Chapter 22
We gathered outside of Sugarcube Corner, organizing our forces to protect the town from the horror that was about to break loose. We had a good supply of crossbows and swords, and the experienced ponies to wield them, but not knowing how many of...them that were coming, I wondered to myself if it would be enough. Could we win this fight? Then, that dumbass cavalry lieutenant inside me took over, telling me that even if we couldn't win, we would at least make our stand. It was our duty, and I would see this through to the end, no matter what that end might be. As I tried to amalgamate my desire to win this thing with my instinct to live, to protect the ones I loved, two kids put it into perspective for me.
"Scoots...no...you can't be here!" Budder exclaimed. I snapped from my reverie to listen covertly to the argument.
"I...I need to be here. I have to protect you!" Scootaloo argued.
"And I want to protect you...you have to go to the farm or something...I can't lose you!"
"And I can't lose you! I won't run away...not anymore...not when you need me."
"Scoots...this is gonna be bad, okay?" My sister tried to reason with her friend. I saw Scootaloo blush and gaze at the ground a moment, then the teenager puffed out her chest and held her head up high.
"I know it's gonna be bad, Budder." She stated. "And I'm staying and helping. I...I love you, and I'm staying."
"Sis!" I called. Budder snapped her head toward me, and I shot her a smile. "Get her a sword." My sister looked back at Scoots, then at me, and finally nodded. She trotted off to Twilight's house, and Scootaloo walked slowly toward me. I looked back out toward nothing in particular.
"Lieutenant Drake?" The purple-maned filly said in a low voice.
"Scootaloo," I began, closing my eyes. "All I've ever asked from friends and family...all I've ever asked from the ponies under me...is loyalty. That one thing, it defines us. Being there with somepony through the best and worst is one of the only qualities I respect in somepony. Oh, of course you can talk the talk...but when the shit hits the fan and ponies start dying, your true friends...you real family are the ones who stay by your side and watch your back. I might be a crazy old soldier, Scootaloo...but so help me if that part of life ain't clear as a bell." I glanced at the teenager. She was staring at me emotionally. "Look, I don't necessarily approve of my sister's...lifestyle...sometimes. I don't disapprove either, I want you to know that."
"Yes sir." She whispered.
"You know what's about to go down, don't you?" I demanded "Here in a little while, we're gonna be up against an army of crazed serial killers. Look around at these ponies, Scoots. Some of us are probably gonna die here today. I might die. You might die. My little sister might die. You know that, right?" I looked sidelong at Scootaloo, and saw her nod solemnly. "I didn't ask any of these ponies to be here. I didn't ask Budder to be here. I wish she weren't, but I know she ain't gonna leave. None of us are. These are my friends. This...this is my family, Scoots."
"Drake?" Scootaloo finally answered. "I promise...I swear that if anypony wants to hurt your sister, they're gonna have to get through me first." I saw tears in her eyes, and the determination was there too. I gave her a little smile, and a proud nod, then reached over and mussed her mane, the way I always did my sister's.
"Welcome to the family, kid." I stated. Scootaloo smiled proudly.
"You ready for this, bro?" Shadow asked. She grinned like she was excited or something.
"Looks like you are." I replied. "Then again, you've always been crazy." I added. Shadow giggled. "Be careful, okay? You're like a sister to me, you know that. After this is over, I want to hear your smart-ass mouth at the dinner table."
"Heh. You buying, Drake?" She answered.
"You bet." I said with a smile. "Family."
"Family." Shadow repeated dutifully. We shared a quick hug, and I moved on down the line. Masada was sitting on an overturned wagon, sharpening her double-edged fighting knife with a small whetstone. A long-range crossbow fitted with a scope sat next to her. She slid the knife into the sheath on her leg and looked up at me.
"I will do my job, Lieutenant." She stated.
"You'll do your job, and you'll do whatever it takes to survive this." I corrected her. I remembered what she had said during our talk. "You're a soldier, Sergeant Masada...and a damned good one." She smiled. "You're also a good friend. I know I ain't know you that long, but...thanks. For your sentiments." She cocked her head inquisitively. "Our talks, Masada. You and me...we have a lot in common. When this is over..."
