Year 2028
Defense department, Cloudstale.
"Hey Rain, come here and look at this"
A gray maned unicorn wearing a standard white laboratory coat called his friend, pointing at some papers lying on the table where he was sitting.
"What is it, Pearl? Another report?"
"Yeah, it's from the Canterlot's magic department, looks like they have detected something strange coming from the Ghastly Gorge."
"Ghastly Gorge, ehh? Nasty place, I hope they won't send us to investigate it... "
"I don't want to dissapoint you, but actually we are already assigned to investigation. We are moving out tommorow, along with an armed escort group."
"Daamn, why we always have to do the worst job?"
"We are field scientists after all, Rain."
Rain only frowned in response, making his way to his quarters. He wanted to get some rest until tommorow mission.
"Damn, Ghastly Gorge is the most unfriendly place in the whole Equestria, and now they want to send us on a pointless investigation just because some eggheads from Canterlot said so?" He thought to himself while trying to sleep, but to no avail.
Meanwhile at the Wonderbolt headquarters
"Blaze, report to me immediately!" An imperative voice came from Spitfire's office, calling one of her subordinates.
"Yes, captain?"
"Tell your team to get ready for tommorow, you will lead an escort to the Ghastly Gorge, you will go to the depot near Ponyville, right here" She pointed a spot on a map "And meet with two scientist there,Your job is to protect them while they'll be doing their research on some kind of anomalies in the Ghastly Gorge."
"An escort, sir? I know it's Ghastly Gorge, but why send the whole squad? What are we expecting to see there?
"I have some bad fellings about these "researches", better be prepared for everything, understood?"
"Yes sir!"
Blaze walked out of her captain office, and went towards her men's barracks to inform them about their new mission. She took a route leading through training grounds just to see how new recruits were dealing with their training. Earth ponies were running through obstacles, pegasi were practicing flying maneuvers, and unicorns were shooting different targets at the range.
Training methods and weaponry has changed a lot in a very short time, even during these times of peace, armed forces are always needed for expeditions, in case of any major conflict, or just to keep peace.
"Listen up, squad!" Blaze shouted, walking towards group of ponies under her command. "I want to see you all fully geared up tommorow at 6:00 am"
"Are we going on a mission?" A short maned red stallion asked, just before Blaze wanted to explain the details, which probably wasn't a smart idea.
"No Psycho, we're going on a damn picnic! Now shut up and let me explain! Our job is to escort some scientists to the Ghastly Gorge and protect them, so they can do their research. We don't know what it's all about, but it's Ghastly Gorge after all, so be prepared, understood?"
"Yes sir!" A group of 6 ponies responded with choir.
"Dismissed!" Blaze shouted once more, and went towards her quarters to prepare for her mission as well. Her squad consisted of two earth ponies, two unicorns and two pegasi, it has been one year now since they served under Blaze's command. She knew her team well, even if this is just an escort mission, they'll do their best to fulfil their job.
The next day
"Hey Rain, are you in there? We need to meet with our escort team already, so hurry up"
"Yeah, give me a sec, just need to prepare"
After a while door has opened, and Rain came out of his room, ready to move out.
"Ok, let's get it over with" Rain said half-hearted while making their way to the meeting point.
When they both arrived, the escort team was already waiting, a group of six soldiers and their commander. They were wearing a standard combat-purpose uniforms and a G63 C assault rifles. Two of them were also carrying a N60 machineguns.
"Oh great, here's our escort team, a group of brainless soldiers with big guns" Rain frowned at sight of theirs team, still angry about his mission.
"You should be more polite, Rain. After all, these soldiers are risking their lives to give you protection." Pearl tried to change his friend's attitude, but he just couldn't help about that. Neither of them were happy about their mission.
"Hello there, commander. Do you lead our escort team to the Ghastly Gorge?" Pearl asked walking towards Blaze.
"Yes doc, we are your escort team, nickname Viper, we're ready to move out on your sign." Blaze responded with mechanical tone.
"Good, let's move out already, I think we all want to get it over with"
"Allright, you two get in the second humvee" Blaze said pointing towards two vechicles standing near.
"You heard guys, we're moving out!" The group quickly got to their positions after she gave a command, and soon they hit the road.
The landscape was pretty nice for the first 40 minutes, but then it started to get foggy, the atmosphere was getting heavy.
They were getting close to the Ghastly Gorge. Another 25 minutes passed untill they stopped on a stony surface, surrounded by thick fog.
"Allright, from now on, we have to go on hooves, because it's dangerous to drive further, we'll get you as close as possible, remember to stay close." Blaze informed two scientists sitting on the back of their vechicle, and got out of it.
"Can it get worse? Now we have to walk, and we can't even see anything beyond 8 metres, i just hope there won't be any more surprises..." Rain started to grumble again, and Pearl was getting annoyed.
"Moving to the target location, stay tight squad, visibility is limited."
They started to walk closer to their point, Rain and Pearl were located in the center of their formation.
