hear what he screaming.

“Paul? Selina? Are you there? Is anyone there? I'm thirsty! Please... gimme something to drink! Please! Selina!”

Tears started to pour from my face, while the grin on the mans face was growing wider. He was lucky that I was bound to a char that was anchored in the ground. I started to thrash against my bindings, like the Ponies I had seen in the generator room. I didn't care that they were cutting into my flesh, and that I started to bleed. All I wanted, was to rip his throat out!

“WHERE ARE THEY?”, I demanded. My voice sounded more like a growl then human speech.

“They are safely on board this ship. We brought them here about an hour after your capture. If you are willing to cooperate, no harm will come to them. We will even clear out that “misunderstanding” with your father, once wakes up. So.. what do you say?”, he went on smiling. He was sure he had me, and I was sure about that as well.... Just then, I thought something to myself... I didn't say it aloud....

“If they were only safe... Somepony.... help them.... please...”

I had barely finished the thought, when there was a bright light in on the screen, before it turned to static. There was no video feed, or audio anymore. For the first time, the Lieutenants grin faltered. Furiously, he tapped the screen again, changing it back to my fathers hospital room, but it was gone. The bed, and all the machines keeping him breathing were gone. He checked and double checked the settings of the video feed, until his grin finally turned into frown.

He left, and I was brought back to my cell only minutes later. That guy didn't say another word to me. Instead, the “guards” now were less then friendly. To their misfortune, there was no way of tying me anywhere in my cell, so their attempt of having a little “fun” with me, ended with a few broken noses and blackened eyes. Obviously no one that thought about bringing handcuffs along, when they brought my family here.... There oversight, and my opportunity to vent some frustration. I would have gotten away with it too, had it not been for the barrel of a M16 that suddenly appeared directly in front of my face.

After they locked me in, I thanked the heavens or who ever had saved my family. Now that I thought about it, it was oddly convenient that it happened right at the moment that I thought about it. The flash of light I saw, before my grandfathers screen went dark, looked oddly like a teleportation. However, it was neither golden, pale white nor was it lavender. So none of the Princesses had come to my grandfathers rescue. It had been gray.... But that was surely impossible. She was an Earth Pony.....

For quite some time I sat there, on my bed, mulling things over in my head. The bars to cell looked fragile, but they were anything but. I had tried to break them, even so I knew even the attempt was foolish. After about two hours, the light in the room suddenly changed. It changed from white to red, and a siren went off throughout the ship. I could hear running in the corridor, and I knew that something was up. The ship was most likely under attack. But.... they surely hadn't come for me.... had they? Jane and Frank wouldn't be so foolish. They only had two DX units, and I had sen about twenty in that one hangar alone....

I listened intently, but it became eerily silent outside. For several minutes it stayed that way. I had my face pressed against the bars, listening for any sound, when I heard shouting and shooting outside.

“Fall back! Fall back! Damn it, what is that thing?!”, I heard a soldier shout. A moment later, I heard that pained screams of another one, and the clip clop of hooves on metal. Strangely enough, that wasn't the only thing I heard. Each time the Pony these hooves belonged to took a step, I also heard a dull clanging sound.

Suddenly the metal door to the brig was struck with enormous force. It began to bend out of shape. I thought that it only made sense. A Ponies hooves surely were not able to use the small button, to open the door properly....

As the door finally flew out of it's frame, blood flowed inside from the corridor. A gray mare, with black hair and tail stood in the door. Her flanks badly burned, and her left hind leg replaced by a wooden prosthetic. She looked at me with her one good eye and smiled. Just as I wanted to say something witty, a soldier came up from behind her with a knife in his hand. She noticed my horrified expression, even before I could say anything. The moment the knife connected with her neck, I thought it was all over, but Octavia just smiled. Her body erupted into gray smoke that whirled around the startled soldier. His muffled screams died quickly, as the mare strangled him to death, just to reform her body a moment later. I could only stare in awe as she smiled at me.

“Surprised to see me I take it?”, she said casually, not even noticing the blood on her hooves.

“Ehm... well... yeah? How did you get in here anyway?”

“That was quite easy. The one you call Frank was so nice, as to disable their early warning system. Princess Twilight and Princess Luna are currently leading their forces against the crew of this vessel. Your team mates are assisting them. I however, chose to get you out of here as fast as I could, so I separated from the group.”, she explained, while taking the keys to my cell from a keyring on the wall.

“That still doesn't explain that smoke stunt you just pulled! I thought Earth Ponies are....”

“Unable to do magic?”, she chuckled.

“In fact, yes. I am unable to do magic, or better I was. I have known it for quite some time now, but there just never was somepony I could bond with. I am a Familiar you see?”, she added as she unlocked my cell.

“A Familiar? What does that mean?”

“Every being in existence has a soul. When you find the one Pony you are destined to be with, some call it finding your soul-mate. For familiars it's pretty similar. Dimensional travel was once common here in Equestria. Back then many Ponies had the ability to bond. They were called Familiars. A Familiar bonds his or her soul with another intelligent being. But that is only possible between two. A Familiar has only one destined partner for bonding. In my case, that is you. It may very well be, that I am the last Familiar alive. Both sides gain something from the bonding. If you need me, like you did earlier, I will come to aid you. All you have to do, is think of me. In return, I can actively use magic. But that is only a small fraction of the bonding process. I will explain to you more throughly once we are back at the bunker.”, Octavia explained while levitating the gun of one of the dead soldiers to me. Her remaining eye glowed as she did so.

“So basically you and I are connected somehow?”, I asked confused.

“That would be correct, even though it is much more complex than that. It is not a simple connection.”, I could tell that she was growing impatient. I didn't know how I could tell, since she kept that pleasant smile on her face, but I did feel it nonetheless.

It took a while, for us to join back up with the others, and I was indeed quite impressed by their handiwork. According to what Twilight told, when we joined her group, there had been an anti magic field surrounding the ship. It blocked all spell casting, but Frank was able to shut it down, so they now had the upper hand/hoof in the battle. I was amazed to see that Twilights forces consisted mostly of Unicorns. Some of them had taken cover, and were shooting bolts of magic at some soldiers that had barricaded themselves behind some storage boxes.

