War, Friendship, and Crisis: The Tale of a Torn World

Twilight Sparkle and Spike exited the spaceship with the five soldiers. Twilight, speechless from the advanced technology of the entire sector, almost drooled in wonderment at the sight of energy pipes, robotic machinery managing spacecraft, wandering soldiers with the same gear as the ones beside her, airlock doors keeping the area airtight, and beeping and whirring machinery either rolling around on the metal floor or under the commands of one or two more of the creatures. Spike also drank his fill of wonderment, but his cup was smaller than Twilight’s. Before they could ask any questions, Jacob pointed to and explained the scanning area.

“Since you’re a visiting pony,” Jacob started, “you will need to enter that scanning area over there. Those other ponies are Ponyville citizens, so you should at least know them a little bit. Just follow the instructor’s orders and you’ll do fine.”

“Do you know if any of my friends are aboard this place?” Twilight asked.

“Not that I’m aware of. Not all of Ponyville’s citizens are here yet. In fact, some are now demon hostages.”

“Uh, demons?”

“That’s what those soldiers were called. They are led by a protodemon that hates all life and existence. Apparently, he thought that Equestria was a nice place to cause some ruckus.”

“If those things took a few ponies, then they might have some of our friends, too,” Spike concluded after piecing a few word strings together.

Twilight’s worry forced her ears downward. “Let’s hope that they don’t.”

The worried duo walked up to the leftmost scanning doorway. Another creature in a darker blue outfit monitored the ponies that passed by from a small rectangular prism shaped terminal. The ponies scanned by the metal doorways refused to question the worker, but they did converse with each other in the main lobby area after they were scanned. Twilight and Spike noticed a few of the same spacecrafts from earlier docked in a neat formation to their left. They also noticed a few more creatures and a unique one with a gray outfit, a bald head, and a wrinkled face.

“Alright, put any metal belongings on the conveyor please,” the creature at the terminal ordered. Twilight and Spike had nothing on them, so they walked through the gate. Once the gate whirred and flashed, the creature’s face contorted to confusion. “Hey, I’m getting some powerful readings from you.” He suddenly shifted expressions after a second. “My god! Your readings equal an Element of Harmony bearer! Why are you standing here anyway? Go and see that guy in the gray armor!”

“Can I go as well?” Spike asked to the creature. “I’m with her.”

“Sure, just go! I don’t care!”

Twilight and Spike hustled to the gray-suited man. Twilight began to say something, but the man cut her off.

“Element bearer, right?” the older man asked rhetorically. “General Solk’s the name. Come with me to my office, I think you’ll like the plans I have for you.”

“What about Spike?” Twilight asked with a glance over to Spike. “Should he stay here?”

“Is he another Element bearer, or a civilian?”

“Well, when you put like that, he’d be a civilian, but he’s still my friend.”

“He can just wait in the lobby until we’re done discussing some important matters.”

Twilight turned to Spike and pointed a hoof to what she believed was the lobby. “Can you wait over there while I deal with this? I promise that it won’t be long.”

Spike nodded. “Just don’t disappear without me knowing first.”

“I won’t.” Twilight began to follow Solk to his office. Once she reached the start of a hall, she waved back at Spike and raised her voice. “Stay safe!”

Twilight’s uneasiness clouded her mind as she passed through a maze of corridors. To ease herself, she focused less on the future and more on the various doors she passed. One led to a mess hall, a few led to storages and sleeping quarters, and others led to offices for officials. After a total of forty seconds of wandering, Twilight and Solk finally reached an office with the name Austin G. Solk written on its door. Solk opened the door, allowing Twilight to enter first.

Solk walked over the other side of his desk and sat in his chair. “Well, do want to sit down, or does your body setup not allow it?” Solk asked to Twilight.

“Well, it could be both,” she answered back. “I kind of want to stand at the moment, but I can still sit down. I can’t sit like you, though.”

Solk’s expression changed to a serious manner. “Twilight Sparkle,” he began “before my corporation, the Galactic Extraterrestrial Simulation Team Corporation, landed on your planet, we collected info on your species and how it acts.” Twilight gave all her attention to Solk after he uttered that sentence. “We found out that your world has been through some rough patches of advancement. There were wars, plagues, bad weather, and other complications, but your species somehow took control of these elements.”

Twilight mind jumped farther than what Solk said. Is he asking to use us for his own protection, or does he want to enslave us? she thought to herself. She heard many tall tales about aliens stealing or enslaving clueless ponies, but she never knew that she would be the star in one.

“I don’t want to use your species as a workforce,” he concluded from his ideas and her expression. “I believe that what was used to eliminate some of your evils, the Elements of Harmony, might prove useful in this war. I know that there are six ponies that contain these powers, but I don’t know where they are located or who they are.”

