Author's Note

Sorry about the wait on this chapter guys but it is finally here.

Equality and the Stick

A few hours before the concert...

Khan

I have a bit more confidence in myself more so now than before in the singing aspect. I wouldn't go so far as Nova would and say it is beautiful, but it won't hurt anyone's ears.

Nova and I have plans for a wedding of some sort, probably legal not regal. We have enough eyes staring at us. As if the entire base still thought we are members of the UUS. Even though we aren't unicorns.

I've definitely become more attached to Nova also. It's not just like when we were dating and I missed her when I wasn't with her. No, it's more like a part of me dies when she is away and it only comes back alive when we reunite.

I guess that is what they mean when they say 'two hearts becoming one'. I wonder if she feels the same about me.

For the show, everything is already set up in the auditorium. Thankfully. I really didn't want to have to set up all of that stuff. Back in the day when we played shows, we had a crew set up our equipment.

Snapping my attention from my thoughts, my eyes trail up from the wooden counter and up to the bartender that is standing behind it.

"Something on your mind?" She asks, whipping her purple mane around.

"No, just a bit anxious for tonight," I reply.

"Looking for relief, huh?"

"Something like that," I say with a yawn. It's getting to be nap time.

I stand up and tip the tender and begin walking for the door. A pony and a griffin walk through the door, walking towards me. The griffin I recognize as Coldfire.

I keep walking, to my destination. Keeping to the right, I continue along the wall, hoping to just brush right past them. As we pass, the pony bumps into me, making me stumble slightly.

I turn around and say, "Could you watch where you're going?"

The pony stops and so does Coldfire, but only Coldfire turns around to face me. I'm about to turn around when the pony that bumped into me says, "That's no way to talk to a general, is it?"

I only stare at the back of his head, waiting for him to turn around. "I'm sure a general would look me in the eyes when he decides to pretend that his title means something to me."

That got his attention. The pony turns around, his deep purple eyes staring right at me. "Got a mouth on you too. That's okay, I'm not a little bitch like Vida is. You won't get by with anything when I'm general."

"Haven't done anything that I would need a pardon for." I say, keeping mental note of his comment but ignoring it.

"Oh really? You mean like, disrespecting a Sergeant? Or better yet, your little slut friend. I heard she is so sex hungry that she had to be sedated twice-"

"Bloodbane, that's enough," Coldfire interrupts, but it's too late for that now. I fly full speed and clock him in the muzzle, sending him into the ground. Being the good sport that I am, I back off him to let him stand up. My blood boils and the adrenaline is definitely pumping.

Bloodbane begins to stand up and his horn lights up. He has his head down but before I can do anything, a potted plant from the counter cuts through the air and over him and my jaw erupts in pain. The sound of broken clay fills the room. While my guard is off, Bloodbane tackles me to the floor, landing on top of me.

His hoof comes down on my muzzle twice before, with a loud growl, I kick him off of me, sending him into the wall next to the door. I fly into him, leaving a hole in the sheet rock, and pull him down to the ground.

I put my hoof on his neck and lean into it to put pressure. Bloodbane is already turning red, struggling against my hoof, he brings his hoof around and hits me in my side. I grunt but still hold him down.

Another two hits come around and I fall off of him. He scrambles away coughing and panting and I grab my side.

After a moment of catching his breath, he lunges at me again, knocking me into a bar stool that breaks under the pressure and I fall backwards. Before hitting the floor, the back of my neck hit the counter top and I slid down back against the wall to the floor. My vision turns red and my head begins to throb. The place where my neck hit feels like someone stabbed me. I look around to find Bloodbane and I notice his horn is now alight. My wing erupts in pain and I look over at it to see it twisting in ways it shouldn't be twisted.

My blood boils but my brain can't do anything except focus on the searing pain. Why is it always the left one?

My vision turns red again and then black at the edges and I can feel myself beginning to fade out of consciousness. The pain begins to subside, but it's not because he stopped.

Two uniformed ponies bust through the door to my left, both of them armed with crossbows. They are both completely outfitted in tactical vests, with various tools and instruments hanging out of the pockets.

