Attrition

Chapters

The Colony
Giant in the Pines
Stranded
Ghost in the Machine
Citizen of the Stars
Ascend
Sink
Apex Predator

The Colony

Day 862
0400 GCT
Yuma System?

I was jostled out of bed by the sudden lurch that accompanies the end of every Jump. Been here this long and still don't have my 'flight legs'. The veteran pilots aboard would probably get a kick out of that, but they were all out of their bunks, thankfully.

No clue what the day holds.

Pausing, I checked the previous entry before continuing.

233 days left in contract.

Writing journals and counting days. Certainly not what I'd expected of my second IMC contract, but a paycheck is a paycheck, and the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation certainly help make ends meet. A majority of the IMC's military workforce consisted of private contractors, though most pilots only saw the pay as a bonus to wiping the Frontier of the terrorist Militia. Unfortunately, that left mercenary pilots like myself in the glorious position of being hazed, heckled, and downright shunned among my peers.

Now, I'd like to think myself as more than a simple gun for hire, seeking profit and yearning for unsavory acts; I just squandered my talents back home and needed something to pay the bills. After failing to get into any good universities, I'd lied my way into construction, and taught myself to pilot a powered work loader. Eventually my credentials, or lackthereof, were made public to my bosses, and I was let go. Seeing there was a high demand for experienced workers on the Frontier, and rumors of the IMC's acceptance of lesser-qualified laborers, I booked a ride and left my life in the Sol system behind.

I found work as the operator for a power loader on an oil rig on the planet Harmony. I'd played everything safe, followed all the rules and was content to live my life anew. After much journey and time, I was finally happy with where I was in life.

The Miltia's Marauder Corps decided that this rig wasn't drilling for fuel for the residents of citizens all over the planet, but was a covert black site responsible for fueling the starships hammering Militia bases several systems away, and attacked.

While most of the crew abandoned the site to the Militia, I'd decided to hide in my power loader, and attempt to stop them from destroying the rig. As the terrorists rigged charges to destroy the towering supports, I'd used the loader to crush their evac ship, and kept them secure until the IMC could be summoned.
Seeing the value in a trained pilot, and apparently mistaking my stupidity for cunning bravery, they offered me a job in their security force, my very own Titan, and one hell of a pay raise. As I said, the IMC certainly made ends meet.

After the grueling and dangerous pilot training, I thought I was ready. Mere months into my first three year contract, I was ripped from my cockpit by an enemy titan, half crushed, and left for dead. Had I not crawled to a nearby IMC garrison, I would have died. Mistaking my cowardly reluctance to die for tenacity, I was given a second chance. Though I'd had to foot the bill, I was given a shiny new set of legs, and an even shinier new Ogre Titan. I wasn't going to get beat again.

I'd worked my ass off until my contract ended, earning minor skill and acclaim just trying to stay alive. Since I'd spent most of my earnings retaining the ability to walk, I signed up for another three year stint in the Frontier. This time, however, I'd spent the better part of two years on this ship, only leaving for security detail on milk runs, despite Militia presence in the system. So here I was, keeping a simple journal and counting days until the mocking jeers of 'Hemingway', 'Spillane', and 'Frank' could be a thing of the past.

It was important to me, and that's all it needed to be.

Regardless, it was time to see what the day held. Ship jumps weren't uncommon, but we generally kept to the Demeter system as part of an IMC blockade meant to shield the vital fuel depot at Demeter. Our Captain mentioned in passing that we'd be making the journey to the Yuma system some time in the near future, but failed to give a reason beyond 'security detail'. In short, I didn't know because he didn't know.

I joined the other pilots in the common area, debating asking if any of them had heard anything about the upcoming op. Mere steps past the doorway, the ship's intercom blared to life.

"All personnel, this is Vice-Admiral Graves. As you know, the Militia fleet remains operational in the wake of their refueling raid in the Yuma System, and we have deployed probes to a number of sectors."

Marcus Graves, now that guy was something. I don't know what a 'vice-admiral' was, and personally I didn't care, but his boss signed the checks and said to do what he says, so I obeyed. A veteran of the Titan Wars, he wasn't content to simply pass down orders through the chain of command, no; Graves was a man who gave ordering speeches to all the men aboard a ship, used all hands under his command as his weapon, and personally rode into battle to oversee everything. I'm not sure if he's incredibly brave, confident, or just suicidal.

"Spyglass will brief you on the results of the search."

"Pilots, I have scanned all possible designations within jump range of the Yuma system. Life forms have been detected in sector Bravo-Two-One-Seven, previously believed to be uninhabited. The Militia forces we seek may be hiding there. Recommend an advance team led by Sergent Blisk to investigate, with a suitable compliment of supporting units."

Spyglass. Cap says its the entire IMC database downloaded into the super-computing brain of a modified variant of one of those new Spectres. Spyglass handles logistics, navigation, deployment, and communication between all deployed IMC forces, and is rumored to be capable of taking on a command role. I don't know if he's unique or if there's an army of them, but other pilots all claim he's ridden in dropships with them. Never seen the bot outside of my heads-up display, and for that I was thankful; the bot creeped me out. He could mimic inflection all he wanted, but he was an expensive, cold, calculating machine, and compared to him I was a cheap gun for hire, and I'm certain he knew that.

"Very well. So ordered. All pilots, gear up and stand by for deployment. Sergeant Blisk has command on the ground. Good luck, Graves out."

Some time during the speech, Captain Riggs entered the room, startling me by finishing off the speech with, "Alright, ladies, you heard the men, kit out and 'git out!"
Riggs was sort of an inspiration. He'd enlisted as a basic infantryman, and quickly rose through the ranks. Some higher-up stuck him in a Titan simulator for shiggles, and he was proficient enough to quality for basic pilot training. While he's certainly not a pilot, and likely never will be, the man is a quick-thinking and mean presence on the battlefield.

The entire room sounded off with an affirmative "Aye, sir!" before rushing down the sprawling hall to the armory. The quartermaster pretty much gave free reign to pilots' kits, so long as it was reasonable. Of course, grunts often grumbled about this, given they were all issued standard gear and had to buy any aftermarket equipment themselves. I stuck to my usual: a suppressed G2A4 Battle Rifle, outfitted with an Advanced Optical Gunsight, a RE-45 automatic pistol, and a rapid-fire Sidewinder micro-missile system, putting in a requisition for each ammunition type to be sent to be stored in my Titan in the hangar. Fully kitted out, us pilots made our way to a staging area just outside the hangar for our orders. We didn't have to wait very long for Riggs to come by, checking names on his roster.

"Alright, so, Korvin, Davin, Kami, and Foster will be the first of our boots on the ground, after the spectres mop up of course. Three chalks of grunts will be on standby to gather any possible intel from the colony, and it'll be our job to assist against any hostile elements. Now, command doesn't think there'll be any Militia presence in the area, so Titans will remain on standby for drop here on the ship. Yom, Keane, Reano, Trettin, Faraday, and I will drop in our Titans as support if, and only if, things go tits up. Alright, lets go kick some ass."

Again, a chorus of "Aye, sir!" rang throughout the hall, and we all scurried about; the four first wave pilots to a waiting drop ship, five others to the hangar, and the rest of the pilots just went back to the common, waiting to be relieved.

Second wave. Not bad, after almost months of lazing about on the ship. It didn't guarantee I'd see some action, but at least I'd get some more time in my Titan. Making my way to the hangar, I passed by a group of grunts waiting for pre-drop checks on their pod.

"Yeah, no, I heard that these Spectres are the new Mark IIs we've been hearing about."
"I always thought that pilots were the Mark IIs. You know, what with the wallrunning and everything."
"What? No, thats....no."
"Yeah, I hear they grow human skin in these huge vats, and layer it on top of a Spectre skeleton. Synthetic biology work. Next-gen stuff."
"That's nothing more than a crazy rumor, mate. Pilots aren't some weird sci-fi experiment, they're regular men just like you or me."

There was no way I could pass this up. I slowed and stiffened my gait, metallic legs whirring and clicking on the hard steel floor below. They turned towards me, and, with the most robotic movements I could, I stopped to wave before slowly continuing onward.

"There! See, you see! I knew it!"
"Those pilots are just bloody freaks. Exceptional warriors, but they're still freaks."
"Bollocks, mate, I'm telling you, it's a conspiracy."
"You and your conspiracy theories...."

Withholding a laugh, I made my way to the massive drop pod currently housing my Ogre. Entering, I made what final checks I could. Most of the technical aspects of planetfall were beyond me, but I always made sure to check that my ammunition was stored properly, and my Titan's kit was in order. Everything was....mostly up to spec. I'm not sure if it was a logging error or being on good terms with the quartermaster, but an suppressed Smart Pistol and a decent supply of ammunition was present in an ammo can atop the pod's seat. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I secured it in my titan and strapped myself in.

I'd expected that I'd have to wait in the pod for some time before eventually being called in for basic security. I certainly wasn't expecting the radio to come to life in a burst of static, a panicking grunt shouting over general comms. "Sir! It looks like Militia ships! They're deploying ground forces at the north end of the village, and we've got Militia pilots moving in from the east!"

"Alright, listen up pilots! This will be a good test of our new Spectres. Prepare for a battle of Attrition- neutralize every Militia unit in the area. Good luck."

Mere seconds later, Riggs calmly keyed his mic, addressing us second wave pilots. "Looks like we're going to be dropping ahead of schedule. All standby pilots, drop when ready; I'll see you on the ground." With a loud hiss, his pod left the ship, and descended towards the planet below. Four identical hisses signaled the speedy departure of the other pilots. With a hearty sigh, I double-checked my harness, and set the pod for planetfall.

"Standby." The on-board CPU, called out its alert in a monotone, synthetic drone.

"Separation Confirmed."
A small burst from the top-most booster flung the pod free of the ship, sending it slowly planetside. Comms were, surprisingly enough, clear of chatter, leaving me alone with my thoughts as the pod silently descended towards the planet's surface miles below.
I tried to avoid thinking about how a mere three inches of a borium-steel wall protected me from the harsh vacuum of space, and harsher experience that came with falling through a planet's atmosphere at terminal velocity. Above all, I tried not to wonder if that was just a hair or a crack in the glass-ceramic window.

"Alert. Approaching Shock layer."
Several hundred klicks up, the atmosphere condensed, providing stiff resistance to the large pod. To ensure survival of cargo, namely me, the pod's metal drag chute opened up with a lurch. The window was tinted a faint orange, but as the turbulence grew, so did the plasma and flames coating the pod. The pod jerked and spun wildly, with occasional bursts of acceleration in seemingly random directions, courtesy of the pod's course correcting thrusters. Say what you want about grunts, they had balls to drop into combat like this, and crammed like sardines in smaller pods no less; I'd take a dropship any day.

"Impact in 10...9...8"
A mere 15 klicks off the deck, my teeth were chattering, my heart was pounding, and in the back of my mind I regretted my decision to reenlist. My first atmospheric drop taught me not to clench my jaw, but now that I was actively trying worm my tongue out of danger, it felt too large for my mouth.

There was a loud crash of metal, and the pod suddenly spun quickly to the right; I'd hit something in mid-air, and I hit it hard.
Bright red lights filled the cramped pod as the on-board CPU warned of a collision, drop misalignment, and upcoming ground impact all at once.
Luckily, I'd been bracing for impact on the ground, but it was still quite a shock; I still managed to bite the edge of my tongue on the first crash.
Unluckily, the pod wasn't righted in time, and spun wildly instead of settling in the ground. I counted three skips before it settled to a stop, completely upside down.

The automated CPU apparently didn't give a damn about the crash, or the orientation of the pod, and released the safety harness, painfully dropping me to what was once the roof.
Making contact headfirst, I was out instantly.

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"We're falling back to higher ground....we're falling back to the carrier!"

"Pilots, we've routed the Militia; hunt them down to their evac point! Don't let them escape!"

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"IMC ground forces are down to 25%. Heavy losses across the board. Graves, we can't take much more of this."

"Roger, abort the mission. All ground forces, prepare for evacuation."

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I slowly came to, aware of the taste of copper in my mouth and a deep throbbing in my skull. The entire right side of my vision was foggy and blurred, which meant one of two things: I'd suffered major cranial trauma and was experiencing visual impairment, or I'd simply pressed my face against my helmet's lens. I wasn't trained in any first aid beyond 'inject a stim or two to keep from dying', so I sincerely hoped for the latter.

Unable to fully rise up in the cramped pod, I righted myself in a sitting position and removed my helmet. Managing to blink away any lingering fuzziness, I was relieved to find it was just a smudged helmet. I'd removed it to clear the smudge when a loud series of bangs rang throughout the pod.

First I thought I was under fire, but it was just the explosive bolts deploying, opening the pod. My Titan flopped out and deployed in a surprisingly nimble display contrary to its stocky design. Despite my pilot training and human form, I was significantly less graceful, practically crawling out of the pod and into the open air. In my defense, I wasn't made of hardened steel, borium, and ceramite, and the crash had taken quite a bit out of me. Slowly, painfully rising up, I could see a wrecked Crow dropship sitting in a smoking crater, and a small walled village in the distance. Fires burned among the mixed prefabs and scrap buildings that composed the colony. A flaming husk of an Atlas titan smoldered among a massive breach in the wall, smoke obscuring my sight into the village proper. A quick glance skyward showed a distinct lack of an orbiting IMC supercarrier. No IMC boots, titans, or ships nearby.

