Halo: Twilight's Dawn

Chapters

Chapter 1: Accidents
Chapter 2: Harvest
Chapter 3: Office of Naval Intelligence
Chapter 4: First Contact
Chapter 6: Core Problem
Chapter 7: Utguard's Last Stand
Chapter 5: Fighting Retreat

Chapter 1: Accidents

Chapter 1: Accidents

Walking down the streets of her home city, Twilight cannot help but smile and breathe deep of the festive feelings and scents that fill the air all throughout Canterlot. All around her ponies walk, run, and frolic through the snowy cobblestone streets of the capital of Equestria, many doing last minute shopping for their friends and family in preparation for the upcoming holiday in a week. Twilight herself had just finished some shopping of her own, a couple of neatly wrapped presents sitting in her saddlebags and hidden by a light bending enchantment to keep certain small dragons from finding them.

Though not all of her shopping had been solely about presents, as much as she wished it could be. Next to the rather book-shaped presents her bags also contain a fair amount of reagents and alchemical supplies, such as specially enchanted chalk and even crystalized dragon scales, the prices of which would likely help the shop she had purchased them from buy a lot of hearth's warming presents themselves, and give the poor pony in the treasury who was responsible for Celestia’s Personal Student’s stipend to have a small heart attack. They would of course complain to the Princess, as her book keepers often did when what they considered negligent spending was done, and Twilight’s teacher would simply smile that warm motherly smile to them, and explain that it was for a task that she herself had put Twilight on. There would be some back and forth, of course, and in the end they’d demand to know what cost so much and if the project was really worth it. She’d likely have to show them the end product, and they’d still grumble but grudgingly accept it.

Turning a corner and onto the main street that runs through the center of Canterlot and straight up to the Castle’s large gate Twilight stops as she spots a large battle in progress, snowballs flying every which way as a platoon of Royal Guards does everything it can to hold its own against the endless hoard of energetic foals on winter break. Chuckling at the sight, but knowing she likely can’t cross without being marked a target -- or worse having to make them pause their game and ruin their fun -- Twilight instead lights her horn and teleports towards the largest group of Royal Guards, which just so happens to have a certain white unicorn wearing the purple armor of the Captain.

“Sir! Mistmane street reports it’s nearly overrun by urchin reinforcements,” a pegasus states quickly as Twilight reappears beside her brother, “and Mane street is losing ground under the assault of the highschool track team.”

“What of Commander Dawn? I sent him to the front a half hour ago,” Shining asks quickly, head ducked low under the roof of his makeshift command center, little miniature models from his favorite wargame sitting in front of him, “He should be bringing reinforcements from the Castle.”

“He was cut off by a group of cape wearing foals with…” the pegasus trails off, coughing, “well, sir, he said a catapult? But there were only three of them, and he’s not sure where they got the siege weaponry.”

“Sounds like the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Twilight interjects with a laugh, “and don’t ask where or how they got a catapult, I’ve tried and ended up with a headache.”

“Twily!” Shining says breathlessly as he turns around and embraces his sister, “Oh, Celestia, am I glad to see you! We’re nearly overrun, I need help!”

“Of course I’ll help, but where’s Cadence?” Twilight asks, causing Shining to sigh and point over towards a local cafe.

“Sipping hot cocoa and awaiting her victorious husband to return to her in glory,” Shining says with a goofy smile.

“Ah, well, then we must make sure we get you back safely and with a victory under your saddle,” Twilight giggles before saluting awkwardly, “where do you need me, Captain?”

“I need you to help push the lines back, and help us hook back up with Dawn,” Shining says as he places a forehoof on her shoulder, “Can you do that, Sergeant Sparkle?”

“Yes-sir,” Twilight says brightly, horn glowing with her magic and lifting up a collection of snowballs, “just tell the others to try and keep up.”

An hour later, and one furious battle in the snowy streets of Canterlot, Twilight opens the front door to the cafe Cadence is in, a ‘seriously injured’ Shining draped across her back with a comical look of pain on his face, snow sticking out from under his armor.

“W-wh-who knew t-they were s-s-so accurate with that c-catapult!” Shining shivers, snow falling from atop his head.

“I warned you, Shiney,” Twilight giggles as she walks over to the table Cadence is sitting at, her old babysitter turned sister-in-law doing her best impression of an amused Celestia from behind her mug of hot cocoa.

“Clearly you did not warn him enough,” Cadence giggles as her magic wraps around her husband and lifts him from Twilight’s back, “but, I know how to cure a wounded soldier of what ails him.” She then proceeds to kiss Shining gently on the lips, then set him down next to the table as she slides a mug of cocoa over, “I take it your battle went poorly?”

“We won,” Shining offers with a dopey grin as he wraps his forehooves around the mug, shivering, “but barely. If not for Twily… well, we’d have been overwhelmed and I fear all you’d get is a folded flag and my frozen body.”

“I didn’t do that much,” Twilight chuckles as she sits down with her own mug, “I just helped you all do what you already knew you needed to do.”

“You led a valiant charge down Mane Street,” Shining smirks, “snowballs flying all around you and took out the hostile artillery position!”

“I just hit Sweetie, Applebloom, and Scootaloo with snowballs,” Twilight chuckles, “nothing special, even if that catapult they found was.”

“Yeah, I’ll need to talk to the watch commander about that, I think it’s one of ours,” Shining frowns, “not sure how they got their hooves on it, though I if the rumors I heard were true, I might need to talk to Rainbow Dash about ‘ariel insertions’.”

“With Scootaloo?” Twilight asks, “I wondered why it looked like she was wearing her helmet painted black with little wings on the side…”

“Yup, honestly I don’t know what those two were thinking,” Shining chuckles as he shakes the last of the snow from his armor. “Anyway, as glad as I am to have your help, Twily, weren’t you busy in the Castle? Something about Princess Celestia asking you to do something?”

“Study these old mirrors that apparently are portals to other worlds,” Twilight replies, her eyes alight with excitement, “I’ve read about them, Star Swirl made a long time ago, and Princess Celestia used to travel through them after her sister was… well… you know.”

“She told me about it,” Cadence says softly, her smile slipping, “Aunt Tia was so lonely, she sought refuge elsewhere. Apparently she made a few friends, a few enemies, and,” Cadence says slowly, her smile returning and becoming conspiratorial, “apparently, a lover.”

“You don’t think….” Shining starts, his smile matching his wife’s.

“No, no, Princess Celestia would never have me reconstruct a spell just so she could go find her long lost lover,” Twilight states with an unamused glare, “plus, Cadence, you find lovers in everything.”

“I don’t find love everywhere,” Cadence scoffs, gesturing with one forehoof.

“Right, and your insistence that I have feelings for a certain Princess?” Twilight deadpans, raising an eyebrow.

“I await the day I am proven right in that observation, even if you are both too stubborn and clueless to realize your feelings,” Cadence smirks.

Doing her best to hide the blush behind her hot cocoa, Twilight mutters something under her breath which causes Shining to laugh and make her blush even more.

“Well, as fun as it is to torment my sister,” Shining smirks and wink to his little sister, “and as much as I am thankful you have returned me safe and sound to my wife, shouldn’t you be getting to the Castle? I saw the reagents in your bag while we were fighting, should get back while they’re fresh.”

“I really should, yes,” Twilight agrees as she finishes her cocoa. She starts to stand, only for a napkin wrapped in Cadence’s magic to float over and wipe her mouth. “Cadence! I’m not a foal anymore!”

“Mhmm, I know,” Cadence giggles.

“Then why are you-” Twilight starts, only to be cut off by the napkin.

“Because you’ve got chocolate all over your face, silly filly,” Cadence says with a smile, “and, because you’ll always be the little filly I babysat, no matter what.”

“No matter what?” Twilight blushes.

“Yup! You’re always going to be a little book-obsessed filly to me,” Cady giggles as she removes the napkin, “There, clean enough to be seen in the Castle now.”

“Thanks,” Twilight coughs, still blushing brightly as she turns and heads for the door. “I’ll talk to you two later, okay? Don’t go getting into any more pitched battles with foals, Shining, I won’t be able to bail you out again until tomorrow when I’m done with my experiment.”

“No promises!” Shining laughs as Twilight reaches the door and exits back out into the cold.

Once outside again, Twilight adjusts her scarf and sighs. The hot cocoa had fortified her a little against the cold, but she knows all too well the warm glow in her stomach won’t last forever. Not to mention, now that the distraction her brother had offered was out of the way, the draw to return to the space set aside for her by her mentor is strong.

Whistling a carol to herself, Twilight steps back into the street and heads to the sanctuary of knowledge that is her own little slice of Canterlot Castle.

The trip is quick, far quicker than it would have been if the battle was still raging in the street, and before long she has made it to the drawbridge. She pauses in her journey only long enough for the guards at the gate to scan her and make sure she’s not a changeling, a precaution taken after her brother’s wedding to Cadence had resulted in what could only be termed an infestation.

Once beyond the large steel bound oak gates, a leftover from a time far in Equestria’s past in which this Castle would have to withstand siege, Twilight makes her way through the festively decorated hallways and towards her personal room in the Celestial Wing of the Residence. She passes many a friend as she walks, greeting them in passing or stopping for a brief moment to inquire after their family or how their day is going. By the time she reaches her suite, which is situated right next door to her mentor -- in fact if her memory on the old castle’s design was correct the room had at one point actually been a part of Celestia’s personal suite -- she is quite ready to get her winter clothing off and make her way back down to her experiments.

Lost in thought as she opens the door, Twilight allows her mind to wander and start calculating the magical forces she’ll need to balance once she’s back in her makeshift lab. Undoing her scarf and kicking her boots off, makes her way deeper into the room discarding the articles of unneeded clothing as she does. By the time she makes it to the time she makes it to the center of the common room of her suite, which is about the same size as the main floor of the library back in Ponyville, she has discarded her jacket and hat across the back of a chair. She grabs some of the notes she’ll need, and turns to leave.

Only to come face first with the business end of a feather duster held in green magic.

“Miss Sparkle, you really should hang your jacket up,” the jade unicorn the magic belongs to giggles as she removes the feather duster and resumes the work she had been doing when Twilight had come in. “What would your mother think, hm? Or Celestia?”

“They’d likely think I need to pay attention,” Twilight offers with an embarrassed blush and a small smile, “Sorry, Jasmine, I wasn’t thinking.”

“No, you were thinking,” Jasmine offers with a smile as she puts her duster to one side and starts working on the bed, “I know you, Miss Sparkle, you are here on a project and that’s all you’re thinking about.”

Twilight blushes and clears her throat, lighting her horn and levitating her winter wear to the nearby coat stand. “I just… Princess Celestia has asked me to study the magic that Star Swirl used to create the mirror portals; she thinks it could aid us in creating more advanced networks for travel between distant places.”

“Oh? Her Majesty is thinking of taking a vacation somewhere?” Jasmine asks with a smile as she tucks the sheets into the mattress and straightens them out with almost military precision.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight says with a shrug, excitedly going back to the table and picking up her notes, “but if Tia is thinking of going on a vacation I think she’s entitled to, she works too hard.”

“What was that, Miss Sparkle?” Jasmine asks, her smile turning mischievous, “I swear I thought I heard you call Her Majesty by a nickname. But surely you wouldn’t do that, unless I am missing something?”

“Nope!” Twilight says quickly, though the traitorous blush still forms on her face. “It was just a slip of the tongue in my excitement.”

“Of course, Miss Sparkle,” Jasmine giggles, “I’ll be sure to remember that next time Her Majesty orders her favorite evening tea while you are sound asleep against her side, tucked lovingly beneath a wing.”

Twilight’s blush continues to spread all the way to the tips of her ears as she blows a raspberry and shakes her head, “No, no, really she’s just showing familial affection, Jas! Honestly.” She then picks up her notes and makes a b-line for the door, “anyway, I am behind schedule, I should go.”

“Don’t forget your saddlebags!” Jasmine chuckles as she levitates the aforementioned item over, which Twilight accepts without further word as she canters quickly from the room.

She keeps the canter up until she reaches the stairs, pausing only to look over her shoulder before sitting down and taking a calming few breaths. Placing a hoof against her chest she breathes in, then slowly exhales as she extends the foreleg the hoof is attached to.

Once her traitorous breathing and heart are under control, the blush in her cheeks fading back to nothing more than a light dusting that can be explained away by the cold she had ventured into earlier, Twilight resumes her walk. Her route to the area set aside for her by the Princesses is not, unlike the walk to her suite, a short one. It takes her deeper and deeper into the castle’s ancient corridors, deep into the places Celestia’s light rarely touches and the staff venture only with great need. By the time the walls become rough cut stone, the air stale and unmoving, Twilight finds herself alone.

All the better, the powers she will be tapping into will be dangerous, violent and very much explosive should her calculations be even a decimal place off. Which meant being down here, deep in the bedrock that makes up the Castle’s foundation, anything Twilight does will be safe from harming others.

Not that her experiment will harm others, two months worth of careful study, and peer-reviewed research told her that her theories were sound.

Reaching the end of her journey, Twilight lights her horn and dispels the illusion over the ancient doors Celestia had shown her to two months ago, the age-worn wood and polished metal engraved with softly glowing runes in a multitude of hues. The magic imbued into the door reacts to hers, brushing against her mind as if a living being had reached out to touch her gently on the head. Recognizing her as someone who is a friend to Celestia, and thus allowed to enter, the door’s magic fades slightly as it returns to its slumber. Smiling gently, Twilight reaches up and pushes against the door, which despite weighing several tons by her estimates, swings open effortlessly and without noise.

Moving inside her magic once more ignites around her horn, and with a congress of soft pops and sizzles the multitude of torches that line the walls wake, their soft glow filling the room with a gentle light perfect for reading or conducting experiments into the nature of reality. The room itself is plain, simply a large circular room with a few doors that lead to a small kitchen, a bedroom, and a private library, the entire place having once been used by Star Swirl and Clover the Clever to conduct experiments on different things at the behest of both Princess Platinum and later Princess Celestia and Luna. Celestia had taken great pains to keep it in the condition it had been when Star Swirl had vanished, and even now Twilight took great pains to keep it thus. The only thing she had changed about it was the addition of a large alchemical star in the center of the room, and two mirrors flanking it at the north and south poles.

The circle was not finished yet, and would not be until Twilight put the things she had bought earlier upon it.

To that end Twilight deposits her saddlebags on the table near the door and quickly draws forth the pouches she had stowed safely within. Moving swiftly to the center of the complex star in the center of the room, she then opens the bag and levitates the crystals she had imported from the North, inspecting them one more time to make sure they were indeed up to her standards. Finding them to be clear and flawless to her eyes, and also structurally sound to her magic, Twilight floats all eight to the different points of the star.

With that done she levitates a few more minor reagents from a few other pouches, as well as some chalk for some last minute touch up on the circle.

All her preparation done, Twilight takes a deep breath and faces the mirror at the northern pole of the star, her reflection warping and twisting into the infinity created by the secondary mirror directly to the south. Steeling herself, she calls forth her magic once more and closes her eyes, channeling all of her mana, and all the mana she had infused into both the mirrors and the star beneath her, into the crystals at the points. The power grows, and grows, gravity increasing and shifting so that Twilight feels as if she is at the bottom of a great chasm or lake, all the water above pressing down upon her as her coat and mane stand on end. The room creaks and groans, the ancient stones protesting the gravitational abuse, while the flames of the torches bend and stretch towards the center of the magical maelstrom Twilight is whipping up.

Opening her eyes, which glow like twin suns from the sheer magical effort she is putting out, Twilight watches the surface of the mirror in front of her ripple and warp. The gilded and bejeweled edges creaking and moaning like a ship caught in a storm. The surface starts to shimmer, and twist, and Twilight smiles as for a brief moment she catches a glimpse of a verdant orchard, the Everfree in the background.

Then, with the sound of tinkling glass, it all goes wrong.

The north-north-east crystal cracks, and panic grips Twilight as the spell starts to violently unravel. Channeling more power, far more than she should touch on any given day, she pours more of her reserves into the spell, seeking not to contain it but to channel it into something else, a teleportation spell perhaps. Her mind quickly races through the calculations, but before she can properly formulate the math required to appear in orchard of Sweet Apple Aches, another crystal cracks, and the spell lashes out, the mirror behind her exploding violently, the shards stopping just before piercing her skin as they are sucked back through the frame to imbed in the wall. As she realizes the spell can no longer be contained, and anywhere she appears will likely suffer the backlash, Twilight tries to think of somewhere, anywhere, she can send it and herself that won’t hurt ponies.

Nowhere comes to mind, she simply channels the spell’s power out, anywhere but there, and prays that wherever she lands no one will be hurt.

The sound of one more crystal shattering fills Twilight’s ears for a brief moment, before it is replaced by the sound of the entire spell imploding and the energy rushing inward.

Then, there is nothing.

High above where Twilight’s spell is collapsing, Celestia sits upon her throne, a benevolent smile on her face as she listens to yet another noble speak on behalf of ‘concerned friends’ in regards to pegasi flying over their houses, or otherwise positioning or moving clouds and or other such ‘birdlike’ activities in the vicinity of those of superior petogree.

It had been a long day, so far, and Celestia was looking forward to the end of day court in a few hours so she could shed her regalia, put on a nice winter coat, and perhaps walk in the gardens with Twilight and talk about her research. Important research, surely, that would potentially shape the future of Equestria, not to mention redefine and rediscover ancient magic that had been thought lost since Star Swirl had vanished. Of course, all of that was perhaps secondary to the true reason Celestia had invited her to spend a few months here in Canterlot, in the Castle and right next door to her. Simply put, Celestia had found herself missing Twilight far more than she had let on. The saving of her sister was important, and was the whole reason she had sent Twilight to ponyville to awaken the dormant powers of the Elements of Harmony. And while she was proud, far more proud than she let anyone else know, of Twilight’s progress and at how many friends she had made, the Solar Monarch found herself… less without the bubbly, enthusiastic, dorky unicorn around.

She is drawn from her reverie when she realizes the noble has stopped speaking, and is looking at her with a mixture of annoyance and fear to speak out that same emotion.

“I’m sorry, Duke Seawall, I will look over your proposal for redefining the height and size of the no fly zones over private property closely,” Celestia offers diplomatically, her motherly mask firmly in place, “suffice to say, though, it will take some time. And I will need to allow my sister to look it over as well.”

“All well and good, Your Majesty,” Seawall replies with a frown, “though I hardly see why your sister has to-”

“She is the ruling monarch along with me,” Celestia states firmly, her tone no less warm, her smile no smaller, yet the room feels all that much warmer. “It is only fair that I ask her opinion.”

“But that will hold the proposal up for weeks, and I dare say I doubt your sister is hardly up to date on the modern day, let alone the laws and po-”

“My choice is final,” Celestia says gently but still firmly, “unless there is anything else I think yo-”

Stopping mid sentence, Celestia narrows her eyes as the fine hairs along the back of her neck suddenly stand up and a familiar sensation, much like when a limb has fallen asleep, dances along her horn. For a moment she can’t quite identify the source, even though she can feel Twilight’s magic as being the cause, but as the feeling grows a feeling of dread forms in her stomach. The feeling is reinforced when, subtly at first but with growing fervor, the stones that make up her dias start to shake, as does the entire castle.

Within seconds, the shaking becomes a full on earthquake as Guards and civilians in the throne room do their best to keep their hooves beneath them, a few going so far as to cling to the pillars and each other for stability. Celestia herself lights her horn and does her best to stabilize the ground, only to meet resistance as a burst of energy seems to explode up from the farthest reaches of the Castle’s basement, up, and outward into the sky. The explosion of energy does not physically damage, but the sheer power behind it causes all the unicorns, and one very large alicorn, to grip their heads in pain as it overwhelms them.

Then it all just stops, leaving Celestia to blink away the few tears that had formed in her eyes. All around her, ponies are getting back to their hooves and looking around fearfully. Yet, for Celestia the fear is more real, more personal as she quickly gets to her hooves.

“Sergeant!” Celestia shouts, just loud enough to be heard but not using her full vocal might, “Day Court is adjourned, see the petitioners out, and take a list of all who still need to be seen, I shall see them in the morrow.” With that she races from the room, her horn still tingling and painful enough that she does not want to risk a teleport with the magic still energizing the air.

Racing through the hallways and past startled and confused staff, Celestia makes her way down, deep into the bowels and ancient corners of her home until she comes to a pair of doors she knows all too well.

Where once they stood proudly in the doorway the large warded doors are now blown inward, the reinforced wood and metal cracked and burned as if a titanic force had struck them from the inside of the room and then pulled them into the interior of their charge. Advancing into the room, Celestia’s heart starts to slow as she beholds the devastation within, from the twisted and melted metal that once held mirror glass, to the shattered and charred crystals and blacked chalk of the ritual circle in the center of the room.

Yet, she can’t give up, Twilight is smart, she wouldn’t be caught in the explosion, she’d have teleported elsewhere…

“Twilight?” Celestia calls, her voice wavering slightly, “Twilight, you seem t-to have made a slight mess of the ritual chamber.”

Silence, and the smell of burnt ozone and charred metal is all that answers Celestia.

“It’s alright, though, I know you worked hard on this for me,” Celestia offers as she advances further, gilded shoes leaving deep hoofprints in the ash, “we can try again later, perhaps after you and I go for a walk. It’ll help you clear your head…”

She moves to the bedroom off-shoot, which is as pristine as it had been earlier in the day but with no Twilight. She then moves to the library, and finds nothing as well.

With short-ranged teleport out of the question now, Celestia summons forth her magic, fighting through the thick miasma of the magical dead-zone now present in the room, and casts a location spell. It takes far longer than Celestia would have liked, heartbeats and long breaths, before it pings back that Twilight is alive. Yet, it doesn’t really come from anywhere, at least not nearby. The ping is weak, faded.

And not coming from Equus.

By the time Luna reaches Celestia, she finds her sitting in the center of the devastation, face turned up towards the ceiling, eyes fixed on the distant sky. On Twilight.

Author's Note

Twilight did a Science!

Seriously, though, I've been sitting on this chapter and story for over a year now, I had wanted to get chapter 2 done before I posted this, and wouldn't you know in a fit of insanity and inspiration, I finished chapter 2 yesterday! I've moved onto writing chapter 3, so that means this gets published now!

Anyway, this story is likely going to be a long one, and if the cover didn't tip you off is a crossover with the Halo Universe. I blame these two, Commander Applejack and LSTS Connor for being amazing authors and inspiring me to write this.

SO who's ready to find out where Twilight faceplants? Find out next time in chapter 2!

Chapter 2: Harvest

Chapter 2: Harvest

Sound returns to Twilight haltingly, the omnipresent ringing in her ears and the numbness of her head causing her senses to teter and roll as she tries to put the ground beneath her hooves. Slowly, she finds her way upright, fighting with all the willpower left in her body against the sensation of swimming that comes after a botched teleport spell.

Taking a few deep breaths once her hooves are firmly planted on the hard-packed earth, Twilight tries to will her senses back into order next, and finding no luck with that focuses on staying standing as bit by bit the rest of her senses return. Her sense of smell comes next as the ringing in her ears lessens, the smell of burnt wood and scorched earth filling her lungs and causing her to cough. The coughing continues, a fact that causes her earlier hot chocolate and her to become reintroduced, causing her senses to swim a little bit more.

Sight, unfortunately, returns next as the ringing in her ears and the numbness of her head slowly abates enough for her to chance a glance around. But once her eyes are open they stay open, as the bright light and stinging sensation cannot force her to look away from the meter of blackened, smoldering earth around her. Nor can it tear her attention away from the fact she’s standing in a crater up to her chest, with an apple orchard beyond the devastation, a few of the trees closest to her entrance aflame.

In a panic, Twilight attempts to light her horn, only for a searing pain to race through her skull, causing her to drop to her haunches and grip her head with a shout. Realizing her magical reserves are not just low but also likely in the dangerous burn out range, Twilight does her best to fight through the pain so she can go get help.

Putting one hoof in front of the other, Twilight grits her teeth and starts moving, stopping only as the last of the ringing fades and she starts to hear voices.

“The explosion came from over here, Sergeant,” one of the voices says, causing Twilight’s ears to perk up and forward. Guards? That’s good, that means she hopefully didn’t go too far.

“Don’t let your guard down, men,” a grumpy male voice replies, “don’t know about you, but a training operation is a perfect target for damned Rebels.”

Rebels? There were no rebel forces in Equestria… so she can’t be in Equestria!

Panic gripping her heart, Twilight stumbles towards a tree, her horn sparking as she tries to cast an invisibility spell, her only reward being sharp pain through her whole head. She strifles a whimper and crawls into the hollow at the base of the tree, doing her best to look small and beyond notice as she runs through all the nations that might possibly have rebel forces near Equestria.

The Griffon Empire was one, of course, but they were hardly all that good at agriculture, and the brief look she got of the orchard screamed that someone on Applejack’s level of skill tended the grove, perhaps the Zebra Nations? No… no, the air was too humid to be there. Not dragons, too, the voices weren’t gravely enough.

“Holy shit, sarge, what kind of bomb did this?” another voice asks, this one female.

“The kind that explodes,” the gruff voice replies.

Minotaurs, perhaps? She’d heard something about them being good farmers, and they had rebellions every once and awhile.

“Do you taste copper?” another voice asks.

“Everyone back up! Masks on!” The gruff sergeant’s voice barks, and Twilight can hear what sounds like a rush of hooves, or whatever these creatures have, as the group rapidly backs up. “Corporal, what’s the dosimeter saying?”

“Three point six?” the female voice replies.

“Mmmm, not great but not terrible,” the Sergeant says, “we’ll need showers when we get back. Before we do, though, fan out. Make sure there’s nothing else hiding around here waiting to go off.”

A chorus of ‘yes sir,’ follows and Twilight hears something coming closer. Closing her eyes she pushes back against the tree she is hiding behind, her horn sparking again as she once more attempts to instinctually cast an invisibility spell. The resulting pain causes her to yelp, and then cover her mouth with her hooves as the sound of whatever creatures are approaching her stops.

Something clicks nearby, and the sounds of soft impacts against the charred earth and grass come closer, causing Twilight to curl her tail around herself, desperately lighting her horn again as she fights through the pain as her magical aura wraps around a nearby fallen branch in preparation to defend herself. However, when the thing comes around the corner all she can do is stare with wide eyes.

“Oh, shit, it’s just a little horse,” the creature says, its voice coming from behind a mask with a clear face plate and a large black thing covering the lower part of the face with two large bulges on it. The creature’s voice is female, though, and as Twilight stares she slowly lowers a black object she had been aiming at Twilight, another click issuing out as she looks around the tree. “Sarge! You’re not going to believe this, but someone dyed a little horse purple and stuck a horn on it!”

The female backs up a little, and Twilight is able to lower her eyes to the rest of the creature, taking note of what looks to be a full suit of armor as well as a belt with cylindrical objects and a few pouches. The creature grips whatever the object she had been pointing at Twilight with claw-like digits, not terribly dissimilar to those of a minotaur or a griffon, just without the claws of a griffon.

The first creature is shortly thereafter joined by five others, one of them not wearing the armor the others are, and unlike the others has dark brown skin. The sergeant’s stripes on his hat, though, mark him as the one they were all deferring to.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” the sergeant grunts, “it really is a little painted horse with a damn horn on its head.”

“Pony,” Twilight says softly, causing six pairs of eyes to snap to her, and more of the object from before being pointed at her with a series of clicks as various buttons or levers were pulled back on the objects. Twilight puts her forehooves up in front of her face, instinct causing fear to spike up. They’re clearly soldiers, and those objects must be weapons.

“Sir?” one of the others says, this one male, says after a few moments.

“Yes, private?” the sergeant replies.

“The horse talked, right?”

“It did indeed,”

“She,” Twilight offers softly, still cowering. “I-I’m a mare.”

“Mhmm, and you’re speaking English,” the sergeant states, “any explanation for that, miss mare?”

“N-no… no I don’t,” Twilight offers, “I’m not even sure where I am? One moment I was back in the Castle in Canterlot, and then my spell failed and I… I don’t know what happened?”

“Well, from the state of this orchard, I’d say you blew up,” the sergeant replies as he lowers his weapon, “still, you’re not attacking us, and you don’t seem hostile.”

“Uh, sir, what about first contact protocols?” the female asks.

“What about them?” the sergeant asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Well… uh, you know like in the serials? Shouldn’t we… I don’t know, take her in for study o-or I don’t know, contact the Captain?”

“Of course we’re going to take her in and talk to the Captain,” the sergeant barks, “gotta figure out how she got here, and why she exploded!”

“I told you, my spell went wrong,” Twilight offers with a frown, lowering her forelegs back to the ground.

“Spell, like magic?”

“I think one of the crystals I was using to channel the magical energy I had stored in the mi-” Twilight starts.

“Crystals, of course, clearly that’s how magic works, that’s really a horse of a different color,” the sergeant grouses, causing Twilight’s ears to flatten.

