The Beginning
Hey Guy first fic, yesssss, would like to give thanks to Cloudhammer fpr encouragement
All credit goes to the respective owners, I own nothing but the plot
Now On with the Show
Light and Dark, are separated by an infinite ocean, yet they are always found to be together.
"All war is deception." -- Sun Tzu
Earth, Middle East, Northwestern Iraq, Mosul
19:32 Thursday, February 9th 2016
The sun hung lazily in mid-afternoon sky as if it did not want to lower itself, but only to simply prolong the discomfort of the many humans that were unfortunate enough to be caught beneath its hot piercing gaze.
Beneath it the land was comprised of flat, arid dusty planes that stretched to the seemingly infinite horizons. The heat, mixed with the dust, made for a near unbearable cocktail of discomfort.
The only reprieve that was made at all in such an environment was done so by the terrain. The terrain, that only seemed to be comprised of a seemingly endless wasteland of desert allowed for two oddities to exist.
The first of these oddities were the hills that made up part of the area, jutting out of flat arid plains and providing dominating views of the surrounding landscape. The second oddity was a river that scared across the land, as if it were a long winding blue serpent.
Both of these features would seem as if they were anomalies in this harsh landscape. The hills gave some shade and with it a sense of relief from the environment, though it was not much. The river on the other hand had provided the means for which life existed in such a desolate place.
Together the two provided the only place in the whole region that people would exist in numbers, large or small.
And so, nestled within these hills was Mosul, a large dusty city on the blue serpent that was known as the Tigris River.
The city itself was constructed in several depressions that were in-between the hills. The depressions were flat and large enough to accommodate the large city; it took most of it up in fact.
Adjacent to the hills that surrounded and made up the city, was a large grey extension. This extension situated just outside the hills was known as Mosul airport.
The airport was quite large and boasted two long and wide runways, suitable for many large calibre planes to land. The goal of the airport was to link this part of the country to the rest of the country and to encourage economic growth. Growth which would lead to more money, more people and with people a chance to construct new cities and towns and revitalise the whole of Northern Iraq.
It was another project that Saddam Hussein had hoped would give Iraq the prestige it deserved and wanted. But those once perceived nobler days were now gone. It now served a much more different purpose.
It was now NORTHCOM, the command and control center for collation forces operating in Northern Iraq. The airport was the hub of military operations for the entire region.
With arrival of the coalition military forces the airport became a part of a larger base that surrounded it. 1000’s of personnel milled throughout the airport and surrounding base.
Usually some aircraft would be taking off, others would be landing, helicopters should have been coming back and forth on sorties, convoys would be rolling out on patrol and others would be returning. But today it was quiet, more so than usual.
………
Private Marcus Lawson of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division was one of a 12 man team of controllers at the brigade’s reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition unit, located at the NORTHCOM at Mosul airport.
Their job was to use both man and machine to recon, survey and gather data. All of which would be sent to be analysed and it would provide the foundations of which operations and orders would be given out. They also on the side maintained the electronic grid and network for the base, a very tedious task and according to him at times very boring as well, but it was an important task none the less.
Lawson was reminiscing of his home, he missed New York, sure the base sounded and even at times felt like it with its daily organized chaos but it just wasn’t the same, and it just wasn’t home.
Tilting his chair back and rubbing his eyes and said to no one in particular “Dammit…. I hate this country” he signed
A response came in the form of a light laugh and a voice from behind “You should count blessings bro, least we ain’t shovelling are own graves in Afghanistan” the voice let out humorless laugh and continued “my buddies in the 3rd tell me they’d rather go to hell then stay there, but I say hey why don’t come here after all this place is the motherfuckin poster child for hell”
Lawson smiled, he didn’t to turn around to find out who had disturbed his daily ritualistic like ‘rant on life’. Only one person in the group had the stamina and courage to constantly do it. And that person was Miguel Marcellus, a wise cracking 30 something from Florida. He probably was the only one in the group who actually could crack a smile even in the harshest of times, Lawson knew if anyone could make his day any better it was him.
