Children of Oonte

Chapters

Children of Oonte: Prologue
Chapter 1-Time to Catch a Breath
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15

Children of Oonte: Prologue

“Ahh, my anile sister. I have a desire to enhance a world long forgotten by you. I’m quite sure you won’t miss these weak and feckless beings.”

Shiolnar’s words dripped into Oonte’s ears like a cold and malicious poison as she blazed through the black void. For a brief moment, fear rose up, but then it was burned away by her anger. A few seconds later she slowed down.

To regular folks, the void between worlds is cold and airless. To beings like Oonte, the Equine Goddess of Light, this was of no consequence. She traveled the void like mortals roamed their apartments. Moments passed as she sat in the airless dark and focused her will.

First, a bright blue sky and a great plain of waving grass appeared. Then clouds, not unlike small cotton balls, crowded the sky. The colors were intense, but very harmonious.

If any mortals were lucky enough to see this world, they would say it was very beautiful.

Oonte looked around at her creation and nodded. It was good. All of this was done almost instantaneously.

If she hadn’t had to worry about her brother’s hideous words, she would have tested her creation by going on a gallop. One at a speed that would have even left a tachyon gasping and sweating in its wake.

Even though that was fun, she had a duty to protect. She was a goddess of light while her brother was a god of darkness. Not the night that had its own beauties, nay, but the other darkness, cruel and cold. No, these poor creatures had to be saved. Her eyes glowed briefly as she went through her memories.

Equus, that was his target. She had created it with her older sister Ilystra, the goddess of Magic. She loved to teach, but had a short attention span, well at a divine being’s level. Whole civilizations could rise and fall before her sister lost interest. But leave she did. After a while, Oonte left too. There were so many other worlds to study and or protect.

Before they left, they guided their children’s first tottering steps...

She remembered the day as she had first watched the small pony-like creatures graze. Sentience was just a dim glow in their dark-brown eyes. Their coats were a mix of earthy colors - fine for camouflage, but they were so boring.

Ilystra sighed. “So this my sister, is what we’re working with? Not to say I don’t like a challenge.”

“Please sister, these creatures will make fine subjects to raise with the Light of Intelligence.”

Unseen by the creatures, the sisters worked their magic. Centuries passed and sometimes too slowly, the light of intelligence brightened. All too often though, some promising ponies ended up in the stomachs of predators. The race increased in size and cunning, and finally, in intelligence. Predators wanting an easy meal of somewhat larger ponies found themselves in deep pits or forgetting what they were doing. Others were struck down by crushing hooves or watching their meal fly away out of reach.

Finally, a watershed moment happened. The ponies learned how to read and write. That put a smile on the sister’s faces for a moment. From there, a primitive civilization began to develop and these now larger and smarter ponies were on their way to dominate their world. Fangs and claws would soon give way to horn, wing and hoof.

Ilystra nodded. “We have done fine work here. I wonder what we will find eons from now?”

Oonte watched as an unicorn used a spell to copy a piece of food. “We might be surprised. Leaving so soon sister?”

Ilystra sighed. “One can only spend so much time with such creatures. There is soo much they blindly trudge past and not appreciate. I have work to do.”

“Fine, sister, thank you for your help,” Oonte said.

The unicorn adjusted the spell and caused an explosion that killed it and created a smoking crater.

Oonte sighed. “They have a lot to learn.”

Ilystra nodded. “That is the way of the high and low. We have given them a good foundation to build upon. Come away with me, sister. You can help with my project.”

“I wish to stay a little bit longer,” Oonte said. She rewound time and placed a thought in the experimenter’s head to try a lower energy tweak to the spell.

This time the bit of food burst into flames. The unicorn wrote down the info and tried again...

Oonte and Ilystra moved on, confident that things would turn out well. Now, it was time to return. But first someone had to be put on notice.

“No, my cruel and misguided brother. You will not have this world to defile. Not this world!” At the last word, a wave of power blew out from her flattening the grass. The world flickered at the edge of oblivion before Oonte reined in her temper. With a toss of her sky-blue mane she peered through space and time to study Equus again. There was no doubt he got her message.

How would her brother’s minions get to their target she wondered. The answer came quickly. They would take a small blue world and use it as a stepping stone. Oonte contacted the beings that guarded the world called Earth.

Meanwhile, Ilystra appeared inside her sister’s creation. It was a bit too garish for her, but she would be civil and respect her sister’s wishes. Sometimes Ilystra wished her sister was more relaxed about things. Then again it made for some interesting goings on.

“Greetings Sister.” Oonte said, while she gathered more information.

“Greetings to you as well. What is so interesting about that planet? It isn't of your creation, and it seems far too simple to be very interesting.” Ilystra asked. Already she was thinking of a new project to work on.

“Are you not aware? Shiolnar has challenged me to defend Equus, one of the worlds we made together. I will not allow it!” Determination and frustration blazed from her voice.

“Is Equus so important? Or is this about how successful he's been at destroying some of your other creations?” Ilystra didn't show much concern or sympathy. Ideas were already starting to bubble up, and she wished to be away.

Oonte paused. “Maybe. But I will not allow him to beat me anymore.”

“I grow tired of your quarreling with him. Even as foals you two were always fighting.” She sighed. “I have a hard time trying to remember when you and Shiolnar played peacefully. Ever since it's just been fight after fight. Perhaps I should get Father so he can settle this himself.”

“Good luck waking him.” Oonte scoffed. “It will take him far too long. By then these worlds will have been lost. You'd do better speaking to Mother.”

Ilystra shrugged. “She may be awake all the time, but it takes her too long to make a decision. Seems as though you will get no parental help, Oonte.” Ilystra resigned herself to getting dragged into another fight. She focused and took the ideas for her next project and saved them. When she had time to experiment with them a bit, Shiolnar might be interested. If not, maybe Oonte would be.

“Help me, Sister, and you will gain some of the worship I receive from the mortals. You know how tasty it is.” Oonte offered.

“Well, Sister, I may be bored but I am far above worship. Teaching a few beings how to use their feeble mortal minds to change reality would be far more entertaining.” Ilystra peered at Oonte’s world.

“Pleeeeeease?” Oonte begged. Her bright blue eyes cycled up to the ultraviolet and down to the infrared spectrum and back to the visible range.

Ilystra thought that was so cute. Her sister could be quite the manipulator. She sighed. “Fine. I will help you.”

Oonte's smile of gratitude was like looking into the heart of a shining sun.

Ilystra smiled in return, hers however, was not as brazen as Oonte's. Hers was more like the feeling of a warm blanket on a chilly night.

Oonte pointed a forehoof at Earth. “The stewards will allow me to add my children to their population. Some humans will become my children. I will give them the gift of mind speech so they may converse telepathically. They will be able to speak with me in the same way. I shall gift them with other qualities as well. I will make my children on Earth become like their brothers and sisters on Equus, with some changes of course. My children shall keep their hands, but some will have a horn, or wings. A special few will have both. I have already found one worthy of being my prophet. I will exhort my children to make their world a better place, and to work together. This, I hope, will be enough.”

“You plan to use your children on this ‘Earth’ to protect Equus?” Ilystra asked.

“Yes, but my children will help each other fight against my brother's cruel creations. The battle shall begin here, but will spread elsewhere until all of his abominations are destroyed!” The area around Oonte shimmered with a bright white light.

Ilystra smiled, “Nothing like a bit of fun to pass the time. Lead on, sister, and let us see what unfolds!” She moved closer so she could sense the changes about to happen.

Author's Note

I'm thinking about continuing on with this story.
Please leave comments here if you want this story finished.
Continuing on.

Chapter 1-Time to Catch a Breath

Fluttershy looked out across the ruined city that night, and wished again that she was back home in Equestria. The rain was pouring down outside in heavy tainted drops while the wind blew a chilling gust of air through the window, making Fluttershy shiver. There were a few small fires out in the city, but most of the view was dark. Nothing dared to move. Fluttershy stuck her head outside the window, but then the wind sent some soot-infused rain into her face. She veered back, away from the window at the unpleasant feeling.

The rain seemed more than just water and soot. It was like the rain was desecrated, tainted, unclean. It was bad enough to think of all the people and ponies that had burned up, their ashen remains getting carried up into the clouds and falling again inside the drops along with something unforgiving and evil from the Claw Combine weapons.

A bath would have felt wonderful. Maybe with a bit of magic she could feel clean again, but she would have to wait a long time for that. Fluttershy reached up and grasped the bottom of the window shade in her mouth, and pulled it down. She turned back to the dimly lit room.

Someone had hidden the lights in the room so that you couldn't see them from outside; a precautionary measure to lessen the chances of being found. It is not a good idea to attract attention.

On the left side of the room, there was a woman with a small boy, both sitting on the bed. The boy cried quietly to himself, which just broke Fluttershy's heart. She walked up to the bed and let the boy pet her. It seemed to help, and the mother had mouthed the words, “Thank you.” The child's hands were dirty, but it didn't matter too much. There would be a nice bath sometime in the future anyway.

On the other side of the room, an old man slept on the floor, across from the woman. So far, he hadn't said anything, and just slept this whole time. Everyone seemed to be in a state of shock.

There was a human standing guard upstairs, and other folks downstairs. Fluttershy had not yet had the opportunity to meet them yet because of how hectic it had been, with people just wanting to pass out or try to make sense of things after the run from central Washington DC. Everyone kept looking back to see if something was coming after them...

Rita, a Terran pony unicorn or, “anthro pony” as they might be called had used her telekinetic ability to pick the locks so they could enter the house. Someone had made a comment about breaking and entering, and someone else replied the attack had happened before rush hour. This area was filled with people who worked in the city. The original owners of the place were probably dead, so there wasn't much wrong with taking shelter here. It seemed alright enough, but Fluttershy was still uneasy about simply moving into someone's home without permission. Being indoors, however, was far better than being out in the open and in the pouring rain, so she wouldn't let it bother her too much. Even a light drizzle of that god forsaken rain felt like being stroked by a corpse. Fluttershy decided to go up the stairs to the next level. Thank Celestia that Steve and Rita, two of the Terran ponies here, could make food and water enough for all of them. Too bad they couldn't make enough for a bath, but having drinking water and food was enough.

Before Ashley had passed out she had gotten the toilets to work. She was another Terran pony, a unicorn. Some of the people carried her unconscious body upstairs near the window, and placed her on a blanket. Ashley was twitching and thrashing now, her dark purple hooves kicking like she was trying to keep something away from her. Her horn began to glow an erratic green color..

Fluttershy could smell fear coming off of Ashley. “No...” She thought. “I can't let my friend suffer like this...” Fluttershy placed her forehooves around Ashley's body, holding her, and softly whispered. “Be at peace...” Ashley thrashed a little, but her body loosened up now. She grew calm. The glow faded from her horn, and she had even begun to smile slightly. “Good... Without you, I wouldn't even be here...”

That was true twice over. The first time, Ashley was there to anchor the spell on Earth's side so Fluttershy could cross over from Equestria. It was strange to see a purple unicorn on the other side. It wasn't Twilight, however. This was Ashley Taylor. Her mane and tail were different colors than Twilight's, being two shades of green and black. Her eyes were a gray green color, not purple like Twilight Sparkle's eyes.

The second time was when they had to leave the underground NSA lab. Fluttershy's mind avoided that memory. The lab part was mostly okay, but she didn't at all like being stuck with needles. At least, she was able to pass on her warning about the Claw Combine. No one had a chance to do anything before the Combine ships came and started to firebomb the city. The trip from the lab was the memory she was suppressing. Must not think about it... It was just too scary...

Fluttershy's thoughts turned to how complicated Earth was. There were Humans, creatures from old mare's tales, and then there were the two-legged ponies. The Terran Ponies. Ashley Taylor was tall, and stood on her rear hooves all the time. Human ponies, or as they liked to call themselves, “Equines” or just “Ponies” also had hands and even wore clothing, unlike Equestrian ponies who only wore clothing for special occasions. Equestrian ponies only had hooves, too. No hands like Terran ponies. So far, no one had told Fluttershy how these two-legged ponies came to this Earth, and just not knowing was making her a little uneasy.
Fluttershy thought for a moment. She was the only Equestrian pony in the building, and maybe she was the only Equestrian in the world...

Fluttershy got up and walked over to her part of the room to look at the food bars someone had left for her. Her stomach grumbled, and she wished she could open the clear stuff around the bar with her hooves. “Cellophane. she thought that's what they called it...” She could use her teeth to open the wrapping while she held the bar with her hoof, but the bar would probably get torn apart and scattered across the carpet. It didn't smell anywhere clean enough to eat off of. So Fluttershy, instead of attempting to open the bar, decided to take a nap.

Ashley woke up with a start, and it took a few minutes to remember where she was. She could hear Fluttershy's stomach rumbling, as well as the rain outside. Those poor ponies... As they burned alive, Ashley could feel their transmitted pain.

An empathic/telepathic link called “Ponynet” was responsible for that ability. This was one of the gifts from Oonte. Like the internet, except run through Terran ponies' minds instead of computers. What a curse it was sometimes... She wondered if the Washington D. C. Herd or New York City Herd was still alive. She wanted to curl up in a ball. Those poor ponies... Every dying scream was like having hooks dug in and pulled through her head... It was amazing that she could concentrate enough to keep the worst of the explosions from hurting the group when they left the NSA office in Central Washington D.C. Even with her best efforts... Not everyone made it...

She reached out through the Ponynet to find the D. C. herd. They responded with something that felt like a hug, but much better. It was like being hugged by many people and feeling their resolve fill her mind until the sadness and fear went away, and she couldn't help but smile and regain her confidence. Things are going to be bad, but she was going to kick some Claw Combine ass! The herd had lost members, but was still there outside of Washington, holed up in various houses. The NYC Herd had already left New York City a few days earlier. That was good news at least.

Time to get something to eat... She hadn't in hours. The water was warm, but it was clean. She looked over at Fluttershy. No one had bothered to give her any water, or help her with the food. Fluttershy couldn't open the packaging of the food bars with her hooves, of course. “I can deal with that.” She thought. Ashley conjured up a bowl for water and a shallow bowl for food, placing them in front of Fluttershy. By this time, Fluttershy woke up and was waiting patiently for Ashley to finish.

After she ate a bit, Fluttershy asked, “Can I go home now?..”

Her teal eyes were large with homesickness.

Ashley looked at her solemnly, “I wish I could send you home, but I don't have enough magical power to send you. It isn't good trying to do complicated spells near the enemy either. They could interfere and make things worse.”

“How worse?” Fluttershy asked, feeling a bit crestfallen.

“They could mess up the spell and you might end up on their ship or somewhere even worse than that,” She replied patiently, sympathizing with the yellow mare.

Fluttershy had caught a glimpse of one of the Claw Combine ships, and it hurt her eyes to even look at it. It was all sharp edges, black and red glows like murder and malice. Who knows what was inside? Fluttershy shuddered at the thought.

Ashley looked hopeful, “I'll send you home when we're in a safe area, and I have enough power. The D. C. Herd is okay, we just have to get there.”

“I wish I had a chance to know them before this...” Fluttershy replied, sadly.

“I used to be with the NY, Manhattan herd. They're real nice. They helped me do things like design clothes, work with doctors, and other stuff. They sent me to DC to help with your summoning. They also gave me my pony name,” Ashley smiled at the thought. “Midnight Glimmer.”

The two sat with their thoughts for a few minutes as the tainted rain tapped against the windows. With any luck, things would look better tomorrow. For now, though, it was just them and their thoughts.

Author's Note

I'm thinking about continuing on with this story.
Please leave comments here if you want this story finished.
Continuing on.

Chapter 2

Children of Oonte: Chapter 2
Plans are made for a run.

Fluttershy's Nightmare:

"Do you mean that we are going to be attacked by this, Claw Combine?" The big human called Sherman Harewood asked, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Fluttershy was sitting in the too hard seat and trying to understand why she was in the NSA interrogation room again. Mr Harewood was a scary looking human, he was big and blocky like a stone giant. Except he was more brown than grey. Brown eyes, brown hair but the suit was black.

Fluttershy gathered her courage and answered, "Yes" She glanced at Ashley but Ashley seemed to be preoccupied.

"I do not believe you and if you cannot convince me, I cannot convince my superiors," Sherman replied with more annoyance in his voice.

At that moment the lights flickered in the room. "What the hell?" Sherman asked. Then the lights flickered some more and the room shook. Pieces of plaster started to fall from the ceiling. Fluttershy could hear explosions in the distance. What was going on?

The ceiling above the table started to look like something was pressing down at that section. With a crash, all sorts of debris rained down on the table. Fluttershy flung herself off of the chair and headed for a corner. Sherman backed up towards the door and Ashley headed to the other corner. That is funny, Fluttershy thought, Ashley cares about me and would try to be next to me. A gout of fire fell down from the ceiling and some of it splashed on Sherman. It set his clothing on fire and he started screaming and running. A tendril of flame stretched from the table and touched Ashley and her fur and clothes went up in flame. Ashley started screaming where she was standing while Sherman slumped against the wall still on fire.

Fluttershy watched the fire and cringed back into the corner, this was so horrible. The flames on the table flowed down to the floor and slowly began to move toward her. She could sense that this was no ordinary flame, the fire was just a covering for something cold and malicious. Something colder than the spaces between worlds or the deepest darkest winter. The flame creature was slowly creeping towards Fluttershy like it was savoring each of her fear filled seconds. What, this thing is toying with me? Fluttershy started to get angry. Burn my friend and somebody else in front of me and then toy with me! She got up and started to walk towards the flame thing. The creature stopped its slow advance and seemed to be confused. It even started to retreat. That fueled Fluttershy's rage and she moved faster towards the creature.