“We don't have time for this. Twilight, can I have your radio for a moment?”, I asked, already reaching out to the device. She hoofed it over to me without complaints.

“Jane?”

“SELINA! Man am I glad to hear YOUR voice again, even so I'll kick your sweet little butt the next time I see you!”, I heard her laugh.

“I'm glad to hear from you as well. Say, are you inside the ship?”

“Of course! There no way I would want to miss out on the action! Frank and Luna are guarding the hangars, so no worries no one will get out.”

“Good to hear. Tell me, can you come to...”, I looked at the floor plan on the opposite wall.

“Corridor 49-B?”

“That's the one leading up to the bridge, isn't it? Why do you need me there?”

“Some idiots are putting up a fight, and I don't feel comfortable trying to shoot them with a shotgun from this distance.”, I joked.

“Will be right there. Jane over and out.”, Jane said, sounding genuinely happy, even so I expected some major kick in the ass for pulling the “Love Card” on her.

“You better be alright! I didn't hack myself into their mainframe, just so I can carry out your dead body!”, Franks voice suddenly sounded in my ear.

“Don't you worry I.....”, but that was all I could say. An immense pain suddenly ran through the side of my neck, and I knew I had been hit. My legs gave out from under me. My weapon fell to the ground, while my other hand clutched the side of my neck. Blood spurted out of the wound, and I could see the shocked expressions on Twilights and Octavias faces before everything went black....

Bonding/How Equestria was made

Through the portal

Chapter 7

Bonding/How Equestria was made

I heard a voice. It was low and hard to hear, but it was at least something. The complete darkness around me, got broken by a blinding grayish light. I tried to raise my hand to cover my eyes, but found that I could not. The light came closer and closer, while I was even unable to blink. The voice continued to speak to me, until it finally got close enough for me to understand it.

“Do you accept the bond?”, it asked me in a pleasant tone of voice.

“What bond?”, I wanted to know. I had no idea what this voice meant.

A face appeared in the light. The face of a mare with gray coat and an eye-patch over her left eye. She shook her head, as if to tell me that there was no time to explain. I did not know it then, but I knew what she meant as if we were one and the same, because that was exactly the case. This mare.... Octavia.... wanted to save my life....

But what had happened? Why was there any need to save me in the first place? I could not remember. All I knew then, was that I could trust her. Whatever she had in mind, it was in my own interest to listen to her. This in mind, I agreed to what she called “the bond”. It did only take the fraction of a second, but I saw her muzzle show a smile, before I was enveloped in that gray light. The darkness around me cleared, and my eyes shot open.

As they did, I found myself in a bone crushing embrace and I heard someone sobbing. I couldn't see much, since there was dark green fabric in front of my eyes. Something was pressed against the right side of my head, as well as the front and back of it. It was soft, warm and not unpleasant at all, but it hindered my breathing. It was then, that I realized that I could hear a heartbeat, and suddenly I knew what was happening, and what had happened to me.

“Hey! No breast-choking, thank you very much!”, I joked, as I broke free from Janes arms. She looked at me, her eyes brimming with tears, the front of her green shirt drenched in blood. It didn't take me long to realize that this was my blood. I got hit. I should have been dead, but I wasn't.... Octavia had saved me. But where was the mare? I could not see her anywhere.

“If you are looking for me, do not worry yourself, I am here.”, I heard her voice inside of my head.

“What?”, I asked, and everyone in the vicinity looked at me as if I was crazy. It must have really looked like I was loosing my marbles, when I span around and looked for Octavia.

“No need to talk aloud. I can hear your thoughts. How are you feeling?”

“I... I guess I'm fine, but where are you?”, I asked.

“I am inside of you. Try to touch the place where you got hit.”

I did as I was told, and felt a patch of fur where there should have been naked skin. It covered exactly the place where I had been shot, and the bullet had taken a part of my neck out. Jane just stared at me in silence. She was obviously in shock at my sudden recovery.

“I will explain everything to you later. For now, I think it is time for some payback, don't you think?”

“You bet your fur!”, I snickered.

I was amazed at all the knowledge I suddenly had at my disposal. It was as if each and every memory in Octavias mind, had been copied into my own. I could remember her foalhood, and the day she got her cutiemark.... But there was something much more interesting.... MAGIC!

Before Jane, or any other bystander, could react, a nasty grin spread on my face as I grabbed my shotgun off of the ground. I pumped it once, before vanishing into the ground. It was a strange feeling, when the ground beneath me suddenly was as easy to penetrate as air. I could feel the metal plates slip through my body, but it did not freak me out as much as it excited me. I could feel Octavias and my own eagerness to get back at that bastard that had shot me. It was almost too much to handle, without breaking out into insane laughter.

I reappeared just in front of the door to the bridge. The soldiers that had barricaded themselves there, did not see me coming. I intended to keep it that way. They would never see what had hit them. Dropping my Shotgun, I grabbed to the belt of one of the soldiers that was crouching right in front of me, and took his knife.

“Hold your fire, or you might hit her!”, I heard Twilight order her troops.

The soldiers did not understand what Twilight meant, until the one whose knife I had taken, fell to the floor with hit throat slit open. They turned around and started to open fire, but it was no use. There were six of them, all of them using the standard MP5 of the guardsmen. The bullets went through me, just as my body had went through the floor seconds earlier. The knife flashed through the air, trailing a small tail of gray smoke behind it. It's blade flashed in the artificial light of the corridor, before splitting the unlucky soldiers head in two.

It was a massacre, and I did not go easy on any of them. It may have been over quickly, but the terror in their eyes haunted me for quite some time. I had never enjoyed killing, but at that moment, I did. I enjoyed their screams, their tears and the smell of their blood as it shot out of the wounds that I had inflicted on them. I practically bathed in it, when the vision in front of my eyes began to blur. My knees felt wobbly, as the knife clattered on the metal floor. I could see Jane run towards me, when I blacked out once again....

A few hours later

I could hear the beeping sound of a heart-rate-monitor as I came to. I did not open my eyes immediately. Instead I tried to gather where I was, just from the sounds around me and the smells that my nose picked up. It was a sterile smell, and except a low buzzing sound from somewhere under me, I could not hear much. Until I heard the ruffling of feathers and somepony taking a deep breath that was.

