BRIDGE OF PONY EXPRESS

1331 HOURS

“So let me get this straight, Jensen,” Kenwood said, thinking. “The Covenant now wish to use alicorn magic to eradicate humanity?”

“Technically, it was to help them locate every Forerunner artifact in the universe,” Aaron corrected. “But it might be possible. They would do anything they could to remove us from the picture, after all.”

“And judging by the energy readings of this kind of magical force,” AJ added while looking over the calculations on his DATAPAD. “If Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and every alicorn on Equis were to combine all their magic together--it would create a force that would be equally powerful to a pulse from a Halo; maybe even more than that.”

“Well, I’m going to have nightmares for a while just thinking about that,” Zeke stated.

“But what will they do with us when their goal is complete?” Celestia asked worriedly. Both her and Luna teleported on board once they heard the news about Cadance and Shining Armor.

“I don’t know, ma’am,” Kenwood said, shaking his head. “Either they’ll find a way of disposing your kind, or they will make you continue to work as their slaves.”

Neither one of these options made Celestia or Luna feel any better. Already thinking about what the Covenant are doing with her niece was bringing Celestia to tears, but she fought in order to not look weak. Luna was truly seeing how her sister was feeling and brought her into a comforting embrace.

“You have to bring Cadance back to us,” Luna said, now taking Celestia’s strong will and her place in speaking. “Who knows what your adversaries can do with just one of us in their possession.”

“Will do, ma’am,” Kenwood said nodding. “But recovering your fellow majesty isn’t the only priority we have in store.”  

This got both of the princess’s attention.

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.

“Do you know what the term, uppercut means?” Kenwood asked both the princesses.

“Yes. We believe we’ve heard about this word before,” Luna replied. “But we’re afraid we don’t know where you're going with this.”

“Well, six years ago. This tactic was used once during the Battle of Reach as a means of destroying a supercarrier like the one here,” Kenwood explained. “It was a very effective move..but--”

“What?” both princesses asked simultaneously with a look of worry and intriguement.

“It came at a cost of life to SPARTAN-052,” Kenwood continued, shaking his head sadly.

“Don’t forget about the shitload of Covenant ships that arrived soon afterward that caused Reach to fall, sir,” Zeke added.

Both of the princesses gasped in shock. That catch was better left unuttered to them.

“Yes, Fredrickson. I was getting to that,” Kenwood sighed. “There was no way of knowing that the Covenant would send in a lot more reinforcements then what seemed predicted.”

“So what’s the point of this operation if you know it’s going to fail, and make you sacrifice one of your soldiers?” Celestia demanded. She was highly suspicious of this tactic, and believed she shouldn’t allow it to happen.

“We’re not going to do it the exact same way,” Kenwood assured and brought up a 3D holographic model of a late Covenant CSO-class assault carrier from the bridges holo-table. “UPPER CUT was done by delivering a Pelican-transported slipspace drive to one of their corvettes. The corvette was then initiated into a re-fuelling sequence which made it automatically set it’s course to attach to the midsection of the carrier. Once the bomb detonated, the entire midsection of the ship was sent into the slipspace stream forever; resulting in the carrier to be cut in half.”

The entire procedure and result was displayed on the holo-table before it switched to a model of a CAS-class carrier which was the Savior’s Light’s classification.

“What we intend on doing is to split units into two boarding groups. The unit to retrieve Cadence will board at the aft-stern section of the ship since that area is closest to the detention-cells, while the other will infiltrate the bow to initiate a detonation of the ship’s reactor core.”

“And guess who’s the lucky bastard for the job,” Zeke stated with a proud and cocky look on his face.

“It’s you of course,” AJ blatantly stated, making Zeke frown.

“Why do you always have to be a spoiler, Harrison?”

“It was obvious--and that I was here when it was assigned to you,” AJ dead-panned.

“Focus, soldiers,” Kenwood ordered firmly making Zeke and AJ stand down. “I suggest now that you all get geared up and ready to go. This will be the most suicidal mission I’m putting you men on.”

“Excuse me for interrupting, captain. But why is it suicidal?” Celestia asked. “Isn’t there an extraction plan once both of your objectives are complete?”

“There is; but it’s a very risky solution,” Kenwood replied officially. “There are two hangar bays that will contain ships that could be used for escape. The hangar bay that we’ll go for is the main gargantuan one, but no doubt it will be guarded and occupied by heavily armed troops along with vehicles in the interior of the chamber.”

