Caught in War

Chapter 3: Hunt and Prey

Twilight and her friends walked through the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy had heard about strange beings sighted in the forest from the animals and the Mane Six went to investigate. The sun was already setting. They were looking for those beings for hours already but hadn’t find anything.

“Nothing! We have nearly searched the whole forest and found…“, Rainbow Dash said but Twilight interrupted her.

“Quiet! Do you here that?“, she asked.

Everypony listened. They heard something…voices! And they came closer! The Mane Six hid themself behind some bushes and waited. After a short amount of time two beings walking on two legs passed them. They wore a red armor protecting their entire body except the head. On their head, above their noses, they wore a red helmet with diagonally opposite black horns coming out of it. Their eyes weren’t visible. There was a black glass plate in front of them. They also had thick spears in their hands. But the weird thing about them: They looked exactly the same! They looked like anyone took the first one and copied him, creating the other! Only their voices were diffrent.

“…tenthousand AMA-Bots! Can you believe that? I mean one imperial can take on only one AMA-Bot at a time! But he destroyed an entire army on his own without getting hurt! Sometimes I think they don’t need us.“, the first one said.

“Don’t think like that! We are needed! Neither the Five Generals nor the Triumphirat can multiply themself! They can’t be everywhere! The Emperor said it himself: We are as important to the Magmaempire as every other member of the Team Magma! We protect the citizens from criminals and invasions and help them in their dayly lives! We extend the borders of the Magmaempire bringing peace and justice in the process! Without us their wouldn’t be a Magmaempire! We might not be as strong as higher members of the Magmaempire but we are brave and numerous! With teamwork we can take down even members of High Command and Prime Command!“, the other said.

While the other talked they had passed the ponies without noticing them and walked towards a clearing in the forest. Twilight and her friends followed them unnoticed. Suddendly they stopped. Then something happened: Out of nowhere a big red trapezium with a big dome at the top and 4 big arms with red boxing gloves holding guns with cuppolas at its side. In the middle there was a big red “M“, the Symbole of the Magmaempire! Beneath it there was a big flap leading into the trapezium. Around it there was a wall. On the wall there were some beings looking like the two they followed holding thick speers as well. The two they followed stood in front of a big gate which opened itself letting the two in.

“The Magmaempire is back?! Quick! We have to warn the Princesses and contact the AMA!“, Twilight whispered to her friends.

Unfortunatly in the same moment a guard looked at their direction and noticed them. In just a second a trigger lowered itself out of the speer, the guard changed the position of the speer like a sharpshootergun, the top of the speer folded up and the sites of the top folded themself reveiling a sights. Then he shot. A yellow flash hit the tree next to the Mane Six vaporizing it. Seeing this, the Mane Six were shocked. The guard shouted at them:

“Come out of the bushes and surrender or we will blast you to Oblivion!“

The Mane Six looked around. Every guard on the wall had their “speers-guns“ pointed at them.

“With those reflexes I doubt we wouldn’t see the place he mentions.“, Fluttershy whispered to the others.

“You’re right. I think it’s better we surrender. Maybe I can use my titel to find a diplomedic solution.“, Twilight whispered back.

The others agreed. They walked out of the bushes, passed the wall and walked into the space between wall and trapezium. The door closed itself behind them. Now they were trapped with countless beings looking all the same. Suddendly a person came. In contrast to the others he send out a feeling of authority meaning he was propably higher then the rest.

“Ponies? How did they find our secret base?“, he asked.

The two they followed stepped forwards and said:

“We think they might have seen and followed us. We are sorry, Sir, and we will take full responsibility.“

“It’s alright, Knorgus. It’s unfortunat but it can happen. Those ponies know their world better than we do. But I wish this would have happened on another day.“

“Why, Sir?“

“Because General Riko is coming today to inspect our base and take the information we have collected so far.“

Every imperial hearing that became worried. One soldier asked:

“THE General Riko? The hero of Obvum Prime, Talor IV and Raxium, who is also known as “the Dragon of Death?“?“

“Yes. THE General Riko.“, a voice said.

A young man came out of the trapezium. He looked nearly like the soldiers except that there was blue hair looking out of his helmet. He also had a spicy chinn unlike the soldiers who had a flat chinn. The last thing which differenciated him from the rest was his very short cape on his back not longer than the way from his neck to his armpits. Immediatly after seeing him the soldiers saluted by knocking with their left and right fists at their right and left shoulder once at the same time and then expanding the arms until they were straight diagonal upwards and diagonally opposite with the fists still closed.