Twilight;s face beamed with a smile. “I think I can help you with that. I’m one of them, the other five are my friends, but I don’t know where they are. One of them is Rainbow Dash, a pegasus with a rainbow mane and light blue coat, another is Pinkie Pie, an Earth pony with a cotton like mane and pink everywhere on her, and then there’s–”

“Wait a minute,” Solk interrupted with an open hand in front of Twilight, “is this Rainbow Dash a winged pony with a short temper?” Twilight nodded slowly. “Well, now we know that we have two, but we also need to keep her under control. She already knocked out two soldiers and is flying around like a frightened bird as we speak. Maybe if she sees you, she will stop and listen to us.”

Twilight sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

•—————•

During Twilight and Solk’s search for the rogue pegasus in the maze of halls, they heard yelling in a nearby hangar bay. “What are you flocking things anyway?” a panicky, enraged, and feminine voice questioned. “And where’re my friends? I know they’re here!”

“Can somebody shut her up for once?” a low and manly voice ordered. “Cadet, I need you to prime that taser gun so that we can get her under control!”

“I’m on it, sir!” replied a younger but still manly voice. At the sound of crackling electricity, Twilight Sparkle sprang into action. She slid into the hangar and activated her magic.

“Don’t do that!” she screamed at the top of her lungs while stealing the taser gun with her magic.

“What the hell are you doing?” spat the deep-voiced soldier. His attire bore more armor than the other soldiers, and a cyan stripe rolled over the visor. He carried an automatic rifle with laser rounds instead of bullets and a regular bullet pistol on his side. He decided to use his rifle for this situation instead of his flesh-destroying pistol. Once he aimed his rifle at Twilight’s chest, General Solk stomped into the hangar bay.

“Sergeant Richard Avery,” Solk warned him with a trembling index finger, “if you fire that weapon at this unicorn, I’ll put you into the correctional facility in the Skavaria System. Do you understand this misdemeanor and its penalties soldier?”

The sergeant lowered his weapon and put it away. “Affirmative, General Solk,” his tone carried guilt in its words. Twilight handed back the gun to the other soldier.

“Hey, big and bald freak in the tan metal,” the high and distrustful cyan pegasus teased, “why do you have Twilight here?”

“The Galactic–”

“Let me handle this,” Twilight interrupted Solk as she put a hoof over his mouth. “I’m here because Ponyville is unsafe. Some, what is their name, demons came out of nowhere and burned down some of Ponyville. How did you end up here?”

“I was visiting Ponyville to check if Pinkie had any new pranks ready,” she started to answer, “but then I noticed these black monsters burning Sugarcube Corner to ashes. I flew over to them and slammed my hoof into one of them, and they began to shout something like, ‘I’ll pull your wings off’ to me. After I showed them who’s the number one pegasus, these soldiers found me and told me that I need to leave Ponyville. I agreed because I thought they would bring me to Pinkie, Fluttershy, or you. When I noticed that the sky was getting darker and Equestria was looking smaller, I thought that they would process me or something else that aliens do. And then, I found you here.”

Solk nodded and massaged his chin with his hand, and the sergeant huffed out his fury and hand flicked at the pegasus. Twilight started to speak, but her words trailed off as shouting echoed down the halls.

“Attention all personnel,” a digital and booming voice deadpanned all around the ponies and soldiers, “demon activity has been detected in sector H-04! All healthy and ready soldiers must report there immediately!”

“Well, I got an excuse to shoot something now,” the sergeant responded. “See y’all later, I got some target practice!” He pulled out his rifle and nudged the other soldier with his shoulder. “Cadet, let’s go teach these demons who run the show here.” The two soldiers sprinted into the halls and disappeared from sight.

The cyan pegasus hovered down to Twilight and faced Solk with its magenta irises. “Oh yeah, I haven’t told you my name. I’m Rainbow Dash, but you can just call me Dash for short. Now, where are these punks?”

has been added to your party.

“I guess it is a good time for you two to brush up on your fighting skills,” Solk assumed. Solk pointed out a finger to the right side of the hallway “The fight’s that way. If you don’t know where to go afterward, just follow me.” Solk hustled down the hallway, and the two determined ponies followed.

When they reached the point of interest, their first sight was the dead bodies of GEST Corp. Soldiers littering the area. Demons slammed maces, hammers, and swords and fired laser guns, bullet guns, and magic blasts into their foes. One demon caught site of the two ponies and held out an open hand. He pulled out his bayonet laser rifle and gave an invisible, sinister grin.