I was left behind.

"Borak," I began, addressing my Titan. "See what you can do about the pod." With nary a second of delay, the machine went about rolling the even larger pod into position. Despite the care it took, the pod ended up slamming down with a massive crash of steel on earth, and another explosive bolt detonated, throwing a door panel yards forward with a clang. "Hold position and enter parade mode," I instructed, deciding that low power wasn't enough. That sound might attract unwanted attention, and having a slow titan in the open would be detrimental to my health; parade mode would set the titan AI to regard any non-IMC personnel as civilians, and would therefore not engage unless engaged.

Once that was done, my titan lowered to the ground, and seemingly powered down. It's active nuclear reactor would probably show up on orbital scans, but anyone doing light recon would simply see another titan out of commission. Grabbing my rifle, I set out towards the village. Crossing the ruined farmland surrounding the outer wall, I was sure I'd hear the distant crack of a rifle before getting shot, but that proved to be nothing but my own paranoia.

I'd made it to a rocky outcropping overlooking a squat two-story building, and shouldered my rifle. I'd wished I had an enhanced optic, the magnification on the AOG was lacking compared to an actual sniper, but it served its purpose.

I could see enemy grunts going about tending to their wounded and dead, gathering them for burial and leaving the IMC where they died. An MCOR pilot carried the upper half of a spectre on his shoulders, jumping from rooftop to rooftop towards the center of town. I was debating getting up to move to a better vantage point when I noticed an incoming militia dropship fly down from a massive crashed carrier on a distant mountain. It circled the village once before setting down out of sight.

With slow, deliberate movements, I made my way down from the rocks and into the building beyond the wall, making sure not to activate my jump kit lest I alert the distant grunts of my presence. From this better vantage point, I could faintly make out a figure in the sprawling tower in the center of town. Despite the limited magnification of my optic, there was no mistaking the huge length of the armor-penetrating Kraber rifle, clearly a sniper providing overwatch. Luckily, it wasn't pointed in my direction, but rather towards the western edge of the village, where a massive radio tower rose from a square building.

I'd seen enough.

I quickly, but stealthily made my way back to my titan, ordering it back into the open drop pod. Checking my the pod's input computer, I'd found that the crash hadn't had any negative side effects on my titan, which was pretty fortunate given the circumstances. I set the system to re-arm my titan, outfitting its chaingun with standard anti-personnel 20mm ammunition. Deciding that the farmland was flammable enough, I'd fitted half the countermeasure tubes with electric-smoke, a quarter standard smoke flare, and the remaining quarter with white-phosphorus.

It would be pretty dangerous to go up against an unknown number (but at least two) of enemy pilots and countless militia grunts, but I needed to stop the Militia from gathering any intel from Spectres that could be used against us, and I had to get to the long range radio if I wanted a chance to call for help.

"Borak," The titan, fully kitted out and ready for battle, exited the pod and stood at attention. "Lets go kick some ass." It loosened its posture, slammed a closed fist into an open palm, and then dropped to one knee, opening its hatch for me to enter.

Nearly done gathering their fellow fallen, two militia grunts were taking a quick smoke break. Not one for awkward silences, one began, "This is a new low for the IMC. Weapons testing on innocent civilians?"

"You must be new; this isn't the first time they've pulled something like this."

"I'm just saying, the IMC are going way too far....hey, you hear that?" Deep, rhythmic thumps were approaching from the rear of the village wall.

"Yeah sounds like....weren't all our titans sent up to the carrier, to back up MacAllan?"

Immediately afterwords, an IMC Ogre broke through the remains of an Atlas, flames and steel dancing off its hull in a shimmering display. Both grunts keyed their radios, shouting warnings of an enemy titan in the perimeter before being gunned down. Distant cracks of a rifle signaled the sniper firing on the Ogre, but the massive AP shells were stopped by the titan's shields. With a whistling whoosh, a cluster missile was fired at the tower, detonating and sending multiple secondary explosives throughout the sniper's nest before they could react.

The Ogre made its way through the streets of the burning village, laying down suppressing fire in doorways and windows to discourage grunts from turning the narrow pathways into a killzone. A pilot sitting atop a rooftop uncloaked, firing a guided rocket at the massive mech, discarding the spent launcher and rushing off to another rooftop; the rocket had little damage, but soaked up most of the titan's shields. The titan's main gun sprayed a trail of tungsten slugs towards the pilot, narrowly missing as he ran towards the hovering dropship. With a hiss of static, the pilot contacted the ship's controller on an open channel.

"We've got enough of these robots, let's cheese it! Set a course for the Freeport System now!"

The dropship turned, allowing the pilot to enter the troop bay via the loading ramp. Shutting behind him, the dropship rose slightly in the air, humming as it calculated its hyperspace jump. The massive titan climbed atop a house's roof and jumped towards the dropship. Making contact, it drove one fist into the heart of the ship, attempting to prevent its escape. With an earth-shattering roar, and a blinding flash, the ship and titan disappeared from sight.

"Warning! Unknown warp signature detected! Warning! Radiation spike detected! Warning! GPS lost! Warning! Altitude! Altitude! Impact in 20, 19, 18..."

"Would you fucking can it, Borak! Stabilize and prep all systems for Titanfall." I dislodged my titan's fist from the crippled dropship, shearing it in two. As the plasma's surrounding glow intensified, the Crow disintegrated, completely vaporizing its crew and cargo. One mission accomplished, I thought to myself. Small consolation, as my Titan was descending from the planet's upper atmosphere without a pod's thrusters or drag chute to aid in a safe landing. I'd seen videos of malfunctioning pods that deployed their explosive bolts and separated the protective housing mere seconds after detaching from an orbiting carrier; it wasn't a pretty landing for the Titan, and definitely wasn't something you'd want to put a pilot through.

As the falling Titan rattled and roared through the atmosphere, I couldn't help but think back to the astronauts of humanities past; pioneers in every endeavor, but every flight was a test in one way or another. Did every flight and re-entry carry the dread of potential disaster? When the harsh brilliant glare surrounded their descending capsule, did they ever stop to think 'This is it; this is how it ends'? At least they would be remembered, cherished by men from every bickering nation for braving the cruel void of space and daring to defy nature for the briefest moment in time. Having failed to reach the IMC, they would likely assume me killed in battle, or worse, a traitor defecting to aid the Militia in some deranged act of rebellion.

Warnings of dangerous impact conditions and a less than ideal landing zone went largely ignored, and I didn't bother bracing for impact. With an earthshattering roar, the Titan crashed into a still forest below; the force of the impact uprooting trees and large chunks of earth in a gaping crater stretching twenty meters across and three meters deep. Trees not uprooted by the blast caught fire from the radiant heat of the glowing metal goliath, and the echo of the crash reverberated all throughout the woods for miles to come; all went unnoticed by the incapacitated pilot.

Twilight Sparkle, faithful student to the Princess, was likely the only pony in the entire town of Ponyville awake at such a late hour; such an event was far from uncommon. The young mare was often studying from various tomes to aid in the improvement of one spell or another, but tonight was reserved for 'simple' stargazing. Beyond the edge of Luna's controlled sky lay an expansive and nearly uncharted space, and the Princess' pupil took it upon herself to be the one to graph the unknown stars, simply in the name of discovery (and, despite what she would tell anypony, a slight bit of pride. She'd probably get to name a few unknown constellations!)

Despite the complete lack of light pollution, her magically enhanced telescope was still far from an effective tool for looking into deep space, and she hadn't made much headway. Having debated turning in for the night for the past few hours, she'd reluctantly given in. Removing her strained eye from the padded eyepiece, a distant flash in her peripheral caught her attention. Curious as to it's origin, she once again scanned the skies, catching sight of a brilliant orange splendor descending from the sky.

Given that there was no meteor shower scheduled for tonight, and the rarity of such cosmic anomalies, she tracked its descent with great interest. She did curse herself for setting the telescope for its maximum distance, as the relatively nearby meteor was merely a black blob surrounded by a bright flame, but she was almost certain she'd be able to track its landing; at least the bigger fragments that didn't split up and burn off in the atmosphere, as she was observing happen. Who knows what kind of precious metals could be found from a such a meteor; perhaps some unknown starmetal could be christened in her name if she were to claim this discovery as her own. Twilightium, or Sparklium, or....okay admittedly those were fairly silly and vain choices, but she'd likely have time to study the hypothetical metal, and could come up with a decent name later.

Caught up in her own thoughts, the young mare failed to spot the distinct blue jets that spun and righted the falling mass, guiding its descent towards the uninhabited, but rather close Everfree forest. With a bright light the meteor crashed, throwing up flames, flora, and earth in an instant. Seconds later, a massive BANG rang through the town, testament to the volume of the thunderous crash. Startled awoken by such a loud and nearby boom, nearly every resident of the town turned on their lights and exited their homes, eyes glistening in the soft moonlight.

All across town it was the same; all eyes pointed towards the Everfree.

Author's Note

Friggen drop pods man

The battle of Demeter has a really cool IMC intro
But I feel the intro from ODST has the whole drop pod thing down.

Warhammer has some sick as shit pods too, which inspired the Titan pod here

See, in game pilots are delivered via dropship, troop pod, or drop in with their titans (or just respawn magically on the ground)
When the titan falls, its got like some sabot or something, if you watch it fall it discards something about a second before impact

I figure it'd be easier that way to have the titan in a pod, and drop that from a glorified torpedo tube.

So what if a pilot wanted to drop with it? Stick him in the titan

But like, what if the sabot wasn't the only option
Maybe you could drop a titan in a pod, which wouldn't be discarded
You could put a MARVN and a small repair bay in there

Shit would cost an arm and a leg, and would have to be recovered after battle, but having a small place to rearm and repair on the front lines sounds pretty cool to me.

Okay brief explanations for those not Titanfall savvy

Rifle is basically a futuristic M14

Sidearm is a full-auto 45 caliber pistol

Smart Pistol is a cheap gun that locks onto enemies and the bullets automatically track towards them

Anti-Titan Weapon is a Rapid fire rocket launcher

Titan is a giant robot. Ogre class is the heavy, slow but strong unit

Spectres are automated infantry

Spyglass is a prick

And Im not lying about the Kraber, that thing is friggen huge
The kraber is the fuckhuge rifle here

Edit: WHY DIDNT ANYONE REMIND ME THAT GOBLINS ARE IMC AND CROWS ARE MILITIA
THAT IS AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION TO MAKE

Giant in the Pines

By the time Twilight left her library home, a large throng of ponies were making their way towards the Everfree impact site. So much for my discovery, Twilight thought to herself. Despite this, she pressed onward, following the crowd to the path nearest the meteor's location. She was quite surprised to find the forest cordoned off by the town guards. One of the guards' stoic faces broke upon making contact with her, grinning a relieved grin and motioning her over.

"Twilight Sparkle, just the mare I'd wanted to see; I was about to send a runner for you."

Quite confused, she responded, "Me? What for?"

"Well, whenever anything unusual happens you seem to be the one to go to, so I'd just figured....no offense."

She was above a snarky response, but she's still rolled her eyes at such a remark. Still, she took it upon herself to investigate the meteor.

It was a short trek into the Everfree, and despite the eeriness of the forest, she was more than capable of handling any threat this far in. Nearing where she assumed the meteor impacted, she could see singed and cracked trees in the distance, and could faintly smell ozone atop the thick stench of smoke. Reaching a patch of trees just outside the crater, Twilight came upon Eagle Eye, Ponyville's premier detective, apparently taking action to secure and study the meteor.

"Ah, Miss Sparkle, I'm glad you made it so quickly. Its....well....you have to see it, its like nothing I've ever seen before." The investigator seemed quite eager, completely excited to be stumped like this.

"I know; I haven't had the change to study a meteor fragment in person before!"

"Oh, are you in for a treat. This, Twilight Sparkle, is no meteor...."

Confused, Twilight entered the clearing, and gasped. Deep in the glade lay the meteor's impact crater, but despite the destruction surrounding the area, the object was completely intact, likely thanks due to the shimmering blue shield. Although the shield partially obstructed their view inwards, there was still enough visibility to see the massive golem standing within. It was a figure unlike Twilight had ever seen; the feet were clearly hooves, but the front limbs ended in flexible, stocky digits like a dragon's claw. Its torso was a round, stocky shape and the figure plainly lacked a head, but it was evident that this was the original construction and not some destruction wrought by the statue's descent through the atmosphere.

What was odd was the swiveling orb atop the torso, bright blue light shimmering through the shield and tracking all the guards' movements. Even stranger still, was the fact that neither this golem nor its shield emitted any magical signature whatsoever, despite the clear evidence that magic was at play. Who would build such a statue? How would they power its magic? Why would they drop it from the sky? All these questions and more rang out in Twilight's head.

Without warning, the golem inside rose up from its kneeling position, towering at least 25 feet tall within its shield. Despite the quickness of this movement, it continued to lie still, despite the startled reactions of the guards present. Moving closer, Twilight light up her horn to try and get a magical scan on the golem through its shield. Despite her care, the shield flickered, and the titanic golem moved again; this time it reached on its back for some strange metal object, which it then pointed at her.