"I wish to be friends." She said with a nod and another smile. "You are a good friend too, sir...and a hero." I laughed and shook my head.
"Good luck, Masada."
"I do not believe in luck." She said. "I have faith."
"So do I." I said, then moved on to Captain Steele, who was standing at the right of a line of ten Colt Commandos, each one in 'full battle rattle', wearing helmets and web gear full of knives, grenades, and ammunition for their crossbows. The SpecOps commander looked the part. He was wearing his black vest with its armored plates, his small black helmet with its integrated comms headset, and a pair of sporty sunglasses.
"Lieutenant." He greeted.
"You guys ready for this?" I asked. Steele gave me a wry smile.
"We ready for this?!" He called.
"HUZZAH SIR!" The soldiers barked in unison. Captain Steele brought up the small crossbow slung across his chest, cocked it, and checked the safety. "Final orders, sir?" He asked in a cocky tone.
"Yeah. Good luck. Give 'em Hell, Captain, and live to buy me a beer." I answered.
"Huzzah, Lieutenant." He stated. I nodded.
"Sir?" The police chief called, trotting up.
"The farm secure?" I asked.
"Yessir. I have two dozen armed ponies, and five officers there. Every civilian in town is going to be in the barn and the main house under guard. The doors are barred, and there's ponies in the windows with crossbows. Your wife is loaded for battle. She uh..." The chief looked down a moment. "She said to tell you she loves you, and for you to come home. You and your sister both."
"She would say that." I said with a smile. "And I plan on it. Chief, you can get back to the farm now. Thank you." Instead of walking away, the police commander just stood there. He pursed his lips and looked around. "Chief?"
"Ahhh...like I said, everything is locked down good at the farm. I think I'll just stay here a while...sir." He said in a resigned tone. He pulled out his long wooden baton. "This is my town, you know?"
"Alright." I agreed. "Just get yourself a sword."
There we stood, a sixteen-strong force of Soldiers, civilians and police, against an army we knew would be coming soon. An army whose number we did not know. What we did know was that we were the line, the only thing standing between the horde of Pinkies and the death of hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent ponies. I'm sure it was in all of our minds, that we were that line...that if we failed, if we broke, there was nothing left in this town to stop the stampede of killers. This felt like a last stand, like the feeling I got at Fort Mesquite when we were isolated in that desert outpost, waiting for an overwhelming attack. I looked back at the bakery behind us. I knew this is where they would congregate. I knew it in my gut. This was where we would make our stand.
"Bravo Two, Bravo One." a voice called over our headsets. I looked back at Steele, and he nodded.
"Bravo One. Go ahead, Bravo Two." I returned.
"We have movement in the Everfree Forest. Multiple Tangos approaching the town as a group. Numbering about fifty." I brought up my binoculars, and peered into the air over the canopy of the dark woods, at the balloon we had requisitioned from Twilight, our early warning system. "Bearing northeast toward your twenty. ETA, five minutes."
"Roger. Maintain position, and report anything else." I stated. "Alright, they're coming! Everypony to your posts!" The group scattered, Masada running inside Sugarcube Corner, to appear on the roof outside of an upstairs window a few moments later with her crossbow and a large quiver of bolts. Steele's commandos split into two groups, moving to opposite sides of the street the Pinkies would be coming down. They hunkered behind the defenses we had built alog every street leading to the bakery, low walls made from carts, fences, barbed wire, and whatever else we could find. We hoped this would channel the mob into a chokepoint where we could eliminate their numerical strength, and fight them in smaller numbers instead of having to engage them all at once. Shadow leaped onto a balcony of the Flowers and Snacks building across the street from the bakery, where she drew a large knife and hid behind the railing.
"Chief, guard the door to the bakery." I advised. "Don't let them get inside."
"Will do, sir." The policepony replied. He ran to the door, a broadsword in hoof, and took up a position at the front door of the shop.
"Alright, you kids stay with me." I said.
