Crysis: The Guardian Prophecy

The next afternoon, inside the cellar of one of Apple family’s barns, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were discussing the arrival. The cellar was lit by a new set of halogen bulbs, and it was fairly tidy.

“He looks kinda cool actually,” Rainbow Dash said, looking at the unconscious monster in the cellar’s lights. “But if he attacked you, he’s seriously bad news.”

“Ahm tellin’ y’all, we need ta take those weapons somewhere else! Keepin’ ‘em in here is just askin’ fer trouble if this guy escapes.”

“Please, not even Pinkie can break out of that stockade,” Twilight said dismissively.

“Actually-” Pinkie Pie objected.

“Ah know that! But mah uncle Husdon always said that ya need ta keep prisoners separated from any weapons in addition ta keepin’ ‘em controlled. It don’t matter if they’re yer friends, a desperate prisoner’ll do anythin’ to escape,” AJ said, ignoring Pinkie.

“What did your uncle Hudson do again?” Rarity asked.

“He was CIA. Oh that reminds me, did I ever tell you ‘bout the time he and his buddy Mason-”

“Applejack, is now the best time?” Twilight asked.

“Okay.” AJ relented.

“Seriously though, we need to tell Princess Celestia about this guy,” Rainbow said.

“Already did that. I had Spike send a letter to her last night. She’ll be here in less than five minutes!” Twilight chirped.

“Huh, Wha-” Applejack gibbered in surprise before regaining her composure. “She’s comin’ that soon? I’da appreciated a little more warnin’ than that!” She was visibly irked at this surprise.

A knock came on the cellar door.

“That must be her!” Twilight said.

She opened the door, and the princess hunched over to enter. Inside the cellar however, there was plenty of room for her to stand up straight.

“Thank you for informing me of this Twilight,” Princess Celestia said. She turned to gaze at the monster. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. All we know about ‘him’ is provided by that book?”

“Most of it, yes. I think it’s a reliable source, considering it was right this time like it was with Nightmare Moon,” Twilight responded

“I see.” The princess remained skeptical of the book; she believed that it was a one-off, just as Spike did. Prophecies were usually only vaguely accurate, and specific information in them tended towards speculation rather than fact.

***

“Wake up, marine!” The voice of Prophet roared into Alcatraz’ ears. Part of the consciousness of the previous wearer of the suit remained within the suit, and would occasionally speak to him, although Alcatraz never knew when it would occur. In this case it was prompted by his incapacitation.

Alcatraz jerked his head up, suddenly awake. He saw seven colorful creatures gazing at him, probably wondering what he was. He recognized Twilight and Fluttershy, but none of the others were familiar to him.

He grunted as he realized he was in a wooden stockade chained to the ceiling. He wasn’t happy to be captured, but since he could easily break out, he opted to humor his captors in order to study them.

“What the hell are you?” Alcatraz asked. His voice had returned recently, but it was slightly electronically distorted by the N2’s helmet.

“You have ponies where you come from, right?” Twilight asked.

“Not technicolor talking ones. And not unicorns or pegasi either. That’s what you are, right?”

“Right, you catch on quick.”

“And the big lady here, what’s she?”

“An alicorn. My name is Princess Celestia, leader of this country, Equestria, which is where you are presently located,” The being began sternly and formally.

“If you’re a princess, wouldn’t this be a principality rather than a country?” Alcatraz asked, toying with his captors.

“Who or what are you?” Celestia asked, ignoring his question.

“My name is Theodore Alcatraz.”

“Why are you here?”

“I’m not here to hurt your people, if that’s what you’re wondering. But I’m not here to give interviews either.”

“Then what are you here to do?” Celestia demanded.

“I’m not here to answer questions.”

“I’m afraid you are now. You will explain your disruptive presence here immediately!” Celestia seemed fairly used to getting her way, and this didn’t lend itself to interrogation.

“I regret to inform you that isn’t going to happen.”

“You’re in no state to make statements like that; you’re on my terms now.” Princess Celestia was visibly irritated now. The ponies in the room looked startled to see her temper flare. Twilight seemed especially surprised.

