In the Shadow of the Citadelby The One FreePonyChaptersChapter 1 : Point InsertionChapter 2 : A Red Letter DayChapter 3 : Water HazardPrologueChapter 1 : Point InsertionTwilight walked by an alley as a squad of Metrocops passed her with little interest. It had been 5 years since the Seven Hour War, and Twilight was no longer the ruler of Equestria, or anything for that matter. She'd been living in hiding ever since the fall of her kingdom, too ashamed of her failure to show her face to the ponies she once called her loyal subjects. Twilight was living a new life, with the scars of the past to haunt her every second of it. Every citizen was issued an ID and clearance tag, which she wore clearly on her shirt along with the branding of The Combine. Her false identity was named Dusk Shine, and was an off-colored grey with cloudy blue highlights in her hair. She walked into the small café outside the Train Station, Café Baltic, which was one of the only places she frequented. "Hey Dusk, How are you?" The barista asked. He was Topaz Glint, a male in his mid 20's with a sand colored coat and peach hair. "Okay I guess, same as usual. You?" Twilight responded. "Good, good. Business has been well this week, with the new relocation trains coming in Wednesday and all," The barista said, upbeat. No matter what happened, Twilight noticed, he always seemed to keep a positive outlook on matters. "Man, I feel bad for those people, y'know? They settle down, make a life, and then get uprooted and shipped off by The Combine to a place like this." "Maybe it's not all bad right? Getting relocated here is great, City 17 is the best one around!" He replied gleefully. "I suppose. Get me my usual, will you?" She said, taking a seat at the 2 person table by the front window. Soon, Topaz emerged from the backroom with 2 cups, and set one in front of Twilight before sitting down himself. Topaz and Twilight had become good friends since she'd 'come' here, and he was really the only person Twilight ever talked to. "Just the way you like it." Topaz said, taking a drink from the cup in his hand. She picked up on small personal details about Topaz, including the milled base of a horn. When the Combine arrived, they practiced the horrible act of cutting off the horns of unicorns so they couldn't use magic against them, and also restricted the use of Pegasi wings. The unicorns would grind off the jagged edges of their horns to make them more subtle, and were called by the derogatory term "millers" because of their milled horn. However, Topaz didn't care one bit that he was once a magic-wielding unicorn, and was happy with his current life. Twilight sipped her hot beverage lightly, watching the creamer swirl in the brown liquid. "Topaz...Would you mind if I asked you a personal question?" Topaz blinked for a second. "Sure, not at all." "Do you remember anything of your old life?" This made Topaz think for a moment. "Well...I don't remember much, but I remember our leader. She was...very beautiful and powerful, but in an inspiring way. Princess Twilight Sparkle was her name. We did very well under her rule, but after 20 something years...Well, you know what happened then." He chuckled. Twilight frowned internally. "She's gone...She's a weak failure now." She looked aside, out the window and into the square. "I don't remember my old life..." She lied. "All I remember is waking up on a train coming into that station." "What matters is now, and what you're going to do with this life, Dusk. I don't think about who I used to be, I think about who I am, who I'm gonna be." He smiled across the table at Twilight. Twilight smiled, but only on the outside. On the inside she was drowning in the thoughts of her failure as a leader, and how she was cowering behind this mask, too afraid to tell them the truth. The sound of a Combine APC whizzing by pulled her back into reality, and she looked out the window as another one followed, and then another. She cringed, and looked at Topaz. "I sure hope that's not my block." "You should probably go take a look. They'll hunt you down if you don't show for an inspection. Catch you later Dusk." Twilight took her hot coffee, and walked briskly down the street towards her apartment block. The Metropolice conducted periodic inspections of all the apartment buildings in City 17 to flush out rebels and resistance members, and you didn't want to be in the same block as someone who was hiding rebels. If they found you, everyone on that floor is a suspect and a potential conspirator. Twilight always dreaded inspections. Metropolice were known for beatings and brutality, because no one was brave, or foolish, enough to speak out against them. Citizens were killed or seriously injured by Metrocops every day, and those who resisted were shipped off to Nova Prospekt. Twilight let out a silent sigh of relief as she rounded the corner, and saw the APCs hastily parked outside the neighboring apartment building. She stopped just before the door to her building, as she saw the squad of Metropolice forcefully eject a citizen from the building, and proceed to beat him with their stun batons. The yellow energy coils were stained red with the man's blood, and out came 5 rebels all handcuffed and equally bloodied. She cringed and hurried inside her apartment building. The elevator was still out, had been for at least a week, so she took her normal route and climbed the several flights of stairs to her floor of the building. She plugged the key into her door, unlocking it slipping in the open doorway and shutting the wooden door behind her. "God damnit Twilight, get it together! Stupid bastard knew the consequences for hiding rebels, stop feeling sorry for him!" She shook herself, before walking into her bedroom and proceeding to strip out of her civilian fatigues. She unclipped her bra and let her breasts breathe as she slipped on a loose fitting tank top. Twilight then walked into her small bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror, running a hand through her wavy hair. Only it wasn't her hair, it was this false image's hair. She turned off the light as she left the bathroom, and plopped down on her bed. It was still morning, so she could get away with dozing off and taking a nap. Twilight woke about 3 in the afternoon, and realized she had been asleep for a lot longer than a nap. She would change into her civilian outfit, before leaving the apartment, and then the building. She walked into the square again, but this time into the train station, the very same station where she'd 'arrived' into City 17. She got in line, and came up to the window soon. "A round trip ticket to the Industrial District please," Twilight said, and was then prompted to hand her ID to the Metrocop manning the booth. She did so, and was presented with her ID and a ticket, which she grabbed from the counter and walked into the main station. It was bustling with citizens, most of them new arrivals from other cities, victims of the cruel game of relocation played by The Combine. She sat down on the bench, and soon a horn sounded, signaling an inbound train. She and several other citizens rose from their seated positions, and waited as a passenger train slid into the platform track. She boarded the train, and sat near a window and watched as the train departed the station for the Industrial District. The train's horn blared again as it reeled into the station. Twilight had returned from her excursion to the Industrial District, and got off the train when the doors opened. She smelled the scent of oil and lubricant, as well as smoke and diesel fuel from the numerous trains sitting idle at the station. The civilian trains were much older than the Combine's Razor Trains, and far less efficient by still running off Diesel power. The razor Trains ran off electricity, and had almost 3 times the torque and load capacity of the civilian trains, yet the Combine insisted they remain in service. Twilight shook her head, and continued back to her apartment. Twilight passed a group of Metrocops who paid no mind to her as she entered her apartment building. She climbed the same, monotonous flight of stairs to her level, and entered her apartment once more. Not 10 seconds later, the looping inspection alert message came over the PA system in the block. "Oh hell, lets hope this one goes smoothly." She could hear the steady thumps of boots as the Metropolice came marching up the stairs. She hoped they passed her floor, but a harsh rap on her door threw this hope out the window and solidified her fear. She reluctantly turned the handle, and the door was forced open by a squad of Metrocops. She was forced against the wall, and held by her wrists by one of the cops. The squad proceeded to search every inch of her home, before throwing her out of her room and against the hallway wall. "What are you doing?! I didn't do anything!" Twilight said frantically. She was silenced by a stun baton to the side of her head. She looked down the hall, and her fear deepened as she saw one of her neighbors thrown to the floor and beat with stun batons until he bled. 2 rebels were