Then the flame creature belched some flames on Fluttershy and her fur caught on fire. Fluttershy started screaming, her yellow fur blackening under the heat and the pain was unbearable. While she was screaming the flame thing jumped down her throat and it was like her insides just froze solid. The pain was like having her guts sliced apart by tiny razors. Cold sting then pain. She just screamed and screamed.

Something seemed to hold her and say "Don't cry pony." over and over. Fluttershy slowly came out of the nightmare. A boy was hugging her from behind and sobbing out "Don't cry pony." Fluttershy stroked the kid's arm until he stopped hugging her. "You OK?" the boy asked, tears leaving clean tracks on his dirty face.

"Thanks." Fluttershy said. Why would I dream that?

Fluttershy looked around the room. The boy went back to his mother. The old guy was staring at her with a look of horror on his face. There was a mix of faces in the hallway, Sherman, Rich the zebra and one of the unicorns from downstairs. Fluttershy looked at Ashley, Ashley was just sitting with a white glow in her eyes and a white/purple glow on her horn. A few seconds the glows faded.

Sherman walked up to Fluttershy and asked "What's going on? Steve heard loud moaning."

Fluttershy replied "I had a dream that I was back underground, it was awful."

Sherman replied "You know, I have not been able to sleep either." Fluttershy could see a quick flash of fear in his eyes as he replied. Sherman motioned to the folks in the hallway, and said it was just a nightmare. Everyone in the hallway went back downstairs.

Sherman turned towards Ashley and said "Steve and Rita do not have enough magic to make food and I want a chocolate doughnut. The food bars are OK but you get kinda bored with them."

Ashley did not reply for a few minutes.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something," Ashley said in an apologetic tone. "You said something about a doughnut?" Ashley asked. At the mention of the word, Fluttershy's ears pricked up. A nice chocolate doughnut would make the morning a bit nicer. Even the old guy got up and moved to the group near the window.

"Would you like a doughnut filled with yellow cake or Devil's food or even Devil's food with raspberry filling?" Ashley asked. Sherman stuck his hand out for the doughnut. "Sorry, I wish I could make it for you but I barely have enough magical power and we might need it later," Ashley apologized. Sherman put his hand down slowly, could tell he was disappointed. "When we get to a safe place I will make all the doughnuts you want," Ashley promised.

The old guy introduced himself, "My name is Seth Brandon and I would like a piece of apple pie later."

"No problem, when I have the party, just step up and tell me and I will make it for you," Ashley said.

"We need to decide what to do next and that kid Rich is getting to be a pain," Sherman said.

"OK, let me see what I can do about the food situation, its probably going to be more food bars," Ashley replied. Could hear the tiredness in her voice. "I will go downstairs later and we will have a meeting about our next steps," Ashley said.

"Fine," Sherman said a bit tiredly.

Ashley motioned to Fluttershy to come closer and told her that she would make three bags, one for human food, one for pony food and one for water. Human food has meat which ponies can't digest but humans could eat the pony bars but there is no meat and maybe they won't like some of the grass or flowers.

Ashley concentrated and made the water bag first, that was easy.

Seth got up and moved towards the window and said "I heard you were going to make food bars for people with meat in them, can you use just kosher meat?"

"Are you OK with chicken, beef, turkey, tuna and salmon?" asked Ashley.

"Yes, that is fine," Seth said.

"You are now the official food Pony!" Ashley announced. Fluttershy stood up and saluted and then giggled.
Ashley made a harness and put the bags on Fluttershy. Power is almost gone gotta be careful now. No more magic for me until I can recover. Wish I could have more sleep but its near dawn and we have to move. Then she went downstairs with Fluttershy leading the way.

The meeting downstairs went pretty quickly. Ashley explained that the Claw Combine (CC) had attacked the major cities in the world to put Humanity off balance. Since they were hunters and not strategists the Claw combine would be putting more emphasis on ground troops. Strategist enemies would just bomb the cities from orbit and flatten them all.

The CC just caused enough damage to throw off the local defenders and they would send small teams to hunt and do worse things. The CC also had some equipment that generated an energy field that blocked electronics from working. That explained why most equipment did not work. Ashley did not mention magic because that would just make things worse but that was what was really being used.

Most people in the 21st century thought believing in magic was for little children or folks with issues. If you were a pony, you knew better. Even regular ponies knew better. The Claw Combine used dark evil magic in their weapons and it was in the air. Not enough to cause damage but you do not want to be in the area too long. Of course the patrols would probably cause more trouble first. The electricity blocking field (EBF) was magic too, no tech involved.

Ashley did not like hiding things from people but it would just a be a big pain to explain the existence of magic. Eventually some human would realize that some of the stuff could not be done with tech and folks would get angry. Hopefully by the time people realized that magic was real it was in a safe place and not in the middle of a firefight. Right now, people were focused on surviving and not really caring how their food and water was being made but soon as the pressure eased, questions would be asked.

Mechanical stuff would still work but you would have to power it. No cars but bikes would work. If we could find any. Hooves don't work so well with bikes but Ashley remembered seeing some bikes that had been modified for ponies. Anyway, the plan was to join up with the DC herd in the suburbs and hopefully be out of the electricity blocking field.

The hard part would be dodging the patrols, the CC were doing patrols a few miles out from their position. Ashley could sense where they are but they moved faster than walking speed so they must be riding some sort of vehicle. That meant that patrols could be within attacking range real quick and there would be very little time to find cover. If the CC patrols have a good sense of smell and hearing it would be even harder to hide from them.

They only had six guns and ammo was pretty low. Ashley did not have enough power to make bullets and the other unicorns were too tired. It was probably a good idea not to engage the enemy if they have a choice. There were few questions, someone wanted to know about food and if they could get cars working. Ashley was surprised when one of the unicorns answered that question, the CC would probably be able to detect if there was something electrical working and would move quickly to attack. Thank goodness the unicorn, Steve did not mention magic.

Then the meeting ended and people left to gather their belongings. In one hour, they would start their run to the DC Herd.

Chapter 3

Children of Oonte: Chapter 3
Guns, Battle, Death.

Ashley paused at the shadowy doorway of Capitol Guns. The sun had not yet risen over the buildings on the east side of the block yet. It was fortunate that they found it after an hour and half of walking. Six guns did not seem very useful against who knows how many CC foes. Now at least some more folks could have guns. Ashley scanned for any life signs in the area, other than the group, that was it. There were life signs two blocks away, no problem, the CC patrols were more of a concern. There was one several blocks away.

Thank goodness telekinesis is a pretty cheap magical ability.
Ashley's magical reserves were almost empty. Now lets focus and sense what I can do to the door to get it open. The door had a lock and a bolt halfway up the door but it was barely a challenge and Ashley unlocked them both. The electricity blocking field would stop the alarms from going off.

The shop smelled of gunmetal, leather and several people, their scents lingered like ghosts in the still air. Fluttershy walked into the "gun shop" to see what was inside. During the walk from the house she had been talking to several members of the group. The woman who shared a bedroom with, her name was Lisa Hammond and her son's name was Douglas or Doug. Lisa did not like guns and stayed outside with Doug. Rita's last name was Spano and she did enter the store. Rita entered the store with a scowl, someone was going to pay.

Fluttershy eyed the shiny guns in their cases warily, Rich had explained to her what guns were used for. Rich longed to bust a cap in some CC ass. She was not comfortable with the idea of looking at so many objects made for killing. Some of the t shirts looked interesting with pictures of deer and other wildlife. Some of the other t shirts had Human lettering and she could not read what they said. There was also food in packets but nothing that looked like pony food except for the "Trail mix".

The shopping spree slowly wound down, people could only carry so much and it came down to some people carrying two guns and one or two boxes of ammo. Ashley had two guns, a hunting rifle for sniping and an assault rifle for closer work. Sherman gave Ashley a funny look when she grabbed the assault rifle and was checking its status. She could tell he wanted to say something but he did not say anything. He probably did not think she had weapons training.

Sherman made sure everyone got some of the snacks in the shop. It would give them a change from the food bars. Ashley followed everyone out and used her telekinesis to lock the door. Then they resumed their walk north. Around 1pm Ashley called a halt for lunch and everyone moved towards a small food court.

It was a nice day, the sun shone brightly but it was not too warm. Could have been like an outing with friends but things were a bit different. Fluttershy noticed that there were no birds, no insects or even any animals. Even in the city there are some animals and birds. Could feel that the air was not totally clean, just a little bit tainted. The Combine had left this area alone, there were no bombed buildings. Then there were the new people that they added to the group.

Two of the new people had been rude to Fluttershy when she was offering food and water and some of the original members had intervened. Also some of the new people were not comfortable having a pony as a leader. Ashley did not really want to be a leader anyway but she knew where to go and how to get there.

Sherman went through the hand signals again when everyone had finished eating. The new folks that they had found were gang bangers but they had enough sense to not cause trouble.
Cocky and sullen, yeah, I love those qualities. That will be annoying. Hope they listen and try not to get killed. Do not like hearing that we will be fighting soon. That patrol that Ashley keeps sensing will be moving close enough to be a threat. These and other thoughts filled Sherman's mind. He checked his guns again. Then he told the group members with guns to check the status of their own guns too.

Two hours later Fluttershy found herself crouched behind a "car", straining her ears to hear what was going on. She could smell the rust on the rear bumper. Someone had given the scatter and hide hand signal and Fluttershy found the nearest car to hide behind. The wind shifted to blow up the block and Fluttershy could smell wolf, bear and dog. Dogs were OK but wolf and bear made her crouch lower. Wolves and Bears kill and eat ponies. She had not heard or seen anyone get hurt or killed but pony instincts told her to fear those animals.

Ashley peeked around the rear fender and took a quick look at the Claw Combine patrol. There were four creatures riding slowly on a red and black platform with a lot of sharp angles and it was the size of a small car. Think of a small open jeep from the wheels up. Then erase the wheels and you have an idea what the platform looked like. The platform just floated above the ground silently.

She could smell what type of creatures were on the platform. There was a big gun in the back that was being handled by a bear. two wolves in the back seat and a dog in the front driving. All of the creatures looked like they walked on their hind legs like people and they wore some sort of flexible black mesh armor with a bit of dark magic in the armor. The creature's heads were covered by dark shiny helmets that were big enough to hide their muzzles. She could sense that the big gun was an energy based weapon as well as the other rifles the creatures had in their hand like paws. Each creature was alert and wary, they could sense prey was near.

Ashley was glad the wind was blowing up the block so the CC creatures could not smell the group. The platform stopped and the two wolves got out on opposite sides and crouched along the side of the platform and then the bear fired the big gun. A beam darker than midnight came out of the barrel of the gun and flew down the block. There was a "Bang". Ashley did not wait to see what happened behind her and quickly slid out from behind the car and fired two shots at the bear's head and slid back behind the car. The bear fell behind the platform, then the enemies started firing. The group returned fire from behind cars.

The dog quickly rolled out of its seat on the platform and slowly started to advance up the block using the cars for cover while the other wolf tried to get to the big gun. Ashley shot the wolf. It went down with a yelp. The other creatures got taken down quickly too. They did not make any sounds other than their bodies hitting the ground. Even though the fight seemed to take minutes, it was really was a few seconds.

Fluttershy had been watching the fight from the rear crouched behind a car and it was pretty scary. A black beam had hit one of the cars and burned a large hole in it and make the car rock from side to side. Someone had been behind the car but Fluttershy did not know what happened to that person. The gunshots were pretty loud. It seemed to be over now, she could smell blood from further down the block, it made her feel queasy and a little scared. Then she heard Ashley scream, "Its going to explode, move away from the cars and find cover away from the street!"

Ashley had been walking towards the CC platform to scan it but she sensed it starting to charge up. She yelled a warning and started running back up the street. Thank goodness for the time she spent jogging and her pony legs. Human legs would not move fast enough. Once she had put some distance from the platform, Ashley crouched and laid down on the ground and covered her head.

The platform exploded and it took some cars with it. it was a chain reaction as several cars blew up and the explosions traveled up the block. It was so loud, Ashley passed out.

Sherman looked around at the damage, there were pieces of flaming metal all over the place. He wondered where was Ashley? Is everyone OK? Rich volunteered to go down the block and get Ashley and anyone else that was down there. Sherman did a headcount of the folks nearby, everyone was OK but where was Steve? Sherman asked Fluttershy to look for Steve.

Rich came back with some fighters and Ashley. She looked dazed and talked too loud. "We have to move over a few blocks, can't just head up, the CC will send patrols straight down to this area," Ashley yelled. Fluttershy gave a shout, she had been looking for Steve and had found him.

Ashley's ears had been ringing but the ringing was slowly going away. Her exhaustion was trying to pull her down to sleep but she fought it back. Too bad about Steve, she did not know his last name and no one knew it either. It seemed like a piece of wreckage had cut him in half. There was not enough time to bury his body and the CC patrols would be coming soon.

Ashley gave Fluttershy a big hug. Ashley figured that Fluttershy had not seen too many dead bodies, this was probably her first. Someone had closed Steve's eyes and covered him with a blanket. There was no priest or rabbi but some folks had a Bibles so they picked some passages and said them over Steve's covered body.

Ashley decided to cremate Steve's body but she was having problems getting the immolation spell to work. Rita stepped up and touched Ashley's horn with her own to give Ashley more power. There was enough power in the immolation spell to burn the body to ashes instantly. After that Rita collected Steve's ashes in a can so they can bury it later. Ashley was hoping to make an urn for Steve's ashes later but first they have to avoid the Claw Combine.

They packed up and moved across town and then north. Ashley could barely keep her eyes open, she was so tired. Several hours later, they found a small apartment building that was big enough for the whole group. Rita was able to unlock the doors and they put Ashley and Fluttershy in the same room on the same bed. Both of them were dead to the world.

Sherman had Rich handle distributing the food and water and Sherman kept the extra guns in his room. He did not trust the gang bangers. Hopefully tomorrow, we will be at the DC Herd. He looked out the window at the dark buildings and thought about sleep but that was as reachable as the moon.

Chapter 4

Children of Oonte: Chapter 4
Party, a shootout and refuge.

Ashley Taylor's Flashback

Harley's was jumping tonight, it was full of party goers. This was Ashley's favorite bar, not too small to be cramped, not too large she had to ride a cart to the ladies room, within easy walking distance of her apartment, it was great. So far Ashley did not find anyone to go home with but that was OK, she was not in the mood. Did not want to stay home alone either. After a few drinks she was buzzed and wanted to go home. She paid her tab and went outside. It was a typical NYC summer night but not too hot and muggy. I should be home soon unless I dawdle. Dawdling sounded like a good idea. The neighborhood was pretty safe but Ashley was not afraid of any mugger if one should decide to drop by.

Two blocks away from her home, a man appeared in front of her. He was wearing some sort of rags or robe could not be sure what he had on. She sensed at a gut level that this was no ordinary person, the rags or robe seemed to disguise a bright and powerful light. The light seemed warm somehow and then the feeling faded and it was just a man standing in front of her with nondescript clothing. "Blessings from Oonte to you," the man said.

"Um, thanks," Ashley replied quizzically and she dug in her pocket for her wallet for some money.

"No need, thanks for the thought," the man said and smiled. It was like being touched briefly by a warm ray of sunlight after a cold night. Then the man turned away from Ashley and walked up the block and turned the corner.

Ashley stood for what seemed to be a few minutes and then ran up the block to talk to the strange man, she had saw him go up the block and go around the corner. When she got to the corner the man was gone. How? He was not moving that fast and it was a small alley with no doors. No big deal. Ashley figured she had waited too long and the guy just walked away.

At her apartment Ashley drank as much water as she could. Its going to be "trot to the bathroom" time but at least she will wake up with a little bit of a hangover or maybe none at all. Morning found Ashley curled up in bed and then she had to go pee. Ashley wondered what was wrong with her feet, usually she could feel the too cold tile of the bathroom floor. She looked down at her legs, they were covered in short purple fur, at the end of her feet, hooves? She had shiny dark purple hooves. Ashley checked out her purple furry hands, the fingernails looked like they were made of the same stuff her hooves were made of. After she finished washing up she looked at her face in the bathroom mirror.

A purple unicorn looked back at her from the other side of the mirror. It had almond shaped gray green eyes and a small muzzle. She touched her horn, it was covered with purple skin but the point was sharp. Oh my, I am one of those pony people I see on TV and the internet, well that could be interesting.

The first time she saw a pony person was on YouTube, there was a video of Kiya, a Japanese woman who became a pony. She had brown fur and a brown mane and eyes. She seemed pretty excited about being a pony. Could not understand what she was saying and even the interpreter was left behind because she talked so fast. Later on, Ashley saw more pony people going about their affairs in NYC. Most just looked like bipedal ponies but some had horns and others had wings. Being a New Yorker, she got used to it quickly.

When Ashley tried to pull up her panties, it seemed to get caught on something on her behind and it did not feel right, so she took them off. A quick look in the large mirror in her bedroom solved the mystery, she had a black tail with a light green and a gray green stripe. It was swishing back and forward with excitement. I have a tail, great, better be careful getting out of taxis and revolving doors. At least her tail was not long enough to reach the floor. People would be stomping on that for sure! There was some sort of markings on her hips, she took a picture of the markings using her smart phone. Her stomach grumbled. Its time to eat and I can fuss with that later.