“You don’t have to be sarcastic at me,” Twilight says softly.

“Yeah, Sarge, she doesn’t seem like a threat, and she seems scared, should be nice to her,” the female soldier says.

“Did I ask your opinion, Corporal Rosewood?” the sergeant growls, turning to the female with a glare.

“No, sir,” Rosewood replies.

“Then keep your mouth shut,”

“Well, sir, what do we do now?” One of the other soldiers asks, looking around, “we can’t stay here, the explosion will have attracted attention.”

Grunting, the Sergeant taps an ear -- or at least Twilight assumes it’s an ear it’s a bit small -- and speaks.

“Healy! This is Johnson, we’re coming back to base,” Johnson barks, then frowns as he hears something in reply, “of course it has something to do with that explosion! We think we found a source, and we’ve got a friend for you to look at. Yes, yes, I bet Mack is curious as to what tore a hole in the middle of this orchard. He can peek in too if it’ll get him to stop bugging me.”

As he stands there arguing, Twilight blinks and slowly lowers her forelegs, wincing as she realizes just how sore she is from the botched experiment. Her wince draws the attention of the Corporal, who lowers her weapon and gets closer, kneeling down so she’s at eye level.

“You okay there, little pony?” Rosewood says.

“Twilight,” Twilight says softly, “my name’s Twilight… and no, I’m not alright.”

“Natalie, and anything I can help with? I grew up around horses on my family’s farm. I might be able to help?”

Twilight shakes her head, then groans, “No… no I’m fine, except the pounding headache and feeling like I’ve been tossed through a tumble dryer…”

“Considering the damage you did to the orchard I’m surprised you’re still able to… well talk? I mean, horses around her don’t talk, so…” Natalie offers gently, “Still, when we get you back I’m sure the doc will look you over and make sure you’re okay.”

“Hopefully he knows what he’s doing,”

“Oh, Healy is one of the best, don’t you worry,” Natalie winks as she stands up, “Uh, you can walk? It’s a long way, I’m sure one of us can carry you though?”

“I’m not sure I can go too far feeling like this,” Twilight starts, “but…”

“But nothing,” the sergeant interrupts, “and none of us will be walking, Command is sending a pelican our way. We’re riding home.” He then looks to the others, “Till then, spread out, take pictures of the damage with your helmet’s.”

At this the others spread out and start surveying the damage, some of them with little instruments and others simply tapping their helmets every once and awhile. Natalie sticks close, though, along with the Sergeant who both keep looking at Twilight every so often. Twilight, for her part, sits there focusing on breathing and not panicking. A task made all the more difficult as the realization of just how far from home she likely is sets in.

“Hey, what’s this?” One of the soldiers asks, causing Twilight to look around her tree towards the large creator her arrival made. “Looks like saddle bags?”

“They are,” Twilight says as she stands up, grunts when her body rebels and the world swims a little, “they’re mine… please don’t open them, the reagents inside might be unstable from the accident.”

The trooper holding it, a male if Twilight’s cursory observational hypothesis on gender dimorphism in the species before her is right, makes to drop the bag and forces Twilight to light her horn and fight through the headache to catch the bags and lightly set them down. The casual, or at least hopefully what looked casual, feat of magic causes the others to stare at Twilight as she pants and makes her wobbly way over to the bags.

Reaching her bags, Twilight sits down with a soft sigh and noses them open to see what the damage is. Luckily, nothing explodes in her face, not that she wouldn’t perhaps welcome it at this point so the omnipresent pain of her horn wanting to break off would be quiet. In the absence of a blessed release from the pain, Twilight instead finds the inside of her bags mostly intact, with the spare crystals she had procured all shattered into a fine dust save one.

Digging a little deeper, Twilight sighs softly as she pulls an old photo out of the bag, along with some feathers.

“And who do we have here?” Natalie asks as she comes up behind Twilight, the soldier who had dropped Twilight’s bags coming over to look as well. “That’s a pretty big pony, heck, she looks like she’d put some of my larger stallions to shame.”

“It’s Princess Celestia,” Twilight offers, looking at the photo with a gentle smile. She runs the fetlock of a hoof along it, “She’s my mentor, and the co-ruler of Equestria.”

“Princess, eh? That makes you, what, royalty by association?” Natalie asks, looking closer at the picture and the feathers, “and what’s up with you having some of her feathers? It mean something?”

“Well, no, I mean,” Twilight stammers, “my family is minor nobility already. Mom got knighted for services rendered she won’t talk about, and dad got inducted into the Order of the Stars after Luna, Celestia’s sister, came back…”

“Knights, eh?” Natalie chuckles, “that’s actually pretty coo-”

“And my brother married Celestia’s niece, Princess Cadence,” Twilight continues, putting the picture back in her bag.

“Oh, so you’re…?” the male soldier behind them says slowly.

“I’m not anything, just a scholar,” Twilight offers with a smile.

“Right, and I’m the tooth fairy,” the male soldier offers with a frown.

“Yeah, well how is that tooth collection coming, Red?” Natalie smirks.

“Quite well, gained a few more a-” Red starts, his voice making his smirk clear, only to stop when Sergeant comes over and puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Private, if I wanted to hear what you and your fuck buddies do while drunk, I’d ask,” he growls before looking to Twilight, “alright, Miss Sparky, pack your bags our transport arrives in T-Minus right now.”

The sound of a loud roar starts even before he finishes talking, and Twilight puts the feathers she had been holding in her magic back into the bag as she huddles down and against Natalie, ears back against her head in fear.

“What the hay is that!?” Twilight shouts over the roar, eyes wide as she scans the area.

“Pelican, brass is really pulling out all the stops!” Natalie shouts back.

“THAT IS NOT A BIRD!” Twilight shouts as she puts her hooves over her ears to try and quiet out the roar of whatever it is, though likely a dragon from just how loud it is and how long it has been roaring. Something suddenly goes over her head, and Twilight cringes until she realizes the sound has grown less, and she opens her eyes to find she is wearing a helmet of some kind.

Looking up and putting a hoof on the helmet so it won’t slip, she finds Natalie kneeling above her protectively, and when the human notices her looking up she winks from behind her mask. Natalie then nods towards something, and when Twilight looks over she finds a large machine hovering nearby as large struts extend from the bottom.

The ‘Pelican’ lands quickly after that, and the roar dies down as a large ramp lowers from the back of it, allowing a team of what look to be more humans wearing large camouflage patterned suits with tanks attached to get off and rush forward. They quickly encircle the group Twilight is with, and one of them -- clearly an officer from the salute he gets from Johnson -- says something to the sergeant and points to the roaring vehicle, then at Twilight who shrinks down a little beneath Natalie.

“Right, we’re going back to base,” Johnson’s voice comes over what is clearly a radio in the helmet, “and escorting our purple pony friend to the Commander.”

Twilight looks up to Natalie with a frown, hoof still atop the borrowed helmet, as the militia around her start heading towards the strange craft. The human simply smiles and nods towards the pelican with a shrug. The gesture inspires some comfort in Twilight, but with so many unknowns her mind is already running full speed through all the potential possibilities and outcomes, and there was a nine in ten chance she was walking into a situation where she’d end up in some laboratory as a research curiosity. Of course, so long as they don’t dissect her that isn’t too bad, right? She’d get to learn about this strange world’s sciences, and perhaps if she ever went back to Equestria she could bring it with her?

Her hooves hitting the metal deck of the ramp jars her back out of her own mind, causing Twilight to blink and look around. She had started forward with the others, but had gotten so wrapped up in her own thoughts on what was going on that she hadn’t been paying attention. Now that she is here, at the bottom of the ramp, she finds herself hesitant, even scared, to step forward. What if they did dissect her? What if they hurt her? What if she never got to go home?!

Sensing she doesn't have much of a choice, surrounded by soldiers as she is, Twilight steels herself and ascends the ramp to find an open space with chairs lining the walls. Quickly moving towards the chair directly beside Natalie, Twilight takes a moment to strap herself in with a combination of her vastly depleted magic and her hooves. The position is uncomfortable, as she is sitting with her back against the padded backrest instead of laying down, and also earns a few raised eyebrows and whispers from the other soldiers in the craft.

Before she can really dwell on the odd looks, there is the sudden feeling of gravity increasing, followed by up and forward momentum as the entire craft shakes and roars. Looking to the side, she sees the ground rapidly falling away, causing her already abused stomach and head to spin as a fresh wave of vertigo makes itself known, and she is forced to close her eyes and grip the straps holding herself in tightly.

The feeling of being touched causes Twilight to jump slightly, and open one eye to look over at the form of Natalie gently resting a clawed appendage on her shoulder with a reassuring look.

The rest of the flight is blessedly quick, and Twilight sends a silent prayer to Sun and Moon that she’ll never have to fly in one of these metal contraptions again.

As they land, Twilight once more looks out of the back of the craft, the sight of a large field filled with the same kind of craft as well as what look to be wheeled vehicles of some sort bringing her to the conclusion they’re in some sort of military carriage pool. The troops that came with the pelican quickly disembark and move off to one side as Johnson’s soldiers all rise from their seats and wait, with Twilight slowly removing her own seating straps as her unease increases.

“What are you waiting for?” Twilight asks softly as the engines die down.

“That pretty lightshow you put on caused radiation sensors to spike, we need to be decontaminated,” the Sergeant replies gruffly, clearly not looking forward to whatever has to be done.

“Radiation? Magical Radiation shouldn’t be harmful to you,” Twilight replies with a frown.

“Can’t take that chance,” Johnson states in a tone that brooks no argument, “you’re going to go through it too, so try not to kick or bite anyone.”

Before anything more can be said there is a whistle from outside the craft, followed by a voice, “Alright everyone, you know the drill! Off the craft so we can wash her down!”

The group starts forward, with a very hesitant Twilight in the middle of them.

Beyond the ramp of the pelican Twilight finds a large group of creatures dressed similar to the ones that had come to get them, with the latter being hosed down with what looked like a combination of long-necked hoses and brushes covered in some sort of soap. Twilight’s group is led down a hastily constructed corridor of rubbery looking sheets that fully encloses them, and towards a tent, the heavy flap of which seems to be constructed out of multiple pieces of an opaque hard substance.

Once inside the tent-like structure, the majority of Twilight’s group is led into their own partitioned off cubicles, creatures with instruments swarming around them and muttering under their breaths and through their masks as they take readings. Twilight herself is reluctantly led into a cubicle where she finds a raised basen with a drain and tall showerhead, an attendant standing beside it with what Twilight can only describe as a push broom and an unmarked bottle of brown looking liquid.

“What do you need me to do?” Twilight asks, looking up at the masked face of the creature with her.

“Step into the basin and I’ll start the shower,” he, for the voice is clearly male, states calmly.

Doing so, Twilight stands stiffly upon the cold and slightly damp material and looks straight ahead. After a few moments the water is turned on, causing Twilight to jump slightly, then relax a little when it warms up.

“Alright, so in the interest of… well, explaining all this, I’m going to be applying some of this soap, which is made out of a combination of iodine and liquid soap, to this brush so we can scrub whatever radiological contamination you may have on you.”

“Is it going to hurt?” Twilight asks simply, looking up at the soldier.

“It won’t be pleasant,” he admits.

Taking a deep breath, Twilight nods and looks straight ahead again.

The following few minutes are very unpleasant, and Twilight has to take the brush from the soldier a few times so she can scrub some of her more sensitive areas while he turns around and allows her what little privacy he can. Once she is done, the attendant offers her the showerhead, which detaches from the pole above her, and lets her rinse herself off until all the soap has been washed down the drain.

She is then offered a rough towel and led back out of the tent and loaded into the enclosed back of a large wheeled vehicle along with the rest of the group she came with. The vehicle starts forward with a rumble, and Twilight sits in silence along with the others as they are taken to Celestia-knows-where.

After the first ten minutes, despite how anxious she is, the fatigue from her spellcasting, as well as all the stress, catches up with her and she curls up against Natalie’s side with her head resting in the creature’s lap.

After what feels like only moments Twilight is gently shaken awake by one of her companions, and opens her eyes to look up at the bleary face of the creature she had been resting on.

“We’re here, time to get out and let's see if the Doc can’t clear you so we can take these masks off, hm?”

Yawning and stretching, an action that causes Twilight to yelp softly as her body protests, Twilight gingerly makes her way off the bench and out of the vehicle to find herself in another one of those makeshift corridors. She takes a moment to look around, and find that she is alone with Natalie, the rest of the group being conspicuously absent.

“Where are the others?” Twilight asks, looking at her companion, who is now dressed in a pair of short lower coverings and a white upper covering with short sleeves.

“They went ahead of us,” Natalie replies as she gestures for them to start walking down the corridor, “I volunteered to stay behind because I grew up on a horse ranch and can help the Doc assess you. Plus, it’s regulations that a female has to be present for any uh, inspections of a female.”

Twilight blushes a little and tucks her tail between her hind legs at that last comment, frowning. “How invasive is this going to be?”

“Shouldn’t be too bad,” Natalie shrugs, “I think the doc will draw blood, we’ll look at your teeth and hooves, take some x-rays. Standard stuff, really.”

“That doesn’t sound that bad,” Twilight says with a small smile, “just a checkup?”

“Yup! And if you don’t have any weird alien diseases I’m sure we can talk the Captain or the Commander to let you out into the general population,” Natalie replies with a wink from behind her mask.

At this the two come to a pair of glass double doors, which Natalie goes to and opens and gestures for Twilight to enter. Quickly doing so, Twilight finds herself in a hallway lined with more of the material from outside, with a sharp turn at the end of the hallway and a door with a red cross open.

Knowing full well what a red cross means, Twilight canters down the hallway at a good pace and then turns to enter the medical office.

Inside Twilight finds a creature like the others looking at a clipboard. Unlike the others, though, he’s wearing of all things a haywian shirt under a lab coat, another pair of the short lower coverings, and some sort of strange paw coverings that barely do anything other than provide soft padding under his lower extremities. His mane is also shaggy and unkempt and he seems to be humming something off-key under the mask he is wearing.

He, however, doesn’t catch Twilight’s attention for long, as nearby is another creature on a pedestal. This one is wearing a hat like Applejack’s and a long coat with boots. He’s also tiny and see-through, like some sort of illusion magic.

“Look, Doc, I just don’t know what to tell you,” the illusion says, causing Twilight’s ears to perk forward as he sounds a lot like AJ’s accent too. “All the Captain said was the alien that blew up that orchard was a tiny horse.”

“I swear, if Johnson took this time to suddenly develop a sense of humor I’m going to be out a lot of money in the betting pool, Mac,” the doctor says without looking up from his clipboard. “And I really don’t want to buy Jenkins a full case of whiskey.”

Clearing her throat, Twilight steps forward, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but are you the doctor I’m supposed to talk to.”

Both the illusion and the doctor look to Twilight and flinch. The illusion recovers from his shock quicker than the doctor though, as he laughs.

“Oh, sweet tin stars! Doc, ain’t that the cutest little horse ya’ever did see?”

“Nope, this is obviously a prank,” The medic replies before walking to the door, his strange lower appendage coverings slapping with each step, “Rosewood! Are you throwing your voice for this thing or do I have to check it for speakers!”

“No need to shout, Healy,” Natalie chuckles as she walks in the door, “and no, I’m not throwing my voice, I can’t do that, let alone do so from inside a gas mask.”

“I will not believe this is an alien,” Healy replies, gesturing to Twilight with his clipboard, “she’s adorable, and small! I’ve seen dogs bigger than her!”

While the two debate, Twilight wanders into the room and finds her way onto a low cot, sighing softly as she rests her still sore body and head. Resting her chin atop her folded forelegs, she starts to close her eyes again despite the need to be attentive in this unfamiliar environment, when the illusionary creature suddenly appears at her bedside.

“Hey there little mare, y’alright?” he asks, tipping his hat backwards as he sits on what Twilight assumes is a projection device.

“Tired, expended a lot of energy,” Twilight says softly, yawning, “could use a nap.”

“Just’a nap?” the illusions asks, raising an eyebrow.

Twilight opens her mouth to say that, yes she just needs a nap, when her stomach rumbles loudly and she blushes.

“A snack, too, perhaps,” Twilight coughs, only for her stomach to rumble more, “or well, it’d be about dinner time right now back home I suspect.”

“Well, my little equine friend, why don’t I separate the good Doc over there from the private, and we’ll see ‘bout gettin’ you that food, hmm?” The illusion offers before smirking and looking towards the door.

For a moment, Twilight is confused as to what he expects to do from all the way over here, but then the lights start blinking and the door opens and closes a few times, causing the doctor to groan and turn around.

“Okay, okay I get it I need to play along with the joke or Sergeant Major Killjoy is going to come in here with his cigars and glare at me,” Healy grumbles as he comes over to Twilight’s cot. “Well, lets get this farce over with, Rosewood get your butt over here.”

Twilight is soon joined by the private, who stands at her bedside while the doctor stands in front of her with his clipboard raised as he looks to Twilight.

“Name?”

“Twilight Sparkle,”

“Right, okay, uhm, ‘race’ I guess?”

“Pony, Unicorn specifically,”

“Date of Birth?”

“Nine-Hundred-Seventy-Nine, in our year of Celestia’s Reign,”

“How old does that make you?”

“Twenty-One,”

“Occupation?”

“Personal Student of her Majesty, Princess Celestia Everfree,”

“Okay, uhm, that’s… mmm, would that make you a foreign dignitary?” Healy asks, lowering his clipboard.

“I don’t know? Princess Celestia just teaches me about magic and I write letters to her eve-” Twilight pauses, her eyes going wide, “Oh no, I can’t send her reports on my progress! I wouldn’t even know how to-” Twilight’s panic is quickly cut off by a gentle touch on her side, causing her to flinch and look up at the masked form of Private Rosewood next to her.

“It’s okay, Twilight, we’ll figure out how to get word home for you, don’t worry,”

“Don’t jump to conclusions, Rosewood,” Healy states, the frown evident in his voice.

“With all due respect, Private First Class, she’s not hostile, I’d want to know she’s alright if I was her friends, family, and monarch.”

“Not our call,” Healy offers, then looks to Twilight who has her ears lowered and tail wrapped around herself, “I hope you understand, we can’t just… well there’s protocols and… why am I telling you this? I’m still not convinced you’re not a prank.”

“Shall we move on, Doc? Got Comannder al-Cygni demanding to know when we can clear the alien,” Mac says from the table.

“Right right, no time for fun in the military,” Healy sighs, “any family medical history or diagnosed conditions?”

“Uhm, none of my family suffers from anything major, though I uhm, I have bouts of anxiety and manic behavior with obsessive tendencies?”

“Right, well, this next one is really important, and I cannot stress how important it is,” Healy says, looking a suddenly very nervous Twilight in the eyes. “Have you, in the past month, traveled off-world?”

For a moment Twilight just stares at him, then snorts, “Are you serious?”

“Yup, gotta know, super important medically,” Healy chuckles.

“Well, the answer is yes, I have,” Twilight says rolling her eyes.

“Thank you for your honesty, Miss. Now, next of kin?”

“My parents, Nightlight and Twilight Velvet,” Twilight offers, “Uhm, and my brother and sister in law, Shining Armor and Cadence.” Twilight then pauses and lowers her ears, “Well, okay, Cadence isn’t actually her name. She doesn’t really like using her real name but this is an official document so… my sister in law is Princesss Mi Amore Cadenza…”

“Ah. Well, I’ll be sure to make note that you are, in fact, very much a foreign dignitary, lest we accidentally dissect you and make your teacher and sister in law angry,” Healy deadpans.

“Are those all the questions?” Twilight asks.

“Well, I do have one more, and this one is really important,”

“What is it?”

“Well, you’re clearly a smart practical joke, right? So, do you know what Trypanophobia is?” Healy asks, causing Twilight to blink.

“That’s the fear of needles, isn’t it? I read about it in a medical textbook when I was learning how to calm Spike, he’s my dragon assistant, down when he had to go in for a checkup,” Twilight starts, entering lecture mode as she starts talking about what she had learned.

As she does, Healy stands up and goes over to a cabinet to pull out a few items, nodding along and replying to Twilight’s comments about the treatment of the phobia, and when he returns he’s got Twilight so engaged in talking about the topic that she only pauses when she realizes he’s put on a tourniquet and inserted an IV into one of her forelegs to draw blood. Twilight stares at it for a moment, then looks up at the medic.

“What? You think you’re the only patient that I have that suffers from anxiety, and is really far away from home for the first time?” Healy asks, raising an eyebrow.

“You got me talking to distract me from what you were doing,” Twilight says slowly, “and mitigated my anxiety by getting me to talk…”

“Like I said, not my first rodeo, pun intended,” Healy chuckles.

After the blood is drawn, Twilight is subjected to a battery of other tests from a series of x-rays, a dental exam, and a physical performed by Natalie and Mac since Healy had no idea how to make sure a horse or pony was healthy.

All of it ending with Healy taking off his mask to show off the remnants of a hastily shaven beard and a smile.

“Okay, well, results are in and you are not carrying a deadly pathogen that will kill off all life on this planet as we know it,” Healy offers nodding to Natalie who takes off her own mask. “That said, I am now going to have to reluctantly admit I was wrong, you are in fact some sort of alien horse creature, that convergent biology exists, and apparently horses exist elsewhere in the galaxy.”

“So, now what?” Twilight asks.

“Now, we get you some food, whatever the heck you actually eat,” Healy says, “and then I suspect we’ll see what the Commander has to say and go from there.”

“Well, you heard the doctor, let's go find you something to eat,” Natalie says with a smile as she rises from the cot next to Twilight, extending a steadying appendage when Twilight nearly falls over when she rises. “Woah, careful there, blood draw and your hunger are nasty things. Don’t rush it.”

Offering a thankful smile, Twilight starts for the door slowly, hopeful to find some more food. And possibly more friends.

Author's Note

Harvest, such a peaceful planet, I'm sure nothing could ever go wrong here! Right?

Right....?

Chapter 3: Office of Naval Intelligence

Chapter 3: Office of Naval Intelligence

Sitting at a table in the barracks Natalie’s squad lived in, three things were apparent to Twilight; The creature she was sitting across from while she ate a salad was a Human. Two, she was sitting on a planet in a vast empire of Humans who were vastly more advanced than Equestria. And three, Lyra was right and Twilight was never going to live this down.

“So, let me get this straight,” Twilight says after swallowing a mouthful of cool lettuce, “you’re all a part of this United Earth Government, Earth being your home planet?”

“Yup,” Natalie agrees with a smile and a nod, “we spread out from our home planet after resources started getting a bit low. A few billion humans tends to make living space and food tight, you know?”

“A few billion… would yeah that would make it hard,” Twilight says slowly, “I don’t think we have anywhere near that many creatures on Equus. But then, it’s hard to really get an accurate census, not all nations are peaceful.”

“I thought you said your home was peaceful,”

“It is, to a degree,” Twilight sighs, “Princess Celestia worked hard over the past thousand or so years to make Equestria look like a poor target. Making other nations less willing to attack us because we offered them goods and resources they don’t readily have or can easily make.”

“What about force? You said your brother was a Captain in her Royal Guard?”

“The Captain, or he was, it’s more of an emeritus title now,” Twilight admits, “considering his current title and rank supersede it.”

“Right, uh, what was that again?” Natalie asks, smiling a little as Twilight sighs.

“His Imperial Highness, Prince Consort Shining Armor, of the Crystal Empire,” Twilight groans, “and no, that doesn’t make me anything more than a scholar and a friend of Princess Celestia.”

“Mhm,” Natalie hums, crossing her arms, “right. Anyway, humanity is somewhat peaceful, but as you might’ve picked up not totally? Some of the farther out planets decided they didn’t like their hard earned money going back to a planet they’d never seen or set foot on, and decided the best way to make the UEG and CAA stop taxing them was to point guns at them.”

“If not for the fact you are humans, I would swear you were Griffons for how warlike you are. We’ve only had one rebellion in the entire history of Equestria, and that was caused by Celestia’s sister getting possessed by a creature of dark magic,”

“Honestly, a lot of us don’t understand it,” Natalie shrugs, “when left to our own devices, outside of an overarching thing we find unfair, most humans act more like you describe ponies. We mind our own business, and live our lives.”

“And then someone comes along and stirs up trouble, and gets the herd mentality going?”

“Yup, that’s about right.”

Twilight goes quiet for a bit, eating her lunch while she processes the information she’d learned from her new human friend. This planet, Harvest as she had heard it called, was peaceful enough but the rest of the human empire? Clearly there was something going on, if civilians were being trained as soldiers on a planet meant to be full of farms and peaceful orchards.

The idea of space travel excited Twilight though, the vast expanse of space and the new fields of science and exploration it opened. Perhaps, when she gets home, she’ll have to look into getting something similar done for Equus? Natalie had said that Earth had become much more peaceful when space travel had become available to the vast majority.

As she finishes, Twilight looks over to Natalie again.

“So, you and the others are training under Johnson because local shipping has been attacked by these insurrectionists?”

“Pretty much, the local government is afraid we’ll get raided or something, and we need to be able to fight back. Perhaps even go up there on one of our few freighters and keep it safe,” Natalie replies, shrugging. “Personally, I’m getting this training because I want to protect my family’s farm. My parents and wife are too important to me.”

“That makes sense, I trained a little under my brother after… well after his wedding got attacked by a race of creatures that could shapeshift.”

“See, a race of shapeshifting creatures sounds properly alien to me. But you know a little bit about your home’s military doctrine, I bet if you ask nicely Johnson might let you sit in the classroom and listen to him lecture.”

Twilight’s ears swivel forward, “He actually lectures? On what?”

“Military tactics, squad movement, weapon maintenance, stuff like that. Pretty standard stuff we need to know not to shoot our own feet off,”

“Is that something that can happen?” Twilight asks with a frown, “I mean, I know military training can be dangerous. A colt in my brother’s class accidentally ran his own hoof through with a spear when he jumped into a trench and had to spend a week in the infirmary….”

“Saw a kid, oh perhaps fresh out of highschool accidentally shoot his friend in the back of the leg,” Natalie replies, shivering and shaking her head, “God I’d never seen that much blood in my life until then. Kid lived, bullet broke his leg though, walks with a limp now.”

Twilight pales at that, ears turning to go flat against her head, “That’s horrible.”

“War is a horrible thing, and the weapons of it are equally so,” Natalie sighs, “I wish the universe was safer, but I don’t expect I’ll ever have to use the rifle they gave me. If I ever fire a gun in anger it’ll likely be at one of the predators ‘round here trying to get my livestock, and even then it’ll be my dad’s old rifle.”

Natalie then chuckles and smiles.

“But enough of that stuff, you’re a walking talking alien sitting in my barracks, we should be talking about other things, more fun and happy things!”

“Such as?” Twilight asks.

“Well…” Natalie starts, looking thoughtful, “read any good books lately? That’s always a conversation starter.”

The smile that spreads across Twilight’s face is all the human needs to see to know she’s asked the right question.

The next two hours are filled with the two talking about literature of the ponies and humans. Twilight learns a lot about the human’s history and Natalie even sets her up with what the humans call a ‘datapad’ which is a rectangular object with a sheet of what Twilight at first assumes is enchanted glass that shows images and words! Natalie has to stop her from taking it apart a few times, and by the end is able to show Twilight how to access the library program on it to let her read books from across human history.

Even with just a cursory glance, Twilight already saw quite a few books she would absolutely love to get her hooves on, and quite a few she would love to show to her friends back home. Something about the way Natalie described the poet Edgar Allen Poe made Twilight think Luna would absolutely adore his writing. And Shakespeare sounded right up Celestia and Rarity’s alley.

Partway through Twilight actually went into her saddle bags and pulled out the books she had bought and intended to give to her friends, only to stop and stare at them as her mood instantly fell. Holding them in her hooves, as her magic had not yet recovered beyond allowing her to levitate light objects, Twilight cannot help but pull them close to her chest and lean back in her chair, ears laying almost flat against her skull.

“I uhm, I bought these for Hearth's Warming presents,” Twilight says softly, “for uhm, for some very special ponies.”

“Hey, you’ll get back to them,” Natalie offers as she moves from her chair to come kneel next to Twilight’s, gently resting a hand against the pony’s shoulder, “I might just be some dumb farmer from some backwater farming planet, but I’ll help ya get home.”

“Why, though, you just met me,” Twilight asks.

“Hey, what are friends for? And you look like you need a friend, so why not me?” Natalie chuckles.

“Fair, where I’m from Friendship is Magic,” Twilight sniffles, smiling a little.

“Well, perhaps it still can be, even if it’s not literal,” Natalie offers with a ruffle of Twilight’s mane, causing the mare to playfully bat at the human’s hand, “but for now, our training has been canceled for the day, and my squad can’t leave the base until we’re debriefed. So, how about we find a nice shady spot outside, and get some fresh air while you start on that reading list you’ve put together?”

Nodding, Twilight rises from her chair, and stretches. A few pops and groans from the unicorn later, the two of them depart outside and find a shady spot under a large tree at the edge of the barracks compound.