A loud screech echoed through the clearing, emanating from the golem. An imposing, gravely voice soon followed, garbled and riddled with static as if spoken through a radio. Unfortunately, it was completely alien to her. "Attraray, too av tar aggsy axchoon par Loot Elltee Farahd quex Ihmk. Ilt ex toos om varn, sek husvor axiom tu foray untag. Too aw fif send colldwor!"

Frightened, Twilight canceled the spell and took a step back, barely taking notice of the two guards rushing to place themselves between her and the golem. Simultaneously they shouted for her to get to cover, and for the golem to cease whatever it was doing lest they be forced to take action against it. Twilight saw their mistake, and tried yelling out a warning as they lit their horns against the figure.

With a static discharge, the shield shimmered and died, and the massive golem practically jumped backwards, showing speed that contradicted its stocky frame. There was deep thump, as if someone blew into a rather long pipe for fun, and great clouds of smoke filled the area. Finally, two incredibly deafening bangs round out through the clearing, causing all ponies present to either clench their ears in pain or retreat towards Ponyville.

Twilight ran like she hadn't run for some time. Mentally, she kicked herself for choosing to stay in, not exercising with Rainbow Dash as often, and for snacking more than she was proud to admit. Still, she ran as fast as she could, piecing together what she could from the brief interaction: the massive metal golem was disturbingly fast for something so huge, it was capable of advanced movement and operated completely free of any magic.

That last fact frightened her more than any villain she'd faced in her adventurous career.

Author's Note

Wew

Stranded

"Low power scan complete. Please acknowledge to review results."

I awoke in the cramped and dark confines of my Titan. I was certain I would have died during Titanfall, and was pleasantly surprised to witness the contrary. A quick self check showed that I was...physically alright, at the very least. A little sore, a little beat up, but hey. I hit the ground going at Mach .9, it was a miracle I wasn't dead. Yet.

"Low power scan complete. Please acknowledge to review results."

Despite this, Borak wasn't going to make this easy.

"Low power scan complete. Please acknowledge to-"

"Yeah, Borak, just....just give me a minute, eh?" I sighed, grateful for the silence.

"Pilot Faraday," Borak was not a smart AI, unfortunately, and could not hear the fatigue in my voice. "Scans indicate atmospheric composition capable of sustaining human life. However, I have detected dynamic levels of radiation. Recommend you remain within shielded structures to ensure survival. Notice: my trauma kit is equipped with two doses of anti-radiation agents; In addition, routing power from the active dome-shield to my passive shield-core will result in a total radiation prevention period of three months, provided radiation levels remain stable."

Radiation. Nice. Why couldn't I have died in the crash. I would have settled for vaporization in the atmosphere....

"Pilot Faraday, I am detecting movement outside my shield. Scanning....Scanning....Scan inconclusive. Unknown Xenos detected. Input required."

Given that this planet could sustain human life, it wasn't a stretch to find that life in general could be found. Figuring the 'xenos' to be some lower, non-sapient form of life, I wasn't too surprised by the scan. "Borak, exit power save and turn on the cockpit screens, I wanna see what we're dealing with."

Without a word, the titan lurched as it rose from a kneeling to a standing position, and light filled the small cabin as the viewscreen powered on. Looking through the deployed dome-shield tinted the world beyond a deep blue, but the deep greens of a forest beyond the burnt brown ground remained visible. Also visible were a crowd of absolutely tiny quadrupeds circling slowly around the dome shield. Fuckin' aliens, man.... I was no stranger to undocumented indigenous life on barely colonized planets, half of what little deployment I got this deployment was throwing stones at some pseudo-avian lifeforms to keep them from nesting on a communications antenna, and my brief stint at an IMC airbase showed that that gargantuan and semi-hostile beings existed beyond the safe range of a 'dogwhistle' tower.

I considered my next move, completely unsure of how to proceed. I mean, I could have just walked out of there, but my shield levels were holding steady here and I didn't want to wander aimlessly, potentially exposed to deadly radiation without a plan. The unknown xenos dictated my next move for me, as one purple being walked towards my titan, shining a light towards me. Just what the fuck is going on.... At once, a red light filled the cabin and the dome shield shimmered slightly.

"Warning! Massive radiation spike detected! Warning! Dome-shield instability detected! Alert! Shield battery low! Advise retreat!"

"Fucking hell!" It was fairly obvious that, no matter their intelligence level, they were clearly a threat if they were defeating my dome shield; it could withstand attack from orbital kinetic bombardment or be crushed by a Leviathan without draining half their power through the strike. "They're trying to pierce the shield! Declaring all xenos hostile." As I spoke, I freed the massive XO-16 chaingun from its position on the titan's magnetic holster, and aimed it towards the purple threat. "Borak, prep two tubes of smoke, and turn on loudspeakers on my mark."

Seeing the mic's light turn green, I keyed it to life, and spoke my warning: "Attention, you are taking aggressive action towards Lieutenant Elliot Faraday of the IMC. This is your only warning, cease hostile activities or be fired upon. You have five seconds to comply!"

Immediately after shutting off the comms, the light died down, and two of the white xenos charged to stand in front of the purple one as it backed away. Yeah, thats what I thought. My hubris was cut short, as the two white beings then flashed minor deadly rays towards my shield; despite their lesser power, they were successful in completely draining the battery. Swearing, I dashed the titan backward, deployed my smoke, and fired two shots in warning. While I was certain I'd be able to take them on, I'd rather not waste the ammunition and declare war on an unknown number of hostiles when I was on my own.

Shit, I guess I already did....

This was a battle of attrition, and I was already losing badly.

I was making my way through the thick forest as quickly and quietly as I could. Unfortunately, navigating dense foliage in a 25 foot tall tank was neither stealthy nor swift. Uprooting trees was far faster than searching for a tread path wide enough to accommodate my Titan's girth, but trees falling in forests are rather loud. In addition, the muck and slurry forming a majority of the forest floor dragged and pulled with each step I took, squelching and popping sickly with every footfall. In short, this planet fucking sucked. Despite the slow going, it wasn't all bad news.

"Sir, Shield-Core is charged and ready for deployment."

I wasn't going to die immediately, so this death-world was somewhat forgiving; I'm certain Leviathan or Gridiron would be less merciful. Briefly I wondered if I'd get to name this rock; whoever named planets always fucked it up. I'd name this rock something cool, like 'Lost Hope', 'Settler's Bane', or 'Death-by-Radiation'. Yeah, planet Death-by-Radiation....awesome. With a soft sigh I addressed the AI.

"I'm aware, Borak; Save it for another rad-burst. I don't want to be shitting blood any sooner than I have to."

"Roger. Notice: my trauma kit is equipped with two doses of anti-radiation agents. Recommend injection immediately to combat and prevent the effects of radiation poisoning."

That could wait. So long as I wasn't encountering more of those....whatever they were, the relatively low rad levels would be kept at bay by my Titan's shields and hull. My main priority right now was finding high ground, and preferably a safe(ish) place to rest. Though I'd spent the better part of the last 18 hours knocked out, it wasn't by choice.

The trees quickly clustered together, forcing me to abandon the already narrow path completely in favor of clearing my own. Progress was slow going, and I was getting upset. In a poorly thought out plan, I utilized my Titan's dash to quickly accelerate, giving myself the momentum to simply crash through the trees in a guided maelstrom of floral destruction. Unfortunately, sprinting in unknown territory is far from a clever idea; the dense forest suddenly vanished, leading to a narrow cliff overlooking a deep, expansive canyon. With no time to halt, I made a judgement call, and tried to jump it. Kicking off at the last second, my Titan barely left the ground, and even utilizing a dash in mid-air was barely enough for me to reach the other side. The ground shifted under the massive disturbance, but thankfully held.

Retreating to a safe distance from the cliff edge, I took stock of my situation. A flimsy and tiny bridge lay suspended over the chasm, burning in the wake of my dash thrusters. That may work in my favor, keeping the indigenous life from following me past the trail I'd left in the forest. More importantly, I could make out the ruins of some ancient structure in the distance. While they might have proved massive to the locals, the large doorway barely left room for my Titan, and the shoulder-mounted munitions launcher dislodged a few timeworn bricks. Still, it's main hall proved a decent enough staging area for Borak.

"Borak, record message: To anyone hearing this message, this is Lieutenant Elliot Faraday, pilot stranded on an uncharted rock with potentially hazardous indigenous life requesting immediate aid. I have vital information that could turn the tide of the war on the frontier. End message, and broadcast on an open channel." While I wasn't too high up, my radio was powerful enough to broadcast well off the planet, and potentially reach some ship lurking in the shadows of space. While the 'vital info' was just a lie, it gave incentive to anyone hearing to rescue, or worst case scenario, capture me and get me off this rock.

Reaching under the seat, I'd accessed the trauma kit, picking out the small syrettes with a sickly yellow trefoil. Each one was supposedly good for up to five days of minor resistance, but given I was metal from the waist down, I'd generously factor in a bonus two days per syrette, or 7 days of mobility outside the titan. Wishing that our medical provider would put this gunk in an auto-injector, I injected the syrette and felt a light wave of nausea wash over me. Miserable gunk, but well worth the rad protection. I pocketed the other syrette and put the trauma kit back under the seat, then grabbed the suppressed smart pistol before exiting my titan.

"Borak, maintain position and set present location as 'home'. Conserve ammo; anything comes through that door without an IMC tag, just smash it. "

"Understood, sir, entering guard mode."

"Try not to bring the place crashing down on you either, I can't have you towed outta here."

Taking position near the entryway, Borak crouched down as best he could, and stood guard facing the door. I retraced my way back over the burning bridge (thankfully, navigating a chasm was easier with a jump kit than an 86 ton behemoth) and back through the path I'd cut in the forest. Though the xenos were dangerous, I had to make my way back towards them. I could bullshit something about 'documenting a new species' but really I was just interested in learning more about my biggest threat. Regardless, I didn't have a death wish, so I'd made sure to activate my cloak and stick to the upper canopy.

Author's Note

Space future antirad medicine is instant and works for five days because Idunno how science works
The grunt dialogue for Demeter is fantastic

"I feel like we're all gonna have radiation poisoning just by setting foot on this rock!"
"That's why we got those inoculations."
"What inoculations? I didn't get one!"

Also

I dont think a dome shield could protect against kinetic bombardment or a leviathan in real life
But in game it will protect you from hostile titanfall so you know
Fucking superpowers

Leviathans are those huge hulking things in the background
For scale, those things in the lower right with arrows above them are people

The Dog-whistle is that leaning white tower
It emits a wave of something cool and sciency that keeps wildlife at bay

This one was abandoned so life came in

Airbase has leviathans and flyers kept at bay by dogwhistles

Ghost in the Machine

Having made her way back to Ponyville, Twilight saw that the royal guard's pegasi had beat her back by some time, and were in the process of herding the crowd back to their homes. Unicorn and Earth pony guards were busy fabricating barriers between the forest and the small town, in preparation of that....thing....following. She knew, however, that wooden barricades likely wouldn't even slow it down, let alone stop it.

She figured that despite lacking magic, the powerful, ancient relics known as the Elements of Harmony would prove a potent weapon against this new breed of terror. As luck would have it, her friends, the living embodiment and bearers of the artifacts, were willingly making their way towards the forest edge in anticipation of yet another potentially world-saving adventure. Upon seeing her, they changed direction to group up, all familiar with the 'stick together to save the world' situation. Had she not been recovering from her fright, Twilight would have had a little laugh at that; since when does saving the world become commonplace in a pony's life?

"So, Twi, whats going on, and how fast can we stop it? I've still got a full night of sleep ahead of me." Rainbow Dash never had a firm grasp on priorities.

"Well..." Twilight began, but paused. What was going on? Something fell from the sky, and she panicked at the noises and actions it made. While incredibly frightening, yes, it wasn't necessarily hostile. It was smoking just before it flew back, maybe it was malfunctioning? Maybe it needed help? "I'm not sure. That's really what we're going to find out." A calm, rational investigation to dispel (or confirm) any fears.

With a certain prismatic pegasus rolling her eyes, the six friends headed into the dark forest.

Just as she'd suspected, when they reached the initial impact crater, the massive golem was nowhere in sight. It did, however, leave a trail of destruction leading deeper into the forest, so the girls knew where it had gone. Twilight briefly explained what little she knew to the group: some massive metal....thing fell from the sky, and reacted to unicorns' magic. After it spoke in some strange language, it rushed out of sight, crashing through the trees. The plan was simple: follow the devastation and find out just what the being was, and what it wanted.

Be it grogginess from the late hour, or just the anticipation of venturing into the unknown, nopony says a word as they press on; Its clear all the girls are feeling more than a bit nervous. As they trekked further into the forest, decaying sickly trees with warning branches became the norm, with the grass below dying out and scarcely showing through a thick layer of mud.

"Um, girls," Fluttershy began, breaking the eerie silence. "D-do any of these trees look sort of...."

"Familiar?" Applejack finished, though it was clear she wasn't the only one thinking so. "Why ancient evil always makes us stumble through these woods, I'll never know..."