“I see your awake. That was quite the strain you put yourself through there. No creature has bonded with a familiar in over a millennium, and there is a good reason why we forbade it.”, I head Lunas voice call out to me. She sounded both nervous and angry.

I finally opened my eyes and saw her. She lay on the floor, next to the bed I ways laying in. What surprised me, was that the floor and walls where made out of metal. We certainly were not in the bunkers medical station. This was a fully equipped sick bay! I even saw an auto-doc in one corner of the room, it's robotic arm hanging lifeless from the wall.

“What... where...WHAT?”, I stammered, when I realized where I was.

“Shhh.... calm down, or you might wake her up.”, Luna hushed me, nodding to my right side. At first, I looked at the bed next to mine, but it was empty. Then my gaze went downwards, and I spotted Octavia who was curled up in bed beside me. Her neck was heavily bandaged and blood was seeping through at some places. Again my hand shot up to my own neck, where I felt the patch of fur that I had discovered earlier.

“What... happened?”, I asked confused.

“She has saved your life, as is her duty as your familiar. I had thought we had gotten them all, but I guess I was mistaken....”, Luna explained.

“What do you mean? Where you hunting them?”

“In a way, yes. But not to harm them. All we did, was permanently remove the enchantments that made them able to bond with other intelligent creatures. Over two thousand years ago, inter-dimensional-travel was pretty common. Some Ponies volunteered to undergo the familiar procedure. Celestia and I had originally invented it to make it easier to trade knowledge. Knowledge is the most valuable good here in Equestria, and we shared ours with visitors from other worlds. To make this process faster, and more efficient, we invented the familiar spell. The familiars would not only share their knowledge, but they would also receive the knowledge of their partner. In addition to that, each familiar was given special abilities, once they had bonded. One of them is to heal their partners injuries, by taking the wound upon themselves. It's basically a switching spell. If it is a flesh-wound, like yours was, then the exact place on her body would be switched with the one on yours. In this case, a part of her neck.”

“But why....”

“You must understand, that the multi-verse is endless. There are countless worlds and not all of the inhabited ones, house creatures that are as sturdy as we Ponies are. There are dangers in Equestria, and we did not want to cause a diplomatic incident, by having one of the diplomats die due to an injury that would be nothing too serious for a Pony. That is why we gave them this power. The active use of magic for Earth-ponies and Pegasi was also implemented because of that. A familiars duty is to protect his or her partner at all costs. There is a penalty, if a familiar refuses. It is all part of the enchantment that we placed upon them. They would suffer their partners fate, if they refused to help, but a little more intense. So if you were to get a near fatal injury because she did refuse to help you, she would die. If your were uncomfortable with anything and she did not help, she would feel miserable. But don't get me wrong. Familiars get something out of it as well. They get knowledge that nopony else has. They also heal faster, and become more resistant if they stay close to their partner. They even have the power of regeneration, as long as the contact is as close as possible. That is why we placed her in bed with you, and removed her wooden leg. Given the time, she will heal completely, and it is all thanks to the bond she now shares with you.”, Luna finished and sighed.

“Why did you forbid it then, and why are we still on that ship, instead of the bunker?”, I demanded, starting to stroke Octavias mane unconsciously. She sighed again, looking at the mare beside me, instead of my face.

“There was a war. Creatures from another dimension came over, and used the familiars against us. Thousands of Ponies died in that war, and not all of them fell due to the fighting. Many familiars died because they refused to raise a hoof against their peers. In the end, we defeated them, but Equestria was never the same after that. That is why we were reluctant to share our knowledge with your people, and that is why we got rid of all the familiars we could find. As for why we are still here... well... we captured the vessel, that is why. Your friend Frank said that he shut down all “outward channels and transponders”, even though I don't know what that means exactly. All I understood is, that it will make it harder for them, to track us down.”

“Track us down? Did you actually manage to start the ship? What about the Ponies in the generator room?”

“They were freed. Their positions are now taken by volunteers from Twilights forces. It has it's advantages, that she only accepts the most magical skilled Unicorns into her guard. So far they have been fine and take turns powering the ship. Jane and Frank are in the Control room, or on the Bridge as you might call it. They are organizing our efforts to hide the ship, and we have been successful so far. Right now, we are in muzzle-lake. Frank thought it was a good idea to sink the ship, after confirming it could actually be raised again, but it will not take long for them to notice that one of their ships is missing.”

I nodded. This ship was not so big, and it's role in a fleet was most likely quite unimportant, but it would still be missed. They might even have been aware that something was wrong, once Frank had cut all outward connections. My worries however, got interrupted as Luna looked into my eyes again.

“Since you will have to stay here for a while, for Octavias sake, how about I tell you a story to pass the time? It is a story nopony except myself knows in it's entirety.”

“Ehm... sure... I guess... I'm a little old for bedtime stories, but...”

“This is no bedside story... It is more of a history lesson. It is something you have to understand, if you want to live here in Equestria.”, she sighed, settling herself on the bed to my left to make herself more comfortable.

“As I told you, the multi-verse is endless. There are countless other Universes, some of which are inhabited by intelligent life forms. But everything must come to an end at some point. Every Universe dies, when it's time has come. It will collapse into itself and all the matter in it will be compressed in a spot, smaller and thinner then one of your hairs. Then it will explode, and the cycle will start again. But the life forms that are alive, when it collapses.... Their souls will wander the endlessness of the new Universe. Some call them ghosts, but they are really remnants of a previous cycle, that can only find rest once the next cycle starts. On the last cycle, there were billions of souls that started to roam the new Universe. A very few of them could feel and manipulate the energy of the universe. They remembered how they had lived before, and they wanted to live like that again. To achieve that goal, they started to gather dust particles from all over the place. They put them together, and started to spin the resulting lump of dust. With a bit of magic, they created a small gravitational field, and started to inhabit it.”

“So this is how Equestria was made?”