"Get down," one of them says to Bloodbane which he quickly subdues and lays on the floor. Me, well...I'm already on the ground.

"You, up," the other guard says to me, motioning his bow.

I groan and stand up, stumbling ever so slightly. I didn't drink that much. I only had like 1-2 shots and I am no lightweight. Maybe it's from hitting my head.

The guard immediately pulls me over to a wall, slamming me against it, causing me to groan slightly. "Take it easy, would you?"

"I won't," is the guard's' response. After taking a moment to do whatever he is doing he steps away and says, "Don't move."

I saw them do the same to Bloodbane, grabbing him up against the wall. Now I can see what they were doing. They put some type of bracelet on his ankle.

I assume they did the same to me but...why didn't I feel it?

I look back at my back right leg, the same one they are putting on Bloodbane. Sure enough, there it is. All black except for a flashing red and blue light.

I just sigh and look forward. Once the bracelet is on Bloodbane, they urge us to move. They both stayed behind us. I open the door to the evening sun setting, ponies in the street stopping and looking at us.

Another armed pony is standing to the right of the door, baton at the ready. He shouts to the crowd telling them there is nothing to see and to move along.

I can't think of anything but the headache I have. The voices of those around me just drown out and we continue walking to wherever we are going to go.

I see Bloodbane out the corner of my eye casting nervous glances in my direction. I just stare back at him until he looks away. He looks away.

Bitch.

Karma decides to bite my ass for that thought, my head pulses in pain again. I squint my eyes, the sunlight becoming almost unbearable.

I look up to see a pink and black mane and pink eyes staring at me from about twenty feet away.

I close my eyes and sigh with disappointment. When I open them again, we are even with each other as I pass by.

Her look of bewilderment sends a twinge of guilt through me, mixing in with the feeling of adrenaline losing effect.

"What the hell did you do?" She asks me in a hushed tone.

"I-," I begin before the nudge of the guard behind me interrupts. "I'll tell you later."

She just shakes her head side to side and looks away.

I look away too, back to in front of me. The clopping of hooves against the red brick streets fills the air. Everypony we pass looks at us funny. I don't know where we are going or what will happen, but this walk is punishment enough. Especially since Nova was here to see it.

I lean my head skywards in hopes of relieving my headache. The sun finally dips behind a building, so that's a plus. We aren't on Mane Street where all of the festivities are happening which is also a plus.

I can see the hospital in the distance barely peaking over the other buildings. Thinking back on the events earlier, I wanna know if it is Coldfire who went and got these guards. He vanished as soon as the fighting started so it's safe to assume he did.

The guards tell us to stop when we reach a tall building of about five stories. One of them pushes open the door and the other let's us walk in.

The building is an office, with space dividers and four or five ponies just milling around.

We are taken around the office space and into a room with a single table in the middle. A mirror on the wall, obviously a one way window to my right. We both sit down at the table on the opposite side of the door.

The guards bring in a piece of what looks like rubber in the shape of a cone and walks over to Bloodbane.

"Oh come on, is that really necessary?" Bloodbane asks with a disgusted tone.

"Yes, it is," the guard says without a hint of emotion in his voice.

"I refuse to put it on," Bloodbane says with a defiant finality.

"You can put it on or you can go straight to a cell."

"I'm afraid that-"

"Would you both shut the fuck up?" I interrupt with my own disgust. "I have a killer headache and you two are going to argue like a couple of cunts." Bloodbane looks at me with a look of shock and the guard doesn't look amused. I look at Bloodbane and say, "I don't know what that thing is but just put it on."

I look ahead of me to the wall, doing my best to ignore their presence which luckily I didn't have to do for long as the door opens and Vida and another guard walks in

"Celestia look at you two," Vida says with shock. "Are you both retarded?"

I mentally chuckle at her statement.

She sighs and walks to the other side of the table. "Bloodbane, did you think about this before you decided to go measuring sizes in a bar? If this gets out, how do you think it will affect your election?"

I look over at Bloodbane and see him looking at the table. "What do you care of my election?" he asks without so much as blinking as he continues to stare at the table.

"Because someone good needs to have that position. Not just anyone can do it but you are very much qualified." He stares at the table still and when Nova decides he isn't going to respond, she looks at me. "What about Nova? What is she going to think of you getting in a fight at a bar, huh?"