Lawson was about snap back at him when suddenly a loud continuous crackling sound began to play. He looked past his control station and his face twisted with annoyance “Jesus, the piece of crap’s on the fritz again”
Marcellos didn’t even bother getting up to see what had (once again) angered his partner “is the counter?” he asked with a weary smile.
The Radiac AN/PDR-77 was a conglomeration of several devices that were collectively used to detect radiation discharges, and had sat inside the data center, unused since they arrived in Iraq. But now it was flashing uncontrollably, and emitting a large quantity of ticking sounds, that only arose when radiation was detected in high quantities.
A few awkward seconds of silence past as the group of controllers heard the machine continues to blare out its alarm. This was not first time it had done this, several times previously dust and sand had gotten into it and messed up its internal components setting the device off and scaring the hell out of all of them.
Lawson unable to tolerate the sound any longer spoke up “Miguel get the goddam tech and tell him it’s fucking acting up again”.
………
Equestria, Ponyville, 30 minutes earlier
Bon Bon placed the boxes of chocolate delicately in her saddlebags, after all she took pride in her creations and didn’t want see them ruined because of carelessness on her part. She placed three boxes on each side to make it balanced and prepared to set out.
She was about to go out the front door when she remembered she needed to tell her roommate and best friend Lyra to get some things from the market.
“Lyra” she called out.
No response came. Bon Bon sighed she was probably playing her lyre to loud or she probably too engrossed into some new in-depth study about her new hobby
Bon Bon made her way to Lyra’s room and knocked on the door. Once again there was no response.
Bon Bon became worried “Lyra never takes this long to respond” she said to herself. She slowly opened the door and timidly called out “Lyra?”
Suddenly Lyra’s head popped out from nowhere “Hey Bon Bon I was just going to get you!” she said excitedly
Bon Bon screamed and nearly jumped backwards but by stroke of good luck she managed to keep her balance and not fall backwards, which would have ruined her precious cargo.
Lyra ignoring her friend’s reaction continued “you’ll never guess what I found when I was out walking near the place I saw those lights before” she said with excitement.
“Lyra! I told you stop jumping out of places like that you nearly scared me half to death” Bon Bon replied after managing to somewhat regain her composure, though she was still taking very deep breaths .
Lyra still ignoring her friends disstress continued on excitedly “It’s unbelievable, it stupendous, the most amazing discovery in ponykinds history!”
“Lyra” Bon Bon said with bit force then last time.
“I mean I knew I was right about there being aliens, but I ever could have imagined that I could have found actual proof that they came to Equestria, do you know what this means for me, what this means for all of ponykind why we could lemmmbbbfff …”
Bon Bon stuffed her hoof in Lyra’s mouth effectively silencing the over enthusiastic mare. She took a deep breath and gave Lyra her most serious stare.
“Lyra I need to go deliver an important order to Twilight Sparkle at the library and while I’m away I need you to go do some shopping, we’re running low on a few things”
Lyra groaned she hated doing the shopping and when she did do it, there was always something she missed or something she got wasn’t what Bon Bon wanted. And above all shopping was boring. Just going to place after place getting one thing after another, Lyra couldn’t stand it.
She couldn’t understand how Bon Bon liked it so much, and so that’s why she always left the shopping to Bon Bon.
“Now I’ve left the shopping list in kitchen with some bits”
Lyra’s ears perked at the mention of bits, and slight mischievous smile began to form, there were few things in the market that had recently caught her eye.
Bon Bon noticed this and made sure she put some emphasis on what she was about to say “and don’t buy anything, that isn’t on the list, understand.”
Lyra ears folded back, her plan was ruined; now she actually had to go and buy the things on the list. Lyra made her way dejectedly to the kitchen to get the bits and the list.
Bon Bon felt somewhat bad when she reprimanded her friend, but Lyra’s spending habits needed to be kept in check. She didn’t want a repeat of last week when Lyra bought with almost all of her monthly earnings an ‘alien artifact’ from a ‘reliable source’ which turned out to be an amalgamation of several pieces of junk stuck together.
She broke from her train of thought and once again made sure she had everything she needed as she made her way to the front door.
She looked back into their home before she closed the front door, it would be some time before she would see it again.
