The Last Horseman

            Kelly bounced around in her seat as the Light Attack Vehicle soared over the dune and landed heavily onto its wheels. Pressing a pedal next to her right foot she swiveled the 20mm cannon and brought it to bear on an outcropping of rocks that she was aiming at earlier.

The radio in her helmet crackled to life. “Got a visual on that thing yet corporal?” She squinted into the guns sight making it zoom in on the rocks.

“Negative sir, whatever it was, it’s still hiding. Want to go and take a closer look?”

“Negative. Commander doesn’t want us venturing out beyond the perimeter. Probably just some local wildlife.”

“How much are we willing to risk and hope it’s some wild alien sir?”

“The Endeavor crashed hundreds of miles West of us. I’m pretty sure Omega still has a way to travel and I doubt they would waste time to dart around rocks corporal .”

“Yes sir.”

Kelly leaned back in her seat while panning the gun around, feeling the hot wind blow against her face while keeping an eye out for trouble.

Bryant thought about what Kelly  had spotted at the rocks and wondered if it was something to look into, but thought against it. Orders were orders. After driving around for several more minutes the radio’s light in the cab blinked, telling him someone was trying to hail them. flipping a switch to receive it resulted  his ear piece blaring, swearing he turned down the volume.

“Home plate to Alpha actual how copy?”  Flipping another switch let him broadcast back on the secure channel.

“This is Alpha actual copy.”

“All recon elements are to report back to base for debriefing over.”

“Roger home plate, Alpha is RTB over.” Flipping another switch Bryant contacted the other LAV on patrol.

“Alpha actual to Alpha 3 we are RTB how copy?”

“Alpha 3 copy, heading back now over.”  Spinning the wheel around, the Pumma  slid as it quickly changed direction and headed back towards the Orion.“Why are we heading back so early sir? We’ve only been out here for a few hours.”

“Don’t know Corporal. Commander wants us back so we head back.”

“Roger sir.”

Darrel stood next to the ramp control while watching a small screen as their two LAV’s slid to a stop right outside.  Pulling the lever in front of him the ramp started to lower as warning lights above spun around with a siren buzzing every few seconds. Once the ramp had touched down the LAV’s tires spun as they gained traction in the soft earth and the engines roaring as they climbed they ramp. Once both of them were up he closed the ramp and walked back to where they parked.

Kelly swiveled her seat to the side and hopped off the back of the Puma and took her helmet off,  lashing it to her side before walking up to the head mechanic and giving a quick salute. “How’s Petty officer Sangha doing sir?”

Darrel sighed. “Not the greatest. Doc says he will recover if we keep a steady dose of anti-radiation meds, but he’s going to be pretty scared up.”

They both turned towards loud banging behind them to see Bryant throwing the roofs hatch open. “The Damn hatch is still sticking Hammer and the com’s seem to be glitching out again to.”

Darrel nodded. “I’ll give it a look sir. Also the commander is waiting for you guys on the bridge.”

Bryant gave a quick nod and whistled for the others to follow.

They made their way through the tight hall ways to the bridge where the Commander was waiting for them.

Once they step onto the bridge they all gave a quick salute and the commander returned it.

“Anything of note from your patrol?”

Bryant spoke up. “Corporal Buchanan spotted something moving in and out of rock out cropping near grid 17.”

Kelly nodded her head.” Some kind of black creature sir.”

“Interesting.”

Bryant gave a puzzled look. “Is that all you wanted sir?”

“No sorry. The reason I called you back early is that we have a more pressing concern.”

“What kind of concern sir?”

“We picked something on the scope not too long ago. We’re not quite sure what it is buts its large and moving slowly towards us.”

“Could it be Omega sir”

“Hard to tell. All we know for sure is that its flying, it has a mass of about 100 tons and its moving at steady 6 knots.”

“Short of tying some balloons to a few tanks I can’t imagine anything that large flying so slow. How long till we have a visual?”

Commander Stone turned to his gunner who was waist deep inside one of the control consoles. “Any luck with the guns Falmer?

Sliding his way out he sat up and looked with a small data tablet and pressed it a few times. “Nnn...YES!  I just got the 120’s back online on our 12 and 9 o’clock. As long as they keep heading straight at us we can get a good visual on it about thirty minutes.”

“How long do you think it will take to get the point defenses online?”

Falmer shook his head. “Few hours messing around down here maybe. Sooner if Hammer could work on them outside.”

