The Northern Guard

Equestrian Coast, North of Vanhoover

Palmer looked out over the beach below her. The Changelings were lying dead near their cave, blood oozing from their bullet wounds. She turned her attention back to the machine gun; an old M247 mounted on a tripod. “Great, more ONI bullshit.” She pulled the gun off the tripod, checking the box magazine holding the belt below. It was half full after her barrage.

“Palmer, get down here!” yelled Cosmo from the beach.

The soldier vaulted over the edge of the machine gun nest, sliding down the cliff face on her thigh to the beach below. She hit the ground, rolling forward as her feet made contact with the sand and ran over to Cosmo. “Did I miss something?”

“Ya, you did.” Said Cosmo as he pointed to the rotting corpse. “This isn’t a minefield.”

“Fuck, it’s a graveyard.” Groaned Palmer. “Why the hell did Cloud dig it up?”

“Because I told him to. A minefield isn’t that good unless it blows up, so I wanted to know where the fireworks were.”

“Pretty obvious they weren’t here.” Groaned Cloud as he wiped remains of vomit from the edge of his mouth.

“That begs another question.” Noted Cosmo. “Cloud, how did you know that the letter was a fake and that we were walking into a trap?”

Cloud pulled himself to his feet and stared at Cosmo. “The seal. It was plain wax.”

“Plain wax…” Cosmo pulled his helmet off. “But that was dragonfire that it came in.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Retorted Cloud. “The real royal seal has gold leaf laced into it. That was just a plain wax seal.” Cloud stopped to look around the beach, a frown growing on his face. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

“What makes you think we’re leaving just yet?” asked Cosmo. “We keep this beach locked down until the Guard gets here to retrieve these bodies.”

“Who cares? We walked into a damn trap! What’s to say we don’t get-”

SMACK

“Snap out of it Cloud.” Ordered Cosmo. “We don’t have time for the ‘woe is me’ routine. There’s a reason that we’re standing on top of a bunch of dead bodies, and I want to know why.”

“But we walked into a trap! Doesn’t that mean anything?” insisted Cosmo.

As Palmer watched the two stallions banter, she decided to examine the changeling body on her own accord. “Can you two can it? One of us is trying to work over here.” She brushed some of the sand of the changeling’s face before pushing its eyelid open to reveal the solid white eyes. “This isn’t right… Cosmo, take a look at this.”

Cosmo walked over, standing over Palmer with a bemused expression. “It’s a dead body Palmer, nothing really special about it.”

“Then I take it that bone white eyes are normal?”

“Bone white?” Cosmo shoved Palmer out of the way, examining the changeling. “Awe shit… Those aren’t eyes.” Cosmo dug his hands down into the socket of the dead changeling, pulling out a large white marble. “It’s a fake. I’ll guarantee you that everything else has been gutted and filled in with junk.”

“So we’re dealing with a bunch of useless sacks of flesh?” Asked Palmer.

“Looks like it.”

Cloud tapped Cosmo on the shoulder. “Then maybe we should leave. Preferably right now.”

“And why would we want to do that?” Asked Cosmo.

“So the ponies at the top of the cliff don’t have time to mow us down?”

“Other ponies?” Cosmo stood and scanned the top of the cliff, spotting two groups readying two machine guns. “Shit!”

“Alright, quit screwing around.” Ordered Palmer. “Get to the cave!”

“No need to tell me twice!” Cloud broke into a run before the pulse jets on his greaves kicked in, sending him rocketing into the cave.

Palmer and Cosmo took off after the stallion, jumping over puffs of sand created by pistol rounds being fired from the cliff before they ducked into the mouth of the cave. “Well, that was fun.” Chided Palmer.

“How the hell was that fun?” asked Cloud. “Really, help me understand!”

“She was being sarcastic.” Noted Cosmo. “Anyway, Palmer. I need some ideas on dealing with those machine gunners.”

“Do we have any smoke grenades?”

“No.”

“Then I got nothing.”

Suddenly, the ground shook and knocked loose rocks off the ceiling of the cave. “What the fuck was that?” Asked Cosmo.

“You think I know?” Snipped Palmer.

“I was being rhetorical!”

Cloud rolled his eyes and approached the mouth of the cave before he poked his head out to look around. “The ponies with the machine guns are gone.” He said before he turned his attention down to the beach, and an approaching tidal wave. “And I see why they left!”

Cosmo and Palmer walked out of the cave, catching sight of the approaching wall of water. “Now its time to leave!” yelled Cosmo as he led the charge for the cliff face towards the rear of the cove.

