Force of the Falcon

Chapters

2. Lunar Crash
4. Canterlot Assault
5. Princess
6. New Friendships
7. Questioning
8. The Wedding
9. Story Of A Joiner
10. New Base
11. The Fun Begins
12. Hunter Is On Track
13. Preparations
14. Ghost Ship
15. Iron Trooper
16. Into The Forest
18. Retreat
19. Padawan Awakens
20. First Mission
21. Before The Battle Begins
1. Udow Assault
3. Secret Files
17. Hunter-Killer

2. Lunar Crash

--Chapter 2--
Lunar Crash

Princess Luna slowly approached the behemoth that just moments ago crashed into her moon. She inspected every detail about it that she could find, sometimes using magic to power up her senses. As she got closer, it became clear that the object was made out of metal, but none that she knew of. She also realized how wrong she initially was about the size of it. Now that she stood few meters from it, she couldn’t wrap her head around something so gigantic. It was almost the size of Ponyville.

She flew up, following the strange call she was sensing. She wasn’t using her wings to fly -without air that would be counterproductive- instead, she was using magic to levitate herself. Normally that would be an exhausting task -even for an Alicorn- but moon’s low gravity along with the fact that she was close to her source of power made it a child’s play for her.

She approached the two towers on the back of the structure as her senses pointed her towards them. Considering how large the structure was and how slow compared to an average pegasus her movement was, it took her a while before she was near the towers. More precisely the left one, that’s where the creature she’s been sensing the whole night was located.

Not wasting any time, Luna looked through one of the tower’s windows. And what she saw was both incredible and terrifying. Behind the glass was a large room, with what seemed to be computer consoles that appeared to be much more advanced than what Equestria had to offer. Many of them were destroyed, and the wires coming out of them were sparking with electricity.

The walls were in a similar state, with many wires and pipes hanging out in the open. Most lights were broken, giving the room a dark atmosphere. The view was mostly blurred by the smoke inside of the room, which didn’t help to brighten up the atmosphere at all.

What terrified though her was blood. The blood that painted the walls, the floor and the dead bodies lying all over the place. Some cut in half, some with holes burned all over their bodies and one was ripped in half by something.

And they were all humans.

Which should be impossible according to what her sister has said. According to her, Humans have left the planet before she was even born, not leaving much behind them. And if they have truly left then why are they back, and more importantly how?

She looked at the object again, and the realization slowly hit her. It wasn’t just some object coming from space, it was a ship. And if that was the ship than that explained how did they came back. But the question ‘why are they back?’ still remains. Do they want to come back to their home-world? Do they want to take it back by force? There are strange cannon-like things all over the ship. And if they are here in bad will, Equestria is completely unprepared for anything like that.

She shook off that thought for now. It was obvious that they crashed and something very wrong happened before that. She could sense few life sources all over the ship. Some of which were very faint. One of such sources was (probably) the Human she was sensing before the ship arrived. And said Human was lying unconscious on the floor inside of the tower in front of her.

She decided to get inside of the ship and tried to cut a hole in glass window, but the moment the window was opened, the hole was closed by a metal seal. The same thing happened with every other window and the metal turned out to be too strong for her magic to burn through. Luna circled around the towers a few times, looking for a way to enter.

Eventually, her eyes fell upon a hole near the base of the towers. She choose to go down there and make her way to the top of the towers from the inside of the ship. She disabled her magic and let herself fall down. Right before her hooves touched the ship, her horn lit up again and she levitated herself inside.

Luna now stood in a hallway, mostly made of metal. It seemed that the part of the hallway that was exposed, was locked from the rest of the ship by what appeared to be door. She growled in frustration. She knew she couldn’t destroy that door, and that rest of the holes in the ship were probably sealed in a same way. Before she could let out her frustration however, she heard something moving under a pile of rubbish.

She gasped and jumped a little. Now that she was paying attention, she could feel that there was somepony alive in there. She quickly used her magic to lift the pile, careful not to cause whoever was underneath any harm. Under the pile was one of few still alive humans on this ship. Just like the ones she saw on the top of that tower, this one was wearing armor painted in black. She came to a conclusion that this is some sort of armor, as it seemed to be universal among them and had a visible signs of damage from various weaponry.

The human tried to get up, but Luna stopped him. “Do not try to get up, you have been hurt.” It surprised her that he was able to get up anyways, picking up a black metal stick from the ground.

“*GROAN* I have to… my air reserves are almost over, I have to get through the blast door.” He looked at the door. “Wait a minute…” He turned to Luna and looked at her with disbelief (at least underneath his helmet). “What the…Who are you? And how can you breath in here? And for that matter, what are you doing here?”

“We are Princess Luna, ruler of the night and co-ruler of Equestria. We are here to investigate-“ He lifted a hand to stop her.

“Wait, you will explain this later, I can’t stay here forever and breath in a vacuum like you apparently can. Just help me get to that door and I’ll open them so we can come inside and talk.” Luna nodded. He wrapped his arm around her neck and she led him to the panel near the door. Once there, he pressed few buttons on the panel. “If you have any way of keeping yourself in place I suggest you use it now.” He said as he activated his magnetic boots.

Luna knew what he meant by that. The part of hallway behind those ‘blast door’ was likely still filled with air, and when that door will be opened, the air will begun to be sucked out into the vacuum. She decided it would be a better course of action to make sure no air will escape, so instead pinning her hooves to the ground (which she could totally do), she created a barrier around the hole in the ship.

The human pressed one more button and braced himself for an impact that never came. Surprised, he looked around and noticed a blue force field around the hole in the ship. He looked back at Luna, noticing that a horn on top of her head was glowing in the same dark-blue color. “Alright, we have a LOT to talk about.” He said as they walked past the blast door and he closed them.

He then took a deep breath and moved his arm away from Luna’s neck. “Now tell me, who are you and what are you doing here?”

“We already said our name is Luna. We have not came here to cause you any harm, we assure you. We were simply meditating when this ship crashed and we have sensed a presence calling to us from it, so we have come to investigate it. Or more precisely, the huge towers on it. Now can you tell us, who are you, and what is this ship doing on our moon?”

“Sensed? Are you a Jedi or something?” The look of confusion on her face gave him the answer. “Never mind. I am Sergeant Shaw of the 144th Attack Battalion in the Grand Army of the Republic. This ship has apparently crashed here after a battle, though I’m not sure why. Now tell me what was that blue force field that appeared out of nowhere.”

“That was us simply using magic to create a barrier around the damaged part of the ship in attempt to minimize the loss of air. Us not requiring air to survive and us speaking to you despite being in a vacuum was also achieved thanks to our magic.” She replied.

“Magic, riiiight… Now, listen. I know that we both have quite a few questions for each other, but I have to get to the bridge and try to call for help. I’m not going to leave you alone so you can walk freely around the republic ship, so I’m taking you with me. You said you ‘sensed’ something on the bridge anyways, right?”

She nodded. “Yes, we believe somepony has been calling for us.”

“Yeah, let’s just stay with that.” He raised the metal stick up and pressed something on the tip of it. The light erupted from it, startling Luna. She knew what flashlights were of course, but it was barely a month since she came back from her banishment. That wasn’t what really startled her though. What really did, was what the presence of additional light reviled.

Luna was slightly more nocturnal than normal ponies were, being able to navigate in dark places. But the near lack of light in the hallway was able to mask the bodies lying all around. Except humans, there were other creatures a well. They appeared to be more metallic, though this might have just been their armor.

She looked one of them. “Were they the ones who you and other humans fought?”

Shaw looked at her while she was staring at the droid. “Yes, they attacked us when we were leaving Udow system.” He noticed a bit of sorrow in her look. “Don’t sympathize with them, they’re just droids.” She looked at him with confusion. “I have a feeling you don’t know what droids are, do you?”

She shook her head. “No, I have never seen a creature like that.”

“They’re not creatures, just machines. They are not alive, they’re just built and programmed to perform their task. In case of those, they are meant for destruction, nothing more, nothing less.

“I… I think I understand.” Luna said, still feeling slightly confused.

Shaw looked at her for a moment. “I have never heard of your kind before, are you part of the Republic?” He asked as they slowly moved on.

“We surely are not. Unlike you humans apparently do, we know of no ways of traveling in ships like this and we have never traveled further than my moon. From what I understand, Republic is a country right?”

“*SIGH* It’s going to take a while…”

Shaw led Luna towards the bridge while explaining her everything they came across and trying to answer at least some of her million questions. It was obvious that he was dealing with a new species that never had any contact with the rest of the galaxy. And the fact that he was walking between his dead brothers wasn’t helping him with explaining anything to her at all. Especially when it came to war.

Luna was of course also answering his questions, including her ‘magic’. Shaw wasn’t really sure what to think about it. On one hand, is seemed awfully similar to the Force, but on the other, allowed her to do things he has never seen a Force users doing. But then again, he was no expert.

The fact that they both used the same language was also interesting. But it didn’t matter now, they’ll get a chance to talk later, once he calls for help. Assuming that the communication system still works.

Eventually, they reached the entrance to the turbolift. Shaw pressed a button on the nearby panel to call the lift, but nothing happened. “Eh, just great. The turbolift doesn’t work.”

“The turbo-what?” Asked Luna.

“It’s a machine used for conveying people and objects to different levels on ships, buildings and alike. And this one is broken.” He kicked the sealed entrance of the turbolift.

“Maybe I can help with that.” Her horn lit up and a blue aura covered the sealed door and she begun to push it open. Slowly, the entrance was being opened. Shaw decided to help her and added his own strength to the effort.

Once the lift was opened, one more problem was reviled. “Well, I hope you like climbing, ‘cause we’re going to do a lot of it.” He said as he looked up through the macrobinoculars installed on his helmet. Should have keep that damn jet pack instead of leaving it in the armory. It would make things easier.

Luna walked over and looked up as well. “That won’t be necessary.” She smirked.

“What do you- WOAH!” Luna’s horn lit up again, but this time it was Shaw and she that were covered in blue aura. Shaw of course was used to using jet packs to fly, but this felt different. As if the gravity have suddenly stopped working, but something was still pulling him in some direction.

Despite his initial protests and discomfort, Shaw managed to get used to the strange sensation before they arrived to the top of the shaft. Once there, they found the turbolift stuck on the top of the shaft. There were 2 holes cut in it, one at the bottom and the other in the entrance. Shaw quickly realized they were made with a lightsaber. He purposely didn’t bring the subject of lightsabers up. It would just make Luna ask more questions and it’s not like he knew much about lightsabers to begin with. Not that he doesn’t find them interesting.

The two walked out of the lift and entered another body-filled corridor. The corpses of his brothers lied all the way to the bridge. And when they finally reached the bridge they both froze in place. Nothing that they have seen in the ship so far compared to this.

The first thing they have seen, was a body of a clone ripped in half lying in the middle of the bridge, almost swimming in blood. The clone’s viscera fell out of the body, almost making Luna throw up. Shaw wasn’t feeling so good either.

The rest of the room was full of bodies cut in pieces, beaten to death, stabbed, choked or simply shot by blasters. Luna didn’t expect this place to be that gruesome when she looked through the window. “Who could do such a thing!?” Luna finally commented. She was no stranger to war and felt almost offended when she found out how pathetic current Equestrian army was compared to the state she left it in before her banishment, but this trumped everything she has ever witnessed.

She knew a thing or two about a medicine and she made few subtle scans of Shaw’s body as they were walking, and she was sure that most of those wounds were meant to keep the wounded alive so that they suffer before bleeding out or before their bodies simply give up.

“Droids…” Shaw answered. He took a deep breath and walked ahead to the main communications console. He tried to activate it but all he managed to do was make the console lit up for a moment. He redirected a power from the other console to empower the com-system, but it didn’t give any effects. “Blast it!” He smashed his hand into a console.

Surprisingly it was enough to make it work. “Yes!” He screamed. But then the console exploded with sparks and turned itself off again. “No!” He smashed his hands into the console again. Sadly with no effect. Shaw sighed in frustration. Don’t freak out now, there has to be some working com-system on this ship. He turned to Luna. She was standing over Commander Falcon’s body. It was shame that he was gone, even though all clones were brothers, Falcon and him were more than just that, they were also friends. And in army where you can see your face everywhere, being a friend means just as much as being a brother if not even more.

Luna turned back towards Shaw. “He’s alive.” She said.

Shaw immediately forgot about the communications and rushed towards Falcon. But before he got too close, Luna lifted her hoof and his body was frozen in place. Surprisingly he wasn’t covered by the blue aura of her ‘magic’.“Hold on Sergeant. His body was greatly injured after the crash and he needs immediate medical attention. I have put his body in stasis, but any physical interference can cause much damage. So please, calm down.” She let him go, and as she expected, he didn’t run towards the fallen soldier.

“Does your ship have a way to safely transport him to a medical facility?”

“I have not came here via ship, I have teleported here and I plan on bringing myself, you and him to my world the same way.” He gave her a ‘you’re kidding, right?’ look. Shame she couldn’t see it through his helmet. “But… there is something more here… another life source… very weak…”

She allowed the feeling to guide her and soon she stumbled upon two more humans. Well, the smaller one was certainly a human, but the other had horns on top of his head. She felt the very faint flame of life still burning within the smaller one. But it was close to burning out. Not wasting any time, she stabilized the heart beat and did all she could to keep the human alive.

She wasn’t capable of using another stasis spell, it required constant focus from the user; Celestia and her student are the only currently alive ponies who could hold more than one person in stasis at the same time.

Shaw looked at the bodies of General and his padawan. General Haskri had a hole in his throat and it was clear that he was long dead. His padawan Sakri however was not. Her chest was slowly rising and falling despite looking like she’s gone to hell and came back.

Her face was covered in blood and a shard of glass was stuck in her face, near her left eye. She had swollen marks around her throat, indicating she was almost choked. Her right hand was also missing; there was no blood coming out of it and from the looks of it, the hand was cut off by a lightsaber.

He knew that she and Falcon were friends, which was surprising to say the least. He knew that Falcon was of an opinion that padawans should be kept out of war and left in the Jedi Temple as he always hated to work with them, saying they just get in his way. But somehow, padawan Sakri managed to befriend him. The two were sometimes acting rather strange when they thought no one was looking but he couldn’t really put a finger on it. He didn’t care either, it was their business.

As Luna was focused on stabilizing the injured padawan, Shaw heard a silent sound of a metal moving. Acting in instinct, he pointed the blaster towards the sound as he turned around. On the floor lied a commando droid with its blaster pointed at him. He wasn’t fast enough to pull the trigger before the droid shot him in the stomach. But he did manage to press the trigger afterwards.

Before Luna turned to see what happened, a blue bolt of energy hit the droid in the arm. “Shaw!” She yelled as the soldier fell on the ground with a burning hole in his stomach. Shaw’s blaster bolt didn’t stop the droid , and immediately it picked Luna as the next target. She raised a shield to protect herself from another bolt of energy, but after only one attack, her shield almost broke. It did however buy her enough time to teleport out of the second bolt’s way.

She reappeared behind the droid and magically summoned her sword. The blade of her weapon was long and slightly curved backwards. It was covered in small holes for rune-stones from the hilt to the tip of the blade. The metal which the weapon was forged with shone with faint blue light.

Before the droid could turn around, Luna brought the weapon down at it with her magic. If it wasn’t for the rune-stones in the weapon, it wouldn’t do any damage whatsoever. But since it had them all in place, it managed to penetrate enough of droid’s armor to disable it.

Doctor Health Ticket sat behind the desk in reception room. It was almost morning and soon somepony will finally came here and take his shift. Canterlot Hospital was always boring here during nights. Especially after Red Heart moved out to Ponyville. He didn’t understood why she did this though. Why choose some backwater town over Canterlot?

He looked at the clock. Soon his replacement will get here and he will just go back home.

And then, a wild Princess appeared.

With three near-dead creatures held alive by her magic.

Author's Note

Originally I didn't plan to make this chapter, but Fimfic didn't alow me to submit the story because the first chapter didn't have enough ponies. I don't mind though, it gave me an idea for another not planed chapter. :yay:

Song of a day: Skillet - Sick Of It

4. Canterlot Assault

--Chapter 4--
Canterlot Assault

Faint light of the sun covered by a cloud, weakly lit up the room where 3 figures lied unconscious in their beds. Each completely oblivious to what was going on outside. The cloud moved out of sun’s way, allowing its rays to further brighten up the room. The first rays fell on the bed closest to the window and the creature lying on it. Its eye twitched at the contact, and a moment later a hand moved under the covers.

Falcon took a sharp breath as he opened his eyes, through a blurry vision he looked around the area. The room he was in was almost entirely white, with few blue paintings on the walls covering the bottom of them, above him hanged some strange crystal, glowing with a blue light. He slowly begun to remember what happened the last time he was awake, the sabotage on the maintenance level, massacre on the bridge, Heskri’s death, his short engage with Grievous and him activating the hyperdrive. How can I still be alive? Even if that jump somehow didn’t crushed the cruiser into a sun or a black hole, there’s no way rescue team could have get there in time. He felt bandages wrapped around his head, and became aware of the pain coming from the back of it.

Then he realized one more important thing. He wasn’t in a bacta tank. Damage he sustained would put him in one for sure, but for some reason he was just lying in a hospital bed even though he felt like he just left the tank. He got out of the bed, noticing that he was completely naked and wrapped a blanket around his midsection. For the second time, he looked around the room. Now that he was up on his legs, he noticed that the ceiling was almost touching the top of his head, and that the door in the room were much too small for him to walk through without lowering his head.

He also noticed two other beds in the room. And one very familiar face lying in one of them. Quickly, he rushed towards the bed, accidently bumping into the chest that lied next to his bead. He opened the chest and reviled his armor and weapons stored within. He looked at the equipment for few more seconds, before he closed the chest and returned his attention on the other bed.

He walked over to the bed and looked at the face sticking out from the covers. It was Sakri, her head was also covered in bandages, but much more than his. She had a breathing tube in her mouth and she had a very pained look on her face. He also noticed a machine placed next to her bed. It was mostly white and about one meter high, though not very broad. It had a small crystal in a glass ball on top of it. There were two cables coming out of it and going below the covers.

Falcon grabbed the covers and moved them out of the way. The two cables were connected to Sakri’s chest, close to her heart. Except the cables he also noticed… other things… and quickly placed the covers back in place, looking away embarrassed. After a moment to calm down he looked at her again and grabbed her hand with his own. He felt her grasp on it. Don’t give up, I know you’ll make it. He let go of her hand and turned to the third bed in the room.

He saw a face of a clone lying on the bed. He knew most of his brothers that served in his unit and was able to recognize them by their armor or in some cases their scars, but this clone had neither. However, he also had a chest next to his bed. Falcon opened the chest and took a look on the clone’s armor. He immediately recognized it. The armor was entirely black, with not even a bit of white left visible. The only clone he knew that wore an armor like that was Shaw, his best friend since they started to train on Kamino.

However, before he could do anything more, a loud scream rang through the room, and room a flash of green light covered the door and removed them out of the doorway. Falcon quickly grabbed Shaw’s blaster pistol from the chest and aimed it at the door and a black insectoid run into the room moments later. It looked at Falcon with its blue eyes and hissed at him before attacking.

Not bothering with trying to calm the insect down, the clone pointed the blaster at it and ended its life. Falcon walked over to the corpse and kneeled down to it. He was no expert on species but he was thought basic knowledge about most of known species. What he saw in front of him was unlike any intelligent life form he has seen. It had four hooves covered in holes, was covered in black chitin and had a single curved horn on top of the head. It also had wings on both sides, but he couldn’t see them actually having enough strength to lift the creature.

He turned back at the door, reminding himself that he heard someone’s scream. Still holding the pistol ready to fire, he stood up and walked towards the door, but another insect appeared. It immediately attacked the clone, knocking him to the ground and trying to bite into his neck with its two extended fangs. Falcon grabbed the insect’s muzzle and smashed it into the ground before shooting it in the head.

Again, he stood up and moved to the door. Outside was a long corridor but the more interesting thing was the cocoon hanging on the wall. Inside of it was another quadruped, but it didn’t appear to be an insect, but a mammal. He didn’t recognize the species either, but he noticed a lab coat the quadruped was wearing and assumed that it was its scream that he heard. As he kept watching he realized that the thing was awake and struggling to get out of the green cocoon.

Falcon grabbed the shard of glass from the broken door in his hand and opened the cocoon with it. A sea of green goo fell out of the cocoon as he opened it along with the creature trapped inside. The quadruped tried to take a deep breath but it begun to cough hard as it struggled to remove the goo out of its lungs. Falcon tried to help it by pattinng its back. “T-thanks.” From the voice he could tell that he was dealing with a female. He could also hear a fair bit of accent in her voice.

She coughed few more times before finally looking at Falcon. “Y-you are awake!?” She yelled and almost choked with the goo.

“Calm down, you’re not in danger.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, making her shake. “What are those things?” He asked, taking hand away from her.

“I-I don’t know. I was talking with Doctor Ticket and then out of nowhere he turned into one of those bugs. Another one jumped out of the nearby room and they both put me in that thing.” She pointed at the opened cocoon. “I think there were more in-“ she didn’t finish as a green flare of energy contacted with her side. She fell on the ground, screaming in pain.

Falcon brought his blaster up and pointed it at the two attackers who jumped out of the nearby room. The one in front lit up the horn and a green force field surrounded the two. Falcon shoot a bolt at it, the projectile shattered the field on contact and went on to hit the bug in the chest.

The second one shot two projectiles at the clone but he dodged both by ducking behind an open door. Falcon grabbed the female doctor’s coat and dragged her into the room he woke up in. He aimed at the bug again, but the thing also hid in the room it came from. “Are you alright?” He asked her. In response he received only a pain filled groan. He thought he heard a sound of steps so he prepared the pistol again and looked at the corridor.

At first he saw nothing, but after a few seconds he noticed that there was something closing in. However, before he reacted, the bug appeared in front of him, emerging from green flames. Immediately, it jumped at him with opened mouth and fangs extended. Two fangs dug deep into his extended arm, making him drop his blaster.

Falcon landed on the ground, with the bug still holding his arm in its teeth. He punched it in a face and tried to shake it off his hand, but the chitin covering its body was hard enough for it to shrug off the clone’s punches and its fangs were already deep in his arm. He decided to pick another target - the bug’s eyes. With a quick move, Falcon shoved a shard of glass into one of insect’s eyes.

The bug moved back, letting go of his hand but not giving out any signs of pain. Almost immediately it attacked again, but this time it didn’t make it to Falcon. A blue bolt of energy hit it from behind, killing it instantly. Falcon looked behind the bug. The pistol he dropped was levitating there, covered with a silver aura, the same one that covered quadruped’s horn. “I- I killed it…” She said silently, looking at the dead body.

Falcon got up, holding his wounded hand. He walked over to the chest next to Shaw’s bed and used Shaw’s medpack on his hand and then untied the bandages from his hand and proceeded to put them on the wound. He heard a sound of the blaster hitting the floor, followed by crying.

He walked over to the quadruped and placed one hand on her shoulder while the other still held the medpack. She looked at him with tear filled eyes. “I- I-“ He placed a finger on her mouth.

“Shhh, it’s alright.” She hugged him as she cried. Falcon was surprised to say the least, at first she seemed to be terrified of him and now she was crying on his shoulder. He moved a hand holding medpack to her wound. “This may sting a little but it will help with the pain.” She groaned and later hissed from pain as he applied the bacta. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“A-Abuyin. I’m Doctor Abuyin. A-and what are you?” She said.

“My name is Falcon, I’m-“ He was interrupted as the loud explosion shook the entire building. Falcon quickly got up and walked over to the window, only to see that he was in the middle of a war zone. Many more of the insects flooded the street as what appeared to be quadrupeds’ military failed horribly to stop them in any way.

By now he was aware of the fact that he was not in a republic world, the archaic technology, unknown species and lack of knowledge about humans who are the most common species in the galaxy gave everything away. But he was still a soldier of the republic, and still fell under republic’s rules. And what rules said is that he shouldn’t interfere with any conflicts if he found himself in an unknown world like he did now.

Normally he would follow those rules, but this time was different. Those quadruped saved him and his friends from certain death and blasted insects have already tried to kill him. That in his book meant he owes them something. Not wasting any moment, he walked over to the chest containing his armor. He opened it and begun to put the armor on.

Abuyin saw that and walked over to him. “What are you doing?” Her eyes were still wet from tears.

“Those things are everywhere and your military doesn’t seem to know what they are doing. I’m going to go there and try to help them.” He said as he placed his gloves in their place.

She looked through the window. “Y-you’re going out there!? Are you crazy!? We should hide!”

“You can stay here, but I’m not going to wait until those blasted things finish your military and come here to finish us off.” He finished placing the jetpack on his back. “You have any tips about where I should go to be more of a help.” He walked over to Shaw’s chest and took his DC-15A. He also took a grenade he had strapped to his belt as well as his helmet. His was broken beyond what he could fix and even though the black helmet didn’t really fit to his armor, protection is more important than visual appeal.

Meanwhile, Rarity felt a disturbance in the Force.

“W-well the princesses are the most powerful beings in Equestria, if those bugs got to them we are doomed.”

“Princesses, huh? I guess they are in that big castle. Alright, I’m going.” He picked up the pistol from the ground. “Here take it,” He handed it to Abuyin. “I’ve set it on low power settings, it won’t kill anything, only stun it for some time.” She nodded and hesitantly took the weapon into her shaking hooves.

He left the room and run through the corridor. He encountered no bugs until he was near the exit. Once there, two more bugs rushed to him, accelerating themselves with their wings. The distance between them was however still rather big and Falcon had no problems with taking them down from the distance. Falcon run out of the building, immediately choosing the castle as a target.

As he slowly moved forward through the streets, he often encountered the quadrupeds ‘military’ trying to do something with the bugs. And failing in every possible way. These armatures were clearly not suited for any kind of combat situation, some even couldn’t hold their weapons right. They were so bad that it wouldn’t surprise him if a team of cadets would cause an absolute havoc in their ranks. Needles to say he had to help them all the time, bringing surprise to their faces not only with his look and equipment.

One time he was hit in the chest by one of bug’s green beams, but it turned out that even though they looked similar to blaster bolts, they weren’t holding quite as much punch as good old blasters. The hit hadn’t even managed to damage his armor, not to mention him. The bug that shoot him quickly learned a lesson not to do it again.

And apparently the rest of them did too. As he kept pushing through the city, he begun to notice that the bugs seemed to be learning from each encounter, even if they haven’t saw him before. That led Falcon to believe that the bugs are connected by hive mind, of sorts. Which makes sense, they are bugs after all.

He finally managed to reach the castle’s gate, where surprisingly were no bugs to great him. This surprised him, as he had noticed that the number of bugs that were after him kept rising as the time went on. He stepped through the gate, cautiously in case if that was a trap.

And of course, it was.

The moment he stepped into the castle’s yard, the gate closed behind him and a large group of bugs swarmed him from every side. He fired few shots, but even though he killed a lot of them, the sheer number of them made it easy to push closer. Falcon dropped the rifle on the ground and grabbed the force pike that was attached to his belt. He activated it and struck the first bug that came close to him.

The pike was working on high power settings, meaning that it was capable of killing with one strike, especially if the enemy was as small as those bugs were. The moment it hit the first target, powerful waves of electricity caused havoc within the bug’s body, quickly killing it.

Another bug took its place, immediately attacking Falcon. The clone sidestepped the attack and swung his pike at the attacker. The bug also dodged the attack, moving aside with its wings. Falcon was quickly attacked by another bug, this time from behind. The insect grabbed Falcon's arm and tried to bite into his armor. It didn't work out very well and soon Falcon grabbed it neck and threw into the ground, knocking it out with a kick to the face.

Falcon quickly found himself surrounded. Few bugs fired at him with one combined beam of energy. It hit the ground under him and the shock wave knocked him to the ground. Before he was even able to get up, the bugs jumped on him, pinning him down with their mass. Falcon felt them biting the places his armor didn’t cover, though for most it was hard for them to get a good bite as Falcon didn’t gave up the fight. He managed to activate his jetpack and get out of the bug’s pile.

He grabbed his blaster pistol and fired at the pile. With how close to each other the bugs were, it was not a problem to hit them at all. Once the bugs realized where he was, they charged at Falcon again, but this time their number was much smaller. Though still quite large. Falcon grabbed a grenade and activated it. He dropped it on the ground and activated his jetpack just before the bugs got to him. The grenade exploded, atomizing every bug in 6 meters radius.

Falcon grabbed the edge of a window and turned around with the blaster pistol in his hand. He fired at the few bugs that were outside of the explosion, finishing the group off. After the fight Falcon was left tired and panting heavily and the arm he was using to hold onto the window let out and he fell on the ground.

He pushed himself up from the pile of dead bugs, holding onto his bleeding arm. He looked at the entrance to the castle. I hope those princesses know how to fight, because I won't win this fight alone. He stood up and walked over to the rifle he had dropped. Holding it in his hands he a slowly walked into the castle. For the first few minutes of walking through the castle's hallways he met no more bugs. I should stay hidden, I doubt that if I bump into another group like the last one I'll be able to make it.

And so he did, every time he had heard something approach he would hide in one of the rooms placed all over the castle or climb on one of pillars placed all around the hallways. After a while of this sneaking around with no sense of direction he realized that he had a small probe strapped to his belt. He grabbed the small ball and after connecting it with Shaw's helmet, released it outside. Soon enough he had a relatively detailed display of the castle available to him.

He noticed that there was a rather large room not so far from his position. Assuming it was a throne room, he begun to walk in its direction. As he kept closing in, he heard someone coming from the opposite direction. He used the nearby pillar to climb higher to avoid detection. He looked out from there to see what was coming and saw a group of 6 quadrupeds being led by bugs. They all were restrained and bruised, indicating that they were captured in a fight. The blue one with rainbow colored hair was held in air by two bugs.

Falcon used the macrobinoculars attached to Shaw’s helmet to see them better. The captives all appeared to be females, 2 of each sub-species he had encountered so far. They were all scared -even though the blue one tried to hide it- but the purple one looked like she was about to have a heart attack. She looked as if she was convinced that she’s about to die in the most horrible way imaginable and that there is no way for her to escape that fate. She had a look of someone who was complatly defeated.

The surprising fact was that the 6 captives didn’t look like they were part of a military. They had no equipment or the golden armor that their military wore. He really hoped that those armors were not actually made out of gold, it would be much too heavy to use comfortably with too bad protection to make up for it. That is if that thing can even be called an actual armor, it barely covered anything important and left many spots unprotected.

The 6 quadrupeds were apparently civilians, but that brought a question of why the bugs were taking them captive instead of putting them in one of the cocoons they tried to put Abuyin in. The only explanation that came to his mind was that they had some bigger purpose. They may be some political leaders or other important figures and the bugs wanted to get the information out of them. At first Falcon thought of them as some sort of animals, but as the time progressed, he realized that he’s dealing with another sapient beings.

Which meant that all this was an invasion, and an invasion must have a commander. This led him to a conclusion that the 6 quadrupeds were led to some kind of leader of this attack. Probably to be interrogated.

The group turned in the direction Falcon was about to follow, going towards what appeared to be a throne room. Falcon climbed down from the pillar and followed the bugs. The group was relatively small, and he could shoot them down from the distance, but this would alarm all the bugs in the castle about his position and if they swarm him again, he won’t have a grenade to save him and his jetpack has enough fuel for only one more short fly.

Eventually, the group he was following reached the massive door behind which was the room they were getting to. The bugs led the captives inside, and before the door were closed again, Falcon spotted one bug that was different from the rest. It was much higher and feminine in shape, its eyes looked normal instead of being blue orbs and it had a long hair coming down below its shoulders.

There was also one cocoon hanging from the ceiling the bugs flew out from the room and the door were closed by a field of green energy. Falcon hid from the bugs by opening the window and jumping out from it. He grabbed the frame and let the bugs pass by. Once the area was safe again, he climbed back to the hallway and walked towards the door.

He tried to open them, but with no results. Blast it. He looked around, hoping to find another way in. There were no vents or other passages to be seen anywhere, but there was still one possibility that came to his mind.

Falcon walked over to the window again and looked down. The entire city was build on top of a mountain and the castle hanged on its side. Damn… that’s high. Trying to ignore it, he hanged the rifle around his shoulder and jumped out, grabbing the frame. Falcon slowly climbed sideways, grabbing on to everything he could to avoid falling down over 3000m and hitting the ground.

It was a hard task, since despite hanging on a side of a mountain, the castle walls are almost perfectly preserved and there was not much to grab. He purposely didn’t use the jetpack, saving the little fuel he had left in case something happened.

Eventually, despite the difficulties he managed to get himself on the wall from which he was able to see the way to enter the chamber- a broken window on the side of the room. He immediately begun to move in its direction. And as he kept this up he realized that he could hear someone’s voice. And that this someone was singing.

“…dreamed since I was small

Everypony I'll soon control

Every stallion, mare, and foal

Who says a girl can't really have it all?”

The singing stopped. Falcon assumed that it was the bug he had seen earlier and like he thought it was a female, or whatever equivalent of that the bugs had. He heard her laughing as he climbed but soon she stopped. “And when do you think you’re going?” She said again. By then, Falcon was already able to look into the room through the window.

He saw as the purple one being hit with a beam of green energy, coming from the big bug. “Twilight!” The rest of the group screamed but were quickly silenced when they were enveloped in green aura and thrown into a goo covered wall, immediately gluing them to it and covering most of their bodies.

Meanwhile ‘Twilight’ landed next to the window Falcon was hanging from. “Are you so eager to die little one?” The bug said, not bothering to look in her direction. “Very well, I’ll assign one of my children to prepare you for hatching.” She laughed again. “You remember that little gift I left for you in the caverns, do you?”

At the mention of that, Twilight’s expression became even grimmer, as she tried to get up, but the pain from the wound on her side didn’t allow her to do so. While the bug was busy observing her troops causing havoc in the city, Falcon decided to step out of the cover. Twilight was the first one to see him and almost gasped at his sight. Falcon quickly wrapped his hand around her muzzle and pressed a finger against her lips. “Shhh…”

He freed her muzzle and turned to the bug. He made few silent steps towards her and took the rifle off his back. By that time the rest of the quadrupeds noticed him, but their faces were covered in sticky goo. Falcon slowly aimed the rifle at the head of the bug and when he was ready, he fired.

But before the blaster bolt hit her, she dodged it with Jedi-like speed and fired a beam of energy on her own. Falcon was barely fast enough to sidestep the attack and didn’t managed to shoot again. “Have you really thought that I wouldn’t sense you coming here to take my life, as you have taken lives of so many of my children?” She said with venom in her voice. “You’re going to die for this."

“Am I really bugging you that much? We just met.” He raised his rifle again and fired two quick shots at her. Her horn glowed green and in a blink of an eye, she disappeared and then reappeared few meters away, safely avoiding the bolts. Did she just teleport!? Before he could think about it further, the bug fired another beam at him, this time hitting him fight in the chest.

While the minor bugs didn’t have the firepower to cause him any damage, this one had quite a lot of strength in her attack. This was still within his armor’s limits, but if it keeps getting hit like that, it’s going to break sooner or later.

He jumped sideways and rolled on the ground to avoid two more attacks, firing at the attacker, this time hitting her chest. She took a step back and cringed but otherwise stayed rather fine. Her chitin armor absorbed most of the energy from the shot, but the part of it that was hit was now completely unable to take any more hits like that. Falcon fired again but she rolled away.

Angered by being hit, she levitated everything in close proximity and threw it at Falcon. Multiple stones, pieces of wood, candles, plants and many other things flew towards the clone commander, hitting him all over his body. Again, his armor protected him from any injuries, but the constant impacts made it impossible for him to stay steady and aim, letting the bug to charge a more powerful beam and shoot it at Falcon.

When the beam hit him, he was sent flying towards the wall, dropping the rifle upon impact with the wall. Shortly after that, a second, much stronger beam made contact with him, destroying the wall behind him and sending the clone flying down.

For a short moment she looked at the hole in the wall, smiling to herself while everyone else in the room froze in fear. *LAUGH* “And that’s the punishment for-“ The words left her when Falcon flew back into the castle with his jetpack. Before she gathered her jaw from the floor, Falcon quickly took off the jetpack and threw it at her.

She was hit in the head and fell over, while Falcon lifted the rifle and shot at her. For the second time he hit her, marking another part of her armor. “Ready to give up?” He slowly walked over to her, with rifle pointed at her and finger at the trigger.

The only response he got was a rage filled scream. She teleported again, appearing right behind him, ready to shove her horn between parts of his armor. But almost as if he knew what she was about to do, Falcon quickly turned around and smashed the rifle’s butt in her face. She stepped back with a small crack on her face. However, she didn’t allowed it to bother her in the slightest and pushed on with her horn charged with energy.

Falcon pulled out his pike and made contact with her charged horn. Sparks flew all around them as they struggled to overpower each other. Eventually, she gained the superiority over him, and Falcon was pushed back despite his efforts.

Realizing that he can’t out-strength her, Falcon reached with his hand to his blaster pistol. He switched it to the lowest power settings and fired the weapon. The effects were immediate. While it didn’t knock her out, the shot was enough to make most of her strength disappear for the moment, allowing Falcon to easily push her back and strike in the face with the force pike, which was also on low settings.

She fell on the ground and Falcon quickly placed his foot on her chest and pointed the energy filled tip of the force pike a bit above her throat. “Now let’s make things clear, you’re going to gather your bugs together, and give up. Get it?” He lightly pressed the tip against her throat, sending a short, low voltage discharge into her body.

“I…I…”She said through closed teeth with her eyes closed.

“Just do it. Stop this bloodshed before it’s too late.”

“I…” She opened her eyes, which now became yellow. “I WILL NOT LOSE!!!” She screamed so loud that Falcon almost dropped the pike and his head began to spin.

Then, he was suddenly lifted in the air and thrown into the wall and then into the floor, only to be lifted up again. He felt something closing around his throat, even though there was nothing there. Immediately he began to choke. She levitated him to herself and looked at him struggling to breath.

As she was playing with him, she felt one of her drones approaching. ”I think I’ve made myself clear, I don’t need help with dealing with this thing.” She said through the hive mind

”I’m sorry my queen. Is there any other way I can assist you?”

She thought about it for a moment before answering. ”Yes, I want you to prepare, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Cadenza and her not-to-be husband. Place them in cocoons and move to the caves. Make sure they are awake. Without any more words said, the drone walked through the now opened door. It moved towards the pair on the other side of the room, not acknowledging anything around.

As Falcon was being held in the air, desperately grabbing any bit of air he could get, he noticed that his force pike was being levitated. It quickly stroked him, sending pain through his body. He felt another strike, and another, and another…

Meanwhile, the drone approached the pink princess. “What do you want from us?” She said.

The drone closed its eyes and after a short moment opened them. To princess’ surprise they were no longer that of a changeling, but that of a pony. The drone looked at her partner. “Go to him while you still have the chance.” Drone’s horn shone with blue light and the goo that restrained princess’ movement disappeared. Not saying another word, the drone turned around and walked away.

At the same time the Changeling Queen was having the time of her life, slowly draining the life out of one who caused her so much trouble. She was enjoying it so much that she didn’t even notice a blue flare flying towards her before it was too late.

The flare hit her in the upper leg, causing her to drop Falcon and his pike on the ground. The clone immediately took a deep breath as his opponent looked at the source from which the flare came from. The drone she sent to take care of things was walking towards her, but it was different. It’s blue empty orbs were instead replaced with green pony eyes, the holes in its legs disappeared and so did most of the chitin, remaining only on the back and part of upper legs while the rest of the body was now covered with dark-orange fur. The realization came to her quickly. “TRAITOR!!!”

Before she could rush to him and teach him the proper lesson, Falcon stood up on his knees and grabbed the damaged chunk of chitin on her chest, ripping it off. He quickly grabbed another part of it, but instead of removing it, he used it to push her off her hooves and tackle on the ground, where he gave her a much deserved punch in the face.

She quickly retaliated and pushed him away for long enough to throw a uppercut on him. Her hoof met his helmet, knocking it away and revealing his face. She hadn’t stopped there and attacked again, punching Falcon’s chest and knocking him back and stood up. She felt another flare hitting her, but this time it didn’t hit in place that was protected by thick chitin.

It hit her chest.

Upon impact, she felt the soft skin under her natural body armor being ripped apart as the explosion caused by the flare dug into her flesh, leaving a small, bleeding hole in it. Air left her lungs as she fell on the ground, desperately holding onto her life.

Falcon watched at the drone walked over to her and said. “The only traitor here, is you, Chrysalis.” At hearing this words, Chrysalis fell into another fit of rage, her eyes went back to their yellow state as she savagely attacked the drone, seemingly hitting everywhere at once. Falcon rushed to push her away, but was lifted in the air again, and was choked so hard that he almost felt his neck snapping.

Life slowly begun to leave his body, starting with his consciousness.

But just before his eyes closed, he saw two quadrupeds enveloped in a pink aura and releasing a shock wave from their bodies.

As it reached him he couldn’t help but think about…

Author's Note

Since the previous chapter was so short I decided to start this one immediately, since I also had a sudden burst of inspiration. Hope you enjoyed.

Song of a day: Skillet - Hero

5. Princess

--Chapter 5--
Princess

Yet again, Falcon began to wake up, but this time, he was not greeted by the sunlight. The first thing he noticed was the stone ceiling above his head, illuminated by the light from a torch. He got up from the small bed he woke up in, examining his surroundings. He was inside a small room, excavated in stone and separated from a corridor with bars. The room had one more small bed on the opposite side but no one was there. Falcon quickly realized that he was in prison.

Great… Just great… He stood up, glad that this time he wasn’t naked, at least having his body glove on. He noticed that one of quadrupeds was standing just outside of his cell. This one was wearing an armor similar to those worn by their military, but the helmet covered almost its entire head; save for the muzzle and eyes, and the armor protected most of the body, unlike the original version. It would appear that this was supposed to be some special unit of sorts. “Hey, you.” The quadruped turned around but didn’t say anything. “Why am I here?” Falcon asked.

“Princess Celestia has ordered to imprison you for committing mass murder, causing psychological trauma to multiple ponies and illegal possesion of weaponry.” He answered and turned back to his previous position.

Is this a joke? “When am I supposed to get out of here?” Falcon asked again.

“Not fast. All you can do now is beg Princess for forgiveness, scum.”

“Mhm, and when can I expect her to talk to me?” He crossed his hands, leaning against the wall.

“She rarely bothers herself with talking to scum like you.” Falcon noticed the keys hanging on quadruped’s chest plate.

Falcon had no intention on waiting for her to come here, nor did he plan on begging her for anything, especially forgiveness. “And where’s my stuff?”

“It was confiscated and placed in the dungeon’s storage, don’t think that I’ll-“ He was cut off as Falcon reached out his arm through the bars and grabbed his muzzle. The clone pulled him towards the bars and wrapped his arm around the quadruped’s neck. The overly heavy armor made it hard for him to fight back, and it wasn’t like he knew what he was doing anyways.

Soon enough Falcon dropped his unconscious body on the ground. “Thanks for the tip, moron.” He reached out to grab the keys hanging on his chest, unlocking the way out of the cell. He grabbed the sorry excuse of a prison guard by the back of the armor and placed him inside the cell before closing it with a key. Now, let’s take my stuff back and go have a talk with that princess. The hallway was empty, even though there were more cells available, but Falcon still stayed careful.

It wasn’t to say that he doubted in his ability to defeat this bunch of idiots in a fight, but he preferred to sneak his way to the princess, rather than have entire castle going after him. He made his way to the end of a hallway, where he could see an open, wooden door. He peeked inside, noticing one more quadruped inside. From the looks, Falcon guessed that it was a female. Her fur was bright green and hair few shades darker.

He took a step back. “Hey! The prisoner escaped, I need help!” He yelled. Like he expected, she quickly ran towards the door with her armor giving out loud noises as she walked, letting Falcon know exactly how far away she was.

Just before she stepped out of the room, Falcon stepped out in front of her, and before she reacted in any way, punched her straight in the face. She was immediately knocked out and her helmet fell on the ground, next to her unconscious body. Falcon pulled her back into the room, hiding her in the closet after he took her set of keys and tied her up with a rope he found hanging on the wall. The punch left her with a bruised eye, but she was otherwise fine.

Falcon inspected the room he was in. It was about the size of the cell –maybe a bit larger- and was also excavated in solid rock. Other than the closet, there was a table in the middle of the room surrounded by three chairs, and another door were placed on the wall.

He walked over to them and looked through the hole. The other room was full of large chests, only one of which was closed. He opened the door with a key and walked towards the chest.

He tried every key he had available, but none could open the chest. Great, now I have to find something to break the chest with. He looked through the rest of the chests in the room, hoping that someone left there something solid he could use. There was however nothing to be found, so he moved back to the previous room. He opened the closed again, only to see that the female he knocked out earlier was waking up. She was barely able to focus on him, let alone speak, but she knew that he was there. “Sorry for all that.” He said. “I just didn’t feel like sitting on my ass and waiting for that idiot who put me here to come down and talk with me, so I decided to pay her a visit myself and explain few things.”

He noticed the sword on her side and grabbed the golden hilt. “I’ll borrow that.” He ran his finger over the edge, only to find it to be dull. He found it disappointing, but he wasn’t going to use it for fighting anyways. Falcon returned to the chest holding the sword and tried to open it. After a few short moments of wrestling with the chest, the lock gave out.

Along with the sword…

Falcon looked at the hilt of the weapon in his hand and at the blade lying on the floor. Either they can’t even make a sword right, or that chest was just very strong. I hope it was the chest… He dropped the hilt on the floor and looked at the open chest with a smile. His armor was there, and so were his weapons. He immediately begun to put everything on, leaving only the jet pack. Without fuel it would just be a dead weight.

Now fully equipped, he stepped out of the room, finding himself in front of the quadruped he had tied up earlier, with the rope lying next to the closet. They looked at each other in silence for a moment, before she spoke up with somewhat shaky voice. “T-thank you.”

Falcon looked at her with a surprised look on his face and took off Shaw’s helmet. “For what?”

“For saving me. Me my husband, and friends. Changelings surrounded us and killed a few ponies, then you showed up and saved our lives. I… I understand why Princess ordered to imprison you, but… I’m not going to sound the alarm.” She said and sat on one of the chairs. “That’s the least I can do.”

Falcon looked at her for a few moments, still surprised. He didn’t know if she could be trusted, but at the moment he could use someone on his side and shooting her with a stun beam won’t help him in building this society’s trust, so he decided to trust her words. “I appreciate it.” He put the helmet back on and walked to the door and turned around. “What’s your name?”

“Green Vail.”

“Falcon.” He almost walked out but remembered something. “Eeee, If you don’t mind, could you wake up that guy I locked up in my cell in about an hour?” He threw her one set of keys, they were both the same anyways. She grabbed it in her hoof, though she almost dropped it afterwards, and nodded. “Thanks.”

This time he walked out for real, turning on the map gathered by the probe. The display appeared on the helmet’s visor and Falcon slowed down his walk to focus on it. The Princess he’s looking for will most likely be either in the throne room, or in her room. Since he had no idea which one out of hundreds of rooms in the castle might belong to her, he decided to go to the throne room first.

The display showed him another large chamber, on the opposite side to the one he had already visited. It was on a much higher level than where he was at the moment, but he also could see the stairs leading there that were not that far from his current position.

He placed a miniature of display on the side of the visor and turned left, walking into another hallway with a door on the other side. As he walked there, he came up with an idea. The probe was still operational even though it was active all this time. He remotely turned it on, directing it towards the chamber he wanted to check.

The energy level of the probe was low, so he chose not to move it fast and turned off the unimportant systems, such as thermo-vision and most of the sensors and scanners installed in the machine.

As the probe continued to slowly move, Falcon was doing the same, reaching the stairs after a few minutes of slow walking. He hadn’t encountered other ‘ponies’ -strange name but its better then calling them quadrupeds- and he wasn’t planning to. The less of them knew about his presence the better.

After passing the first level, the rough stone walls turned into stone bricks. He still was in a part of the castle dug into the mountain, but it was nice to see the change in his surroundings, the caves always gave him creeps after the stupid Gundarks in some smuggler’s cave on one of his missions almost killed him once.

As he kept walking up the stairs, the probe reached its destination. He took over the control over the probe, moving it around with the eye gestures. Once he closed in to one of the stained windows showing the 6 female ponies from the day before shooting a beam at some strange looking snake. Behind the window, he noticed 2 ponies. Their looks were not easy to determine because of the window, but he could tell that they were both at least twice the size of an average pony, with the first one being pure white or very bright pink, while the other was much darker, black or dark shade of blue. They appeared to have an argument.

“-ow could you do this!?” The darker one said. “This human not only saved your life, but also your student’s, her friends and many ponies along the way here, and all you did was throw him into a dungeon!? Is this how you show gratitude nowadays!? Because I don’t think so!” The sound was a bit fuzzy because of the window, but the probe cleared it out so that Falcon could understand everything.

“Luna, I’m not going to repeat myself. You know the reasons why he’s in the dungeon right now, and I’m not changing my mind.” The other one sounded much more in control, but she was on the edge of her patience.

“Those ‘reasons’ of yours are completely irrational. You know very well that changelings were not hesitating to kill and that our ponies had no way of defending themselves thanks to you and all those bans you pushed for. And don’t even get me started on the pathetic excuse of an army you’ve created. This would be unthinkable in the past!”

“The past is no more! The times are different now, we’re not surrounded by enemies but allies, the ponies don’t need violence introduced to their lives.” She argued, losing her temper for one moment.

“We’re not surrounded by enemies? Do you even listen to yourself? This attack proves that we DO have enemies, enemies who are willing to take lives to gain what they want. And ponies don’t need violence? Life is violent! It always was and will be. Did you even move that fat ass of yours and see what ponies think after the invasion?”

“They’re scared, crying over their lost friends and loved ones-“

“And willing to make sure something like this won’t happen again.” The dark one finished. “You probably wouldn’t believe how many ponies changed their way of thinking about all this since yesterday. I’ve never had so many applications for joining the Guard in just one day, and if the ‘training’ they’re going to receive stays the same, then no matter how many of them will join, any trained army will defeat us.”

“Don’t you even think about suggesting that!”

“Because what!? Because I want our ponies to be able to defend themselves? Because I want them to be strong and fearless? See through your own lies sister! That human could have probably taken over this castle by himself and you know it!”

“I’m not going to let that monster near any of my little ponies. Have you seen what he did to poor Abuyin? To the foals that saw him slaughtering those changelings?”

“And have you thought what would changelings do if it wasn’t for him? Do you really think those bugs cared about the lives of the foals? Please sister, you can’t be that naive. That actually brings another point, why do you have such a grudge against humans?”

“Because they are against everything Equestria stands for. They are a violent group of hateful monsters that are only meant to kill. I will not accept such a monstrosity to walk freely among us.”

“That sounds exactly the way you described griffons after we first made contact.”

“And was I wrong?”

“No, but you gave them a chance to change didn’t you? Why can’t you do the same for this human?”

“Because he just proved that even after all those years nothing has changed. He killed tons of changeling without a second thought, Luna. There is no redemption, or mercy for him.

“Mercy? Why would he have to ask for any mercy? He did nothing more than defend himself and others from a truly violent race. If anything, he should be praised by it, and I know for a fact that many ponies do see him as a savior, including your student.” She turned around and opened the door with the blue aura. “Think about all that sister, because someday it may be too late.” She closed the door, leaving her sister behind.

In that moment the power cell of the probe begun to fail. Falcon landed it safely on the edge of the window, leaving it there to allow the battery to gain some energy from the sun to be able to reclaim if later.

By the time the talk between the two sisters -he assumed they were both princesses- ended, Falcon was almost on the level of the castle he wanted to get on. Through the entire walk he was cursing about the stairs and the serious need to introduce those ponies to the concept of elevators.

He reached the right level and opened the door to the hallway. He was immediately spotted by a lone guard who was walking by and they both froze, looking at each other. After a few seconds, the guard did what Falcon thought was unthinkable. He slowly raised his hoof and saluted to the Commander.

Falcon returned the salute, somewhat hesitantly, and the guard walked away in silence. Falcon kept looking at him until the guard disappeared from his sight. He heard more guards coming from the higher levels and quickly left the doorway, heading towards the throne room.

He snuck past a few groups of the guards without much of a problem and eventually got into the corridor with the massive door to the throne room guarded by 2 guards. Those two had the same armor as the moron that was supposed to keep him in his cell, and from the talks he overheard before, they were Princess’ personal guards.

If they were anything like the one he took out earlier he could easily take out those two and just walk in, but that could alert the princess and bring in more guards. He inspected the castle’s scan again, looking for another way in.

He found only one other way to get inside. The entire castle was full of small passages hidden inside the walls, and one such passage led into the throne room. The map showed the entrance to be hidden in a corridor behind him on the left. He turned around and walked over to the spot where the passage begins. He used his force pike to lift the stone tile, revealing his way in.

Falcon heard someone approaching, and hid inside the passage. “I just can’t believe what she did!” He heard a female talking. Soon enough the group of 6 ponies he saw earlier walked into the hallway, heading towards the throne room. “He saved our lives, even her life, and she just threw him into the dungeon for murder. That’s so stupid!” He saw the purple one saying as she led the rest of the group. Her side was wrapped in bandages.

“Well, he did kill quite a lot of those bugs, but Ah see where yer coming from Twi. He hadn’t even had a fair trial.” The orange pony wearing a hat said.

“Yeah, that was so not cool.” The rainbow haired one said, flying above the rest. “Especially with how cool that guy was fighting. Seriously, I wouldn’t mind cracking hooves with him at some point.”

“It’s not just about that girls.” The group stopped. “Changelings were ready to not only steal love from us. They had… other uses for us too…” She lowered her head and looked at the floor. “They wanted to kill us and the princess punishes the only one who could stand up to them. Because let’s face it, Royal Guards have no idea how to fight.” They walked away, still talking about something but they were too far for Falcon to hear them.

He began to walk through the passage, keeping his head low to avoid hitting the ceiling. The passage had no source of light in it so Falcon used the night vision more in Shaw’s helmet. It was obvious that the passage was designed to allow the Princess to escape if necessary, if it was meant for normal sized ponies he would probably have more problems with passing through. The passage was connected with other ones as well, but he knew where his target was.

He reached the other end of the tunnel and silently lifted the tile above him. Two more guards were inside, and the princess was sitting on her throne, deep in thought and unaware of Falcon watching her. Moments later, 6 ponies he overheard before stepped into the room. Princess looked at the expression of the purple one and ordered her guards to leave, standing up and walking towards the group. “Twilight, I-“

“How could you!?” Twilight yelled, startling the rest of the group and also the princess. “Why is it so hard for you to understand that they were trying to KILL us!? How can you look at all the ponies who did die and say that we should push for peace with them!?”