"No need to make me feel any worse about it," I tell her, looking dead at her amber eyes.

"Both of you tell me what happened, one at a time."

"He bumped into me when I was heading out of the bar and I told him to watch where he was going," I say, not really wanting to be the first one to say anything but when I saw that Bloodbane wasn't going to speak I go ahead. "After mouthing some shit about Vida being a bitch and calling Nova a whore, I decided to shut him up."

"What, I-" Bloodbane starts, popping out of his glare at the table and up to me and then Vida.

"Oh really?" Vida says looking at me expectantly, more as if the insult doesn't matter or she isn't surprised. "After I have done so much for you."

What is she talking about?

Bloodbane doesn't respond but instead goes back to staring at the table.

"Let him go," Vida says cocking her head to the side. Bloodbane looks in shock but doesn't say anything. He stands up and the guard next to him with the cone-shaped object still in his magical grasp, escorts him out of the room. Vida beckons the other guard to leave with them.

After the door shuts behind him, Vida turns to me and sits across from the table. After a moment of silence, she says, "Do you know what the Equestria As Equals Association was before it became a top secret organization that even the Royal Sisters don't know about?"

"No," I tell her bluntly. Instead of being the happy, cheery fangirl that I'm used to, she is being more like a mother.

"It was a group that truly believed that equality was the way to make it. That everypony of every race and species were equal. Everything from the zebras to the alicorns, it didn't matter. Did it do much for the zebras? Absolutely not. How many zebras have you met?"

"None," I say, now partly intrigued is what she is talking about.

"My point. It didn't work. In fact, the likes of it was destroyed. Starlight Glimmer was the leader of that group. She took away the cutie marks of all the ponies in a town and preached equality. She had this staff that supposedly allowed her to remove the cutie marks," Vida leans over the table slightly. "You know why that wouldn't work in the end?"

"Because everypony has their own mind to think for themselves?" I say, more of a question than an answer.

"Partly, but it was a flawed plan. Why? Because she didn't remove her own cutie mark, she just brushed the equal sign on it to match everypony else's. Power corrupts and it corrupted her."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

To answer my question, she ignores and says, "Which brings me to the fact that you are going to have to spend a night in jail."

"What?! Why?" What the hell does anything she just told me have to do with that?

"Because if I let you go after fighting him, that will make it seem like I'm pulling favors for friends," she replies calmly. "Something that he is starting to notice greatly."

"You just let him go! He was fighting just as much as I was. And what does it matter if he notices?"

"You've got to understand that it's for the better. You see, he is a very popular stallion. Over three-fourths of the base is going to vote for him; it will be a complete blowout. However, they are all voting for him for a reason and that's because he is the greater good for this base."

"So you just let him go even though he is in the wrong just as much as me?"

Vida and leans back slightly. "That brings me to my other point about Starlight's staff. That staff was just a stick, it did nothing. But, everypony thought it did and for that they believed in her."

"Your point being is?"

"I have a stick right now," Vida says. "That stick is my title: General. Do you honestly think that the title means anything? That I can just do what I please because I have it or think it's honorable?"

"No, I don't."

"Good because it doesn't. That title doesn't mean a thing. The whole reason this base works with the way I've set it up is faith. These ponies have faith in the pony who sits in that chair; they believe it means something. Nopony who has ever been in that seat has been one hundred percent honest because they can't. It's impossible. By jailing Bloodbane, he wouldn't be allowed to run in the election and you know who would get that position if he doesn't?"

"No..."

"Coldfire."

I sit there in puzzlement. "What would be so bad about that?"

"Coldfire isn't what he seems, a lot of things behind closed doors. Let's just say, he isn't who you want as the general. That's why I hope you understand and won't hate me for letting him go and making you stay. It's a bad thing for a good reason."

I ponder this for a moment. I understand the 'lesson' with equality and the stick but now my main focus is...what did Coldfire do? What is it he is doing that makes him not what he seems?

"I had better get an explanation later."

"Thank you, Khan," she says, getting kind of giddy again that I wasn't mad at her. "I will pull a few strings for you, but you'll still be here overnight."

