Crossroads

Chapter 8: Crusaders

Razzcat waited for death as the six hunters barreled out the Covenant dig site towards him. All six of their shields were raised high in preparation to crush him to a bloody smear. He knew he couldn’t escape, they were moving at speeds unimaginable for creatures of their size.

Razzcat knew a lone Hunter pair was bad, but three pairs… how would the rest of the ground troops alone stand up to that kind of armor?His question was answered when the high-pitch whine of Vulture Droids screamed overhead, strafing the six armored juggernauts with missiles and blowing orange chunks of the squishy eelworms that populated the inside of the armor everywhere.Looking high, Razzcat spotted the droid battlecruiser hanging over the city, Vulture Droids swarming like gnats against the Banshees now in the air from landing pads scattered across the cityscape.‘Well damn, General Grievous kept his word,’ Razzcat thought as he returned to firing into the many Grunts swarming from the mouth of the cave. His blaster rifle sent hot hellfire towards potentially explosive opponents. The explosiveness of the methane the Grunts breathed allowed Razzcat and his fellow Clone Troopers to tear through the small army with little use of ammo.A loud bang cracked the air, and Razzcat looked up. The prow mounted cannon of the battlecruiser was tearing into the shield of a smaller Covenant ship that had arrived over the battlefield. Every time the Covenant ship was hit, a blue sheen would ripple like a pond from the sight of the impact.“Get your fucking head out of your ass and move it!” Razzcat heard an annoying and youthful voice command. Looking back to the ground, he spotted one of the Equestrian soldiers dressed in tan and black armor. The earth pony mare was soft pink with a purple and white tail. Her long, purple and white hair stuck out underneath her helmet which was decorated with a cartoonish painting of a grey crown.“Yes, ma’am!” Razzcat addressed the mare as she fired an Equestrian assault rifle into the Grunts. She was most likely the one in charge of the Equestrian bomb carrying squad that came down in one of the UNSC’s Pelicans.“You will address me with as much respect as you give a male, soldier!”“Sorry, my mistake, sir!” He corrected.As Razzcat faced the near endless swarm, he asked, “And you are?”The mare ducked under an orb of green plasma before saying, “Sergeant Diamond Tiara.”Razzcat and Diamond dove behind the armor plating that remained of the Scarab as over a hundred Clones and Marines pushed forward towards the mouth of the cave. Then the mass of troops found their own cover as Vulture Droids strafed the near endless sea of Grunts with red blaster fire.Razzcat looked over to Diamond, “Aren't you a little young to be fighting?”Diamond laughed as she lobbed a frag grenade towards the mouth of the cave and into a swarm of Grunts that were missed by the woefully inaccurate Vulture Droids. She then said with a light chuckle as she reloaded her rifle, “Probably. But as someone with leadership as their cutie mark, I get rank as well as a squad, which gets me into situations like these.”As she said that, Diamond waved the bomb carriers over. The four bomb carriers made their way to her, and one, a male earth pony, complained, “Why did Twilight make this thing a four pony job?”Diamond rolled her eyes, “Probably because the egghead wants to promote teamwork or some shit.”The nervous laughs from the bomb carriers told Razzcat the joke had helped lighten up the fact that a seemingly endless amount of Grunts were swarming out the cave.Peeking around a corner, Razzcat noticed something. As a clone, he had been trained since coming out the growth tube to fight and notice things on the battlefield. One such thing was the slight shimmer of air from stealth armor.“We have active camo Elites, watch your flanks!” Razzcat said over the UNSC/Republic com channel.“This day just keeps getting better and better,” Diamond Tiara snarked sarcastically as she overheard the announcement.

<~Meanwhile in Ralneigh, Babs’ PoV~>

I stared at the new leg fixed perfectly to the stub of my old one. The feeling of the rubberized cup and the heavy duty straps on my fur were the only thing that told me that the purple and blue hunk of metal was fake. The leg felt so real due to the enchantments and sensors to the point it was like the leg was made for me.Slipping my pants back on, I made sure to cover the false appendage.Looking to Applebloom, I chuckled, “So where to now?”“To my place obviously,” Applebloom said with a roll of her eyes, standing in front of me, “Scoots and Sweetie will be glad to see that you’re awake again.”

