Unintentional Invasion Ch.1 - Shot Down (On Hiatus)

>>March 23, 2558

>>Location: Undisclosed sector of deep space

 

"Alright Spartans, time to pack up and go home."

 

Finally, you thought. You were part of a 4 man Spartan fireteam (second in command, no less), and were currently in a specially modified F-41 Broadsword Space-Superiority fighter. Said modifications included a Slipspace drive, a cloaking device, listening devices, and a bunch of under-the-hood tweaks. You were on a scouting mission to figure out exactly where the Storm Covenant fleet had gone after their sudden departure from Requiem... a place you barely escaped from.

 

So far, no luck. Too bad, you still owed that bastard Sangheili 'Mdama a bullet to the brainpan.

 

"Damn, figured we'd have them this time." Gomez whined, and a quick look on your Heads Up Display showed the larger Hispanic man visibly frustrated. You failed to suppress a chuckle.

 

"Maybe next time, big guy." You laughed, and he merely grunted in response.

 

"Cut the chatter." Your Squad Leader called. Only known as "Six", all you knew was that she was some badass out of hell that survived that clusterfuck on Reach by fighting her way THROUGH a Covenant Battlecruiser. "Covies might still be in the area."

 

"Eh, what's the worry? We didn't find anythin'." The final member spoke. Named Gilda, she had a heavy Scottish accent. Very bulky woman, and for some reason or another carried around a collapsible claymore 'just because'. "Jus' anoth'r wild goose chase."

 

"Not true, Gilda. We just didn't FIND them." Six countered.

 

It was then that your fighter pinged several Slipspace ruptures. Some small, most very large...capital ships?

 

"Commander!" You called, alerting your squad.

 

"They found us... Camo on, let's see what's going on." Six whispered, then immediately cut communications. You did the same, blacking out your console and cockpit as well as activating the camo module.

 

The ruptures grew in size, until several dozen Covenant vessels emerged. Most were CRS light cruisers, shields down and with green markings on them...Storm Covenant. A few were the larger destroyer classes, a few dozen CSS Battlecruisers, and even a handful of Assault Carriers. You wondered where they got those particular starships. Last you knew, the Covenant Remnant only had one.

 

The large, bulbous starships drifted lazily through space. The purple metal of their hull was beautiful, admittedly. You had even thought so on Earth, when you were fighting for your very existence.

 

You kicked the listening devices on, monitoring their chatter. Your HUD let you know that the break-in to their battlenet was successful, they hadn't changed encryption from last time. Silence reigned, which was...strange. Usually they'd be sending commands to one another, but this time they were just...waiting, it seemed.

 

A gravelly, deep voice (automatically translated) came across the comlink, breaking your concentration.

 

"We have you, Humans."

 

Your HUD flared red and alarms blared as your fighter detected multiple lock-on signatures.

 

"MOVE!" Six cried, and your team wasted no time in breaking Camouflage and kicking the thrusters on. While your Broadswords still had their chainguns, their anti-starship missiles had been removed to make room for the camo and listening gear. You were also in no position to deal with the thousands of Seraphs that were suddenly bearing down on you.

 

You spooled up your Slipspace drive, and a counter appeared on the console detailing when it would be ready for use. Sixty seconds, then you could leave.

 

Plasma fire hit your ship's shielding, the golden field flaring up to keep you safe as they dropped to half strength. You rolled the space fighter, evading additional fire and bringing the offending Seraph into range. As you opened up with a barrage of 35mm cannonfire, the Covie Fighter was almost immediately ripped to shreds. It drifted through space, pilot killed and generator riddled with holes. Apparently they were in as much disrepair as the main fleet, shielding systems all but gone.

 

"Damn I love this gun!" You whooped, bringing another Seraph into your sights and gunning it down as well. Six had already killed three in the time it took you to kill the second, while Gomez and Gilda were having issues shaking some persistent enemies.

 

You slotted yourself in behind Gomez's pursuer, lining up your reticule with the target and pulling the trigger. Bullets riddled the purple fighter with holes, but it pulled away to avoid total destruction. A particle beam swept right over the canopy of your Broadsword, the shields flaring from the heat. The capital ships were beginning to target you, but being small had its advantages.

 

"Slipspace drive, ready." The simple AI called out, and you grinned. Time to get the hell out.