“There’s no need to yell Twilight, I can hear you just fine. And yes, I did push for peace with the changelings, and that’s because I believe that if we learn to live with them in harmony we can only be stronger by it. What this human did was unacceptable and he already received his punishment.”

After hearing that Twilight lit up her horn and levitated something out of her bag. And that something was a vibroknife. Falcon knew that this had to be salvaged from since they are not on the technological level sufficient to built such a knife. She smashed the tip into the floor. “Well, I killed a changeling in self-defense too. Are you going to throw me into a dungeon with him?” The princess didn’t answer. “Why? Just tell me why?”

Falcon stepped out of the hidden passage before the princess could answer. “Because she’s a pacifist.” He said, bringing the attention to himself.

“W-WHAT!? How did you escape!?” The Princess yelled in surprise.

Falcon took off his helmet as he closed in. “You’re saying that as if that was supposed to be hard.”

She lit up her horn. “How you did this is not important, you’re going back there anyways.” She shot a beam of energy at him, too fast for him to dodge.

He didn’t have to do this however, as the beam was stopped by the purple force field. “No. He doesn’t.” Twilight said, stepping between Falcon and the Princess.

“Twilight, step away from this monster, you don’t know what you’re dealing with.”

“Oh, I assure you, I know perfectly well what I’m doing.”

Before the situation could escalate, a flash of blue light appeared above them and the dark blue princess fell on the ground with a thud. “That’s enough sister, step away.” Falcon’s eyes shot wide open. I’ve heard this voice…

The white princess growled at that. “No Luna, this thing is going back where it belongs, and you’re not going to stop me. He is sentenced for murder anyways.”

“Sentenced? Sentenced by whom? There was no trial as far as I remember.” Luna said.

“Besides, any sentence can be cancelled under agreement of either both princesses, or one princess backed up by all Elements of Harmony. And you can sure expect me to be on board. Girls?” She turned towards her friends.

After a moment of silence the rainbow haired one spoke up. “I’m in.” She jabbed her yellow-furred friend. “M-me too. That is, if you don’t mind…” Shortly, the rest of them agreed as well. Luna looked at her sister.

“Well, that’s it then. The human is free, and you can’t do anything about it.” She said. The only response she received was a death-glare as her sister left the room in a flash of light.

All eyes turned back to Falcon. “That’s… not how I expected this to go, but… thank you. I really appreciate you putting trust in me.”

“The least we can do after you saved us.” Twilight said.

“Well, I probably would get out of that goo and kicked those bugs’ butts, but you sure made it interesting to watch. So thank you, I guess.” Rainbow one said.

Twilight pulled the vibroknife from the floor and levitated it towards Falcon. He grabbed the weapon and inspected it. Few clones in his battalion have used vibroknives, but this one didn’t belong to any of them. The hilt was red and had a small power cell installed in it, he pressed the button on it, releasing electricity into the blade. The blade itself was 15cm long and extendable from the hilt. It was black and probably composed out of Chrometium, leaving no doubt that it didn’t belong to a clone and was custom made.

Chrometium was one of the most rare metals in the galaxy and one of few that can resist the lightsaber blade. The only two known sources of the material though Falcon’s knowledge didn’t go further.

Falcon looked at the weapon for a few more seconds passing it back to Twilight. “You can keep it, it may save your life someday.” Somewhat hesitantly, she levitated the weapon back into her saddlebag.

“I believe I said something about taking their belongings.” Luna said.

“You said, I’m not to take their equipment, and this clearly doesn’t belong to any of them.” Twilight replied.

“I can confirm that.” He looked at Luna. She did the same and the moment their eyes met, Falcon felt something really strange, not in a bad way but strange nonetheless. Something about her was very familiar, as if he knew her his whole life. “Have… have we met?” He asked.

“Not personally, but I have accompanied you in your sleep during your recovery as well as guided your dreams.” They spent another moment in silence.

“It is strange, but I feel like I’ve met you somewhere.”

“Don’t worry, I had problems with understanding this as well.” She smiled warmly. “I sensed you were coming hours before your ship crashed on my moon, and ever since you were placed in the hospital I could feel something connecting us. I have yet to discover the nature of this link, but it’s there. You can feel that too, can you not?”

“I… I definitely feel something, but I’m not sure what it is.”

“I think we will discover what it really is in due time.” She said. “Now, there is one thing I wanted to ask you about.” He motioned her to continue. “Like you’ve pointed out, my sister is a pacifist, and a very dedicated one too. For years she had ruled on her own, and as a result the equestrian army was turned from a force to be reckoned with, into a pathetic scarecrow army, good only at looking intimidating in numbers. I can’t force her into agreeing with me on the matter and the parliament won’t do a thing as well.

This is why I want you to train a group of ponies in secret, create a real army in the shadows. In return I will provide you with anything you need to go back home.”

“And where would I be training them?” He asked.

“The old castle in Everfree forest will do. I will make sure to get a group of ponies to prepare a house in Ponyville for you and others I have managed to save from the ship on the moon. You will be able to work outside of my sister’s sight. Do you agree?”

Falcon thought about it.

And thought.

“I agree.”

Author's Note

Song of a day: Sabaton - Twilight Of The Thunder God

6. New Friendships

--Chapter 6--
New Friendships

“Alright ya’ll, Ah think we’ve talked enough about all this. Time to get to know each other.” She stepped in front of the group. “Howdy, mah name’s Applejack, the head of Apple family and owner of Sweet Apple Acers. Pleased to meet you.” She extended her hoof towards him. Her coat was light orange and her head covered by stetson hat and blonde hair tied up in a ponytail.

Falcon grabbed her hoof and shook it. “Falcon, Commander of 144th Battalion in Grand Army of the Republic, GAR for short.” He turned towards the rest of group. “Now who are you five?”

The first one that tried to introduce herself was Twilight -even though he already know who she was- but the rainbow one stepped in front of her and spoke up. Or tried to, as she was suddenly pushed away from the clone and back to the group. The one responsible for this, was the pink pony with puffy mess of hair on her head, who jumped into Falcon’s arms and begun to talk. And she talked a lot.

And as if that wasn’t enough, she could speak words so fast that even most advanced protocol droids would have problems understanding all that. She also displayed a strange ability to change moods so fast that she might as well have a switch for every emotion inside her head. She even gave him bedroom eyes for a moment…

“Please ignore her darling. Pinkie Pie is a real gem, but she has occasional problems with invading other’s personal space.” The white pony with long dark purple hair said, as Pinkie Pie kept babbling nonsense (at least Falcon assumed it was nonsense. For all he knew, she could have been explaining the biggest secrets of the universe) while he held her in his arms. “Anyways, my name is Rarity, fashion designer and rare gems collector. Now tell me…”

An absolute silence filled the throne room (even though Pinkie’s mouth were still moving) as Rarity’s eyes begun to burn with fire.

”WHERE IS THE MONSTER WHO DARED TO DESTROY SUCH A FINE PIECE OF ART LIKE THE ONE YOU’RE WEARING!? I SHALL DESTROY THEM!!!” a demonic voice of Rarity filled the room, startling everyone (except Pinkie). “*NERVOUS COUGH* I mean, could you tell me why does your attire looked so… ragged. And what’s with the helmet? It absolutely doesn’t fit with the other pieces.”

“Um…” For a moment he failed to gather proper words. “Well, it gets like that after two years of use in combat. And I borrowed this helmet from a friend, mine was destroyed.”

Rarity’s eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. “You wore this for two years!?” She yelled. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, this CAN’T continue. I will not allow you to walk around in this for any longer. Once we get back to Ponyville, I will make you something new to wear. And I’m NOT taking ‘no’ for an answer!”

“I… guess I have no choice but to accept… but I don’t even know what’s the currency here, and I doubt that republic’s currency has any real value here.” Falcon answered. Not that I have any credits on me in the first place…

“Oh, don’t worry about that darling, I’m not going to take anything from you. Just come to my boutique when we’ll be in Ponyville so I can take measurements.”

“Appreciated. But don’t suggest the same to Shaw, please. He hates to wear anything except his armor. Blast, it took me a month to convince him to change his old Phase I armor to Phase II.” He smiled at the memory of him and General Haskri painting Shaw’s armor pink. And more importantly, Shaw’s face when he saw it. Surprisingly that still wasn’t enough to convince the clone and he kept using his pink armor for another week. “Anyways, where’s the yellow one? She was here a moment ago.”

The blue one flew up the moment she noticed that her friend was gone and soon enough brought down a yellow shaking fur ball. “Fluttershy, I thought that you said you are afraid of heights. Why do you keep doing that?” She asked.

The response came in a form of a whisper, way too silent to hear for a normal human or pony. “Well, find yourself a better hiding spot. I can’t be around every time you get stuck on the ceiling.” She turned towards Falcon. “This mare here is Fluttershy. The most sweet and kind pony you’ll ever meet.” She flew up to his eye level. “And I am Rainbow Dash. The fastest and most awesome thing you’ll ever see.”

“Doubt it. Fastest being? Maybe, but not the fastest thing.”

She flew over to him. “Oh, is that so? What could possibly be faster than me?”

“Just about every ship I ever flew in?” He deadpanned. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re capable of, but unless you can beat the light speed, you’re not a completion for anything that GAR uses. And that’s not happening.”

“We’ll see.” She said, as Twilight face-palmed (and made a mental note to ask Falcon about it)

Falcon sighted and turned towards the last pony. “If I remember correctly, you’re Twilight, right?”

“Yes, I’m Twilight Sparkle. I was part of a team that was studying you and your friends that were brought from your ship by Princess Luna.”

“And speaking of that, who did you manage to get out of there? Save for those who were in my room -Sakri and Shaw.”

“We couldn’t identify most of them. Except for Shaw we only found names: Tracker and Cipher.” She said. “Do you know them?”

“I know all of my brothers in my battalion. Cipher is part of Shaw's engineering team, and Tracker is a sniper in Phantom Squad. How are they?” Twilight bit her lip and looked away.

“I think it will be better if you see them yourself.” Luna spoke up. “I planned to go to the hospital anyways, there's somepony there that I think would make a fitting recruit.”

“Hey, you still don't have a name for that thing!” Rainbow yelled. “And are we going to be a part of it too?” She added.

“Of course you're going to go through at least some basic training. You are Elements of Harmony, and even though you do posses some level of skill in combat -as you have proven during the invasion- but that is simply not enough.” Luna answered her question.

“Cool! Now what about the name?”

“Well, what about it?” Falcon asked.

Dash face-palmed. “Well, duh! It has to sound awesome to be awesome! Just look at me. Do you think ponies would have loved me as much as they do if my name was something lame, like… I dunno, Clear Sky? Or something like that.”

“Alright, what do you suggest? I'm admit ably bad at naming things.” He said as the group slowly begun to leave the throne room (Pinkie was still in Falcon's arms).

“Hmm...” She thought to herself. “Well, you're wearing black… Fluttershy!” The yellow Pegasus almost jumped on the ceiling again. “What cool black animals do you know?”

“Oh, w-well, there are black ants.

“I said cool.”

“Black panther?”

“I hate cats.”

“Maybe bats?”

“Nope. Come on. Think Flutershy. His name is Falcon. Falcons are birds. What cool birds do you know?”

“P-pinguins?

“No! Something cool!”

“I don't see the problem in all this. We may just call it Black Guard.” Twilight proposed.

“But that's so plane darling. It needs some bazzam to it.” Rarity cut in.

“W-well, what about ravens?”

Rainbow smiled. “You mean those black birds that keep steeling Diamond Tiara's tiara?” Fluttershy nodded, making Rainbow chuckle at the memory. “Yeah, those things look pretty cool. I’ll take it!” She flew in front of Falcon. “With the power granted me be the powers of harmony, I… um, Princess, what word would you use?”

“Proclaim?”

“Yeah that.” She cleared her throat, and almost burst into laughter, barely stopping herself. “With the power granted me be the powers of harmony, I -Rainbow Dash- proclaim thee, the Commander of Black Ravens. Thou shall be… *PFF*LAUGHTER* I can’t do this! *MORE LAUGHTER*” Rainbow fell on the ground, laughing her ass off. Luna gave her a smile and Pinkie Pie decided to jump out of Falcon’s arms to join her friend in laughing on the floor.

“Can’t say I see the joke, but from what I understand, those ravens are a species of black birds, is that right?” Fluttershy nodded. “Then basically what you mean by ‘Black Ravens’, is ‘Black Black Birds’. Don’t you think it sounds a bit weird?” Falcon said, happy not to have a pink pony in his arms.

Rainbow gathered herself from the floor and calmed her laughter down (the same could not be said about Pinkie). “Well, who has a better idea?”

“Well, for all ah care you can call it ‘Apple Ravens’. Sorry, but Ah have to go to the kitchen and make sure everything goes nicely with the food for the wedding, Ah’ll see you folks later.” Applejack said as she turned into a corridor leading in the opposite direction to where the rest of the group was going.

“See ya!” Rainbow yelled and the rest followed. “Now back to business, anypony has any other ideas?”

“Really Rainbow, I don’t think this is all that important, we can take care of this later.” Twilight said.

“Well, it’s not like we have much to do anyways, that is until Princess Luna will lead us to wherever she’s leading us to.”

“Speak for yourself, I have roughly 316 questions that I want to ask. And that is not counting the possible questions that will pop out during the questioning.” Falcon looked at her with wide eyes. He was not going to answer all that, he’s going to make Shaw do it once he wakes up.

In that moment, everyone realized that for all this time, Pinkie Pie was talking. “So what do you think!?” She said (or more like yelled) as she jumped to Falcon’s eye level.

“Um…” He was not sure what was he supposed to answer, but as soon as he saw all of Pinkie’s friends shaking their heads and making desperate motions that were supposed to make him agree, he decided to go along. “Yes?”

Pinkie gasped and hovered midair. “Oh, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She grabbed his face and placed her lips on his, giving him a loud kiss just before she run away from the group, yelling in happiness and disappeared from their sight.

Seeing Falcon’s beet-red face, Rainbow smirked. “First kiss, huh?”

“I-I… um…”

“Heh, virgins… always the same.” She moved to the front of the group. “Come on guys, we took down Discord, I’m sure we can figure out a cool name for secret government project.” She said.

“Well, while I don’t see why are you so keen on this, I believe that I might have a suggestion.” Rarity spoke out. “Since Princess Luna is the pony who started the whole thing, I suggest ‘Lunar Ravens’ to be the name of this project. It fits into the idea of ‘creating an army in the shadow’ -with the shadow being the night- as well as ravens representing our dear commander, who’s spirit animal, in my honest opinion is raven.” She finished. Even though his name is Falcon…

“Alright, I’ll take it!” Rainbow said. “Good job Rares!”

“Humph, I would appreciate if you would stop calling me that. Especially in presence of royalty.”

“Yeah, whatever. Nopony cares.” Rainbow said. By that time the group was already at the castle’s gate, which was guarded by a small group of guards. None of them moved at the sight of them, but they knew they were there. They left the castle with no problems -thanks to presence of Princess Luna- and went into a courtyard, where they all saw a blackened hole on the ground made during a previous day by Falcon. “What happened here anyways? Your job?” She asked Falcon.

“Yes, those changelings swarmed me and I had to blow them up with a grenade.”

“What’s a grenade?” Twilight asked.

Determined to make sure he won’t find himself in a trap that will force him into answering all the questions she has at her disposal, Falcon decided to avoid answering. “Well, I think Shaw would be able to answer this question better than I would once he wakes up. He is an engineer after all.” He heard a silent ‘damn it’ coming from her.

“Do not worry, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna cut in. “I believe that Shaw and all the others will be waking up soon enough. The crystals have run out of power and their recovery is nearly completed, at least to the level it can be.” Falcon was curious as to what she meant by that, but didn’t thought it was important.

He did ask about those crystals though. “Do you mean those blue crystals that were hanging above our heads?” She nodded. “What are they for? Were they supposed to aid in recovery through some radiations?”

“Not exactly.” Twilight answered. “These crystals were keeping you and your friends in coma, as well as prevent any problems regarding lack of any physical activity for the past months. I guess yours run out of energy faster than the other ones, and that’s why you woke up faster. Of course there could be other reason, but I think this is the most likely one.”

So I guess that’s the reason why I felt like I have just left Bacta tank. They walked out from the castle, heading towards the hospital through the streets of Canterlot. The city was still being rebuild after the attack and many ponies stayed in their homes, but some of those who were outside recognized Falcon from the events yesterday.

When he was pushing his way to the castle through the streets the previous day, he encountered not only guards who were getting beaten by changelings, but also a lot of civilians captured by bugs. Including a group of kids trapped in a schoolhouse, who at the moment were waving to him from the very same building that was surrounded by changelings when Falcon got there. Of course, he wasn’t very keen on killing those bugs in front of kids, and instead used a stun settings of Shaw’s rifle.

But by doing so, he discovered that changelings are not the easiest creatures to knock out. Unless you hit the head, it is very likely that their chitin armor will allow them to fight on with minimal difficulty.

That’s why he didn’t use stun more often, he may have a pretty good eye, but certainly not good enough to keep hitting a moving targets in a head each end every time. That, and the fact that his respect for the leaving beings doesn’t include near mindless bugs attacking defenseless civilians.

He waved back, earning a smirk from Rainbow. “Enjoying your little funclub?”

“Well, it’s not like I get to see kids very often, so I might as well enjoy it. Heck, if you discount clone cadets on Kamino, I haven’t met any in my life.” He explained. The group passed the schoolhouse and continued to walk forward. At this moment, Falcon realized that the yellow pony -Fluttershy- hasn’t said a word since they left the castle (And even before that she was rather quiet). “Is everything alright miss Fluttershy? You’ve been rather quiet all this time.”

She squeaked in surprise. “O-oh! It’s just that, I didn’t think yo would want to talk with me, so I stayed quiet not to offend you!” She said.

“I wouldn’t mind it if you joined the conversation. I may not be the best diplomat in the galaxy, but if I can establish peaceful relations with natives of this planet, then I’m all for it. So don’t be afraid to ask me anything if you want to.”

Upon hearing that, Twilight’s eyes lit up (literally). “Does that mean I can ask questions too!?”

“U-um… I told you that Shaw will answer all your questions , right?” He realized that he just fell into rancor’s pit.

“But you said you will answer Fluttershy’s questions! Why not mine!?”

Blast it… “Alright… I guess answering a few questions won’t hurt.” Twilight smiled widely and immediately she pulled a notebook with a pencil. “But first, I will let miss Fluttershy ask a question if she has one.” He said, hoping that this will buy him enough time to get to the hospital.

“Y-you don’t have to call me ‘miss’, and w-well… I was wondering, what is your spirit animal?” She asked.

“I’m… not sure what you mean by that. Is this some part of your culture?” He asked Twilight.

“Yes, everypony is connected with some animal that often represents his or hers personality. For example, my animal is an Owl, symbol of intelligence, magic and seeing what is hidden from eyes. It often happens that animal connected to a pony eventually finds its way to this pony, like it happened with me, Rainbow and Applejack. From your reaction I’m guessing that this isn’t something your culture practices?”

“Not really, though I’m rather sure that some cultures of the galaxy have traditions similar to that. And how do you determine what is your spirit animal anyways? Are there some rituals you have to go through or something?”

She giggled. “Not exactly. There are ponies who are taking care of things like that. Fluttershy for example is a specialist on this matter, and Rarity picked up some things from her.”

Falcon turned towards the yellow Pegasus. “Um, it’s really nothing special.” She said. “I just have to compare the pony’s personality with the animal’s behavior and traits associated with them. Sometimes it is helpful to meditate with that pony a little, so I can have a better read of the personality and sometimes to be able to notice already established connection with an animal. Mavtovic magic can be very helpful with that, I really appreciate that Twilight have thought me some things about it.”

“What’s this ‘Mavtovic magic’?” Falcon asked.

Twilight took it upon herself to answer that. “It’s one of most mysterious kinds of magic that we know of. Nopony can really tell where it came from for sure, but we know that it is present in every leaving being, and if it is concentrated in a pony in high levels, it can allow ponies to perform things like for example levitation, without being a unicorn, or many other things that normally can’t be done.

We don’t know when was it really discovered, but the oldest known records come from times before the First Union, when three tribes formed the first shared government. About one hundred years later the Second Union connected three tribes into Equestria.

The name ‘Mavtovic’ comes from a pony who discovered a way of determining the level of traditional magic, as well as Mavtovic magic - Mavtovic The Beardless, brother of Starswirl The Bearded”

“We distinguish three types of Mavtovic spells.” Luna took over the explanation. “Spells of Light, Gray and Darkness. I am a specialist in spells of Darkness and Gray, while my sisters specializes in Grey and Light spells.”

Through their explanation, Falcon begun to realize that he in fact knows what they are talking about, he simply knows it under different name. “That sounds very similar to the Force.” He said, stroking his chin.

“What’s that?” Rainbow asked.

“Exactly what they said. A force that binds all life, that has it’s darker and lighter side and allows to do things normally unachievable.” He said.

“So this is something that is known also outside of our planet, right?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, but it is not ‘magic’. I have seen few tribes on less developed worlds performing magic, and the Force completely different thing~as far as I can tell.”

“And it’s much less mouthful. I mean, ‘Mavdovic’? Seriously you couldn’t find easier word for it?” Rainbow said.

“Yeah, I’ll agree.” Falcon and Rainbow bumped their fist and hoof. “By the way, I assume that you have measured our levels of the Force right?” Twilight and Luna nodded. “So, I’m wondering what level of the Force has Sakri?”

“You’re talking about the female right?” He confirmed that with a nod. “Well, if I remember correctly, it was somewhere around 12 thousand, which is the highest number out of all of you. You have the second highest level, about 9 thousand.”

“Alright, that’s… wait a second.” He stopped in his tracks, surprised at what she stated. “What about the others, what are their levels?” He asked as the rest of group stopped.

“They are all in range of between one to two thousand. You and this Sakri are the only ones with Mavtovic le-“

“The Force. “ Rainbow corrected her.

Twilight sighed at that, but changed her wording anyways. “…you’re the only ones with Force level high enough to do anything with it, other than some simple meditation.”

Falcon almost dropped the helmet upon hearing that. “Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.

“This can’t be right… I’m a clone, not a Jedi, this is impossible.” He looked at Twilight. “You must have made a mistake.”

“No, not really. I will admit that it was hard to sense it in your case, but if you know what you’re looking for and spend some time on it, there’s no way to make a mistake.” He was still not convinced.

“If you still don’t believe, I will show you after we’re done here. We have reached our destination.” Luna said. Somehow, her just saying that helped Falcon to put himself together, though he was still convinced that they have made a mistake.

Right now the group was entering the hospital, immediately noticing that it was full of injured ponies. “Where exactly are we going princess?” Falcon asked.

“To the part of hospital meant for healing mental problems.” She said. “Since the law doesn’t include anything like killing in self-defense, the doctor that you have met was dealt with as if she was a murderer, and closed there. Technically, she is not sentenced yet, so it is within my power to clear her from all accusations.”

“I’m guessing that you want me to train her?”

“Well, I know for a fact that after yesterday’s events she is willing to do this, and a pony with medical knowledge would be valuable. Not to mention that after all this she was removed from her position and Ponyville Hospital could use additional staff member.”

“Agreed, a good field medic can be a big asset.” Clone commander agreed. “But could you tell me more about her? I haven’t really got to know her all that well.”

“Of course. Abuyin was forced to run away from Saddle Arabia 5 years ago after she was threatened with being stoned to death after she was found as a non-believer. She has no family here and not many friends, but is an excellent doctor. I believe that her life in Saddle Arabia has made her much more willing to use violence against changelings, since most ponies native to Equestria would not even let this thought to cross their minds. And we can all thank my sister for this…”

It wasn’t long before they have reached their destination. The door to the room in which Abuyin was in were on the end of the corridor and the group approached them. Princess Luna enveloped the handle with her dark blue magic. “I will go there myself, Twilight, you take Commander and your friends to the 6th floor.” Twilight nodded, and the group followed her.

When the door were opened, Luna saw Abuyin, lying on a bed with her hooves tied to it. Her expression was that of someone who was just about to die of boredom. “So tell me this once again miss Abuyin, why have you decided to do something like this?” The doctor sitting in the room asked her, neither noticed that they were being watched.

“Because this alien was attacked and because if more changelings appeared and he was still unable to break away, we would both be dead.” She explained, clearly bored to no end.

“And do you think there was another method of communicating with this changeling? Perhaps a way to negotiate?”

“No…”

“And what if-“

“Apologies, can I stop you for a moment?” Luna interrupted him.

“*GASP* My Princess! I apologize, I have not noticed you before!” The doctor said, bowing to Luna.

“No need to apologize, I have come here to save miss Abuyin from dying of bore- I mean, to clear her from all charges, all of the paperwork has already been done. Could you please remove restrains and leave us?”

The pony in question immediately was snapped from her zombie-like state, but didn’t say anything. “Yes, of course Princess.” The doctor walked over to Abuyin and removed her restrains, leaving the room shortly after.

“I… I don’t know what to say Princess… Thank you.” Abuyin bowed low. “But, can I know why did you bother yourself with a simple pony like myself?”

“Please stand up. You are not just a simple pony to me Abuyin, and know that you can always count on my help with dealing with your dreams.” Abuyin looked away in sadness, but with a small smile on her face. “But right now, I have come here to make a proposition to you.”

“Anything for you my Princess…”

Twilight have led Falcon and the rest of her group towards the top floor of the hospital. As they were about to enter the stairs, they heard Applejack calling. “Wait for me fellas!” They stopped and waited for her to catch up.

“Applejack, darling! I thought you were helping in the kitchen.” Rarity said.

“Ah was, but folks there have everything under control, so Ah thought Ah should join you guys.” She said.

The group begun to go up the stairs, while listening to Falcon complaining about lack of elevators in Equestria, unknowingly giving Twilight more questions to ask. They reached the top floor of the building, which part was closed by order of Princess Luna to put Falcon and others there for time of their recovery.

“Alright, so, before we go further, I must tell you something.” Twilight stopped in front of Falcon before they entered one of the rooms where his brothers slept.

“What is it?”

She took a deep breath. “Just so you know, we did everything we could, but the damage some of your brothers have suffered was irreversible. We were able to fully fix you, but…” She bit her lip. “Others were not that lucky.” She slowly opened the door and Falcon walked inside.

Immediately, he froze at what he saw.

There were 4 beds in this room, one more then in the one he woke up in. On the first bed lied a clone covered in scars from head to toes, with his eye missing and few fingers removed. He walked over to the bed and opened the chest with clone’s armor and weapons. On the first glance at the weapon with a white hand mark on it he could tell who was the owner. The clone lying in this bed was Cipher.

Quickly, Falcon moved to the second bed. There, he saw a clone with his legs cut off and attached to multiple life supporting machines. Again he opened the chest containing his equipment, recognizing the clone as Rook, a pilot from Rancor Squadron.

On the third bed lied a clone who at the first glance looked normal, until Falcon looked at his left hand, which was wrapped in a metal glove attached to a machine similar to the one he saw attached to Sakri. After looking at the armor, he recognized the clone as Flint, a Capitan of scouting squad.

The last bed contained a clone who’s entire face and shoulders were covered in bandages, leaving only his mouth free. Within the chest lied a Kataran-class Commando armor which belonged to Tracker, a commando from Phantom Squad.

Falcon dropped the helmet he was holding in his hand to the floor and sat on the nearby chair.

Slowly, he begun to feel tears beginning to pour from his eyes.

Tears he was holding off for three years…

Author's Note

Here are armors of each clone:

Falcon
Shaw
Tracker
Flint
Rook
Cipher

Song of a day: Three Days Grace - Painkiller

7. Questioning

--Chapter 7--
Questioning

Silence filled the room in the time following Falcon's breakdown. He quickly gathered himself up after letting out the first tears since... always. "Sorry, I... am not used to crying, and I'm not sure why I reacted so strongly about it. I mean, I've spent over three years on the battlefield and I've seen my brothers die all around me, this…" He pointed at the clones in beds. "…is nothing compared to some things I have witnessed." He washed off tears from his eyes.

"I'm really sorry. We-"

"You have nothing to apologize for, Twilight. You did all you were able to and at least they’re still alive. Doctors on Kamino can take care of them when we find a way to contact with the Republic.” Twilight immediately got rather excited at the thought of contacting with something from outside of this world. “That is, if we even can contact them in the first place.” Her enthusiasm dropped down a bit.

“Alright. Would you like to be alone for a bit?”

“No, I don’t think I’m going to stay here for long anyways.” Everyone fell silent again

“Soooo, would you mind telling us something more about them and yourself? You haven’t really said anything more than that you are a soldier.”

“That’s because I am a soldier and I never was anything else. There’s really not much to talk about my life, first ten years I’ve spent on Kamino, where I was trained and for the last three years I was fighting in a war with Separatist. Same goes for them. ” He stood up and walked over to Tracker’s bed.

“Tracker here is part of commando unit assigned to my battalion called ‘Phantom Squad’. He’s the best sniper in the entire battalion and as his name suggests, he’s also doing really well at tracking his targets down. He has only recently joined ‘Phantom Squad’ as a replacement for its previous sniper who has died in an ambush, and because the rest of Tracker’s former squad has also died. I’ve never found out what happened though, he’s rather quiet and hates being questioned about anything.”

Next, he walked over to Flint’s bed. “This here is Flint. He’s the Capitan of scouting squad and self-proclaimed master at setting up traps and ambushes. If it wasn’t for him and his traps the losses we suffered in previous battles would be probably twice as large. He’s also doing really well with a sniper rifle, but he’s not nearly as good as Tracker.”

He hesitated a bit when he came to Rook. “Rook is a pilot from ‘Rancor Squadron’, a unit specialized in engaging the enemy within the atmosphere as well as delivering air support for ground troops. The rest of squadron calls him ‘Rookie’ because he’s the youngest one among them, even though as far as I know he’s one of better pilots in the entire battalion.”

Twilight looked at Rook. “You know, somepony will have to take care of him. He won’t be able to live like that without help.”

“I-“

“I’ll do it.” Rainbow cut in into Falcon’s answer. It was in that moment that everyone in the room realized that since entering the room, Rainbow was staring at Rook, and more precisely his missing limbs.

Falcon looked at her. “Are you sure? He’s my brother, I can take care of him.”

“Not to mention that this is a big responsibility and it’s going to limit your free time a lot.” Twilight added.

“I know, but… I just… feel like I have to.”

“Rainbow, is this about-?

“Yes, Fluttershy. It’s that.” She conformed instantly, still looking at Rook’s figure.

Falcon was about to question them about ‘that’, but Applejack has stopped him as soon as he opened his mouth. “I wouldn’t expect an answer sugarcube.” She said. “I knew her since we were kids and she never told me anything. In fact, if I recall correctly she said that the next time somepony tries to get it out of her, she’ll fund him or her a ticket to her self-made rollercoaster.” Rainbow smirked a bit when she mentioned that.

“Alright… anyways, I appreciate the gesture Rainbow, it’s good to know that others care.” He moved to Cipher’s bed. “Cipher here is a hacker of Shaw’s engineering team. I haven’t had much time to see what he’s capable of, but from what Shaw has told me, he knows what he’s doing.” He took a deep breath. “Now let’s go to the other room, I have to give Shaw his helmet back.”

He picked up the helmet from the floor and headed to the other room, with ponies following him. He opened the door and walked into the hallway, only to notice a pink pony running towards him. It wasn’t long before he realized who that was, and even faster that she jumped at him and wrapped her hooves around him, taking him in a tight hug that he could clearly feel even through the armor.

“Hi Pinkie, where have you run to?” Rainbow asked.

Pinkie freed Falcon and landed on the ground, whipping sweat from her forehead (even though biologically speaking ponies can’t sweat). “I made a quick run to Ponyville to get things ready.”

Completely ignoring the fact that Pinkie just run to Ponyville and back in under twenty minutes, all ponies greeted Pinkie and walked into the second room. “Wait, get what ready?” Falcon asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough, darling.” Rarity said, giving devious smile.

Suddenly, Falcon heard Rainbow Dash whispering into his ear as she flew by. "She means an orgy." She quickly flew away, giving a smirk to blushing Falcon. "Oh boy, I'm going to have sooo much fun with you." She stated, earning a quick jab from Rarity.

Falcon shortly regained his composure and walked into the room as well. He was about to put the helmet into Shaw's chest, but suddenly remembered something. "Blast, I almost forgot." He put the helmet back on.

After a moment of awkward silence between ponies, Rainbow spoke out while Falcon remained silent. "Um, what are you doing?"

"He's probably talking with other Falcons. I often do that too, I mean how else do you think I get all those brilliant ideas from? And not to mention all the fun we can have. Of course there are setbacks, for example sometimes we can get lost and go into each other's dimensions, but we usually get that fixed pretty fast and everypony is happy." They all ignored her again.

Falcon still remained silent, but he turned towards an open window.

Suddenly, a small metal ball flew into the room, startling the ponies. Rainbow was just about to jump on the intruder, but Falcon extended his hand and grabbed the ball, attaching it to his belt. "W-what is that?!" Twilight yelled, running towards the ball, almost taking it from Falcon's belt.

"That's a drone made by Shaw. Well, not exactly made, but heavily modified. But before you ask something again, Shaw will answer all your questions. Like I said before, he'll do the job better than I could."

"Eh, can you at least tell us who she is? And why is she not a clone like the rest of you are?" She pointed at Sakri's bed with her hoof, giving Falcon slightly annoyed

"Her name is Sakri. She's a Jedi padawan-"

"What's a 'Jedi padawan'?" She cut in. Falcon responded by pointing at Shaw's bed, earning himself another annoyed look from the Unicorn.

"She's a Jedi padawan who was assigned to my superior, General Haskri, though when it comes to military ranks, I'm her superior. We've been fighting alongside for a little over two years now, since Haskri's previous padawan finished his training, and surface to say, we've been getting along surprisingly well considering my opinion about padawans."

Rainbow smirked. "How close exactly?" Rarity jabbed her again. "What!? I'm just joking."

"Humph, your comments are hardly in place. I would appreciate it if you stopped teasing our dear friend, he's clearly not used to it."

I am, just not from her. “Now, could someone tell be what happened to that bug that attacked this ‘Chrysalis’?”

“He’s also in this hospital and in fact in a room nearby, but he’s been unconscious since yesterday.” Twilight said. “It’s really surprising, but it seems that he’s more pony than a changeling. It looks as if his body mutated in some way that made him compatible with the hive mind, but until he’s unconscious we can’t be sure of anything. We’ve noticed a lot of changes in his brain and from what we can tell it is related to the hive mind, but again, we’re not sure. I would say that he should wake up sometime tomorrow though.”

“Ah’m not sure why, but Ah feel like Ah’ve seen him somewhere, I’m not sure when though…” Applejack said.

Falcon was just about to sit down on a chair between his and Sakri's bed, when they all heard a groan coming from Shaw's bed. Everyone immediately turned in that direction. "Shaw!" Falcon yelled as he jumped over Sakri's bed and rushed to his now near-awoken friend.

Falcon brought Shaw into a hug before the other clone was even aware of anything other than the fact that he was naked. "F-Falcon...?" He asked after a moment, still not quite awaken yet, but enough to return the hug. However, Shaw quickly realized that they were not alone. "Um... why are we surrounded by colorful equines?"

Falcon let him go. "They got us out of 'Interpid's' wreckage and put us back together. At least as much as they could..."

Shaw moved his head right, noticing Sakri lying in a bed next to his. "Who else they got out?"

"Sakri, Tracker, Flint, Rook and Cipher, no one else made it."

Shaw sighed and sat on the bed, covering himself with covers. "Wait a minute." He looked at Falcon, and more specifically at what he was wearing. "Why are you wearing my helmet? And where is rest of my armor?"

"It's all in the box right here." He placed the helmet in the chest. "Now, I have a mission for you sergeant."

"Yes sir?"

Falcon walked over to Twilight. "The planet we are on is technologically thousands of years behind, and this young lady here has a few questions she would like answered. Your mission is to answer all of her questions, and simultaneously question her about this planet's culture and inhabitants. I am expecting a report after that.”

Shaw saluted. “Yes sir.”

Falcon looked at Twilight, who was barely keeping herself in place from all the excitement. “Does that mean I can…!?” He answered by nodding. Twilight’s eyes immediately begun to shine and she moved the chair next to Shaw’s bed, sitting on it with a notebook and a pencil. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I would like you to answer a few questions for me. First I would like you to explain what ‘Republic’ is, what are its origins and purpose. There are also matters regarding your equipment, for example…” She then goes on like that for a long while.

Shaw looked at his commanding officer with wide eyes. “Good luck.” He said as he placed his hand on Shaw’s shoulder and left the room along with the rest of ponies.

Following their escape from Twilight’s zone, Rainbow and Pinkie begun to laugh, holding each other not to fall on the ground. Falcon and Applejack also chuckled. Rarity was of course was beyond laughing at such petty things and remained a well behaving lady (that still didn’t stop herself from smiling at Shaw’s misfortune) “Ha ha, this was absolutely genius!” Rainbow commented.

“Might I ask what is so funny?” They heard Luna say once they calmed themselves down. “And where is Twilight Sparkle if I may know?”

“Shaw woke up and well… I promised her she can question him, so now she’s doing just that.” Falcon answered. He noticed that Luna hadn’t came here alone, and brought Abuyin along. “Hello Abuyin, is everything alright?” He asked, noticing her deep desire to go to bed.

“Yes everything is fine, I’m just sleepy after the session with psychologist...” She paused for a moment. “…sir.”

“Hmm, so I assume, Luna has explained everything to you?”

“Yes, and I agreed.“

“Well then, welcome aboard Abuyin.”

They’ve spent a moment talking to each other before they eventually moved out from the hospital, leaving Shaw and Twilight alone. Princess Luna has informed Falcon that another Princess -one he haven’t met so far- wanted to meet with him. Abuyin have left with other ponies to get to know each other a little better, while Luna and Falcon headed to the castle alone.

She led the clone through castle’s numerous hallways until they have finally reached their destination. “Now, before we enter, I would like to warn you that Capitan of Royal Guard is most likely in there, and he’s not pleased with the fact that you have escaped from the prison. I don’t think you will have any reason to worry -I’m sure his bride will put him in place- but it’s better to be cautious.” He nodded in agreement.

Luna knocked to the door and shortly they were opened by a reddish-purple aura. A white male pony stood there and was about to great Luna, but then he noticed Falcon and immediately rushed at him with a scream. Falcon was about to tackle him to the ground, but before he could do that, white pony was enveloped by a light blue aura and pulled back into the room.

“Shinny! You promised you won’t do anything to him!” A female voice called out.

“I promised I won’t chase him down for braking out from the prison. Knocking out one of my ponies is something different!” He argued while Falcon and Luna allowed themselves to enter. He saw a pink pony holding ‘Shinny’ in telekinesis aura, while the two argued.

“Isn’t that too soon for you two to argue? Your marriage is supposed to be tomorrow.” Luna cut in.

“I-I’m sorry princess, but this creature-“

“Was cleared of all charges by me and all Elements of Harmony. So please step aside Capitan, we have come here to talk with Cadence.”

The third princess lowered her to-be husband on the ground. “Please Shinning, if it wasn’t for him you would end up like… y-you know…”

He sighed deeply. “Alright, I’ll let go for now. I’m going to the kitchen to finish making that soup.” He walked away, giving Falcon a glare that said ‘I’m watching you’.

“I’m sorry for that, he’s been rather nervous since yesterday.” Cadence said.

“I can imagine. Anyways, I am Commander Falcon of 144th Attack Battalion in Grand Army of the Republic.” He reached his hand out to her and grabbed her hoof when she did the same.

“My name is Cadance, Princess of love.” For a moment she eyed him, eventually giving him a barely visible smirk. “I wanted to personally thank you for what you did yesterday, even though I’d say your methods were… questionable.”

“That really depends on a point of view. From your culture’s perspective, yes, my methods were more than questionable. But from my point of view, I saw civilians being attacked by an enemy’s army and military failing to do its job. It would be against my principals to ignore what was going on.”

“I see. Anyways, I was wondering if you would show up on the wedding tomorrow. I’m sure I can persuade Shinny to come along with the idea.” She smirked.

“Well, I’m not exactly one for social events and things like that, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to show up on one.” She smiled warmly. “However, I’m probably going to take my brother along. And neither of us have any other clothes then our armors. That won’t be a problem will it?”

“Of course not. But could you tell where are you from? I’ve never seen a creature quite like you. Are you some unknown type of minotaur, or maybe a diamond dog?” She started circling him.

“No, I’m a human, not a minotaur or some dog. And I’m not from around here, to say the least.”

“Alright, guess I shouldn't ask further. Now, Luna, could you live the two of us alone for a moment? There is something I would like to talk about with Falcon. Alone...”

“Very well, I shall leave you two for now. I will pay a visit to Capitan Shining Armor and talk with him myself.” Luna replied and left Falcon alone with Cadance.

“Just please, be gentle with him.”

Luna turned around with a smirk. “Since when am I gentle my dear?” Cadence returned the smirk and turned back to Falcon once Luna have left. “Now… there is a particular somepony I wanted to talk with you about…”

The conversation with Cadance was interesting to say the least, even though it took her a while to get him to open up about the subject. About half an hour later, he and Luna walked out from Cadence’s quarters. “I would like you to come with me.” She walked past him. “I believe there is something I’ve promised to prove to you.”

“You mean that ‘Force sensitivity’ stuff? I’ve told you already, it’s simply impossible. Not only no one has ever managed to clone a Force sensitive, but I was cloned from a non-Force sensitive in the first place. There is absolutely no way that I could be a Force user of any kind, period.”

“You’re wrong about things. Magtovic Magic -or Force as you call it- is not something biological. It simply exists everywhere, in every bit of the world and connects all beings into one big web. One’s connection’s strength is based on the strength of the connection you have with those close to you. You can think of it as beings passing their strength between each other. It could be through things like hate, love, anger, compassion and nearly any emotion.

For example, a mother and father’s love for their child is a powerful connection, and since the young foals are so open to everything around them, they absorb everything their parents give to them even without them knowing it.

There are obviously other factors then just that, but we don’t know much about them yet, so I will stay quiet on that matter, if you want you can ask Twilight Sparkle for more information. Surface to say, whether you are ‘Force sensitive’ or not, has nothing to do with your heritage.”

“That still changes nothing.” Falcon argued. “I never had a family, or anyone who cared about me when I was young. Even if what you say is true, it still can’t apply to me.”

“Perhaps there was somepony you never knew about.” It didn’t convince him and Luna looked him in the eyes. “Well then, why don’t we find out once and for all? We’re in place.” She said and shortly opened a door to her chamber. “I apologize for the lack of light, I prefer to think within the darkness.” She entered the room, disappearing in the darkness of her chamber, giving him a sly smirk.

“That won’t be a problem.” He reached out his hand to the flashlight on his helmet, only to realize that it was still lying in the hospital, broken in half. “Blast it…” He sighted and entered the room.

He grabbed his force pike and turned it on, using it to give him some light. However, as soon as he entered the chamber, the door behind him closed and the light coming off from the pike disappeared. The device still appeared to be working perfectly fine, but for some reason it was not giving out any light. “Princess Luna?” He called out.

“I’m over here.” He heard her saying from the other side of the room. “Could you come over here so that we can start?”

“How? I can’t see a blasted-“ To empathize this point, he tripped over something and fell on the floor with a loud thud.

“Perhaps, but your eyes are hardly the only way to ‘see’, wouldn’t you agree?”

“What are you talking about?”

He heard her chuckle, but from a different part of the room. “Catch me and find out.” Again, he heard her voice from completely different part of the room. Falcon tried to walk in that direction, but not only did he fell on his face 3 times along the way, but when he managed to get there, Luna was already somewhere else. "Don't follow senses you know, use those that were asleep for all your life if you wish to catch me."

"It would be easier if you just stopped moving around." He rushed to the place he heard her from again, this time managing to do this without a fall. Luna however was nowhere to be found.

"Your efforts are fruitless. If you wish to catch me you must use your mind to see."

Ignoring her words, Falcon kept running around the room. He eventually begun to run out of strength (and obstacles to trip himself over). 'Use your mind' you say? Alright, I'll play along. Not knowing what to do exactly, he begun to some of meditation stuff Haskri has tried to teach him at one point.

At that time it didn't seem to do much for him, but this time, as the time passed on, things begun to change. And something has told him that someone was right behind him.

Immediately, he reached his hands out towards the darkness, grabbing something and putting it in a headlock. But just as he was about to ask questions, he saw Luna's horn shining from the top of her head, which he was holding. “Do you believe now?” She asked smirking.

Falcon didn't answer, he let go of her head and slowly sat down on the couch nearby, with his eyes expressing nothing more than shock. “W-what am I supposed to do?” He mumbled, just loud enough for Luna to hear.

“You need to learn how to control it.” She stated. “I can help you with that, and so can Twilight Sparkle. She is after all second only to me and my sister, and I feel it may teach her something new.”

Clone commander remained silent for a moment, thinking. “I agree.” He eventually answered. “I will learn from you if that's what you wish.” His lips formed into a small smile. “Just don't expect me to call you 'master', it always sounded rather kinky to me.”

Luna returned the smile. “Very well...” The light coming from her horn disappeared. “Then let us begin.”

Falcon have left Luna's chamber few hours later. His head hurt a bit from all the concentrating he was doing with Luna (and all the times he fell on his face). He headed back towards the hospital on his own, hoping that Twilight was done questioning Shaw and he'll be able to talk with his friend.

He remembered the way through the castle's hallways and got to the gate in no time. Once there, he walked out from the castle walls and begun to walk through the streets. But as he continued to walk, more and more ponies begun to follow him, and soon enough he found himself surrounded by a swarm of ponies, each with their own set of questions.

There were few reporters in the crowd and what appeared to be holorecorders, though they were much bigger then he remembers, they were nearly as large as an average pony and they had to be carried by exceptionally strong looking ponies. “Mister hornless-minotaur-alien-thingy! Could you tell us something more about you?” One of reporters said. “Is that true that you are an alien?” Another one said. “Are rumors of you having a crush on miss Rainbow Dash true?” Yet another reporter attempted to get his attention (and succeeded).

“Or maybe the rumor spread among the Royal Guard saying that you have a thing for Pinkie Pie is true?” A particularly… big reporter came forward, crushing a few smaller ponies under her… curves… she also had a writing ‘Fat Chance’ on a shirt she was wearing. “Do you think we live in a patriarchy ruled by straight unicorn stallions?” Despite her impressive size, she was quickly pushed back by other ponies, desperate to have their questions of utmost importance answered. “Can you shoot lasers from your eyes?” Some young kid said.

“Are there others of your kind here?” “Are you planning an invasion?” “Is there a chance to see a threesome between you, Pinkie Pied and Rainbow Dash?” “If you’re planning an invasion, is it going to be a peaceful one or like the one from yesterday?” “Lubię placki!” “Are your clothes made out of marshmallows?” “Can I touch your hair?” “Is there a connection between you and gods?” “Should we expect to see more creatures like you in a near future?” “Wanna taste some instant noodles, pal?” “How can somepony walk on only two limbs?” “Are you more related to monkeys or minotaurs?” “Do you have a penis under these clothes?”

Questions kept piling up, despite the cast that Falcon was no longer nearby. And in his place stood a 1:1 replica of the clone made out of balloons…

… while the real Falcon was being carried around the town by a certain hyperactive party planner. “Pinkie Pie, what are you doing!?” He yelled once they have stopped. “Though I guess I should thank you for getting me out from there.”

“That’s nothing, I just thought that since you didn’t seem to want to answer all those questions these ponies had for you I would just get you out from there. You know, like a true, true friend would.” She said with a big smile spread on her face.

“Well, fair enough I guess.” I’m still curious about how she managed to get me out from there without no one noticing, but it’s not like anything she’s been doing this day made much sense, so why would this? “However, I was wondering why do you and the other five keep calling by your ‘friend’? We hardly know each other.“ He begun to walk towards the hospital, using side alleys to avoid being spotted.

Pinkie of course followed him. “That’s because we are friends, silly!” She said with a smile. “I mean why wouldn’t we be? There’s nothing better than meeting a new friend.” She begun to bounce around in happiness, ending with giving Falcon another tight hug.

“Well, I guess I’m just not used to being called ‘friend’ by people from outside of the army.” He answered once she has finally let him go. “Though, I must admit, it’s not a bad feeling.” They’ve eventually reached the alley behind the hospital from where Falcon was about to go back to the main street to enter the building, but he was forced to hide when he was almost spotted by another reporter. “Blast it, they’ve realized I’m gone.”

“Well, maybe I’ll just turn their attention away from you and then you can just get into the hospital.” Pinkie suggested, but before Falcon could tell anything more, she came up with something else. “Oh wait, I know!” She run to the other end of an alley. “Look there.” She pointed up, at the ladder coming from the top of the hospital building. “We can get inside that way.”

Falcon looked at the ladder. “Not possible, it’s too high to grab it without something to stand on.”

“That won’t be a problem. I’ll just have to use my…” She walked up to the wall and begun to press bricks like buttons. “Secret emergency ladders safe!” The wall have suddenly moved away, revealing Pinkie’s secret safe. “What do you think of that? Neat, huh?” She took one ladder from the safe before it closed itself again.

After a moment in deep thought, Falcon answered. “I’m not even going to waste my brain on attempting to comprehended that.” He looked at her as she set the ladder below the one attached to the building. “And that’s not a ladder, it’s a step-ladder.”

“What's the difference? They do the same thing, right?”

“Ugh…” He facepalmed. Meanwhile, Pinkie was done setting the thing up and was already climbing to the top. Falcon followed her, and soon enough the both were on the top of the building. There was a hatch in the middle of the roof, under which they’ve found a ladder leading to a staircase. Pinkie simply jumped down, while Falcon made sure to close the hatch before jumping down himself.

“Alright, we’re in. Now what?” Pinkie asked.

“I was going to see if Twilight is done with Shaw and possibly talk with him a little.”

“Oh! So does that mean I can go too and be friends with him?”

“Sure. Don't let me stop you.” She smiled wide again and begun to bounce alongside Falcon. Since they were already on the top floor it wasn’t long before they reached their destination. Falcon grabbed the door’s handle and opened it.

As he entered inside, he saw Shaw, adjusting pieces of his armor. “Sir!” He saluted.

“At ease.” He then noticed that Twilight was lying asleep in Shaw’s bed. “Why is she sleeping?” He walked over to her, immediately noticing wet fur under her eyes. “And why was she crying?”

At the mention of her best friend crying, Pinkie immediately took action, by pinning Shaw to the wall. “What have you done to her you meanie!?” She yelled in clone’s face.

“Hey, I haven’t done anything wrong!” He pushed her away.

“Really?”

“Yes, she was telling me about yesterday events from her perspective and… well, she had me promise not to tell anything else, but surface to say, it wasn’t pretty.”

“And I assume you’re not going to spill that out even in a torture room?” Falcon cut in.

In return, Shaw smiled. “You know me too well, sir.”

“So wait. She told you some super big secret but not me? Why?” Pinkie asked.

“I can only guess that she had to let it out and I just happened to be nearby.”

“Oh, alright then!” Pinkie went back to her friendly persona. “I’m Pinkie Pie, your new friend!” She stated.

“Um… what?”

“*GASP* I just realized I have to make changes in my plan!” She run out from the room, but soon came back. “I’ll spend some time with you later, I have important stuff to do.” And she run off again.

“Um, sir?” Shaw spoke up after moment of silence. “Who is she?”

“Her name is Pinkie Pie, she’s kinda strange, but seems nice enough.” He cleared his throat. “Now, we have some things we need to talk about…”

Author's Note

Song of a day: Dry Cell - Ordinary

8. The Wedding

--Chapter 8--
The Wedding

“I’m not sure what to think about all that, Falcon…” Shaw said as he stroked his jaw, while sitting on his bed in front of Falcon. “It all seems rather unlikely.”

“I know, but after what Princess Luna has shown me, it’s hard to deny it.” Falcon replied. “Well, anyways, how did your talk with Twilight went?”

“Better than I thought actually. It was rather refreshing to talk with someone who actually understands what I’m talking about. At least most of it.”

“Well, I guess you were bound to eventually find someone who understands all that jargon you’re using. But back to topic, what have you found out, in simple words please.”

Shaw sighed and then proceeded to explain what he got out from Twilight, who was still lying asleep on Shaw’s bed. Like Falcon has already knew, history of this country is a peaceful one, with the last major conflict taking place almost thousand years ago. What was surprising however, was the fact that existence of any wars was not a common knowledge, and it wasn’t easy to come across it in any archives or libraries. Same goes for any fighting manuals, which are illegal to possess.

Luckily though, Twilight Sparkle’s lust for knowledge has led her to Princess Celestia’s private archive under Canterlot, where she managed to obtain informations that she normally wouldn’t be able to get (of course without Celsestia’s knowledge).

The last war that took place on Equestrian soil was labeled as ‘The Great Rebellion’. In short, a group of cultists begun to gain influence in the early government, and almost led the country to ruin. Equestria was able to recover, but not fast enough to prevent the cultists from starting a home-war in the entire country. The point of the war was to ensure the resurrection of cultist’s gods, but obviously the plan didn’t work out in the end.

When it comes to other countries, the knowledge is also spread rather thin, but again, Twilight was able to get her hooves on some informations not available to public, mostly because she has often been contacting various diplomats who were meeting with Celestia and was able to squeeze quite a few things from them.

Other then Equestria there are three other major countries in this world. The biggest one is The Empire of Grefis. A country that covers almost an entire continent oversees and controls many colonies spread all over the world. The inhabitants are mostly griffons, a hybrid species between mammals and birds. They are rarely living outside of their county, and at the moment there are only three griffons in Equestia. The current ruler of the Empire is King Fellus IV Intrepid, who in last few years was expanding the territory of his country. There is one griffon living in Canterlot, but no one has seen him since the invasion was over.

The second country worth mentioning is Zebricannia, another country covering nearly an entire continent, though with much smaller population then Equestria and Grefis due to most of the land being covered by deserts. Within the country live Zebras, another equine species. Zebras also rarely live their country, usually to exchange goods with cities near the border. According to Twilight there is one Zebra living in a forest near Ponyville. It would be good idea to talk to her. Falcon thought.

The country bordering with both Equestria and Zebricanna is Saddle Arabia. Not much is known about the country, other then it being ruled by a king and that it has a lot of problems with its citizens rebelling. The problem is apparently large enough for the king to ask Celestia for help, despite his apparent dislike of Equetria and its inhabitants. Other than that, Twilight wasn’t able to say much more, but Falcon made a mental note to question Abuyin about it.

Except those countries there is of course more, but they are not very important, and most is dependent on one of the major forces of the world.

