Old Habits Die Hard

Prologue:

The police station was dimly lit and empty. Either the officers of LA are at home with their families are stuck here, in the department doing paperwork or on patrol in the streets. For officers John McClane and Al Powell, it was the paperwork that prevented them from going home. The smell of cigarettes covered the room wall-to-wall, floor to ceiling. There was no escape from the smell. John put the cigarette butt into the ashtray in front of him as he looked at the mountains of papers and folders in front of him.

“Jeez, man. How many have you had?” Al sighed. After working with McClane for a while, the cigarette smell is no longer noticeable. This time it was different. John went all out and now the smell is back with a vengeance.

“Lost count.” John smugly remarked. “Can’t believe there is so much work for one stock broker. How can one guy get so much attention, and yet I haven’t heard of him before?”

“Well he was great at his job, partner. Guess that has to amount to something. So where do you think he is?”

“Possibly wasted in some no-name motel room. Let’s get rid of those street cops outside his house. Nobody’s home and he’s not coming home anytime soon.”

“Fine by me.” Al placed in the call and got up to get another cup of coffee. “Hate these all nighters.”

“You’re a cop. Expect to become nocturnal.” John deadpanned. “This is the third day in a row. This case has even pissed of Holly. She is one hour away from complaining to the captain.”

“That’ll be a conversation I want to see.” Al came back with his mug and handed another to McClane.

“I do too. At least I’m not in the receiving end.” McClane raised his mug and Al returned the gesture.

“GOD DAMN! OPEN SOME WINDOWS, WILL YA?” shouted an officer just as he came into the room. The officer coughed and wheezed, while his arm was covering his nose. It is possible that he could even taste the smoke. McClane on the other hand, only merely rolled his eyes as Al chuckled. The officer tried his best not to continue coughing, but the smell was extremely potent.

“What are you doing?” patience for John as wearing thin with the all nighters and now the officer’s constant coughing.

“Captain wanted you two see this. It’s all over the news and a press conference is happening in 10 minutes time.”

“Bombing or robbery?”

“Neither. We’ve got visitors.”

“What kind of visitors?”

“The kind that isn’t from this world.”

John and Al laughed historically.

“You're telling us that little green men have finally became public.” Al wiped a tear.

“No. Not that kind of visitors.” The officer turned on the television and turned the channel to the news. “The kind that we didn’t see coming.”

On the television screen was the announcer, but on the top left hand corner of the screen read, “VISITORS FROM EQUESTRIA”

“What the hell is ‘Equestria’?” asked John, now transfixed on the screen. The officer raised the volume of the television.

“For those that are just joining us,” the anchor began. “Just a few months ago, the nation of India received visitors from another world. Not little green men, but a race called Equestrians, who are best described as ponies, but not your average ponies on our world. These are intelligent ponies, which have three tiers of their race. Unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. The news became public only a few hours ago and an emergency U.N. conference will be held in New York just a few minutes from now. The leaders of the Equestrians will be holding the televised conference there. This marks as an historic era in our world’s history. We finally found an answer to the age-old question that we’ve been desperately trying to figure out. Are we alone, or are there any other life forms out there? I believe that I can speak not only for the nation of the United States, but for the whole world, that we are extremely proud that we are not alone in this universe.”

The screen went to black and commercials began. No voices were heard in the room, other than the buzzing of the lights and the traffic outside the police station. John and Al stared at the screen, hoping that in some kind of practical joke, half the precinct would jump into the room and yell “GOTCHA!” at them. Moment’s pass and nothing happened. The officer stared at the two with a smug grin.

“I had the same reaction when I heard the news.” The officer broke the silence. Al and John continued to stare at the television screen, with mouths agape, ignoring both the commercials being played and the officer in front of them. “So what do you think?”

Looking at the officer, John said only one thing. “I just hope we don’t become a dumping ground for their criminals. And vise-versa.”

Three Months Later...

        The secret service agent ran down the corridor in the White House. The first family was relaxing, waiting for the start of Christmas. Normally, it would be considered, the president’s day off, or at least a day where very few work is needed. This wasn’t the case at all. The agent picked up his pace as he ran past his fellow colleagues.  He pulled out his communicator and pushed the communication button.

        “Has Punchbowl been evacuated?” the agent asked. The stress of this night has already started to cause grey hairs to grow among the agent’s dirty blond hair. The communicator beeped.

        “Punchbowl is in Roadhouse. Location of Timberwolf?” another agent responded.

        “In Castle with others. Heat and Heart are among them. Where to take them?”

        “Cowpuncher?”

        “To dangerous. What does Calico say?”

        “Hold on.” The agent came to the door, which leads to the oval office. He held onto the doorknob. Other agents we not far behind and the others were either at the other entrance or in the office itself. The communicator beeped again.

        “Calico says to bring Timberwolf, Snowbank, Tuner, Trapline, Tripper, Heat and Heart to Cactus. Proceed with caution and keep eyes on the sky.”

        “Copy that.” the agent responded. He pushed the door open and speed walked, as did the other agents and grabbed the occupants in the room.

        “Mr. President. Princesses. We have a breach.” The agents grabbed the occupants, especially the alicorns in the room and carried them out into the hallways of the white house. “We are taking you to a motorcade where we will be going to Camp David.”

        “What’s going on?” asked the president.