 

Your fighter rumbled, and the shields suddenly vanished. You saw a pink beam slice a hole through the fighter's wing, and while it knocked the shielding system out it had little effect on you punching your slipspace drive into gear.

 

The small plasma torpedo that struck immediately afterwards did, however. It struck one of the engines on your spaceplane, completely incinerating it and damaging the remaining 3. Your thrusters were holding up, but for how long was in question.

 

"Uh, Six? Might have a problem." You voiced, looking at the readouts on the console that showed falling power levels across the board. Hell, that torpedo may have burned through to your reactor...

 

Static was your answer as power died completely, and you fell out of Slipspace above a planet...and in a quickly degrading orbit.

 

This was gonna suck.

---

 

You loved watching the night sky. It was the one thing that would help you relax after a long day of royal duties, and it helped your sister feel better too knowing that at least someone was watching it. You were sure your student, Twilight Sparkle, was watching as well.

 

Tonight, however, something special was happening. A comet was soaring across the sky, something you assumed Luna had wanted to do for a while now. Perhaps something special had occurred while you were out negotiating new trade deals with the Dragons in the south...you reminded yourself to ask her later.

 

You narrowed your eyes as you watched the comet. It was getting...closer? It was also burning red, as opposed to the cool blue of a regular comet...

 

A dull whine quickly built into a loud roar as it got closer and closer, and you reacted. Your horn lit up with a golden light, and a similarly colored shield surrounded your city. The object skipped off of the top of the dome, which apparently gave it enough upward momentum to cause it to vanish over the horizon.

 

Chaos was in the streets as ponies realized their lives had nearly been ended, but you trained your guards well. They had order re-established quickly, and the ponies you watched over went back to their normal lives. Exhausted, you made a mental note to send a letter to Twilight in the morning to check what exactly that was. You were certain she could handle it.

 

"Sister, are you alright?" You heard Luna call out from the air, and she landed on your balcony. You merely nodded, far too worn out to respond. Whatever hit your shield struck it hard, and the object was rather heavy as well. If it had been a direct impact...you weren't sure you could have held it off.

 

"I'm fine, thank you Luna." You replied, forcing a soft smile onto your face. You pointedly ignored the sweat running down your head and matting your mane, why had that exhausted you so badly? Were you that out of practice?

 

Luna didn't look convinced, but merely nodded and began her shift. She flew off, and you headed towards your personal bath. A little time there would do you wonders, you were sure...

 

---

You were fighting for control, trying to avoid a castle sitting on the side of a cliff. Not even caring at the moment WHY it was there, you yanked back on the stick...and felt your Broadsword skip off of something, like a rock on a lake surface. The Broadsword's damage indicator (already showing significant damage across both wings and the fuselage) lit up another area in red, showing the underbelly was scraped off almost entirely.

 

Your out-of-control fighter left the mainland again, soaring at over Mach 20 across the open ocean. You had very basic control of the warplane, but it was still steadily losing altitude. You predicted it would be another ten minutes before you hit the surface, and at your speed...that was plenty of distance.

 

What worried you is when another landmass showed up. There was a large castle built out of dark grey stone, against a large cliff face...almost like the one you nearly hit a few minutes ago. You soared over it, swearing up and down you saw bird-cats.

 

Your speed was quickly bleeding off, and your nose pointed down towards a densely forested area. Having no choice but to hit it, you manually pressurized your Hydrostatic Gel and awaited impact.

 

You weren't disappointed when you blacked out.

---

 

"Warning, pull up! Warning, pull up! Warning, pull up!"

 

"Wh..." You groaned, slowly waking up. Everything was blurry, and you tasted a bit of copper in your mouth.

 

"Warning, pull up!"

 

You clumsily reached for the console and hit a button, which silenced Bitching Betty entirely. Your HUD had been knocked out completely after impact, and your armor was currently in safe mode. Aside from basic stuff like moving your arm, you weren't going anywhere until the Hydrostatic Gel depressurized. It was a good thing your helmet's filters were up to snuff, and that your air tanks were full. You weren't quite sure if you could breathe here.

 

You ached everywhere, and sleep was calling for you...so that's exactly what you did. You reasoned that you weren't going anywhere, so you might as well take a nap. Your armor would wake you up when the system reset itself anyway.

---

 

"SPIKE!" You shouted downstairs, intent on waking that lazy dragon up. "Come on, we're gonna be late!"

 

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" He replied. "Not like a giant space rock is going anywhere..." You heard him mumble under his breath. You rolled your eyes.

