Haylo 3: Orbital Drop Shock Ponies

by Chaotic Conundrums

Chapters

Prepare to Drop
6 Hours Later...
Crash and Dash
Rain

Prepare to Drop

The year is 2023.

Ponykind is at war with the alien alliance known as "The Covenant".

We are losing.

The Covenant have burned our worlds, killing billions in their genocidal campaign.

Equestria is our last bastion - a carefully guarded secret.

But not anymore.

A Covenant carrier has breached Equestria's defenses and attacked the mega-city, "New Manebasa".

Initial reports confirm major damage and heavy civilian casualties.

Now military leaders of the "Equestrian Nations Space Command" have prepared their response...

Teams of highly-trained "Orbital Drop Shock Ponies" are ready to assault the carrier from Navy ships in low orbit.

This is a near-suicidal mission.

But these ponies are the best of the best.

And saving New Manebasa could be the most important mission of the war...

==================

---October 20, 2023rd year of the reign of the Royal Pony Sisters, in Equestria low orbit above the city of New Manebasa---

Aboard the ENSC Mareathon-class cruiser Say My Name, a group of armored ponies sat around a hangar, three of them conversing from opposite sides of a large holo-table. On the table, a visual spell displayed the mega-city down below, a large alien cruiser hovering over it. The image flickered as one of the ponies put their helmet down, a white unicorn mare with a curly purple mane.

"The Navy certainly put up a good fight." she said with a fancy, almost Trottish accent.

The pony across from her, an orange earth mare with a Stetson, quickly replied "Ah course they did. It's Equestria."

"Better late than never." the third pony noted cynically. Another unicorn mare, she was levitating her helmet around absentmindedly, studying the 3D map in front of her and occasionally brushing her purple mane and its highlights out of her eyes.

The earth pony slammed her helmet onto the table before retorting " How about 'cha show some respect, Twilight?! There’s ponies layin’ down their LIVES to save the zebras here, along wit’ anypony else in that city!"

"I'm just saying, Applejack. They missed one." she said, waving the mare off with a hoof without looking up.

Applejack opened her mouth to say something when the sirens flared to life and the warning lights kicked in. The large doors behind Applejack slid open as the group's captain walked in, her rainbow mane tied back to keep it in the helmet currently under her wing.

"You know the music, time to dance." she said as she entered. Accompanying their pegasus CO was another pegasus, this one had a fiery tail and blue armor with yellow highlights, which contrasted with the dull armor of the present soldier ponies. Twilight glanced up before returning to the map, then did a double take at the helmeted new pony. "No way..." she managed to mutter.

The rainbow-maned soldier glanced back at her guest, before a dawning look crossed her face and she turned sternly to her troops and pointed a hoof at them. "Pods. NOW." The trio shrugged and walked off, Applejack needing to pull a stunned Twilight by the tail. The pegasus sighed and began trotting to her own drop pod when the armored pony spoke up.

"Replacements, Dash?" the voice said, clearly female.

Dash turned to the pegasus and replied "This many years into the war, who isn't? They're my friends though..."

"At least they'll listen."

"To me. And they aren't gonna like what they hear."

"Orders are orders, Rainbow."

At this point, Dash started walking back to her, trying to look intimidating. "C'mon, Spitfire. What could be more important than that carrier?"

Just as Rainbow got to her, Spitfire poked her chestplate with a hoof. "Princess Luna's orders. And Rainbow? Call me Captain." She brushed past the rainbow mare, continuing with "I'll pass on that dance, but you can show me where to sit." Dash watched her go with mixtures of anger and sadness, resisting the urge to buck the air.

==================

The trio of ponies left their commanding officer and her plus one, going around a corner to grab weapons. Applejack was looking around the weapon rack, trying to decide what to take, while Twilight sat stunned on the table. The third mare, who was attempting to eavesdrop on the conversation, walked back to the others. "What kind of armor was that? I'd like a set myself..." she asked nobody in particular.

Twilight looked over at her wide-eyed. "That was Recon armor, Rarity. Only a few of Celestia's best wear those, so that must mean-" she stopped when she saw Applejack examining a silenced SMG.

"Pfft, seriously?"

Applejack looked at her questioningly, holding the SMG in the crook of her foreleg. "Well it's gonna be close-quarters." Twillight groaned and levitated a shotgun off the rack, shoving it into Applejack's barrel. "Exactly." she replied flatly. Applejack did an eye roll and pushed the shotgun away with her free hoof.

The ponies turned to see Dash and her guest walking towards the PEVs. "Second to last. Right next to mine." she said, the other pegasus giving a nod and heading to the aforementioned drop pod. "Cozy..." Rarity mumbled, thinking that the pony was a coltfriend. Dash heard her and marched over to the group.

"Ya'll gonna tell us his name, Gunney?" Applejack asked with a bit of a chuckle.

"MISS Naval Intelligence." Dash replied, grabbing the shotgun from out of Twilight's telekinetic grasp and making her jump a bit at the broken spell. "Our new boss"

"Miss?" Rarity whispered, then sighed, shaking her head.

Dash shot her a look before continuing, "So check you mouths, find your chairs...and get set for a combat drop!" She picked up a sniper rifle and angrily slammed it onto Twilight's weapon niche. Twilight frowned as Rainbow Dash stormed off to her drop pod, and as soon as she was out of earshot groaned "What the hay am I supposed to do with this inside a Covenant ship?" then walked over to the nearest drop pod and the serene pony sleeping inside it.

==================

A creme-colored pegasus mare was curled up in the middle of a lush field. A small white bunny was curled up in her rosy mane, along with many other woodland creatures. The sun was high in the sky, and the gentle breeze carried aromas of all kinds. The pegasus was enjoying every second of the serene meadow, forgetting about all her worries and the existence of the outside world. That is, until something cold and metallic poked her in the side.

"Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy turned to the source of the disturbance and there, in place of all the animals, stood Twilight in full armor, levitating the sniper rifle that she had poked her with. The pegasus looked around in a panic, and saw that even the rabbit in her mane had disappeared and the landscape around them had begun to burn.

"Fluttershy, WAKE UP!" Twilight shouted again, and reality came slamming back. She was on a spaceship, in battle armor, in a drop pod, with Twilight standing next to her looking like she was about to hit Fluttershy with the butt of her rifle. "Wake up, posey." Twilight said, seeming somewhat annoyed. Applejack came up behind her and pushed the former librarian away, then turned to the scared pegasus in the pod.

"Relax, sugahcube, she's just a bit on edge. 'Sides, now's one a those times it pays ta be the quiet type..." she assured her, snapping an SMG into the pod. Fluttershy cringed at the noise. Applejack gave a reassuring smile and a pat on the head before cantering off to her own pod. Fluttershy sat up in her pod and wrapped her hooves around the control sticks, her pod door closing as the platform holding all the pods descended into the launch bay. Images of a helmeted Rainbow Dash and another armored pony she instantly recognized as the former Wonderbolts captain, Spitfire, flickered onto her pod's viewscreens and began to converse.

"Latest reports indicate that the Covenant troops are massing beneath the carrier."

"They're pulling back? Why?"

"We won't know till we get down there, now, will we?"

Rainbow gave a slight nod before speaking to the rest of the squad. "Pucker up, girls! I sure as hay ain't washing out your pods!" she said, which made Fluttershy smile a bit. Dash had never been one for morale-boosting last words.

