The Takeover

"General Vida, what should we do?" The pony next to her asks, not trying to hide the concern in his voice.

Staring out of her office window at the unbalance below, she says nothing. Fires erupting throughout the base, explosions rocking the streets and ponies of both sides falling left and right, she says nothing.

Her eyes speak for her, a lone tear falling down her deep blue coat. So much death and destruction in the matter of thirty minutes. You can feel the loss of life affecting the energy in the air.

Six generals. Five year terms.

Under all of these generals, this base stood tall. The pinnacle of technological advancement and military might unmatched by any in the land of Equestria.

Falls in thirty minutes. Falls to ponies, civilians, who have no control over their own actions. This tugs at Vida's heart.

The fall of the E.A.E.A. Headquarters happened under General Vida's rule. That's how she will be remembered.

"General?" The pony asks. Before he can say anything else, the window in front of them shatters with a loud explosion as they are both thrown back farther into the room.

Quick to recover, Vida looks around the room. The pony that was next to her is laying on his stomach and gazing towards the window, still looking slightly dazed.

Glancing back out of the window, a griffin and two pegasi land in the window. All Vida can see is silhouettes, but she doesn't need features to know who that is.

The griffin's head shifts and the pegasus to the right walks over to the pony. "Oh n-no. Please-" a crossbow shot ends his plea as his body slumps against the floor.

"Well, Coldfire," Vida says standing up. "You did it."

The griffin walks forward into the light. His scarred eye comes into view, his golden irises pinning Vida down. Vida's heart is barely racing, as if she isn't really scared. Which she isn't. She has seen this day coming for a long time and with time the fear faded. She knew Coldfire would betray her, her base, and all of the ponies in it.

Once he is in full view with only a small shadow cast over his face, he takes a glance behind him. "I sure did, didn't I?"

Vida starts pacing around him, looking for any way she might be able to attack him but he turns with her, keeping his gaze on her.

"It really was predictable, I've been waiting for this day for some time now," Vida says with her concerned and hardened gaze unfaltering.

Coldfire chuckles at this and asks, "if it was so predictable, then why didn't you stop me?"

With a chuckle of her own she replies, "you did good covering up evidence. I couldn't prove anything but you were a bit reckless with some of it."

Coldfire puts a mocks her with being offended. "That one really hurt."

"I'm sure losing a kid to those unicorns hurt too, huh?" This stops Coldfire dead in his tracks. "What, you didn't think I knew about that? Coldfire, you always took me for a softhearted fool but what you always failed to realize is underestimation is my advantage."

"A pretty low and desperate attempt to make you seem like the badass that you aren't in your final moments, don't you think?" He asks lowly, his anger clearly rising. His goonies stand behind him, ready to shoot Vida at his command.

"Desperate? You barely have my heart beating," Vida says with a smirk. "So, tell me, was it a desperate moment when the unicorns attacked your house and you decided to get your tail out of there, but at the cost of a hatchling and your very own wife?" Coldfire's eyes narrow, hatred burning deep. "But hey, if you can't beat them, join them, right? I mean, that's what you did."

"Enough of your rambling bitch, time is up," Coldfire yells as he lunges at Vida, his claw extensions at full length.

Vida ducks out of the way, narrowly dodging the razor sharp blades. She recovers and jumps at Coldfire before he turns around, wrapping a hoof around his neck. Her entire leg comes around his neck and Vida begins to squeeze. He flails at the sudden lack of air and slams her back into a bookshelf. She let's out a gasp but still hangs on to the burly griffin.

He slams her again and then once more, the last one causing her to fall against the shelf and lose hold. He grabs her by the neck and hurtles her across the room. She slams upside down into the cello mounted on the wall, falling next to the shattered wood and strings.

The smell of blood fills her nose but this only serves to infuriate the bat pony. She quickly rights herself as Coldfire came in with another lunge. She moves out of the way, but the sharp claws still graze her side. His extensions impale a couple of books on the wall, which he pulls away and brushes off quickly.