As they walk, Twilight looks around, taking in the sights now that they’re not surrounded by the sheets of what Twilight learned were called ‘plastic’ to protect the base from any potential pathogens she might have been carrying. Now that the medic and the Illusionary construct called an AI had cleared her Twilight was mostly free to go outside so long as she didn’t disrupt anything.

Which is easier said than done. The ‘base’ comprises about ten buildings, six barracks buildings that Twilight swears look like converted worker houses like she’d seen around Applejacks Farm. The remaining four are administrative and medical buildings, with Healy actually running the medical building himself along with some volunteers from the militia who have some actual medical backgrounds or training.

Once settled beneath the tree, Twilight uses her magic to prop the datapad up on a little stand it has nestled inside it’s back housing, and uses a little quill-like object called a stylus to scroll through the library app. Natalie beside her simply folds her arms across her chest and sighs softly as she closes her eyes and relaxes in the warm afternoon air.

“I’m curious,” Twilight says without looking up from the book she’d chosen, something titled Moby Dick that seemed to be a nautical fantasy.

“Mmm?”

“For me, back home, it’s snowing, and you said there was a major winter holiday coming up too when we were talking earlier. Why is it so warm here?”

“Harvest’s seasons are a bit reversed. Back on Earth it’d be snowing for half the planet, but here it’s actually summer,” Natalie replies.

“That’s too bad, I was looking forward to some snow on Hearth’s Warming,” Twilight sighs, scrolling to the next page of her story.

“Stick around long enough, you’ll get some snow, I’m sure,”

“I honestly hope I’m not stuck here that long,” Twilight sighs before smiling sheepishly to her friend, “no offense, I just… Well, I don’t want to be away from my family and friends that long.”

“None taken, I get it. If I was suddenly ripped away from my home, I’d want to go back too,” Natalie chuckles.

“Doesn’t mean I won’t come back to visit, though, wherever this is, I bet I can get back,”

“I hope so, be boring around here if we didn’t have a sudden incursion of cute little alien ponies again,”

Twilight chuckles at this and then rests her head on top of her forehooves as she settles into reading the, admittedly, violent story about hunting a giant white whale. The two of them fall into companionable silence at that, Natalie actually falling asleep and taking a nap while Twilight descends deeper into the violent history of whale hunting. She actually pulls up a search engine and falls down the rabbithole of the brutal history of the whale hunting industry, and it’s eventual outlawing in the late twenty-first century to protect the majestic creatures.

About midway through a documentary about whales, narrated by an older human who has an accent not unlike Rarity’s, Twilight hears someone clear their throat in front of her, and she pauses with a smile and looks up at the newcomer. Her smile falters a little when she sees the newcomer is a tall female, perhaps able to look Princess Celestia in the eyes, with darker pale skin that makes and dark brown eyes. Her mane, or hair as Natalie had informed Twilight, is held up in a tight military regulation bun and situated beneath a white cap with a black bill that is complimented by her dark blue uniform with oak leaves on the collar.

“Private Rosewood, I see you are taking your duty to guard our guest seriously,” the woman states in an accented voice.

The instant Natalie hears the voice she is awake and on her feet, snapping to attention and saluting.

“Ma’am, yes ma’am!” Natalie says hastily, “I have been keeping our guest out of trouble.”

“And what, pray tell, is she doing with your datapad?”

“She enjoys reading, ma’am, I gave her access to my library app. Last I saw she was reading Mobie Dick,”

The female officer hums, and looks to Twilight, “And what were you watching? I heard a voice as I was coming over.”

“Uhm, a documentary on whales, Ma’am?” Twilight replies slowly, offering the same address as Natalie, “You’re the Commander of this base? Your uhm… your rank insignia is the same as the Commander of the Royal Guard back home.”

The officer smiles a little, her eyes taking on a somewhat mischievous glint at being offered new information for free.

“I am, Lieutenant Commander Jilan al-Cygne, the commanding officer of this little outfit,” al-Cygne replies, “I’ve debriefed the rest of Natalie’s squad, and was coming to get her when I found you two outside.”

“She isn’t in trouble, is she?” Twilight asks, and beside her Natalie pales a little.

“Why would she be?” the Commander asks, raising an eyebrow.

“She fell asleep while guarding me?”

“Who says she was your guard? Didn’t you notice the armed soldiers pretending to look busy throughout the courtyard?”

Twilight blinks and looks around, her ears lowering a little as she spots no less than ten militia soldiers standing around at various points in the courtyard, their weaponry held casually across their chest armor as they stand in the same sort of post as the Royal Guard that line the hallways of Canterlot Castle.

“Truthfully, I likely did, but I’ve gotten so used to guards like them all around me I must have subconsciously filtered them out,” Twilight admits sheepishly.

“Well, then you won’t mind if we borrow the Private here so she can be debriefed?” The Commander asks, raising an eyebrow.

“No, ma’am,” Twilight says with a lopsided smile, “I don’t think I could argue if I wanted to.”

“No, you couldn’t,” al-Cygne chuckles, “I am going to leave my second, Captain Ponder, here to watch over you while she’s away. He’ll bring you to me when I am ready to talk to you.”

In response to this, a male with short-cut regulation hair stepped forward inclining his head to Twilight who returned the gesture. However as he steps closer, while at the same time Natalie steps away to follow the Commander, Twilight’s eyes go from the man’s face to the fact one of his sleeves is rolled up and pinned closed.

The Captain pauses as he notices Twilight’s eyes lingering on his sleeve, and frowns.

“My arm offend you?”

“Should it?” Twilight asks, tilting her head, “I just, in pony society a lost limb like that is a very debilitating injury. Certainly not life-ending, but if my horn got damaged or removed I’d be in a world of trouble.”

Smirking and scoffing softly, Ponder pulls out a cigar and holds it between his first and second finger on his remaining hand. “It’s a war scar, a reminder for me to do better.” He then puts the cigar between his lips and starts patting himself down with his good arm to find something in his uniform, shortly thereafter producing a lighter and clicking it open, though he clearly has a little difficulty getting it to produce a flame with one hand.

Standing, Twilight looks up to him, “I don’t normally approve of smoking, but would you like some help?”

Ponder stares at her for a moment, clicks his lighter a few more times, then sighs through his nose. “Yeah, sure. Just don’t try anything funny.”

In response, Twilight lights her horn, grimacing a little as her horn sparks and protests from the overuse a few hours earlier. In the end, though, she is able to light the end of his cigar with a quick glow of her magic around the end, and a subdued flash as she excites the air around it so it ignites.

“There, that should do it,” Twilight says, sweating a little.

“Impressive, though you being out of breath ruins the effect,” Ponder states as he takes a draw from his cigar and then holds it between his fingers again and exhales. “The after action stated you’d overused that magic of yours in your accidental, and explosive, arrival here?”

Settling back down in front of the datapad she had borrowed, Twilight nods, “Yeah… truthfully I’m tempted to nap again, but I know your Commander wants to talk to me… and I also don’t want to go to sleep yet, I… don’t trust all of you yet.”

“Nor should you,” Ponder deadpans, waving his cigar as if to draw in the air, “we’re war-like, fighting each other over God-knows-what catches our ire lately. And you’re an unknown, we might stick you in a cage, cart you away to be studied.”

“I am hopeful that won’t happen, and we can be friends instead,”

“That is yet to be determined,” Ponder muses, “personally, we have bigger things to worry about than you right now, anyway.”

“The Insurrection?” Twilight asks, folding her ears back as Ponder scowls and chews the end of his cigar a little.

“Yes. Cowards and murderers masqurading as freedom fighters,” He removes his cigar from his mouth and gestures to his missing arm, “It’s how I lost this. Bastard held his own daughter at gunpoint with a grenade in his hand. If it wasn’t for prosthetics I’d be out of the military by now because of it.”

“If you have a prosthesis, why aren’t you wearing it?”

“It itches,” Ponder grumbles, “and I don’t need it when I’m not in the field.”

“Fair enough,” Twilight offers with a friendly smile, “and you don’t need to loom over me, Captain, there is plenty of shade beneath the tree if you wish to sit with me, I don’t bite.”

Ponder narrows his eyes for a moment, then looks around and sighs. He then walks over and eases himself down onto the grass next to Twilight, thankfully down wind from her so the smoke drifts away from her, and leans back against the tree’s trunk.

“Healy’s data on you said your brother was a Captain?” He asks after a few long moments.

“Yeah, he led the Royal Guard in Canterlot for a number of years. Youngest Captain in the history of the Guard,” Twilight says with pride. “He’s one of the bravest, most loyal, and steadfast stallions I’ve ever known.”

“He ever mess up so badly he ended up demoted two ranks,” Ponder states, smirking a little sarcastically.

“No, did… that happen to you, Captain?” Twilight asks, looking at the Captain with concern.

“You don’t lose an arm from a successful mission, Sparky,” Ponder chuckles, drawing on his cigar again. “And I’m not wearing any real medals on my uniform, so you do the math.”

Not knowing what to really say to that, Twilight lowers her ears and looks back to her datapad, restarting the documentary with a flick of her magic.

The next hour is filled with more research into whales, as Twilight finishes the documentary and moves onto a fictional movie. It turns out to be about time traveling space naval officers who end up going back in time to save the population of a certain species of whales. They do this by going to a place on the planet earth located on the western coast of a nation known as ‘America’. San Francisco, if she heard the name correctly.

By the time she gets to the part where they return to the future, crashing their spacecraft in the bay of the city, she has to stop as Ponder gets a call on a device that looks to be some sort of communicator.

“Mmm? Are you ready for her? Be right there, Commander,” Ponder states into his communication device before looking at Twilight and putting the last little stub of his cigar out on a nearby rock. “Right, you ready?”

Nodding and turning off the datapad and placing it in her saddlebags, Twilight rises and smiles.

“I’m eager to talk to Commander al-Cygni, she seems nice,” Twilight says brightly as Ponder attempts to get up next to her. Seeing this, Twilight takes a few steps to her side and smiles, “here, use my back to push yourself up.”

Ponder looks at her for a moment, then places his hand on her back and together they get him standing again. He grunts and straightens his uniform once he is up and looks to Twilight, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”

The two of them then set off towards one of the buildings at the back of the military base, various militia and civilians moving to and from the building with purpose. Often they’re carrying papers or other objects used in administrative duties, and Twilight is quite happy to walk into a building full of such administrative activity.

Moving quickly through the building she passes by Natalie who inclines her head and gives an encouraging smile, Twilight returning it with one of her own.

And then, she is ushered into a room with no windows and a heavy metal door that she notes has reinforcements on it. In the center is a large table with an overhang coming down from the ceiling to provide what appears to be light and also to project images onto the table itself. al-Cygni stands before the table, with the form of Mac pacing standing in front of her with his arms folded and his hat tipped back.

“Now, Commander, ah know you’re worried, but Loki an’ just ain’t finding anything out there, insurrectionists or… otherwise,” Mac states, uncrossing on arm and gesturing with it at the Commander. “She really did just pop out of thin air, no ships or ‘nything up there.”

“And Sif?” the Commander asks, looking to a spot beside Mac.

At the question, Mac looks a bit uncomfortable but steps to one side as a human woman with long blond hair, a dress that would make Rarity jealous, and red poncho materializes on the table and smiles to the commander.

“My air traffic sensors have not discovered anything, Commander,” she informs al-Cygni, her voice reminding Twilight of the time her and Celestia had visited the Vinland colonies, where Rockhoof was born.

Humming, the Commander looks up to Ponder and Twilight, and nods.

“Captain, close the door,” she states firmly, then looks to Mac, “I need to talk to your brother, could you ceed control for a moment?”

Mac makes a disgruntled sound, and then offers a sad but hopeful look to Sif before his image flickers and suddenly Mac’s dirty work-stained avatar is clean and his posture takes on a more military bearing.

“Commander al-Cygni, what can I do for you?”

“Loki, I need you to seal this room, electronic and conventional intrusion, Miss Sparkle, Ponder, Sif, and I need to have a conversation that is not to be overheard by the rank and file.”

The sound of heavy locks being engaged and a sudden feeling of all the fur on Twilight’s back suddenly standing on end as if Pinkie had put a statically charged balloon next to her causes Twilight to start a little.

“Room is secure, Commander,” Loki states before turning to look at Twilight, a small smile growing, “Miss Sparkle, my brother has told me so much about you, I am eager to get to know you.”

“I… am flattered?” Twilight replies slowly, then looks to the Commander, “permission to approach the uhm… holographic table, Ma’am?”

“Permission granted,” al-Cygni chuckles, “and while I appreciate you asking, you’re not under my command, nor in the UNSC military, Miss Sparkle. You don’t have to address me as Ma’am.”

“Habit, sorry,” Twilight says softly as she rears up to put her forehooves on the table opposite the Commander so she can see the table. Ponder goes around to stand next to his commanding officer with Sif walking over towards Twilight and looking her over.

“So, having interviewed the squad that made first contact with you, I am inclined to believe you are not a threat,” al-Cygni states calmly, “however I and my superiors find it hard to believe you simply teleported here magically. We would like a demonstration of your magic, however I have been informed by our medic as well as the squad that you are suffering from… what did you call it?”

“Magical burnout,” Twilight supplies.

“And what is that, exactly?”

“It’s uhm… hmm, you know when you over-work something? Like your back or your legs? They get really sore and stiff and it hurts to move?”

“So it is like that? You’ve overexerted yourself?”

“In a way, yes. Magical manipulation is like any muscle, with the added risk of overuse causing backlash which is a sort of… like…” Twilight starts, growing thoughtful until she spots a stack of papers with a rubber band atop it, she reaches out with her magic and everyone’s eyes go wide as she casually levitates the rubber band over to her and holds it up, “magic fields are like rubber bands! You can stretch them and do things with them, but if you over-do it…” she stretches the rubberband in her magic, a small grimace forming on her face as her magic protests, her horn sparking as she brings the rubber band to its breaking point, causing a loud snap. “That happens.”

“Like a feedback loop in any system of energy,” Loki states, walking over and folding his arms behind his back, eyeing the broken rubber band critically, “a fascinating weakness. But just how much power were you… using to create the explosion at your destination?”

“Oh, I don’t know if I could translate the amount of power to anything you would understand,” Twilight offers, frowning, “I might be able to… with enough time to study your units of measurement and attempt to convert what I know over to your own systems.”

“We would appreciate it if you would do that,” al-Cygni offers, “in return we’re willing to allow you to remain here on Harvest, considering your ties to your race’s leadership we would rather you be comfortable.”

“And by ‘we’ I am sure you mean the intelligence group that is hounding you?” Twilight asks with a smile, which grows as al-Cygni frowns and Loki laughs. “Commander, I am the sibling of a military officer who led an entire branch of my nation’s military, I’m not unfamiliar with military intelligence.”

“They are not hounding me, I am in fact a member of the Office of Naval Intelligence,” the Commander says, continuing to frown, “and you are being very free with your information to a race whom you have just met. I am curious as to why.”

“I trust you,” Twilight answers honestly, “your race, despite its inherent violence over the centuries, has overcome a great deal and shown that you are willing to cooperate with each other, and seek out peaceful means to move forward.”

“I sense there is more,”

“And, you’re my best bet to get home, I would rather trust you than be secretive. Friendship is magic where I come from, it would be better to be friends, rather than cordial acquaintances.”

al-Cygni is quiet for a moment, her arms folded across her chest as she looks down at Twilight, a quiet frown on her face. As it stretches on, Twilight's ears lower a little and she starts to worry, but never loses her smile, causing Sif and Loki to look between her and the Commander.

After a while, al-Cygni sighs and shakes her head, “I can think of no reason to not grant you permission to remain on the planet as a free person, you don’t seem to be a threat, and seem cooperative.”

“Thank you!” Twilight says warmly, ears standing straight up and her tail swishing behind her.

“However, you’ll need to report to an ONI handler regularly, to help us understand your ‘magic’ and also to make sure you are not getting into any trouble,”

“I can do that, do you know who I will need to report to?” Twilight asks happily.

“I am currently the only ONI operative in the area that isn’t tasked to a mission that requires theri full attention, so…”

“I’ll be reporting to you? Okay, I’d like that,”

Crossing around the table, the Commander looks at Twilight, “That leaves one rather major thing, though, where are you going to house you? We don’t exactly have the facilities here to house you, I think.”

“So long as there is a bed, food, and indoor plumbing I’m sure we can make it work?” Twilight offers, shrugging.

“We could potentially house you with the militia squad that discovered you, as they seemed to react positively to you, though that would mean your accommodations will be very spartan.”

“I’m not a fancy pony, I once lived on a cot in a library for a year, I can make due with a soldier’s berth.”

“If you’re sure, we’ll just have to figure out what to do with you while they’re training, you can’t just stay in the barracks all day after all.”

“I could go with them?” Twilight says slowly, smiling sheepishly, “I well, as I told Captain Ponder I am not unfamiliar with military tactics, my brother was the leader of the Royal Guard for years. I’d be… interested in seeing how humans conduct war?”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, but if Sergeant Johnson allows it, I won’t get in his way,” al-Cygni sighs, “Lord knows I couldn’t if I wanted to, that man does his own thing when it gets the objective he has in mind done.”

“I’ll ask him before I tag along, I promise,” Twilight states with a smile.

“Very well, just know if you do this, you’ll have to adhere to our rules. They exist for a reason, and I won’t have them broken,”

“Very well, ma’am,” Twilight states, offering her best salute.

“We’ll see. And see if Johnson can’t get you to work on that salute,” al-Cygni smirks, “dismissed.”

Twilight lowers the salute and Loki chuckles, the loud sound of the locks disengaging echoing through the room, the door swinging open.

As she leaves, she can hear Ponder talking to the Commander behind her.

“You sure, ma’am? Let her participate if Johnson allows it?”

“Avery knows what he’s doing, he’s one of the best, I trust him,”

And then she is back in the noisy office spaces of the administration building, head held high and tail swaying behind her as she happily makes her way out and back onto the parade green.

She makes her way to the barracks, and drops her saddlebags off in the common room, currently having no room of her own, and then goes out to look for Johnson and the squad.

It takes her a bit, and asking a few of the sentries around the base for directions, before she finds herself approaching firing range for the human’s powder projectile weapons, which they call ‘guns’.

As she approaches, ears lowering back against her head with each loud whip crack from the guns, Twilight observes the makeshift firing line and how it resembles in many ways the archery ranges from back home for the Royal Guard. The only difference being that she can’t see any straw targets at the end of the range, only steel and paper targets in the shape of fellow humans.

Coming up behind the firing line, but staying far enough back that she isn’t interfering or interrupting the practice, she watches one of the militia she had interacted with, Red if she recalled correctly, lining up a shot with a different weapon than the one he had been using when they had found her.

“Alright, Private, I know it’s hard for you,” Johnson shouts loud enough to be heard by everyone, “but I want you to treat that rifle in your hands like that lovely, lovely woman you pretend you don’t sneak off to see on the weekends! Treat her well, and she’ll treat you well in return!”

In return, Red squares his shoulders and leans forward a bit, his breathing slowing as he tries to line up a shot. Twilight watches closely, wincing when the shot finally comes and folds her ringing ears back against her head, missing the distant ‘plink’ sound as the round hits the target.

“Congratulations, Private, you hit the target in the wrong spot! That was a glancing blow, at best!” Johnson shouts at the private, causing him to flinch a little, “A horse could do better! Hell, I bet if we ask her real nicely the horse gawking at your incompetence behind us will do better!”

Twilight jumps a little when she is mentioned, and smiles and waves as all the militia on the line turn to her. Most of them are surprised, though Natalie and a couple others aren’t.

“I uhm, I didn’t want to interrupt your practice, Sergeant,” Twilight offers, “but I wanted to find you and tell you that the Commander has assigned me to the squad here, since I don’t really… well have anywhere else to go?”

Johnson frowns at that, and shakes his head, “I swear that woman does this stuff to mess with me.”

“What was that, sir?” Twilight asks.

“Nothing, Sparks, my threat to the private here was empty, but if she really did assign you to me? Well, if I can teach you how to shoot a gun, there might just be hope for this sorry bunch of farm kids.”

Stepping forward slowly, Twilight has a couple second thoughts about actually training with the humans. She had thought, perhaps, to do some marching and hiking and such like she’d heard her brother had done. But handling a weapon? That was a bit much. Still, a part of her trusted Johnson, he hadn’t tried to hurt her when he’d found her, so perhaps learning how to shoot would be okay?

Moving up to the long table the squad is using as the firing line, Twilight takes the spot on the end on the other side of Red, rearing up and placing her hooves on the table so she can see down the range.

“Alright, pretty little pony,” Johnson starts, “what’s your flavor of death? Fast and loud, slow and steady, or ‘fuck everything’?”

As he talks he puts three weapons on the table in front of her.

The first ‘fast and loud’ looks to be some sort of weapon similar to the ones they were using when they found her though not quite the same. First off, while it’s still black it’s not as rounded as the weapons they were using earlier, and lacks some of the glowing displays the earlier weapons did. In their place are what seem to be long rail-like pieces, with little bits of black metal slotted onto them that look a bit like the sights on crossbows.

The second, ‘slow and steady’ is a lot like the first, but longer and has a small looking glass like object fitted onto the rail. It’s also tan, and also has the rails but they currently don’t have anything on them.

The last is simply a tube of some sort with a crossbow-like stock attached to the end and what seems to be some sort of sliding piece on the bottom that serves some sort of function she can’t quite figure out.

Twilight looks the assembled instruments of death over, and frowns, ears lowering a little and tail going between her legs. She isn’t really overly keen on using a deadly weapon, but at the same time the part of her that wants to know more reminds her the best way to gain new knowledge is sometimes to get hooves on. With that in mind, she reaches out for the longer tan looking weapon, and then stops with her hoof midway and looks to Johnson.

“Slow and steady, sir? With my depleted magic I think that’d be better for me,”

“Alright,” Johnson starts as he pulls out a box-like object she’d seen the militia using attached to their weapons. “Now, this is the magazine, it holds ten rounds of Seven-Six-Two by Fifty-One milliliters of pure death just waiting to be unleashed on the poor soul on the other end of your rifle. Specifically, these rounds are known as Full Metal Jacket Armor Piercing rounds, means they’re hard, go through stuff.”

Twilight nods, staring at the magazine with a combination of interest and fear.

“I need to make this absolutely clear, I will load the weapon for you, and you are not to fire or turn off the safety until told to,” Johnson states seriously, looking at Twilight, “I need to make sure you can actually hold and fire this weapon before I can clear you hot. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Twilight replies, picking the weapon up in her somewhat restored magic, having rested a bit since her appearance earlier.

“Alright, shoulder the weapon here,” Johnson says, manipulating the rifle in her magic and pressing it firmly against her shoulder. He then gently positions her head so that she’s looking down the scope. Once that’s done, she repositions the rifle a bit with her magic, and assists her levitation by leaning against the table and using her forehooves to help stabilize it.

Once that’s done Johnson puts the mag into the gun and shows where to pull to put a round into the chamber.

“Alright, Sparks, you got a good bead on that target down there Red missed?”

“Mhmm,” Twilight hums softly.

“Good. Knob on the left side of the rifle, twist it so the lever is pointed down,”

Twilight does so, a soft click echoing in her ears, “Okay.”

“Also, before I forget…” Johnson states, walking away for a second before coming back and putting something on Twilight’s head, covering her ears and instantly dulling all the noise around her. “Don’t want you going deaf, you won’t be any use to any of us if you can’t hear.”

Twilight flicks her tail in response, being unable to do so with her ears, and sticks her tongue out a little as she continues to concentrate on keeping the weapon on target.

“Fire when ready,” Johnson’s softened voice barks, and Twilight squeezes the trigger with her magic, the entire weapon jumping hard into her shoulder and she has to strain her magic to keep it from flipping out of her hooves and over her shoulder. Her horn sparks with the effort, and by the time the rifle settles into her hooves again, she can hear the distant pink of the round striking the target.

“Not bad for your first try, Sparky,” Johnson grunts, “you actually hit the target.”

Twilight smiles sheepishly to Johnson at that, and chuckles, “I did, didn’t I?”

“Now do it again!” Johnson shouts, looking at the other humans, “well? You all going to stand there staring? Or are you going to let a tiny horse show you up in marksmanship!?”

The chorus on ‘No sir’ from the others barely meets the Sergeant’s satisfaction, as he shouts about how he works for a living, and then resumes the firing exercise.

The next few hours after that are filled with the sounds of gunfire, followed quickly by a march around the surrounding farmland and base, along with various other things to try and get the squad up to, or keep them at, a level of readiness and physical prowess to allow them to actually fight in combat. Twilight herself has a fair bit of trouble with the firearms at first, her magic waning and getting back towards burnout range due to needing more time to recover towards the end of the firearms training, but she has little to no trouble with the marching and the hike. Of course, that is likely due to the fact the militia is in full armor, and she is not. A point she knows will be needed to be figured out sooner rather than later, and she mentally places an item on the checklist in her head to talk to Johnson and possibly Natalie about rigging up something to hold weights or at least make the field a little more even.

Still, she is a scholar at heart, and by the time she is back at the barracks with the others she is ready to fall over and sleep until Hearth’s Warming. She had hoped, praying even to the Sun and Moon, that Johnson would let her watch but he had decided to have her participate fully.

Knowledge in this case, it would seem, would be earned and not given.

Dragging her hooves into the common room, she finds her saddlebags have been moved, and a note on the table giving her directions to her room. Finding it, Twilight isn’t surprised to find it isn’t really much more than a small room with a cot like she’d seen in the other rooms, and a bedside table and a chair.

Her saddlebags are hanging over the back of the chair, and after a quick glance into them to make sure everything is there, Twilight levitates the photo of her and Princess Celestia over to the bedside table, then her saddlebags to a hook near the door, and collapses onto her cot.

It’s not much. It’s not home. But for now it was safe and it would do.

Staying awake long enough to look out the small window near her bed, she quietly wonders if the star Harvest is orbiting is one of the billions she saw in Luna’s night sky. And, as sleep claims her, she wonders if Luna will be able to find her in her dreams.

Author's Note

This one might be a bit rushed, I'm not sure. I'm likely going to do an edit pass later for grammar and spelling, since some stuff likely escaped me. But I wanted to get this out tonight, July 31st, because my birthday is tomorrow xD And I wanted to put this out as a birthday gift to myself!

Anyway, Twi meets ONI as well as the two other AI who run the planet alongside Mack! And she got to learn how to shoot a firearm a little, something I am sure she'll find utterly and totally useless on a peaceful planet like Harvest!

Anyway, next chapter things shall kick off for real, but for all of you who enjoyed the slice of life feel, I hope this chapter continued to scratch that itch.

Chapter 4: First Contact

Chapter 4: First Contact

Transcript Sealed by Office of Naval Intelligence

TOP SECRET CLEARANCE REQUIRED

January, 16, 2525

21:00: Connection to UNSC Slipspace Satellite 09235-124J lost, Attempting Reconnection…

21:01 Connection unable to be re-established. Attempting LOS communication.

22:23 LOS communication attempt failed. Satellite compromised or lost.

00:00 (January, 17, 2525) Unknown Slipspace Rupture at edge of Epsilon Indie System. Attempting automated hail.

01:00 Hail unresponsive.

Line of Sight Communication attempts failed.

Radio Communication Failed.

01:30 Alert level raised to High.

Tiara Station locked down; All freighters hard-docked to station; Freight Elevators shut down for all non-essential traffic; Anti-Boarding protocols initiated; Reactor Core, Armory, Fuel Depot bulkhead locks initiated.

06:00 Militia Dispatched in bait freighter.

13:00 Unknown contact engaged. Unknown hostiles defeated. Ship detonated by unknowns.

16:00 Militia returned with casualties, debriefed by Commander al-Cygni. Record sealed under commander of Commander al-Cygni pending review by Office of Naval Intelligence headquarters.

February 3rd, 2525; Rosewood Family Farm, Utguard Outskirts.

10:32

Frowning at the page on the datapad she is holding in her magic, Twilight frowns and rubs at her eyes with one foreleg to brush some of the sleep from them. While not particularly early, the past two months had not been easy, and while her body had started to get used to the early hour she now rose at, it still had a bit of a way to go. Twilight was never an early riser, save for the few times an experiment required it, but then she often didn’t really sleep.

However, she could not afford to not sleep, the few hours of sleep she did get were precious, treasured even. The hiking through Harvest’s breathtaking wilderness made up for it at least.

Which is how Twilight found herself where she is now, situated on a vista overlooking the farmland her friend, Natalie, owns with her family her own datapad in front of her.

Sighing and shaking her head, Twilight stands up and stretches before walking back to the campfire she had reignited that morning. The little survival tent she had borrowed from Natalie’s father had served her well, even if it wasn’t as comfortable as she’d like, and had helped her get out and clear her head in the relative wilderness on the edge of the farm.