thrown out after him. "Oh god...This dumb bastard has doomed us all..." She thought as she was cuffed and taken down the stairs. She was forced out the front door, and shoved into the back of an APC. Chapter 2 : A Red Letter DayThe back of the APC was deathly silent, none of them dare spoke, especially not Twilight's neighbor. Every Combine APC had a crew capacity of 10; One driver, one gunner, and 8 people in the back. 2 Metrocops sat in the rear of the passenger cabin, eyes trained on Twilight and her neighbor, who they'd come to identify as Steel Mustang. Twilight glared at the stallion in the back of the vehicle, and then at the 2 rebels he'd been sheltering. "We wont be here long," were the words from one of the rebel's mouth. "Quiet." The Metrocop would take his stun baton off his belt and flash it as a warning. The ride drew out a bit longer, the armored vehicle stopping every so often at checkpoints, and Twilight could hear the driver chatting with the checkpoint personnel when it did. She sighed mentally, and told herself, "This is going to be a loooong day." Not long after, however, the APC hit an unexpected bump, and a noise that could only be described as "Beebeep". Twilight didn't know what the hell that was, but she didn't exactly have time to think when the APC jerked hard to the right, and then left as it spun out and careened into a wall. "What the hell?" Twilight sputtered, reeling from the shock of the apparent crash. The 2 Metrocops were dazed, but quickly got up and out to see what was happening. Twilight could hear gunshots, and the bone-chilling sound of the Metrocop radios blanking out. Through the driver's radio Twilight could hear a bit of what was happening. "Alert, Alert! Confirmed 10-224 in progress, officers down at Residential blo- AAGH!" His radio was cut short as a bullet came straight through the plexiglass canopy and into the police's skull. He fell limp, and Twilight threw up in her mouth. She hated violence, no matter what it was, and the sickening sight of someone shot dead in front of her was no exception. The rebels rose from their seats when the back door opened, and a band of more rebels was standing with triumphant looks on their faces. "Took you long enough, Sheckley," one of the rebels in the cabin said, moving towards the exit. "You're lucky it wasn't longer," replied a rebel outside, presumably Sheckley, Twilight thought. The rebels and her neighbor turned to face her. "You can come with us, y'know. We can always use the extra hands," one of them said to her. "..." Twilight didn't say anything, but nodded after a few seconds. "Come on, we have a car waiting." The rebels all packed into a van painted light blue, which was almost the size of the APC cabin. On the van, and each of the rebel's lapels, was the dragon character Lambda. It was orange and looked like someone had painted it on. The van rode through the city, making several turns to avoid the Metropolice checkpoints. Twilight never realized, but almost every checkpoint had a way around it. Bad design on the Combine's part, she thought. "So, who are you?" One of the rebels asked her. He was a muscular stallion, who was also previously a unicorn, judging by the rounded stump on his head. His coat was dull blue and his mane a forest green, with hazel brown eyes. "....Dusk Shine," she said, still sick to her stomach. "Jade," the stallion said, and extended his hand for a shake. Twilight obliged him, shaking his hand. "Why'd you take me with you? I don't know anything that would have hurt you if you left me, so why offer me a place with you?" "The aim of the resistance is freeing those who would stand for the old Equestria, not this false image we live in today, and reunited under our true ruler, Twilight Sparkle. She's in hiding somewhere, we haven't found her yet." His words caused Twilight to kick herself. How could he believe in someone who practically let a hostile race take over her kingdom and enslave her people? She was weak and she was a coward. A bump in the road brought her back to reality. "...I-I'm sure you'll find her somewhere, if she hasn't been executed by the Combine already." "Another of our virtues is optimism, ever heard of it?" The stallion joked, putting a small smile on Twilight's face. "We don't have a whole lot of that running around, now do we?" She replied. The van ride went on a bit longer, and eventually they pulled into a dead end alleyway. The van barely fit in the tight space, and it prevented them from getting out of the van. The rebel pressed a brick on the wall, actually a button, which triggered part of the road to angle down like a ramp. They drove in, and the ramp closed back up. A secret entrance for a secret base! The van pulled into the garage of the base, which saw many rebels working on other cars with various parts strewn around haphazardly. The people working all exchanged small talk with the others entering, and eyed Twilight. One would think the past ruler of Equestria wouldn't be afraid of eyes on her, but you'd be wrong. She shivered as she felt the gaze of the rebels on her. The resistance base was nestled in a construction site on the edge of the city, right up against the sheer gray cliff face that was the encircling city wall. The base was mostly underground to avoid detection by scanner patrols, making use of the old maintenance tunnels running the city. It wasn't the largest compound, but it was certainly big for it's purpose. "How long have you all been here?" Twilight inquired. "3 or 4 years, this is the second base we've had in City 17, the first one was raided when Judgement Waiver #2044 was enacted. We lost a lot of men that day..." Judgement Waivers were scary events, where Metrocops were authorized to arrest and kill anyone they suspected of rebel association. They were meant to flush out resistance cells, but they ended up being the Metrocops' purge hour. Every Waiver hundreds, sometimes thousands of citizens, guilty and innocent alike, are brutally murdered by the Metropolice for no reason, other than the cop thinks they're a rebel. The thought made Twilight shiver. "I remember that day...We saw the broadcast that a rebel base had been found in the Industrial District, but I never realized that they killed them on the spot," she said, picturing the broadcast from that day. "Hundreds of us. About a third of us escaped with our lives, the rest were either killed there, or were captured and sent off to Nova Prospekt to become mindless Combine slaves." The stallion stood a good 3 inches taller than Twilight's false body, and his muscles far surpassed hers. He looked at her with those deep hazel eyes. "Come on, I'll show you around," he said, and Twilight followed him. They visited the barracks first. It wasn't the largest place in the world, but it had plenty of space for the resistance members it was made to house. Some were sleeping, others were chatting or playing a betting game with nuts and bolts. "This here's the barracks. The beds aren't exactly comfy but you can still get a night's rest on them if you try hard enough. If you're lucky, or win a game of poker, you might get a pillow or sometimes 2," the stallion mused. The mess was next in the tour, which featured benches crewed by hungry rebels with a ration in front of them. "Our rations aren't home cooked meals, but they're not tasteless crap like the Combine MRE's they give the citizens." Twilight nodded in agreement, as she hated the meals from the distribution center. The next stop was the armory, stocked with weapons, ammo, explosives, and a firing range. She saw many, many stolen combine weapons like USP's and MP7's, rarer combine weapons like the AR2 and SPAS-12 shotgun, and even weapons she'd never seen before, like the Rocket Launcher and Crossbow. "Here's our weapons depot. We have almost every Combine weapon to date, and even weapons the Combine don't have." They passed the garage again, but they didn't stop there. They traveled down a corridor, past several storage rooms, and to a large door that read "Lab" on it. The stallion knocked twice, and then opened the door into a brilliant room filled with all manner of science equipment. Twilight's brain lit up, but she forced down her urges to nerd out over a science lab that she wished she had back in her treehouse. She gave the lab a once over, before landing her eyes on 3 scientists working at the devices. They seemed oddly familiar, and she couldn't figure out why. It finally hit her when one of them turned to her. It was...Soarin! The other 2 stallions then turned and revealed themselves as Fire Streak and Silver Zoom, 3 of the most famous Wonderbolts flyers from Cloudsdale. "Oh Celestia...Cloudsdale..." She thought, Soarin and his friends triggering a harsh and depressing memory. During the Seven Hour War, Cloudsdale was hit the hardest of any Equestrian city, due to their bold and stubborn nature. Cloudsdale's Pegasi were almost completely wiped out in the attacks and bombings done by the Combine in the early days of their hostile takeover. This string of thoughts then led her to thinking about Rainbow Dash. No one had