Vida recovers, her blood slowly dripping down her coat onto the floor. She growls at the pain but ignores it.

Coldfire tries a different tactic and throws a thick book at Vida to throw her off. Vida catches the book and holds it up to intercept Coldfire's talons before they hit her. The blades sink into the book, and she uses the split second window and uppercuts him from the other side of the book.

He stumbles back and Vida once again accepts the opportunity and lunges at him and takes him to the ground. She hits him with a right hook and brings her hoof around for a second hit. After the second throw, Coldfire growls and punches her back.

She falls backwards and hits her head on the desk, dazing her slightly. She watches a blurry Coldfire walking towards her. He sits on top of her, the weight nearly crushing.

She looks around for a second and notices a leg of a smashed chair sitting just to her left. She sees Coldfire pull back his arm, his claws aimed right at her forehead.

Vida grabs hold of the leg and holds it in front of her face with both forehooves and braces for pact. At the same time, Coldfire's paw comes down and the wooden chair leg lodges in between two of the claw extensions and Vida holds it there.

Coldfire pushes with full force and Vida fights it back. Her hooves begin to shake from the force and Coldfire doesn't even seem to be trying. The blades get closer and closer and a realization comes to Vida's mind. One she had hoped would never have to be confronted.

She is going to die. Tonight, by the claws of Coldfire, she is going to die.

Another thought strikes her mind and all it says is, Not without a fight.

With the energy and fury of her thoughts behind her, she manages to cramp a leg up under Coldfire and puts pressure on his groin area. He shifts slightly but before he can react, she gives a solid and painful kick.

The hit stuns him and causes him to groan and she shifts his claws to the side and using both legs she hurtles him over her desk and onto the other side. Standing up, her limbs still shaking from the exertion, sees Coldfire slowly standing back up. Her chance is now. She gets a galloping start and flies over the desk. Bringing her hoof around, she clocks him in the beak at the same time as slamming into him. Knocking him forward, they both bust through the other office window. Vida kicks off of Coldfire and begins hovering in the air, watching Coldfire fall to the ground three stories below.

She knows the fall didn't kill him but before she can get down there to finish him off, her wing explodes in a sharp pain. She yelps and descends in a spiral, smacking into the office wall and free falling to the bottom.

Landing in a dirt patch, dust kicks up around her, concealing her. She groans in pain and can't even feel the drive to look around. Her heart is pounding and she is bleeding, her chest heaving for the air she lost on impact.

Coldfire walks up to her slowly. With a stumble he grabs her up and throws her against the wall of the building. Vida opens her eyes and sees what had damaged her wing. An arrow sticking out from the ground, covered in a light coat of blood.

The pony responsible flies out of the building and hovers behind Coldfire along with his partner. Coldfire walks slowly to Vida's damaged body.

With a pant, he says, "You put up a decent fight for such a coward bitch."

"I wonder what your family would say if they saw you today," Vida says softly and without remorse. She spits a glob of blood in disrespect right in front of Coldfire's talons.

Coldfire's face darkens. Without another word, the sound of blade on flesh and Vida's pained gasp is the only thing that cuts the silence.

Coldfire submerges his talons into Vida's chest, passing clear out of her back. Puncturing both lungs, he leaves the blades inside her for just a moment before pulling them out. He has been looking forward to this moment for the better part of four years. He smiles in triumph at the now lifeless body of the former general. But his smile falters.

A weight has been lifted from his mind but a new one has started settling in his heart. An event he has been looking forward to for so long and it's almost as if he isn't happy about it.

Quickly pushing this to the back of his mind, he tells his comrades, "help me get rid of her body. Anypony would be able to tell those are griffin scratches."

Without a second of hesitation, his allies comply.

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

Khan

"Through here, come on," I shout over a nearby explosion. We duck through an alleyway and into the main street, the hospital at one end and Vida's office to the right.

Another explosion, however this one being much louder than the last and a lot larger, fills the sky above with ash and black smoke to our left. The hospital was hit!

