Come on you apes! You wanna live forever?
The Equestrian Drop
By
Teal
For Lt. Juan 'Johnnie' Rico, this was just another routine drop. But despite this, he could feel his body shake as he waited inside the dark metal capsule, listening to the radio as the ship’s crew adjusted their orbit to prepare for the drop. Hoping to stop the shakes by distracting his mind, he went through mental checklist of everything that he should have done before loading up inside his drop pod. He had already made sure that his platoon was ready for the drop, with everyone fit and suited up for the operation. He had to thank his platoon sergeant for that, for he was the one who always kept an eye on the platoon, making sure that every suit was ready for action and every weapon clean and ready to fire. Despite knowing that no detail would pass his sergeant’s eye, he still inspected everyone, section by section, knowing that it would calm the nerves of the new recruits. It was always good to see your leader checking your equipment, making sure you’re ready; it gives a sense of care and removes the worry from some people.
Having completed the equipment checked, he gave them all a last minute briefing. Although the plans of the operations have already been hypnotically implanted to all the troops, it still wouldn’t hurt to give them one last briefing, in case they have questions he could answer.
But there were no questions asked. Everyone understood what they needed to do and they were all determined to fulfill the orders given to them. They didn’t ask why they needed to do it or if it was really necessary to do it. The Mobile Infantry never question like that, since they always follow their orders. No matter what the order may be, they would do it without hesitation, quickly and efficiently, the Mobile Infantry way.
With everything in his pre-drop checklist complete, he turned his attention to the mission ahead of him. The operation called for a coordinated drop on all of the populated centers on the planet below. Their mission was to hit the deck, cause destruction, and then get out. In other words, what they were about to conduct a raid on the planet below. It was a simple plan, with nothing complex about it.
Rico had never heard about the planet below before, nor did he know much about the race that lived on it. But like the good soldier he was, he didn’t ask who they were and why they were so important. All he did was accept all the information he was given and concentrated on executing it without losing anyone on his platoon.
All he knew was, the race that lived on the planet had high energy readings and that they didn’t respond to any of their calls. It was said that the scientific probes that orbited above the planet scanned the area and received high energy readings emitting from the organism’s that lived on the planet, which were said to be deadly if used as a weapon. The Federation tried to contact them, in hopes of gaining an ally, but received no reply.
In fear of this new race offering its services to the Arachnids, the Terran high command decided to take immediate action. So they planned this operation, in which they would instill fear to the ones on the planet below, as a statement to them saying: ‘Hey, you don’t want to mess with us!’
So here he was now, as a small piece in a large operation. He and his platoon (Known as Rico’s Roughnecks) were assigned to raid the capital of one of the major nations, assigned to cause us much destruction as possible, and displaying a show of force to whoever ran that country. Like the raid on the Skinnies, it would be quick yet destructive.
Rico had everything about the plan in his head and had the experience to be flexible enough to improvise in case something goes wrong. After reviewing the plan, he knew that he had nothing else to do but wait. Wait as the shakes takes over him ones more.
That was why he was relieved to hear ship’s Captain, through the radio, informing him that the ship was in position for the drop.
“Five seconds till drop. Good luck, Lieutenant, hope to see you soon.” She said, before the loud metallic clang came from overhead his capsule, as he was launched out of the sip and to the planet below.
Princess Celestia was sipping her tea when she heard the screams of her ponies on the city below. After experiencing a year of terror throughout her nation, from Discord to Tirek, she knew better than to act sluggish and slow. So she immediately got on her hooves and galloped towards the nearby balcony, hoping to figure out what was going on. As she raced through the halls, she wondered whether this was something she could handle alone. If not, then he would have to make a quick letter to Twilight and her friends, asking for assistance. Hopefully, things would not come to that.
Reaching the balcony, she looked out towards the city below to see what all the commotion was about. From her position, she could see ponies screaming in the streets, cowering in corners, as some pointed up towards the sky as they yelled.
Glancing towards the sky, her eyes went wide when she saw dozens of black dots falling from the sky. Normally, she would act calm and have a clear mind during situations liked this. But this wasn’t any normal situation, as this was a threat that would endanger everpony. Once she saw the objects in the sky, panic filled her as her heart started to beat faster.
Changelings!
That was her first thought about those objects falling from the sky. What else could they have been? Remembering the events of the Royal Wedding, her mind told her that they were changelings, due to the same attack pattern, in which the changelings broke the shield and came from high above the city. She concluded that they were about to repeat the same attack pattern and this time, there wasn’t a shield to slow them down.
“Prepare the guard for an attack!” She told the guard who had escorted her. “Inform them evacuate the civilians and prepare for the city’s defense.”