On the opposite side of the launch bay, Fluttershy could see other squad's drop pods starting their descent and rocketing down to the clouds. A small beeping ticked down the last few seconds before the release. She glanced over at a small picture of her playing with her bunny Angel, then looked forward and tightened her hooves around the grips as the last beep sounded. The sudden acceleration threw her back in her seat, but she quickly adjusted and glanced around the cockpit, checking that everything was in place.

Outside the pod, the cloud layer stretched on endlessly and the tether of the New Manebasa Orbital Elevator can be seen nearby, surrounded by debris. It took a second, but the pegasus realized that it was debris from multiple destroyed frigates and uttered a small gasp. Twilight's voice crackled over the comm channel.

"I take it back. Navy needs to step up their game."

"Hey Twi," Dash replied, "Remember when I told ya to shut your mouth?"

"Yeah?"

"Consider that a standing order." To which Twilight replied with a grumble.

After a few seconds of silence, Dash's voice lit up the comms again. "Captain, fifteen klicks off the deck."

The pods pierced the cloud layer, showing the expansive city below and the alien carrier their pods were targeting. Then Spitfire delivered an order that surprised the whole squad.

"Standby to adjust trajectory. On my mark."

"What'd ya say Cap'n?" Applejack quickly asked.

"MARK!"

The squad's pods suddenly veered to the right, and Fluttershy quickly checked her trajectory. The squad was now falling towards the Office of Naval Intelligence building, or ONI for short.

Fluttershy opened her mouth, but Rarity beat her to it.

"We're too far off course!"

"We're going exactly where I need to go." Spitfire replied flatly.

"But we'll miss the carrier now!"

Suddenly a flicker of light crossed over the carrier and Applejack shouted "Radiation!"

Rarity screamed before asking in a panicked voice, "The Covenant just set off a nuke? While they're still here?" Down below, an orb of energy appeared at the nose of the ship and rapidly began to expand. Over near the space tether, a small frigate could be seen flying after the carrier, pulling up alongside it.

"No, the carrier's about to jump!" Spitfire yelled. "IT'S A SLIPSPACE RUPTURE! YOU HAVE TO-"

Her warning cut off abruptly as the carrier and the small frigate shot into the rupture, and it imploded behind them, sending out a huge explosive shockwave.

"EMP! Losing power!" someone's voice crackled through the comms, followed by Dash yelling orders.

"Stabilize, then pop your chu-" and whatever followed cut off as Rarity's pod slammed into Fluttershy's. She screamed as her pod spiraled out of control, screens flashing red warning signs. She had managed to cling to a hoofhold as the pod threatened to throw her out.

Then the shockwave reached her and the world blurred out, Fluttershy being knocked unconscious by the force of the impact.

======================

6 Hours Later...

---New Manebasa Streets, Hayari District---

A low humming drifted through the splintered glass of a lone drop pod, into the ears of an unconscious pegasus. The humming was just loud enough for her to grasp consciousness.

"Mmh, Angel...? It's a bit early to be awake isn't it...?" she mumbled, stretching. When her hooves felt the cold metal of the pod, reality once again came slamming back. She pressed herself up against the cracked windows of the hatch to see a pair of Phantom dropships drifted overhead. Her HUD flickered, still recovering from the crash, and her health meter was a pale orange to show she'd been hurt. The viewscreens that had previously held Dash and Spitfire's faces were now pools of static, and the other displays were either pitch-black or too broken to display anything. Once Fluttershy had examined her pod, a notification popped up reading 'Initiate emergency release' as several buttons lit up green, illuminating the pod. She waited until the dropships were out of view, then began pressing the lights. The notification counted down as she hit each one.

'3 Explosive bolts remaining...2...1...'

Fluttershy's hoof hovered over the last button. She was worried what she'd find outside her pod, worried about what she might have to do. She glanced at her photo of Angel again, which had fallen off the side of the pod and now rested at her hind legs. She swallowed hard, and pushed the final button with a bit more courage. The door hissed, steam pouring out of the edges, before finally blowing off, and revealing the two story drop to the street. The pegasus leapt out intending to glide down safely, when her wing suddenly crumpled and she went spiraling down, landing on her side with a dull thump on the metallic street.

Her vision turned red at the edges and another notification popped up, warning that she'd started losing stamina. She spotted a health kiosk across the street and slowly dragged herself toward it, eventually able to walk well enough to get to it and reach for a medkit. The small white box popped open, and a healing spell activated, flowing over her body and concentrating itself on her broken wing. Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief as her wing stretched out, perfectly mended by the spell. She gingerly put the box in the receptacle with a small "Thank you", and trotted down the road.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the sound of someone else's footsteps on the cold metal.

The sound was almost like that of a hoofstep, except more padded, Though Fluttershy could also make out the sound of a piece of metal hitting the floor as well, over and over. The sound of a methane re-breather could also be heard, along with barks, growls and odd squeaking. The Covenant had heard her pod, and were coming to investigate.

Thinking quickly, she ducked behind a few stacked crates and peeked out between the cracks. The world was still dark to her, but another notification popped up telling the rookie soldier to activate her VISR mode. She complied, politely willing the magic in her helmet to do so. The intricate spells lining the ODST helmet glowed slightly, and suddenly the world began to light up, yellow-orange lines spreading out and shaping the world around her. Fluttershy's delight at being able to see the world was short lived, as the lines turned red as they outlined her worst fear: A Brute, standing as tall as Princess Celestia, was walking down the street to her drop pod with an entourage of smaller Grunts.

She fought back the urge to scream, though her mind raced and tried to do so anyways. The Covenant troops marched past, ignoring the pegasus's hiding spot. The Brute stopped for a second and sniffed the air, but fortunately Fluttershy's scent was masked by the smoke rising from a nearby fire and another smell that she couldn't quite recognize. Eventually the enemy troops moved on, leaving a shaking pegasus behind. As soon as she was sure they were out of sight, she snuck up the hill and ducked into an alley.

A few rats scattered off trash bags as Fluttershy ran past, trying to go as deep down as she could. In her panic she almost ran into the wall at the end. Leaning on it, she began trying to access her comm channel furiously. She took note of the fact that it was now 22:02, almost 6 hours since the drop, but let the fact slide as she was a bit preoccupied. "Rainbow...? Rainbow Dash...? Twilight? Applejack? Rarity?" she almost cried into the radio. "...Captain Spitfire?" In desperation she screamed the only name she could still think of.

"PINKIEEEE!!!"

All she got was radio silence. Of course, Pinkie wouldn't answer. Last she heard she was on the Cairo orbital defense platform. So this was it. She was truly and utterly alone. She could think of nothing left to do except sit there and cry. That is, nothing until she heard the Covenant patrol acting up. She slowly walked out and looked over at them, as a few Grunts began swatting at the air. Fluttershy hovered over, being careful not to use her boosters and alert them all. She landed in a small overhang, hiding behind one of the support pillars so she could watch. The Grunts were swatting at a small bird flying around them. The pegasus gasped slightly when she saw it look at her and wink.

It was trying to give her a chance to run.

Its effort was short-lived, however, as the Brute leader caught the bird in its massive paw and crushed it, giving a freakish grin as blood spurted out between its fingers. It then looked down at one of the Grunts. "Do not waste my time with such worthless trash." The Grunt nodded in panic, but before he could give a verbal reply his head exploded. The Brute wiped the blue blood from his eyes and looked around for the perpetrator. The other two Grunts ragdolled, clean bullet holes between their eyes, before the Brute saw who was responsible. Fluttershy had popped out of cover and had her pistol at the ready, still smoking at her side. The pistol drooped as the SMG on her other side angled itself at the Brute.