“I am? I had no idea,” Alcatraz quipped, scratching his head; a testament to the low width of the stockade he was in.
Princess Celestia moved to exit the cellar, and the other ponies followed her.

“Wait! Do you have a magazine I can read or something?” Alcatraz asked jokingly.

The ponies exited the cellar, and locked the door behind them. The lights in the room were still on.

***

“For now I’m placing a magical ward on this door to prevent his escape. I’ll come to take him someplace more secure soon. Until then, his existence must be kept a secret.” Princess Celestia explained.

“Yes ma’am!” The ponies all said together.

Princess Celestia flew off towards her castle, her guards following her.

“Is all this security really necessary?” Fluttershy asked.

“How can you ask that? You saw what he did when we were chasing him!” Twilight retorted, trying to say it gently to avoid hurting Fluttershy’s feelings.

“I’m sorry, but he only did that because he felt threatened.”

“He shot at Twi!” AJ exclaimed.

“Like I said, he felt threatened.”

Twilight relented; it was obvious Fluttershy wanted to see the good in that creature. There wouldn’t be any stopping her there without more evidence that the thing was malicious.

“Wait, what does that mean, ‘Shot at me’?” Twilight asked Applejack.

“Do ya live under a Tom ‘r sumthin’?”

“I thought we agreed not to speak of that again,” Rarity interjected.

“Nopony ever actually said they agreed to that, Rarity. Anyway, that thing in there shot at you with a 9mm pistol! Do ya not know anythin’ about guns?”

“Not very much,” Twilight responded with mild shame. “My parents never let me watch action movies, and were very anti-gun. Plus there were the strict gun laws in Canterlot and the fact that I rarely watched TV or movies at all, and don’t play video games either, and still don’t… It hasn’t come up in the books I’ve read either in anything more than brief mentions.”

“Oh, well uh, lemme explain fahrarms ta ya. I’m kinda an expert on the subject,” AJ said with a grin.

AJ took Twilight off to a shady spot to shelter her from the summer heat, and began to explain the form and function of firearms in exquisite detail. AJ wasn’t exactly fond of the fact that her vast knowledge of firearms expedited the “redneck” stereotype she feared being branded with, but she was still fond of the subject nonetheless.

Meanwhile, everypony else headed to their respective homes. They had no need or wish to remain on Applejack’s farm. Indeed, they all had busy schedules ahead of them.

***
Several hours later, after night fell, Alcatraz began to act. With relatively little effort, he broke the wooden stockade binding him and brushed off the debris. He gathered and loaded his weapons before walking to the exit.

After I get outta here, I should probably try to find Twilight. If I’m anywhere near as good a judge of relationships as I think I am, she’s got ties to the princess, and I should probably apologize to her for my behavior. Considering I’ve already linked to a native GPS network, I can go from general reconnaissance of the region to an active search for Ceph. But I’ll need more resources to do that, and judging from the available information, Celestia could get me that manpower. Or horsepower.

Alcatraz moved to the door exiting to the surface, and destroyed it with a single blow. As he moved to exit the basement, he walked into an invisible barrier. After losing his balance for a split second, Alcatraz placed his hand on where he had encountered the wall; it stopped on an invisible surface.

He pushed against the barrier with significant force, and his hand began to slowly but surely move through it. He withdrew his hand, and activating his suit’s power mode, he delivered a flurry of powerful blows to the force field. After the sixth blow, it ceased to exist, and a golden mist appeared where it had been.

Alcatraz tried exiting again, and though he braced himself for another barrier, he encountered none. He emerged to find a picturesque orchard, stars twinkling overhead. A house was located a few hundred yards from him, and light shone from the windows. He assumed that was the residence of the farm’s owners.

He drew his pistol and attached a suppressor to it, deciding that if he needed to use a weapon he might as well have it suppressed; his Marshall shotgun was still mounted with a suppressor and reflex sight, so he wouldn’t have to worry about that gun either. His SCAR on the other hand couldn’t mount one, so he left it slung on his back.