"Thanks, I guess."

She walks out of the room and I just sit there and stare at the wall, letting my mind drift. An overnight stay. Big deal. I've had worse.

<--------o------O------o-------->

???

"I told you she'd let you go."

"Yeah but now an innocent pony is in jail."

The silhouette shifts in the dark alley. "What does that matter? You aren't in trouble, right?"

"Yeah, but what's the point? Why did we have to put him in jail?"

"He needs to miss that show tonight. It will show the ponies that he is unreliable," the raspy voice says.

"That will get us where?"

"Well, it will get me very far actually," the moonlight reflects off the unsheathing sword and before the pony could react, the sound of slicing flesh fills the alleyway and is replaced by the gurgling of the pony and the splat of blood against the brick wall.

"You...well," the silhouette says as he sheaths his sword. "Not so far."

<--------o------O------o-------->

Nova

"What the hell did he do?"

"Nova calm down and I'll tell you everything," Vida says, walking to her side. I huff and look at her, waiting for her to begin. "He got into a bar fight and we had to arrest him."

My heart sinks and I close my eyes. I lift my head up and sigh. "What about the show tonight? We have been telling everypony about it!"

"I'm going to see what I can do to get him out long enough for the show to go on, but if I can't we can reschedule for tomorrow."

"We have played hundreds of shows over the course of six years and never have we missed one. Through illnesses and deaths of family members, the show has always gone on," I tell her.

"I'm afraid it might not go on this time," Vida says to me looking aside and sighing.

I sigh again and hang my head low, my heart literally breaking from thinking about Khan being behind bars. "Just-just see what you can do," I say as I walk off. I don't know where I'm going to go. I guess I'll just find somewhere to sit, somewhere alone.

I walk down the street, my mind just going, thinking about what could have started the fight. He was probably drunk of his ass, exactly what I tell him not to do. He is his own person and he will do what he wants.

That last thought extracts another sigh from me. Why can't he just behave for once?

I brush past a couple of ponies heading the opposite direction of me. The night is beginning to settle in and the loud megaphones from the festivities can be heard even from the edges of the base. Deciding that walking really isn't getting me anywhere fast, I take to the sky.

The air under my wings feels good and relaxing as I fly over the activities of the anniversary celebration. I look around trying to find anything worth really doing or being around for. I hear the familiar sound of metal concert vibrating the area near me and I immediately start looking around. I see lights and laser beams flashing from above one of the building and I fly over to the source.

I land on top of one of the buildings and I have a perfect view of the stage up here. The strobe lights are making the crowd look glitchy and when the strobes stop, green and red lasers flow around the crowd in no particular pattern. The crowd is pretty decent sized much to my surprise. It appears that other pegasi had the same idea and are also seated on the rooftops of buildings around me. When I look around, my rooftop is barren except for me.

The ponies are dressed pretty randomly; there a few ponies dressed in their officers' uniforms and others are dressed casually or with nothing. This is where I'm going to stay I suppose. I have no where else to be.

I watch as their show continues, whoever they are. It doesn't sound bad, it's a really enjoyable show to watch but I'm not feeling it. My mind is still stuck on Khan getting in a fight. What is wrong with him?

And the show, our show. These ponies that we told are going to expecting us and now they may not get anything because of him.

I sigh. My ear twitches at the sound of claws on the concrete behind me. I want to turn around but there are very few griffins on the base and only one that would be talking to me.

"Hello, Coldfire," I greet him, not taking my eyes off the concert.

He doesn't respond for a moment and the clacking of his claws gets closer. Now standing behind me and to the right, he says lowly, "why do you do this to yourself?"

Still focusing on the show I ask softly, "Do what?"

"Date him," he says hesitantly. I don't respond. "There are so many ponies here that you would be perfect with but you choose him. Why?"

"Why does it matter?" I ask, dodging the question.

"I'm just looking out for you," Coldfire says, sitting down and wrapping his tail around himself.

"I can handle myself," I reply, the waver in my voice unhidden.

He scoots closer as if he is about to exchange a secret with me and says, "Khan is a dangerous pony. With his lack of respect to authority and his uncanny ability to not fear punishment for his actions could harm you both or worse."