There are also 2 nations without a country, Dragons and Minotaurs. Dragons technically live in one area known as Dragon Lands, but it’s unknown whether they have some form of government or not. Minotaurs on the other hand, are nomads, and never settle in one place. They travel around the world, usually as merchants or mercenaries. They are rarely visiting Equestia though, since they know that Celestia keeps watching over their activities whenever a group shows up in her lands, suggesting that they may not be very law-liking beings...

Until recently the existence of changelings was unknown to anyone, and no one can really tell much about them that wouldn’t be a speculation.

When it comes to levitating objects and other things Falcon have seen ponies doing, it was in fact them performing ‘magic’. Falcon was aware of certain cultures performing things that could count as magic, but in this case it was different. ‘Magic’ he was aware of, was mostly based on rituals and alchemy, but on this planet things were different. Magic rituals of course did exist, but they were rarely performed. The way ponies used their magic, was through releasing energy from their bodies and forming it in a way they want to.

There was much more to it than that, but to say that Falcon understood a word from what Shaw has said would be a lie, and it seemed that Shaw wasn’t sure he understood everything either.

Ponies are divided into three races. Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies.

Unicorns are known for possessing an ability to influence their surroundings in much more effective ways then other races, who’s magic is more focused on themselves. Earth Ponies use magic to influence their strength, stamina and endurance or in rare cases their speed and agility, which are the area where Pegasi use their magic.

Passively, Unicorn magic allows them to sense different sources of magic and sudden shifts in it. Pegasi are able to walk on clouds and have their vision and hearing significantly superior to that of other races. Earth Pony’s magic grants them a connection to other living beings, be it animals or plants; in rare cases Earth Ponies can straight up talk with animals and in even rarer cases, with trees.

As far as religion goes, like the most of the galaxy, the majority of ponies are atheists. There is only one belief system within Equestria, but it doesn’t have many supporters and as years go by the number keeps dropping.

Shaw explained everything about the recent events that took place in Equestria, including things like Nightmare Moon and Discord. Overall, they‘ve spent the rest of evening talking about what they have found out about the world they are in. “Alright, I think this is everything.” Shaw said, attempting to stand up, only to realize that Twilight had her hooves wrapped around his hand. I thought she would be awake after 10 minutes top… Well, I guess she must have been tired. He thought.

Falcon laughed at the display. “That’s good, now, we better get some sleep. We got invited to a wedding tomorrow.” He got up from the chair and walked up to his bed, lying down on it.

“A wedding? What wedding?”

“I was summoned by the third Princess -Cadence- and she decided to invite me on her wedding tomorrow. I thought that I might as well go and see if there will be something interesting to see, and you’re coming with me because I’m not going to leave my little brother alone.”

“You’re one day older than me.” Falcon laughed again and laid his head on the pillow. Shaw sighed and tried to lay down himself, only to realize that Twilight was still sleeping in his bed (and holding his hand). With no other option left, Shaw sighed and lied down next to the purple Unicorn.

On the next morning, Falcon woke up in early hours. It wasn’t like he had to get up now, but after spending his entire life in a military, certain habits emerged. He was still in his armor, since he preferred to wear it whenever he was sleeping in an unknown environment (that and he keeps a blaster under his pillow). This of course wouldn’t be possible if he was wearing Phase I armor, which was way too uncomfortable to sleep in.

He got up from the bed and quickly stood up. He noticed that Shaw was already awake, and that he was holding his helmet in one hand and one of his tools in the other. Shaw always carried a set of basic tools in his belt, in case something needed to be fixed. “What are you doing?” He asked.

Shaw almost jumped out of surprise. “Oh, it’s you sir.” He stood up and hid his tools back in his belt. “I couldn’t sleep so I decided to fix your helmet.” Shaw threw the helmet over to Falcon. It was now in one peace, though the place where it broke was still visible.

Falcon put the helmet on to see if everything works properly. “Thanks, Shaw. I appreciate it. But wait, something seems a bit strange…”

“Oh, so you noticed. I’ve found an upgraded software for the helmet on Cipher’s datapad, so I tried to see if it works. I think it’s still not entirely finished, and most of the software is coded, so I didn’t try to get to it. The parts that were not coded however, seem to work perfectly fine.”

“Sure seems that way. But, um… what exactly is it supposed to do?”

“From what I can tell, it is supposed to some sort of aid for hacking. But he has also mead a few improvements to targeting system and communications. There’s probably more than that, but like I said, it’s coded and I’m not going to hack it.”

“Well, thanks anyways. It’s good to have that thing back in one peace.” He picked up the rest of his stuff. “Where is Twilight by the way?” He asked.

“She left about two hours ago, said she had to take care of the preparations. I guess she meant that wedding you were talking about. Actually, when in that wedding?”

“Princess Cadence wanted to meet us at ‘14 P.M.’. What that means, I don’t know.”

“That’s their measurement of time. It’s very close to the general galactic time, but they call some things differently. Basically, she meant that we should meet her in…” He checked the hour on his helmet’s interface. “…about 10 hours.”

“Well, then I guess we should find ourselves something to do. Maybe Twilight will need some help with those preparations.”

Shaw picked up his equipment and they both left the room. Like usually, the hallway was empty as they walked through it until they’ve reached the stairs. “Wait a second.” Falcon stopped. “Let’s go that way.” He climbed on the ladder and opened the hatch above.

“Why?” Shaw asked surprised, but still following his friend.

“I have a feeling there will be a greeting party waiting at the front door.” He decided to go and check his theory by looking over the side of the roof. Needles to say, he was right, the main entrance was surrounded by a swarm of reporters from yesterday. There was one pony standing between them and the entrance. And that pony was Twilight.

“…for the millionth time, NO you can’t interview them!” He heard her yell.

“Because what? Because you want to have them for yourselves? You greedy horse…” One of the reporters replied, but it was hard to make out his words out of the crowd yelling.

“Well, I guess she hasn’t made it far…” Shaw said when he approached himself. “Should we help her out?”

“Yeah, might be a good idea.” Falcon replied. “You still have your grappling hook, right?” Shaw attached the device to his rifle in answer. “Alright, so here’s the plan. You go down there and grab her, while I stand here and blind them with the drone to make sure they won’t know where we run off to.”

“Sounds good.” Shaw immediately begun. He attached the hook to the edge of the roof and jumped down, using the line to slow down. He landed in front of Twilight, startling both her and the swarm of reporters. However, just as they were about to question him, a drone flew down from the sky. Shaw used his hand to cover up Twilight’s eyes as the drone released a blinding flash of light. Clone’s helmet was of course shielded from it.

“W-what are you-“ Twilight attempted to speak out but Shaw grabbed her around the midsection and begun to pull them up before the reporters managed to realize what has happened.

“I don’t know how you got here, but thank you. I don’t know how much longer would I last before giving up and leading them to you…” She said as they climbed on the top of the building. From there they could see that reporters were already looking for them and that few guards begun to approach the scene.

“You’re welcome.” Shaw said as he and Falcon begun to approach the ladder on the opposite side of the roof while Twilight followed them.

Falcon was about to go down the ladder, but Twilight have stopped him. “*GASP* Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! I was supposed to take care of the preparations! Because of all those reporters there’s no way I will make it in time!”

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you get this done.” Shaw said.

“Really!?” He nodded. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She jumped on him and begun to hug the clone as hard as she could.

“Hey, easy there.” Falcon said, smiling underneath the helmet. “You two lovebirds can cuddle when we get this done, now move it.” He climbed down the ladder, leaving his two blushing friends on top of the roof. “I said move it!” He yelled at them.

Immediately they snapped out of it. “Yes, sir!” They both said in union.

When they were all down on the ground, Falcon begun to lead them towards the castle the same way he and Pinkie got here the previous day. “So what exactly needs t be done?”

“That would be preparing the food, dresses, getting the party and decorations ready, deployment of guards, music, setting on the decorations and helping Rainbow prepare the Sonic Rainboom. Most of that was ready, but after the attack we had to start again.”

“Alright, you go and take care of food and dresses, Shaw will take care of party, decorations and music, while I try to do something with those guards and help Rainbow with that sonic whatever. Sounds good?” She nodded happily. “Alright, so now tell us where to go.” He stopped and pulled out a holo projector, from which he displayed the castle’s layout.

Now knowing how the device works, Twilight didn’t ask any questions, though it was still exiting for her. “Pinkie is taking care of the party and decorations, she should be in this chamber, the one where wedding will take place. Fluttershy on the other hoof will be on the east balcony with her birds.”

“Noted.” Shaw said, marking the place on his helmet’s display.

“Shining Armor will be in this room next to the throne room. Just remember to watch out for Princess, she may come after you. I’m not sure where Rainbow is training, but I’m sure that if you will find her, she’s quite hard to miss.”

“Great, let’s go then.” Falcon said and turned off the projector.

They continued to walk towards the castle using the side alley. It wasn’t long before they reached the gate, and luckily there were no reporters to be seen. The group splitted, and everyone went in their own direction.

Knowing the way to the throne room, Falcon reached his target fairy quickly. Like Twilight have instructed, he watched out for Celestia when he was next to the throne room, hoping that she’s not there in the first place. There was an open pair of doors not far from the throne room and Falcon approached it, finding Shining Armor inside. The Royal Guard Capitan immediately spotted him. “What are you doing here?” He said coldly.

“You sister asked me to help with that wedding preparations, so I decided to see if you need help.” Falcon said as he walked in.

“Well, I don’t need any help so you can go now.” He turned back to the plan of the castle lying on the desk. Falcon of course ignored his request and walked over to him. “I told you not to-“

“You should put two guards on the outside of the entrance. If someone will try to break in through there, they can inform everyone inside. You should also place few Pegasi on the roof and make sure to get someone to guard the secret passages.”

“What passages?” Shining Armor asked surprised.

“You seriously don’t know?” He nodded. “Eh, there are tunnels going all around the castle, and there are two passages that lead into the chamber where the wedding will take place.”

“I-I was never informed of this.”

“I’m actually not surprised. I don’t think that even this Princess of yours knew about them.” Though that lives a question, why those tunnels look like they were designed for someone of her height... “Regardless, let’s go back to it, shall we?”

In the other part of the castle, Shaw reached his own target. He pushed the entrance open and walked into the chamber. He immediately spotted Pinkie Pie jumping around the room and decorating it with colorful… everything. It didn’t take her long to spot him as well. “Heya Shawie!” He said as she got ready to give him a hug. She jumped with her hooves reaching out towards the clone, but he managed to dodge.

“First of all, my name is not ‘Shawie’, its Shaw. And second, no hugs.”

“Awwww... but hugging is so cool...” She made a cute face to convince him.

“No. Hugs. I’m a soldier, not some stuffed toy.”

“Well, if you’re not here for a hug, then are you here?”

“Eh, Twilight wanted me and Falcon to help with preparations for the wedding, is there anything you need help with?”

“*GASP* You’re a lifesaver, Shawie! There’s a big problem that‘s just for you!” She pulled out a huge music set from seemingly nowhere. “Vinyl broke her DJing thingy and we just can’t have a proper party without music. And you are good with that stuff, right? You can fix it?”

Shaw walked over to the device and inspected it. At the first look it appeared to be in good shape, it looked like someone was taking care of it well. However, once he looked at the insides it became clear what was wrong. It seemed that some of the wires got damaged during transport and caused a shortcut when it was turned on. “Alright, I’ll take care of this.” He said.

Pinkie almost jumped at him again, but she stopped herself just in time and instead doing the second best thing: dancing with her party cannon while firing it and singing. Shaw just sighed and begun working.

It didn't take Falcon long time to finish the plan of guards' deployment. He wasn't hoping they will stop anything from happening or actually stopping the threat, but he made sure they will rise the alarm so that he and Shaw could take care of neutralizing whatever threat would appear. Shining Armor seemed to be at least somewhat competent -he sure did have a sharp mind, but looking at who his sister is, that's not surprising- even if he has no actual experience to speak of.

When they were done, he left to go look for Rainbow Dash. He knew she was most likely flying around, so he begun searching the air, wishing that he had borrowed macrobinoculars from Shaw. “I see you’re doing well.” He suddenly heard a voice from behind.

Blast it... He thought, recognizing the voice. Of course, behind him stood Princess Celestia, with less than amused look on her face. “You’re going to try putting me in jail again?” He said as he turned towards her.

“No, I’m here for a different reason. I want to make sure you won’t be hurting my ponies, or teaching them your violent ways, human. I’m willing to look past your race, if you just promise not to, and keep that promise.” She said, keeping her not amused look.

“Look past my race? What do you mean by that? You have some grudge against other species or something?”

“No, just against humans.”

“That’s just stupid, our races have never met.”

She looked at him surprised. “Have your race really forgot? Have you truly forgotten the horrors you committed?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about. This planet is not in any records or maps as far as I know. If it was, the technology level here wouldn’t be as low as it is.”

Celestia sighed and walked over to the window. “Millions of years ago. Humans and ponies lived together on this world. We had our initial differences, but for the most of history we lived peacefully. But like it always was with you humans, you had to change that. First you started a war between each other, then you dragged other nations into it, eventually starting a worldwide conflict.

At one point few nations decided to use nuclear weapons, making others do the same to defend themselves. As you probably figured out, the result of the war wasn’t pretty. Millions have died, and even more lost their homes, the radiation slowly begun to turn the world into a wasteland. We ponies suffered even more than your race did. Radiations proved to be extremely harmful to us and many races of ponies simply died out in a process, like Shadow Ponies and Draquons.

But have your race helped? No. Your run away into space and left us to die. We’ve managed to save ourselves by hiding underground for millions of years and woke up only three thousand years ago. But that wasn’t over, it turned out most of the ponies that survived suffered from a severe memory loss, including Luna. Our hibernating technique was lacking at beast and we had to rush everything, and as the result most died in their sleep.

It took us years to restore the society, and I will not allow you to destroy it by starting another war.”

For a moment Falcon remained silent, thinking about Celestia's words. "I don't plan on beginning a war. I can promise you that I won't attack your subjects or cause fights between them. But don't expect me to step back when I will see innocents being attacked like two days ago. Because I will fight to defend them, even if that will mean I have to take lives, whether you like it or not." He said after a moment and left.

"Eh, come on. I'm not a black demon, I'm Falcon's brother, you can come down now." Shaw said to the yellow Pegasus above him.

"B-but you're so dark... and scary..." She replied, shaking in fear.

"Oh, for the love of..." He took off his helmet. "Come on miss Fluttershy, I'm supposed to help you with music, so come down here and let's get this over with." She looked at him and after seeing his face she begun to calm down and slowly lowered herself down from the pillar she was holding onto. "See, it wasn't that bad." He said when she came down. "Now, let's-" He was cut off when Rainbow Dash suddenly fell into the balcony they were on.

She was panting like mad and was lying on the floor with all her muscles denying to work. "Does *PANT* he*PANT* always*PANT*act like that*PANT* when-" She said to Shaw after a moment, but she was cut off when Falcon's drone appeared behind her.

"No breaks allowed! Move it soldier, you still have ten circles to make!” Commander’s voice rang through the air.

“B-but you said it will be five!”

“I also said that I may change my mind if you’ll be slacking off! In fact, I changed my mind again, you will make 15 circles! Now go! Go! Go!” Dash immediately forced herself up and returned to flying circles, while the drone followed her.

Fluttershy looked as her friend disappeared in shock. “W-was that-“

“Yup, that was Falcon’s drill sergeant mode. And yes, you’re going to be seeing him like that a lot. At the least expected moments.

All she could do was gulp.

Few hours later, Falcon and Shaw were on their way to Princess Cadence’s chamber. They have finished the tasks given them by Twilight much faster then she would done on her own, for which she was more than grateful (so grateful in fact that she proceeded to hug the life out of each of them while yelling ‘Thank you!’ over and over).

Falcon knocked to the door guarded by two Unicorns, or at least tried to. The door were opened before he even got a chance to touch them. “Come in please.” The both did just that. Princess Cadence was there along with the Element bearers , save for Twilight, who was at the moment with her brother in other part of the castle. “I’m happy that you have made it.” The Princess said, greeting Falcon. “And you must be Falcon’s brother.”

Princess Cadence was already wearing her wedding dress, though to say that either Falcon or Shaw knew about anything even slightly related to fashion, was an exaggeration. Others were also dressed, but clones’ opinion on their clothes was the same - they don’t care.

“Yes ma’am, my name is Shaw. Pleased to meet you.” Shaw responded. Meanwhile, Falcon was rotating his drone on the tip of the finger, while looking at Rainbow. Making the Pegasus mare stand at attention.

Falcon took off his helmet with his free hand and Shaw did the same. “Wooah!” Cadence suddenly jumped in surprise. “When you said you have a brother I didn’t expect you to have a twin.”

“We’re not twins, we’re clones.” Falcon said.

“Clones? But-“

Shaw stopped her by rising his hand. “Trust me, it will be better if we don’t talk about it now. You can ask Twilight to give you a quick version later, but if I was to explain it to you, we’d be sitting here for an hour, and as far as I know, there’s a wedding going on and you want us to show up.” He said.

“That’s right. In fact the reason I called you here is to give you this.” She levitated two pieces of paper towards them. “Those are the invitations. You’re going to need them so that guards will let you in.”

“I’m sure we could find another way in.” Shaw said.

“Not with the security we’ve put up with Shiny.”

“He allows you to call him ‘Shiny’?” Cadence said

“No, but it pisses him off, so I’m gonna keep doing that.”

About half an hour later Shaw and Falcon entered the chamber where the wedding will take place. There was a massive crowd of ponies inside already, including the Elements, Shinning Armor and Celestia. They have purposely chose to stay on the back of the room, not only because they would block the view for someone else if they were to be in front, but also because Falcon have hoped Celestia will not notice him. Obviously she did, and she was uncomfortable with his presence, to say the least.

At least there are no reporters or journalists around… Falcon thought.

Shortly after they have walked in, Cadence made her own entrance, with three little ponies coming in first and throwing flowers around. “Mares and Gentlecolts, we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of the real Princess Mi Amore Cadenza–“ The Princess in question cut her out and corrected. “The union of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. The strength of their commitment is clear. The power of their love, undeniable. May we have the rings please?” Twilight’s assistance Spike presented the rings. “I now pronounce you mare and colt!”

As the crowd was busy cheering, Falcon activated his drone and sent it towards Rainbow Dash. And as soon as it got behind her, it begun to play the recording. “What are you waiting for soldier!? Move it! Now!” She immediately begun to throw off her dress and run towards the window. Shortly after she has jumped out, the sky was painted with the massive explosion of rainbow.

“H-have you thought her that!?” Shaw yelled.

“No, I just turned two hours of her nap into a trip to hell.” Commander replied. “I must say, I didn’t expect all that rainbow stuff, but I’ll just take it as magic.”

“So you’re not even going to try understanding that?”

“No, I don’t see a point in that.”

“Well, do whatever you want, I’m getting to the bottom of this.” And with that said, Shaw walked over to the best source of knowledge he had at the time - Twilight Sparkle. Falcon on the other hand, begun to walk towards the castle’s garden, where the party prepared by Pinkie was beginning.

When he got there, ho was obviously greeted with not-so-welcoming reactions from local high class. He didn’t care though, there was a lot of lower class ponies who were much more accepting of his presence, and as it turned out, many were straight up friendly towards him.

However, it was mostly Pinkie Pie who kept him on his toes. The crazy mare kept coming up with the craziest ideas that has kept him and later Shaw, up until the end of the party.

For the two clones this was quite the experience. They have never been in an environment like that, it was always about war for them. Even when they were allowed to take a short break, everything was still rotating around the war. Now however, they simply felt alive.

They would have probably kept going, if it wasn’t for Abuyin…

…Who has run to them from the hospital to tell that the Changeling has woken up.

Author's Note

Song of a day: KoЯn - Alive

9. Story Of A Joiner

--Chapter 8--
Story Of A Joiner

Abuyin led Falcon, Shaw and the Elements through the hospital hallways. “Have something happened? What did he said?” Twilight begun to question the taller mare.

“All he said was that he wants to talk with you all, and specifically said not to tell Princess Celestia. We haven’t noticed anything odd about him so far, but he haven’t said a word to anyone since then.” She replied.

Twilight seemed very eager to question the changeling, while Applejack looked to be deep in thought for some reason. Falcon was also planning on questioning the changeling, but not in the same way Twilight did. He intended to find out more about the invasion and the reason for him turning sides. The rest of the group wasn't as interested in the meeting, but they were still quite exited (especially Pinkie, but it’s nothing surprising).

Knowing their way around the hospital, they quickly reached the right room. Abuyin opened the door and they all slowly entered. Upon seeing them, the doctor who was standing next to the changeling walked out. The changeling in question looked almost the same way he did before. He was still covered with dark-orange fur and chitin plates on his back and shoulders, his mane and tail were still light red. The only difference was that his eyes turned back into blue empty orbs, though for some reason they seemed more alive.

"I am glad you have come." He stated the moment they came in.

"Hello, I am Twilight Sparkle-"

"Princess Celestia's pupil, The bearer of The Element of Magic and a librarian. Yes I know who you are. I know who all of you are. Except for you two of course." He pointed at the clones.

"I am Commander Falcon. My friend here is Sergeant Shaw" Falcon stated. "And who are you?"

For a moment he remained silent. "That is not important right now. I have called for you to give you a warning.” This got everyone’s attention. “Two months ago my Hive has sent me to infiltrate the Hive that attacked you two days ago. As a Joiner I was able to take place of one of drones and spy on Chrysalis.”

“What’s a ‘Joiner’?” Twilight asked.

“Joiners are non-changelings accepted into the Kind. Long term exposure to our pheromones connects the mind of a Joiner to the Hive, and causes multiple modifications to the body. Including the ability to shape shift.”

“Is this why you look like that? You are a pony that lives among changelings?” He nodded. “How does that work? And for that matter how many ponies are Joiners like you? How have you become a Joiner?”

Shaw decided to stop Twilight from questioning the Joiner, at least for now. “He will answer later, now tell us about that danger you want to warn us about.”

The Joiner nodded again. “Chrysalis will not give up that easily.” He said. “She has put too much effort into this to simply accept defeat. You can expect her to keep attacking until either she dies, or Equestria falls.”

Falcon nodded at that and immediately begun to think. This was yet another reason why those ponies need help and if he won’t do anything, they might as well give up. And after what he saw during Chrysalis’ first attack, he doubted she would stop at just taking over Equestria. “You called Chrysalis ‘traitor’, why?” Falcon asked.

“She killed all of the Joiners in her Hive, and proceeded to kill Joiners in other Hives.” He answered simply. “For the Kind, those who are willing to join are treated as equals of any other changeling. We are all part of the Hive, we are all equals, and we all feel the rest. When Chrysalis took over her Hive, she betrayed all that the Hive should be, and when she attacked other Hives, she betrayed the Kind itself.”

“I see. Should we expect help in fighting Chrysalis when she comes back? Because as you might have noticed, Equestrian military isn’t among the best in the world.”

He stayed silent for the moment. “Yes. The hive agreed to help.” He answered after a while.

“That’s good, but tell me, are Joiners forced to join, or do they join on their own?” Twilight asked.

“It is rare that a Joiner becomes part of the Kind, we usually stay hidden from the other Kinds, but sometimes we are discovered by travelers and ponies from towns nearby the Hives. We live in peace with those towns, and sometimes ponies decide to join. We never force the Joining. It is a beautiful thing, but when forced it can be the opposite. Though in my case, it was different.”

“Different how?”

He spent another moment in silence. “It was twelve years ago, when me and my wife were on our way to the town of Baltimare…”

The wooden cart moved across the empty road, pulled by two ponies in front of it. A orange furred stallion with red mane tied in a small ponytail, and a mare who's fur was deep red and her mane long and deep blond. The two walked leaning against each other, with mare's head pressed against stallion's neck. "Can't we go any faster?" The mare asked.

"We would be there already if you didn't want to stop for a 'rest'." He replied smiling, following his answer with a kiss on mare's forehead. "Not that I'm complaining or anything..."

"Hmmmm..." She purred as she rubbed her head against stallion's neck. "Let's get this delivery done fast, Ah wanna go back to kids."

"You know you could have just leave this delivery to me, right?"

"Ah may be pregnant, but Ah'm not invalid, you know." She smiled as she planted a kiss on stallion's cheek. "Besides, somepony had to keep you company, you get grouchy when you're alone."

He smiled as he returned the kiss. "Okay then, we'll get this done as fast as we can and in few days we'll be back home." The two doubled their speed as they walked forward. The path led them to the sea line, where they walked on the road next to the cliff.

They could see their target appearing before them. The town of Baltimare. Some say it's the most magnificent place in Equestria, others say it's the worst place to live. The pair pushing the card knew only one for sure. It wasn't their home, and they wanted to get this delivery done as fast as they could. "We're almost there. Come on, let's go!"The mare smiled and increased her pace.

Stallion did the same and they continued to walk on the road with big smiles on their faces. But not everything was going to go as smooth as either of them thought...

"...the cliff begun to slide off when we were passing. We ended up falling along with the cart. The cliff wasn't very high, but the bottom was filled with hard rocks and when we fell, we got broken up badly. We tried to call for help, but nopony came. We passed out from exhaustion and wounds... and the next thing I remember was waking up in the Hive..."

The stallion's head felt like it was being treated with a jackhammer as he begun to open his eyes. He suddenly became aware of some liquid filling his lungs, but he felt no need to push it out of his system.

His eyes opened wider and he realized that he was within some kind of cocoon, but he couldn't get out. The cocoon was filled with some green liquid that made it hard to see through, but he was able to move his body a bit.

He immediately felt that something was wrong. It felt like something hard was attached to his back and legs, he also noticed that when he tried to move his back, something else moved as well, something that felt like wings. His head felt strange too, not only did he have something stickling out of his forehead, but his eyes were different too. It might have been the green liquid from the cocoon, but it seemed like he was looking through a crystal goggles.

Suddenly, he felt something pulling him out of the cocoon. The moment he was pulled out he begun to cough violently, coughing the liquid out of his lungs and stomach. "Don't worry, you are safe now." A voice came from seemingly nowhere. He didn't hear it, it was almost as if it was coming straight from his head. What was strange about it, was that it didn't sound like just one voice. It sounded as if hundreds of voices spoke in union.

“W-where are you?” He said, but his voice sounded different.

"We are the Hive. We found you and your love dying on the shore two months ago, and brought you here to heal you. However…”

“…However, I was changed. The healing process has partially turned me into a Joiner. I am not as strongly connected to the Hive –that’s why I was able to infiltrate Chrysalis’ hive- but I am still a Joiner, a part of the Kind. My wife has met the same fate, but she is still asleep since the accident.”

“What about the child? The one your wife was carrying.” Abuyin asked.

“She is alright. She is living within the Hive, but she is not a Joiner. The Hive decided to give her time to make a decision on her own.”

“That’s good, but there are more questions I have. How-“ Twilight didn’t finish her question, as she suddenly became aware of light sobbing coming from the back of the room. She turned around, everyone else in the room doing the same. Almost everyone, as the one who was sobbing was Applejack. The farmer had her eyes closed and her face was down. “A-Applejack? Is everything alright?”

For a moment she said nothing, but soon enough she opened her eyes and looked at the Joiner in front of her” W-what… what was in that cart?” She said, tears still pouring from her eyes.

The joiner also stayed silent for a moment. “Apples. Golden Delicious.” He answered simply.

That answer made Applejack tears to return tenfold. “D-dad?”

Author's Note

Song of a day: Deuce - Do You Think About Me

10. New Base

--Chapter 10--
New Base

Falcon closed the door to the room when everyone else have left. Everyone, save for Applejack, who was left alone with her father to let the two catch up. “Heh, that was certainly unexpected turn of events.” He said.

“You don’t say. I would never expect this could possibly be him!” Rarity added.

“Who is this guy anyways?” Shaw wondered. “I mean, who was he before this whole ‘Joining’?”

“Well, his name is Lucid Brush.” Rarity answered. “He’s an artist, as you should have guessed from his cutie mark. From what I’ve heard, he and Applejack’s mother met during a trip to the mountains, but if you want more details you’ll have to ask him. Anyways, he comes from a rater poor family from Manehattan, where he lived until he started living with Apples.”

“Did you know him?”

“Not personally, but my mother was friend of his sister and he visited our house few times when I was still a foal.”

“Alright, it’s getting late.” Falcon begun as he checked the hour. “Really late. We should get some rest before we move to Ponyville.”

“Agreed. The train moves out at 3 AM.” Twilight informed.

“What!?” Rainbow yelled as she flew up to the unicorn, grabbing her head to yell even more. “Why so early!? I need some sleep!”

Twilight moved Rainbow away from her face using magic. ”We’re going this early, because I want to make sure ponies won’t start panicking when two white space monkeys appear.” You just earned yourself additional push-ups Sparkle… Falcon thought. “I’m going to prepare an official announcement to make sure we won’t have a repeat of Zecora Incident. You remember how they were reacting before we explained everything.”

“Then why don’t you take them with you and let us sleep, huh?” She argued.

“Don’t whine Rainbow. Be glad that I’m paying for the tickets.”

“Well, if being able to sleep some more means I’ll have to pay few bits, then I’m okay with it.”

Falcon decided to intervene. “If you want some sleep, you’ll have to work for it first, and I have quite a few things in mind…”

This seemed to get the job done rather well. “N-no, please! Anything but that!” She begged him. “I-I’ll get up early, just please don’t make me fly around that castle!”

“Who said anything about flying around the castle? That was just supposed to give me an idea of who I’ll be working with. And I must say, you’ve surpassed my expectations, and I have a special training session, just for those like you.” He smirked.

“Nope! I’ll pass.”

“Shame…”

“Well… anyways!” Twilight spoke up. “You girls can go ahead to the hotel, I’ll stay here and wait for Applejack.” The all agreed and left one by one. Abuyin also went back to her house to prepare herself for the trip.

“I’ll stay with you.” Shaw said. “This Brush guy seems peaceful enough, but you can never be sure.” She smiled and nodded. “Alright, see you in the morning Falcon.” He said as the commander moved away. “So… got any plans?” He said as he leaned against the wall.

“Depends on what we’re talking about.”

“Let’s say… Falcon training you. How do you plan to go through this?”

“Well, I guess I’m just going to study as hard as I can and give it my best. There’s not much else that I can do anyways.” She went silent for a while. “Um, listen. You didn’t tell anyone about… you know…”

He shook his head. “No, I didn’t. Your secret is safe with me.” A small smile appeared on her face for a bit, but it quickly disappeared, replaced with a sole tear that run down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away, but Shaw have already noticed it. “Hey, it’s alright.” He kneeled down and placed a hand on her back. “Everything will be fine, there’s no reason to worry. If you will ever need to talk about this, I’m all ears.”

She smiled again, but her smile disappeared just as quickly. Another tear fell from her eyes, quickly followed by another one. She pressed her face against Shaw’s shoulder, allowing herself to cry. “W-why?” She asked in a shaky voice. “Why did he leave me?”

Shaw didn’t know the answer, but he knew that right now, she needed his support. He wrapped his arm around her and hugged her lightly. She immediately wrapped her hooves around him as well, turning into a crying mess.

"Wake up ladies! Bedtime's over! Everyone in the line!" Everypony in the room shot out of the bed as Falcon shouted.

Rainbow was the first one to stand at attention in front of her bed, while the rest was still rolling out of the beds. "Good job, Rainbow. And since you did so well, you have time to do some push-ups before we move out."

"W-what!?" But I-"

"No buts, soldier! Now get down and give me twenty!" She listened to the command, while Falcon walked over to Rarity's bed. "GET UP!" He shouted directly into her ear.

"Aaah!" She screamed as her plan to hide under covers and keep sleeping failed. Immediately, she jumped out of the bed, with her eye band still on, and somehow navigated through the room well enough to get in the line where the rest of the girls stood.

"Now, I want all of you to take you your stuff and march to the train station. Move it." Rainbow was the first to start walking, but remembering what happened when she woke up, she quickly slowed down and allowed Pinkie to take a lead. Falcon noticed that all of Rarity's bags, were not carried by her, but rather by her dragon friend, Spike. He immediately decided to put a stop to this. "Rarity, you're carrying this on your own." He grabbed the pile of bags from Spike's hands and placed them on Rarity's back.

She almost lied down on the ground from the weight. "P-preposterous! First that brutal waking up, and now this!?"

"Get used to it. Now move it because if you won't get there in time, I'm gonna make you carry this all the way to Ponyville!"

"Hey! What's your problem!?" Spike yelled at the commander. "I always carry her stuff, why can't I now!? Tell him Twilight." No answer came. "Twilight?" He looked at the unicorn as she quickly loaded her books into her saddle bag before she put it on and run behind the rest of the girls. "Umm..." He looked back at the commander.

"Listen kid. Take your stuff, and follow the rest to the station" The dragon 'humph'ed as he picked up his bag and walked out of the room, with Rarity and Falcon following behind.

Rarity fell on the ground with a huge sigh of relief when she reached the train station. Shining Armor and Cadence were there already, saying their goodbyes to Twilight. Abuyin and Shaw arrived a bit after them, carrying Abuyin's baggage. This was the first time they have actually seen her without a lab coat on. Abuyin was a bright yellow mare, with straight black mane that reached down slightly below her shoulders. She was aUnicorn, very slender for her race, and really tall, at least as far as ponies go. Her cutie mark was a red cross with a white pigeon next to it.

They waited for the train to arrive for few minutes, filling the time with chat as they waited. When it was there, the conductor went out of the wagon, expecting to see no one at the station as he usually does at this hour, but this time, he was up for a surprise. He almost screamed when he saw Falcon and Shaw, but he stopped himself and fainted instead. "Well, that's reassuring..." Twilight muttered under her nose as she picked up conductor's equipment and marked each of the tickets.

"Let us hope that that town of yours will react better." Abuyin said as she picked up the conductor and placed him inside the train.

"Do you mind if I come with you?" They heard Lucid's voice. He was disguised as a himself from before the Joining. A rather slender earth pony with short mane and tail. His cutie mark was a paint palette along with a paintbrush.

Applejack immediately run over to him and gave him a quick hug, bringing a small smile to his face. "Weren't you supposed to be in the hospital until Princess can talk with you?" Abuyin asked.

"After a conversation with commander, I realized that Princess Celestia will not be much of a help in taking care of Chrysalis and her campaign. I decided to put my support in Princess Luna's project instead."

"Yes, but how did you get out without getting spotted?" He answered by smirking. Suddenly his body begun to disappear in a faint blue flame. She jumped a bit in surprise when she suddenly felt something tugging her tail. "Aaa!" She yelped as she turned around.

He reappeared with a chuckle. "It was a child's play. It was easy enough to sneak out, and it's not like they knew I can do that in the first place." He said. "But back on the subject, do you mind if I have a little talk in private with you commander?"

"Not at all." The rest of the group went into the wagon, as Falcon and Lucid walked away from it. "So what is it that you wish to discuss?"

"First, I'd like to thank you for saving my daughter. If you haven't showed up when you did, Chrysalis would use her and her friends for breeding."

"What?"

"Chrysalis have discovered a way to use ponies' bodies to hold eggs. Normally, Queen is the one who holds the eggs, and her body is prepared for doing that. However, while ponies can keep the eggs alive, they can't survive the moment of hatching. The young hatchlings just rip their bodies apart in attempt to get out. I've seen this being done to many ponies. It's a really slow and painful death. Thank you for saving them from it.

I only wish I could have spared Twilight Sparkle from witnessing it..." He added the last bit under his breath.

"Think nothing of it. I'm just doing my as a soldier of the Galactic Republic. Is this all you wanted to talk about?"

"No, there's one more thing. There is something that I've noticed earlier about your subordinate that I feel you should be aware of. And very something similar I have noticed about you. Something that you wish to keep secret..."

After finishing the talk, Falcon and Lucid followed the others to the wagon. The train moved out soon after that, with them as only passengers. Lucid sat next to Applejack, dropping the disguise, and the two begun to discuss his return to the farm. Twilight and Shaw were sitting on the end of a wagon, talking about something silently. Falcon was standing alone, looking through the open window.

The hours passed for him on watching the Equestrian landscape. He was surprised by how green the place was. In his time spent on war, he was usually fighting on heavily industrialized worlds, or just straight up wastelands. He rarely had an occasion to see so much green at the same time.

That’s not to say that there wasn’t anything else to be seen. Canterlot mountain alone was a sight to be seen, but other than that the train have passed next to many lakes, rivers and few small towns, all beautiful in their own way.

Commander sighed as he thought back to the events on board of the ‘Intrepid’. He had lost a lot of his brothers in the past, but it seemed to get to him more since Luna showed him that he can use the Force. There was also the fact that Haskri was dead. The Zabrak general was the second person that became his friend, even though he hated Haskri’s previous padawan.

He was glad when that guy have left. Falcon may be a commander, but even he doesn’t like to follow all the rules and regulations, preferring to use all means he had t his disposal in order to win over the enemy with as little loses as possible. This guy however was extremely keen on doing everything by the book. And that attitude was what has on multiple occasions placed him in positions when Falcon was forced to save him from certain death, often losing some of his man in doing so.

Sakri on the other hand was the opposite of that. She has practically no respect for acting according to the rule books, and goes with her gut as a soldier should, while still showing some tactical ingenuity. That is not to say that she isn’t careless and that he had to save her quite a few times before, but it still felt better to do so then before. Probably because he simply cared about her more than about Haskri’s previous padawan, and because she was quite often the one who saved him for a change.

“Twilight.” Falcon called out to her. “Do you think it will be possible to go back to the ‘Interpid’ and take some equipment from there?”

“Do you mean that ship that crashed?” He nodded. “Well, I don’t think I have the power to get us there, but Princess Luna does, and I’m pretty sure she will help.” Suddenly, she got an idea. ”Do you think we could go too?” She asked. “To that ship I mean. I would simply love to see all that things Shaw told me about!”

“I guess so. We could use some help with the heavy lifting anyways.”

Twilight smiled widely and immediately begun to jump around the wagon while yelling ‘yes!’ all the time. “Wait a second.” She suddenly stopped and looked around the wagon. “Where is Pinkie?”

“I think I saw her jumping out of the train and running ahead.” Rainbow said as if that was normal. To Falcon’s and Show’s surprise, Twilight seemed to have the same opinion on the matter.

“Wait a second. You’re saying that as if this was something normal.” Shaw said.

After a moment of silence, ponies begun to laugh. “You have… a lot to learn!” Twilight said between bursts of laugh.

From that point, it took the train a little over an hour to reach the town of Ponyville. “Alright, listen.” Twilight begun. “You’ll be staying in the old magazine on the outskirts of the town. It’s been out of use for several years, but it will have to be enough for now. I’ll bring two beds for you later today, but the renovation of the building will have to wait until Princess Luna takes care of the paperwork. Now, as for introducing you to the town, I want you two to go with me and try not to be spotted. I would like to avoid any of the townsponies seeing you.”

“We can do that. Let’s go.” Falcon motioned Shaw to go behind him.

Everyone else left to their respective homes, Rainbow flew up to her cloud house, Applejack took Lucid and went back to her Farm along with Fluttershy who’s cottage was nearby, Rarity slowly dragged herself towards her boutique, though this time Falcon allowed Spike to help her a bit with the lifting and Abuyin walked towards the town center where her new house was waiting.

Twilight led the two clones through the town, using her knowledge of town’s alleys to avoid being spotted by the few ponies who were already awake. Eventually they’ve reached their target. The warehouse was, as expected, broken. Windows were in pieces, doors looked like they were about to fall out, dust covered everything inside and there was a hole in one of the rooms on a higher floor. “Well… it could have been worse?” Shaw said.

Falcon was the first one to open the door, making them fall on the ground the moment he touched the handle. “Great…” He mused. He made another step inside, turning on the flashlights on his helmet to get more light. The warehouse was divided into two sections. The first one was a big room meant for storing items, and the second one, was a set of rooms placed on two floors.

The moment falcon placed his boot on the wooden floor of the building, it broke, and his feet fell below it. He tried to pull it out, but ended up breaking a plank even more. “I’ll be honest Twilight. This place is crap.”

“Oh, it can’t be that bad.” She walked in as well. “I admit *COUGH* it’s a bit neglected, but there’s nothing to be afraid off around here.” Suddenly, she felt something touching her hoof. She looked down, and let out what could only be described as a very loud squeak. “Aaaaa! A snake!” She run out of the warehouse and hid behind Shaw’s legs. “Kill it! Kill it with fire!” She yelled.

Falcon shrugged. “As you wish.” He pulled out his pistol and shot the little creature. In the head, killing it instantly.

“There’s no way, I’m letting you stay in here! You’ll be sleeping in my library, come on.” She magically put the door back in place and walked away from the warehouse. This time she led them to a large tree, that was supposedly her home. This wasn’t however the only strange building in the town. There was even a building that looked like it was made out of sweets that they’ve noticed when passing through. Those ponies have a strange taste in architecture.

Twilight opened the door and motioned them to walk in, before going in herself. Falcon was about to look for a light switch, but suddenly, the darkness of the room disappeared, and the room was filled with loud yelling and confetti. “SURPRISE!!!”

The two clones immediately run behind the closest cover, which happened to be a table, and flipped it over to hide behind it. Falcon reached for his pistol, while Shaw grabbed the rifle, and both of them pointed their weapons from behind the covers, ready to shoot their alleged attackers.

Attackers that turned out to be a group of ponies led by Pinkie Pie, who was waving a huge flag with ‘Welcome to Equestria’ written on it.

“Umm… sir…” Shaw spoke out after a moment of silence. “I… report no hostile activity in the area…”

“So I’ve noticed…”

“I don’t know if I should do this Applejack…” Lucid said as the two walked between the apple trees. “I haven’t seen them for so long… Big Mac must have grown into a strong stallion by now… and Apple Bloom… she probably doesn’t even remember who I am…”

“Don’t worry dad. Everything will be fine.” She reassured him. The two slowly approached the farmhouse, spending the time in silence. Lucid was almost shaking from nervousness. He hadn’t felt like that in years. In fact he hadn’t felt so nervous since he married Applejack’s mother.

When they reached the farmhouse, Applejack knocked to the door. “I’m coming!” Lucid almost begun to cry when he heard Apple Bloom’s voice. Soon, the door were opened by a small filly with a bow in her red mane. “Hi Applejack!” She have her sister a hug. “Who’s your friend here?”

“Call Granny and Mac downstairs. We need to talk.” The filly nodded and run back inside, giving the newcomer only a puzzled look.

Applejack looked at Lucid, who was at the edge of tearing up. She placed a hoof on his shoulder and gave him a smile as they entered inside. Lucid looked around the farmhouse with tears in the corners of his eyes and ragged breath.

“Can’t… be…” They heard an elder voice from the stairs. As they turned around, they saw an elder form of Granny Smith. “L-Lucy? Is that… you?”

Lucid’s eyes gave up, and tears run down his face. “Y-yes… that’s me Granny…” He cried as he was embraced by the elder mare. He knew this was his true home, and he swore to never live it again.

The door to the throne room opened. “My king!” A elder griffon said as he entered the door, immediately making the guards in the stand at attention. He was after all, their general. “I bring you news of utmost importance.”

“Speak.” King Fallus IV Brave said from the top of his throne. His wings were covered by black feathers, as was the rest of his body. A golden crown rested on top of his head, and a blue cape rested on his shoulders. He looked at down at the general with his deep blue eyes as he got up and slowly walked in his direction.

The general bowed as the king approached. “My king, our spy from Canterlot has returned with very interesting informations about the state of Equestrian army.”

“Ah, Gustave returned! What have my friend found out?”

The general smiled widely before answering. “My king, it turns out that despite its numbers… Celestia’s army seems to be… lacking…”

Author's Note

I was thinking if I should post pictures with the way I view the characters I've presented, but I'm not sure about it. Tell me what you think about it in the comments

Song of a day: Hollywood Undead - Take Me Home

11. The Fun Begins

--Chapter 11--
The Fun Begins

5 days passed since the clones arrived in Ponyville. Since then a lot of things happened. Twilight had officially introduced them to the town, causing quite a panic-show at first. It turns out that Ponyville isn’t really inhabited by the bravest of ponies, and the moment Falcon walked onto the stage he was greeted by a swarm of ponies screaming in fear, yelling about saving the children, fainting in overly dramatic way or just running away. All this made Twilight repeatedly hit her head over the wall.

The only exceptions were a few ponies that Pinkie have invited to her party. They did the screaming before.

Falcon eventually calmed them all down, through simply yelling at them and calling them a bunch cowards in his Drill Sergeant mode, and once the entire town was standing at attention, he calmly explained everyone that he is not a threat to them and that he comes in peace, calming everyone down.

Then Shaw walked onto the stage and everything started again.

Princess Luna has sent a group of construction workers to rebuild the old magazine, and despite Twilight’s protesting about the safety of working in ‘the lair of hellish demons from Tartarus’, they begun to work anyways.

Falcon quickly realized how good they were working together. Not only the construction workers, but also random ponies he saw on the streets. It quickly became obvious to him that ponies have are naturally much more keen on working in groups than humans, with few rare exceptions here and there. This was something he was going to keep in mind when training them.

The other important thing that happened, was the rest of ‘Interpid’s’ crash survivors being moved to Ponyville. Save for Tracker, who stayed in canterlot because he was going to have magic detecting protease installed in place of his eyes. The others were all in good health and all that was left was waiting for the spell that keeps them asleep to wear out.

Falcon himself often visited the hospital, staying close to his brothers and a close friend.

Meanwhile, Shaw was mostly sitting in Twilight’s library. Either reading, or working alongside Twilight. They had a few projects in minds. First they were planning on making suits for ponies to make sure they won’t die during a planned escapade to the wrack of the ‘Interpid’. Second on their list was preparing uniforms for the ‘Lunar Ravens’. They didn’t have anything in mind at the time, but they both preferred to take on one project at the time.

The rest of their list was mostly focused on advancing Equestria’s technology level.

Abuyin was beginning to fit into the town herself. She grew to love the town quite fast, saying that she would chose it over dealing with Canterlot’s stuck-up nobles anytime. Her house was a bit smaller than that in Canterlot, but she didn’t mind, she still liked it more. She said that the mountain of Canterlot was too cold for her taste.

Falcon have questioned her about the country of Saddle Arabia, as well as her past in there. Apparently her past was a touchy subject for her, and considering the fact that Celestia has personally asked her to not talk about it to anypony, Falcon didn’t press on that (not that he has gained any respect for her, he just didn’t want her to have more reasons to hate him).

According to her, Saddle Arabia is a monarchy ruled by King Osbama Im Ronar Osge V (His full name is longer than Abuyin’s, and she doesn’t bother herself with it) who is known for doing absolutely nothing accept hoarding wealth and power. The country practices things like slavery, public executions and tortures, all of which are common thing all around the country.

What was the most interesting information for Falcon was the state of the army, even though she didn’t know much. Her description created an image in his head that was very similar to the droid army. A numerous, badly trained and equipped main branch of an army composed mostly from ponies forced into the military against their will, along with multitude of specialized units composed of mostly badly trained, but well equipped soldiers.

At the first glance it wasn’t anything to be really proud of, but considering the fact that even though Celestia’s royal guard is much bigger in number it would still be unable to hold a candle to army of King Osbama in a fight, which was able hold off the might of Grefis Empire for long enough to force the Empire’s army to retreat due to a lack of supplies.

There’s currently a big rebellion going on, but Abuyin doesn’t know much about it since she was already in Equestria when that happened.

Now, the situation in Apple family was quite an interesting one. The sudden return of Lucid Brush caused quite the stir in the town, especially after the reveal of his Joining, but none of it came even close to what was going on within the Apple family itself.

Not only within the Sweet Apple Acers, even though they were the ones who were most affected by it. When the news spread, almost an entire Apple Clan came to Ponyville and since Pinkie was there as well, it all ended up in a huge ‘returning home’ party.

Big Mackintosh went through what probably was the biggest emotional breakdown of his life, while Granny Smith had to be reanimated. Applebloom barely remembered him at all, but she was more than happy none the less, and quickly proceeded to tell about it to all of her friends, and then her entire class.

Now however, was the time Falcon was waiting on for this five days.

The first day of ‘official’ training of the first squad of Lunar Ravens.

Falcon marched through the Everfree forest with six ponies marching behind him. They were heading towards The Castle of Two Sisters, which is what he was going to use as a training ground. He was there a few times before to get a look at the structure and the surrounding area, so he knew the way quite well, and even if he forgot, he still had a map in his helmet.

Shaw wasn’t there with them. He stayed in the library to finish the suits he and Twilight have been working on. Abuyin have stayed in Ponyville as well. Falcon have decided that she’s going to be a part of the second team. That, and she needed to grow accustom to working in Ponyville Hospital, which despite town’s relatively small population was a rather busy one.

They reached the forest in a bit over an hour. Falcon purposely led them through a harder way, in order to see how they were coping with physical effort.

Rainbow didn’t have problems at all, even though she was forbidden from flying. She easily matched Falcon’s pace, on few occasions trying to go ahead of him. Falcon’s obvious response was getting the idea out of her head with few additional exercises she had to do along the way. And then, because she was doing so well, he have her few more exercises in reward.

Pinkie also had no problems, at least at first. Her constant jumping around and babbling, earned her few exercise sessions she did along with Rainbow. Her slight overweight started to slow her down rather quickly, especially when they were walking to the top of a big hill.

Applejack managed to get through everything without a problem. She was not only used to handling hard exercise, but also had no problems with accepting the chain of command. Something she learned the hard way as a rebellious child by trying to oppose her granny. Her butt was never the same after the old mare was done with her.

Rarity was the complete opposite of that. Not only was she whining the whole way, but she also completely failed at everything she was supposed to do. She had to be explained how to properly do push-ups, how to march, and pretty much how to do everything Falcon ordered her to do. Her constant whining about 'not wanting to get dirty' was finally silenced when Falcon made her swim through a muddy lake, which turned her perfectly kept mane into a mess of dirt and her clean, white fur was matted brown.

Twilight was somewhere between the two, though Falcon had more respect for her than anyone else. While she had more than a few problems with keeping up with the rest, she was the most determined one to get everything right. She also made no attempts to question anything Falcon made her do, and just did it, no matter how hard it was for her. She was in fact quite helpful with encouraging the rest to work harder, though she was doing it in a much calmer way than Falcon did.

While Fluttershy was not as weak as some think she is, she’s quite a problem to get a hold on. She was constantly running around in order to help whatever little animals they’ve encountered along the way. While Falcon admired her devotion to helping others, especially considering the position he had planned for her, but at the moment her job was following orders, and she failed at that. In a result, she was forced to perform amount of additional exercises that rivaled that of Rainbow.

When they finally reached the castle, every pony was reduced to panting, quivering masses, barely able to hold themselves on their hooves. “Alright, you get 5 minutes of rest.” And with that magic words said, all ponies fell on the ground as if they were fallen trees. Heh, and the fun just begun... He thought as he sat down on a rock.

Exactly one minute later, Falcon decided he was done sitting. “Alright, everyone get up!”

Twilight was the first one to force herself up and stand in front of him, ready for further orders. “B-but you said that we have five minutes!” Rarity tried to argue.

“I meant five Sekhininan minutes. That’s one minute here. Now get up!” She humphed as she forced her tired body up, followed by the rest o the group. They all stood in line in front of him, still panting a bit.

“Alright, listen up.” He begun. “As you already know I am going to be your Staff Sargent during your training to become the first unit of Lunar Ravens. That means that you talk, walk, eat and piss when and how I tell you. You are to refer to me as ‘sir’ of ‘commander’. Am I clear!?"

"Yes sir!" They said.

"Yes commander!" Pinkie said.

"Good. Now, I've already informed you that you will all be a part of one team. Each of you will have a permanent role assigned to you that will be determined during the training. Twilight Sparkle! Step ahead!" She did that and raised her hear high, standing at attention. "You are going to be the team's leader. You will be responsible for keeping everyone together and in high spirits. Understood?"

"Yes sir. Thank you." She stepped back in line.

"Good. Now, as for-“

"Wait, why is she a leader!?" Rainbow argued. "I mean, not that I don't like her or anything, but she's an egghead. She barely could keep up with us on a way here!"

Falcon slowly walked up to her and looked down, taking off his helmet.. "Are you questioning my decision?" He said.

"Y-ye... no..." She dropped her head down.

"Good, because I was about to make you do twenty push-ups. Now you'll get thirty."

"W-what!?"

"Do you have a problem with that? Would you like to do forty?"

"I... N-no, sir..."

"Good. So like I said, all of you will do thirty push-ups, while Rainbow gets fifty."

Rainbow was visibly shocked by that, but didn't say a word. Twilight obviously didn't have anything to say about it either, and proceeded to give it all she had. So did Applejack. The rest however was a little less eager to start. Pinkie was by now barely able to lift herself off the ground, Rarity tried to fake a twisted ankle (getting 10 more push-ups and a run around the castle in reward, as well as an offer to experience what a real twisted ankle feels like) and Fluttershy tried to run off, and when Falcon caught her, he made her run around the castle for one and a half hour straight. She would be running more, but she had passed out.

Falcon have spent the entire afternoon on making the life harder for each of them. It was a good thing he had water brought there before, because they needed it quite often.

Shortly after Fluttershy regained her consciousness, Rarity have taken her place in the land of dreams. And soon after that, Twilight gave into tiredness as well. Falcon lifted her half-conscious body off the ground, and while the rest was busy with running around with heavy rocks tied to their hooves, took her into the castle.

He lied her down in the only functional bed in the entire castle, along with already asleep Rarity. "Don't... I can... take it..." The unicorn mumbled as she tried to get up. Her attempts were however completely fruitless, as she barely had enough strength left in her to slightly lift her hoof up.

"Quiet. You've done more than enough for today. Now get some rest. That's an order."

"Yes... sir..." Her eyes closed and instantly she fell into the realm of dreams.

Falcon smiled a bit underneath his helmet, but the smile slowly was replaced with curiosity. What makes Twilight so keen on working as hard as she does? He knew that Twilight was used to being taught by someone, but not in a way he does things. Maybe Shaw will know something. These two are spending quite a lot of time together. He chuckled at the memory of finding these two fighting over Twilight's computer. Shaw wanted to make some upgrades, while Twilight was afraid of letting others touch her stuff.

It ended in a big boom.

He went back outside, smiling again as he saw The still conscious ones lying on the ground. “Alright maggots!” He yelled. “Warm up’s over, time for the real fun to begin.”

Falcon have finally allowed the group to leave when the moon rose up and took the sun’s place. He have stayed behind to wait for Twilight to wake up, using the time to think. The unicorn have remained asleep for all this time, but Falcon felt no need to wake her up. She did enough already (not that he would succeed anyways, the unicorn was sleeping like a stone).

The clone sat on the stairs as he looked at the moon, his helmet lying beside him. His thoughts circled around the cruiser on its surface. Or more specifically about how he was going to get back.

And did he want to come back in the first place.

Was the republic really so important for him that he would want to leave a place that that grew on him so quickly? He didn’t know. But he felt as if something was keeping him here.