 

"Don't you understand what this means? It could bring about so much new information about the place we live in! Think about it!" You had a wide grin plastered on your face as you spoke to your dragon companion. "New, unknown things! Something like this hasn't happened...ever in recorded history! I'll be the first to document something from the sky falling on us!"

 

"Don't sound so excited, Twilight. That thing nearly flattened Canterlot." Spike replied dryly. You gave him a flat look, before tripping down the steps in your excitement.

 

"Ow..." You whined, picking yourself up. You gave Spike a withering glare as he chortled at you, and he suppressed it. You huffed, before walking out of the Library and towards the train station.

 

"Hey Twilight, where're ya going?" A voice asked from above. You looked up and smiled as a familiar blue pegasus landed beside you, a curious look in her eyes.

 

"I'm going to go check out that meteorite that nearly hit Canterlot last night. Princess Celestia herself wants me to see to it, as she's busy keeping her city under control from the near miss." You explained, never breaking stride. Dash kept up with you easily, fluttering backwards as she listened.

 

"Whoa, that was a space rock? Awesome, I'm coming with you! No way am I missing this!" She cheered, falling in line behind you. You groaned.

 

"Daaaaash, this is supposed to be important! Don't mess it up, please!" You nearly begged. You wanted to get this just right, things between Equestria and the Griffons were...tense enough as it was. A simple mistake could cause you all to be deported, or worse.

 

The walk to the train station was largely uneventful, and rather silent. You bought two tickets to Baltimare, where a ship was waiting to take you to the Griffon Kingdom.  That was where you predicted it would land, and lets face it, you were rarely wrong when it involved math. Spike was staying behind, only following this far to help with the luggage.

---

 

Your armor woke you up with a slight pinch of hydrostatic gel tightening, and you awoke to a partially restored HUD. Your shields were doing fine, sitting at full charge. Everything else was currently offline, but a small progress bar showed that it was well on its way to restoring itself.

 

First thing to come back was your weapon indicator. It showed the MA5D on your back and the M6G attached to your hip, both loaded completely. A quick physical inspection of both weapons showed a little scuffing, but no actual damage. Crossing that off of your mental list, you went on down. Your compass restored itself next, automatically tracking the sun's movement and setting the rising point as 'east' and setting point as 'west'.

 

Next were vital signs, slotting themselves in directly under your shield indicator. Aside from some minor bruises and a few strained muscles, you were fine.

 

Powering up your radio, you tried to raise any UNSC contact you could think of.

 

"Mayday, Mayday! This is Spartan Anonymous, Infinity, do you copy?"  You gave it a few minutes to account for the distance, before trying again. "Repeat; Mayday, this is Spartan Anonymous. Infinity, are you there?"

 

No go. You flipped to Six's personal comm line.

 

"Commander, do you read me? Anyone?" Static once again answered you.

 

You switched to the FLEETCOM signal, one that you were only supposed to use in emergencies. This certainly qualified.

 

"To ANY UNSC forces in the region, this is Spartan Anonymous of the UNSC Infinity! Requesting emergency extraction from my location! Marking with a GPS beacon now."

 

You only received static after a moment, before groaning. At a loss as to what to do now, you turned the fighter's reactor back on and waited for the system to start. You were honestly surprised that it was more or less working, though the various displays were cracked and chipped. The altimeter was completely blacked out, which is why you were glad it also popped up on your helmet's display...if this thing would even fly again.

 

You simply flipped the Distress Beacon on, and the Broadsword went into standby mode. It powered everything off except the fusion reactor and the distress beacon. You weren't concerned about power issues, both the fusion reactor in the fighter and in your armor would last longer than you would. Both also had emergency deuterium separators, so a simple bucket of water would do the trick if you ever ran low.

 

The last thing to come back online was your motion tracker, which showed three blue blips on approach from the south-west. That was, conveniently, directly behind you. Blue was interesting, however. It showed that they were unregistered contacts, likely wildlife. You tried to pop open the canopy...which refused to open. Sighing, you turned in your seat and put your feet against the hinges, pushing as hard as you could.

 

The roof flew off easily, the hinges and safety devices snapping like cheap plastic under your twice-augmented strength.

 

"Whoops."

 

You noted that the blue blips had quickly reversed direction when you did that, you probably scared them off. A quick search revealed nothing, so you went to inspect the actual damage to the Broadsword itself. As you did so, you had your armor run an analysis of the atmosphere.