Inside the helmet, Fluttershy was enraged. She was in the position for her legendary "Stare", but the helmet obscured her eyes so instinct did the next best thing. With three Covenant down, her anger was all being directed at the Brute who was, to say the least, a bit stunned. The targeting reticle on her HUD switched from the pistol's small, precise crosshairs to the wider and less focused one of the SMG. A steady stream of bullets shot past her and hit the Brute's shield, which shimmered with each impact. Halfway through the clip the shield burst, the gorilla-like alien roaring at the frail pony. The reticle switched again, and just as the Brute lunged for her its brain had a narrow piece of metal propelled through it. The dead body flipped up, landing on its back from the impact of the shot. The bird's corpse, still in its hand, rolled out onto the cold street.

Fluttershy stood there breathing heavily for a minute. Eventually her rage subsided, and the grim scene finally had its impact. The pool of blood from her final kill spread to her front boots and she screamed, leaping back. She immediately began running around to each corpse and frantically apologizing, ending with the headless Grunt who got three times as many apologies.

Eventually she finally stopped apologizing and went back down the street, dragging her hooves partly in an attempt to get the blood off. She ascended the slope near where she had hidden earlier, and took up a sniping position. Her outburst left the dawning realization that she wouldn't be able to survive without killing. That did not, however, stop the kind pony from apologizing after each shot at a few more patrols that began crossing a nearby plaza. After dispatching the final patrol with a grenade, (sorrysorrysorrysorry!!!) her HUD dropped off another notification that seemed more like instructions. "You have been seperated from your ODST squadmates," it read. "Contact city Superintendent for help."

The message closed before Fluttershy could try and ask who the Superintendent was or where he or she was at, but then something extremely peculiar happened.

A phone began to ring.

The noise startled her at first, what with the disturbingly quiet city, but eventually she located the source: a pay phone near an office building. After searching the immediate area to make sure nopony else was there who the call might be meant for, Fluttershy removed her helmet and cautiously lifted the receiver to her head.

"Umm...hello?"

The reply she got was ear-splitting. an odd, whale-like whistle made grating by all the static across the connection. Despite all this, she thought she could make out at least one word in the noise.

HELP

Fluttershy dropped the receiver, which landed atop her helmet and spewed sparks. When it finally fizzled out, the pay phone's light had turned off and Fluttershy took the opportunity to collect her helmet. She donned it, letting the spells within start up again. As soon as it was fully functional, a message popped up.

...<

<<>>

...<

AUTH: [FIRE.V.500341(S1)]

SEC: [ONI.PRTCL-1A]

PASSWORD: [VERGIL]

CONNECTION ESTABLISHED!

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief. The Superintendent was one of those magic constructs that Twilight had told her about that were able to work inside computers. She trotted over to a bench and sat down as the Superintendent began to integrate into her helmet.

WRITING CITY MAP SPELL<<<

...<

The message faded away, then a short jingle played as a map took up the whole of the visor. The map was varying shades of blue and orange, with a small green arrow in the middle. Her name was displayed under the little arrow, and she began to move about, watching as the arrow playfully followed her movements. However, she decided to hold still when she walked into the bench she was just sitting on.

She sat through the tutorials for moving the cursor, zooming in and out, and placing and cycling waypoints, when a beacon popped up on the far side of the city sector in a place called Hayari Plaza. The mare's cyan eyes widened when she read what her HUD had to say about it.

"Hayari Plaza is the last known location of an ODST squadmate."

Fluttershy galloped off towards the beacon, going headlong into a streetlamp. Once she recovered her bearings and let the messages and tutorial about her objectives finish, she shut off the map and made a beeline for the waypoint. Evey door she encountered was locked, however, and a large shutter blocked off road access. As she sulked back to the pay phone, a flickering screen caught her eye. Making sure her visor wasn't playing tricks on her, she popped off her helmet. Sure enough, one sign that originally had an advertisement now had a detour sign. As Fluttershy approached it, another sign lit up, pointing in the same direction as the last. As she stood there watching, all the signs on the street changed, car alarms went off, and the roadlights lit up. All of them making a path for her to follow.

The lone mare smiled and let out a single tear before donning her helmet and happily walking down the path, now not so alone in the empty city.

=======================================

After a small struggle through a miniature park, the rookie made it to her destination. Walking into the building's lobby, the edges of Fluttershy's HUD glowed blue and the waypoint beacon on her compass stayed where it was. The lobby itself was littered with bodies, both Equestrian and alien. She went to the nearest soldier, a griffin with plasma burns down the length of his spine, and gingerly closed his eyes. She also released her SMG from the weapon niche at her side and replaced it with the griffon's assault rifle, promising to put it to good use as the HUD's reticle adjusted to show that it was now in her control. All the other doors were locked except one that led upstairs, torn open by the dead Brute nearby.

Treading carefully up the stairs and around the luminescent bloodstains, she made her way to the top of the building. On the third floor, one of the doors opened to reveal a pair of Jackals, which Fluttershy hurled a frag grenade at in panic. She turned back around the corner to apologize again, when a horrifying sight appeared to her. Up against the far wall was the corpse of a pony that had been viciously torn open. A quick look at one of the Jackals confirmed her suspicions, as some of the pony's intestines hung from its long, toothy jaw.

Fighting back the nausea, the pegasus climbed the rest of the way up the stairs and down another hallway, this one ending in a somewhat spacious office. Outside a nearby window, she could see a sign saying "Hayari Plaza" on it and just below that she could see the smoking crater of an ODSP drop pod.She turned back to run down the stairs when something caught her attention. Buried in a broken monitor was a helmet.She curiously went over to it and attempted to yank it out, to which it responded by popping out and flying across the room, knocking the mare onto her back. As the helmet rolled back, she saw the huge slash in the front, ending just above the visor where the owner's cutie mark was emblazoned: a lightning bolt on fire at the top.

It was Spitfire's Recon helmet.

Fluttershy slowly got to her hooves and picked up the helmet, walking over to the window to look out at the plaza. From somewhere in her mind, the words of her squadmates came drifting back.

"Ya'll gonna tell us his name, Gunney?"

"MISS Naval Intelligence. Our new boss"

"Miss?"

"So check you mouths, find your chairs...and get set for a combat drop!"

Dash hadn't told anyone it was Spitfire back then. As she sat there wondering why, her VISR database popped up, playing a recording. The Superintendent icon was floating up in the corner as well, a sad look on its "face" Fluttershy sat there and watched in silence, hoping for some explanation of what happened in the past six hours...

Crash and Dash

---Lunamumba District. Immediately after drop---

The recording began with a view of the Slipspace shockwave washing over the city from the perspective of one of the security cameras. The blue particles in the air stopped speeding away and began drifting down to the ground. A low roaring noise could be heard in the distance, growing louder until its source came racing across the sky, bouncing off a skyscraper and smashing the camera. The static screen quickly replaced itself with another view as the drop pod bounced across the street, hit a balcony, flipped through the air and finally crashed in the corner of the balcony in a cloud of dust.