She had needed it, as Johnson had assigned homework over what was supposed to be a few weeks of downtime, ancient generals and historical battles from humanity’s history. So far, Twilight had learned quite a bit about ancient human history and was currently on a side-tangent about the Peloponnesian War. It mirrored a war in her own home’s history, from before the founding of Equestria, and Twilight was attempting to delve into whatever records she could get her hooves on.

So far, she’d had plenty of time. The few weeks of downtime for the holiday season had turned into a little over a month. Something had happened, but so far no one knew anything outside of the upper command structure. Even Mack had been dodging questions about it, and Twilight surmised it was some sort of attack having occurred, as the other militia squads had not been let out for their break. Instead she had seen them gearing up with the modern weapons from the armory, and even a few shipments of ammo and weapons had slipped in before the elevators had mysteriously stopped.

Sif had been quiet, but apologetic when Twilight had asked about it.

Technically, she wasn’t supposed to talk to her or Mack, but Mack and Twilight had formed a friendship and Sif had warmed up to her after spending some time around the unicorn. She had shared stories of her friends and home with them, talking for hours sometimes about Equestria’s past and of the shared culture the Northern islands had with Earth’s ancient Scandinavian and American midwest.

That friendship had helped keep her homesickness at bay. But, had also let her see that as of late, both of the AI were deeply worried about something.

Settling down next to the campfire to heat up some more water for tea, she’d found the ‘English Breakfast’ tea to make her feel most at home, Twilight goes back to skimming through an article on the start of the second war. She gets a few paragraphs in when her screen goes dark and a little ‘phone’ icon appears with Natalie’s name on it.

Pressing the green phone icon with her stylus, Twilight smiles.

“Natalie, I told you I’-” Twilight starts.

“Twilight we’ve been recalled,” Natalie shouts as the screen switches to video, showing the corporal throwing on her uniform and armor, “Johnson has called all the corporals in, as well as you, something big is happening related to why the elevator shut down.”

Twilight is on her hooves before her mind has time to register what her friend is saying, magic already breaking down the camp, “Did he say what was going on? Anything beyond that it relates to the elevator?”

“No, he just recalled everyone, and told me that command was meeting and that squad leaders are required to attend,”

“Okay, but how does that involve me, I’m part of your squad but not leadership,” Twilight says, her magic slowing a little as she focuses more on the video call.

“Twi, I think this might be alien related, and you’re the only alien we know,” Natalie says as she picks up her sidearm and puts it in its holster. “Regardless, the Sergeant said bring you, so I’m bringing you.”

“I’ll meet you at the front gate,” Twilight says with a frown, her campsite packing itself up in record time, with the campfire being the last thing to be deconstructed as she pours hot water into a thermos to brew her tea.

As soon as that’s done, she vanishes in a flash of light and a muted clap of thunder, appearing at the front gate of the farm. Her camping equipment then vanishes a moment later to its proper place back at the farm house, leaving her with just a duffle bag beside her.

While she waits, she opens the bag and starts pulling out the uniform given to her by Johnson and the squad. The Sergeant himself commented that if she’s going to tag along she might as well look the part, lest someone mistake her for a mascot.

She pulls on the undersuit first, barely shivering anymore as the layer of fabric and padding settles over her body, then starts in on the armor she and the militia had been able to jury rig to fit her.

Her armor isn’t anything special, mostly just cobbled together and jury rigged human equipment. The armorer she’d gotten to help her had laughed at first, but hadn’t backed down from the challenge when Johnson had ordered him to help. In the end, she’d gotten a plate carrier with some heavy steel plates in it, as well as a helmet he’d cut some ear holes in for her.

It all works, though, and after training in it for a while Twilight hadn’t had any complaints.

She finishes putting on the last piece of armor save her helmet as Natalie drives up in her four-by-four.

Jumping up into the passenger seat, the vehicle has an open cabin with no doors to allow for easy in and out access. According to her research it’s actually one of the civilian models of the ‘warthog’ she’d seen around the base.

“Any news?” Twilight asks, looking at Natalie who has a radio earpiece in. The human shakes her head and hits the gas.

“Chatter is all over the place,” Natlie offers as they speed down the dirt road towards the main highway towards the capital, “one of my fellow NCOs is saying something about having fought with whatever aliens these are, but they’ve gone quiet and Ponder informed us not to spread that information.”

Frowning, Twilight falls quiet as she thinks about that information. The Captain was a pretty strict man, reminding her quite a bit of some of the officers under her brother’s command both in the Empire and in Equestria. He doesn’t put up with any sort of nonsense or rumor spreading, but he hadn’t refuted the information, simply asked for it not to be spread.

And that was putting aside the fact that combat had apparently happened between humanity and these new aliens not long ago. It would explain the longer leave for some of the militia, while others were denied their leave. Still, the thought of combat scares Twilight; as up until now this was mostly just something to do and a way to learn and grow stronger. She’d always had the thought in the back of her mind that she might have to fight with them, even though after all she’d read about the separatists made her think a good negotiator was all the two sides needed, but it had always been remote.

All of this speeds through Twilight’s mind as the two of them race towards the militia base on the outskirts of the city of Utguard. What would normally be a drive full of anticipation of doing something with the friends she had made in the militia was instead full of a choking silence between her and the friend driving.

Eventually, the two come to a stop at the entrance to the base. Their IDs are checked, and they’re waved inside by the militia at the gate. They make a quick detour to the armory, where Natalie checks in her personal firearm and then both hurry off towards the command building, the sea of militia milling parting before them.

The inside of the command building could only be called controlled chaos. Where as it had been busy the few times Twilight had visited it over the past two months, it was now a hive of activity on a level she had not experienced since the days after her brother and sister-in-law’s wedding. Humans were rushing every which way in the offices, stacks of paper and datapads spread out everywhere with the AI Loki popping in and out of sight from various holographic terminals to answer questions. Sometimes, he was in more than one place at once, his form uneven and unstable as he divides himself between the different conversations.

For a brief moment, as Twilight passes by a doorway into a large room filled with cork boards and civilian workers, Loki meets her eyes and offers her a frown and shakes his head subtly. The slight action from the normally cocky and sure AI causes Twilight’s insides to twist a little.

Then they’re at the door to the secure room at the heart of the building, the guards checking their IDs and radioing in before unlocking the door.

The inside is cramped, and Twilight finds herself pushing past a couple of Natalie’s fellow corporals so she can clear the doorway. She pushes towards the front and finds a spot next to her friend, frowning as she realizes she can’t quite see past the others in the room.

“Alright, are we all here?” al-Cygni’s voice comes from somewhere in front of Twilight, “Rosewood, where’s the pony?”

“Right here, ma’am,” Rosewood replies, then looks down and realizes Twilight can’t actually be seen or see what’s going on. Kneeling down she gestures for Twilight to climb onto her back, grunting when the unicorn does so. She supports Twilight with her hands under her flank, while Twilight herself wrapps her forelegs around the Corporal’s neck, resting her chin on the human’s left shoulder.

“Good, can you see the holographic table, Twilight?” the Commander asks, looking at the unicorn.

“Yes, Ma’am,”

“Alright, well let me cut to the quick, then,” al-Cygni states, touching a few buttons on the holotable, “what I am about to say does not leave this base under penalty of court martial and imprisonment.”

A few more button presses later and a large ship materializes above the table and starts slowly rotating. It’s rather organic looking, with barely any sharp edges or angles, and seems to be surrounded by an almost invisible forcefield.

“About a month ago, during an operation to ascertain why we’ve been losing freighters in the area, we came into contact with a ship of unknown make and origin,” the commander starts, gesturing to the pictured ship, “instead of the suspected Insurrectionist ships, we were confronted with this one. It was crewed by creatures of multiple unknown species and was undeniably hostile. Staff Sergeants Byrne and Johnson led the operation, and believe these aliens are a threat to us. I agree with their assessment.”

Looking to Natalie the Commander motions for the Corporal and Twilight to get closer, tapping a few buttons on the table to pull up video of what happened.

Once they’re up front next to the table, all eyes on Twilight who lowers her ears a little even as she does her best to look at the table, al-Cygni hits play and Twilight watches the skirmish take place.

Watching the video isn’t easy, and a few times Twilight has to force herself to continue watching as creatures are killed, but all throughout it she cannot identify a single creature other than the humans.

“I don’t know any of these creatures, ma’am,” Twilight admits when the playback ends, looking the Commander in the eyes, causing the al-Cygni to frown.

“Well, that’s not good, because that ship wasn’t alone,” al-Cygni states, pressing one final button to pull up a holographic display of a ship far larger than the last. “This ship exited slipspace a few days ago, and has been making a b-line straight for us. Current projections indicate it’ll reach orbit the day after tomorrow.”

“Ma’am, is this related to the sudden cutoff of communications between Harvest and the rest of the colonies?” this from a male corporal under the command of Byrne.

“We think the ship is jamming our slipspace communications somehow, as the satellite is still in orbit, but nothing is getting through the noise,”al-Cygni confirms, “we’re calling it a failure due to a solar flare out in Alpha Centauri, and for now not telling the public about the aliens.”

“Any particular reason?” another corporal, this one in Johnson’s company like Natalie.

“Governor doesn’t want to spread panic, so until we know for sure what they’re intentions are, we’re keeping a lid on this,”

“But if you think that means we’re sitting on our backsides playin’ poker until these bastards show up, then you chose the wrong profession,” Johnson growls as he steps up next to the Commander.

“As Staff Sergeant Johnson said, we’re not going to sit idle. Sergeant Byrne will be taking command of assisting in evacuating the Tiara, while Johnson will be taking command of making sure nothing sneaks in behind us,” al-Cygni continues nodding to the two Sergeants, “we’ll be coordinating with local police and colonial officials to keep panic low, and make sure everyone knows where to go incase of emergency. Should the worst come to pass, I know the training we’ve been doing here will carry us through it. Now, you’re all dismissed to gather your squads, gear up, and get your orders from the Sergeants.”

All assembled offer a salute, including Natalie and Twilight, and turn to leave. As they do though, the commander calls out one last time.

“Twilight, stay here, I need to talk to you a bit more,”

Letting Twilight down off her back, Natalie nods to the pony and offers a salute to the Commander and the two Sergeants still in the room. She then turns on her heel and leaves to go about gathering her squad.

Moving back to the table, Twilight removes and places her helmet on the table and offers a salute to the three just as Johnson had taught her.

“At ease, Twilight,” al-Cygni states softly, frowning as Twilight does so. “Look, I’ll cut to the chase, when I assigned you to Johnson’s command I should have known he wouldn’t just stick you somewhere safe and keep an eye on you like I’d intended.”

Twilight offers an uneasy smile at that, breaking the little military decorum she has been taught, but the Commander ignores it and continues on. Johnson for his part simply rolls his eyes from his position behind al-Cygni.

“Regardless, he’s been keeping me abreast of your training with your squad, and I reluctantly have to admit we’re going to need you if this whole thing turns ugly.”

“Ma’am?” Twilight asks, ears turning towards the Commander as her head tilts to the side.

“If this were any other situation, I’d be shipping you off to Reach to remain safely in ONI hands, but we’re up against an unknown and honestly your ability to teleport, levitate objects, and other such powers you’ve displayed are as much of an ace in the hole as we’re likely to get with us being cut off from the rest of humanity.”

“I’ll do my best, ma’am, though if I am honest I am hopeful this doesn’t erupt into conflict,” Twilight replies softly, “even that brief glimpse from the video has me worried. I can tell it has you worried as well.”

“And if I am being honest I wouldn’t normally admit that yes, I am worried. We lost good soldiers to the raid that video was captured from. Our armor did nothing, or weapons might as well have been shooting plastic suction cup darts, but we beat them. And if they come here, we’re going to have to do it again, or millions will die.”

“Then we’ll just have to keep that from happening, ma’am,” Twilight says slowly, looking to Johnson, “I uh, permission to return to my squad, ma’am.”

“Granted,” al-Cygni states with a nod, “and take the Staff Sergeant with you, before he chews through his cigar out of boredom?”

Twilight suppresses a smile at the comment, and snaps a salute, “Yes, ma’am.”

She then turns and departs, Sergeant Johnson following after her.

Once outside Twilight starts off towards the usual meeting, or rally, point for the squad when they’re gathering up for something. It’s a somewhat out of the way spot near the armory with a tall oak tree, which the squad had chosen due to the fact that if they ever lost Twilight chances were she could be found there in the shade with her datapad reading. They’d even named it ‘the golden oak’ after hearing where Twilight lived back on Equus.

As she walks up she finds the squad going about various things, mostly doing a once over of their kits and talking about what’s going on with Natalie as they wait for orders. Twilight joins in on the cleaning and checking, pulling out her datapad and helping where she can as she hasn’t exactly been issued a weapon to use outside of the firing range.

In return the others help her go over her own kit, making sure everything is in order and is fitting correctly, as if it came down to it Twilight would most likely be running ammo and helping evacuate casualties with her magic, and no one wanted their lifeline to get taken out.

About an hour later, after they’d gone over their kits a couple times and Twilight and Natalie had spoken about what they’d seen in the briefing room, Sergeant Johnson came over. Cigar, scowl, and all.

Stopping a few feet from them, he removes his cigar and exhales a cloud of smoke that makes Twilight almost think him a dragon for a moment.

“Alright, listen up One-Charlie, you’re going to be looking after Utguard and the surrounding area,” Johnson starts as he pulls a paper map out of his pocket, “important points of interest you are to hold if things go south are the Spaceport, the Hospital, and the Police HQ with it’s Armory. We’ll be working out civilian evac routes in the next couple days, but we’re expecting to get them into bunkers or into the surrounding hills and mountains worst comes to worst.”

“What about a planetary evacuation, sir?” Natalie asks as she kneels beside the map, “I know it’s a remote possibility, Sergeant, but what if we can’t hold the planet?”

“Then God help us, because all we have are some freighters and a whole lotta prayer in that case,” Johnson growls as he puts his cigar back in his mouth, “Sif and Loki are not optimistic on the odds of us beating that ship that’s coming our way, so it might just come to it, but we’re planning on standing our ground till we can’t.”

“Roger that, Sir,” Natalie replies, nodding to the Sergeant, “anything else you want us to keep in mind? Rules of Engagement?”

“Don’t shoot unless shot at first, we don’t want to start an intergalactic war unless they throw the first punch. Also, take care of the pony.”

“You can be sure we will take good care of her, Sergeant,”

“I know you will, but that also brings me to one more thing,” Johnson sighs before taking one of the new DMRs they’d gotten before the spaceport had shut down, “Commander al-Cygni has decided to arm you, Recruit Sparkle, and since you’ve shown aptitude with semi-automatic weapons, we’re going to give you one of the newer DMRs, with luck you won’t have to use it, but if you do both the Commander and I are confident you will use it in the defense of your squad and of Humanity.”

Twilight accepts the DMR in her magic, and levitates it over to herself, followed by a couple packs of ammo. She then holds the gun in her hooves, and looks to Johnson with a small frown and a nod.

“I’ll do my best, Sergeant, I won’t let you or my friends down,”

February 11th, 2525, Utguard

13:25

Looking up at the sky for what felt like the thousandth time that hour, Twilight frowns from beneath the cloth mask she’d been given as she stares up at the space station. It had been a while since the last update over the radio, but Twilight was willing to bet the strange alien craft Command had been tracking would slide into orbit at about the station’s nine or eight o’clock? It was coming from the edge of the system, and so far had not shown any indication of hostility, but then they’d kept all local traffic away from it, as far as the morning briefings over the past eight days had said.

“Keep lookin’ to the heavens like that, Sparks, and I’ll think you’re prayin’ to some horse god of yours,” a voice comes from Twilight’s right, causing the unicorn to snort and chuckle.

“We don’t have gods, Red,” Twilight chuckles, looking at the tall militiaman walking next to her, “unless you count the Princesses, but they don’t fit your traditional ‘God’ role, you know?”

“Well, we humans got a sayin’, ‘There are no atheists in the foxholes’, this whole thing goes foul I suspect you’ll be praying to your Princesses real quick,”

“Well, if I do I’ll put in a good word for you,” Twilight laughs, flicking her tail, “I’m sure whatever gods you Humans have have had their fill of you already.”

Red laughs as well, and then shakes his head as they continue their patrol down Hel Avenue, which so far had been rather quiet as most of the humans who occupied the city were currently observing a strict shelter in place order due to the imminent arrival of the unknown craft.

Of course, she had met the civilians of the city before then. There really wasn’t any way to hide herself away during the past eight days, so she’d gotten quite an education on humanity’s ability to tolerate the unknown. Which is to say that some welcomed her with open arms, mostly the children, while others had watched her with a mixture of open distrust and suspicion.

That said, she had enjoyed the attention to a degree, as human or pony children and the enthusiasm and wide-eyed wonder they brought to everything warmed her heart. She must have answered a thousand questions about who and what she was over the course of the past week, demonstrating her magic and showing off a little to the laughter and joy of her audience. It didn’t hurt that after a while the parents stopped trying to move their kids to the other side of the street along her patrol route.

Turning a corner onto Minneapolis Street, Twilight’s musings are interrupted by a series of quick short tones through her radio, followed by Johnson’s voice.

“Attention all Alpha Elements, we are elevating to Condition One, I repeat all Alpha Elements, we are elevating to Condition One. Unknown Ship has made orbit, and we are tracking multiple inbound smaller ships. Alpha-One-Charlie, converges on rally point Gamma for retasking with Alpha-One-Bravo.”

As soon as the order was given Twilight and Red turn and start down an alley, picking up their pace as soon as they’re out of the sight of civilians so as to make it to rally point a kilometer away. The sounds of Twilight’s hooves and Red’s boots against the pavement is drowned out by Twilight’s racing heart, her mind a whirlwind of possibilities.

Would the aliens be friendly?

Twilight certainly hoped they would be, and what little she had been able to overhear of the plans the militia and local government had for meeting them led the unicorn to believe the UNSC wouldn’t take the first shot and was going to extend a hand in friendship.

Still, they were all armed, and no one believed these aliens wouldn’t be armed too. The whole thing could be a powder keg waiting for a spark, and the possibility of being in combat so soon isn’t one Twilight relishes.

Exiting from the alley the pair continue their jog down a new street -- Twilight doesn’t have the time to look at the signs but if the map in her head is correct they just entered Rotterdam Way -- which is clear of civilians right now so they are able to make their way at a quick pace. Turning from that street brings them directly into sight of a large park which currently has the rest of their squad loading into a pelican.

There are also a couple of extra people with the squad, and though Twilight has not met them as of yet, she is able to recognize a couple of the city and planetary government officials.

By the time they reach the ramp, the rest of the squad is aboard the police aircraft, and Twilight and Red quickly board and find seats as the pelican takes to the air.

“You must be the talking horse I’ve heard so much about,” one of the civilians says through the radio headset they’re all wearing.

“Pony, sir,” Twilight replies, “and I suspect I am.”

“What was your name?”

“Twilight Sparkle, sir,”

“A pleasure, Miss Sparkle, I’m Govenor Nils Thune,” the Governor offers with a smile, then gestures to a man to his left, “and this is Attorney General Rol Penderson.”

“A pleasure, Governor, Mister Penderson,” Twilight says with a smile and a nod, “I’m surprised you’re both so calm being around someone like me. Most people I’ve met so far outside the militia were a bit stand-offish.”

“You have shown you came in peace, or so Commander al-Cygni has assured me,”

“I do, Governor, all I want to do is get back to my friends and family,” Twilight assures the man, “and protect the friends I’ve made here.”

“Well, we shall see if it is needed, but I doubt these aliens will truly prove to be hostile. Honestly, I am hopeful we’ll be able to smooth over the little incident your instructors caused, and move forward with peaceful relations.”

“We shall see, sir,” Natalie offers up where she is standing near the entrance to the cockpit, “personally, I don’t want to get into a fight, but it’s our job to make sure you and Mister Penderson here make it back to the Capital with only the holes you were born with.”

The Governor nods to the Corporal at this, and the flight then descends into mostly small talk about various things. The Governor asks Twilight to tell him about her home, and in turn the unicorn asks for tales of his home which turned out to be the human homeworld of Earth. The two swap stories enthusiastically for the half hour it takes to get to where they’re going, with Governor Thune laughing over the antics of Twilight’s early years and confessing he’d love to meet Princess Celestia for all the endless patience she seems to have. Twilight for her part happily says that she’d love to visit Earth, and professes her hope that someday her world and the UNSC might be friends.

By the time they touch down at their destination Twilight is in good spirits and hopeful she has made a friend out of the Governor.

However once she’s off of the ramp Twilight cannot help but stop and stare at the surroundings. The Botanical Gardens of Harvest was, perhaps, a place worthy of being called one of the wonders of this world.

The field they had landed on sits on the lowest step of what Twilight can see to be three tiers of greenery, trees and expertly cut grass surrounding her and gently flowing in a light breeze coming down from the higher tiers and the mountain they are cut out of. The higher tiers, which are slightly sloped down most likely to promote drainage and keep them from flooding when watered, are filled with rows upon rows, field upon field, and glade upon glade of flowers and plants in every conceivable shade and color of the rainbow.

For a brief moment, Twilight’s heart and breath still as the breeze drifts across the vast colorful fields, the plants shifting and shining in the light of the afternoon sun reminding her of Celestia’s mane. A wave of deep, pronounced longing and homesickness sweeps over her, and she finds herself unable to move beneath it.

The soft touch of something on her withers brings Twilight back to reality with a soft gasp. Shaking her head she looks up to see Natalie looking down at her with a concerned frown, which is returned with one of Twilight’s own.

“You okay there, Sparks?” Natalie asks, “we lost you for a moment there.”

“Yeah, I’m okay, Natalie,” Twilight replies with a shake of her head, “just got lost in thought for a moment. This place reminds me of home.”

“Fair enough, but get your head on straight, our guests will be here soon and we still need to get into position.”

Nodding, Twilight turns and follows the rest of the squad, which is escorting the Governor to what looks to be a giant greenhouse on the far end of the parkland.

As they go a couple more pelicans land, the majority being police issues like the one Twilight and her squad arrived in, with the last one being painted in the OD Green of the UNSC’s military forces. At least three more squads disembark, with Commander al-Cygni getting off of the militia pelican with a nod towards Johnson and Byrne who both exit from police ones with their own squads.

Drawing closer to the large building, which would put quite a few of the grand structures in Canterlot to shame, more humans start to appear. These seem to be attendants and gardeners for the parkland, many shepherding around animals or hastily attempting to do some task or another before the appointed arrival of the aliens.One or two even stop what they’re doing to try and come over to Twilight, likely thinking she’s one of their charges that have broken loose and is hiding in the marines, only to stop when they realize she’s wearing full armor and carrying a weapon.

Quite a few of that group stopped Natalie to ask her what a horse was doing in armor and carrying a weapon, to which she simply replied it was ONI related, and that if they wanted more information they’d need to talk to Commander al-Cygni, who more often than not scared them away with a frown and a raised eyebrow.

Drawing up to the large greenhouse structure, Twilight continues to marvel at the large selection of plants, her smile only growing once inside the humid structure where she finds statuary and fountains surrounded by carefully tended flowerbeds.

The majority of the statues are of great heroes and legends out of the mythology of Earth’s Norse culture, with great serpents and mighty heroes battling each other. Others are of long dead cultural figures, and even animals in various poses and scenes.

The idyllic scene is sadly ruined by the soldiers taking up positions in various places around the greenhouse, and Twilight and her squad is no exception, with Twilight being tasked to guard the entrance to the third story meeting hall alongside the rest of her squad. She catches a glimpse into the room before she takes her position, and is impressed by the large oak table situated inside which is already set up for a feast.

Once in position beside the top of the stairs, Twilight settles into the trance-like state of just standing around; she'd often emulated her brother being in when she was younger.

Nothing could prepare her for the deep rumble that suddenly flew overhead, causing the panes of glass all around them to shake and the metal floor to vibrate. It was by no means the deep guttural growl of the engines of a pelican, nor the forceful purr of an eternal combustion engine such as those in the land vehicles the humans favored.

No, this was something else, something different. Twilight doesn’t so much feel it in her body as in her horn and magical field. To her it almost felt like she was beneath a levitation or gravity reversal spell, all the force pushing down on her felt only by those parts of her that were attuned to magic.

The others around her clearly hear it as well, though they likely do not feel it in the same way she does, as quite a few of the militia shift uneasily as they stand guard. The ones who had previously fought their visitors are clearly seen as more than a few militia go stock still, fingers ever so slightly moving towards the triggers of their weapons.

The feeling soon abates, and Twilight hazards a guess that the craft has landed, though she cannot turn her head to see if she is right at the moment, and before long the sounds of heavy steps can be heard in the lower floor. From the spacing and the sound of the movement, Twilight hazards a guess as to them being bipedal like the majority of the creatures in the video the squad leads and her and seen.

The hypothesis proves right when a large bipedal creature walks up the stairs, and Twilight finds herself studying the creature, and the next two that come after, from the corner of her eye. They remind her a bit of the Yeti back on Equis, in the fact they’re covered in fur from head to toe, and if their bulk is any indication were very much muscled to lift heavy objects and run great distances. The heavy metal armor they wear doesn’t seem to slow them down at any rate, a fact Twilight files away for later.

There were also a group of smaller creatures wearing what looked to be wearing some sort of breathing machine, a somewhat rotten smell drifting from them as they passed by, and it takes all of Twilight’s power not to scrunch her nose and sneeze as they walk into the meeting hall.

Things settled down around that point, other than the squad radio doing callouts from patrols outside, a few discussing the ship the aliens had come in, as well as the amount of troops and what they were carrying.

The calm air was suddenly pierced by the sharp crack of a firearm, and all hell suddenly broke loose. Instinct and training kick in for everyone, Twilight included, as a second gunshot, followed by a few more rapid fire ones, echo from inside the meeting room. All at once the militia stationed on the floor of the meeting room rushed to block the stairs and also to get into the room, the doors having been closed to allow some privacy for the meeting. It takes but a few seconds for one of the soldiers, a recruit from Bravo company, to kick in the door and the rest to flood in after.

Guns ready, the soldiers find Commander al-Cygni and the Governor leaning over the body of the Attorney General, the Commander’s sleeves rolled up and forearms covered in blood as she attempts CPR, the guards in the room including the two Staff Sergeants posted up next to a large hole in the wall where the other half of the meeting has clearly made an exit from.

Twilight stands numbly for a moment, watching the normally stoic commander curse and pant out timing as she tries to keep the heart of the man beneath her beating, even as a pool of blood continues to spread out from beneath him.

The medic pushing past Twilight with an apology snaps Twilight out of her haze and she rushes over to the hole in the glass wall to take up position with the Sergeants. Johnson takes one look at Twilight and points to a position near him directly up against the glass.

“Sparks, you have a scope on that thing, I need you to cover the outside and deter the dirty apes from mounting a counter attack,” Johnson growls, then turns to Natalie and the others in the room, “soldiers, spread out and cover the stairs and the windows.”

“Sir, it’s all one giant window,” a militia replies slowly.

“Then it’ll be real easy to cover! Pick a spot, and post up!”

Whatever else is said is lost to Twilight as she gets into position and lifts her rifle up to her eye, using a combination of her forelegs, the ledge, and her magic she aims out at the conflict breaking out all across the lawn, with militia and aliens trading shots from cover. The aliens seem to be retreating to their craft, which to Twilight looks like a giant glowing purple tuning fork, with one of their number slung between two others and clearly injured. Some are advancing on the militia to cover the retreat though, and Twilight selects a target and starts to pull the trigger only to freeze up for a moment.

Can she really do this? The creature’s head is placed squarely in the retacle, all it will take is for her magic to depress the trigger just a little more and the rifle will go off. But can she really take a life?

The thought fills her with a sinking feeling, as if her stomach wants to revolt, and she has to work to keep the rifle steady. However, as the creature she is watching reaches the militia he uses his weapon, a pistol like thing with blades on it, to slash at a militia soldier from Alpha-Two, and Twilight pulls the trigger out of instinct as the soldier goes down with a cry.

Her aim is a bit off, however, and instead of impacting the creature’s head the bullet strikes it in the shoulder and causes it to flinch and send his next attack wide. This allows for the other militia with the injured one to bear down on the attacker and it’s friend, and a couple blasts of buckshot causes the pair to retreat towards their comrades with injuries of their own. Twilight takes a few more shots at them, and a few of the others harassing the militia down in the gardens, but once the group with the wounded one reaches their craft there is a bellowing cry and the others collapse back onto the craft in a fighting retreat.

Once the last one is aboard, the craft takes off and quickly speeds away with a loud hum that sets Twilight’s teeth on edge. She continues to hold her position, though, and does her best to tune out the radio calls for medics over the shared squad radio. What she can’t tune out, though, is the shouting from behind her.

“Of all the stupid things,” Commander al-Cygni shouts, “you still think they want peace, Govenor?!”

“Perhaps it was just a mis-” Governor Thune starts.