What will I have for breakfast? A sliced steak burrito sounds good. At the thought of steak, Ashley's stomach lurched. Oh yeah, ponies don't eat steak. Guess its scrambled eggs and a muffin. I will miss you bacon! Ashley's stomach lurched a bit harder. Crap, I can't even think of meat!

Present day

Ashley woke up reluctantly to the sound of angry voices. Her legs still felt like lead but something in the voices threatened imminent danger and she could not ignore it and go back to sleep. Flutter shy woke up when Ashley started to sit up. "We have to stop this before it gets more serious," she said tiredly. Fluttershy slowly nodded in agreement.

Downstairs the scene was pretty tense, Sherman, Rich and two other old group members were facing down two of the gang bangers. "Look its the pony dog and her purple unicorn nag girlfriend," The gang banger with the piercings said with a smirk.

"Ha ha, they probably spent all night in each others arms," the blonde gang banger said.

"What do you want?" Ashley asked, trying to keep her voice level and nonthreatening. It was hard to do.

"I want the bag with the human food and the one with the water, that is it. I am not going to live somewhere with pony filth, we will live on our own!" The pierced gang banger said with a swagger. Blondie snickered some more. The other gangers just sat and watched.

Sherman said "No!" The pierced ganger shook his head yes making his jewelry jingle.

"You will give it to us or we will start shooting. I don't care if I live and TJ does not either," The pierced ganger threatened.

The blonde ganger stood up straight at the mention of his name. Ashley could sense Rich's barely contained rage through Ponynet. Rich would start shooting real soon and it would be a mess.

Ashley reached out through Ponynet and asked Rita if she knew any sleep spells. Rita did not know any but she was willing to learn. Ashley quickly taught Rita some basic sleep spells and Rita cast one at TJ and another at the ganger with the piercings. Ashley did not have enough power to cast any spells.

The spells seem to work, both targets started to slump down and their guns lowered until they were aimed at the floor. Then the spells faded and the gangers started to straighten up and then the room was full of the sound of gunfire.

TJ took a round from Rich's gun to the stomach and the pierced ganger got shot in the arm by Sherman. Both gangers dropped their guns when they got shot. The other gangers just stuck their hands in the air and screamed for mercy. "This nonsense has gone on long enough, if you do not want to be with us, leave now!" Ashley said, anger filling her voice.

One of the gangers asked if there was any doctors and or medicine for Mitch, the pierced ganger or TJ. Ashley contacted the DC herd and they replied that they had a doctor but medicine was limited. She relayed that message. Another ganger said that they can't leave their wounded friends behind. Sherman told the gangers that they will go with the group to the DC herd and let the DC herd take care of their wounded friends. If the gangers caused more trouble they would just leave them behind. It was probably a death sentence with CC patrols nosing about for who took out one of their patrols.

Ashley sat down on a chair and Fluttershy went over to the shot gangers to see if she could help. There was not much she could do, gunshots were beyond her experience. The animals that she healed did not shoot each other. Sherman asked Rita to help bind Mitch's wounds. Rich was in no state to help people who had insulted him. Rich asked Fluttershy to come upstairs to his room so he could get the harness and the food and water bags.

"I wanted to kill them both!" Rich said, he could still remember his anger.

"Why?" asked Fluttershy.

"They had made comments about me and my mother! I have ran into those type of people and they hate us," Rich said angrily. Fluttershy had no reply to that. There was a lull in the conversation and then they went up the stairs chatting like old friends.

While Fluttershy and Rich went upstairs, Ashley helped Sherman tend to TJ's wound. It was bad, if they could get to the DC herd in time, maybe they can heal him. There was a good chance TJ could die on the way. "Maybe we could make some sort of sled and have the yellow pony pull it?" Maggie, one of the gangers asked. Ashley wanted to say no but kept her silence.

Sherman replied, "There are enough of you, maybe you can carry him? Carrying him will be better, every jostle and bump will make the wound worse if he is dragged on the ground." Maggie thought about it and suggested looking for something that was big enough to carry Mitch.

Breakfast was quiet and no one was rude to Fluttershy. This leg of the trip was going to be rough. The gangers would be carrying Mitch on a makeshift stretcher and no one had the ability to sense enemies from a distance. Sensing things used very little magical energy but you have to concentrate, its very hard to concentrate to sense things when very exhausted. Ashley was still too tired. Sherman had to pick four people to go on ahead and scout and if the area was clear they would send a runner back and then everyone would meet up with the scouting group.

At 1pm, they had a quick rest and lunch. Sherman wanted to get to the DC herd before Mitch died. He did not look good, he was going into shock. It was just a matter of time. Maggie begged Rita and Ashley to do something but both unicorns were just too tired and powerless to do anything.

Ashley, Rita and Rich were carrying the stretcher so the gangers could rest and also because the ponies could move faster. Time was running out for Mitch, he was quiet and his blood was soaking through the bandages. Some of it was on the stretcher too. Everyone was running now, had been running for a few hours and people were getting tired.

Fluttershy saw the wall of cars first. Somebody had taken cars and flattened them into bricks and made a wall with a gateway. There was a group of people and ponies coming out of the gate. Fluttershy looked back at Ashley. She was carrying the stretcher with other ponies and they started running towards the group coming through the gate. The two groups met and Mitch was put on a gurney and wheeled away. Everyone was assigned a room, except for Fluttershy and Ashley, they would share a room.

Fluttershy woke up to a strange sound, it was one she had not heard in a while since she had left Equestria. It was birds singing! She smiled and opened the cracked door and ran outside. Then she flew slowly up to the tree and tried to talk to the birds.

The birds were surprised to see a flying four legged pony, they had seen some regular ponies but Fluttershy was something new. She was able to win them over and have a nice chat with the birds. Being city birds, they only had a small amount of time to chat before they had to go find food. Fluttershy did find out that birds did not like the feel of the electricity blocking field and avoided it. Fluttershy flew down to the ground and went back up to her room to talk to Ashley but she was still sleeping.

For the next three days, Fluttershy had the same routine, talk with the birds in the morning. Go to the cafeteria, there was always a unicorn there to make food, hang out with Rich and maybe Sherman and help out with some errands. Have lunch, do some more errands and then have dinner and hang out in the cafeteria for a few hours and then go back to her room to sleep. Ashley on the other hand just slept and maybe would eat a little bit of food and then go back to sleep. Fluttershy would just finish off what was left.

One day while she was exploring the DC herd enclave, she heard a pony call her name. Fluttershy turned around to see who it was, right behind her was a pony with gray fur, white mane and gold eyes. "My name is Erica Seward and I am the Seeress for the DC herd" Erica introduced herself. Fluttershy held out her right fore hoof and Erica gingerly shook it.

"Pleased to meet you," Fluttershy said gladly. After the introductions, they went back to the seeress's office. Well, it was more a room but she did work there.

Erica put on a pot of tea and pulled out some shortbread cookies from a cabinet and they discussed all sorts of things. "What does a seeress do?" Fluttershy asked.

"A seeress looks into the future and past and advises the Herd on what she sees," Erica replied. Before Fluttershy could ask another question, Erica asked her if she had any strange dreams. Fluttershy told Erica about her dream of what happened in the NSA. The seeress asked a lot of questions about the flame creature. Even though Fluttershy thought is was just a nightmare, the seeress had a feeling that Fluttershy had sensed something important about the Claw Combine. Will probably have to check the future for that.

Erica asked Fluttershy if she could do an important task for the Herd. "Will it be dangerous?" Fluttershy asked with a bit of fear in her voice.

"No, it will be pretty safe, we need someone to greet the refugees and tell them where everything is so they don't wander around and get frustrated and angry," Erica replied. Erica explained the duties of a greeter to Fluttershy. When refugees show up, the greeter has to tell them what the rules are and where the important places are like the cafeteria, hospital and other places.

"When can I go home?" Fluttershy asked.

"When Ashley has regained enough power to send you back, unless things have changed," Erica replied. Then the seeress shooed Fluttershy out of her office and went back to work. Fluttershy walked to the gate to find who was the greeter for the day.

For now things were pretty nice, not as nice as Equestria but Fluttershy felt pretty good, she had gotten her bath, met some good people and now maybe she could hang out here for a while with the DC herd and not rush back to Equestria.

Chapter 5

Children of Oonte: Chapter 5
Set with stripes, Birdsong and breakfast.

Rich aka Leonard Harris's Flashback:

Rich looked at the clock again, just thirty minutes more and he could go home. Man, was he tired! Doing two shifts was hard at Sheckey's Pizza Shack but then again he would have more money in his paycheck next week. Just have to keep going for a few more minutes. Someone was cleaning up front, he just had to clean the equipment and put the unused supplies back in the cabinets. By then it will be ten pm and he could go home. He was off for two days, plenty of time to hang out with Anna. After what seemed to be a year Rich's shift ended and he went home. The bus ride was uneventful except for the crazy guy. The weirdo sat next to him and said, "Blessings to you from Oonte." Rich just stared at him as he got up and left the bus at the next stop. Rich just closed his eyes, should not do that, and opened them again. Finally it was his stop and he got off and went up to his apartment and crawled right to bed.

Rich woke up and heard voices in his head, "Welcome to the Herd!" the voices joyously said. It was not only the voices it was also the feeling of being wanted and being welcome. Then the voices faded but one said "Come visit us at 1353 Haskel Avenue, we will be waiting." What the heck was that about? He looked at his arms, they were covered with black and white stripes. Great, I am a zebra. Wonder if they will accept me at work, when I go back? He thought, the job kinda sucked but being unemployed was worse. At least zebras and ponies were not uncommon in that area. Yesterday two zebra girls were in his pizza shop and they looked pretty fine.

Wonder if Anna will like him as a zebra? Well, will see her later on today after six thirty pm when her shift ended.
Rich checked out his shiny black hooves, crap! Can't wear any of his fancy sneakers. They kinda fit but he could not walk with them it was like wearing clown shoes, too big. Also the sneakers kept sliding off, there was nothing to keep them on his hooves. Maybe I can sell them and get some money back, too bad, they were nice sneaks. Other than not wearing his favorite sneaks and cutting holes in his pants and underwear for his striped tail, the day seemed pretty good.

At around six fifteen pm, Rich got off the bus and walked toward Anna's job. It was a Jimba Juice, a place that catered to ponies and people that liked fancy fruit smoothies. Five more blocks to go. Rich felt like he could just fly down those blocks, maybe he should have cut slits in his jacket for wings! Yeah, today was pretty good but tonight was going to rock! He looked down the block and saw the Claw Combine ship floating there, the red and black made his eyes water so he could not get a good look. Way down the block there was a big explosion and Rich looked down the block. The area around Anna's store was covered in flames! Rich started running but an explosion knocked him down. Rich got back on his hooves but had to stagger around as people pushed past him.

The explosions were so loud, it was all Rich could do to keep standing, smoke was blowing up the street also and making it hard to breathe or see. Rich stumbled up the block and went down a side street, it was quieter here and less smoke and people. Now he could get his bearings and think about getting to Anna's store. Rich decided to go over and then head down but there were no side streets heading south. While he was heading west, he saw a purple unicorn and a bunch of people under some sort of purple shield. The shield was blocking most of the flames and explosions. Rich decided to meet with the unicorn because the explosions were getting closer.

Rich Present Day

Rich woke up and looked into the face of a Pegasus pony with light brown fur and brown eyes. She was holding a towel in front of her body with one hand and using the other one to shake Rich awake. "Darling, we had some fun but now we gotta go to work! You do not want to get the trainer angry," She said with a smile. Now Rich remembered where he was, he had spent the night with one of the ponies he was training with. They were part of the militia that defended the DC Herd. Lilla Hanley had picked him up at the cafeteria late one night. The trainer was an ex Marine weapons trainer and would yell at people who were late. Rich sat up and then got off the bed and went looking for his clothes. After he got his clothes on he gave Lilla a kiss and raced out of her apartment to the training grounds.

Ashley woke up to birds singing but it was not just regular birdsong and it was not random chirps. It sounded like a real song sung by different birds. Whats going on? Ashley put some clothes on and looked out the window. Fluttershy was leading the birds in some sort of singing practice. This she would like to see up close outside. There was a small crowd of people and ponies around a big tree with different species of birds and Fluttershy was leading them in a song. She was using her hoof like a conductor's baton. After the song, Fluttershy took a bow and people applauded. The birds flew off to find food and Fluttershy glided down next to Ashley.

"Wow, that was so great!" Ashley said enthusiastically. "I have never seen you fly either, that was cool too," Ashley said with excitement. Fluttershy smiled at the comments and they went to the cafeteria to get breakfast.

The cafeteria was just an area with some awnings and benches. There is a unicorn on duty to make food for breakfast, lunch or dinner. This one had white fur and a dark brown mane and eyes. She was fussing with her iPhone. When Ashley and Fluttershy walked up she asked a question, "You are the unicorn that knows a lot about tech. Right?"

"I know some stuff about tech, what do you want to know?" Ashley replied, she hoped not to get involved in anything complicated too early.

"My name is Merinda Morelli and it would be cool to be able to surf the web again," Merinda introduced herself and hoped she could get some help. Ashley at the last minute stopped herself from scanning the area for wireless signals. I have been sleeping for four days, lets take it easy for a bit. She told Merinda that she would look into it unless something more important came up.

"Can I get some scrambled eggs and two biscuits for breakfast?" Ashley asked. Merinda concentrated and there was the eggs and biscuits on a plain white plate.

"Do you want butter and grape jelly too?" Merinda asked.

"That is fine." Ashley said, feeling her stomach grumble about late breakfasts. She grabbed a tray and found a table. Fluttershy's breakfast appeared next to Ashley. It looked like oatmeal in one bowl and tea in another bowl.

"I asked Merinda about what food the ponies here eat for breakfast and she made me this," Fluttershy replied when Ashley asked why she picked oatmeal. Rich ran by the cafeteria and they waved at him and went back to eating. Fluttershy buried her muzzle in the bowl of oatmeal and came up for air once in a while. Ashley could tell she liked it. Fluttershy finished her breakfast and said goodbye to Ashley after she wiped Fluttershy's muzzle clean of oatmeal. There was not too much to wipe off, Fluttershy's tongue had done its job pretty well. Then she was off to the gate to help with greeting. Ashley leaned back on the bench and thought about just taking it easy but she knew she was being watched.

That feeling of having a lazy day evaporated when Gunnery Sgt. Avery Stiles sat next to Ashley and said, "We need to talk." Goodbye lazy day, time to work. It was still a nice day and there was birdsong somewhere in the DC Herd Enclave.

Chapter 6

Children of Oonte: Chapter 6
Back to work, a bed and a lab.

Ashley sat in the War Room, really it was just a big echoing room in a basement of one of buildings in the DC Herd's Enclave. No windows but the ceiling lights kept the area somewhat well lit. There were maps on some tables and a big map of the DC area taped up on a whiteboard. Avery Stiles fixed Ashley with a steely gaze and cleared his throat. "What I have to tell you is for your ears only. The President and most of his cabinet is safe, holed up somewhere," Avery said. "I figure that they will be giving us orders to move to an area that is more secure. This area is not very secure," Avery continued.

"OK, so when do we move?" Ashley asked.

"I don't know but we need more ammo and supplies," Avery replied. "You can make the bullets and guns and other items we need?"

"Yes, but its better if I make a machine that makes these items," Ashley replied.

Avery sat back in his chair and asked "Why?"

"A machine does not get tired or bored and we will need unicorns using magic against the CC," Ashley replied with a matter of fact tone to her voice.

The conversation moved on to another topic, Ashley was now a direct report to Avery.

There was some arguing about making food generators but Avery said "When the Claw Combine comes, we can have full bellies. I rather fight them with bullets and grenades!" Ashley reluctantly agreed to make equipment to make bullets and grenades.

"We will have a staff meeting at oh eight hundred tomorrow morning and I expect you to be there and all staff meetings unless told otherwise," Avery said with a bit of a swagger.

Ashley stood up and gave a crisp salute and said, "Yes sir." Avery looked at her and passed on the info that the Seeress wanted to see her and dismissed her. The salute was good but Avery could see Ashley was a civilian with an attitude.

Once she was out of the War Room and in the bright sunlight, Ashley felt better, that Avery was annoying but he seemed to know his stuff. I need to reduce the attitude, maybe? Hope this Seeress is a nicer person and I have to make two power generators and a ammo maker.

When Ashley got to the Seeress's apartment, the Seeress was busy with some people and said that Ashley would have to see her later. She did remind Ashley to go to the Invocation later on in the day. Ashley did not intend to miss that. So Ashley went back to the War room to find out where she can work on making the equipment. Mr Stiles was busy with some militia members but one guy named Chris Rogers walked up and gave Ashley some new orders and info on where her workshop was going to be.

He had put a sheet of paper with the word Lab on the door of the room and he gave Ashley the key. "Your other orders are to unlock the rest of the rooms for the militia and make three sets of keys for each lock on the doors," Chris said. "You will share room 4G with a Stacy Kellogg," Chris said giving Ashley a closer look.

"I have a friend that sleeps with me, how with that work with my roommate?" Ashley asked. Wonder if the roommate will like Fluttershy?