Spitfire's voice crackled onto the comm channel. "Nrgh...Come in squad...You still alive out there, Rainbow?"

While Dash was very much alive, her eyes refused to stop spinning. "Yeah, I think so..."

"My manual release isn't working, I can't get out. How about yours?"

Dash's hatch swung open the wrong way and the mare tumbled out, landing on her back. "Ow...Yeah, it's working juuuuuust fine..."

"Right then, once you're done trying to get a perfect score from the Covenant you can come give me a hoof." Spitfire told her dryly.

Dash flipped over and went to get her weapons from her upside-down pod. "I'm sorry, did I do something wrong? Last time I checked, YOU were the one who left the Wonderbolts." she retorted, pulling her pistol over and snapping it to her side. She heard the Captain sigh.

"Not this again...Look, I thought we all agreed it was for the best. Besides, working directly under Princess Luna isn't an opportunity somepony can just pass up."

"Oh yeah? Try telling that to Soarin'." she replied, tugging at her assault rifle which had gotten jammed in the crash. "Do you *grunt* even *grunt* realize *grunt* how crushed he was?" The rifle popped free with the last grunt.

"H-he what?"

Dash smirked, as she could almost imagine the Captain's cheeks turning red. "You heard me. Now then..." she said, taking advantage of the pony off her guard. "Mind telling me why you decided to pick my squad for this crazy mission?"

"First, you're the most loyal pony I know, and second...don't you remember, that night after the show where Scootaloo and Fleetfoot were betting on us? What you asked me in the morning?"

Dash looked up and saw a Phantom flying overheard, its turret trained on her. "I remember never getting an answer..." she mumbled.

"Say again? You're breaking up, Dash."

"I said sit tight! I'll be there in ten seconds flat!" she yelled, then ran to the edge of the balcony and took cover behind the sandbag walls. "Just be careful. We missed our LZ and landed right in Covenant controlled territory." Spitfire remarked. Dash simply replied "Relax, Captain, I'll be fine."

"Well I'm curious about how you plan on rescuing me when you're dead..."

The dropship flew down to the streets and deployed a few Brutes and a pack of Grunts at the bottom of the slope, who immediately began making their way up to her. Dash gave a grin and loaded her rifle, before hopping off the ledge and into the fray.

The first Grunts dropped dead with a few quick shots from her pistol and she got airborne, using her rocket boosters to propel herself into the nearest Brute, breaking his shield and knocking it to the ground. Dash took no time in blowing its brains out and leaping to cover. The remaining Grunts panicked and ran in all directions while she quickly switched to her assault rifle. She popped up, intending to gun them down quickly, when a gold Brute knocked the box away and almost smashed her into the ground.

Rolling out of the way, the pegasus unloaded a full clip into the alien, then zipped behind and bucked it, snapping its spine. A few more pistol rounds picked off the last of the Grunts and Dash continued down the road. A voice lit up her helmet radio as she went through a tunnel.

"Trooper! Over here!"

The voice's owner emerged from behind the wreckage of a Warthog, a griffin accompanied by two other soldier ponies. "We saw your pod hit. That must've been a wild ride."

"Yeah...Have you seen any others hit?"

"Ah, negative. But it was hard to see anything after that flash..."

One of the ponies spoke up suddenly, "Actually, I saw a pod near yours. I think it crashed near Hayari plaza..."

"Roger that, thanks!" Dash replied, setting a marker on her HUD. Before she could take off, the griffin held up a claw. "Don't suppose you could give us a hoof? We were trying to get to a rally point when this fog appeared and scrambled our long-range radios." Dash nodded in reply. "Some of these buildings are open, so you might be able to use that to flank the Covenant on the streets."

"Alright then, let's get to work!" The mare said, then galloped down an alley and turned sharply through the first open door, shooting up the stairs and checking that her weapons were all fully fully loaded.

She was so busy she stumbled over a corpse of an Elite.

After pulling herself off the ground, she saw the corpse, plus a few more of both Elites and Brutes, all with plasma burns. The Superintendent's voice crackled over a nearby loudspeaker. "PLEASE, SLOW DOWN."

"The buck happened here?"

"FINAL NOTICE: BILL PAST DUE."

She would've paused to process what just happened, but the growls of Brutes down below took her attention. She quickly swapped her pistol for a nearby weapon and readied her assault rifle. The squad in the alley signaled to her, and Dash took aim at the nearest target and opened fire, the spray of bullets startling the five Brutes in the courtyard. The shield broke, and the alley squad followed her lead.

The Brutes were quickly dispatched, the last one getting executed by Dash's newly-acquired Mauler as she dropped down onto it. The squad moved down the street easily breezing through the Covenant patrols, until reaching a raised platform. As they cleaned out the groups there, a Grunt ran up to the edge and put down a Plasma turret. One of the pony marines noticed and turned to warn the others, but was immediately gunned down and thrown back.

The other pony watched as her partner went sailing overhead, eyes wide. "GRAPHITE, NO!!!" she screamed. The corpse landed propped up against a car and sat there, twitching slightly for a while. The mare watched him for a second, then angrily turned to the turret. She flicked her wings open and readied a grenade. "You two go on without me. I'm taking that sonuvabitch out!" The griffin lunged to stop her, but she was already flying at the turret, screaming her head off with the live grenade in one hoof. Dash and the griffin ducked for cover, avoiding the bloody explosion.

The two remaining troops came out of cover to inspect the damage. The ledge was coated in a large splatter of red and blue blood, some of it covering the car they were hiding behind below the platform. Dash turned to the plasma-burnt trooper, closing his eyes with a sigh and turning back around to see the griffin picking up the plasma turret. "What?" he said when Dash shot him a look. "I'm not gonna let free ammo go to waste!" Regardless, they moved on down the street towards the rally point and Hayari Plaza.

The next bend took them right into the heart of a Jackal patrol, but before the duo could move in for the kills a beam of plasma shot between Dash's ears.

"SNIPER! FIND SOME COVER!!"

Her ally, however, was one step ahead of her. The griffin had already grabbed her and flown behind a nearby footbridge, dropping the ODSP off and flying onto the bridge for a better position. Dash picked herself off the ground and looked around. She was suddenly knee-deep in another kind of carnage. Surrounding her was another group of dead Brutes and Elites, all with plasma burns.

It was then and there that Dash decided enough was enough. Hoping she was still alive, she radioed Spitfire again. "Hey Spitfire, what's with all the Elites?"

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen any in the patrols, and the ones I have found are all dead, surrounded by Brutes both with plasma scars."

The following sigh crackled over the headset. "I wish I could tell you, Rainbow. I really do. But I'm afraid that's-"

"Classified, yeah...Guess some things never change..."

She meandered through the corpsefield towards another dead body - a zebra marine - and tried to get its field recorder out. As soon as she popped open the storage panel, a cloud of blue smoke burst forth. The wiring had been burnt by a plasma rifle and rendered useless. Just as she stood back up, the sound of a Beam Rifle went off on the bridge. Dash flew up, intending to gun down the Jackal holding it, and found the griffin on the far end holding the rifle, picking off Covenant down the road. The griffin glanced over at Dash and shouted "Well don't just stand there! Get down there and give me a hoof!"

