Another day in the Equestrian Wasteland
Powerful winds blew across the barren landscape, dust kicking up into the air. Several rotting branches and leaf-less shrubs rolled across the ground, their movement gone unnoticed by any living creature around, should there have been any living creatures around. The ground shook slightly as a deafening roar came over the area, followed by the rapid movement of a rusty gunship. The gunship's engines hummed loudly, the outer ball turrets scanning the area, the gunners looking out through shattered or cracked viewports. Inside the craft were several ponies dressed in crudely-constructed armor, DC-15 carbines or E-11 blaster rifles resting in their hooves.
The transport landed outside of a ruined town, the central building cracked in half, the roof fallen in and rotting inside. The surrounding buildings, either completely destroyed or standing in ruins, dot the area. A large fountain, once-bearing the statue of a princess of old, now lies cracked and broken in the heart of the small town.
The ponies disembarked the transport and began walking into the town, rifles held either in their hooves or by magic. Several ponies moved towards the middle while the rest split in two and began circling the outer-edge of the town. The group heading into the middle, numbering five ponies, turned on their helmet lights and kept their weapons held at the ready.
"Lieutenant, I can't see much of anything in this darkness..." one of the ponies said, his armor adorned with a crimson "13" on one of the shoulder plates.
"13, it's always nighttime now. Has been for over a hundred years," the lieutenant replied, a single blue stripe running down the middle of her armor.
"Yeah, ever since those pansy Princesses left, it's been nighttime eternal here. It's no wonder no plants or animals remain..." another pony spoke up, her armor a mixture of both Phase II Clone armor and Stormtrooper armor, with white and camouflage pieces connected together.
"Jungle is right, 13. We're just lucky that alien government left behind equipment and food rations for us to survive this long," the LT added, looking back at 13.
"Then why are we here? The Ponyville Ruins were the first place to be hit by looters and raiding parties," 13 asked, slowly turning around while continuing to follow his fellow squad-mates.
"To uncover the greatest weapons and supply cache left behind by the Republic... P.I.E. Tech Industries," another stallion answered, his helmet sporting a set of mounted polarized macrobinoculars.
"That's just a myth, Crimson.." another mare spoke up, one wearing a suit of the Katarn-class armor with dark red paint splotches on it. "P.I.E. Tech Industries has never existed. It would have been on the town registry the LT recovered."
"It is real, Eclipse. My grandfather was a resident in town and said that a crazed stallion who could change his face ran the facility on the outskirts of town," Crimson retorted, glaring at Eclipse through his helmet.
"Cool it you two! We're almost to the Town Hall" the lieutenant ordered, stopping across the road from the large, circular building. "13 and Crimson, move up and prepare to breach the building."
The two stallions nod, quickly trotting to the building. They positioned themselves on either side of the doorway, nodding to each other before Crimson quickly slammed a hoof into the cracked door. 13 ran inside, rifle held firmly in his light blue magic, scanning the area. The larger stallion followed, hooves gripping the DC-15S tightly. The two armored ponies walked deeper into the town hall ruins, headlamps illuminating the area enough to avoid tripping over the caved-in roof.
13 trotted towards a desk and set his rifle down on top, picking up an old ledger and lightly shook the dust off it. He opened it and scanned the contents. “Crimson, come look at this,” he said, still reading the book.
Crimson walked over slowly, hooves breaking a few tiles with his heavy hoof-falls. “What you got there? Mayor’s diary?” the large stallion asked, chuckling lightly inside his helmet.
“Town ledger, from before the Collapse. Specifically, this is a record of all tax money collected and distributed by the Town Office and the Royal Guard detachment stationed here. There is an abnormally large funnel of bits being sent to a stallion named ‘Cayden Tavers’, whoever the buck he is…” 13 said, turning several pages. “A really large, and continuous funnel, for several years… even continuing after the Collapse, with large funnels of credits from some government called ‘The Republic’.”
“After the Collapse? That’s not possible… is it?” Crimson asked, looking at the ledger.
“It’s said that Ponyville was among the last few places of civilization to fall into chaos, during the final years of the Equestrian Government. So it is possible the funnel could have remained open…” 13 continued.
“Is it possible that it could have been for P.I.E. Tech Industries?”