“No. This is how the Equestrian Moon was created. It took several million years, but the souls started to combine with each other. They started to form a single mind for themselves, and their new physical form, became the moon itself. At first the moon was happy, but after a while it got lonely and cold. The creatures that had formed it's mind, had been used to live in the sun. They yearned for it's warmth, and so they started the whole process of creating a heavenly body once again. This time they also collected several gases and other combustible materials, setting the newly formed star aflame. After linking it's fire to the energy of the universe itself, it could be sure that it's fire would never burn out. But... even though the moon was now warm and cozy, it was still alone. Then something amazing happened. The souls that had not helped in the creation of the moon, started to inhabit the sun, and the moon started to wait patiently. Several million years later, the sun had also developed one single mind. The two of them started to converse about many things, but the sun was unhappy. It knew that it's purpose was to bring life, and to share it's warmth with their creatures of the land.... But.... there was no land, and the moon itself was unable to support any form of physical life. Combining their magic, the two of them started to gather dust particles once again, forming a planet between them. Then they took every little atom of water, that they could get their hoofs on, and put it onto that new planet. The Atmosphere was artificial at first, but soon, after they had also gathered some organic materials, plants started to form. A natural atmosphere formed after some time, and now all they needed were living creatures. The two argued about that point pretty long, but then they decided to just let life run it's course. The current inhabitants of this planet, were the result of this natural evolution. Ponies, Dragons, Griffins, Diamond Dogs and others. But... then a disaster happened... Something the sun and moon had not foreseen, and it threatened to destroy their wonderful creation....”

“What happened?”, I asked, Octavia had snuggled up to me even closer now, while staying asleep. She obviously liked her mane being stroked.

“A doorway to another world opened up and a creature came through. That creature.... was Discord. He is parasite, that feeds of chaos and strive. The peaceful creatures of the land had absolutely no way to fight him, and his magic twisted their minds enough to start a war.... It was the darkest time there had ever been. The sun, dismayed at the development, started to deprive the world of it's warmth the worse their fighting got. The moon pleaded with the sun, to continue to share it's warmth with their innocent creations, but the sun did not listen. The moon tried to convince the sun that they had no fault in this, that it was Discord who was the one to blame... But her pleas fell on deaf ears. So the moon did something it did not want to do. It took control over the sun, forcing it to give it's warmth to the land below. The mental struggle between the two lasted for years, and the moon eventually won, but had been weakened greatly. When the sun tried to retaliate, the moon saw itself forced to use it's final option. It created two bodies on the world below, and ripped the suns mind from it's celestial body, forcing it in the newly created body. Shortly after, it followed, and inhabited the second body. The last thing, the moon did, before taking on a completely different name, was altering the suns memories.... She erased her sisters memories of the events, and made it seem like they had agreed on this. To this day, the moon feels about deceiving it's sister. In the end, the two of them defeated Discord, and started to rule over the land they had created. Just as a precaution, should they ever be unable to defend the Ponies of the land, or should Discord return the moon connected six gems to the power of the Universe.... You may know these, as the elements of harmony. They are to cleanse the target of everything that is not considered harmony in Equestria.”

There was a long silence, which was eventually broken when Octavia began to stir. She put her head on my chest, looking at the Princess.

“So what you are saying, is that you are not a Pony in all actuality. You are the moon itself, and the stars and other planets outside are all your creations? Are you telling us, that you are some kind of god?”, she asked, as politely as she could, and Luna nodded.

“I created other solar-systems so my night sky would not be so empty. I created them so Ponies could marvel at it's beauty. These aliens that are attacking us now, have most likely developed on one of my worlds, but I have no idea on which one. My control over all of those heavily bodies vanished when I was banished to my original body. Control like that is abnormal in Equestria, so the elements that I created, took it away from me. Nightmare might still have some of it left, but it should be nowhere near powerful enough to track their home-world down.”

“But... aren't you immortal then? I mean, you created your own body and that of your sister. Would it really matter if those bodies are destroyed? Couldn't you just recreate them?”, I asked perplexed.

“I could not. These bodies are unique and designed to force our minds to stay in them. When they die, then the moon will cease to be, and the sun will darken. We are very careful because of that. If we fall, then Equestria will follow us soon after.”

I just lay there. It was a lot to digest. I was in the actual presence of the very first life-form of this universe. I was in the presence of this worlds god, in lack of a better term, and yet she looked so fragile and her crippled wing was pretty obvious if you looked at it directly. I stopped stroking Octavia, being lost in my thoughts. She reacted by pouting at me in mock disappointment....

Counterattack

Through the portal

Chapter 8

Counterattack

I still lay in bed with Octavia at my side, when it happened. Luna had left several minutes ago, and I was almost ready to drift of to sleep again, like the mare at my side. Suddenly, the sickbay was bathed in red light, and a siren went off throughout the ship. I snapped right up, almost knocking Octavia out of bed. She looked indignantly at me, but understood that I had not meant to do it. Her second eye had regenerated in a matter of hours, while her hind leg had regrown. It was still hairless, but it had regrown nonetheless.

I stumbled over to an intercom on one of the wall, hitting the button so on it so hard, that I thought I might break the thing.

“This is Selina, what the FUCK is going on? Are we under attack?”, I bellowed into the microphone. A voice I did not recognize answered me.

“No ma'am. This is the bridge, Ensign Goldshield. We have just received word that the bunker is under attack. The ship is preparing to launch. All personal is ordered to pony the battle-stations, while we wait for the Commander.”, the female voice from the bridge answered me.

“What god damn Commander?”, I demanded, while I looked over to Octavia. I could see the realization in her eyes. Just before Luna had left, she had told me, that the mare had brought my family to the bunker, and said bunker was under attack now!

“Well who do YOU think has been appointed the commanding officer of this ship? Get a grip girl, and get your sexy ass up here already!”, I heard Frank practically shout at me.

I could not believe it. I had been made the commanding officer of a vessel I barely knew? I was not even fully aware what this ship was capable of. Humanity had similar ships back on earth, but I was sure they didn't compare in the slightest, when it came to firepower. Either way, I threw a glance back over my shoulder to Octavia.

“Can you keep them safe?”, I asked, and she nodded. In a gray flash of light, she was gone, no doubt to protect my family back at the bunker. I took a hand held radio that lay on a counter and stormed out of the sickbay. On the way to the bridge, Frank filled me in.

