Cold. Desolate. Abandoned and poorly reinforced structures with jagged cracks waving through what remained of the cement walkways. Nearly abandoned as it was now, this site used to be a sight to behold. Then again, when the Changeling Empire began their assault, it may not have been the smartest thing to reinforce Cloudsdale with stone and metal. It may have survived the onslaught by those twisted creatures, but the cost of sending it plummeting to the earth below and sending the terrain into a permanent winter may not have been worth it. Never the less, after its fall, Cloudsdale, a once proud pegasus homeland, had become nothing more than a run down, dismal, containment.
On this day, the wind was naturally blisteringly cold, but the two mares guarding a massive door in the vacant cement birth stood with their opposite colored armor jackets at attention. Both of their wing sets came out and over their jackets, both rather proud to be home or lack thereof. However, their calm expressions quickly turned sharp and at attention as they heard the familiar trotting of their employer. The sound of the echoing steps harkened that mare’s return, both seeing her violet mane coming to sight along with the snow white armor that almost blended into her pure white coat.
The two pegasi struck a salute to the mare, remaining as such as she moved passed them. “Do remain at attention,” the mare told them with a soft smile, “we wouldn’t want any trouble, would we?” the pegasi shook their heads in response, both too petrified to answer in words.
Once the door behind them had closed and let them know that their boss had exited earshot, they both eased up and looked to each other. “Geez Flitter. Could she be any angrier today?” the messier haired of the two asked.
“You’re telling me? I thought she was going to totally rip your head off Cloudchaser!” the red armored mare laughed.
“What do you think went up her ass?” Cloudchaser asked.
“Something must be happening tomorrow for her to be in such a sharp hissy,” Flitter surmised, “any idea what?”
Before Cloudchaser could answer, her ears twitched at an unnatural sound. True, the ruminants of Cloudsdale were known to crumble and fall every so often, but the sound she heard sounded… metallic. “Wait… did you hear something?”
Shick, click…
“What? The wind? The birds? Rocks falling? Could be anything Cloudchaser.”
“There it was again!” starting to get frantic, the mare grabbed for her gun, clicking her left hoof into the pump trigger and using her wing as support for the barrel.
Clack, click, shlick…
“Seriously, Cloud. What are you talking about?”
“Tell me you didn’t hear that!”
“I don’t hear any—“ Flitter took a few steps back, suddenly feeling a deep, chilling metal pressing up against her flank. “Oooooh… Crap…”
Both of the mares turn around as quick as they could, but in vain as Flitter took a blunt and swift buck to the jaw and sending her with a painful skid across the cold cement floor. Cloudchaser jumbled with her rifle at this sudden invisible attack. But for better or worse, their assaulter came to Cloudchaser’s eyes. She made no hesitation at trying to shoot at this midnight blue mare, ignoring her horn and wings and blaming the strange sight on the growing fear. Shot after shot, Cloudchaser shot at the galloping mare as she swerved and weaved through the fire coming at her as she took cover behind a ramp.
Seeing the attacker pinned behind that ramp, Cloudchaser felt almost at ease while fixing her scope on the wavering mane of that black armor wearing mare. “You’re not getting away from—“ before she finished, she heard a strange sizzling sound accompanied with a flicking blue light under her. Looking down, she saw what looked like a magic grenade sticking to the frost covered floor. “…Buck this…” was the last thing Cloudchaser managed to say before the grenade went off and sent her flying into the air, charring her wings and armor.
Having cleared the area of the only two guards, the mare stepped out from the ramp with a cocky smile. “I pray that thou were not frightened too much ladies.” She quipped while walking back towards the door the two mares were previously guarding.
Shortly after her passing, from the sky above came Cloudchaser with smoke streaming off of her body before crashing back into the cold floor with a distinct “Buck” escaping her mouth with her final breath.
Ignoring the fallen blue, the mare continued to move onward, thinking to herself over her whole circumstance.