“My my, what do we have here?” His eyes narrowed, and his invisible smile widened with every word. “I sense a lot of power from you two. If I am correct, you two are some of the Elements of Harmony, right?”

Solk donned a face of worry and pulled out his two five round burst laser pistols. “Great, they know who you two are. Stand back while I deal with these guys.”

The demon dove to the left of the trio while blasting his weapon in a futile attempt to injure them. Since this demon lacked an astronomical amount of experience and skill in anything, he missed every shot and slammed himself into a wall. Two more demons approached Twilight and company in hopes of reversing the demon’s mistake. Solk fired into the two with no misses, ripping them into disintegrating piles of matter.

Solk turned his head to Twilight and Rainbow. “You two, help as much as you can!”

Twilight snapped back to reality once a random demon’s boomerang blade glided over her and decapitated two soldiers behind them. Both soldiers’ necks became gushing blood fountains as they piled over one another. Rainbow Dash dove into a demon holding a blunderbuss and smashed their chest into five pieces. His gun flew out of his hands and smacked another demon in the face, sending a sword into yet another demon’s right shoulder and neck. Rainbow slammed a hoof into her demon’s face and smacked another’s face. Twilight conjured a fire blast and hurled it at a nearby demon running towards her with a spiked shield. The demon burst into flames and screams and dissipated into naught. A larger demon raised his six feet long greatsword, positioning it to slice in half the pegasus on a smaller demon’s back. Rainbow Dash noticed the lumbering demon from her peripheral vision and circled around the giant. She bucked the demon’s head five times, distracting it enough to let a nearby soldier slide past the demon and slice off one of its legs with a plasma longsword. The demon fell to the ground, killing five more of its brethren as its body and sword crushed a firing squad. Then, in the mass of confusion, a commanding demon stepped out of a spacecraft and raised his voice above the commotion.

A challenger approaches: Lieutenant Drimmin, commander of the Infantry Division.

“Attention, my glorious brothers!” he boomed with a triumphant voice. “I have noticed that those two ponies over there are crushing our siblings! Let I, Lieutenant Drimmin, handle this problem!” A few demons moved out of his way and continued fighting the defending soldiers. This commander wore a silver and titanium suit and carried a gun with lightning pulsing around the barrel. A red mane plumed out of his Roman helmet, and instead of having two white spots for eyes, he had none and grinned with mouth teeming with fangs. His teeth jutted, twisted, and bent from so many spots and angles that a deranged dentist could derive pleasure from ripping them out and placing them back in their correct order.

He walked over to Twilight, her horn glowing with a dangerous ball of magic. Drimmin sneered at the weakness in her and continued to glorify his presence to everyone. At this point in time, his conceit begged for him to have his head blasted to bits.

Rainbow Dash grew far too annoyed of Drimmin’s misplaced self-praise and bolted toward his face. He turned to his right side in a flash and shot her in the chest with a blast of electricity. Her body tumbled next to Twilight and bumped into a metal wall.

“You’ll pay for that you flocking monster!” Rainbow grunted with fury as she struggled to get back up. Twilight gasped and scowled at Drimmin. She gathered more magic into her horn and fired a blast at him. He dodged to the right and shot three electric blasts at her she slid her body away from them and fired another blast, missing again from another dodge. Drimmin changed the mode on his gun and blasted four arcs of lightning at her. She felt the agonizing pain of one and ducked under the other three. She fired once more, but this time, she led her magic blast, resulting in Drimmin dodging right into the blast and tumbling backward. His left absorbed most of the strike, but it was still intact and usable.

“Good moves, unicorn,” he scoffed through his pain. “You’re almost as good as an arcane soldier. Almost.”

“Rainbow, you need to get up, now!” Twilight tugged at Rainbow’s body and nearly threw her up to her feet. “I need your help against this one!”

Rainbow Dash got back onto her hooves and opened her wings again. This time, she hovered above her original spot and formed a small cloud. She bucked it over to Drimmin and sneered at him, distracting him long to let the cloud darken and spark. The cloud exploded lightning into him, shocking his essence to dangerous amounts. He laughed through more of his unbearable pain, switched his gun’s mode, and fired wildly at the two, striking and killing two of his own demons. Twilight dodged the incoming blasts and prepared and blasted more magic at him, and Rainbow zipped around the electric blasts and searched for any openings in his defense. Drimmin shouted his anger away and readjusted his aim. Twilight conjured a barrier spell to halt any electricity or lasers aimed towards her, and Rainbow gave Drimmin two uppercuts and a buck in the back of his head. He grew tired of the shenanigans and beatings, so he switched his strategies to a more self-friendly style. After all, the ponies’ successful hits drained him of both energy and essence.