………
On the outskirts of town a small but elegantly decorated wagon was making its way to Ponyville. What was interesting about this cart was not how well it looked but that there was no pony pulling it.
The wagon in fact was being pulled by magic.
One of the silky drapes at the front opened up revealing a light blue, somewhat regal looking mare with a long silky cape and magician’s hat.
The Great and Powerful Trixie saw the encroaching outline of Ponyville inside it the final challenge that stood in the way of her becoming the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria.
She went back inside to continue brushing her mane as she thought of how she would rub her soon to be victory it that annoying purple nuisances’ face, she couldn’t wait.
………
Bon Bon, knocked on the door of the library for the third time, there still was no response. She let out a sigh; did Twilight forget she was coming? No Twilight never ever forgot anything, well not to Bon Bon’s knowledge anyway.
She was about to head back home when suddenly a very pink pony appeared right in front of her.
“HI, YA BONBON LOOKING FOR TWILIGHT “Pinkie Pie shouted.
Bon Bon screamed and defied gravity in way only Pinkie Pie seemed to make possible and shot straight up into the tree, grasping the nearest branch for dear life.
Pinkie Pie looked up at the tree and asked quizzically “What’chya doing up there Bon Bon?”
Bon Bon opened her eyes and found herself looking down on a smiling Pinkie Pie. Upon realizing it was not some terrifying pink monster that would tear her to shreds and stuff her into cupcakes she relaxed. This brief respite allowed gravity to gain its revenge by reasserting itself and forcing the mare and her cargo to fall right off the branch.
“Don’t worry Bon Bon I got you” Pinkie Pie said as she, out of nowhere in particular pulled out a trampoline.
However what she ‘got’ in fact was not Bon Bon but a pair of saddlebags.
“hey you’re not Bon Bon?” she said poking the saddle bags quizzically.
The real Bon Bon had plowed face first into ground beside the trampoline, and was now impaled into the ground.
Before Pinkie Pie could help pull her out of the ground the library door was opened up by Spike.
“Hey guys, sorry I didn’t open the door the sooner I just heard you guys outside over all the racket Twilight was making in the basement” Spike replied with an exasperated sigh
“OOOOOHHH is Twilight getting ready for a party!!?” asked Pinkie Pie bouncing happily
“No, she’s been working on some kind of project down there since yesterday morning” Spike sighed, “Even I don’t know what she’s up too, she started reading some books about teleportation magic, and poof next thing you she was in the basement working on some mystery project”
“I bet it’s something to do with party let’s go see Bon Bon!!” Pinkie Pie said ecstatically.
She raced past spike dragging along a very dazed and confused Bon Bon.
Spike rolled his eyes and followed in suit.
………
Twilight was putting the finishing touches on what was going to become her new long range teleportation device. The device itself didn’t really do the teleportation, so it’s debatable if it should be referred as such; all it did was simply amplify the effects of her teleportation spell. The way it was supposed to work was the more magic the user used in the spell the greater the amplification and further you could teleport.
Twilight was happy it was finally done, now she could begin its trial run, she was about start up the machine, when she was interrupted by very hyperactive pink mass commonly referred to as Pinkie Pie jumping down from nowhere and dragging a very confused looking Bon Bon with her.
“HIYA TWILIGHT HOWS THE PARTY MACHINE!!? Pinkie asked beaming with biggest grin she could muster.
“Party machine, what part machine Pinkie?” giving Pinkie Pie a confused look.
“She means the special project you’ve been working on since yesterday” Spike grumbled as he made his way down the stairs.
“Oh, well Pinkie this isn’t a party machine, in fact it’s my new long rage teleportation device” Twilight stated beaming with pride.
“OHHHH does teleport you to parties?” Pinkie Pie replied ecstatically, her mind considering the possibility of her going to every single party in Equestria.
Twilight facehoofed “No Pinkie, it … you know what I’m just about to begin the first trial run let me show you what it does.
She placed an overly large set of goggles on and began to pull and press several buttons and leavers.
The machine began to hum with activity as it turned itself on.