heard a peep about the legendary Pegasi, and assumed she'd been executed or captured by the Combine, in their campaign to destroy all symbols of hope from the old world. Then the unthinkable happened. Rainbow Dash came striding into the lab. "Hey eggheads, what's new?" It seemed the Combine hadn't hindered her bravado one bit. "The Wonderbolts may not be what they once were, but I'm still your captain," Soarin shot back. Rainbow wore a leather jacket, a nondescript t-shirt, jeans, and boots, starkly contrasting the lab coats of her fellow Wonderbolts. Twilight also recognized a strange lump under the neck of her shirt, which looked like a large necklace. "Who's this?" Rainbow asked in reference to Twilight. "This is Dusk Shine," Jade said to her. "She was present when we sprung Arrow and Boulder from the MP, so I gave her the opportunity to come with us." "Ah, gotcha." Rainbow faced Twilight. "I'm Rainbow Dash. Welcome to the resistance, Dusk," she said with a confident smile on her face. Rainbow walked away and over to Soarin and his buddies. "Are we ready for the teleport te-" Her speech was cut short when she saw her necklace light up bright red. she pulled it from her shirt, revealing that it wasn't a necklace at all. It was a red crystal in the shape of a lightning bolt, her element. It pulsed with red light, and Dash turned to face Twilight. It glowed brighter as Rainbow came closer to her. Rainbow's eyes widened, and she looked up from her necklace, and at Twilight. "Who are you?" She puzzled. Twilight's heart raced. If Rainbow found out, she'd be the one to beat her senseless. Knowing her failures would send Dash into a fit of rage. She couldn't know. Not yet. Twilight acted dumb and looked up with a false look of confusion. "I-I don't know! I'm me, I'm Dusk!" She said. "Soarin, prep our teleporter. Ponyville East needs to see this. My element hasn't glowed like that since before the war. What ever the buck's happening here, I'm gonna find out." Rainbow walked up to a panel in the wall, which opened to expose a retinal scanner. She mover her face into the scanner lens, and a confirmatory beep signaled the opening of a large door. Twilight followed Rainbow into the room, and she almost couldn't believe what she was seeing. Many years ago, before she was even crowned ruler, she drew up blueprints for a teleporter design in her treehouse, but it only ever made it that far. What she was looking at now was a perfect recreation of her imagined teleporter, fully functional and lit up with many colors and lights. "Soarin, you go first. Teleport to Ponyville East and tell the others that I'm coming. With any luck, they can tell me what's going on. I'll be teleporting in right after you," Rainbow instructed. "Got it. Fire, Silver, start sequence Beta 4 and lock coordinates for device RR-2799-PE-2683. I'm going in in 5," Soarin said. He jumped down from the control platform and stepped into the teleport device. The circular platform rose up, and within a couple seconds, he was gone in a bright flash of light. A message came through to Fire Streak's console. "He made it Dash. Ponyville East has received." "Good. Dusk, come with me." Rainbow and Twilight both stepped into the teleport platform, which rose up into place. "Okay send us through." "Roger that boss, starting sequence- Oh shit! COMBINE!" Fire Streak yelled, as a city scanner put it's orange sensor eye against the window and took pictures. "Buck! Fire, Silver, put the base on alert. Tell everyone to escape into the tunnels, take what supplies you can run!" Rainbow barked. "Dusk, you come with me, we must reach Ponyville East," She said. "How are you going to get there if we can't use the teleporter?" Twilight asked in a half panic. "We'll take the airboat through the canals," Rainbow replied, taking some important documents and items from the lab. She pulled Dusk into an elevator, which then took them to a large water tunnel. The Combine installed these to regulate the rainwater, but the only stuff down here was either toxic sludge or murky, standing water. They walked along the side of the pipe until they reached a small dock, with 3 other rebels and the swamp boat Dash had referenced. It resembled an old world airboat for sure, but it had many makeshift modifications added on by the rebels. "She's all gassed up and ready for you Dash," one of the rebels said. Rainbow turned to Twilight. "You know how to drive one of these?" "Uhm…No?" "Driver's seat, front and center." Author's Note Phew! First 2 chapters are done. More on the way soon (hopefully). My fingys are yelling at me to stop fekin typing so I will oblige them. Tips are always appreciated, and Happy reading. Chapter 3 : Water HazardMood Music "Handlebars control the rudder and steering, right grip is your throttle, left grip is your gauges and light. Now hit it rookie!" Dash shouted, and Twilight hammered the throttle. The air boat took off down the murky water way, and they exited the tunnel into the open trenches that once were waterways. Wrecked boats and garbage was strewn everywhere, and made an obstacle course that Twilight guided the boat through with relative ease. Dash sat in the second seat, which was slightly raised compared to the drivers seat and was positioned right in front of the boat's engine. Dash pulled her pistol from her belt, and turned over her shoulder to aim behind them. Soon, they'd attracted the attention of the Combine, who pursued in their own amphibious vehicles. Theirs resembled modified fishing skiffs, which were small and fast. They were propelled by a steerable fan on the back, much like their own airboat. 9 millimeter bullets ricocheted off the swamp boat, and Dash returned fire on their pursuers like she was born to do so. She put round after round behind them, plinking Metrocops off the boats with skilled marksmanship, and even disabled one of the skiff's engines. The 2 remaining Combine skiffs raced after them, their MP crews kneeling on the bow and firing their pistols at Twilight and Rainbow. The airboat's engine whirred as they moved faster and faster, weaving between lumps of twisted metal and hollow carcasses that were once seafaring vessels. The skiffs pursued ruthlessly, matching every movement that Twilight made exactly. Dash switched shoulders and leaned to the other side, firing off more rounds from her custom handgun. "How much longer until we hit Ponyville East?" Twilight shouted over the noise of the airboat's engine. "We still have a ways to go, just keep driving," Dash replied, equally loud. Twilight continued in the deep grooves of the canals. The trench inclined upwards, forcing the airboat out of the water and onto the dirt river bed. Luckily for them, the airboat was technically amphibious, but not really rated for extended land travel. Twilight jerked forward as they hit the sloped dirt surface, and the boat rocketed off the slope and caught a second or 2 of air before meeting the ground again. The skiffs followed. Dash rocked with the boats harsh movements, and patted Twilight on the shoulder. "You're doin' great kid, keep it up!" She said over the sound of her pistol's shots. Twilight held on the throttle as they raced through the canal system with the Combine in hot pursuit. The canals switched between water and dirt terrain sporadically, but both the airboat and MP skiffs were able to traverse them. up ahead, a large boat was laying sideways in the canal and blocked the way forward. Dash, seeing this, turned from her rear firing position and pointed her gun above Twilight's head. She fired 3 rounds, causing several logs to fall into the canal and into a perfect slope for a ramp. Twilight gunned the engine and barreled toward the ramp. Dash pulled the pin on a grenade and dropped it as Twilight drove up the logs and sailed over debris from the boat. One of the skiffs attempted the same jump, but failed to realize the live grenade until they had just run over it, and were sent flying into the rusting steel ship. The other skiff turned and took a different route out of sight. Not long after the heart-racing stunt, a loud and heavy whirring filled the air, and was even louder than the airboat they were sitting in. Dash turned around, and gasped the words, "Oh SHIT." "What? What is it?" Twilight asked over the whirring. "Hunter Chopper! Step on it!" Dash screamed. Twilight cranked the throttle forwards, and the engine let out a 6000 RPM yelp before surging forward in a burst of speed. The whirring became louder and louder, until it swooped in around a corner behind them, and the telltale sound of the chopper's pulse gun filled their ears. The flurry of pulse rounds came down hard like hail reaching Mach 2. Twilight drifted wide around a corner, narrowly avoiding a quick, forward sweep by the chopper's gun. It rotated with ease around the bend, and kept after Twilight and Dash. Rainbow fired 3 shots at the chopper, but stopped after the bullets bounced off the thick armor with a comical 'ting'. Twilight swerved around another barrage of pulse rounds from the Hunter Chopper, and wrenched the throttle further forward. The engine