With the familiarity established, they more or less retraced their steps to where they first discovered the Elements of Harmony, despite the creature zigzagging through the woods. Eventually, the trees and vines no longer surround the group, the forest thinning out and leading to a rocky cliff; the smoldering remains of a once hanging rope bridge can be seen hanging from each side of the chasm. Just beyond the gap, they could just make out the outline of an ancient, intimidating castle.

Given Twilight's proficiency in magic compared to their last visit, teleporting the group across (those who couldn't simply fly across, of course) was no major challenge. The six friends slowly approached the old castle. Time was not kind to the aged structure, and it appeared to have fallen into an even greater state of disrepair in the years since their last visit during the return of Nightmare Moon. Deep, round depressions in the stone itself signaled the giant's presence within the castle. Stepping cautiously through the open archway, they entered the dark hall of the ancient palace. Occasionally they could hear a deep thump or two coming from the throne room, signalling the heavy hoof-falls of the beast as it....did something.

"Why d'you figure a giant metal monster would come here? What's it want with Celestia's and Luna's old castle?"

"I don't know....maybe its looking for something?" Twilight couldn't feel anything magical controlling the metal monster, but magic had to have been in play here. Whoever created this thing must have been after something in the castle. But to what end?

"Um, girls? Did any of you notice that thing just sort of....stopped? It was moving about in the next room a few seconds ago, and now...."

And eerie silence filled the entranceway as the girls all listened for the beast's movement. Without warning, the wall separating the throne room from the atrium. The metal being ran towards them, raising an arm above its head and bringing it crashing down near where Rainbow Dash had been seconds prior.

Flying in the air, she screamed at the beast. "Hey! Whats the big idea, you tin can?"

Recovering from its miss, it tried reaching for her, but she proved much too fast, zipping past its flailing hands in an aerodynamic, multi-chromatic blur. Not one for sitting idly by, Applejack reared kicked at one of its massive hooves, but before making contact she was zapped by some invisible energy and flung backwards from the beast. Despite the powerful electric shock, Twilight still hadn't registered any magic coming from the golem. Still, a blue field appeared just off the surface of the creature, a honeycomb knitting itself together where Applejack had kicked.

Lighting up her horn, Twilight scanned the being as best she could. Something about it was....off. It completely resisted her magic, but didn't actively struggle against her. She pushed onward mentally. As she scanned it, the metal giant stumbled and crashed into another wall, electricity running down its entire form. With a light ping, the blue shield vanished, being replaced by a bright yellow hex pattern. It rose from the rubble, and seemed to gaze at Twilight, who found herself somehow blocked from scanning it further; despite this she was certain of three things: the being contained strange and potentially vital internal components, operating like a radio but infinitely more complicated, it was operating free of any magical source, despite its massive power draw coming from some strange thing within its back, and it's torso was almost completely hollow compared to the rest of its body's construction. Almost caught completely in thought, Twilight shook herself alert, facing the now towering behemoth before her.

Charging up her horn for a teleport, the being surprised her by dashing forward in a surprising display of speed. It grabbed her in one of its massive hands, to the shock of everypony present. She tried to teleport again, and was rewarded with a sharp pain in her head. Whatever change happened with that sound and lightshow, it was cancelling her magic. It squeezed her in its hand, threatening to crush her. She gasped and struggled, trying to break free, but its solid metal hands wouldn't budge. Without warning, however, it let her fall to the ground, stood stock still for a few seconds, and then bolted for the entrance of the castle. Crashing through the wall, it made its way back into the forest path it came from.

Too shocked and sore to give immediate pursuit, Twilight simply lay there, gasping for breath. Ever eloquent, Rainbow voiced what was surely on all their minds: "What in the hay was that about?!"

Author's Note

Can you tell Im not very comfortable with writing these horse chapters?
Gonna stick to the pilot as much as I can, that shits easy
Shield core OP as shit though
Loves me that charge hum

Also
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS STORY
NOBODY WAS SUPPOSED TO LIKE IT
I WAS JUST SUPER BORED
ATTRITION IS A SUPER DUMB NAME
ITS GONNA BE SHORT AND BAD
AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Citizen of the Stars

I was making good progress; I had nearly reached the impact site in a fraction of the time it took me to escape in the Titan. The use of a jump kit and having a cleared route were contributing factor, but I'd like to pretend I was just awesome. I couldn't make out any of the xenos from earlier, so it was likely that I'd succeeded in scaring them off. Deciding that I hadn't tempted fate enough today, I set out vaguely towards the direction I saw the purple one head off towards.

After mere minutes I could make out a thinning of the trees as the forest ended. Settling down in the branches of one of the last trees, I looked outward; beyond the treeline lay a rustic looking town, completely with cobbled roads and thatched roofs. Real storybook sort of shit. Between here and there, however, lay a growing set of jury-rigged fortifications. If they were expecting...woah, picnic tables and picket fences to stop my Titan, they would have been in for a surprise. Most surprisingly, however, were the ones constructing the fortifications.

The radiation spewing, shield defeating xenos were colorful, stocky equines. To top it off, they were garbed in a mix of silver and golden armor. Horse armor. The thought was absurd. I'd thought for a second that, maybe, these were just the steeds of the hostiles milling about, but no, that one was actively pushing a table into place! Jesus, I'd stumbled onto a mysterious planet full of potentially sapient alien horses. I should have been more intrigued by the fact, but instead I'd almost busted out laughing in the canopy, barely catching myself before causing calamity.

I continued scanning from the treetop, seeing that the larger white and gray ones were actively working to keep the crayola colored ones back. Clearly they were in some position of minor power, meant to provide security but speaking with authority. Police or military, basically. What was surprising were the variations between the horses. All the white horses bore a small set of wings, but were perfectly capable of lifting off into the air. Dusty coated stallions seemed to be the most normal of the three, but it was the gray ones that were mindblowing. It seemed all the gray coated equines bore some bony protrusion from their skull, and were able to friggen move shit with their mind.

At once, all the milling miniature mustangs stopped what they were doing, and turned to face some new figure. It moved into view, standing slightly taller than those around it. The armored beings all saluted this newcomer, and began gesturing towards the forest in earnest. It was still for some time, before flaring open its wings and sailing over the fortification, landing maybe thirty feet from the treeline. I could make out a long, spiraled horn on its head as well, and some strange marbling on its rump. Despite the assumed command position, it barely wore any armor; this might have been because its friggen hair was warping and flowing in some nonexistent breeze. If bad movies taught me anything, its that superpowers manifest themselves in weird ways, so clearly this horse had some sort of super-telepathy.

Okay, that was it. Tiny colorful telepath horses practically bowing down to a big blue freak horse. Something happened after that warp, and everything was too bullshit to believe. I chastised myself for using the anti-rad dose, figuring this all to be some cruel test by rescuing IMC forces; they must have gotten a whole team of eggheads to trick out a simulation and shoved my comatose ass in after discovering a failed warp drive back on the Troy colony. They really had me going, but it was time to end this game. Uncloaking, I vaulted up, pushing forward out of my perch in the canopy, and used my jump kit to propel myself towards the blue....thing.

Landing a few feet away, I presented a hand to the creature in anticipation of a congratulatory (and only slightly demeaning) handshake. "Okay, guys, you really had me going for a while there. I seriously thought I'd almost died getting to some uncharted planet, but don't you think you overdid that entry? Nearly had a heart attack with that crazy lightshow. An', uh, which one of you eggheads knew I was scared of horses, eh?"

Silence greeted me, and the being looked....puzzled, surprisingly. Being this close, I could see that it didn't really look like any horse I'd seen before, its eyes were forward facing and absolutely massive. It was also really expressive, and it looked like it was....well, studying me. Putting my hand down, I looked to the sky trying to find seams in the skybox, and spoke up. "You, uh, you guys can disable the Sim now."

"Parf ist ta narj o Kelstia vorx tu?"

A rock settled in my gut, but I pressed onward regardless. Closing the gap between the two of us, I began poking and prodding at the equine before me. It just stood there, slighly backing away when I got too close to its face, but seemed rather patient with my actions. A deep chill ran through my spine when I spun my hand through its flowing hair, so I made sure not to do that again. "Woah, you guys really put a lot of effort into this one, eh? Must've taken you lot bloody days to model it." I was playing with its ears when one of the white ones tackled me to the ground, shouting all the while in its grating language.

"Gest toos grobay oovsy tog ta Pronktress!"

It was joined by two of its identical brothers, stomping and snorting angrily in front of the blue one. I'd activated my jump kit, sliding me along the floor, much to the confusion of the being atop me. Using this surprise, I was able to roll and throw it off, rising to my feet and drawing my smart pistol. Simulations simulated pain (who knew?) but this was something else; the horse was legitimately crushing my ribs. One sure-fire way to test it was to break something: gibs were hard on processing power, so everything de-rendered when destroyed. But a significantly less stupid way was just to fire my pistol; if the casings remained, I'd be in trouble.

Spinning around (again, much to the confusion of the beings before me) I rapidly discharged the suppressed firearm, letting the casings and its empty magazine clatter softly to the cold earth below. A deafening silence reigned in the aftermath of the shots, and after some time I reached down, picking up the mag and a few casings. Well....fuck. Aware of a soft clattering behind me, I attempted to load another magazine into the gun. I'd just emptied my best defense in front of actual aliens, how fucking stupid was that plan?! Before I could slam the mag home, the gun was ripped from my grip, and I was lifted into the air with a mysterious lurch. A deep chill surrounded my wrists and shoulders, and I was absolutely sick to my stomach as the world seemingly spun below me. My legs locked up momentarily before becoming unresponsive to any commands and flopped uselessly below me. I was in a world of shit, basically.

Luckily, it all ended as abruptly as it started, with one of the gray horses panting and groaning, grasping its head in pain before me as I crashed to the ground. I scrambled backwards away from them as best I could, but dragging my heavy prosthetic proved quite a challenge. Several of the other armored horses were gathering in a semicircle around me, slowly closing the distance in a subtle show of force. As another gray horse flared up its spiraled horn in a glistening green light, I drew my RE-45 from its holster and fired a burst into the air before pointing it at the approaching ponies. Given that this pistol was un-suppressed and automatic, the gunfire proved significantly more effective at intimidating them than the smart pistol had.

"Back the fuck up!" I shouted, trying to buy time for my legs to reboot. I couldn't very well drag myself with one arm, and I'd wanted to maintain a firm grip on the gun lest it be torn from my hands again. I could hear the electronic whir as the advanced prosthetics synced with my nervous system. While I'd never regained proper feeling with these limbs, there was a sort of....presence to them. Hammond Electronics, the public face of the IMC back home, claimed it was all 'simulated touch' and whatnot, but that was all hogwash and PR; still, I could slowly 'feel' as my legs came online. Springing up, I cloaked and broke for the forest as quickly as I could.

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I thought I'd made my way back towards the crash site, but it should have come into view after mere minutes, and it was almost an hour after being manhandled by alien superhorses. I hadn't even seen the massive trail my Titan carved through the forest, leaving me wondering just where I was. Whatever they'd done had left me dizzy and disoriented, and all around miserable. I could have passed the castle and not even known it. After falling facefirst into the mud for the third time, I'd figured that I wasn't being followed, and it would be impossible for me to regain my bearings to get back to Borak.

Luckily, I had an ace up my sleeve.

"Borak, this is Elliot. Home in on my location, double time."

After a brief delay, and through a hefty amount of static, his reply came. "Understood sir, entering Follow mode. ETA: Seven minutes."

Woah shit, I must have made it closer than I thought. Still, rest was nice, and I was content to sit against a tree and rest. Removing my helmet, I rubbed my temples in an attempt to soothe my aching head, but it was useless. The deep earthshaking rumble of footsteps nearby wasn't helping.

"Hey, Borak, keep it down, would ya, my heads killing me here...."

The footsteps drew nearer, and seemed to squelch less in the muck than my Titan would....
"Sir, linkup is still an estimated three minutes away. Radar scans indicate enemy Titan presence nearby. Caution is advised."

A strange hissing sound filled the air, and despite all of the forest having a rank smell of decaying foliage, it suddenly reeked of carrion and rot. I looked around, and was faced with a sprawling four headed yellow beast half sunk in the muck. Its body would have matched an Atlas in height, but its towering necks raised its total height to around fourty feet. With a deep gulp, I rose to my feet and unholstered my sidearm, not that I thought it'd help me much.

"Borak? If I sound terrified, its probably because...."

Two of the beast's heads roared, filling the clearing and bringing further pain to my aching head. One of the heads simple licked its chops, gazing hungrily at me. Welp....its been fun. Without warning, it shot forward like lightning, impacting the ground where I'd stood mere moments before. I don't think they expected me to leap upwards, and with the aid of my jump-kit, I was able to mount its massive head, grabbing hold of a loose leathery scale and bringing my sidearm to a depression in its skull.

"The bigger they are...." I began unloading the automatic firearm, treating it like any Titan Rodeo. Pausing to reload, I was distraught to see the tattered flesh below stitch itself together, white bone soon being obscured by fibrous muscle and a sickly yellow hide. A light sizzle and smoke rising from my gloves showed that its skin was burning at my touch, thought without affecting the creature. What kind of deathworld evolution gives something acidic skin?! With a sharp, backwards snap of its head, the massive beast was able to fling me off my perch, sending me through the air to the ground far below.