Chris just said dismissively, "Just work it out, its not my concern." Ashley went upstairs and started to unlock doors using her telekinesis and make keys. Hope I can get this done before Invocation. It was scheduled at four pm and it was two thirty now. The building had five floors. There will probably be a few apartments with two or three locks and some with deadbolts too.

Ashley got the task done with fifteen minutes to spare and gave the keys to Chris. She reached out to Rita through Ponynet to find out where the Invocation ceremony was being held and to find out when they should move Steve's ashes to an urn and bury him. Rita would meet Ashley at the park and after Invocation, they would take care of Steve.

At the park, the trees were gilded by the setting sun, Ashley stood between two ponies, Fluttershy was a guest of honor and was standing up front. Ashley thought she heard Avery Stile's voice behind her. Why was a human at an Invocation? It seemed like a purely pony ritual. Ashley had no clue that this Invocation was going to be very special.

Chapter 7

Children of Oonte: Chapter 7
Meet the Sisters and an urgent mission.

Fluttershy's Flashback:

Yellow furred and pink maned and tailed Fluttershy woke up and luxuriated in the morning sunlight. Yes! It was Saturday and she did not have to do any work unless she wanted to. Other than feeding her animals and Angel her pet rabbit, the day was wide open to do as she wished. Time to go wash up and feed the animals. While she was feeding her animals there was a series of excited raps on her door. Fluttershy opened her door and Rainbow Dash burst in. Rainbow Dash is a female Pegasus pony with blue fur, magenta eyes and a rainbow colored mane and tail.

"We are going on another adventure!" she almost shouted, Fluttershy had to remind Rainbow to be quieter.

"I can't leave until my animals are all fed, can you help me?" Fluttershy asked.

"No problem we can have these animals fed in twenty seconds flat!" Rainbow enthused.

Fluttershy gave Rainbow a look and Rainbow changed her prediction to five minutes. It actually took seven minutes. Fluttershy told Angel that he was in charge and left with Rainbow Dash.

While they walked and flew to Twilight's tree house Fluttershy tried to get more info about the upcoming adventure from Rainbow but Rainbow only knew that they had to meet at Twilight's and it might be a long adventure. While Rainbow was boasting about what she would do, Fluttershy began to worry. Was it those horrible changelings or worse, dragons? There was a big gold and white carriage in front of Twilight's Library Tree house and Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie were waiting for them. Pinkie said that Applejack was going to bring some snacks from the Apple Farm to eat while they traveled to Canterlot, the royal city. They did not have to wait long for Applejack and then the Mane six piled into the carriage and the royal Pegasus guards flew into the air pulling the carriage.

The trip took an hour but no one was bored, there were some really good apple turnovers and then they discussed what the mission could be like. Fluttershy was quiet and just listened to what the other ponies said. No one really knew anything definite and that seemed more scary. When the carriage landed, the group was escorted to a small sunny meeting room to meet with Princess Celestia. Princess Celestia is an Alicorn with magenta eyes, white fur and a multi colored mane with blue, pink and green. Her fur shone brightly in the afternoon sunlight coming through the windows.

"Once again my dear friends, I must send you into danger to protect Equestria," Celestia said with a hint of regret in her voice. Then she told them about the message from a strange pony named Chien Dao. A world called Earth was going to be attacked by an evil force and Equestria would be needed to help them.

"Why should we care if a world filled with humans is under attack?" Rainbow asked.

"Rainbow!" chided Applejack.

"Rainbow Dash has a good point. If this world falls to the Darkness, the Humans and Ponies there will eventually attack Equestria or whatever defeated the humans and ponies will come here," replied Celestia.

Twilight asked, "There are Humans there, I thought that humans did not exist? Most of the books I read dismiss the existence of Humans."

"Earth is a different world than ours, there are no 4 legged unicorns and 4 legged pegasi are considered mythical and earth ponies do not talk," Celestia replied. That statement had the ponies buzzing.

Humans, Fluttershy thought, that might be worth an adventure to see.

Rainbow Dash said slyly while looking at Applejack, "Earth ponies don't talk huh?"

Applejack fired back, "Pegasi are mythical, ya know like nonexistent!"

Rarity asked, "What about the 2 legged ponies, are they like us?"

"Somewhat but they have hands instead of fore hooves and they can be unicorns or pegasi or earth ponies," Celestia replied and stood up on her hind legs to illustrate but did not stand too long, her back gave her a warning twinge. Maybe its time for a Royal exercise program?

"Standing on your hind legs is easy, I have done it a long while, lots of times," boasted Pinkie Pie. She then walked on her hind legs and said, "Raarg, I am an Earth earth pony, look at my hooves, um hands!" Celestia let Pinkie carry on because it lightened the mood a bit and then brought the meeting to order.

"I will need one pony to warn the Humans on Earth," Celestia said and looked over the ponies. Each of them would do the task but some were better than others. Also some were needed in Equestria to help with preparations. "Fluttershy, will you please walk with me a bit out in the hall?" Celestia asked.

Fluttershy was surprised and could only stammer "Mm me?" but she followed Celestia out into the hall.

Celesta walked down the sunny hallway with Fluttershy beside her. Celestia asked Fluttershy, "Will you be the messenger?"

Fluttershy turned to face Celestia and said, "Yes!"

"Good, you have more courage than you think, Fluttershy. Lets go back and get this affair started," Celestia said with a hint of worry. Fluttershy heard the worry in Celestia's voice but resolved to continue.

They returned to the room and Celestia picked a scroll out of a battered and dusty looking bag left by Chien Dao using telekinesis and put it between Twilight and Rarity. "Twilight you must open the scroll and start the spell and Rarity will help you cast it. Once the doorway is open and stable and you can see the ponies from Earth, Fluttershy will walk through the doorway." Celestia instructed the ponies.

Twilight used her telekinesis and opened the scroll and read it. The spell was complicated, not too complicated, the magical power requirements were more of a concern. She had not worked too often with spells that needed so much power. Twilight asked Rarity to touch her horn with hers and they started on the spell. Celestia wanted to help but dimensional gateway spells can fail with dangerous consequences so someone has to be ready to contain the failed spell. The two unicorn's horns began to glow with a purple blue light, their lights became brighter than the sunlight coming through the windows. Celestia motioned with her right fore hoof to the other ponies to move back.

A round ball started to form next to the two unicorns, it became less fuzzy and more distinct. Rarity and Twilight's horns were so bright, the ponies could not look at them anymore. The ball turned into a tunnel and the ponies could see hooves and chair legs on the other side. Fluttershy looked at the tunnel and became scared, she started to have doubts and fears. Maybe once she went through she would never be able to come home. Maybe Earth's humans were horrible creatures, worse than changelings or dragons? That was a frightening thought and Fluttershy froze.

A purple unicorn with gray green eyes looked through the gateway and said, "If you are sending a messenger, send her now, we can't keep this gateway open much longer!" Twilight was starting to pant under the pressure of maintaining the spell and Rarity was getting a nosebleed. Blood was dripping slowly from her nose and splashing on her white fur and floor. Fluttershy was still frozen with fear. Twilight was panting harder and her nose was starting to bleed too.

Celestia raised her voice and yelled, "Fluttershy, you must go through the gateway now! Your friends are hurting themselves to keep the gateway open and if you do not go now, the Humans will not be warned in time!"

Fluttershy looked at her unicorn friends. Twilight's nose was bleeding harder, her purple fur was stained with blood and there was a small pool on the floor. Rarity's eyes were glazing over and she was swaying back and forth but the glow on her horn was still steady. Fluttershy gathered up her courage and ran for the gateway as fast as she could. Once in the gateway, it felt like she was being stretched and then she knocked over some ponies and hit a chair and knocked herself out.

Back in Equestria, Celestia had to nudge Twilight and Rarity to close the gateway. After that they both passed out. Celestia called for some healers and gave the other ponies instructions on their tasks.

Present Day:

Ashley waited in the warm afternoon sunshine for the signal to open her mind to Ponynet(Pnet). Invocation was an important pony ritual because any pony can contact Oonte, their Goddess Mother. This was the time to hear and or feel her. The other ponies joined the Pnet and then Ashley heard a regal voice say, "Come with me my child, we have little time to waste!" Ashley felt her soul leave her body, too bad she did not have enough time to look down on it. There was no time, she was flying but it did not feel like flying, there was no breeze on her face and the ground below her was a blur. She was heading south, she saw some beaches and then she was flying over jungle then she was over a city that had been ravaged by the Claw Combine. Then she was standing near some people and ponies watching a pink pony with curly red hair and mane dance. She had bright blue eyes and great dance moves. The pony looked right at her and the Voice of Oonte said, "This is your Sister." Then Ashley was picked up and carried across the Atlantic Ocean. She moved so fast it might as well been a puddle.

She slowed down next to a blue Pegasus pony with rainbow hair and red eyes, the pony was shooting at CC units on the ground somewhere in central Africa from the air. For a second the pony looked at Ashley and then Ashley knew she was another sister. Then Ashley was flown north to Paris and it was a sad sight, the Eiffel tower was in ruins. Ashley was flung through a wall, no, she did not hit anything, she just went through it like the wall was made of nothing. She was in a room, there were 2 soldiers firing at CC units and a white unicorn with a purple mane and tail was using a strange looking sniper rifle to shoot CC units. When she would rarely miss, she would curse "Merde!". The pony took time out of her shooting to look behind her and Ashley could see her face and know this was another sister. Then Ashley was grabbed and flung east.

Her next stop was Moscow, she recognized some of the buildings even though the CC had severely damaged them. She ended up in the Hermitage, there an orange pony with blonde hair and green eyes was leading ponies and people in saving the treasures from the raging fires. Ashley saw another sister there. Then Ashley was carried out of the doomed building and flung even further east. There she flew alongside a yellow Pegasus pony who was looking for lost children. She looked at Ashley a quick second, this yellow pony was another sister and then Ashley went south, way south.

Ashley flew south to Antarctica, at first the cold did not bother her but as she went further south, she could feel the malice in the air. It was like flying through little cutting knives. Snow was coming down hard but the black building she was approaching did not have any snow on it. She went through the walls of the building and it was painful, like being stabbed in the gut with a cold jagged knife. Falling through the floors was okay, thank goodness it was not like going through the outer walls. The flying sensation paused a bit when she reached the lowest floor, there was a black still river or lake or something. What ever it was, it stretched on for miles. Ashley could not see where it ended or for that matter any walls. The still black water or whatever that stuff was did not feel or look right. Then Ashley dropped into it, the feeling was worse that going through the wall but not too worse. She kept falling down. It was dark but there were things in the water. Ashley hoped not to see any of them, just sensing them was bad enough. Could sense malice, hunger and just a tiny bit of sorrow. Just when Ashley was starting to get bored with the trip down the area started to lighten up.

The light got brighter and brighter and Ashley could see why. There was a pony with wings and a horn generating light. The pony had white fur and a reddish brown mane and tail. When she opened her brown eyes, Ashley could hear the pony's voice in her head.

"Please save me, you have very little time."

Ashley asked,"How?"

The imprisoned pony answered but Ashley could hear her voice fading, "You have your sisters and you will not be without allies." Then the pony closed her eyes and Ashley woke up on the ground in the park.

She was being cradled by one of the ponies she stood next to. Ashley passed out.

The Seeress put her forehead on Ashley's horn and picked up the fading echoes of Ashley's Vision. You will travel far my sister, the Seeress thought.

Chapter 8

Children of Oonte: Chapter 8
After the Vision and building the aircraft.

Ashley woke in the semi darkness of her room. There was some light coming into the window from a light outside. Stacy Kellogg was sleeping in her bed. Fluttershy was nowhere in the room. Ashley checked out the time, it was 2am. It would be nice to get some more sleep but Ashley felt full of energy, so she quietly slipped out of the room and went downstairs to her lab.

The room was a pleasant surprise, it was empty, no stuff to move around or otherwise fuss with. Ashley sat on the floor and conjured up a mesclun salad with dandelions, some red wine vinaigrette as a salad dressing and she was good to go. After the salad was devoured, Ashley went to work conjuring up the generators and other equipment. When that was done, Ashley conjured up a small computer and went through specs on aircraft. Will need something that seats eight with some comfort and some room for spare stuff. By 7am, Ashley had the final specifications for her aircraft and the equipment to build it. Will need to build a hangar for making aircraft too. Ashley left her lab, locked the door and went to the "War Room" to find Avery.

Avery was sitting in his chair in the empty "War Room". He motioned to Ashley to sit next to him. When Ashley sat down, he started talking, "Oonte showed me what you need to do and I will help you any way I can".

"You can hear Oonte?" Ashley asked.

"Yes, my wife was a pony and she took me to an Invocation the week she became a pony. Oonte spoke to me at the Invocation." Avery replied.

"What happened to your wife?" Ashley asked.

Avery said quietly, "She did not make it."
Ashley told Avery that the ammo and grenade maker were done and they could move them out of her lab.

Ashley then asked Avery about where she could build her hangar for her ship. Avery suggested a building with a large open space in the back, it had been assigned to the militia. He also would round up as many unicorns he could find to help Ashley with making the hangar. Ashley promised to add support to the hangar to make trucks and jeeps. At least the specs for the vehicles would be in the hangar's memory. When they left this area, the hangar would have to be destroyed because it was too big to carry. Ashley said goodbye and went outside to go back to her lab to get her laptop.

Fluttershy sat in the sunlight, it was not as warm as it was yesterday, can feel that Fall was coming. Fall was better in Equestria, more trees to change with the seasons, the few trees in the courtyard were thin and they had already lost a lot of leaves. Word had gotten around that Ashley was going to do some fancy magic and a crowd of people and ponies were sitting around the outer edge and peering through the windows of some of the buildings that surrounded the courtyard.

Fluttershy wondered if there would be fireworks but thought about the time a blue unicorn named Trixie came by, things had gone somewhat badly. Some buildings got damaged but no one got hurt and Twilight solved the problem. Maybe that was not the best thought to have now.

Fluttershy wanted to ask Ashley about some of the equipment but there was no time and barely enough room for her to squeeze in. The Seeress stepped up and announced that a great spell was going to be cast and everyone had to be quiet or the unicorns casting it would be distracted and the spell would be ruined. Ashley sat down next to the area where the hangar was going to be made.

Fluttershy leaned forward as a purple light started to shine from Ashley's horn, once her horn got to a certain brightness, a line of light moved from her horn to the next unicorn's horn. Think it was Merinda's, the unicorn that made food for them yesterday. Her horn glowed white and then a line went from her horn to Rita's horn, then lines started going from every unicorn's horn until it looked like they were in a big web of colored lights. Then the many colored lines converged on Ashley's horn and then a purple line of light moved to the center of the courtyard where they were building the hangar. It sketched out an outline of a base and slowly a dark blue metallic base slowly appeared and grew upwards, then the base was done and the line moved on to building the other parts of the hangar.

Fluttershy was enthralled, its not often she saw magic like this, Twilight did not do spells like this. Two hours later, Fluttershy was still there watching, a lot of people in the park had left. It was getting kinda cool too. The spell ended abruptly, there were lights and then they went out. The hangar was done.

Ashley leaned against the control cabinet for a minute, the spell was pretty draining but she got what she needed ahead of schedule. She sent thanks through Ponynet to all of the unicorns and then she had the hangar start building the aircraft that would take her to her sisters. Fluttershy ran up and they caught up with each others affairs. Ashley wanted to stay with the hangar while it built the aircraft and Fluttershy said she would stay with her. They did not have to worry about being cold, the hangar would be generating heat as a byproduct of making the aircraft. Ashley was thinking about giving the ship a name but not now. Since they had both eaten, there was not much to do but look at the stars, tell stories until sleep came.

Chapter 9

Children of Oonte: Chapter 9
An old nightmare, a party, a funeral and a journey begins.

Sherman's Nightmare:

Sherman felt so cold looking at the expanse of snow. He was drawn towards a certain direction and started walking. Snow crunched underfoot. Sherman struggled over a hill and then saw the Black Tower. He thought he had outgrown these dreams. He looked at his hands, no mittens there, the gloves were the Insulate thermal gloves he bought last year.

He could sense that there was something in the tower, it was starting to wake up. Sherman cursed his non moving feet. It was just like his dream as a kid, could sense the occupant in the tower waking up and starting to turn towards him. Sherman tried to move his legs but they were frozen blocks. Soon the occupant would turn its full attention on him and he would freeze and burn like an ant under a strange lens and sun. Sherman could feel the unknown occupant's attention getting closer and closer. In the background there was a screaming sound. The screaming sound got louder and Sherman woke up.

Sherman clawed his way up out of sleep, thankful for his loud alarm clock. That was the worst nightmare he had in a while. Deep in his gut he had a strange sense of foreboding. Yeah, today is going to be a bang up day. Sherman got ready to do his morning jog. The jog was uneventful but it seemed that hidden threats were everywhere. After that he showered and gulped down a quick breakfast and drove to work.

At work at the NSA, the feeling of foreboding went up a notch. Sherman was seriously tempted to check his gun but somehow managed to keep it holstered. Seldom was his gut wrong, so Sherman listened to it and was very alert. Lunchtime he ate something, he did not really remember what. Something was coming and Sherman did his reports with one ear cocked for any disturbances in the area outside his office.

Around 2pm, a junior agent poked his head through the door and said "One of those Anthro ponies and a four legged pony with wings has a message for the President".

"Really?" Sherman replied, he was going to make a joke and assign it to another more senior agent but his stomach said this is it. "I will interview them, put them in Interview room 405" Sherman said with some fear in his voice. Sherman then walked to room 405 and again resisted the urge to pull out his gun.