“Locate Twilight Sparkle: Head to the library”

Alcatraz headed to the waypoint on his heads-up display, more careful about his cloaking and de-cloaking than last time. He didn’t want to be discovered the same way as before.

After an hour or so of careful sneaking, he arrived at her house. The balcony was as he remembered it, and the door to it was open as well. Still cloaked, Alcatraz power jumped and caught a grip on the edge, and quickly pulled himself up onto the balcony proper.

His suit’s charge was sufficiently high that he could remain cloaked for another two minutes if he remained mostly still, or if he moved slowly he could stay cloaked for about forty seconds. He remained cloaked, activated his tactical visor and tagged both occupants of the house; the scan indicated they were both in a fairly deep sleep.

Alcatraz silently entered a side room of the library and waited for morning.

***

“Mmm…”

Twilight Sparkle awoke to the coupled scents of hay pancakes and maple syrup wafting themselves into her nostrils. She loved waking up like that; calmly and to a pleasant feeling.

Spike must be making them for me, or himself, or both of us. I think they can wait a couple more minutes, it’s only- Twilight opened her eyes a little and glanced at the analog clock next to her bed. 6:48 in the morning. Twelve minutes ahead of schedule. I’ll get up in two and still be ten ahead…

“Twilight!” Spike shouted. “Your pancakes are ready!”

She opened her eyes and glanced at the clock; only forty-two and a half seconds had passed.

“Coming!” Twilight shouted back. She got out of bed and spent her usual twenty-one seconds brushing her mane before coming downstairs. After that she trotted to the table and began to eat, adding somewhat copious amounts of syrup onto her flapjacks.

A door opened and a familiar figure stepped out.

“Twilight! I was beginning to wonder whether you’d wake up at all!” Alcatraz said jovially.

“Monster!” Spike yelled, springing into attack mode and clawing madly at Alcatraz’ shins and thighs.

“I’d cut that shit out if I were you,” Alcatraz recommended to the rapidly tiring dragon.

“Spike, I think you should stop. Like right now, before things get out of hoof,” Twilight advised. She had stopped eating her pancakes after she dropped her fork in surprise at Alcatraz’ sudden appearance, and was staring at him blankly.

Spike followed Twilight’s advice.

“Oh man,” He panted, “I need to work out more. Did that even hurt you at all?”

“Nope,” Alcatraz responded.

“Not even a little?”

“Not even a little.”

“Oh,” Spike said disappointedly.

“How did you escape that cellar? Princess Celestia put a magical ward on the exit!”

“I punched it around six times and the ‘magical barrier’ turned into golden dust.” Alcatraz made sure to use the term “Magical barrier” in a mocking tone of voice to show his disdain for such superstition. “Now I’m here to apologize for my previous behavior and request help in my mission.”

“And you expect me to forgive you for shooting at me just like that?” Twilight had learned a lot about firearms in a short time from Applejack, and was going to go shooting with her soon. Now that she was familiar with much of the terminology, she felt she could hold her own in a conversation regarding them.

“Twilight, if I had wanted to kill you, I would’ve killed you and Fluttershy the night before last; I could’ve killed you and your lizard friend in your sleep last night as well.”

“Hey! I’m a baby dragon, not a lizard!” Spike objected.

“Okay, I’ll pretend to buy that; but why the change of heart?” Twilight asked.

“I realized that since I’ve already tapped into this planet’s GPS satellite network, which may or may not belong to your species-”

“It’s ours,” Twilight affirmed.

“Okay. I can’t search for my targets’ whereabouts on my own with no leads. I need more manpower to do that; or in this case horsepower.”

“Alright, tell me what your mission is, and answer my questions and I’ll do what I can.”

“My mission is to scout the region in advance of a United States Marine Corps Expeditionary Force, which will arrive in twelve days. Since there’s already a GPS network here, my workload is reduced to locating any Ceph forces on this planet.”

“What are ‘Ceph’?”