 

The F-41 had seen better days. Armor was stripped off completely in places, a huge gouge was in the body (which in turn revealed the reactor plating), your right wing was missing, and a large, charred tree was bent over the main body.

 

Your muscles ached when you moved, even more so when you went to lift the tree off. It was easy enough to do, less lifting and more rolling. You cringed as you heard the lightweight titanium crunching under the weight, not really liking the fact you had to inflict more harm to your bird.

 

"Sorry girl." You cooed, patting the Broadsword as the reactor hummed softly. Thankfully, the radiation shielding had been undamaged. The hole in the fighter wouldn't be an issue, though you're damn lucky the extra drag hadn't caused your entire fighter to be obliterated on re-entry.

 

A look at the engines confirmed what the readouts had told you. The right thruster had been completely destroyed, and the remaining three had serious damage. The bolted-on Slipspace drive was half melted, and your listening gear was gone too. You sighed in annoyance, knowing you weren't going anywhere until help came for you.

 

A quick check in the cargo bay showed a small stock of ammo and an Active Camouflage unit. You attached the Camo unit, then locked up the cargo bay. Hopefully you wouldn't need your weapons in the first place.

 

In the meantime, your computer system finished its analysis.

 

"Hmm...77% Nitrogen, 20% Oxygen, 2% trace gases, .9% water vapor and less than a tenth of a percent of carbon. I can breathe that." You chuckled in relief, turning off your air tanks and letting them refill naturally.

 

Those three blips came back, this time more slowly. You turned and looked, seeing nothing but still getting sensor pings. Your next instinct was to look up, which is when you saw them. The bird-cats from earlier. They scattered when they saw you look at them, staying behind the dense treeline to avoid detection...in theory. Your motion tracker still showed them within twenty meters, circling around behind you.

 

Clever...were they predators? It would make sense, those claws looked awful big. You feigned ignorance, letting them get closer and land, before whirling on the spot and drawing your Magnum. The three bird-cats landed, brandishing...spears? Not even the sharp Honor Guard Elite lances you knew of either, literal medieval spears. You immediately placed them as a low tier society. You weren't so arrogant to mark them as a non-threat, however. The Covenant had done that to your species, and look where they were now.

 

"Trespasser on our lands, why have you come?" The lead one asked in a deep baritone. He was huge, decked out in iron plate mail and covered in black feathers. His lion half was covered in golden fur, while his beady red eyes watched and waited for your response. You were busy recoiling from the fact that thing just spoke English without your armor translating. Damn were you glad the visor was polarized, otherwise the look of shock you had would probably have him in hysterics.

 

"You...speak English?" You asked tentatively. The eagle looked confused this time, lowering his weapon slightly.

 

"E-english? I have no idea what you are talking about." He readied his spear once more. "I will ask again, why have you come here, in that great metal bird?"

 

"I didn't intend to." You replied carefully, not lowering your weapon. The guard either didn't realize how much more dangerous your weapon was, or didn't care. "I crashed."

 

"Are you a spy from Equestria? You know that Griffonia is a no-fly zone for all Non-Griffons!"

 

Equestria, Griffonia, what?

 

You held up your free hand, and the currently advancing Griffon stopped. Glad to see the universal signal really WAS universal.

 

"Wait, wait, wait, I think we're a little confused here. I am Captain Anon, Spartan-IV of the UNSC Infinity. I don't know what you're talking about with this 'Equestria' nonsense." You explained quickly. The griffon (you assumed) merely shook his head in reply.

 

"You're lying! You're a spy!" He motioned to his buddies. "Slap him in irons, bring him back to the castle!"

 

Fuck that noise. You've already been interrogated by the Covenant once before, there was no way in hell you were being 'captured' again.

 

As one brought the cuffs forward, you lashed out with an armored boot. You heard the bird's arm simply snap as steel met flesh, and he screamed in agony. The other two reacted quicker than you would have liked, charging forward with their spears. You decided to humor them.

 

Their lances struck your chestplate, in what they were certain would be a killing blow...if it wasn't for the fact that both snapped on impact, the tips also blunted out beyond uselessness. Your shields hadn't even visibly flared to protect you from the attack, and your shield indicator read half a percent loss from blocking it.