“... with the amount of credits and bits I’m seeing transferred to this one stallion… It is very likely.” The smaller stallion closed the ledger and slid it into a discarded Equestrian Postal Service bag, slinging it onto his back. “Crimson, let’s find a map of the town. Maybe we can find where this stallion lived and see if he left anything shiny behind.”
“What is taking them so long?” Eclipse asked, kicking at a piece of rubble with her booted hoof.
“I’m sure they’re just being thorough is all, Eclipse…” the LT replied, inspecting her rifle.
“Thorough my flank… I’m sure they’re just looting the place of any valuables they find before getting us,” the red and white-armored mare continued.
The other two mares sighed and looked at each other before looking at Eclipse.
“Eclipse… they’re not going to take anything that is meant for the squad,” Jungle started. “They know it’s against the rules, and that we’d find out if they did anyway.”
“Fine. But I still don’t trust 13…” Eclipse started before her ears perked up, looking over to her left. “Lieutenant… we’re not alone out here…”
“Eclipse, Ponyville has been devoid of life for over sixty years. If anypony survived out here, I’d be sure willing to meet them,” the lieutenant replied, setting her weapon down.
A faint mechanical whirring sung through the air, followed by the light clanking and grinding of metallic parts. The noise slowly gets louder, the sound of heavy hoof-falls thudding out loudly above the noise.
The three mares quickly stand up and grab their weapons, powering them up and staring around them.
“Eclipse, see anything?” Jungle asked, her E-11 trembling in her hooves.
“I can’t see anything in this darkness. LT, we need to evacuate immediately,” Eclipse said, her horn glowing faintly as she held her DC-17 in front of her.
The lieutenant looked around her, hooves shaking and her wings twitching at her sides. Her helmet light spun about as she moved, her tail swishing about wildly behind her.
“LT, we need to get out of here now!” Eclipse said again, turning towards the lieutenant. She grabbed onto her and spun her around, staring into her helmet viewport. “Give us the order to pull back now.”
The LT shakily nodded, tapping on the wrist comm on her left foreleg. “Besh and Cresh squads, pull back to the Gunship immediately! This area has become hostile! 13 and Crimson, get your flanks out of there and let’s go!” she barked into the comm unit, grabbing her rifle firmly with a wing. “Eclipse, take point. Let’s get the buck out of here!”
The three mares quickly started galloping away from the area, heading back down the road they came from, their booted hooves making indents in the ground.
Crimson and 13 sat around a desk, helmets off as they looked over several old, tattered maps.
“This one is dated several years before Nightmare Moon’s return…” 13 said, levitating a small map up in front of him.
“That’s not going to be any good. This Tavers fellow came to Equestria after that,” Crimson responded, looking over another map.
13 frowned, his light brown mane ruffling a bit in the gentle breeze. His green eyes moved onto the next map and a slight smile came across his face. “Crimson, this one might have what we need..”
The larger pony, sporting a dark red coat and yellow eyes, looked over at the younger stallion. “Hmm?”
“It has a large residence zoned out to the Equestrian Government… it’s not a military zoning, since that’s also shown on here just to the south of here. Royal Guard detachment bunker. It’s a new zone specific to the Equestrian Crown…” 13 continued, scanning the map.
“I’m going to see if there’s anything on that zone here…” Crimson started, standing up. He started to move over to a pile of records books when his comm unit buzzed a bit before the LT’s voice came through.
”Besh and Cr- ... -ads, pull back to the Gunsh- … -mediately! This area has beco- … -ile! 13 and Cri- … -our flanks out of there and let’s go!” the voice said before the comm went silent.
13 and Crimson looked at each other before the younger pony tapped on his comm.
“Say again, LT? We didn’t catch-” he stopped when a loud bang went off outside the building, followed by an explosion.
Crimson ran over to the window and looked outside, seeing one of the buildings go up in flames. “13, we need to get out of here now!!” he said, grabbing his helmet and putting it back on.
13 nodded quickly, placing his helmet on his head and grabbing his rifle. The two stallions trotted quickly to the door and peeked outside, watching several strange-looking metal ponies walking around, objects mounted on their shoulders glowing before bolts of plasma were fired out of them, causing more buildings to go up in flames. 13 quickly galloped outside and ducked down behind a building, watching the metal ponies continue to pursue the other half of their squad. Crimson stopped behind him, looking around.