Dash raced into the fray, eager to comply. The Jackals had set up camp right in front of a security gate, deploying a sniper nest in the road. The nest's occupant took aim at the pegasus before suddenly ragdolling, tumbling off the tower and into its allies. Dash used the temporary distraction to lob a grenade in, picking off several of the shielded bastards. The Mauler and the griffin's sniping quickly dispatched the others, The last Grunt went down (after some amount of its panicked screaming) and the marines regrouped in front of the security door. "The rally point should be just through here..." the griffin said, shouldering his turret. Dash turned to him and replied "You don't sound all that happy."

"If the Covenant have gotten this far, then they might've already killed the others."

"Well, there's only one way to find out." The ODSP said, fiddling with the door controls. The security door slid apart to reveal a large crossroad with multiple bridges, and a group of marines under fire. One of them, a unicorn mare, saw them from her vantage point on one of the bridges. "Hey, mules! We could use some help here!" Dash flew up to her, taking a few shots at the Covvies before asking "What's the situation looking like?"

"Not good, ma'am. There's only about 5 of us left of the 30 that came here, and we've lost our sniper."

"Where was the sniper nest?"

"See that Jackal on the far building?"

Dash peeked around the corner and indeed saw the Jackal, who tried to shoot her mane off.

"She was in there, on the left-hoof side! Only way in is through the overhang just below it."

"I'll see what I can do! Hold this position and fall back if it gets too hairy!"

"Cut through those buildings and try and flank the bastards! That should buy some time!"

Dash nodded, zipping into the building. She exchanged her Mauler for an ENSC shotgun on a zebra's corpse and went down another flight of stairs to a small alcove. Just as she leapt out and ambushed the enemies nearby, Spitfire crackled onto the radio. She was panicking.

"Dash, location?!"

"Nearly there! What's going on?"

"Multiple hostiles approaching my position!"

"Ah, crud. Hang tight, I'll be right there!"

"No, it's too late! Listen carefully! If I die, you-"

The rest of the message cut short when Dash took an overcharged plasma bolt to the head, scrambling her comms and rendering her temporarily blind. "Dammit, NO!" she shouted, swinging wildly with her back legs. As soon as her systems recovered, the comm channel popped open again. "Spitfire, say something! Don't move, I'm on my way!" The ODSP wasted no timed in disposing of the nearby enemies, using her shotgun to plow through the Brutes and ducking inside the middle alcove. She galloped through the building and came upon the Jackal that shot at her earlier, who immediately received a back full of shotgun pellets for its effort. Dash continued through the building until arriving at the sniper nest, which had a clear view of the other marines. Swapping for the sniper rifle, she immediately started picking off the remaining Jackal snipers and covering her griffin ally as he plowed through the smaller infantry. The rifle ran out of ammo quite quickly and Dash switched it with her shotgun again and flew across the intersection to take out the Brutes she had missed.

After blasting through the platform the Brutes were camping out on, she went in the building, hoping to find some more marines that tried hiding there. All she got was more ammo and a few firebomb grenades, plus finding a few more corpses which didn't help her confidence at all. She trotted back down the stairs, planning on going straight to the Captain's drop pod.

So of course she never saw the blue giant bearing down on her from another hallway.

Both she and the giant went through the building wall, Dash being thrown across the intersection and colliding with the griffin defending the marines. She pulled herself up and got a better look at it, seeing the shielded arm and fuel rod cannon on it. "A Hunter?! Oh Luna dammit, I do NOT have time for this!" she groaned. The marines were too injured to take on a Hunter, so she quickly leapt to her hooves and held its attention with quick bursts of rifle fire. She kept dodging the fuel rod beams and leading the Hunter away from the marines, trying to get behind it with her shotgun. Eventually the Hunter charged her and she was able to get behind it, emptying a full clip into its exposed back.

When she looked back at the marines, the looks on their faces had her confused. The griffin was running at her full throttle, turret at the ready. "TROOPER, MOVE!" he shouted, and then realization hit her. Hunters travel in pairs, and one gets really ticked off when the other gets killed.

Time seemed to slow down as she slowly turned to see the golden Hunter charging at her. its shield held out in front of it blocked any potential weak spot, and its back was to the marines. Just as it pulled its arm back to hit her, the griffin shoved her out of the way, and time flowed normally. The griffin went flying, smashing into the wall over the former Jackal Dash had killed earlier and finally rested on the balcony. The mare slid back, and looked up just in time to see the Hunter coming for her again. She willed her thrusters to push her in reverse and she slid under the Hunter just as its shield came down on the spot where she was. Her shotgun aimed at its unguarded back, and simply said:

"Go to Tartarus."

The buckshot tore into it. The orange ooze sprayed onto her helmet but she kept firing, not giving it a second to run. Eventually the gold-plated giant finally fell, and Dash slowly got to her hooves. She stumbled a few times from her injuries from the first Hunter, but eventually got to the mangled alien. It was still alive somehow, and turned its head to look at her. She pulled the shotgun off its niche, and aimed at the creature's neck. The reticule on her HUD was gone, but she didn't care. Using her wing's armor to pull the trigger, she let the final shot ring out as the creature's head disconnected from its body and rolled down the street. Dash let out her breath, letting the adrenaline finally burn off. Before she could fall over, the other marines got to her and held her up, one of them even bringing her a medkit. Rainbow hadn't even noticed that her health meter had dropped into the red, much worse had barely any of it left. The marines assured her that they'd bring the griffin with them and patch him up. Dash nodded and went towards the security door as a Pelican swooped in to pick the marines up. She really didn't want to leave them behind, but she had more important things to do. The Captain's been kept waiting too long.

Hayari Plaza was empty for the most part. The Covenant forces seemed to be uninterested in the district, except for the Phantom pulling out of the area. The dropship had left three Grunts below, who were shooting plasma pistols at-

"The Captain's pod!"

"ATTENTION PARTY OF ONE, COME IMMEDIATELY TO LOST AND FOUND! LOWER LEVELS." The Superintendent crackled.

Dash raced over to the stairs, ran off the edge of an overhang, and glided down behind the Grunts. They never heard her coming.

A few quick bursts from her assault rifle sent the Grunts tumbling to the floor. Dash wasted no time in getting to Spitfire's pod. "Hang in there Captain, I'm here!" she said, positioning herself next to the door. She wasn't as strong as AJ, but she still had a hay of a buck. The hatch popped open after the third kick and Dash poked her head in, expecting the Captain to be ready to eat her words. The eating of the words would be delayed, however, since the pod was empty.

Dash heaved a sigh. "Of bucking course..." As she examined the pod for what might've happened, a piece of debris floated up, revealing itself to actually be a floating armored squid creature. Just as Dash turned and saw her guest, it flared its fins and activated some kind of spotlight. "Ohmygosh!" she shouted as she backed up quickly, falling over bits of debris and having to scoot away on her back. The squid made an odd, whistling kind of roar, and Dash spotted something that scared her even more: one of the thing's tentacles had Spitfire's helmet, with a large slash going up the middle. "Whoa!" Suddenly a white line shot through the thing's neck as a loud bang echoed through the plaza. She followed the fading line and spotted Twilight at the other end, who gave her an impromptu salute. Dash breathed a sigh of relief and motioned for her to come down, when a low whining filled the air and the fins on the squid creature began to close up.

Dash thought quickly and turn on her rocket boosters, sending her sliding across the floor and shooting out sparks just as the squid exploded in a cloud of plasma.

Fluttershy watched as the camera paused and zoomed in on Spitfire's helmet, outlined its trajectory, and opened the window she was currently sitting next to. The Superintendent's avatar in the corner made a happier look as the helmet went sailing in, then changed the view back to the two ODSPs.

