The lights of the buildings illuminated the streets of Manehatten. Ponies walked along the sidewalk, the clacking of their hooves echoing along the concrete structures, carriages squeaking as many of the yellow and black coaches were pulled along the cement roads. Among this crowd of equines was a little filly making her way back from a busy day of planning ideas with her friends at the Cutie Marks club. She had a bright gamboge coat with a light red mane that hung at the right side of her muzzle. The usual day at school was boring as ever, but at least she had been able to include a few more members to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Now that the club had five members, Babs was happy to have more ponies join her and feel better about themselves.

After all, she knew where most were coming from, having previously dealt with the embarrassing harassment of being markless. She chuckled silently at the memories but felt a deep pit form in her stomach as the thought shifted to her cousin, Apple Bloom. It had been a few weeks since she had last heard about her favorite cousin, much less any other news about her sister and grandmother over in Ponyville. It wasn’t like them to shut out everypony else; not being able to hear from her cousin was all so very stressful. Her thoughts were always filled with the usual questions. Was she okay? How were Applejack and Granny Smith? Why hadn’t they talked to anypony else?

The frown deepened as she recalled the tragedy that had struck her cousin’s family. The newspapers had borne a large headline the day after what had happened about her favorite cousin and their side of the family, losing Big McIntosh to some creature that hadn’t been disclosed to the public. All they knew was that something had terrorized the citizens of Ponyville and killed thirty-eight ponies. The day the information was disclosed to the public hadn’t been a very cheerful day for her. Babs Seed constantly fretted over how Apple Bloom was faring since then. If they would only reply to her letters...

A voice echoed above the other sounds of ponies, and she turned to see who it was. There stood two ponies, both with white and red-striped hats and shirts. The two ponies had matching canes, with one pony having a red mustache.

“Come one, come all!” The one without a mustache spoke. “For a very exciting display, isn’t that right, Flam?”

“Why, of course, Flim. It just so happens that these here ponies have the luck of seeing the latest on the market and top-of-the-line items that you and I have that might tickle their fancy,” said Flam, twirling his cane around on one hoof.

She tilted her head, shaking it afterwards. Her cousin had warned her of the Flim Flam Brothers, telling her all about the trouble they had caused because of their selfish scams to bring in bits. Blowing her mane out of her eyes, she moved on until a shadow moved from the corner of her eye. She turned to see a pale blue unicorn carrying a chest with her magic. The mare moved it into a trailer behind her, grunting with effort to get it in.

“Hey… Trixie?” she called out, watching as Trixie turned to face her. “Do you need some help or something?”

Trixie stared for a moment longer, until she smiled. “Ah, it is good to see you, Babs Seed. Trixie is just having some trouble moving her chest up onto her trailer.”

‘Jeez louize. Does she always talk like that?’ “Ya look like you're struggling with that chest there.”

The unicorn flinched before chuckling quietly. “What, this old thing? Obviously you have no idea how much luggage The Great and Powerful Trixie carries around.”

She kept staring with a deadpan expression. “You know, I wonder how long you can go without talking in the third person.” The filly smiled as Trixie frowned at her.

“Oh, hah, hah. Now if you’ll stop teasing Trixie, she shall show you how, inferior, this box is to her.” Trixie struggled with the heavy chest, and it came sliding back, hitting the ground with a loud ‘thump.’

She sighed, shaking her head before walking over to Trixie. “Okay, you obviously need help.” She grabbed one side of the box, before sliding underneath and settling it onto her back. Grunting with effort, she slowly stood, straining under the box’s heavy weight. “Jeez louize… what are you carrying in here, a pack of elephants or something?”

“If you must know, it is Trixie’s own personal items. Since Trixie cannot afford an apartment, Trixie must move wherever she can find a place to stop for some time.”

She slid the chest onto the wooden trailer and wiped some sweat off her brow. “No kidding? I thought after that whole incident with the diamond, you’d be living the big dream. Isn’t that why you came here?”

Trixie stood still, before turning to face the young filly. “Actually… it was to get away for a while. Trixie does certainly love to entertain her audience, but sometimes she can get stressed. After all, Trixie promised another pony she would try her best to change her way of treating others.”

Trixie sounded like she was hurt, yet confused. “So… I hope you find what you're looking for,” she murmured before walking off.

“Wait!” She swiveled her ears as Trixie called out. “Um, Trixie would like to thank you… Babs Seed.”

“Fuggetaboutit. It’s no problem.” She blew her hair out of her muzzle once more before facing forward again. Babs walked to the end of the alley and looked around the corner of a building next to her. She tilted her head as she noticed that the Flim Flam brothers were gone. ‘That’s odd…’ She blinked, noticing that the Flim Flam brothers’ canes and items were left leaning against the front wall of a building she had passed by. ‘If they left, why didn’t they take their stuff?’ A muffled gasp echoed behind her. She spun around to see that Trixie was struggling in the grasp of two masked stallions. She kicked desperately while one of the assailants held her forelegs back and the other pressed a rag to her muzzle. Trixie’s muffled cries became weaker, her legs stopped flailing and her eyes fluttered before she passed out.