“General Riko! I, uhm, I can explain that…“

“All hail the Magmaempire. What’s going on here? Why are there ponies in this base?“

“All hail the Emperor. They must have followed a patrol but luckily we discovered them before they could escape. What shall we do with them.“

“Hmpf. That’s bad. There is no offical order what to do in this case.“, Riko said.

Then he walked towards the ponies. Bravly Twilight said:

“I am Princess Twilight. And I demand to be realized immediatly! We are not at war! You have no right to hold me or my friends hostage!“

“Not at war?“, Riko asked.

He and the soldiers began laughing.

“Not at war she said! We are at war since you joined forces with the AMA and tried to kill our brothers from the Mecha-Armies!“

“Hey! First of Nero was the one attacking and second…“

“Nero? Who said anything about Nero?“, Riko asked confused.

“W-well you did. Didn’t you talk about Nero and his Eliminator who attacked us but were defeated by the AMA?“

“No. I was talking about the two who were shot down with their ship. The two who were captured by you and who would have been destroyed if your incompetant men didn’t reactivate them. Those two who escaped and gave their lifes to warn us about you and the new ability of the AMA. Zylus and Kong.“

The Mane Six looked at each other. Then Twilight took a step forwards and said:

“That’s a missunderstanding. We got them out of the ship in order to safe them. They seems to be damaged and we wanted to replace their broken parts as good as possible. Also, prior to Nero’s invasion we have never heard of any alien species. And even now all we want is peace. We don’t want to be caught in this war. That’s why we haven’t allied ourself with the AMA.“

Riko and the soldiers became less agressive. Then Riko thought about her words for a time.

“That would explain why the AMA never used their new “technology“ again. It would also explain why you took them and not a dead one. I think it’s worth it to consider your words as truth.“, he concluded but continued:

“But still, you have found our base on your planet. That means you have to be captured. But since it’s possible that all of this is just a missunderstanding, I’ll give you a chance: A game called “Hunter and Prey“. You as the prey have to run and hide from me, the hunter while I have to catch you. The game takes place in this forest but ONLY in this forest. As you can see, the moon is up. That means: If I can catch all of you and bring you to this place before the sunlight of the rising sun meets the imperial symbol, you will be our prisinors until the Emperor decided your fate. But if at least one of you manage to not be captured in time you all will get free. What do you say?“

“How do we know you are really letting us go if we win?“, Rainbow Dash asked distrustful.

“Your distrust is wise but unnessecary for once. You have my Word of Loyalty.“

The soldiers were shocked hearing that.

“By all due respect, Sir, but: ARE YOU SERIOUS?!“

“I wasn’t that serious since the last time I faced Nightwing.“, Riko replied.

The Mane Six discussed this offer for a short time. Then Twilight said:

“We accept it.“

“Good. You have one minute. Then the hunt will begin.“, Riko said.

The Mane Six ran off immediatly. After some time running they hid themself in some bushes.

“Okay girls. We don’t know what he can do or how he will catch us. So I think it’s the best when we split up and try to find each other in two hours again. Then we only have to survive 4 more hours.“, Twilight said

“But is it really better to scatter than to stay together? All challenges we’ve mastered up to now we’ve mastered together.“, Applejack asked.

“Normally, you’re right. But if you remember we had no chance against Nero. So apparently, imperial generals are pretty powerful. And since he is part of an organisation called “The 5 Death Generals“. I believe he is even more powerful.“

“But how can they beat our friendship? I mean, friendship is the most powerful magic after all.“, Fluttershy asked.

“Yes. On our world. But they aren’t from our world. They don’t complie to our rules. Who knows how the rules of their “Magmaempire“ are. The minuite is almost over, so more discussing could be dangerous. I’d say those of us who think we should split up, go alone while those who think we should stay together, well, stay together. Agreed?“

The rest of the Mane Six agree. Twilight and Rainbow Dash went off alone while Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie stayed together.

30 minutes since the game started.

Rainbow Dash flew through the forest. She stopped at a big tree in order two decide in which direction she should fly next. Suddendly a voice asked behind her:

“Rainbow Dash, isn’t it?“

She turned around and saw Riko leaning against the tree. She put her hooves up as if she want to punsh him and shouted:

“Come on! Give me your best shot!“

“Yes. Clearly Rainbow Dash. The discription matches perfectly.“, he said to himself before saying to her with a grinn:

“I would like to fight with you but it would be a waste of our time. You see, you are the last pony I haven’t captured yet. All of your friends are mine already.“

“Impossible!“

“It isn’t. Do you want to see?“, Riko asked.

He took out a little mirror and showed it to Rainbow Dash. In there her friends laid unconcious.