Alcatraz took a seat. He explained in length the Ceph invasion of Manhattan, from the first outbreak of their virus in Manhattan to the near-annihilation Alcatraz inflicted upon them by his suit’s reverse engineering of the virus. He didn’t spare her the details of betrayal, suffering, atrocities and violence that dominated the campaign. He also explained how he got to the current planet. The whole story took two hours fourteen minutes and thirteen seconds according to the stopwatch function in Alcatraz’ suit.

Twilight sat through it all, captivated and horrified by the content of his tale. She seemed to especially dislike the details about the alien spore that caused so much suffering; the cellular degeneration, fungal growths and ultimate liquification of humans. The numerous times he nearly died, including the times his heart stopped beating, and the way his suit kept him alive despite his horrific injuries disturbed her as well. The notion that his suit was symbiotically connected to his body was just as fascinating as it was disturbing.

Twilight began to transcribe Alcatraz’ story for Princess Celestia herself, now confident that she needed to know what was going on. It took her half a dozen scrolls and three hours to do so, but she got it done and had Spike send it to her immediately after she finished the report.

Alcatraz decided not to question the methods of communication she used, deciding that he may as well let ponies continue doing what worked best for them without asking them to explain every odd thing to him. It would be easier for both parties that way.

After Twilight finished and sent the letters on their way to the princess, she finished her now cold pancakes and reviewed her schedule.

“Great, just great!” Twilight chirped sarcastically. “I’ve missed all of my morning studies. But I can still make it to AJ’s farm in time for my first shooting session. Alcatraz, I want you to stay here; don’t leave this building, and if somepony comes to the door you hide, okay?”

Alcatraz stood silent and motionless.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

***

After Twilight left her home, Alcatraz followed her through the streets of Ponyville, cloaked all the while. He managed to get to Sweet Apple Acres just five minutes behind her, and was able to avoid being spotted, or at least not that he knew.

It was a relatively cool, overcast day with no winds; perfect for shooting. Twilight was trying to calm Applejack about the escaped prisoner when Alcatraz arrived.

“Applejack! For the umpteenth time, calm down!”

“How can ah? That thing’s prob’ly out there causin’ all kinds a ruckus! And it’ll prob’ly hurt somepony real soon if we don’t fahnd it an’ stop it!”

Alcatraz decided to mess with Applejack, and walked behind her, de-cloaking and activating his suit’s armor mode just to be safe. His suit’s muscles tightened, increasing in density and multiplying the suit’s already impressive protective properties by a huge amount. This combined with the Ionic Electroactive Polymer Liquid Armor that was active by default made him almost completely impervious to physiological harm as long as his suit had the power to maintain it.

Alcatraz’ suit had also recently created a way to eliminate the blue glow of armor mode and reduce the energy consumed by the function even further than he could with Nano-Modules he’d acquired using nanocatalyst collected from Ceph bodies. This meant he could move more discreetly while in armor mode, but he could still put armor mode into full power during more intense situations, thus emitting the blue glow.

Twilight stopped talking and gaped at Alcatraz, looking past AJ.

“Hey, ahm still talkin’ ta you!” Applejack snapped. She did a double take to see what Twilight was looking at, and froze in fear for a moment before kicking Alcatraz as hard as she could in the stomach with her rear legs.

When she turned around, she expected to find him sprawled on the ground and unconscious. What she found was him still standing there, not even remotely disturbed.

“Wha? How? But I-” AJ babbled.

Alcatraz deactivated armor mode, and spoke to her.

“I heard you were going shooting with Twilight, so I decided to come with her.”

“I told you to stay in my house!” Twilight fumed.

“Yeah, well you didn’t have any good books. That and I wanted to see how well ponies can shoot.”

Applejack, who now grasped that he had no hostile intentions at the moment, took that as a challenge. She led the two to a field a few minutes away, where there were a variety of targets, shaped like ponies and mythical creatures alike, at various ranges. Nearby was a gun case, which she opened to reveal several pistols and rifles. Twilight chose a rifle and AJ instructed her on how to use it properly, before taking a rifle of her own.