was barely coping with the constant stress, and began to scream bloody murder as it passed 75 Hundred RPM. "Dash! Are we close?" Twilight turned to face a pivoted Rainbow, watching the tailing helicopter. "I don't know! Uhm...There! See those 2 Industrial chimneys? We're about half way there! Keep going!" Twilight drifted sharply around another turn, and so did the helicopter on their tail. It let out another roaring inferno of blue-yellow pulse rounds, catching the rear of the boat in it's wake. Not 3 seconds after, the surviving skiff from earlier shot out from another canal inlet off to the side, and the cops on board began firing. This time, they had a clear shot at Dash and Twilight. She ducked to avoid the aforementioned gunfire, and Dash raised her gun and unloaded a magazine in the skiff's general direction. She sunk a round into a cop's forehead, sending him over the side of the boat and into the toxic fluids they drove on. Twilight yanked the handlebars to the right, and then to the left, crashing into the skiff's side and shaking another of it's crew into the lethal soup below. Dash hopped out of her seat and over onto the skiff, pistol whipping the bow gunner unconscious and then planting 4 rounds in the driver's chest. She leaped back onto the airboat as the skiff lulled to the side and plowed straight into another rusting ship. The helicopter swooped in closer and charged the pulse gun, unleashing hellfire yet again onto Twilight's swamp boat, rocking it side to side. Twilight heard the jarring noise of a Razor Train horn, and she devised a cunning, yet incredibly dangerous idea. She jerked hard right, sliding up onto the grassy slopes of the shore, hopped a chain-link fence and ended up on a railroad track. The chopper swerved sideways and followed the pair in their daring move. "Dusk! What the buck are you doing!" Dash yelled. "Trust me." The chopped pummeled the area right behind them, and descended to track level. "Gotcha!" Twilight yelled, as the train horn blared once again, this time much closer. The Hunter Chopper was trapped in the trench between their target airboat and a speeding Razor Train. Twilight slammed the bars left and shot out of a small gap in the fence, watching as the train crashed head on into the helicopter, destroying it in a fiery explosion. Twilight then put the swamp boat back on course for Ponyville East. "Damn Dusk, I'd never have thought of that, screwin' the Combine with their own toys," Dash said, a rare impressed tone that Twilight had only heard once in all the years she'd known Rainbow Dash. Twilight smiled on the outside, but deep down she was still moaning in agony. Dash was impressed by Dusk Shine, not Twilight Sparkle. Soon, the familiar heavy whirring of another Hunter Chopper filled the air, and one sweeped under a bridge and caught on to their tail. "Oh for Celestia's sake, again?!" Dash cursed under her breath. "Hold on!" Twilight gunned the airboat once again, avoiding a barrage from the pulse gun. She zoomed into a concrete pipe, forcing the Hunter Chopper off their rump for awhile. They came to what appeared to be a rebel outpost, crewed by 2 such rebels and one Vortigaunt. These were among the creatures from the Xen border world, an alien planet which attempted to do the same thing the Combine had done. 45 years ago, the Xen creatures were allowed entry by a huge science accident, the Resonance Cascade. These Xen creatures were designed to kill, and did so until Celestia, Luna, and the Mane 6 closed the portal. This left almost an entire world population's worth of the bipedal creatures called Vortigaunts stranded on Earth. They learned to co-exist, and share Equestria. When the Combine attacked and took over Earth, they enslaved the Vortigaunts for their seemingly magical powers, or made them suffer the same conditions as citizens in the Cities. Twilight stopped the boat at the dock, and both her and Dash climbed out. The engine of the airboat sputter and shut off, finally receiving a break from the constant red-line work it was just put through. One of the rebels fell in line next to Rainbow, and started talking. "Come on, I'll show you what you're up against." They walk into the medium sized room, which appears to be a dock house of some kind. There's a map on the wall, a desk with some notes, and a table with a pistol and SMG plus associated ammo. The rebel directs Dash to the map. "Ponyville East is just ahead, nestled in the old Hydro Plant. Getting there, with that Hunter Chopper on your flank? Next to impossible. The Vort's out there working on your boat, that gun is ripped straight off one of the Choppers tailing you now. You'll be able to blow that thing out of the sky. Just watch out for the mines." The sounds of Vortigaunt magic could be heard from outside. "I think the Vort's just finishing up now." Dash and Twilight both walked out to the dock, and saw a pulse gun attached to the airboat. "Oh HELL yeah." Dash said, climbing back into the second seat, which was now the gunner seat. "Give 'em hell Dash." The rebel said, and Twilight revved the boat engine. They sped off and were, not long after, spotted by the Hunter Chopper. Swooping in, it charged it's pulse gun and took the first jab at them. Twilight then stopped fast, putting the Chopper in range of the airboat's own pulse gun. Dash charged it, and then gave the Chopper a hard shower of pulse rounds. it granted her a victorious explosion, and a small flame on the right side of the helicopter. It swerved sideways, and ascended higher to get away from the now armed airboat, only to have Dash chase it with pulse fire. It dropped a spherical object with a flashing red light on the top and bottom, which began to blink faster and faster until- "MINE!" Twilight jerked right just in time to avoid the bomb's explosion. The chopper was laying a steady stream of these mines, not enough to block their path, but enough to make them swerve side to side to avoid them. Dash let loose another 'magazine' of pulse rounds, exploding the other side of the chopper into a burning flame. The Chopper was smoking from it's rotary engine, and had fires on the tail boom, wings, and lower cockpit, but it still flew. It turned around, flying backwards and returning fire from it's mounted weapon. It purposefully exploded a mine early, which rocked the airboat hard to one side and messed up Dash's aim. About half her shots missed. The Chopper swiveled around and began to drop another round of mines. Twilight weaved around the complicated maze of explosive danger, all the while Dash yelling obscenities at the airborne foe as her weapon sprayed the chopper in blue-yellow bullets. Dash seemed to have struck something vital, because the Chopper's smooth and steady flight became shaky and unstable, the helicopter dropping randomly and jerking side to side like it was dizzy. "Shoot for that spot again, you cracked something in it!" Dash charged the gun, before yelling another flurry of curses coupled with pulse bullets at the Hunter Chopper. The bullets pierced the thick armor and into the engine, setting the exhaust vents aflame. The Chopper began to explode incrementally, the explosions getting more frequent until it broke apart mid-flight and crashed into the shallow water of the dried lake. "TAKE THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Dash screamed in victory. Author's Note Chapter 3! Woooo! This one was a fun one to do, with the Chopper chase and the minesweeper segment. Hope you're still enjoying this, cuz there's a lot more on the way. Also 2048 words! PrologueTwilight rested her arms on her throne, gazing peacefully over her palace hall, and up at her stained glass window. She rose, strolling leisurely to her computer terminal. She looked through her inbox, skipping over the unimportant messages and mail. Nothing of extreme importance came from the inbox, so Twilight exited the throne hall and decided to take a walk through the garden. She admired the plants and flowers growing along the paths, and soaked up the serenity and peace of the garden. That peace was suddenly shattered. Alarms blared and sirens shrieked, causing Twilight to hold her hear in shock and pain. She sprang into action, and ran back into the palace and to the main hall. The royal guards were gathered there, and quickly surrounded the princess. The captain approached her frantically, and managed to sputter out his next several sentences. "Ma'am, our sentries spotted a fleet of unknown airborne...things headed for the city...We don't know who or what they are, but the sentries reported they were coming fast," The captain said a bit shakily. "I want to know what they are captain, and I want to know if they're friendly. Hopefully there's a peaceful solution to this. There always is." The captain nodded, and off he went, radioing to the sentries and guards. Twilight had not been in the castle for more than 2 minutes when the building shook with a bang, and the loudest thudding she'd ever heard. What followed changed Twilight's face to one of fear and shock. The shrieks of her people cut short by the canon of a huge, 3 legged beast trampling her city streets. The Seven Hour War had begun.