"I ain't a kid." Budder protested. I drew my saber. "Alright then. You ladies...stay with me. Understood?"
"We will, bub." My sister answered as the two teens drew their own swords. I walked out into the intersection, and down the street a couple of meters, to where I could clearly see the top of city hall over the buildings. I looked down the street, the direction the Pinkies were coming from. There, I drew a line on the dirt road with the tip of my saber, and stepped back ten paces. This was my fall back line. If the Pinkies got across this line, it was my signal to retreat to our secondary position. There I stood, with Budder and Scootaloo at my side, waiting for the storm to break. It wasn't long before the clouds rolled in.
From down the road, on the bridge in the distance, I finally saw the cluster of pink ponies. They weren't galloping, or even trotting that fast. It was a mass of ponies moving with a determined gait in our direction. They streamed across the short bridge by town hall, and continued moving toward us. I closed my eyes, and said a silent 'I love you' in my mind to Rainbow Dash, then looked back at the approaching swarm of serial killers. My hoof tightened around the grip of my cavalry saber, the blade that had served me in combat all these years. I held the tip of the saber aloft, a signal to the rest of my team to make ready. I remembered at that moment another battle from the past. Long ago, my father's ancestors had fought a war against the Germanians to save their country. Outnumbered, and facing an entire division, knowing that they were the only thing standing between the enemy and their people, the commander had made his stand with one sentence that had gone down in history.
"On ne passe pas..." I muttered. The Pinkies now moved up the street, and were withing twenty yards of me. "THEY SHALL NOT PASS!" The Pinkies slowed, and finally stopped only a few yards away, watching me curiously. "You are all to surrender at once." I stated. "Surrender and die, or be killed where you stand!"
"You can't stop the party of the century!" One of them called back.
"Yep," Another agreed. "You can stay and party with us!"
"We need more cuppiecakes!" Another announced.
"These three will make a super-duper harvest!" A fourth Pinkie called. "Come on, let's go!" With that, the mob started for us. Suddenly, the first Pinkie in line stopped in her tracks. The others paused to see the clone standing there, a crossbow arrow protruding from her eye, the point and a couple inches of the shaft sticking out of the back of her skull. She stood there a moment, a questioning look on her face, then fell dead onto the road. The Pinkies regained their resolve, and rushed toward us.
"Sis! Scoots! Stay by my side! Kill them all!" I yelled as the first Pinkie reached me. She was down in an instant. Now, the COLT commandos stood up from behind their defenses and fired a volley into the flanks of the ponies, dropping at least a dozen of them. I cut down two more, and beside me, another fell, compliments of my sister and her fillyfriend. I ran one through, when another started to bring a knife down toward me. Knowing I could never pull my blade free in time, I felt a momentary surge of panic before an arrow pierced her skull. It was fired from Sugarcube Corner, and I reminded myself to thank Masada for the save.
Now that our numbers were almost equal and we had superior weaponry, I saw that it was the time to strike back. I waved my saber, signaling the commandos to surge forward and push the crowd of Pinkie Pies back. In a matter of seconds, we had them surrounded on three sides, hacking and stabbing our way to victory. Budder and I killed two at the same time, and between our swords, the knifework of Steele's continent, and Masada's sniping, within a few more seconds the street was filled with the dead. I looked around. The battle was over as quickly as it had begun. We stood in the street, panting and looking at each other silently. I saw Steele from across the carnage and shot him a gracious nod. The BlackOps commander responded with a proud hoof pump.
"Bravo One...come in..." The headset crackled.
"Bravo One here." I said back. "We got 'em all. Y'all can wrap it up now."
"Uhhhh...negative on that, L.T." The voice said back nervously. "You have trouble coming...repeat...a large force is en route to your positions. That one was just a scouting party or something."
"Shit..." I muttered. "How many, Bravo Two?"
"Uhhh...about three times the Tangos as there were before. Over."
"Thanks, Bravo Two. Over and out." I sighed. "Alright, everypony, get ready! We have about a hundred and fifty more coming this way!"