 

You didn't even bother with your gun, holstering it and drawing your knife. You rushed forward, kneeing the shocked Griffon in the gut and forcing him down, dislocating his right shoulder in the process. The other tried to blindside you, which you answered with an elbow to the face, followed by an over-the-back toss. You placed your armored boot on the guard's neck.

 

"Alright now, seeing as you didn't want to cooperate, I had to get violent." You chided. "So, I ask the questions now, you answer. Am I clear?"

 

The bird-lion growled at you, which was quickly quashed when you applied a little pressure.

 

"I'm sorry, what?"

 

Grudgingly, he nodded. You released the pressure, but not the boot. "Better. Now, where am I? Both exact and generally."

 

"Griffonia, the Blood Forests." He replied tersely.

 

"Where is the nearest town?"

 

"Roughly forty wingbeats that way." He pointed with his free hand north, though how far 'forty wingbeats' was...you grunted.

 

"On foot, how long?"

 

"About three hours."

 

"Glad we could have this chat." You released the griffon, and he immediately clutched his throat and greedily sucked in air. His compatriots had yet to recover, which was fine by you. You didn't expect any trouble from them anymore.

 

Which is precisely when you felt a fist strike you in the back of the head. Your shields flared and dropped by a quarter, and you staggered a few steps before spinning on your heel and leveling a haymaker square into the griffon's face. You felt and heard his beak snap, and he flew back and slammed into a tree. The tree cracked in half under the force of the strike, the griffon slowly sliding down with a trail of crimson shining against the dark bark.

 

Serves him right. The other griffon was still down for the count as well, so you...wait.

 

One bleeding against the tree, one nursing a shattered shoulder...where was the third?

 

A red blip quickly retreating was your only indication that the third one had escaped. He managed to out-stealth a stealth-based Spartan, impressive. You sighed, before starting to walk away. Your Broadsword would resist use by anything not keyed in to your Spartan Neural Interface(i.e: Anything not you)...not that it was going much of anywhere anyway.

 

---

 

The walk was relatively uneventful, with you activating your personal Camo module whenever you noticed something in the air. Usually they were what you assumed to be civilians, as they had no weaponry to speak of. On two occasions, scouting parties flew overhead, probably to inspect the crash site.

 

You managed to sneak into a small town, with Griffons milling about here and there. It reminded you very much of a Feudal society, with armed guards at every gate and the large castle from before in the background. Occasionally a griffon would rush past you, saying to their friends something about an execution.

 

You needed to get into the castle anyway, so might as well check out what's going on.

 

You waited on the roof of a hut, letting your camo unit recharge.

 

"Hey, you!"

 

Shit.

 

"That's the armored thing that Gunther told us about! The thing that killed Cerdic and Osmund!" One of the guards cried. A crossbow bolt immediately hit the roof above your shoulder, and so you made a break for it. Leaping onto the cobble street and hearing it crack under your weight, you sprinted towards the castle. Maybe you could still sort all this out.

 

A guard stood in your path and swung, which you responded to by ducking it and jabbing him in the stomach twice. He doubled over and you swept his feet out from under him in a low kick. In that time, another guard tried to engage you from your left. You responded with a shoulder check, sending him sprawling down the street and into his companions.

 

"They fall in line, one at a time..." you muttered, as the guards ahead of you and behind got into formation. You blocked a short sword with your gauntlet, answering with a vicious headbutt as you drew and threw your knife into a griffon loading a blunderbuss of sorts. It went off as he fell, the pellets ripping one of his friends to shreds.

 

You drew your MA5D, racking the bolt and loading the first round in the mag. Pulling the trigger, you let the familiar bass of automatic fire tear their ranks apart. Some scattered in fear, the rest wilted under the firepower. You emptied the mag and retrieved your knife, a score of Griffons lying dead or bleeding out as you ran past. You reloaded as you ran, mentally counting down the number of mags you had left. 4, 5 if you counted the one loaded now.

 

The castle gates started raising, and you sprinted for it. Leaping and feeling your muscles burn from the exertion, you clambered to the top and slid down. The wood had gouges in it from your slide, and you quickly flattened against the wall and reactivated Camouflage.

 

Griffons came around the corner, searching high and low for you but ultimately finding nothing. One stopped and thought he saw your wavy form of bended light, but after staring for a moment, he left as well. You sighed in relief, letting the unit recharge as you collected yourself. Once done, you reactivated it and followed the corridors around.