Chapter 1 : Point InsertionTwilight walked by an alley as a squad of Metrocops passed her with little interest. It had been 5 years since the Seven Hour War, and Twilight was no longer the ruler of Equestria, or anything for that matter. She'd been living in hiding ever since the fall of her kingdom, too ashamed of her failure to show her face to the ponies she once called her loyal subjects. Twilight was living a new life, with the scars of the past to haunt her every second of it. Every citizen was issued an ID and clearance tag, which she wore clearly on her shirt along with the branding of The Combine. Her false identity was named Dusk Shine, and was an off-colored grey with cloudy blue highlights in her hair. She walked into the small café outside the Train Station, Café Baltic, which was one of the only places she frequented. "Hey Dusk, How are you?" The barista asked. He was Topaz Glint, a male in his mid 20's with a sand colored coat and peach hair. "Okay I guess, same as usual. You?" Twilight responded. "Good, good. Business has been well this week, with the new relocation trains coming in Wednesday and all," The barista said, upbeat. No matter what happened, Twilight noticed, he always seemed to keep a positive outlook on matters. "Man, I feel bad for those people, y'know? They settle down, make a life, and then get uprooted and shipped off by The Combine to a place like this." "Maybe it's not all bad right? Getting relocated here is great, City 17 is the best one around!" He replied gleefully. "I suppose. Get me my usual, will you?" She said, taking a seat at the 2 person table by the front window. Soon, Topaz emerged from the backroom with 2 cups, and set one in front of Twilight before sitting down himself. Topaz and Twilight had become good friends since she'd 'come' here, and he was really the only person Twilight ever talked to. "Just the way you like it." Topaz said, taking a drink from the cup in his hand. She picked up on small personal details about Topaz, including the milled base of a horn. When the Combine arrived, they practiced the horrible act of cutting off the horns of unicorns so they couldn't use magic against them, and also restricted the use of Pegasi wings. The unicorns would grind off the jagged edges of their horns to make them more subtle, and were called by the derogatory term "millers" because of their milled horn. However, Topaz didn't care one bit that he was once a magic-wielding unicorn, and was happy with his current life. Twilight sipped her hot beverage lightly, watching the creamer swirl in the brown liquid. "Topaz...Would you mind if I asked you a personal question?" Topaz blinked for a second. "Sure, not at all." "Do you remember anything of your old life?" This made Topaz think for a moment. "Well...I don't remember much, but I remember our leader. She was...very beautiful and powerful, but in an inspiring way. Princess Twilight Sparkle was her name. We did very well under her rule, but after 20 something years...Well, you know what happened then." He chuckled. Twilight frowned internally. "She's gone...She's a weak failure now." She looked aside, out the window and into the square. "I don't remember my old life..." She lied. "All I remember is waking up on a train coming into that station." "What matters is now, and what you're going to do with this life, Dusk. I don't think about who I used to be, I think about who I am, who I'm gonna be." He smiled across the table at Twilight. Twilight smiled, but only on the outside. On the inside she was drowning in the thoughts of her failure as a leader, and how she was cowering behind this mask, too afraid to tell them the truth. The sound of a Combine APC whizzing by pulled her back into reality, and she looked out the window as another one followed, and then another. She cringed, and looked at Topaz. "I sure hope that's not my block." "You should probably go take a look. They'll hunt you down if you don't show for an inspection. Catch you later Dusk." Twilight took her hot coffee, and walked briskly down the street towards her apartment block. The Metropolice conducted periodic inspections of all the apartment buildings in City 17 to flush out rebels and resistance members, and you didn't want to be in the same block as someone who was hiding rebels. If they found you, everyone on that floor is a suspect and a potential conspirator. Twilight always dreaded inspections. Metropolice were known for beatings and brutality, because no one was brave, or foolish, enough to speak out against them. Citizens were killed or seriously injured by Metrocops every day, and those who resisted were shipped off to Nova Prospekt. Twilight let out a silent sigh of relief as she rounded the corner, and saw the APCs hastily parked outside the neighboring apartment building. She stopped just before the door to her building, as she saw the squad of Metropolice forcefully eject a citizen from the building, and proceed to beat him with their stun batons. The yellow energy coils were stained red with the man's blood, and out came 5 rebels all handcuffed and equally bloodied. She cringed and hurried inside her apartment building. The elevator was still out, had been for at least a week, so she took her normal route and climbed the several flights of stairs to her floor of the building. She plugged the key into her door, unlocking it slipping in the open doorway and shutting the wooden door behind her. "God damnit Twilight, get it together! Stupid bastard knew the consequences for hiding rebels, stop feeling sorry for him!" She shook herself, before walking into her bedroom and proceeding to strip out of her civilian fatigues. She unclipped her bra and let her breasts breathe as she slipped on a loose fitting tank top. Twilight then walked into her small bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror, running a hand through her wavy hair. Only it wasn't her hair, it was this false image's hair. She turned off the light as she left the bathroom, and plopped down on her bed. It was still morning, so she could get away with dozing off and taking a nap. Twilight woke about 3 in the afternoon, and realized she had been asleep for a lot longer than a nap. She would change into her civilian outfit, before leaving the apartment, and then the building. She walked into the square again, but this time into the train station, the very same station where she'd 'arrived' into City 17. She got in line, and came up to the window soon. "A round trip ticket to the Industrial District please," Twilight said, and was then prompted to hand her ID to the Metrocop manning the booth. She did so, and was presented with her ID and a ticket, which she grabbed from the counter and walked into the main station. It was bustling with citizens, most of them new arrivals from other cities, victims of the cruel game of relocation played by The Combine. She sat down on the bench, and soon a horn sounded, signaling an inbound train. She and several other citizens rose from their seated positions, and waited as a passenger train slid into the platform track. She boarded the train, and sat near a window and watched as the train departed the station for the Industrial District. The train's horn blared again as it reeled into the station. Twilight had returned from her excursion to the Industrial District, and got off the train when the doors opened. She smelled the scent of oil and lubricant, as well as smoke and diesel fuel from the numerous trains sitting idle at the station. The civilian trains were much older than the Combine's Razor Trains, and far less efficient by still running off Diesel power. The razor Trains ran off electricity, and had almost 3 times the torque and load capacity of the civilian trains, yet the Combine insisted they remain in service. Twilight shook her head, and continued back to her apartment. Twilight passed a group of Metrocops who paid no mind to her as she entered her apartment building. She climbed the same, monotonous flight of stairs to her level, and entered her apartment once more. Not 10 seconds later, the looping inspection alert message came over the PA system in the block. "Oh hell, lets hope this one goes smoothly." She could hear the steady thumps of boots as the Metropolice came marching up the stairs. She hoped they passed her floor, but a harsh rap on her door threw this hope out the window and solidified her fear. She reluctantly turned the handle, and the door was forced open by a squad of Metrocops. She was forced against the wall, and held by her wrists by one of the cops. The squad proceeded to search every inch of her home, before throwing her out of her room and against the hallway wall. "What are you doing?! I didn't do anything!" Twilight said frantically. She was silenced by a stun baton to the side of her head. She looked down the hall, and her fear deepened as she saw one of her neighbors thrown to the floor and beat with stun batons until he bled. 2 rebels were thrown out after him. "Oh god...This dumb bastard has doomed us all..." She thought as she was cuffed and taken down the stairs. She was forced out the front door, and shoved into the back of an APC.