With a sigh, he got up and walked back into the castle. Twilight was still asleep and showing no signs of intent to change that fact. It was already a middle of the night, so he decided there was no point in waiting any longer. He lifted her off the bed and begun to carry her towards Ponyville.

He used a much faster way in order to reach the town. At those hours the forest was pretty dangerous place to be in. While during the day, the worst you could find was a pack of timber wolves, which were barely a threat, unless you are a bunny. At night however, much more dangerous predators come out to feast.

Luckily, Falcon hadn't encountered any of them, and reached the town without any problems. The streets were also empty as he walked towards the library with an asleep unicorn in his arms. He took a key out of Twilight’s saddle bags and opened the door.

He was immediately greeted by Shaw, who was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by mannequins with space suits on them. “Are you finished with them?” He asked.

“They all seem to be ready, all that’s left is to get some testing done on them and we’re good to visit ‘Intrepid’.” He replied. “Um... Sir, why are you carrying Twi?”

“Twi? Since when are you two on pet names?”

“Since she asked me to sleep with her because she was having nightmares.” He said without thinking. “No wait, I don’t-!“

It was too late to save anything. Falcon begun to laugh hysterically as he placed Twilight down on the couch. “I hope it wasn’t like the last time!” Tears appeared in corners of his eyes as he laughed at the memory.

“N-nothing happened!” The clone yelled, glad that the helmet was covering his reddened face.

“Here or in that cantina?” Falcon smirked, barely able to hold off laughter.

“I didn’t do anything with that barmaid!” He argued. “That was the last time I went drinking on a leave…” He muttered under his nose.”

“Oh, come on! Through the entire night you were boasting about how “you’re going get into some Jedi’s robes”. And you did get into someone’s robes. When Sakri asked barmaid to put on her robe.” Another wave of laughter washed over him.

“NOTHING! HAPPENED!”

“Then why, have Sakri found you in her place when she was looking for that robe?”

“I-I was there because I passed out and she carried me to her place. That’s all.”

“In that case, why were you tied up to her bed with that robe? Why was she lying on top of you? And finally, why were you two naked?” Falcon’s smile widened with each question.

Shaw didn’t answer, he just stood still for a few moments. “I…” He finally spoke. “I need to go to bed…” And with that said, he turned around and slowly walked upstairs. Falcon was still looking at him with a smile on his face, but suddenly an idea struck him. His glaze fell down on Twilight, who was still sleeping heavily, with her tongue falling out of her mouth. The smile on his face became even wider as he lifted the unicorn and proceeded to turn his plan into action.

The moonlight lit up the hospital room, and a sole bed inside it. In the bed, lied Tracker. His slow, regular breathing was suddenly changed by a big breath he took, as he groaned and moved under the covers. He was immediately hit with strange feeling coming from his head.

He moved his hand to his forehead, trying to null the feeling. It didn’t go away, in fact it became a bit stronger with each passing second. He tried to open his eyes, but everything remained dark. What is going on? He thought.

Suddenly, something changed. The strange feeling remained, but something else joined it. That something was his vision. But it wasn’t the same as it used to be.

He couldn’t ‘see’ anything that was further than 20 meters, but he was able to look at things that were behind the walls and all around him. Everything has lost its colors, instead being replaced with white lines. His body was different however. It had a faint light to it, and he could make out his features, including the face. He felt sick, but despite this, managed to get out of the bed, still asking himself one question. What is going on?

Author's Note

Song of a day: Starset - Carnivore

12. Hunter Is On Track

--Chapter 12--
Hunter Is On Track

What the hell is going on!? That was all Tracker could think about right now. His hands were pressed against his head hard as he tried to make the strange feeling in his head go away. He was barely able to keep a balance, his changed vision made it hard for him to navigate and he constantly kept swinging from left to right. He placed one hand on the bed, barely managing to navigate his hand properly. He slowly started to calm down, but not before he puked on the bed.

Slowly, he started to remove his hand from the bed. He tried to calm himself down and get a grasp on how to navigate in this situation. He realized that next to the bed he woke up in was something that reminded him of his armor and tried to use the chest it appeared to be in as a point of direction.

He had difficulty with determining what was in front of him and what behind, but he finally managed to point himself in the right direction. With a slow, shaky walk he got closer to the chest. His body was alright, but no matter what he did, he still couldn’t get a hold on himself, feeling as if the world was spinning around and suddenly stopped at the same time. He almost puked again, but managed to stop himself by standing still for a while.

Eventually he got to the chest and kneeled next to it, taking a deep breath to calm himself. One hand moved to his forehead as he felt dizzy, and the other was placed on the chest. When the dizziness stopped for a bit, he opened the chest and picked up the first thing that was there.

Before, he couldn’t fully make out what was inside, but now as he lifted his helmet, he was sure it was his armor. Alright Tracker, get a hold on yourself. First, I must find out where I am and how I got here, not wonder about the state of my eyes. Let’s see… I remember that me and the rest were on ‘Intrepid’ when the droids attacked…

“Grenade!” Tracker yelled as he quickly jumped away from the detonator that landed next to him. Following the explosion, he immediately hid behind the cover to avoid the blast. Once it was safe, he pointed his blaster at the nearest droid, sending few bolts in its direction. He hid behind the cover again when few droids begun shooting at him, but quickly he leaned out from the side of the crate he hid behind and send another droid to hell.

“Tracker, take out that B2!” He heard his leader -known simply as Leader- call out. One of his squad mates run over to the cover on the other side of the room they were in, taking one hit from a B1 droid that was absorbed by his armor’s shield. He focused the droid’s fire on himself, giving Tracker enough time to quickly change his weapon’s mode to sniper rifle. He lifted the scope to his visor, and pointed the weapon in the direction of the B2 that was getting ready to shoot a rocket at them. Tracker immediately targeted the droid’s arm and with one shot severed it from the rest of droid’s body just before it fired.

When the arm hit the ground, the rocket was fired and hit the wall on the left, destroying few more droids in the result. “Now’s our chance, go!” Leader made a hand gesture in direction of two more squad members that were behind him. They immediately understood the command and run behind a large crate, pushing it towards the hallway where the droids were. “Tracker, Gric, cover us!”

Gric immediately opened fire at the droids as Tracker used his sniper rifle to disable all of the more dangerous droids in range. Squad’s leader hid behind the cover pushed by two other commandos and also opened fire from his DC-17m while the clones pushing the crate used their handguns to provide more fire power.

The two commandos that stayed behind begun to push forward when they got a command from their leader. Tracker switched his weapon to a grenade launcher and so did Gric. Three commandos have stopped their push forward and simultaneously opened fire at the droids, ripping the first lines to shreds.

When Tracker and Gric arrived they hid behind the cover as well, before unleashing a series of shots from their weapons. Another lines of droids were destroyed, but the commandos didn’t stop here. Tracker switched back to the sniper rifle and so did Leader. The two proceeded to destroy the droids from further away while the rest of the squad took out the few that survived the initial bombing. Soon enough they begun to push forward until the entire wave of droids was gone.

“There’s no time to rest, we can’t let those clakers take over the ship.” Leader said. “There’s control room behind that door, we have to turn on the ship’s turrets, otherwise we’re done for it.” Everyone switched their weapon’s back to their prime settings. “Virgil, you know what to do.” The commando nodded and quickly run over to the closed door and proceeded to plant the explosives on it.

“Sir, there are at least twenty droids inside.” Tracker said as he looked at the room through the security camera. “I see fifteen B1s, B2, two BXs, Droideka and a tactical droid. They appear to be in a middle of hacking into ship’s systems.”

The leader walked over to the computer console and looked at the state of the room. “Alright… Tracker, you’re going to stay here and provide cover from distance. Gric, Tiewan, you two will focus on taking out Droideka and B2. Me and Virgil will push forward and focus their fire on ourselves. Move it!” While the rest of the squad took positions on both sides of the closed door, Tracer run back to the crate that they pushed here. His weapon was already switched back into a sniper rifle as he positioned himself behind the cover.

Shortly after that, the bomb went off and forced the door open. Virgil and Leader run in first, taking out two droids that were standing near the entrance with their wrist blades. Tracker was quick to shoot another droid in front of them just before it opened fire. Gric and Tiewan run in next and too cover behind two computer consoles on the opposite sides of the room. They first opened fire at Droideka, hoping to take it out before it’s shield was turned on. One blaster bolt made it to the target, but it wasn’t enough to destroy the droid.

Virgil and Leader continued to charge until they were next to the main console where tactical droid stood. Before the droid managed to attack any of them with its blaster, Leader shoot off its head and using the body as cover, opened fire at droids that were using the console before they went in.

The two then opened fire at the remaining droids, forcing them to focus their fire at them. Meanwhile, Tiewan rolled a thermo detonator under Droideka’s shield, taking it out along with two B1 that stood nearby. The two BX droids begun to charge towards Gric and Tiewan, but the first one was torn apart by two clone commando’s blaster bolts, and the second one earned a shot to the head from Tracker, followed by a vibroblade to the chest. All that was left in the room now, was a handful of B1 droids and a sole B2.

While Leader and Virgil focused on taking B1s out, Tracer focused on the B2’s head. He targeted it’s head and with one shot he removed the head-plate from the droid’s head. He followed the show with another, and pierced the droid’s head.

They all thought it was over, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

Before the B2 fell on the ground, a diode on its exposed head shone red and a sound of a clock counting down could be heard coming from the droid. They had no time to react as the droid’s body exploded, enveloping all of the clones in the room with deadly flames. The wave of explosion soon reached Tracer and the shock wave knocked off his helmet, exposing his face to the flames that were coming right behind…

Are they… dead? Tracker thought in his head as he finished to put on his armor. Am I alone...? Again? Without thinking, he put on his helmet and turn on a communicator installed in it. “Phantom Squad, this is Vector-83, do you copy?” No answer came. “I repeat, Vector-83 to Phantom Squad, do you copy!?” All he heard was static, as he felt his heart beat rise. He immediately switched to open frequency. “Vector-83 to any Republic outpost in range, code 00271d af7991, I need information about the state of Phantom Squad, does anyone hear me!?”

He felt his hands tighten into fists as he listened to a static sound, and after a moment spent in silence, he smashed his fist into the emptied chest with a scream, breaking the wooded surface. With another scream he took off his helmet and threw it on the ground and then grabbed the edges of the bed and flipped it over. He then moved to the nightstand, lifting it effortlessly before smashing it back on the floor.

He grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be a chair, and threw across the room. With another scream, he felt his eyes tear up as he kicked another bed as strong as he could. He didn’t care what he grabbed next, he just broke everything around him until he was standing in a middle of a whacked room, with tears dripping down to the ground.

His legs gave up as he kneeled down onto the floor, grabbing his head with both hands. “I don’t want to be alone… not again…” He muttered silently. He spent a while like that, but suddenly he realized that something was closing in fast. While everything except him was in white, not he saw a color moving behind the wall. It was green, and from the shape it appeared to be a quadruped running in his direction.

Without thinking, he stood up and quickly wiped off his tears before grabbing the helmet and putting it back on. Just as the mysterious visitor was about to enter, he rose his blaster up and pointed it towards the creature that was now standing still. “Freeze!” He yelled at it. “Walk in, now!” He ordered, seeing that there was no one else coming with it. It complied with the command, looking visibly startled. “Now, tell me who you are, and how did I get here?” He said calmly, but still keeping the weapon pointed at the quadruped.

It looked like it was wearing some sort of armor, but because of his currant seeing problems he was unable to tell much about it. He saw that the creature had very long hair and tail. The hair was wrapped around its neck like a scarf, while the tail appeared to be braided. “I-I’m… G-Green Vail, sir.” He heard female voice speak up. “I-I was ordered by Princess Luna t-to explain everything to you when you wake up.”

“Well, I’m listening.”

“C-could you please point that thing somewhere else? I’m not here to harm you I assure you.” She said. Deciding it would be better to cooperate with her for now, Tracker lowered his rifle, but kept it ready to fire. “A-alright, so… few months ago Princess Luna found you and few others like you called: Falcon, Shaw, Cipher, Sakri, Rook and Flint…”

As Vail continued to explain everything that happened, Tracker started to calm down. He still had problems with coming to terms with losing his closest brothers for the second time, but inside he knew that he will have to accept it and move on, unless he wants to give in to depression. And he never gives up. He had learnt from her that his sudden change in a way of seeing, was due to his eyes being destroyed in that explosion and having to be removed completely to install prosthetics in their place. He didn’t really understood all her talk about magic, but she said that this Princess Luna is going to explain it in more detail.

When she was done talking she proposed to lead him to the castle in order to talk with the Princess. “You’re not leading me anywhere, unless with a blaster pointed at your head.” He raised his weapon again, making her take a step back.

“B-but the princess ordered me to-“

“I don’t care what your princess wants. I don’t trust you, and if you want me to go anywhere, I’m going to make sure you won’t try something funny.” He motioned her to leave the room with his head. “Move it.” She slowly walked out of the room and he followed behind her.

Now that he have started to get used to the new way of seeing, he was able to maneuver in a way that didn’t made him fall over with each step. It was still hard for him, but he pushed on anyways, despite feeling dizzy. He actually doubted that he would be able contain in a fight with the quadruped in front of him, so he tried to make it look like he was fully confidant. He could see her shaking a bit, so it was unlikely that she would try anything, but it’s better to be on guard.

As they walked, Tracer begun to see more quadrupeds around them, some of them seeing the two. He changed his stance, making sure neither of them was going to realize that he has pretty much taken their fellow quadruped hostage. They were whispering to each other, but he couldn’t hear any of them.

At some point he realized that he was actually in a hospital, not some research facility as he has previously thought. Seeing that most of the patients he saw was asleep, he guessed that it was a middle of night.

They eventually left the building, not saying a word to each other the whole time. The area outside of the hospital was empty as far as Tracker could see, confirming his deduction about the hour. “Is this a Republic world?” He asked.

“I-I was told to tell ‘no’ if y-you asked that question.”

“Great…” He muttered under his nose. “Are you with Separatists than, or are you neutral.”

“I-I’m not sure what you mean by that.” She replied, still visibly scared.

Then neither… that’s even worse, I must be on some backwater planet in a middle of nowhere, that would explain lack of Bacta tanks in that hospital. “Never mind.” He said. They continued to walk forward through an empty street, staying silent until they’ve reached another large structure.

Tracker recognized that this was a wall, and that they were heading towards a gate in front of them. He noticed few more armoured quadrupeds walking around the area, but neither seemed to occupy themselves with his presence, instead going on with whatever it was that they were doing. Even the guards stationed next to the main gate didn’t react to his appearance. Were they expecting him? Was he walking into a trap? Those questions kept running through his mind as he walked behind his ‘guide’, carefully observing his surroundings.

He was quite surprised by how quickly he has gotten used to seeing things in this new way. He was beginning to consider this a nice perk, as he was able to see if someone was hiding behind walls, and even if he was being followed. Still, seeing only 20 meters ahead wasn’t all that great, especially for a sniper with a fancy for tracking his targets.

The two continued to walk for a while, until they have reached an end of a corridor placed on the highest floor of the main part of the castle they were in. He saw two doors placed on opposite sides, each emitting a faint light, first one dark blue, and the other bright yellow. He quickly noticed two more shining figures behind them, the colors matching that of the doors.

They were both quadrupeds, much higher than the ones he had seen so far. The bright one appeared to be sleeping in bed, with a balcony opened wide to let the cool air in. He noticed what appeared to be a crown, or a tiara lying on a nightstand next to the bed, figuring this was probably the princess he is supposed to meet.

However, he quickly changed his mind when his attention switched towards the dark figure. This one was sitting in a middle of the chamber, surrounded by some sort of circle with strange symbols written along it. She appeared to be aware of his presence and stood up before Green Vail walked over to the door and knocked. They didn’t wait long before they were opened. “Princess Luna, I-I did as you asked. He’s here.” She said.

The princess eyed the commander before replying. “Good, I would like to talk with him in private.” She said. Green Vail gave her a low bow an turned around to leave. However, she didn’t go far, as Tracker pulled out his blaster pistol and shot her with low energy bolt, immediately knocking her out.

“Alright, now we can talk.” He said as he crossed his arms.

“You know you didn’t have to do that, right?” Princess said, barely reacting to Tracker’s action.

“Perhaps, but I don’t trust her.” He stated. “Now… I don’t care why you want to talk with me, and I have no intention to go along with anything until I get answers.” He continued without waiting for her opinion. “First of all, where am I and how did I get here? All that girl said is that you brought me and few of my brothers here.”

At first, she didn’t answer, simply standing still with a stoic expression on her face. “Come in, we can discuss this over tea.” She said after a while of silence, turning around and heading back into her room.

Tracker went behind her, still holding his weapon ready to use. Princess led him to a table in a side of the room and sat on a chair. “Please sit, we have a lot to talk about.”

“I’ll stand. Now tell me, where am I, and how did I get here?” He said with frustration starting to sink into his voice.

Luna looked at him with the same stoic glaze she held since he appeared. “Several months ago, your ship crushed on the surface of this planet’s moon, where I found you along with your Commander Falcon, Sakri Fashov, Sergeant Shaw, Capitan Flint and Privates Cipher and Rook, no one else have made it. Commander and Sergeant have already awoken and are currently in the town of Ponyville.

Now, I’m sure you are surprised by the sudden change in your way of seeing, am I right?” She didn’t wait for the answer. “When you were found, your head was severely burned, and your eyes have suffered damage that we were unable to fix. The only thing we could do, was installing artificial eyes, and since -as you probably have already noticed- we are not as technologically advanced as you, the best we were able to do is what you see now.” Tracker almost jumped in surprise when he saw a teapot and two glasses flying towards the table. “Would you like some tea?”

He spent few seconds thinking about what he saw before he answered. “No.”

“Hm, your loss.” She poured herself some tea and than drank it. “Oh right, I almost forgot.” Her horn lit up again as she levitated something small to him. “Commander Falcon asked me to give you this.” The small object stopped in front of him. Tracker slowly reached out his hand and grabbed the object, looking at it.

It was a headpiece, quite rough looking but as far as he knew it looked like it worked. He took off his helmet and replaced his own headpiece with the new one. He then pressed a button on the device to establish connection. And soon enough, he heard a voice.

“Commander Falcon here, is there a problem?”

“S-sir!?” Tracker said in surprise.

“Is that you Tracker?”

“Y-yes sir, but… how are you communicating with me? I tried to connect after I woke up, but all I heard was static.”

“Oh, that… you see, the system we’re in is… different. To simplify it, it is in a middle of space anomaly that causes our long range communication to malfunction, they have 10 kilometers of range top, after that any kind of signals disappear. That’s also why we can’t contact the Republic, we’d have to leave the system to establish a connection. The com-links we’re using now were made by Shaw with help of one of the natives to work in this environment, but the downside is, that they can only work in the middle of that anomaly. So no calling help with these either. That and… well, for now they’re all connected to central hub, so you can’t contact only one person.

But anyways, I’m so happy to hear you’re alright!”

“Me too, sir. Though, the sights could be better…” Tracker started to walk around the room, though still keeping himself close enough to Luna, in case she tried something (he didn’t know that, but she also had a com-link in her ear).

“I’m sorry, but we couldn’t do anything to help.”

“I understand sir, but don’t I assure you, I’m going give it my all. Even though I can only see 20 meters ahead...”

“Wait, they didn’t tell you that? There was supposed to be a guard who will explain you this when you woke up, what is that idiot doing?”

Tracker’s attention turned towards Green Vail, who was still knocked out cold on the floor. “She’s sleeping… and she can thank me for that.”

“Eh, I knew I should have made them tie you up…” Falcon whispered. “Anyways, I want you to roll your right ‘eye’ up.” He said, surprising Tracker in the process.

“Why?” He asked, but followed the order anyways. His finger touched the surface of the prosthetic eye and he hesitantly moved his finger up. To his surprise, it actually moved up like a switch, making a ‘click’ sound. Suddenly, his range of seeing was tripled, but in exchange he was now seeing only what was in front of him, much like he used to see before.

Immediately he felt a headache caused by a sudden change, followed by loss of balance and general disorientation. “This thing has two modes of operating,” He heard Falcon say. “normal view, and surround. You can also turn off ‘seeing through walls’ with left ‘eye’, that would give you bigger seeing range. If you want to turn it off completely, roll the right one left.”

“You could have told this earlier…” He groaned as he got up, holding his spinning head. Well, at least I can see normally now… somewhat… “But sir, do you mind me asking what are those creatures?”

“They call themselves ‘ponies’. They’re not part of the Republic, nor Seps, so at least we’re not in a middle of enemy territory. They are very peaceful people, quite naive too. Most don’t know a thing about as much as how to defending themselves, so I’m expecting you to not try to begin any encounter with them.

From the position of stars, Shaw deduced that we are on the edge of Wild Space, very close to the galaxy’s edge, meaning that without a working ship with a hyperdrive we won’t be going anywhere. That’s why, I decided that for the time being we will cooperate with Princess Luna, who in return will provide us with any help we will need. As long as she can provide it of course. I am currently training a secret group of soldiers that would do the job that the official ‘army’ can’t do, which is defending that country.”

“Sounds interesting. I always enjoyed to watch as you torment newbies.” He chuckled at the memories that flew through his head.

“Don’t get so happy so fast. I have a job for you.” Falcon stated.

His tone immediately got serious “I’m ready for anything sir.” He said.

“Physical training is one thing, but teaching them how to fight is another. And since I have no idea on what would be the most effective way for them to fight, or even the most effective thing to fight with, I’m going to need some fighting manuals. And you’re going to help me get them.”

“I’m… not sure if I understand sir. Why do you need me to do that?”

“There are two problems. A) Possessing weapons is illegal here. B) The only place where you can find a proper fighting manual is Princess Celestia’s private library, who is the one who caused those two problems in the first place. In other words, you have to break into her room, sneak into her library, steal as much of useful stuff as you can, and leave unnoticed. Princess Luna will help you with planning everything, you can trust her. See you tomorrow, Tracker. Falcon out.” And with that said, the clone Commander disconnected.

Tracker put his helmet back on and walked over to the Princess, who was in a middle of the second glass of tea. “So apparently-“

“Yes, I now.” She cut him off. “Commander wants me to help you with planning a rubbery of my sister’s library.” She gulped the rest of the tea down and got up. “First thing you should know, is that except for one of most advanced locks available locking the door, my sister has placed a shield along with an alarm at the entrance to her library. If someone goes there without her permission, she will know.”

“Is there any other entrance?” He asked.

“None that I know of. Thanks to Commander Falcon, I know that there is a web of secret tunnels around the castle, but the part we’re in was build later, so it has no such things. There is however one way to get in. According to Twilight Sparkle, my sister’s student, she used to sneak in there from time to time in order to study. She said that the shield can be temporarily disrupted by very strong electromagnetic discharge, and in order to avoid raising an alarm, all you need is something with my sister’s magic signature that would be able to confuse the spell into thinking you’re her.”

“And what would that something be?” Trace asked, already thinking about a way to disrupt the shield. He had few ion grenades in his belt, but were they strong enough to do the job? Also, I’m still not buying that ‘magic’ of theirs.

“I’m really not sure. Twilight Sparkle wasn’t really specific about that.”

“Hmm… and what if… I just happened to have some very strong sleeping drugs with me, and it just so happened that those drugs were to mysteriously be applied to her?” That would be awfully convenient. “Do you think she would be kind enough to just let me in?”

“I believe she wouldn’t argue… but, are you sure this is safe? As much as I don’t agree with her on her current policies, she’s still my sister, and I will not put her in harm on purpose.” She stated.

“Don’t worry, I just want to make sure she won’t be waking up when I’m inside.” He said, taking a small bottle and a needle from his backpack. “This thing is really strong, and if I apply her even a smallest amount, she’s going to stay asleep until noon. Shouldn’t be hard since she’s already sleeping.”

“Very well then. I advise you to not go through the front door, opening them always wakes her up. She usually leaves her balcony door open though, so you can get in that way.”

He rose an eyebrow under his helmet. “She’s one of rulers of the country and she just leaves an easy way for anyone to enter? And shouldn’t there be guards walking around to make sure she’s safe? I don’t think I saw a single one on this level. Save for the sleeping beauty lying there.”

“The answer is simple really. She does not believe that somepony would want to harm her. A very stupid move if you ask me, but so far nopony has tried to as much as get in.” She explained.

“Well, there’s first time for everything.” He turned towards the exit, but before that, Princess have thrown him a bag.

“Take this. This bag will transport anything you put in it back to my chamber.” He wasn’t sure how was that supposed to work, but he nodded anyways and put the bag around his arm. He then left the chamber and walked back into the hallway. Green Vail was still lying there, but he paid her no mind, instead walking towards the window on the end of the hallway. He could see the landscape of the land from here, and to say that he was impressed was an understatement.

He rarely gets to enjoy a views, as even when he’s not operating on some wasteland, he’s attention is more focused on the droids trying to shoot him. Still, this wasn’t the time for that either, he had a job to do.

Tracker opened the window and jumped out, quickly turning around midair and shooting a grappling hook at the side of the castle. The momentum than carried him over the side where he grabbed onto one of the decorative parts of the castle. From there it was easy to reach the balcony, all he needed to do was make few jumps and not fall. Nothing too hard for him.

With a last jump, he grabbed the edges of the balcony with both hands and climbed onto it, staying as quiet as possible. The entrance was obviously wide open, so without a moment of hesitation, Tracker walked in. He already could see Celestia sleeping peacefully in her bed, snoring a bit (she’s actually about as loud as Rainbow Dash, Tracker is just trying to be polite in his head).

He slowly walked over to her, carefully placing feet on the ground. He already had a needle covered in sleeping drug in his hand and carefully proceeded to stick a needle into her exposed neck, making the Princess groan in her sleep. However, she quickly calmed down as the drug started to kick in.

The drug also had a special toxin in it, that would create an illusion of a mosquito bite to effectively hide any marks left by applying the drug. Unless there are no mosquitoes here. He thought. Eh, who am I kidding. Those things are everywhere.

As for where he had gotten the drug in the first place, he has received it from some old man who was his contact during one of his early missions, close to the beginning of the war. He had to spy on one of the more influential Separatist on the planet and he needed the drug to steal some stuff from her apartment. All he needed to do was sneak into the kitchen and add a bit of the drug to the soup before it was served. He ended up not only getting data from his target, but also several other big deals from the planet, eventually allowing the rest of the battalion to take over the capital in one night.

This happened when his first team was still alive, and just holding the bottle with the drug was enough to tear open old wounds. He found himself on the edge of tearing up as he waited for the drug to fully kick in, but stopped himself when he heard Celestia snore again.

He sighed heavily and got up, looking over to the entrance to the library. He could clearly see the shield behind the door, confirming that Luna wasn’t making things up. He lifted Celestia’s body with some problems (related to her cake eating habits) and carried her to the locked door.

Once there, he placed her on the ground and looked at the lock.

It looked a lot like a simple mechanical lock, just very strongly made and requiring two separate keys. His first thought was to simply break it with a blaster bolt, but he quickly rejected the idea. Celestia would know that someone has broke in the moment she looked at the door. The second option was finding the keys, but he could see that it wasn’t going to be easy. Just one look at the Princess could tell you that she isn’t someone stupid enough to leave things like that just lying around.

That has left him with only one option. Lock picking.

Practically every lock used in known part of the galaxy is at least partly digital, and thus most would simply choose to hack it instead of trying to break a lock (unless they are a Jedi). However, Tracker used to operate in quite a few less advanced worlds, where he had to learn how to properly open purely mechanic locks in order to not leave any tracks behind.

The only problem is that he usually doesn’t carry his tools on missions, and he has left everything on the board of ‘Intrepid’. Still, that wasn’t something that was going to stop him. He quickly begun to search the room for items that he could use to make improvised tools, items that at the same time would not be noticed to disappear.

And the best thing he has managed to find, was box full of hairpins. He quickly proceeded to use two of them to make basic tools, immediately proceeding to use them to open the lock. It quickly turned out that Luna was right about the lock. It was really well made and hard to open. He also was rewarded with a surprise once he managed to properly position all pins on the first lock. It turned out that both locks must be opened at the same time to move any of them, making the whole thing a lot harder as he had to keep a pressure on the first lock while he tried open the other one. This also forced him to make a second tension wrench.

But despite all the problems he encountered, Tracker managed to open the lock after nearly an hour of struggling with it. He opened the door, leaving tension wrenches inside of the locks to use them for locking the place up after he leaves.

Celestia was again lifted by him and he approached the shield. To his surprise, the barrier disappeared the moment Celestia was near it, allowing him to enter without problems.

The library itself was not the biggest one he has ever seen, but it was still really impressive collection. Bookshelves rose up to the ceiling, all filled with books and manuscripts. Luckily for him, every section was marked with a sign telling what he could find there.

Not waiting at all, he placed Celestia on the ground and started to work.

Author's Note

Song of a day: Shinedown - Cut The Cord

13. Preparations

--Chapter 13--
Preparations

Twilight yawed loudly as she started to wake up. Her body was barely able to move after what Falcon has put her through the previous day, and it’s not like she was interested in getting up anyways. Staying under covers, where it’s warm and cozy was far better alternative. Falcon wasn’t here to wake her up after all, and she had all the time she could wish for.

She rubbed her face against the soft surface under her, dozing deeper into the land of dreams. Feeling like there was nothing that could make her turn back now, she pressed herself against a source of warmness under her, not bothering herself with what it could be. It simply felt too good to make her care. So good, that she was almost ready to ignore the feeling of having ropes wrapped around her hooves.

Almost.

She lightly tried to move one of her hooves around, only to find herself unable to move it in any way. Her head slowly turned to the side, and her tired eyes opened weakly, only to suddenly shoot wide open as she saw the scene she was in.

Her hooves were tied up to long limbs covered in black body suit, and said limbs were tied to the bed’s frame. Twilight’s eyes traveled along those limbs, eventually reaching the face that she was rubbing herself against just a moment ago. Her eyes almost fell out and her face got so hot from the embarrassment it almost caught fire as she saw Shaw’s face mere centimeters from hers.

He was thankfully still asleep, but that could have changed at any moment. She had to get out of his as soon as possible. She tried to get her hooves free, but the ropes held her in place. Her next thought was using magic to teleport herself out, but she quickly found herself unable to channel magic into her horn. W-what!? Why doesn’t it work!? Why am I even in this situation!? WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT!? She screamed in thought, releasing a growl.

This however, was a mistake. Shaw’s body suddenly tensed up, us he started to wake up. Twilight’s face grew few shades redder as her heart rate increased. In panic, she tried to get the ropes off of her, only to fail miserably in her attempts that only sped up Shaw’s incoming awakening. “Twilight…” She heard his voice. Oh, sweet bucking Celestia’s ass, please let that be a dream! He had turned towards his just as red one. “W-why are we…”

“I don’t know!” She yelled. “I woke up like that, please believe me! I’m not a pervert!” She was trying to keep her muzzle away from him, but because of her very limited range of movements, she was unable to do it and eventually their noses bumped into each other. “I-I’m sorry!”

“Don’t apologize, try to think of a way to get out of here!” He yelled back, also trying to get his hands free.

Neither of them knew that while they were trying to free themselves from this situation, a mysterious orb remained hidden in the corner of the room, observing everything in perfect detail…

Falcon was standing at the train station, chuckling to himself as he smirked underneath his helmet. Some ponies were staring at him, but he paid them no mind, focusing more on the sight he was seeing on his helmet’s display. He was waiting for the train from Canterlot to arrive, and with the train Tracker was going to come here.

He wasn’t even sure why is he so happy to know that another one of his brothers is awake, but just the thought of it was making him feel like he was suddenly becoming Pinkie Pie. Still, he didn’t feel like questioning that, and simply enjoyed the feeling. His brother wasn’t the only thing that he was waiting for though. After all, he’s ordered the commando to get some fighting manuals for him. Manuals that he was going to put in a good use, likely pissing off his new students.

Today he was planning to go to the wrack of ‘Intrepid’ in order to scavenge whatever he could find. Hopefully something that would be able to get them back to the Republic space. However, even if they were to find a working ship in the hangar, he wasn’t about to leave this planet in its current state. He was first going to make sure he gets the military of Equestria to be at the very least capable of putting up a fight and training more soldiers without his help.

This could prove itself to be a good thing for the Republic when the war is over, ponies have very reach culture and they could pass some of it to the rest of the galaxy. Not to mention their magic, that on its own has a huge potential in improving lives of many people in the galaxy. Not to mention that a base in a place where radars can’t reach would be more that a bit beneficial.

The clone waited on the station for few more minutes before he spotted the train through macrobinoculars he’s borrowed from Shaw (it’s not like he needs them right now.) He turned off the display from his drone’s camera (but didn’t turn off the recorder) to stop chuckling and get a bit more serious.

It took the train few more minutes before it stopped at the station and the door opened. Falcon was immediately greeted by a sight of the familiar looking conductor lying on the chair, unconscious. A moment later, Tracker appeared in sight. “Why, look who we got he-“

“Sir! Vector-83, reporting for duty, sir!” He said immediately after leaving the train.

“It’s okay Tracker. You don’t have to call me like that when we’re not on a mission.” Falcon said with a sigh. He then spotted Princess Luna behind Tracker, as she was trying to wake the conductor up. ”Better tell me do you have what I asked for.”

“I never fail assigned tasks, sir.” He passed him a brown bag. Falcon looked inside, and smiled a bit as he saw its contents.

“Unless they involve being around other people.” Falcon noted as placed the bag over his shoulder.

“That’s not what I was trained for, sir.”

“Blast… will you ever drop the ‘sir’ thing when we meet in person? You seem less keen on using it when we’re talking through com-link.”

Luna has finished explaining the conductor that he’s not in danger, as well as that aliens are not taking over Equestria and now walked over to Falcon and Tracker. “Welcome commander, is everything ready for us to go to the moon?” She asked while several ponies around them started to bow to her, to which she responded with lightly bowing herself.

“Good morning, Princess.” He said to her, lightly nodding his head. “I still have to rally up the Elements. Shaw and Twilight are still in bed… last time I checked they were sleeping, about the rest I don’t know they don’t respond to my signals, I’ll have to go around and direct them to the meeting point. Equipment is ready though, Shaw just needs to set it up.” She nodded. “Let’s go. We’ll talk on the way.”

All three moved out from the train station, still getting glazes from ponies around them. “How are you coping with all that Tracker?” Falcon asked. “I mean, you’re a sniper who just lost his eyes, that must have been quite a shock for you.”

“I appreciate the concern, sir, but-“

“You can speak freely.” Commander cut him off.

“Yes, of course… as I was saying, while this is an unexpected turn of events that will surely take some time to get used to, I assure you that it will not affect my efficiently in combat. Not once I’ll get used to it at least. I have to admit though, I feel like it could prove to be advantageous.”

“That’s good to hear.” The tree house came into their view. “By the way, why didn’t you simply teleport yourself and Tracker here, Princess? It would be faster than riding in the train.”

“It would, but if I did that in Canterlot or anywhere near it, my sister would immediately be able to sense it and track me down. Than it would just be a matter of time before she figured out that I’m meeting with you, and I’d rather keep that a secret. Now she thinks that I’m asleep, and won’t be bothering me. I made sure to teach her that waking me up is a bad idea long time ago…”

She said, smiling at the memory of her sister staring at her with wide eyes as she yelled at her with the full power of Royal Voice while causing havoc in her room with magic, shooting lightning out of her hooves, throwing objects around, setting the floor in a controlled (mostly) fire and looking at her sister from above with eyes shining deep red. Celestia never dared to wake her up again. She doubted in her will to withstand the need to pee on the floor…

To be fair though, Luna was in heat at that time, so her slight overreaction is mostly justified.

“Alright we’re here.” Falcon said as they reached the library’s doorstep.

“Where is ‘here’?” Tracker asked.

“This is a place where me and Shaw were staying in so far, and that’s where we’re all going to gather. Shaw is still there with one of the natives that will be joining me and Luna on the trip to ‘Intrepid’. Sorry, but I don’t feel that you’re ready to go on a serious mission yet, I want you to first get used to those new eyes.”

“I understand sir, I was hoping to practice shooting with my… new conditions.”

Falcon nodded. “There’s a good spot for that near the Everfree forest, I’ll mark it on the map for you later. Now, I would like to ask you to get them to wake up, while me and Luna are going to bring the rest here. Wait here for us to come back.”

“Yes, sir.” The commando gave him a salute before turning around and going into the library.

Luna and Falcon were quick to turn back themselves, as they started to walk through Ponyville’s streets. “Is he always like that?” Luna asked. “Barely talking at all, sitting in a corner and thinking. He didn’t even bother himself with ponies running out of the wagon when he walked in.”

“Yeah, sounds like him. He was never a social type.” Falcon answered. “We can discuss this further some other time, though. Let’s get the others here. Are you familiar with where they live?” Luna nodded. “Then you will go to Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, while I go to get Rarity and Pinkie Pie. You can fly and teleport, so it will be faster if you go to those who live outside of town.”

“Agreed. We will meet back in the library.” And with that said, she flew high into the air, heading towards a flying cloud-house, where Rainbow Dash lived.

Tracker walked upstairs after he walked into the library. He hadn’t bothered himself with looking around, after all it’s not like he could see much. He could hear two voices ringing through the building, but at first he couldn’t understand much of what was said. He recognized one of the voices as Shaw though. The technician always had a particular way of speaking, which made him sound smarted than he actually is. Not that Tracked didn’t consider him to have knowledge in his head, but when it came to planning things as things go, he fell short, and that was an ability that Tracker had a lot of appreciation for.

He started to close in to the source of the voices, now able to recognize what was being said. “-try pulling it out, now.” A feminine voice said. Must be the native Falcon was talking about. Also, pulling what out?

He then heard Shaw growl in frustration. “Eh, I can’t. It’s too tight.” He said.

Tracker found himself with a very strange image crawling into his head, but he pushed it away, simply not believing it could be truth. “Horseapples… Alright, maybe I should try moving… push forward a bit.” Tracker suddenly started to walk faster “Thank you, now start moving in and out so that-“ The commando quickly climbed upstairs, cutting off whatever it was she had to say.

He immediately froze in place at what was in front of him. A native female was lying on top of Shaw, who was clearly tied up to the bed. They had their faces very close the moment before Tracker run in, only to quickly turn them towards him. “T-Tracker! Come over here and-!” Shaw yelled but he was quickly cut off by the commando.

“No! No, no, no. I’m not joining you two! In fact I was never even here.” And with that said, he jumped down, ignoring the stairs.

“Tracker, wait! Come back here you idiot!”

Princess Luna gracefully landed at the doorstep of Rainbow Dash’s house. The cloud under her slightly enveloped itself around her hooves as she walked over to the door that led inside. The Princess hadn’t bothered herself with knocking. She was aware of the fact that Rainbow was sleeping for a while now, dreaming that she’s the one bossing Falcon around. The happiness emitting out of her was almost enough to make Luna change her mind and let her sleep.

But almost is never enough for her.

Deciding to not go in quietly via teleportation, Luna kicked the door open with her rear hooves. She then quickly moved to Rainbow’s bedroom, where the pegasus still laid asleep. Luna kicked that door open as well, looking at young flyer’s peacefully sleeping body. Rainbow was lying on her back, not covered by the covers and with a large grin on her face. A grin that Luna was about to wash off of her face. “RAINBOW DASH!!!” She used her royal voice.

This immediately made Rainbow snap out of her dream and fall back into reality. “Wha-what!? Who-!?”

“What is the meaning of this!? So late into the day and you still lay in thy bed!? Immediately rise your lazy flank up, this is an order!” Rainbow quickly gathered herself up before she was even able to identify the Luna. This is actually kind of fun…

Sugarcube corner was the closest place Falcon had to go to, being placed on the same street as the library (and it’s not like Ponyville is a big town in the first place). Still chuckling to himself as he watched Tracker’s visit in the library, Falcon opened the door to the bakery, lowering his head to not hit the ceiling like the last time.

“O-oh, it’s you sir…” The overweight mare that was cleaning a table said. He could tell that she was still scared of him, likely because of the children upstairs. “H-how can I help you?”

“I’m looking for Pinkie Pie. Is she here?”

“I… I’m not sure. I’ve been looking for her all morning, but I only found her alligator lying in bed… I-Is that all?”

Falcon didn’t answer, instead he slowly walked over to a big strawberry cake that was placed on one of the tables in the bakery. It was a truly impressive showing of skill and dedication to the work that the mare shaking next to him and her husband have put into it. Not that Falcon would actually eat it. He preferred to keep himself away from food like that.

Suddenly, the clone commander pulled out his blaster pistol and pointed it at the cake. “Alright Pinkie, I’m not going to play hide and seek with you. You have ten seconds to show up before I’ll blast a hole in this cake. And four second already passed…” The mare nearly fainted.

Luckily for her (and the cake), it wasn’t long before a voice rung from under the floor. “NO! Please spear the cake!” Pinkie suddenly jumped out from a trap door on the floor. “I’m begging you, don’t shoot!” Falcon stared at her for a moment, before he slowly pressed the trigger. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Pinkie screamed and jumped forward to take the hit in slow motion.

*CLICK* She suddenly fell on the floor and quickly turned around, only to see Falcon still holding his weapon pointed at the cake, with his finger pressing the trigger. “Ups… I forgot to load it…”

Meanwhile, Mrs. Cake was looking down the trap door. Wondering why she never knew about it… And why was it so dark down there?

Apple trees. That is all that Luna could see around her as she flew over the orchard of Sweet Apple Acers. There were thousands upon thousands of them, each full of delicious looking fruits ready to harvest. She was impressed by the fact that this endless see of apples was where just two ponies (well, now three) not only worked, but also turned all competition in the country into dust.

Now however, she had to find only one pony in this mess of trees. And it was hard.

She could feel Applejack’s presence somewhere around here, but with so many trees around she couldn’t pinpoint where exactly. The elder mare in the farmhouse wasn’t helpful either, she only said something abound ‘her girl bein’ out buckin’ all them apples real good’ before she took a nap so deep, that not even Luna’s Royal Voice could wake her up (she did break few windows though).

For few minutes she was flying around the orchard, looking for the orange farmer before finally deciding it is pointless to look for her in that pile of trees. She landed on the ground and sighed. Her eyes then slowly drifted towards an apple tree behind her. More precisely, to one particular apple.

She licked her lips as she stared at the giant monster of an apple just hanging there for world to see. But the world wasn’t there to see it, so Luna took its place. She enveloped the apple in her magic and brought it close to her face. She wasted no time, and quickly opened her mouth to put that big, juicy apple in her watering mouth. She wanted to feel that juices in her mouth as she closed her lips around it, and then-

“Stop it right there ya apple stealin’ scum!” Luna was suddenly pulled out of her little fantasy world and she threw the apple away with speed that would make Rainbow Dash jealous. “Oh, it’s you Princess. Sorry for the yelling, Ah thought ya were some of that buckers who were stealin’ mah apples. Ah swear that one day… one beautiful day Ah’m goin’ to make them pay…”

To say that Falcon was glad that he took his armor was an understatement. He was also beyond grateful to the person that decided to put air filters in the clone’s helmets, as if it wasn’t for them, he wasn’t sure if he could make it into Rarity’s house. The shear amount of perfumes she had used on not only herself but also every bit of her house would be enough to keep a rancor away, and make most of untrained ponies that decided to step into her lair either run away or choke.

Falcon opened the door, not bothering himself with knocking, as Rarity’s house doubled as a shop anyways. The unicorn wasn’t there to greet him as he expected her to. Instead he heard a childish voice from upstairs. “Gosh… you’re really stiff…” The high pitched voice suggested that it was a young filly, probably Rarity’s sister.

He started to walk upstairs, silently placing his boots on the wooden floor. “Thank you for doing this Sweetie… I really need that after yesterday, and the spa is closed…” He heard Rarity say as he closed in to the opened door on the top floor. Rarity was lying on her bed with closed eyes as a little white furred filly with curly two-toned pink mane and tale was giving her sister an improvised massage. “Maybe you’ll even earn a cutie mark for this…” She added, seemingly making her sister put more effort into her moves.

For a short while he was considering simply observing what was happening in front of him until they spotted him, but quickly pushed that thought away, deciding that he wanted to get everything done as fast as he could. “Sorry for interrupting ladies but-“

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! MONSTER!!!” The filly suddenly screamed and quickly jumped under the bed.

Rarity looked at the clone standing in the doorway. “No… I-I’m not getting up!” She screamed at him. “You already made me go through that torments yesterday, what else do you want now!? Every muscle in my body screams in pain right now!”

“If you were working out before, it wouldn’t have been an issue. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself, and get over it. You just have to walk it off.”

“N-No. I’m not moving!”

He took off his helmet and looked at her. “Yes you are.” He simply stated in a calm, yet intimidating tone, slowly breaking the unicorn mare with his stare.

“I shall repeat for the last time! Where is your mistress!?” Luna screamed at the small white bunny, using the Force -as she started to call it now- to pierce though the creature’s mind and force it to submit. However, not even her immense power was enough to make that little bunny do what she wants.

All the Princess got in response was a light slap on the cheek from the bunny before it jumped away from her.

Luna growled in frustration as she felt anger filling her body. “That’s it you little piece of junk! I’m done with dealing with you! It’s time to face DEATH!” Almost as if the bunny didn’t care, it jumped out from the cottage through the open door. Luna growled again as she run after it, increasing her speed through her anger. She immediately spotted the bunny standing on top of a rock, turned towards her and smiling deviously.

Princess wasted no time, and released the full power of her anger in a form of lightning coming out of her hoof. In a blink of an eye, it hit the place where the bunny was standing, but didn’t hit him. The bunny was already gone when the lightning hit the rock, disintegrating it in a blink of an eye. Luna than quickly spotted the bunny few meters behind the burning ashes that used to be a rock a moment ago and fired a volley of beams from her horn, each targeting the bunny.

Every time the beam would hit the place where bunny stood, it would quickly move away, and instead of a dead bunny, Luna would see a burning hole in the ground. She released a scream of fury as she saw the cursed bunny fly into the forest, immediately jumping into the air and flying after the little bustard.

She quickly caught up to it, and dived down, with her body sparkling with electricity. The moment she hit the ground, a powerful shockwave spread around her as electricity fried the nearest trees and bushes around her. But not the bunny. She saw it poking it’s tongue at her before running away again.

Now Luna was really angry. She ripped a tree from the ground and threw it at the bunny before continuing the chase. She dashed forward, slashing another tree in half with her just summoned sword. She was now in a clearing, with a river and a small hill in the middle. That was it. The bunny had nowhere to run!

Immediately after she spotted the damn binny, Luna dived down at it, making the dirt fly around as her hooves smashed into the ground. She then quickly pinned the bunny down with one hoof. “Now, get ready to-!!!”

“Princess Luna? What are you doing here?” Luna froze as she heard Fluttershy’s voice. She turned towards her, and then back to the ground. The bunny was gone, and as she turned back to Fluttershy, it was already standing on top of the yellow mare, with a smile on its face.

“What do you mean ‘they’re busy’?” Rainbow asked confused.

“I mean just that. They’re busy.” Tracker replied.

Blue mare looked at him funny. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m going to them.” She flew upstairs, ignoring Tracker’s warning. She did actually have an idea as to what he meant by ‘busy’ but it’s not like these two nerds would even think about that. They would probably consider looking at each other’s notes to be intimate! She thought to herself as she landed on the floor and started to walk towards the steps that led to Twilight’s bedroom.

Not that she couldn’t fly there, it’s just that there was that one time when Twilight had some stuff hanging from the ceiling and she got a bit stuck because some of them… She could still remember how it felt when Twilight was pulling that cursed pipe out of her-

“Yes! That’s good. Now try going up.” Rainbow’s train of thoughts was interrupted when she head Twilight. Rainbow rolled her eyes. They’re probably doing some experiments again. She thought to herself as she reached the bedroom.

“Alright guys, time to get up. We’re-“ Words left her as she saw the scene before her. Shaw had him mouth around Twilight’s horn, seemingly holding something with his teeth. This, along with the ropes that Rainbow could see around Shaw’s hands said more than Rainbow’s mind needed to know. And she showed it, when her wings suddenly shot up from her back.

“R-Rainbow, come over here and-!” Twilight screamed, but was quickly cut off.

Rainbow was quick to cast off the initial embarrassment and smirked. “Nah, I don’t think you guys need my help with anything right now. I’ll be waiting with the others downstairs, join us when you’re done.” She walked back where she came from. “Just don’t forget to wash yourselves off when you’re done!”

“N-No, Rainbow wait! I swear it’s not what it looks like! I’m not a pervert!!!”

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait. I went a bit overboard with a chapter form by other story (about 8000 words overboard).

Song of a day: Skillet - Awake and Alive

14. Ghost Ship

--Chapter 14--
Ghost Ship

“Finally!” Twilight screamed in relief and happiness when Shaw managed to take the ring that inhibited her magic from her horn. She wasted no time, teleporting herself out of the bed. The flash of light temporarily blinded Shaw, as he didn’t expect to have a flash grenade blowing up in his face. Twilight immediately freed the clone, who started to rub his eyes in pain. “Oh my! I’m sorry, have I hurt you!?” She jumped back to bed and rushed to the clone.

She wanted to help him, but that’s not what she ended up doing. Despite temporary blindness, Shaw tried to get up from the bed the moment he felt his hands being freed. Twilight didn’t expect him to move, and the moment she realized that he did, it was too late. Her body smashed into him just as he sat on the edge of the bed, causing him to fall over along with her. Shaw was the first one to hit the ground, with Twilight landing on top of him. “Uh… sorry again…” She said just before looking at his pained expression. “W-What is wrong!? Have I hurt you!?”

He managed to look up at her. “Yes… You landed on my crotch… and are still standing on it…”

Her eyes immediately widened as she jumped away from him, repeatedly screaming ‘sorry’ over and over again as her face got a bit more red. Shaw got up, trying his best to ignore the pain. “Damn it Twilight, calm down.” He said to her once he got his voice back. “I’m fine, I guess. Frankly, I’m just glad we got out of that damn bed.”

The mare took a deep breath. “Alright, sorry. But… why have we woke up like that in the first place? Last thing I remember is Commander Falcon taking me to a bed in the castle.”

“And it was probably his doing. I remember clearly going to sleep alone. He must have bought you here after I fell asleep and tied us up together. And you don’t have to call him ‘Commander’ when he’s not training you. He likes to loosen up when he can.”

“Alright, I’ll remember that.” She looked downstairs. “Rainbow said that ‘it’s time to get up’. Do you think they’re getting ready to go to your ship?” Shaw nodded. “Great! Is the equipment ready? Have you finished it?”

“Yes, I did. Now I just have to run few checks on this stuff and we’re good to go.” Shaw’s thoughts went back to Tracker, who walked in as they tried to free themselves. His relationship with the commando was… mixed. They weren’t enemy’s or anything like that, but they weren’t friendly either. Most of the time they didn’t really talk to one another unless they needed to. From time to time they would manage a short conversation, but that was a rarity. Sometimes he would get pissed at him for being a generally annoying to talk to, but that was even rarer.

The two of then walked downstairs after Shaw has put on his armor and grabbed his weapons. They were quickly grated by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack chatting between each other while Tracker leaned against a wall in a corner of the room and Princess Luna scanned the titles of the books that filled the library. They quickly noticed them approach and the ponies started to smile deviously. “Oh, no…” Twilight muttered to herself, knowing what’s going to happen next.

“So you two finally decided to come down here, huh?” Rainbow said.

Ignoring her, Twilight turned towards her other smirking friends. “Listen, don’t trust anything she said. Absolutely nothing happened between us. Whatever she has told you is a lie.”

“Oh, Twilight…” Fluttershy stepped forward. “You don’t have to hide that from us. We know very well that you two are close.” Her sweet voice was almost enough to convince her that what she was telling was the truth. But she wasn’t… right?

“Yeah, ain’t no foolin’ us, Sugarcubes. Besides, I clearly remember Shaw borrowing that rope from me two days ago. Now, I didn’t expect it to be used quite like that, but I guess I’m happy that my friends used it bond together.” A chuckle escaped Applejacks mouth. Meanwhile, Shaw and Twilight were struggling against blushes that raged on their faces. Shaw at least had a helmet to cover himself up, but Twilight was forced to show the world her beet-red face.

“I can confirm that.” Lucid Brush’s voice rang from the side of the room. “There is indeed more to your relationship than simple friendship. You can deny it all you want, but sooner or later you both will see things as they really are.” Unlike with the others, Lucid’s voice seemed to be completely serious as he said that. It made Twilight wonder was he actually serious about it. She knew that as a Joiner, he gained an ability to partly recognize ponies’ emotions, so maybe…

No, wait. I’m over thinking this. Of course he’s not serious, he’s just a great actor, unlike my friends. I mean, me and Shaw liking each other that way? That would be a day. And besides… I can’t… not after what happened in those caves… She suddenly felt a need to cry, but was luckily woken up from her thoughts when Falcon walked into the library with Rarity.

“…I swear that this is illegal! You should be locked up for this, you hear me!? Waking up a lady at such early hours!? Humph! What kind of mare would want a stallion like that!?...” Rarity kept complaining, but Falcon ignored her.

“Is she always this loud?” He asked Twilight.

“Well, not usually. Only when somepony’s forcing her to do something she doesn’t want.”

“Hmm, I figured as much… well, she’s going to do one push-up for every word she says after we get back. And since she knows it and keeps going anyways, I guess she really wants to do a lot of them, so I think I’ll make her do two push-ups for each word. And she’s already said over 500 words.”

“She likely doesn’t think you will actually do that.” Luna stopped looking at the books and walked over the rage filled Unicorn “Calm down miss Rarity. You’re just making things worse for yourself.” She touched the unicorn’s forehead with her hoof, suddenly making the tiredness that filled her body go away, finally making her shut up. “Now, since we’re already here, I suggest that we don’t waste any time. Commander, could you start the briefing?”

“I’m on it.” He pulled out a holoprojector and showed everyone a miniature of the ship. “We’re going to salvage the ship for equipment that we can use, but first, I want to get the power back. We’ll split in two parties, Shaw will take Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Applejack with him to the maintenance level and bring the power back. Meanwhile, I will take the rest with me to the bridge and once the power is back up, I’ll make sure the ship is safe to walk around and download some data from the computer.

After Shaw takes care of bringing back the power, I want you to go to the communications center and try to get as many useful things out of there as you can. If you want, you can also check the repairs room, there should be some spare parts there. I will go to the armory and medical bay. Once we’re done, we’ll meet in the hangar. If we’re lucky, then maybe we can find something that can fly. If not, Princess Luna will bring us back.”

He turned towards the ponies “Each of you will be given a suit that will keep you alive in space along with an enchanted bag to keep anything we find in. If there are still any droids in the ship, leave them for us to handle unless we ask for help. Stay behind, and hide if you can. Now, could you see if everything is fine with the suits Shaw?” The clone nodded and walked down to the basement.