“Status report!”

“Well, I made it impossible for them to track us down, but it seems they have not yet noticed that one of their ships is missing. That's why I could connect the mainframe to their mission planning network. Looks like they can only communicate by using burst-coms. Audio communication doesn't seem to work over long distances, for whatever reason. Anyway, I intercepted a message that came from one of the alien ships. It said that they had located the Equestrian hideout, and were planning to bombard it. Their orders were changed, and now they are going in to capture as many Ponies as possible. According to this, their main objective are the Princesses....”, he finished.

I had figured as much. They were the embodiments of the moon and the sun, not to mention that they were the oldest beings in existence. If they could get their dirty tentacles on them, they would have enough power to last them forever I guessed. That was something we had to prevent at all costs....

I finally reached the bridge, and got in without a problem. The two Unicorn guards didn't even try to stop me. What I saw, did that in their place. It was impossible. The “Bridge” of the ship was a room that was dizzying. It was circular, and the terminals to control the different subsystems of the vessel, were spread all over it. I saw Ponies sit at terminals that were clearly hanging on the ceiling.

“Up here Selina.”, I hear Twilights voice call out to me. There she was, hanging upside down on the ceiling from my point of view. It was enough to make me more then a little dizzy.

“And how am I supposed to get up there?”, I asked, trying to keep the small dinner I had in the sickbay where it belonged.

“Just kick off the ground. There is some kind of field in the center, that negates gravitation.”, Frank explained, and I saw that he was sitting on a Terminal on my right. He didn't bother to look over his shoulder, but studied the readouts on his screen with more then a little interest.

“What's up?”, I demanded, approaching him from behind.

“I told you, the bunker is under attack. All we are waiting for, is your order on what to do.”

“But why me? I'm just a mere Captain. I shouldn't command this vessel.”, I protested.

“Because you are the most experienced strategist we have, AND the highest ranking officer on board. Besides, I trust you.”, Luna shouted from a Terminal on the right wall. She was not operating it herself, but studying the readouts over Janes shoulder. I looked at Jane, but she just avoided my gaze, deliberately trying to ignore me. I decided to just go with the flow. There wasn't anything I could do about it anyway.

“LAUNCH! All personal get ready for battle.”, I ordered in a booming voice and a several other voices shouted their affirmation. While they did, I made my way to Janes station.

“Engines at full capacity.”, A stallion shouted.

“Lift off imminent.”, a mare shouted back.

“Shield emitters charged and ready. Weapon systems activated and loaded.”, another mare shouted. I paid only minor attention while I jumped towards Jane. It was a strange feeling to just float towards my target. I could see that Jane was stealing glances at me, out of the corner of her eye, but she still ignored me. I wouldn't have any of that.

Once I landed, I was glad that Luna helped me to steady myself. Again my stomach was about to turn upside down. The additional help also avoided an embarrassing fall, when the ship finally made it's way out of the lake and into the sky. The floor was shaking under my feet, and only Lunas magic stopped me from stumbling into a red coated Earthpony mare.

When the shaking finally stopped, I nodded to Luna, who understood my request and strolled away. Once she was out of earshot, I lay my arms around Jane from behind, effectively stopping whatever she had been doing.

“I am sorry Jane.”, I muttered into her ear. Not for the first time did I enjoy being so close to her, even though I would have never admitted it to myself.

“Sorry doesn't really cut it this time Selina. You played quite dirty. I don't know if I can forgive you that easily.”, she responded, still looking at her screen instead of at me.

I sighed, but did not release my grip on her. Instead I leaned in closer, and softly blew into her ear. I could see an instant blush appear on her face, which made me giggle a little.

“Your quite the tease, you know that?”, she said, hard pressed to keep her arousal and anger out of her voice.

“I learned from the best. So, how about it? Can you forgive me? I just wanted you to be safe.”

For the first time since I had entered the room, Jane turned around to me. I had not let go of her yet, which was why we ended up being very close to each other, when she spun around in her chair. I had not planned on it, and I certainly did not expect it to happen, but suddenly Janes hands held my head in place. Even though I was much stronger then her, I somehow could not take my eyes off of her. A deep and passionate kiss followed, that left my knees a little wobbly. When we finally parted I am quite sure, that my face looked vacant for a moment.

“Now I forgive you.”, Jane said blushing hard. In that moment I realized something. Even though I might not have been a lesbian, I did enjoy this very much.

Shaking my head, I decided to keep it at that for the moment. As a superior officer, I could have punished her for it, but instead I somehow yearned for more. I sighed, nodded, and turned around to check in with Luna. There were a few things that did not add up here, and I was sure she would have the answers I needed.

“How come they have detected the bunker?”, I asked without beating around the bush, once I had reached her.

“Well, I guess they must have somehow detected Twilights and my own force, when we left to come for you. Either that, or they have a spy in our ranks.”, she answered worried. I could see it on her face. The possibility of a spy in their ranks did not seem too unlikely to her.

“But who would do that? I mean... The Ponies I have met so far would do anything to defend their homeland.”

“I'm honored you may think so, but believe me, there have been collaborators before. I think they have been promised to be left alive. It may be disgusting, but it is the way things are.”, Luna sighed.

I mulled that over in my mind. If there really were Pony traitors, then we had to find them as soon as possible. But at first we would have to make sure, that we saved as many Ponies as possible from the bunker.

“Luna, how many Ponies can we fit onto this ship? It's not that big, so... we may not be able to evacuate everypony.”, I inquired.

“We won't have to. There is always bunker B. All we have to do it to make sure that the ones we do not evacuate to the ship, can get there safely. It's located under Manehatten. Not quite as big, but it should suffice.”, the Princess said, giving me a reassuring smile. We talked for a little while longer, and Luna brought me up to date as to what our ship could do. I learned, that there were over two hundred DX units in the hangars, and that some of the Ponies had already started to train in them. The neurointerface made it easy, even for them. The biggest problem, as Luna told me, was that these machines were created for bipedal pilots. The Ponies usually piloted them on all fours, which limited the abilities of the DX units.

After a while, I returned to Frank. I wanted to know what our odds would be.