Present day:

"Ashley where did the two legged ponies come from?" Fluttershy asked between bites of pancake and honey.

Ashley replied "The Stork" and placed some cold cereal in her mouth. Fluttershy gave her a "you gotta be kidding" look and Ashley laughed and spat partially chewed cereal all over the table. After she finished laughing, she conjured up a wet cloth and cleaned up the mess.

Fluttershy continued to eat. "The truth is, we were human but Oonte chose to make us two legged or anthro ponies," Ashley said and disintegrated the wet cloth.

“Who is Oonte?” Fluttershy asked, a being that could turn humans to ponies sounded interesting.

“Oonte is our Mother Goddess, we speak to her during Invocation and she takes care of her children,” Ashley replied with a bit of awe in her voice. She remembered times when she could feel Oonte's hooves comfort her.

"What did you look like before you were a pony?" Fluttershy asked.

"I had white skin, gray green eyes and bangs, so being a pony was not too much different from what I was. Well, except for the tail, ears, muzzle and horn. Oh yeah and the vegetarian diet," Ashley replied.

"Tomorrow, we will send you home Fluttershy", Ashley said and was surprised to see a bit of unhappiness cross Fluttershy's face.

"I like it here, yes, I do want to go home but not that soon" Fluttershy replied.

"Don't you think that the folks at home will need some sort of status report?" Ashley asked.

Fluttershy sighed and said, "I guess so".

Seth Brandon came by and asked about his apple pie and Ashley had a great idea, "We can have a party as a send off to me and Fluttershy!"

"Great!" said Seth. Rita sent Ashley a message through Ponynet about Steve's remains and Ashley arranged a time to have the burial. First, Ashley wanted to do some research back at her lab. She knew that there were two more people that were traveling with her but she did not know who. Also she wanted to see what Steve's last name was by using her Divination skills. The aircraft was done but Ashley decided to fuss with that tomorrow, maybe she can do a quick test fly with Fluttershy on board.

It took longer than expected to find Steve's last name, Ashley and the Seeress had to spend a bit of time working together to find it out but they found it. Steve was not just Steve, he was Steve Robbins. Most of the people and ponies that traveled with Steve out of Washington DC were there at the makeshift cemetery and they got to see Steve's urn buried next to his grave marker. "Rest in Peace, Steven Robbins," Rita said and crossed herself. Then everyone left the cemetery to do their own affairs.

Sherman was shooting at targets at the range when he heard about the party. He was tempted to ignore it but someone said that there was something special for him. So he put the guns away in the cabinet and went to the cafeteria. He was met with an interesting sight. One table had three piles of chocolate doughnuts, there was a faint blue mist around the doughnuts to keep them cool because no one likes a sticky chocolate doughnut.

The next table had two big apple pies and some other party snacks. Other tables had drinks in coolers, from beers to sodas. Sherman grabbed some napkins and took a doughnut from each of the piles and then walked to a table where Fluttershy was eating a doughnut in a bowl. There was not much and as he watched that bit was gone. Fluttershy smiled and said, "Hello."

"Yeah, I remember that night" Sherman said and bit into his first doughnut. It was good, yellow cake with chocolate on the outside. Some guy came by and asked Fluttershy if she wanted anything, Fluttershy replied that she did not need anything. The party did not have any music yet until someone found a boombox with some disco CDs and a unicorn cast a spell to power it and there was music to dance to or at least tap one's hooves or feet to.

Later on Sherman got some beers and walked back to Fluttershy. "Can I have one of those?" She asked pointing her fore hoof at the bottles.

"Are you an adult?" Sherman asked.

"Yes", Fluttershy replied. Sherman poured some beer into Fluttershy's bowl. She sniffed it and started drinking. It was not long before Fluttershy was singing and dancing, she even stood up on her hind legs to dance.

Ashley came by and Fluttershy asked Ashley to dance with her a bit. Ashley took both of Fluttershy's fore hooves in her hands and started to dance. Fluttershy's wings were fully extended and she was having a grand time. "Gimme a kiss!" Fluttershy said and then belched in Ashley's face. Fluttershy said, "Sorry." and ran off deeper into the party. Sherman had seen the whole thing and was laughing so much, his face was red. He threw a bottle at Ashley who used her telekinesis to catch the bottle and remove the cap and then she drank some of the beer.

"Sherman, I need someone I could trust to watch my back when I go get my sisters. Would like to have your help on this trip," Ashley said after drinking some beer.

Sherman had a strange feeling, kinda like when they first met. He put his beer down and asked, "Do you go by a black tower near the South Pole?"

Ashley was surprised but answered, "Yes, my sisters and I have a mission there."

Sherman thought about saying no but thought about finding out whats in the tower and maybe even giving it a swift kick in the butt. Well, if the thing in the tower had a butt. Yeah, it would be good not to dream about that tower if it was in ruins. "Yeah, I would be safer here but screw that! Yes, I will go with you!" Sherman replied.

Ashley smiled and said, "Good, Rich will be coming with us." Sherman then told Ashley about his dream about the tower. Ashley told him what time to be at the ship so they could take off. Then Ashley went looked for Fluttershy.

Before Ashley found Fluttershy, she did some dancing and a bit more partying. Someone found some R&B songs on an Iphone and was playing them through the boom box. Fluttershy was found lying off to the side passed out. Ashley conjured up a cart and levitated Fluttershy onto the cart and rolled it to the aircraft.

Fluttershy woke up thirsty and with an aching head. There was a bowl of cool water so she drank that and the thirst and headache slowly went away. Next to her Ashley slept quietly. Fluttershy walked around the ship. There were two sets of bathrooms, one for people and ponies and one for four legged ponies, that was good she needed to go to the bathroom. When Fluttershy was done, she came out and Ashley was standing in front of her. "Are you OK?", she asked.

"I am fine but hungry," Fluttershy replied.

"Tell me what you want to eat and then I will do some quick flight tests for the aircraft and then we will send you home," Ashley replied.

Fluttershy made a quick breakfast request and Ashley made it. Then Ashley did some quick flight tests with Fluttershy looking out the window. One test was a straight vertical climb, the ship went straight up so high you could see the curve of the Earth in the distance. That got Fluttershy oooing and aaahing. Then Ashley did the vertical fall, not to fast since Fluttershy was looking out the window. When the ship landed, Ashley and Fluttershy left the ship to go to where the unicorns were assembling to send her home.

Ashley gave Fluttershy a hug and told her to be careful. "Will you come to Equestria and visit me?" Fluttershy asked with tears in her eyes.

Ashley blinked quickly to hide her tears and said "Yes." Ashley started the spell and the other unicorns helped out and the meeting room in Equestria was soon visible through the gateway. Fluttershy walked up to the gateway and gave one last look back and then stepped through the gateway. Ashley kept the spell active until she saw that Fluttershy was safely on the other side. Then she stopped the spell.

Sherman, Rich and Erica the Seeress were waiting at the aircraft when Ashley showed up with supplies in a cart. All of the supplies were made by the unicorns so the Enclave would not be missing any supplies. "I wish you good luck and Godspeed on your quest, my sister," said Erica.

Ashley said, "Thanks" and she went inside with Rich and Sherman. Erica went back to her office, there was a lot to do. After the supplies were stored away and Rich and Sherman were in their seats. Ashley took off in search of her first sister.

Chapter 10

Children of Oonte:Chapter 10
The first sister and resistance and Twilight Sparkle.

Ashley looked over the city from the hills, it was like almost looking into Hell. Smoke and flames lit up the darkening sky. Could also smell smoke, flames and other things burning. Ashley remembered what she had heard and seen about Rio and this was very far from that. She went back into the ship and sat in the pilot's chair. After she had landed, Ashley had this feeling that someone was trying to contact her but she did not get anything from Ponynet. Ashley decided to concentrate harder and at first she could sense nothing and then she was in a room.

The room was small but it had a set of windows on one side and a bar for ballet dancers and one pissed pink pony. "Finally, you answer, did they teach you anything about using, oh what you call it "Ponynet?"", the pink pony said with a lot of annoyance in her voice. Ashley took a quick glance out the window and then faced her sister the pink pony.

"My name is Isabela Cabrela and I owe you an apology," Isabela said apologetically. "My mouth sometimes runs away with me," Isabela continued.

"I sensed something but I did not know what," said Ashley.

"Don't worry, we are talking now. Do you like my studio until the putas burned it down? Its not really my studio but I found a way to make places within Ponynet. It cuts down on the amount of work my brain has to do," Isabela explained.

"I can teach you how to do it if you want," Isabela offered.

"I would like that," Ashley replied.

Ashley asked about the status of Ponynet and the city and Isabela replied that with the fighting and chaos there were not enough ponies to support Ponynet or they were too distracted. Isabela could not leave until they had some sort of order and a place for the resistance to stay. Ashley told Isabela where she had landed and Isabela said she would meet them in the hills above the city and then Ashley was back in the aircraft again.

She finally met her sister in the flesh and some refugees at nightfall. Flames still lit up some areas of the city. "What a fine looking ship but its a bit on the cold side.", Isabela said when she was sitting in the ship with a salad.

Ashley was going to adjust the temperature but figured that Isabela meant something else. "Well, where are your personal things? Its just a cold impersonal place," Isabela chided gently.

"Well maybe I will find something to put on the walls later", Ashley replied.

Isabela wanted Ashley to set up some sort of shelter and food and water for the refugees while Isabela went back in the city to get more refugees. Rich and Sherman would help Isabela and Ashley would make equipment to support the refugee camp. After that discussion Ashley went outside with Isabela and made food for the refugees and went to sleep next to Isabela under the stars.

A few hours later, Rich took a quick peek above the beige bullet scarred wall he was crouching behind. four Claw Combine units were hiding behind another gray wall waiting for the right time to counterattack. Rich checked his wrist scanner and saw that two CC units were trying to flank him. He waited for the right moment and popped up and shot one of the flankers but the other one rolled away behind cover. Then the four CC units kept Rich hiding behind the wall by shooting at his wall while the remaining flanker kept popping up and taking potshots at Rich, the shots were getting closer to hitting Rich. The CC guns were cutting chunks of concrete out of Rich's cover, it would be just a short while until Rich had nothing to hide behind. Isabela came around the side and shot the flanker while cursing loudly. Some of the fighters they met came around the other side and caught the four CC units from behind and they were dealt with.

There was a bit of time to celebrate but then Isabela and Sherman started to yell at each other. Sherman was telling Isabela that she was ignoring tactics and she could get herself killed while Isabela was saying that she had been fighting here longer than Sherman and she knew what she was doing. Rich and the other fighters would have sat back and watched the loud argument but a howl from further east made everyone remember where they were. A second howl answered the first one, it sounded like it was a bit north of their position. Everyone checked their weapons and headed west to the temp safe house and then from there they headed back to the hills.

Ashley got a message from Rich from Pnet and got some of the fighters at the camp ready for a possible attack. Ashley built a food maker and a water maker earlier and was working on something to make ammo. Later on that evening Sherman, Rich and the fighters and the refugees they found in the city entered the camp. Ashley did not sense any Claw Combine units in the area. That was a relief.

Isabela apologized to Sherman and promised not to do any more fighting in the city unless necessary. "My job is to keep morale up," she said. While plans were being made for the next day, Ashley got a message from Pnet and had to leave the meeting.

It was from Trent Harmon, a unicorn working in the Mage guild of the NYC Herd. Trent had the ability to detect the magical talents of ponies and humans. "Equestria sent another emissary, a Twilight Sparkle, you need to fly to the NYC Enclave and pick her up," Trent said. Trent also sent the GPS coordinates so Ashley knew where to land the ship.

Ashley had to go back and tell everyone about the new emissary. "I will have to leave soon and fly to upstate NY," Ashley said with a bit of annoyance and then she went to get the aircraft ready. She wanted to do some fighting instead of making stuff, now she had to play flying Ms. Pony.

Twilight Sparkle walked through the gateway as soon as it was open and she found herself on the other side with strange ponies and humans.

"Welcome to Earth, Twilight Sparkle" a two legged male unicorn with white fur, blonde mane and blue eyes said. "My name is Trent Harmon," Trent said holding out his hand. Twilight looked at his hand for a second and then held out her right fore hoof, Trent took it in his hands and shook it.

"Cool, a unicorn, just like in the show!" cooed a human. The human stuck out her hand to touch Twilight and Twilight backed away from her.

Trent said, "Hey! She is still adjusting, how about we give her some time to adjust! Carol can you come here please?" Carol walked up, she is a short teen female unicorn with white fur and blondish brown hair and blue eyes.

"Twilight, can you follow me please?" Carol asked. Twilight followed Carol out of the Mage Guild room.

"I noticed that you resemble Trent," asked Twilight.

"Yeah, he is my uncle," answered Carol.

Carol ran down the stairs while Twilight carefully climbed down the stairs, the risers were a little too high for pony legs. Carol waited until Twilight reached the ground floor and then they went outside into the warm sunshine. "My uncle told me to take you to my quarters and make you feel comfortable until Ashley comes and picks you up. She will be here tomorrow morning," Carol explained.

"Who is this Ashley?" Twilight asked.

"Ashley is a pony that knows a lot of magic and she is on a quest to find her sisters. She made an aircraft so she could fly to her sisters," Carol said.

"Does she have gray green eyes and a black mane with green stripes?" Twilight asked, she remembered seeing a unicorn asking about the messenger when they were making a gateway for Fluttershy.

"Yes," Carol replied.

While following Carol, Twilight saw some large pony like creatures in a meadow behind a wooden fence. They looked like big ponies but their muzzles were longer and were twice as high as regular ponies. "What are those?" Twilight asked.

"Those are horses, they are larger than ponies but they don't talk but you can pick up their body language and get an idea what they are feeling. Um,I can't go in the meadow anymore," Carol said with some regret in her voice. Twilight had been looking at Carol's face and sensed there was more to the story.

"Can I get a closer look?" Twilight asked, there was something interesting about that stallion.

Carol sighed, "I really can't go near that stallion, I got into trouble." Twilight heard something in Carol's voice and decided to skip the horses for now.

"When we first moved out here, someone trained the horses to do their business either in their stable or a special place. The horses could walk anywhere they wanted to. It was pretty cool but then we got some more human refugees and they were uneasy with horses looking over their shoulders so we had to keep the horses in the meadow. Too bad I liked it the other way," Carol sighed.

"Hey! Are you hungry?" Carol asked.

Twilight said "Yes". Carol took Twilight to another building where there was an open kitchen. Carol reminded Twilight of Pinkie Pie but Carol had less energy and less randomness.

"I wonder how many spells Carol knows?" Twilight wondered.

The open kitchen was run by Ma Boerling or Ruby Boerling. She liked being called "Ma". Her husband, Hans Boerling had passed on 10 years ago. She and her family owned the farm but they had ran into money problems and was close to losing the farm until the NYC Herd and some of the local Herds made her a deal. She could keep the farm but they would need more buildings. When the CC came the NYC Herd enclave moved here and built more buildings. Some of the unicorns knew how to conjure up food and Ma would cook it. No worries about running out of food or water.

There were a few ponies and people at the table eating and they all looked up when Carol and Twilight walked into the dining room. Carol introduced Twilight and some people and ponies waved or said hello. "What do you want to eat? There is some oatmeal and eggs left or do you want pancakes?" Ma asked. Carol asked for eggs and Twilight asked for oatmeal. Twilight wanted to try it out since Fluttershy had raved about it. Carol sat at the table and was surprised when Twilight was able to sit on the bench next to her.

Twilight could sense that the humans and ponies were wondering how she was going to eat her nutty smelling oatmeal. Would she bury her muzzle in the bowl or use a spoon? Twilight used her telekinesis to pick up the spoon and dug in. After the oatmeal was done, someone passed a covered basket of biscuits around and Carol used her telekinesis to put one in Twilight's bowl. There was fruit juice to finish the meal. This was a pretty good breakfast. Carol and Twilight went back to Carol's room and Carol brought Twilight up to speed about current events.

After dinnertime, they went back to the Mage guild so Twilight and the guild members could swap spells. There were no books to learn spells from so Twilight had to touch horns with the unicorns she wanted to trade spells with. That was strange. Henry Collins, a green unicorn with a black mane and green eyes told Twilight about Oonte's older sister, Ilystra Greystar. Ilystra Greystar was in charge of magic.

Henry was hoping that Greystar would start teaching ponies more magic, Oonte taught spells but only a few spells at a time. Also the way Oonte taught spells made it hard to write them. She just dropped them in a unicorn's head and that unicorn knew that spell. It was great to get a group up to speed with certain spells but training could only happen locally. Twilight promised to help with writing spell books.

The next morning Carol and Twilight waited at the landing site for Ashley. During the night before they went to sleep Twilight asked Carol about her problem with the horses. Carol told Twilight about "Horse Affinity". All ponies have a basic empathic link with 4 legged animals but some don't know about it and others know it and use it. "I have a very high Horse Affinity and they found me without my clothes next to that stallion, by the way, his name is Jasper. I did not know that until someone explained it to me. So I have to be aware of it and be careful," Carol explained.

They could hear Trent coming up with a basket of food. "Good luck on your trip Twilight," Trent said.

Twilight said, "Thank you". Trent gave Carol the basket and then Ashley's ship landed, the door opened and the staircase rolled down. Carol gave the basket to Twilight and she went up the stairs and entered the ship. Twilight turned around and waved back and then the ship rose silently and headed back to Rio.