"He is not, he's just picky about who to show respect to and won't show it unless it's shown to him. There is not a thing wrong with that."

"That's not how things work around here, Nova. He runs the risk of getting thrown out of the base."

A look of surprise at that statement forces me to look over at him. "What?"

"I just don't want to see you get thrown out with him," Coldfire says, the red and green lights from the show below flashing in his eyes.

"What makes you think he wouldn't like being thrown out?"

"The forest around here isn't really the Everfree Forest," he says. "You are in the very bottom corner of Equestrian right now. You are in the Forbidden Jungle, on the edge of the ocean and whatever you ponies thought was bad about the Everfree, you haven't seen anything."

I sit there like a sponge, soaking in the information. That didn't line up though.

"We went down in the Everfree Forest though, how did we get to the edge of Equestria?"

"Because you went down while my squad was deployed in the Everfree fighting the UUS. We found you and instead of leaving you there like I should have I brought you two back."

But that walk had to have been hours and hours on end. How did they walk all the way back carrying two ponies. I'm about to task him when he says, "I've got to go, I'm probably late for a meeting. Anyway, it's good talking to you and think about what I said."

He takes off, disappearing into the night. And now I'm left with the information he has given me and his warning. So we can get thrown out but we can't leave. Interesting.

Sure Khan is an insurgent but he isn't that bad about it is he?

Something lands behind me but this time it's a set of hooves. "Hey Nova."

I turn around to see Vida walking towards me with an attempt at a comforting smile. The smile fades and I keep my emotionless facade on. "I wasn't able to Khan out for the show tonight, I'm sorry."

"It's okay," I tell her motioning for her to sit down next to me. She accepts the offer and sits to the right and I go back to watching the show. We both sit in silence as the show goes on.

I want to ask her questions about our location but I don't want to hear the answers. I really just don't want to talk at all. The weight of the day is more than I wish to handle and nopony else is helping to carry it.

<--------o------O------o-------->

Khan

The door makes a buzzing sound and opens into the cell block. I watch with half fearful half uncaring eyes as I pass each cell to my own. The open atrium spans two stories high and has ten cells along the bottom and top floor walls on either side. A bridge makes its way across the top floor leading to either side as their is only one stairwell on the left side to get to the second floor.

The place is quiet. Too quiet for a prison or a jail. There are only three ponies in here, all on the bottom row and on the left. Each pair of eyes follow me to my own cell.

I get in there and the door closes with another buzzing sound. I look around the small room as the guards' clopping hooves travel further and further away until a distant buzzing says he has left the atrium.

The cell consists of very little. A concrete slab with a thin mattress and sheets lay on it and a shitter in the corner. "Five star," I mutter to myself and lay down on the bed. Surprisingly comfortable, although not as soft as the clouds I had gotten used to sharing with Nova at night. Definitely not as comfortable as having her with me, laying by side.

It's only for a night, I tell myself. I've had worse. I can just sleep it away. It's already night time so why not? It'll just help tomorrow come faster. I roll over on my side and stare at the wall for a few moments before closing my eyes. The adrenaline that was pumping earlier today now catching up with me and making me very tired.

"Hey."

My eyes open back up slowly, my ears perking up from the interruption.

Another 'hey' comes from behind me and I lean up, looking around. I slowly get up and walk over to the bars. My tiredness still not leaving me, I ask, "yeah?"

The pony takes a second to respond and when he does it becomes obvious that he is in the cell to my right. "You asleep yet?"

That was a dumb question. "How would I be talking to you if I was asleep?"

The pony takes a moment to respond again but completely ignores my question. "Are you one of the survivors of that crash?"

"Yeah, one of the two," I say lazily. I notice that the subject doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I guess that's what moving on is.

I'm about to ask him why he asked when a unicorn guard amplifies his voice and says, "Quiet down there."

I scowl. Being the pony I am I ignore his warning and ask my question with a slightly quieter voice. "Why did you want to know?"

"I was just wondering is all," the pony says in a whisper to match mine. "I was in the operations room when Coldfire's video feed watched your plane go down."