“I know what you want already, and the answer is: Not good. Unless you come up with a plan fast, we will loose this battle.”, he said, scowling.

“Ehm... OK.... Well tell me, can you do anything about the other human controlled ships? We wouldn't want them to get reinforcements, now would we?”

“Way ahead of you there. Their OS is... easy to use, but that also leaves it vulnerable to someone who knows what he is doing. I disconnected our ship from their communications network, because I hacked it. Every ship that is accessing it now, will be infected with a small little something. It's not much, just something I threw together in an hour, but it will shut down their mainframes, effectively rendering the ships and the DX useless. The only ones we will have to worry about are the few alien vessels that roam around.”, Frank explained proudly.

“How many of them are there?”, I asked, not reacting to what he had done, even though I had to admit that I was quite impressed.

“Twenty. Most of them are supply vessels. Only two Battleships, as far as I can see. That is... if you don't consider the mothership. It's number twenty one, but I don't see a way we could take THAT baby out. The aliens computers are highly encrypted, and I had no luck hacking them so far, so just shutting it down is out of the question. The only reason I could take out our guys so quickly, was that they expected everything but an attack from the cyberspace.”, Frank tried to lure me into praising him once again, but I didn't react to it.

“Commander, we are in sensor range. ETA ten minutes.”, a stallion shouted.

I turned to him, ordering to put the ship on the screen. As a big fan of Star Trek, I had always wanted to say that. A hologram formed in the middle of the room, accompanied by several diagrams.

“I can't make heads or tails out of this. Frank, can you?”, I asked.

“It's simple. It's a heavy cruiser, and it's shield and weapon systems are down. However, they are sending troops down to storm the bunker.”, he explained.

My mind raced over the possibilities, until I came to a conclusion.

“Twilight?”

“Yes Selina?”

“Gather as many of your Unicorn guards as possible, and instruct them to teleport onto that ships hull.”, I ordered, even though I knew I had no authority to order Twilight around.

“WHAT? That ship is like two thousand hooves in the air! They'll freeze to death!”, she protested, while stomping a hoof to the ground for emphasis.

“I know. They don't have to stay there long. Just have them teleport there, wreak as much havoc as they can, and teleport back to our ship. Their main target should be the cannons on the upper side of the ship.”, I clarified.

“That way they can't fire on us, and we will position ourself directly above them. Once all the cannons are taken care of, the carrier will open fire. That's when your Unicorns should be on board again.”, I added.

Twilight looked suspicious at first, but then she mulled my plan over.

“Alright. I will do as you ask, but what about the bunker? They'll need reinforcements.”, she asked while already making a mental list of the Unicorns she would want for this job.

“Jane and Frank will stay here. I will take a DX and go down near that cave we defended earlier. That's why I need you in the hangar, as soon as we are there. Think you can get me in the bunker from there Twi?”

“Ehm... sure I can... But...”, she started to protest again.

“No buts! We are going to evacuate, and as soon as we have destroyed the cruiser, we will use the Unicorns that destroyed the cannons, to teleport the refugees on board. If you have to, throw some of the DX out to make space. I don't care about the cargo either. Just make as much space as possible on this ship!”, I ordered, and several other Ponies got to work on that.

Eight minutes later

I sat in a DX unit, and Twilight was already in her own compartment in it's chest. The DX had an emergency teleportation system, that had enough power to teleport one object or person out of danger. I decided then, that I would teleport Twilight out of danger, if things got too rough down below.

“Operation started. The Unicorns are at work. We will draw their fire until they are finished. Good luck down there, and don't make me come for you a second time!”, Jane informed me over the radio, and I confirmed. The Hangar doors opened, and I jumped out. It was a strange sensation, but luckily these more advanced units had a flight module, that slowed my fall. Steering it however, was an entirely different story. Instead of landing near the cave, as I had intended, I landed on the cruiser.

“Fuck it!”, I though to myself, and crouched down, beating my fists against the hull. It broke like paper under the DX's fists. This was the first time I saw them. These aliens were disgusting. I saw several of them crawl away on their tentacles, as I worked my way through their ship. They didn't wear any clothes, or Uniforms. I could see them in all of their red skinned and slimy glory. On my way through the ship, several of them got crushed, until I came out on the other side.

A moment later I was already flying through the air again. Looking up I could see the two behemoths firing at each other. It was a beautiful sight. Each time the cannons fired, the shields of the other ship flared up in all colors of the rainbow. It didn't take me long this time, to reach the cave entrance and disembark the DX, but not before I let Twilight out of her compartment. She didn't look too good when she stumbled out of there. In fact, she emptied her stomach onto my boots.

After a few minutes, in which Twilights stomach heaved a few times more, we entered the cave. There was no sign of fighting here. Not even any sound. We soon found the door, and Twilight inserted her horn into a slot on it's left. The door began to slide open, and we could finally hear what was going on inside. It was then, that a bullet came through the half open door. No doubt there was a firefight somewhere close by, and this bullet had been aimed at somepony else. Nonetheless, it struck Twilight straight into the chest. Her eyes, that had been closed in concentration, snapped wide open, and she tried to say something. But what came out, was only a bloody cough....

Evacuation

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...

Hope

Through the Portal

Chapter 10

Hope

“And make sure that engine doesn't blow up on us, we need every bit of advantage in speed that we can get!”, I shouted to two female technicians who were working on the main propulsion system of our carrier. It had turned out that the Ponies did not kill the entire crew, when they conquered the ship, and some of the survivors were willing to help us. That included General Adams, who had been the former Commander of the vessel.

Three hours had passed since Luna had teleported me, my family, Octavia and herself on board, where I was greeted by a hoof to the face by Celestia. She was not to amused by the blow I had given her earlier, and was prepared to return the favor tenfold. Had it not been for Octavias and Lunas intervention, she might very well have killed me on the spot. After that little “episode”, Luna had ushered her sister out of the sickbay, to try and calm her down, while Frank came in with a grim look on his face. This had been when he told me how dire our situation really was. The remaining alien battleship was helping the two we incapacitated with the repairs, while the mother-ship was perusing us. In spite of it's size it was slowly gaining on us, which was why I had not stayed in the sickbay to get my injuries treated.