Chapter 11

Children of Oonte
Chapter 11: The Rescue.

Isabela watched the ship land and Ashley and a 4 legged purple unicorn step down the stairs. For one quick moment they both had the same expression on their faces. Isabela thought that was strange and could be something to check out. "Are all purple unicorns such dour creatures?" Isabela asked. That question got a chorus of "Huh," "What?" from Ashley and Twilight.

Ashley introduced Twilight to Isabela. "Here is the Emissary from Equestria, Twilight Sparkle," Ashley said with a bow. Isabela laughed and bowed to Twilight. Twilight stuck out her right fore hoof and Isabela looked at it for a second and shook it with both hands.

"Come Emissary, we have a fine party for you!" Isabela said and started dancing her way into camp. The music was that good, even Twilight could not resist the beats.

Ashley woke up in her sleeping bag in the sleeping area outside and had a feeling that someone was trying to contact her so she concentrated and she was back in the Isabela's dance studio but it was different. The windows were broken, the walls were covered in scorch marks and the balance bar that ran across one side of the room was broken in pieces, then the room reformed itself into the version that Ashley remembered. "That was what it looks like now," Isabela said and started cursing.

Then a white unicorn with a purple mane and blue eyes appeared and said "A lady does not say such things in refined company," Isabela apologized and introduced Renee Giraud to Ashley. Renee did not waste any time and asked for Ashley's help. "A close friend of mine went out on patrol and we lost contact with the squad, I need your help to find him," Renee said.

"I can find people if I can get a personal object from them. Something that they only use. Just make sure you handle the items with rubber or plastic gloves so I do not get your signature," Ashley explained. That put a smile on Renee's face.

"Fine, lets plan on how we are going to do this," Renee said.

The plan was to meet Renee and some soldiers and Ashley, Sherman would find the missing patrol and Twilight, Rich and Isabela would fly to the Parisian Resistance Headquarters. Ashley would teach Isabela some basic flight skills so she can fly the ship. After the plans were finalized Ashley went to sleep.

In the morning, Ashley told Rich, Sherman and Twilight where they were going and what they were doing next. Rich and Twilight were not happy. Rich wanted to shoot more CC units but he eventually agreed with the plan. Twilight was not happy with the plan. "I need to be there to give an accurate report to Princess Celestia," Twilight said with a firm voice.

"Yes but you are the Emissary and if you get shot or worse, what do we do?" Ashley asked.

Rich asked pointedly, "How will you defend yourself if you get separated from the team?"

Twilight said, "I have my magic!" Ashley conjured up a toy cap gun and put it on the floor. Twilight used her telekinetic powers to pick up the gun. Ashley showed Twilight the trigger on the toy and Twilight pulled it and fired the gun a few times. Sherman volunteered to teach Twilight gun skills. Twilight will learn how to shoot and how to maintain guns too.

Renee waited on the dark rooftop and thought about the damage to her city, Paris. No longer was it the City of Lights, now light was the exception. Not for the last time she wished that all of the CC units were dead or dying. Right now there were no CC patrols, she can sense them at least five blocks away. Wonder if Abelard and Marc were OK? It was nighttime and a light breeze touched her white fur. She could hear Ashley's dark purple aircraft approach and she turned around and looked. Ashley's ship landed quickly and quietly. Wonder how she did it, the ship is so quiet? Even helicopters make noise. She contacted the 2 groups of soldiers under her command so they knew to get ready to move out.

Renee watched Ashley, Sherman and Twilight leave the ship and walk towards her, then the ship floated up and flew to the Parisian resistance headquarters. She wondered about the Equestrian pony. True, she had two machine pistols in holsters but will she shoot them when needed? "Welcome to Paris, it has been diminished a bit but we plan to take it back," Renee said with a smile.

Once they made it to street level, Renee conjured up some headsets for Sherman, Ashley and Twilight. Renee knew some conjuring spells, she made her sniper rifle that way. The headsets would keep them in contact with the two squads and each other. One team of five soldiers had a RPG, while the other group of six had mortars. Ashley scanned the grenades and rockets and made two extra bags of each.

Ashley went one flight upstairs and unlocked a small room and cast a spell to block enemies from scanning or sensing what was going on in the room. Renee came in with the bags of personal items and Twilight followed. Ashley opened the first bag and cast a tracking spell. It only took a few minutes before she had a location, it was someplace west, not too far away. The other bags of items also had the same location. Since they did not have a lot of time, Ashley went for a lower level spell. A higher level spell would give more info like the status of the person but that spell would cost more energy and who knows what they might run into? Renee wanted to know more but Ashley wanted to save magical energy and time. They left the room and went downstairs and Renee wondered what was the status of Abelard, Ashley could only say where he was but not his status.

Before they set out in the direction that Ashley said their lost comrades were. Some of the soldiers wanted to speak to Renee in private and they were not sure about following the lead of a civilian pony. Renee replied in a no nonsense voice,"I understand your concerns and I share them a bit but she is my sister and came to help when asked. We could not find our lost friends on our own this quickly. You also know I am risking a lot by doing this. Colonel Baton would not approve of this unapproved mission. Also I am leading, she is just consulting." After that they said they would help any way they can.

A few hours in, Renee sensed the first patrol, they hid in a building till the patrol passed and then continued. The second patrol was also easily evaded. By not attacking and killing patrols, the CC would not know Renee and friends were in the area.

Later, on a rooftop a few blocks away from the CC base, Ashley focused her binoculars(binocs) on the CC camp, somehow the Claw Combine had demolished some buildings and cleared out a four block area and placed checkpoints on all the streets entering the area. There were four guard towers, one for each corner. Each checkpoint on a side had a floating platform with the big gun in the back as support. There were three buildings, in the back and two fenced in areas. The light breezes had stopped so the CC banners just hung limply on their poles. The checkpoints and guard towers were filled with alert creatures.

Ashley focused the binoculars on the two fenced in areas. The fences were pretty low, real easy to climb over. One had naked filthy people. Some of them were just sitting and others were doing what comes naturally. The other fenced in area had ponies. Ashley saw something that made her curse softly, all of the unicorns had cruelly shattered horns. No effort was made to bandage the ragged stumps. Some were still seeping blood. To a unicorn a broken horn is like the worst thing because they do their magic through the horn and if its broken, they may not be able to do magic again. The horn will grow back but not the same way. Also the horn is not all bone, it has blood vessels and nerve cells and a part of the brain extends into the horn. Renee wanted to see what made Ashley curse and asked Ashley for the binocs.

Ashley reluctantly gave Renee the binocs. Renee looked back at Ashley. "Why are they not jumping or climbing over the fence? Prisoners do not act like the way these people are acting" Renee said in a puzzled voice. Ashley looked through the binocs and noticed that at each corner of the fenced in areas there was a pole with a glowing red globe on top.

"Maybe those glowing globes inhibit higher brain functions?" Ashley asked. She used her magic sense to scan the globes and verified that these were mental function inhibiting globes.

"Well, we will destroy those quickly!" Renee said, could hear anger in her voice. Renee called in the squad leaders so they could plan the attack.

The plan was to hit the guard towers with the rockets and kill the CC units in them and maybe destroy the towers. Hit the checkpoints and the floating platforms with the mortars. Renee would snipe the mind control globes but only after the floating platforms were destroyed. The floating platforms could shoot the escaping prisoners so the platforms had to be destroyed quickly. Then the squads would attack from two directions and mop up who was left. Then Renee would snipe any targets of opportunity. Ashley would use her magic to destroy anything her gun could not kill. Sherman and Twilight would support Ashley. Once everyone knew what to do, the two squads went to two other buildings and set up the mortars and the rocket launcher. There was going to be an attack from the east, west and south. No attacks from the north because they did not have enough people.

Twilight looked up at the sky, it was getting close to false dawn, dawn was not far away. She felt a little scared but excited too. She practiced getting her guns out of their holsters. "Please stop, you are making me even more nervous," Ashley hissed. Renee transferred Sherman to support the mortar group at the last minute. One of the guard towers burst into flames and then one of the further checkpoints blew up. Soon the other checkpoints and guard towers burst into flames.

Ashley and Twilight waited behind a building until the checkpoint and guard tower to the east side was destroyed then they moved in. Twilight pulled her guns out of the holsters and ran with Ashley into the CC camp. Twilight avoided looking at the burned or burning bodies at the checkpoint and focused on the first building. Three dogs and one wolf came out of the first building but Ashley shot three of them and Twilight fired her guns at the last dog but was not sure she got it. Seems like the dog ran around the side of the building. Ashley said she would deal with the dog and she told Twilight to watch the entrance and anything that looked like a CC unit, shoot it.

Ashley did a quick peek around the corner and almost got shot. The dog was hiding around the corner but then it ran along the side to the back of the building. Ashley carefully ran along the side of the building. She could smell the dog's fear. Ashley concentrated and used her life sensing abilities to sense the dog. There were a few CC units in the building and the dog was waiting for her around the corner ready to shoot. Ashley cast an illusion of herself and made it walk around the corner, the dog shot at the illusion then Ashley rolled low and blew a hole in the dog's guts with her gun.

While walking back along the side of the building to the front, Ashley sensed dark magic and heard Twilight scream. Some other people did some yelling too. "Watch out for the Tiger! He sent Twilight and some of the freed prisoners flying and he blocks my shots!" Renee warned through the headset with frustration in her voice. Ashley went around the corner to the front of the building and there was the tiger sorcerer. If this was not a combat situation, Ashley would have complimented the tiger sorcerer on his outfit. He wore a red robe with black symbols on it. The tiger had white fur and black stripes and eyes red with hatred.

The tiger sorcerer threw a black magic burst and Ashley blocked it and the Mage Duel began. The sorcerer threw three sharp edged cutting spells at Ashley and she blocked those too but the spells had a second part that Ashley missed and soon she was bleeding from several shallow cuts. One lucky slash in a good place and the duel would be over for Ashley. Ashley hit the tiger with several focused bursts of fire, the tiger had some sort of elemental magic protection that blocked the fire but the fancy robe picked up some scorch marks. The tiger hit Ashley with more of those two part spells and Ashley got cut some more. Blood was oozing out of at least eight or nine cuts.

Twilight woke up after being sent flying and landing hard. She joined the fray and started hitting the tiger with telekinetic strikes. The sorcerer summoned a black ice sword and planned to throw it at Twilight but Ashley hit the sword with an electric burst and the sword shattered like glass in the tiger's face. The sorcerer staggered for a few seconds then Renee shot it in the shoulder and in the leg. The tiger fell to the other leg and melted the black ice shards that were sticking out of its face and threw a fireball at Twilight. Twilight caught the fireball with a reflection spell and sent it back to the tiger and the tiger went up in flames screaming. It tried to stop the flames but Ashley hit the sorcerer in the head with a focused beam of magic like a laser. She then used the magic laser to decapitate and cut up the still burning tiger until the tiger was just a smoldering pile of ashes.

Twilight used her magic sense to check if the tiger was really dead and then used her telekinesis to pick up her guns and put them back in her holster. She stood up on all fours to walk towards Ashley but her left hind leg gave her a sharp pain and Twilight fell down on her left side facing the first building. Maybe it was broken? When the tiger hit her with the spell Twilight had been thrown back and had fell hard on that leg.

"Ms. Taylor, you have to see this, please go to the last building on the right," said one of the soldiers on the headset. Ashley scanned Twilight and sensed that her leg was broken but it was an easy heal. Ashley went to the last building. There was a group of people and ponies in front of the building and Renee. Renee sent some of the soldiers to clear the other two buildings.

"You do not need to go in here," Renee cautioned but Ashley went inside anyway.

When Ashley went in she could smell blood, fresh and old. Renee followed her. When they got to the first room, Renee said that her men had caught some CC units abusing a woman and the soldiers killed the two wolves. Renee and Ashley checked out the larger second room. The smell of blood and flesh was almost overwhelming. There were gutted carcasses of people and ponies hanging on chains and tables covered with body parts. Ashley did not need to see any more, she now knew that the building was a slaughterhouse and she wanted it to burn. Then Renee's and Ashley's headsets picked up a new message,"We found the leader of this camp." Renee and Ashley ran back to the first building.

When Ashley entered the leader's room, she could not fail to see and smell the cooked baby pony on the large silver plate. There were some pieces missing. That made Ashley even more angry. The Leader was a black and white wolf being held by two soldiers. Ashley looked into its red eyes and smelled its fear. The wolf cringed from her and said, "No kill, no kill."

Ashley summoned a white hot ball of flame in her right hand and thrust it close to the wolf's face. The wolf pissed itself and tried to back away but the guards held it fast. Ashley then used her telekinetic powers to tear the wolf out of both guards grasp and then slammed it against the wall. She planned to hit it with the ball of flame and burn it alive. This monster was going to pay! "NO, MY SISTER DO NOT DO THIS!" Renee screamed through Ponynet. Ashley added more power to the fireball and the wolf cried louder in fear. Ashley was ready to launch the fireball at the wolf when she sensed something move in its head. She concentrated on the wolf's brain to see what was in it, wait, something moved again, there was something there and then the wolf's head blew apart.

Sherman had helped to clear the second building of CC defenders when he heard the message about the boss. So he went to the first building to help out. Ashley was so consumed with rage, she was willing to burn a creature to death and she did not hear anyone. Renee was shouting at Ashley not to do this. Sherman's gut told him that the creature would not give any info but Ashley should not be allowed to burn it to death. Sherman pulled out his gun and shot the wolf in the head. The bright ball of flame in Ashley's hand dimmed and faded away.

"We need to destroy this place and soon. Maybe the leader had sent a distress signal," Ashley warned.

"We need to see if there is any info we could use here," Renee said with some annoyance. She did not want Ashley to burn any useful info.

"Do it quickly because the CC may know this camp was under attack," Ashley said, conjuring up four blocks of incendiary C4. Some soldiers took the blocks to place them in the other buildings. Ashley then made eight more blocks of C4 and then went to Twilight. Renee started going through the room looking for useful info.

"I'm sorry for leaving you like this," Ashley apologized.

Twilight said it was OK and Ashley put Twilight to sleep so she could heal the broken leg. Then Ashley conjured up a floating stretcher. After the leg was healed, Ashley put Twilight on a floating stretcher and carried it to the edge of the camp where some soldiers were standing guard.

Renee came out the first building and was going to the second building to look for some info when a filthy man ran up to her and hugged her. It was Marc, he was OK and Abelard was behind him. Abelard gave her a kiss and Renee was happy for a bit. Abelard said that all of the squad survived and they were ready to leave.

Twilight woke up on the stretcher when the base exploded into flames. She looked up and expected to see Ashley but it was Sherman pulling the stretcher. "Where is Ashley?" Twilight asked.

"She is OK but she asked that I look after you until we get back," Sherman replied with some worry in his voice. His gut was telling him something was wrong with Ashley.

Renee walked along, it was a successful mission, the missing squad is safe, the prisoners rescued and she will help Abelard take a bath. It will be a most fun bath. The business with the wolf boss was strange but we can deal with that later. Renee was so happy, the prospect of being punished by her superior officer was almost buried under her happiness.

Ashley trudged along and thought about what she sensed inside the wolf's head. What was it? Is it possible that the CC units are just pawns? Where did all of that rage come from? She looked inside but there were no answers. Looking outside did not help either, all she saw were silent dark empty buildings or burned husks. So she just trod on.

Chapter 12

Children of Oonte
Chapter 12: A chewing out and more equipment and another mission for a sister.

Renee sat in the hard metal chair while Colonel Émile Baton sat in his chair and hissed at her. He was living up to his nickname, The Serpent. Birds were chirping outside and golden sunlight shone through the windows but Renee saw and heard little of that. Being somewhat hungover did not help. The good news was that Renee had found a lost patrol, saved prisoners and brought back some useful info about the CC. The bad news was that Baton had forbidden any missions to save the lost patrol. Things could have gone badly, also commanders do not like their soldiers disobeying orders even if the results were good. The volunteer patrols would get two weeks of punishment detail but they can start it after two days of rest. Renee would get 3 weeks of punishment detail and one day of rest. After that 1 day of rest, Renee would get Ashley to make equipment for the Parisian Resistance.

"Can I go with my sister, we have an important mission to do," Renee asked.

Émile looked at Renee and sighed, "You may travel with your sisters but I want a full report of the mission. Now go and enjoy your day off!"

Twilight paced back and forth in the hotel room. It was a nice room with paintings and a view of a park with trees. She wished that Ashley would finally get out of the bathroom. Ashley was slow moving this morning. There was a knock at the door and Twilight used her telekinesis to open the door. Isabela walked in and strode right up to Twilight.

"Where is your sister? I have many things to discuss with her but first we will go to a cafe and eat!" Isabela said with a shake of her red curly mane. At the mention of eating Twilight's stomach growled. Ashley finally came out of the bathroom and looked at them. Isabela walked up to her and gave Ashley a big hug.

"Sherman told me what happened and I am here to help. Come Sister, lets dine!" Isabela said with enthusiasm and put her arm around Ashley's waist. Ashley's dark mood lightened a bit.

Isabela led them to a table in front of a cafe. Renee came by a bit later but did not stay and said that they could order anything they wanted, no worries about money. It seems that the Paris Herd had a bunch of chefs that were unicorns. They could either conjure up meals or conjure up the ingredients for meals and cook them. This was payment for saving the squad and for some of the equipment that they wanted Ashley to make. Renee came by again later on and introduced her husband Abelard to the group. The rest of the afternoon was spent with conversation, song and dance. Well, a little bit of dance.