<~Manehattan~>

Razzcat and Diamond walked down the slope of the cave towards a large door of Covenant design; it was obvious, due to the purple and dull grey colors. The lights that were normally bright blue were now a dull blood red.At least forty Clones were packed in a formation, covering the door. Most were hugged against the wall of the cave, ready to charge in when the door opened, but there was a line of Clones on a knee pointing at the door, with a line standing behind them, aiming at the door as well.A purple holographic terminal beside the door provided the only means of opening it. Cap, the Clone Commander in charge, ordered a Clone with a toolkit on his back to inspect the terminal. As soon as the clone beared the doors opened without him pressing a single button.“Covenant are lettin’ us in?” The Clone Engineer asked. The Clones at the door were too surprised by the door opening for them to rush in.Burning blue orbs, too many to count, swarmed out the open door, right into the waiting Clones.Cap, Razzcat, and the others had to shield their eyes from the blue fireballs and explosions. When the flash and smoke subsided, there was only a crater filled with dismembered body parts, and shattered Clone armor.Razzcat heard a loud thump to his left side. It was Diamond Tiara, a jagged shard of white Clone armor jutting from her chest plate, but she wasn’t bleeding.Her eyes stared at his emotionless T-shaped visor with a look of panic. She was hyperventilating and obviously in shock.While Razzcat was looking at Diamond, a blue plasma bolt hit him in the helmet.Diamond snapped out of her trance when Razzcat flopped over, dead; the side of his helmet melted clean through by a lucky shot.She quickly blamed herself for his death. If she hadn’t been knocked down, Razzcat would still be alive.She drew her sidearm as blue blaster fire from the remaining Clones further up the slope fired towards the door. Diamond Tiara fired with them, the death of Razzcat still on her mind. She managed to take out the shield of the Elite responsible for Razzcat’s death, right before her last bullet in that magazine ripped off the Elite’s lower left mandible, making the toothy appendage spill purple blood as it fell.Looking to the bomb carriers, all she had time to see was the left forward carrier be blown in half from the waistline in a shower of red and pink, the right forward carrier caught in the blast.As pink shards embedded themselves into her arms, legs, and stomach, she yelled with unbridled fury, “Die, you squidhead Covie bastards!” Pain didn’t register to the dying filly.Then two of the pink crystal shards embedded in her left leg was struck by a third.Diamond’s life flashed before her eyes as the crystal shards hummed with energy and began to glow bright pink, but at a slow pace. Of all the things Diamond could have said then - any number of creative vulgarities - all she did was mutter solemnly, “Sorry, Cutie Mark Crusaders.”The crystals finally exploded but to Diamond’s surprise, she was still alive, but being dragged by the two remaining bomb carriers out of the cave.Before blood loss, pain, and shock rendered her world into the inky black of unconsciousness, she heard one of the carriers yell to the Clones, “Bomb’s armed, time to leave!”