“No! That…that can’t be!“, Rainbow Dash said in shock.

“As you see, it is. And right now, they are trapped in my “Mirrorworld“, a world they can only exit from this one mirror and only if I let them. In other words: If you won’t surrender, I will destroy this mirror trapping your friend forever in the Mirrorworld where they will evantually die.“

“Or I will escape you until the night ends. They you’ll have to release them.“, Rainbow Dash said and prepeared to take off when suddendly Riko started laughing.

“Did you really think, I’d keep my promise! No. I just said that knowing you would fall for this. Although I couldn’t have done it with the hobby-actors of this planets imperial base. Even IF you could escape me, your friends would be doomed. Unless you let me catch you.“

“And what tells me you won’t destroy the mirror afterwards?“, she asked.

“Nothing. But this way you have a 50% chance of your friends not dying.“

Rainbow Dash thought about this. Then she stepped down and said:

“Alright. You’ve won.“

“Good.“, Riko said with a smile.

He lifted his arms holding the mirror and hit her with the mirror sucking her into the Mirrorworld. Once inside Rainbow rushed to her friends.

“Are you okay?“, she asked.

They got up. Suddendly they ran pass Rainbow and jumped through the portal out of the Mirrorworld.

“Hey?! What gives!“, Rainbow Dash yelled at them.

She tried to escape as well but she couldn’t pass the portal.

“That was a brillaint performence. I’ll tell the Emperor about it.“, Riko said.

“Thank you, Sir.“, Twilight said in a dark, manly voice.

Riko snapped with his fingers. Suddendly the Mane Six turned into five imperial soldiers!

“What the…How?“, Rainbow asked.

“That‘s because of one of my powers. My mirror-powers, to be precicly. You saw my ability to create a mirror world where I can trap every being I want as well as my ability to change the appearance of every being I want to a mirror version of everyone I’ve ever seen. And through the brillant performence of those soldiers I could lie to you two times: One: I haven’t trapped any of your friends. Yet. And two: I’ll never break a Word of Loyalty. That would be handled like high treason by the Imperial Justice.“

He gave the mirror to a soldier.

“You won’t get away with this! The others will not fall for this trick!“, Rainbow Dash shouted.

“Bad for them that I’ll use diffrent powers on each of the two remaining groups. I want my fun, too. That’s why I’ll take my time to capture you all.“, Riko said and moved on while the soldiers headed back to the imperial base.

Two hours after the game has started.

Appeljack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy walked through the woods. Suddendly there some bushes were shaking.

“IEEEEEEKS!“, Fluttershy called out scared.

“Into the bushes!“, Applejack whispered. They hid themself behind some bushes and watched. An eagle jumped out of the bushes.

“An eagal? False alarm everypony.“, Applejack said and the 4 came out of their bushes.

“You really scared us their for a second, little birdy. What are you doing so far off of your natural habitat anyway?“, Fluttershy asked nicely.

“What do ya mean with „“off of your natural habitat“?“, Applejack asked.

“Normally, eagals live on mountains and not in the woods.“, Fluttershy explained.

Meanwhile the eagle looked at his wing and said something. But Fluttershy looked confused.

“That’s weird. I can’t understand him.“, she said.

“Wait. This eagle ain’t where it should be…And you can’t understand it…“

Applejacks eyes wided themself.

“Get away from him!“, she called out.

Fluttershy turned her head around and asked:

“Why?“, she asked.

Suddendly the eagle started laughing. Fluttershy turned around again and took some steps back when she saw the eagle transforming. The eagle became bigger. His wings became arms with hands. His claws became feet. His feathers became replaced by a red armor. His head became more round and his beak turned into a noise and a mouth. The eagle became General Riko!

“Hahaha! Very good, my little ponies, very good. You’ve never seen my Zoan-powers but you still could see through it. I’m impressed. But unfortunatly I still have to capture you.“, he said.

With this words a chain came out of his right hand wrapping around Pinkie Pie and then disconnecting from his hand. At the same time he threw a big ball of glue out of his left hand. It hit Rarity trapping her.

“Run!“, Applejack called out.

Both she and Fluttershy began running but Riko took a stone from the ground, ate it and threw a net out of his hand at Applejack. She tried to get out but the net was as hard as stone. Riko pointed his left hand at Fluttershy. But as he saw her running, he took it back stating:

“Nah. Too easy.“

Then he turned to Applejack.

“I really have to thank you. If you would have split up I might have lost.“

10 minutes before sunrise.

Twilight walked in the forest making sure no one was following her. She hasn’t met any pony since the start- Were the others captured already? Suddendly she heard something in the bushes in front of her. She egnited her horn shouting:

“Who ever you are: Come out! Now!“

It was Fluttershy who came out of the bushes.