"What were you doing in there?"

"I was communications, I sat there and told them what to do, what to look for."

So they were looking for something. "What were they looking for?"

"I can't tell you, that's how I got in here," the pony says, the hurt in his voice obvious.

I'm about to take no for an answer before something to say pops in my head. "You are already in here," I tell him. "What else are they going to do to you?"

"I don't know about you but I have a family I plan on seeing tomorrow and I also plan on not dying or worse."

Well, that was a fail. I really want to know what they were looking for because the E.A.E.A. is starting to seem like more than just a resistance. They are here for something; something bigger.

"I said quiet down in there!" The unicorn guard shouts again. "Final warning!"

"We'd better hit it," the pony says. "It's getting late anyway."

"Alright," I say as I walk back over to the bed and lay down on it. My mind likes to race when I discover things like what I just heard but this time is totally different and I'm out like a light.

<--------o------O------o-------->

Nova

Sleep doesn't come easy tonight. I toss and turn on the cloud I'm laying on but nothing I do seems to put me asleep. The air is slightly cooler tonight, fall finally beginning to show itself.

Khan and I need to find a house, I think to myself. I've devoted the last thirty minutes to ignoring the fact that he is in jail and pretending like it's alright. However there is still that pang of guilt residing in my mind.

I stand up on the cloud and do a little shake of my head, ruffling my mane as it flows to the soft breeze. I stare at the sleeping city below me; the events are over and everypony is tired from the long day full of activities.

A small flash of light in the corner of my eye to my left grabs my attention. It's a little flash, nothing significant but it seems very out of place in the sleeping and dark base.

Another flash of light pierces the darkness, this time only slightly more to my left. A large light beams down, cutting the darkness to where the light is coming from. One of the walls' tower spotlights is beaming down on the little pulse of light. That's when I start to hear shouting.

The shouting gets louder and I'm almost able to make out what they are saying when a raid siren kills the noise.

"Oh shit, something's happening," I say to myself and I take off from the cloud. I make my over to the tower with the spotlight and all of the other towers' lights come on as well.

My heart beating fast in my chest, I land on top of the wall and make my way into the guard shack.

I'm immediately met by a familiar face when I open the door, Rivera looking at me with a calm but dangerous expression. "Get in here," he says, motioning for me to shut the door behind me.

"What's going on?" I ask him as he walks around the room, grabbing a crossbow off the wall.

He pauses what he is doing and looks at me with a look of undying concern. "We are being attacked."

My expression doesn't mask my surprise. The skills and the discipline of my training causes my brain to go in full focus mode and I ask him, "What do you need me to do?"

He grabs a crossbow and says, "I need you to think fast," he tosses the crossbow over to me which I fly up to be able to catch with my front hooves and hover of the ground. "And I need you to aim true."

Remembering what my training taught me, aim true means don't miss because one slip is all it takes. "Yes, sir," I tell him, giving him the best salute I could with both hooves and wings occupied.

"Good, now I need you to-" Rivera is cut off by a loud boom and in the distance. I look out of the the window looking east to see one of the guard towers from the other end of the wall being engorged in flames a billow of smoke and flames pours out of area.

"Holy shit," Rivera says looking at the shack. Before he had time to get out another word, the shack down from it also explodes, another loud boom and I can feel the wall vibrate beneath my hooves. Then the next one explodes, the bright white light that beams out of the tower goes dim, being replaced by flames and bricks tumbling down the wall.

Noticing the pattern that the shacks are exploding, I tell Rivera and the other pony that is manning the spotlight, "We've got to get out of here."

Rivera nodding his head yells, "Get up private and grab your bow, it's time to move!" He yells as the tower after the next explodes, a screaming pony jumps out of the window. A hoof on fire and his legs flailing, he falls to the ground. The only thing I could do is look away before impact.

"Let's go, go!" Rivera shouts to me as the guard shack next to us explodes in a fiery haze, the heat of the explosion can be felt from this tower. I run out of the door and wait for Rivera and the other younger pegasus that is with us to catch up to me and we all three take off in a formation with Rivera in front.