I prepped myself for impact, knowing that despite the springs in my legs and my jump kit, it'd be a hard landing, and a slow recovery would mean the beast would have time to gobble or crush me like a grape. I was quite surprised to be snatched out of the air mere moments before contact. The familiar whirring of advanced machinery filled my ears as Borak lifted me into his torso, seating me in the roomy cockpit and sealing the hatch.

"AI mode disabled, Pilot mode engaged. Welcome back Lieutenant Faraday, I kept the seat warm for you."

"Borak, you big beautiful bastard, don't you fucking scare me like that again!" I keyed the loudspeaker and faced the sprawling giant before me. "Now....you wanna brawl, motherfucker?! Bring it on!" I couldn't help but taunt the massive beast through my loudspeaker. Despite it still having a height and head advantage, I was dead certain I'd had several tons on it, and it was all flesh. Bullet resistant, highly regenerating and slightly corrosive flesh, but flesh nonetheless. One of the heads charged forward, and I caught its jaws, keeping it from rearing back. Despite its massive, robust muscles objecting, I held its head in place and slowly turned. Screaming its protest, I swiftly rotated in the opposite direction, using its own momentum as a springboard; a wet crack echoed through the clearing, and the sprawling head lay limp in my Titan's arms.

I was suddenly thrown backwards in my seat as two of the heads hammered my Titan, throwing it off balance and crashing to the ground. A mammoth leg descended on the Titan's torso, pinning me in place, and while my shields flared in anger, they were draining fast; I'd be crushed unless I took immediate action. Maybe melee was a stupid move.... Selecting the right munitions, I'd loaded my launchers with the WP incendiary. With the press of a button, the air surrounding us filled with a dense white cloud. Almost immediately, the titanic monster began reeling back, screeching in pain as its skin blistered and boiled under the barrage of burning phosphorus. The thick forest around us followed suit, and I could see flames licking at my slowly recharging shields. I slowly walked out of the cloud, miming the action of cracking my Titan's knuckles as the world burned around us.

"Try to take me out, decide I'm a quick meal; " I'd unhitched the chaingun and took aim at two of the remaining heads. Despite the flailing heads, I was able to track them fairly well, only using up about half of the magazine. It still took a decent volume of fire to penetrate each skull, flaming viscera and fragments chipping away under a flurry of tungsten and lead. Only one head remained, writhing and missing a deal of its mass. It weakly roared in my direction, staggering away. I let it go, it'd likely not survive the night. Or, it would regen from its damage and hunt me down. Meh, I'll cross that bridge when I get there....

Turning around, I'd started to make my way back to the castle, when Borak warned of a massive radiation spike. Bringing the gun up, I scanned the clearing and saw a multicolored assortment of the tiny horses. They weren't, however, focused on stopping me, but directing their attention towards the lingering fire threatening to devour the forest in their vicinity. I noted that the purple and white ones were sort of glowing, and directly combating the fires in the trees. Still, my lingering headache warned me against close contact with any of these strange creatures.

Taking care not to crush them underfoot, I made my way back to the castle, leaving them to deal with the fire.

Author's Note

Writing broken languages is literally just slapping keys on the keyboard until it looks alien enough.
Tu always mean You, but thats really the only constant there is.

Language barriers, YEAH!

Also, daily reminder: Do not play with horse princesses' ears unless you want to have a bad day

I wrote the hydra thing before Dragonman found this story
So I guess this went from being shameless idea borrowing to a lighthearted jab/ reference to that mess
Less successful because, I mean, Pilots are sick as shit but
Have you seen a hydra

To be fair though, rodeo-ing giant monsters has always been a really cool idea
Thats why i havent found anyone who didnt like Shadow of the Colossus

Ascend

Death-rads, shield beating xenos, and multiheaded fucking dragons. This world is 100%, bona fide NOPE. A few minutes into stumbling through the forest, I'd realized I had no idea where I was going; the gaps in the trees were enough that any path could have led back to the castle. Removing my hands from the console, I'd set Borak to AI mode.

"Yeah, okay, I've no clue where we're going. Borak, take us 'home'."

"Of course. Notice: I encountered six unknown hostiles while you were gone. I engaged but was unable to eliminate them before coming for you. Sensors indicate they followed me, and have remained at the clearing with the unknown hostile Titan."

"When were you gonna tell me this, eh? Wait, though....six hostiles? You mean that those six crayon colored bastards were too fast for you? Poor show, Borak, very poor show." I couldn't help but be snarky; those little creatures didn't particularly seem like the kind to be able to evade a giant fist in closed quarters. "You're getting sloppy, mate, I think we need to-"

I was cut off as Borak dashed backwards, throwing me forwards in my seat and crashing into the viewscreen before me.

"Warning, unstable ground detected, evasive maneuvers engaged." The forest was clear, and the ground was stable, there was no reason for the Titan to have....Did....did Borak just fucking one-up me? For a 'simple' AI he proved quite capable of picking up on my bad influences; I'd have him drawing dicks on walls in no time.

Despite the fun, the impact still really hurt. Reaching under the seat for the trauma kit, I popped two naproxen tablets to try and relieve my headache, all the while trying to remember symptoms of rad poisoning. I was pretty sure headaches could also be caused from all the head trauma associated with dropping from atmosphere twice in one day, but the invisible death of radiation was a legitimate cause for concern (though I was almost certain symptoms don't manifest this early unless you're standing in the glowing core of a fusion chamber). I still got a chuckle at the thought of rushing at these xenos, skin sloughing off in great chunks, screaming death and firing wildly. Wouldn't that be something....

We'd eventually made it back to the castle, and I could see it was in an even greater state of disrepair than before. Taking control of the Titan once again, I'd set about demolishing unstable patches of ceiling, as to not have it crash down unexpectedly, as well as moving rubble to block the doorway as best I could; Deterrence and safety, all at once. Finishing that, I'd removed my rifle from its rack, and exited to the cool, if not dusty, air of the castle interior.

"Borak, shut down all unnecessary functions and boost power to the transmitter for....lets say six hours, or whenever dawn is." I wanted to get off this rock, but having an 80-ton paperweight during the light of day is a guaranteed deathwish.

"Understood, entering low power mode. Goodbye, Lieutenant." Borak lowered himself to the ground, planting his fists on the ground like a giant metal gorilla, and powered down most of his processes; I could manually open the hatch if I'd needed to, but the best thing he offered right now was minor ballistic protection now that his shields were off.

Local recon was the name of the game for the next few hours; I should have honestly checked the castle out beforehand, but my curiosity demanded otherwise earlier. With the threat of hostile incursion at hand, however, a suitable holdout position was a necessity, and that meant sealing back entrances, establishing fallback routes, and maybe rigging up a few traps. Also, looking through old-ass castles in general was cool as shit, alien or otherwise.

It was very strange, though, as most everything inside could have been mistaken for human engineering; there were torn rugs on the wall, rotting tapestries hanging from walls, and even sets of armor lining the hallway. It was only minor things that gave it away, such as the illegible glyphs lining the walls, and the fact that full suits of armor were very obviously intended for the equine xenos. The hallway decorated with horse hooves sticking from the walls was extremely unsettling, but I'd expect nothing less from sun and moon worshipers (if the tapestries scattered all over the place were anything to go by, the objects in the sky gave these horses a major hard-on). I don't want to know what the low holes in the wall were for, or why entire stretches of floor had seams running down the length of them; these xenos are a strange bunch.

I'd eventually stumbled my way into a library of sorts, musty old books rotting on equally crusty wooden shelves. I'd reached for a book, only to have it crumble into dust at my touch. Like, the entire book was just gone. Now, I'm no archeologist, I'm barely even a soldier, but I know that stuff generally doesn't do that....this place was weird. It didn't matter much, anyway, as what few books and scrolls were open on the ground proved unreadable; they were either written with a cutesy, exaggerated scribble, or a series of fantasy related glyphs that bore little meaning. Either way, it must have been hilariously difficult to write without fingers; I'd have paid good money to see an alien horse try to turn a page with their hooves.

After much fannying about, and climbing a ludicrously tall spiral staircase, I'd eventually reached the top of one castle's two decaying towers, finding a rather spacious (but rather downtrodden) room. Unlike most of the castle interior, most everything in this room was done up only in a lunar motif; from the dusty drapes to the time-worn blankets atop a rather large bed dominating the room. A rotting wooden desk sat beside a window, ancient scrolls and stumpy candles littering its cluttered surface; a cursory search yielded nothing of interest (or particular value) within. As such, it was carelessly dragged aside so I could completely search the room. Though I'd found a barracks-like room full of bunks, this was the only legitimate bedroom I'd encountered, and that signified it was important (nevermind the fact that it was also in one of the towers, further cementing that idea). Unfortunately, there was nothing of significance to be found anywhere in the room. Stifling a heavy yawn, I looked down at the dark forest from the open window, noting just how quiet and still the world was below.

Eh, screw it. Figuring that it was safe enough (one accessible entrance and an escape route via the window), and that I wouldn't be fit for combat in my state after climbing back down, I set about preparing for sleep; most of the aging furnishings were pushed against the door, and the window's blinds were drawn tightly shut as to deny a view inward. As much as I'd wanted to remove my helmet, it was relatively rad resistant, and its integrated respirator filtered out the dusty air, so sleeping with an uncomfortable metal brain-bucket was an unfortunate necessity. The armor I wore over my coat, however, was just bulky and awkward, so it went in a careless pile along with my rifle and sidearm. Flopping onto the ancient bed may have destroyed its decayed frame, and the mattress may have been disgustingly squishy, but I was much too tired to care.

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I gazed down a seemingly endless hallway; flickering blue torches every dozen feet or so give off a minor—if not eerie—glow. Taking a step forward, the crimson carpet running along the hall suddenly shifts into a pool stretching the length of the impossible hallway, water churning and roiling in protest to my movement. Another step sucks me under, trapped and floating in the cool depths. The water's surface becomes still and impenetrable, despite my best efforts to surface. As my metal legs drag me down, I can make out a pilot bearing IMC colors make its way towards me. Kneeling over me, it removes its helmet, revealing one of the strange gray xenos I'd encountered earlier. It opens its mouth and, strangely enough, utters the familiar two-tone standard IMC alert warning. Stranger still, was the very familiar synthetic voice of Borak, saying simply "Countermeasures Deployed."

"What." Naturally, I was confused.

"ALERT! Broadcast Interrupted. WARNING! Local Threats Detected. Critical Systems Sabotaged, Shutting do-"

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Combating the fires proved rather tricky, even with the aid of Rainbow Dash, who flew a stray cloud over in an attempt to drown the conflagration. While the lingering firesmoke had burned itself out rather quickly, it seemed that anything it cursed with its touch would alight once more after despite the drenching. As such, Twilight had most of the girls simply stay back, content to let this dangerous blaze run its course. That's not to say she was content to simply do nothing, however, as any larger flames devouring trees and threatening to spread were encased in an airtight magical shield, completely starving the flames of oxygen. It was difficult and dangerous, but after some length of time they were able to control the spread and isolate the few lingering trees.

What remained was a desolate, charred clearing in the formerly lush quagmire; strange to think that such devastation could come from such an innocuous looking cloud of smoke. But why didn't the other smoke-site go up in flames? Twilight thought to herself. She could recall the same, at least visually similar, smoke being deployed by the massive machine when she'd first encountered it hours prior, but there was a distinct lack of destruction there. And, despite the flames it left in its wake, it took care to maneuver around the group rather than continue its hostility. There was a mystery in play and she simply didn't have enough pieces to solve the puzzle of just what was going on. She was broken out of her stupor by the (admittedly all too familiar) sounds of a certain pegasus impacting the ground. As the others rushed to her aid, Rainbow Dash was quick to stop them, coughing out that 'she was fine, just had something in her eye'.

Not one to take any chances, Twilight took action. "Pinkie, go with Rainbow back to Ponyville. Get Dash to the hospital. We don't know what we're dealing with, and this could be the start of something bad."

"Twilight, I said I was fine," Rainbow Dash argued, her scratchy voice strained and dry. "I don't know if you noticed, but the whole clearing caught fire. I just brought my cloud in a little too close, and breathed in a little too much smoke, that's all. We all faced dragonsmoke before, remember? This is nothing...."

"Rainbow, this isn't up for debate. Besides, we need to warn the town guard not to enter the forest until we deal with....that thing."

"That won't be necessary."

The low, authoritative voice of the lunar princess filled the clearing, much to the surprise of the Elements. At once they bowed before her, missing her eye roll that accompanied the action. She continued, "There has been a....development. Whilst thou were investigating the mysterious 'golem', a strange creature visited us in Ponyville. It was....very curious, to say the least. There was a misunderstanding; We are afraid it may have the wrong impression, and while amends must be made, the safety of our Ponies is paramount. As such, the Guard have been instructed to stay clear of the forest until the situation has been dealt with."

Twilight gasped. Some strange creature visiting Ponyville following the arrival of the mysterious metal being. "A 'strange creature'? Could you tell us about it?"