“Fluttershy! Am I glad to see you! Have you seen the rest?“

“I’m glad to see you, too. Unfortunatly, Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack got captured. I have no idea why he didn’t capture me, too. It seems like he has some sort of magical powers.“

“Very concerning. And Rainbow Dash?“

“I haven’t seen her, too. I hope she is okay.“

“Maybe we’ll find her. Come on! Let us..“, Twilight said.

But when she turned around she stood in front of another Fluttershy!

“Oh please! Not that!“, she thought while taking enough steps aside to have an eye on both.

“No pony moves! Or I will blast it back!“, she said egniting her horn ones again.

“Please, Twilight! Don’t attack us! I don’t want anypony being hurt!“, both Fluttershy said at the same time.

Afterwards they looked at each other confused.

“I’m now going to ask you some questions. Answer one of the wrong and you will regret it. First Question: Who’s your favorite pet?“

“Angle Bunny.“, both answered.

“Second Question: How many carrots does Angle Bunny get per week.“

“21.“, the first Fluttershy said while the other asked:

“How can you know the answer? You have never asked.“

“Wrong answer.“, Twilight said firing a magical blast towards the Fluttershy who answered with a number.

But this Fluttershy managed to dodge. From one second to another she changed into General Riko with Fluttershys face. But after Riko touched his face with his palm it was back to normal.

“Not bad, Princess. You really are the smart one. I guess the real Fluttershy over there spoke the truth. You really don’t know the answer.“

“Fluttershy: Go. I’ll hold him off.“

Fluttershy wanted to say something but when she saw the seriousness in Twilights eyes she nodged and ran away.

“How selfless. And dumb. Facing a…how does the AMA call us again? Oh right: Facing a “Death General“ alone. Huh. You’re lucky I don’t want to kill you. Yet.“, he said snapping with his fingers.

Plants came out of the ground wrapping themself around Twilight.

“I would love to fight an alicorn but I want to end this game now. Maybe another time.“, he said walking pass Twilight.

“Keep telling that to yourself. Maybe someday, you’ll believe it.“, she said.

Riko stopped and turned around. Confused he asked:

“What do you mean?“

“Oh please. It’s obvious that you are afraid of facing me. Because you are too weak.“

It seems she hit a nerve there, because he snapped with his fingers again freeing her. Then he turned around. Angered he said:

“I am NOT WEAK! I’m as strong as every other General!“

A transparant ball of, as it looks like, glass appeared around his right fist. Then he ran towards her protecting himself from Twilights magical blasts with the ball around his fist yelling:

“I AM NOT THE WEAKEST MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE MAGMAEMPIRE! STOP SAYING THAT!“

He tried to punch Twilight with the ball. But Twilight manages to dodge the attack causing Riko to hit the tree destroying it. She fired more magical blasts at Riko. But the ball transformed into a sword. With it, Riko absorbed the magical blasts and swang at Twilight who flew into the air dodging his attack again. The sword hit another tree slicing it in half. Riko turned around holding his fingers like kids holding their fingers pretending them to be guns. Out of the top of his index finger he shot some things at Twilight who managed to dodge again. While some of those things flew into the forest, others hit the trees without destroying them. Suddendly Riko stopped. His hands were now in the air with his palms facing the ground and fingers being frozen stiff. Twilight saw thinn strings leading to the things he shot into the trees. With a smile he said:

“String-Granate.“

He quickly drew in his fingers to a fist. The things in the trees exploded into giant sharp cobwebs destroying the trees around them with such a force that Twilight was thrown towards Riko. Riko grapped her and pummeld her into the ground. Then he threw her with into a tree. Then he jumped after her landing in front of her. His arm became a spring. He punched her into the stomage. Suddendly the spring streched itself throwing Twilight through some trees until she crashed into one and fell to the ground. Plants wickled themself around her lifting her up. Riko stood in front of her. Less angry he said:

“Don’t ever call me weak.“

“G-got it. B-but th-there is one l-little th-thing I w-want to know, if you don’t mind.“, Twilight said very weakend.