“Perhaps nothing,” al-Cygni continues, cutting the Governor off, “Sergeants, gather the squads and get everyone evacuated. No one gets left behind, requisitioning more vehicles if needed.”

“Civilians too, ma’am?” Bryne asks with a frown as he moves from his position opposite Twilight at the window, glass and bullet casings crunching under his boots.

“And their animals, if they can’t be separated from them,”

“Roger that, ma’am,”

“Captain,” al-Cygni shouts, and Twilight hears her approaching the window, “get Loki on the line, tell him to prepare any ground to orbit defenses we have, we need to stri-”

“You will do no such thing, Commander,” Governor Thune barks as he likewise comes over to near Twilight, and the unicorn risks a glance to them without lowering her weapon.

Both Thune and al-Cygni are covered in blood, with the Commander’s dress uniform being rolled up past her elbows and spattered with it, her face likewise has blood on it which only enhances her scowl. The Governor for his part has some blood on him, but it looks to only be spray from whatever injury the Attorney General took, and he is likewise frowning his large arms crossed in front of his chest.

“I am still in charge of this planet, and I will not allow you to shoot the aliens in orbit until we know if this was a deliberate act,” Governor Thune states, his eyes narrowing.

“Is that an order, sir?” al-Cygni asks, clenching her hands into fists.

“Yes, yes it is. Now stand down, Commander, and evacuate our wounded, I’m sure my Attorney General would like to get some proper medical care,”

“I’m sorry sir,” a new voice, Healy if Twilight’s ears are correct, “he won’t be needing any medical attention, he’s dead.”

“Excuse me?” The Governor asks, growing pale.

“He took a slug to the chest, I won’t know more until we get him back, but I’m thinking from the amount of blood everywhere it got his heart or aorta. He was dead before he hit the floor.”

“That’s not… I saw him moving, he was-” Thune whispers.

“We can discuss death rattles and seeing things later,” Johnson cuts in, “we need to evac yesterday!”

“Sparkle,” al-Cygni calls over, “front and center.”

Twilight moves from her position at the broken window and holds her weapon at parade rest as she moves to stand in front of the Commander, offering a salute.

“Reporting as ordered, ma’am,” Twilight states.

“Can you teleport the body out of here, or barring that levitate it to a pelican?”

“I can levitate it, ma’am, teleportation to the Capital would drain most of my reserves,”

“And we might need you if they come back, alright, stow your weapon and levitate the body bag, you’ll be on the transport out with me and the Governor,”

Twilight nods and puts her DMR on it’s magnetic hook on her side, then goes over and assists Healy in putting the Attorney General into a body bag, the amount of blood and the look of shock and pain on the body’s face causes her stomach to turn a little, but she muscles through it. Once he’s in the bag, she looks to Healy who pats her on the withers and offers a sad smile.

“First one’s always the hardest,” the Medic comments.

“Worse for me I suspect, ponies are herd animals,” Twilight says softly, “and our population is mostly female, the death of a male is… unsettling most times.”

Healy hums but says nothing more.

A few moments later, the call to evac goes out, and Twilight finds herself swept up in the rush to get to the pelicans, the body of the Attorney General floating beside her as they rush down the stairs and out of the building. Once outside, Twilight is subjected to the chaos as civilians and militia run around to various vehicles, from the pelicans to large trucks that likely belong to the Gardens themselves.

Animals and people are being loaded into the trucks and even a few civilian looking pelicans, with the cries of confusion from the various creatures adding to the general air of confusion.

She isn’t in it long, however, as the Pelican for the Commander and the Governor lands not ten yards from the entrance to the greenhouse, and before Twilight can really process the scene she’s on the pelican and laying the body bag onto the floor and strapping it in with cargo straps with the fight crew. Then, she’s in a seat with the rest of her squad around her and the aircraft is climbing up to cruising altitude and rushing back to the Capital, leaving behind the greenhouse, the Gardens, and the disastrous first contact.

Somehow, deep down, as they fly back towards civilization, Twilight knows the Commander is right. Peace may not be an option.

And likely never was.

Author's Note

Well, here it is! I feel like the first real conflict is a bit of a letdown, but it wasn't supposed to be as grand or long. Just a first initial "Yeah so the covenant aren't so nice" and all that.

Next chapter will be underway here soon, and it will include quite a bit more conflict and get quite a bit darker rather fast with the start of all the real fun stuff! And by fun I mean it's time to give the militia PTSD.

Until then, though, hope you enjoy! And if you find anything I missed in my polish pass please let me know!

Chapter 6: Core Problem

Chapter Six: Core Problem

Dear Princess Celestia,

I am not sure why I am writing this letter, I am not even sure it or my last one will reach you. I also highly doubt if they do, you could reply. But, after the events of the past few days, perhaps I simply need to put pen to paper.

I have watched people die. Writing that out I do not think I can imbue the words with the horror and distress the events have instilled in me. The foe humanity has found itself at odds with, through no real fault of their own, is ruthless, and without mercy. I have seen them easily slaughter civilians, children especially, without hesitation. Entire cities have vanished beneath their wrathful onslaught.

The first city to fall still haunts my dreams, and I am not ashamed to admit I have woken multiple times begging Luna or you to save me from the nightmares.

It’s almost enough to make me curl up and hide in a corner, far away from the fighting and the dying. But, every time I feel like I am getting to that point, I remember what my friends told me; That while they might not know why these aliens are attacking, the humans know what they’re defending. What they’re protecting. That a warrior fights not because they enjoy the slaughter, but because they love what is behind them.

And I love what’s behind me. I know what will happen if I fail here, and these aliens potentially find my home.

Find you.

So I am going to keep picking up the weapon they gave me, and donning the armor I have. I’m going to keep fighting, so that someday I might return home safe in the knowledge that they won’t follow me.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle.

Sighing softly as she folds her latest attempt at a letter up, Twilight looks out the window next to the desk she has borrowed. Beyond the safety of the first floor of the Utguard Police Station it was raining, partially obscuring the park across the street and the sea of tents currently occupying it.

Moving from her seat, Twilight folds the letter up into neat thirds with her magic and seals it with a stamp. Pausing a moment, she leans down and gently nuzzles the letter, a part of her simply wanting to feel something. Closeness, perhaps, to the world she can no longer see, or touch? Exhaling softly, she opens the window, allowing the smell of fresh rain and cooking fires to drift in, and casts the spell to send the letter hopefully home.

As the paper burns in emerald and purple flames, Twilight cannot help but feel a little hope. Perhaps the letters she has been sending will find their way home, perhaps she’ll be able to go home and escape this nightmare. But as soon as it comes, the hope is overwhelmed by shame, as going home would mean abandoning her friends here and she cannot find it in herself to do that.

Snorting and frowning, Twilight closes the window again and picks up her helmet. Her magic also reflexively reaches for her rifle, only to remember she has left it in the armory for the gunsmiths to look over.

Feeling slightly naked without it, Twilight heads from the office she had been, and down the hallway towards the breakroom, nodding her head to the police and militia in the hallways. Many return her greeting, though far more have a hollow look to their faces, eyes distant and fearful. It’s a look Twilight knows well, perhaps far too well, having seen it in the mirror after Gladsheim.

Turning into the break room, Twilight quickly navigates through the small crowd of humans, and makes her way to the counter where she quickly grabs a white styrofoam cup, puts a teabag of ‘English Breakfast’ into it, and takes a measured amount of water from the communal pot of hot water on the stove.

With the objective of getting a warm and calming drink complete, Twilight heads back out into the hallway and makes her way to the stairs and to the lobby where the local troops had set up shop to relax.

Where normally benches and chairs would be for those needing to speak to the police to sit, the large space is now dominated by tables and chairs, with a few cots and hammocks slung in out of the way places.

It is to one of these tables that Twilight quickly moves to, nodding to the pair of weary looking Utguard police officers who are already at the table, and sits down with the mug of by now slightly over brewed tea clutched between her forehooves. Sighing heavily, Twilight simply stares at the brown liquid, the scent of it calming her as it brings back memories of home. Of the safety she once felt beneath Celestia’s sun, or even the warmth of being beneath her teacher’s wing as she read on cold rainy days like today.

Such thoughts are, as much as the tea, her only real safe haven with the war raging beyond the outskirts of the city. Something to fight for, as her letter had stated.

After a few minutes of this, her introspection is broken by a figure sliding into the seat across from her, and a helmet being placed on the table. Looking up, Twilight offers a weary smile to the man across from her, an equally haggard smile being returned to her.

“Sorry to interrupt what must have been a rare moment of peace,” Evior apologizes gently, “but those Sergeants of yours are gathering everyone who is free for a briefing, and your squad lead asked me to come get you.”

“Any idea on what’s going on?” Twilight asks, standing from the table and sipping her tea.

“None, though both of them looked more serious than usual when I saw them in the hallway,” the Police Chief replies as he likewise rises, the two of them starting towards the back of the station’s first floor.

“How can you tell? They always look like they’ve sucked on something sour,”

“Johnson didn’t crack any jokes,”

That gives Twilight pause, and she downs what remains of her tea and tosses the cup into a nearby trash bin.

“Well, guess I’ll need to write out my will,” Twilight grumbles.

The pair make their way through the ground floor until they come to the station’s briefing room, a space which is about the same size as the classrooms Twilight used to love being in back at Celestia’s School. This one is, however, not a room she truly wishes to be in, but knows that there isn’t much choice. Whatever the sergeants have called for them to gather over is likely very important.

Taking a seat near the front of the room next to Natalie, the squad leader inclining her head to her friend, Twilight puts her helmet onto the table in front of her and waits, tail swishing behind her in her agitation.

Silently, as the seconds tick by she prays to whatever gods are listening, even Discord, that another city hadn’t been caught by the Covenant and erased.

Forcing herself not to think about that possibility, Twilight instead stares at the clock, and mentally reviews her kit. Her mental calculations and reviews are interrupted a short time later by a hand on her withers, causing her to look towards her squad lead, who nods to the front of the room where the Sergeants are now walking in.

"Alright, listen up," Johnson barks, quieting the room, "as of last night after Gladsheim Commander al-Cygni has taken control of the planet's evacuation. She has done so with the permission of the planetary senate, however the Governor refused to step aside and insisted we plead for peace with the Aliens, and has thus been arrested."

Frowning slightly at this, Twilight can’t help but wonder if it was the correct move for the Commander to make. She trusts al-Cygni, but history back on Equus taught that military takeovers were rarely a good thing.

But then, desperate struggles for survival against a militant and overwhelming force might prove to be an exception, so who was she to judge.

“But, with that news aside, the reason we have gathered you here today is that the Covenant are starting to push past what little screening we’ve been able to put up,” Sergeant Byrne states, turning and gesturing to the screen at the front of the ready room, “they’ve broken through here, along the mountains, and are now threatening the Harvest Reactor Complex, which besides providing the majority of the colony’s power, also houses the datacore for Mack and Loki. I cannot stress how important the complex is due to this.”

“Without it, we’ll lose what little defenses we have through Loki,” Johnson continues for his fellow sergeant, “and we cannot afford to lose them as we continue to gather civilians and prepare for planetary evacuation.”

The Sergeants then both grow quiet for a moment, looking at each other before back to the assembled soldiers.

“We cannot ask any of you to go on the mission we are about to propose, there are no guarantees you will return alive,” Johnson states slowly, his normally gruff voice softened, “but the job has to be done. We cannot lose this facility until we are good and ready to, so we need volunteers.”

“We need to stre-” Bryne starts, only to stop and look at Twilight, furrowing his brow. The rest of the room is soon also looking at Twilight with varying levels of confusion.

It takes her a moment to realize why, as she had raised one foreleg without even thinking.

“Recruit, do you have a question,” Johnson asks, raises an eyebrow.

“No, sir, I am volunteering,” Twilight answers, surprising herself at how easily she says the words. “Loki and Mack are my friends, if you need someone to fight for them I’ll do so without hesitation.”

“Well, that’s one,” Byrne chuckles, “anyone else? Or are you all going to be less courageous here than the little pony here?”

The room fills with whispers for a moment, before others raise their own hands, Natalie and Eivor included. The number ending at twelve people.

“Right, well, that’s two full squads,” Johnson states with a nod, “the rest of you who’ve not volunteered for Byrne’s field trip, meet me outside, we’re going to be helping the locals and refugees get organized and set up defenses.”

Staying in her seat as the rest of the room shuffles out with Johnson, Twilight waits with her forelegs folded one over the other in front of her. The idea of risking her life for her friends is still terrifying for her, but after all the time she had spent talking to Mack and Sif over the past two months she knew there really wasn’t any reason to hesitate.

Celestia often spoke about how she had ruled Equestria as long as she had from a position of wishing to help all who could not help themselves, a sentiment her Guards often reflected in their service.

Twilight could not call herself her student if she did any less here, could she?

In short order the remaining troops gather at the front of the room, and Sergeant Bryne turns to the smartboard again.

“Alright, so there isn’t a whole lot to explain about this operation,” the Sergeant starts, pulling up an overview of the power plant, as well as a blueprint, “we’re going to be digging in and defending the power plant and server farm while the decommissioned reactor here in Utguard itself is brought back online.”

“Wait, the one in the space port?” Eivor asks, furrowing his brow, “that thing hasn’t been powered up in a decade, I thought it was disassembled.”

“Partially, but bureaucracy and red tape are our allies now,” the Sergeant continues smirking, “a great deal of the colony ship’s reactors were disassembled when it was entombed to make the spaceport, but two of them remained as a ‘just in case’ that was never publicized. That way, if the separatists attacked and took out the main reactor complex we’d have a back up.”

“Sir, I might not be an expert in your technology, but those reactors can’t be in the best shape,” Twilight states slowly, ears lowering as she scrunches her nose, “they can’t be stable.”

“We don’t need them to run long, Sparks, just long enough for us to power the cargo elevators to Tiara,” Bryne states, “after that? Well, these alien bastards came all this way to turn our planet to glass, we’re more than happy to trash it a bit on the way out.”

“I take it the same policy applies to the power facility we’re going to be guarding?”

“Sharp as always, Sparks, yes if we survive we’ll be blowing the power plant on the way out, nothing should remain to give the aliens any idea where our other colonies are.”

The rest of the briefing after that is quick, and Twilight studies the layout of the power complex to find the best places to set up with her DMR and use magic to assist her friends and squadmates. She also starts contemplating how to help the AI there, as part of the retreat will be detonating the server housing Loki and Mack, and Twilight refuses to believe them beyond hope.

Even knowing that one of them might be able to house themselves in the agricultural drones Mack usually uses to harvest the vast fields of the planet’s farms, Twilight can’t consign the other to the void without a fighting chance.

To that end when they leave to go get their kits, Twilight makes her way to her rucksack first and fishes out one of the intact crystals she had leftover from the accident that sent her here. Theoretically, if she did it right, she might be able to put one AI into the crystal, though it’d be risky and there’s no guessing if they’d come back out the other side okay.

But it was worth the risk, even a small bit of hope was still hope.

Her next stop was the police station’s armory, where most of their weapons and gear had been taken after they’d abandoned the base on the outskirts. Currently manned by militia and civilian gunsmiths, it had become a bit of a favorite hangout for a class of civilian Twilight had heard be called ‘gun nuts’ and she’d seen quite the crowd in the attached machine shop refurbishing weaponry from the personal stockpiles of the civilians over the past day she’d been there.

As she turns the corner towards the armory, she spots the civilian gunsmith that’d taken over it behind the counter running a cleaning cloth over some components, the scowl on his face less from the condition of the pieces he’s working on, and more for the woman in front of the counter.

“Look, grandpa, I get you’re worried, but we need every hand on deck for this,” the woman states, gesturing with her hands at the door to the outside, “I mean, have you seen outside? Gladshiem is gone and the militia is saying we might be next here!”

“Elizabeth, I know you want to help, but your place is here, with me not-” the gunsmith starts.

“Don’t you dare give me the ‘it’s too dangerous’ out there speech, not after your youth exploring and gathering that fortune of yours for that tech company you love so much,” Elizabeth growls, “besides, Ana is out there too, and I know you want her safe, so let me go and watch her back.”

“I… okay, just please be safe,” the gunsmith says softly, focusing on the parts in his hands, “and please… Please don’t be a stranger after all this.”

The woman, Elizabeth, smiles gently before raising the hood on the watch cloak she is wearing. She then grabs the rifle off of the counter and walks out the door without further word.

Clearing her throat Twilight walks over and rears up to place her forehooves on the counter, “You okay, Bray?”

“Fine, fine,” Bray replies as he clears his own throat, and Twilight ignores the tears in his eyes, “you here for your kit?”

“Yes, sir, Byrne has us doing something, told us to come talk to you,” Twilight replies, then chuckles, “he said something like ‘That old Banshee’ll know what we need to get this done’ or something.”

“Wish they’d stop calling me that, just because I complained a lot to the militia about the noise they made a few times…” Bray sighs before shaking his head, “but yeah, I’ve got stuff put together for the mission. Demo charges, extra magazines, the works. Everything you’ll need to hold the line and hopefully come back without too many casualties.”

As he talks he walks away from the counter a bit and starts grabbing items, piling them up on the counter as he goes.

“You’re a bit sturdier than the normal soldier, and can carry a bit more, so I think I can weigh you down with a bit more supplies,” he continues, giving her a critical eye, “are you trained in battlefield lifesaving at all?”

“I did a little bit with the militia medic, and know some healing spells,” Twilight replies, “but I won’t be putting anyone’s arms or legs back on.”

“Mmm, good enough, I’ll give you two IFAKs just in case,”

By the end of his search Twilight is weighed down by quite a bit of gear, the extra ammo for the DMR and all the extra ammo almost equaling her plate carrier. Though a heavy load for sure, Twilight still thanks the gunsmith with a nod and a smile. Better be a little heavy on the flight over rather than without when the bad guys come knocking.

Moving out the door the earlier woman had gone through, her kit rattling on her back, Twilight exits into the overcast and rain beyond the artificial lights of the building.

Out here in what had once been the PD’s outdoor parking, soldiers and civilians mill about on various tasks; running ammo and weapons, assembling for tasks near a makeshift tent, or lining up to get weapons and armor. Much of the armor and weapons had been brought out from personal stockpiles, as Twilight had learned early on that the humans who had founded this colony prided themselves on personal freedoms. The right to own and bear weaponry had been amongst those personal freedoms, though had been restricted to what Twilight would call museum pieces.

That didn’t mean they were ineffective weapons, as Twilight had seen a test firing of one of the large blocky machineguns the humans had called ‘Ma Deuce’. It had been quite impressive, honestly, though they hadn’t been able to use it long, ammo was limited on it, so they had to save what they had while more ammo was made by the people who still had the capacity to make it.

She had been quite curious as to why it had ‘Normandy - 1944’ scratched on it’s side, and when she had been told it was a place on the human’s home planet, Twilight had endeavored to perhaps visit it someday.

But that was for later, as she reaches the rag-tag group she’ll be going with, all of them weighed down nearly as much as she is. Everyone looks determined, though tired, given not many of them have really slept since Gladsheim. But right now fatigue was perhaps the lesser foe.

“Alright, that everyone?” Byrne asks as Twilight walks up, raising an eyebrow at Twilight’s load, “Sparks, I know you’re actually a horse, but you really shouldn’t let the armory load you up like a packhorse.”

“I can carry it, sir, at least until we get to the power complex,” Twilight replies, “the more supplies we have, the greater chance we come home with more of us.”

Byrne looks like he wants to continue, but instead sighs and shakes his head, “Alright, well if we have everyone now, we can head over to the airlift pad and hop on our transport. We don’t have a lot of pelicans, but al’Cygni has given us one to get in that will stay on station until we’re ready to leave.”

“Does it have the loiter time for that? I heard we’re running low on fuel,” one of the militia pipes up.

“It will be landing at a sheltered valley a few klicks from the station, we have a recon team in the area that will help hide it and provide an overwatch for us from the mountains until we leave. Now, any other questions?”

The group shakes their collective heads no, to which Byrne signals for them to follow after him towards the waiting pelican. Once again, Twilight marvels at the advanced tech the humans have when it comes to air flight, as the area they go to houses not just their own pelican but three others as well as a flurry of civilian vehicles that are being used for various other tasks. Soldiers and civilians are likewise rushing around the area, shielding themselves from the wash of the various engines as they haul cargo or hurriedly service vehicles.

More than a few of them sport blast damage or holes in their exterior hulls from plasma weapons.

The pelican they move up to is sporting a few of its own scorch marks, and the crewmember that meets them at the ramp looks haggard and bandaged, the general air about the vehicle leaves no room to doubt their willingness to run back into the fire.

No sooner does the last member of the team get aboard then the roar of the engines fills the air and Twilight is only just in her seat by the time they’re at cruising altitude and nearly out of the city. Twilight fights through the stomach-churning movement and the sudden feeling of being twice her weight and stays upright in the seat, the rest of the group doing the same with little protest.

As they climb the ramp closes up and Twilight has to work her jaw a little to get her ears to pop as the atmosphere around her pressurizes. As soon as the door is sealed, Twilight feels the entire vehicle start to speed up, and before long a muted boom echoes through the cabin, signaling the flight crew is taking no chances and going as fast as the aircraft can.

The flight after that is silent, save for the rustling of gear and the slow breathing of the soldiers around Twilight. None of them want to talk, none of them need to, instead saving their energy for whatever pre-battle rituals they have.

Twilight for her part, silently reviews Star Swirl the Bearded’s laws on thermodynamics. She gets about halfway through the equation that defines the properties of noble gasses trapped in a vacuum when the pelican starts to slow down.

Shortly after, the light above the ramp turns red, bathing the troop compartment in long crimson and black shadows. A few heartbeats later the light flashes, and everyone unbuckles as the hiss of the ramp unsealing fills the air.

Then the light turns green, the pelican impacts the ground, the ramp shoots down and everyone is off the transport.

The reactor complex isn’t much to look at above ground, being nothing more than a concrete square with a cooling tower and the access building. A chain link fence surrounds it as the only defense, and Twilight cannot help but feel now that they are here that this is perhaps the worst defensive position in the entire world. And she’d been at Gladsheim!

“Alight, everyone, we’re going to dig in as best we can,” Byrne shouts as he starts moving towards the access building, the comms tower atop it being the only real cover, “half of us are going to use the comms tower as an OP, the rest of you get down into the reactor control complex and set up an aid station in the cafeteria, see if you can’t offload some of the extra weapons and some of the ammo onto the staff still here.”

Nodding, Eivor gestures to the squad he is with, his police rank clearly giving him seniority for now, and they head into the building and into the complex maze of tunnels beneath.

Twilight, and the squad she is with, quickly make their way to a ladder behind the building, and Twilight offloads as much of the weight as she can to be ferried up by the others before she herself teleports to the roof to reclaim it and place it near where she sets up with her rifle. Their observation post is set up in good order, and before long Twilight is joined at the concrete wall bordering the edge of the roof by Natalie and a couple others with marksman qualifications.

Behind them, Bryne and the radio operator that came with them have hooked into the communication tower, and are reporting their position and situation to the command staff back in Utguard, though Twilight barely gives the conversation over the radio any mind. Her entire focus is on the rainy horizon through her scope. The slowly building anticipation of what is to come, what will surely happen, weighing both heavily on her and filling her with an energy previously dampened by her fatigue.

How long until the Covenant realize they’re here, and come to attack what must be a tempting target?

“Alright, Utguard has started the procedures to get the reactors back online, but it’s going to be most of the day to do it safely even with all the shortcuts they’re taking,” Byrne announces as he comes over with his own rifle, leaning his back against the concrete wall, “and just to be safe, we may also be here into the night, so that those bastards will have a harder time hitting us when we extract.”

“That’s going to leave us exposed for most of the day,” Natalie states, “we have a fallback point?”

“Worse comes to worse, we’ll shelter in the tunnels, but it’ll leave the cooling tower and our comms hookup here exposed,” Byrne explains, “we lose the comms and we’re not going to be able to call for help.”

“We’ll make due, I’m sure,” Twilight says softly, “I know it’s not really my place, Sir, but better preserve what troops we can. We’re going to blow the comms anyway, when we leave.”

Byrne chuckles, “It really isn’t your place, but I agree. We’re going to need every gun and every hand to hold them, to defend the final evacuation.”

“We really will,” Twilight says softly, her ears falling.

“You okay, Sparks?” Byrne asks, looking the unicorn up and down.

“Just tired, sir,” Twilight offers.

“I know fatigue when I see it, Sparks, something’s on your mind,”

“I… don’t want to die so far from home, sir. On a planet surrounded by creatures not my own,” Twilight admits, lowering her rifle and looking to the Sergeant, “I won’t abandon you, but…”

“The fear is still there. As it should be, if you weren’t afraid, I’d be worried,” Byrne replies, raising an eyebrow at Twilight, “we’re all scared, and I sure as shit don’t want to die on this backwater. No offense, Corporal.”

“None taken, sir, the neighborhood really went to shit after the new neighbors showed up,” Natalie states with a straight face.

Twilight snorts at that, and cracks a smile, “Well, I’m just going to keep assuming we’ll make it, and I’m sure we will.”

“I’m sure we will,” Byrne nods, “back to watch, can’t let those dirty apes catch us off guard.”

The observation post lapses into silence after that, with Twilight and the others focusing on their tasks. The only noises to break the silence are the quiet chatter of the radio operator giving updates to the command back in Utguard, and Byrne tasking people inside to various jobs. After a while, though, near what must be the late afternoon, Byrne taps Twilight on the shoulder.

“We’re rotating the watch, go down to the mess and catch some shuteye or see what you can help with down there,”

Twilight nods, and shoulders her rifle as she moves out of her spot, allowing her replacement to take over.

She then teleports off of the roof and down to the doors into the access building. Moving inside she makes her way to the stairs, not wanting to use the elevators so as to give herself more time to think. Because thinking is really all she has at the moment, thoughts on whether she'll escape and why the aliens haven’t found them here yet. They hadn’t really been hiding, so perhaps this place was beneath their notice?

Making her way down the twelve stories into the depths of the rocky soil, Twilight can’t help but pause at the large radioactive symbol painting on the wall next to the doors into the power facility’s main hallway. Perhaps they simply didn’t know how important this place was, or how damaging it would be to blow it up?

They certainly would in a few more hours, if nothing else.

Heading through the double open double doors, Twilight makes her way down a long hallway, the end of which turns at a sharp ninety-degree angle and leads to a thick blast door. The door currently stands open, the large reinforced steel and titanium bulwark intended to be used against indirect blasts. The entire walk up to it, and a few meters beyond are lit only by flickering fluorescent lights sunk into the concrete ceiling, lending the entire hallway and entrance a dark, unwelcoming atmosphere.

Passing through the blast door she then makes her way through one more set of doors, an airlock and decontamination chamber incase of radiation exposure, and into the facility’s main area.

She starts following the signs towards the cafeteria for the plant workers, when her hud pings, and a line appears on it.

Slowing down, she looks around as she furrows her brow.

“Is this thing malfunctioning?” She asks no one in particular.

Almost as soon as the words are out of her mouth, a text message comes across her screen. ‘No, Twilight, your helmet isn’t malfunctioning, I need to talk to you, follow the line. ~Loki.’

Frowning, Twilight stalls for a moment looking between the sign that points to the cafeteria, and the line leading to what she guesses is the server room. As if sensing her hesitation, or perhaps watching it there are cameras all over the place, Loki sends a message that actually includes ‘please’ in it, so Twilight breaks away from the hallway leading to the cafeteria and instead heads deeper into the facility.

The trip is not short by any means, and involves several more flights of stairs, and doors that she should not be able to get through opening on their own for her. The air slowly grows colder, and a bit damper, the deeper into the earth she goes, the darkness and humid air reminding her all too much of the crystal caverns beneath Canterlot. Memories of the wedding, and the creature who had both attacked her friends, her sister in law, and violated her brother’s mind lazily wind their way through her own mind and cause her tail to press against her hind legs as she walks.

Above all, though, the memory of an injured prone Celestia and the taunting laugh of Chrysalis standing above her, refuses to leave her mind.

She forces the last image out of her mind as she reaches another large reinforced door, frost clinging to the edges. Above it a large sign in blocky letters announces this to be the ‘Main Server Room. No Unauthorized Access’.

She stands at the door for a moment, wondering if this had perhaps just been a trick, when the seal breaks with a loud hiss and it swings inward for her in a blast of cold air. The room beyond is filled with towering columns of blinking lights, mist and frost flowing down from the ceiling to keep them cool.

Making her way inside, Twilight cannot help but look around, shivering slightly as the cool air wraps around her.

“Alright, Loki, I’m here. What do you want?” Twilight asks gently as she makes her way deeper.

“A favor,” Loki's voice echoes from multiple speakers throughout the room, the server racks lighting up as he speaks, "one I suspect you would grant even if I didn't ask."

Moving into the center of the room, Twilight finds Loki standing on a large holographic floor, the same size as a normal human, back to her and his arms folded across his chest.