Twilight moved away from the machine and her horn began to glow she cast the teleportation spell, she aimed the spell at a crystal attached to the side of the machine and it began to glow with energy.
……….
Lyra was finally done, after seemed like an eternity of haggling and looking she had finally managed to get everything Bon Bon needed. She was heading back home when she realized she was quite close to the Library. She might as well see if Bon Bon was still there, maybe they could go get some dinner.
Lyra as quickly as she could, made her way to the Library. She was just about to knock on the door when suddenly she felt herself being lifted into the bush next to the door.
“Hey what’s the big idea ?” Lyra said angrily as she finally managed to pull herself out of the bush.
She was met with the sight of The Great and Powerful Trixe, the boastful show-mare who came to Ponyville a few months before.
“The Great and Powerful Trixe waits for nopony so she moved you out of the way” Trixe said as she cantered past her and opened the door with her magic.
“Hey wait” Lyra said stumbling in after Trixe, “I’m not done being angry with you”
………
Twilight could feel the magic surrounding her as the crystal became brighter and brighter.
“Aright everypony I’m going to be teleporting myself to Sweet Apple Acres”
“Oki doki loki” Pinkie said from behind the workbench she and Bon Bon were taking cover behind.
Pinkie pie was bouncing up and down in excitement, “Oh isn’t this going to be great Bon Bon?”
“Yeah great” Bon Bon laughed nervously, she was sweating bullets as she watched the crystal glow brighter and brighter “umm are you sure this is safe Twilight?” Bon Bon asked.
“Of course I’ve run through all the calculations myself, it’s perfectly safe”
Spike was still cowering at the top of the stairwell, preparing to bolt out of the basement if Twilights experiment as many of hers do suffered a ‘mishap’.
He suddenly heard movement, coming from upstairs he quickly moved to door to try to hear the sound.
Suddenly the door blew open, squishing spike into the wall.
“It is I the Great and Powerful Trixie, I have come to challenge you Twilight Sparkle and recover my position as the most magical Unicorn in all of Equestria!”
Twilight face-hoofed “This isn’t the best time Trixie could you please come back sometime later?”
Trixie turned her nose up in indignation “The Great and Powerful Trixie waits for no-pony, in fact instead the Great and Powerful Trixie will show you her amazing powers, perhaps then you will change your tune”
With that Trixie’s horn began to glow as she launched a spell at one of the bookshelves
Nothing happened.
Trixie, determined threw more spells at the bookshelf.
And once again nothing happened.
Twilight tiled her head looked at the bookshelf confused, “where’s the spell?”
It was then out of the corner of her eye she noticed that the crystal was beginning to glow even brighter than before.
Her eyes widened in horror, the crystal was absorbing the magic from Trixie’s spells, she began to franticly move towards the stairwell to stop Trixie abandoning her spell, “Stop Trixie, you’re going to overload the crystal!”
“No Trixie must show you her amazing power”
With that Trixie launched on final large spell at the bookcase, the room suddenly was filled with a bright blinding light emanating from the crystal. It grew brighter and brighter until without warning the crystal shattered and was replaced by a large swirling vortex.
Twilight felt herself being sucked into the vortex, and managed to grab onto one of the banisters of the stairwell.
Trixie was not so lucky; she was immediately flung from the stairs strait into the vortex.
Things all over the basement started flying into the vortex, Spike who managed to get unstuck from behind the door used his claws to dig into the wall, but he was slowly losing his grip.
The heavy workbench that Bon Bon and Pinkie were behind began to moving across the floor to the portal, taking both of the mares with it.
Both Pinkie Pie and Bon Bon were holding on to the edge of the table, Bon Bon was screaming for life while Pinkie Pie who had donned sunglass was enjoying the weightless feeling.
Just as Bon Bon felt her-self slipping she and Pinkie were suddenly grabbed by unknown force.
“Hold on guys I’ve got you” It was Lyra, she had grabbed on to the railing and was using her magic to stop Pinkie Pie and Lyra from falling into the vortex.
She was strained to keep her hold on the both of them against the power of the vortex. As she tried desperately to hold on a large tome that had come off one of the many bookshelves, slammed into her side nearly forcing her lose her grip on the railing.