“13, we need to get out of here immediately before those… whatever the buck those things are.. find us,” the older pony said, gripping his rifle firmly in a wing.
“Agreed. I just… there’s no way we’re getting back to the Gunship. Not with those things in our path,” 13 said, looking back at the large pony behind him.
“Then we head the opposite direction.”
“Crimson, it doesn’t exist!” the brown-maned unicorn exclaimed.
“It’s our only hope of surviving! Come on!” the crimson stallion ordered, quickly running back towards the Town Hall and galloped around it, looking around to make sure no other metal ponies were following.
13 groaned and followed after the stallion, keeping close enough to be able to see the larger pony in front of him. His horn began glowing brightly as he cast a magical light about, illuminating the road more. The pair kept galloping down the road, the young unicorn lighting up the road as the large pegasus kept his rifle held at the ready. Several minutes passed, explosions could still be heard going off behind them as they rapidly approached a charred fence. They galloped past it and went up the cobblestone pathway, stopping at the entrance to a large building.
Crimson went to open the door but found no door handle. “Great… it’s one of those electronic blast doors. 13, see if you can’t get it open with your magic?”
The brown-maned unicorn nodded and trotted up to the door, horn glowing brightly as his magic grabbed onto the metal object and began attempting to move it. Crimson turned back towards the road, watching for movement. Several red dots began advancing towards the building, their metal legs and hoof-falls making clanking and grinding noises as they approached the two stallions.
“13, if you’re gonna do something, do it quick!” the older pegasus said loudly, rifle pointed at the approaching machine-ponies.
The metal ponies kept advancing, their shoulder-mounted plasma cannons beginning to charge.
13 groaned and grunted loudly as the door began to slide open slowly, the metal creaking and grinding loudly against the frame as it moved for the first time in over a hundred years. The unicorn poured more magic into moving the door as it suddenly slid open quickly, a large gust of air blowing out over the two stallions. Crimson and 13 quickly ran inside and forced the large door shut before multiple plasma blasts scorched the area they were standing in.
They panted heavily inside the dark room, laughing a bit at their situation.
“That… was too close…” Crimson said in between pants, looking at his partner.
“N-no kidding... “ 13 replied, smiling behind his helmet before looking around. “Where are we, anyway..?”
As if on command, the lights began to flicker on slowly, illuminating the room they occupied. The grey metal flooring seemed as if it was untouched by time, the black, grey, and white panels on the walls and ceiling glistening a bit in the light. A sound of speakers crackling sounded off in the room before a mechanical voice spoke.
”Oh goodness… it is so good to be back online... “ the voice said.
The two stallions looked around, confused and scared.
“Who’s there?” Crimson asked, raising his blaster.
”I am Delta-07, a military-grade Galactic Defense Artificial Intelligence unit constructed by Republic Military Intelligence and Commander Tavers before being transferred here to oversee planetary defense.” Delta responded. A camera above the door zoomed in on the pair of ponies. “Who are you?”
“I’m.. ponies call me ‘13’. And this is Crimson. We’re… adventurers with the Green Hills Battalion,” 13 stated, taking off his helmet. Crimson did the same, turning to look at the camera.
” Interesting… I have no data record of a ‘Green Hills Battalion’ in the Equestrian Royal Guard or the Grand Army of the Republic…”
“The Royal Guard hasn’t existed in over a hundred years. And nopony has seen hoof or tail of any soldiers of this ‘Republic’ that you speak of,” the large stallion replied.
”Over a hundred years? Interesting indeed… I’ve been shut down for quite some time then.”
“Where are we?” 13 asked, looking around.
“13!” Crimson started, looking at the young unicorn.
“What? I’m not trusting this thing until I know where we are! And if the LT comes back for us, we need to be able to tell her where we are,” the young pony said, staring at the pegasus.
The large pegasus nodded and sighed, closing his eyes a bit.
“So… where are we, Delta?” 13 asked again, looking at the camera.
”You are in the residence of Commander Cayden Tavers. Or, as it is officially registered as in both the Galactic Republic and by the Equestrian Government, P.I.E. Tech Industries.” Delta replied, the camera continuing to stare down at the ponies as they looked at each other in disbelief.