“Yes, your highness.” The guard said was a salute, as he galloped off towards the barracks to alert the others.
Turning her gaze back towards the sky, she felt angry knowing that they were unprepared for this. This attack was so sudden and random, giving them almost no time to prepare. She didn’t see any signs of changelings massing and gathering for an attack, yet they were here to besiege the city once more. Somehow, they have managed to hide their force and mount a successful surprise attack. She just hoped that not too many innocent ponies get hurt in this attack.
She pushed all those thoughts away as she concentrated at the problem in front of her. There would be enough time to debate about that later. Right now, they would have to fight them off and hope to defeat them once and for all.
Scanning the skies, Celestia tried to locate the changeling leader. After the last encounter, she knew the Chrysalis would lead her changeling herself into this battle. So somewhere out in that large group, the changeling queen was commanding her followers.
But as she continued to watch the threat descend towards the city, she noticed something odd. Squinting her eyes, she gave all of them a better look and noticed that these weren’t changelings. Instead, they were weird pod like objects that were falling from the sky.
She continued to study the objects as they descent, when she suddenly saw them split apart, sending the two halves of each of pod hurtling down to the city below. Her gaze followed the halves as they fell, hoping that they wouldn’t hit anypony, but immediately returned to the skies when she saw the weird objects that were once inside the pods.
These objects, the she was now observing, seemed to be descending slowly, as a cloth like material hovered over them, slowing down their fall. She watched the objects with great curiosity and intrigue, as they slowly descended down towards the city.
By now, the screaming below have died down, fear replaced by curiosity. This was a strange spectacle and they wondered who or what these things were. They were fascinated at the sight and were only snapped out of the trance when the jettisoned pods slammed on top of a couple of buildings.
Celestia, who was still watching them get closer and closer, wondered what would happen once they touched the ground. From her view, those objects looked like statues, unmoving and forever gazing. They looked like objects that Discord would have conjured up, as she planned to talk to him if this was his doing.
But her shock returned, when she saw the seemingly unmoving objects suddenly move, as they left the cloth like material and quickly descended to the ground. Burst of flames came from their backs, as it softened their fall, making them land gently on the streets and roofs of the city below.
They stood upright and on two legs, as their fore legs were located on their upper body, while they held a weird looking device, which seemed to resemble a small canon. Wearing some kind of armor that Celestia was unfamiliar with, they look intimidating and fearsome, especially with their high pose and strong looking build. With armor and objects that seemed to resemble canons, Celestia feared that they were about to be attack by s strange new force.
Celestia was still studying these strange looking creatures, when a line of them jumped towards one direction, while the other went the opposite way. Aided by some kind of prolusion devise, their jumps were high and far, as it brought them above tall buildings and across large portions of Canterlot.
That was when the screaming returned.
The moment they the strange armor cladded creatures touched the ground, the strange objects they wielded sprouted out fire and shot, as it proved to Celestia that it was a small canon. The loud bang of their weapons echoed throughout the city, as they seemed to be attacking anything that got in their way.
The screams of the ponies below could be heard, mixing with the loud bangs, as the ponies galloped away from the approaching danger. From her position, she could see some unlucky ponies get hit by the projectiles of the canon, flinging them across the road as their bodies go limp.
A detachment of Royal Guard appeared on the streets and tried to protect the civilians, but before they could do anything, they got torn up by the projectiles the creatures were launching at them. In mere seconds, the entire detachment was decimated.
Celestia couldn’t help but gasp in horror as she saw this, as her motherly instinct for her ponies kicked in. Immediately, she opened her wing and prepared to fly out and help them. But just as she was about to jump off the balcony and fly to the city below, a bright flash of light blinded her, forcing her to look away.
Boom!
The large explosion temporarily deafened her, as she blinked because of the effects of the flash of light.
Turning her gaze back towards the city below, her eyes grew wide in fear and shock as an entire city block was engulfed by a mushroom like cloud. The cloud had completely covered that area, as the building near it seemed to have been seriously damaged by the explosion.
Scanning the city, she could see projectiles that flew like fireworks, heading towards buildings. But unlike fireworks, which brought happiness and joy to those who watched them, these fireworks brought fear to it onlookers. Once they hit the building, a large explosion followed, destroying large areas and leaving behind large clouds of smoke.
One of these projectiles hit the castle, shaking the structure as the loud explosion brought Celestia down to the floor. She could here parts of the castle fall from the damage, as the explosions and screaming mixed in the air, creating a symphony of chaos that Discord would enjoy.
But she doubted it if he would have enjoyed the death and destruction that was going on outside, because she knew nopony who was evil enough to enjoy something that was in this scale. Ponies being hit by projectiles and falling down dead, explosions that were powerful enough to destroy entire city block, unknown creatures that seemed to want nothing but the destruction of their peaceful city. The destruction that was happening outside surpassed that off the changelings and brought an entire new meaning to fear.