Now torn between what we should do, I ask, "So where do we go?"

Nova looks back and forth for a second before saying, "Vida wouldn't be in her office, I know her. She'd be out here fighting as well."

"To the hospital then?"

Nova nods her head with confidence and we take off on hoof towards the smoking building. We've got to help where we can and I remember a lot of ponies who rely on that hospital just for life. They need our help now more than ever.

We run through the street full speed. A unicorn pops up between the alley and I kick off the ground and fly into him full force, slamming him into the wall. I put my hooves on either side of his head and twist, the hexagons fading from his eyes immediately.

Back on track we continue our trek to the hospital and we bust through the front door upon arrival. The main lobby is chaos at best, ponies are lying against the wall and the sound of crossbow shots are coming from the right hallway. Papers are thrown every where and ponies on IV's and ventilators take up most of the floor space.

The hospital reeks of smoke and a thin layer can be seen floating around the ceiling. Deciding to follow the crossbow shots and the shouting, we run down the right hallway leading us to a massive hole in the wall and ponies carrying sandbags over to the wall to make what is remaining of it larger.

I've never seen the other side of the hospital but it is a lot larger than I could have anticipated. A big open field, that I can imagine used to be just a grassy knoll, but now littered with the bodies of fallen soldiers, U.U.S. and E.A.E.A. alike. The battle is still raging on, black craters of smoke dotting the landscape.

The U.U.S. army is massive. Outnumbering us at least three to one. The ponies at the hospital wall are taking up positions with crossbows, adding to the steady volley of arrows already shooting towards the battlefield. I watch pony after pony fall on the enemy side but each one is like a hydra. Kill one and two replace it.

I hop over the sand bag barrier and look for the area the explosion hit the building. Which happens to be right above us. I float up the second story through a smoldering hole in the wall, hot ash still glowing red and orange around the edges.

I look back to see if Nova is still behind me and when I find that she isn't, I look over the edge of the building and see her staring at me helplessly. "I'm going to have to find another way," she calls up to me.

"You got hit?" I ask, expressing my concern as my expression hardens.

"Yeah, it's no big deal. I'll find the stairs and meet you up there, go help those ponies!" She says taking off down the hall and out of sight.

I turn back around. The room has caved in on itself, beams and insulation littering the ground and fires have started in several places. I duck under a beam and crawl. The snoke of the room fills my lungs and I cough several times before getting to the other side. I get to the door of the collapsed room and walk out into tge familiar white hallway.

The power is out, the only light is that of small fires or the very few emergency lights. I walk slowly down the hallway, making sure that no UUS is present. Another explosion rocks the building and the structure begins shaking violently.

I hear crumbling down the hall and I watch as the ceiling caves in and that entire side of the hallway caves in. This hospital is definitely not the place to be.

I look in the door to my right, checking see if anypony is in there. When I find it clear, I move to the next. When I open the door to this one, I look around for a second and don't see anypony, so I turn around. As I begin through the door, I hear a whimpering come from behind me.

I turn around to check it out but once again, the room is empty. I hear the whimper again, just a little bit softer this time. It's coming from the bathroom. I walk slowly over to it and open the door.

A sharp squeal of terror meets my ears as I look inside. A pony, no...a foal is standing there, shaking in fear. A unicorn filly to be exact. I quickly reassure her that I'm not one of the bad guys. "Hey, it's okay. I'm here to help," I tell her softly.

She doesn't respond but instead points behind me with a hoof. I turn around questioningly to find a unicorn with the trademark hexagons in her pupils. It's one of the nurses. Her uniform is covered in blood but the lack of any wounds leads me to believe it is some pony elses.

The nurse takes another step forward before aiming her horn at me. I'm not having any of it. Getting hit by that spell sucks and it's not about to happen again.

I tackle the pony, sending her and me across the room. I fall over her and hit the floor with a roll. I stand up, the pony beginning to stand back up with mechanical movements.