‘W-what’s going on?’ She felt a hoof wrap around her with a wet rag placed against her mouth. She cried out, but something was wrapped around her muzzle, the being behind her was stronger than she was. Babs darted her eyes right and left, her eyes widening as she saw nopony walking alongside sidewalk anymore. Feeling her hooves skid across the ground as she was dragged back into the alleyway. Babs felt the world spin around her in a blur, her voice muffled as she quietly whimpered. The buildings faded as the sense of sleep finally gave way to darkness.

Lights reflected from the window, the distance revealed with them being just small orbs. A snore echoed throughout the room, furnished with nice furniture, appliances, giving it a futuristic-like style: and a lovely scenic view to a beach, the ocean roaring in the distance. The bed shifted slightly as the pony under the sheets rolled over onto his side. A sudden alarm resonated from a small device on the side of the wall, right-side from his bed. The pony underneath the covers grumbled and raised his head from under the covers, his grayish brown hair glowed in the soft luminescence from the moon's light piercing the windows.

A greenish gray aura lit up from the old stallion’s horn, a silver plaque lit up with Bishop Neighland’s name glowing in the green light. He moved the covers off of his lower body and stood up on all fours, rubbing both his eyes with his right hoof until he turned to the noisy little device. ‘I’m going to remind myself to dismantle that contraption sooner or later.’ He frowned at the annoying sound and walked over to the intercom. Pressing a circular red button he cleared his throat and asked, “Who is this?”

“I am terribly sorry for such an unscheduled call, Bishop, sir. I apologize for the surprise."

Bishop looked past his windows toward one of the buildings into the distance, focused on the building to the furthest left. “What is it, Dr. Nerve? I don’t mean to sound irritable, but you are calling me in the middle of the night. This better be important.”

“Yes of course. Terribly sorry, Bishop.” The shuffling of papers echoed over on Dr. Nerve’s side, Bishop looking down to the ground as he waited. “Another scientist and I have come up with a very interesting hypothesis as to the reason why the specimen is so uncooperative." Bishop felt the weight of sleep quickly rise off of him at the mention of his new project. “Do you recall in the video we 'ascertained', where the human known as Dr. Makoy Markovich talked about a specific reason as to why the 'Xenomorphs' were so uncontrollable?”

“Of course. What are you getting at here?”

“Well. I am prepared to say that Dr. Makoy Markovich may have been right. What if these creatures do have some kind of telepathic mindset?” Bishop looked outside his window again at the far left building, turning his gaze to the first floor of the tall building, as if he knew something more. “If these creatures have a telepathic way of communicating with one another, which my hypothesis is currently under work to figure out if this “what if” is correct, then we may be able to crack the code to these creatures, and why Specimen Zero is resistant to our teaching methods.”

Bishop’s frown quickly turned around, replaced by a smile as he said. “It sounds like an idea.” He stopped for a moment, calling to mind the ponies they claimed earlier and asked, “speaking of which. When will the birthing process begin?”

“We have a sufficient amount of variables at the moment. However, retrieval team 3-C has yet to return from Equestria. When they get back, Dr. Nenne Seion will get the birth process started.” The communicator shifted slightly on Dr Nerve’s end before he spoke again, “that is all I have to say for now, Bishop. I will contact you as soon as there is an update.”

With that the line went quiet, Bishop turned to the window again and walked towards it. Inches away he smiled at the progress that had been made. Now they were closer to cracking this invisible shell wide open, ready to take the prize inside that would finally allow them to command a being that seemed too resistant to their methods. Sleep was a thing of the past at the moment, for Neighland was too thrilled at this new bit of information. ‘Soon… that Queen shall be mine. And when it's under control, Neighland-Yupony shall have the world’s first bio-weapon to call its own. And then… we can enact that sweet, satisfaction of Beta Phase… the Noble Purge.’

A gentle breeze blew over the Tenochtitlan Basin as the trees slowly waved in the wind, their leaves rustling together to create a tranquil noise. The forest had regained a much lighter feeling since Daring had left, animals freely continuing their normal day-to-day routines. A bird flew in the air, descending rapidly before landing smoothly on a branch. It chirped away, hopping along the limb and scanning the forest floor in search of a midnight snack. As it was trilling away, the wind around it became deathly quiet for a few moments until it picked back up again. It quickly looked up, tilting its head swiftly as it noticed something flying under the clouds. It lost interest before flying to the ground.

The invisible ship above quickly sped through the air in an almost perfect silence as the hunters made their way to the last known location of their brother. Aboard the ship, one of the creatures opened the sliding door to the armory. As it entered, it reached for one of the silver metallic cannons, grabbing it and placing it on its left shoulder. It reached for a neon blue-like liquid container and secured a bladed disc before moving out of the room. It moved down the hall to another door on the left, the metallic door sliding opened as the hunter went through. It grabbed a mask before heading back out. It made its way down the hallway and moved into a dark room.