“But surely there has to be another way,” Celestia insisted.

Kenwood shook his head.

“Sometimes there is, and sometimes there isn’t. Maybe your military has different customs than we do. Then again, maybe it doesn’t. Either way, we all should know that we have to make sacrifices in order for the greater good.”

“Greater good? You already mentioned that one of your soldier’s deaths was in vain! How can we come to terms with believing you that your operation will not just cause Equis to follow the same fate as Reach?”

Celestia was becoming hysterical while Luna just looked on at her sister’s falling demeanor.

“The Covenant wanted Reach to fall because it was the UNSC’s main point of military technology and command,” Kenwood explained, maintaining a calm composure. “It was also where the late SPARTAN-II’s were trained. The Covenant knew if they could claim Reach, they would have the upper hand to eradicate all of humanity. No offense, your highness. But  Equis doesn’t seem to have the same strong military fortifications that Reach had--or has no significance to the entire UNSC fleet. Besides, the old Covenant was responsible for Reach’s fall. The way we see this Covenant under ‘Mdama’s control, he only takes it over until what needs to be done--then he leaves.”

Kenwood neglected to mention to Celestia and Luna was that once ‘Mdama got what he wanted from Requiem, he destroyed it. Kenwood couldn’t see how ‘Mdama would send Equis to a similar fate since it wasn’t artificially made--but his intentions were always unpredictable. It wasn’t his duty to give out false hope, but there was no other approach to do what needed to be done. Both Cadence and Equis needed to be saved, no matter the consequences. This was going to be the battle that would hopefully end it all.

Celestia and Luna fell silent for a brief moment. They couldn’t find a reply to Kenwood’s statement at all. As offensive as it sounded, they knew that Kenwood was right. Equestria’s military was less fortified since it was a seemingly harmonized continent. War has been done before with Griffindonia, but that was millions of years ago as Celestia and Luna recalled. Conflict was then ceased after that time.

After several more moments, Celestia finally spoke up.

“If you think that this is the right thing to do, then so be it.” Her voice was surprisingly calm now, but it sounded a bit ominous. “But if Equis falls, it’s all on the entire UNSC’s head.”

“Understood, ma’am,” Kenwood confirmed, showing not to be intimidated by Celestia’s imposing stature. He then turned to Aaron and his companions. “I’m issuing Pelican 184 to deliver you, Jensen and Harrison for the recovery; and 412 for Frederickson and Valley Company to neutralize the core. You have until fourteen-hundred sharp to report to the hangar bay. Clear?”

“Yes, sir,” the three Spartans said in unison.

“Good. Now go at once.”

Aaron and his team then left the bridge to follow their orders leaving Kenwood with the two princesses.

“I know you're worried, your majesties--and you have every right to be,” he assured. “I’ve seen my fair share of death and fallen worlds. We’ve already promised you that we’ll defend Equis anyway we can, and I’m not about to let that promise break.”

“I hope you won’t,” Celestia replied with a bit of a sneer. She was never this cynical at all, but when it came down to her and her sister’s planet and their subjects--Celestia was a much different monarch, which scared Luna quite a bit. She hoped the UNSC could pull this mission off without flaw or inconvenience.

However, the brief wasn’t as private as anyone thought.

From a secret position which happened to be the room’s ventilation duct, a miniaturized Twilight Sparkle was listening in on the brief.

Apparently just right after she was escorted back to her room and pardoned her friends in order to get some sleep, Twilight used a spell to shrink herself to the size of a Breezie which allowed her to easily slip in between the grate which blocked entrance to the duct.

She then used a navigation spell to locate the bridge in a labyrinth of metal tunnels and shafts. The journey was a bit rough sometimes because small pockets of air would blow her off course, making flying a bit difficult; so she then decided just to teleport to the closest area of the bridge, and just in time to hear the brief from beginning to last.

Judging by the way she saw and heard Celestia behave, Twilight could tell that her old mentor was deeply troubled and distrustful of what Kenwood had planned. Twilight knew now that she had to help, even if it was against Aaron’s and Shining’s wishes. What conflicted her though, was to get her friends involved. She didn’t want to hold them back anymore, but the risks were way too high; no--beyond that! Twilight knew she’d be putting her friend’s lives on a very thin line if they were to tag along with her. She had to do this alone, even if it meant giving up her life for it.

Twilight lit up her horn and teleported back to her cabin.

Once she was in, she restored herself to her normal size before walking over to her saddlebag. She then levitated a piece of paper, quill, and ink bowl out of it before placing it on a desktop before she began writing on it.

