Chapter One:

Escape from the Clouds

The dark grey pegasus floated through the clouds, diving down every so often to get her bearing. Above the clouds were their normal fluffy self, but underneath they were a darker more sinister grey, as if they were trying to oppress the ponies below. Her squad was designated with the task of finding some old fort that went dark after the fall of Canterlot, but there were no reports of it being hit by a balefire bomb. They were giving the newest prototype Enclave armor meant to protect from the poison of the Wasteland, but still allow them to keep full mobility. The armor was a black with a purple trim barding reinforced to give extra protection against magic energy attacks. It covers the whole of the body except the face and tail, with a set of wing blades and a visor over their eyes plugged into a Pipbuck. She stopped as she spotted something on the horizon, it appeared to be the flash of weapons fire and explosions. She brought her hoof up tapping the side of her visor to activate the comm link, “Cloud Burst Actual this Cloud Burst Five, I have visual on what appears to be a battle on the horizon in the direction we are heading. Advise squad to stay in cloud cover until we pass by them. Over”

“Cloud Burst Five roger that report, but negative on the recommendation. I am sending Cloud Burst One to accompany you. I want you two to observe the fight and report back. We need to know what and who is fighting, it might give us insight on what to expect at the fort.” A deep voice commanded over the comm link.

Cloud Burst Five stopped short for a second stunned at the order. Why Cloud Burst One? He is the worst at stealth and only a passable shot at best. He was only part of the squad, because his sire was some high-ranking officer in the intelligence branch the squad fell under. She sighed as she finished these thoughts. She began to move again waiting for Cloud Burst One to catch up to her.

*** *** ***

The two pegasi floated above the battlefield with nothing but dead bodies littered about and craters from heavy weapons to mark it. It appeared that a squad of Steel Rangers had engaged an unknown enemy. The bodies appeared to be arrayed in such a way to suggest they were being attacked from all sides, but yet there was no sign of their enemy. “Cloud Burst Five go down there and figure out what happen to them. I will give you cover from up here.” Cloud Burst One’s squeaky voice came through the comm link.

Sighing before answering to confirm the order “Cloud Burst One. Cloud Burst Five. Roger.” All of the Steel Rangers wore a set of full body power armor carrying various heavy weapons. The bodies were arrayed in a circle formation with one of them in the center. She gracefully landed next to what appeared to be a stallion that was in the middle of the ringed formation. His power armor was equipped with what appeared to be a missile launcher and something else that looked like a grenade launcher but the ammo in it looked suspiciously like miniature balefire bombs. The body was unmarked, she couldn’t see anything that could have killed this stallion. She figured maybe if she removed his helmet she could hack into his armor to get his medical readout. She reached her hooves down trying to find the release for the helmet. The cold metal against her hooves caused her to pause for a second. After a few moments, she found the release mechanism. She hit the release and slowly removed the helmet, at first her mind couldn’t comprehend what she was looking at. She thought perhaps the this was some sort of new robot, but the internals looked weird, kind of like the neck of a pony if you removed its head. That thought suddenly made her realize the truth of what she was looking at, she slowly looked down at the helmet in her hooves already horrified. She first noticed the blood running down her dark grey hooves, and then she saw it. The head was still in the helmet, she could see the stark contrast of the white from the spine amongst the dark red blood slowly pooling out of the neck draining from the poor earth ponies brain. She tossed the helmet away and fell to her knees vomiting out everything she had eaten that day.

Cloud Burst Five could hear Cloud Burst One in her ear trying to get a report from her and reprimanding her for her reaction to seeing the severed head of the stallion. She could smell the sick in front of her and the smell of undigested flowers and hay. She was just starting to recover her senses as she heard Cloud Burst Actual curse out Cloud Burst One. It would seem the idiot forget to close his comms to her again while talking to somepony else. At first, she was trying to ignore the conversation while she started to rack her brain on what could remove the head of such a heavily armored opponent surrounded by so many other heavily armored opponents without getting itself killed. Then she heard her name coming over the comm link, Cloud Burst Actual in his anger had broken protocol of using anypony’s name over the comm channel.

“GODDESSES DAMN YOU SON, I SENT YOU TO STAY CLOSE AND MAKE SURE THAT DAMN FILLY DIDN’T TRY AND FLEE. WE ARE ONLY TRYING TO KEEP HER OUT LONG ENOUGH FOR HQ TO CALL US BACK. NOW GET YOUR ASS DOWN THERE AND MAKE SURE NOTHING HAPPENS TO HER OR YOU CAN REPORT TO YOUR SIRE WHY SUCH A POSSIBLY IMPORTANT ASSET GOT KILLED IN THE MOST DESOLATE AREA OF OLD EQUESTRIA.” Cloud Burst Actual’s voice had a mix of pure rage and fear in it.

“Aye Aye, Sir. I am already on the move” Cloud Burst One’s squeak of a voice clipped through the comms. Then he started flying quickly towards Cloud Burst Five, and still not realizing his voice channel with her was still open. “What is so important about this dumb filly? I mean who cares what her parents did or what her family history is. I wish dad would have put me on the team searching her house instead of babysitting her weak ass.”, he mumbled into the comms before he looked down to realize what he just did.