The momentary lapse in her concentration had caused her magic to release both Bon Bon and Pinkie Pie, causing them both to completely lose their grip on the workbench and fall into the vortex.
Lyra watched in horror as her friends were sucked into the swirling monster, she could feel her own hooves beginning to lose their grip on the railing.
She closed her eyes in anticipation to her impending fate; tears were beginning to form in her eyes as she felt herself being lifted into the vortex.
She opened her eyes one last time to look at the vortex, but she was met not with the vortex but a rapidly approaching floor. She felt herself hit the floor and then everything went black.
………
Lyra woke with a startled cry; she felt a hoof press gently against her.
“Whoa there, it’s alright, don’t worry your safe”
She looked up to find the owner of the voice, she found a royal guard looking down on her with his hoof on her shoulder.
The royal guard smiled at her “Princess, Miss Heartstrings is awake”
“Princess? Wait what’s going on? w...where’s Bon Bon” Lyra asked as she desperately started to look around confused as ever.
Princess Celestia came over to the confused mint coloured pony, “My dear do you remember what happened?” she asked, concern visibly displayed across her face
“Bon Bon and Pinkie Pie got sucked into that, thing an..and I tried to save them b..bu..but I...I”
Before Lyra could burst out into tears, the sovereign of the sun gently embraced her with her wings.
“Don’t worry my little pony we will do everything in our power to bring them back, this I can promise you”
Lyra felt a bit better knowing that Princess Celestia was doing all that she could to bring them back.
“Um princess, not to interrupt but Mrs. Dawn and the rest of the team from the Canterlot Experimental Magic Labs are here”
“Thank you Captain Mask, Miss Heartstrings, I need to attend to some things, but if you need anything please don’t hesitate to ask, don’t worry soon everything will back to normal” She smiled reassuringly
Lyra managed to give a weak smile as Princess Celestia quickly excused herself
Lyra began to get up, but suddenly aware of presence beside her makeshift bed
“Excuse me madam I’m Lieutenant Storm Dasher, if you need to get something I can get it for you”
She looked up at the Royal Guard, gently smiling at her.
“If you wouldn’t mind I’d like to go home please”
Earth, Middle East, Northwestern Iraq, Mosul
19:43 Thursday, February 9th 2016
Lawson was still sitting at his command console, although he was still monitoring data traffic, his mind was somewhere else, as was everyone else’s in the in the room. The radiation detectors outburst had brought the technician but according to him nothing seemed out of order, in fact he said it was working fine.
Soon after the Lt. came and had a quick discussion with the tech. He then left with tech and hadn’t come back since.
Command was being way too quiet about this; usually someone from command would come down to tell them it was acting up and ask some questions for the incident report.
No one came and that was setting warning alarms off in Lawson’s head.
He was about to repose his question out loud when suddenly three men walked in.
The central figure caught his eyes it was Brigadier General Patterson, the base commandant and the regional commander.
Almost immediately Lawson got along with everyone else stood up and gave crisp salute.
He returned a slight nod “At ease gentlemen, as I’m sure you all know about the Radiac alarm going off, and most of you think that the device like previously is acting up however at this time we believe that this was a legitimate detection”
The controllers glanced at one another, fear and concern gripped each of them, but none of them said anything.
The general continued “we are now at REDCON 2”
The controllers sat there stunned, letting the revelation sink into them. None of them knew what to say however Marcellus broke the silence and spoke up first “Sir does that mean...”
“Yes we believe that the discharge may have been from a WMD, we believe at this time it is most likely the result of a mishandling of a device that let off the radiation burst. The source has been traced to the west in the city of Tal Afar.”
“So I assume we’re to get eyes in the air ASAP sir” Lawson asked
“That’s Affirmative the game plan is to divert a mechanized recon platoon from Charlie Company, in Second Infantry to Tal Afar. They’ll suppress any resistance at the location of radiation burst and clear the way for a NEST team, I want you and your men to get drones in the air and give an exact location of the burst site. They may have moved it but there still should be enough of a lingering radiation signature for you to trace the device”
Lawson gave a curt nod “Once we retrofit one of the predators with the Radiac equipment we’ll be good to go, it’ll take around 20-25 minutes to get them over the city”
The general mulled over this for few seconds before he finally replied “Alright then I want eyes on them at all times in there, I don’t care if it’s just a kid throwing a rock at one of the vehicles, inform me of ANY developments, is that clear”
Larson managed to stutter out something to the affirmative and returned to his control station.