Instead I had visited the prisoners, and persuaded them to help us. That General Adams ordered them to do so didn't hurt either. The old man always liked me, but even I thought that this was a little too much. When I asked him about it, he told me that he would explain it later.

And that was how I had ended up in the engine room, supervising repairs and enhancements to our main drive. It would still not be enough to outrun the mother-ship, that much Frank had told me, but it would buy us some more time to come up with a plan.

As I was studying my clipboard, to check where I had to go next, I felt a hoof taping my shoulder. I almost fell over when I turned around, and looked into the purple eyes of Princess Mi amore Cadenza. Her muzzle was only inches away from my nose, which shocked me even more.

To hide my rising shock, I quickly attempted a bow, which was a bad idea at this distance. Instead of hiding my shock, or paying my respect to the Princess.... I head-butted her, which sent both of us stumbling to the ground backwards.

“Ouch!”, she complained, while rubbing her forehead with a hoof and sitting on her haunches.

“I... I'm terribly sorry Princess!”, I exclaimed, bowing on my knees like I had seen muslims do while they prayed. Instead of accepting my apology however, she started laughing heartily.

“It's quite alright Commander. I startled you. No need for you to apologize, it was my fault entirely.”, she reassured me and I stood up.

“So.... I am glad to see you up and about again Prin...”

“Oh shush, Cadence is fine. You saved me after all, even though with that little incident just now, you have assaulted three fourth of Equestrias royalty.”, she chuckled. Had it not been for the fact that her amusement reached her eyes, I would have taken this as a threat eventually.

“Ehm... OK... Cadence. So what can I do for you?”, I asked, picking up my clipboard. I longed for a shower, since I could smell the sweat and blood on me, but there just was no time for me to relax it seemed.

“Oh! I am actually here to do something for you.”, she answered honestly, and I almost dropped my clipboard once again.

“And what would that be?”, I asked, more then a little confused what the Princess of love could help me with in a situation like this.

“Aunt Luna is still trying to calm aunt Celestia down, so I had to go through the damage reports, and the recording of the battle we just barely escaped from. As you know they used me for a battery for quite some time, but I was not out of it all the time. When I was awake, I could access the systems of that strange machine through the hornring they put on me. Then, when I saw the diagrams of our battle earlier, an idea struck me, and I came here to discuss it with you.”, she elaborated with a wide grin on her face. I could not help but think that her smile was fake, and that there was something that bothered her a great deal. In our current situation however, I had no time to play therapist for her, as much as I wanted to console her.

“So? I mean it's news to me that you could access a Dxs systems from the battery compartment, but I don't see how that could help us.”

“You really don't see it?”, her smile faded slightly.

“To be honest, no I don't. Technical stuff like that is Franks thing, not mine.”

“Oh....”, she let her head droop a little, then perked up again so suddenly that she almost stabbed me with her horn.

“It's really easy you know! I saw the recording of the battle and the sensor data. All damages to this ship were caused after our shields failed. To get them back up, Luna decided to reroute power from the weapons to the shield generators. This was the reason we were unable to cause more damage on the enemy ships! I have talked to the Unicorns who power the ship right now. They say that their output during the battle was around twenty Bells. That is quite a strain for a Unicorn, but for an Alicorn, that is basically nothing! You have ten Unicorns powering this ship, which means you have a maximum output of two hundred Bells. What if I told you that I alone am capable of three hundred? Celestia can even manage over a thousand! What I am trying to say is this: If you hook Celestia and me up to this ship, and give us access to it's systems, then we can power it with ease and reroute our power much faster then anypony that works on a terminal. The reaction time of the ship would fasten considerably, while the output of the weapons and shields would be increased by several times! Think about it..... Ehm Selina?”

Cadence trailed off, because my mouth was standing open as the possibilities ran through my head. If we could increase the output of the crucial systems, then we might not have to run. It took a moment, before I shook my head and looked over to one of the techs.

“Hey, you! Yes you there. Come here a second, I gotta talk to you!”, I called out to the young man, who complied with my demand.

“Yes ma'am? What can I help you with? I don't want to sound rude, but I got to get back to work if we want to increase the engine output by two percent, like you ordered.”, he said, whiping sweat from his brow with he back of his hand.

“No need for that anymore. Tell me, what is the maximum capacity of this ships systems? How much magical energy can run through the circuits, before it blows up?”

“Ehm... that's a tricky question Commander. In theory, there is no limit. There is a regulation device in each of the crucial systems, that would absorb all the energy that the system in question can not handle. But this vessel has been constructed with much higher output in mind then what we currently have, so I can only assume that it is about three thousand to three thousand five hundred Bells. Why do you ask?”, he explained, scratching his arms as he did so.

“Tell your team to stop what they are doing right now. I need you to throw together a neural interface for the navigational systems, weapon systems and the shields. Think you can do that?”

“I... I think so, but why...?”

“Don't ask silly questions, get to work. I need both of the interfaces on the bridge. I also want to to install two of those hornrings there, like the ones in the generator room.”

“But... ma'am... The interfaces are portable to begin with, but the charging devices.... We would have to draw cables throughout half of the ship!”, he protested.

“Then what are you waiting for? GET TO IT PRIVATE! DOUBLE TIME!”, I ordered more harshly then I had intended, which made Cadence flinch. The Private saluted, and informed me to expect the work to be done in approximately two hours, before he ran off to gather his team.

“Did you really have to shout at him? He just wanted to help it seems....”, Cadence asked, almost timidly.

“I'm sorry Cadence, I have noticed that you Ponies handle military matters differently then we do, but believe me this is normal for us. Right now, he is my subordinate, and he was arguing with me on a direct order. I had to show him his place, or it would undermine my authority. Don't think for a second however, that I enjoy this.”, I clarified.

“Well... if you say so... We... We should go and talk to Celestia about this. If she is unwilling to do it, then all of this would be pointless.”

“What about Luna? If Celestia refuses, she could...”, but Cadence shook her head.

“Luna and I are not magically compatible. It has to be Celestia.”

“Mhhmmm... OK.... Even though I would prefer to avoid her right now.... I guess I have no other choice. Where is she?”, I asked, putting my clipboard on a nearby table.