“How the hell are we supposed to climb that?!?” yelled Palmer.

“We don’t need to climb.” Replied Cosmo as he stopped at the foot of the cliff. “Cloud, care to give us a lift?”

“Wait, why…” Cloud face palmed. “Right, got out here somehow.” The young stallion wrapped his arms around Palmer and Cosmo before he powered up the pulse jets up on his boots and rocketed up the rocky face.

Palmer looked over her shoulder, the wave had finally crashed onto the beach, sending a massive amount of seawater barreling towards the trio. “Cloud, pick up the pace!”

Cloud looked over his own shoulders, eyes going wide. “Oh shit!”

As the three passed the top of the cliff the water slammed into their backs, sending them flying over the field at the top of the cove. Cloud sucked in a chestful of seawater as he tried to gasp, coughing it up when he came to a stop face up in a newly formed pond.

“Everyone alright?” groaned Cosmo.

“I’ve been through worse.” Replied Palmer as she scrambled to her feet. “Where the hell did that wave come from?”

“Probably whatever shook the ground back in the cave.” Added Cosmo as he fished a small black box out of his jacket. “Hopefully this works…”

zzzttt…

“Guard post Vanhoover, this is Ranger. Requesting status report.”

zzzttt…

“Guard post Vanhoover, respond.” Cosmo sighed. “As if our day couldn’t get any better.”

“You’re thinking that Vanhoover got hit?” Asked Palmer.

Cosmo nodded. “Either that or my radio is busted.”

zzzttt… “Vanhoover Guard Outpost to all Equestrian forces. Broken arrow, repeat broken arrow. Vanhoover has fallen. This message repeats.”

Cosmo turned off his radio for a moment, looking at both Palmer and Cloud as a pale orange comet began to pass overhead. “We need to get back to Vanhoover.”

“We need to do more than get back to Vanhoover.” Added Palmer. “We need a whole god damn army!”

“We’ll have to do for now then.” Snipped Cosmo.

“Hey, I think we’ve got a bigger problem.” Said Cloud as he pointed at the orange comet, now growing larger as it neared them.

“For once I would just love it if I didn’t have a daily dose of bullshit…” Muttered Cosmo as the comet flew overhead, before it crashed off in the forest. “I get a feeling somepony is going to want us to go check that out.”

FWOOSH

After the dragonfire went out, Cosmo reached out and grabbed the scroll it delivered. “See, what I tell ya?” Cosmo quickly broke the royal seal, unfurling the piece of paper as his expression became that of disbelief. “Fuck…” He looked off towards the comet that had crashed, noting the plume of light grey smoke now rising over the treetops. “Palmer, could a Spartan survive a crash landing from orbit?”

Palmer cocked an eyebrow. “Why?”

______________________________________________________________________________

Half an Hour Later, Northern Forests

“Thanks Dart, we’ll be back in a few.” Cosmo shut off his radio and put it back in his pocket.

“Let’s run through this one more time-” insisted Cloud

“Why?” asked Cosmo as he hacked away at a hedge of laurel.

Cloud pushed Cosmo away before blasting a hole in the hedge with his suit’s cannons. “Maybe it’s because it’s a little hard to believe that we had a giant superweapon hovering over our heads?”

“Better for you not to believe it then.” Said Cosmo. “You’re messed up enough right now as it is.”

“How the hell am I messed up?” Questioned Cloud as the trio walked deeper into the forest, his right eye twitching.

“You’ve got that body on the brain.” Replied the unicorn. “Look, you wanted to try to be a hero. Heroes deal with death. So, logically, you’re still trying to process that scene as you haven’t seen something like that previously.”

“And Canterlot doesn’t count?”

“Kid, you were wounded and hiding in a restaurant the whole time, then survived falling off the side of the mountain. That’s a bit of a different flavor then having to deal with a dead body.”

“While I haven’t heard it put that way before, he’s right Cloud.” Added Palmer. “From my own experience, facing your own mortality is far different than seeing the mortality of those around you.”

“That explain how you’re so balanced?” Snipped Cloud.

Palmer looked down at her feet before locking her gaze with Cloud’s. “I just know how to keep everything compartmentalized.”

“And knowing how to do that will come with time.” Pointed out Cosmo. “Changing gears for a moment, how are we supposed to tell if Dusk is still alive?”

“Unless something changed, there’s a manual release on the back of his helmet. We pop that and we should be able to tell if he's breathing.” Noted Palmer.

“That’s assuming nothing melted during entry?”