<~Ralneigh, Babs PoV~>

Applebloom and I walked for what seemed like a silent thirty minutes - but was more like twenty. The streets were now void of both civilians and soldiers after the Frozen Earth had returned in flames from Manehattan. The absence of life in the streets made me feel strange, as if I was back in the accursed city of Manehatten.And, of course, the image was punctuated by the only sounds around being mine and Applebloom’s hoofsteps. My prosthetic leg’s hoof made a soft clink of metal on pavement, but was almost muted. I also had to listen closely to hear the soft whine of gears bending the faux joints.“Why is my prosthetic leg so quiet?” I finally asked, breaking our silence as I looked over to Applebloom. I didn’t even know why we were silent in the first place.She gave a subdued laugh, “The Covenant alloy is surprisingly easy for Unicorns to enchant. So I had the Unicorns under me put a muffle spell on it. I couldn’t have future recipients have one more thing to remind them they’re missing a limb.”“Oh,” I said, wondering how loud my hoof would be without the enchantment, “It certainly works for me. With all the enchantments, I actually feel like I have my leg back.” It was true, the contraption of Covenant and arcane technology felt near realistic. Then I had a new question, “Who else has new legs like these? And why doesn’t Rainbow have one?”She sighed, “Only around fifteen ponies so far. They take a while to make. As for Rainbow Dash, there wasn't anything to attach the prosthetic to. Her entire left leg is missing.”I should have guessed that. I shifted my thoughts to why only fifteen ponies had received new legs, “So what was with the small stockpile back at the labs? Did I take someone else’s leg from them!?”I was obviously worried that I had taken somepony else’s leg - thus their only way to walk around - from them. Sure it was nice being able to walk right again, but I couldn’t be a selfish ass. After my problem with bullying Applebloom and the other CMCs, I didn’t like being uncaring to others.Applebloom dispelled my fears by saying, “No, you didn’t. You see, not many ponies want a leg made of Covenant metal with the power core of a plasma pistol powerin’ it.”I could see where there was a problem. I hoped my leg didn’t spontaneously explode on me.Applebloom stopped - causing me to stop - and stared at an apartment complex’s door. She let out a confused groan, mumbling, “We’re here already?”Looking at the building the door was attached to, I noticed it was made of red brick and was two stories tall. The bottom floor had nothing but multiple, evenly-spaced doors and windows; but the second floor had a walkway accessed by a spiraling set of concrete and brick steps. The balcony/walkway on the second story also had even spaced doors, and brass railing to keep ponies - or whatever the occupants of the apartments were - from falling off the walkway, which hung over the doors of the bottom floor like a roof.“Ground floor, third door from the left side,” Applebloom said as we walked towards said door.When we reached it, Applebloom reached into one of her armor’s many pockets to retrieve a small brass key. She then put the key it in the lock, turned it, opened the door, and ushered me inside with the wave of a hand.Two steps inside the apartment, I was nearly bowled over by a white Unicorn in UNSC armor and helmet while being pulled into a hug that was way too tight.“I’m glad you’re okay Babs!” I blushed from the awkward closeness I was pulled into and tried to push her away. It was a practice in futility; Sweetie had an iron grip around me.Applebloom closed the door then let out a loud, frustrated groan, “Let ‘er go, Sweetie Belle!” The bone-shattering hug relented with an ‘awww’ from Sweetie Belle.Taking a quick look around, I saw the apartment’s hallway walls were lime green, and the single window by the door was framed with white wood.Sweetie Belle piped up, her thirteen year old voice not so squeaky anymore, “Come on in, I’ll give you the tour.”What followed was a tour of a small four room apartment - five if you count the hallway. The main room which connected to the lone bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen, had red carpeting, the same lime green walls of the hallway with no decorations, a couch with a table in front of it, and a T.V.The table had an assortment of junk strewn about on it such as drink cans and food wrappers, but what caught my eye was the UNSC magnum pistol engraved with a an embossed microphone on the grip. Sweetie’s cutie mark I guessed.“Like my gun? I’ve managed to kill five Elites with it so far. The recoil on that thing is crazy,” she finished with a slight squeak of her voice.I just knew from experience, and just hummed out ‘mm-hmm’ and nodded my head.Next was the kitchen dining area combo with linoleum flooring. The area contained a rather clean wooden table with four wooden chairs. As well as a tall white refrigerator with its back against the wall, the white stove/oven to the left of it and to the right was a sink with a plastic dish drainer filled with clean dishes.“Nice place you have here,” I commented as Sweetie, Applebloom, and I walked towards another room.