The explosion rocks the air behind us, waves of heat lapping at our flanks. My ears ringing, I keel up to the right of Rivera. As I look around the base from the sky, spotlights on the roofs of the building beam down to the ground. Every so often you can see the silhouettes of ponies flying through the air in formations like ours, some bigger than others.

Little fires dot the mountain side, giving the base an eerie glow. The shouts of ponies trying to get organized to defend against the night time invasion can be heard clearly over the slashing of blades and the casting of spells.

The explosions across the guard shacks on the wall finally end, but not without taking every single one with them. I hope everypony that could got out okay.

Rivera yells over the chaos, "Hanging left, prepare to land. Look for the eyes! You know what to do after that."

We all turn in a perfectly practiced movement and begin descending simultaneously. The area around us has several ponies trapped behind walls and some ducking for cover. We are two streets from main street and every alley and road to get there is has ponies dotting it on both sides.

Upon touchdown Rivera calls, "Nova, take your bow and get somewhere high and take shots at them. Cover our advance." I salute him and am about to take off when he says, "Don't miss."

I nod and take to the sky, looking for a tall building with a good vantage point. As fate would have it, there is one right next to me. I fly to the top and lay down on my belly pulling the bow on my back around to bear.

The view is perfect and I bring up the sight, looking through it. As I glance around the first pony comes into my sights. I look at his eyes, making sure that this pony is what I think he is.

As I look in closer, the hexagonal pattern in the pupil is clear and I bring the sight up just slightly. I put my hoof on the trigger and after a second of focus, I pull it back.

My heart is racing furiously. In the dim light of a nearby street lamp, the bolt slides from my bow traveling down to meet my target. Through the sight the arrow hilts in the pony's head and the hexagons fade as his body slumps to the ground.

I don't even think about it and continue on to my next target. The sights line up on the side of this pony's head and I breathe it out slowly. Pulling the trigger the bolt once again hilts in the side of this pony's head, obviously going through because of the small splatter behind him. Same as before the pupils return to that of a normal pony and he slumps to the ground.

After the pony falls, I put another bolt in and before continuing I look below me to my side. Rivera is tangling with one of the unicorns, the other ponies dealing with their own targets and keeping the ones up the street from advancing. As I watch Rivera tangle with the pony I realize that the mind controlled UUS ponies have gotten a bit smart and a bit quicker with their movements. I'd I didn't know better, I would say Rivera is fighting a pony that is aware of his surroundings, more...pony.

Rivera falls to the ground as another pony comes from the side and zaps him with one of the spells. Rivera's wings go limp for a second before going back up to help him in his fight.

The unicorn that is on top of Rivera begins to struggle even harder and starts hitting Rivera profusely. After I reload my bow, I focus on the pony on top of him and wait for him to make his way into my sight. Time seems to slow around me as I know if I miss I'll hit Rivera. Exhaling slowly, I pull on the trigger.

The familiar sound of sanded wood rubbing along wood causes my ears to flicker and the bolt connects with the back of the neck of the pony that is attacking Rivera. The body goes completely limp and falls on top of Rivera.

He looks up at me as I'm reloading and I happen to meet his gaze. "Nice shooting!" He calls up to me.

"Thanks," I yell back, my crossbow now reloaded and ready to go once again.

I aim in again, this time going for the pony that zapped Rivera. Before I can find her, a hoof on my shoulder makes me jump and roll over on my side. My heart skips a beat as my hexagonal-eyed attacker's horn begins glowing. I reach up and hit him in the face as hard as I can and kick him off of me.

He stumbles back but still emotionless. I pull up my bow and take aim. He suddenly jumps to the side right as I shot and the arrow sticks into his left shoulder. But that doesn't stop him.

His horn begins glowing a transparent black again but the spell casts faster this time around and it hits me right under my neck. I yelp in pain as I'm blast backwards and over the edge of the building. I manage to grab onto the side with a hoof, holding on for dear life as my wings go completely numb and will no longer carry me.

I make the mistake of looking down to the ground three floors below me. My leg is beginning to ache as I look back up at the pony who is now staring over the edge at me. Horn glowing once again I do the only thing I can think to do.