I hit the pony in the muzzle as hard as I can, its head jerking to the side. It turns to look at me again, the still blank expression staring me down. I hit the nurse once more and a light splatter of blood splattering the floor beneath her muzzle. The unicorn turns around and fires off a spell in which I had no time to react.

It missed me but I don't know what it is that she shot. The spell just hit the wall behind me harmlessly, not even a mark reflecting impact.

The pony then turns to the bathroom door and her horn lights up.

"No!" I yell as I run to tackle the nurse. I smash into her at breakneck speed. I could hear the snapping off bones as I made contact with her shoulder. I stomp the nurses neck to the point of collapse. A bone sticks out the side of her neck slightly and the pony's eyes turn back to normal.

I stand up and shake myself off. Looking around, my eyes land on the bathroom at which I fly over to quickly. The filly is...laying in her side. "Oh no," I gasp, slowly and then quickly galloping to her. "No, no," I say hysterically, as her what now seemed lifeless body laying on the ground.

I shake her. I shake her violently and put my ear close to her mouth to listen for breathing. Nothing.

I start chest compressions, trying to force oxygen back into her system. "Please," I plead. There has been so much death and destruction that I've witnessed, but Celestial forbid...not a filly. Anything but that.

A tear forms in my eye and I give up. I fall against the drawers and cabinets under the sink, staring at the the filly's motionless body.

"Fuck," I say to myself with a whimper. This filly couldn't be more then seven years old. A patch of fur is singed where the spell hit. "Fuck!" I yell.

Another tear falls down my face. I hear hooves clopping on the floor and in my peripherals I see another pony walk up. "Hey, are you okay?" I hear the familiar voice of Nova as she walks towards the bathroom.

I stand up and shake my head. This filly died because I was too slow. That spell the unicorn had shot was the spell they fired when they felt they couldn't convert some pony. The spell that stops the heart.

I walk out of the bathroom, Nova stays behind for a second to take a look. Her gasp tells me when she saw her. I keep walking towards the door, not waiting up. The room felt like it was on fire.

I stop at the doorway and turn around to survey the room. The nurse still set against the wall to the left, a few splatters of blood paint the floor, and the moon shines brightly through the window. The look of distraught on Nova's face as she walks towards me dictates that she didn't like what she saw.

"Was she-" Nova asks softly.

"No," I say. She isn't with the UUS, just another civilian life. A life I couldn't save.

That thought made my heart hurt. A spell hit the wall next to me, directly in between me and Nova. I look around d desperately to find the source and...no.

The filly that was lying on the bathroom floor is staring at both of us, her horn alight with a back aura. My heart cringes as I grab Nova and pull her through the door with me. As I close the door I get another glimpse at the filly, her soulless, hexagonal eyes watching me with a blank expression as the door slams shut.

I gather myself quickly, composing myself to be fit for sight by other ponies. Nova does the same. We continue down the hallway, searching room after room until there were no more on this floor to look through.

My mind kept playing back, it kept giving me the image of the filly lying on floor and then immediately afterwards showing me the last glimpse of her before I shut her in the room. I had to let some pony else deal with that because I could not.

We come upon a room that is blocked off by a wooden beam that is on fire. The night sky is visible through the ceiling. The blaze lit the hallway, the flames dancing on the walls.

"Help! Some pony help me!" A voice came through the door that is inaccessible.

"Just hold on!" I call out to him. "The door is blocked off but I'm working as fast as I can!"

I stead of acknowledging what I said, he just called out for help a few more times. I just ignore it and search for a way to get to him. My eyes search the door and the debris lying in front of it.

It's only one large wooden beam laying diagonally across the door but it's too big for one pony to move. Not to mention it's on fire.

"Hey," Nova says, her voice indicating she wants me to look at something. She points her hoof to the hole in ceiling above the beam. "I could climb through there and drop in on the other side. I think I'm small enough to fit in there."

I want to say no simply because of the smoke that is filling up that hole in ceiling. I'd rather go myself but another plead for help comes through the door and I don't see much of an option. I couldn't fit through that small hole.