Dash clambered back to her hooves and trotted back to the pod, meeting up with Twilight. "The hay was that? Any of your books ever said anything about them?" she asked the sniper, brushing off dust from her slide. Twilight didn't answer.

Dash popped her helmet off and held it under her wing before asking, "Hey egghead, you listening?"

Twilight just looked at the pegasus and stored her sniper rifle back onto its weapon niche.

"Ooh, I get it. Permission to speak, smartaleck."

Twilight's visor turned transparent as she replied, "No, I haven't seen those aliens before. You're welcome, by the way Sergeant." Dash sighed at the change of tone in the last word.

"Not this again...Look, how many times do I have to say I'm sorry? It's not my fault I outrank you..."

Twilight just grumbled as Dash trotted over to a piece of the squid's armor that had embedded itself in the nearby wall. A piece of Spitfire's armor was pinned to it, swinging slightly from the earlier explosion.

"Any word from AJ and Rarity?"

"Negative..."

"Flutters?"

The unicorn was silent.

"Darn...We need to get out of this fog, link up with the B-net. Maybe one of our birds saw where they crashed."

"Finally, a good idea. Let's get going."

The duo cantered off, heading into the adjoining district. The Super's camera panned back to the open window, jumping to a camera inside the building and showing the helmet buried in the sparking monitor. The video then fast forwarded to Fluttershy trotting into the office, then turned to static.

==================

Rain

---Hayari Plaza, Six Hours After Drop---

Fluttershy shut off the video with mixed feelings. On the one hoof, at least two of her friends were alive a few hours ago. On the other hooves, that was six hours ago, she had only seen two of her friends, and Captain Spitfire was dead. She held up the Captain's helmet and traced a hoof over the side of the slash mark. There was really nothing else she could do except wander about the city in hopes that she'd find either her friends or a way home. Home. The word scared her a bit, as going home just wouldn't be the same now. Reluctantly she put the Captain's helmet down and looked out the window at the drop pod, trying to decide her next move. As she did so, a few of the street billboards lit up, changing from advertisements to detour signs. Fluttershy turned to the nearest camera and smiled, remembering she wasn't entirely alone in the city. She turned and cantered down the hallways towards street level.

Despite two Grunt scavengers, the building and the area outside were eerily quiet. As the pegasus trotted down the street, she noticed something off. Earlier when the Superintendent guided her with signs they didn't go away, but now all the signs she saw at the window were adverts again. Fluttershy looked around for some explanation when she spotted another detour sign, this one small and pointing in the direction of the plaza. Well, I guess I don't have anything to lose... she thought, and trudged down the stairs into the plaza. The signs led her to a small alcove off to the left, just off ground level. Keeping a good amount of caution, she lightly stepped inside.

She squealed in terror as the bullet went whizzing by her, inches from her helmet and sending her ducking for cover.

"Okay, you're not Covenant, so are you with the NMPD? You under orders from Kinsler? Answer me!" A pony's voice rang out from around the corner. It was a stallion from the sound of it. Fluttershy made herself as small as possible, pressed up against a pillar. "P-please...d-d-don't shoot..." she squeaked, though if the pony heard her she didn't know. The voice's owner suddenly rounded the corner, a pistol at the ready. He was an earth stallion, with a gray-blue mane and gray coat barely visible under his NMPD jacket and uniform, but his eyes were obscured by a standard marine helmet. Unfortunately for him, Fluttershy's weren't. She had taken her helmet off before coming into the plaza, and her sad eyes almost crushed the stallion's heart. "I uh...um..." he was at a loss for what to say, suddenly filled with the desire to cheer her up. "Hey, I'm sorry..." the stallion tried again, pointing his gun away from the pegasus near tears. "I thought you were someone else. You alright?" Fluttershy nodded frantically, keeping her sad expression constant. "My name's Icy Rain. I'm with..." he sighed before continuing, "I WAS with the New Manebasa Police Department. Guess I kinda got fired yesterday..." The mare, finally having calmed down, tried to speak up. "I...I'm...F-f-f-fluttershy...wha...what do you mean, fired...?"

"Nice to meet you, Fluttershy. Well, I was with them till I kinda started poking around where I shouldn't have. I'm a - WAS a - detective, and I was investigating some rumors about a corrupt police commissioner, when who of all people comes up to me and strips me of my rank but the commissioner himself? But that's not really important. What are you doing here? I thought everyone was dead or evacuated?"

"I-I'm an ODSP...I dropped in a few hours ago, but was knocked unconscious..." Fluttershy felt a bit more relaxed around Icy Rain now, despite having just met him. The city really was changing her.

Icy Rain raised an eyebrow. "Why would such a sweet mare like you be an ODSP? You DO know most of them don't come back alive from missions?"

Fluttershy's heart visibly sank. Dash hadn't mentioned that fact when she recruited her, and for obvious reasons. But the thought of not seeing Angel again, or worse, finding her friends' dead bodies, was horrifying. She quickly curled back up, covering her eyes with her hooves

The ex-detective saw her tearing up again and quickly tried to calm her down. "Hey, hey, that doesn't mean you will! Don't worry, I'll help keep you safe!" he said, one hoof on his chest. Fluttershy peeked out from under her hooves and mumbled "R-really...?" Icy Rain nodded and Fluttershy sprang to her hooves, almost smothering the pony in hugs. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!" She suddenly jumped back and hid behind her mane, noticing her sudden clinging. "I, um...I promise I'll do my best so I'm not too much of a burden, Mr. Icy Rain..." He just shook his head. "Please, call me Icy. It's shorter."

"All right Icy. So what were you doing here? I mean...if it's okay with you, I'd like to know..."

"Sure, I'll tell you. Actually, you might be able to help me."

"How so?"

"Well I found this file on a pay phone terminal nearby, but its encrypted and I don't have the resources for it. Your helmet, however, has a spell built in to decode that kinda stuff. May I?"

Fluttershy gingerly passed it to him, and he removed his own helmet, giving her the chance to see his eyes (gray-blue of course). Icy placed another spell on a small piece of paper between the two helmets, and a line of magic snaked out of his and into the ODSP model. The duo watched as the line weaved into the magic already in Fluttershy's helmet, changed colors multiple times, then came to rest in a ring representing the COMM database. The line had also doubled, sending the second strand back to Icy's helmet and nesting in his COMM as well. He picked up both the helmets, flicked his own onto his head, then passed the ODSP hers.

"So, what's supposed to be in this file? That is, if you don't mind me asking...I mean, you only just met me, so..." She started, then trailed off. Icy just shrugged and replied "Only one way to find out..." His visor tinted, and he was silent. Fluttershy looked into her own helmet before putting it on, opening the VISR database and scrolling to the COMM section. A file had appeared on the side, labeled "Cloud 1, Feather 1". I...guess this is it..., She thought. Then set it to play.

==AUTHOR'S NOTE==

The 2 audio logs I'm putting in are going to be word for word taken from the actual game, minus a few name changes and the use of pony word variants {i.e. somepony, hoof, filly, etc} so feel free to skip these. There will be quick summaries of groups of audio logs in each Manebasa Streets chapters, but they don't really affect the story until the final chapters.

==================

SUPERINTENDENT: HELLO TRAVELER. MANEBASA WELCOMES YOU!