As she wrote, she thought about her entire life as far as she could remember it. From her first attendance at the Summer Sun Celebration, to her brother leaving for the Royal Guard, to earning her cutie mark and hatching Spike. Just thinking about him now brought tears to Twilight’s eyes once again, but she stopped herself from crying this time. She needed to be strong.

She no longer wanted to be a sensitive and eggheaded little alicorn princess anymore. Twilight and Shining may have taken different paths in their lives, but it didn’t mean that they couldn’t merge together one day.

When she finished writing, she folded the paper into a standing tent-like style where she wrote, To My Friends on one of the exterior faces in large enough print so they would easily notice it whenever they managed to get access to her cabin.

With her deed now done, Twilight lit up her horn as she casted the shrinking spell on herself once again before flying into the air ducts en route to the Express’s hangar bay where the assigned Pelicans would be launched.

Twilight may have found a new will, but it didn’t mean she still wasn’t clever enough to take mental notes of the Pelicans’ numbers.

Nearly thirty minutes have passed by since Twilight’s friends have last heard of her, or even bothered to check up on her since they feared disturbing Twilight would not make her any better. But now there was an urge to.

Rainbow was the first one to exit her cabin. She proceeded to knock on her friend’s doors and coax them out to join her. Rainbow then stated that they were going to barge in, uninvited.

“Are you sure we should do this, Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “It’s very rude to do this while she’s trying to calm down.”

“She’s had plenty of time to cool down,” Rainbow protested. “Besides, she should know already that her friends can be there to help her--whether she wants them there or not. I’m telling you, she’s not right in the head.”

“Rainbow, darling. You really shouldn’t speak of Twilight that way. She knows what’s right from wrong,” Rarity scolded.

“Oh yeah? What about that time when she nearly made the entire town want her cheesy stuffed animal?”

“That was one time,” Rarity stated with dignity. “I was meaning to say she had a different state of mind after all that.”

“Ah wouldn’t be sure ‘bout that,” Applejack interjected with concern in her tone. “Ah never seen Twi snap like that ever before back in the mess hall.”

“I agree with Applejack,” Pinkie added. “I know when somepony has a dark state of mind; or how they feel if they ever lost someone they cared about, kind of like how the Master Chief lost Cortana onboard that creepy space banana-shaped ship that vaporizes its victims into digital dust.”

The girls just stared a Pinkie with a look of disbelief and confusion on their faces. Pinkie just gave them an embarrassed *squee* in return.

“Anyway,” Rainbow said, acting like Pinkie didn’t even say anything. “How in Equestria are we supposed to open these darn things?” she asked, now studying the door’s mechanism.

The rest of the friends joined in looking over every detail and button to try and find the opening switch.

“Ya got me on this one, y’all,” Applejack said. “Besides, Ah don’t know anythin’ ‘bout these fancy contraptions.”

“It’s quite robust,” Rarity agreed. “Yet very unpleasing to the eye. If it was more genuine than it is now, I would’ve picked the correct button this instant.”

“I got nothing,” Pinkie confessed.

“Uggghhh!” Rainbow groaned in frustration and slammed her face against the wall.

“Um. If it isn’t any trouble if I may point out something,” Fluttershy quietly said. “Isn’t that green LED light the one you need to press to get in?”

Rainbow pulled her face from the wall and looked at the light that Fluttershy indicated to. Rainbow was a bit hesitant at first, but decided to test Fluttershy’s theory.

When Rainbow put one of her hooves on the light, a beep and a hissing noise made her flinch back. The door then clicked multiple times before it finally began opening to reveal an empty cabin, to the friends’ shock. They immediately bolted into the room and looked around.

“What ‘n tarnation?” Applejack gasped. “She’s gone!”

“Yeah, Applejack. I think we already noticed that,” Rainbow spat sarcastically.

“But how can this be possible?” Rarity asked. “We didn’t even hear her door open earlier; and with how noisy these doors truly are, one or all of us would’ve heard it.”

“Maybe she shrunk herself down to the size of a Breezie, and escaped through that air vent,” Pinkie stated, pointing to the grate over the duct.

“Now’s not the time for jokes, Pinkie!” Rainbow ordered, making the party pony shrink back.  “Twilight has disappeared without a trace! Doesn’t that even make you care?” Rainbow was already fed up with Pinkie's nonsense, and just senselessly snapped.