Cloud Burst Five gasped as she heard Cloud Burst One’s rant and all thought of the mission and the dead earth pony near her evaporated. Her first thought was to the fact she still lived with her parents for now, well when she wasn’t at the barracks which she normally was, and there was no way they would just allow soldiers, but then she realized he mentioned something her parents did. Now her thoughts began to tumble out of control on what was happening to her parents and what could they have possibly done. She knew her parents had gotten ill a few weeks back but they had gotten treatment at the best possible hospital already, and should be home now. So, unless they did something while recovering, she couldn’t imagine what they could have done that interested the Enclave.

She was broken from her stupor as she heard Cloud Burst One getting closer to her. Damn he really needs to learn stealth, she thought. Then suddenly her mind snapped to the last part of what she heard and the horror stories told in the barracks of what happened to “important” assets who had been collected by the Intel Division. She now sent a small prayer to Luna that the squad lead had been so dumb to send Cloud Burst One with her. As he approached she picked up the severed head with her bladed wing and tossed it to him. “CATCH”, she yelled her voice carrying through the emptiness of the Wasteland.

Cloud Burst One pulled up short as he heard Cloud Burst Five yell at him, and then he saw a Steel Ranger helmet flying at him. His first thought was to chew her out for horseplay during a mission but then he caught the helmet and felt something splash against him. He looked at the helmet and found himself staring at the bottom of somepony’s severed head. In his horror, he didn’t notice as Cloud Burst Five took to wing and started flying flat out away from him and their squad. He was finally broken from his horrified state by the sound of Cloud Burst Actual’s voice blaring through his comm link, “WHERE THE BUCK IS SHE GOING? STOP HER YOU BUCKING EARTH PONY.”

Cloud Burst Five heard the squad leader’s voice as he realized Cloud Burst One had failed to get to her. She began to push her body to the limits of her speed. She knew Cloud Burst Three could catch her, he was the fastest in the squad. On any other night, she would be happy to have a handsome stallion like him catch her, but not tonight. She had to get away from them but there was nothing for miles around, it was like everything was removed after the megaspells went off or perhaps there never was anything here. The desolate ground passed in a blur. She was counting her blessings that the wing blades help cut the air resistance around her wings. Suddenly she felt a burning radiating from her chest. At first, she thought she had been shot but she never saw or heard any gunfire. Then she reached under her barding and slightly touched the necklace her parents had given her at her birth. She yanked her hoof away because it felt hot enough to burn her. She didn’t understand this was just some silly heirloom that was supposed to bring good luck.

“Cloud Burst Actual this is Cloud Burst Three I have her in sight. Time to intercept two minutes.”, a rich masculine voice burst through her comm link as she had opened all the channels to listen in. She knew if she couldn’t find extra speed somehow this would be a short-lived escape. She reached deep inside herself trying to find some sort of reserve to give her that boost if only long enough to get her pursuers to give up. The wind rushed past her and would have drowned out all sound if not for the visor that held her comm link earpieces in place. She pushed herself to limits she thought beyond her before, but as she pushed these limits the necklace talisman began to burn hotter. She started to panic thinking that the necklace might burn through her chest, but she didn’t have the time to stop and remove it. “Cloud Burst Actual. Cloud Burst Three. She seems to have been holding back on us all this time, readjusting time to intercept should not be more than five minutes.”

Having a sudden inspirational thought Cloud Burst Five opened a private channel between her and Cloud Burst Three, using the Pipbuck on her leg to encrypt the signal and later delete the recordings off his Pipbuck. “Sun Chaser, please just let me go. You can claim I was lying this whole time and was actually faster than you. I would owe one next time we saw each other, I just want to get a chance to find out what is going on.”, her voice sounding both pleading and suggestive at the same time. She hoped that maybe he would put aside his ego at the thought of the second fastest flyer in the squad owing him one. Her heart even skipped a beat when he used her name in reply.

“Star Shimmer, I am sorry, but I can’t do that. The whole squad knows I have had a thing for you the whole time you were stationed with us and would assume I let you go. Please, just stop and we can figure this out. I’ll even make sure to get you legal counsel. The longer you run the worse the report is going to be. I just want to help, that is more than I can say for the rest of the squad, even now Morning Dew is probably setting up a shot.”, Sun Chaser’s voice sounded pleaded, almost begging her to hear the truth of his words.

Star Shimmer’s mind begin to scream at her, Sun Chaser was right and she should stop. She started to slow for a second, but then she felt the talisman start to cool as she slowed. The sudden relief from the heat brought something into clarity for her. “I am sorry Sun Chaser, I wish I could, but we both know no pony ever comes back whole from the intelligence division. My only chance is to figure out what is going on before they get a hold of me. If you see my parents tell them I love them,” her voice heavy with resignation but under pinned with determination. She searched in herself looking for where that extra speed had come from. As she looked deep inside herself, she kept pushing herself to outrun Sun Chaser. That is when she felt it a reserve of pegasus magic being blocked off from her. It had started to trickle out to her. She focused her mind on trying to push this magic through the dam that seemed to be controlling it. Her focus slipped for a moment just as she managed to increase the flow as she cried out from the pain from the burning talisman. Her body started to rebel against her effort, trying to force her to stop pulling from the reserve she had found hidden inside herself. She looked behind her, as her body began to slow as the instinct to survive overrode her want to get away, and noticed in horror that Sun Chaser had almost completely caught up to her. She let out a primal scream of frustration that even gave Sun Chaser pause as she forced more magic to her wings. She could smell her coat burning as she started tearing down the dam hiding her true potential from her.