Twilight woke up early in the morning. She had been thinking about Ashley. Even during the day yesterday, Ashley was distant. She was no Pinkie but she was more reserved for some reason. Twilight liked Ashley, they had a lot in common. Twilight’s ears picked up the sound of someone picking their way through the sleeping ponies and a few people, it was Renee.

"Can you wake Ashley and Isabela? I will be getting my apartment ready for our meeting," Renee whispered. That was something Twilight did not understand, why did ponies from Earth (Terran Ponies) sleep in groups outside instead in their own rooms?

Twilight poked Ashley with her hoof and Ashley ignored it. Looks like this is going to take more than a poke. Twilight then went to Isabela and poked her. Isabela sprang awake.

"Ah, Twilight, I had the most interesting dream. Unfortunately its not one to discuss with friends unless its with drinks! There was a lot of purple in it!" Isabela got up and tried to tickle Ashley awake. For a minute, Ashley curled up and kept sleeping but Isabela kept tickling. Eventually Ashley woke up and peered around with a confused look. Isabela then stuck her face in Ashley's and grinned widely. Ashley laughed but it was weak. Twilight and Isabela led Ashley out of the sleeping area without stepping on anybody. That was not an easy feat since Terran ponies and some humans slept pretty closely to each other. Twilight resolved to ask one of the Terran ponies why they slept like this.

"We need to talk," Renee said, flicking a pink hair off of Ashley's muzzle.

"Something is eating you, sister and we need to deal with it before things get worse," Isabela said. They were sitting on various chairs in Renee's apartment and Renee and Abelard were sitting on the bed.

"Abelard is a trained psychologist and he has a background counseling soldiers. I have been a soldier for years before I became a pony and I can tell a soldier from a mile away. Please allow my husband to help you," Renee said with concern in her voice.

Isabela said she would tell the other unicorns that Ashley would be two hours late for work. Renee would bring in something to eat a bit later. Then everyone left the room except for Abelard and Ashley. Ashley pulled up a chair next to Abelard who was sitting on the bed and they began a session.

"Isabela, why do Terran ponies sleep outside like last night?" Twilight asked.

"Well, we are herdy, we like to be in groups. Makes us feel good to be near each other even if we do not speak. When the weather gets bad we will sleep separately or in a group indoors," Isabela replied.

Around 2pm, Ashley finished up the last power generator. They had four now, two for civilian use and two for military use. With the support of the unicorn mages of the Parisian Herd, it was easy to get a lot done. There was still a lot to do. Ashley felt better, that session with Abelard had helped out a lot. She was hoping to get two food generators done before Invocation at 4pm. After that, Ashley would get back to work til 7pm. There would be some time to eat and then they were going to see a play. Isabela had made Ashley promise to enjoy herself a bit too.

That evening Ashley's head had not touched the pillow on her sleeping bag for at least a second when she found herself in a clearing in a forest. The flowers and plants looked different than what Ashley would see in a regular forest and she could see bamboo too. Maybe its an Asian forest?

"Yes," Ashley's teal eyed, yellow furred, pink maned and tailed sister said. "I used to come here when I was a child, now its all gone. My name is Mei Nuo," Ashley's sister said.

"What happened?" Ashley asked.

"It was progress, people needed space for homes and such," Mei replied in a matter of fact voice. It sounded matter of fact but there was a tinge of sadness there too.

"I am sorry to bother you, I know you are busy helping a sister and I would wait but things are bad here. Well, things are not that bad but they will be soon. The CC as you call them are raiding towns and stealing our children and babies. We need your help soon, please can you help?" Mei implored.

"I would help you but I need to make sure that the Parisian Resistance is able to defend itself," Ashley replied.

Mei said, "I know you would help me but the problem is that we need your help as soon as possible." Mei said and then she showed Ashley what she saw a few days ago.

Mei/Ashley were in a noisy market haggling for veggies for a salad, when she heard people yelling and running. She finished the trade and reluctantly walked towards the commotion. It was hard to walk through the stream of panicked people but finally she saw what was causing all the fear. A large CC ship hovered over part of the town and a red beam was going through the houses and small huts. It looked like there were small figures floating up the beam into the ship. Mei/Ashley fought her way through the crowd to get a closer look. After a bit of apologizing and pushing Mei/Ashley got a better view, the small figures were babies and small children. What happened to the adults? Mei/Ashley wondered. Then the vision ended. "Wish I could show you more but I am getting tired", Mei apologized. Mei then explained that the CC ship did its raid for a few minutes until several jets from the Chinese air force flew into the area, the CC ship did not stay around and just vanished.

"I will see what I can do," Ashley replied. Ashley came out of Pnet and went back in to send messages about what she had learned from Mei.

A few minutes later, Ashley, Renee and Isabela met on Pnet. This time Renee made a place that looked like her apartment. "Baton wants a lot of equipment from you Ashley! He is pissed that you blew up the base and destroyed artifacts that we could have studied" Renee complained.

"You do not have the facilities to study or even store artifacts safely. Why bother picking up something that tells the CC exactly where your base is?" Ashley replied, she was getting annoyed.

"Sisters, please we need to find out how to help Mei Nuo," Isabela said with a conciliatory tone. At the mention of Mei's name, Ashley tried to reach out to her but there was no reply.

In the morning, Isabela checked out the status of the poor unicorns with the shattered horns through Pnet, the Parisian Herd were taking care of them. It would be a while before they were capable to cast the easiest of spells. Even telekinesis was out of their reach for now. Isabela could sympathize with them, she could imagine having her legs shattered so she could not dance anymore. She might be able to walk with crutches or with a cane but no more dancing for a while. It would feel like an eternity. At least they were alive and maybe things could change for the better for them. Isabela relayed the info to Ashley.

They decided to send Renee back to Colonel Baton and get some sort of minimum list of items. After they were made, the sisters would fly to Beijing to help Mei. Renee dreaded going back and asking for less than what Baton wanted, he would start hissing some more but that can't be helped.

Chapter 13

Children of Oonte
Chapter 13: Medical problems, Renee's fear and Black Rain.

Mei Nuo leaned against the wall and tried to block out the screams and groans of the dying and injured by closing her teal colored eyes. It was almost too much. The People's Army Brigade fifteen had pushed into CC territory in the southwest and it looked like they were winning and then red black bolts of some sort of magical energy speared the tanks and made them explode. Black flames dropped out of the sky and any person that was not protected inside the metal walls of a APC just burst into flames screaming. Some of the black flames did scorch the surface of some armored personnel carriers too. While the army was trying to adjust to this, several floating platforms attacked from different directions and the army was forced to retreat. Too bad, the People's Army had better discipline and tanks. If the CC did not use magic, they would have been pushed back. The commanders of the army did not believe in magic and it was going to make the war hard to fight. Maybe if they had unicorns, they could have blocked some of the attacking spells?

Mei opened her eyes and hoped that her sisters would arrive soon. Then she went over to the new bunch of injured soldiers. Most of them had some exposure to the black flames but even small burns could kill a person. The wounds would get inflamed and spread. Patients would get really high fevers and eventually die a sweating painful death. Ice packs and anti inflammatories had limited success, they just slowed down the spread of the black flame burns a little bit. Mei wished she could get some of the unicorn mages from the Beijing herd but the military hospital management did not believe in magic too. Maybe she will have to break the rules to save some lives? Mei contacted the Beijing Herd and asked for some healers or at least some mages.

It was cooler outside near the checkpoint and Mei waited for the mages and healers. There was only one mage and two healers but that was better than nothing. Mei greeted them and led them back to the ER Ward. "Can you do something for these people?" Mei asked the unicorn mage, Chao Lin.

"I can remove the dark magic from the people here. I will not be able to heal the damage though," replied Chao Lin.

"That is good enough," Mei replied, at last, some help.

Chao closed his eyes and concentrated and a wave of energy flowed through the room. The room got quiet for a quick moment and then people went back to talking. Mei thanked Chao for his help and then she went back to checking out the new patients with the healer's help. Mei decided to have the healers help out the patients with the worse wounds and try to nudge them closer to healthy.

She did not want healers to focus and get a few people totally healed, she wanted a bunch of people in a better position. Also she was hoping that by helping a bunch of people instead of a select few, she can hide that she is using healers.
That would hopefully get her more healthy people. There was no doubt that eventually someone would catch on and Mei would be in the Hospital Admin section being grilled about her unconventional methods. The head of doctors was not a results oriented person, She was a by the book woman. Mei agreed somewhat with the stance but when lives are at stake and the by the book methods were failing, it did not quite make sense.

Ashley looked again at the schematic, Baton had wanted two anti air turrets. Anti air turrets shoot down enemy aircraft, the CC could not just fly transports near or on the base and unload units, they would have to unload them some distance away. That would give the defenders more time to prepare.

She just wanted to do one but Baton was firm. There was not much Ashley could do to reduce the amount of magic needed. So she got the builder team together and started the conjuring. Everybody on the team was getting tired, Baton had not reduced his demands by much. Instead of four anti air turrets, he was fine with two. Well not really fine but tolerant. Renee had been the bearer of bad news and she took the brunt of his anger. Two hours later the second anti air turret was done. Ashley did not remember too much until morning, she just passed out in the lab along with the rest of the exhausted builder unicorns.

Marc came by the lab and had some info for Renee. He was surprised to see unicorns sprawled all over the place in the lab sleeping but he went to Renee and shook her awake. "You must wake up, something has happened to Abelard!" he said excitedly to Renee.

"Wh wha what?" Renee asked, she was still very tired. Marc told her to go to her apartment and see Abelard. Renee did not need to be told twice, she ran out of the lab to her apartment.

Twilight went through the checklist with Rich. "Looks like we have everything, now we just need people to show up," Rich said, he was liking the world tour and Beijing China was just 3 days away. They were not going to fly over Russian airspace so the trip would take longer. He sent a message through Pnet to Isabela, Renee and Ashley. A half hour later Isabela and Ashley showed up. They did not know what happened to Renee. Isabela brought a framed print of the Eiffel Tower to put on one of the walls of the ship. Ashley had a photograph of some of the squads in the Parisian Resistance also for the wall. Sherman was already on board and he helped put supplies in the supply room.

Renee showed up a half hour later and she looked concerned. She took Ashley aside and asked her some questions about magic. "Abelard is a pony now and I am not sure I like that," Renee said with concern in her voice.

"I don't know what to do. I don't really have a lot of info on Polymorph spells. Also if this was Oonte's doing, I do not want to second guess her," Ashley said.

"When we return from Antarctica, I will see if he can be turned back!" Renee resolved.

"You do know that if you are both ponies, you can have foals. Humans and ponies can't have foals," Ashley explained.

Renee had a pained look and said she wanted children not baby ponies.

"How about we talk about this some more later?" Ashley suggested.

A few days later, Isabela rubbed her eyes again, she was so tired. They had been playing Hide N Seek with CC cruisers and other CC large aircraft all afternoon and evening. Their ship was faster but Ashley went out of her way to avoid contact. Ashley walked up to the pilot's chair to relieve Isabela.

Isabela was starting to long for a horizontal bed, the chairs in the ship were much better than the chairs in a passenger plane but nothing beats a real bed, even sleeping bags would be better. While walking back to her seat, she thought about Renee, she did not want ponies, she wanted human children? She is a pony now, no way she would give birth to a human child. Maybe Renee had doubts about her mothering ability? I wonder what type of pony Abelard is? I will not ruin my sleep with these questions, I will go to sleep. Isabela thought as sleep took her down.

Mei gave the poor orphan a big hug, she did not know the kid's name. No big deal, I will still make this child feel wanted. Now its time to get something to eat. There was something wrong with the sky, Mei could not say exactly but the sky made her feel threatened.

Something in the sky was not right or normal. There were black clouds coming in fast from the southwest but the speed and the look of the inky black clouds made Mei nervous. Again Mei regretted not spending more time with the pegasi from the Beijing herd. She could fly a bit but her fear of heights made flying higher problematic and her concentration would fray and down she would go. The pegasi would have taught her some weather sense too but that can be learned later. There was enough room outside for Mei to unfurl her wings and take off. Time to put some space between me and those menacing clouds, they are kinda scary looking.

She got about five blocks away when she felt the first breeze from the dark black storm system. It felt so cold it broke her concentration and Mei almost fell out of the sky. She managed to recover and find a clear space to land. A few people were standing around to gawk at the clouds but the smart ones were already heading out of the area, Mei followed them.

The black storm was much faster and it overtook them. The cold winds were constant now. Mei felt like she was shoved into a meat locker with the cooling turned up high. She stumbled into a store and walked a bit into the aisles. She was happy that the door closed behind her, that frigid air from outside made her feel uncomfortable and cold. "What is going on? Why is it so cold? This is still summer!" The store owner peppered Mei with questions. Mei had no answers, the thermometer on the side wall showed that the temperature of the store was 80 degrees. There was something in the air that felt cold but it was not the temperature.

Some more people came into the store and Mei and the shopkeeper had to yell at them to close the door. The bright street went from sunny to cloudy dark to nighttime. The automatic lights went on but the street still felt dark. The black rain came down from the dark sky and splattered against the windows of the store. Mei heard people screaming in fear, some were screaming, "Get out of the rain!" The shopkeeper walked up to the door and locked it. Mei asked him why but the shopkeeper looked back at Mei with fear filled eyes. Then he went back behind the counter.

Something about the way the black rain sluggishly flowed down the store's front window made everyone take one step back. Someone screamed, "Look!" People and ponies had been running down the block to find shelter from the storm but they did not make it. They started stumbling and falling and the black rain covered their still bodies with a black oily sheen.

Mei would have been out in the street to help but she sensed that she could do nothing for those poor people and equines. Ten minutes later the sun came up, there was no gradual brightening, it was dark and then it was light. The people in the store just looked out the store window at the bodies lying in the black puddles. Mei was walking towards to door when the first human sat up and opened its eyes. Mei looked at the shopkeeper to see if he was OK with opening the door when someone screamed, "The eyes, they are empty!"

Mei looked at the first body and looked into its eyes, the eyes were like shiny black pearls, cold and hungry. The person's mouth had some black stuff dripping out of it. Most of the humans were standing up or trying to stand. The pony bodies just lay in the street. "You, yellow pony do not open the damned door!" The shopkeeper whispered with deathly intent while he reached for a large club under the counter.

Mei walked to the back of the store with the other trapped folks, she looked for an exit. The store had a door that led to the shopkeeper's quarters. The door was locked but people started banging on the door and the Mei gave the door some good kicks from her strong pony legs and the door's lock broke and they ran into the room. Behind her, Mei could hear glass breaking and the storekeeper curse and then a wet gurgle and some splashing sounds.

The room had a door that was locked that led into a courtyard in the back, can see it through the windows. After the door was smashed they ran into the courtyard. There were no creatures there yet but more would be coming through the store soon. The fences were easy to climb so people just climbed the fences while Mei unfurled her wings and flew up to the roof and looked down. She regretted doing it but she needed to know.

It was not a pretty sight, the ponies that died during the black rain were being torn apart by the strange humans. They did not eat any of the flesh, they would just tear gobbets of meat off of the corpses. One pony corpse was almost bone. A brave group of ponies and people tried to take back the street but the "zombies" had another trick, they spat a stream of thick black fluid on their attackers. Anyone hit with the black stuff would slowly lose consciousness and then the "zombies" would eat them alive or tear them apart.

Some people the "zombies" would not eat, they would just ignore them once they had the black stuff on them. After 5 or 10 minutes people who fell to the black stuff would get up looking for victims. Mei figured that is how they can spread the "zombie" disease. This was a crowded neighborhood, lots of people would become "zombies". The disease did not transfer to ponies. Any ponies who where spit on would get torn apart while they were still alive. The creatures did not wait for the ponies to pass out, they would start clawing away. Mei had to look away, the screams and tearing noises were just too much to hear and watch.

Mei unfurled her wings and flew back to the base in the northeast, she had to warn them what was coming. She also sent a quick message to the Beijing Herd about what was going on. This was supposed to be a nice day off but now Mei was flying for her life and wishing her sisters would show up soon.

Chapter 14

Children of Oonte
Chapter 14: A sister in need, The foes of Fengtai District

While Mei was flying back to the military base something hit her, she was not sure what it was but it knocked her against a building and she fell down and things went black. When she woke up, the sun was slowly setting and that her heart was beating faster with fear. Mei stood up and her left wing hurt so bad, she almost fell down. She got up slowly and looked around. She was on a rooftop, immediately she thought about doors. Those zombies or creatures might be lurking around here, she strained her ears to hear what was on the rooftop with her.

So far it was just the wind and some clothes on a clothes line. Mei slowly walked around the rooftop, it seemed OK until she got to the doorway. She checked the door, it was locked, thank goodness, nothing was going to sneak up on her. The creatures would have to break the door down. Mei slowly tried to sit on the ground without moving her hurt wing and she made a mistake and the pain knocked her out.

Ashley's ship was two hours out from Beijing when they got a message from the Beijing Herd. Mei was missing and they were under heavy CC attack. Chao Lin gave Ashley an area that they could search for Mei and they wanted Ashley and friends to try to attack the CC from behind. "If the CC is focused on fighting the defenders in the Fengtai District, we could drop something nasty on the unprotected backs," Ashley suggested. Renee nodded yes in agreement.