“You haven’t seen it all yet. Oh, by the way, through that door is the bathroom. No need to give you a tour of it,” Sweetie chuckled out while pointing with her left hand’s thumb.That was fine with me.Next, we went into the bedroom with pale-green walls and gray carpet. It was pretty bare, containing only a small closet with white wooden doors and two bunkbeds. The two bunkbeds made a total of four sleeping areas, and they all were clearly in use from the wrinkled sheets. Then I finally noticed Scootaloo was sleeping under a light blue cover in the bottom left bunk.I looked to my tour guide – who should be fired due to not narrating the tour – as she smiled mischievously at the sleeping form of Scootaloo. Sweetie took one big breath of air, and yelled, “Wake up!”The orange filly awoke with a jump and yelp as a blue blaster bolt fired from a pistol in Scootaloo’s right hand. Sweetie and I jumped as it missed us by a mile to harmlessly strike the room door. The single blue bolt left a wicked black mark burned into the wood.I felt the temperature in the room increase drastically and I could practically hear steam coming out cousin Applebloom’s ears, “Damnit Scoots, Ah told you ta’ never sleep with yer guns!”Scootaloo replaced her pistol in its holster and ran her left hand through her fuschia hair. All the while her orange face turned bright red, “It wouldn’t be a problem if the aliens weren’t here and if psycho bitch didn’t have a death wish!”Sweetie seemed unfazed by the name calling as she stuck her tongue out.“Fuuuck you, Sweetie,” Scootaloo griped. It became apparent Scootaloo wasn’t one that someone could wake up with a prank and not get cussed out.“Love you too,” Sweetie said giggling. After she said that, Scootaloo actually put forth the effort to get out of bed and ran over to Sweetie. With one quick motion she pulled Sweetie into a headlock.I was actually surprised Scootaloo slept in full body armor. It looked like clone armor, but was painted to look grayish silver with dark blue trim. The armor plates themselves were attached to a light black bodysuit. She also had two, brown leather holsters on a brown colored utility belt. She even had dark-grey and silver-grey leg armor accented with blue, as well as gloves the same shade of black as the bodysuit.As Scootaloo held Sweetie in the headlock, Scootaloo asked, “Oh really? You think I’m into mares now, huh?”Sweetie did her best to struggle out the headlock as Applebloom and I watched. Finally, after futilely struggling, she said, “No, not really,” but her chin was caught by the bend of Scootaloo’s elbow so it came out more ‘mm, mot ally.’“Thought so,” Scootaloo said as she released the headlock and kicked Sweetie’s legs from under her. That caused Sweetie fall backwards onto the grey carpet with a loud thud, hitting her head, but luckily the helmet absorbed the blow.The end result from that dirty blow was for Sweetie to pull Scootaloo to the floor by her legs and start rolling around, swinging obviously held-back punches. Since Applebloom didn’t make a move to interrupt, I was sure this was a common thing between the two girls. Thus, I watched the catfight with a large grin on my face, wondering who would be the winner.A question came to my mind for honestly no real reason. I leaned close to Applebloom as Sweetie and Scootaloo tussled on the floor between the two bunkbeds and asked, “Are those two… you know… together?” I settled with that wording since I didn’t know a polite euphemism for mares that were into mares.She made a motion with her hands while shaking her head, “Nope. Button Mash is too busy with Sweetie every other night for her to be queer. The fact that she gets laid makes Scoots madder than Tartarus. As for Scoots, she claims she’s not, but we’re not sure if her barn door swings both ways.”Figured.Then the fact she nearly spelled out that Button Mash and Sweetie Belle have sex, I said with concerned tone, “But you three are only thirteen.” Which, the legal age of consent for citizens of Equestria is fourteen, but still, Sweetie was still too young in my opinion.Applebloom took on a low, near sad sounding, tone, “Who really gives a damn anymore? We all have our ways of distracting us from the war. And for Sweetie, it’s Button.”I was going to ask how she found out about Sweetie and Button, and what her distraction was, but the rapid uttering if the single word ‘Uncle’ drew my attention back to the floor. There Scootaloo had Sweetie pinned to the ground while sitting on her chest. Scootaloo was straddling Sweetie’s body as she pinned Sweetie’s arms to the floor, which allowed Sweetie to freely kick her legs wildly, but to no avail.“Uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle!” Sweetie yelled over and over, thrashing her head from side to side. Then I saw the long line of snotty drool slowly falling from Scootaloo’s lips towards Sweetie’s face. Just as the strand reached the point of nearly breaking and falling onto Sweetie’s face, Scootaloo sucked the spit and snot back into her mouth, right before letting it slowly fall again.I grimaced; that was way beyond gross.“Scoots, I think she’s had enough,” Applebloom finally said to stop the fight.Scootaloo sucked up the drool again and swallowed, “Aw man, we were just having a bit of fun.”Sweetie groaned, tried to move her arms while bucking her legs, “No we weren’t, you filly-fooling dyke!”Applebloom rolled her eyes. The next words to pass her lips were saturated with sarcasm, “Another prime example of why my hair is going grey at thirteen.”Meanwhile, the orange fur on Scootaloo’s face turned tomato red as she ignored Applebloom’s comment, “What did you just call me!?”Sweetie smiled wickedly, obviously knowing she was getting under Scootaloo’s skin, “Fillyfooler, dyke, lesbian, you get the general idea.”Scootaloo punched Sweetie in the face. Not a friendly tussle punch, but a full-out, rage fueled blow. Seeing the play fight had turned real, Applebloom rushed to pull Scootaloo off of Sweetie Belle. As she did so, Scootaloo screamed, “I’m straight, dammit!”Sweetie rolled and got up while clutching her bleeding nose, “Could’ve fooled me from the way you were straddling me and holding me down.” Sweetie jerked her hand and I heard a pop.Did Sweetie just set her own broken nose? Or more importantly, did she even feel any pain?Looking to Scootaloo, I saw her face turn from angry red too embarrassed pink as she quit struggling against Applebloom’s hold. “Sorry for breaking your nose Sweetie,” Scootaloo full-heartedly apologized, “But you kinda asked for it.”They got over it that fast?Sweetie removed her blood stained white furred hand and wiped it on her UNSC armor, leaving a wet, crimson stain “It’s nothing. What’s a friendly fight between friends that results in me finding out you’re gay?”When Scootaloo tensed up for another swing, I decided to add my input. Groaning loudly I said, “Oh, for the love of the Gods, just kiss and make up already.”Scootaloo turned her head and looked at me up and down like I was a ghost before blurting out, “Babs, what the fuck happened to your hoof!?” Apparently she didn’t know I had lost my leg.In the most sarcastic and smartass of a tone as I could muster, I replied, “Tis but a scratch.”