"Chips, Scuttlebutt, sniper detail!" Steele ordered. "Chips, south. Scuttlebutt, north. Move! Alpha team, take up positions in the barricade by Sugarcube corners! Prepare to fall back into the buildings and fight room-to-room if overrun. Bravo team, with the L.T.! We're gonna hold the square by the fountain!" All the while, his soldiers were galloping to their positions. I had to admire the precision and discipline of these guys. "Drake!" Steele called. "That good with you?!"
"Let's do it!" I called back. With Steele and a squad of his soldiers, the girls and I backed into the open area in front of the bakery and fanned out.
"Finally, bro?!" Shadow called down from the nearby balcony. "Where's my fucking action?!"
"Coming this way fast!" I called back.
"Bout time!" My undead friend yelled down. "I'm bored as fuck. Even Miss Bar Mitzvah got some kills there!"
"It's Bat Mitzvah! I am a girl!" Masada called from across the street.
"Ugh...whatever..." Shadow groaned. I saw her stand up straight, and look off down the street. "Uh, Drake...here they come. Watch your ass, alright?"
"You too." I said back. Sure enough, a few moments later the mass of Pinkie Pies came crowding down the street. Steele's snipers began picking them off left and right, but the herd still came. I heard fighting along the street as some of the Pinkies made contact with the commandos. Somepony tossed a flashbang into the crowd, I'm sure severely burning a few of the pony clones and stunning a few more. Once the crowd had made it to the edge of the square, the five COLT commandos began to move toward them, firing their repeating crossbows with effect. From the roof of Sugarcube Corner, Masada took a new target down every few seconds with her crossbow. Every Pinkie that got past the line I had drawn was cut down by me or one of the girls. But the flood turned into a torrent, and we were losing ground.
We backed up toward the fountain as the Pinkies surged forward, completely surrounding the bakery. The door was kicked open, and we saw several dead Pinkies fall back outside before they finally took the building, overwhelming the police chief guarding the door. On the roof, Masada loaded and fired her crossbow calmly, her mouth moving in a prayer as she took down one Pinkie after another. Suddenly, three of the pink ponies were on the roof behind her. Masada killed one with her knife, and grappled with another. Then, they tumbled off the roof, Masada landing in a literal lake of Pinkies.
"The sergeant's down!" I called. My comment was premature. Suddenly several Pinkies tumbled over the heads of the others. In a few seconds, there was an opening in the crowd, and Sergeant Masada was standing calmly in the middle, blood on her face and body from several cuts. A Pinkie lunged at her, and the Bitsraeli soldier performed some fast and lethal martial arts move, dropping her to the ground and breaking her neck. Another was thrown to the edge of the clearing, and Masada wheeled around another, breaking her neck easily. I turned to see Budder and Scootaloo standing in shock, their eyes wide with wonder. I shook my head.
"Get your damned tongues back in your mouth and get to fighting." I ordered. The sergeant was holding her own for now, but there were too many Pinkies, and the group closed in on her slowly.
"I got her!" Shadow called. In an instant, the undead assassin have dove from the balcony, a knife in each forehoof. I'd had few opportunities to see my friend work, and now I was impressed with her abilities. She landed in the crowd, and began to stab and slash her way toward Masada, leaving a trail of dead Pinkies in her wake. I watched as a Pinkie leaped upon Shadow's back, and drove a small knife into my friend's flesh. This would have incapacitated most ponies. Not her.
"OW! Fuck!" Shadow screamed. She bucked the Pinkie off, and turned her full attention to her would-be killer, stabbing the pink pony in the face multiple times while swearing vehemently, before moving on to the next Pinkie. Soon, she was back-to-back with Masada, and the two Valkyries held their ground, slaying any Pinkie that was dumb enough to get close. Still, there were a couple dozen of the killers flooding the area, and without sniper support, they had the advantage now.