Palmer shook her head. “There have been a few instances of Mjolnir armor surviving an atmospheric reentry mostly unscathed, but that was with some sort of extra protection like an m-spec pack or-”

“Or a giant chunk of metal?” asked Cloud.

“That was one way it was…”

“I think we found the source of our fireball.” Cosmo walked up to the chunk of scorched metal impaled into the ground, standing tall like an obelisk. “Dusk can’t be that much farther. Spread out and find him.”

“No need.” Palmer pointed to a smoldering crater.

As the trio gathered around the crater, Cosmo used a blast of magic to blow away the cloud of smoke. On the ground was a scorched pony face down in the crater, clad in broken armor. “Palmer?”

Palmer stepped down into the crater, pulling the small release lever on the back of Dusk’s helmet before pulling it off. “Dusk, you alright?”

The battered unicorn rolled over with a groan and stared up at the sky. “I’m not dead?”

“Nope.” Palmer grabbed Dusk’s outstretched hand and hauled him to his feet.

Dusk looked over the soaked mare, before turning his attention to the equally soaked stallions of the group. “Is Vanhoover still in one piece?”

“Define one piece?” Asked Cosmo.

“Not a smoldering crater?”

Cosmo shrugged. “Probably not a crater, but fucked up. The local guard already declared broken arrow.”

“Probably hit by a tidal wave.” Noted Dusk. “I’ll take it that’s what happened to you three?”

“No, we decided to have a damn water balloon fight.” Groaned Cloud.

Dusk sighed. “How bad is it?”

“I’ve got no idea.” Said Cosmo. “We were busy walking into a trap.”

“Why the hell were you walking into a trap?”

“The local goons probably set us up, and springing the trap should’ve given us a bit more then dead changelings with no internal organs.”

“Really?” questioned Dusk.

“Just ask Cloud. Shit scared him for life.” Noted Cosmo.

“Shut hell up Cosmo!” yelled Cloud.

“Look, none of that matters right now.” Said Dusk. “If anything, I want to know what the hell is going on.” He pulled out some sort of communicator before flipping a switch before it started shooting out a beam of light.

“Dusk, I take it that you enjoyed your flight?” Asked the princess as the hologram came into focus. She was flanked by Flash Sentry, Steeljack and Sonar.

“Flight? That wasn’t a fucking flight. That was me falling to my doom!”

“But you’re alive, none the less. Now, I believe you have information to share.”

Dusk sighed. “West Wind is still kicking.”

“I thought that General Shower iced him.” Noted Flash.

“And he obviously has brains and cybernetics to spare. Someone grabbed him after we bugged out, that much is clear. What ‘they’ did to him remains to be seen.”

Steeljack was off to the side, studying Cloud. “He didn’t happen to go down with the platform, did he?”

Dusk shook his head. “He and his men fell back to some sort of portal in a different part of the station. I don’t know where they ended up.”

“Do we know where the station’s wreckage landed?” asked Sonar. “Might be worth a look.”

“The Redoubtable is already on it.” Said Flash. “It landed in the northern tundra, roughly twenty miles west of the Crystal Empire.”

“Steeljack take who you can and get to that platform, see if you can pick up West Wind’s trail. I’ll go to Vanhoover and help coordinate disaster response.”

“Dart and Halsey are already back at my loft.” Added Cosmo. “They should have a command post up and running by the time we get there.”

“Alright, I’ll take care of it.” Said Steeljack. “Flash, kill the feed.”

“Did Steeljack look a bit off?” Asked Cloud.

“Cloud, you’re wearing his gear.” Said Cosmo. “Why wouldn’t he be staring you down?”

“I never said he was staring me down.”

Cosmo chuckled. “Trust me, he was.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Vanhoover Harbor, Cosmo’s Loft

Dart flopped back on Cosmo’s couch. “Doc, have you had any luck getting in touch with any of the locals?”

“If you mean any that aren’t dead, I can’t say so.” Replied Halsey as she fiddled with a spare base radio she found in the armory.

“Then give me some options!”

POP!

Dusk blew past Dart and made for the loft’s window. “And here I am without my wetsuit.”

Dart got up from the couch and walked up behind Dusk, still distracted by the flooded city below.

SMACK!

“You’re an asshole, you know that!” Yelled Dart before she turned Dusk around and pinned him against the window.

“Well I’m sorry I’d rather no one hear the noises of what could have been my death.” Retorted Dusk.

Dart rolled her eyes before she jumped up and wrapped her legs around Dusk’s midsection before she pressed her forehead against his own. “I’m just glad you’re alright.”

“Eh hem!” Interrupted Cosmo. “Hate to interrupt, but we’ve got a city that’s drowning outside.”