I nod at her. "Hoist me up," she says. I kneel down and she puts her forehooves on my back. After getting a feel for it she puts her other hooves on me and I slowly stand up.

Once she is almost level with the hole, she puts her forehooves up on the ledge. After several times of trying to pull herself up, she can't. The space allowed for very little movement and I didn't want her being up there with that smoke any longer than she had to.

"Got anything you can hang onto for a second?" I ask her, grunting because my back is beginning to ache.

"Um, let me look around," she calls back. After searching for a second, she says, "yeah I found something."

"Okay, hold onto it with both hooves. You're going to be dangling for a second. Ready?"

"I guess so," she replies. I slowly move out from under her, making sure she has a hold. Once I'm out from under her, I say, "balance your hooves on mine."

I put my front hooves under her back ones and slowly push her up. Her tail flicks to the side slightly, almost touching the flames just about a half a hoof away. "Hey watch your tail," I tell her.

She presses her tail against her privates, tucked between her legs. Once I get her all the way up, she slowly crawls through the hole and out of sight.

I listen intently for anything going on in the room. I hear a thud, meaning that she probably just landed on the other side.

I hear a shuffling of hooves and another thud. That's not right. "Nova?" I call, loud enough for her to hear me. When I get no response I call again more desperately this time, "Nova!"

I hear hooves galloping down the hallway to my left. I look over to see a unicorn making haste down the hall towards me.

She isn't UUS, so I call out to her. "Hey, come remove this beam from in front of the door."

She slows to a walk in front of me. Her horn comes alight, her telekinesis taking hold of over beam. It moves slightly, causing ash and rubble to fall from the ceiling. After another shift, it falls over with a plume of smoke.

I nod my thanks to her. Expecting her to leave to go about what she was doing before, I kick down the door and she follows me in.

A pony is standing in the middle of the room. The pony is staring at me and calls out again, "Some pony please help me!"

I slowly walk over to the pony. Its face is unchanging. "It's okay, we're here to help," I say to the unicorn stallion. His expression remains the same and then the whole situation struck me as odd. I look around the room on instinct and I spot Nova lying on the ground face down and not moving.

I look back up to the unicorn in the middle of the room, my look of shock clearly planted on my face. I watch as the pony's face distorts and his pupils turn into hexagons.

"Shit," I groan. I walk around it, trying to get to Nova. The other unicorn that is in the room swings her crossbow around and takes aim at the pony.

The crossbow fires but the stallion is still standing. Its horn glowing that deathly black glow, it catches the bolt in mid flight. The blank expression is still there and with a shift of the magic, the bolt shoots back to the pony who shot it, impaling her chest.

The pony gasps in shock and falls lifelessly to the ground. I just realized my jaw dropped during the event and a sense of caution rushes over me. I've never seen one of the UUS ponies do that before.

I made a half circle around him, now putting myself in between him and Nova. I reach my back hoof towards her exposed neck and check for a pulse. Thank Celestia, I feel a slightly elevated pulse.

The room is completely in ruins. The walls are burnt, the floor is covered in ash and soot. A small fire flickers in the corner and the window behind me is shattered. The unicorn's horn flickers to life and he aims it at me. It fires a lot sooner than I anticipated and I barely have time to dodge it. I use my wings to give me a push to the side. The spell disintegrates the floor where I once stood, the first floor revealing a war zone.

The ponies below are falling left and right and blood coats the walls and the floor. Beams of light shoot from every direction and the sound of crossbows firing and swords clashing with flesh fill my ears.

Changing my focus back to the thing in front of me I look over me options. I don't have any. It's either fight him or run but if I run, Nova will be left behind.

And that's not going to happen.

I stance myself, making sure whatever move I make is going to be precise. I shift over and start walking circles around the pony. He follows me to no end. I lunge at him and manage to hit him. His head jerks to the side but still grabs me with his magic. He sends me flying across the room and I slam into the opposite wall upside down, falling and landing on my upper back and neck.