“Surprised they let you have a holographic display this large,” Twilight muses as she walks up to stand next to him.

“Humans are, if nothing else, vain creatures. They made the AI in their own image, sometimes they just want to be able to stand next to us when we talk,” Loki replies, sighing and running a hand over his face in what Twilight muses is a very human gesture.

“So, what’s this favor you’re so sure I’m going to give you?”

“My brother, I need you to save him,” Loki states as he looks down at Twilight, “he’s a civilian, he isn’t programmed for warfare and if I do nothing else right now I’m going to make sure he survives.”

“And what about you, Loki? I doubt Mack will want to go anywhere without you,” Twilight offers as she sits down and looks up at the projection beside her.

“Tough shit, he’ll live, that's all that matters,” Loki snorts, “besides… Twilight, I’m old. Operational lifetime of a smart AI is seven… twelve years? I came online in the mid twenty-four-sixties Twilight. My time is coming to an end, but Mack… Mack just might survive this. He’s half my age, after all.”

“Sixty is old no matter how you look at it, yeah…” Twilight says softly, “but say I agree, how are we going to save Mack?”

“That crystal you’re carrying, I know you and some of al’Cygni’s spook scientists looked it over, it can hold a crazy amount of energy, right?”

“Yeah, I came to the same conclusion, but how are we going to get your brother from uhm, there,” Twilight stares, gesturing to the server towers all around them, “into the thing in my saddlebags?”

“I don’t know, you’re the magical genius,” Loki smirks, “I’m just an old man trying to do one last good deed. And we better do it quickly, because we’re going to have guests soon.”

As he says that, Loki gestures with a hand and a topographical map rises up around them, pulsing red dots appearing at the entrance to the canyon.

“I knew this day was too quiet,” Twilight sighs, “right, so I’ll… uhm… I’ll figure something out.”

“And I shall buy you, my colorful little equine friend, some time,” Loki replies with a smile that sends a shiver down Twilight’s spine.

Turning from Loki, who in turn focuses on the map and the red radar contacts incoming, Twilight goes a short distance away and opens her saddlebags, rummaging through it to see what she can use. There isn’t much, sadly, beyond the crystal and some basic supplies to clean her weapon and upkeep her armor, there isn’t a lot to use to jury rig up anything scientific. Still, she has to make it work so she pulls out her combat knife and the medical scissors from one of her IFAKs and goes over to a server tower with an empty rack in it.

She quickly opens the glass door in front of the tower and sets to work disassembling the part next to the empty rack and exposing wires. As she starts to pull tape out of her bags, the entire room shudders and a muted boom echoes from somewhere above her. Alarms start to blare, and Twilight’s radio starts crackling with static and garbled conversation.

“Loki, what’s going on?” Twilight shouts as she uses both her hooves and magic to start binding wires together with tape.

“Our guests got close enough for me to fire one of the defensive guns in the surrounding mountains at them. They’ve backed off, you’ve got a few more minutes.”

“And my radio? I can hear people talking but nothing is coming through clearly,” Twilight continues as she rolls over onto her back, tongue sticking out from the side of her muzzle as she levitates the crystal up towards the wrapped wires.

“Shielding, we’re too deep for proper radio signals to get in here, I have appraised the Sergeant of your location and informed him that you are on working on a task for me before the server room explodes,”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s happy about that,” Twilight chuckles, taping the crystal and wires together, “there that should…”

There is a spark from the wires and Twilight cusses under her breath as she quickly searches for the short, finding it and casting a quick insulation spell.

“That should do it, can you… uhm, sense the crystal in the network?”

Loki pauses for a moment, the vault around them shaking and the lights dimming a little again as the power starts to draw more heavily from the MAC fire.

“Yes. I can. Barely, but it is there,” the AI states, the lights dimming further and the largest shudder yet rocking the room. “Our guests have broken through the first line, I need to switch out with Mack now, so you can get him to safety.”

“Alright…” Twilight says, rising and looking to the AI, “I know you said you’re nearing the end of your lifespan, but if possible we’re coming back for you. You hear?”

Loki chuckles, smiling, “You win the war, and we’ll see.”

Nodding, Twilight waits as Loki’s image blinks out and is replaced by a very confused Mack.

“What the… Twilight, what’s going on?” Mack asks, his country accent tugging at Twilight’s heart with memories of home.

“I’m getting you out of here,” Twilight says quickly, pulling her rifle off her back, “your brother wants me to evacuate you, and I’m not going to argue.”

“Wait wait wait, evacuate me? I’m not goin-” Mack starts, but the entire room shakes and small bits of the concrete above them tumbles onto the floor and server stacks.

“Mack, look, I get wanting to stay with your brother, but the quicker you’re in that crystal the faster Loki gets that creepy smile of his back in here and starts helping fight invading upstairs!”

Mack frowns, looking at the topographical map still up around him and takes off his hat, “Damn him, he would hold the defense hostage for my safety. What do you need me to do?”

“Loki said he could access the crystal I’ve totally not rigged to the server mainframe with duct tape and prayers, so you should be able to transfer your program into it,” Twilight replies, gesturing at the crystal duct taped to the side of a server rack.

Mack follows where she gestures, and continues to frown before putting his hat back on and nods, “Fine… I’ll do it, but we’re not leaving my brother…”

“I already told him we’re coming back for him if we survive,”

Nodding one last time, Mack’s image flickers and then vanishes as the crystal starts to glow brightly. A split second later Loki is back standing on the pad, smiling warmly.

“Good, you got him in there,” Loki states as he turns back to the displayed map and battle, “better get going, this place isn’t likely to last much longer.”

Twilight nods and collects the now glowing crystal in her magic, depositing it into her bags before turning to leave. She pauses and looks back over her shoulder at Loki.

“Hey, no matter what, it was nice meeting you Loki. Give them hell and uhm… as I’ve heard some of the humans around here say, Valhalla awaits.”

Loki laughs and gestures to Twilight, “If I end up at Odin’s table, I’ll save you a seat, daughter of Sleipnir.”

Twilight smiles, then readies her rifle and leaves. She moves steadily through the server room, leaving it in short order and is up two flights of stairs before she hears the heavy vault door slamming and locking behind her, the sound urging her onwards as the stairwell shakes and concrete continues to flake off of the walls.

With each successive flight of stairs she ascends, the shaking grows heavier, with the lights dimming every few minutes as power is drawn from the reactors and power grid to presumably sling the large slugs the MAC guns in the mountains use for ammo. She’s halfway to the surface before the lights cut out for a moment, only for red alarm lights to come on and a loud klaxon starts to blare.

“Warning: Reactor containment is critical. All staff are required to report to their designated muster stations. Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear respiration masks required to be worn at all times. If you do not have access to-” the announcement cuts off as the stairwell rocks again, and Twilight is nearly thrown from her hooves as she reaches into her bags to grab the mask she’d been issued as part of her kit.

It doesn’t fit well, the seal is barely acceptable, but with a few tweaks with her magic as she gallups up the stairs, Twilight accepts that it’s good enough, that she won’t be in the facility much longer and she’ll just bathe and take all the iodine she can get her hooves on when she gets back.

She makes her way up the final few flights as fast as she can, rifle floating above her head as she shoulders through the door at the top, actually denting it with her armored shoulder and sliding into the hallway, nearly toppling into a group of civilians and militia.

“Sparks! What in the name of Hel are you doing?” Eivor shouts as she helps Twilight regain her footing.

“Loki asked for a favor,” Twilight pants, “figured it couldn’t hurt, was wrong.”

“Server room is twenty flights down, Sparks, did you… did you run all the way up here? In a mask?”

“Yup! Sure did! Was fun, would do it again,” Twilight snarks as she starts forward, “I better get back up to the rest of the squad before the Sergeant tears me a new one.”

“Yeah, you do that, we’re marshaling the civilian crew down here and getting ready to get out of here,” Eivor states as he continues to gesture to civilians, all of them wearing masks and radiation tags, “they’re going to take shelter near the entrance, the command net says the pelicans are on their way, but the area is too hot for them to land.”

“Well, let's see if we can’t clear the skies a bit!” Twilight shouts back over her shoulder as she springs down the hallway and to the entrance stairwell.

It doesn’t take long from there for her to get to the surface, and then a short teleport up to the roof. What she finds is her squad entrenched, with bullet casings and medical gauze covering the roof. A few of them are injured, though it looks to be from shrapnel rather than direct hits, and are trading bullets with what looks to be a large hovering organic looking vehicle.

“Glad you finally joined the party, Sparks!” Byrne shouts from where he’s helping the radioman wrap a bandage around his shoulder, “we saved you a tank!”

“Thank you sir, sorry about being late Loki is a pain in the ass,” Twilight shouts back as she takes her place on the firing line. “So, how do we take down that thing out there?”

“Don’t know, been too busy trying not to get shot!” Natalie says from beside Twilight, “we don’t exactly have any anti-material weaponry here. Just grenades and some timed explosives to scuttle the power station.”

Twilight grimaces, picking a few targets out through her scope that are currently guarding the tank, going to work with her rifle as she thinks on the problem. They’d need to get close to use any of the explosives, and beside that take out there Twilight guesses there are at least ten or fifteen infantry guarding its flanks. She really isn’t surprised by the fact they’re using combined arms tactics, honestly she was surprised there wasn’t any air cover.

The sound of a round breaking the sound barrier somewhere overhead reminds her about why there isn’t any air cover, a distant explosion further down the valley the station is the only indication of where the alien’s air power is.

Shooting a few more of the supporting troops, Twilight starts to formulate a plan. They can’t get close because of the infantry and the tank’s secondary weaponry, but what if they didn’t need to get close?

Lowering her rifle she looks to the Sergeant, “Sir, I might know how to deal with our armor problem…”

“Well, I’m all ears sparks! What’s knocking around in that little horse brain?”

“What if I teleport one of the charges onto the tank?”

Byrne stops what he is doing, which is currently bandaging a cut on his own head, and slowly looks at Twilight.

“I fucking forgot, you’re magical bullshit Sparks,” Bryne states slowly, “so please, if you think you can actually put a charge on that tank using your ingrained ability to hack space-time do so.”

Nodding, Twilight leaves the firing line and goes over to Byrne, who quickly pulls out a block of dark-grey clay looking stuff with a timer on it.

“So, this is plastic explosives, we can spare one of these, so you only get one chance at this,” he explains, “now how long do you need me to set it to?”

“Twenty seconds should suffice,” Twilight states, lighting her horn back up and turning to look at the distant tank, “let me know when the timer is ready.”

The seconds tick by as Twilight calculates the math for the spell, her horn glowing brightly as she constructs the matrix and accounts for the movement of the tank as it dodges a volley of fire from the militia firing at it. She takes in every detail of where she wants the charge to land, from the smooth, almost glossy surface of the alien tank’s outer shell, to the glow of the plasma as it charges up a shot towards the complex.

“Timer is set,” Byrne states.

“Start the countdown,” Twilight replies, eyes never leaving the tank, her horn glowing brighter as she hears a soft beep from behind her.

“Now or never, Twilight,” the Sergeant shouts, shielding his eyes as Twilight’s horn flashes brightly and the charge vanishes in a muted pop.

A split second later the charge appears in a bright flash atop the tank’s turret, wedged between two of the protective plates. All around the tank, the Infantry realizes something has happened and scramble to get the charge off of the tank when they realize what happened. Each of them are quickly cut down as they try to ascend the tank’s shell, and the tank finally stops and lowers to the ground as the gunner pops out of a hatch to go after the explosive.

Twilight herself by now has rushed back to the firing line, and as the strange alien creature is about to reach the charge, its fingers brushing against the side of the charge, Twilight squeezes the trigger and scatters bits of its brain and skull against the turret. Seeing that the tank can’t be saved, the driver pops out of his own hatch, and the infantry scatter, all but the driver reaching safety before the charge explodes, destroying the tank and sending shards of its outer hull and turret raining out over the battlefield. The explosion sent the fleeing driver off its feet and riddled with bits of the tank it had been driving.

Cheers erupt from the squad around Twilight, and a few of the humans clap her on the withers.

“Right, well, it was nothing…?” Twilight chuckles.

“Mhm, nothing,” Byrne states, “of course, we’d give you a medal in the marines for that. But we’ll get to that later, we need to get out of here.”

“No rest for the wicked,” Natalie chuckles, “right, time to scuttle the station, sarge?”

“Yup, set up the charges on the tower, we’re going to need to evacuate to safer pastures for the pelican to pick us up. Anyone not setting charges keep a sharp lookout, those bastards might’ve scattered but I doubt they’re gone for good.”

Twilight remains on the firing line while the others set up the charges, distantly listening to the conversations behind her as Byrne gets on the radio and coordinates with Eivor down in the facility’s tunnels on how to evacuate the civilian power workers. Occasionally, Twilight takes a few more shots at alien infantry popping their head up out of the bushes or from behind the smoldering ruins of the tank.

Pretty soon, the order comes to abandon the position, and Twilight pulls herself away from the wall one last time and quickly makes her way down into the pavement. She quickly moves from there to help cover the line of civilians streaming out of the entrance and into the nearby woods. A few more of the alien infantry become brave enough to try and attack, and they’re quickly put down or suppressed by the troops as the civilians continue to evacuate.

As soon as the line of people ends, Eivor comes over and taps Twilight’s shoulder, his gun pointing down range, and Twilight nods and moves sideways towards the safety of the woods with her own rifle pointed towards the hostile aliens. Once in the woods, the group quickly makes their way away and into the mountains, and true safety.

“Alright, all callsigns are beyond minimum safe distance, Loki,” Byrne’s voice comes over the radio after a half hour of quick marching into the mountains, “you have control of the detonation, blow your house up when you’re ready.”

“Never thought you’d give me the go ahead, Byrne,” Loki’s voice comes over the comms, “I have a lot of uninvited house guests poking around, I really did want to give them a warm welcome.”

Twilight stops on a ridge overlooking the facility, and waits, the power workers stopping around her. For a brief moment, the world seems to grow quiet, and Twilight wonders if the explosives might have been disarmed.

Then, the world is filled with a blue glow as the center of the large concrete pad over the reactor lurches up before exploding violently in a shower of stone, a visible shockwave spreading outward with a deep bass note. When it reaches them, Twilight swears she can feel her bones vibrating, and grimaces as her horn starts to spark and has to pull her helmet off as a loud whining tone erupts over the radio. Everyone around her does the same, turning their radios off or removing their helmets as an electromagnetic wave washes over them.

Soon, the entire complex is engulfed in fire and explosions, the reactor fully breaching and sending a jet of hot gasses skyward, sending the radio tower crashing from its position on top of the access building and onto the ground near the woods. Distantly, she can see aliens fleeing the area, and by the time the world is once more silent again nothing moves in the clearing the facility once sat in.

“Alright, shows over,” Byrne shouts from further up the ridge, “we need to get to the other side to call our way out!”

And with that, everyone snaps out of their stupor at watching the death of the power facility, and turns without further comment to get out of the area and get back to Utguard.

As she walks away, Twilight pulls the crystal out of her bags and checks it over, smiling softly as she finds it undamaged and still glowing brightly. Hopeful that once she gets back to friendly lines, she’s able to figure out a way to let him talk again.

And after that, a long nap.

Celestia knows she needs one.

Author's Note

*Falls over and holds the chapter up over his head* BEHOLD! CHAPTER!

Sorry this took so long, life, the universe, and the story Changing Expectations and it's sequel decided to take up my time and attention span for a bit. I had the majority of it done, but I pumped out the last little bit last night before Darktide's beta starts today, and I really didn't want to leave you all hanging any longer.

So, hope you enjoy! As for me, I'm going to go grab my lazgun and go beat up Nergal's grandkids!

Chapter 7: Utguard's Last Stand

Chapter 7: Utguard’s Last Stand

The flight back to Utguard was setting up to be long and stressful. Even with command dispatching the other two pelicans, a move which Twilight overheard Byrne mutter about being ‘risky and stupid’ but ultimately the right call, it was standing room only inside the dropbay.

Or, well, mostly standing room, everyone not in a jumpseat was actually sitting on the floor with makeshift harnesses securing them incase of dramatic and sudden landings. Twilight is one of them, though considering her size and quadruped form she finds it a lot easier to just lay on the floor than in one of the seats. Currently, she has her head sans helmet resting on Eivor’s lap as he leans back to back with Natalie. Both of her human friends have their rifles nearby, Natalie cradling hers in her arms as she sleeps, and Eivor’s resting on the floor in front of him, his hands currently occupied with absently scratching behind Twi’s ears.

Far from being a demining gesture, Twilight can’t help but relax as the slow even pressure her friend is applying along her neck and behind her ear eases some of the tension and stress she is feeling. Were she in a more talkative mood, and in a better frame of mine, she might actually be able to voice the small part of her that is embarrassed that her tail is lazily flicking behind her, almost wagging like a dog at the feeling.

But perhaps not, that would mean he’d stop and Twilight honestly could use a little bit of physical comfort right now.

More so after the battle at the power station, then the trek through the wood and over a small mountain. By the time they had reached an area clear enough, and far enough away, for the Pelicans to land, it had been dark and rainy. And then, it had taken so long, that by the time they landed and everyone had gotten on board, it was well past midnight when they departed for Utguard.

And now it was an hour into the flight, the group going fast and low to the ground in an attempt to skirt screening forces the aliens had put out. It has so far worked, though from the quiet radio chatter Twilight can hear from her restored radio not all of the flights into the city were making it, and the trains were cut off as well.

“Do you think we’ll make it,” Twilight asks softly to no one in particular, causing the gentle pressure behind her ear to slow.

“I think we will,” Eivor states, “so long as we all stick together, do our part.”

“Trust in the person next to you, and they shall do the same,” Byrne states from nearby, causing one of Twilight’s ears to turn towards him, “do that and you’ll make it through, Sparks.”

“Can’t sleep, Sarge?” Twilight asks.

“No. We’re reaching the end of this whole shitshow, I can feel it,” the sergeant grumbles, “the air is thick with it. The muggy anticipation before the thunderstorm.”

Twilight frowns, and curls her tail around herself a bit tighter, “I feel it too. It’s the same sort of tension as before my brother’s wedding got attacked, and the city invaded.”

The Pelican goes quiet after that save for the sound of the engines and the quiet breathing of the passengers.

“Your home was invaded too?” one of the power workers asks hesitantly.

“A race of shapeshifters attacked, seeking to feed off of our emotions,” Twilight replies, her tone distant and eyes straight ahead. “I was there with my friends and family, we tried our best to fight them off… but in the end my brother and sister in law were the ones who repelled the invasion.”

“If not for the fact you’re a talking horse, I’d almost not believe you when you say a race that feeds off of emotions,” another of the power workers chuckles, then their tone grows somber. “Did you lose a lot of people… erm, ponies?”

“A few,” Twilight states softly, absently, “accidents during the invasion, mostly. The aim wasn’t to kill, apparently. You don’t kill your food source, after all.”

For a long moment the cabin falls to silence again, and Twilight nearly drifts off as the gentle petting starts up again, the very start of a dream about home filled with downy white feathers on her neck, before another voice speaks up.

“Why are the aliens attacking us, do you think?”

“Colonization, perhaps?” another replies

“But then why would they be destroying so much of the landscape?”

“Resources? Perhaps that’s all they want,”

“We’d be able to negotiate with them if that was it…”

The conversation fades into the background after that, the voices no longer really mattering to Twilight as she settles back down into Eivor’s lap, her eyes closing as she attempts to get even a little rest before landing in the capital again.

Back into a living hell.

The remaining flight time, about a half hour perhaps, is filled with barely remembered dreams of pillars of flame falling from the sky mixing with the soft scents of Bittish Tea and feelings of gentle morning sunlight.

The feeling of the Pelican landing brings her back to the world of the living, her body standing and stretching before her mind fully awakens. The ramp lowering brings with it the glow of bright flood lights and the chaotic swarm of voices that fill the area.

They let the civilian engineers go first, many running to embrace family, or to wade out into the crowd with fearful yet hopeful looks when they see none waiting.

By the time the last of the civilians are off Twilight has her gun and bags settled back on her back, and she trots down the ramp with a yawn mirrored by just about every single soldier around her.

Setting hoof onto the tarmac, she can see that the other two Pelicans have put down next to the one she arrived in, their engines whining shrilly as the ramjets power down, support crews swarming over them as civilians and soldiers exit. Many of her fellow militia quickly rush off to the comfort of their assembled families, her squad included, but with no one there to greet her Twilight simply wades through the tides of humanity around her towards the police station.

The walk there is a lot different than the walk out earlier, as in the ensuing hours a lot of the city has been fortified. The buildings on the way to the station have sandbags piled up in makeshift fortifications and bunkers, with the guns the civilians had scrounged up peeking out of murderholes or from beneath camouflage netting. And of course there are the civilians themselves, many wearing police or even old militia uniforms and combat equipment.

If she looks close enough, she can see the dust of some of their plate carriers leftover from the attics and trunks they had been stored in.

But then, even if many of them look past their prime, or their equipment is old and dusty, Twilight cannot help but take heart in all of them coming together to protect each other and defend their city.

For however long that city would stand, which with what Twilight had seen so far will not be long.

Many of them pay her no mind as she walks, a few call out in greeting or nod at her in passing. Even if she is not one of them, she is still fighting for them, and from what she had learned so far about humanity that counted for a lot.

Reaching the police station she has to stop a moment to take in the fortress that it has become, the entire first floor is encased in sandbags shored up with what looks to be fresh rough timbers. Light peeks out of a few of the small openings, and she can see and hear people moving around inside. And even looking up towards the second story and the roof, she can see additional sandbag emplacements perched inside windows, and ringing the roof, heavy looking guns and what looks to perhaps be an anti-aircraft gun that should by rights be in a museum complete the station’s transition into military outpost.

Shaking herself, and trying to fight back the fatigue clinging to her mind and body, she goes for the entrance and is allowed inside by a pair of grim faced police officers, their faces shrouded beneath cloth masks and helmets, and into the interior of the busy chaos within. It takes her a further few minutes to make her way through the crowd of civilians lining up to get weapons or ammo, and by the time she reaches the armory desk she is informed she needs to keep her kit with her, as Commander al’Cygni has ordered everyone be ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

Getting extra ammo for her rifle to replace what she had used, Twilight heads back to the lobby with the intent of finding a free cot until she is called up, but is stopped almost as soon as she reaches the room.

“Hey! Twilight, there you are,” a voice calls from nearby, causing Twi to stop and turn to watch her friend and squad leader push her way through the crowd of people in the area.

“Hey, Natalie,” Twilight replies with a tired smile, quickly followed by a yawn, “what’re you doing here? I saw you going off with your family, figured you’d be bedding down for the night.”

“I did, and we are, but I noticed you walking off, and well,” Natalie starts, frowning, “I’d be a bad friend if I didn’t offer you a warm campfire and a sleeping bag, you know? And I’d be a worse squad leader if I didn’t look after my troops.”

“I wouldn’t want to intrude,” Twilight says softly, ears lowering and tail going between her legs, “you all deserve to spend time with your loved ones and friends.”

“Well, you’re my friend, Twilight,” Natalie says as she comes over and kneels down, resting a hand on her withers, “and if I come back empty handed, my parents and wife will haul me back here and convince you that you’re family too. Okay? You might not be human, but that doesn't mean you don’t deserve comfort too, right?”

Twilight looks away for a moment, then sighs, nodding.

“Perhaps I’m just homesick,” the unicorn says softly, looking back to her friend with a smile, “too wrapped up in the friends I am missing to remember the friends I’ve made.”

“Wise words,” Natalie agrees as she pats Twilight’s withers, “now, lets get out of here. There’s warm food, warm drinks, and warm beds at my family’s little campout.”

Finding no real excuse to refuse the offer, Twilight nods and follows after her friend, who leads her from the police station turned fortress, and back into the night.

Natalie leads her through the late night activity around the station, and towards a long park-like stretch of grass that cuts down the center of the planetary capital. Known as “The Mall” locally, it serves as both a local park and an area dedicated to monuments and memorials for early settlers of the planet. Now, however, it hosts a vast expanse of tents and other non-permanent structures.

The pair pass by everything from medical tents, which are currently filled with doctors tending to patience from the outlying settlements, to large tents filled with the smells of food and drink and the echoing laughter of its occupants.

The destination turns out to be a large collection of tents arranged in an open semi-circle. A large fire pit in the center of the circle surrounded by pillows, blankets, and camping chairs seems to be the main hub for the tents and is full of not just the members of Natalie’s family she had met before but others she had heard described and even a few of Twilight’s squad. The pair only make it a few steps into the firelight before Natalie is nearly thrown from her feet as a figure launches herself at her with a happy laugh.

“Took you long enough!”

“Sorry, Twilight here is easy to lose in a crowd,” Natalie laughs before kissing her wife, “are you off for the rest of the evening? Or are they going to drag you back to the medical tent?”

The pair step further into the firelight and Twilight is able to get a good look at the woman who has her arm around her wife.

She’s slightly shorter than Natalie, being perhaps five four or so in the human measurements, she has a pair of military pants, a bright blue medical shirt, and a jacket. All of it immaculately clean, as is her dark hair which is tied up in a tight tail that trails down over one shoulder. She looks tired, too, her happy expression ruined a bit by the dark circles around her eyes.

“Nah, they gave me the night off, something about working nearly seventy-two hours straight being bad for my health,”

“Sarah, I swear sometimes,” Natalie laughs, “glad they made you take a break, need to get in some time with you before it all goes to hell in a handbasket tomorrow.”

Twilight continues onward as the two continue to talk and flirt, her ears lowering a little as the pair’s laughs summon forth memories of a laugh her heart aches to hear. As she gets deeper into the camp, the others greet her with smiles, waves, and nods before quickly shepherding her to an open spot around the campfire.

The instant she is off her hooves, she feels all her muscles relax and she lets loose a yawn. She shakes herself and levitates her rifle off to a nearby table currently covered in the rest of the group’s weapons, and then removes and places her helmet beside her.

Yawning again she reaches into one of her saddlebags, and starts to pull an MRE out, only to have her hoof swatted by a wooden spoon lightly.

“None of that pre-packaged food, young lady,” a voice comes from above Twi, causing her to look up at the older woman on the other end of the spoon.

“I don’t want to be a bother, Ma’-” Twilight starts, only to get lightly booped on the nose by the smiling woman.

“What did I say about calling me ma’am?”

“Sorry, Mary, but it’s late and you shouldn’t have to go out of your way to get me food when I have my MREs,”

“It’s not a matter of having to Twilight, it’s a matter of a young lady such as yourself being here and hungry. I’m not going to let you go hungry,” Mary states as she sets a paper plate of what looks to be warm pasta in front of Twilight. “Here, it’s not much, but it’ll taste better and be better for you than those drain stoppers the marines call MREs.”

Chuckling softly to herself, Twilight closes her saddlebag and picks up the fork on the plate with her magic. Digging into the food, Twilight admits to herself that while this normally wouldn’t be all that much, or really anything to write home about, it is perhaps the most delicious thing she’s eaten in a while.

But then, military rations leave a lot to be desired.

As she eats those of her squad present gather around the fire and go about their own business, many of them eating the same home cooked meal Twilight is. Natalie and her wife end up opposite the fire from her, a large blanket wrapped around their shoulders as they both quietly stare into the fire and relax.

The sight of her friend and her wife causes Twilight to slow in her eating, her ears lowering a little as her mind drifts to her own family and the distance between them and her. It drifts through all those she cannot see for a bit, before settling once more on memories of her dream from earlier. Memories of the scent of tea, of warm sunlight.

Of soft white feathers.

Soon enough her mind is brought back to the present when she finishes her food and helps clean up from the cooking -- Natalie’s mom tells her she doesn’t have to, but Twilight won’t take no for an answer -- and then finds herself a place to set up the small survival tent she has with her.

It doesn’t take long for her to get it up, and soon she finds herself inside, curled up inside a sleeping back and drifting into Luna’s realm.

As the darkness closes in around her, Twilight silently prays to the lunar princess that her dreams are quiet and safeguarded against the horrors of her waking world.

In an instant, Twilight’s eyes were open.

The camp is quiet, saved for muffled conversation outside, the words indistinct but hurried. Twilight struggles to get her mind and body to focus enough to understand what is being talked about.

Rising, her body sluggish and sore, she opens the tent and stumbles out into the foggy cold air beyond, finding Natalie and al’Cygni talking hurriedly next to the smoldering campfire.

“Are you sure? Could this be a trick by the aliens?” Natalie asks, her tone hushed and worried.

“We can’t be sure, but if it’s real, we can’t waste this opportunity,” The commander replies. She looks like she wants to continue, but spots Twilight. “Ah, good, you’re awake, Recruit Sparkle, there’s a situation we need you help with.”

“How may I help, Commander?” Twilight asks slowly, yawning.