Dusk let Dart drop to the ground before he walked over to Cosmo. “Armory still in the same place?” Cosmo nodded and Dusk pushed past him, dropping pieces of his broken armor as he went. By the time he reached the door, he was already discarding the top of his armor’s undersuit.

“You need something specific?” called Cosmo.

“Already found it!” yelled Dusk. A few minutes later, he walked out wearing a set of black and brown barding, reinforced with strategically placed plating and shoulder pads. Dusk quickly holstered the plasma pistol he grabbed, and turned over a spare grappling gun in his hands. “Where the hell did you come up with this?”

Cosmo grabbed the grappling gun from Dusk, attaching it to his bandolier. “You don’t need to know, at least not now.”

“Alright…” Dusk sighed in defeat. “Do we have anything on the city’s status?”

“Still trying to get the radio working.” Replied Halsey.

“Then we head for the Guard Station.” Added Dart. “It’s either that or wait on a radio that has no guarantee of actually working.”

“And how exactly do you propose getting there?” Asked Dusk.

“Excuse me?” Cosmo took the spare grappling gun off his waist, lazily waving it around for all to see.

______________________________________________________________________________

Rooftops over Vanhoover

Cloud rolled across the rooftop as he cut out the pulse jets on his armor before scrambling to his feet. Behind him, both Cosmo and Dusk hauled Palmer and Dart up onto the roof. “Do we even know what we’re doing?”

“We’re trying to avoid swimming across town, last I checked.” Quipped Cosmo as he took to his knee at the edge of the roof. “Although I get a feeling that we’ll have to go for a dip anyway.”

The group had arrived at the edge of Vanhoover’s City Centre Park, now nothing but an island in the flooded pocket of apocalyptia, lit by small fires and embers.

“Anyone else wondering what’s going on down there?” Asked Dusk.

Cosmo pulled out his radio and clicked it on. “Vanhoover Guard Post, this is Ranger. Please respond, over?”

zzzttt… “Ranger, this is Lieutenant Dooley, we’re pinned down by some outstanding members of the community in Centre Park. Any chance you can reach us?”

“Consider us inbound Lieutenant.” Cosmo stood up and grabbed onto Palmer. “Hang on!” Cosmo leapt off the edge of the building, before teleporting across the gap between the rooftop and the dry area of the park.

Dusk and Dart popped into place behind the pair. “Any reason for the dramatic flair?” Cloud blasted in overhead, skidding to a stop as he hit the ground. “Never mind.” Groaned Dusk.

Off in the park were sounds of gunfire and yelling. Cosmo pulled a revolver out of his jacket before loading it with blue tipped bullets. “What are those?” Asked Palmer.

“Baton rounds.” Replied Cosmo as he slid the loading door shut on the back of his revolver. “Not my favorite, but there’s no need for anyone else to die in this city. Not today… Not when hundreds, probably thousands, are dying all around us.”

“You’re a ray of sunshine, you know that Cosmo?” Asked Dusk as he started walking off into the park. “Now does anyone else want to join me?”

______________________________________________________________________________

City Centre Park

“Shit!” Yelled Dooley as a small bullet bounced off his chestplate. The Lieutenant leveled a magnum before unloading a clip at the group of attacking gangsters. “Where’s our support?”

“Incoming!” yelled one of the guards, shortly before a grenade landed behind their makeshift barricades.

“Scatter!” yelled Dooley as he dove out of the way.

BANG!

Dooley pushed himself up, looking over his shoulder at a small yellow bubble filled with smoke. “Your support is here Lieutenant.” Came a voice from above the officer.

“Glad you made it Cosmo.” Said Dooley as he rose to his feet.

“Shit, the Ranger brought a friend!” Yelled the leading gangster as he turned to face the new arrival.

“Who, me?” yelled Dusk from the opposite side of the clearing. “Or maybe you’re talking about my wonderful assistant?” Dart teleported off to the left of the small mob, cracking her knuckles. “Hell, maybe it’s the new recruits?” Cloud dropped down to the right of the mob, Palmer flanking him.

Cosmo leveled his revolver at the leader and cocked back the firing handle. “Look, just put your weapons down. If you do, we’ll forget everything you’ve done up until now.”

“And we don’t feel like it?”

Cosmo shook his head and shot the ground in front of the leader. “Do I need to explain?”

Some of the gangsters rolled their eyes in boredom. “No, but the boss wouldn’t be very happy if we didn’t finish our job.” In the leader’s hand was a large grey pistol. “So we’ll be seein’ the lot of you in hell.”