Applejack fired three shots in semi-automatic from her Magpony Masada at a pony-shaped target fifty yards away, and all three of the shots hit.

“Beat that!” She challenged him, accompanying her boast with a confident smile.

Alcatraz pulled his SCAR from his back. It had a reflex sight and an underslung gauss attachment on it. He fired a burst of ten rounds into a target of equal size and distance, and all of the bullets hit.

“Done,” Alcatraz responded.

AJ was impressed by his marksmanship, something that didn’t come easily. She’d been shooting all her life, and had a lot of practice under her saddle. She wouldn’t be upstaged by this human, so she fired a shorter burst of automatic fire at a target much further away than the ones previously hit.

The burst connected with the target, creating a tight six-round group. Alcatraz bested her again, but as she put forward new challenges they quickly became tied. Hours later, they finally conceded that they were equals as far as shooting static targets went. Twilight had stopped shooting her targets and begun to watch the two compete after the first tie occurred. The competitive nature the two shared was interesting to watch.

Maybe Rainbow Dash is going to have a three-way rivalry now. Twilight thought with a grin. It’d be interesting to see who’d win in a race on hoof, or in a test of agility or strength.

Alcatraz was shaking AJ’s hoof when he heard a vehicle approaching. He stopped and cloaked, aiming to observe the newcomers. He supplemented his near-invisibility by crouching behind a barrel, and he activated his tactical visor.

The audio enhance function of the tactical mode analyzed the sound, and identified the vehicle it belonged to; in this case it was a grey and white APC emerging from the forest.

CELL.

The armored personnel carrier drove to within twenty yards of AJ and Twilight when it stopped and unloaded the nine white-armored soldiers. Their weapons were a fairly vanilla mixture; a few SCARs, a few SCARABs, some Felines and a Mk. 60 medium machine gun. They had several different sidearms too.

“Fan out! I wanna know where the fuck that gunfire was coming from!” One of the soldiers yelled.

Alcatraz drew his pistol, attached a suppressor, and leapt onto the top of the APC. He began delivering headshots to each and every one of the contractors, and was only decloaked for the last two kills, although he still got them fast enough that he wasn’t even spotted.

“Looks like this investigation… Turned into a bust.” Alcatraz pictured himself putting on sunglasses as he delivered the second half of the line.

Applejack and Twilight stared at him with a mixture of awe, anger, fear and confusion.

“What the buck did ya do that for? Ya just killed ten somethin’s on mah farm!” AJ yelled.

“Yeahhh… CELL and I don’t get along too well. If it makes you feel better, you can have their guns and stuff, although I might need to borrow some of it later. I’ll check this APC for tracking devices, load the bodies into it, dump them in the forest, and park this thing in one of your barns, with the weapons inside. Deal?” Alcatraz proposed.

AJ grunted and gave a brief nod, and Twilight simply continued staring. Alcatraz did as he said he would, and returned to the farm an hour later in the same vehicle. There was a barn with an open pair of doors, and Applejack standing outside of it looking cross. He parked the APC, opened the rear hatch, and crawled out.

“What, no ‘Welcome Back’ cake?” He asked jokingly as he exited.

“Nope, just a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ cake!” Pinkie Pie yelled, appearing from nowhere in a burst of confetti. After it cleared, Alcatraz saw a plethora of party was waiting for him.

“Whoa! What the monkey fuck!? Where’d this shit come from!?”

“My party cannon, silly!”

If Alcatraz’ helmet were removed, the ponies would’ve seen an excellent poker face. Since he didn’t, they probably assumed he had one on anyway. He’d seen enough already between the Internet and the last month or so that he considered himself unable to be surprised.

A cannon that deploys vital party materiel? Seems legit. Especially given the stuff I’ve seen here already.