ANXIOUS? STRESSED? PLEASE REMAIN CALM.

CONTROL CURCUITS NOW OPEN -- WITH PRIDE!

[SOUND: Vergil chime.]

[SOUND: Trains whistle as morning commuters crowd the station.]

KIOSK: (from speaker) Hello, traveler! The Manebasa Transit Authority welcomes you to Kikowhinny

Station. How may I serve you?

SADIE: One ticket to Old Mombasa please, here's my card -- no, scrap that. Traceable.

Dang it! Bits, need bits... [Puts bits into kiosk.]

KIOSK: Thank you! What is your final destination?

SADIE: Magongo, if I don't get caught... Tartarus, if I do.

KIOSK: Thank you! Transfer for one to Magongo.

SADIE: Let's go, let's go!

KIOSK: Please collect your ticket.

SADIE: Wait! Hold the doors, please!

[SOUND: train doors slide shut.]

TRAIN: (from speaker) All aboard train number 14.

SADIE: That was close...

TRAIN: (from speaker) City center to Old Manebasa, now departing.

Next stop, Makupa, Neighrobi Road, Hope Station, and Magongo -- end of the line.

SADIE: Almost there... Almost--

[SOUND: Train squeals to a stop.]

SUPERINTENDENT: (from Train) EMERGENCY STOP. PLEASE REMAIN CALM. EMERGENCY STOP-

SADIE: Dang it! He found me!

=============

And just like that, the audio transcript ended. Fluttershy closed the database and removed her helmet, looking over at Icy Rain. "What...what was that...?" she asked. Icy just shrugged and replied, "I'm not entirely sure, though I can tell you a few things." His helmet snapped off to show a pair of sad eyes. "The time stamp on the transcript was earlier today, when the Covenant landed. That girl was Sadie Endesha, Dr. Endesha's daughter." At this Fluttershy raised an eyebrow in confusion. "S-sorry, I'm not from around here...Who's-"

"Dr. Endesha is the one who crafted the Superintendent spell. He's a huge hero here in Manebasa."

"Oh, okay...but...why did the train suddenly stop...?"

"THAT I don't know. but judging by the title, there's probably more of them..."

Fluttershy looked at the floor, then walked over to the low wall between her and the ledge. Spitfire's drop pod sat in its small crater, a final monument to the late Captain. She stood there with her head resting on the wall when a drop of rain dripped onto her nose. She looked up and sure enough, the pitch-black sky was raining down on the bleak city. "Rain..." she whispered, remembering her attempts at weather control with Dash in the good old days.

"Huh?"

Flutters turned to look at the ex-detective and realized why he was confused. She pointed a hoof outside. "It's raining..." she whispered a bit louder. Icy mouthed a quick "oh" and trotted up next to her. "Enjoy it while it lasts...It doesn't usually rain that much in Zebrica." he said matter-of-factly.

They just stood there for a few minutes and watched the rain fall after that. Aside from the occasional car alarm or far-off Phantom engine, it was very serene. Eventually, Icy Rain turned to the ODSP and broke the silence. "So I told you my story, now it's your turn. Why are you in the city? What are you looking for?" Fluttershy looked over at him, then back outside. "Well, we were originally coming here to capture the Covenant cruiser, but an ONI officer..." she paused at this. The rookie still hadn't figured out why Spitfire had done what she did. "...I guess she had a different mission than us, because when we were dropping she changed our squad's trajectory. So...now I guess I'm just trying to figure out what happened...maybe find my friends...and definitely find a way home..." Icy tapped a hoof to his chin. "Well," he began "I guess it's just you and me. Tell you what: You help me look for evidence about the commissioner, and I'll help you find your friends. Deal?" The stallion extended a hoof at the end. Fluttershy looked at it, then at his face, then back to the hoof before finally taking it in her own.

The duo then set off, ascending the stairs as the ads turned back into detour signs leading away from the plaza. As they trotted down the road towards the security door leading to the next district, one thought floated into the stallion's mind: What the buck have I gotten myself into?

The next area was the huge plaza Fluttershy had seen Rainbow fight through earlier. Bits of paper blew around their hooves, barely staying airborne in the rain. Plasma burns carved up the walls and road, scars of Gunney's near-suicidal battle with the Covenant. Aside from the crackling fires still burning away at cars, the plaza was absolutely-

"ARRRGH! Hold the creature still!"

The pegasus almost screamed in surprise. Someone else was still in the plaza with them. Icy put a hoof on her shoulder, causing her to almost scream again, and pointed towards a balcony, motioning for her to follow him. They snuck across a nearby ledge, leapt to the balcony, then jumped to a second ledge and creeped across it to a pillar. Peering around the pillar and over the ledge revealed the source of the earlier voice: a trio of Brutes, two of which were holding down one of the squid creatures Dash had encountered.

"Place the charge, before I lose my grip!" one of them shouted. The middle Brute stepped toward the squid and squeezed a spiked device that lit up red, before shoving it into the squid's middle. The squid emitted a pained whistling noise that Fluttershy instantly recognized, as well as the single word hidden within it.

HELP

She wasted no time in dropping down and killing the first Brute, snapping its neck in her pure, uncontrollable rage. The other two leapt back in surprise, giving the squid the chance to drift to the other side of the plaza. "HERETIC!!! DIE!!!" They whipped out their weapons and opened fire, just as Fluttershy rocketed away to cover. Crystal needles and beams of plasma went zipping by her head, and throught the fire she could see Icy Rain sneaking across the bridge spanning the plaza. His voice crackled over the helmet radio, "Nice moves, now take out the other ones!" She was about to respond when she became very shaky all of a sudden.

"Shy, snap out of it!"

Fluttershy blinked and realized that she was imagining that whole scene. The Brutes were still alive, and she watched sadly as they tossed the squid to the side. "It's armed!" the not-so-dead Brute said, to which the captain replied "and ready to explode if any stupid horse gets too close." The trio laughed at the thought, and began walking around the plaza, keeping an occasional eye on the squid.

They didn't, however, see the ODSP sneaking across to the center of the footbridge. She positioned herself out of the Brutes' line of sight, Fluttershy peeking out to watch the sad creature nearby. The squid was examining a nearby streetlight then somehow disassembled the light, let all the parts float in front of it, then reassembled the light perfectly, all within the span of a few seconds. It drifted off towards another light to repeat the process. Flutters then shifted her gaze to the Brute passing under the bridge. The gorilla-like alien went to the crosswalk opposite the bridge and looked around for any ponies. The ODST glanced back to the platform and discovered Icy had disappeared. She stood up subconsciously and gasped.

Big mistake.

The Brute spotted her and pulled out its carbine, taking aim at the distracted pony's head. Just before the trigger was pulled, however, a barrage of gunfire tore into the alien's shield, throwing its aim off as the shot went off into the sky. Fluttershy looked down in time to see a plasma grenade go flying out from behind a side alley and stick to the Brute's arm. "It's stuck! No!" He cried, trying to run the grenade back to its owner. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO-" The Brute's plasma-burnt corpse went sailing off in a cloud of blue mist, and Fluttershy glided off the bridge towards cover as Icy Rain came around the corner. Up above, a beeping and a loud whining filled the air as the squid creature began rising, seeming to be having multiple muscle spasms. The whining peaked and the armored fins on the creature flared out just before it exploded in a splatter of plasma. The armor shell remained and plunged to the earth, but exploded again as it bounced off the pegasus mare, propelling her into the ground. The fins of the armor rocketed off, bouncing around the plaza before exploding a third time and throwing debris everywhere.