“I was currently on the trail of an old friend and comrade of mine, Wyoming, or Rarity on a more personal level, praying she would lead me to her wretch of a leader. But luck was not in my fortune it would seem, until that foal made the mistake of venturing here. Now locked doors aren’t exactly on the list of my more favored derailments, but one does not simply lock anything without having purpose to do so. This leading to something or somepony, worth locking up. Nevertheless, I have a fair level sense, and I could not ignore this feeling that I was entering right in to a ...”
Suddenly, the frosted over steel doors she stood before slid open to reveal a jeep revving up at its opening before charging the intruder with all its force. “Drat!” the mare coughed out as her suit absorbed most of the brunt of the attack before kicking off the head of it before the jeep was wedged between the ceiling and one of the ramps.
In this instance, the intruder met eyes with her attacker who was smiling mirthfully at the midnight blue mare. “Darling, if you wanted to see me, you need only to call me. Please excuse me if I don’t feign some sort of surprise, Luna.”
“Luna. Of course, I fail to see a reason why we were given code names if we won’t even call one another by them. All for the best I suppose; Tex is a rediculious name for a girl by nay regards.”
“Oh, and my-my.” The white mare looked around at the mess Luna had left of her two guards, “it looks like you made work of my two best guards. How drab.”
“My sincerest apologies, I assure thee.” Luna replied in a dry tone that rivaled even the cold winds of the area.
“Oh dear, please. Tomorrow was pay day anyway; you actually saved me a great deal of gems. I swear, at this rate of kills by you, I will have to surely pay you some sort of commissions.” Rarity laughed, trying to jerk the jeep out from the wedge with the use of her horn’s magic.
Luna was fine with banter, but this was getting no closer to her goal. “Pray tell me where she is…”
Rarity saw as a rifle was beginning to be aimed at her head with Luna’s magic enlacing it. Even so, the mare did not drop her smile. “Honestly, I thought you were doing all of this to gain quality time with me. Oh-hum…”
“Hold thy tongue, harlot. Dispense with my information!” Luna was growing tired of these games, cocking her gun for show of her intentions.
“Hm? Oh yes, she asks about you too, Luna. If I didn’t know any better, it would almost seem like you two share a single mind…” they both knew now that Rarity was just trying to pick at Luna now, and Luna did not enjoy that.
“Spare me your quips…”
“Then I have no more business here, I’m afraid. Far too busy to waste my time, you know,” with that, the jeep span out from the wedge and flicked itself in the direction of the nearest exit.
Not missing a beat, Luna dropped her gun and tackled the side of the jeep Rarity was controlling on. Like Flitter before, Luna dispensed buck after buck to the white mare’s head, bruising it and blinding out her offered eye. However, the assault didn’t last long as Rarity took a sharp turn towards a corner, scrapping Luna off before speeding off down the snow covered path. “Damnation!” Luna cursed as pain shot through her side.
“Ciao, Luna!” Rarity offered a wave while letting her horn do all the work of piloting the jeep.
Luna watched as her lead quickly made her escape, growing furious at the idea of losing her one and only lead. However, she saw her opening resting in one of the snow banks. A discarded sniper. Normally she would question the likely hood of a sniper just laying there in the snow, but there was no time for that. She darted towards the sniper and discarded the clip inside it as quick as she could, only to replace it with her own. Using her horn to take aim of the gun at Rarity’s escaping jeep; she fired a blinking blue bullet at the bumper of the jeep; locking her target down for sure.
The small tracking device clicked perfectly against the jeep, signaling Luna to make her exit. On the other side, however, Rarity had begun to get a transmission over her radio. “Chump, you there?”
“Rarity here, go ahead,” Rarity starchy corrected the other voice on the radio.
“Yeah, did she take the bait?”
“As easily as ever, darling. As easily as ever…”
“Awesome…” the voice began to laugh gradually, eventfully bursting into sharp caws and screeches as Rarity’s jeep disappeared over the rolling, white landscape.