“W-Wait!” Fluttershy cut in with a shaky voice. “I-I mean… I ask for permission to ask a question sir!”

“Granted. Ask away.”

“What… are those ‘droids’? Are they dangerous?”

“Oh yes, they are.” Her face went pale. “They’re deadly machines of war designed with only destruction in mind. They will try to kill any of us on sight, so you better-“ She fell on the ground.

Tracker walked over to her and knelt down. He placed two fingers on her neck. “She’s unconscious.”

“Eh, great… well, I guess she should stay here anyways. If she was to pass out in a middle of a fire exchange, she might get herself killed. Tracker, you will take care of her when she wakes up. You can take her to that spot I told you about. It’s not that far away from her cottage, so she can lead you there.”

The commando nodded. “Yes sir.”

Shaw has walked back from the basement after a while, holding a large chest in his hands. “Alright, everything’s in order. You can all put those on now.” Rainbow was the first one to approach and take her suit out. It wasn’t anything special in terms of visual appeal. Something that Rarity simply had to point out and deny ever putting on. Luckily, Falcon was there to change her mind.

The suits were plane grey, and in terms of design were exactly what you would expect a spacesuit to be (Twilight and Shaw weren’t paying much attention to being original or futuristic as long as the suits did their job). Each suit had two oxygen tanks on the back and saddlebags on the sides. There was also a black body glove they all had to wear underneath the actual suit. “Now, there’s one problem…” Shaw said, looking on Fluttershy’s unconscious body in Tracker’s arms. “What are we going to do with the sixth suit?”

“I can go in her place.” Lucid said.

“Sorry, but this suit is designed to fit a female inside, so-“ The Joiner disappeared in blue flames, only to reappear as a female version of himself. “Oh… right…”

Not wasting any time, Lucid has put the suit on and shortly, they were all enveloped by blue aura of Princess Luna’s magic. They all disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Tracker and Fluttershy alone. The commando looked down at the pegasus in his arms. “They’re gone now. You can stop pretending.”

Her eyes opened and she rose her head up to look at him, blushing slightly because of the position she was in. “W-Why haven’t you given me out?”

“I just wanted someone to explain some things to me.” He suddenly dropped her on the ground, making her yelp as she barely managed to use her wings to fly up before she hit the ground. “Now let’s go. I want to get some target practice done.” He turned around and left the library, not looking back at the pegasus.

“Wow…” Rainbow Dash stood in place, her mouth hanging open as she looked at the planet above her as her friends and Lucid were doing the same. “That’s just… wow…” The words were of no use for her at the moment.

“I never thought it would look like that…” Twilight said.

“Yeah, sights like that never get boring, no matter how often you see them.” Shaw said as he stood next to her.

“Alright everyone, you can appreciate the sights later, we have a job to do. Princess, do you-“

“YUPI!!!” Pinkie screamed through the com-link in the helmet as she jumped around the surface of the moon. The low gravity has made her already unnaturally high jumps even higher, and now she almost appeared to be flying. “This is just THE BEST!!!” She was joined by Rainbow Dash, and both mares started to laugh as they jumped around. “Hey Dashie! Let’s try to do a moonwa-“

“Stop it this instant!” Shaw and Twilight yelled at them. “These suits are not designed for this! If you as much as fall over they might get damaged and you’re dead!” He continued. This seemed to get Rainbow to stop, but Pinkie was still busy jumping around and laughing like an idiot. Luckily, Luna was there to grab her with her magic and bring down to the ground.

Before she could say anything, Falcon walked over to her and knelt down to look her I the eyes. “You, Rainbow Dash and Rarity are going to train until you drop down unconscious once we get back.” He stated, making all three ponies flinch in fear. “Now, as I was saying… Princess, do you see that thing on the side of the bridge?” He pointed at the Droids’ boarding capsule that was stuck in the bridge. The princess looked at it and nodded, curious as to what he wanted her to do with it. “Can you pull it out?”

Her eyes widened as her glare turned towards him. “Wait, are you saying that I just had to pull that thing out to get in?”

“To be honest,” Shaw cut in. “if you didn’t go the other way around, I would probably die under that pile of junk.” She had to agree, if it wasn’t for her he would be dead by now. With a sigh, Luna activated her magic and wrapped it around the capsule. It wasn’t hard to pull it out, and she has soon brought it down to the ground next to them.

“What is that!?” Twilight screamed and rushed towards the capsule, braking herself away from looking at the ship in awe. She quickly started to look inside and around of it, checking every piece of it and writing whatever she learns in her notebook.

“This capsule is used by Separatists to board ships.” Shaw explained. “It flies into the ship and opens up a way for droids inside to get into the ship. They probably wanted to eliminate the bridge officers to make sure we won’t run away in case we managed to fix the engines.” He sighed deeply. “Blasted bustards had us completely at their mercy.”

“Still, I wonder how they managed to get inside our supply crates. I ordered to get them all checked before they were set to the ship…” He thought quietly. “I honestly don’t see any way, unless they’ve had someone inside… Well, that’s for another day to think about. Let’s get up there. Shaw, you know how to get to the maintenance level from here, right?” The clone nodded. Luna then lifted Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Lucid Brush along with herself up to the hole in the bridge.

Falcon on the other hand, activated his jetpack to fly up. He didn’t have to use it, he just wanted to see how the fuel he got from the ponies will do in action. So far he has only checked if it won’t blow up, and so far it seems to work well. Especially since he’s in a low gravity. It’s burning out pretty fast, but it will get me to the bridge.

They got up to the bridge in under a minute. Falcon was the first one to get there, followed by Luna who then brought the others through the hole. Not much has changed since he’s last saw the bridge. His brothers’ bodies were still lying around the bridge, only difference was that now they frozen along with their blood. The damaged wires that hung from the ceiling were no longer sparkling with electricity as the power generator was offline.

The moment Rarity and Pinkie saw the grotesque scene before them they gasped in shock and fear. Rarity almost puked into her helmet and Pinkie’s smile turned into the most depressed look Falcon has ever seen her with. This was a scene that they would expect to see in a horror movie, not something that they were standing in front of. “W-Wh-What h-happened…” Pinkie managed to speak out with a weak voice, while Rarity did all she could to keep her mouth shut, fearing that if she opens them, she’ll puke. Especially when she noticed the soldier ripped in half that lied in the middle of a pool of frozen blood.

“War.” Falcon answered simply. His voice sounded almost as if he was used to seeing things like that, which terrified the two mares even more. “I’m surprised by your lack of reaction Lucid.” He noted.

The Joiner sighed deeply. “I… I have seen a lot of horrible things during my time in Chrysalis’ hive… What she did to other Joiners… There are no words to describe what she was capable of…” And she needs to be stopped… at all costs…

“I understand.” Falcon answered and walked over to Rarity and Pinkie. “Do you need some time to cool off?” They both slowly nodded. “Luna, can you take them to the top?” The Princess nodded as well and wrapped the two shaking ponies in her magic, taking them to the top of the bridge.

“What do you want to do here anyways?” Lucid asked.

“You know, it’s strange to listen to you as a female.”

“I can changed the way I sound if you want.” He did just that.

“Umm… It’s actually stranger to listen to female speaking with a male voice. But as for why are we here, there are few things that I have to get from here.“ He started to walk towards a lightsaber that lied on the ground. “And then, I want to get some data I can from the main console. I thought I told about it during the beefing.”

“To be honest, I… wasn’t really listening to you. I was talking with the Hive.”

“About what?” He picked up the lightsaber, recognizing it as Sakri’s and then moving towards another one after he attached it to his belt.

“The state of my wife and daughter. It seems that my wife can wake up soon, and I would like to be there when that happens.”

“Well, I hope everything will work out fine for your family.”

Luna has returned from the top of the bridge. “I’m sorry for the delay, miss Rarity has had a problem with her digestive system. I have left the two of them alone, they could use some more time to cool down. It must have been a shock for them to witness something like that for the first time.”

“Probably, but it had to be done. The first time is always the worst.” Falcon said, picking up another lightsaber. He didn’t recognize that one, but he could tell that it was damaged. The yellow crystal fell out of the damaged hilt the moment he lifted the weapon off the ground. “Shame I couldn’t get Fluttershy here too, I’ll have to go here with her alone sometime later, once I’ll build up her courage.” He attached the damaged weapon to his belt and put the crystal in one of his belt’s pockets.

“What are those sticks you are picking up?” Luna asked.

“Lightsabers.”

“Hmm? Swords made of light? I’ve heard about some crazy ideas for swords, but this one takes the cake.”

“No, It’s blade is made out of plasma. It only looks like it’s made of light. You can ask Sakri about it when she wakes up, she can tell you more than me.” He picked up the last lightsaber, one that belonged to General Haskri. “Alright, not we have to wait for Shaw to bring the power back.”

Luna placed the two mares on top of the bridge. Rarity was barely holding off the urge to puke, and Pinkie wasn’t far off. “Miss Rarity, I can sustain you for a moment, while you empty your stomach.” She nodded, feeling that she’s reaching her limits. Luna’s horn lit up and Rarity’s body was enveloped by aura of her magic. The helmet was levitated off of her head and immediately her stomach fluids and breakfast flew out of her mouth, falling on the surface of the bridge.

Pinkie approached her and patted her back. “This was disgusting...” The unicorn said before puking again. She stayed like that for a while, letting herself calm down before she put the helmet back on. Luna has stopped using magic on her once the suit was filled with air again.

“Do you need more time to calm yourselves down?” Luna asked and the two mares nodded in response. “Very well. Call me using the communicators you have when you feel ready to go back there.” The princess flew back into the bridge.

Pinkie looked at her friend. “I can’t believe somepony would do something like that. This was… so horrible. And not fun at all.”

“That’s not what got me the most. Have you seen how they reacted to this?”

“I don’t think they reacted at all. Falcon seemed a little angry, but nothing else.”

“Exactly. It was almost as if they were already used to it. I’m not sure if I want to know what made them so…” She almost felt like puking again. “If this is what war is like then I don’t think I want to ever be a part of it.”

“Me neither, but...” Pinkie trailed off. “I feel like there will be time when Equestria will have to defend itself, and if there won’t be anyone to fight back… well, it might be even worse than that. The changeling’s attack on Canterlot was bad already, and if what Applejack’s dad said is true, they already plan to do worse.”

“As much as I hate to admit it… you’re right. We have to make sure something like that will never happen in Equestria.”

Shaw placed his hand on Twilight’s back as they walked through the dark hallway, lit up only be Twilight’s horn and Shaw’s flashlights. The hall was full of dead troopers and technicians who were killed as the droids marched through the ship, some weren’t even able to get their weapons ready. Luckily there was no blood.

He felt as the unicorn’s body shakes under his touch slightly calming down once she felt his hand. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.” She nodded, keeping herself near the clone as she felt a sense of safety when he was around. He looked back at the ponies behind. Applejack and Rainbow were also visibly frightened, though Rainbow was trying to appear brave. “I’m sorry, but you have to do it. One thing I quickly learned on the war is that training and simulations can only take you so far. A soldier has to face death itself to truly be ready.”

Twilight seemed to understand, but that didn’t make her feel better. Every time they came across a dead body she found herself leaning closer and closer to Shaw’s side, eventually touching the side of his armor. She blushed brightly as she looked at the clone, who was also blushing underneath his helmet. She was about to step away, but the clone placed his hand on her back again. She quickly started to calm down despite the growing blush, earning herself a chuckles from Applejack and rainbow Dash.

“Shaw, this is Falcon, do you copy?” He heard Commander’s voice from the com-link in his helmet.

“I hear you, sir. We’re closing in to the target. It shouldn’t take more than another minute to get there.”

“Good. How is your group holding up?”

“At first they were in shock but it seems they are calming down now. We have encountered no droid activity so far.”

“I wouldn’t mind if you hurried. There’s not much we can do from here without power. Falcon, out.”

Shaw deactivated his com-link. They continued to walk forward to the generator for a while. Twilight haven’t changed her position even when Shaw moved his hand away, still walking beside him until they reached a sealed door. Not saying a word, Shaw walked over to a panel on the wall and pressed a button on it.

As expected, nothing happened. Not bothered by this, Shaw ripped the panel off the wall and after searching for a moment, he grabbed few wires and ripped them out, leaving them connected with one side. “Twilight, put as much energy through that wires as possible.” She nodded and did what she was told. Few diodes started to faintly shine red, giving Shaw a signal to continue. He ripped off one more wire, and pressed it against one of the wires in his other hand.

The lock on the door deactivated and Shaw pressed two different wires together, slightly opening the entrance. “Alright, not you have to open the door.” Still charging the wires with electricity, Twilight started to push the heavy door open. It was easy, since Shaw has already disabled all locks that kept the door closed and soon enough the way to the generator was open for them.

“Well, let’s get to work.”

The console in the middle of the bridge suddenly activated making Rarity and Pinkie jump in surprise as they were sitting on it. “Great, Shaw got the power back.” Falcon said as he approached the console. He logged into the system and attached his drone to it, soon starting to run scans on the planet above them once the systems were fully rebooted. While the results were downloaded to the drone, he also started to open all of the locked door in the ship and reactivated the ship’s defenses, setting them to only target droids.

He connected his helmet with camera system on the ship, so that he can manually display the image from cameras on his helmet. “Alright, we can go now.” He picked up the drone and left, walking towards the way out. However he stopped when he noticed no one was following him. “What are you waiting for?” He said as he turned around, only to smash his hand against his helmet.

All of the ponies were watching just activated computers in awe, almost drooling. Even Luna seemed to be in hypnosis. He activated the com-link. “Shaw, is Twilight alright?”

“Listen for yourself…” The trooper responded.

Falcon did just that, connecting himself to Twilight. “-haHAHHAhAhHahaHAHAahahahHA hahaHAHAhahaHA-!!!“ A maniacal laughter rang in Commander’s helmet. He immediately cut off the connection with the unicorn, leaving the task of calming her down to Shaw, who has proven himself capable of dealing with her occasional episodes multiple times.

He turned back to his group. “Alright! You can stop being amazed now. We’re moving out.” Pinkie and Rarity were quick to obey the command, knowing fully well what would it mean for them if they didn’t. Luna and Lucid weren’t far behind. “I would appreciate if you took notes, Princess.” Falcon said once they reached the turbolift.

She looked at him confused, not noticing the smirk under his helmet. They all walked into the lift, barely fitting inside. Falcon pressed one button and the door closed, startling the ponies. Immediately after that the lift started to go down, making the ponies scream in fear and prey to all gods they knew. Falcon on the other hand was on the edge of bursting into uncontrolled fits of laughter. Especially when he noticed that Luna is screaming too.

The ride stopped as fast as it started, and the moment the way out of the lift was opened, everypony run out of it. Save for one, who was still screaming at the top of her lungs. “Damn, I didn’t know that you have such a girly scream Princess.” Falcon said, chuckling.

Luna immediately stopped, realizing that she has stopped moving already. A blush appeared on her cheeks as she tried to appear unshaken by the ride, but her shaky walk was enough to give everything away. The armory wasn’t far away, so they reached it within few minutes. They came across a group of deactivated droids in front of the way into the armory. They probably run out of power when marching through the ship, or turned themselves off to save it. Not wanting to take a risk of them reactivating, Falcon shot each of them in the head with his pistol.

He opened the door inside, and immediately explained everyone what should they be taking. He himself took few spare cells for his pike and grabbed a new DC-15 to replace the one he has lost during the attack on the ship. He also replaced his jetpack with one that was full of fuel. The bags they had with them were enchanted so that they can fit a lot more inside. They could easily put several miniguns inside and the weight was reduced to a fraction of the real thing.

Still, even with the sie and weight of objects being reduced, the bags were soon filled and the ponies reached the limit of how much they can carry and after a while of collecting weaponry the group left for the hangar.

“So, um… H-How are you feeling?” Fluttershy asked as she walked side by side with Tracker. They were no heading towards her cottage where she promised to show his a place where he can train shooting that Falcon have told him about.

“I’m fine.” He answered simply.

“Oh, I see.” She remained silent for a while, thinking about a way to get him to open up. She could tell that something was bugging him, and she simply couldn’t leave him like that. She knew she couldn’t just ask him about it, he would either say it’s nothing or ignore her entirely. She first had to start a normal conversation.

“I’ve heard that you’re a commando. Could you tell me what you do exactly?”

“I break things.”

“Maybe you could explain a bit more?”

“I could but I won’t.”

“Alright, then how about you tell me a bit about yourself. For example, what do you like to do?”

“Break things.”

“I get that, but when you’re not breaking things or fighting, what do you like to do then?”

“Prepare.”

“For what?”

She heard him growl silently in frustration. “Listen, I didn’t cover for you so that you can question me. So either you start answering my questions or shut up.”

“Alright, what do you want to know?”

“First of all…” He then started to tell about things he didn’t understand about the way ponies live, eventually getting caught up in a conversation with the Pegasus. There was one thing that came to her mind – success!

Falcon and his group reached the hangar door. They were badly broken, completely impossible to be opened normally. “Well, what do we do now? Is there another way?” Pinkie asked after she tried to force the door open with her hooves with help from Rarity. Falcon smirked underneath his helmet and motioned them to step aside. He then grabbed one of the lightsabers on his belt and activated it.

A blue blade extended from the hilt with a recognizable sound, startling ponies around him. “W-what is that!?” Lucid screamed. Falcon quickly grabbed the hilt with both hands, even though the weapon was light, it was still hard to keep it steady with one hand. Not answering the question, Falcon thrusted the blade into the metal door.

Effortlessly, he cut through it as ponies looked at him with mouth hanging open. The piece of metal that he cut out fell on the floor after he kicked it out. “Now I know why they like that thing so much.” He said and turned off the weapon. He spotted Shaw and his group in the middle of the hangar. Twilight was visibly blushing, probably because of the little moment of insanity she has went through. The other thing that caught his attention was how close to Shaw she was standing.

“You just wanted to use that thing, didn’t you?” Shaw called out to him.

“The door were broken, we couldn’t open them.”

“Well, never mind. We’ve found one working gunship. Every other ship is broken. As for other machines, I’ve found two working RTs and one TE that might work if we put some love into it.” Falcon walked through the hole he made. His group was hesitant to follow, but they overcame the fear after Falcon showed them that they won’t get burned if they touch the edges of the hole.

Falcon looked at the sole gunship that med it through the crash. “Alright, you guys walk in. I’ll handle the flying.”

“Now wait a second!” Rainbow stopped him just before he got into the pilot sit. “No offence, but I’m the better flyer here. If anyone’s going to fly us back home, it will be me.“ She said with a smug and climbed up the ladder to the pilot sit where she suddenly froze upon seeing the control panel. “Alright, I take it back, you can take a seat.” She jumped back down and followed the rest.

Already with a plan of how to punish Rainbow in his mind, Falcon got into the pilot seat and closed himself inside. “Is everyone ready to take off?” He said to them.

“Everyone’s inside.” Shaw said. Falcon nodded to them and sealed the ship. “You can take the helmets off now.” He said after the ship was filled with air, taking the helmet off himself.

With every system seemingly ready, Falcon took off and flew out of the hangar after blowing up a hole in it. The lack of shields to protect it made it easy to do this to already badly damaged ship. They flew out into the space and ponies gasped in awe as they looked through the pilot’s cabin. Even Rainbow Dash had to admit that the feeling of flying through the space was almost as good as if she was to fly with her wings. The only thing that could be better than that, would be flying in space on her own.

But it’s not like it would ever happen…

Rainbow’s muscles ached as she tried to force herself up from the ground. “Come on! Is that all you got!?” Falcon screamed at her. Behind them Pinkie and Rarity were already lying unconscious while their friends were taking care of them. That’s what their punishment for their behavior the previous day was. To train until they can’t train anymore.

She was mad. Not only on herself but also on Falcon. What was the point in running them into the ground so hard? They don’t have to be the best at everything, right? She’s already fast, so why force her to get stronger? Not that she was weak, but still.

She growled in anger after he started to yell at her again. “THAT’S IT!!!” She yelled, managing to pull herself up. “I have enough of you yelling at us and making us do whatever you want, while you just stand there and watch! You probably wouldn’t be able to do it yourself anyway!” She felt anger boiling inside of her, ready to burst out onto the clone commander, who just stood there with crossed arms. “I challenge you to an Iron Pony competition!”

Author's Note

And thus, I am back in school... wish me luck (I won't survive math this time)

Song of a day: Jonathan Young - Crossing Field (Cover) [Sword Art Online Opening]

15. Iron Trooper

--Chapter 15--
Iron Trooper

“Would you mind explaining why have you even agreed to this?” Shaw said with arms crossed in front of him as he leaned against a tree.

“Because I want to make an example out of her. And teach her something while I’m at it.” Falcon answered. He was in a middle of taking off his armor before the whole ‘Iron Pony Competition’ thing begins. Twilight have explained to him what that means, and the story behind the whole thing. The competition was an old way for two ponies from over a thousand years ago to solve disagreements when a consensus couldn’t be reached with words. Two ponies would settle things by proving who’s better, and the winner would get to dictate what he gets.

This was a very old way of dealing with things, and was no longer used that way. Now it was only meant to show one’s physical superiority. Something that many sportsponies do to boost their careers. The name was changed as well, but the original one was in an archaic language that is no longer used, and pronouncing it is nearly impossible for Falcon, and even most ponies have a hard time with saying simplest words. Twilight herself of course can speak fluently in it.

“Listen, I want to show her and others why I’m the one giving orders, and since a good opportunity showed itself, I’m going with it.” He’s left the boots and body glove on, leaving the rest of his stuff for Shaw to keep for a while. The ponies were already gathering around the arena prepared for the competition. It’s been the second competition like that in the town this year, so ponies who were setting this thing up already knew what to do and were able to do it all overnight.

Almost entire town was here, already putting money on each competitor. Most were convinced that Rainbow will devastate him, but that only made him smirk. After all, what’s the point in accepting a challenge when you’re not sure of victory. He’s been watching Rainbow for a while now, and even though he has to admit that she’s pretty good as far as ponies go, ponies were not soldiers. He was by far the stronger one of the two, only not quite as fast.

This however could be worked around. He’s noticed that the rules of the competition are quite vague, and using them against Rainbow was going to be easy. She didn’t even think about setting their own rules, which is allowed. That of course means that she plans on using her wings to her advantage, but they won’t help her enough to take the win.

Falcon stepped in the middle of the arena, where Rainbow was already waiting. She stared at him with a somewhat angry look and he responded calmly ignoring it and turning towards the town’s mayor – Mayor Mare – stood, waiting for the last groups of ponies to arrive on their places. She cleared her throat once they were here. “Fillies and Gentlecolts! I welcome you all at the Iron Pony Competition!” The crowd cheered. “Today we will see how today’s challenger - our friend Rainbow Dash - faces off against a mysterious newcomer from the unknown parts of the world – Falcon!”

The ponies responsible for preparing the arena for each event stepped inside and quickly placed few barrels in a line. “The first event will start now! Our competitors will run towards a flag behind the line of barrels. The one who achieves this task faster, will win the point. Remember though, that every time you touch the barrel you get 5 seconds added to your time as penalty.”

Rainbow was first to stand at the starting point and prepare for to run. She waited for the signal from the mayor, and once the sound of a whistle rang into her ears, she shot forward as fast as her legs could carry her. She swiftly run between the barrels, not touching any of them. She then jumped forward to the flag, pulling it out with her mouth. “16.43 seconds!” Twilight screamed from the spot next to the scoreboard.

“Good luck beating that.” Rainbow mocked as she returned back to the starting point.

“It won’t be a problem.” He took the position on the starting line and waited for the signal. It came within few seconds after someone placed a new flag in the finish line. The whistle rang through the arena again and the commander dashed towards the line of barrels.

And that’s when he used the unspecified rules of the competition’s events to his advantage for the first time. The rules only say that he can’t avoid all barrels , not that he can’t jump over them. And since the barrels were pretty small to begin with and the distance between them was big enough for him to maintain the speed, he had no problems doing so. Normally he had no chance against Rainbow in terms of pure speed, so if he was to run like she did, there’s no way he could win. Now however…

“13.79 seconds!" Twilight said after a moment of hesitation and added a point to his table. She was probably going over the rules in her head. "The winner of this event is Falcon!"

The crowd started to cheer, save for ponies who put their money on Rainbow, they called him a cheater. He heard rainbow growl from behind. "Grrr... You cheated." He turned towards her.

"I could have said something about you accelerating yourself with wings, but I didn't right?" She fell silent. "That's because there were no rules in place that stop you from using wings, and there is nothing that says I can't jump over the barrels. Remember that there are no rules in war. There are no such things as fair play or honor on the battlefield. You must use all you have to win, and the only rules you follow are the ones you set for yourself."

Rainbow sped up towards her target, accelerating her speed with her strong wings. She suddenly turned around on her front hooves and smashed the rear ones into a metal target. She quickly turned around and looked at the screen Twilight have prepared. it displayed the strength of her kick in some measurement she didn't understand. It wrote '238' with big red numbers. I won't let him win... there's no way I can lose...

She felt as if her entire pride was hanging on the line here, not to mention that if she loses then Falcon will be running her into the ground twice as hard as he's been for the past week, especially since they returned from the ship on the moon.

She looked as Falcon prepares himself for his turn. Twilight announced her score and wrote it on a big board behind her. Somepony walked over to Twilight's machine and reset the counter and place it a bit higher to make up for the difference in height between him and Rainbow, giving Falcon a 'free to go' sign.

The clone was not one to wait long and immediately sprinted towards the target. He suddenly jumped just before reaching the target and smashed both legs into it. He landed on the ground and looked at the score meter. She did the same and immediately her face twisted with anger as she grinded her teeth. It wrote ‘278’.

“Can somepony please explain why do I have to do this again!?” Spike screamed as he was shaken up and down on Rainbow’s back. He had his claws holding onto her fur tightly, almost as if his life depended on it. He was holding up much better than the last time, but that was of course not enough to last even ten seconds before he was thrown off of her and on the ground.

“Probably because you have no problems shaking off the physical abuse that goes with it, and have claws and arms that help you with staying on our backs.” Falcon answered his question and looked at the timer that displayed Rainbow’s time – 6.92 seconds. She’s really bad at creative thinking… He thought to himself, already with a way to quickly settle this in his mind.

Spike was allowed to rest for a minute before being placed on Commander’s back. The little dragon wrapped his hands tightly around his neck, slightly limiting Falcon’s air supply. This didn’t bother him at all though, and he simply waited for a signal from the mayor. He didn’t wait for it long and without any warning rolled forward on the ground. Spike, who was completely surprised by this, has lost his grip around clone’s neck the moment he felt his mass rolling over him.

“0.73 second! Falcon wins yet again!”

“I seriously have better things to do…” Spike said as he fell on the ground, tied up in Falcon’s rope.

The clone didn’t know how to use it as a lasso, which Rainbow thought she had to do for some reason, so he simply run up to Spike and tied him up, which was the point of the event. Rainbow meanwhile ended up accidently throwing the rope towards Tracker, who was leaning against the tree while talking to Fluttershy.

The commando was quick to notice the incoming lasso and caught it just before it wrapped itself around his helmet. He then pulled Rainbow towards himself before she was able to let go of the rope and ignoring her protests, tied up her legs together and then hanged her from the tree. “What the buck are you-!?” She tried to speak up, but her voice was suddenly silenced when Tracker tied her mouth close.

She was powerless to do anything when Tracker grabbed her head with one hand and without saying a word spun her around. Fluttershy was just about to help her get free, by the commando grabbed her hoof and tugged her away, leaving Rainbow hanging and spinning. “Why did you do that? It was just an accident.” The mare said.

“If she can’t do the job done right, then all she’ll get from me is that. War doesn’t forgive.”

“In other words, Falcon wants you to help him in getting her to let go of her pride?”

“…yes. He wants to show her that when you screw up, you’re the one who’ll have to deal with the consequences. She also must understand that there’s no place for working on your own in war, and that if you don’t give it your all, you’ll just get yourself and possibly others killed. I’ve seen how she behaves during the training sessions. And all I can tell, is that if a war was to break out now and she was sent to fight, she wouldn’t stay alive for long.”

“But she’s still better than me, Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie, isn’t she?”

“Only when it comes to strength. She has no idea how to cooperate with others and wants everything done by herself. She has problems obeying orders. She’s arrogant and way too full of herself. She might not leave you to die, despite her flaws I must say that she’s extremely loyal, but how is that any good if she’s more likely to attack enemy on her own with no plan whatsoever, than to work with her team and figure out a way to complete the objective and stay alive?”

Rainbow eyed the clone as he picked up one end of the line. They were standing on the opposite sides of a mud hole, each holding one end of the same rope. Both were ready, waiting only for the signal to start. ’Use all you have to win’ you say? Fine, I can play that game. Rainbow thought to herself. In a corner of her eye she saw the scoreboard. She has gained no points at all, and her pride was beginning to hurt.

But she will win this.

There’s no way she can’t do this.

There’s no way she won’t do it.

There are still more events left, more than enough to make up for the lost points. She briefly glanced at the mayor. She was just about to put the whistle in her mouth. Falcon was standing with his back turned towards her, unable to see that she’s about to give the signal. She quickly prepared herself to pull the rope just as the mayor placed the whistle in her mouth.

She pulled as strong as she could, initially making Falcon move a step closer to the hole. He recovered quickly however, and started to pull back himself. Rainbow quickly found herself unable to overpower the human with strength of her mouth and hooves, so she quickly started to flop her wings as herd as she could and flew above the hole. Falcon was taken into the air with her and immediately she started to lower the rope with the clone holding onto it into the mud. However, this wasn’t going to be quite as easy as she expected.

The clone started to quickly climb up the rope, faster than she was lowering it. Before she was able to change her tactic, Falcon has already gotten close. In panic, she decided to let go of the rope and drop it into the mud along with Falcon. She was to slow however. By the time she has let go of the rope Falcon was already able to reach his arm out and catch her.

She tried to fly away, but he wrapped his arm around her and smashed his knee into her stomach, kicking the air out of her. She was unable to recover for long enough to allow him to point her downwards, towards the mud.

The next thing she felt was the feeling of hitting the mud while the clone kept her pinned down. “Falcon wins again!” Anger started to fill her mind again as she heard those words.

“I… lost...?” Rainbow stared at the scoreboard in disbelief. Number 20 was written under Falcon’s name, and a 0 under hers. She’s lost everything that could be lost. Push-ups? She was barely able to do one hundred, while he did this as if it was a routine for him, and then continued until he made 150 push-ups, almost as if he wanted to mock her. Hand/hoof-wrestling? She couldn’t even move his hand, and once she tired herself out he just pinned her hoof down. Nothing. She could do nothing against him, no matter what she did. It was as if he knew exactly how she will act, and how to respond.

Now, she was just sitting there in disbelief as the crowd cheered. Falcon has already walked away with Shaw and Tracker, leaving her alone with her friends. “Rainbow.” Fluttershy approached her.

In response, she got up and walked away. She quickly felt a hoof being placed on her back. “What!?” She turned around, only to see Fluttershy looking at her with face unmoved by her sudden snap. She was used to it by no after all.

“You know you were asking for it, right?” She said.

“So what!? What right does he have to treat us like that!? I can take some training, but not what he does! I have no responsibility towards him.” She looked away.

“You do have a responsibility as an Element of Harmony though.” Twilight said with unusual hint of anger in her voice.

“Yeah, of course you would be on his side. You’ve been acting like a good pet ever since day one!”

The unicorn stared at the Pegasus with surprisingly cold stare, eventually responding with a voice just as cold. “Because I understand what all of this means. And what is the point in being ready to defend Equestria if we will ever have to. And I assure you, we will have to. And I’m going to make sure that what I’ve seen in those caves won’t happen again…”

“What was it that you wanted to talk about before we came here?” Falcon said as he and Shaw walked towards the old warehouse. Now it was completely rebuilt by now and ready to be use as a base of operation. Luna has even left a portal in there, in case one of them had to get to the other quickly. There was supposed to be some reward for winning the competition, but Falcon didn’t care about it. He only cared about Rainbow learning her lesson, and he was sure that with Twilight around, she’ll understand it in no time.

“I’ve been looking for a way to strengthen a signal from our old com-links lately and with the parts we’ve gathered on ‘Intrepid’, I managed to increase the range by few kilometers and I immediately found a signal coming from the Everfree.”

“A signal you say? Could it be that we’re not the first ones to crash land here?” He thought for a bit. “What have you found out about it?”

“Not much. The signal is very weak and with the rate at which it grows weaker, I predict that it will completely disappear within next few years. I was lucky to stumble upon it in the first place, if I wasn’t playing with my com-link when we were coming back from the ’Intrepid’ I wouldn’t even know where to look, and I still can’t pinpoint the exact location. We were probably flying over it and the com link picked up some interference. I think I know what the signal is though. It’s an S.O.S signal. And furthermore, it seems like it’s been here for over four thousand years…”

Author's Note

Song of a day: Sabaton - Winged Hussars

16. Into The Forest

--Chapter 16--
Into The Forest

“Four thousand years? That would make it date all the way back to the Mandalorian wars. ”Falcon glanced in the direction of the Everfree. “Are you sure this is not just a mistake?”

“It might be, I got that number from the rate at which the signal gets weaker and the maximum range of our com-links I might be very wrong about it, but one thing I know for sure. There is something old in that forest.” The two stopped walking and both looked towards the forest. “And I think we should go and see what that is.”

“Agreed.” Falcon said. “We’ll move out in few days. Try to find the more precise location while I’ll prepare the others and inform the Princess.” They started to walk again.

“Why won’t’t we just take the LAAT and fly there now?”

“I want to save the fuel for the times when we will need more. We can deal with whatever lives in that forest if we’ll have to.” Commander explained. “Besides, I want to see more of that forest, it’s a really interesting place.” They continued to walk until they reached the restored warehouse they turned into a base. On the outside it looked almost the same as before, only without broken windows and with fresh paint.

Most changes were made on the inside. The floor was removed and replaced with a new one, the building was divided into two proper floors, one meant as living quarters and the other had a storage, armory and few rooms that Shaw and Twilight have turned into their own little lab. There was no place for the LAAT inside and the top of the building was not meant to withstand a ship landing on it, so the gunship was placed behind the warehouse.

Upon entering, Shaw immediately walked into one of the rooms he and Twilight took over. Falcon meanwhile went into the small basement with just one room locked with a digital lock. Locks like that were placed around the whole building by Shaw, and since those are the only ones like that in the entire planet, the security level was pretty high, even though the locks weren’t very high quality as far as the galactic standards go.

Shaw was also thinking about setting up some turrets around the place, but for now Falcon didn’t think it was necessary so he ordered him to focus on other things instead.

He quickly entered the pass code and walked into the room. There was only one thing inside: a mirror. Not a normal one though. This mirror was left here by Luna with only one purpose in mind. To be a link between Luna’s room in Canterlot and the warehouse in Ponyville. Normally it served like a holo-com, but in an emergency situation it could also be used like a portal. Though, this would lead to Celestia detecting them, and since limiting her knowledge was one of their priorities this was only to be used if absolutely necessary. Luna was able to mask out the communication between them, but opening a portal is a bit too much for her when her sister comes into play.

There was a switch at a side of the mirror, and Falcon used it to open a link. His reflection disappeared from the mirror and the image soon started to show Luna’s bedroom. There was a delay between the time he was able to see the image and when Luna could see him. This was made that way so that Falcon could quickly see if the room is safe to talk or not. After all someone might be there with Luna.

No one was there save for the Princess though. She was sleeping in her bed, but she will soon receive an information from the mirror that he’s established a contact.

He soon saw as she starts to move under covers and with a yawn, gets out. She rotated her head left and right, receiving several ‘pop’ sounds from her neck. She then looked at the mirror. “What do I own this pleasant wake up commander?”

“Sorry princess, but we have an interesting finding that I would like some informations about.”

“Well what is it?” She asked, rubbing her eyes with her hoof.

“Shaw has found an old signal coming from deep within the Everfree forest. W think this may be an old ship from Old Republic Era and we’re planning to go there and see what it is, there might be something interesting there. I wanted to ask if you have some informations that we could use. You’ve been around for a while, right? Maybe there was some legend flying around or something. You think you can be of some help?”

“I think I might be, but first you have to tell me how old is this signal of yours.” Her horn started to shine and within a moment several books flew out of her private library.

“According to Shaw the signal is approximately four thousand years old. You want me to try pointing the probable crash side?”

“No need. I think I know what you’re talking about.” She levitated one book and threw the others on the floor. She quickly flipped through the pages, finding what she was looking for in no time. “Here it is. There was a legend among ponies that lived on Equestrian land before the three tribes came. According to it, one day a flaming demon came down from the sky and burned a village in the forest. The flames have spread out and a big chunk of the forest was burned. Then another demon appeared and started to kill ponies that came there from nearby villages to help. Not even soldiers that were sent there were able to stop it and those who managed to survive describe it as a red monster shooting rays of death.

Then as it is in legends, a hero came, defeated the demon and vanquished it back to hell it came from. This is a part added by Equestians though” She closed the book. “In reality it was a collective effort of many unicorns that came there when tribes created Equestria. Before that, ponies stayed as far away from the forest as they could. I know because me and sister were working in the castle as maids.”

“Interesting.” Falcon said. “That flying demon must have been a ship, and the fire was probably from the rough entering into the atmosphere. The ship then crushed into the village, houses caught fire from the hot ship and the forest fire started. That other demon was likely a crew member who reacted hostile towards ponies. Or maybe ponies reacted hostile first and he responded with fire. We’ll likely never know.”

“Should I send a map with the village’s location?” Luna asked.

“That would be appreciated, yes. Also, you worked as a maid?”

“Very well, then. I’ll send it in a letter to miss Sparkle. And yes, me and my sister used to be normal ponies with normal lives once. I think I still have my old outfit somewhere, my sister kept it for me because I always liked it.” She quickly realized what she just said and blushed madly while Falcon started to laugh. “What!? We all have our secrets, right? You want me to tell everypony about your little secret?” The clone fell quiet. “Thought so. Now, since we’re talking already, how about you tell be about the progress you made with your new found abilities?”

“Eh, fine.” He crossed his arms. “I managed to lift a blaster, but only after spending half an hour focusing. Twilight wants me to know more theory before she moves to practical applications.”

“And what about what I’ve been teaching you? Have you managed to do something in free time?”

“Well, yes actually.” He took off his glove and lifted his hand. Then he snapped his fingers and for a brief moment a small discharge of electricity appeared between his fingers. “I first did that two days ago, when Twilight went a bit overboard with her lecture. I started playing with my fingers and the Force and that happened accidentally, later I started to experiment.” He repeated the motion.

“I see. I’ll be sure to see into it tonight. For now though, I would like to have some sleep if you don’t mind. I wish you luck in your search.”

“Alright, you can try it now.” Shaw said, passing the modified scope of Tracker’s rifle to the owner. “We made some modifications to the-“

“Please, spare me the science talk you two.” Twilight rolled her eyes and went back to working on another project. Tracker meanwhile attached the scope to his rifle and pressed his artificial eye against it. “Well, I must thank you two.” He said. “I can finally use a scope like any real sniper should.” He immediately pointed the weapon towards an empty plastic bottle next to Twilight.

Before Shaw could say anything, Tracker pulled the trigger and the bottle blew up. The mare instantly jumped away with a scream, grabbing onto Shaw’s neck and hanging from it. “Why did you do that!?” She screamed, pulling herself tighter to the clone.

“To see that.” He smirked as Twilight slowly realized what she was hanging from. And once she did, she quickly jumped away from the clone with a scream. “Heh, you two are just too much fun.” He chuckled a bit while the two blushed and went back to their tasks. “But seriously, thanks for making this. I really appreciate it.”

“No need to. You already have enough problems because of loosing eyes. If I could make it a bit easier I’ll take the opportunity.” Shaw said.

The commando nodded as he leaned against the wall. “By the way, what are you two working on? And what is this white stuff in those bottles?” he pointed at the bottles lying on the floor next to Twilight.

Twilight looked at the bottles. “That’s Ectoplasma.” She said. “It’s a leftover substance that is created naturally during magic casting, though normally it’s in gas form. When it is collected it can be liquefied and that gives it many applications. For starters, it’s used to treat ponies with severely drained magic, and numerous magic defects. And since it’s pretty much liquid magic with no energy in it, it can be easily manipulated and enchanted, which means it can be turned into nearly whatever we want it to be. Most of the current technology is based on it.”

“And as for what we’re doing… we’re trying to combine Ectoplasma with Plastoid.” Shaw continued for her. “We called this EctoPlast, and the idea is to incorporate the easy magic manipulation of Ectoplasma and the defense given by Plastoid plates. So far we don’t have much success in this department, but we’re going there. Also, I’m looking into using Ectoplasma in its natural form as a replacement for Tibanna gas. Technically if we replace the Tibanna gas cartridge with Ectoplasma, and power cell with something that will place a certain spell on the gas, we could replicate blaster technology with what they have here.”

“All I got from this is that you’re making new weapons and armors.” The two sighed. “Anyways, you two should finish whatever you’re up to quickly. We’re moving into the Everfree in an hour.”

“Right… we’ll go to the meeting point in a minute.” Shaw said, as Tracker left the room. “He can be really annoying sometimes.” He sighed and looked back at Twilight. “How’s it going?”

“Bad.” She placed a piece of modified Plastoid in her hoof and showed it to Shaw. He touched it with his finger and the surface easily bent under the little force he used. “It just keeps getting like that each time. I have no idea what are we doing wrong.”

“Maybe we should try applying it under pressure, or…” Science bubbling continued for some time, until they finally decided that it’s time to leave.

Falcon waited for others to join him next to the entrance to the forest. He was leaning against a tree, looking back and forth between the road that led here from the town, and the darkness of the forest. Fluttershy was already there, since her cottage was placed right next to the entrance. The Everfree forest was an interesting one to say the least. There were only three known ways in, because trees around the forest created a palisade that kept everything that can’t fly or teleport from getting inside. Furthermore, it is said that if you try to cut your way through the trees, those will immediately grow back before you get the chance to go inside.

Only the trees around the entrances were not blocking the path in, but the exact reason for this is unknown, as are many things about the forest.

Falcon looked at the yellow pegasus nervously walking back and forth in front of the entrance. On her foreleg was a holster with blaster pistol in it, though it was slightly modified to allow ponies to use it. He’s taught all of them basics of how to use blasters and ordered them to carry them during the exploration of the forest, but he also told them to not use them unless they are told to, and leave any fighting to him, Shaw and Tracker.

“Why are you so nervous? We’ve been coming in and out of that forest several times per week, what’s different this time?” He asked.

“I-It’s, not that I’m afraid of going to the castle, sir. I-“

“Drop the ‘sir’ when we’re talking normally. I’m not just your commanding officer, I’m also your friend, so you can allow yourself to loosen up when situation doesn’t require us to be formal.” He took of the helmet to emphasize.

“S-Sorry… I wanted to say that I’m not afraid to go to the castle because it’s close and we know the way. I’m nervous because now we’re going really deep into the forest, and I’m afraid something might happen.” He noticed she’s shaking a bit. “What if somepony gets lost along the way? Or some monster we know nothing about appears. A-And what about that demon you told us about? What if that wasn’t a pilot like you said, but a real demon!? What will we do then!? We’re gonna die-!” She suddenly jumped with a scream when a blaster bolt hit the ground in front of her.

“Stop being such a crybaby.” Tracker said, appearing out of nowhere and approaching them. “First of all, no one’s going to get lost because we can track each other through the com-links. Even if anyone separates from the group, me Falcon and Shaw will still know where they are. Second, if we met something that wants to kill us along the way-“ He fired another shot in front of her, earning the same reaction.”-we shoot it. Whether it’s a demon or an animal doesn’t matter, nothing’s immortal.”

“You know, I don’t think that’s the way to calm her down…” Falcon pointed out, looking at even more shaken up pony. He approached her and knelt down.

“Eh, whatever… it’s not like I care.”

Falcon sighed at commando’s comment and turned his attention to Fluttershy. “Listen, it may be a journey into a dangerous territory, but we’re prepared to take on anything that we might cross paths with. And like Tracker said, there’s no way anyone will get lost, we’ll be able to track all of you even if you separate from the group. That, and you also have weapons in case something happens. So there’s really nothing to worry about.”

He patted her on the back and she took a deep breath to calm herself down. It was in that moment that the rest of the group started to gather. First one to come was Rainbow Dash - who for her quick arrival was allowed to do only 50 push-ups (if she was late, every minute would add 20 to that number), followed by Applejack and Pinkie right after her. Rarity came next, and the last ones to arrive were Shaw and Twilight.

Upon arrival, everypony received a blaster pistol from Falcon, and just like Fluttershy, they were ordered to only use it when necessary. As for equipment carried by the clones, Falcon took DC-15s with him along with force pike, blaster pistol, two thermal detonators and jet pack; Shaw also took DC-15s and plaster pistol, but instead of grenades he was carrying a set of tools and had a tracking beacon on his back that he planned to leave at the crash side in order to mark it in case they needed to go there again; Tracker had his standard equipment: DC-17 rifle along with side arm, several types of grenades, and a wrist blade. Falcon also took the lightsabers he found on the ship. He’s not going to risk them getting stolen, however small the possibility is.

As for ponies, the only ones who carried something besides the blaster, were Applejack and Rarity. The farm pony had a saddlebag stuffed with food and water, while Rarity carried any tools they might need and medical supplies.

After a short recap of the details about their objective, Falcon ordered them to move out. In his hands he held a map given to him by Princess Luna few days ago. It pointed that their target is somewhere between two mountains they could see from here, about 15 kilometers from where they were now.

First few hours in the forest were spent in relative peace. Nothing really important happened in all that time as they made it through half of the way, and so far it didn’t look like something was going to change. They might have bumped into a pack of Timberwolves along the way, but the moment the clones saw the wooden wolves charging, they immediately opened fire and within few seconds the pack of wolves was turned into a pile of splinters and the group continued as if nothing happened.

Save for Fluttershy, who was shaken up more than when they entered the forest and the whole time was either walking in a middle of a circle composed of her friends, or next to one of the clones. Mostly next to Tracker, which annoyed the commando to no end, even though most of the time so far he seemed to be more open towards the Pegasus than the others. Now for some reason he was quickly getting angry for no reason, something that didn’t escape Falcon’s attention.

It was still early when they moved out, but now after almost three hours of non-stop walking, most of ponies were getting tired and hungry. Falcon decided to allow them for a fifteen minutes of rest.

The first time they have found something interesting was two kilometers further. They have found remains of houses within the forest. Falcon turned around to ask Twilight if there’s anything she can tell about it, but before that, she has already run ahead and started to observe the ruins covered by the forest. “Hmm… interesting…” She muttered to herself and kept doing so for a while. “Aha!” She said with enthusiasm. “I know what it is!”

“Yeah, I think we can tell that those are ruins of some village. You really needed that long to figure that out egghead?” Rainbow said.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I wanted to say that I know what kind of village that is and how old it’s standing here.” She cleared her throat. “This village here was built by one of Plavic tribes that lived on those areas around 4000 years ago. The architecture and few decorations that are still partly intact suggest that it was a tribe that moved here from the east during the great Plavic expansion 4302 years ago. Since what’s left the building is made out of stone, I think it’s fair to say that this is part of a bigger village and those were houses that belonged to more important tribe members.”

“Yeah, whatever. Nopony cares.”

“You will care once you’ll be making push-ups until you pass out.” Rainbow almost choked at Falcon’s words. “Which will be tomorrow.” Her ears dropped down. “Alright everyone, I want this area searched. We’ll split into three groups, one human and two ponies each. I’ll go with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Shaw with Twilight and Rarity and Tracker will take Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Any questions?”

They all nodded and did as he said. The remains of the village were mostly covered by the forest or simply destroyed so much that nothing could be found in there. “So Truckie, what do you think about Fluttershy?” Pinkie whispered towards the commando.

“Call me Truckie again and I’ll slit your throat.”

Pinkie maintained her carefree smile, completely unfazed by the threat. “Alright Vector-83. Now tell me, what do you think about Fluttershy.”

“I think that she’s a coward who needs to grow a spine.”

“Do you like her?”

“No.”

“Do you enjoy her company?”

“No.”

“Would you trust her?”

“No.”

“Then why do you always walk around with her?”

“Because… Shut up, damn it. Why do you even ask about it?”

A grin appeared on her face. “I see…” She chuckled quietly. “Now, could you tell me one more thing?”

The command sighed deeply and looked at the pony with annoyed glaze hidden under his helmet. “One question, then you shut up.”

“Alright. Now, tell me… ” She made a dramatic pause that wasn’t really necessary. “…are you a tsundere?”

He blinked in confusion? “What?”

“Just answer the question.” She kept smiling like an idiot, annoying the clone further.

“I don’t even know what that is. What’s the point in me even answering that?”

“Tsundere (ツンデレ)- a Japanese term for a character development process that describes a person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing a warmer side over time. The word is derived from the terms tsun tsun (ツンツン), meaning ‘to turn away in disgust’, and dere dere (デレデレ) meaning to become ‘lovestruck’.

This is a test you see, if you answer ‘yes’, then you are a tsundere, obvious right? Now, if you say ‘no’ then… obviously you’re not being honest with you feelings - classic tsundere trait, and you are in fact a tsundere. And this in turn means, that you actually like Fluttershy!”

“…” He didn’t even bothered himself with answering, instead turning around and walking towards Fluttershy. It’s not that he likes her or anything, but she’s still better than that that pink airhead.

He momentarily took off his helmet- “I knew it! You’re blushing! That’s the proof that you are a tsundere!” -and ignoring Pinkie’s words switched the mode at which his artificial eye operated to be able to see if there is anything under them.

And there was in fact something.

One of the ruined houses had a basement still somewhat intact, with a way to go inside. He switched the eye back into normal mode and placed the helmet back on. Noticing that the commando has changed the direction he walked towards, Fluttershy followed him. “Did you find anything?” She asked. Tracker didn’t answer though, he continued to walk until he entered one of houses that was in surprisingly good condition (which means that it wasn’t reduced to one wall that was still standing). Before she could say anything, Tracker pointed his weapon forward and opened fire.

She jumped away in surprise while Tracker lowered his rifle and continued to walk deeper into the building. Still shaken up, Fluttershy followed him inside. But the moment she walked in, she froze in place. Because inside, lied corpses of two Cockatrices. Each had several burning holes on their bodies, and under them was a nest. “D-Did you know they are here?”

“Yes.”

“T-Then why didn’t you tell anything!? I could have talk to them and ask them to let us in without killing them!”

“Because your ability to talk with animals is unreliable.” He said coldly. “It might be impressive but need I remind you what happened with that bear few days ago? How do you think this would end if I wasn’t there to knock it out?” She didn’t answer, lowering her head. “You would be dead.” Ignoring her, Tracker knelt down and opened a trap door on the floor, revealing stairs that led downstairs. “Tracker here. I’ve found something.” He said through com-link after going downstairs.

The thing he found were bones of three ponies. Two adults and one children. Naturally, he couldn’t tell much about them save for that, since his eyes didn’t really allow him to see many details. That’s why he waited for others to come here.

The first ones to get there, were Shaw and his group. “O-ho, I see you have something interesting here.” The engineer said. He and Twilight approached the bones and he knelt down and turned on his flash lights. “Now isn’t that interesting…”

“Are those black spots what I think they are?”

“Most likely. Those were left by blaster fire.” He explained. “And if the broken parts of bones and burn barks on the wall behind them mean anything, then these three were likely tortured and interrogated before being executed. See those opened holes on their forehooves? That’s where someone used a knife to pierce through the hoof…”

“What have you found?” They heard Falcon say. The commander looked at the bones. “Oh.”

“Seems like we’ve found one of the villages visited by our ‘demon’.” Shaw said. “These guys were definitely tortured before being executed.”

He nodded and glanced back at the bones. “Well, it’s not like we could do anything about it. Let’s keep going, I think that’s all we can find in this place.” And with that said, everyone left the village and continued walking in direction of the mountains.

Before reaching the mountains, they’ve found another ruined village along the way. They also decided to see if they can find something interesting there, and they did. Pieces of armor scattered around the ground. Those were probably remains of a group that was sent to handle the ‘demon’. There were no bones though. The bodies were probably taken by the local predators and what they found were just pieces that fell off of the bodies.

They also found another execution site. And just like before, ponies there had signs of torture on their bones. This all has led them to believe that the ship that crushed most likely did not belong to the republic. Nor did it belong to some merchant or normal citizen. Whoever crushed here didn’t hesitate to kill and torture, and the only group that they could think of to do it on that scale from that period were mandalorians.

Luna said that the ponies who survived the encounter with the demon was red. And if what they said during training on Camino was to be trusted, at that time mandalorians wore full body metal armors, some painted red. Falcon’s theory was that a single mandalorian was flying in a shuttle but for some reason ended up jumping into hyperspace and appearing here only to crush land on the planet. Then he decided to see if this world’s inhabitants could be considered ‘worthy foes’ and started killing them. Then to find out more about this place, he started to torture random ponies to get answers from them even though it wasn’t necessary because they would tell anything out of fear, meaning that he was also a sick sociopath who wanted to have some fun.

There were of course other possible explanations, but this one made most sense to him.

After searching the village they entered a space between the two mountains where Luna pointed out the crush side. By now it was already past the noon, so Falcon announced another break. ”Hey, Tracker.” He called out to the commando. “Come with me for a moment.” He walked away from the group.

“What is it, sir?” The commando asked.

Ignoring the unnecessary formalities, Falcon begun. “What is it with you and Fluttershy?”

“I’m not sure what you mean by that, sir.”

“Don’t play stupid. You’ve been getting along with her nicely, but for a while now you act as if you hate her for some reason. Why is that?” Tracker didn’t respond, turning away his head in silence. “Answer. Now.” Falcon demanded.

They’ve spent another few moments in silence before Tracker finally spoke up “I’ve lost my squad two times… First I’ve lost the people with whom I grew up and trained… and then those who accepted me in their ranks and helped me move forward… I don’t want to lose anyone I care for ever again, and that’s why I want to stay away from her. Because I’ve been feeling that she grows too close to me and I don’t want that.”

Falcon sighed. “Well, I’m relieved. I was almost sure she did something to piss you off. Now, you said that Phantom Squad has helped you to get over that cursed mission, right? Who’s to say that she can’t help you get over their death?” Tracker kept his head hanging low, looking away from the commander. “Anyways, I have a new assignment for you.” This got his attention. “You’re going to create and train a special unit within ‘Lunar Ravens’. You will get to choose from available candidates and once they get here, you will start training them. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now let’s go back.” He turned to leave. “And I expect you to properly handle things with Fluttershy.” He added.

“…Yes, sir.”

