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The Chronicles of Swarm: The Equestrian Front

by kildeez

Chapter 22: Chapter XXII: Husbands and Wives

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“Dammit,” Uris grumbled, slamming a fist on the barricade in frustration. “Why isn’t anybody doing something? These bastards should be dead by now.”

“Hostage situations are complicated, son,” his father replied, still spying on the rooftops with his binoculars. “Rushing headlong into one is only going to result in a dead hostage. You’d do well to remember that.”

“I know, dad, I know,” the pilot grumbled. “It’s just that I feel so useless right now! Here, somebody important to my friends is in trouble, and I’m totally useless!”

“How do you think I feel?” Miller added as he leaned against the sandbags by Uris’s body. “One of my own went in that building, and I can’t even get close enough to peek in on him! It’s killin’ me, but I know getting too close will only get us one dead pony princess.”

“Just relax and let the SEALs handle it,” Vance added, his eyes never leaving the binoculars. “Soon, Miller’s men will be in place, and we’ll have the perfect shots lined up to take ‘em all out and rush the building.”

“I know, Dad, I know. Still…” Uris drifted off, his hand propping his head up. Vance looked over to him in concern, his eyes leaving the binoculars for the first time in ten minutes.

“Son,” he said. “There’s something I should tell you.”

“Hmm?”

Vance hesitated to continue, but he knew his son deserved to know, and at least what he had to say would serve as a distraction from their current situation. “It’s about the agreement we made with the…Royal Court: the ruling body in this place.”

“What about it?”

“It has to do with your…’friends.’ You see, the government here wasn’t too happy with a bunch of rough types like us landing here in the first place. Something to do with ‘contaminating the radiant dreamflow,’ or some shit like that. Anyway, before they’d let us land, we had to agree to…”

He was interrupted by a pair of violet hooves smashing into his back. The air knocked out of him, the old soldier still managed to tumble with the blow, twist, and pin his assailant to the ground. “What in the…” he started at the sight of Twilight’s neck in his grasp. “Miss Sparkle!? What the hell is…”

“You knew, didn’t you!?” She screeched, struggling to force her hooves out of his iron grip. “You knew who was in there, and you didn’t tell me!!”

“Twilight! Calm down!” Uris gasped. “For heaven’s sake, let us…”

“Shut up! For all I know, you knew too! You all knew! You…”

“Twilight!” Applejack galloped up to the group, immediately turning to apologize to Vance. “Celestia above, we’re mighty sorreh about our friend’s behavior…”

“Alright, egghead!” Rainbow called as she swooped overhead. “Hit ‘im with a left hook to the jaw! That’ll have him seein’ stars!”

“RAINBOW!” AJ screeched, glaring up at her friend. The cyan pegasus sighed and landed at her side. Applejack glared a while longer before continuing: “Like Ah was sayin’, we’re awful sorry ‘bout what’s happened here. Twilight’s a li’l…stressed out.”

“She just assaulted a member of the United States Armed Forces,” Miller said icily. “What excuse could she have for that?”

“YOU KNEW MY BROTHER WAS IN THERE!” Twilight screamed as the rest of her friends galloped up to them. All eyes turned on her as she continued: “You knew Shining Armor was in there, and you didn’t even tell me about it.”

“Shining Armor,” Uris asked. “Who’s that?”

“Aw, shit,” Miller sighed, and all eyes drifted from Twilight to him.

“Something you want to tell us, Lieutenant?” Vance asked.

“She’s talking about the unicorn who went in with my man. The one we lost sight of goin’ on fifteen minutes ago.”

Jaws dropped all around. “That was…your brother?” Vance squeaked. Twilight nodded, keeping an icy glare on him. All eyes settled back on them, waiting for Vance’s next reply. After some thought, it came to him: “Miss Sparkle, I need you to know that I’m sorry your brother was involved in this. From what I hear, he was a good man…pony, sorry, who fought well for the ones he loved. That being said, you should know that we are doing everything in our power to get both him and the Princess out safe. And you can trust me on that because I am U.S military, and we never leave anyone behind, you understand?”

