Outside Canterlot Castle, Concurrent to the Launch of HMS Endeavor
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Canterlot. I’ve only been in this city once or twice in my lifetime, the first when I graduated basic training and the second was for my assignment to the picket. Every time the city had been bright, bustling and alive… Tonight it’s an abandoned wasteland. According to Dawn the city had been evacuated when the city fell under attack, but this doesn’t look like a city under siege.

“No…” I heard the mare draped over my shoulder sob. “No, no, no, no…”

Now I don’t know WHY Dawn sent me for this mind-fuck of a trip, but judging by our brief conversation this mare was important for some reason, and getting her out of Canterlot was the only thing that mattered. Do I know why? No. Do I care? Well, kinda. But for the time being I’ll just have to make due. “Don’t worry, it’ll be alright.” I said, trying to sound reassuring. “Just a little while longer and I’ll have you out of the city.”

“No…” The mare sobbed again.

I just rolled my eyes as I kept up a brisk stride down Main Street towards the city limits. But glancing over my shoulder I saw something that made my heart drop like a stone; There was a seafoam-coated unicorn clad in dark blue and gold robes, along with two of what I would assume to be guards flanking him as he made his way towards us. “Awe shit…” I turned forward and went to pick up the pace, but ahead of me was a griffon and two ponies; a black-furred pegasus and a bone-white unicorn. “Uh… Hi?”

“You must be Lieutenant Spark…” The Griffon observed as his unicorn companion blasted me back onto my ass, sending my charge rolling to the ground as I fell. “I believe that you found a long missing piece of my property… Although she’s looking decidedly smaller than we were led to believe.”

“Faust clearly beat us to the punch.” The seafoam unicorn observed as he finally stood over the two of us. “Although I know for a fact that she never had any designs for naval officer that survived the Last Day on sheer luck alone…”

“Well you can thank Dawn for that.” I spat, noticing a sudden perk of attention from the mare I was ordered to rescue out of the corner of my eye.

“I thought we were here to prevent her from being born…” The pegasi observed. “Just how could she have been the one playing god?”

“You forget that Faust has sequestered herself outside of the regular flow of time.” The apparent leader chided. “She clearly made excellent use of that quirk… It’s now clear that her agent that I’ve had run-ins with over the years is in fact Dawn.”

“What are you talking about?” I heard my companion croak out.

The seafoam unicorn knelt down to get closer to the mare, and with a wicked smirk on his muzzle I could make out a slight chuckle. “Why Ms. Dart, you don’t even know the importance that your child holds, do you? One so young with so much experience, yet so naive… It would be amusing if it wasn’t so pathetic.”

The mare, Dart, looked just as confused as I felt. But after the two of us exchanged glances we wordlessly opted to remain silent. “Lord Euripides? What are your orders?” The other unicorn asked.

“Kill them both.” The stallion said as he got up and started walking away.

I turned over to look up at the trio that now were aiming previously unseen pistols at myself and my companion. But looking at the unicorn, something clicked. His eyes, a rare shade of turquoise. The same shade that my own eyes held. In an instant I remembered where I had seen those eyes once before, on a day that I consider one of the darkest and saddest of my life. “Kovac…” I muttered, just loud enough to be heard.

The unicorn paused, and his companions both offered sideways glances at the stallion. “What did you just say?” He growled.

“Kovac. That’s your name, isn’t it?” I said as I slowly made my way to my feet. “Goddess, what happened to you?”

“Father…” The stallion muttered, clearly making the same connection that I had made. “And here I thought that you had died in Poneva centuries ago.”

“Centuries? You don’t look a day over thirty.” I countered. “How… Goddess, Kovac. What happened? I would’ve never expected to find you in a place like this.”

“I survived!” He spat, suddenly looking very angry. “I took the wasteland for what it was, adapted to its hellscape. And I was rewarded with strength and power that no simple pony like you could have ever imagined!”