Chapter 2 : A Red Letter DayThe back of the APC was deathly silent, none of them dare spoke, especially not Twilight's neighbor. Every Combine APC had a crew capacity of 10; One driver, one gunner, and 8 people in the back. 2 Metrocops sat in the rear of the passenger cabin, eyes trained on Twilight and her neighbor, who they'd come to identify as Steel Mustang. Twilight glared at the stallion in the back of the vehicle, and then at the 2 rebels he'd been sheltering. "We wont be here long," were the words from one of the rebel's mouth. "Quiet." The Metrocop would take his stun baton off his belt and flash it as a warning. The ride drew out a bit longer, the armored vehicle stopping every so often at checkpoints, and Twilight could hear the driver chatting with the checkpoint personnel when it did. She sighed mentally, and told herself, "This is going to be a loooong day." Not long after, however, the APC hit an unexpected bump, and a noise that could only be described as "Beebeep". Twilight didn't know what the hell that was, but she didn't exactly have time to think when the APC jerked hard to the right, and then left as it spun out and careened into a wall. "What the hell?" Twilight sputtered, reeling from the shock of the apparent crash. The 2 Metrocops were dazed, but quickly got up and out to see what was happening. Twilight could hear gunshots, and the bone-chilling sound of the Metrocop radios blanking out. Through the driver's radio Twilight could hear a bit of what was happening. "Alert, Alert! Confirmed 10-224 in progress, officers down at Residential blo- AAGH!" His radio was cut short as a bullet came straight through the plexiglass canopy and into the police's skull. He fell limp, and Twilight threw up in her mouth. She hated violence, no matter what it was, and the sickening sight of someone shot dead in front of her was no exception. The rebels rose from their seats when the back door opened, and a band of more rebels was standing with triumphant looks on their faces. "Took you long enough, Sheckley," one of the rebels in the cabin said, moving towards the exit. "You're lucky it wasn't longer," replied a rebel outside, presumably Sheckley, Twilight thought. The rebels and her neighbor turned to face her. "You can come with us, y'know. We can always use the extra hands," one of them said to her. "..." Twilight didn't say anything, but nodded after a few seconds. "Come on, we have a car waiting." The rebels all packed into a van painted light blue, which was almost the size of the APC cabin. On the van, and each of the rebel's lapels, was the dragon character Lambda. It was orange and looked like someone had painted it on. The van rode through the city, making several turns to avoid the Metropolice checkpoints. Twilight never realized, but almost every checkpoint had a way around it. Bad design on the Combine's part, she thought. "So, who are you?" One of the rebels asked her. He was a muscular stallion, who was also previously a unicorn, judging by the rounded stump on his head. His coat was dull blue and his mane a forest green, with hazel brown eyes. "....Dusk Shine," she said, still sick to her stomach. "Jade," the stallion said, and extended his hand for a shake. Twilight obliged him, shaking his hand. "Why'd you take me with you? I don't know anything that would have hurt you if you left me, so why offer me a place with you?" "The aim of the resistance is freeing those who would stand for the old Equestria, not this false image we live in today, and reunited under our true ruler, Twilight Sparkle. She's in hiding somewhere, we haven't found her yet." His words caused Twilight to kick herself. How could he believe in someone who practically let a hostile race take over her kingdom and enslave her people? She was weak and she was a coward. A bump in the road brought her back to reality. "...I-I'm sure you'll find her somewhere, if she hasn't been executed by the Combine already." "Another of our virtues is optimism, ever heard of it?" The stallion joked, putting a small smile on Twilight's face. "We don't have a whole lot of that running around, now do we?" She replied. The van ride went on a bit longer, and eventually they pulled into a dead end alleyway. The van barely fit in the tight space, and it prevented them from getting out of the van. The rebel pressed a brick on the wall, actually a button, which triggered part of the road to angle down like a ramp. They drove in, and the ramp closed back up. A secret entrance for a secret base! The van pulled into the garage of the base, which saw many rebels working on other cars with various parts strewn around haphazardly. The people working all exchanged small talk with the others entering, and eyed Twilight. One would think the past ruler of Equestria wouldn't be afraid of eyes on her, but you'd be wrong. She shivered as she felt the gaze of the rebels on her. The resistance base was nestled in a construction site on the edge of the city, right up against the sheer gray cliff face that was the encircling city wall. The base was mostly underground to avoid detection by scanner patrols, making use of the old maintenance tunnels running the city. It wasn't the largest compound, but it was certainly big for it's purpose. "How long have you all been here?" Twilight inquired. "3 or 4 years, this is the second base we've had in City 17, the first one was raided when Judgement Waiver #2044 was enacted. We lost a lot of men that day..." Judgement Waivers were scary events, where Metrocops were authorized to arrest and kill anyone they suspected of rebel association. They were meant to flush out resistance cells, but they ended up being the Metrocops' purge hour. Every Waiver hundreds, sometimes thousands of citizens, guilty and innocent alike, are brutally murdered by the Metropolice for no reason, other than the cop thinks they're a rebel. The thought made Twilight shiver. "I remember that day...We saw the broadcast that a rebel base had been found in the Industrial District, but I never realized that they killed them on the spot," she said, picturing the broadcast from that day. "Hundreds of us. About a third of us escaped with our lives, the rest were either killed there, or were captured and sent off to Nova Prospekt to become mindless Combine slaves." The stallion stood a good 3 inches taller than Twilight's false body, and his muscles far surpassed hers. He looked at her with those deep hazel eyes. "Come on, I'll show you around," he said, and Twilight followed him. They visited the barracks first. It wasn't the largest place in the world, but it had plenty of space for the resistance members it was made to house. Some were sleeping, others were chatting or playing a betting game with nuts and bolts. "This here's the barracks. The beds aren't exactly comfy but you can still get a night's rest on them if you try hard enough. If you're lucky, or win a game of poker, you might get a pillow or sometimes 2," the stallion mused. The mess was next in the tour, which featured benches crewed by hungry rebels with a ration in front of them. "Our rations aren't home cooked meals, but they're not tasteless crap like the Combine MRE's they give the citizens." Twilight nodded in agreement, as she hated the meals from the distribution center. The next stop was the armory, stocked with weapons, ammo, explosives, and a firing range. She saw many, many stolen combine weapons like USP's and MP7's, rarer combine weapons like the AR2 and SPAS-12 shotgun, and even weapons she'd never seen before, like the Rocket Launcher and Crossbow. "Here's our weapons depot. We have almost every Combine weapon to date, and even weapons the Combine don't have." They passed the garage again, but they didn't stop there. They traveled down a corridor, past several storage rooms, and to a large door that read "Lab" on it. The stallion knocked twice, and then opened the door into a brilliant room filled with all manner of science equipment. Twilight's brain lit up, but she forced down her urges to nerd out over a science lab that she wished she had back in her treehouse. She gave the lab a once over, before landing her eyes on 3 scientists working at the devices. They seemed oddly familiar, and she couldn't figure out why. It finally hit her when one of them turned to her. It was...Soarin! The other 2 stallions then turned and revealed themselves as Fire Streak and Silver Zoom, 3 of the most famous Wonderbolts flyers from Cloudsdale. "Oh Celestia...Cloudsdale..." She thought, Soarin and his friends triggering a harsh and depressing memory. During the Seven Hour War, Cloudsdale was hit the hardest of any Equestrian city, due to their bold and stubborn nature. Cloudsdale's Pegasi were almost completely wiped out in the attacks and bombings done by the Combine in the early days of their hostile takeover. This string of thoughts then led her to thinking about Rainbow Dash. No one had heard a peep about the legendary Pegasi, and assumed she'd been executed