"Hey Pearl, did they mention what exactly we're looking for? I mean, we're walking for some time now and we haven't ran across anything unusual"
"Well, the report was very unclear, they weren't sure what to expect as well, but mentioned something about "the inside of Ghastly Gorge", so I think we'll have to find a way down there"
"Oh great, so we'll go all the way down to the bottom of hell and we don't even know what we're looking for? It's getting ridiculous"
"Calm down dude, I'm sure we'll know when we run across it.
Finally, they arrived where they were supposed to descend into the Ghastly Gorge.
"Team, have your eyes peeled! We don't know what we may find down there." Blaze warned hear squad, taking first step down the path.
The fog seemed to thicken even more as they walked down, making it hard to navigate. Once they got to the bottom, the search has begun.
They were walking around for some time and yet they didn't found anything special.
"We're wandering here for like an hour, and still no sign of anything!" Rain got angry because of their lack of progress.
"Well, nobody said we'll find anything in here, thats why they sent us to investigate it, if we won't find anything, then we'll just-"
*SMACK*
"YYYEEEWW, what the heck is... this?" Rain stepped in a pink grease-like substance, immediately taking his hoof out of it and wiping it on the nearest rock.
"Well, looks like some kind of a pink goo." Pearl leaned close to it, examining it carefully.
"I don't think I've ever seen that substance, I'll take a sample of it, we have to find out where it came from. Let's go in that direction further, we may find something else."
As they followed the path, they noticed some more of the pink goo. Soon, it was almost everywhere, it covered walls, rocks and ground.
"H-hey, I don't like it, this pink shit is everywhere, It makes me feel sick."
"Yeah, me too. I don't think we'll find anything else, let's get few more samples and get out of here." Even Pearl gave up his enthusiasm and just wanted to go back.
"Commander, I think we have enough for now, let's get back to-" Pearl's sentence was cut when one of the soldiers shouted.
"Movement, on the left!" Everyone turned to that direction, just to see a strange figure in the fog, which vanished immediately.
"It's gone! Squad, be careful! Weapons at the ready!"
"Ehmm, what was that, commander?"
"Stay close doc, looks like we aren't alone here, we'll get you both out of here."
Blaze ordered to get into formation, and they started to slowly go back to where they came from. As they moved, more figures could be seen in the fog, dissapearing just after they show.
"Flame, use that damn thermovision and see if you can tell if there's something in the fog!"
"Roger that" A dark maned pegasus took her thermovision goggles on her eyes. "Two figures on the left, one on the right, they're moving fast, and-... Something is coming from the front!"
Before anypony could react, an extremly fast moving creature jumped into the air and knocked Flame down, then it landed on the other side of their formation.
"OPEN FIRE!!!" A long burst went where the creature was standing, a sound of bullets hitting something metallic, followed by a wild roar could be heard, but somehow it managed to jump away and hide in the fog.
"Flame! You okay?" One of the soldiers came to help her getting up.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks Bolt. What the heck was that?" Flame got back on her hooves, still a little bemused.
"Hurry up guys! Get back to formation, we need to get out of here!" Blaze shouted, while trying to think how to get back.
"Madcap, try to do something about that fog, or we won't find the way back anytime soon!" Blaze knew that it'd leave them exposed to the enemy, but what other choice they have right now?
"Roger that, you may want to hide behind something before I'll do it"
After the team has found something to cover behind, Madcap's horn started to glow. The light was getting more intense, then the fog started to spin around him. Finally, a loud explosion followed by a shockwave blew the fog in it's radius. Now they could see clearly, but just few moments later Blaze regreted that decision. At least a dozen of these creatures appeared on ledges over them, some were standing on the same level as them. They were completly surrounded.
"MADCAP, RUN TO THE COVER!!!" Blaze shouted at Madcap, who was now standing completly exposed and surrounded by enemies, but before he could make a move, at least six of the creatures started to shoot, leaving him without any chances. Madcap fell to the ground without any signs of life.
"Madcap...! FUCK! FIRE AT WILL! KILL EVERYTHING!" Blaze shouted furiously, shooting at the closest creature. Now they could see their enemy, they were tall creatures walking on two legs, and using their upper limbs to hold some kind of a weapon.
Their bodies were made out of metal, but inside it was a pink substance, similar to that they found earlier.
"Scarlet, contact with Castle, tell them to bring reinforcements!" Blaze shouted towards one remaining unicorn with radio station.
"Castle, this is Viper, we need reinforcements on our location ASAP, we're under heavy fire from an unknown enemy.
"understood Viper, sending reinforcements on your position now, standby."
*BOOM*
"SCARLET! PSYCHO, SUPPRESSION FIRE ON THAT LEDGE!" Blaze dashed to her wounded comrade, but Scarlet's condition was critical.
"Viper, this is Castle, what is your status?" HQ was trying to communicate with them, but they could only hear chaotic shouts and firing weapons. After a while someone took the radio.
"Castle, we're suffering heavy loses! We won't last any longer!" It was Blaze, now heavily panting while talking to the radio.
"Viper, focus on getting these scientists out of there, it's your main objective."
The radio has lost the signal before anypony could respond.
"Viper? Viper, what is your condition?"
But the answer never came.