“Just a scratch!? Your hoof is purple and made of metal.” She did a double take; processing the fact I said it was just a scratch, along with the fact my hoof was now made of metal. Her face twisted into a frown as her ears splayed back, “Shit... I’ve been a total asshole, haven’t I?”Sweetie decided to be evil again, “No, you haven’t been a total asshole. You are a total asshole.”That perked Scootaloo’s ears up. “Can I please shoot her, like I don’t know, now maybe? I won’t kill her, just nick her a little.”Sweetie laughed, “Then you’ll have to deal with Button, and I’m sure he would make you pay for hurting me.”“At what point did the fillies I know get replaced by you two?” I asked, noticing their far from normal behavior.Scootaloo shrugged, “Probably the point where aliens fucked us over.”We all said in unison, “Probably,” then there was a silent moment between us before there was a rapid knocking at the door.“I’ll get it,” Sweetie said. Blood still stained her snow white fur a wicked crimson as she made for the door.We all heard a low, masculine voice yell from the door, “Sweetie, you got into another scrap with Scootaloo, didn’t ya?” That was followed by the sound of two pairs of hooves clopping down the hall, along with a pair of human feet.An all too familiar sensation tingled in the back of my mind as Sweetie entered first, followed by Big Macintosh and General Obi-Wan Kenobi. The latter still had a faint black ring over his left eye from a painful Macintosh right-hook.“General,” I addressed, standing straight like a soldier in his presence.Scootaloo looked confused as she asked, “General?”That caused Obi-Wan to look at Scootaloo, and I felt a subtle change in the air around him. If I could place the feeling radiating off of him, it would be… concern? Yeah, it definitely was the grating feeling of concern.Knowing that this ‘Force’ power nonsense was connected to him, I didn’t really feel all that surprised when I sensed his trouble, “Something bothering you Kenobi?” I asked sincerely. And from the curiosity as to why his mood changed when he saw Scootaloo.“Yes, actually there is something. Who is your friend in repainted Clone armor?” Kenobi asked.“I’m Scootaloo, but you can call me Scoots.” Scootaloo said, outstretching her hand for a shake. As a Pegasus, she was only around five and-a-half hooves tall, but that was the average height of full grown human males.The human returned the shake, “And you may call me Kenobi. Pardon me not giving your question a direct answer, Babs,” He said addressing me before refocusing on Scootaloo, “but I have to ask if you have a helmet?”Scootaloo nodded and dove under her bunk. She pulled out a hooflocker, and opened it to retrieve two things. One was a strange backpack with aerodynamic cones and exhaust nozzles, while the other thing was a helmet she slipped over her head.The helmet was a Clone’s, but painted silver-grey and dark blue. It was also decorated with red and black markings. One such marking was over where each eye would be; a pitch-black triangle with a red slash running parallel with the forty-five degree slope. The red slashes kept running on past the triangles until they nearly met each other to make a ‘V’ shape.“So, the Clones let you dress up like a Mandalorian warrior,” he cupped his chin in his left hand, “Strange. What did you do to earn that much respect from them?”She laughed, but Sweetie Belle answered, “She had a death wish, jumped off a roof and used her underdeveloped wings as a glider to sail over a pack of Brutes. As she did that, she dropped a plasma grenade into the middle of the pack, saving three squads of Clones who already had injured and dead. They gave her the armor later on, but due to our legs bending differently than humans the leg portion of the armor came from some rather short Elite we found. Applebloom washed, repaired, and repainted it all to the Clone’s specifications.”Scootaloo then added, “You’re wrong, it was five squads. Also I used four plasma grenades, and a frag for good measure.”Kenobi seemed somewhat amused by the story before saying, “Now for Babs’ question as to what was wrong. Every time I have met someone in armor like that, they tried to kill me. The Deathwatch has almost succeeded several times as well.”I then felt another emotion wash over him. I could swear it was heartache and loneliness.I dared not press the matter and decided on asking, “So why are you here? And how did you find me?”Big Macintosh and Obi-Wan chuckled, and I felt Obi-Wan’s calming and leader-like atmosphere return as he spoke, “After deciding that Macintosh had spent enough time in confinement, I worked with Princess Twilight to obtain him an official pardon. We checked at the hospital, then Applebloom’s place of work, and finally we arrived here to find you.”“Oh, is this about the, ‘I’m a Jedi’ thing?” Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo gave me a mixture of strange and concerned looks.“Actually, you’re Force sensitive, but yes. On the walk from the jail where Macintosh was held, I talked to him about your unique gift. With his permission and your agreement to come with me, I would like for you to meet someone who could quite possibly change your life forever.”“And that is?” I asked curtly.He stood with his hands behind his armored robes and muttered two words, “Master Yoda.”