        “Just forty-five minutes ago, Dulles International has been hacked into and taken over by a rogue team of Special Forces officers. Because of this, every incoming flight is now stuck in the air and is running out of fuel. The head of the airport has told us that the planes crashing is a possibility and they might hit the White House.”

        “Has this been made public?” the president asked. The group of agents and leaders got outside and the cold of December night bite them hard as they rushed to the vehicles waiting for them just a few feet away.

        “No, sir. Dulles has said that they are trying their best to keep the whole thing under wraps, so panic won’t start.”

“Why can’t the flights be transferred to other airports?” asked the white alicorn, Celestia. The agent looked at her, just as they arrived at the motorcade.

“Its Christmas Eve, ma’am. There are too many flights coming in and out, the other airports have their hands filled as is already. They don’t a flexible schedule right now.” The doors were quickly pulled open and the first family rushed into the vehicle and the two royals of Equestria were rushed into another vehicle that matched their size. The agent’s earpiece bleeped. An incoming communica.

A gruff voice pierced all the agents’ ears. “Military team has just been sent to Curbside. Inform Timberwolf and Heat.” The agent removed his finger from the earpiece. The agent turned to his colleagues.

“Jones. Hernandez. You two take the front coach. Herbert and Bates will take the escort the full package’s coach. Newton and myself will be with Heat and Heart’s coach. The rest of you will be in the coach right behind us. Move quickly, but carefully. The public has no idea what is happening, so let’s try our best to keep it a secret on our end.”

The other agents nodded their heads. All the agents ran into their respective cars and all started at the same time and sped away from the premises of the White House. The black haired agent on the passenger seat of the SUV, Newton, was keeping eye on the princesses in the back. Their earpieces bleeped again.

“Only notify Timberwolf. A plane has just crashed on the runway of Curbside. No confirmed survivors. The leader of the terrorists has been confirmed to be U.S. Army Colonel Stuart. From what has been told to us, Stuart falsified the altitude readings and led the pilots of the plane to ram into the ground.”

Newton brought his communicator, but whispered into it. “Is there any demands or reasons why they are doing this?”

“General Ramon Esperanza is being flown into Curbside. This is ruse to get him free,” the gruff voice responded. “Again. Only Timberwolfe will be notified. Who is in coach three?”

“Daniels and myself.” responded Newton.

“Deviate from Bamboo.”

“Sir?”

“Deviate from Bamboo. You are now Paddy Wagon. Get a Halfback to follow you,” the gruff voice boomed.

“Understood sir.” Daniels responded. “Where to?”

“Take Heat and Heart to Calico.”

“Yes, sir.” responded Daniels and made a hard left.

Five Years Later...

“Princess Sparkle?” the secretary asked into the princesses’ hotel room, holding a cellular phone in her ear.

“Yes. What is it?” asked the lavender royal.

“We are forced to cancel the visit to New York City,” the secretary informed.

“What has happened?”

“There has been a bomb explosions in a department store and in a subway tunnel.” Dread shook the princess.

She asked the horrible question that she has learned to ask a few times in her visits to the other world. “How many dead?”

“It’s unknown. The NYPD is receiving assistance from the FBI and the National Guard is a few hours away.”

The royal’s brows scrunched together as the royal entered into deep thought and looked up to the secretary. “Send a message to Celestia in Equestria. Ask her to send at least 100 royal guards to the city of New York. This is the best we can do. I’ll talk to the mayor of London and cancel our dinner tonight.” The secretary nodded and repeated the statement to the person on the other side of the phone.

        “Those poor people.” Princess Sparkle mumbled to herself, staring at the speeding traffic outside.

The Very Next Day...

        Shining Armor exited the motel building in a rush. Looking frantically around his surroundings, he saw helicopters and police cruisers, both of Canadian and U.S. origin surround the warehouse across from the motel. The cruisers surround and prevented the exit of a line of dump trucks. Officers jump out their vehicles and point their guns at the occupants of the trucks. Curiosity overcomes Shining inner desire to walk away and go back into the motel.

Crack.Crack.Brrrr.Brrrr.Brrrrr.

        The captain looked up in the air and was taken aback. Two helicopters were engaged what could be called a firefight. A black helicopter and a white American police copter were exchanging fire. The black one was firing a machine gun. A powerful one. Shining told the other humans to go back inside the motel. A loud clanging sound echoed louder than the noise of the bother copter’s propellers. Looking up, seeing the white copter giving out smoke and diving to land on the parking lot of the motel.

        “I’ll drive him off!” yelled a human. Jumping out of the vehicle, the human turned and faced the attacking helicopter. The searchlight blinded the human as he pulled out his gun. Shining ducked behind a car as the helicopter fired to stop the human. The human dove behind the car right in front of the one that Shining was behind.

        The human cursed to himself as he rummaged through what was left of his bullets. Shining peaked out just as the human jumped out and pointed his gun at the neon sign of the motel.

        “Say hi to your brother.” the human said, as if it was some kind of boast to the occupants in the black helicopter. Firing two shots at the sign, the helicopter turned to get away, but dove into poled and power lines fell onto it. Immediately after, the helicopter exploded and fell to the ground. Flames spread a short distance from the explosion as the helicopter burned.

        Shining slowly walked away from the car, staring at the burning copter. The chuckling of the human interrupted him.

        “Yippe-ki-yay, motherfucker.” the human said to himself.

        Shining’s mouth was agape.