I hoist myself up with all of the force I can muster and wrap my hooves around the unicorn and we both fall over the edge of the building. My stomach scrapes over the concrete corner of the building's rooftop and I cry at as we both fall to the ground below.

While we are falling, me and the unicorn end up doing a flip over each other. The hit knocks the wind out of me as we make contact with the ground with a thud, me on top of him. After the nasty sound of multiple snapping bones from the pony under me, I roll off of him and start coughing, trying to regain my lost breath.

"Nova, look out!" I hear Rivera call from my right. I look over to what he is looking at and I see the pony next to me once again starting to stand up. His chest reveals one of his ribs having pierced the skin, his chest covered in blood.

I cough a few more times trying to scramble away, my chest still heaving as I try to get in a few, much needed breaths. His horn begins glowing once again and a twinge of doubt plagues my mind as I look at my odds.

The pony's head seemingly explodes all over me as the pony's eye is kabobed on an arrow. The pony falls on top of me and I scramble out from under but not before a decent amount of blood runs down my cream colored coat.

I look to see where it came from and I see Nyxal on the opposite end of a crossbow with a smile on his face. "Twenty-nine!" He shouts enthusiastically before taking off around the corner and out of sight. Is he keeping count?

Looking at the line of defense that Rivera's squad has made in the middle of the street and taking cover behind street benches and wagons. The UUS advance has been slowed to a crawl on this street, but we are still out numbered at least four to one.

Hearing the sound of a large explosion in the distance, I see mushroom cloud of smoke and flame rising into the sky.

I run into the alley next to me and continue over. I come to the opening of it and another street running parallel to the last one continues in either direction. The street is completely empty with no a single sign of battle in sight. I run to the alley across from the previous one and keep going.

The street on the other side is complete chaos. A line of ponies are running down the opposite sidewalk heading the left, all of them with swords drawn and at the ready. They are all wearing the signature E.A.E.A. armor with the logo branded proudly on their chest plate.

The bricks of the street are blown apart and riddled with smoking craters. The bodies of U.U.S. and E.A.E.A. members line the road.

It's devastating to think about, but I've almost started calling the place home. Now I'm watching it be blown to hell. I don't even know where to go or what to do.

After only a moment of decision making, I decide I'm going to help out where I can. Feeling the aching feeling of my wings being numb reminds me that I only have two more hits before I'm done.

I quickly fall in line behind the group of ponies making their way cautiously down the sidewalk. They continue down the road, seeming to not even notice that I'm behind them.

The CO of this squad halts and with him every pony else stops.

I can't really see him but I hear him call, "Into the alley and watch your corners!"

The ponies follow their CO in to the alley and slowly creep their way down. One of the ponies shouts, "Contact!" When I look forward I hear a whirring sound like a ceiling fan. A metal disk shoots up from the ground and with a barely audible clicking noise disappears in a very small cloud of smoke.

Three of the ponies at the front fall over, blood caking the walls around them. I watch as time seems to freeze and all I can hear is the pounding of my heart. A small piece of metal glints off the street light but I couldn't move.

Something slams into my side with a pained cry and me and whatever hit me fall into a pile of trash. The thing next to me grunts a bit and stand up and the first thing I notice is the extremely pale purple in its eyes. I couldn't mistake those eyes for anypony else.

"Khan?" I ask hopefully.

"The one and only," he replies and leans down to hug me. I gladly accept his comforting show of affection.

"How did you get here?" I ask him with searching eyes and he stands up and offers a hoof to help me up.

"The prison guards all left to help defend the base so me and everypony else that was there was released to help as well."

"You mean they let criminals out?"

He glares at me and I immediately regret saying that. "Not all darkness is evil, Nova. And not all light is good. You know that."

I don't say any thing because I do know that. I've always known that.

"Speaking of which," he continues, looking sideways to the opposite end of the alleyway where the squad I was following is rushing into the street. "We need to find Coldfire."

He starts off with a fast paced walk that gradually grows into a sprint. Struggling to keep up, I ask, "Why?"

"I have a good enough reason to believe that he is the one behind this attack," he calls back to me.

"What?" I ask in disbelief.

"Vida told me that he can't be trusted and after hearing a couple of things from those ponies in the jail, I have reason to believe her."