"Fall back!" I yelled. "On me, on ME!" The remaining four commandos, along with Steele, Shadow, Masada and the girls clustered around me in front of the Flowers and Snacks shop. We backed up to the front wall of the building, and for what seemed like a Hellish eternity, we swung, slashed and stabbed at anything that came at us. I would like to give you more details about who got more kills, or who was more heroic there in front of that colorful little store in that little town square, but I was too busy trying to keep from dying, and periodically trying to keep my sister from doing the same. Then finally, the fight was over. A silence took hold, and we stood there, too stunned to move for several minutes.
We walked out into the square, wading through the pink bodies that blanketed the entire area. I was limping from where a Pinkie's knife had gotten too close and cut a gash in my left foreleg. We paused and watched as three of Steele's elite soldiers came walking wearily from the other side of the street. One of them took a long drink from his canteen, then dumped the rest on the back of his neck. There, by the fountain, we all came together...the ones of us left...the survivors. We silently took stock. There were six of Steele's commandos left. Three of those were wounded. Four had been killed. Steele was alive, with a bleeding wound on his right cheek and several cuts on his forelegs. We were all covered in blood, our own and the enemy's.
"Dude...that was fucking intense..." Shadow panted, joining us. She had been stabbed once and cut a few times, but she looked none the worse for wear. "You guys okay?"
"Yeah..." I replied. "Just took a knife to the leg. Again." Shadow shook her head. I looked around. Scootaloo was holding a piece of cloth to her shoulder, where she had been cut. My sister had tears in her eyes.
"Sis?" I said softly. Budder hugged me tightly. "Are you okay?"
"Noooo..." She squeaked. "Everypony I love is hurt but me..."
"Hey...angel...no..." I whispered. "We're alive. And besides...you're not hurt, and that makes me feel a lot better."
"I love you, bub." Budder whispered.
"I love you too, angel." I said back. "You did good."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I'd take you into a warzone anyday." She looked up at me. "But I ain't gonna." I added with a grim smile.
"Ugh...I think I need...vacation..." Masada complained, sitting on the edge of the fountain. She was practically red with blood, and I couldn't tell how badly she was hurt.
"You alright?" I questioned.
"Yes...I Think so..." She answered. "I must have a few broken ribs, Lieutenant. It is a little...sore."
"They get ya?"
"A few times..." She admitted. "I got them more." She stated, then smiled. She splashed water from the fountain onto her face, trying to clean off the blood.
"Yes you did." I agreed. "And thanks for the save. We'll get you a medic, alright?" She started to protest, then sighed and shook her head in resignation.
"Well, L.T.?" Steele sighed, literally throwing off his body armor and panting.
"It's not over..." I stated. "Not yet."
"I know, sir." The captain muttered.
"We still gotta find where they came from." I said. "We have to go find where they've been coming from, and how they're spawning, and stop this damned thing now." I thought for a moment. "A spell..." I mused out loud. "That double mare poem the Pinkie said to me...what if that was a spell?"
"Twilight would know!" Scootaloo offered.
"Damned right." I agreed. "We gotta get to the farm. We'll check on the townsfolk, then get Twilight to help us figure out where to strike. Captain?"
"L.T.?"
"You and your soldiers get a little rest...and uh..."
"The dead, sir...roger that..." He finished my statement with a twinge of grief in his tone. "When you get back, sir...we'll be ready to kick some ass and get some payback."
"Huzzah, Lieutenant." One of the operators agreed.
"Huzzah!" The rest cheered wearily.
"Come on. Budder, Scoots...you two are coming. Shadow, you too. You're our bodyguard."
"Ughhhh..." Shadow groaned, standing up. "I keep savin' you, Drake, and your ass is gonna be in debt to me. It's gonna have a fuckin' "Property of Shadow' label on it."
"Uh-huh..." I returned. "Very funny. You guys help Masada walk. We'll take her to the doctor while we're at it.
So ends the big battle scene. What did you think? This one took a while to write, for obvious reasons. Now that the Pinkie army is defeated, the team still has to figure out how to stop another from amassing. As the story reaches its conclusion, I'm sure you're all wondering how it will all end. I promise you one thing...you won't see THIS one coming. I will try to have the next chapter up soon. Until then, I look forward to your comments. -Drake