The General turned his attention to Marcellus “Private Marcellus Get me a line to Bagdad now”
………
[Initializing, Standby]
[Signal Confirmed, GEOEYE Link Confirmed]
[Connecting USARMYARRAY: COMNET]
[Connecting…]
[Connecting…]
[Link established]
[Password Required]
[*********]
[Verifying…]
[Verification confirmed]
[WARPATHNORTH Online]
[Patching network]
[Identifying...]
[Identifying...]
[Network signal identified, connecting]
[Connecting…]
[Connection established/BRAVOCENTCOM via WARPATHNORTH]
[Online]
[WPN] “Sand Bravo Command this is Warpath we have a possible Code Black in Tal Afar, we need a relay to HIGHCOM, and additional specialized units for assist on retrieval how copy?”
[SBC] “Warpath this is Sand Bravo we copy all, relay to HIGHCOM confirmed, you are green light on retrieval”
[WPN] “Sand Bravo this is warpath roger that, operation HIGHROLLER is a go, what’s the status on unit assist”
[SBC] “Warpath this is Sand Bravo, NEST team will be deployed shortly and we have a standby status on a Ghost Recon spec ops team call-sign Savage, their all yours, good luck”
[WPN] “Sand Bravo this Warpath roger that, were patching through to them now”
[Transferring signal, patching network]
[Transferring...]
[Transferring...]
[Transferring...]
[Transferring...]
[Transferring...]
[Network signal identified, connecting]
[Connecting…]
[Connection established/GRTSAVAGE via WARPATHNORTH]
[Online]
[WPN] “Savage this Warpath, you’re under our command now and are being transferred to operation HIGHROLLER, we have possible Code Black in Tal Afar. You’re to provide over-watch and support to Charlie Company as they proceed into the city to locate and secure the WMD. Minimize civilian casualties and collateral damage, but securing of the WMD takes priority over all. How Copy?”
[GRTS] “Warpath this Savage we copy all ETA 35 minutes to Tal Afar, Savage out”
…….
North America, Eastern Seaboard, Washington D.C.
05:52 Thursday, Thursday, February 9th 2016
After what seemed like hours David finally finished what he was working. He put down his pen tipped his chair back and rubbed his sore, bleary eyes. He been working deep into the night and was in definite need of rest. He felt as if his hand was going to break off at any moment.
Chuckling to himself he muttered “No one said this job was easy”.
He contemplated whether he should continue his work or go to sleep as the debate raged on his mind a soft knock came from the door.
“Come in” he called out in kindest voice he could muster in his weary state
A flustered young lady stepped in the office “Umm, Sir, there is an urgent call waiting for you”
“An urgent call?” he asked perplexed.
The young women nearly reeled back in horror as she thought she had made a mistake. She immediately tried to amend situation by throwing out barrage of ideas to make the mysterious caller wait or go away and use proper channels.
He chuckled a bit and smiled “it’s fine Sarah” trying to be as reassuring as possible “I’ll take the call, Thank you very much”
The young women as flustered as ever, let out a relived sigh, after realising he wasn’t angry over being disturbed and quickly smiled and went out.
As David watched her close the door his expression grew concerned. Usually his personal staff would contact him by intercom if he had call waiting they rarely stepped into his office just because of a call. The caller was also using a personal unsecured line, not the usual routes of communication.
“This must be serious” he said to himself. He pushed all thoughts to side a picked up the receiver of the phone on his desk.
With grim face he pressed the button to connect to the outside line, “Yes” he answered
“Mr. President, we have situation developing inside Tal Afar, Iraq”
………
Equestria, Ponyville
Though the distance between the library and Lyra’s home was a mere short stroll away it, right then and there it seemed to Lyra like the walk from the library back to her home took an eternity.