Icy peeked out from his cover behind a ramp once the dust began to settle. The Brutes were still a little jostled from the explosion. He took a step forward and his hoof connected with a roundish metal object: Fluttershy's helmet. Icy glanced up to the spot where the mare had hit the ground. The dust was still settling, but through it he could clearly see her climbing to her hooves.

"Why...?"

The Brutes popped out of their cover behind a few ENSC crates, weapons at the ready. They froze when Fluttershy looked up at them in rage.

"WHY THE BUCK DID YOU DO THAT?! IT WAS AN INNOCENT DEFENSELESS CREATURE AND YOU MURDERED IT!!!"

The Brutes snapped out of their stupor and took aim again, but she didn't give them the chance. An arcane version of her HUD surrounded her face, and the reticle for her pistol turned to each of the Brute's heads in turn.

Pfaff. Pfaff. Pfaff. Pfaff. Pfaff. Pfaff. Pfaff. Click clickclick clickclickclickclickclick.

The first few rounds blew their helmets off. The next two blew their heads off. The last one flew through the space where a head used to be and embedded itself in a far wall. Fluttershy, however, kept firing the empty clip as she marched toward the corpses and once she realized it was empty switched to the assault rifle, channeling her rage into the gunfire. Icy cantered over and grabbed the mare's shoulder causing her to turn and shout, "WHAT?!" Icy was face-to-face-to-barrel with her and the assault rifle and saw the fire in her eyes.

And the tears streaming down her face.

"Fluttershy...?"

"Why did they have to do it...?" she mumbled, lowering the assault rifle. Icy threw a comforting leg over her back and held up her helmet. "C'mon," he replied. "We've spent too much time in this living Tartarus. Let's go find your friends." The pegasus wiped away her tears and nodded, taking her helmet and putting it back on. She checked the map to see what direction to go to the beacon and spotted a red diamond moving towards the intersection.

She quickly shut off the map and gestured for Icy Rain to follow her as she hid behind a large planter. A patrol of Brutes came around the corner, giving the ponies the idea that now would be a very good time to leave and lick their wounds while they still could. The next plaza was a sloping area with wide steps going up the middle, sided by large palm tree planters. A police station stood at the top of the stairs across the road. As they entered, the street's emergency exit lighting opened up, and several signs directed to a pay phone just outside the station. Icy followed with Fluttershy in tow, and downloading the data on the ringing telephone revealed another audio log.

Her friends have been waiting a while. A little longer couldn't hurt.

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful, skirting around patrols or silently taking each out and doing their best to keep out of sight. The only trouble they had encountered was a pesky Jackal sniper who almost put a hole in Icy's head and alerted the Covenant in a nearby plaza. They had also collected several more audio logs, giving Fluttershy a better idea of what was going on.

The zebra filly, Sadie Endesha, was trying to leave the city and enlist in the ENSC, but her dad and something named "Vergil" weren't letting her. Vergil was apparently a part of the Superintendent, but why it was so focused on Sadie was beyond her. There was also a nice stallion named Mike who worked for NMPD and had saved Sadie from a police commissioner named Kinsler, who was also the same pony Icy Rain was trying to find accusing evidence of. Unfortunately, Sadie and Mike had started arguing not long after throwing Kinsler out of the car and onto the streets, and so Sadie had left the car, leaving her to walk the rest of the way to the ONI building to try and find her father. Fluttershy was anxiously looking around for another log when Icy stopped her.

"Jackal at 11 o'clock." he whispered, then motioned for her to sneak over and kill it. Seconds later, the Jackal hit the floor with a dull thump. The duo traversed the balcony and took cover behind a Covenant crate, Icy peering around at the next bend in the street. "Okay, they've got at least three Grunts, a turret, and a Brute watching them. Any ideas or just go guns blazing?"

Fluttershy looked over the top of the box and scanned the area before spotting a door closer to them. "That door there," she said, pointing as she checked her map to see where it lead. "It goes to two more doors, one of which opens up right behind the turret. I can sneak that way and you can give me covering fire when i take out the gunner. I mean, if you think that'll work..."

Icy nodded. "Sneak around to the sidewalk, your boosters are too noisy." The pegasus did as she was told, hugging the wall across the street. The doors slid open as she ducked inside, scooping up the firebomb grenades within and being careful not to tip over the plasma batteries. She crouched down next to the turret door and waited for all the red dots on the NAV map to go behind objects. As soon as they did she opened the door and cantered over to the turret gunner, violently snapping its neck and bucking the turret off its stand before turning her attention to the surprised enemies. Three shots rang out from her pistol quickly followed by a spray of bullets from down the street. After they finished off the group and began the trot down the last street, a few more billboards lit up pointing towards a small shopping plaza. Unfortunately, a dressmaker's shop brought Fluttershy's thoughts of her friends' corpses back, so she bade the ex-detective to find the audio log quickly. She waited outside the plaza as he scavenged, getting a bit of food as well. The rest of the walk consisted the pegasus continued watching the story of Sadie Endesha.

The Uplift Nature Reserve's entrance plaza looked a bit worse for wear than Hayari Plaza had, or even the entire city. A fighter plane had embedded itself in the sculpture fountain in the center, its pilot flung through the Nature Reserve's front doors. Fluttershy wordlessly moved the body off of the glass door and onto the street, laying a sheet over it and saying a few short words. The sound of moving machinery echoed through the plaza, breaking the pegasus's mourning with a fearful squeak.

"Hey Fluttershy, come and see this!!" Icy Rain's voice called from the other end of the plaza. She quickly glided over to her teammate, who was looking about a small room with the Superintendent avatar on the back wall. Several other odd markings were scattered about, and leaned up against the back wall was a pair of sniper rifles. Icy was swapping his pistol for one of them when she arrived. "These storage caches are dotted around the city. I'm amazed that there's one still unlocked! Go ahead and take a weapon, they're just for us." Fluttershy trotted over to one of the weapon racks and grabbed some fresh ammo, while asking "Were you able to find anything about my friends?" Icy shook his head.

"Nothing yet. Is the beacon still active?"

"Yes, I think so..."

"Try looking around the plaza with your VISR active. Maybe you'll find something that way."

"A-Alright..."

The pegasus walked out of the room, snapped her helmet on and willed VISR mode active. The city lit up again, orange lines covering the whole city. The HUD's edges were tinted blue, indicating the beacon was indeed still active. The plaza was just a mess of orange and bright lights, excluding the green outline of Icy walking past her. She flew up to the roof of the storage cache building for a better vantage point, and that's when she saw it.

On the far side of the plaza was a small dot of yellow, overlooked by the duo earlier. Fluttershy quickly glided over to it, calling the ex-detective over. The yellow dot was the optics of the fighter plane in the fountain which had somehow dislodged itself and made its way over here. The pegasus tapped on the lens, then picked it up cautiously as her teammate approached. The camera twitched slightly as it was lifted. Another window of static covered her HUD, showing the camera's cracked lens looking at the two ponies. Once again, the words of her friends flowed out of the recesses of her mind...

"Any word from AJ and Rarity?"

"Negative..."

"Darn...We need to get out of this fog, link up with the B-net. Maybe one of our birds saw where they crashed."

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