Stone shook his head. “I guess we’re going to have to trust your aim then. Fields take your marines and get the entrances locked down tight and get back here with whatever we have in the security lockers.”

Bryant saluted and motioned for his two marines to follow him.

“Kelly lock down the port side, I’ll take the starboard. Vance go clear out the gun lockers and get what we have to the bridge.”

Both marines nodded and jogged off to their destinations leaving Bryant to himself. “If its Omega that’s wanting to pick a fight now they have another thing coming.”

_______________________________

Hunter groggily lifted his head to find the same blue pissed off horse thing he spat on earlier shouting  more random gibberish; and threatening to club him again with a hoof. After getting knocked out from the first time a few hours ago he woke up in heavy chains on what he was guessing was a boat or something and started fighting against his captors with little effect, until he spat on the one that stood above him. He chuckled at his situation, for the last thirty some years in Omega he saw some weird crap on alien worlds and fought things that could rip an entire platoon apart in seconds. And here he was chained up by some alien horses. While lying there a door towards the front opened flooding the room with light and cold air.

Trying to twist his head to get a better look he saw a group of them carrying something down the stairs, His temper quickly flared when he noticed it was Ghosts body they were bringing down and dropping into a corner. He thrashed in his chains while shouting at them. “You fucking pieces of shit! I’ll rip your damn heads off if you don’t leave him alone!.” He felt his head get bashed again and quickly lost consciousness.

“Keep that up Nova and you’ll be explaining to the Princesses why there are two dead creatures when we told them one was still alive.”

“Sorry sir. It just started yelling again.”

“Then gag it! Now get out here and help us get this wreckage tethered to the airship.”

Nova Blast followed Lieutenant Spark Kicker up onto the air ship deck before weaving their way through the busy crew to the ramp that led down to the ground. “So Lieutenant what manner of creature do you think they are?”

“Not my area of expertise to say private.”

Once on the ground Nova left to lend a hoof  to get the wreck secured for flight; while Spark watched the organized chaos unfold. After watching for a bit he moved on to where a small clearing was made for medical area. He watched as some of the healers were carefully moving the covered body of an earth pony who was killed by the beast a few hours ago. Moving out of their way he made his way to the pegasus Glacial Winds who sat off from another group of healers working on a gryphon.

Glacial looked to the side when he heard somepony approaching him.

“Have you gotten any word on my daughter!?”

Spark shook his head. “I’m sorry not yet. And we probably won’t have one until we reach the garrison.” He watched as the old Pegasus hung his head in grief.

“How’s your friend doing?”

Glacial choked back tears while trying to find his voice. “They said his spine was severed. Paralyzing most of his body…”

A fresh stream of tears rolled down his cheeks as he started to break down.

“I saved his life two decades ago. And he’s repaid me by watching over my family since. He was there for my daughter  and I when my mate passed I…I can’t bear losing either of them.”

Spark was at a loss for words so he simply extended a wing to comfort him.

Hunter awoke when he felt the vessel lurch forward. He tried raising his head but the sudden spike of pain showed it was a bad idea. He laid there with his head throbbing feeling the ship rock with the waves, but it quickly dawned on him. It’s wasn’t gentle waves he was feeling it was the unmistakable feeling of turbulence that came with several thousand hours of flying. Was he on a flying boat? When he started to move he quickly found a hoof pressing down on his chest, sending spikes of pain through his body from his broken ribs. Starting to Cough up blood he looked to find the same blue furred fucker that spent the day bashing his brains in. It quickly jumped back in start and partly unfurled wings when a red one snapped at it. He noticed the red one also had wings, and that every single creature that now stood at attention of the red one all had wings. he dropped his head back down and wondered. Was he actually dead and this was the fucked up hell he was cursed with?

__________________________

“Coming into view now commander!” Everyone looked at the gunnery screen as a large wooden ship held aloft by balloons came into view.

“Can you get me a closer look Falmer?”

“Sorry sir. This is the best I can do without the main targeting systems.”

“How far out is it still?”

“About three miles sir.”

Stone scratched his beard “An airship of all things out here, and an extreme one at that.”

“Perhaps we landed on a lost colony sir? Maybe something happened to their Titan and technology took a step back over the centuries?

“Then even more to worry about then. If those Damn FCLF has already beat us here they could already be sniffing out our distress beacon.”