 

You saw several avians run by, something about 'not missing this execution for the world'. Intrigued despite the urgency, you followed them. They led you to a  balcony overlooking a courtyard, where you saw a guillotine and two...small horses? One was purple with a horn (with some sort of black iron ring on it), the other was bright blue with wings (similarly bound with black iron chains) and rainbow...hair? Mane? You weren't sure what to call it. You were a warrior, not a biologist.

 

You shook it off and watched from behind the crowd, apparently you had just made it to the start.

 

"Accused of espionage, as well as multiple counts of assault and one count of murder. Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, how do you plead?" A griffon in a black robe asked, obviously expecting a denial.

 

"N-Not guilty! Celestia please, NOT GUILTY!" The purple one wailed in a feminine voice, tears streaming down her face. The cyan one was putting on a determined and angry expression, but her eyes betrayed her. There was as much fear in her as there was in the purple one.

 

"What say you?" The 'judge' asked the crowd. If he was looking for a bloodthirsty confirmation, he got it.

 

"Kill 'er!"

 

"Make them suffer!"

 

"The guillotine is too nice a death for them!"

 

"The mob has spoken!" The griffon cried, a large grin on his beak. You drew your Magnum and linked the scope to your HUD, before lining up a shot. "Any last words, scum of Equestria?"

 

The purple one broke down in that instance, and the wicked grin only grew wider. Your helmet still picked up "Twilight Sparkle" speaking.

 

"Please...anypony...please, help me...I didn't do anything..."

 

That tore it.

 

As the griffon raised his arm to signal the executioner, you pushed through the crowd and took the shot. A short thunderclap echoed, and the high-explosive round splattered the judge's head like an overripe melon. You were already in the air, camouflage fading with your leg outstretched and heading for the guillotine. You unfortunately missed the wooden frame, rolling to a stop and bringing your gun to bear on the hooded griffon.

 

The executioner, realizing he was completely outclassed, ran for it. He in turn dropped the rope, causing the blade to come plummeting down. You launched yourself forward, feeling that famous 'Spartan Time' go into effect. You rotated your hands and caught the edge mere inches from the small pony, your shields flaring and dropping by a tenth. You then pushed up and out, snapping the blade in two and tossing it out into the courtyard.

 

You quickly released the unicorn from her shackles, doing the same for the pegasus across from her. The unicorn seemed to be shell-shocked, her eyes glazed over and unfocused. The pegasus, however, was not.

 

"Hey, who are you!? We had that handled just fine!" She demanded, not at all happy.

 

"Awful strange way to say 'Thank you'." You retorted, before focusing on the purple pony shivering beneath you. "Hey, are you alright? Twilight Sparkle, was it?"

 

You pulled your helmet off so you could make direct eye contact. Stupid in what was now a warzone, but you still had your shielding. You got down to her level and looked her in the eyes, a look she returned after a moment. You almost got lost in those deep lavender pools, before you shook it off and pulled away.

 

Distant shouting and wingbeats drew your attention. You gestured to Twilight as you replaced your helmet, then looked at the rainbow maned pony. "Can you get her out of here?"

 

"Yeah, just give me a minute." The pegasus stretched her wings and gave them a few experimental flaps, before nodding. She grabbed the unicorn and was off, flying faster than you could have believed possible. You activated Camouflage, and waited in a small shrub. A few came in, looking for survivors.

 

"They've escaped! Alert the count!" One shouted, turning on his heel and rushing back out. You clambered up the wall, your strength easily making holes in the walls to climb with. You went up and over, de-activating your camo on the way across and down. Leaping off the side, you felt your gel layers pressurize and you focused shield strength on your front, where you expected to hit.

 

You tucked and rolled on impact, your shielding dropping to a third remaining and sending out a small alert. The gel depressurized and you ran, following the rapidly disappearing pegasus. The castle and town behind you was beginning to get noisy, probably tearing the entire place apart looking for you.

 

You saw the ponies from before near a dock, with the purple one manning the boat. They saw you and waved you over urgently, and you complied.

 

Dashing onto the boat, you spun on your heel and drew your assault rifle, aiming at the coast for any pursuers. You weren't satisfied until the ground vanished beneath the horizon an hour later. You placed the weapon on your back, the magnetic clamps keeping it in place as you took a seat on the other side of the boat.

 

You looked up, taking your helmet off and placing it beside you.

 

"So, mind telling me where I am?"

---