After a while of mulling that over in her head, she reluctantly nodded, holding that icy glare in her eyes.

“Good. Now, I’m gonna let you up, and I trust that you won’t do anything crazy like attack us when I do, okay? I’m doing that because I’m asking you to trust me, so it’s only fair that I reciprocate. Deal?”

She nodded again, still glaring.

“Okay,” he eased off her, releasing her hooves one at a time before slowly backing away. She quietly pushed herself up and rejoined her friends, watching the humans the entire time. Vance glared right back. “Lieutenant, how much time do we have before we can hit the building?”

“Couldn’t be more than a few minutes, by now,” Miller replied coolly.

“Good. Let’s make sure we keep ourselves updated as the situation evolves inside.”

“But of course,” Miller said, eyeing the building. “Thank God shortwave’s still working, or this’d be impossible!”

“Mr. Vance?” Twilight asked, and the Marine’s gaze switched from Miller to her. She kept the glare aimed at full blast on his face. “If anything happens to Shining, I’ll hold you personally responsible, understand?”

“Perfectly,” he replied before joining Miller’s attention on the building.




The door creaked open as slowly as Shining Armor could allow it. His joints aching, he slowly made his way across the rooftop terrace to the small group of men gathered near the balcony. Cadence was nowhere to be seen, almost certainly hidden from view where rooftop snipers wouldn’t be able to see her and possibly take out her guards. Well, there goes that last little hope, he sighed.

“Where are the others?” One of the masked men asked menacingly, leveling an assault rifle on a spot between Shining’s eyes.

The unicorn paused, but stood his ground, staring right down the weapon’s ugly, black barrel. “I came alone.” He replied.

“Liar. We saw you enter with an American,” the man spat, as if just saying the word left a sour taste in his mouth. “We permitted you entrance because we thought you might be representatives from both the pony and American sides. Were we wrong to assume this?”

“I am Shining Armor of the Royal Canterlot Guard!” Shining bellowed. “Commander of all forces responsible for the safety of the Princesses and the security of Canterlot castle!”

The man raised an eyebrow and lowered his weapon. This was unexpected. “All security in Canterlot, you say? You could direct us there?”

“I could.”

“And even order the guards in and around the castle to stand down?”

Shining just nodded.

“Very well,” the man said with a massive grin on his face. “We accept your surrender, Mr. Armor.”

“Not so fast,” Shining raised a hoof. “First, I have to know Cadence is okay.”

“Hmm,” the man replied, tapping his chin. With a snap of his fingers, two more men appeared at Shining’s sides, weapons ready. “And what is keeping me from simply extracting what I wish from you via force?”

Shining glowered at him as both men advanced, one reaching into his pocket for a sedative. Suddenly, the unicorn lashed out, a spinning hoof kick sending one of his assailants sprawling over the ground before following up with a blow to the other’s jaw. Before anyone could react, he tore open the clasp on one of the soldiers’ belts and levitated his combat knife from its holster, pressing its edge against his own throat. “If Cadence is gone, then I have nothing to live for but my duty to Canterlot.” He explained plainly, the knife just a few millimeters short of his jugular.

The man frowned, then smiled, and finally settled on a fearsome, rumbling laugh that tumbled off the rooftops around them and echoed throughout the square. “Well played,” he snickered while applauding. “You ponies show an initiative not even I predicted. Perhaps we shall spare some of you in the days to come.”

Shining Armor was silent. A tiny amount of blood oozed out from around the knife.

“Very well,” the man said, snapping his fingers again. One of his soldiers nodded and reached behind a terrace plant, pulling a bound and struggling pony princess out by the back of her neck.

“Cady!” Shining gasped, his grip on the knife faltering.