"Of course. It was very bizarre, to say the least. A tall creature of metal and cloth, walking upright, not unlike a minotaur or diamond-dog, but its movements were much too graceful." At this, she grinned. "Well, graceful to a point, as after a brief altercation with an overzealous guard, it was completely inept, stumbling and rolling about on the ground. It seemed to display a destructive device in warning, though it seemed as perplexed as we were, but further action by the Guard put it on a defensive footing. It took flight immediately afterwards, headed deep into the forest. I had lost track of it, but needed only to follow the roars and explosions."

Raising a brow, the Princess inspected the group. "What exactly was that about?"

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but was beaten by an excited Pinkie. "Oh, man it was AWESOME! We were following the big metal meanie-pants and there was this Hydra, and it was all 'STOMP STOMP STOMP' and 'GRAAAAAAAAAAAH IM A BIG MEANIE'! Really making a show and the golem ran up and punched it! It was super cool, and then it was all 'ES-TOOOOD BLAH BLAH BLOO' and said some other weird stuff that I couldn't understand and grabbed one of its heads, and I think it was hurting him 'cause then he pushed him down and was standing on him, but he was like really strong so it was okay. Then there was this smoke and everything caught fire, and the Hyrdra was all 'OH NOOOOoooOOOO I'M ON FIRE!' and the big metal guy was all 'BLEEP BLOOP' and there was this really loud sound like firecrackers, but way louder than any firecracker I've ever heard, and then the Hyrda ran off in one way and the other guy went back that way, but the white smokey stuff was still setting everything on fire so we had to put it out and then you showed up, and here we are! Hi!"

"You seem rather nonplussed about the ordeal."

"Well, yeah. I mean, we've seen weird stuff like this for the past, like, four years. Its no biggie really."

The Princess didn't dare hold back her laugh.

The six Elements and the Lunar diarch made their way back to the ancient castle in silence. Twilight was quick to fill in the princess on the night's happenings, and it instantly soured the jovial mood. Such violence in the name of self defense was justified when one factored in the aggressive nature of a Hydra, but wanton violence against (relatively) unarmed ponies is unforgivable; true the victims wielded ancient tools of great power, but the Elements were more akin to a shield than a sword in terms of use. Given that the golem had released Twilight and not done any lasting damage, the hammer would not come down as hard, but come down it would.

Reaching the castle, the group took care to enter as quietly as possible. The metal beast had shown its true might, and they certainly didn't want to be on the receiving end. Unlike the girls' last visit, the castle was completely silent, lacking the heavy footfalls of the giant. Climbing over rubble of the recently felled ceiling, the group could make out the huddled monster simply sitting in the open. Unlike every previous engagement, its many eyes were a lifeless black rather than the vibrant, piercing blue. Maybe it's just resting, Twilight thought to herself.

"Interesting...." Luna broke the silence, gliding gracefully down from the scattered debris. Landing softly a short distance away from the dormant beast, her hardened facade fell, a look of amazement and curiosity replacing it.

"Um, Princess? I wouldn't really recommend being that close to it. It can be surprisingly agile." Twilight was quick to warn the princess, the overbearing pressure of cold metal hands squeezing her all to fresh in her memory. "And we just established how dangerous it is...."

"So this is what fell from the sky? The shield it must have had to withstand the harsh forces upon its descent would have to have been conjured by some immensely powerful magic. Yet what you have told me holds true; there's no obvious source of magic to power such a shield, or even the golem itself. Small wonder it's dormant, it must have depleted its residual magic reserves." Taking a confident few steps towards the behemoth, she continued. "I believe we won't have much to fear from this metal husk."

Reaching dangerous levels of overconfidence, Luna pressed ever onward, completely within spitting (or smashing) distance of the behemoth. Everypony present was tense, waiting for it to strike out, rear up, or otherwise act in retaliation to their presence, but nothing came. The Princess lit up her horn, examining the giant magically as well as visually, grin set upon her face and murmuring under her breath. Yet despite her probing, the being refused to respond to any stimuli; Twilight was rather upset at this. Why did she get attacked?

"Twilight Sparkle, would you please come here?" Luna summoned the young mare, who very hesitantly walked over to stand beside the princess. "Tell me, what does that look like?"

Looking towards where Luna gestured, Twilight studied the area. Among the tarnished gray hull was a small block of illegible, blocky symbols, larger ones within a long yellow oval. Beside it was a strange appendage sandwiched awkwardly between two interlocking gears. Beside it, recessed within a small housing was a small handle marked with a red circular arrow.

"Its not unlike a safety warning. Almost as if..." Throwing caution to the wind, the young mare made to magically turn it. Surprisingly enough, it didn't take much to manipulate the handle. Once activated, there was a hiss as air escaped from within the golem, and a large segment of the 'torso' began lifting upward. The compartment's cramped interior was rather spartan, being completely bare save for a worn chair, and some strange green boxes held beneath.

From their scanning, Twilight and Luna knew it was hollow, but seeing that there was an actual seat within, and not just empty space was pretty puzzling. Something intended to sit within the massive contraption, but who and why were unknown.

"Nothing ventured...." Luna stepped forward, making to climb into the heart of the being to further search it, but barely managed to touch it before there was a loud, low thump. All ponies present jumped in alarm, as twin streaks of white flew from tubes mounted above the golem's arms. With a soft crack, whatever had been ejected spewed its own cargo, and the immediate area soon filled with a thick white smoke.

Seeing the devastation of similar smoke first-hoof, and fearing the worst, Twilight instinctively teleported out of harms way. Luna, despite unknown years of dealing with untold terrors, froze in place. In an instant, Rainbow Dash swooped into the cloud in an attempt to get the Princess out of harms way, when there was a sick crackling that filled the air. Bright arcs of electricity flowed through the smoke, roaring and hissing angrily as they zapped everything within. Among the dual cries of pain was a strange, two-tone beep that came from the golem's interior.

For an agonizingly long stretch of time the electricity cackled and cracked in a cruel display, eventually dissipating. With a gut-wrenching thump, the princess fell to the floor; Rainbow followed soon thereafter.

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I jumped up in alarm, awoken from my slumber by the warning flashing across my helmet's HUD; whatever was going on, Borak was in trouble. Re-attaching my armor and jump kit proved to be quite a challenge, as in my drowsy panicking I'd fumbled and dropped pieces; when my chest rig refused to buckle in place I'd decided it was best to leave it in an effort to save time, settling for simply taking what I could carry with me. I'd set up waypoints within the castle's sprawling halls to navigate my way back, but there simply wasn't enough time to climb down and double back. As much as I'd hated it, gravity was the fastest way down. Mumbling a quick prayer to any deity who'd listen, I took a running start and leaped out the window. Subtlety was for men braver than I; I screamed the entire way down, praying that my jump-pack was mounted correctly. With a heavy burst a mere ten feet from the castle roof, I'd killed most of my inertia and was able to make a rolling landing in relative safety. Relative, because the ceiling gave way beneath my feet, dropping me down into some upper hallway, contrary to my plan.

Rising to my feet with no restraint on swears, I set about finding my way downstairs to follow the waypoints. I cursed myself mentally and vocally, wishing I'd brought an explosive charge or two to level the floor and simply drop down closer to the atrium that held my Titan, but what little explosive I did bring was used to level entrances in an effort to control the flow of combatants. Fat lot of good that did, apparently. If anything, having less routes worked against me, given that I'd parked Borak relatively near the entrance, practically asking for the xenos to attack him.

After an agonizingly long run, I'd finally made my way to the atrium housing the Titan, and could see a few of the xenos sprawled on the ground beside it. The hatch was open, and there was a thick smell of ozone; they'd popped the hatch without setting off countermeasures, but managed to fuck up somehow, exposing the relatively fragile interior to massive amounts of electricity. Fucking great.

"Are you lot that fucking thick? First hostilities could be chalked up to misunderstanding, the second one was my bad, but this? Three strikes, you're fucking out!" Maybe I should have said that after batting one away, or rushing with my rifle like a club, but its not like they understood me anyway, so it sounded more cool than stupid.

At my words, most of the xenos rose to their hooves, all showing some wariness at my presence. Not willing to give them the chance to strike first, I ran towards them, shouting all the while. Two of the 'normal' equines lowered down aggressively, betraying their preparedness, so I made sure to avoid them; one of the horned beings looked unsure, but still lit up its horn in a dazzling display of light regardless. Bingo. Kicking off with a burst from my jump kit, I easily closed the distance in a fraction of the time they'd expected, sailing through the air and delivering a heavy kick to the head of the white unicorn. A meaty crack echoed throughout the room, and it fell to the ground. Unfortunately, I'd given that jump my all, and likewise fell on my ass. Before I could rise to my feet, the orange xeno lashed out, angrily snorting and stomping one of my legs.

There was a loud metallic snap as my right knee snapped backwards. Activating my jump kit once again, I slid along the ground out of it's reach. Readings flashed in my HUD, warning me of serious damage to my prosthetic, but it indicated function so I quickly, but very shakily, rose to my feet and shouldered my rifle. Bringing it to bear on the hostiles, I was greeted with one hell of a confusing sight. Sitting in my sights was the manic grinning face of the pink equine, looking at me through its own large circle sight. Taken aback, I couldn't help but bring my rifle down, and thats when I realized the sight was for a cannon. A fucking little blue cannon! What the actual FUCK?!

"Okay, thats not fai-"

I was knocked on my ass again as a loud bang filled the air, and was surprised to find myself staring at what was left of the ceiling. Surprised mostly, because I wasn't dead. Sure, whatever hit me hurt like hell, but it didn't kill me instantly like I thought I would, though if the moist dripping coming from my abdomen was any indication, I soon would be.

Dying sure takes a lot longer than I remembered. Hurts less too. I looked down towards the 'wound' and saw that there was a little ruined cake pressed against my stomach. What the fuck is wrong with this planet. I couldn't help but laugh, despite the pain in my stomach every breath brought. How the hell do you load a cannon with cake? That's not fucking possible! As I got to my feet, it fired again, but with my jump kit I was able to soar over the pastry projectile easily enough. Priming an arc grenade, I lobbed it towards the xenos, the satisfying arcs of electricity stunning the two of them. They collapsed in a twitching heap, and I made my way towards the remaining stragglers, a purple unicorn and a shivering yellow pegasus. I pulled the pin on my final arc grenade, tossing it lazily towards them.

I wasn't prepared for it to suddenly glow purple and halt midway between us, before flying back directly towards me. With a swear, I dove to one side but it followed my movement before detonating in a brilliant blue display of 'sparks and arcs'. I dropped to the ground yet again, my body locking up against my will as muscle systems clenched in response to such an overwhelming stimulus. My prosthetics shorted out instantly, thrashing wildly before falling completely still. Rolling over, I could make out the purple one making its way towards me, horn shining in a sickly purple glow. I felt sick to my stomach as a cold hand gripped my collar and pulled me upright, but it was over just as suddenly as it started, the unicorn gripping its head in pain. Shitty superpower, I mused, readying my rifle. The glow returned, this time the invisible force batting my rifle away, trying to pry it from my hands, but I maintained a firm grip on it. My nausea returned and I felt a cold, prickly sensation on my hands, the thrashing growing in intensity. With each step the xeno took towards me, the cold spread further and further up my arms, and my vision grew dim. Shadows danced before my eyes, and screams echoed within my skull. I had to stop this fucking monster.

"Thats close enough!"

I fired a shot from the rifle, the loud bang and accompanying muzzle-flash doing little to deter my assailant. A shimmering purple shield appeared around the xeno, and it pressed ever closer. Panic rising, I slowly inched backwards as well as I could, trying to keep my rifle steady.

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The creature before her was very strange. Its metal legs lay broken and battered, but it seemed not to give them any thought beyond a quick glance. Several of its eight shining blue eyes flickered on and off wildly, one remaining black and dull permanently, and yet it easily tracked her movement. Twilight somewhat regretting using its own electric weapons against it, but it was her or it, and it had already hurt her friends. Strange of all, however, was the effect it had on magic. While the golem had a magical null field that activated when it grabbed her, the being before her had a very strong, but passive field. If it behaved like a standard null-field, any magic applied to the enchanted would be dissipated, much to any caster's pain. Still, she had to press on through the pain if she'd wanted to stop this thing.

"Stlat avry! STLAT DE FUSK AVRY!"

Twilight strained against the strong, almost overbearing pull that the creature's magic-cancelling effect had. She knew that if it was affecting magic, it could be affected, and she'd needed to stop it once and for all. Taking slow steps towards the creature, her shield was assaulted by a massive force coming from its long contraption; a deep roar that echoed deep in her head signalling a powerful strike against her shield, but she was confident it would hold. Slowly closing the distance between her and the creature, the roars increased in frequency, impacts responding in kind, each painful lance in her head a nagging worry. It had to hold.

The bangs and hits came in more rapidly the closer she got, no longer centering on her but seeking to strike anywhere on the shield. Drawing in nearer, the long object clicked, refusing to go off any longer, and was discarded before being replaced by a significantly smaller, L shaped object. This one roared similarly to the other, but was much faster, spreading impacts in unpredictable patterns along her shield, but was less of a strain on Twilight. Despite this, getting this near came with its own negatives; Twilight could focus less and less with the magic being sucked from her very being.