Lyra couldn’t think at all, she was walking in a dreamlike state, only vaguely aware of her surroundings. She didn’t even acknowledge any of the passing ponies who saying greetings and smile, nor did she acknowledge those who noticed her depressed state and came up to ask her what was wrong. She hung head down and continued walking right passed all of them.
She even passed by Derpy her friend; when the cross-eyed mail mare had come up to her to ask her what was wrong.
Derpy did gain her position as mail mare by giving up easily she was persistent and continue to plead to Lyra to tell her what was wrong. As persistent as she was Lyra could not bring herself to answer her questions or even look at her.
Eventually the two managed to make their way to Lyra’s home. Derpy made one last attempt to find out what was wrong with her friend.
“Lyra please tell me, maybe I can help, but you have to tell me what’s wrong please” she implored her eyes brimming with concern for her friend.
Lyra finally succumbing to Derpy’s insistent pleading took everything in her that was building up from the moment she stepped out of the library and threw it directly at one person she would have never dreamed would have been angry at for any reason.
Lyra turned around “CAN YOU BRING BACK BON BON” she shouted her eyes filled with tears and on the verge of breaking out. She immediately regretted her outburst when she saw the look on Derpy’s face.
Derpy face twisted with sadness “L..Ly..Lyra I didn’t m..mean”
Lyra looked up at her friend her eyes on the verge of tears, whispered out “I’m sorry”. She turned around walked into her house and closed the door.
………
Derpy just stood there for moment stunned, she had never been shouted at by anyone and she never would expected for one of her good friends of all ponies to do it to her. But then she turned around and apologised.
Something was seriously wrong with her friend and what she said about Bon Bon where did she go? Did something happen to her? Her mind was tangle of thoughts, however she shook it all off. She needed answers and she wasn’t going to get them by standing here.
She looked back she remembered that she saw Lyra coming from the library, that would be where she could maybe find some answers as to what was wrong with Lyra and what happened to Bon Bon.
She opened her wings and with slight flap lifted of from the ground and raced straight to library.
………
When the door was finally shut, it finally came out, everything she had been holding in since the blast.
She slumped to the floor and began to cry. “Bon Bon, please come back …p..pl..please” she sobbed. But she knew no one hear her cries, she was alone.
After what seemed like hours the crying and pleading, Lyra finally managed to muster enough strength to get up and make her way to her room. She dragged herself to her bed and curled up on it.
She looked up at the clock, “I should be at a party with Lyra and with all my friends enjoying myself not here crying and alone in my room” she softly remarked to herself, her eyes threatening to tear up again.
Her eyes wandered her brightly colored room; it was mess of music sheets, books, various types of strings for her lyre and an assortment of odds and ends that were of no use but to anypony but her.
Her eyes eventually settled upon a photograph on her work desk. It was of her, Bon Bon, Derpy, Berry Punch and Colgate during the nightmare night celebrations, when Princess Luna came to Ponyville.
At first it was terrifying facing the princess but after, they had gotten to know her a bit they realised in fact there was nothing to be truly scared of. In fact it turned out to be one of the best nightmare nights ever.
Tears now threatened to emerge again as thought about how much fun they all had and now Bon Bon was gone for good and not only that Lyra had now shouted at Derpy for no good reason. She couldn’t save Bon Bon and she pushed a friend away who only wanted to help, she was the worst.
Hey eyes continued drifting until they came to small spherical object resting in the corner. It surface was smooth and metallic. Of what metal she had no idea. The only blemishes on its smooth surface were some unintelligible symbols on one side and what appeared to be a small rectangular plate attached to the other. It was a very odd construct that seemed to have no openings she could find.
This sphere was the thing that she had found when she was walking around the area she had seen the lights. It was stuck in the mud in stream when she found it. It was quite heavy, she had nearly exhausted all of her reserves of magic bringing it back to her home.
She wanted to show it Bon Bon so she prove to her she was not making up her theories on aliens, that they were real and that they did exist but now she couldn’t, she could never show it to her.
She turned over on her bed and fresh tears began to emerge as she curled up even further.