My head now throbbing painfully, I look up at the pony, his upside down figure stances to cast a spell. I kick off the wall, twisting my body to the side as the spell hits the wall. I decide as the spell disintegrates the wall, this pony isn't here to convert, he's here to kill.

Using the split second I've been given as after the spell was cast, I lunge once again, this time more successful. I tackle him backwards, sending myself reeling over him but still bringing him to the floor. I use my wings to gain a balance and stick the landing.

The unicorn is quicker and uses his telekinesis to throw me to the ground. The way this unicorn multitasks things like that. Standing up quickly and still casting spells like this without even looking. It's scary. I don't know what the UUS did to this one but it's unreal.

He casts a spell that pins me on my back, all four of my hooves restrained against the floor with an ethereal looking cuff on each one.

The unicorn's dark magic bubble around his horn is glowing bright as he takes aim. My heart slams into my ribcage and breakneck speed.

The door me and the unicorn mare came through blows apart, splinters and pieces of wood flying in all directions. Two arrows fly through the smoke and impale the unicorn standing above me. It stumbles, its expression staying the same through it all. His magical grasp breaks and I use the moment to my advantage. I plant a solid kick in the chest and I could feel and hear bones crack from the hit. The pony falls backwards and with a loud popping noise falls through the floor at the hole he created earlier and a thud as he hit the floor below.

I look over at the door to see who just saved me. A yellow pegasus stallion with a headband on walks through the door with another earth pony mare and a brown unicorn made right behind him.

The pegasus looks at me for a second. "You're good?"

I nod my head at him respectively and stand up. I dart over to Nova's unconscious body. I attempt to wake her up but she remains asleep, slowly breathing through her snout.

Happy with just the fact that she is alive, I nuzzle myself up under her and manage to get her on my back. She's a lot lighter than I remember but I'm sure I've just gotten stronger.

My head still pounds but the pain of hitting it is gone. I watch as the earth pony that is with them checks the pulse on the mare that came in with me and nods his head slowly to the yellow pegasus, much to his dismay.

"Alright everypony, on me, let's move," the pegasus says as he walks out the door. Taking a defensive look down the hallway, he turns left. I walk behind all of them as they have weapons drawn and ready to go.

We walk all the way down the hallway and into a stairwell, not bothering to check the rooms as we go through.

About halfway down the stairs while passively locked in my own thoughts, I remember exactly why we Nova and I came here. I then ask, "Have any of you seen General Vida anywhere?"

The pegasus in front of me says, "no we have not."

We continue down the stairway and we come to a stop at the door at the bottom. The yellow pegasus looks through the slot window on the door, trying to see if anything is coming.

After not seeing anything he slowly opens the door and takes flight and pulls up his crossbow to look around the open door. The only thing the dimly lit hallway presents is blood, swords, arrows, and dead ponies. Lots and lots of dead ponies. The scene is nearly puke worthy and it's even worse than anything I've ever seen.

We pass over them, having to stop several times fit me to adjust Nova on my back to make it easier. The bodies are stacked up and passing through here without getting blood on your hooves is impossible.

We finally get to the other end of the hallway and we pass through an open double door at the end. We decide to go left since the exit is this way.

It's taken me until now to realize how quiet it is. A full blown war happened just down the hall from where we are at and now it is so quiet that it made the fur on my neck to stand on end.

We get to the main entrance and several bodies litter the floor way. The front door's glass is busted out on the right side and we all stack up on the right, peeking out to check for hostiles.

An explosion rocks the entire mountain side, almost like an earthquake. The ground starts shaking violently and my ears have that glazed over feeling you'd get after a really loud rock concert.

We all step outside to watch as a tower of flame shoots into the sky.

"They've purged the Intel center," I heard the unicorn next to me say.

"What does that mean?" I ask, a little bit of worry finding its way into my question.

The yellow pegasus turns around to me slowly, his eyes almost taking a dead look as they meet mine.

"It means they're evacuating the base."