“Oh-kayyyyy…” He began, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. “So, who’s here, and what’ve you got?”
Alcatraz had figured out how to remove his helmet shortly after the battle for Manhattan, so he could eat whatever they had for him, although he’d scan it first to make sure it was safe. While the Nanosuit 2’s level of symbiotic fusion with his body eliminated his need to eat, drink and sleep altogether, he still ate anyway for the sake of eating.

Additionally, he was under the assumption he could get ridiculously drunk and never have a hangover; considering he’d had a nasty one when his late Force Recon team had first been deployed to Manhattan from drinking too much tequila the preceding night, and that it was gone when he woke up just a few hours later with the N2 on, that was a fairly reasonable explanation.

“We’ve got punch, triple-layer chocolate cake, apple pie, Apple-Pie, if you know what I mean, and some games.” Pinkie answered, with a wink at what seemed to be an ordinary wall and a glance at an oblivious Applejack.

“What kind of games?”

“Pin the tail on the pony and bobbing for apples. Oh, and we’re gonna start with a pie fight!” Pinkie produced a pie tin filled with whipped cream from nothingness and threw it at Applejack. “Booyah! Apple-Pie!”

As Pinkie intended, a pie fight ensued, quickly entangling all of the barn’s occupants. After ten minutes of intense pie-flinging, an uneasy truce prevailed. The players cleaned themselves off and began helping themselves to the food and drink provided.

Alcatraz removed his helmet, revealing a handsome face with a mess of dark hair and a beard. Helping himself to the cake, he took a large slice and sat down. After several helpings, he had gotten bored. Not satisfied with the choice of games currently available, he asked the question he had been putting off since the party started.

“So uh, you got anything to drink besides punch? Something more adult?” He queried, running his hands through his hair.

“Well, ah got some hard cider ah’ve been savin’, and ah wouldn’t mind breakin’ into it. Anypony else up for some?”

The other mares all raised their hooves, happy to take the party to the next level. They all sat down around a table, and began to drink themselves under.

Rainbow Dash was the first to go. She started acting goofy after the first two mugs, and began hitting on every living thing in the room, starting with Alcatraz, who was struggling to hold in laughter at how fast she had gotten drunk. Most of them just laughed her off, although Twilight and Fluttershy were concerned for her well-being and urged her to lie down. Rainbow didn’t, and flew into a wall another two mugs later. Twilight picked Rainbow up with her magic and rested her drooling body on a bale of hay.

Rarity went next, beginning with a slurred rant about some client she’d recently had before she collapsed on the table. Fluttershy began to sing off-key before she stumbled into a wall and fell onto a pile of hay. Twilight taunted her three rivals, asking how many hooves she was holding up.

“One hoof, sill-y!” Pinkie said with a hiccup.

“One halfffff.” Applejack slurred.

“Eleven!” Alcatraz shouted, toying with her.

“Hah! You’re all wrong! I’m holding, uh… One, two, three, four…” Twilight began before she fell backwards. The remaining trio laughed their guts out.

About fifteen minutes later, AJ passed out wordlessly. She fell backwards and began to snore softly, fondling the ground as she did so.

“Juss you ‘n me Alky!” Pinkie said. They drank for another twenty minutes, Pinkie rambling on all the while.

“Y’see, therezz this one special wallll-uh, that we’re always bein’ watched throo. I call it the uh…” She began to count her hooves, getting up to forty-one different hooves before she vomited a rainbow liquid and passed out.

“Woohoo! I win!” Alcatraz shouted to the now-quiet barn. He was extremely drunk at this point, and after making a bed out of loose hay he fell asleep.

***

“Here they are, Princess!” A purple dragon shouted, waking Alcatraz. He was still drunk, oddly enough, and he didn’t have a hangover at all.

When he saw the source of the noise, he stared at it in wide-eyed confusion.

What the fuck? I thought the “purple dragon” was just a colloquialism for heroin usage! Wait, I didn’t do anything last night except get shitfaced right? Right. Booze is all I had. I think. Yeah…

Alcatraz closed his eyes again.

“AWAKEN KNAVE! WHAT HAST THOU DONE TO MY SISTER’S STUDENTS!?”