They went back to the group. Falcon immediately turned his attention towards Fluttershy, who was sitting on a rock. “Fluttershy.” He called out to her, getting her attention. “You’re getting reassigned.” She looked at him with confusion, so did everyone else. “From now on, you are a part of a commando unit trained by Tracker, and he’s going to be in charge of your training from this moment.”

Both the pegasus and commando looked at each other with wide eyes. “Say what!?” They both yelled.

Rainbow and Pinkie started laughing like idiots at their reaction. “And as for you Dash…” She suddenly became silent. “I want you to scout those mountains and see if you find anything that might be what we’re looking for. Contact me through com-link if you spot it.” She immediately proceeded to fulfill the order.

“Sir, you can’t be serious!” Tracker yelled from behind. “She’s afraid of her own blasted shadow and you want me to train her into a commando!?”

“Yes, I do.”

“T-Then what about girls?” Fluttershy spoke out. “You said you want me to be team’s medic, who will-“

“I’m going to put Abuyin in your place.” Falcon cut in, silencing her altogether. “Any other objections?” He turned towards Tracker.

“…No, sir.”

“Good. Now-“ His com link ranged. ”Well, that was fast. Rainbow Dash, have you found anything?”

“Um… Yeah… I think I’ve found it…”

“How does it look?”

“U-Uh… Well… it’s mostly covered by the forest but I can tell that it’s kinda like pizza without one slice…”

“That doesn’t tell us much Rainbow.” Twilight cut in.

“I might do something about that.” Shaw said. “Rainbow, did you take that camera I gave you?”

“Yeah, but I don’t remember how to turn that thing on.”

The clone sighed. “I’ll turn it on myself, just point it at the ship.”

“Got it.”

Within the next few seconds, Shaw remotely turned on the camera, all the while Falcon was already leading them towards Rainbow’s position. Shortly after turning the camera on, Shaw displayed the footage from it on his helmet. “You’re holding the camera the other way around Rainbow…” He pointed out.

“Ups, sort.”

She quickly corrected her mistake and pointed the camera at the ship the correct way. Shaw looked at it, and almost choked. “Impossible…” Everyone turned their heads towards him. “This ship… It’s… it’s the Ebon Hawk!”

“What!?” Both Falcon and Tracker yelled in union.

“Jeez… first Falcon now Hawk… what do you folks have with- AH!” Clones were pulled out of their confusion upon hearing Rainbow’s scream through the com-link.

“Rainbow!” Everyone yelled. They heard sounds of branches breaking as she fell down. The camera fell out of her hooves, falling away from her and breaking against the ground. “Rainbow Dash, what happened!? Can you hear me!?” Falcon yelled into the com link. But they didn’t hear Rainbow’s response, only the sound of her pain filled screams as she hit the ground and that of breaking bones.

But soon one more sound appeared.

One more metallic in nature.

And then an equally metallic voice rang through the com link.

“Quarry: How do you wish to die, meatbag?”

Author's Note

Song of a day: KoRn - Are You Ready To Live?

18. Retreat

--Chapter 18--
Retreat

Tracker groaned as he touched a wound on his stomach. The damn droid’s rifle was a strong one. Strong enough to obliterate his armor’s energy shield and injure him badly in just one shot. “Sir, is that thing finally dead?” He forced himself to get up despite the pain, leaning against the wall. He looked down at the ground where a black feather lied. Strange, I could have sworn that this bird lied here.

“Seems that way. Are you alright? It looked like you got hit badly.”

“I’m alright sir. I’ll have to fix my armor though.” He fired grappling hook at the ground. “I’ll join you shortly sir.”

“I’m coming into the ship to find Rainbow. Get Shaw and others here.”

The commando jumped down from the cave, slowly lowering himself with the line attached to his weapon. However, just as he came half way down, a terrible pain shot through his body, causing him to groan in pain loudly and let go of the rifle he held onto. “Ugh!!!” He hit the ground below hard. Blast it. I guess I’m not quite as fine as I thought...

As Tracker lied there, his weapon lowered itself on the ground. He forced himself up, groaning in pain again as he felt a broken rib in his chest. Still, that’s hardly enough to take out a commando like him. Or at least that’s what he thought at the time. After making only few steps, he felt the pain from his stomach returning in full force, making him fall on his knees as held onto the wound.

“Gkh...” He quickly took off his helmet only to start coughing out blood. Blast it... He wasn’t about to give up though. Again, he forced himself to get up after picking up his rifle and started to move towards the wreckage leaning against trees every time he could.

“Tracker?” He heard a voice calling from behind. A voice that he recognized immediately. Soon enough, a yellow Pegasus absolutely he did not want to see right now came into view. “Tracker!” She screamed as she saw a wound on his stomach and blood that he coughed out on his armor. ”Are you alright? What happened. No, wait. First you lie down and let me take care of this-!” He pushed her away the moment she approached him.

This was a mistake though, as the moment he did that, he also lost his balance and fell on the ground. He now saw Shaw approaching with the rest of the group. “Will you ever let someone help you?” The engineer said.

“Why are you here? You weren’t supposed to move until we called.” Commando said.

“We heard explosions and decided to come and help.” He placed Tracker's arm around his neck and helped him get up. Shaw then turned to Fluttershy. "You'll take care of him once we get to the ship." Now he turned towards Tracker. "How is Twilight?"

"Last time I saw her she was alive." He answered coldly, turning his head away. Shaw sighed in annoyance but kept holding the clone up.

Falcon pointed his rifle down at the entrance to the ship. He wasn't able to move the elevator down, so his only option was to break it down. He fired several shots at the elevator's connection with the wall, and then kicking it down with his leg. The elevator broke off the wall and fell on the floor. "I go first." He said to Twilight who stood beside him. Then, he jumped down into the ship, holding his blaster ready in case some surprise was waiting there to meet him.

Nothing like that happened though, the ship was as empty and broken as one might expect. He activated his flashlights and looked around into parts hidden by darkness. he saw what used to be a medical room in front of him. Now it was however serving as a small armory, filled with weapons ranging from small one-shot pistols, to Aratech sniper rifles and even a minigun. On his left, he saw a broken hyperdrive, and on right, what looked like ship's main room, with big holo communicator in the middle. "Clear." He said and Twilight immediately teleported inside.

He was about to ask her to lead them to Rainbow, but he didn't have to. The moment she appeared on board of the ship, she immediately moved towards the room on the right. He followed her as she increased her pace and turned left, walking through darkness as if she could see everything perfectly. He turned left and went after her, before he managed to catch up to her, he heard her scream. “Rainbow!”

Following the sound, Falcon reached the crew quarters on the left side of the ship, where he found Rainbow.

Twilight was already using healing magic on her friend, who had multiple bruises all over her body, mostly on chest and stomach. Her left wing was unnaturally twisted and a bone in her back leg was openly broken, piercing through the skin. Outside of that there was nothing that stood out, but Falcon was sure she also had some internal damage. “Can you handle this until Fluttershy comes?” He asked the unicorn who was lying next to her friend.

She nodded lightly, putting more focus in healing Rainbow as much as her limited healing abilities allow. Rainbow though, managed to turn her head towards him. “Thanks...” She muttered. Falcon nodded in response and turned around. He rose his weapon again, beginning to search the ship for any other hostile droids. If there was one, who’s to say that there’s no more.

He returned to the main part of the ship, from where he approached another small room that used to be sealed with blast doors but as it seems they were ripped out, likely during the crush. There was nothing inside, so he quickly moved away from the room and moved to the front of the ship. He walked into a communications canter. It looked like HK have turned it into his personal loading station. Shaw should have a look at this.

Leaving the communications room behind, Falcon moved into the cockpit. There was absolutely nothing that could work here. Half of the cockpit was smashed against the stone wall of the cliff the ship has crushed into, making anything on that side look like it went through a hydraulic press. Everything else was equally unusable.

Falcon continued to search the ship, but found no more droids. There were some training droids that he’s seen Sakri using several times, but they were all either broken or deactivated. The smashed them all apart to make sure though. You can never know what an assassin droid may plan for during four thousand years. He also found some tools lying around the garage, but obviously none of them worked anymore.

He activated his com link. “Shaw, where are you?”

“I just dragged half-dead Tracker to the ship. Fluttershy’s taking care of him now.” The engineer replied.

“Tell her to come here when she’s done.” He said as he started to walk back towards the crew quarters where Twilight was taking care of Rainbow.

“I’ll let her know.” With that said, Shaw ended the transmission. He turned towards Fluttershy, who was wrapping bandage around Tracker’s wounded stomach, ignoring commando who looked almost offended by the idea of the Pegasus handling his wounds. “Fluttershy, when you’re done I’m taking you into the ship. Seems like Rainbow could use some help.” He said.

“No need to wait, I’m already done here.” She replied.

“Finally...” Tracker muttered, earning himself a annoyed look from Fluttershy who was picking up a saddle bag with medical supplies they took.

The mare turned around and flew up onto the ship, as Shaw climbed up. “I swear, I’m going to punch him at some point if that keeps up.” She said in annoyance when they were away from Tracker’s range of hearing.

“Yeah, I can tell why, but you have to understand that for him that’s a defence mechanism.” He started. “He’s already lost his squad twice. Tell me, do you have any siblings.”

She looked at him with questioning look. “Yes, I have a younger brother and older sister.”

“You love them?” She nodded, still not understanding where he’s going with it. “So imagine how would it feel if you had to watch them die?” She stopped in place. “Imagine that you have to watch your whole family die. Twice.” Her head slowly turned back. “He had to watch it, and right now, I think he just wants to keep others away as much as possible to make sure he won’t have to watch people he cares for die." Her ears dropped.

Shaw was about to continue, but suddenly another voice cut in. "Suggestion: If that's the case, then why won't he simply kill himself to be sure?" Quickly recognizing the voice as the one that came from the comlink when Rainbow was shot down, Shaw turned around and pointed his weapon at the droid that lied on the ship. It was not moving though. Only it's eyes were lit up. "Statement: Ah, yes. You must be surprised by the fact that I am still functioning despite your friends seemingly destroying me.

Explanation: While I was in service of Darth Malgus on board of his space station, I was granted several upgrades that expanded my killing efficiency. Among those upgrades, are systems that allow me to repair myself from most of the damages inflicted upon me. This is why I was not destroyed when the ponies decided to send their best to destroy me.”

“Self repair module you say...” He eyed the droid again. It didn’t look like it was planning anything, but then again, it’s still a droid. Let’s see how good it is. He fired several shots at the droid, making the light in its eyes disappear again. He turned to Fluttershy who despite the droid’s sudden revival was still closed in her own world, thinking about something really hard. Shaw heard his com link activation, and answered the call. “I’ll explain later.” He answered, already knowing what they were going to ask about.

He focused his attention on the pegasus again. “Come on. We should go.” He gave her a little push forward. This snapped her out of her trance and after a moment of confusion she jumped down into the ship. Shaw was about to follow, but not before grabbing the droid by the leg and pulling it into the ship with him. “Watch out.” He called out to the pegasus before dropping the droid into the ship and coming down himself.

The mare looked at the red droid that fell next to her. “Are you sure it’s not going to get up?”

“It probably will, that’s why I’m going to take it apart and see what it’s made of. Who knows, maybe we’ll find some use for it. Perhaps I’ll even be able to reprogram it to make it work for us.”

“Statement: That won’t be necessary, meatbags.” Yet again the droid spoke up. Fluttershy yelped in surprise and hid behind Shaw. “Explanation: I’ve already expressed willingness to serve under the human that defeated me before. After said event, I find myself even more willing to do so. That is also why I didn’t wait until more of my systems are repaired and then attacking you with the element of surprise on my side.”

Fluttershy slowly walked out from behind Shaw’s legs, staring at the droid. “What have you done to Rainbow Dash?” She asked in unusually cold tone.

“Answer: Why, I merely forced her to answer my questions through several minutes of constantly inflicting pain on her. I didn’t have time to do any lasting damage though. The fall from the shy did more damage than my conversation with her.

Disappointment: I didn’t even have the time to warm up.”

Like previously with Twilight, the droid’s casual statement about torturing her friend proved to be too much for the timid pegasus. She grabbed the pistol from the holster and pointed it at the droid, shooting it in the head. She then slowly looked at the pistol in her hoof. She was shaking a bit, which was understandable. This may have been a droid, but in her mind, she just shot something with an intend to kill. “Why did I...”

“Don’t worry. It’s just a droid.” Shaw said and activated his com link. „Commander, where is Rainbow?”

„Crew quarters on the left. Go to the central room and go after the light, Twilight’s using magic on her but she can only stop the bleeding and ease pain. Rainbow has both wings, leg and at least two ribs broken.” The commander replied.

“Alright, I’m sending Fluttershy.” He said and turned to the pegasus. “Come with me.” Grabbing the droid’s leg again, the clone went into the ship’s main room where he immediately noticed a purple light coming from the left. “Go there.” He said to the pegasus. “I’ll stay here and take that thing apart. I’ll also see if I can get the lights to work.” Fluttershy nodded, and despite still being in shock after shooting the droid, walked into crew quarters to help her friend.

Shaw sat on what used to be a holo projector in the center of the room and grabbed some tools from his belt, placing them at his side. “Well, let’s get to work.”

Few hours later, most of the ship was lit up after Shaw have fixed the lights. Before he did that though, he took the HK apart to make sure it won’t be able to get up. Right now everyone was in the center of the ship, where Falcon have called them. Rainbow was sleeping on some old blankets they’ve taken from the crew quarters, with Fluttershy allowing her to rest her head on her body like on a pillow. The droid was completely deactivated, with its power core gone it wouldn’t do anything, but Shaw have also removed it’s head, legs and arms, just to be sure.

Falcon looked around the room, eying Tracker who was sitting on the side of the room opposite to Fluttershy, occasionally looking in the direction of the pegasus only to quickly look away after a moment. He had his whole stomach in bandages. Falcon guessed that HK have overloaded his rifle’s battery before shooting. That’s the only explanation why this one shot managed to penetrate both Tracker’s armor, and also the energy shield that protected him.

“Alright, listen up everyone.” He spoke up, focusing everyone’s attention on himself. “To say that this escapade turned out different from what we expected is an understatement. It’s going to get dark soon, and we have to get to the town before that happens. I’ll go back there myself and take the gunship here.”

“Alone?” Twilight said. “Shouldn’t you at least take Shaw with you? It’s dangerous out there at night.”

“That’s why I have to go alone.” He replied. “I’m not going to make it before it gets dark and predators start crawling out, and with all of you on the ship, it’s almost certain that something will come here. You’ll need someone to hold the position until I return, and Tracker is hardly in condition to do this alone.” Commando was about to protest, but somehow Fluttershy managed to stare him down into obedience.

“I’ll leave immediately. You’re in charge for now Shaw. Make sure they’re safe.” Shaw nodded. “And remember to set up that beacon you took, It’ll make getting back here much easier.” Falcon grabbed his rifle and walked over to the hole in the ship. He jumped, grabbing the edges of the hole and pulling himself up. He looked back one more time, before jumping off the ship. He looked at the sun as it was slowly moving towards the horizon. It would still be at least two hours before it got dark enough for most predators to wake up, so he decided to use those two hours to get as far as he could.

He started to slowly increase his speed until he was running through the forest. There was no need for him to stop in order to check the direction. The whole time they were walking towards the ship, he’s been marking that way through his helmet. Now all he needed to do was follow the line his helmet was displaying.

Falcon was running fast, but in the end he wasn’t able to make it to the edge of the forest before the night came. He was about half an hour of running away from the entrance of the forest, but he decided to slow down. He knew enough about the predators living in the Everfree to not tempt them by running around. He rose his weapon up, preparing it to fire.

He was walking slowly, watching out for any noise. He might have been a bit too cautious, but if even half of what he knows about those creatures is true, then he sure as hell wanted to avoid meeting them.

The forest was completely silent though. Save for the wind messing with leaves, there was no sound that would suggest something other than him was around. He increased his pace a bit, but occasionally slowed down to listen again. He was lucky, nothing came after him until he was at the entrance. And even though the creatures of this forest are deadly, none would dare to leave its borders by more than few meters. As if the forest itself wanted to keep them inside.

Commander looked back into the darkness of the forest again, hoping that the rest were as lucky as he was.

Shaw and Twilight were sitting on top of the ship, leaning against the stone wall of the cliff. Shaw had his rifle lying at his side, as he looked over the edges of the forest, looking out for anything that might come to attack them. “Hey, Twilight.” He said. “I hope you’re not angry with us wanting to reactivate that droid.”

“Of course I am.” She said, but with no real anger in her voice. “But I also get it that you all look at those droids differently than we would, so I guess that as long as nothing like that happens again I’ll be ok with it.”

“Well, you might be interested in the thing I’ve found in the communications center.” She looked at him. Shaw couldn’t see that in the dark, but Twilight was blushing a bit. On the other hand, Twilight couldn’t see that he was also blushing a bit under the helmet. “This droid figured out a way to transfer magical energy into a power source for itself.” Her face was immediately filled with curiosity. “I’ve been thinking about-“

“Do you know what that means!?” She screamed in excitement. “This can be exactly what we needed to finish working on Ectoplast! If we-“ Shaw grabbed her by the muzzle and forced her to be quiet.

“I know, I know. You don’t have to spell this out for me.” He said. “Especially not now, and not this loud.” He released her muzzle.

She rubbed her muzzle with hoof. “I hate it when you do that.” She said as she sat back on her spot at clone’s side. “Changing the subject, did you notice that Fluttershy is starting to… well, I guess you could say she’s trying to force Tracker into being friends with her.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. When I told her about him losing his squad twice she was really deep in though. I think she-“ He fell silent in the middle of sentence. Before Twilight had a chance to question him about it, Shaw grabbed his weapon and rushed towards the edge of the ship, quietly telling Twilight to go back to the ship.

His black armor allowed him to perfectly bled into the darkness of the night as he lied flat on the edge of the ship, pointing his rifle towards something that was moving in the distance. He put on his macrobinoculars with night vision on, and looked at the moving spot, immediately tightening his grasp on the weapon. A pack of timberwolves was approaching the ship.

Falcon had him study the creatures that live here at least superficially. He knew that those wolves fall apart easily when you hit them in the right spot, but despite that they are incredibly hard to kill unless you burn their bodies, otherwise they just reassemble themselves. He also read that in big enough groups, they can transform their bodies into one bigger wolf. However, the problem with that tactic is that they can’t reform themselves again if they get destroyed. Which is easy to do if you have a range weapon and can aim.

Shaw had his blaster pointed at the wolf in front, but didn’t shoot. There was still a chance that they will leave, and the moment he starts shooting, he will give his position away not only to the wolves but to every creature that is nearby.

He looked over his shoulder, checking if Twilight hid as he asked. She was looking at him from the hole that was their entrance. Now a bit less concerned about her safety, Shaw focused back on the wolves. Unfortunately, they didn’t walk away. The opposite in fact. They were now spreading into smaller groups that were surrounding them. Shaw counted at least 20 of them in there, but he could be wrong.

Getting surrounded was the last thing he wanted right now, and since it was obvious to him that there’s no way to avoid this fight, he opened fire.

First wolves fell down within seconds. Shaw’s blaster rifle was a perfect weapon against them, as all it takes for them to start burning, is a little more than spark. That is why they usually don’t go around during the day. They can catch fire just from the sun if it’s hot enough.

The moment Shaw shot each of them, they would burst into green flames that covered their bodies. It didn’t look like this fire was doing anything to the forest around it, so Shaw quickly deduced it is magical in nature.

Now knowing that they got spotted, the wolves started to run towards Shaw’s position as fast as they could. Shaw got most of them, but he didn’t have enough time to take care of all of them. Five wolves have managed to reach the ship and started to climb on top of it. Shaw took out two more before the others climbed all the way up. He was forced to jump away from his position to avoid the first one’s jaw, but the two remaining ones have stormed him and pushed down.

Their jaws closed around his arms, and their teeth bit into the spots that were not protected by the plastoid plates. He groaned in pain as the two wolves started to shake his arms right and left. The third wolf charged at him as well, aiming to bite into his throat, but was stopped when Shaw kicked it in the head with his boot, making it fall apart.

Luckily for him, the two wolves that were trying to rip his arms out, soon burst into flames as Twilight have lit them up with magic. Once he was free, Shaw forced himself to get up and despite the pain ripping through his arms, picked up his rifle and shot the wolf he kicked just as it was about to reassemble. “Shaw!” He heard Twilight say. Soon after that, he was forced to lie down by an invisible force and the purple mare run up to his side. “Are you okay? No, wait. Don’t answer. I can see you’re not. Wait here, I’ll call Fluttershy.”

She was just about to turn around and run, before she felt Shaw’s arm pushing her away with enough force to make her stumble few meters away. “What the-!?” She was about to question it, before she heard it. And when she heard it, fear filled her mind.

She looked up, following the sound of screeching she heard. And she saw it. She saw what for most unicorns meant death. A harpy was flying down, right on the spot where she was standing just a moment ago.

Harpies were giant birds living in the Everfree, known for complete invulnerability to magic, combined with possessing magic abilities of an advanced magus, strength of an earth pony and ability to fly, which made them into the absolutely most dangerous predators of Everfree. They are strong enough to crush manticore’s scull with their giant claws, and then grab the corpse and fly away with it. They’re almost are big as humans, but about twice as heavy.

They are among few creatures that have no problems leaving Everfree forest even if they rarely do so. The last time one was seen outside of the forest was about 50 years ago, it killed five ponies and ate them in the middle of street. They’re known to be intelligent, and extremely cruel. They seem to enjoy their victim’s suffering, which is understandable, as harpies are creations of black magic. Ponies that the harpy that left the Everfree killed 50 years ago were alive for most of the process, forced to endure the pain of being slowly eaten alive as the others were forced to watch and wait for their turn.

Harpies seemed to enjoy killing unicorns, but the reason is unknown. There are ancient rumors that harpies are actually alicorns corrupted by black magic, but everyone who ever tried to find evidence ended up eaten by a harpy.

Twilight could only watch as the harpy dives down onto one creature that was still there - Shaw. She wanted to do something, but she couldn’t. She was paralyzed with fear. Her vision was failing. Her heart was beating slower with each beat.

That was all the effect harpies have on ponies. Especially those sensitive to the Force. She could do nothing as she was forced to watch the harpy’s claws grabbing Shaw’s shoulders with enough force for the armor to crack.

The giant bird lifted the clone into the air, and quickly dropped him down. Shaw screamed in pain as he felt more bones being broken after the impact. He forced himself to grab blaster pistol and shoot at the bird. The harpy got hit once before it reached him again, but didn’t even seem to feel that. Twilight was still paralyzed, but managed to focus her magic enough to levitate the knife Falcon allowed her to keep towards Shaw just as the harpy got to him again.

It landed on clone’s chest, and attacked him with its beak. Shaw lifted his arm to protect himself. His armor withstood the attack, but his bone didn’t. He had no time to let that bother him though. He was already reaching for the knife Twilight have thrown towards him, and before the harpy attacked the second time, Shaw’s hand was already aiming the knife for the bird’s throat.

The sharp blade easily pierced the harpy’s thick skin and forced it to back down. That quickly turned out to not be enough though. The harpy simply pulled the knife out of its throat, and held it in its claw as it flew towards the clone again, more pissed off than hurt. Shaw tried to grab his pistol, but he would not make it before the Harpy got to him.

However, before that happened, someone else shot the harpy. The bird was forced to back off as it was hit with several shots from Tracker’s rifle. Fluttershy was next to him, but she appeared to be in the same stated Twilight was, though Twilight seemed to have it worse.

Still firing at the harpy, Tracker approached Shaw, he was back in his armor despite the damage it took. The harpy was not going to let that bother it. Despite being hit by no less than ten blaster bolts and having it’s throat pierced, it was still more going at it barely slowed down at all. A bloody aura appeared around it and its iris turned red as it landed heavily on the ship, making the whole thing shake. Both Shaw and Tracker, who so far were immune to harpy’s paralyzing aura, stopped in one place just like Twilight and Fluttershy.

The harpy spread its giant wings wide and prepared to attack.

But something stopped it.

Something small and black, barely visible in the darkness of the night.

The bloody aura around the harpy disappeared as the small object flew into its eyehole, and soon came out on the other side of the skull, scattering the brain of the harpy on the ship’s plating. Now that the mysterious object was covered in blood, the group that was now free of the harpy's influence, could tell that it was another bird. At least they thought it was a bird. It disappeared into smoke a moment after that.

Twilight fell on the ground, taking a sharp breath and grabbing onto her heart in pain. She felt Shaw grabbing her hoof, but before they said anything, Tracker yelled towards them. "Get the others here! We have a lot of incoming hostiles coming from the forest!" He started to fire his rifle. "Everyone take weapons and join me here. I can't hold that many of them for long!" Shaw forced himself up as Fluttershy run down into the ship to call for help.

He looked at the forest and froze. The timberwolves had some friends. Hundreds of them. All charging towards the ship.

He helped Twilight to get up and grab her pistol before the two of them joined Tracker. The three of them were not enough though. The hoard of wolves quickly got to the ship and climbed up. Twilight focused the little energy she had after the harpy's paralysis spell into a shockwave that repealed the wolves that got to close, but that was only a temporary solution. She had no energy left to do something like that again, and a lack of magic energy was not something that most unicorns take well.

And Twilight was no exception. She felt dizzy, and weak immediately after casting the spell. She ignored that though. The danger in front of her was much more serious than felling dizzy.

The others joined them soon, but that was still not enough. the seven of them were simply not enough to repeal that many targets for long. They were surrounded, and only two of them were actual soldiers. Soon, it was not only wolves that were charging towards them. Many more monstrous creatures attacked them, cockatrices among them. It was like the entire forest was trying to kill them. It looked grim and hopeless for them, but, yet again, just as everything was about to end, a rescue came.

The whole line of wolves was wiped out when a series of explosions ripped through the area between the ship and the forest, annihilating every wolf in area. The group looked up, as the gunship piloted by Falcon flew down, stopping in front of them. The hatches on the gunship’s sides opened. “Get inside and someone grab that minigun!” Falcon yelled through the commlink.

They didn’t need an encouragement to get to safety. Only Tracker came back into the ship to get Rainbow out of there. When he was at it, the others defended the gunship. The minigun Falcon spoke of was too much for Shaw to use, so Rarity and Applejack used it. Neither could use it on their own as despite her strength Applejack couldn’t lift it and shoot at the same time, and Rarity was unable to lift it even with magic. Therefore, Rarity used her magic to point and fire the weapon, while Applejack lifted it on her back.

With the help of the heavy weapon, they were able to repel the forest creatures for long enough for Tracker to bring now awake Rainbow Dash to the ship. Falcon flew away as soon as they were on board, closing the hatches as he got high enough. “Sorry for the wait. Is everyone alright?” Commander said from the pilot seat, looking back at them.

Fluttershy was surprisingly already working on Shaw’s injured arm, almost unfazed the situation they just got out of. Tracker obviously didn’t care much. This kind of things happen to him way too often to give it much thought. The rest was hardly all right though. They were either lying on the ground panting hard, or leaning against the walls of the ship. “Ya know…” Applejack spoke up, holding her hoof against her chest as she calmed down with deep breaths. “Out of all the times we saved Equestria… from Nightmare Moon, from Discord… hell, even that changeling invasion… Ah don’t think we ever looked so close into death’s eyes…”

Falcon didn’t respond. There was nothing for him to say. As only so much you can teach all, he knew that there’s only so much a soldier can learn from training and simulations. He knew that to be ready a soldier must face the death itself.

It’s been an hour since Falcon got everyone back to Ponyville. He landed the gunship next to the hospital, causing a bit of a panic within the staff and patients that were awake. After giving them a false story about what happened, Rainbow, Tracker and Shaw were left in the hospital to recover while the others were free to go after getting examined by Abuyin. Twilight and Fluttershy stayed in the hospital along with Falcon, but they quickly fell asleep next to Shaw’s and Tracker’s beds respectively.

Falcon wasn’t really sleepy. He kept staring at the moon through the window, thinking about how they got into this new world. One question kept floating in his mind: ‘Do I even want to come back?’ If he was anyone else, the answer would probably be ‘no’. After all, who would want to come back to war torn galaxy, knowing he’ll end up on the front line? Knowing that he’ll just keep fighting and watching his brothers die until he himself will succumb to the war’s death toll?

No one who wasn’t created for this.

He sighed deeply and got up, looking over at the sleeping bodies of his fellow soldiers and friends. He’s already made sure to put Twilight into Shaw’s bed, this time with no rope. He didn’t do the same with Fluttershy though. Knowing Tracker, he’ll be more pissed than embarrassed.

Falcon left the room, only to walk into another one. In this one, the rest of survivors from the crush rested, save for Sakri, who was in a separate room. He knew that they were going to be waking up soon. Hopefully Rook will be able to make it. Even now his survival is not certain. The others don’t have quite as severe damage, so for the most part he was calm about them.

He walked out of this room as well, now moving towards the room where Sakri lied alone. He smiled slightly and have out a short laugh as he thought about her. He still remembered how the two of them met and what he thought of her. At first he though she was nothing more than another annoying newbie to deal with and lecture every time she screws up. But in the end she proved to be the opposite. And he didn’t expect how close they would get after a while of saving each other’s lives and fighting alongside each other.

He opened the door to her room and walked inside.

But something was wrong. Wrong enough to make him freeze the moment he walked in.

Sakri wasn’t lying in her bed. She was sitting up, covering herself with blanket as she looked at her arm. More precisely, at the lacking hand at the end of that arm. Her expression was that of someone in deep thought, an unusual sight as she usually doesn’t act serious unless she has to. She looked up at him and immediately her expression turned into a cocky grin, something more typical for her. “Hi there. Came to see me naked?”

Falcon snapped out of this and quickly made a step forward. “You’re awake?” He asked.

“Sure I am. What, did you expect? That I’ll be lying here forever while you drool all over me naked body? Sorry, but that nap went on for long enough. Now sit down and-” She didn’t finish. Falcon quickly rushed towards her and before she got to react, he embraced her tightly. She smiled and hugged him as well. “Missed me that much, didn’t you?” She said in much softer tone.

“You could say that.” Falcon replied. “How long have you been awake?” He pulled away and sat on the nearby chair.

“Few minutes. But I was aware for about an hour or so.” With a deep breath, she fell onto the bed. “Last thing I remember is you saving me from Grievous. How did we end up… well, not dead? No offence to your expert fighting skills, but I think that guy is slightly out of your league.”

“I activated the hyperspace jump and it took us here.” He answered simply.

“And where is ‘here’?”

“We’re somewhere in the Unknown Regions, likely at the edge of the galaxy. It’s been about a month since I woke up and three since ‘Intrepid’ crushed on this planet’s moon. Surface to say, a lot has happened since then.”

“I’m sure it’s all very interesting, but there’s one thing that I just remembered.” She said, a playful grin started to spread on her face again. ”Remember what I said after you saved me from that rocket?”

After hiding behind a cover, Sakri levitated a grenade from a dead clone’s belt to her hand and threw it towards the group of droids. At the same time, another Super Battle Droid picked her as a target and fired a rocket towards her. She didn’t manage to react in time, but before the missile hit her, she felt something pulling her back to cover. Shortly after that two explosions shook the corridor. Sakri looked behind to see her savior.

Obviously, it was Falcon saving her life again. “Damn it, keep this up and I might kiss you.” She said playfully.

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Oh right. I remember you saying something like that. What about it?” He grinned as well.

“Well…” She looked at him with half lifted eyes. “You did save me from Grievous, so…” Her hand shot out towards Falcon, grabbing him by the back of his head. She immediately pulled him towards her and pressed their lips together as both of her arms wrapped themselves tightly around him. Falcon didn’t remain passive. His own arms pulled her close as he pushed her down onto the bed.

She didn’t protest, instead pushing her tongue into his mouth. She separated not long after that though. “How much time do we have?” She asked quietly.

“Enough.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait, but I bought myself the whole Mas Effect Trilogy and finished it three times in a row (and I plan a fourth time soon). You could say that I got a bit carried away.
P.S. Tali's fucking cute.

Song of a day: Three Days Grace - Running Away

19. Padawan Awakens

--Chapter 19--
Padawan Awakens

“Huh... well, I guess you had quite the adventure while I slept. You should have woken me up.” Sakri said, leaning against the wall in the room where Tracker, Shaw and the rest lied. She was back in her padawan robes, which were at some point taken by Rarity who wanted to have a look, but then ended up borrowing them for a few days because of a sudden inspiration surge. Falcon gave her back her lightsaber, which she was spinning above her hand with the Force at the moment. “And to think that you of all clones in the whole damn army end up being force sensitive. I must say, I did not see that coming.”

“You don’t sound quite as surprised as I expected.”

“That’s because me and master could both sense that there was something different about you. We couldn’t tell what it was, but we knew something was there.” She started to approach him with a smile on her face. “And now I know that my favorite commander is a Force sensitive.” She stopped when her chest touched him. The size deference between the two, made her look like a child in comparison. “Alright, I’m hungry. We’re heading out.” She proclaimed and immediately turned around, heading towards the exit.

“You already complain about being hungry? I had to singlehandedly fight off an invasion and then escape from prison before I was even allowed to think about eating.” He followed her. “Shaw kept answering that purple one’s questions for hours, Tracker broke into this Sunny Butt’s library... And neither of them thought about food as fast as you did.”

“Well...” She turned around. “We don’t have much else to do, don’t we?”

“Well… yeah, guess you’re right. Besides, the sun will be raised soon. Come on, let’s get you signed out of here.” He went ahead of her to lead the way, as Sakri didn't know her way around the hospital. She could use the Force to navigate, but what was the point when she had her personal guide right next to her. "Abuyin." Falcon called out to one of the mares in the reception.

"What is it?" The higher mare with long, black hair and horn responded. "Oh, I see your friend woke up." She got up and lifted some papers from the desk. "We'll talk later Red. Now, I assume you would like to get out, right? Come with me, I'll do some tests and see if everything's alright. Then you're free to go."

"Alright." She went with Abuyin, leaving Falcon behind.

"So..." The other mare in the room, Red Heart, spoke up."Are you two a couple or something?" Falcon, who at the time decided to drink some water from water dispenser, immediately choked as he heard those words. A smirk appeared on nurse’s face.

“Why are you asking?”

“I double as a psychologist in this hospital. I know how to read people. And when I saw how much you sit at her side it didn’t leave me much room for imagination. And when I had her moved to a separate room to see your reaction, and you started to sit there instead, I was already sure that there’s something between you two. Now tell me, how far have you two went?”

“I don’t know what are you talking about. We’re simply good friends.” He responded calmly.

“Oh, come on! You can’t lie to me. You may not be a pony, but you humans have faces so easy to read I would have to be blind to not notice when you’re lying. Now come on, before Abuyin gets back. I just love to listen about that stuff. And don’t worry, I can keep a secret if want to.”

“The question is, do you want to?” The words left the mare, replaced by an awkward laugh. “Listen, me and Sakri had each other’s back in many situations. We saved each other’s lives more times than I can count. That kind of bond is hard to break, but we’re just good friends. And besides, she’s a Jedi. They have some strict rules about getting romantically involved. And by that, I mean that it is forbidden. Furthermore, I’m a soldier, and there’s a war going on. Hardly a time for me to think about that stuff. Especially since I’m a clone. So, do you understand?”

“Yeah...” She sighed in disappointment. “I won’t push it.” She said. “But I still think there’s something between you two!”

“Oh, I’ll tell you what’s between us.” Sakri’s voice rang in the room. She approached the nurse and Falcon. “Usually it’s a bunch of droids that I have to save him from. Or sometimes even a giant predator that wants to eat him.”

“Says a girl who wanted to fight a gundark hand-to-hand.” Falcon pointed out.

“Hey, what choice did I have? I’ve lost my lightsaber.”

“You wouldn’t lose it if you didn’t crush the shuttle we were in.”

“It crushed because you were supposed to pilot it. Instead, you got shot and made me do it.”

“That doesn’t mean you had to fly straight into that fog. Besides, I got shot because I was covering you. If you would as much as try to move out of the way of that blaster bolt, we wouldn’t be in that situation.”

“I didn’t move because I was trying to open that damn blast door.”

“You know… could you remind me why didn’t you use your lightsaber?”

“Because I’ve lost it... again. I mean I’ve left it on that shuttle after we used it to get into that station… But it was still your fault! You ordered Shaw to go with the other team.”

“I’ve sent them to fix a reactor that almost went critical. Because of you I might add.”

“Because of me? I didn’t do anything!”

“Really? So you didn’t use that mercenary’s star fighter to crush through the station? Because that fighter happened to damage the core’s shielding as it flew through the station at full speed.”

“Hey! We needed to get out of the hangar before they vented the area. The door were locked and Shaw couldn’t open them in time.”

“We have oxygen tanks in our armors!”

“I don’t wear an armor!”

“General ordered one for you! And you weren’t even supposed to be on that mission! You hid under the floor of that shuttle!”

“I got a special permission from my Master!”

“Then you should have taken proper equipment!”

“How should I have known that I’m going to need a combat armor with a blasted oxygen tank!?”

“What’s the point of having one if you never use it!?”

“I don’t use it because it screws with my balance! And I keep losing my lightsaber when I have it on...”

“Oh, don’t even get me started on you losing you lightsaber. What did General Kenobi tell you that one time? ‘This weapon is your life’, wasn’t it?”

“I... I usually have a good reason to lose it.”

“I wonder what was the reason for leaving it in a shuttle while we went into a separatist battle station full of droids and mercenaries.”

“...I said ‘usually’.”

“What about the time when we-“

“Alright, alright! We get it!” Abuyin stopped them from continuing. “If you keep this up you’ll wake up everyone in that hospital.”

The commander and padawan looked at each other and smiled before starting to chuckle. “Alright, we get it. We’ll settle this somewhere else.” Falcon said. “I assume everything’s alright with her?”

“Yes. She’s free to leave. I’ll send a letter to princess later, so don’t yourself bother with that.”

“Right. Oh, and before we leave.” He knelt down next to her and pulled her away from her friend. “Remember when we’re meeting?” He whispered.

“The entrance to the forest, 12 AM. I remember.”

“Good.” Commander said and got up. He turned towards Sakri and motioned her to leave. “By the way...” Falcon started when they went outside. “I found your armor when we were searching the wreckage of ‘Intrepid’.”

“Please, tell me you've burnt this pink disaster...”

“I couldn’t let such a masterpiece of modern art go to waste. Besides… you look cute in it.”

“Still trying to make me blush I see.”

“Still trying to pretend that you’re not blushing I see.” She had no response. She only puffed her red cheeks asshe looked behind at the hospital.

No one could see them from there, and the town was empty. She smiled at that and turned back towards Falcon. She quickly run into him, making both of them fall on each other. Then, as they fell towards the ground, she used a bit of Force and... Falcon's hand landed on her breast. "Oh, you’re getting a little grabby I see..." Commander's face became the definition of red as he instantly attempted to get up.

Sakri allowed him to, but only to a point. The moment he thought he was free, he felt an inexistent hand push him from behind. It only took a short look at Sakri's grin to let him figure out what happened. When they landed back on the ground, Falcon's face landed right on Sakri's chest. A grin on her face only grew as she grabbed his head and held it down. "Who's blushing now com-!?" She was. The moment she felt Falcon's tongue on the bit of exposed skin she was pushing him into, her face flared up like a candle. Immediately, she let go of him and with speed unreachable for an average human moved away from him. "W-What are you doing!?"

"You didn't think I'm just going to let you continue that and never fight back did you?" His face was still red, but that was more from the lack of air than embarrassment. "Come on. They'll be opening the only place where we can eat something soon." She got up and after adjusting her robes went after him, still with a red face.

“We’re going where exactly?” She asked.

“Most of the things ponies eat is uneatable for us, so the Princess I made a deal with – Luna, sends shipments with food we can eat to Pinkie Pie – one of the Elements I’ve told you about. She works in a bakery and that’s where we’re heading.”

By the time they’ve reached the Sugarcube Corner, ponies already started to leave their houses. Falcon was just about to open the bakery’s door, but Sakri suddenly stopped and placed her hand against her head. “Are you alright?” He asked.

“Yeah, it’s just… this place gives me a strange feeling. I feel like I’m walking into a place that no training can possibly prepare me for. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah…” He said. “I know all too well…”

After bracing himself the best he could, Falcon opened the door to the bakery. The first thing that greeted him was darkness. The windows were covered, lights were out and no one was around. “You’re sure it’s open?” Sakri asked as she walked over to the commander. She didn’t have the time to ask why he covered his ears. She was interrupted by a loud explosion ringing through the whole room as the lights were turned on.

Acting on instinct, Sakri reached for her lightsaber. However, she was used to doing it with hand that she has lost, and ended up knocking her weapon to the ground. “SURPRISE!!!” She heard several voices yell.

She looked forward. There were ponies all over the place, confetti flying around and a Pink blur moving towards her. She managed to get a quick glance at Falcon who had only one thing to say. “May the Force be with you.” As he said that, the confused padawan was grabbed by a pink pony and immediately dragged deeper into the room.

“Why isn’t Pinkie coming with us?” Applejack asked as she along with other Elements save for Pinkie and Rainbow waited at the Everfree’s entrance.

“Sakri woke up and Pinkie threw her a party. I might be known for jumping into impossible missions, but I don’t think even I could take that mare away from a party and live to tell the story.” Falcon answered.

“She woke up?” Twilight asked in surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“She woke up this morning and Pinkie will party her unconscious anyway so it’s not like you’ll get a chance to talk with her for a while. Hell, I barely evacuated from that party myself, I’m sure as hell not going back just so you can talk. And besides, we’ll be training with Abuyin since today. Fluttershy will go under Tracker’s wing when he recovers, remember?” An easy to spot blush appeared on pegasus’ yellow fur as Falcon mentioned that.

“Alright, but mind telling us why we’re taking your ship with us?” Twilight pointed to a gunship behind the commander.

“We’ll be going back to the crush side of the Ebon Hawk to take everything we’ve left there.”

“Like that Assassin Droid?” Rarity spoke up and Falcon nodded in response. “Rainbow won’t be happy about it… I know I’m not…” She sighed and sat inside of the gunship, next to Falcon.

“Too bad. This droid may be dangerous but it’s better to take it and make it work for us than leave it there. Who knows what might happen if we do.” He stated. “I’ve heard stories about that particular unit. If this is the HK-47 that I have in mind, it was part of some of the most important events in history.”

“Events like what?” Twilight questioned him.

This immediately set off alarms in commander’s head. He just knew he had to dodge that question or he will end up swallowed by a sea of the mare’s curiosity. “Umm…“ He was about to say that she should ask Shaw about it, but he quickly realized it won’t work. He simply used that excuse too many times for it to work again. “Well… there were a few wars… but other than that I don’t know much… remember that I’m a soldier not a scholar.” He felt that he’s on the right track.

“But you did know that this droid was a part of them, right? So exactly how did it influence those conflicts to a point that someone who in his own words ‘has only basic knowledge because from the beginning he was meant only as a soldier’ knows about it? And more importantly, what do you know about those wars? Who fought in them? Why? What was the result? Who-?” Just as Falcon started to lose hope, a salvation appeared.

“Abuyin! There you are!” Falcon quickly got up and ignoring Twilight’s questions greeted Abuyin, who just appeared on the scene. Twilight could only groan in annoyance as they all got into the gunship and took off, leaving her with mind full of questions. At first, Abuyin seemed ready to throw up, like most of the others did when they first flew in the gunship. Not a surprise, since she never was more than a few meters above the ground and now she was flying at high speeds in alien ship.

She eventually calmed down enough to talk. "Abuyin, would you mind answering one question, dear?" Rarity spoke up as they flew. The mare nodded, still feeling a bit dizzy from the flight. "I was wondering about your name. I don't mean any offense but... it sounds strange...I mean, Abuyin ibn Dij...Umm..."

" Abuyin ibn Djadir ibn Omar Kalid ben Hadji al Sharidi." She finished for her. "I know what you mean, I've been getting that a lot. The thing is though, that it has no meaning whatsoever." She gave out a quiet laugh. "That was my mother's idea of a joke. When we escaped from Saddle Arabia that's how she signed us on documents. Damn this mare... even in all this she kept smiling and joking at every opportunity..."

"You escaped?" Applejack asked. "Ah don't get it. Why would you escape your home?"

"That place was hardly what you would call a 'home'." She said almost angry. "Me and my sister were born as slaves, and our mother got sold into slavery by her own father. Is it really that surprising that when rebels hit the place we served in, our mother used the opportunity and got away with us on her back?"

"Slaves?" Twilight questioned further, not quite believing what she just heard. "But... Slavery's been demolished hundreds of years ago, how could you be born as a slave?"

"Slavery's gone in Equestria, but I assure you, this business is still doing quite well in Saddle Arabia." She said and then continued with her story. "Of course, we didn't get away from there immediately after that. We've spent a few years moving from place to place, trying to stay alive... Until I made a mistake and got caught stealing from some religious leader or something, I’m still not sure who he was. He and some of his guards beat me up... and after finding out I don't even know the concept of god, proclaimed me a heretic and decided to stone me to death. Got saved by rebels again though. Turns out they were targeting that guy and had their people in the crowd. That was pure luck, but we managed to get away from there and after that, mother led us straight to Equestria.”

“Why not stay with those rebels?” Twilight popped a question. “Wouldn’t you want to help them if they fought against that system? You’re a brilliant doctor, I’m sure they could use someone like you.”

“Twilight, I didn’t have a day of formal education in my life before I came to Equestria. Not only that but those rebels aren’t better than the current king. Hell, they might even be worse. The king at least kept fanatics from running amok for the most part, and rebels are mainly religious fanatics. Even back then I was smart enough to know I should run away from then as soon as I saw them.”

“Stop with the chit-chat, we arrived.” Falcon said and started to lower the gunship. Abuyin immediately felt her last meal coming up to her throat. She held herself back from vomiting with a bit of help from Rarity who was standing near her. “Damn it, even Twilight wasn’t that shaken up by this.”

“Hey!” The unicorn in question spoke up at the comment. “What is that suppose to mean?”

Commander turned off the machine and opened the hatches without answering. Abuyin was first to leave and fall to the ground without even looking at the giant alien ship in front of her. “Twilight, make us a way up from that tree.” Falcon ordered.

Still a bit annoyed after his command, Twilight used her magic to lift the tree that fell down during the fight with Assassin Droid that lived in that ship. She removed all branches, leaving only a long, thick log. She then used a spell to reshape the wood into makeshift stairs. The whole process lasted ten minutes.

During that time Abuyin couldn’t help but look at the ship in amazement. She was not a science maniac like Twilight, but even she was unable to keep her excitement down. That was of course until she noticed all the dead creatures around the area. Timberwolves, Cockatrices, giant rats, spiders, basilisks and things she never even heard of. There were already maggots feasting on the corpses that were already partly eaten by other predators, but she didn’t let that sight bother her. After all, she saw maggots feast on the living.

Once the way up was made, they all walked up. The dead harpy from yesterday was there in a pool of dried blood. Unlike the bodies on the ground, the harpy was untouched. Even after death, no animal in the forest would dare to get near the harpy.

Last night they didn’t have time to take a good look at the bird and it was too dark to see much anyways, but now the ponies looking at the gruesome scene could only keep themselves from vomiting because of witnessing the massacre on board of the ‘Intrepid’. Abuyin was the only one except Falcon who didn’t seem to care about the scene and was observing the hole in bird’s head with interest. Not only did she learn to cope with looking at blood in her time as a doctor, but she was also used to gruesome scenes like that.

Falcon approached the harpy’s body and without a care for ponies’ disgust, grabbed its head and looked at the hole it the head. “The skull is completely shattered from within. Brain was turned into a mush… looks like something exploded inside its head.” He turned to Twilight. “You said that some bird flew through its eye?” She nodded hesitantly. “I see.” He got up after silently thinking for a while. “Abuyin, would you be willing to dissect that thing?”

“I can do it, but why?”

“As I understand it, no one has ever managed to examine one of those. We might find out something interesting.”

“Then why not leave it to Royal Medical Academy? They would gladly handle it.”

“Because whatever they might find out will be restricted to make sure it isn’t used wrongly, and Sunny Butt will keep me as far away from the results as she can anyways. What I’m interested in is seeing if there’s some information we can use. I’ll have Luna send a team to help you with it, for now…” He looked at Rarity. “There are body bags in the back of the gunship. Bring one.” The mare gladly walked away from the dead body, but she was hardly happy about the idea of returning home with it.

“Alright, Twilight will stay here and levitate everything we bring out of the ship up here. The rest of us goes down.” Falcon said after putting the harpy in a bag Rarity brought. Twilight moved the bag away and swept the blood away with magic. She didn’t want to look at it all the time she was going to stand here. Falcon was first to jump down into the ship.

“Fluttershy, Rarity, you two take everything out of the armory. I assume you remember how to handle this stuff safely.” He stated and moved on further into the ship. “Applejack, you go into the comm room ahead and take those bags Shaw prepared. Just don't break your back by trying to take them all at once, they're heavy. Abuyin, you will help me carry that thing out.” He pointed at the droid parts lying on a holo communicator in the middle of the ship.

The mare in question barely noticed his request. She was too busy looking around in awe. "Now I know for sure agreeing to this wasn't a mistake..." She said and looked at the disassembled droid. "What is that?"

"Droid. I'll give you a full briefing about our tech later. For now, just help me carry this out of here." He grabbed the corpus with no limbs attached and Abuyin assisted him with levitation spell. Neither of them would be able to carry it on their own, corpus alone weighted over one hundred kilos. Falcon wasn't strong enough to lift it, and Abuyin's magic was on even lower level then an average unicorn. She could only lift few small objects at once but had problems manipulating them simultaneously, and she could carry up to forty kilos at most.

Someone like Twilight could lift even a tone with magic alone if they tried, and Twilight could also further support herself with the Force.

Abuyin's help was limited to lowering the burden on Falcon who carried the corpus to the hole they entered through. When Twilight saw them, she immediately lifted the corpus herself, making it fly up as if it weighted nothing.

They finished loading everything onto the gunship in a few hours. Falcon also disabled the power from the ship as they left. There was no need to keep the lights on. Along with body of the harpy and disassembled HK-47, they loaded parts of comm equipment Shaw took apart, a bit of still functioning medical equipment, 10 working blaster rifles, 12 blaster pistols, 5 one-shot pistols, 6 vibroknifes, 8 vibroswrds, over 5 kinds of grenades (frag, plazma, sonic, gas and concussion) each in a box containing from 6 to 12 of them , parts of several lightsabers though with no focusing crystals, a minigun, the equipment HK used for recharging, every data disc Shaw managed to find on the ship, 52 batteries for blasters, 296 tibanna gas cartridges and every bit of fuel that remained on the ship.

After loading all that onboard, there was barely enough free space for them. Mostly because they wanted to stay as far away from the harpy in a body bag as possible.

After reaching the ruined caste, Falcon spent the rest of the day training ponies in his Drill Sergeant mode. He did go a bit lighter on Abuyin than on the rest, but she still ended up cursing him with every curse she knew in every language she knew. She didn't pass out the way others did though. She wasn't really fit as far as ponies go, but she did train her body from time to time to stay in relatively good shape. She was still utterly exhausted to a point that Rarity had to help her get home after they returned.

Twilight and Fluttershy immediately headed towards the hospital, to make sure Shaw and Tracker are doing well. Falcon noticed that the party is still going on, so he joined them in order to avoid being pulled into this madness. A good choice, as Tracker decided that he's already recovered enough to get out and tried to storm his way out of the hospital. If Falcon didn't stop him he would end up hurting himself in the process.

Shaw was also awake, but he left him to Twilight. The moment they saw each other they started to discuss something he had no way of understanding. Fluttershy was also talking with Tracker, scolding him in Falcon's place.

He stayed there until midnight, when he felt like the party is coming to an end. He was right. When he came near Sugarcube Corner, Ponies started to pour out of there in large numbers. They weren't really drunk, some were just a bit tipsy. Ponies generally don't like to get drunk, and it's illegal to sell anything above 5% anyways, so it's not like they have any hard liquor available to get drunk quickly.

Sakri didn't leave though. He walked inside as soon as everypony left, only to see Sakri standing in the middle of the room while Pinkie disappeared in the kitchen. The padawan was barely keeping herself up and as soon as he started to approach her, she lost her balance and toppled over. He caught her and held up as she unconsciously looked up at him. "Thanks for leaving me alone in this hell..." She tried to sound angry but had no energy to do so.

"Serves you right for every prank you pulled off on me. Can you walk?" In response, her head fell against his chest, and Sakri, unable to get it back up fell asleep in an instant. Falcon could only smile as he lifted her and walked out of the bakery. Occasionally he would look down at her, unable to get over how cute she looked asleep. It's not like there was anyone around that could see him.

He carried her all the way to the warehouse and placed her in a bed upstairs. He took off hr boots, and in that moment, she opened her eyes again. "...Where are we?" She asked quietly.

"Our temporary base." He started to take his armor off. "It used to be an old warehouse, but Luna had it repurposed for us."

“Geez… Luna, Luna, Luna… you keep talking about her every time you get a chance. Found yourself a new girlfriend when I was out?”

“Not really, you are more than enough for me.”

“Then you must not be able to handle a lot if such a small girl is all you can take.”

“Perhaps, but I’m quite happy with the way things are.”

She lied her head flat on the bed and closed her eyes. “Are we alone here?”

“Yes.”

“Then get your ass over here.”

“Get your ass over here, who?”

“Get your ass over here, sir. Pretty please.”

“That’s more like it.” He turned off the light in the room and lied beside the padawan who was already in a deep sleep. It was rare for them to get a chance to sleep this close together, so he happily embraced her sleeping body and pulled close to him. “Goodnight, love.”

Author's Note

Song of a day: Shinedown - Cut The Cord

20. First Mission

--Chapter 20--
First Mission

Another week has passed with not much happening. The only thing that's worth mentioning is the decline in condition of remaining unconscious clones. Due to none of them being used to having magic flow through their bodies the way crystals that keep them asleep did, their condition started to worsen. Crystals were disabled, but not before causing enough damage to keep Flint and Cipher knocked out for a bit more time.

This wasn't a big problem though. The problem war Rook. He was barely alive even with the magic support from the crystal. But now that it was gone, and with the damage it managed to cause, he has to be under constant supervision of a doctor. They have to make his body adapt to magic quicker in order to rebuild his body to a level when he will be able to stay alive when they turn off the life support. The whole process is not really pleasant. He's visibly in pain whenever he has to go through one of many sessions that are ahead of him, and the actual rebuilding will be even worse.

Despite being small, ponies are actually more resilient than humans when it comes to handling pain. Physically at least. Psychologically most of them are crybabies in Falcon's opinion and Tracker's opinion about that aspect of their society is far more extensive

Thanks to that additional resilience combined with bodies naturally adaptive to magic, procedure like that is a minor nuisance for a pony whose magic will simply adopt and numb out the nervous system enough to cope with it.