Sun Chaser had started to move again as he watched a white glow surround Star Shimmer. She felt the power surge through her and reveled in the feeling of it surging through her. She had almost forgotten the warning he gave her about Morning Dew, and just as she realized her error, she heard the shot echo through the Wasteland. Her mind screamed as she realized that all her fighting had been for naught. Unlike her mind a small part of her refused to give up so easily. She reached further into herself and grabbed the power denied her for all her life forcing it through the hole in the dam she had created. Suddenly the talisman began to glow brighter than the sun. Star Shimmer felt her flesh burn just before she felt the talisman exploded against her chest sending shrapnel deep into her. As the talisman burst, through all the pain, she felt the dam break and a surge of power flood through her. She suddenly shot forward faster than a bullet or so it felt, but then she felt something tear through flank and pass through her body coming out her lower abdomen. She could feel herself trying to go unconscious from all the pain, but also felt as another release of energy hit her. She heard a secondary explosion behind her as the Wasteland began to blur beneath her faster than she even thought possible. Then darkness overtook her as she succumbed to the pain. Her last thought was that she hoped that she wouldn’t awaken in chains.

*** *** ***

Star Shimmering groaned as she realized she was still alive. She opened her eyes and saw she was still in the Wasteland under the cloud cover. At least this meant she had gotten away, or she thought she did since the grayish light beaming down from the cloud cover made it appear to be morning, but she had no idea how long she was actually unconscious. She quickly brought up her medical status on her visor’s display, to her amazement she was almost uninjured. According to the display the bullet wound had been mended, since it was a through and through, and her burns had been healed along with the puncture wounds created by the talisman exploding into her chest. The display had two alerts on it still though, she clicked to read through them. The first one was warning her that her barding’s healing system was low on supplies, but the second one was warning of foreign objects still lodged in her chest that would need to be extracted at the nearest Enclave medical facility. She sighed as she realized that would never be an option again. She was a renegade that had stolen a prototype armor in the middle of a mission, while under suspicion for hiding secrets. She had to move, they would be on the hunt for her if for no other reason than to recover their armor and brand her a Dashite.

She placed her hooves under her to lift herself off the ground and felt something brush against her. She jumped away from it but not very far, because she smacked into something hard and unmoving. She turned in a panic thinking they had found already, and came around to face her captor. When she finished turning to get a look at the pony behind her she stood dumbfounded for a moment. Standing there was a tree, nothing more but a tree with quite a few recently broken small branches. After the moment had passed she looked around to notice she had fallen in some kind of woods, or at least the edge of it. The thing that had brushed against her was nothing more than a bush. Now she truly had no idea where she was, because last she saw there was nothing like this for miles around. How far had she gone before falling from the sky and how?

The forest, if it could still be called that, was twisted and black. The trees, though their tops had beautiful multi-color foliage, where black and misshapen as if some deity had reached down and set the whole thing ablaze with balefire. The underbrush was no better, but unlike the trees there was no foliage to save it from its sinister appearance. Star Shimmer gasped as she noticed a few skeletons huddled together under the tree canopy a fair distance in, and she decided it was probably best not to brave the forest. As she was staring into the forest a part of her rioted at her to turn around, but this was a new sensation to her. She spun around just in time to stop the hoof from striking her in the back of the head and instead to glance off her cheek. The blow still stung and forced her back a few feet as she recovered from it. That part of her which warned her of the first blow kicked in again and taking over. She ducked under a follow up blow and swept around bringing her right wing blade to bear. She brings her wing around to strike her opponent and then realized her instincts were bringing it in for a killing blow. She instead pulls the blow as her blade comes to a stop having already partially slashed through the power armor of what was clearly a Steel Ranger in front of her.

“I don’t want to kill ya, but I will if ya force me. I am just lost trying to figure out where I am”, Star Shimmer’s voice was trying to be forceful but revealed a slight quiver to it. She realized she might have been better off finishing this pony. His power armor was weighed down by twin guns that were reserved for heavy Enclave troops, and a massive gun that looked like it could tear a hole through a Thunderhead Cloudship.

The Steel Ranger’s voice cut through the air seething with hatred, “Die pegasus scum.” He spun away from the wing blade bringing has rear hooves around to buck Star Shimmer. She launched into the air and the battle began.

Author's Note

Chapter updated with some edits to add a little and help smooth some of the rougher lines. I am currently working on chapter 2 after a stupid long hiatus. I am sorry for that I started doubting myself again and every time I went to write scrapped everything I had.