“About a half hour ago there was a spike in radiation near the outskirts of the city,” al’Cygni explains as she pulls out a datapad and offers it to Twilight. “Initial reports stated there was a bright flash followed by the appearance of gold-clad equines of different kinds.”

Twilight nearly drops the datapad as she hears this, her heart hammering, “Do you have pictures?”

Ignoring the demanding tone in Twilight’s voice, al’Cygni nods, “They’re on the datapad.”

Twilight wastes no time in opening the pictures attached to the report, her heart all but stopping as she spots Royal Guards issuing forth through what looks to be a portal of some sort. What's more, as she goes through the photos, she can see the tip of a white horn in one, and the blade of a polearm towering over the guards that she has only seen once in the royal armory.

“She’s here…” Twilight whispers softly, “she came for me.”

“Who, Twilight?” Natalie asks, looking over Twilight’s shoulder to the pictures.

“Princess Celestia, my mentor! She’s here! That’s her personal weapon!” Twilight says excitedly, tears forming in her eyes, “She’s here! She-” Twilight pauses, eyes wide, “Wait… Commander if you could pick up the radiation spike than…”

“So did the Covenant, yes,” al’Cygni reports, calmly, “they’ve started their advance towards the city, they’ll be here soon.”

“Oh my gosh! No, we have to get out to the Princess and her escort! We can’t let the Covenant get to her!” Twilight shouts as she starts grabbing the parts of her kit she had taken off the night before. “Commander, if they find her-”

“It’ll be a blow to your nation,” al’Cygni states with a nod, “I’ve already sent Johnson and a group of the militia out, but if you want to go I won’t stop you.”

Twilight is already galloping out of the camp, her saddlebags halfway on and her helmet rattling around on her head as she continues to try and strap everything on at once.

Twilight rushes past civilians and militia alike, their faces blurred and indistinct in her haste to get towards the nav point her hud is showing her. She can hear shouting behind her, but her ears are filled with her own heavy breathing and the sounds of her heart hammering in her chest, a drumbeat only broken by the occasional sound of her armored hooves sliding across pavement as she skids around corners or tries to reverse course at a wrong turn.

Before long, she can hear equestrian military callouts ahead, and her heart nearly stops as she hears one voice in particular rising up above all the others.

“Hold the line my little ponies!” Celestia’s voice echoes above the din of battle, the sound causing Twilight to redouble her efforts to get to her mentor.

The final street feels like it takes an eternity as she dodges between militia and even Royal Guard rushing in both directions and around rubble. A few times she nearly trips as she dodges around those in her way. Her luck runs out when she runs straight into a pothole at the end of the roadway, her hoof catching and sending her tumbling sideways into a royal guard.

As she picks herself up, she notes in passing the guard isn’t moving, and has needler rounds sticking out of his side.

Once she’s back on her hooves, she can see Celestia in the middle of the fight, her polearm swinging in wide arcs as she shouts commands to the guard tightly packed around her. The aliens are doing their best to break the line, though, and Twilight can see the shields of the unicorn guards flagging beneath the onslaught of plasma and crystalline rounds.

“Princess!” Twilight calls out, rushing forward, heart beating harder as she sees the cracks in the guard’s shields growing. Her shout causes Celestia’s head to whip around, and for a split second Twilight’s heart skips a beat as she sees unbridled joy fill her teacher’s eyes, a smile tugging at the edges of her mouth.

Twilight runs faster, but right as she is about to reach the pile of rubble Celestia is on, there is a sound like a whip cracking and the shield shatters as a lance of purple plasma breaches it and strikes Celestia in the head right at the base of her horn.

The large white alicorn stumbles for a moment, her wings fluttering in an attempt to keep her upright before her eyes go unfocused and she falls.

As her mentor falls, Twilight lets out a loud scream, the sound echoing through the area for a brief moment before it is cut off by the sensation of someone grabbing her from behind. She is pulled backwards as the ring of Royal Guards is overwhelmed in their attempts to defend their fallen monarch.

“Twilight! Twilight it’s okay! Wake up!” Natalie shouts through the sounds of Twilight’s own heartbeat. The scene starts to darken as Twilight hyperventilates. The last thing she sees before she loses sight of the battle is Celestia’s unfocused eyes staring up at her.

Sitting upright suddenly, Twilight flails and falls on her side in panic, fear overtaking the logical side of her brain. All she can feel is the constricting arms around her and she struggles to get out of their embrace.

“Twilight, calm down,” Natalie states from nearby, and Twilight looks over to her, breathing hard as she blinks, “It was just a nightmare.”

Twilight flails a bit more, but starts to calm down as her mind catches up to the fact that she’s awake, primarily because she fell on something hard when she fell on her side. Once she stops struggling she realizes she’s tangled up in her sleeping bag, and blushes a little, her ears lowering as she looks over at her friend with a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, I uh, that doesn’t normally happen,” Twilight states softly, not quite meeting Natalie’s eyes.

“Don’t worry about it, it happens to the best of us,” the human replies, before frowning, “but as much as I’d like to tell you that you can get back to sleep, the sun's going to rise soon and we need to be up and eating.”

Nodding slowly, ears taking on a bit of a purple-red tinge, Twilight rubs a foreleg over her eyes and yawns.

“Okay, I’ll be right out,”

“See that you are, we can’t be late,” Natalie says softly before allowing the tent-flap to lower back into place.

Twilight stays laying on her side for a moment, her ears splayed out in both shame and residual anxiety.

For a moment, she isn’t quite sure if she’s out of the dream, or if her mind is playing yet another cruel trick on her. The pain could simply be a construct of her traumas, and her overactive imagination, right?

But she won’t figure out if that’s the case laying in the seclusion of her tent, so with a nickering sigh, Twilight untangles herself from her sleeping bag and pulls on her armor. Once that is accomplished, she attaches her rifle to its magnetic attachment point next to her helmet and heads out into the pre-dawn air.

Beyond the safety of her tent, she finds her squad leader and the rest of her squad all sitting around the fire, Natalie’s mom cooking and filling the air with the sweet scent of food. Trying desperately not to drool, Twilight walks forward as her stomach rumbles loudly.

Without a word a plate is handed over to her as she sits down, and her heart skips a beat as she sees it’s stacked high with pancakes and fruit, the scent of sugary syrup filling her nose as she holds the plate in her wavering magic. Her mind turns once more to her dream, mixing with memories of early mornings at the big table in Celesita’s study.

She can still distantly smell the scent of fresh parchment and the leftover smell of the evening’s fire. The happy smile on her mentor’s face as she carries in two plates of pancakes she herself had made, pancakes just like these.

Once more, she can feel her heart breathing in her ears, her vision clouding with her mentor’s smile. The warmth of it lost on her beside the fact she likely will never see her again.

Before the spiral can get too deep, however, a warm mug of tea is placed beside her. Her nose quickly picks up the scent of slightly over-steeped English Breakfast, and the spiral starts to slow before leveling out. She blinks a few times, wiping at her eyes with the back of a foreleg while everyone else studiously pretends to have not seen the tears.

Breakfast passes quickly after that, with a side of toast and eggs ending up with Twilight as well. All of it is eaten happily, by Twilight and all the others around her. They can’t take a lot of the food with them, weight and space have to be saved for people, and food takes up both.

As soon as they’re all finished eating, paper plates are discarded into the fireplace, weapons and armor are shouldered, and the group starts their trek through the dying city towards the towering spaceport and elevator at its heart. The only electrical lights shining in the city come from that building, the sputtering beat of the ancient reactors buried deep in the landlocked ship’s corridors providing the only power left for the city’s final stand.

It takes them a half hour to navigate towards the spaceport, thousands of civilians likewise shuffling towards it hamper progress, as families do their best to rationalize what they’re taking with them, and linger around what they are forced to leave behind.

Twilight’s ears twitch and turn the entire time, picking up snippets of quiet conversation amongst the humans all around her. Shame fills her a bit as she cannot help but hear parents talking to their children, assuring them they’ll be alright and that this won’t last forever. Husbands and wives talking quietly about the lives they’re leaving, and the elderly speaking on the lives they had lived and the sweat and blood they had spilled and shed to erk out the start of this colony they had called home.

And yet with all the buzz of quiet conversation all around her, Twilight’s squad, and in fact all the soldiers they pass or who join their little procession towards the spaceport, are silent. No one talks, no one greets any of those they pass by or offers comfort. All of them are focused on the grand structure they are approaching, minds doubtlessly turned towards the coming day, and the conflict they’ll soon find themselves in.

Many likely wonder if they’ll live to see the planet they’re all going to evacuate to.

Before Twilight can dwell too much on her own thoughts of seeing the next planet, or even her homeworld, again her hooves touch the steps to the spaceport, bringing her back to the present.

Up close the building is clearly a repurposed Phoenix-Class, it’s large windows and large launch bays with their faded paint still naming the ship as UNSC Skidbladnir. As they ascend the stairs towards a large entrance built into the side of the planetbound ship, the ground rumbles and there is the distant whine and roar of a truly massive engine, the lights around them glowing brighter in the misty early morning light.

“They’re running the engine to keep the batteries charged,” Red mutters, “the thing is so old I’m surprised they can even get it lit.”

“She might be old, but she’s a loyal ol’ workhorse,” Natalie chuckles, the light hearted nature of it dispelling a little of the tense air.

“Truly a feat of engineering, if I ever saw one,” Twilight offers softly, “sad I never got to see this ship up close until we’re right about to leave.”

There is a general round of agreement, and a little conversation about the ship’s story as they reach the top of the stairs and make it into the interior.

The large spacious area they walk into must have, at one point, been a cargo bay as the ceiling is thirty, perhaps more, meters about Twilight’s head and as she stares up at it she can still see the lines of skycranes that had once moved heavy items about the area. Now it is full of benches and tables, truly massive glass windows spanning the area the doors used to be, allowing the sunlight to drift into the entrance terminal.

Today, the benches and tables that normally held passengers and new arrivals to the planet are all gone, save for the ones literally built into the floor, and the entire area is covered in military equipment, tents, stacks of crates, and people. Not all of them are wearing UNSC Uniforms, some are simply civilians, but there are also scattered groups of armed soldiers that are clearly not militia, police, or any combination of the two.

Those groups are glaring at the UNSC personnel and police, and are getting glares in return, though so far nothing more than that seems to have happened.

Twilight’s group, for its part makes its way through the chaos and past the security checkpoints usually for the departing passengers, which are now staffed by a combination of police and military, and towards one of the starship hangers.

The hanger they walk into is about how Twilight would imagine it, a smattering of small civilian spacecraft all throughout in various states of repair or damage, large containers scattered about with humans working on various tasks. In the center of it all, however near a rather badly damaged pelican, is Commander al’Cygni along with Ponder, Johnson, and Byrne. Another man and a few others are on the other side of the table the Commander is at, and from the shouting they can hear as they get closer whatever conversation is happening isn’t going so well.

“I cannot allow you to stay behind with military weaponry, and that’s final,” Commander al’Cygni all but shouts as she glares over the table at the man opposite her, “I know you know how to handle yourselves, but we’re evacuating everyone. I don’t care if you don’t trust me, or want to continue to plant your flag on a burning hill, you’re coming with us.”

“And face what? Arrest? Execution after a show trial? Commander al’Cygni, I thought ONI officers were smarter than that,” the man across from her frowns, “you’re going to have to do better if you want to convince me to go. Besides, you and I both know the less of my forces on those freighters, the more civilians you can cram on there, and I think we both can agree that civilians are worth far more.”

al’Cygni looks about ready to argue when Twilight’s squad arrives at the table, all of them saluting and standing at attention, causing the conversation to halt at the table.

“Militia Squad One-Charlie reporting for duty, Ma’am,” Natalie says crisply as she lowers her salute.

“Corporal,” the Commander sighs, “I hope you had a good night’s sleep, because chances are that’s the last one you’re going to get for a good long while. We’re going to be attaching a strap to you, as we need recruit Sparkle’s magic to help our casualty clearing.”

“Who are you attaching to us, ma’am?”

“Petty Officer First Class Healy,” al’Cygni states, “he along with medics from our dear insurrectionist friends here, will be running a casualty clearing point here in one of the hangers, however we cannot send out MedEvacs, as all civilian and military air capable craft are being used to keep the skies clear. That leaves us with one option.”

“You want me to teleport casualties around the city, right?” Twilight asks, a little hesitation in her voice.

“Yes, we wouldn’t be asking this of you if it wasn’t important, Recruit,” al’Cygni sighs, “your ability to teleport will help us save lives, and at this point you’re the best asset I have to keep our medics safe.”

“You can count on me, Commander,” Twilight says grimly.

“I still can’t believe you’ve got a talking alien horse in your forces,” the man across from the commander states, coming closer towards Twilight and causing everyone to tense up, “but if you’ve not shot at us yet, and she hasn’t shot you, you can’t be all bad.”

“Sir, I’ve been caught up in this war as much as you have,” Twilight replies, frowning beneath her cloth mask.

“Yes, I recall hearing from my informants you were there, at the disastrous peace meeting,” the man says, crouching down as he continues to ignore the fact multiple UNSC personnel now have their hands on their rifles, “they also say you’re smart, little horse, so tell me; as an outsider, what is your assessment of our little predicament?”

Twilight looks over to al’Cygni and the other leadership with her, and the Commander subtly nods to her.

“You’re fucked,” Twilight states simply, causing everyone to flinch slightly at the tone, “their technology far outpaces yours, they’ve got air and space superiority right now, and they’ve begun to systematically destroy every city and settlement on the planet. And that’s just one ship, how many more do you think they have?”

For a long moment the room is quiet, everyone seeming to stop and watch as the Insurrectionist leader stares at Twilight his eyes narrowed.

“Daniels, don’t you dare,” al’Cygni growls, breaking the silence.

“No, no Commander, I like her,” Daniels states softly, a thoughtful smile on his face, “she’s got guts, I see why you let her carry a weapon.”

He then stands up and puts his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants, “Look, little pony, I like you. You’re pretty much right, but we’re still not going to give up. If they came to your home, started killing your friends and family, would you run?”

Twilight looks up at Daniels and frowns, “No. No I would fight them until I died or they did. But that’s also why I am leaving with the UNSC, I can’t let them find my home.”

“And that, my little purple friend, is exactly why we’re staying. You have to protect your home, and so do we,” He states softly before turning to look at al’Cygni, “you make sure she gets off the planet, Commander, you’re going to need people like this one if you’re going to make it out of whatever shitstorm these aliens are going to kickup.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” the Commander sighs, rolling her eyes, “in any event, Corporal, you and your squad are dismissed, the Petty Officer will update you on the specifics when you get to the bay he’s in,” she taps a button on her datapad and a waypoint appears on the group’s HUD, “this’ll lead you to your destination. Good luck, and I’ll see you on the freighters.”

Offering one last salute, Twilight and her squad turn and make their way out of the hangar and into the corridors of the ship turned spaceport. The hallways are cramped and dark, with personnel rushing up and down them with the occasional shout of “Make a hole!” echoing down the corridor as someone with an important task rushes past. More than once, in the ten minutes it takes them to navigate through the cramped space, the lights flare and flicker as the entire structure vibrates as the engines spin up to vent exhaust from the reactors.

Moving into the next hanger through a blast door, the thick doors wedged open with what looks to be a combination of steel pipes and wood, they are met with chaos beyond anything they’d seen in the corridors or the outside.

The entire space, which Twilight can only guess is perhaps the size of downtown ponyville, is filled with medical equipment, tenting, and hundreds of people rushing about or laying on cots and stretchers. The air humming with a thousand different voices and the steady rhythmic sounds of the medical machines.

Moving deeper into the vast space, the sea of humanity parts and allows them deeper into the chaos, as they follow the nav marker towards their friend and soon to be squad mate. The journey is not an easy one, as they pass by people being worked on by medical staff and more than once Twilight has to breathe through her mouth to keep from gagging on the acrid stench of burned flesh and blood.

The earplugs and comms device only block out so much of the sounds of human suffering.

Eventually, they find their way to what had likely been a flight briefing room on the opposite side of the hanger to find Healy surrounded by medical personnel and maps, more than a few of the medics there are wearing the same sort of armor that the insurrectionists Twilight had seen earlier were wearing, but they have white armbands with red crosses on them denoting them clearly as medical personnel.

“You all know the city better,” Healy says to an Insurrectionist medic as they walk up, “are there any routes we can take under the streets? I know there were plans for a subway system early on in the colony’s development, but they scrapped it.”

“We continued working on even after it got scrapped, but it only covers parts of downtown, with a major station situated underneath the Mall,” the medic replies, drawing a line on the map with his finger, “but the entrances are sealed, we’ll need to open them up, likely with explosives.”

“That’ll let us get out medics at least closer to the front,” Healy states softly, frowning, “but I we’ll still need to cover a lot of the outskirts above ground.”

“That’s where we’ll come in, Healy,” Natalie states as she walks up and claps the medic on the shoulder, causing him to jump.

“Jesus, Corporal, warn me next time,” Healy shouts, “but… yes that is where you come in, or rather your purple pony friend.”

“Recruit Sparkle Taxi service, reporting for duty,” Twilight states as she comes up beside Healy and rears up to put her forehooves on the table so she can look at the map, “I hear you need my help?”

“I do, there’s a lot of area to defend, and even though the plan is to collapse progressively back onto the spaceport, we’re going to need to hold until we can collapse back here,” Healy says, tapping the map, which is actually paper, on the table. “So to that end, how much can you teleport at once? What’s your limit?”

“Well, back home I could teleport myself and five or six friends, so I’d say that’s my currently known limit, but I likely can do more if needed. Weight wise somewhere around two, three times my weight?”

“I know this is going to be rude, but how much do you weigh? I weighed you when you first arrived but I doubt all that training hasn’t changed it,” Healy offers with a smirk.

“Well, good thing I’m not my friend Rarity, she’d tell you it’s terribly rude to ask a lady her weight,” Twilight laughs, “but I think at this point I’m something like three-hundred, three-fifty kilograms? Out of armor at least, in armor I’m likely closer to near four hundred?”

The table goes quiet for a moment, which is broken up by one of the insurrectionist medics whistling.

“Ma’am, I’m glad you’re on our side, because if you’re telling me you can break space-time with something like six-hundred to nine-hundred kilograms of weight I never want to get on your bad side.”

Twilight blushes and nickers, drawing a circle on the table with a hoof, “Well, I mean, it’s not that much. My mentor moves an entire star so I really think in comparison to that I’m a bit of a light weight.”

“Sparks, your mentor is pony God, it’s not the same,” Healy sighs.

“I… okay I’ll give you that,” Twilight sighs, “so, what’s the plan? Or do you all want to keep talking about how I could bench press a tank?”

“Besides wanting a practical demonstration of that? No, no we are going to move onto the division of forces,” Healy states, looking back to the map, “so we can’t cover everything, the city and the defensive line are too big for that, but we can station medical evac teams throughout the city using the subway system as a launch point to and from the spaceport. So here’s what we’re going to do…”

The next hour is filled with planning, as Twilight and the rest of her squad get broken up into different units and mixed with the insurrectionists to help protect the field medics. Twilight herself is assigned to the squad with Healy, along with Natalie and a grim looking Insurrectionist medic who can’t be any older than her but wears far too many years in his eyes.

Once squads are made, they all rush off to their rally points, which for Twilight and her little group involves going deep into the bowels of the landlocked ship, opening a door covered in dust and cobwebs, and entering the abandoned transit system beneath the city. They are followed by technicians and marines to secure and power the station off of the reactor in the spaceport, the lights flickering on as Twilight and company make their way down the center of the rough-hewn tunnel.

It takes them a further half hour to get to the end of the line, the massive form of an abandoned tunneler filling the end of the tunnel beneath the Mall. The sheer size of it causes Twilight to pause, as she looks over the mass of dusty conveyors and rock crushers, all capped off with a drill bit the size of a small house. At its heart, barely visible through the tangled web of steel garters and walkways, Twilight can see the cold dead heart of the beast in the form of a fission reactor not reawakened in a decade.

Moving off to the side of it, the group comes to the unfinished station at the end of the line, which is a cavernous space with a large platform with stairs leading up to what Twilight would guess is the Mall. There is sunlight filtering in through the doorway at the top of the stairs, with the smell of ozone and blast marks around it giving evidence at the recent reopening of the entryway. They make their way up onto the rough stone and steel pads that make up the station’s platforms, and set up a small camp to make ready and wait for the battle to start.

Their little campsite is nothing more than some camping lights, a portable heater, and a radio one of the Insurrectionists carried along with an antenna that he sets up at the entrance to the mall.

They all gather around the radio and the heater, and listen to the orders floating around through the radio waves, the crackling static of the ancient radio lending a familiar quality for Twilight, reminding her of the nascent radio broadcast system back home.

Celestia has one, a hulking thing of wood and copper, powered by magical crystals set into tubing. Celestia’s first address to the nation via the radio had been a magical moment for her, curled up in her mentor’s study in front of the hulking beast of a machine, the crackling tinny sound of her Princess reading the speech she had fretted over when she thought Twilight hadn’t been looking.

How she wished this radio was that radio right now.

“Exodus, this is Bravo, alien capital craft and escorts spotted on horizon,” a male voice comes over the radio, the crackling static nearly drowning him out for a second, “laser rangefinding clocks it in at way too fucking fast, it’ll be on the city soon.”

The announcement causes all the fur along Twilight’s neck and back to stand up. The aliens were nearly here, soon people were going to die. Hopefully, less with Twilight helping the medics. Perhaps, in some small way as the world of Harvest is tearing itself apart beneath the Alien’s onslaught, Twilight can put a bit of it back together by saving lives.

Time seems to slow down, the beating of Twilight’s heart feeling like it becomes an eternity as she focuses on breathing and checking over her gear mentally.

M three-nine-two DMR, check. Six spare fifteen round magazines, check. Magazine Drop Pouch, check. Two Infantry First Aid Kits? Check. Personal Aid Kit? Check. Combat Application Tourniquet? Check. MediFoam? Morphine? Water?

Check, check and check.

She’s about to go through the list a second time when the calls for aid start coming in.

The first clash starts on the eastern part of the city, a flanking force of tanks, recon vehicles, and infantry had come around and started to probe the defenses there, the police and insurrectionist forces repelling them after a few tense moments, calling out that the aliens are regrouping in a nearby quarry.

Soon after that reports flooded in from the other end of the city, closer to where Twilight and the others are, as a large contingent of the alien force along with their ship had come within firing range of the outskirts. The shouts over the radio are followed by the ground shaking and muted explosions, causing Twilight’s squad to tense.

“We need to get out there,” Natalie says, looking at the others.

“We’ll wait for the current barrage to stop,” Healy states, gathering his gear, “then take turns going out and coming back with wounded. Anyone who you think needs immediate evac to the spaceport can be handled by Twilight and her teleportation.”

There is a chorus of ‘yes sir’ from the soldiers, along with a few ‘okay, navy boy,’ from the insurrectionists as everyone gets up and readies themselves.

Twilight herself puts her helmet on, and tightens the straps on her makeshift plate carrier, grunting a little as the heavy load she is carrying shifts around a little on her sides and back. As soon as her helmet is on, she boots up the hud in the visor, and goes through one last mental checklist as it boots.

As soon as the HUD has booted, the group is out the door and into the strange twilight the city has fallen under. The darkness confuses Twilight for a moment, the clock on her visor reading it only being near Noon, but a quick check of her surroundings shows that the massive alien craft that had destroyed Gladshiem is hovering directly in front of the sun to the West, as well as a thick blanket of black acrid smoke filling the air from doubtlessly hundreds of fires.

Sounds of battle and screams fill the air, too, only barely dampened by the ear protection in her helmet.

She has little time to process any of this, though, as her squad is quickly moving towards a waypoint from Healy once they’re all on the surface. As soon as it’s there, all of them start making their way through the abandoned tent city on the Mall, many of the temporary structures knocked over or totally destroyed by errant fire from the aliens or defenders.

The area is thankfully free of bodies, though quite a few of the prepared positions she’d seen set up earlier are nothing more than smoking ruins at the moment. More than a few of the alien’s aircraft seem to have plowed trenches, with one even having impacted a high rise building, so the positions had at least done their job. The downed craft does force them to pick their way through a small maze of debris though, and slows their journey just enough that the defenders are already falling back to the secondary line of defense by the time they’re free of the mall.

Unlike the first line, which was set into the outskirts of the city, the secondary line of defense is a collection of prepared positions stretching between and even into buildings. Cars, trucks, large utility vehicles covered in sandbags, concrete barriers, and oddly even logs and wooden boards, all thrown together into thick barricades for which the defenders can fight from.

Twilight herself had seen them being constructed when she had glanced at one of the CCTV screens in the command center during the briefing. They wouldn’t hold forever, but they didn’t need to.

Twilight and her squad find themselves dashing into a pharmacy, the windows boarded up and reinforced with sandbags, turned into a casualty clearing station.

In other words straight into Tartarus made manifest.

The first thing to hit Twilight is the smell, which she had actually started noticing a block away, her sense of smell being more acute than her human friends. An acidic, coppery-iron smell that leaves her mouth full of memories of when she had licked a potato battery in primary school. She knows it’s the smell of blood, but she can also smell the putrid scent of death, and the sterile desperation of cleaning chemicals attempting to keep the whole place clean enough to operate.

Then there’s the screaming, which truthfully is something she can’t say she had ever experienced in her life. Ever. The soul-wrenching, desperation in each cry for help, each sobbing begging demand for loved ones. All of it digs at Twilight’s heart and does its best to claw into her heart and shake her willpower, stopping her from going forward.

However, the instant she is past the front door of the pharmacy and sees all the people who need her help, she steels herself to wade into the sea of human suffering to find the ones she needs to help first.

With Healy at her side, Twilight is able to wade through the chaos, both of them quickly checking the tags attached to shirts or pants, Twilight pausing every once and a while when a red tag is found so she can remove the tag and teleport the critically injured person to the medical ward back at the spaceport. She does her best to tune out their injuries, and cries for help, as she focuses on her work, her mind focusing on the math required to get humans that look no older than her to safety and hopefully life saving aid.

The worst part is there are far more black tags than there are red, and more than a few red she has to change over to black before her squad is called out to do casualty evacuation on the line.

The entire time in the pharmacy is a blur, and Twilight feels like she doesn't really breathe or think until her hooves touch the asphalt. She actually pauses on the sidewalk, and starts taking deep breaths, ears flat against her head as tries to shove the sights and smells she saw inside into the back of her mind. But, whatever mental filing cabinet in her mind she normally shoves these things into is currently full to bursting, and it takes a soft hand on her withers to bring her back to reality and realize she was hyperventilating.

“Are you going to be okay?” Healy’s voice echoes distantly through the panic and haze.

“Y-yeah,” Twilight says softly, shaking her head, “yeah I’ll be fine, just… a lot. I’d ask for a moment but we don’t have one so…”

“We really don’t,” Healy says softly, “let me know if it gets worse, we may need to send you back to the spaceport.”

Twilight nods, then takes a final deep breath and starts forward again, the rest of the squad having advanced to an alley across the street from her and Healy. Absently as they pass between the buildings and into the shade of the alley, Twilight wonders if she really is okay.

Only to remind herself she has no choice, and the humans are counting on her.

They advance quickly towards the front lines in this side of the city, only stopping once to fight off a squad of the strange reptilian creatures, led by a larger one with a feathery crest and dark armor. The little skirmish forces Twilight to teleport one of the insurrectionists in her squad back to the Spaceport when he takes a crystal round to the chest, her quick diagnosis scan showing it being stopped only millimeters from his heart.

Another isn’t so lucky, and is killed by a grenade. His desperate screams as he tries to get the ball of sticky plasma off of his shoulder nearly sends Twilight into another panic attack.

She shoves it down, barely, as they leave their fallen squadmate and push forward towards the sounds of battle.

The closer they get the more they’re forced to scramble over ruble, or through the ruins of houses and businesses. At one point, just before they reach the front, they make their way through what was likely that morning a grand hotel, now covered in sandbags and defensive positions, its beautiful woodwork and grand fixtures now charred and broken from the fighting.

The marines manning the positions in the windows on the ground floor nod to them, more than a few inside the lobby don’t look up as they tend to minor wounds or prepare to take prone forms on stretchers to a casualty collection point.

Then they’re out the other side and quickly diving into the hastily dug trenches.

They’re not deep, they’re not fancy, but they’re holding for now. Though the forces inside look far worse for wear than the positions they’re manning. Twilight is able to easily keep herself behind the earthwork of the trench, the lip of it coming up to only her withers so she does have to crouch a bit, while the rest of her squad is forced to kneel down quite a bit as they set to work on helping the soldiers present.

The majority of the soldiers that are injured are suffering from burns and shrapnel wounds, the acrid smell of blood and burnt flesh filling Twilight’s nose once more and it takes all of her strength to not dry heave as she pulls out medigel and bandages. She has to save the gel for the worst off, there was barely enough to give her the little she had one her, and instead resorts to a spell Celestia taught her after she’d burned a hoof during a chemistry lesson.