“Argh, goddamnit!” Drimmin stomped a foot on the ground and fiddled with his belt. “You two are the most annoying things I’ve fought! Just stand still and die for me!”

As a final effort to end the ponies’ lives, he prepared a fatal combination of attacks. He snatched a few electro-bombs from his belt and tossed them to Twilight. Twilight yelped and rolled away from the two bombs before they could detonate. The bombs exploded a second after her departure, paralyzing a few unlucky and ignorant soldiers caught in the blast. Drimmin, disgruntled to the point of strangulation, sent out a barrage of electric blasts at Rainbow Dash. She dodged all of them flawlessly. Eager to finish the fight and end Drimmin’s reckless blasting, she flew higher into the air and prepared a deadly strike.

“Hey, Lieutenant Droolface! Eat this!” Drimmin turned his grimace to the Rainbow in the air. After one swift swoop downward he felt his head split from her incredible force, dropping him to his knees. His torn face smacked the metal ground and began disintegrating with the rest of his body.

“He’s going back to the Nightmare World!” a soldier barked. “Stop him from retreating!”

Twilight, recalling how much mortal damage fire dealt to the last demon that tasted it, fired a fire blast straight at Drimmin’s disappearing body. His body and the stray particles from it ignited and burned to nothing. About half of his forces stopped fighting the soldiers and stared at his gear.

Lieutenant Drimmin has been defeated!

“Nopony’s better than the number one pegasus in Equestria!” finished Rainbow Dash a little too late.

“Drimmin’s dead!” shouted a novice demon on the verge of death. “There’s no use in fighting here without his leadership!”

“Brothers, retreat back to the Nightmare World!” shouted another demon standing to the left of a hijacked spacecraft. Every demon in the area instantly collapsed into smoke and left nothing behind. A few soldiers hurrahed and cheered their victory despite the bloody corpses right next to them.

Solk rushed up to Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash with a medic as his cohort. The medic held up a white plastic box with a syringe symbol on it. He set it on the ground, flicked its latches open, and rummaged through the box for anything that could heal the ponies. “Any cuts, bruises, or other injuries that need mending?”

“Just me,” answered Rainbow Dash. “I think one of my wings lost a bit of feeling or something. Are you good at fixing pegasus wings?”

“I’m not certified for nothing.” The medic took out a set of tweezers and a syringe. “Just hold still and don’t scream like a baby.”

•—————•

Inside courtroom enveloped in shadows and tendrils of darkness, a demon encased in the light of night and enough soot and dust to build a person sat on their jagged, charcoal throne. They wore a cape with a constant flowing motion, not unlike Princess Celestia’s mane and tail, and a crown of spikes and horns. His body used bones and an inky black substance to both decorate itself and show who this demon will always be: a monster without a beating heart.

A novice demon wearing burnt and cracked steel and leather armor rushed to the royal deity’s line of sight. “Sire, I have terrible news from the ED Space Station!”

The decorated and intimidating ruler gave a not so concerned look. Their voice, though eerily the same one from the monitor, presented itself with a twist of wisdom and depth. Every time it uttered a word, it reverberated across the courtroom and bent the foundation into rumbles. “What is this terrible news you beckon forth?”

“Lieutenant Drimmin has been slain, sire!” The novice demon attempted to cry or show sorrow, but his efforts were in vain. “He was the one you gave control over the assault on Equestria, and now he’s dead! And by dead, I mean actually dead! He’s never coming back, ever, and it’s all that purple unicorn’s fault!”

“Silence,” the lord ordered with a hand sweep and a calm, unfazed tone. “You are overflowing with terror. Drimmin was the weakest commander my army contains. If the ponies did kill him off, I would not express shock, since he has been resonating in a field of weakness recently. Now, tell the other lieutenant that he has acquired some more bulk in his legion.” The demonic monarch raised a wicked claw towards the vehicle storage. “Also, I desire the addition of ground-based vehicles onto the battleground. If anything happens to our closing circle, do not fret. Just prepare an army for another invasion.”

“Yes, sire!” The demon rushed to the main gate of the throne room and slammed it shut in his own haste.

The lord clicked a bony finger on his jaw. “Hmm, The Elements of Harmony seem to be gathering. If this is the case, will they ever collect enough power to confront and execute me?” They shook their head once and rejected the thought. “No, that is ludicrous. I possess the might of the Ancients. A few livings shall never subjugate me or my children. Besides, two of them are in my possession as captives on the battlefield. Unless they can unfetter them, there will be no Elements of Harmony to retard me. However, if they ever do, I will give them a smidgen of my respect.” They thought about ponykind for a few long seconds. “After all, a species that cowers behind themselves and yet still prevails deserves it.”