Rich asked, "what are you going to do?"

"We will find Mei and then give the CC a kick in the balls!" Ashley said with a smile.

"I will see if I can sense her through Pnet," Isabela said and started accessing Pnet.

"Found her!" Isabela sang out. Ashley flew the ship towards Mei's position while Isabela gave directions through Pnet. Renee used the scanners to check for threats. There were a lot below them in the streets, there were creatures that were once human but now were possessed by dark magic. At least they were still alive which means they could take less damage than if they were undead. A group had entered the building where Mei was and it was just a matter of time before they would get her. Now they were only 2 floors below her.

"Whats the plan?" Sherman asked.

"Twilight and I will levitate Mei into the ship because there is not enough room to land while Isabela, you and Rich will shoot any of the strange creatures that get near. Ashley will keep the ship level and close so we can do this quickly," Renee said with determination in her voice.

Ashley flew the ship towards the rooftop where Mei was lying. Rich and Sherman looked at each other and readied their weapons. Isabela looked at them and got her rifle ready.

The creatures were at the door on the roof and banging away at the door. The door would not take more punishment and with a crash and a spray of wooden pieces the door flew apart. Several creatures (Black Spitters) ran towards Mei who was still unconscious but Sherman and Rich were able to shoot them. "Watch her wings, they are broken," Ashley yelled. Renee and Twilight pooled their telekinetic powers and Mei started to float off the roof towards the ship. More black spitters showed up in the doorway and Rich and Sherman shot them dead, that gave them a bit more time to lift Mei higher but more spitters were rushing up the stairs to the roof.

Ashley brought the ship closer to the rooftop so Renee and Twilight did not have to lift Mei too far. At last Mei was in the ship and Isabela moved her body to a sleeping bag on the floor. One black spitter jumped on the ship but could not hold on and fell to its death spitting and snarling.

Isabela climbed into the pilot's seat while Ashley scanned Mei, the damage to her wings was pretty bad, there was a lot of work to do. Too much work to do and have enough magic to cause damage to the CC from behind so Ashley made a cast to immobilize Mei's wings and kept Mei sleeping.

"How are we going to do this?" Twilight asked with a bit of tiredness in her voice.

"We will hit the back of the CC forces attacking Fengtai with several white hot bursts of electricity. The lightning will travel from one enemy to another. It should be enough to kill or distract the CC sorcerers and allow the Fengtai defenders time to counterattack," Ashley said with confidence.

"The hard part will be to get away before they try to hit us with magic. I will tell Isabela to fly south at full speed," Ashley said with worry in her voice.

"Don't worry we shall fly south so quickly their spells will run out of breath and fall behind!" Isabela exclaimed with a grin.

Chao Lin, a brown eyed, gray unicorn with a salt and pepper colored mane and tail, caught his breath, that last battle had been very tough. One lucky infected had gotten close enough to infect some soldiers by spewing some black slime on them. A few minutes later they were infected and spitting away at the remaining uninfected. Somehow some unicorns were able to cast spells to slow down the infected so the guards could stab them with their bayonets or shoot them. It was pure chaos, soldiers screaming as the infected bit and tore at them while other soldiers shot or tried to shoot at the infected. Chao had to use fire spells to burn some of the infected before they got to him. While they were dealing with the infected in the ranks, CC units were still attacking the base.

"Mage Leader Lin, are you OK?" Da Hu, a blue eyed, green furred and black mane and tailed unicorn, asked over Pnet.

"I am fine, can you send me some mage support?" Chao asked, he did not want this incident to happen again. There was a delay while Da checked with the other unicorn mages.

"I can send you one," Da offered. Chao said fine and kept his mage senses on the enemy. More infected were running across the clear area before the base's buildings and the soldiers were shooting them but there were so many.

Twilight touched her horn with Ashley's and Renee's horn so they can pool their magical powers and knowledge. Ashley was really good at spying on the enemy from a distance. She had been able to sense that the CC summoned the infected (Black Spitters) to throw the defenders of Fengtai off balance. The black spitters were too hungry to be controlled like normal soldiers so the CC used them as shock troops. CC sorcerers used spells to keep the black spitters from attacking them. Instead of dropping several electricity based explosions in the area Ashley was thinking about negating the black spitter control spells so the CC would have to fight the black spitters and the defenders. Maybe there was enough power left to destroy the transports so the CC units could not fly away too. If the CC was overwhelmed by the black spitters, there will be more spitters but the black spitters were not very organized.

It was either mess with the black spitter controls or drop the electrobomb spells, there is not enough magical power to do both. Ashley was for using the black spitters, Twilight thought the idea was too risky and Renee was still thinking. Time was running out. Renee liked the idea of turning the spitters against the CC but she worried about side effects. There was a chance that something that they overlooked or did not know would cause trouble for the defenders. Renee sided with Twilight. Ashley used their combined magic and made the electrobombs. When the bombs fell, Ashley told Isabela to head south at full speed.

The bombs dropped on the section where the leaders and sorcerers were. The defenders could see bright flashes in the distance and explosions as equipment and transports blew up. The arcing electricity moved from CC creature to creature, killing or severely wounding them.

Da Hu's mage group had been long range dueling with several tiger sorcerers when Da felt that the tigers stopped fighting. Now to help the People's Army advance! He gave the mages working with him new instructions "Focus on the floating platforms and blow them up and kill all CC units."

Chao Lin was panting heavily, this fight was not going well. His muzzle was bleeding and he had one bad burn on his side. Two tiger sorcerers were attacking him mercilessly, the mage they sent to help him got killed by one of the tigers spells. The tigers were on floating platforms behind a wall of CC units. The infected were all dead and it was just CC units now. Too bad about the new guy/gal, Chao did not even get that unicorn's name. At least one of those tigers will die today. Chao cast a two part spell using most of his power at the platform. One part was an attack against the tiger and the other was directed at the engine of the platform. If the engine is destroyed the platform will just lie on the ground and it would be an easy target for the soldiers to fire their rocket launchers at it. A moving platform was a harder target to hit. The tiger sorcerer would have to choose between defending himself or the platform. The tiger went for defending the platform and got torn apart by the other part of the spell.

Chao sensed a powerful dark spell heading his way, he did not have enough power to block it. He smiled, at least I sent one of those foul tigers to Hell. The spell hit and he fell into a painful darkness.

Chao took a deep breath and it hurt and it was noisy here. The area smelled like a hospital. He opened his eyes, Da Hu bowed and smiled at him. "The spell, it was going to kill me?" Chao asked quizzically.

"Yes, but we blocked most of it. There were 2 tigers left but they wanted to kill you so much, they stopped protecting the rest of the Claw Combine soldiers. My mages and I killed a lot of them. It was so great to have them on the other side of a mage attack!" Da said, he was practically beaming.

"You should not be so jubilant for causing so much death," Chao gently chided.

"They are so crazy, the army had to kill all of them but there was not much left. We will be sending a team to their staging area to find out what happened," Da said.

"Ashley Taylor and her friends used their power to attack the enemy from behind. Do not forget to thank them for their help and find out about Mei," Chao slowly said before he passed out. Da sent out a message of thanks. Yes we have a chance now. The next fight with the CC would end badly for them.

Chapter 15

Children of Oonte
Chapter 15: A promise, Axelle and a desperate run.

Rich's Flashback 2:

Rich was cleaning up after an interesting evening. There was not much to do, a few plates and forks to clean and a quick shower and he was out to setup for another fun evening. Ashley knocked on his door and he let her in. After some small talk, not that much, Ashley got to the point. "I need someone I can trust to watch my back and my sister’s backs. Can you come with me on my mission?" Ashley asked. Rich thought about it, after hearing what Ashley did to find out Steve's name, maybe she can find out what happened to Anna?

"Can you help me find my friend? Anna," Rich asked.

"Do you have any personal items from her?" Ashley asked.

"No, I have nothing," Rich replied.

"OK, that will make finding Anna much harder but it could be done, I will help you look for Anna after I find all of my sisters and do a mission at the South Pole," Ashley explained. Rich agreed to help Ashley and she said goodbye and left Rich to his cleanup.

Present Day.

Rich breathed in the warm air of the African plains. This is the good life. Now all I need are some zebras with some beers and food to come running by and I can have a party! That mental picture was kinda strange with the image of four legged female zebras carrying baskets of beers and snacks on their backs. Wonder if four legged zebras would be interested in me? Better back away from that whole sequence of thoughts! They are kinda funny though. He looked back at the ship, Sherman was sitting in the shade with his shirt off but it looked like he will be going back into the ship soon. Could see the sunburn from here.

Rich took another look over the plains and saw something move fast towards him. It looked like a blue Pegasus pony and it was closing in fast. The pony landed right next to Rich and introduced herself. "My name is Axelle Benade and I have a message for Ashley Taylor," Rich liked the red eyes and rainbow mane and tail, that was not something you see every day. Axelle looked at Rich and asked where Ashley was, Rich pointed towards the ship and Axelle ran towards the ship, Rich stayed where he was.

Axelle was already getting annoyed, time was running out and these people were acting like they were on Safari. She angrily stepped into the ship and called for Ashley Taylor. A yellow Pegasus pony pointed at a sleeping purple unicorn. A four legged purple unicorn walked up to Axelle. "Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle," the unicorn said. Axelle barely heard her.

Isabela saw the scowling blue Pegasus walk in and ask for Ashley and decided to head off a possible bad situation. She walked up and introduced herself and told Twilight and Mei to wake Ashley.

Ashley woke up slowly, she was tired from healing the damage to Mei's wings and the electrobomb spell in Beijing. Axelle passed on the info that they needed to go to Moscow and save the last sister. The Ennedi District Herd was willing to just send Axelle and not ask for help so the last sister could be saved. Axelle was kinda pushy but it seemed that she had reasons to be.

Esfir Turchin, a anthro pony with yellow fur, green eyes and blonde mane and tail, looked back warily, was that flame snake following her? Her water gun was empty and the other militia member's guns were empty too. Holy water or water magicked by unicorns was the only way to kill the flame snakes. People found out real quick that hot lead just made the flame snakes bigger. Flame snakes look like long funnels of flame about the size of a large dog, the wider end was the head and the body narrowed to a small tail. They moved by floating above the ground. Flame snakes could belch fire and anyone that gets hit with a fireball was usually in big trouble, only holy water or unicorn magic water would put the flames out. Flame snakes did not give up easy either, they would track anybody until they got their victim or the snake was killed.

Esfir led her team and a few civilians down the block. These folks were trying to make it in the city on their own but not having much luck at least with the Moscow herd they would have a safe place to live. Esfir was able to convince them to go back with her. Now they were traveling down a wide boulevard, that made it easy to see threats coming. The CC so far was not into sniping so it was safe.

When the CC first attacked Moscow, they firebombed some buildings, Esfir felt a pang, there were so many treasures that were lost in the Hermitage. After that the CC moved to the edge of the city and established several bases to keep people in the city. Moscow was a prison with hungry guards that would shoot and kill and eat any who tried to escape. Once in a while CC patrols would go into the city to catch people and large ships would beam up children and babies. Esfir did not want to think about the fates of both groups.

Nothing electric worked in the city and birds could not fly anymore. One of the unicorns from the mage guild explained that the spell that blocked electronics also did things to flying creature's wings. Feathers could not stay attached to wings anymore. Pegasi could and did grow more feathers but they would come off the wings in large bunches on takeoff. Feathers also flew off in small bunches if the Pegasus just walked around. Now the feathers were used to stuff pillows or for trade to other groups so they could use them for decoration. Chopped up feathers could be put inside coats as insulation and that worked out fine. They tried to use feathers as fuel for fires but the feathers burned like hair, smoky and smelly. No more recon flights by pegasi, now they have to walk like everyone else.

"We have to move now, it is coming," Ilya Nehoda, Esfir's second in command said and he pointed down the block. Sure enough there was an orange glow. Esfir gave the order and the group got to its collective feet, groaning and complaining. They continued down the block. They could not go home because the flame snake would just follow them home and maybe tell the CC where the base is.

While she trudged down the block, Esfir remembered what happened later to her city. Several of the crime lords carved out sections of the city as their own. They would not shoot you if you had something to trade or was just passing through. Esfir remembered that this area was not owned by anyone yet, think there is a church nearby. If they can get to a holy water font, they could fill up their guns and shoot the flame serpent and go home. Maybe they can find a priest nearby, a priest could bless water and that could work too. Four blocks later, they found the church but it was just a burned out shell. The area around it was empty and no one wanted to hang around for too long.

The sun was going down and the idea of running through dark streets with a flame serpent chasing them was not something Esfir wanted to think about. At the last rest period, Esfir contacted the Moscow Herd using Pnet. They could not get a team out to help, Fedor Prutko, the local crime lord would not spare any of his men at least not at night and Prutko had all of the guns. Prutko might be able to spare some men in the morning.

"Maybe we can try the sewers? Have heard that flame snake bastards do not like the sewers and they get confused there more easily. At least if we seal or lock the doors it will delay the one following us." Ilya suggested. Esfir agreed with Ilya and they started looking for a entrance way to the sewers.

An hour later with the shadows getting long, they were one block away from an entrance to the sewers when they spotted an orange glow but it was from in front. Esfir looked behind them, wait, its clear and then another orange glow appeared. The one that had been chasing them had led them into an ambush, those flame snakes were smarter than Esfir thought. The snakes started to move in closer. Flame snakes feed by setting people and ponies on fire and sucking up the flames on the burning bodies. There is not much left when that happens.

Mei hated flying in the Moscow sky, the air felt dirty, like flying through invisible sewage. She could not smell it but Ashley said that there was some sort of magic in the air.

Axelle saw the next sister first, she was with a bunch of people and flame creatures were slowly converging on them. Axelle gave Mei the attack signal and they both swooped down firing their water guns at the flame creatures. The flame creatures did not stand a chance against the high pressure blasts of magicked water. Once Esfir saw what was going on and saw the flame creature’s flames being doused, she ran up to the black crystal remains and stomped them to black powder. The rest of the militia stomped on the other crystallized flame creatures. When Mei and Axelle landed, Mei noticed that there were a bit too many yellow and blue feathers floating to the ground. That can't be good.

Some of the people cheered when Mei and Axelle landed and Esfir walked up to them to say thanks. Axelle contacted Ashley through the headset so she could land the ship nearby. "We will need to talk and plan, time is running out for the southern prisoner," Mei said. Esfir watched the purple ship land on the roof and wondered how she would get through all of those locked doors.

"Ashley is a unicorn and she knows how to pick locks," Mei said.

"Have your people ready to go in the building, we will provide food and water inside the building," Axelle instructed and pointed towards an apartment building that Ashley had landed the ship on.

For two hours Esfir's group got some nice food and drinks and they could relax. Upstairs Esfir met her sisters.

"The situation is not good with the Moscow Herd. They do not have enough food and water. The unicorns that can make food and water spend too much time making luxury foods for the local crime lord, Fedor Prutko. You should not go to the Moscow Herd because Prutko will find out about you and you will be serving his needs instead of the Herd's or anyone else's. He will not allow you to save the southern prisoner either," Esfir said, trying to advise Ashley and her sisters about the local situation.

"Well, we have to do something, that low food situation will be no food soon. Its winter here so you will not be raising anything," Renee said.

Ashley thought a bit and gave a suggestion, "We can make some small generators and food/water makers. Prutko will not bother with basic food and water, that should take the weight off of the unicorns. You will need magic to defend yourselves. Also you will need to contact the Moscow herd and have a team come and pick up the equipment."

"That sounds good!" Esfir said with a smile on her face. Mei noticed that there were several yellow and blue feathers on the floor and mentioned it to Ashley.

"You and Axelle will have to stay in the ship, its shielded from the CC magic in the area. Come to the party and afterward stay in the ship," Ashley advised.

"Well, since that is settled, how about we Party!" Isabela said with a grin. She grabbed Ashley with one arm and motioned to Twilight with the other one. Twilight went with them, she had a lot of questions to ask about Moscow.

Ashley woke out of a deep sleep with the image of the anthro alicorn from her vision. There was no words just a feeling of urgency. For some reason, they were calling her the southern prisoner. She looked into Isabela's eyes, she had seen the same image and felt the urgency. Ashley went to Renee and woke her up and then they got Twilight up. Time to go to work. After five hours of work, they had two power generators, three food generators, two water generators and one magic water maker. This should keep the Moscow Herd in decent shape until the southern prisoner was free. Esfir contacted the Moscow Herd so they could send a team out to get the items and also to tell them she was leaving on a mission. Later on in the day, they got a warning from the Moscow Herd that Prutko was coming with the team and Ashley and her sisters should be gone.

A few days later, Sherman walked along a beach south of Ushuaia in Argentina, he looked south over the ocean, somewhere hundreds of miles south was the Black tower. No more dreams about it any more. He thought about the preparations. Special cold weather gear will need to be made, special food will be made, special weapons and equipment made and with help from Twilight, hover bikes.

Renee was especially proud of that one. Ashley would land the ship on the beach then they would ride the bikes to the Black Tower. Now, the non magic users were told to rest and practice with their weapons. Axelle was pissed that her feathers were coming off of her wings in bunches and she could not fly. Mei took it in stride or maybe she just ignored it. The next batch would stay on the wings. Axelle did teach Mei some weather sense. The magic users would make equipment and rest so they will be fully charged before they headed south. They all hoped that they would arrive in time.