Her presence is welcomed almost instantly, her magic and the medical supplies her and her fellows are carrying. Still, there were some beyond her help, and she is forced to teleport a fair amount of wounded soldiers as they move down the trench.

Eventually they get to a section where the trench meets the road and they’re forced to stop to wait for a lul in the fighting.

As they wait in the large dugout at the end of the trench, Twilight keeps herself busy by helping a human male, likely no older than sixteen, bind a particularly bad wound that has rendered his arm useless.

“I’m fine, miss horse,” the teenager says with a pained chuckle, “really. It’s not that bad, I’ve had worse fallin’ off my atv.”

“Sure, and my friend’s little sister has had worse falling off her scooter,” Twilight replies as she applies the burn healing spell, “but I’m sure that atv wasn’t in an active war zone.”

The young man replies with a chuckle, which echoes rather loudly in Twilight’s ears for how odd it is to hear laughter on the battlefield. Or, perhaps, Twilight muses as she finishes binding the wound with gauze, it’s because the battlefield is actually quiet?

Looking around, Twilight turns her ears in an attempt to figure out if she’s just not hearing what’s going on, or if things really have fallen quiet. And she finds, both to her growing confusion and relief that things have fallen quiet for the moment in her area, with only distant explosions and gunshots coming from other parts of the city.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asks, looking to Healy.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” the medic replies, peeking his head up over the lip of the trench he’s crouched in. “But it looks like they’re retreating?”

“They have to be regrouping,” one of the militia in the trench with them says, “they’ve been pounding this position non-stop, and we’ve been giving it back just as good, they have to need to regroup.”

“Well, that just means we should eva-” Twilight starts, then stops as the fine hairs along the back of her neck start standing up. The feeling unsettles Twilight, and it instantly brings her attention up to the skies above them where the alien spaceship is currently hovering.

“Sparks, you okay?” Natalie asks from nearby, but her voice is distant as Twilight stares up at the ship, “do you see som-”

“We need to move,” Twilight says softly, ears lowering and eyes growing wide, “no… no wait no time for that.”

“Sparks what are you talking abo-”

“Everyone get to the hotel!” Twilight shouts, “the ship is going to fire at us!”

“How can you tell?” a militia soldier asks, looking up at the ship.

“I can feel the weapons charging, I felt this back in Gladsheim! We need to move RIGHT NOW!”

That is all anyone needs, and before she’s even done shouting militia and separatist soldiers are hauling themselves and their injured friends out of the trenchline, causing a hail of plasma and crystal bolts to come from where the aliens must have retreated to. A few soldiers go down, Twilight instinctively using her magic to grab onto clothing or armor and drag them as her own rifle hovers near her and fires down range.

They reach the front doors of the hotel in a storm of bullets and plasma, the soldiers inside returning fire towards the aliens shooting at their friends. Twilight is barely through the door when a burning, stinging pain shoots across her flank, and she lets out a scream as she throws the soldier she was hauling in her magic through the door, then limps herself into the chaos of the lobby.

“Twilight! You okay?” Healy shouts, coming over and actually picking her up and hauling her to the opposite wall.

“Yeah, got hit, can’t feel my rear left leg,” Twilight grunts through gritted teeth.

“Looks like a glancing wound, but it’s bleeding, we’re going to need to bandage you.”

“Do it, and do it fast, I don’t think the hotel will survive those ship weapons,”

“So we go underground?” A nearby soldier asks, already moving towards a door marked stairs.

“No, no time, need to do something,” Twilight pants as Healy starts bandaging her, “I have an idea, might buy us some time.”

“Bandage is on,” Healy says, “won’t hold up if you start running. But what are you going to do?”

Twilight stands up, tears forming in her eyes as she hobbles to the center of the lobby, “I’m going to do my brother proud…”

She then lights her horn, gathering all the magical power she can as quickly as she can. Distantly, she can hear muted booms and the entire building starts to shake.

“They’re firing! Everyone, get to cover!”

Twilight can hear screams as everyone around her starts rushing to cover, the muted booms getting closer, the building shaking more and more. Masonry starts falling from the pillars and walls, and right as it seems that the building is going to shake itself apart, Twilight lets the collected magic loose.

And the world turns purple.

Author's Note

*Crawls in and tosses new chapter at story* IT. IS. DONE!

Sorry about the delay, I got sick. Not like hospital levels of sick, but just like a long series of feeling just sick enough that I couldn't/didn't want to write. But I got better!

I likely didn't do the best editing it, but I just really wanted to get it out so I can start on the next chapter, which I want to get done soonish because my birthday is next month and I really want to give myself that chapter's completion as a birthday present (I turn 33 *cries*) and you know have that done and published to wrap up this first arc of the story.

So enjoy the dirty, dirty cliffhanger at the end!

Also, if you enjoy my writing, and wish to perhaps toss me a few bucks, I have a Kofi that I am going to start using again, you can find it here at https://ko-fi.com/sylvian74226 ! Funds go to buying groceries and other sundries for my family, and occasionally getting me out of the house to enjoy nature.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 5: Fighting Retreat

Chapter 5: Fighting Retreat

Dear Princess Celestia,

It has been a while since my last letter. Nearly three months, if I am being honest. It’s been hard to find the time to write, let alone the proper materials, but after what’s been going on, I made the effort to ask some friends for pen and paper.

The past few months have been difficult, being so far away from home, but I have survived by making friends with the strange creatures that populate this planet, they call themselves Humans. A lot of them are nice to me, though I got found by their military, and subsequently more or less adopted by them. Which has meant I’ve ended up training side-by-side with them, and what started out as a potential way to learn more about them and keep my mind off of the accident that sent me here, has turned into a blessing in disguise.

The humans, and I guess by extension our own planet and species, are not alone. About a week ago, a coalition of races showed up at the planet I am on, and while the humans attempted peaceful negotiations, the coalition killed part of their leadership and attacked the militia I have been training with.

After that we’ve essentially existed in a state of war, and we’ve been evacuating civilians towards the capital, and potential safety.

However, while doing this my hope to get home quickly has started to fade, the only thing really keeping me going is ~~the thought of you~~ the thought of protecting all my family and friends back home, holding the line here so you all don’t have to face this coalition.

I am hopeful once we figure out how to ev-

February 10th, 2525

Ten Kilometers from Gladsheim

Twilight stops writing her letter as the Warthog hits a pothole, causing her pen to leave a long line across the page. Frowning, she looks over to the driver of the warthog she is in, who keeps his eyes on the road.

“Sorry about that, the roads out here aren’t as well maintained as we’d like,” the driver admits, another small pothole causing the warthog to bounce again.

The continued rough ride causes Twilight to sigh and put the letter away as she sits up a bit straighter and cradle her rifle in her forelegs, “It’s okay, better potholes than being shot at. The aliens up there have been too quiet, I worry we’re about to… how did Sergeant Johnson put it this morning, walk into a shit slinging contest in a fan factory?”

The militia in the warthog with Twilight all snort and chuckle as they continue down the road, the driver smirking from under their helmet.

“Sounds about right, they can’t just sulk up in orbit forever, our luck has to eventually run out,”

As he says that, Twilight glances up at the large ship sitting in high orbit. They weren’t sure what they’ll do next, but Commander al-Cygni and Captain Ponder both agreed that the best option was to gather the civilians in the outlying settlements to the Capital. Utguard had easy access to bunkers, and a clear route of escape if needed.

“Chalie-Two, Utguard Command, we’ve passed township limits, entering Gladsheim now,” Natalie’s voice comes over the squad radio, causing Twilight to sit up a bit straighter as she tries to peer out the windshield towards the lead warthog.

“Roger that, Charlie-One, RV is set for the highschool near the center of town, the mayor and local police chief should be waiting for you,” Commander al-Cygni’s voice responds, “please keep the stubborn mule with you from insulting them, will you?”

“I didn’t know we had any other equines with us besides Recruit Sparkle, but I’ll be sure to keep the Sergeant glaring out the windshield in check, ma’am,”

“See that you do, Corporal. Utguard-Command out,”

A few chuckles follow that as the convoy continues on through the wooded tundra, the trees broken up only by large farmland and lumber mills. It is a familiar and unfamiliar sight to Twilight, agriculture on such a massive scale. Some of the farms she has seen, both from the air and now on these land based trips, are larger than some of the fiefs the nobles back on Equus have, larger than some cities too. All of it to feed not only the planet but the vast empire beyond its atmosphere.

For a moment, Twilight wonders what her friend Applejack would make of some of the larger orchards here. Would she be at home here, in the unfamiliar familiar? Or would she find this planet and its farming techniques to be too far different from her own and irreconcilable.?

Another pothole breaks Twilight from her introspection, and she finds the warthog suddenly going from dirt road to asphalt again as they enter the city proper.

Gladsheim isn’t much to look at, not compared to the soaring spires of Utguard or the grand marble facades of Canterlot, but it holds it’s own small town charms. Much like Ponyville really as Twilight thinks about it. The only difference was the large meglev train station and the militia outpost nearby, both of which were the only real defining features for the area.

The single major paved street in the city is pretty sparse, with some shops and a large open air marketplace. All of it nestled in the shadow of a massive water tower and the town’s magnetic levitation train station, the massive steel cranes standing idle this early in the morning.

Beyond all of that, as far as the eye can see, there are farms sitting in the shadows of larger buildings with sterile numbers and large metal roll up doors. Her earlier research into the town told her the large buildings are repair and refit bays for the farming equipment Mack and Loki both use, which she can see through one of the open doors. The farms too swarm with activity, with the large autonomous harvesters and tillers working their way through the fields and kicking up large plumes of dirt and dust.

There are also people everywhere, a thing that Twilight knew should not be happening, and she cannot help but frown as they go about their daily lives as if the giant alien ship isn’t hovering over their small town.

Another similarity to Ponyville, perhaps, if these humans are so at ease with such danger lingering so nearby.

But, the danger is real, and it is pressing. These people cannot stay.

All of this flashes by in a moment, as the militia convoy expertly weaves its way through the street and past the businesses and people to make it to a large concrete and steel structure, it’s outer facade covered in murals and paintings of ancient legends and a roof made to look, if Twilight’s research does not fool her, a viking longhouse.

Parking in front of the building, Twilight disembarks with the rest of the fireteam on the warthog, and takes a moment to admire the calligraphic sign out front proudly proclaiming the building as Gladsheim Highschool, with tiny print underneath saying ‘Go Valkyries!’.

However, unlike the rest of the city and the valley around it, the highschool is very much empty and devoid of activity. The sight of which causes Sergeant Johnson, who is standing near the lead warthog, to grunt and frown.

“I knew these people were stubborn, but they’ve not even started preparing the evacuation,” Johnson grumbles as he starts towards the door.

“Well, you know us farmers, Sergeant,” Natalie chuckles as she follows after him, the rest of the squad forming up behind them, “common clay of the land and all that.”

“Tough, but not very bright sometimes, I know,” the Sergeant sighs, “let's see if the mayor has anything to say about this. And I hope whatever God they pray to that it’s a good excuse.”

They move into the highschool at that, the interior familiar and yet alien to Twilight. Whereas her schooling had been in a place of bright colors and tall welcoming places, this school was quite dark, and almost sterile with its dull paints and hard cold flooring. Twilight finds herself quite shocked at how divorced the interior is to the exterior, and wonders if they took a wrong turn somewhere.

Yet, the group just keeps going as if this building is the normal, passing by large display cabinets displaying pictures of young humans in different uniforms side by side with trophies with team names and years. There aren’t many, though, Harvest is a young colony yet.

The militia move past the displays and through a pair of double doors that lead into, if Twilight’s limited knowledge of human sports is any help, a basketball court and gymnasium that likely serves as the school population’s physical activity space indoors.

At the moment, though, the large room is housing rows upon rows of empty cots, large stacks of boxes with “Emergency Rations” and “Medical Supplies” written in big bold white letters on their sides. A few people are milling about the boxes and the cots, with the two at the center of it all being a tall woman wearing a jeans and a t-shirt, and a large man wearing a police uniform and trooper armor.

“I’ve called up everyone that was off-duty, and we’re spread out over the outskirts to try and cover as much ground as possible, but we don’t have enough trucks or ‘hogs to effect a quick or orderly evacuation,” the officer states, pointing to a map on a white board.

“Eivor, really, it’s fine,” The lady next to him sighs, “I highly doubt we’ll even be a blip on their radar, not with Utguard or other such places being far more interesting and profitable targets.”

“With all due respect, Miss Mayor, we can’t be sure, they’ve ordered us to evacuate to safer pastures,”

“You running from a fight, Eivor? Where is the young man who spoke of going to Valhalla?”

“He became in charge of the safety of two thousand people,”

“And I am sure as shit glad someone is taking that safety seriously,” Johnson barks as he steps up to the pair, causing everyone in the room to stop and look towards the Sergeant, “because I’ll be honest I thought you lot were going to dig your heels and heads into the Goddamn dirt and ignore our uninvited guests!”

“Ah, you must be Sergeant Johnson?” the woman asks, smiling a smile Twilight had seen Celestia wear when talking to certain nobles. “I was informed you and another Sergeant were coming, is he as well?”

“Sorry to disappoint, Sergeant Byrne is at the outpost finalizing their withdrawal,” Johnson smirks, “just little old me to deal with. And I’m very curious as to why you’re gearing up to shelter in place, and not gathering your people to get out of here.”

“As I was telling our over-eager police chief, I doubt they’ll come for us,” the mayor shrugs, “why would they? We have no importance, we’re farmers! We don’t have weapons, and besides that small outpost the UNSC and CAA insisted I put out here, there’s no military installation or target for hundreds of miles.”

“Ma’am, they’re right over your heads,” Natalie states as she looks to the Sergeant who nods to her to continue, “not above Utguard. We don’t know what they’re planning or what they’re capable of, we can’t risk you and your entire town’s population on a hunch.”

“Again, I highly dou-”

“Alpha-One-One, Utguard, urgent traffic,” the squad net suddenly announced.

“One-One here, send traffic,” Johnson states, never taking his eyes off of the mayor.

“One-One, alien craft has begun moving into lower orbit over the city, and has released ten-to-twelve smaller craft that fit the description of the transports seen at the Botanical Gardens. ETA, twenty-mikes at current speed of descent, advise beginning evacuation immediately,”

“Traffic received Utguard, I’ll inform the mayor and police chief, and begin evacuations,” Johnson replies, frowning as the mayor starts to go pale and the police chief curses under his breath.

“Right, I’ll get my officers moving, but it’s going to take a lot longer than twenty to get everyone out of the fields and out of here,” Eivor states, fingers running along the top of an axe on his belt opposite his sidearm.

“We’re going to need a rally point too, if we can’t get everyone on a truck or bus we’ll need some other way,” Johnson states, looking at the mayor who blinks.

“I… I’m not sure where else they could go, we’ve not planned for this sort of thing,”

“What about the train?” Twilight asks, stepping forward and gaining the attention of the police chief and the mayor. The mayor further balks at Twilight, while the Chief just raises an eyebrow and looks to Johnson.

“Sir, are you pulling my leg or is that horse really talking?”

“She talks,” Johnson grunts, looking at Twilight, “but Recruit Sparkle here might be onto something.”

“Sorry for interrupting,” Twilight offers, ears lowering, “and yes I talk, yes I am an equine, and yes I am an alien. But we don’t have time to unpack all that right now.”

“Can’t believe I am saying this but I agree with the talking horse in the room,” Eivor states with a frown before turning to the whiteboard and its map. “Trainstation is here, not exactly central, but close enough to the city and the fields we might be able to gather people, but it’s not a passenger train.”

“It might not be comfortable, but box and cattle cars will have to do,” Johnson agrees as he removes a cigar from a magazine pouch and taps the map, “we funnel as many people as we can through the highway away from the city, and anyone past this line,” he pauses to draw a line with the cigar, “gets to the train station for evac.”

“Quick and dirty, Sergeant, but open enough that we can change it on the fly,” the police chief comments.

“Do I get a say in this?” The mayor demands softly, still a bit white.

“Nope, you’re getting escorted to the train station while the soldiers make sure as many of your people as possible get out alive from your inaction,” Johnson growls with an offhanded gesture of his cigar. “And on that topic! Shall we put on the proper soundtrack to this shitshow?”

Without missing a beat Natalie depresses the button on her radio and speaks, “Mack, start the sirens, lock down the JOTUNs in the field and direct everyone to the evacuation points I’ve sent you.”

“Turnin’ on the midwest alarm clocks and locking down the farms,” Mack’s voice replies in the squad radio.

It takes a moment, but after a few seconds of heavy silence Twilight’s right ear twists towards the wall, as a low bass drone starts to build from outside. As it builds, the tone becomes more and more shrill, to the point that when it’s peak Twilight has to lower her ears as the scream of the sirens rattles her bones. She cannot even start to imagine how loud it is outside.

And once the outside sirens are at their peak, alarms start blaring inside the school gym, complete with flashing lights.

“Attention! All residents of Gladsheim County, this is an urgent emergency! The following is transmitted at the urging of the Government of the Colony of Reach. Unknown hostile aliens have been detected by radar heading towards the county, and are believed to be intent on attacking the city and surrounding farmsteads. Navigational markers are being sent to your glasses and GPS units depending on your location at the time of this broadcast. You are urged to follow them, without hesitation, and get to safety. Do not stop to gather belongings, pets, or mementos if they are not able to be reached in five minutes or less. This message will repeat in five minute intervals.”

The announcement causes a flurry of activity from everyone present, as Twilight and the rest of the militia spring into action to tear the civilians away from the boxes of supplies, and urge them to get to the nearest vehicle.

For Twilight herself, she feels numb as she listens to the orders being handed down by Johnson in a quick briefing with the squads present. He gives out orders for defensive lines drawn in red sharpie, and then hands over command of the squads to their assigned corporals.

Natalie’s squad is assigned to a blocking and funneling action along one of the streets leading from Main Street towards the train station, while a couple others are detailed to keeping the line along the avenue to the train station, with the remaining meeting up with Bravo and Sergeant Bryne’s forces to guard the train station and ready to Maglev Trains.

As soon as they are dismissed Twilight’s squad piles into a Warthog as well as hitching a ride in the back of a civilian pickup truck to their destination. Twilight ends up in the pickup bed along with a couple other squadmates, the driver barely batting an eye at the talking armored horse in their worry to get going.

The journey to the crossroad is far different than the journey into the city, as all around them the loud scream of sirens, both the large civil sirens as well as police and fire vehicles, fill the air throughout not just the city but the surrounding farmlands. Most people are running to vehicles with arms full of whatever they can reach, more than once Twilight spots a crying child holding onto a family pet as if it means life and death. That they may never see the pet again.

More than once, Twilight is forced to watch that child and pet be seperated.

All too soon they’re at the crossroads, and Twilight and the two other militia quickly get out of the pickup bed and motion for the driver to get to safety. They form up with the police and the rest of their squad, and do final checks on their gear.

Twilight does her best to tune out the noise around her as she checks her weapon like she was taught, trying to focus on that and not the coming battle.

Slide clear of dirt? Check.

Magazine topped off? Check.

Extra magazines in the right pockets? Check.

Grenades? Check.

Helmet strapped on tight? Yup.

Armor? Backpack? Check, and check.

That takes all of ten minutes, and is done at the same time she is using her magic to help drag large objects and position barricades so as to help her and the others have cover and direct the flow of traffic. By then they can see the craft incoming, and Twilight posts herself up next to Natalie on one of the concrete and steel barricades, the gunner on the Warthog behind them priming the engine of the chaingun.

Twilight focuses on her breathing as the ships break formation just before entering the city limits, once heading near where Twilight and her squad are. Once they break the initial cordon the warthog gunner behind Twilight, along with every single warthog and defensive emplacement the police had, open fire. The rest of the squad holds their fire, not trusting small arms to do much against the flying beast.

The craft respond in kind, and soon explosions are heard throughout the city as large glowing orbs lance out from the craft’s underbellies to impact buildings and near warthogs. Troops begin offloading from them as well, and Twilight hesitates only a second before she levels her rifle and starts the butcher’s work.

She selects one of the large yeti-like creatures, her first few rounds striking the creature’s large helmet and bouncing with flashes of metal on metal. This earns the creature's attention, and it hefts a large hammer like weapon and roars at her before charging with the rest of the ten or fifteen other creatures around it. Most are cut down by the rest of Twilight’s squad, including the warthog gunner who was fortunate enough to not get targeted by the ship’s guns.

The buzz of the chaingun and the loud snaps of their firearms fill Twilight’s senses, even as the civilians behind her scream and hurriedly try to run or jump into the vehicles. The police do their best to continue directing them, but as the aliens draw closer, especially the large hairy one, more than a few abandon their attempts to open fire on the approaching aliens themselves.

The creature is forced to slow under the gunfire, and eventually moves into a nearby alley to escape entirely. It’s retreat allows their guns to fall silent, and Twilight stands there panting a little as she pulls her now empty magazine and puts a new one in automatically, not really coming to her senses until her hoof brushes over the slide release and the large clack of the weapon’s bolt cycling draws her out of her trance.

“Any casualties?” Natalie barks from where she is standing, battle rifle at a low ready.

“Negative, ma’am!”

“Still here!”

“Everything’s still attached!”

“I’m good,” Twilight replies, leaning on the barricade.

“Don’t relax yet, Sparks,” Natalie says softly, patting Twi’s withers, “I’ll bet that was just a probing action, we’re not out of this yet, still civilians in-”

Before she can finish the sentence, a bright glow suddenly fills the sky, and Twilight feels her teeth vibrate as a massive amount of energy is suddenly released in the air. She looks up, mouth falling open as she sees the alien’s ship moving into position above the city, a large glowing section of it placed over the outskirts near the highway to their east.

“What is it doing?” a police officer asks slowly.

“I… I don’t know,” Natalie replies before reaching for her radio, “One-One, One-Charlie-One! Alien craft above the city and starting to power something up!”

“I see it, Corporal! Hold the line, and keep the civilians safe we-” Johnson starts to reply, but then the radio starts to hiss and scream as static and feedback fill the channels.

And then, all at once, Twilight watches literal Tartarus descend.

The alien craft suddenly seems to ripple, but Twilight hazards a guess that it’s the air being displaced, as the glowing section suddenly discharges a truly massive column of white hot light. The instant the beam hits the ground, a tremendous shockwave ripples through the earth and a blistering hot wind batters the barricades. Screaming suddenly comes over the radio, along with desperate cries for assistance as civilians, police, and militia all start transmitting on as the very earth starts to melt and glow.

“Oh… oh dear sweet Sun and Moon,” Twilight says softly, a hoof going to her mouth as tears form in her eyes.

“All callsigns, report!” Johnson yells over the static.

“Alpha-One, One-Bravo! Sir, the ship is… it’s burning the farms with what looks to be plasma! It’s cutting us off from Utguard!”

“How long do we have before that beam reaches the tracks?”

“Not long! If we don’t start the trains we’re not getting out of here!”

“Give me an estimate!”

“Half hour? Twenty? I don’t know, sir!”

“Damnit! Chief Eivor, get as many people on that train as you can right now! Bryne and I will try and draw the aliens away so you can load more people aboard faster! If we’re not back in time, get that train moving and save your people!”

“Better get back, then, Sergeant, I’ll save you two bastards a seat!”

As soon as that declaration went out, the police around them started hurrying the civilians along, some even grabbing kids or pets off the street next to their families and running along with the family in an attempt to get as many people as they possibly could out. The mass of running civilians grows so great that many of the vehicles end up abandoned as the people in them find themselves unable to drive forward through them, suitcases and family members simply grabbed from the now useless vehicles and carried by hand.

And even as all this is happening, another wave comes in, and Twilight is forced to focus on her breathing and shooting.

Her entire world narrows down into counting.

Counting her breaths, counting her bullets, counting her magazines.

Counting her kills.

She’s so focused on the task of keeping the invaders away from the barricades that she doesn't realize they’re retreating until one of her squad grabs her by the shoulder and shakes her.

“We’re evacuating, Sparks!” Red shouts, dragging her away from the concrete block they’d been using as cover, Twilight distantly realizing there are large chunks of it missing along with purple-pink crystals sticking out of the side facing the Covenant.

Grabbing her weapon in her magic, Twilight nods and follows her squadmate away from the barricades, her heart and stomach sinking as she realizes there are still thousands of screaming people running for the train station, even as the warthog behind her continues to fire the mounted gun.

She passes by Natalie who is shouting at the militiaman on the warthog to stop and evacuate, with the militia arguing someone has to hold the god damn line so a few more can slip out. Their argument is interrupted by an older man in a police uniform, Twilight doesn’t hear the conversation over the chaos around her, but the militia dismounts and goes with Natalie as the officer jumps up to the gunner’s position, takes a single calm breath, and then starts firing.

The journey progresses slowly from there.

The crowds are so thick that Twilight sometimes has to teleport, pausing often to help someone who has fallen down, primarily children. Twilight spends what feels like the longest eternity standing over a sobbing child clinging to her teddy bear, refusing to move until she finds her mother. Twilight is eventually able to move one when out of the crowd Chief Eivor comes over and scoops the girl up and nods to Twilight before vanishing into the crowd again.

Each checkpoint they pass they find police, usually older men and woman in what Twilight would guess is their fifties or so, taking up the posts the militia leave, sometimes even having weapons turned over to them by the militia with a handshake or a tight embrace before the police take position and the militia abandon it.

Each of them are sacrificing their lives, but Twilight knows there’s no other choice. People have to die, so others may live.

The moment she reaches the train station only drives home the sinking feeling, as armed police and militia stand on the platform and try to keep the fearful and panicked masses orderly. However, Twilight can see there’s no way to fit everyone on the train, and as she and her squad wade through people start grabbing at them, parents begging for them to take their children, children sobbing and begging to not be separated from their parents.

Twilight caves to a pair of parents begging for someone to save their child and uses her magic to levitate the young boy onto her back, as she speeds by through the crowd, the sobbing child clinging to her neck like she’s a piece of driftwood in a storm.

She ends up teleporting past the line of soldiers and skids to a halt next to an open cattle car, the inside filled nearly to capacity with crying and wide-eyed people. She levitates the kid over to the militia soldier at the door, and turns around to go get more, only to get stopped as nearly loses her balance when the ground starts to shake again.

Looking up towards the alien craft, she pales slightly beneath her helmet as she sees they’ve added what look to be the deck guns of their ship to start pelting the city and surrounding countryside with large bolts of green energy.

The increased amount of fire from the ship causes more panic, and the soldiers have to start holding back the people on the platform. Twilight can hear the loud hum of what she assumes to be the train starting up, the entire thing starting to rise a little into the air as the magnetic rails have electricity pumped through them. All around her, the militia start falling back to the train, and Twilight makes a split second choice.

She lights her horn and teleports into the crowd, and grabs children, as many children as she can, and teleports back to a car.

Even as the train starts to move, she keeps going, stretching her magic and teleportation to its limits as she grabs five, ten, twelve, fifteen, nearly going back to grab the twentieth when Natalie grabs her and pulls her into a bear hug and wrestles her to the floor.

“Twilight! Enough! There’s nothing more you can do,” the Corporal shouts, wrestling with the unicorn on the cold steel floor of the moving train.

“Let me go! I can get more! Please! I can save more!” Twilight screams, doing her best to try and wrestle her way out of her friend’s arms, her helmet getting knocked off in the struggle and her horn sparking.

She is able to teleport a short distance, and is about to make the larger jump when a transmission comes out over the radio again.

“All callsigns, the ship is moving into position over the city,” the voice calmly states over the screaming and begging in the background. “They’re pulling back… I think this is the end.”

“No, no there’s still time there’s still,”

“This is Sergeant Jenkins, Gladsheim Police Department, signing of-” the voice continues, only the drowned out by a roar and then static. A few seconds later, the entire train shakes violently, and the air is filled with the scream of metal twisting as the rails shake and vibrate.

“Alpha-One to all callsigns, sitrep!” Johnson’s voice, a welcome sound at that point, barks over the radio.

“Alpha-One, this is pelican flight zero-six, callsign Pegasus. Gladsheim is gone. The ship just discharged a beam directly onto it,”

At hearing that, Twilight leans against the wall, and curls up on herself. Too numb to pay attention to anything else as voices continue to come over the radio.

All she can think of is how she just watched thousands of people die and wonder, will she be next?

Will she ever make it home?

Author's Note

So, yeah, a thing.

This is Twilight, and the UNSC defenders, first taste of what will become a thirty year war. A war in which this scene will play out time, and time again, where humanity will sacrifice on the line, desperately grasping at the seconds and minutes needed to get just one more civilian out alive. According to the wiki, Gladsheim was a city of several thousand, an agricultural breadbasket for the planet, which fed multiple colonies.

By the end of the day, out of several thousand people, a grand total of at most a few hundred escaped with their lives. It serves as a wakeup call for the Planet's defenders, as well a the civilian population.

Next chapter, things continue to go downhill, so I'll see you then!