“Of course it does,” Pinkie said quietly, close to tears. “I was just--”

“--making a foolish statement in hopes of making light of a serious situation?” Rainbow mockingly finished. “I hate you break it to you, Pinkamena Diane Pie, but you should know already that sometimes the world isn’t always a happy place filled with ice cream and what not. Sweet Celestia, I just can’t believe how ignorant you are sometimes!”

Within seconds, Pinkie’s coat turned a dark shade of pink while her mane and tail flattened into straight hairs as she began sobbing into her hooves.

“Oh nice goin, Rainbow! Look what ya did!” Applejack scolded while bringing Pinkie in for a comforting hug.

“Take that back and apologize to her this instant!” Rarity insisted, siding by Applejack.

“Oh what, I can’t be the Element of Honesty too?” Rainbow coldly asked. “What more could be said? Surely you would have said the same thing, AJ!”

“Ah would do no such thing,” Applejack retorted defensively. “Besides if Ah did, Ah would’ve been more a lot more gentle and considerate of her feelings.”

“Well if you two won’t agree with me, at least Fluttershy will! Right, Fluttershy?”

Rainbow glanced at Fluttershy, but was surprised to see that Fluttershy had her back turned to her, and that she could be heard emitting despairful whines and whimpers.

“What?! You too? I don’t believe you guys at all! Twilight has ditched us and none of you are taking it seriously! Some friends you have turned out to be! Well you know what: I’ve had it, with all of you! When this is all over, hopefully you can find a new bearer of loyalty!  Oh wait, I already have a candidate for you--that no good Aaron!” she exploded before flying top-speed out of the room with angry and disdainful tears leaving her eyes.

The room was silent for a bit except filled with the muffled sounds of Pinkie and Fluttershy weeping.

When Pinkie finally seemed to calm down, all eyes went on to Fluttershy, who apparently hasn’t stopped crying at all.This grew concern from the others.

“Fluttershy? Are you okay, darling?” Rarity asked.

Fluttershy didn’t respond verbally, and kept on weeping.

The friends then walked over to Fluttershy in order to comfort her. When they were near her shoulders, they discovered that Fluttershy had some sort of paper with writing in her hooves. It looked like some kind of letter.

Fluttershy’s tears stained some of the wording on the letter, but not enough to easily decipher it. What it said made everypony's heart skip a beat, and hold each other with the same misty eyes as Fluttershy.

Dear, Friends.

As you’re reading this letter right now, I’m sorry to say that I have already left the ship to assist Aaron and his fellow soldiers to rescue Cadance.

Incase you're asking; no I didn’t get permission from Aaron, my brother, or the rest of the UNSC to tag along. Frankly I don’t care what either of them will say. They need me, and they should know that. I’m sorry. That should be said for you girls as well, and it is--but I need you to be safe, and alive.

I say that because I overheard them discussing that the operation their initiating is perilous and suicidal. I know that neither of you haven’t had any run-in’s with the Covenant yet, or witnessed the power they have. Surprisingly, neither have I--but I’ve seen one of their soldiers, and what they did do my brother. It’s scary I tell you; but the silly thing is, I’m not afraid anymore.

I don’t how I came to be this way. It could be the same will my brother had that influenced him to join the Royal Guard. My father was once in the military too. It must be all in the family, what can I say?

The main point is, I’m willing to trade my life for you girls--and all of Equestria and Equis. You’ve been the greatest friends anypony like me could ask for. Who knows what could’ve become of my life if Celestia hadn’t made me go to Ponyville. Sorry, I didn’t mean...it’s not like that. If it wasn’t for you guys, I would be at a dull and boring place, and that Celestia’s sun would never rise again. Besides, you girls have taken me on an exciting adventures, but you guys are my main adventure that has no conclusion to it--and I never want it to: but sadly today, it looks like it may have found its resolution.

If I don’t make it out, I want to let you guys know that I will always be watching over you, and waiting until it’s your time. Then I know that we’ll all be together again. I will never let the love I have for all of you go with me; it will always be there in your heart like I will.

Be sure to tell Celestia, Luna, and Cadence thanks for what they’ve done for me, and the rest of us. Also let my mother and father know ...actually, just give them this letter. It’ll save you the trouble. My brother and Spike should receive this as well.

I’m sure everypony would be notified of my farewell sooner or later, but I made sure all  five of you were the first ones to see it. So once again I say thanks, and bid my parting to all of you.

                                                           Sincerely your beloved friend, daughter, sister, and princess,

Twilight Glow Sparkle.