A deep pain registered in her head, and the shield shattered to pieces before fading into nonexistence. Something was dripping from an ear, and her vision grew hazy, but still she pressed onward. A massive pressure rang through her ears, and she was unable to hear the creature shouting at her. Straining against the null field, she lit up her horn once more, for one final spell to scan the golem's creator, who fumbled and struggled to unsheathe a peculiar looking knife. Suddenly the being lurched towards her. Without any warning (and, given the circumstances) Twilight was unprepared to react as the creature grabbed her horn, fighting to bring its other arm, and the knife, up against her. She charged her horn, preparing to unleash her magic to dispel its own, when the gold edge of the strange knife made contact at the base of her horn, and Twilight was blinded by a piercing white light.

Twilight was....actually, she wasn't sure where she was. Her body felt....wrong. She could feel her limbs splayed out against something cold, but it was very different. She tried calling out, but couldn't move her jaw from its position. She couldn't move anything. For a brief second, she considered that she was dead. After all she'd been through, after all her studies and trials, she refused. Twilight tried to will her horn to life, and...well, something happened.

Suddenly, a bright white light filled the void as she felt her eyelids open. But, something was wrong. This wasn't the old castle; this wasn't anywhere Twilight ever remembered having been. As a limb brought a hand up to rub an eye, she realized what was happening. Sort of; this wasn't happening, it was a memory. And it wasn't her memory.

Without warning, a strange, tan-skinned biped not dissimilar to the golem's creator appeared in Twilight's line of sight. It wore what looked like a standard nurse's uniform, but the whole room was dark, metal, and uninviting. Not any hospital room she'd want to stay in. The creature pulled out a silver device which shined a bright light directly into Twilight's face, but what surprised her most was when it spoke.

"Just go ahead and follow the light, sir, I need to make sure there aren't any lingering effects from cryo." Twilight's eyes tracked the moving light, but she was in shock. She understood it! How could she understand it? "Okay, vision looks good, could you go ahead and tell me your name?"

"Im, uh, Elliot Faraday...." Twilight felt odd at that. She could feel 'her' mouth moving, but it certainly wasn't her voice. It was gruff, accented, and definitely male.

"Good, and could you tell me what you do on the ship?"

"I'm a pilot....er, like, a Titan pilot, not a pilot-pilot. I scored well enough to get my own Atlas, I think...." Pilot? So they were on a ship? Twilight was familiar with airship captains and their crew, but she'd never heard of a 'Titan pilot'. Maybe the ship was the Titan? No, that couldn't be right....

"Very good, and we could always use more pilots. Lots of brave men out there depend on people like you to bring them home."

"I'll do my best, ma'am." Lots of brave men....so this creature was a soldier of some kind?

Without warning, the scene shifted, everything blending into itself before reforming completely. Gone was the expansive hospital of before, replaced with a cramped room not dissimilar to a ship's cabin. Twilight could feel 'her' hands twitching. A harsh squeal of static heralded the activation of an intercom, and an unseen speaker started talking.

"Attention all personnel, this is Captain Bracken speaking. Scans indicate a massive number of Jump signatures in this system, all centering around the planet Harvest. The nearest IMC battlegroup is still three jumps away; this can only be the so called 'Militia'. With support from the Endurance, we'll take down this threat in a surprise attack and find out just what the hell is so important about this planet." Militia? IMC? Planet?!

"Oi, Bowsie," a strange sounding voice spoke from the bunk above Twilight. A dark skinned face soon peered over the edge, looking down at her. "Greener 'n grass, eh? First real action outside the training yard? Feel like a right feckin' eejit yet?

"Shut the fuck up, man...."

"Relax, mate, its gonna be fine. Skip requisitions and stay in your Titan, don't do anything bloody stupid. So long as you don't lose your head, you won't lose your head. You got me mate?"

After some pause, 'she' replied. "Yeah, I 'spose...."

The creature on the upper bunk rolled down, spinning and landing on its feet in a display that could impress Rainbow Dash, and it continued, "Lets get a move on, then. We'll be exiting warp soon, may 'swell be sitting cozy in our Titans."

Wordlessly, Twilight felt herself get up and follow this other being. Suddenly, everything lurched to the side, and she hit her head on the wall, clenching eyes shut against the pain. When her eyes opened, she was in a cramped compartment, a curved window before her flickering and showing a metal wall behind it. When the flickering stopped, the window formed an image, showing a boxy metal golem similar to, but significantly smaller than the one she'd encountered in in person.

It reached a massive metal fist back, and punched straight towards Twilight. Said fist actually punched through the metal wall she'd seen past the screen, and held her in its iron grip. It brought her in close, up to a glowing red eye, and squeezed. Deep pain, more than she'd ever experienced in her life, registered before she was flung carelessly away towards the burning husk of the golem she was ripped from. She lay there, broken and cold, passenger without any means of escape, and she couldn't even cry for help.

The process continued endlessly forward. Day after day, hardship after hardship, piecing together this creature's life through conversation fragments and happenings.

"...chance at a new life, just sign on the dotted line and we'll take it from there...."

"Oh, no. It's a very minor procedure. We will start by removing your legs...."

"-n short, get high, shoot straight, and keep those Militia dogs guessing...."

"-onna just sit there feeling sorry for yourself, or are you gonna get up and fight back, eh?"

"I hate urban combat. Too many snipers and blind corners to deal wi- oh shit, TITAAAAAN!"

Eventually, after another gut-wrenching fall from the atmosphere, she was surprised to make out herself from outside the blue dome. She saw as the creature issued its warning, and actually made it out this time. She saw as it, no, He sought to escape into the Everfree, before turning around to investigate Ponyville. He poked and prodded the Princess, and faced the guards as a result. She felt his nulling effect on magic, but also felt the strange effect it had on him, how it disabled his strange metal legs and rendered him sick and powerless.

She saw herself, eyes aglow and horn lowered, being fired upon from in front of the shield, and she leapt forward knife ready to strike at her horn.

She awoke with a wet cough, cold and sore. Blinking away her tiredness, she recognized she was in a recovery room at Ponyville General, and she realized that she wasn't alone.

"Twilight!" Multiple voices exclaimed in varying degrees of delight, relief, and worry. The groggy purple unicorn was soon held in the bonecrushing hug of her friend Pinkie Pie, aching and blind in one eye. As she looked around to her friends, she could see deep bags under their eyes and bandaged all over, testament to the unknown time spent in the spaceman's memories.

"Oh, Twilight, we were all so worried," Fluttershy said, fighting back tears. "The first bang woke up Applejack, and she was already getting ready to help however she could, but you were already so close to it. Wh-when that meanie used his knife, you just went down, and we couldn't wake you up, and....and..."
The dam broke, and she began crying into her purple coated friend's shoulder, terrified of events passed and relieved at her recovery.

Twilight herself, however, simply shook herself from her stupor, no longer dazed but very much confused. The young mare turned her head to the one crying on her shoulder, and spoke.

"Flustlebae, v-varst gongronay? Vae cancurit mei undworst tuu?"

The crying yellow mare stiffened in her friend's grip, and all the girls' ears perked up at once. Twilight continued to break the silence, mumbling and babbling in an incomprehensible tongue. Dread setting in, Applejack addressed the weary group one heck of an understatement.

"Um, girls? I don't think we're out of the woods just yet...."

Author's Note

I am the least proud of this. This would have come out a lot sooner (BUT NOT THAT SOON, FUCK I PRESSED PUBLISH GOD DAMMIT) but Fallout 4 console mods came out, and blasting everything hostile in the wasteland with an M60 is honestly the greatest thing ever; Danse looks fucking fantastic running around with a portable M2, and dogmeat has a sick-ass backpack that looks totes adorable yo. Also, I found a shit ton of RGiE ~~smut~~ stories so I got caught up in reading instead of writing. Plus, you know, Im kinda not good at this.

On Borak, I've rodeo'd hundreds of auto-titans and (if they have it) they deploy smoke pretty much as soon as you clamber on (mortar titans deploy their particle wall when you rodeo, which is hilarious because its useless) , and then take more notice to your presence, crouching down and whatnot. I feel that, in the absence of a friendly IFF tag, countermeasures would deploy automatically to deter any would-be attackers. As such, you touch the robot, you get zapped, regardless of it being in sleep mode.

On ponies getting drop-kicked and zapped and walking away fine, Im just gonna say that they're cartoon horses. Going by the show, Twalp had a piano and shit dropped on her in S1 and then went on to try and debunk Ponka's reality bending ways, and grayhorse was getting zapped by the thundercloud in that one AJ episode. So clearly ponies can take a beating, they just need time to walk it off. This is an edgy dumb fic, but its not gonna be just straight up pony-murdering edge for the sake of edge. That'd be dumb. Also they're too cute to kill, like seriously what the hell, who'd do something like that.

Besides Elliot, that fuck.

Unrelated, for shiggles, here's canon Elliot's voice
Its Benn

Also

Attrition? More like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAttrition

Lastly, and make sure you say it with me, now
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Sink

It feels like I’ve been moving for years, but I have no idea where I began.

The last thing I remember was an intensely bright white light. I feel the cold, frozen leaves underneath my booted feet. I feel the harsh icy wind infecting my skin with frost. Where am I? Why am I moving forward? What’s happening?

The forest ends, and I come to a road. A road that hasn’t been used since the snow fell. The road runs adjacent to a cliff edge. And beyond that cliff edge is a vast forest; a forest of only dead trees. I can smell the death from here. Beyond the forest in the distance, I can see the orange glow of flames.

I remember so little of everything before the cold.

I start my move, and head up the road. The interesting fact of freezing to death, is you assume that you’d freeze all at once, but I can feel my veins throbbing, and a crushing sensation, like they are becoming nothing but ice.

I start to move faster.

Through the sleet and the mist, I see something up ahead. My only thought is that there must be someone who can help me survive up here. However, as I approach what looks like a castle, there appears to be no light coming from within.

“Hello?!”

I call out for somebody, anybody within earshot. There is no response.

“Help!”

As I move closer I see a large wooden door with huge windows on either side, some of which are smashed. I reach the door, but before I can raise my frozen hand to knock, I notice that the door is already ajar. I push the door open.

“Help...”

I move inside.

“Help me....”

The wind pulls the door behind me and it slams shut with a loud bang.

“Hello?”

The room in front of me is pitch black, but the moon shines through the broken windows beside me, and I notice a table with a flashlight on it. The flashlight still works.

“Can anyone help me?”

The first thing I notice, is the floor. A checkered floor of blue and gold, and as I move forward, the room grows larger and larger. The light of the torch barely penetrates a few meters around me. I keep walking straight. Moments later, I reach a small table, on which are two switches. One of them has a card next to it, on which are the numbers 8-2-8-8. The other has no marking. Better play it safe....

I switch the unmarked switch.

Suddenly, the room is illuminated with light like I’ve never seen before. I don’t understand it. Lights too bright for even the most powerful diodes to emit, however I look around and I realize that these lights are not the natural lights. The torches that are on the wall remain unlit. The lights that are on have these...lines running between them, these glowing runes of some sort.

I don’t understand it, there are so many of them.

I bring my eyes down to the floor. I notice that the floor is covered in dust and leaves; I’m assuming because of the broken window. The room is a large hall with a grand staircase that splits in the middle, and with two hallways that lead around the atrium above me. The stairs, however, are blocked off with some sort of barricade. What happened here?

Around me, there appears to be small furniture covered in grimy white blankets, and beyond that, standing along the walls are a large array of bookcases. I look to the ceiling and imagine a chandelier, however, there is none. Instead, there is some....mechanism. A rotating granite mechanism with five arms on which are held five stone balls.

I feel my bones quake, I am still not warm. The broken windows have allowed this once beautiful castle to become a mausoleum of cold. I look down at the table in front of me again. My eyes glance to the second switch, and I switch it.

I hear a sound erupt around me, the lights change. The lights that were previously on desist, and the old torches that were behind them are brought to life, flickering with a soft, blue glow. The grinding sounds of stone above me are deafening and I feel every bone in my body shudder.

“Can anybody hear me?”

I am almost paralyzed with fear. And then I hear it. The metallic clicks. The whirring. The ticking. And then, the white sheets that I thought were furniture begin to move.

The sheets shudder, and then begin to move towards me. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what this is, and I look around me for an escape but there is none, and they move closer and closer to me. I scream at them to desist, I scream at the house to desist, but it does not and they keep coming.

“W-what is this? Who’s doing this?!”

I look around me for something, anything, to push them back but I find nothing. Suddenly my eyes are drawn to a broken window where a branch has broken through. I briefly wonder if I can dislodge the branch; I try and I try but I cannot, but then I see it. On the floor.

A gun.

A freezing metal gun grasped in the long dead hand of a cold withered skeletal arm. I pick the gun up, but I can’t stop shaking. I aim it at the sheets and I pull the trigger. Again and again I shoot, and one by one they stop. My gun runs out of bullets, but one sheet is still moving towards me. It moves slowly, I have time to watch it. All I can hear is the metallic clicks of its heavy steps all around me. From under the sheet, from above me, cogs whirring everywhere.

Suddenly I find myself charging at the sheet and these hands, these hands that feel like they’re made of glass are punching and jabbing and pushing and shoving, until suddenly, the sheet falls and I fall with it.