Riko thought a bit. Then he shrugged with his shoulders and said:

“Since non of you will be able to tell anything: Go on.“

“Thanks. H-how do you kn-know so m-much about us?“

“There are many imperial agents throughout the universe. But one is better then even Secret Agent Ann, the best agent I’ve ever met in person. This agent is a complete mystery. Only we, the Imperial Supreme Council, as well as the Lead Scientist, Secret Agent Ann, the Division Admiral and some Division Commander know of his existence. Everyone else just theorizes about him. But even the ones knowing that he exists don’t know his identity. When we meet up to relax together, it is our favorite topic of discussion who he or she could be. But only the Emperor and his right hand man know his or her identity. But they don’t want to talk about it. Appearantly because of his safty…I digress, don’t I? Anyway, some months before you had the first contact with the Magmaempire, our agent, who we named “The All Seeing Eye“, since it seems like he could see everything, transmitted a full set of information about your planet to the Emperor. He had collected every little detail. Well, NEARLY every little detail. Regardless, it was still impressive. It would have taken us years to collect this amount of information with all of our espionage droids and drohnes. Analyzing those information we concluded that Nero would be enough to conquer your planet. But we didn’t thought it would be necessary to give him the information, too. Without the Emperor we are just not as functional as with him. But that’s how we could imitate you and your friends NEARLY perfectly. But now please excuse me: I have to catch your little friend.“, Riko explained turning around.

“Good luck with that.“, Twilight said.

“Thank you. I-“, Riko stopped and turned around.

“Wait a sec: Why would you whish me luck?“

Twilight didn’t answer. Instead she looked to the sky. Riko looked up. His eyes wided themself. It was sunrise already! He looked back to Twilight who smiled at him.

“You! You tricked me!“

“One minute.“, she whispered.

Riko let out a very loud “NO“ and ran into the direction Fluttershy took with Twilight floating after him still being trapped in the plants.

Fluttershy ran. She didn’t know how long she was running already. She also didn’t know where she was running to. She looked up. It was sunrise already. Suddendly she heard a loud „“NO“ from the direction she came from. But she kept running. Suddendly she found herself in front of the imperial base! Behind her there was a bright light. She turned around and saw an angry Riko standing in front of her. Over her head Twilight, who was trapped in some thick plants, flew into the imperial base. Since there was no other way, she ran towards the imperial base. By doing this she also saw that the light was nearly touching the imperial symbol. Behind her Riko jumped towards her and seperated his right hand which quickly flew towards Fluttershy. And then: The sunlight touched the imperial symbol. Fluttershy was caught in a ball of, as it looked like, glass. Both happened at the same time. Everyone present was suprised. Riko, with his hand now being back at his arms, walked towards the imperial base and postioned himself between the imperial symbol and the Mane Six with his back to the symbol.

“So, who won?“, Applejack asked.

“Honastly, I don’t know. I captured Fluttershy but at the same time the sunlight hit the symbol. So I guess both of us one. That makes it pretty complicated.“, Riko said.

“What is it, that is being made complicated?“, a voice said behind them.

An imperial came out of the base behind them. Like every other imperial he had red armor and a red helmet. He had a cape, too. But his cape reached him to his hough. He was at least 2 meters big. He also looked older than the rest, around 55. When the soldiers saw him they immediatly sank on their knees. Twilight looked up to Riko. He looked very suprised and a bit nervous. He swollowed and asked still a bit nervous:

“Sergeant? What is the right hand man of the Emperor doing her?“

With a calm tone of voice, Sergeant answered:

“Don’t worry. It has nothing to do with your…expanded inspection. I want to show you something.“

He took out an imperial holocommunicator and activated it. A series of numbers appeared for a brief moment. Riko looked at it, looked back up to Sergeant and asked with his usual tone of voice:

“Adjutant?“

“Back at HQ with the rest of the Imperial Supreme Council. And since I’m here…“

Riko began smiling. Then he called out to everyone in the base:

“Ready the holodisguise! We’re going home today, partiing! Our Emperor is back in buisness!“

Every soldier rejoyced. While they talked to each other about this news, Riko and Sergeant looked down on the ponies. Sergeant looked at Riko who explained:

“They discovered our base. So I played “Hunter and Prey“ with them but all of us won. Kinda.“

“And you didn’t thought about the obvious one?“

“Uhm…Oh. Right. Forgot that one.“, Riko said.

Sergeant turned to the ponies. He hold his palm in front of them and said:

“Good night.“

Some kind of gas came out of his palm making the ponies fall asleep.

Twilight opened her eyes. She stood up and looked around. Her friends came up, too. They all were lying in front of a big tree.

“What happened?“, Rainbow Dash asked holding her head.

“I don’t know. We where investigating the sightings of strange beings in this forest. And then…I don’t remember. But since it seems that we’ve fell asleep here I guess we didn’t found any strange beings.“, Twilight said.

“That’s an explanation. But we never fell asleep in this forest.“, Rarity said.

“Well. There’s a first time for everything.“, Appolejack said.

And since no one else had an explanation, they left it with this one and went back home.