Sakri managed to fit into the town quite well, and even found a good friend in Rainbow Dash, but considering they both share a lot in common, that's not surprising. Rainbow thought she can get Sakri to make Falcon go easier on her during their training sessions. A big mistake on her part. Not even Sakri would dare to disobey Drill Sergeant Falcon.

They both ended up getting the harshest treatment out of all trainees.

Another matter was HK-47 salvaged from the wreckage in the Everfree. Shaw has reassembled him enough to go through his data banks to find out more about his way of turning magic into regular energy without using a spell. He succeeded, and as he worked on reassembling the rest of him and looking through the data banks, Twilight was continuing her work on the Ectoplast they've been developing for the past weeks.

They were the only ones not in the Everfree. Everyone else was watching a fist fight between a clone commando and jedi padawan.

Tracker threw a punch aimed at her right shoulder. She dodged it, sidestepping, but was immediately hit in the chest as Tracker threw another punch. She didn't let that stop her and tried to lift him by the arm and with a bit of assistance from the Force throw him behind her. This was another mistake on her part though. Tracker kicked her straight in the face the moment she lifted him. She was thrown away by the force of the impact. "Come on, you can do better than this!" Tracker screamed as he returned to standing position. Meanwhile Rainbow was cheering on the padawan as she was getting up.

She dashed towards the commando who jumped away seeing her fast approach with her fist lifted. He did so in just the right moment, as it allowed him to grab her extended hand and pull her closer and give her stomach a quick introduction to his knee.

She ignored the pain that spread through her body and hit Tracker's side with an elbow. This didn't do enough damage to make him back away, but he did slow down for enough time to let her throw another punch, this time at his chest. He threw a punch himself in to same moment she did, but while she managed to dodge, he didn't.

This time he took a step back. "Come on girl, kick his butt!" Rainbow yelled. She was in a middle of doing push-ups with Pinkie sitting on her back as a punishment for cheering too loudly. Fluttershy was also doing push-ups for the same reason, only with nopony on her back. And now that Rainbow started cheering again, Falcon sat on her back instead.

Cheers didn't help much though. Despite getting a moment of advantage, Sakri was not able to press on fast enough. Tracker kicked her in the stomach again before even standing up which slowed her down only a bit, but it was enough for the commando to quickly rush towards her and after grabbing both of her arms smash his head against hers. She rolled back, ready to take on any attacks he might have prepared.

First two punches were blocked, but the third opened up her guard and fourth got her in the shoulder. After that she bounced back only to take another punch to the same shoulder. This time she pushed on though, and managed to work her way behind Tracker. She used the opportunity to jump on his back and wrap her arms around his neck.

This was not enough though. She was quickly smashed against the nearby tree, and forced to let go. Tracker then sent a few punches she had no way of defending herself against. To finish things off, Tracker pushed her onto the ground and held her armtwisted behind her back until Falcon counted to ten. "Heh, you're still not quite ready for that gundark, kid." He helped her get up.

"If I could use the force I would win."

"You did use it though."

"But not as much as I normally would."

Knowing she will not admit to cheating no matter what, Tracker dropped the subject and walked over to Fluttershy, who was lying flat on the ground after a series of push-ups with Abuyin on her back. Falcon decided Rainbow could use a friend in misery. Despite how much he didn’t want to train her at first, he had to admit it was pretty entertaining to see her go through a commando training. Falcon did a really good job getting her in shape. She would have problems keeping up with what he had her do otherwise.

As Tracker continued the torments Falcon started, the commander himself went back to drilling the others. Sakri included.

The padawan couldn’t believe how much Falcon could change when he goes into a role of drill sergeant. She still remembers how her master told her to join clones that Falcon was drilling. He yelled her into submission faster than Master Windu’s glare could. ’What are you doing you failure! Get that ass down when doing push-ups, you’re not in strip club to shake your ass!’ ‘Faster you maggot! AT-TEs are faster than that!’ ‘Listen here. You’re supposed to me a man among a bunch of ladies here, right? So push harder, damn it! What is that supposed to mean!? You’re worse than cadets on Camino!’ ‘Up… and down… up… and down… see just 100 more left. Move it, or I’ll add 200 more to that!’ ‘What is this you blasted maggot!? Show some spirit damn it! I’ve seen old mad fuck harder than you move!’ ‘Wake the fuck up, little girl! What are you dreaming about? A big flopping donkey dick in your mouth?’.

Her master was usually looking as Falcon pushed her to the limits, always smiling as if looking at a good movie. He wasn't there to just smile though. He would make her legs feel heavier with the Force, making her use the Force as well in order to make moving easier. The problem was, that every time she would push back, he pushed twice harder in return. There was even a time when Falcon made her keep her balance on one leg while standing on the tip of the top cannon of AT-ET that he was rotating around and at the same time, her master was releasing one force wave after another. She smiled at the memory.

Unfortunately, Falcon noticed that. “Oh, I see someone’s having fun here. I think this someone should make a run around the castle and report to me whether there’s a Krayt Dragon hiding there. Move it, you have 10 minutes to get back and give me a full report!” She mentally slapped herself in the face as she got up and run towards the castle gate. Falcon's drone was following her, so there was no way she can cheat this time.

Falcon turned back towards others after Sakri disappeared in the castle, but he didn't start yelling again. he noticed that someone was running towards them. Lucid Brush, the changeling joiner he got to know over his time on this world was running towards them. "Dad? What are you doing here?" Applejack asked her father. Lucid would sometimes join them when they went to the castle to train, showing a level of physical competence comparable to Falcon and Tracker, but this time he specifically stated that he's can't go because he has to report into the Hive Mind he's connected to. He didn't explain much about his business with the rest of his Hive, only that he's been partly separated from his hive's collective consciousness and wanted to come back for a while. Only mentally of course. Changelings can communicate over vast distances.

"Commander! I need to ask for your help!" Ignoring his daughter, Lucid lowered his head in front of the commander. His voice was calm, but Falcon picked up a bit of panic in it.

"What is it? did something happen to your Hive?"

"No. Or at least not yet." He raised his head and took a deep breath before speaking again, his eyes went back into blue orbs of a changeling, meaning he fully connected himself to the Hive Mind. "Chrysalis has made her move. We have spotted her drones on our territory. They were handled accordingly, and we sent our own drones to investigate Chrysalis' territory." His voice became emotionless as the whole hive spoke through him.

"What did they find?" Falcon asked. Everyone else has stopped whatever they were doing and gathered around the joiner. Falcon was even sending the audio to Sakri through his drone.

"She is preparing her drones for another attack." Everyone's heart skipped a bit. "Drones that were scattered around Equestria have returned to their home, and Chrysalis herself was laying many eggs for the past months. Now her hive is even more numerous than it was during the attack on Canterlot. Our hive is small in comparison. All of our joiners spying within her hive have been discovered and killed, but they gave us the information about the time of the attack."

"How much do you have?"

"They will start to move within the next week. The way to our Hive will take then at least a day."

"What about my mother?" Applejack suddenly said. "A-And my sister. She's there too right?"

“The love of the one you know as Lucid Brush, as well as his daughter are safe. They cannot leave though. None of us can. Our Have is in the mountains. There is only one safe passage from it, and it will lead us straight into Chrysalis’ hooves. Our Hive is not known by its strong wings. The mountains are too high for us to fly out, and we would have to leave our young behind.”

Applejack immediately turned towards Falcon, her eyes were flaring with determination. “Falcon, I don’t care what you say. I’m going there even if you won’t. There’s no way in hell that I’m going to leave my family to die.”

“I don’t plan to stay idly either. I remember allying with their hive against Chrysalis and I’m not going to make a habit out of leaving allies alone in time of need. Hell, I’ve been left without reinforcements myself.”

“Yeah, and I still can’t believe you actually pulled that off.” Tracker said with a laugh. Five hundred clones defending an island base from 20 thousand battle droids for seven days. And they actually won. With barely any equipment to begin with, and mostly using weapons they collected from droids they forced the clankers to retreat.

“Yeah…” Commander turned back to the Joiner. “Anyway, as I said we will help. Keep us up to date with any information about enemy movement you get while we prepare for deployment.”

Lucid’s body bowed. “The Hive is in your debt commander Falcon.” With that said, the connection to the hive disappeared, and Lucid’s eyes went back to normal. “Thank you commander.” He said, feeling a bit dizzy after the connection has ended. “You have no idea how much it means to me.”

“Don’t thank me yet. We still have to get ready and beat those damn bugs. Tracker!” He called out to the commando. “For now you will be in charge of drilling those ladies into fighting shape.”

“Yes sir!”

“Lucid, you go back to the farm and get me a report on everything your Hive knows about Chrysalis. Some data about your own Hive would be nice too. Deliver it to the warehouse. I’ll be there to discuss some stuff with Twilight and Shaw.” With that said, Falcon left the training ground in the Everfree forest.

“Alright, I get it. About time I’ll get to see those bugs. Can’t let you be the only clone to fight then, can I? Now, what exactly do you want us to do?” Shaw said after Falcon explained the situation to him and Twilight.

“First, tell me about your progress with that Ectoplast you two have been talking about all this time.”

“Well…” Twilight said, clearly happy about something as shown by her smile. She turned her head towards the room she and Shaw were using as a testing area. “How about you see for yourself?” She walked into the room with Shaw following her. Falcon wasn’t far behind. “Ta-da!” Twilight yelled with a happy smile on her face as she pointed her hoof towards the other side of the room.

There, Falcon saw a training dummy like the ones he used when teaching his recruits how to use weapons. However, on its chest was a white plate with few black markings on it. “What you see here is the first successfully made Ectoplast plate. The combination of our armors with native’s magic. True, on its own it is less durable than normal plastoid armor, but is extremely adaptable.” Shaw started.

“Anyone who knows how to enchant objects on a moderate level can adopt the armor to pretty much any environment or situation. Ectoplast can be adopted to be lighter, withstand heat or cold, change coloration to better blend into the environment, and even protect against damage; to a certain extent at least, our weapons can only be stopped by really powerful magic, but it can completely stop a low level attack using magic. Plastoid itself can withstand any attack using weapons currently used by Equestrian military with no issue. Unfortunately we don’t know about weapons used by any other nation, thanks to Celestia’s borderline isolationist policies, but we doubt it can be much of a threat.”

“Nice.” Falcon commented. “Now as for your assignments. Since that thing is ready, I assume you will be able to prepare a set of armor for the rest, right?”

“Of course.” Twilight answered. “I’ll just need to ask Rarity for help and get some manuals from the pile Tracker has stolen… sorry, ‘borrowed’ from princess, and I should have no problems.”

“Then get to it. On the double, you have a week at best.” He now turned to Shaw. “As for you, I need that HK working again.”

“Are you sure sir? I won’t have the time to reprogram it if the week is all I have. The most I can do is put it back together, the thing is really well secured, and I’m not specialist in that department. Cipher might be able to do something but… well, he’s kinda asleep. And we don’t really have equipment to handle this level of security.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. We’re going to face an invasion force bigger than the one from Canterlot, and that was 10 thousand at least. We’ll need every gun we can get. And besides, I don’t think it lied when it said it wants me to be its master.”

“Another Force thingy?”

“Maybe, I’m still not quite knowledgeable enough in the area to be able to tell. Anyway, get this thing working again. Just keep the restraining bolt on. I’ll need to talk to it first.”

“Sure, I’ll get to it.” Both he and Twilight disappeared in their lab where HK was stored. Falcon turned back and walked into the armory to check the equipment. He radioed Tracker to send Rarity in here after Twilight requested so. It was an hour before Lucid came in with the report Falcon requested. He gave him a full description of his hive’s defense capabilities as well as a surprisingly detailed drawing of the area around the hive, and its inner structure.

There was not much data about Chrysalis’ hive. Her hive was always isolated from others, but when she took over, not many would survive trying to reach them. She had exactly 13 344 drones specialized in fighting on her side, while they had merely 1910. Lucid’s hive is small by comparison, and is not specialized in fighting. Each changeling hive has developed in its own way. Some are better fliers, others have stronger magic, and some develop in completely different direction. Lucid’s hive falls into magic category, but their magic is not suited for combat, rather for healing and remaining hidden.

Chrysalis’ hive’s specialization is mind control. Ability not seen in any other changeling hive. Chrysalis can take a hold even on strongest minds given a chance, and every drone in her hive is able to manipulate thoughts given enough time to spread pheromones around the victim. Pheromones have to be concentrated in one area over long period of time however. Drones don’t produce nearly enough to randomly take over ponies in the streets, but in groups they can make ponies around feel dizzy.

The one advantage they have over Chrysalis, is the location of the fight. As the hive said through Lucid before, there is only one way inside. Whether Chrysalis will decide to go for a frontal attack or attack from the air, in the end she will have to enter the hive. And with only one way in, they will be able to effectively defend it even if Chrysalis will throw everything she has at them.

But it’s not going to be that easy. One way in also means they can be easily locked inside. Chrysalis will just wait until they run out of supplies. This means they must meet their assault head-on, and fall back if they get overwhelmed. And looking at the enemy’s numbers compared to theirs, they stand no chance in a straightforward fight. They will have to prepare a trap or two in order to lower their numbers before the fight.

Luckily, Falcon had a few ideas.

”What do you want from me?” Shining Armor’s voice was oozing with hostility. Falcon arrived to Canterlot the day after starting to work on the plan. His objective was easy. Convince the Captain of Royal Guard to help. Not by borrowing some of his man of course. Falcon never liked the idea of throwing cannon fodder at the enemy. What he was interested in, was his shield making abilities. From what he heard, his shield withstood a combined attack of Chrysalis’ whole invasion force when his magic was severely weakened after several days of mentally struggling against mind control. “Princess Luna said you have some proposition from me.”

“And she would be right. I just happened to know the time and target of next Chrysalis' attack, and I would like you to help stop it.” Falcon answered straightforwardly. Shining Armor's eyes almost popped out of his eyeholes as the shock hit him. He was just about to get himself in line again, and yell at the commander for not telling him sooner, but Falcon continued speaking before that happened. “She's planning an attack on another changeling hive. The one that helped in stopping attack on Canterlont. I agreed to help them, but you could say that we're in highly unfavorable position.”

“If that's the case, why did you go to me? You're in good relations with princess Luna, she can get you support of my men if you just asked her. And she herself would be more of a help than the whole Royal Guard together.”

“You know, when the head of an army says that one person is stronger than all of his forces combined, something's wrong with his army.” The comment seemed to annoy the captain. “Anyways, I didn't come here to get some cannon fodder to throw at changelings, I'm here for you Shiny...”

“Don't call me-”

“Shiny...”He repeated, enjoying the reaction he gets out of him. “I heard about the shield you managed to set up for the invasion. I was really impressed.”

“So the only reason why you want me to help are my shielding abilities.” He sighed. “Well, what would you have me do if I agreed?”

Shaw took a deep breath as he placed a tool he was using just a moment ago on a table. “Are you sure about this?” He said approaching a power switch.

“You already asked me this. More than once.”

“I know, and I'm still not sure if activating this droid is a good idea or not. I mean, it may not have arms and legs attached at the moment, but you plan to give it weapon and get into a fight, which means taking off the restraining bolt off. Who says it won't turn on us the moment it gets its hands on a rifle. You remember how hard it was to take the thing out, right?”

“Of course I do. That's why I want it on our side. And it's not like we're going to just take the bolt off with no reassurance.”

“Yeah, the fact that you placed a grenade inside its chest really calms me down.”

“Stop complaining. Turn the damn thing on.” Shaw sighed as he powered the HK-47 up. Droids eyes slowly started to shine with red light as a few sparks flew out of it's disassembled limbs. Some parts inside started to move as its systems rebooted, and finally it rose its head.

“Diagnostics: HK-47 reactivated. Running checks through primary systems... Running checks through secondary systems...

Assessment: It appears I have been dismantled by an organic Meatbag with questionable skills as a mechanic, only to be put together by the very same unskilled Meatbag.” Shaw frowned at the insult. “But, seeing as I detect a grenade next to my memory core, I believe it would be better not to further insult your low skills, Meatbag.”

“Wise choice. Now, would you mind going back to our previous conversation?” Falcon approached the droid as Shaw leaned against the wall, staring at the droid.

“Statement: Ah, yes. The one rudely interrupted by your purple friend. If it wasn't for her, this might have ended without a single shot fired. I must say, I'm thankful. So many years without any threat to my functioning certainly made me a bit rusty and bloodthirsty. I also didn't expect to see a Jedi use blaster rifle. And certainly not with your level of competency. The use of battle armor is also surprising. Tell me, what changed the order enough to make Jedi actually use their abilities in a war? From my experience, council usually sits idly instead of acting.”

“I'm not really a Jedi, I just happened to have a lightsaber on me. But you would be right to say that Jedi are not staying out of a war this time. They're acting as generals in a war that's been going on for past three years.”

“Query: A war you say? Would it be too much t o ask for, if I wished to be immediately moved to a nearest battleground so that I can squash some meatbags?”

“Seeing as we crushed on this planet like you did, that's out of the question for the moment.” HK almost looked sad after hearing Falcon's words. “There is however an opportunity for you to fight in a battle...”

For a short moment the droid looked at the commander. “Statement: I'm listening...”

A scalpel flew across the room, wrapped in Abuyin's magic. She had a white mask over her mouth and clean white lab coat on her body. The scalpel soon cut into a body of dead harpy that lied on a table. There were few more ponies in the room, but they seemed much more repulsed by the smell of death that filled the room. Princess Luna has secretly sent two more doctors and a vet to help her with dissecting the harpy, but is seemed she's going to be the one to do the real job after all.

“Alright, what do we have here...” They already knew what killed the harpy. The mysterious black bird that flew into it's eyehole and released a small magical pulse that turned the brain of the giant bird into a mush. When they looked more into it, it also turned out that the harpy's magic was attempting to regenerate part of the brain, but was stopped by even stronger magic.

Harpy's magic was strong enough to recreate parts of it's body within a moment. A lost eye would be back in it's place after 10 to 20 seconds, and brain would be restored after a minute if something didn't stop it.

The other bird released an overwhelmingly powerful current of magical energy through harpy's magic and nerve systems. The spinal cord was was almost completely melted and nerves all over the body were burned almost completely. Magic systems were not much better off. The harpy's magic was putting up a fight, but was ultimately overpowered and a further havoc was caused all over the harpy's body.

Magic system is very similar to nerve system, only it isn't physical. It's spiritual in nature, but it can influence real world if used properly. That's why ponies can use magic. Harpy's magic system was extremely well developed, and yet it was completely overpowered and destroyed from within. This caused more explosions within harpy's body, destroying internal organs. After this, there was no chance for it to recover.

Getting back up after having it's brain turned into mush was unlikely to begin with, but harpy's highly developed magic system would be able to take over brain's functions after it was destroyed, at least for some time.With it gone, Harpy was just a lump of meat with no right to continue living.

Moving on, the team under Abuyin's leadership looked into all of harpy intact parts. Nothing was out of the ordinary though. It seemed that harpy's abnormal strength and durability were purely a matter of it's magical abilities.

And based on those abilities they'll be able to make quite a lot of progress.

“Rarity... eh... How should I say it... That's not exactly what I had in mind...” Falcon said as he looked at the first version of Ectoplast armor made by Twilight and designed by Rarity. It was... a bit too artistic. “You do know that armor is meant to keep you alive on a battlefield, right? Not to be an exhibit in art museum.”

“But does it mean it can't look good at the same time?” The mare argued, defending her creation.

“It can, but not at the cost of functionality.”

“Oh, please. What could possibly be wrong in this design?”

“...Chestplate is reduced to a few narrow stripes, there are artificial wings that only limit your movement and add mass, boots have high heals on them, the stomach is completely exposed, only the left flank is protected, there are pointless patterns engraved all over the armor, helmet exposes too much face, the armor is too thin, it would take help to even put that thing on... Do I need to continue?”

Rarity was still unfazed by the criticism of her work. “Oh, come on dear, don’t be so dense. I even made one for you, see? You can't possibly say you wouldn't look simply marvelous in this attire.” It's true that she also made armor for him, but to say he would look good in it is not. At least not in his eyes. The only part worthy of attention is a robe that was made using Sakri's padawan robe as an inspiration. He could technically wear it under the armor like general Heskri did, but he sure as hell isn't going to put on the rest of the attire.

“Rarity, this thing has no right to be shown on a battlefield... I think I told you to model that thing on our armors, didn't I?”

“Darling... the boom on simple clothes that started after your arrival ended few weeks ago... It's already sooooo out of fashion...”

In this moment, HK-47 who was standing idly in the corner of the room spoke up. “Critique: Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that it must be changed every couple of weeks.”

A silence followed.

Broken by a barrage of insults and screams from Rarity's end.

Author's Note

Song of a day: Linkin Park - It's Goin' Down

21. Before The Battle Begins

Quick note: From now in the story will be told from 1st person perspective. I find it easier to write like that and it allows me to expand more on character's thoughts.

--Chapter 21--
Before The Battle Begins

"Rarity, I really think this is a bad idea..."

"Be quiet Rainbow! I will not forgive the words that have been spoken!" Rarity shouts at her friend. The pathetic excuse of an armor she made looks like it is about to fall apart every time she makes a quicker move. "That rude and style-less rust bucket dared to bad mouth not only the work of art that I have created, but the fashion as a whole! I will never let that slip!"

"Rarity, trust me on this... You don't want to piss this thing off..." The rainbow pony continus to beg her friend to not do this. Not surprising since she got to experience HK's not so gentle touch. It's doubtful she will stop being afraid of the droid anytime soon.

"Not only will I make him pay for the mockery he committed, but also for hurting you, my dear friend! Get ready droid! I am about to tear you apart!" Looks like the little mock fight I allowed them to have is attracting some attention from the townsfolk. Good. The humiliation will help with making the point.

"Observation: Your anger appears to be a result of your subconscious realization that my statement was in fact the truth." Rarity only gets angrier after this. "Suggestion: I believe that you should reconsider your career choice meatbag. My analysis of Punyville's job market has revealed that there is an open position for a garbage collector."

"You... You..." The fury in the unicorn's eyes can only be compared to an angry wookie. "You rusting piece of garbage! I will turn your ugly face into a... a..." Seems like she can't think of an insult.

"Request: Master, can I kill her please? Just a little bit? I've been daydreaming about it for the past 4327 seconds." The crowd that has gathered gasps at droid's blunt statement.

"No HK, you can't kill anyone until I say so. You are however free to make this moron realize just how much of a liability that 'armor' of hers really is. You can use any means necessary as long as her combat performance will not be degraded." Sakri, who's standing next to me is waiting in anticipation. From the look on her face I can tell that she's driving some sick sadistic pleasure from watching the situation unfold. "Aren't you getting a little too excited about this? Shouldn't a Jedi knight stop a fight like this before it escalates too far?"

"Hehe... A Jedi knight probably should... Shame I'm just a padawan, huh?" She crosses her arms in front of her. Some ponies notice her missing hand and start talking. There's been quite a few rumors going around since Pinkie's party. Most were surprisingly harmless, but I still dismantled each one I heard about. "Look! It's about to start!

I turn my attention back to Rarity and HK. The droid was mostly insulting the mare all the time, while she was left speechless and utterly incapable of biting back. "E-Enough of this!" Her outburst sounded more desperate then anything. "Take this!" Rarity finally decides to throw the first punch. Her horn starts to shine and after a short second, a magic projectile bursts out of it and flies towards the assassin droid.

The droid in question doesn't even seem to register that an attack occurred. "Choke on this!" Another attack follows. And then another one. And another one... HK just doesn't bother to react in any way. He just stands there and looks down at the unicorn. As if taunting her. A tactic that proves to be quite effective at pissing off the mare.

"Grrrrrrr..." She growls in frustration. "Fine! I'll just have to get close and personal with you!" She charges straight towards the droid. All the training I've put her through clearly payed off. Compared to how she was when I met her for the first time, now she can certainly use her strength properly and without hesitation. However...

"!!!"

...That means noting in this situation.

Small wheels in HK's feet activate just in the right moment and leave Rarity running into nothing as HK moves to the side. "Nice!" Sakri shouts next to me. The droid then proceeds to catch one of the wings that decorate Rarity's attire and lifts her up.

He spins her around a couple of times, making her scream like a little kid before throwing her into a hay pile nearby. "Quarry: Are you perhaps done embarrassing yourself meatbag?" Rarity pulls herself back on her hooves and immediately faces the droid with a look of absolute fury. She is about to scream at him again, but suddenly she notices that the wing HK grabbed has broken off. She lets out a scream of horror that only seems to amuse the droid. "Statement: I meant to do that."

For a second I could swear I saw her eyes shine yellow. "Curse you! I will kill you dead!" Rarity charges at the droid yet again, screaming in fury.

The result of this charge is exactly the same as before. Rarity lands in a pile of hay with her outfit missing another wing.

"I feel like this is going to take a while..." I say as I turn to Sakri.

"Yeah... Shame I didn't make popcorn..." Sakri says with genuine regret in her eyes.

"Here you go!" A pink hoof extends itself from between us, holding a bowl full of popcorn.

"Awww. Thanks Pinkie, you're a life saver!" She grabs the bowl with her remaining hand and using the force started to eat. "You want some?" She turns to me.

"No..." She doesn't accept that answer and shoves some of it into my mouth anyways. "Will you ever get bored of this?" She starts to shake her head. A smile adored face as she stuffed herself full of popcorn.

"This is way too much fun." She swallows. "By the way, where is Shaw? I didn't see him today."

"He's on 'Intrepid' with Luna. They're checking if we can use the ship's cannons in any way." I suddenly hear my comm-link ringing. "Falcon here."

"Commander, this is Shaw reporting in." I step away from the crowd. Sakri seems to struggle in deciding whether to follow me or keep watching Rarity being publicly humiliated by a crazy assassin droid. In the end she decides to keep watching after seeing Rarity landing face first in dirt.

"What have you two found?"

"We have one cannon operational. Well, it doesn't really work right now, but I can fix it." I hear his sigh. "That being said, we only have one shot at best. And the thing is stuck so we can't really pick where we shoot. Not that the targeting computers work anyways..."

"So in other words, it won't help."

"Not necessarily commander Falcon." I hear Luna speaking out. "I can create a one way portal from above the cannon to wherever it will be needed. Somepony will have to mark the target for me though. I will create a signal rune and give it to you but how you get it to the necessary place is up to you."

A plan quickly formed itself in my head. "That's good. I have someone who can handle this. Falcon out." I turn off the comm-link and turn back to the HK's show.

A week has passed since then. For the entire time of preparations I've left the Element's training to Tracker while I focused all my attention on preparing for the fight itself. Now it was time to put all that preparing to the test.

According to our allies from Lucid's hive, Chrysalis has already moved her changelings out. Their attack will start in two to three days, and that means it's time for us to move out and get everything ready. Me Lucid and Shaw have loaded the gunship with all the equipment we could manage to fit in and took off to the hive. That is not everything we plan bring, but one flight would not be enough.

"Lucid, how far away are we?" I ask the joiner in the back of the gunship as I pilot it. He's been absorbed in conversing within the hive-mind for most of the flight.

It takes him a short while to snap out of the trance he's been in. "If not for this machine I would say we still have at least a day of traveling to look forward to. But looking at how fast we travel, I think we'll be there in about 10 minutes. The cave where my hive resides is somewhat hidden so I will tell you when to land."

"Good. Any news about Chrysalis?"

"They're moving at the pace you predicted. The village that was in their way has been burned to the ground."

"Good thing that Luna evacuated it."

"You think Celestia might take this seriously now?" Shaw speaks up.

"Doubt it. There were hundreds of wounded and 26 dead after the attack on Canterlot and she still tried to make piece with Chrysalis. I don't think one small village that was evacuated will be enough to push her into acting accordingly."

The joiner sighed. "I'm glad we managed to get your help. You have no idea how grateful the Hive is for what you're doing."

"And to think we shouldn't be getting involved in any local conflicts..." I muttered to myself. "Shaw, you got this list ready?"

"Almost. But it's not like I'll need that stuff in an hour. There is enough for me to do as it is."

"Don't underestimate the speed with which a group of workers can operate." Lucid cut in.

"We'll see about that. But anyways, make sure to bring Twilight here. Having someone to help with coordinating everything will be a huge help."

"Really? I thought you just wanted to get some time alone with her."

"O-Of course not! She's nothing more then a good friend!" Shaw argued.

"Who said anything about you two being more then friends?" He suddenly went silent after my response. "Admit it already. You have a thing for her."

"I can confirm that." Lucid cut in again. "I can definitely sense intense emotions that are struggling to surface in both of them." Shaw just sat there silently.

It took him some time before answering again. "Blast it... What am I suppose to do with this..." Seems like he finally stopped denying it.

"Just go for it." He starts to stare at my back. "As long as you won't let that interfere with your performance I have no problems with it. Hell, as far as I can see having someone like that will be beneficial to you. And from what I know there are no rules that directly prevent us from getting romantically involved. Not that it would matter here."

"Speaking from experience, sir?" he chuckled.

"Who knows..."

Shaw took a deep breath and sighed. "Fine. I'll try to do something about it. But only after we deal with this Chrysalis."

Soon enough we reached our destination. I landed the LAAT in front of the cave entrance and had everyone leave the gunship. I looked around the empty area. The entrance into the cave was pretty wide and I could see several tunnels that drill into the mountain. The whole place was surrounded by cliffs from left and right. The only ground way to get here was through a forest that spreads directly in front of the cave.

"No welcoming committee?" I turn towards Lucid. As I expected, he is already deeply connected to the hive mind and unloading the gunship with magic.

"We are not sure what you mean by this."

"Doesn't matter I guess. Shaw knows the whole battle plan so I'm going to leave the preparations for him to handle while I move the rest of our equipment here. Help him the best you can, alright?"

"It shall be done. We leave ourselves in your capable..." Lucid seems to focus on my hands. "...digits."

"Hands... Those are hands..." I turn towards Shaw. "Alright, I'll be leaving now. Do your best friend." He passes me the list he's been making throughout the flight here. "I'll bring your girlfriend here." I say as I undoubtedly leave him with a massive blush hidden behind his helmet.

Within the next couple of hours I moved all equipment and personnel to the hive. Almost all. Applejack and Sakri were still waiting in Ponyville. The farmer was supposed to go there couple of supply runs before, but for some reason she was hesitant and started making up excuses just to delay going to the hive.

I decided to land directly in front of her apple farm and talk with her. I could see Applebloom and her two friends waving from their little clubhouse in the middle of the orchard as I flew above it. Applejack's brother and grandmother were outside, looking at the gunship with a mixture of surprise and weariness.

They were probably afraid of me landing on something important. I made sure to land away from apple trees and anything they might find important.

After I settle the gunship on the ground, I open the cockpit and jump out of the pilot seat. "Hello there."

"Are ya lookin' for Applejack?" The older mare asks and I nod in response. "She's sittin' behind the house. Dunno why, but she's been thinkin' 'bout somethin' for a while now." The mare lets out a sigh. "Ya sure you can't tell us where yer taking mah granddaughter and son-in-law?"

"Unfortunately, no. But don't worry, they'll both be back in one piece. I'll make sure of it."

"Ya better do... Otherwise ya'll have one angry granny out to get ya, sonny."

"Heh, I'll keep that in mind."

I leave the two just as three fillies run out of the orchard. Like Granny Smith said, Applejack is sitting by herself on a swing behind her house. I remove my helmet and approache her. "What's wrong?" I spoke up to get her attention. Apparently a gunship landing in front of your house is not enough to have her stop thinking.

She looks up at me. "Oh, it's ya Falcon. Is it time to go already?" I nodded. "Eh... Well, guess there's no delayin' it anymore, huh?"

"We're not in that much of a hurry." I sat on a swing beside the one she was sitting on. "You gonna tell me what's wrong or should I guess?"

She stayed silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "Ah guess Ah'm nervous... About several things." She sighed. "Ah know others are nervous too, Ah mean, we'll be fighting changelings again. But that's not what Ah'm worried about..." She bit her lip. "It's about my Ma... and youngest sister."

"What about them?"

"I dunno... Part of me is happy that Ah'll be able to see them... Hell, it feels like I'm turning into Pinkie at times. But then I start thinking... And Ah realize that Ma's been in a comma for the past years and Ah've never even seen my sister... Ah feel like Ah'll just end up being a stranger to them. Ah know it's dumb and all. We're family, how can we be strangers, right? But still... Ah..." She sighs deeply again. "Ya have any thoughts 'bout this?"

"You have no idea how many times I've been thinking like you're thinking now." I straighten my back and cross my hands in front of me. "Back when I was still a cadet on Camino I've been thinking about it a lot. I think it started when I saw the tanks with all those clones inside for the first time. Thousands upon thousands of tanks with the exact copy of me in each of them..." Now it is my turn to sigh.

"I've been calling other cadets in my class brothers, but what it really meant? There were hundreds of thousands of us there, each with the same face, voice... So I started thinking about it a lot. What it means to be family? Can I really call all of them my brothers?"

"And? You got the answer?"

"Eventually. It was during the first battle of the clone army. The one that started the whole war. Battle of Geonosis." I started to rub my eyes. "This was hands down one of the biggest failures of our side. We might have won, but the losses were astronomical. The whole battle plan was crude and flawed. We were fighting in open spaces with zero cover. And on top of that, they made Jedi into leaders just because they could use the force I guess.

Don't get me wrong here. I think that most Jedi became excellent leaders after the war started, but during battle of Geonosis they were just... stupid." My hand pressed against my forehead. "They were peacekeepers, not warriors. They still technically are, and at the time they had absolutely zero idea on how to lead troops. They had us charge directly at the enemy positions with no idea how that would end up. That plan might have worked if they were leading an army of lightsaber welding Jedi instead of a bunch of normal people with blasters.

The whole battle didn't even have a real objective. It was just 'kill this old fuck, maybe it will stop the war'. It was then that I realized something. As I looked around and saw all those people with the same face and voice as me, die in thousands for no reason, something came to me. I thought, 'I don't want them to die like this'. After that I decided to yell down the stupid Jedi that's been leading us straight to our death and took over command of the squad that was assigned to him."

I jump off the swing and turn towards her. "In that moment I accepted all of them as my family. I might not know every single one of them and I never will, but I would rather die then let them all down. 'You don't choose your family, the family chooses you' as Sakri's master once said. And as far as I can tell, you have two people you share blood with in danger of getting slaughtered by a power-hungry bug and her army. What are you gonna do about this?"

She simply smils at me. "Thanks commander. I needed that." The mare gets off the swing and walks alongside me towards the gunship. "You are surprisingly caring for someone 'bread for war'."

"One of my many charms." I jump back into the cockpit as Applejack says goodbyes to her family and gets inside.

"Am I the last one left?" She asks from the back.

"No, Sakri is still somewhere around. Can't find her anywhere though and she's not answering my calls." I decide to try again. "Sakri, this is Falcon, do you copy?" As before, no answer. "Eh, Twilight said she gave her a gift and she was so happy that she went of somewhere to play with it."

"Did you check in the warehouse?"

"Yeah, she's not there. She never liked being in confined spaces anyways." I start to think. "Hmm... maybe Twilight will know more." I switch the communicator to contact Twilight. "Twilight, this is Falcon, do you copy?"

"I hear you loud and clear, sir. How can I help you?" She answers after a short moment.

"I'm looking for Sakri right now, you have any idea where might she be?"

"Perhaps..." She starts chuckling for some reason. "When I said she went of somewhere I actually meant that she's practicing the use of a little toy I made for her."

"You're not helping Sparkle. You gonna tell me where she is or not?"

"How about you sit down and let the Force run through you? You might sense her if you try. Think of it as part of your training." She starts chuckling again.

"Training, huh? Well I've got training for you too." I could almost hear sweat running down her face. "You're gonna be doing push-ups until I get back there with Sakri. And I will allow myself to remind you that you currently have an entire hive of changelings watching you, and I will ask them if you took even a slightest break. Now start pushing!" I disconnect, not letting her talk back.

"Ya gonna try this sugarcube?"

"Might as well. Gotta put all that spiritual training to use one day, right? Might as well be now." I close the cockpit and take a deep breath as I lean against the back of the seat. I close my eyes and spread arms on my legs. After another deep breath I concentrate, just the way Twilight and Luna have been teaching me.

It doesn't take long for my senses to become unnaturally sharp. I can easily hear Applejack's heartbeat, but that's not what I'm looking for right now. Where could this damn women be... I think to myself, and just as I begin thinking about her, I feel a gentle tug from the direction of Fluttershy's cottage. "Alright I think I have her."

I immediately start the engines and get the gunship off the ground. Fluttershy's place is rather far away from the town but with LAAT it takes less then a minute to get there. Applejack stays quiet for the whole ride, probably went back to thinking.

Once we close in on Flattershy's cottage I quickly spot a blue flare moving fast around the large flat area behind the building. That's probably Sakri doing some lightsaber practice.

I land the gunship in front of the cottage and leave the cockpit. "Wait for me here Applejack, I'll go get her." The mare nods and goes back to thinking while I start to calmly walk in Sakri's direction. However once I get closer, I quickly notice something out of place in Sakri's appearance. My pace increased without me even realizing it.

Soon enough Sakri notices me and waves her hand at me. Her right hand. The one Grievous cut off... "Hey Falcon! Look at that!" She starts to juggle several rocks with just her right hand to show off. I quickly notice that the hand in question in much different than what a normal hand looks like.

For starters, it's partly transparent. It glows with a light blue light, but i can clearly see through it. In that regard it looks similar to a unicorn's magic aura. There is also a metal bracelet-like thing attached to the tip of her natural hand, covering the stump Grievous left her with. "What the hell is this?"

She laughs in response, still joggling rocks in one hand. "Neat, huh? Twi made it for me and taught how to use it. She said it works by using my natural magic reserves to create 'hardened magic'. It takes some focus to create that hand, but it works and feels like a real thing!"

"'Real thing' my ass. You realize you just dropped all rocks and are now joggling air, right?"

She looks at her hand, which as I said is now joggling nothing. "Hehe, it happens sometimes. For some reason non-organic matter can slip through it if I don't focus enough. No problems with my lightsaber or organic stuff though." She looks at me and suddenly smirks. And I don't like it when she smirks like that. "Actually, that gives ma an idea..."

Her smirk only widens as she starts to approach me. Before I can react, she uses her Jedi speed to get in close and presses her new hand against my crotch. The hand naturally bypasses the armor and grabs her target. "What the hell are you doing!?" I scream as I jump back, blushing madly.

Surprisingly, as I look at her a blush quickly spreads on her face too. "That felt warmer then I expected..." She moves her magic hand to her face and starts to sniff it.

"Don't sniff it you damn pervert!"

"Nah, this thing doesn't smell like anything no matter what I do..." Her smirk returns again, though her blush doesn't disappear. "Guess I'll have to go with alternative methods..."

"Maybe after we're back... Right now we kinda have a battle to win..."

"Oh, right. I completely forgot about it." She approaches me again, this time without her smirk, just a genuine, soft smile. "And since we probably won't have an opportunity to do this for a few days..." She grabs my helmet with both hand and takes it off.

She drops it on the ground and jumps hungrily onto my lips.

"Commander, this is Tracker."

"I copy. What's the mission status?"

"I have a visual on enemy forces. They are currently resting. I can't get close enough to tell their exact number though. I was already almost spotted by a patrol.

"Any signs of Chrysalis?"

"I've seen her few times but I had no opportunity to take her out. Should I stay and observe them?

"No, get back here. You'll be needed tomorrow during the battle. Falcon out." I disconnect the comm-link as I stare into the night sky.

Author's Note

Soooo... It's been a while...
Sorry, but I kinda spent about 400 hours listening to highschool kids yelling 'Persona!' throughout last couple of months... And you could say I'm still not sick of it and want more...

Song of the day: Any Given Day - Diamonds

1. Udow Assault

--Chapter 1--
Udow Assault

Republic warship ‘Intrepid’ flew above the surface of planet Udow-2, a mining world recently taken back from Separatist forces that was taken over near the beginning of the war. On the surface, soldiers from 144th Attack Battalion rested after the recent battle over the main mining complex. Some of them were already being send back on the cruiser above them so they can be redeployed to another part of galaxy.

Planet Udow-2 was a dead rock with no atmosphere, there was nothing alive on the planet except for the clone army. All clones needed to wear suits prepared to deal with that kind of environment, their armors were covered by black paintings –trade mark for the battalion- and were also equipped with oxygen tanks. The armors were additionally shielded from long term exposure to vacuum and the dust that covered the planet.

The dust was a great problem for the army, as the small, sharp ended remains of rocks could easily cut through standard body suits clones wore and made it hard for the vehicles to move.

Planet’s gravitation was also much smaller than on most inhabited worlds and clones could effortlessly jump much higher than they normally would be able to. And if they ever needed to get into the air, most of them were also equipped with short range jetpacks on their backs.

One of clones sent back to war was Commander CR-4451, or as he preferred – Falcon. As he approached the LAAT gunship, Commander walked between tents in the camp, observing the troops in it. Some of them saluted him, while others were too busy with other things to notice him walk by. Just before he reached the landing pad, where the gunship he was supposed to fly in was standing, he stopped in front of the medical tent.

Inside he could observe medical droids and a Jedi healer taking care of wounded clones. Some of them lost their limbs in explosions, others were shot by droids and few suffered from their equipment malfunctioning.

He sighed underneath his helmet. No matter how many times he would see one of his brothers die or get hurt, he always felt that inner pain. As if a part of him died. He could put on a stoic face and just keep going, but more than often he found himself in situations like now.

Eventually he gathered himself up and moved on to the gunship. It didn’t take him long to reach his target. He was greeted with salutes by other clones who were getting sent along with him. “Pilot, you can take off.” He said.

Pilot didn’t respond, but followed the command. The gunship took off, making dry dust of the mining world fly around the landing zone. The pilot sealed the gunship’s door to prevent the dust from getting inside. Soon after oxygen was pumped into the gunship, Falcon took off his helmet, followed by other troopers. “Eh, finally. I was getting tired of that rock.” One of clones said.

“You’re not the only one, Shaw.” Falcon responded. “Hopefully wherever they’re sending us to this time will be more than just a dead rock.”

“Might be a dead rock on the outside, but did you see what it holds underneath? All the minerals underground could create a second droid army for Separatists. We can’t let them get away with that.” A voice that didn’t belong to a clone rang around the gunship. All clones turned in the direction of the voice and faced their Jedi General Heskri, a Zabrak with an unmatched skill in using the Force to stay hidden from eyes of those around him.

Immediately all soldiers in the ship saluted him.

“With all due respect sir, I hate it when you do that.” Falcon said.

“I know, but someone has to lighten up the mood.” General replied with his trademark smile. He was wearing an armor similar to those clones wore –including black paintings- but where they wore black body suits, he wore a brown robe. His lightsaber was hanging on his belt.

Like most Zabraks, General’s face was covered in tattoos. Tattoos were part of Zabrak culture and often held a meaning, such as a family or clan they come from. However in General’s case, they held no such meaning as he was taken to the Jedi Temple as a child, before he received his tattoos.

He was over 50 years old and had a relatively large and muscular build, not anything extraordinary, but he was still noticeably higher and more muscular than clones were. Though, despite having a look of a warrior, Heskri has built his reputation not with his blade, but his power in the Force.

It didn’t take the gunship long to reach the cruiser. Along with them, few other gunships flew into the hangar. They were the last group that was to be sent off world and shortly after they landed the hangar was sealed. Commander Falcon and General Heskri slowly made their way to the bridge, filling the time with a chatter.

Falcon as well as other troopers respected the general, but Commander’s bound with Jedi Master went a bit deeper than that, as they both considered each other friends. It may not be anything unusual –he knew other clones who were friends with their generals, like Capitan Rex- but still, it made some clones in the battalion jealous. During their many talks, Falcon got to know quite a lot about the Jedi Order and on occasions Heskri would began to lecture him about the Force.

Sometimes Falcon thought he treated him like his Padawan. Which might not be far from true, as general himself admitted how much he loves to teach others. A fact supported by how many students he has trained in his career –his currant Padawan was waiting for them on the bridge.

They reached the turbolift that took them to the bridge, where they were greeted by bridge officers and General Heskri’s Padawan – Sakri Fashov. She was a young woman, only 17 years old. Her hair were deep red and reached down to her shoulders. A long plait rested on her shoulder, showing her padawan status. Her body was slender and she was very low, only 1,56m. “Master.” She bowed with respect and turned to face Falcon. “Hello Commander.” She said with a smile.

Unlike her master, Sakri wore more traditional Jedi robes. Like her master she carried one lightsaber, but in contrast, she was more focused on using it than he was. Which didn’t necessarily mean she was better in fighting with it. Even though Heskri was not a focused dualist, he still held much more fighting experience than his young pupil.

Like with Heskri, Falcon and Sakri developed a friendship between each other. “How’s your score?” She asked with a competing vibe in her voice.

“After I blew up that tank? I’d say I’m a good few point ahead of you.”

“No, I get points for that one. If I haven’t redirected that grenade it would fly over the tank and into that group of droids behind.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault that gravity is so low on this planet. And still, it was my grenade. And that group of clankers was worth at least as much as that tank.” He argued.

“But you didn’t blew them up did you?” A smug appeared on her face. “Just admit I’ve beat you again.”

Falcon struggled to find an argument, but he had nothing. “Eh, alright, you won this time. But that was the last time, I’m gonna beat you next time.” He said full of confidence.

A smug remained imprinted on her face, if anything it got bigger. “That’s what I heard the last time, and that time before that too, and if I’m not mistaken you’ve never beaten me in that game, am I right master?” She turned to where her master stood before, but he was not there anymore. He was standing on the other side of the bridge, clearly not interested in listening to them argue again.

‘Intrepid’ had already left the planet and joined two other warships on orbit. They were supposed to guard the planet until Republic will resume mining operations and establish a base on the surface. “Sir, we are ready for the hyperspace jump.” One of bridge officers said.

“Proceed.” General responded. The officer did as he was told. In the matter of seconds, the cruiser left the system.

Or at least that was what it was supposed to do.

Instead, an explosion ranged through the entire warship. All lights turned red, indicating that backup generator was on. General was almost thrown off his feet, but managed to keep himself standing thanks to the Force. “What’s the status!?” He yelled to the closest officer.

“Explosion from the inside sir, all systems are out! Apos-1 and 2 report the same.” The officer answered after a moment.

From the other side of the bridge another officer called out. “Sir! We have 4 enemy ships coming out of hyperspace!” In the same moment, 3 Munificent-class frigates and Providence-class destroyer appeared in front of the Republic ships and begun to fire.

With barely any shields protecting the ships, the damage caused by Seperatist’s ships would completely destroy the cruiser if no one did anything. “Reset all systems and deploy starfighters, all power to the shields. Falcon, Sakri. I want you two to check this explosion.” General ordered.

“The explosion came from the maintenance level, block 7.”Another officer said. “We have no answer from engineers and cameras are not working.”

Sakri and Falcon nodded and run off from the bridge and to the turbolift. The clone commander checked his DC-15s rifle, turning the safety off and preparing it for a fight. His helmet was back on his head.

Meanwhile on the bridge, Master Heskri slowly rested on his knees, reaching out to the pilots and bridge officers on all 3 ships with the Force. He pushed everything else from his mind, they were his only interest now. He could feel their fears and courage, their focus on the battle and hate for the enemy. He gently pulled the strings of the Force, clearing their minds while simultaneously influencing the enemy.

He couldn’t do much about droids, their mechanic minds were beyond his influence, but he could feel a life amongst the army of machines.

A faint spark of life, filled with pure hate and anger.

Turbolift touched down in the maintenance level. Immediately, Falcon run out with his blaster ready. Sakri was not far behind, her lightsaber was held turned off in her hand. There was no one to be seen on the level and lights were off. Falcon turned on the flashlights on his helmet’s sides, providing them both with light. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” He commented.

The clone moved his hand to the communicator on his wrist. “Engineering team, this is Commander Falcon, do you copy?” He received no answer.

Sakri ignited her lightsaber. A blue flare of light shoot out of the emitter, forming a blade. “Let’s go, I sense something in the room ahead.”

They begun to slowly walk through the empty hallway. Commander held his rifle ready as he scanned the surrounding area. Sakri was ready to fight as well, her blade was held in a defensive manner, with the hilt held down on her left side and blade extended upwards towards her right shoulder, slightly forward.

The hallway was filled with dead silence, broken only by their steps. Sakri approached the door to main computer room. Before, she felt a faint disturbance, but now that she was closer she could clearly feel that something was moving there.

And that it was not alive. “Droids…” she muttered just loud enough for Falcon to hear.

She looked at the clone, giving him a look that spoke ‘get ready’. And so he did, he took an ion detonator from his belt and stayed on the left side of the door, ready to throw the detonator inside.

Sakri stood on the door’s right side, where the control panel was located, ready to open the door and burst inside. She held her left hand on the panel, waiting for Falcon to give her a signal. The clone held his finger on the detonator’s safety, he nodded to Sakri and in the instant she opened the door. Falcon threw the detonator inside, soon the explosion followed, frying every unshielded machine inside.

Sakri was the first to run inside and immediately was met with a blaster bolt aimed at her head coming from the inside. Before even identifying the shooter, she brought her lightsaber up, deflecting the bolt back where it came from.

In a blink of an eye she scanned the room and the opponents inside. The shooter was a single Droideka droid. It’s shields were turned on, successfully protecting it from both Falcon’s detonator’s discharge and the deflected blaster bolt. Few B1 Droids lied on the floor with their circuits fried. Deeper inside the room two BX Commando Droids were rebooting their systems after the discharge.

Another bolt was sent at her. She brought her sword to block it much like the first one, but this time aiming at the droids behind. She missed, but another shoot made to the droid’s chest. Luckily for the droid, it’s armor was tough enough to take the shoot.

Shortly after Sakri run inside the room, Falcon followed her. Hiding behind the protection of her lightsaber, the clone aimed at one of commando droids. With one good shot in the head, he removed the droid from the fight. There was however no time to celebrate, as two other commando droids attacked them from the left.

Sakri was barely fast enough to deflect the blaster bolt before it hit Falcon and the clone was quick to hide behind computer console before returning fire. He fired a quick series of shots into the closest droid, two shots hit the target, stopping the droid for a moment before it targeted him again, forcing him to take cover.

Young padawan was barely able to deflect all blaster bolts that were coming her way. She had no time to focus on deflecting them back to the shooters, and neither could she leave her current position. Falcon was quick to change that, he picked another grenade and with a gentle move rolled it in direction of droideka.

The biggest flaw of droideka’s shields was their inability to block slow moving targets. A flaw that Falcon just took advantage of.

In a matter of seconds, the grenade detonated with a blast of energy, successfully frying the droid’s circuits and stunning a nearby commando droid. Now free of two shooters, Sakri was able to focus on taking more aggressive approach. She redirected one of blaster bolts back where it came from, destroying the droid’s rifle.

In the same moment Falcon fired another series of shots at the two droids, destroying one and leaving the other with a burn mark on it’s head. Sakri wasted no time and with a quick move cut the droid in half.

The last functioning droid in the room threw away it’s blaster and charged at commander with the vibrosword. Falcon quickly followed the example, throwing his blaster aside and reaching for the forcepike on his belt. Forcepikes weren’t the type of weapons associated with Republic’s clones, at least not the ones fighting on the battlefield, but Falcon grew to like the weapon after his brief time in Coruscant police.

The pike was designed for dealing with local thugs in a non-lethat way, but as Falcon found out, at maximum power settings it was also doing pretty well with frying droids. It was of course no match for a lightsaber, but thanks to the energy coming through the weapon it could withstand an attack with such a weapon.

Something that Sakri found very useful, as it allowed her to practice her swordplay when her master was not around (The fact the she beats him every single time has absolutely nothing to do with it). This allowed Falcon to pick up some skills other than mindless swinging the weapon around.

The droid approached him with the blade held high, ready to bring it down at the clone. Falcon blocked the attack and immediately kicked the droid in the chest. The commando quickly got prepared for another attack…

…but his head was removed by a lightsaber before he got a chance to perform it.

Falcon turned his pike off and picked up his rifle as Sakri attached her lightsaber to her belt. “I guess that explains the explosion.” She opened the computer console. “They infected the computer and overloaded the engines, hyperspace still works but it will just jump to the random location.”

“We can fix that later, now I’d rather find out how did we let those droids onboard.” Falcon reached to the comlink on his wrist. “General, this is Commander Falcon, do you copy?” In answer he received nothing. “Blast it, those droids must have placed a jammer somewhere around.”

“Than let’s go to the bridge on foot and inform him.” Sakri said. “No, forget that. Droids sealed all ways out of this level and turned off turbolifts, we’re on our own.”

“It just keeps getting better and better... There’s no way to tell how many droids are on this ship and with no inner communications we can’t inform anyone, not to mention that there might be more traps droids have set, we must find that jammer and get some help here.” Falcon replied.

“Alright, let’s go, there’s no time to lose. I think I have an idea where to find this jammer, movement sensors show a lot of activity around the main reactor.”

Not saying anything more, Sakri left the room, followed by Falcon who stopped for a moment to finish the last commando droid who was crawling towards the blaster.

Even despite the warship being over a kilometer long, they both knew it’s entire schematic. After a short time of running through the dark hallways and a occasional droid or two they almost reached the reactor, but stopped behind the sealed entrance. Falcon moved to the door console, in attempt to slice it but Sakri stopped him before he touched the panel. “What is it?” He said

She pointed at the ventilation vent above their heads. “I’ll go there and open the door from the other side. Those droids we met before might have alarmed their friends that we’re coming.” Falcon nodded in agreement.

Using the Force, Sakri opened the vent and jumped into the venting system. Her small size allowed her to move in tight space without any problems. Not waiting any second, she begun moving towards the generator. She was using the Force to silence her moves the way her master thought her. Even though she was nowhere near the skill level of elder Zabrak, thanks to his training she was rather comfortable with the ability.

Once she reached the end of the shaft she quietly opened the vent and looked around. There were less droids in the room than she anticipated.

Which doesn’t mean the situation was good.

5 B1 droids, 4 commandos, droideka and a MagnaGuard. All droids were positioned around what looked like a jammer, each prepared for a fight with weapons aimed at the door and ready to fire. Neither have noticed her but if she leaves the vent it will just be a matter of time before their sensors pick up her presence.

It was clear they had no chance in this fight. Her master thought her a lot about blaster deflection but her skills were not enough to protect herself and Falcon from 10 droids shooting at them while fighting against the MagnaGuard.

She silently closed the vent and retreated back to Falcon’s position. He was resting on his knee with his blaster ready to open fire. “Falcon.” She quietly called out from the vent, getting his attention. “We’ve got a problem, there’s too many of them to fight without help and they know we’re coming.”

“Great, what are we doing then?”

They both stayed silent, thinking about the solution. “You have any grenades left?”