“On the bright side commander the separatists hate Omega more than us.”

“Were still not going to find any friends out here Chief.”

Stone stepped back and turned towards his marines. “Everything locked down?”

Bryant nodded. “Yes sir. And we cleared out the armory and moved what  gear we had up here. And I had sergeant Findley and corporal Buchanan set up defensive positions along the main corridor.”

“What do we have to fight with?”

“We have twenty Mk30 rifles, Several CP .45’s smg’s with around 2000 rounds for each of them. Also have a few shotguns. Only a few hundred shells for those though. We also have a carton of frags and flash bangs and my marines should be back soon with the .30cal from the dropship.”

“If worse comes to worse let’s hope it’s enough.”

“We will be ready for them sir.”

Vance struggled to undo the last pins that held the mountings for LMG to the telescoping arm.

“Want me to show you how it’s done sergeant?

“Fuck you Kelly.” Vance said through clenched teeth while giving the rusted pin one final tug, resulting in it flying across the cargo bay. Kelly caught the machine gun as it fell and hefted it onto her shoulders.

Vance grabbed four of the six 250 round ammo boxes carrying two of them under his arms and the other two in his hands. “Double time it corporal.”

After a few minutes of working their way back they reached the blast door on the bridge and keyed the pad. The door slowly opened with a hiss before they quickly squeezed passed the widening gap and closed the door again.

Bryant gave them both an annoyed look “Took you two long enough.”

Kelly placed the machinegun on a crate and pointed it toward the door while she fed one of the ammo belts into it. “Sorry sir won’t happen again.” she ended her reply by racking the charging handle.

The crew of the Orion stood tense as the craft slowly approached with half of them down the hall covering the first blast door while the rest but Falmar took position around the bridge. Falmar sat at the gunnery controls keeping the crosshairs from the only working cannon that could aim pointed at it. “Sir! Its slowing.”

Stone lower his rifle and approached Falmar, looking over his shoulder. “How far off is it?”

“Just under a mile sir.”

“Why would it stop so far?”

“Perhaps there being cautions? We are an armed warship even if it’s a corvette. Single salvo from the 120 rails would shatter that.”

“Yes but… What’s that coming from the side?”

Falmar zoomed in the camera as far as it would go. “It looks like ropes and supplies being lowered… What the fuck are those!”

Every one perked up at Falmar’s yell. Stone looked closer and saw winged horse like creatures taking off and landing under the ship unloading the baskets of equipment that were being lowered.

“I believe we have just encounter the first living alien civilization chief.

__________________

Captain Thunder Striker watched as his crew bustled about, getting everything needed lowered to the ground to set up camp. He dared not to land his airship when it could still could provide perfect cover incase the things his scouts reported seeing earlier are hostile.

“What kind of craft do you think that is captain?”

Thunder looked at his first mate beside him. “I’m not convinced it’s a craft at all Blitzer.”

“Really?”

He handed him his spyglass. “Well look at it. It seems to be at least plated in metal, no balloons to be seen. Now tell me how can something that size fly?”

“Some kind of array of arcane crystals? And if it was plated in skymetal it would be light enough to fly with a few of the largest balloons.”

“And what nation has that kind of wealth hmm? A single charged arcane crystal is worth more than you make in half your life. And lots not even talk about skymetal. The amount needed to even plate a fraction of that doesn’t even exist”

“Cant imagine what else it could be captain. It somehow appeared between the patrols rotation. short of flying in or appearing by magic there is no way it could be here sir.”

Thunder snorted.” Unless it’s always been here. Changelings have been spotted skittering around this dessert for the last few years, small chance this is there doing. Finding a way to make it look like a large dune or something with their magic.”

“If it’s of changeling origin sir I fear we might have a situation.”

“Right you are Blitz, Right you are.”

_____________

Celestia walked through the grand marble halls hovering a cup of tea and legal papers that required her attention in front of her. It would have been any normal morning until her sister had requested her presence as soon as she had awoken. Turning a corner she heard a familiar rough voice.

“I see you already have your nose buried in those exciting reports again Princess.”

Moving the papers to the side she was met with a rugged grey unicorn. “A good morning to you to Brazen. You seem to be out early for once.”

“thought I would stretch the old legs before I run the new recruits into the ground today.”

“That time again?”

“No better time I say.”

She chuckled. “I suppose not.”