As I hit the ground, I no longer hear the whirring; the mechanics around me have stopped. I notice that the lights have changed back to the strange lights. Above me I hear a clink. I look up, and I see one of the stone balls rolling down a track which appears to lead into the room next to me. The ball is slow, it looks heavy.

I don’t understand.

I look to the door to that room. It’s open, however I remember it being closed. Every sense in my being is telling me not to follow the ball above me, however I follow it to the threshold of the door and I peer through. My flashlight is weak, however it appears to lead to a long hallway with pictures on either side. I cannot see the end of the hallway from here. I decide not to give in to my curiosity, and draw myself towards the stairs in the grand hall. I move towards the barricade, and piece by piece I start dismantling the jury-rigged fortification in front of me until I can clear some space to walk.

Suddenly, I hear something.

A song, playing in the distance. A song I’ve never heard before, however I can’t tell which room it is coming from, so I start to move up the stairs. The stairs are made of stone with ancient wooden banisters. This castle obviously belonged to someone extremely wealthy. At the top of the stairs there is a large window. I peer out. Through the darkness its hard to make out what I see, but I think there’s a garden of sorts. At the end of the garden I see a tree with what looks like-

A door slams to my right, so I turn around, yet I see nothing. Every door on the upper floor is shut, and I never noticed one open.

“Who's there? Answer me!”

At this point I’m not sure if I’m inquisitive or just terrified, but I start to move down the stairs, back to the long hallway. I stand at the entrance to the door, and I notice that the song is coming from down the hall. I move forward. The song is soft, and repetitive. The same ascending and descending pattern repeating endlessly, played on a deep string and chanted aloud by some unknown person. Entering the hallway, other instruments join the song, and a second singer throws their voice to the hauntingly melodic song.

The hallway becomes incredibly narrow; two people could not pass. I turn my body to the side to allow easier passage, and then I hear the music just stop.

"What the-"

The entire hallway is a trapdoor, and the floor splits. I fall.

I hit the ground after some time. I lie, motionless on the cold ground below. The fall winded me, and despite my legs being cracked and torn apart, I feel no pain. In fact, I feel....warm. Everywhere. Then I hear it.

Click.

Click,

Click.

Click,

Click.

As I stand up, I realize I am in an enormous chasm with six doors spread evenly throughout the room. Each door has a colored light and symbol hanging overhead. Then I hear the noises. I hear distinctly non-human groaning. I smell the sickly stench of death is all around me. I have no idea what to do, so I run. I run for the door in front of me; it has a glowing blue diamond above it. I run, and I run, but I’m too late.

Through the darkness, I see the withered, corpse-like bodies of gangly demonic equines running at me. Thick black ichor drips from their mouths and eyes as they snort and stamp their way closer. They are fast. They are many, and they are on me. I feel them, they crush and rip my flesh under their rotten, broken hooves; I can feel them stabbing and tearing away at me, and the cold returns worse than before. As I feel them rip my broken legs from my body, they suddenly stop.

There’s a blue-eyed giant standing over me, bathing the area in a warm glow. The creatures retreat from the light, and fade back into the shadows with a hiss and a roar. The giant looks down at me. It speaks in a harsh voice but I cannot make out its words. It slowly brings a massive segmented finger down on me, and carefully makes contact, nudging me as one would a small sleeping pet.
COMPONENT ERROR

Despite its continued prodding and warmth, I feel myself drifting closer and closer into the darkness. It picks me up in its hand, and I feel a small pain in my back. Warmth spreads throughout my body, and the fog is lifted from my mind. I look up at the machine and it shouts.

WHAT HIDES IN YOUR MIND, the machine asks.
ALERT!

“Why are you doing this?”

WHY DO YOU HATE
ALERT!

“Just fucking end it already....”

YOU ARE ILL. WE JUST WANT TO FIX YOU
WAKE UP

“Come off it! Just let me-”

I wake up to a blinding white light.

Author's Note

Haha cliffhanger

Ain't that a kick in the pants.

I was gonna have Elliot have a nightmare about being a horse, but I felt that would be dumb, so he's gonna have the 'spooky cold castle in the middle of the night with monster horses' nightmare

Awesome

Apex Predator

Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ Δ
RSPN Modular BIOSv1.807
Copyright [©] Hammond Robotics

First Name: ELLIOT
Last Name: FARADAY
Serial ID: T19-2k168288
Blood Type: A POS
Birth Date: 15/12/84
Combat Unit: 92nd TFG
Rank: O-3

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Hammond Robotics Bootloader v8 32.42.00.7b
Verifying Consistency....................Done.
Initializing...Done
System: IMC WALLRUNNER GEN II
Starting Reactor....Done
Model: GROV MK II MICROREACTOR
Starting Components....
COMPONENT ERROR <!!! SEVERE STRUCTURAL DAMAGE DETECTED !!!>
Starting Internal Subsystems....
INTERNAL SUBSYSTEM ERROR <!!! UNKNOWN FAULT DETECTED !!!>
INITIALIZING PILOT COMBAT SYSTEMS
Personal Cloak - OK
Ordinance - /NONE FOUND/
Firearms - /NONE FOUND/
Jumpkit Status: RECALIBRATING
Recalibration Cancelled
Jumpkit Status: OK
Last Solace - <!!! UNKNOWN FAULT DETECTED !!!>
Starting User Vitality Scan....Done
SMARTDOC™ INITIALIZED
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Greetings, Pilot.
ALERT! Internal Bleeding Detected
ALERT! Minor Cranial Swelling Detected
STABILIZE!
Automatic medical systems engaged.
NOTICE Blood Plasma Administered
NOTICE 250 milligrams of Sansufentanyl Administered
NOTICE Seek Medical Attention
WARNING! Seek Medical Attention Immediately
ALERT! Administering Pilot Stim
WAKE UP
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇ ∇

"....jus' lemme fuckin....wha?"

Pain. That's what I'm immediately aware of.

It's not very intense, all things considered, but it's there nonetheless; every time I breathe I'm greeted with a dull stabbing in my chest. I throw open my eyes, and am rewarded with even more pain as they throb angrily in response to the flashing readings cluttering my HUD, accompanied by the harsh synthetic voice of the SmartDoc. Being a pilot kinda sucked when you were injured, unconscious or not.

I take a few slow, steady breathes until the aches become a little more manageable. In an effort to stem any discomfort, the system only booted up the visual components at 15% brightness, but even that proved to be overwhelming; blinking back against the near-blinding light, I'd let my eyes slowly adjust, and found I was in what looked like a hospital room; the generic watercolor sunset paintings hanging from the walls were as much a giveaway as the privacy curtain and crash cart lurking in the corner of the room. The hospital bed was almost too small. If I'd still had my legs, prosthetic or otherwise, they'd be dangling far over the edge. As it stood, however, there was a catastrophic break in my right, and long, jagged saw marks in the left thigh before the rest of the leg just disappeared.

Looks like they didn't want me running anywhere....

My arms were lashed to my chest with a thick rope, and my exposed wrists were cuffed to the bed's guardrail with a sickly set of glowing green shackles. If the ropes weren't so tight, I might have been able to feel the aching cold brought on by the cruel iron, but being bound limited the feeling to a dull chill. It also limited my ability to pull at the loose cuffs, but I still made an effort, rattling the chains uselessly.

A soft gasp to my right informed me that I wasn't the room's sole occupant; a pale horse with a flu-mask and scrubs studied a clipboard in its hooves, but cowered slightly behind it as I turned my head to look at it. This action served only to further frighten the quivering quadruped, and, in spite of all the pain and bindings, I couldn't help but act upon my first instinct. Raising up as best I could in bed, I turned to face them, and leaned as close as I could given the bindings. The creature scrambled back hilariously, four hooved legs scraping for purchase on the smooth tile, squeaking softly when it reached the far wall.

"Boo...."

With terrified squeal, the tiny horse fled the room, dropping the clipboard to the floor with a loud clatter and letting the door slam shut behind them; It did little to mask the sound of my laughter. Mere seconds later, I heard the door click open, and the hard clicks of heavier hooves on the tile floor. Looking towards the newcomer, I was greeted with one of the gray armored, horned variety of horses I'd witnessed before, brandishing a small wooden cudgel in a telekinetic blue aura. I greeted with a nod of my head, and he raised the club defensively, wincing momentarily before adopting his prior steely gaze.

"Oi, mind where you're waving that, pal."

A situation is only as dire as you make it, and being captured by the enemy isn't cause for seriousness and concern if you've got a plan.

Seeing me still chained to the bed and lashed within my bindings, the creature lowered the baton and made to leave. Muttering in its alien tongue, and giving one final angry glare in my direction, it departed the room, locking the door behind it. Showtime....

Though readings indicated various parts of my kit were missing or damaged, my jump kit showed it was warmed up and ready to fire. I'd figured I could, with some pain, use the force of the jets to free me from my iron bindings, and then I could undo the ropes around my chest. With a silent prayer for success, I activated the thrusters.

Sitting up in the bed, the jet orientation thrusted me upwards, and though there was painful resistance brought by the cuffs, I was soon free of them.

Immediately afterwards, I realized I'd fucked up.

The jump kit was calibrated to my fully kitted weight, complete with intact heavy-ass metal legs and every available pouch full of extra ammo and explosives. With most of it gone, as well as being a giant man in a tiny xeno pony room, I'd soared straight into the ceiling, crashing through the thin tiles before I could cut the thrust. I fell back onto the bed amidst various debris from the collision raining down atop me in a blazing display of stupidity. Rolling clear of the bed, I was spared the burning fate of the hospital linens; despite all the new pain brought on by the crash, I was free of my iron bindings, and therefore the plan was a success. With all the grace of an early-morning drunk, I was inching along the smooth floor, caterpillar style, in a desperate bid for freedom.

I'd barely made it a foot towards the door before I heard the clops and clacks of hoof-steps on tile quickly approaching my room. There was a dreadful series of clicks, a key jangling in a lock, which echoed terrifyingly throughout the room. Scrambling frantically, I tried to make for the space behind the door in an attempt to hide, but it was too late; before the key finished unlocking, the entire door was coated in a deep blue aura and ripped entirely from its frame. Swift, heavy footfalls signaled the rush of one of the creatures into the room, before stopping before me, and I raised my head to get a glimpse at the newcomer. The large blue pegacorn abomination stood towering above me, nostrils flaring in anger with every breath, and it wasted no time flinging the door at the wall immediately to my side, showering me in even more debris. Accompanied by a strange chime, it's bony appendage began to glow a sparkling blue, and I was lifted into the air.

"Woah, shit! Put me down, motherf-"

I was unable to finish my thought; something suddenly that caused the being discomfort, and it let me fall to the ground in a swearing heap. Without time to recover, the ropes binding me were undone. I tried to scramble away, but a single loop was coiled around my arms again and tied tightly before the creature began dragging me backwards after it down the hall.

"For the love of God, stop!" I cried. "I'm a human being goddammit! My life has value!"

It did not cease its quick march down the halls of what was indeed a modern looking hospital. I could see panicked xeno faces lining the hall as we passed, peering worriedly through the small windows in each room's door before they quickly tucked back into the safety provided by the room. This continued on for a few minutes, as the creature dragged me kicking and screaming all through the horse-pital, before another door was flung open aggressively in it's telekinetic rage. Without a pause, I was flung deep into the room, skidding along the tile floor before colliding with the far wall.

I could hear multiple gasps of surprise coming from the occupants of the room. Before I could gather my bearings, I was swarmed by the slightly battered but otherwise fine xenos from before, which was rather disheartening; I'd kicked training spectres to death with less effort than the kick I gave the white squiggletail, but, save for a small bandage wrapped around its forehead, it was fine. These aliens didn't fuck around, apparently.

"I, uh, I don't suppose we can talk this out...."

With a grim smile, the large blue one locked the door.

"Yeah, didn't think so...."

Author's Note

Been for goddamn ever since I wrote shit
Sorry that its not much of an update, my decade old computer finally crapped out on me, and Ive been writing this on my phone, which fucking sucks. I'll figure something out, gotta get more shit out.

~~Also, the Titanfall 2 Technical Test was pretty fun~~
~~Got a few gripes, complained, and they fixed some of them~~
~~Awesome~~

Shit, Titanfall 2 is ALREADY OUT NOW GOD, AND HAS BEEN OUT FOR GODDAMN EVER ITS BEEN SO LONG

Eat shit, Yams

Bonus video, and its of actual recent gameplay of me being cheeky

Attrition is sitting pretty at ~~100~~ 115 GOD DAMN upvotes now, thats pretty nice
I love you guys so much
I don't deserve you ;__;

I totally think that the pilot suits could have an integrated AI and a diagnostic system like the HEV suit
That'd be cool right? In the heat of combat having a nagging voice telling you that you're about to die

Whatever, just gotta advance some stuff, so some more stuff can go on and we can get back to the good stuff
yeah

I dunno

Sorry
Till next time lads

PS:
Stop reading this fucking story; go read something good, something else thats good or something thats good by someone who's done it before

Added in because Kuno made a good point
Here's a lethal dose of fentanyl, and a penny:

My boi Elliot mainlined 250mg of Space fentanyl
My boi goes hard