Shamefully, Celestia cowered behind the balcony, covering her ears with her hooves and hoping that this would just stop.
Lt. Rico jumped on top of a tall flat building and scanned the area in front of him. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, as his platoon seeped through the city, causing as much damage to property as possible. All around him, fires broke out and explosion shook the ground, as they brought terror to hearts and minds of the peoples of this race.
Having landed in two parallel lines, he split his platoon into two sections, with the first line going east, while the second going west. These two sections would sweep across the city, destroying any valuable target before pulling back. Not that there was anything valuable to destroy, with no spaceship construction areas or nuclear plants. Oh well, they would just have to make do.
Checking his helmet’s display, he could see that everyone in his platoon was still up and fighting. Which didn’t surprise him, seeing that these new race didn’t put much of a fight. Using primitive weapons, like spears and arrows, this strange new race had no chance of penetrating the powered suit’s armor with those sharpened projectiles. The only threatening weapon they had were the high energy beams that the horned members of their race seemed to have, but this still weren’t enough power in them to penetrate their armor, as the beams just bounced off.
He continued to monitor the situation around him, making sure that everyone was fulfilling the task, while his platoon sergeant enforced his orders. Everything seemed to be going smoothly and they would soon be over with the operation.
“Lieutenant Rico…” A call came from the radio. He immediately recognized the voice to be the one of their company commander. It was rare for him and his platoon to operate with the captain, since his command worked independently from the company, but it didn’t mean he didn’t recognize the voice of his superior. “…good job over there at you’re sector.”
“Thank you, Captain.” He said, not wanting to add anything else. There was a short pause before the Captain continued.
“Alright, Lieutenant, we have done our job over here and are about to pull out. I’ve already receive work from the fleet and they are sending down boats to pick us up. So I suggest that you ready you’re men or pick-up.”
“Roget that.” He said, before picking up a thermal grenade from his belt and threw it in one of the building’s ventilation shaft. Hopefully, once ignited, the thermal grenade would cause a fire that would spread throughout the building.
Once done, he jumped off of the building, using his jet packs to soften his descent, until he reached an open area of the city. The surrounding buildings were heavily damaged, by explosives and small arms fire, as some of the inhabitant’s bodies littered the ground. He found it weird that they were fighting horse like creatures, but then again, their number one enemy were gigantic and intelligent spiders.
“To the everlasting glory of the infantry, shines the name, shines the name, of Roger Young!”
The sweet melody of the drop ship’s beacon echoed in his ears as the sweet melody was sent to all members of the platoon.
He then turned on his radio and linked it with his platoon sergeant, who was out there commanding the two sections. “Alright, Sergeant…” He told him. “…that’s enough fun for today. Call the men back and home in on the boat’s beacon; we’re getting out of this place.”
“Copy that, Lieutenant.” Came the reply, before being followed by orders that the sergeant gave to the section commanders. “First section, fall back to the beacon! Second section fall back to the beacon! Come everybody, on the bounce!”
Knowing that his platoon sergeant had everything under control, he bounced off to the beacon of the drop ship, keeping an eye on the status of his platoon, to make sure everyone was alright and didn’t need any kelp.
As he bounced through the streets and above the building of the shattered city, he listened to the sweet harmonic lyrics of the beacon, humming with the relaxing tune.
Celestia watched as the last of them left, boarding their weird looking chariots and flying up to the sky in which they came from. Gathering back enough courage to stand, she looked down from the balcony to see the devastated city that was once the capital of her nation.
Buildings were on fire, large structures shattered, bodies littered the streets, as decimation could be seen everywhere. She didn’t know what they did to deserve this terrible suffering, but she wouldn’t have the capability to ask, as the creatures who caused this were now gone.
A tear rolled down her cheek, as she sobbed for the lives who were ruined because of this attack. It would take months, if not years before they would be able to rebuild, but physically they would recover. But mentally, she wasn’t sure. Many ponies must have been scared by this event and she only hoped that those wounds would heal.
As she sulked at the balcony, contemplating on what just happened, the sound of hoof steps echoed from the halls behind her. The sound grew louder and louder, till a voice called out for her.
It was Luna, fresh out of bed, with her mane still messy after waking up from her daylight sleep.
“Tia, what was all that ruckus outside?” She asked, completely clueless of about the recent attack. “Did the pink pony friend of Twilight Sparkle throw one of her parties again?”
Celestia just stared at her sister, not knowing what to say. This brought confusion to Luna, who was still waiting for an answer.
“What?”