or captured by the Combine, in their campaign to destroy all symbols of hope from the old world. Then the unthinkable happened. Rainbow Dash came striding into the lab. "Hey eggheads, what's new?" It seemed the Combine hadn't hindered her bravado one bit. "The Wonderbolts may not be what they once were, but I'm still your captain," Soarin shot back. Rainbow wore a leather jacket, a nondescript t-shirt, jeans, and boots, starkly contrasting the lab coats of her fellow Wonderbolts. Twilight also recognized a strange lump under the neck of her shirt, which looked like a large necklace. "Who's this?" Rainbow asked in reference to Twilight. "This is Dusk Shine," Jade said to her. "She was present when we sprung Arrow and Boulder from the MP, so I gave her the opportunity to come with us." "Ah, gotcha." Rainbow faced Twilight. "I'm Rainbow Dash. Welcome to the resistance, Dusk," she said with a confident smile on her face. Rainbow walked away and over to Soarin and his buddies. "Are we ready for the teleport te-" Her speech was cut short when she saw her necklace light up bright red. she pulled it from her shirt, revealing that it wasn't a necklace at all. It was a red crystal in the shape of a lightning bolt, her element. It pulsed with red light, and Dash turned to face Twilight. It glowed brighter as Rainbow came closer to her. Rainbow's eyes widened, and she looked up from her necklace, and at Twilight. "Who are you?" She puzzled. Twilight's heart raced. If Rainbow found out, she'd be the one to beat her senseless. Knowing her failures would send Dash into a fit of rage. She couldn't know. Not yet. Twilight acted dumb and looked up with a false look of confusion. "I-I don't know! I'm me, I'm Dusk!" She said. "Soarin, prep our teleporter. Ponyville East needs to see this. My element hasn't glowed like that since before the war. What ever the buck's happening here, I'm gonna find out." Rainbow walked up to a panel in the wall, which opened to expose a retinal scanner. She mover her face into the scanner lens, and a confirmatory beep signaled the opening of a large door. Twilight followed Rainbow into the room, and she almost couldn't believe what she was seeing. Many years ago, before she was even crowned ruler, she drew up blueprints for a teleporter design in her treehouse, but it only ever made it that far. What she was looking at now was a perfect recreation of her imagined teleporter, fully functional and lit up with many colors and lights. "Soarin, you go first. Teleport to Ponyville East and tell the others that I'm coming. With any luck, they can tell me what's going on. I'll be teleporting in right after you," Rainbow instructed. "Got it. Fire, Silver, start sequence Beta 4 and lock coordinates for device RR-2799-PE-2683. I'm going in in 5," Soarin said. He jumped down from the control platform and stepped into the teleport device. The circular platform rose up, and within a couple seconds, he was gone in a bright flash of light. A message came through to Fire Streak's console. "He made it Dash. Ponyville East has received." "Good. Dusk, come with me." Rainbow and Twilight both stepped into the teleport platform, which rose up into place. "Okay send us through." "Roger that boss, starting sequence- Oh shit! COMBINE!" Fire Streak yelled, as a city scanner put it's orange sensor eye against the window and took pictures. "Buck! Fire, Silver, put the base on alert. Tell everyone to escape into the tunnels, take what supplies you can run!" Rainbow barked. "Dusk, you come with me, we must reach Ponyville East," She said. "How are you going to get there if we can't use the teleporter?" Twilight asked in a half panic. "We'll take the airboat through the canals," Rainbow replied, taking some important documents and items from the lab. She pulled Dusk into an elevator, which then took them to a large water tunnel. The Combine installed these to regulate the rainwater, but the only stuff down here was either toxic sludge or murky, standing water. They walked along the side of the pipe until they reached a small dock, with 3 other rebels and the swamp boat Dash had referenced. It resembled an old world airboat for sure, but it had many makeshift modifications added on by the rebels. "She's all gassed up and ready for you Dash," one of the rebels said. Rainbow turned to Twilight. "You know how to drive one of these?" "Uhm…No?" "Driver's seat, front and center." Author's Note Phew! First 2 chapters are done. More on the way soon (hopefully). My fingys are yelling at me to stop fekin typing so I will oblige them. Tips are always appreciated, and Happy reading.
Chapter 3 : Water HazardMood Music "Handlebars control the rudder and steering, right grip is your throttle, left grip is your gauges and light. Now hit it rookie!" Dash shouted, and Twilight hammered the throttle. The air boat took off down the murky water way, and they exited the tunnel into the open trenches that once were waterways. Wrecked boats and garbage was strewn everywhere, and made an obstacle course that Twilight guided the boat through with relative ease. Dash sat in the second seat, which was slightly raised compared to the drivers seat and was positioned right in front of the boat's engine. Dash pulled her pistol from her belt, and turned over her shoulder to aim behind them. Soon, they'd attracted the attention of the Combine, who pursued in their own amphibious vehicles. Theirs resembled modified fishing skiffs, which were small and fast. They were propelled by a steerable fan on the back, much like their own airboat. 9 millimeter bullets ricocheted off the swamp boat, and Dash returned fire on their pursuers like she was born to do so. She put round after round behind them, plinking Metrocops off the boats with skilled marksmanship, and even disabled one of the skiff's engines. The 2 remaining Combine skiffs raced after them, their MP crews kneeling on the bow and firing their pistols at Twilight and Rainbow. The airboat's engine whirred as they moved faster and faster, weaving between lumps of twisted metal and hollow carcasses that were once seafaring vessels. The skiffs pursued ruthlessly, matching every movement that Twilight made exactly. Dash switched shoulders and leaned to the other side, firing off more rounds from her custom handgun. "How much longer until we hit Ponyville East?" Twilight shouted over the noise of the airboat's engine. "We still have a ways to go, just keep driving," Dash replied, equally loud. Twilight continued in the deep grooves of the canals. The trench inclined upwards, forcing the airboat out of the water and onto the dirt river bed. Luckily for them, the airboat was technically amphibious, but not really rated for extended land travel. Twilight jerked forward as they hit the sloped dirt surface, and the boat rocketed off the slope and caught a second or 2 of air before meeting the ground again. The skiffs followed. Dash rocked with the boats harsh movements, and patted Twilight on the shoulder. "You're doin' great kid, keep it up!" She said over the sound of her pistol's shots. Twilight held on the throttle as they raced through the canal system with the Combine in hot pursuit. The canals switched between water and dirt terrain sporadically, but both the airboat and MP skiffs were able to traverse them. up ahead, a large boat was laying sideways in the canal and blocked the way forward. Dash, seeing this, turned from her rear firing position and pointed her gun above Twilight's head. She fired 3 rounds, causing several logs to fall into the canal and into a perfect slope for a ramp. Twilight gunned the engine and barreled toward the ramp. Dash pulled the pin on a grenade and dropped it as Twilight drove up the logs and sailed over debris from the boat. One of the skiffs attempted the same jump, but failed to realize the live grenade until they had just run over it, and were sent flying into the rusting steel ship. The other skiff turned and took a different route out of sight. Not long after the heart-racing stunt, a loud and heavy whirring filled the air, and was even louder than the airboat they were sitting in. Dash turned around, and gasped the words, "Oh SHIT." "What? What is it?" Twilight asked over the whirring. "Hunter Chopper! Step on it!" Dash screamed. Twilight cranked the throttle forwards, and the engine let out a 6000 RPM yelp before surging forward in a burst of speed. The whirring became louder and louder, until it swooped in around a corner behind them, and the telltale sound of the chopper's pulse gun filled their ears. The flurry of pulse rounds came down hard like hail reaching Mach 2. Twilight drifted wide around a corner, narrowly avoiding a quick, forward sweep by the chopper's gun. It rotated with ease around the bend, and kept after Twilight and Dash. Rainbow fired 3 shots at the chopper, but stopped after the bullets bounced off the thick armor with a comical 'ting'. Twilight swerved around another barrage of pulse rounds from the Hunter Chopper, and wrenched the throttle further forward. The engine was barely coping with the constant stress, and began to scream bloody