“Only one termo detonator. But we risk damaging the generator if we use this.” He said as he pulled the grenade out.

“It’s not like we have much choice. Give me that.” Falcon threw the grenade into the vent. Sakri caught it and went back to the generator. She looked at the droids again. They were still motionlessly standing in the same positions. She placed the detonator on the edge of the vent and using the force levitated it up.

The detonator slowly moved across the room, closing in to the droids. Once it was close enough, Sakri begun a countdown to the explosion. First droid to notice the grenade was one of commandos, but before it could react properly, one of B1s picked the detonator up and despite it’s comrade’s protests, foolishly held the device in metallic hand when it went off.

Immediately all droids around the jammer and the jammer itself were struck with intense wave of heat. Their armors were melted and the parts that survived the explosion were spread all around. Luckily the generator didn’t got hit badly and it’s shielding was able to absorb the damage.

Satisfied with the job well done, Sakri left her hiding spot and walked over to the door panel. Within moments the door were opened and a clone commander walked in. “So, I guess that any doubt about my victory have disappeared?” She said with a grin.

Falcon didn’t answer, instead he pulled out his blaster pistol and shot behind her. Immediately, Sakri turned around to see what was he shooting at. And it was legless MagnaGuard with a electro-staff in hand and smoking hole in head. “Could you remind me how many points were MagnaGuards worth?” He said with a smug hidden underneath his helmet.

Sakri was about to say something but before she did, Falcon’s communicator spoke up. “This is general Heskri to all troops, the ship is being boarded! I repeat, the ship is being boarded! Prepare to engage the enemy!”

Princess Luna, the mistress of night, ruler of darkness, sat on top of a small hill on her lunar kingdom. Her ethereal mane melted into the space’s emptiness, leaving only a faint blue aura visible. Her eyes were closed and breathing slow as she listened to the absolute silence that surrounded her.

But it was during such silence when she could hear the most. Every dream, every fear, every nightmare could be heard from here. And she listened closely, focusing on her ponies, her loyal subjects. She knew she couldn’t hope they would ever see her as they see her sister. Not after Nightmare Moon. But she knew she had to show them than now she is not the monster she once was. A monster she herself created.

And that was one of the ways she did this. By keeping their dreams safe.

But this night was different, there was something else that she sensed. Not a pony, not a griffon and not a minotaur, but alive and thinking like all of them.

She opened her eyes and looked upon the stars. She didn’t know what, but something was coming.

Blaster bolts flew through the corridor. Group of battle droids continued to push forward, without any hesitation exterminating clones who were trying to push them back. They didn’t stop to think about any of killed soldiers, they didn’t care. Their only concern was their only order: Kill. And they intended to fulfill it to the letter.

Another two droids fell to blue bolts of clone’s blasters, immediately two more replaced their position. Clone who shot down the droids tried to hide behind the cover, but a blaster bolt to the chest ended his attempt prematurely and threw him on the ground. Droid’s mindless charge continued, as clones were being pushed back. Soon they passed the clone lying on the ground, seemingly dead.

But he wasn’t. With a weak pull, he grabbed the thermal detonator from his belt and moved the grenade to his face. He moved his thumb to the safety button and pressed it.

But before the explosion was triggered, he saw a flash of yellow light severing his hand from the rest of his body. He could barely muster as much as a groan when he watched a metal hand picking up the detonator with blinding speed.

He then helplessly watched as the detonator flies towards his brothers. Some tried to run, but they were too slow to avoid death in flames.

“I must say, I was always slightly jealous that Jedi have such a group of warriors at their disposal,” The clone heard a mechanical voice from behind. “while I have to deal with this bunch of incompetent droids.” He was too weak to fight back as he was grabbed by the neck and brought up the yellow eyes of no one else, than the infamous General Grievous.

“They are however good for mindless storms like that one as you can see.” The grip around clone’s neck tightened. A sole B1 Command droid approached the General as the wounded soldier struggled to breath.

“General, squads 3 , 11, 14 and 16 is pushing Jedi and his group to the bridge.”

“Continue pushing forward, kill everything on your way, but leave Jedi to me.” Grievous said as clone’s neck snapped.

*THUD* ”Done!” Sakri informed Falcon who was busy shooting to droideka on the other end of the hallway. Two B1s soon joined the droid and opened fire at the clone hiding behind the cover of a supply crate.

“About a blasted time!” He screamed. Sakri run in front of him, taking droid’s fire on herself while he retreated to the turbolift, now reopened by a lightsaber. He attached a grappling hook to the bottom of his rifle. Seeing him point the rifle above, Sakri begun to move back. When Falcon shoot the hook, she grabbed his hand and they both were pulled up.

Unfortunately the hook hadn’t hit as high as they would like it to. When they reached the end of the line they were forced to grab onto something and try again. But before Falcon managed to shoot the hook again, he felt the overwhelming pain coming from his leg. He screamed as he lost grasp on his blaster. He would have fell down along with his weapon if Sakri hadn’t managed to catch him in time.

Sakri look down to see two B1 with blasters pointed at them. Falcon’s weapon hit one of droids in the head, making it loose balance and fall over, accidently shooting at its companion and destroying it. She focused on one of metal plates covering the turbolift’s shaft, tearing it away from the wall and letting it fall on the remaining droid.

She looked at the clone. “Are you alright?”

He looked back at her. “I’ll live.” He grabbed the pipe inside of the shaft. Then he reached to his first aid kit and pulled a small medpac out of it. “Let’s go.” He said after applying bacta to his leg. It wasn’t enough to heal his leg but it would null the pain for more than enough time.

They slowly moved up the shaft, Sakri clearly having easier time doing so than Falcon. She begun to use the Force to aid the clone in the task and thanks to her help he was at least able to keep up with her, but they were still moving slowly. He could technically use his jetpack to fly up, but using it in such a tight passage was dangerous, so he limited it’s use to occasionally support himself in making a jump up that he couldn’t normally perform; Sakri of course had no such problems. Falcon looked up. “This is going to take a while.”

General Heskri brought his green bladed lightsaber up to deflect another red blaster bolt, sending it into the arm of B1 droid who was slowly walking towards him from the left as another group marched from ahead. The droid was immediately smashed aside by Super Battle Droid who shot a quick series of shots aimed at the clone few meters behind the general. General deflected all shots but only 2 were brought back to the shooter, hitting the droid in the chest and arm where it’s main weapon was located.

After having its main weapon fried, the droid aimed the rocket launcher installed on its other arm at him. The droid fired the rocket at the Jedi, but before it made it as much as a half way through, Haskri raised his hand and concentrated on the object. With one quick move of his hand he redirected the flight path of the rocket, making it fly towards the other group of droids.

The rocket blew up two first lines of droids, but quickly more came in their place. There was seemingly no end to the droid’s wave. Boarding of the ship came unexpectedly, shortly after reports came about droids coming from supply crates in the main hangar communications were cut off and when they were restored, the bridge was informed about boarding parties attacking the ship, cutting them off from most of the clones that were defending the hangar.

He was currently trying to get back to the bridge to order the crew to fall back to the escape pods. The slicer was currently trying to slice the bridge’s door, while he and few clone soldiers desperately tried to push back the droids.

Suddenly he heard the door behind him opening. “General, we’re in!” The slicer yelled.

“Everyone, to the bridge!” Heskri begun to slowly walk backwards towards the now opened bridge, still deflecting as much blaster bolts as he could. However, one managed to slip past his defense and hit the clone trooper behind him in the shoulder.

The soldier fell on the ground with a scream, holding his wounded shoulder. Haskri used the Force to push him to the bridge where the rest of his brothers waited. With all clones inside, Haskri summoned a massive wave of the Force and pushed it towards the droids, making them all fall over. Then with a quick burst of speed, he run into the bridge, the entrance was immediately closed and sealed behind him.

The bridge was full of dead clones and bridge officers, as well as few destroyed droids. One of walls was pierced by a boarding capsule, explaining lack of communication with the bridge. There was no time to take care of the dead, he had to focus on those who lived. With that in mind he moved over to the main console. “Attention! Abandon the ship! I repeat, abandon the ship. Everyone move to the escape pods!” The console got overloaded the moment his message got through.

One of soldiers approached him. “Sir, all escape pods on the bridge were locked from the maintenance level, we can’t open them.”

General sighed, and then looked at the sealed door. He felt a presence behind them, the very same he felt before. Now that it was that close to him, he could without a doubt say who that was. “Then we fight, and show them what we’re made of.”

“Yes sir!”

All clones in the room took defensive positions and pointed their weapons at the sealed entrance, waiting for what was to come. Haskri ignited his lightsaber, holding it down in his right hand, slightly bending the blade towards left.

Shortly after that, 4 lightsaber blades pierced the sealed door and slowly forced the way for their owner. No, -Haskri thought- those weapons don’t belong to him, they never will. And in this moment the blades cut a round hole in the metal. Before they could be kicked out from the other side, Haskri released a powerful push that sent the piece of metal flying back.

Instantly droids on the other side opened fire, clones quickly following the suit. First droid entered the bridge, immediately being greeted by two blaster bolts to the chest. The second droid attempting to enter met the same fate, but the third one’s armor proved to be enough to shield two more droids’ entrance.

Using the short moment they had, each picked a clone as a target. The first one missed the clone and was quickly shot by the very clone it tried to kill. The second one had more luck, the blaster bolt from droid’s weapon hit the clone in the base of the neck. Following the clone’s death another droid run inside, BX Commando droid avoided a blaster bolt and fired one on its own. More droids quickly followed inside.

Haskri threw his still ignited lightsaber in direction of the Commando droid, defending himself from the blaster bolt coming his way with an extended hand protected with nothing more than the Force. Once his weapon removed the head of the droid he telekinetically changed the sword’s trajectory, destroying two more droids before summoning it back to his hand, immediately deflecting a blaster bolt aimed at his head towards the BX droid.

Before the droid could get back to killing, he crushed it into Super Battle Droid, taking both out of the fight, but not fast enough to save the clone targeted by the Super Battle Droid from the deadly beam of energy. What saved the clone though, was one of his brothers who pushed him away from the line of shot.

Haskri was always amazed by the bond of brotherhood between the clones. He always felt like Kaminoans weren’t giving then the credit they deserved, treating them as items rather than individuals.

Individuals who could work together and support each other to achieve far more than any other army in galactic history ever could. They might be clones, and for an outsider they were identical, but as someone who walked among them on daily bases, Haskri could tell each of the clones serving under him apart.

For him it was truly amazing how thousands of people who look the same could be so different from each other. Every single clone was different person, with different way of thinking that made them stand out from the rest.

What truly pained him though, was how often he was forced to watch them die.

But even amongst the clones there was one that stood out the most- Falcon. Since he first met the clone commander on Geonosis he knew something was different about him, something that none other clone possessed. He knew that Sakri could sense it too, they even talked about it with each other, but no matter how they tried they just couldn’t understand what made Falcon such a special clone.

His further thoughts on the matter were stopped as he heard the sound of two electrostaffs being turn on. Soon after that, two MagnaGuards stormed into the bridge, the tips of their staffs were sparking with electricity as the two quickly closed the distance between them and the Jedi, killing a clone along the way.

Before they reached him, Haskri ripped off the metal plate from the ceiling and threw it onto one of them. Quickly one droid was stopped in it’s tracks, deprived of it’s head. The other one charged at him and with a full force, and attacked with its staff. Haskri blocked the attack without much problem, quickly moving the blade to block an attack with the other tip of the staff. With a swift jump he threw an attack onto the droid, aiming for the head, but his attack was stopped by the droid’s electrostaff.

He begun to focus on creating a push that would shatter the droid’s components, but his concentration was broken when he was attacked from behind by a headless droid. He ducked under the attack, sending a one on his own. The droid spun it’s weapon around it’s hand and the lightsaber met the energy filled tip of the staff instead on the droid’s torso.

With a strong, force-supported move of an arm, he pushed the droid back as he turned back to the one with its head in its place. The droid held its staff over-head and brought it down on Haskri, who blocked the attack. With a move of his wrist he pushed the staff aside, making it block the attack coming from the second droid.

It was that moment that he became aware of clones screaming in agony as they were being cut down by 2 beams of lightning fast swords.

With another jump, Haskri stroke again, cutting of one of tips from the headless droid’s weapon. When he landed back on the ground, he attacked again, this time being blocked by the droid. The droid’s counter attack was quickly followed and Haskri ducked. With one more attack he removed legs from the head-intact droid, quickly moving his attention to the headless droid with his one tipped weapon. The droid tried to stab Haskri with its damaged staff but the Zabrak sidestepped. Now with an opening to explore, Haskri cut the droid in half and finished off the legless droid on the ground.

“I am disappointed.” He heard a mechanical voice saying. Immediately he turned around, only to see General Grievous with one hand held inside a still alive clone’s stomach. “The last Jedi defeated my droids in half the time you did. From your reputation I expected that you will be more of a challenge.” He lifted the clone above his head and not showing any sign of remorse or hesitation shoved his other hand into the clone. His robotic strength made it easy to rip through the armor and dig into clone’s flesh. Streams of blood run down from his mechanic arms and fell on his mask as the clone screamed in agony.

Then, with a fast move he ripped the clone in two, throwing the dead soldier’s body to Haskri. “I guess you won’t last as long as she did.” He said as he held the lightsaber in front of his blood-covered mask. Haskri immediately recognized the weapon’s design. It belonged to his first padawan -now Master- Yessa Kensu. She was supposed to be in Rishi Maze, tracking activities of Hutt crime boss who according to rumors was making deals with CIS.

The weapon’s hilt was a bit longer than a standard lightsaber as it held an additional feature. On the side opposite to the blade, it held a 6 meters long, metal whip, which could be charged with electricity to the point when it was able to resist lightsabers.

In a blink on an eye, Grievous extended the whip and attacked Haskri with it. Knowing how tricky blocking that type of weapon is, he ducked below the strike. But the moment he avoided the attack, Grievous quickly closed the distance and ignited the yellow lightsaber blade, smashing it onto the Zabrak.

Haskri managed to block it with his own weapon and immediately summoned the Force to push the cruel General back. Quickly recovering from the attack, Grievous pressed on the offence with the whip, but again Haskri dodged the attack . Then the Jedi ripped out the chair from the floor and threw it on Grievous who cut it in half with the lightsaber.

Not giving up on his attack, Haskri threw more objects at him, while keeping Grievous in place with constant wave of Force. Grievous wasn’t about to give up however as he dug claws on the bottom of his legs into the ground, keeping himself from being pushed back. Then he performed another attack using the whip. Haskri didn’t managed to dodge in time and the whip wrapped itself around his right arm and sending a high level of electricity through his body, forcing him to drop his lightsaber and stop his assault on Grievous.

Using the advantage, Grievous rushed towards the Jedi, still holding him with the whip. The droid general quickly aimed an attack on Jedi’s left hand, but he didn’t expect him to block the attack with his bare hand. Then -despite still being electrocuted- Haskri jumped behind Grievous and pulled the whip with his right hand.

His force augmented strength proved to be enough to rip the weapon out of Grievous’ grasp and send it to his own hand. He tried to attack his opponent from behind, but Greivous proved to be faster than he thought and he send a powerful kick towards Haskri, knocking him on the ground.

Haskri landed on his back and immediately was forced to block Grievous’ attack, as he lashed at him with two lightsabers, one blue and one green. He managed to block it, but the force of the strike was almost enough to break his arm. Grievous wasn’t about to stop however as he grasped Zabrak’s leg with his own, and threw him into the wall with enough force to break few of his ribs.

Before Greivous was able to get to him, Haskri ripped the pipe from the floor, directing it towards the droid general. A steam of hot gas was able to stop him for a short moment, but it gave Haskri enough time to regain his composure. Seeing that the Jedi had lost his lightsaber, Grievous turned his weapons off and attacked Haskri with his metal fist. He hoped this Jedi would at least proved to be of some challenge.

Haskri ducked, and the general’s fist hit the wall, making the metal bend backwards. Zabrak threw a punch on his own, aiming for Grievous’ head. He sent a wave of the Force along with the punch in attempt to push the General back, but he was already dug deep in the floor. The push only made his torso bend backwards, but he immediately bended back and headbutted Haskri in response.

The Jedi’s head hit the wall again, but was immediately grabbed by Grievous’ leg and smashed into the floor. Haskri had no strength left in him to fight back as he was being lifted by a neck. “I will admit, You were better than I gave you credit for, but it will not save you Jedi scum.” Grievous said as he loosened the grip around his neck and thrust his fingers into his throat.

“MASTER!!!” He heard Sakri scream before everything went black.

Sakri jumped on the other side of the shaft, grabbing the bottom of the turbolift. She ignited her lightsaber and cut the hole in the lift's floor. When the entrance was ready, she jumped inside and immediately turned around, extending her hand towards Falcon. The clone commander jumped from the wall and with the support of his jetpack reached Sakri’s hand.

When she felt Falcon’s grasp on her hand, Sakri pulled him up. The clone sighed heavily as he looked at the turbolift’s shaft below him. “Blast… that was one hell of a climb.” He said panting.

“Yeah…” Sakri replied also panting. “Let’s go, we have to get to the bridge.” She begun cutting another hole in the turbolift. After few seconds her blue blade burned a perfect circle in the blast door. With a small push of the Force, she removed a cut-out piece of metal from the rest of the door. She immediately turned back to Falcon. “Alright let’s-“ *PEW*PEW* She didn’t finish as Falcon pulled out his blaster pistol and fired two shots behind her with speed that would make most bounty hunters jealous.

In the instant, she turned around, only to see two B1s with burning marks on their heads. With a surprise on her face she turned back to Falcon. “Since when are you so quick on a draw?” She asked.

“I…I don’t know… Let’s just go, we can think about it later.” He replied and walked out of the turbolift, still holding the pistol in his hand. The entire corridor was full of destroyed droids lying around with many clones lying among them. Sakri quickly followed Falcon into the corridor, also holding her weapon ready for a fight.

And a fight quickly found them.

The instant they turned right to reach the bridge they were forced to take cover as a dozen droids were already waiting for them. Moment after noticing them, the droids opened fire. Sakri was able to deflect one bolt back towards Super Battle Droid, but it wasn’t enough to stop it from marching forward. Falcon fired two bolts at the droid, finally stopping it in its tracks.

After hiding behind a cover, Sakri levitated a grenade from a dead clone’s belt to her hand and threw it towards the group of droids. At the same time, another Super Battle Droid picked her as a target and fired a rocket towards her. She didn’t managed to react in time, but before the missile hit her, she felt something pulling her back to cover. Shortly after that two explosions shook the corridor. Sakri looked behind to see her savior.

Obviously, it was Falcon saving her life again. “Damn it, keep this up and I might kiss you.” She said playfully.

“I’ll take your word for it.” Falcon replied and leaned out to see the damage done by grenade. Most droids were blown to pieces but few remained and were ready to open fire when they saw him. Commander fired few shots onto the nearest B1 and disabled it. Sakri run out from the cover and rushed towards 3 remaining droids. They tried to shoot her, but Sakri was able to either dodge or deflect the incoming bolts.

Once she closed a distance, her lightsaber cut the first two droids in a single swing, the third droid she threw into the wall with the Force, completely shattering it’s components. Falcon quickly run out of cover and followed her as she entered the bridge.

And when she got there, her heart stopped.

“MASTER!!!” Grevious chuckled as he heard a voice –without a doubt this Jedi’s padawan- calling. He threw a dead Zabrak aside and turned around to see a young human female crying in front of the hole in the entrance that he had made. There was also a clone standing behind her with a blaster pistol held tightly in his hand as he looked at the bodies all over the room.

Without any warning, the clone fired from his pistol. Grievous laughed as he blocked the attacks with his lightsaber, though still acknowledging how fast he was pulling the trigger. A red-haired padawan than ignited her lightsaber and with a scream rushed towards him. The only droid in the room –MagnaGuard- stepped between them but the padawan jumped over it as she continued to run. Using a communicator in his head, general ordered the droid to kill the clone and live the girl for him to kill.

Once in range, the girl tried to kill him with an overhead slash. He had no problems with defending against that attack, and neither with any strike she made. He knew that she would be of no challenge for him and decided to just end this. With another blocked attack General pressed an offense with a serried of quick strikes.

The padawan barely blocked them but she had no way to defend herself when he kicked her in the stomach. The power of the kick sent her flying towards the wall and broke her ribs. She fell on the ground but was immediately pulled up by the hair and thrown again. This time she was smashed into a computer panel on the other side of the room.

Grevious looked at her unmoving body from the distance and slowly made his way to the lightsaber next to her body. However, he stopped when he realized something. The clone was still alive.

He looked at the soldier fighting against the droid using a force pike. He was surprised to say the least. IG-100 droids were designed by himself to engage Jedi, and yet here he was watching a clone keeping up with one despite being visibly injured and tired. Forgetting about collecting another trophy, he focused his attention on the fight before him.

The clone blocked a side strike of the droid and quickly countered it with his own attack. The droid blocked it but by doing so allowed the clone to make a shot with his blaster. The blue bolt of energy hit the droid’s shoulder, making it take a step back. Clone didn’t stop his offence and with a few strong strikes managed to break through the droid’s defense and his weapon made a contact with its head.

Powerful waves of electricity made its way through the pike to droid’s systems and continued to damage them as the clone kept his weapon on the droid. Soon a fried droid landed on the metal floor with a thud.

Before Grievous could do anything, he heard a padawan he thought was dead running towards him again. He turned to face her and ignited his lightsaber. Her face was bleeding from few places and she had a shard of glass in her forehead. She started the same way she did before, with an overhead slash. General could feel that most of her strength left her and with ease worked his way through her defenses.

He locked his blade with hers and with one precise move of his wrist, removed hand from her arm.

The girl screamed in pain but was quickly silenced when Grievous wrapped his hand around her throat and lifted her up. “You just couldn’t wait to die couldn’t you? I’ll make sure to make this as-“ His words were cut off when a force pike made a contact with his mask. He took a step back, dodging another strike, but this time kicking the attacker in the chest.

He looked at the clone as he gathered himself up and laughed, dropping the padawan next to her master’s body. “Most Jedi can’t even touch me before I kill them, and here I was hit by a clone, how interesting.” Grievous held his lightsaber in Makashi opening stance as he walked around the clone. “Well, what are you waiting for, show me what you can do!”

The clone didn’t hesitated to strike. Grievous knew that the soldier was aware that he couldn’t win this fight, and he was impressed by his courage, though it’s hard to expect lack of it from someone cloned from famous mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett. Still, Grievous was curious as to what the clone really was capable of.

General purposely held back, letting the clone press an offence. He recognized few moves from Jedi fighting techniques, but it was clear that he was weaker than the red-haired padawan. Grievous slowly moved back as the clone kept his assault. General finally had enough of this game and smashed his free hand info clone’s helmet. Following the punch he grabbed the back of his helmet and brought it down to his knee, smashing the thing in half.

Then he grabbed the clone’s throat and pressed him against the console, his lightsaber slowly moved closer to his cheek, burning a mark on it. “Any last words, clone.”

The soldier looked at him and replied. “You’re going down…” Grievous didn’t noticed his hand activating hyperspace drive before it was too late. He growled in anger before throwing the clone at the wall. Grievous activated second lightsaber and rushed to the window of the bridge as fast as his mechanic legs could carry him. Only seconds before hyperdrive was activated he cut an ‘x’ in the window and jumped through it.

Shortly after that, the warship disappeared from the sight, leaving a very angry General flying in space.

Luna opened her eyes again, this time much faster than before. She felt it again, the mysterious being she had sensed. It was closer now, much closer. She stood up and looked at the stars again, the being was getting closer with each second.

Then without any warning a massive object painted in white and red appeared out of nowhere. It was burning from many places and she could see numerous holes on its surface. It was also falling on her moon.

Fast.

Knowing that trying to stop it from falling was pointless, she teleported herself further away. She watched as the object crushed into the surface of her sanctuary. Upon hitting the surface it send the dust flying in every direction. She didn’t shielded herself from the dust, she just lifted her hoof and smashed it back on the ground. The moon in response listened to her command and the dust was pulled back to the ground before it could reach her.

She looked at the behemoth in front of her. She still could feel the presence. And she felt it inside of it. Hesitantly, Luna made the first step.

Author's Note

Song of a day: Disturbed - The Vengeful One

3. Secret Files

--Chapter 3--
Secret Files

FILE DESCRIPTION: Medical reports of group of unknown creatures. Creatures were brought to Canterlot Hospital by Princess Luna in following days: 09.06.2000 AMM, 10.06.2000 AMM and 12.06.2000 AMM. Through out this days Princess has brought in 7 creatures, all of which were seriously injured (more details below). By her request, the presence of those creatures was kept secret from general public and Princess Celestia; the only ponies with access to the creatures and knowledge of their existence are: Doctor Health Ticket, Doctor Fantas Magoria, Doctor Abuyin ibn Djadir ibn Omar Kalid ben Hadji al Sharidi, Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle(1). Each of the subjects had a set of equipment(2) with them, Princess Luna ordered not to interfere with any of it, so following the standard procedure, the equipment was stored in chests for patient’s belongings near each bed.

(1) Included shortly after celebration of Nightmare Night.
(2) It is not possible to tell for sure, but the equipment appears to be military in nature.

BASIC DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECTS: Subjects are bipod in nature, with build similar to Minotaurs, save for hooves and horns. Subjects barely have any fur covering their bodies, most of their hair is located on top of the head. They have no features like wings or horns and research of their DNA didn’t find any segments of information about different features being part of bloodline, suggesting that their race does not distinguishes any sub-races. The height of males is 1,83m and the only female is 1,56m high. Each of their hands has 5 digits, and so do their feet. From the shape of their teeth, we can deduce that the creatures' sepcies is either a carnivore or an omnivore, considering the similarities with minotaurs they are most likely omnivores, but that is a speculation. More detailed description of subjects in separate file.
SIDE NOTE: 6 out of 7 subjects look identically, their DNA is also the same. The reason for this is unknown, but it is speculated that the subjects might be an effect of genetic experiments.
Also, Princess Luna often meditates near subject three, when asked about it she refused to answer.

SUBJECT ONE:
NAME: Shaw (name provided by Princess Luna)
AGE: 13
GENDER: Male
RACE: Unknown
TRIBE: Unknown
MAGIC LEVEL: 27Ml (Far below average)
MAVTOVIC LEVEL: 1502 (Below average)

PHYSICAL CONDITION: 3 broken ribs, none of them moved or caused further damage. Subject’s stomach was severely burned through unknown means(1), forcing magical rebuild of tissue. Subject suffered a minor hypothermia from a long time spent in extreme cold(2).
THREAT OF DEATH: Small

(1) The wound was caused by both powerful impact and high amount of energy, no known weapon or spell can cause similar damage.
(2) The armor worn by the subject isolated most of it.

SUBJECT TWO:
NAME: Unknown
AGE: 17
GENDER: Female
RACE: Unknown
TRIBE: Unknown
MAGIC LEVEL: 131Ml (Above average)
MAVTOVIC LEVEL: 12512 (Far above average)

PHYSICAL CONDITION: Significant loss of blood, because of lack of available donor the only help given to the subject is magical support of blood flow(1). Multiple broken ribs, cracks on skull, broken arm, collarbone and nose; one of broken ribs moved and almost pierced the lung. Subject’s hand was removed relatively shortly before receiving medical attention(2), the wound is charred, preventing blood from leaking out(3). Many bruises cover the face, back, stomach and chest of the subject.
THREAT OF DEATH: High

(1) Subject possesses an unknown blood type, preventing us from magically recreating blood or using blood of 6 remaining subjects.
(2) Approximately 1 to 2 hours.
(3) If not for that, the subject would have bleeded out before getting any medical help.

SUBJECT THREE:
NAME: Unknown
AGE: 13
GENDER: Male
RACE: Unknown
TRIBE: Unknown
MAGIC LEVEL: 43Ml (Below average)
MAVTOVIC LEVEL: 9329 (Above average)

PHYSICAL CONDITION: Severe head trauma combined with subdural hematoma. Multiple cracks on the back of the skull, some of the areas had to be replaced with synthetic bone. A burn mark similar to one found on subject one’s stomach, on the left leg, the damage was worsened by the subject as it appeared to be moving after sustaining damage. A minor, non life-threatening burn mark on subject’s cheek.
THREAT OF DEATH: Moderate

SUBJECT FOUR:
NAME: Vector-83 “Tracker” (Found on subject’s dog tag)
AGE: 13
GENDER: Male
RACE: Unknown
TRIBE: Unknown
MAGIC LEVEL: 27Ml (far below average)
MAVTOVIC LEVEL: 1511 (below average)

PHYSICAL CONDITION: Severe second and third degree burns all over the head and shoulders. Burns caused irremovable damage to eyes, resulting in their removal(1). Right arm was broken in several different places, piercing the skin above the elbow. Rest of the subject’s body is in relatively good condition.
THREAT OF DEATH: Small

(1) Installation of magic detecting protease is planned.

SUBJECT FIVE:
NAME: Unknown
AGE: 10
GENDER: Male
RACE: Unknown
TRIBE: Unknown
MAGIC LEVEL: 12Ml (far below average)
MAVTOVIC LEVEL: 1428 (below average)

PHYSICAL CONDITION: Serious hyperthermia and deoxygenation caused by long exposure to hard vacuum, high possibility of permanent loss of sense in left hand. Both shoulders are broken in multiple places and the entire front part of the body is covered in first and second degree burns.
THREAT OF DEATH: Small

SUBJECT SIX:
NAME: Unknown
AGE: 11
GENDER: Male
RACE: Unknown
TRIBE: Unknown
MAGIC LEVEL: 33Ml (far below average)
MAVTOVIC LEVEL: 1120 (below average)

PHYSICAL CONDITION: The subject was cut in half by unknown type of weapon(1). The cut was made slightly above pelvis and severed legs along with reproductive organs, bladder and part of intestines from rest of the body. Other than that, there is not much damage caused to the body but it is very likely that the subject will not survive.
THREAT OF DEATH: Very High

(1) Similar weapon was used on subjects two, three and seven. It appears to be emitting high level of heat as indicated by all wounds being closed.

SUBJECT SEVEN:
NAME: Cipher (Curved on the equipment)
AGE: 13
GENDER: Male
RACE: Unknown
TRIBE: Unknown
MAGIC LEVEL: 30Ml (far below average)
MAVTOVIC LEVEL: 1998 (below average)

PHYSICAL CONDITION: Subject carries many small wounds not meant to kill. Several places were seriously burned with high voltage of electricity and heat. Three fingers from the left hand were ripped off and the right hand was pierced with a knife(1). There are three missing teeth in the mouth of the subject and the right eye was pulled out of the socket but not removed entirely. (2)
THREAT OF DEATH: Moderate

(1) The weapon is superior to what is currently used by Royal Guard, both technically and in design. It was secured shortly after removal and currently is in possession of Twilight Sparkle, who is studying the weapon.
(2) It is obvious that the subject has endured extremely brutal tortures, it is impossible to know what was the reason for this as long as the subject is not healed.

SIDE NOTE: Due to the injuries sustained by the subjects, they are kept in a coma for the time of their recovery, which is speculated to take several months.

Signed

Doctor Health Ticket

Doctor Fantas Magoria

Doctor Abuyin

Celestial Apprentice Twilight Sparkle

Princess Nocte Luna Eclipse

Pinkie Pie, the BEST baker in Equestria!

Author's Note

I wasn't planning on making this chapter, but when I got the idea I thought that I might as well write this. It's short anyways so it's no problem. nexta chapter will be a proper story, Pinkie Promise. :pinkiehappy:

Song of a day: Dry Cell - Body Crumbles

17. Hunter-Killer

--Chapter 17--
Hunter-Killer

“Quarry: How do you wish to die meatbag?” A voice rang from the com link.

“D-Die?” Twilight said in a shaky voice. She slowly turned her head in a direction where Rainbow flew. “Rainbow!” She immediately run forward, and ignoring Falcon calling her to come back, disappeared in the bushes. Shaw reacted first, quickly running after her, but Falcon grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled back.

“Wait!” He said. “You stay here and keep the others safe.” He pointed at the ponies behind them, all of whom were absolutely terrified and shaking in place. “Me and Trucker will get them back.” Shaw nodded hesitantly and turned back towards the ponies. Blast it, I know you like her but… I hope you won’t do anything stupid. He motioned Trucker to follow him and disappeared in bushes, going after Twilight.

They switched their weapon’s safety off as they started to run towards Rainbow’s last known position. Whatever attacked her, has already destroyed or deactivated her com link, but luckily, she was likely already near it’s hideout - the legendary ship, the Ebon Hawk. Twilight was also moving in that direction, likely sensing her friend’s presence. Ponies were naturally faster than humans, though lacked in endurance department. At this rate, Twilight was going to get there before them, and since she was also teleporting along the way, this was going to take her even less time.

There was one good thing about it though.

If Twilight was able to sense Rainbow’s presence, that meant that she’s still alive. Whatever has attacked her, did not kill her, but only incapacitated. Still, thinking back to what they found in the villages along the way, that wasn’t all that good news.

And as for the attacker’s identity, the only thing that came to his mind was a droid. The metallic sounds and voice coming from the com link more or less confirmed it. And the way it spoke didn’t seem like a living being at all. Not to mention that he has never heard about a species that would live for 4000 years. But still, for a droid to continue to function after that time is pretty unlikely itself.

But everything pointed to it being truth. And Twilight was running right into its claws. “Trucker, climb up there and see if you can knock her out from here!” Falcon said, pointing at a giant rock they were approaching. The commando nodded and immediately shot a grappling hook towards the rock. Falcon meanwhile called out to the unicorn through com link. “Twilight, stop! Now!”

“NO! I won’t let her die!” Her voice sounded like she was crying.

“If you just go there you’ll just die yourself! Think about it. You’re running towards something that killed entire villages with no problem. If you just go there and try to attack it, you’re just going to end like everyone who has ever tried! Do you really want to leave your friends and Shaw? How do you think they will react when they find out that you’re dead!?”

“I don’t care! I have to save her, I can’t lose anyone else! If I-“ *POW*

“Got her.” Tracker said

“Ugh…” Rainbow groaned as she woke up. Her groans however, quickly were filled with pain, as she begun to feel the burning wound on her hind leg, as well as broken ribs and wings. She could also feel that her nose was broken and big bruise that was on her face. It took her a while before she was able to look at her surroundings.

Everything was dark, but there was a faint light coming from a lamp hanging above her. She could see few beds on her right as well as metal floor and walls around her. Everything seemed broken, metal peaces hung from the walls, everything was bent in several places and wires hung from the walls. There was also a hole in the wall on the right that was covered by a rock. She felt that her front hooves were tied in front of her, as well her back hooves which also had another rope attached to it that went up to the ceiling, but she couldn’t tell where it went. The rope around her back hooves was tightly wrapped around the burning spot on her leg, bringing her more pain.

“Observation: Ah, I see my guest has awoken.” She heard a voice from the room. Suddenly everything came back to her. She has just found the ship they came here for, and then she was suddenly hit by something and fell. She’s heard this voice then. ‘How do you wish to die, meatbag?’ – these words rang in her head.

She immediately realized the situation she was in, and with heart suddenly pumping blood twice as fast she screamed in fear. “S-Stay away from me!!!” Suddenly the rope that was attached to her back legs was pulled up, and with it, she was pulled up into the air as well. She screamed as pain filled her wounded leg again. It felt as if her leg was about to be torn off. She managed to open her eyes despite the pain, only to spot two red lights approaching her.

Soon a gigantic red creature appeared in the light. It looked like human but was taller than the clones and its midsection was unnaturally slim. It looked like it was made out of metal that was bent in several places and started to rust. On its back was what looked like one of blaster rifles that clones carry around all the time, but larger and damaged by age. “Offended statement: My, how rude! I go out of my way to not leave your half dead body to be eaten by wild animals and you thank me like that. Well, I think I may forgive you if you answer some of my questions before I kill you.”

By now Rainbow was a trembling mess, shaking without control in fear for her life, barely able to make a word leave her mouth. “Request: Please don't pee on the floor, meatbag. I just cleaned it from your blood.”

“W-Wh-What a-are you?” She managed to say in barely hearable voice.

“Introduction: I am Hunter-Killer model 47, HK-47 for short. I am a primary mean through which my masters get rid of problematic meatbags from the galaxy, and I am proud of my craft.

Statement: Unfortunately, I was unable to perform my primary function for the past few years due to a directive given to me by one of my previous masters. So I guess will have to unload the stress put on my killing protocols on you, meatbag. It’s also a bit personal. Because you see, I really hate your kind. I hope you understand.”

“K-Killer?” Her body went numb. “D-Don't get any closer! M-M-My friends are on a way you know! They won't forgive you if something happens to me!” She attempted to talk her way out of this, but the desperate tone of her voice only made it sound pathetic in droid's electronic mind. She kept trying to free her hooves, but the ropes that held them were too strong.

"Observation: Ah, your friends. That brings us to the main reason behind why are you here, and why are you no dead yet." Droid's arm suddenly shot forward with such speed that for the first moment, Rainbow wasn't even aware that something has happened. Only the pain burning in her already wounded leg made her realize that the droid was crushing the bone in her leg. She screamed in agony as the droid asked his question. "Quarry: Who are the meatbags who gave you this, and where can I find them?" He said, holding her com link in his robotic hand.

"Alright, now what do we do with her?" Tracker said, kneeling over Twilight's unconscious body.

Falcon looked back at where they came from. "We're too far away from others, there's no time to go back. With every second we wait Rainbow might be in greater danger. She has to come with us. Besides, she can sense if Rainbow is still alive or not.” He said. “Wake her up and go after me. There’s no time to waste.” Falcon stepped forward, leaving Tracker behind with Twilight.

He continued to run towards Rainbow’s last known location. It wasn’t very far away, and he was running with all his strength, so it wasn’t long before he arrived in place. He immediately saw blood that stood out on the green pallet of the forest like a Bantha on Coruscant. Looking up he saw broken branches hanging from the trees above, also covered in blood.

Looking at the amount if it on both branches and the floor, he could tell that she was bleeding a lot. Commander looked around, quickly spotting one more thing. Marks on the ground, shaped like human foot. The marks came from the east towards the puddle of blood and then came back the same way.

He was about to keep moving, but Twilight and Tracker have suddenly teleported in front of him. Before he got to say anything, Twilight stood up on her back legs and attempted to grab him by the shoulders, only to have him grab her extended hooves. “Why did you stop me!? I-” Tracker suddenly hit her with a fist.

She fell on the ground, now with a bleeding wound on her forehead. “Blast it, get a hold on yourself you idiot!” The commando screamed at her. He was about to continue, but Falcon has stopped him, extending his arm in front of him and looking back, as if saying ‘leave this to me’. He then turned towards the unicorn who was just about to get up from the ground.

“Twilight, listen to me.” He said calmly. “You can still feel Rainbow’s presence, right? As long as you do, she’s alive and we have a chance to save her, but we won’t do it by just running in with no plan. So please, get a hold on yourself and stay back while me and Tracker take care of this.” He stood up. “I am almost positive that the thing that attacked her was a droid. And if it didn’t kill her immediately, that means it has other objectives. Are you calm now?”

She didn’t answer immediately, but after a while she nodded her head. “Great.” Falcon said and pointed at the prints on the ground. “That thing took her in that direction.”

“I know… I-I can feel that she’s close.” Twilight said.

“How close?”

“If not for those trees we would be able to see it from here. It’s only about 50 meters from here.”

“Alright, Tracker, climb up there.” He pointed at a cave in the cliff that they stood next to. He would have perfect view from there. Commando nodded and quickly shot a grappling hook towards the cave. Falcon watched as the clone climbs into the cave and not even a second after he got there, started to shot. “Tracker, what was it?” He asked through com link.

“Just some bird that flew towards me. Don’t know what it was but I don’t care.”

“Whatever. Better tell me if you can see that ship.”

“I see it. Its side is smashed against the cliff, but it looks surprisingly good for it’s age. There’s an open entrance on the top, looks like there was a turret there at some point but was removed. No sight of enemy so far, but I think I can see a wall built around the thing.”

He turned back to Twilight. She was looking towards the place where she was sensing Rainbow from, barely keeping herself in place. “Let’s go.” Immediately after hearing that, she shot out like a rocket. Still, she was already tired from the running as well as teleportation spells she’s been using and on top of that was stunned recently, so Falcon was able to keep up and run ahead.

Like she said before, the ship wasn’t far away. They quickly saw it between the trees and doubled their speed. Tracker was right when he said he can see a wall around the ship. It was a rough job, and clearly bitten by the time, but it still stood despite few big or small holes here and there. The thing wasn’t very high, probably meant only to serve as a cover. Falcon has stopped in front of it, stopping Twilight as well and kneeling behind the wall. “What are you-!?” She tried to speak up, bit he just forced her to hide.

“Stay quiet while I talk.” He pointed his weapon towards the ship, where he could already see a red figure emerging from the ship.

“I’ve told you everything! Please stop!” Rainbow begged. Tears were running down her face and falling down on the floor where a small puddle of her blood was already forming.

“Disappointed Statement: Oh, you want to quit already? But it’s only been few minutes. Well, I guess that’s about everything I can gather from you anyways. Hopefully those bits of information will help me in some way.

Quarry: Now that you are useless for me, could you answer my first question to you? How do you wish to die, meatbag?”

No response came from Rainbow. She couldn’t force her body that quivered in pain to do anything. “Suggestion: If I were you, I would choose something myself. Leaving a choice to me when I’m giving you a chance to choose your fate is-” HK stopped in a middle of sentence. “Observation: Hmm, it appears that your friends did arrive. And before your death too. Well, let’s see if they prove to be at least mildly entertaining. In the meantime, you can think about how would you rather die. Personally, I suggest an option where I break your legs then let you go and give you 10 minutes before I start chasing you. If you manage to escape, you’re free. If you won’t, you’re dead.”

The droid left the room, leaving Rainbow hanging from the ceiling. He started to walk through the dark corridors of the ship that he has to wait in only because of an old order left in his memory core. HK would have sighed now if he was a meatbag, but he was beyond things like that. He’s waited four thousand years for an opportunity to free himself from that order, and he can wait twice that if he has to.

And when he’ll be free, history will remember the day of his return.

He approached the lift that used to lead to a turret on top of the ship. He has removed it, since it was damaged to a point where he couldn’t fix it, and he needed a way out of the ship since the entrance was blocked under ship’s mass.

The energy both in him and what was still working on the ship was here thanks to the meatbags he has ‘asked’ for help after the ship crushed. They have informed him about a way to salvage a previously unknown energy source they insisted to call ‘magic’. And from there it was easy for the droid who didn’t need to rest and eat to figure out how to transfer the energy he salvaged into a form he could use. He had years to work on it after all.

The lift took him to the top of the ship. He already had a blaster rifle waiting in his grasp. Surprisingly, the droid hoped not to use it. After all, if his sensors were correct, at least one of the human meatbags that crushed on the planet’s moon is approaching the ship. And he’s going to make sure to get that meatbag to help him override his order. And if he won’t… well, that’s why he has a blaster. And several traps set up around the parameter.

HK reached the top of the ship and looked down at the wall he had made years ago. The wall was only a trap though, and was never even meant to be used as a cover. He has placed explosives within it, in case some stupid meatbags decided to attack him.

And the trap did work. Long time ago a group of pony meatbags hid behind it, holding spears and pointing them towards him to keep him away while archers tried to destroy him with their puny pony weapons. They thought that the wall will give them a protection from his blaster bolts, and while they might have been mostly right, their weapons wouldn’t stop him no matter how much they tried and he could just run up to them and shot them all down.

He could have done that, but he used the explosives instead. He still has images of the event saved in his memory core. For him, the way shrapnel ripped their bodies apart, the screams of agony of those who survived but lost their limbs, and the terrified faces of those who were not hit by the blast just before they were shot right in those furry faces were the most amusing images possible.

And now yet another meatbag was hiding behind his trap. But that meatbag wasn’t a pony with spear. It was human with a blaster. In response to having a blaster pointed at him, HK did the same. “Greeting: …”

“Greeting: Welcome meatbag. It’s been a while since I have met one of your kind, and only now I realize how I missed killing members of your species. Ponies were not bad, but nothing can beat an upper-class human begging for life. Well maybe an upper-class pony would, but I have yet to meet one.” Falcon listened to the droid saying, not taking his finger off the trigger. The droid was in remarkably good condition. Considering its age, it didn’t rust quite as much as one would expect, and it appeared to still be in top shape when it comes to functionality. He didn’t recognize the model, but that wasn’t his area of expertise. Not to mention that the thing was four thousand years old.

“What are you?”

“Introduction: I am HK-47, a protocol droid. Task with ending hostilities between races and meatbags all over the galaxy.”

“First time I’ve seen a protocol droid pointing a blaster at me and kidnapping one of my companions.” He activated the com link with eye movement command. “Tracker, be ready to shoot it.” He said silently.

“Explanation: That is probably because while most protocol droids end hostilities via negotiation, I do it in more efficient way, by killing off the side of conflict that my master’s will points me to. Though, I wouldn’t hesitate, nor would I mind to eliminate both sides. Just to make sure they won’t start another conflicts in the future.”

Just great, I have an Assassin Droid in front of me. HK series on less… Falcon sighed mentally. “Why did you kidnap one of my companions?”

“Statement: Ah, yes. I almost forgot that you are here to retrieve that meatbag that's bleeding out in the back of the ship."

Twilight's eyes went wide as she heard that, and soon after that a fire lit within them. Ignoring Falcon's words, she rose her head over the wall. "What have you done with-!?" Falcon pushed her head back to the ground.

“Statement: Please, don’t bother hiding that female pony down there. My sensors have detected the two of you when you approached the ship.” Falcon didn’t let Twilight up as the droid said. He’s smart enough to know this would just give it an easy target to shot at.

“Answer the question, why did you take her?”

“Quarry: Isn’t that obvious?

Answer: She came into my weapon’s range, therefore I shot her down. I must admit that my first thought was to just get rid of her, but the communication device in her ear changed my mind. You see, I’ve been on this planet for a very long time, but not nearly long enough for inhabitants of this planet to develop that level of technology. This led me to a conclusion that they must have come in contact with one of galaxy’s more advanced races, meaning that I am finally given a chance to get rid of an order that binds me to this place.

Explanation: You see, I have served many masters over many years. I’ve seen the beginning of Jedi Civil Wars, and its aftermath. I server under Sith and Jedi alike. Killed everything from a Gizka to Rancor, from a fat Hutt to enslaved Twi’lek. And one of my many maters who was also one of multiple owner of the ship you see before you, gave me a command that I have to fulfill. I was ordered to stay on board and defend the ship until my master’s return. The problem is, she never did. I am aware of the fact that she’s dead by now. But that doesn’t override the command. As long as my master doesn’t return to the ship, and change that very command, I am stuck to the area around the ship, and I can only leave it in case of danger approaching.”

Falcon narrowed his eyes behind the helmet. “So in other words, you need to assign yourself to a new master in order to leave.” He said. “And since you’re telling me this without shooting, I’m guessing you want me to be your master.”

“Agreement: Indeed. Not bad for a meatbag.”

“If all you need is a new master, why didn’t you just make one of the ponies you have killed into your master?”

“Annoyed Quarry: Do you really think a droid like me would assign myself to some peace loving pretty pony from land of friendship and rainbows?

Answer: I don’t think so. Not only would it force me to a life of hideous pacifism for the duration of my master’s life, but I would also be passed down through generations, as the tradition of planet’s inhabitants at the time of my arrival says. Making me go through it over and over again with no defined end. I also wouldn’t be able to just kill my new master to free myself because of my programming forbidding that. So, as you can see, I’m stuck in this place unless some meatbag frees me. Luckily, there’s one meatbag in front of me, who not only seems to not me a pacifist, but a complete opposite of it as well.”

“And if I agreed to become your master, how would I know you’re not lying about anything?”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she almost choked upon hearing that. “Don’t tell me you’re actually considering that!? That thing kidnapped Rainbow Dash and did god knows what to her!” She shouted.

“I know Twilight, but understand that I’m looking at the situation from a different angle then you.” He said. “I am used to droids. I am used to an idea of artificially made personality, and I know it’s just that. It’s all artificial. This droid isn’t like that because it just came out that way. Someone made it like that. And just as someone made this droid like that, it can also be changed.”

“Reassurance: The pony inside of that ship has not been severally damaged. Making her talk required only minimal pressure.” Twilight’s blood was almost boiling from anger. “I only inflicted damage that will make it hurt. I was surprised that she broke so easily though. It was only few minutes of torture.”

Falcon was still keeping her pinned to the ground, but not with much force. And with anger leading her body, she quickly stood back up. “You monster!” Before Falcon reacted, she grabbed the pistol in her magic and pointed it at the droid. She was however too slow. Before she even begun pressing the trigger, HK-47 has already managed to point his rifle at her, target her head and fire one shot.

She would have been dead if Falcon didn’t react even faster than the droid. The clone grabbed her head again and pushed both of them at the ground as the blaster bolt flew past them, hitting a tree. Blast it… “Tracker, now!” He shouted into the com link. Immediately, they heard as the droid gets hit by the bolt from a sniper rifle. “Don’t move out of here.” He said harshly to the unicorn.

Falcon quickly pointed his rifle at the droid who was shooting towards Tracker’s position. He fired few shots at the droid, who quickly started change his position. It hid in the elevator, lowering it a bit to give himself cover. One bolt from Falcon’s rifle managed to hit the droid and one from Tracker as well. Neither have done anything though. A red aura appeared around droid’s body, absorbing the energy from the bolts. It was an energy shield.

Still, it was four thousand years old. Something that old won’t be able to withstand long under fire from their weapons. Especially since weapons clones possessed fired shots that carried additional electrical discharge. Very effective against droids and all kinds of machines.

HK completely ignored him however, focusing his attention solely on Tracker. As if Falcon wasn’t a danger at all.

He was about to shrug off that thought and keep shooting, but he felt something. A very faint feeling of danger approaching on the back of his mind. The world around him seemed to slow down as he lowered his head towards the stone wall. And then he saw it. A little red light lit up between the rocks, quickly making him realize the real purpose of that wall.

Falcon’s reaction was immediate. Still feeling as if everything around him was happening slower, he grabbed Twilight and started to sprint away from the wall. The explosion came quickly, but he managed to escape from the blast’s range. Not from shrapnel though. He heard Twilight’s scream as her leg was pierced by a piece of metal, following by another one hitting her midsection. Falcon wasn’t spared either. Even though his armor protected him from most of metal pieces that have hit him, the fact that he was trying to shield Twilight resulted in much more pieces hitting him.

He felt as he’s being pierced through his back and left leg in places where armor didn’t cover him. Another piece has flown against side of his neck. One more got stuck in his shoulder, and finally his left hand got pierced through as well.

There was barely any reaction from him though. He kept running towards trees, the closest cover. No, they’re traps too… Noticing a hole in a tree he was running towards, he instinctively turned left to get away from it. And he was right. The tree has exploded seconds after he turned away. This time there was no shrapnel, but the tree had fallen down. It was a big one, clearly, it’s been growing here for a long time.

Falcon took cover behind the fallen tree, placing Twilight against it. She was still in pain, bleeding from her leg and her side. “Can you do anything about it?” She looked at him and nodded slowly, enveloping her wounds in her magic. While she stopped the bleeding, Falcon pulled out a piece of metal that got stuck in his shoulder. “Stay here and don’t move.” He said, lifting his rifle and pointing it at the droid.

He fired at it, but didn’t hit it with any of his bolts. HK meanwhile, quickly turned towards him and started to shoot. “Tracker, can you keep it busy for a while? I have a plan.”

“I don’t know sir. This thing may be old, but it still has some serious firepower.” Tracker responded. “I’ll do my best though.”

Falcon immediately moved to the opposite side of the tree, keeping his head low. Tracker did as he was told, firing a grenade from his weapon at the droid. At that distance, it wasn’t a direct hit, but HK’s shield still suffered some damage and so did the ship. After that, Tracker unloaded an entire battery worth of blaster bolts towards the droid, keeping it hidden in its cover.

That’s when Falcon decided to run forward. He left the safe zone behind the tree, charging towards the ship with a grenade in one hand. He threw it at the droid, while taking a cover next the ship itself. As soon as he heard an explosion, Falcon started to climb up until he got on top of the wreckage.

There, he saw as HK gets up from the cover after the explosion as if nothing happened, and deciding to allow few bolts to hit their target, fired one precise shot at Tracker. Falcon saw as the commando got hit with red blaster bolt and hid back in the cave. Not letting that bother him, Falcon reached to his belt, grabbing a lightsaber and igniting it, while he rushed towards the droid, firing from his blaster.

HK was hit several times before it turned around and opened fire at Falcon. The commander was however able to dodge by flying up with his jetpack. He fired his blaster again, hitting and destroying HK’s weapon and then dropping his rifle on the ground as he used both hands to swing the lightsaber down at the droid that didn’t manage to get away in time.

Falcon was sure that it was over. Droid’s shield wouldn’t be able to withstand a hit from a lightsaber after the punishment it already took.

Unfortunately, HK had more tricks up its sleeve.

Just before green blade of the lightsaber hit its target, HK activated another, fully powered energy shield. The plasma blade did hit droid’s arm, and even though it was impossible for it to avoid all damage, the shield held off the strike for long enough to allow HK to punch Falcon in the stomach with his other hand. The clone was immediately forced to fall back as he saw another strike incoming. “Observation: Interesting. You posses a weapon of a Jedi, yet your behavior doesn’t suit into what I know about the order, and neither have you as much as attempted to utilize any combative force abilities. Likely because you are in fact not a Jedi, but simply someone who came into possession of one through other means. Hopefully by killing one of those fools.

Statement: That indicates you having no real experience with the weapon. A fact additionally supported by your stance and the way you hold the weapon, which while not entirely amateurish, are hardly that of a lightsaber master.”

“Shut up already.” Falcon grabbed his blaster pistol and quickly fired it at the droid. Tracker have also returned to shooting at the droid from his position. HK also pulled his weapons out. Two small blaster pistols he had hidden inside of his legs. The droid attempted to create more distance between lightsaber welding Falcon and himself, all the while looking for a cover from Tracker’s sniper fire.

It was of no use though. Falcon might not have been skilled with a lightsaber, but just the fact that he was able to swing it without killing himself made him dangerous in close range. Not to mention that he was under a constant fire from two blasters. This quickly proved to be too much for the droid’s shield and once it was down it was it was all over. HK did manage to avoid being cut down by a lightsaber, but there was no way for him to dodge simultaneous fire from two trained soldiers. One of whom had a sniper rifle.

It was only a matter of time before the multiple shots taken by droid’s armor made the Assassin Droid fall down, defeated.

Author's Note

As some might have noticed from a change in description, someone's editing this story now. Big thanks to PoniChan for this.

Song of a day: KoRn - Hating