Cadence’s captor held her, pinning her body beneath his knee while his leader reached over and pulled the duct tape gag off her mouth. “SHINING!” She gasped the moment her lips were free. “Don’t do it! I’m not worth all of Equestria! They need you to…”

“And that’s enough of that,” the leader said, replacing the gag before turning back to Shining. With a placid look on his face, the human drew his sidearm and knelt at Cadence’s side, pressing the weapon’s barrel against her head. “You’ll surrender now, or I will squeeze this trigger and end her life.”

Shining Armor sighed and dropped the knife, his eyes drifting shut as it clattered away. The man he stole it from quickly scooped it back up before backhanding him across the face. The moment the unicorn fell two more men were upon him, wrapping his hooves in a strange tape that shimmered as they applied it. He stared through the haze caused by the blow up at the enemy leader. “A member of Equestrian royalty and the leader of their guard! I should say our invasion is already off to a good start,” he said, his smile wavering as he gazed out at the American military forces poised in the square below. “Barring a few minor setbacks, of course.”

“Wait,” Shining rasped. “You have me. Just…let Cadence go.”

“Well now, that’s just not going to happen,” the Ridchir officer replied, securing a few strips of tape over the unicorn’s mouth. “You’ve already made it clear that she is the only way I can have any control over you. So she will be accompanying us as we ride with the rest of our forces to the main assault on Canterlot.”

“HMPH!” Shining screamed, bucking back and summoning any and all power he had left in his body. His horn sparked with magic, only to grow dark almost immediately. He looked up at it in confusion: he had to have SOME juice left, how was this possible!?

“Oh, were you expecting a neat little charm or magical blast to disable me and my men? I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen so long as that tape remains on your body. The glue is made from a little element we discovered in our travels. You won’t find it in Equestria, but it has the wonderful effect of sucking the magical power away from any user it remains in contact with.”

“Mmph,” Shining moaned, gazing over at Cadence. She had closed her eyes, a single tear drifting down the side of her face.

“Inform the enemy of our latest acquisition,” the leader said to one of his subordinates, who nodded and returned to the balcony overlooking the square, megaphone in hand.

“THE UNICORN YOU KNOW AS THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR ROYAL GUARD IS NOW OUR PRISONER OF WAR.” He bellowed. This announcement was met with a few scattered cries of horror from the crowd, including one violet unicorn that suddenly dashed from behind a barricade, screaming in anguish. She was swiftly tackled by a cyan pegasus, who held her until a few other soldiers could drag her back to the barricade by force.

Shaking off this little development, the soldiers’ announcement continued: “YOU HAVE OUR DEMANDS. ALL AMERICAN AND EQUESTRIAN FORCES WILL LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS AND MAKE THEMSELVES OUR PRISONERS OF WAR, OR THESE PONIES’ LIVES WILL BE FORFEIT. THAT IS ALL.”

He returned to his comrades, where his officer grasped him on the shoulder. “Do you really expect them to surrender? Just like that?” The soldier asked, handing the megaphone back.

“Of course not: they’re Americans, after all. Stubborn and foolish as mules, every one of them. You remember how they were in our world: so utterly determined to hold on to their so-called ‘freedom’ that it took years of reeducation before they came to realize the enlightenment of submission, and even then we still hear of the occasional terrorist attack against our forces in their cities!”

The soldier nodded in understanding as the officer continued: “No, this is just to ensure they keep their distance until the remainder of our forces arrive to relieve us. And then…” he knelt beside his prisoners and took Cadence’s chin in his hand, gently stroking her mane. She shivered in his grasp, more tears flowing down her cheeks. “Then, Equestria is as good as ours.”

“God-DAMN! I knew you Ridchir boys liked fuckin’ horses, but couldja at least take her to a dinner and a movie first?” The soldiers all froze and turned to the source of the voice: a strangely handsome man wearing a leather jacket, with a cocky half-smile, jet-black hair, and the smoldering remnants of a cigarette clenched between his fingers.

Next Chapter: Chapter XXIII: To Save All That You Hold Dear... Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 18 Minutes
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