Goddess, these are the ravings of a stallion who’s lost his grip on reality… And no matter the clear familiar connection that both of us share my own flesh and blood has me at the end of a gun. In a move that felt fluid and well practiced, I unhooked my revolver from it’s holster and mirrored Kovac’s stance towards his griffon companion. “I’m sorry, but I have a job to do. Son or not I’m not going to die here without a fight.”

“Then it’s a fight you’re gonna have.” Kovac spat as he cocked the hammer back on his pistol. For a few brief moments the street was silent, and all I could hear was the thrumming of my own heart in my ears.

“Polaris, engage!” Somepony out of sight yelled, immediately punctuated by the bursts of rifle fire from somewhere down the street.

The destruction that the gunfire presented was all I needed to help Dart to her feet, and thankfully she was readily moving under her own power this time. The two of us blew past Kovac and made for the open storefront that a small group of soldiers had impressed into use as a firing position. Vaulting over the open streetside counter, I found myself tumbling to a stop at the feet of a tall and darkly armored… Thing. “Uh… What are you supposed to be?”

The creature shook it’s helmeted head. “I thought most of the military was at least familiar with what humans looked like.” He observed

“What? Look, I’m not from around here!” I replied as I pushed myself against the back of the counter. “Some green Alicorn had the brilliant idea of ripping me out of a radioactive hellscape and dropped me in another far less cancerous hellscape!”

“Less cancerous… Wait, are you a wastelander?” The human asked.

I shrugged. “Sure, if that’s what we’re calling it!”

“What did you say your name was again?” Dart asked as she scooted up next to me.

“Lieutenant Spark, Equestrian Royal Navy. First Officer of the patrol picket E-201.” I replied. Out of the corner of my eye though, the mare looked stunned. “Something wrong?”

“You said E-201?” Dart questioned.

I nodded. “Ya, I did.”

“But that means… Aw, fuck it. We don’t have time for this bullshit!” Dart exclaimed.

As the shooting stopped I heard one of the soldiers sigh. “Looks like they didn’t either.”

Getting up, I poked my head over the top of the counter and saw a decidedly empty street. “Where’d they go?”

“Teleported out from the looks of it.” The stallion murmured as he turned to look down at Dart. “What happened to you?”

Dart shook her head as some tears began clouding up her eyes. “I don’t know… I was taking a nap, and when I woke up Spark was trying to wake me up, and she was gone…”

“She? You found out the sex of the baby?” The stallion asked.

“Just this morning.” Dart replied as she wiped her tears away. “And that’s where this gets even more confusing. Those stallions were out to kill her, and Spark knew her name.”

Now it was my turn to look confused again. “Say what now?”

“Dawn, that was the name I picked out for her.” Dart explained. “It can’t be a coincidence that a mare named Dawn is the one who dropped you into this mess.”

“Dart, that seems a bit like a projection to me…” The human observed. “Are you sure about that?”

“Maybe this has something to do with that Faust character that they mentioned?” I offered, thinking back to what felt like a nonsensical statement that Euripides had made.

“Faust… Oh no.” The stallion muttered.

“Comet, what is it?” The human asked.

“If I remember my ancient correctly, Faust was the supposed ‘allmother’. The all-powerful deity that gave birth to both Princesses.” The stallion explained. “There’s just way too many coincidences here for me to be comfortable.”

The human nodded. “Alright, so what do we do?”

“First Home Battalion has a command post set up about a mile and a half outside the city limits.” The stallion explained. “We push for the CP and see if we can get in contact with either Princess. Supposedly this involves their mother, so they might know what to do.”

At that Dart seemed rather invigorated, and decidedly more commanding. “Alright… You heard the stallion. Let’s get moving Polaris!”

Author's Note

Hey, look E-201 fans! Spark is back thanks to some universe-hopping shenanigans! And even though it's like 9:30 at night, we're still good because this still counts as Saturday! Anyway, the next couple of weeks are going to be used to 1) find more proofreaders because 2) I've written a mountain of stuff and it's a war crime to ask the gang to go through all of that alone. I'm a good Striker, not a war criminal... So I'm hoping that we'll be back on the publishing schedule by April 1st.

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-Striker