……..
Earth, Middle East, Northwestern Iraq, Northeast of Tal Afar
20:19 Thursday, February 9th 2014
Captain Mark Soholski of Charlie Company continued to scan the houses on either side of the highway; his hawk like eyes only wavered from them when the convoy passed vehicles, this was only because he began to eye the vehicles with scrutiny. He had a very bad feeling about this supposedly ‘simple’ locate and secure mission,
Suddenly his comms crackled to life “Sir we’re about to enter the city”
He closed his eyes and sighed, giving himself a few seconds of metal respite, it was the final calm before the storm.
“Roger that” he replied, he immediately switched his comms frequency to include the entire company
“Alright look alive gentlemen, we’re entering the badlands now, scan your sectors we have lots of civi’s in the city so don’t go shooting everything that moves”
“Um sir what exactly are we supposed to do once inside the city” asked the private next to him
“Well Firstly you’re supposed to keep your eyes on the god-dammed road cause you’re drifting,” the private stiffened and darted his eyes back to the road.
“Secondly we’re going to secure a site inside the city and wait for support … that’s all I was told” spitting the last part of the sentence out bitterly. The Captain didn’t like being kept in the dark about what was going on.
Deciding to change the subject he turned his attention to the vehicle in front of them, the lead Humvee in the convoy “Charlie 2-3 how far are we from the target site over?”
“Uhhh we’re about 5’n half clicks off the target location, we get off the highway at the next major intersection over”
“Roger that continue as planned”
He sat back a bit, he would much rather be back at base and he knew his men felt the same, the last several days had been hectic to say the least, there had been a constant barrage of hit run attacks, but so far none of his men had been killed or seriously hurt.
He was about to plan their fall back route in the event of something happening when he suddenly saw out of the corner of his eye a white trail of smoke approaching.
It took him a few milliseconds to realise what the trail of white smoke was.
He immediately lunged for the steering wheel. Time seemed to stop as if it was all a dream as he moved his hands to grab the steering wheel. He could feel the tips of his fingers through his gloves brush against the wheel’s surface when the lead Humvee exploded into mass of molten steel and fire. He managed to finally get a firm grasp of the wheel and slammed it violently to the left, allowing the vehicle to narrowly miss the burning wreckage of Charlie 2-3. The Humvee skidded into the median between the roads and came to stuttering halt.
“Holy Shit what the hell just happened” the private asked clutching his head in pain after it had slammed into the door from the violent maneuver.
Before Soholski could say anything, several rounds shattered through the front window and tore into the young private’s chest.
He screamed in pain as Captain Soholski dragged him down to the floor.
“GET THE HELL DOWN” Soholski shouted to the rest of men in the Hummve as more rounds began to rip into the vehicle
Soholski managed to grab his fallen comms “ALL UNITS HOLD POSITION AND RETURNE FIRE, I REPEAT. RETURNE. FIRE!!”
……..
Several Kilometres outside Tal Afar
Hovering above the desert, a MH-60M Black Hawk silently waited on the now fading horizon.
Inside Vortex (aka Ghost 1) sat quietly in his seat, ignoring the clamour, which was going on around him. His eyes were closed, he was tired and he had clocked in about 96 hours of operational time, without any rest. He knew his team was coming to their limits, but none of them would utter a word of it. They had trained far too well to do so.
He was waiting for the green light from command to begin the op, simply waiting outside the city was a waste of time, and in situations like this time is everything.
He was about to try to contact command, when a comms channel opened up.
“Savage, this is Warpath; Charlie Company has run into heavy resistance, you are green light on mission launch, good luck and good hunting”
Vortex, opened his eyes “Gentlemen, we have a green light, time to go hunting”
Equestria, Ponyville
The sphere stared motionless at the creature in front of it. It smooth metallic surface gave no indication of its intricate inner workings. Perhaps the only indication this strange object gave were the symbols on sphere consisted of a small red rectangle with a large yellow star with four smaller stars to its right of it. This was a symbol of its origins. Underneath it, there were several small black symbols that seemed to be words, but not ones that had ever been seen in Equestria
人民解放军空军
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