“Well, I will leave you to your work your highness. Have a Good day.”  Celestia smiled and gave a small nod as the guard captain Walked off way towards the castles training grounds to break the fresh recruits.

After a few more minutes Celestia found herself walking down the stained glass hallway. She smiled at the scenes she past, Even though it had been almost a decade since most of these events had transpired and some of them were gloomy. She would give up all past the memories of her life to keep the few that meant the most. Like watching her star pupil grow into her own and rise as a leader, and the redemption of her sister. As she approached the throne room the guards on duty saluted her and opened the massive gilded doors for her. As the guards closed the door behind her, the magically crafted hinges gave off little sound as they closed shut.

She approached the throne were her sister was waiting with her own royal escort and talking to her assistant raven. Celestia passed the papers off to her assistant, who accepted them with a quick bow before leaving. She eyed her sisters guards. She had let her sister reform the Lunar Watch shortly after Tirek attacked several years ago, but she rarely seen them about.

“Is there something I should be aware of Luna?”

“Yes. In the twilight hours of dawn we received a few urgent missive from various locations across our borders.”

“And this wasn’t urgent enough to have me awoken?” she asked cocking an eyebrow

“I wanted to sort through them and eliminate any that were duplicates or that did not require our attention first.”

“A missive from any border station is important for security Luna.”

“As of the last few hours most of these were the same reports. Which leads to the first thing to be aware of.”

“And that is?”

“A large fiery object was spotted streaking across the sky in the early hours, but the western outposts are the only ones to report it impacted. And that I was big enough to make the ground shake.”

Celestia was now finding her day quickly becoming very interesting. “And where did this object land?”

“Somewhere within the dragon lands.”

“Then it’s outside our jurisdiction.”

“That’s not all Sister. The eastern garrison at Stableside reports of another object that appeared within the desert. Within our borders.”

“Appeared?”

“Yes. Sometime within the patrol change the object appeared, possibly landed. I ordered an air ship to investigate but not take any action without order from you.”

She shook her head.” I would have preferred you talk to me first before sending off a military asset to something unknown, but I’m glad you have restricted their operations until I can precede over them.”

Luna flattened her ears and shifted her wings. “There is one final piece of news that’s much darker than the rest.”

Celestia’s toned darkened “Is this why you have your guards summoned?”

“Yes. The final missive came an hours before our eastern report. From the north at the borderlands. A small object was spotted crashing within the mountains and a patrol took it upon themselves to investigate.”

Celestia’s temper flared. “Do they have no idea what they have done! That crossing into the border lands armed is an upfront offence to the treaty I signed with the Blacktalon’s almost a century ago! Alvis has been looking for an excuse to go to war for some time and now he has one.”

Celestia shook her head in disbelief. She thought they were trained better than this, and now she had to contemplate capital punishment for treason. The last time any kind of capital punishment was dealt was after Luna was banished. She looked back at her sister.

“Please tell me you don’t have any more dire news?”

Luna looked down and pawed the floor before looking back at her sister. ”They found the impact site with a small camp above it. A small group of four archaeologists.”

Celestia rubbed her temple with a hoof as a headache started to form. “What else?”

“Out of the group, three of them had checked out the impact site before the patrol had even arrived. One pony was killed while another was badly injured. They also had a gryphon from the Ironwing clan traveling with them that was also badly injured.”

Celestia sat down, in complete shock. She wished she was still asleep and that her sister playing some cruel trick, But she would never go this far.”

“So the gryphons already attacked and left one of our subjects dead.”

“It wasn’t a gryphon that attacked them.”

Her head shot up at what Luna said. “What.”

“It wasn’t just any impact that hit the mountain side. Something had crashed. When the patrol arrived they found two unknown creatures. One was dead and the other was said to be on the edge of death. But it still managed to knock down and injure several guards before it was subdued.”

Celestia sat there slack jaw. “Are you saying some alien creature attacked our subjects? Killing ones and injuring several more?”

“That’s what the report seemed to indicate. They’ve already secured the object and creatures and are moving them to the garrison. They have asked for our presence as soon as possible. As such I’ve had your personal guards summand along with some of our fastest fliers. They await us in the courtyard. I also took the liberty to discuss with your advisor we would be out of the capital for a few days. ”

“You managed to summon my own personal guards?”

Luna laughed. “It wasn’t as hard as you think.”

Luna walked off with her escort while Celestia sat there trying to process everything that just transpired.