murder as it passed 75 Hundred RPM. "Dash! Are we close?" Twilight turned to face a pivoted Rainbow, watching the tailing helicopter. "I don't know! Uhm...There! See those 2 Industrial chimneys? We're about half way there! Keep going!" Twilight drifted sharply around another turn, and so did the helicopter on their tail. It let out another roaring inferno of blue-yellow pulse rounds, catching the rear of the boat in it's wake. Not 3 seconds after, the surviving skiff from earlier shot out from another canal inlet off to the side, and the cops on board began firing. This time, they had a clear shot at Dash and Twilight. She ducked to avoid the aforementioned gunfire, and Dash raised her gun and unloaded a magazine in the skiff's general direction. She sunk a round into a cop's forehead, sending him over the side of the boat and into the toxic fluids they drove on. Twilight yanked the handlebars to the right, and then to the left, crashing into the skiff's side and shaking another of it's crew into the lethal soup below. Dash hopped out of her seat and over onto the skiff, pistol whipping the bow gunner unconscious and then planting 4 rounds in the driver's chest. She leaped back onto the airboat as the skiff lulled to the side and plowed straight into another rusting ship. The helicopter swooped in closer and charged the pulse gun, unleashing hellfire yet again onto Twilight's swamp boat, rocking it side to side. Twilight heard the jarring noise of a Razor Train horn, and she devised a cunning, yet incredibly dangerous idea. She jerked hard right, sliding up onto the grassy slopes of the shore, hopped a chain-link fence and ended up on a railroad track. The chopper swerved sideways and followed the pair in their daring move. "Dusk! What the buck are you doing!" Dash yelled. "Trust me." The chopped pummeled the area right behind them, and descended to track level. "Gotcha!" Twilight yelled, as the train horn blared once again, this time much closer. The Hunter Chopper was trapped in the trench between their target airboat and a speeding Razor Train. Twilight slammed the bars left and shot out of a small gap in the fence, watching as the train crashed head on into the helicopter, destroying it in a fiery explosion. Twilight then put the swamp boat back on course for Ponyville East. "Damn Dusk, I'd never have thought of that, screwin' the Combine with their own toys," Dash said, a rare impressed tone that Twilight had only heard once in all the years she'd known Rainbow Dash. Twilight smiled on the outside, but deep down she was still moaning in agony. Dash was impressed by Dusk Shine, not Twilight Sparkle. Soon, the familiar heavy whirring of another Hunter Chopper filled the air, and one sweeped under a bridge and caught on to their tail. "Oh for Celestia's sake, again?!" Dash cursed under her breath. "Hold on!" Twilight gunned the airboat once again, avoiding a barrage from the pulse gun. She zoomed into a concrete pipe, forcing the Hunter Chopper off their rump for awhile. They came to what appeared to be a rebel outpost, crewed by 2 such rebels and one Vortigaunt. These were among the creatures from the Xen border world, an alien planet which attempted to do the same thing the Combine had done. 45 years ago, the Xen creatures were allowed entry by a huge science accident, the Resonance Cascade. These Xen creatures were designed to kill, and did so until Celestia, Luna, and the Mane 6 closed the portal. This left almost an entire world population's worth of the bipedal creatures called Vortigaunts stranded on Earth. They learned to co-exist, and share Equestria. When the Combine attacked and took over Earth, they enslaved the Vortigaunts for their seemingly magical powers, or made them suffer the same conditions as citizens in the Cities. Twilight stopped the boat at the dock, and both her and Dash climbed out. The engine of the airboat sputter and shut off, finally receiving a break from the constant red-line work it was just put through. One of the rebels fell in line next to Rainbow, and started talking. "Come on, I'll show you what you're up against." They walk into the medium sized room, which appears to be a dock house of some kind. There's a map on the wall, a desk with some notes, and a table with a pistol and SMG plus associated ammo. The rebel directs Dash to the map. "Ponyville East is just ahead, nestled in the old Hydro Plant. Getting there, with that Hunter Chopper on your flank? Next to impossible. The Vort's out there working on your boat, that gun is ripped straight off one of the Choppers tailing you now. You'll be able to blow that thing out of the sky. Just watch out for the mines." The sounds of Vortigaunt magic could be heard from outside. "I think the Vort's just finishing up now." Dash and Twilight both walked out to the dock, and saw a pulse gun attached to the airboat. "Oh HELL yeah." Dash said, climbing back into the second seat, which was now the gunner seat. "Give 'em hell Dash." The rebel said, and Twilight revved the boat engine. They sped off and were, not long after, spotted by the Hunter Chopper. Swooping in, it charged it's pulse gun and took the first jab at them. Twilight then stopped fast, putting the Chopper in range of the airboat's own pulse gun. Dash charged it, and then gave the Chopper a hard shower of pulse rounds. it granted her a victorious explosion, and a small flame on the right side of the helicopter. It swerved sideways, and ascended higher to get away from the now armed airboat, only to have Dash chase it with pulse fire. It dropped a spherical object with a flashing red light on the top and bottom, which began to blink faster and faster until- "MINE!" Twilight jerked right just in time to avoid the bomb's explosion. The chopper was laying a steady stream of these mines, not enough to block their path, but enough to make them swerve side to side to avoid them. Dash let loose another 'magazine' of pulse rounds, exploding the other side of the chopper into a burning flame. The Chopper was smoking from it's rotary engine, and had fires on the tail boom, wings, and lower cockpit, but it still flew. It turned around, flying backwards and returning fire from it's mounted weapon. It purposefully exploded a mine early, which rocked the airboat hard to one side and messed up Dash's aim. About half her shots missed. The Chopper swiveled around and began to drop another round of mines. Twilight weaved around the complicated maze of explosive danger, all the while Dash yelling obscenities at the airborne foe as her weapon sprayed the chopper in blue-yellow bullets. Dash seemed to have struck something vital, because the Chopper's smooth and steady flight became shaky and unstable, the helicopter dropping randomly and jerking side to side like it was dizzy. "Shoot for that spot again, you cracked something in it!" Dash charged the gun, before yelling another flurry of curses coupled with pulse bullets at the Hunter Chopper. The bullets pierced the thick armor and into the engine, setting the exhaust vents aflame. The Chopper began to explode incrementally, the explosions getting more frequent until it broke apart mid-flight and crashed into the shallow water of the dried lake. "TAKE THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Dash screamed in victory. Author's Note Chapter 3! Woooo! This one was a fun one to do, with the Chopper chase and the minesweeper segment. Hope you're still enjoying this, cuz there's a lot more on the way. Also 2048 words!
PrologueTwilight rested her arms on her throne, gazing peacefully over her palace hall, and up at her stained glass window. She rose, strolling leisurely to her computer terminal. She looked through her inbox, skipping over the unimportant messages and mail. Nothing of extreme importance came from the inbox, so Twilight exited the throne hall and decided to take a walk through the garden. She admired the plants and flowers growing along the paths, and soaked up the serenity and peace of the garden. That peace was suddenly shattered. Alarms blared and sirens shrieked, causing Twilight to hold her hear in shock and pain. She sprang into action, and ran back into the palace and to the main hall. The royal guards were gathered there, and quickly surrounded the princess. The captain approached her frantically, and managed to sputter out his next several sentences. "Ma'am, our sentries spotted a fleet of unknown airborne...things headed for the city...We don't know who or what they are, but the sentries reported they were coming fast," The captain said a bit shakily. "I want to know what they are captain, and I want to know if they're friendly. Hopefully there's a peaceful solution to this. There always is." The captain nodded, and off he went, radioing to the sentries and guards. Twilight had not been in the castle for more than 2 minutes when the building shook with a bang, and the loudest thudding she'd ever heard. What followed changed Twilight's face to one of fear and shock. The shrieks of her people cut short by the canon of a huge, 3 legged beast trampling her city streets. The Seven Hour War had begun.