“In Twilights quarters. She's unwilling to leave her side.”, Cadence said, as we started walking.

“How is Twilight? Will she be alright?”, I asked, my concern obvious in my voice. Over all that had happened up until now, I had totally forgotten about the purple Alicorn.

“She will recover, but not fully. The bullet ripped her right lung apart, but didn't go much further then that. She will be a little short breathed in the future, but our healers were able to heal the internal and external injuries pretty well. All she needs now is rest.”, Cadence explained, with a smile on her face. I could tell that she was relieved that Twilight would be alright, and then it hit me. Finally I knew what was bothering her, and it hit me like a hammer-blow.

“I am sorry for your loss.”, I murmured as we stepped into the elevator. Her ears perked up, and she looked at me, with a confused expression on her face.

“Your husband... Shining Armor.... I am sorry for your loss.”, I clarified as the doors closed.

“Thank you....”, she said in a low voice, before starting to cry. We did not speak another word on our way to Twilights quarters, but I embraced her neck to give her at least some comfort.

*~*~*~*~*

“You want to do what?”, Celestia screamed in my face, trying to free herself from Luna, who was doing her best to hold her sister down.

“I want to attack the mother-ship. With your help, we increase our output enough to have a chance. If you don't help us, then we will be caught sooner or later. Sooner then later probably. This is your chance to save what is left of Ponykind, Celestia. You will control the offensive and defensive systems of this ship. Think about it. You can unleash all your rage upon our enemies.”, I explained for what felt like the hundredth time.

“You are a bloodthirsty beast, just like the rest of your kind! You killed one of my little Ponies! How can I trust you!”, the Princess of the sun spat into my face as she finished. The room went silent, except for Celestias continued raging, as everypony in attendance gasped.

For a moment, I just stood there, shocked at her reaction. Then anger grabbed hold of me once again, and Luna did not have to hold Celestia down anymore, since I charged her. Stunned at my outburst Celestia did not react as I grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against a nearby wall.

“YOU IDIOT! THIS IS OUR ONLY CHANCE, DON'T YOU SEE THAT? WE CAN NOT BEAT THEM IN AN OPEN BATTLE, AND WE CAN NOT RUN FOREVER! THEY WILL CATCH UP WITH US, IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, AND AS SOON AS THE HUMAN FLEET IS OPERATIONAL AGAIN, THEY WILL ALSO HUNT US! TAKING OUT THE MOTHERSHIP, AND THEREFOR DEMONSTRATING THAT WE ARE A FORCE TO BE REOCKNED WITH, IS OUR ONLY CHANCE TO DRIVE THEM AWAY! DON'T YOU GET THAT YOU FOOLISH MULE!”, I screamed in her face as tears ran down my cheeks.

I could understand why Celestia distrusted me. Humanity had done nothing but stab her in the back. My fellow humans had killed her Ponies, and injured her. Her kingdom lay in ruins, because of humanity, but she HAD to understand that this was maybe our last chance to turn the tables. Frank had said that it would take a week at maximum for the other human ships to be operational again, and only a few hours for the battleships we incapacitated.

I do not know what made her do it, but suddenly Twilight spoke up. Her voice was weak, and her breaths labored, but she sat upright nonetheless.

“I say we do it.”, she panted.

“Twilight! No, you should rest.”, Celestia shouted, trying to wriggle out of my grasp. She was strong, but I held onto her as firmly as I could without actually chocking her.

“I second that notion.”, Cadence suddenly interjected.

“So do I.”, Luna agreed.

“Have you all gone insane? We have a ship! We can flee Equestria! We can find a new world!”, Celestia tried to argue as I let go of her.

“And then what? They will go after you, no matter where you go. They want your power Celestia, and they want Luna. No matter where you flee to, they will hunt you. No matter how much you try to negotiate with them, they will not stop until they have all of you in their custody.”, I said coldly.

Celestia looked up at me, with tears in her eyes. Her eyes darted between Luna, Twilight, Cadence and me. She knew she was overruled, and didn't like it. She knew I was right, and liked that fact even less.

“Alright.... I will do it....”, she sighed, and slumped to the floor. I tried to put my hand on her shoulder, but she slapped it away.

*~*~*~*~*

We were ready for the battle only a few hours after the confrontation with Celestia. I had asked her if she would mind if I created an audio-log on the ships mainframe. She gave me permission to do so, and I started to record all the things I had lived through up to that point.

I would continue to send audio files to the mainframe, using my personal Tablet that Frank gave me.

The plan was, to encounter the mother-ship over Horseshoe-bay, in case it would crash or explode. That way Ponies that were on the run, and may be in the area, would not be harmed. Cadence, who had already taken over the energy supply for the engines and the navigational control, laid in a course. We would not ambush them, but wait for them, to fight them on our own terms.

Even some of the humans that now sat in the control room marveled at the maneuvers that the Princess pulled off. The formerly bulky ship suddenly cut through the sky like a Pegasus, doing rolls and sudden turns as it went. I could tell that the pink Alicorn was trying out the abilities of the ship, and smiled. The former Navigators had controlled the ship via terminals. Using a neural interface certainly gave us an additional advantage in maneuverability.

The speeds Cadence was able to reach, were nothing to sneeze at either. Our former maximum had been a little over 400 miles per hour. It surprised even me, when we broke the sound-barrier.....

Celestias contribution made the human technicians shake their heads in defeat. They had tried so hard to optimize the ships output for this upcoming battle, but her output was off the scale. All terminals gave error warnings, since they could not measure her power. It made me wonder how these alien and human alliance had been able to bring Equestria to it's knees in the first place.

We reached Horseshoe-bay only minutes after Cadence had laid in a course, and our opponent did not keep us waiting for very long. The massive structure of the mother-ship crawled over the horizon, and I knew there would be no time for talking now. The fight would begin soon. I could see in everyponies eyes, as well as in the eyes of each and every human who had agreed to help us. If this went south, if the mother-ship was stronger then we expected, if the patch up job the techs had done with the power-lines to the bridge failed or if the alien ships were ready earlier then we expected, then this would surely be our last battle, and we all knew it.