Once inside, it waited, the room completely quiet as it sat down on a metallic bench. A bright light suddenly pierced the darkness as a wide door slowly opened to the outside world. It stood and walked to the ledge, jumping out into the bright light filling the deck. The intense luminescence dulled as the hunter descended from the ship, the air rushing past. It landed with a loud thud, resting on one knee until looking up to the moonlit forest around it. It stood, rolling its shoulders after the jump before flipping open its wrist-pad, slowly pressing a few buttons until disappearing from sight as a wave of electricity rushed over its body, bright blue lights flashing from the mask’s eyes as a final sign before it was completely invisible.

It silently began its trek on towards the last known location of its fallen brother, jumping from tree branch to tree branch in a quick succession, leaves fluttering off their limbs and onto the ground. The hunter continued on its noiseless journey until the forest began to thin out, jumping onto a tree and crawling out on a branch as it stared out at a vast open expanse. A large crater greeted its view, indicating the bomb that its brother used for self-destruction. The hunter clicked quietly, scanning the surrounding area, looking for any trace of movement or sign that something survived.

As it scanned the vast depression in the ground, its scanners picked up something to the very far right. It looked over the crater, adjusting the range of its visors to have a closer look while switching the surroundings to a dark green scenery. A small green liquid trail was lit up in its visor, the hunter growled with interest before jumping down from the tree and quickly made its way over to the stain.

Walking up to the spot, it brushed a hand over the tainted grass, clicking at the cold feeling. Small diagrams came up on its visors, symbols in its own language indicating the contents to be blood but with a very high acidic level. A line of symbols came up below the image of the blood, growling in satisfaction as it found this to be the blood of the Queen Xenomorph. Looking up to the sky, it offered a silent prayer, glad to know that its prey had survived the blast. Scanning ahead of the smear, the trail seemed to continue onwards into the brush. Sadly, another line of symbols indicated that this liquid wasn’t so recently left here.

Standing up slowly, it followed the traces of blood for a moment before it heard the sound of waves of water crashing. It looked up to see what looked like a dock, however, torn apart by the blast radius of his brother’s wrist pad. Cautiously moving towards what remained of the pier, it stepped as lightly as possible on the unstable levees. The trail of blood disappeared as it neared the end of the wharf, looking out to the ocean of water in front of it.

Growling at the expanse of water, it guessed that the Xenomorph had either moved somewhere else on the beach, or boarded a vessel out to the sea. It shook its head, flipping the wrist pad back open and pressing a single button, watching as a red dot began to slowly flash on its visor. Glancing behind it, its visors didn’t pick up on anything else of value, leaving it to simply click in quiet dissatisfaction. Turning around, the hunter took its own time walking across the pier again before picking up its pace as it felt the gritty sensation of sand underneath its feet again.

It scanned the air for the ship, the red button flashing quickly until it outlined the vessel, seeing it floating above the crater site. It turned its attention to its wrist pad and pressing a couple of buttons until the ramp lowered. Leaping into the air, it landed in the ship, pressing another set of buttons and closing the door behind it. Walking through the sliding door, its other two brothers were waiting patiently for him. He shook his head, muttering a few clicks at the hunter to his right. He watched as his brother roared, slamming his fist into the metal wall. The sound echoed across the ship, his younger brother growling as he clenched a clawed hand into a fist, beating the hand against his chest.

He hissed, pointing to red dot on the map indicating their dead brother. Clenching his hand, he pointed to his own wrist pad while opening the other hand up, growling as he described their lost brother’s fate. Walking past his younger sibling, he heard his other brother growl, shaking his head as he stared at the angry hunter. Turning towards the bridge, he made his way to the holographic console. The hunter pressed a few buttons, watching as the hologram’s radar let out a 'ping', a red wave spreading across the glowing orb as the ship's sensors scanned for any possible traces of the serpent. A ping caught the hunter’s attention as the hologram centered over the location of interest

There, on an island a few kilometers off to the right of the pony homeland was a large compound. The map focused on a ship, and the hunter noticed something odd about it. It watched as ponies went in and out of the ship. Pressing a few of the holographic buttons, the ship’s camera closed in on the ground below their vessel. The third brother switched the lense colors to a green in hopes of detecting any trace of the serpent. As the three viewed the facility below them, they spotted five buildings on the island, all similar in design with a few different added details to each one.

The hunter’s enraged brother murmured a few distasteful words, clicking as it slightly chuckled. The leading alien quickly let out a growl, facing his younger brother as he knew that kind of talk would get him in trouble with their deities. A small beep echoed from the hologram as multiple pale green lights lit up in the building on the left. Seeing these objects light up, it was a sign that these ponies could possibly be holding the serpent they were looking for. With this chance to retrieve the Serpent and maybe even some of its eggs, all three hunters realized that this time would possibly be the last time to salvage the hunt.

Pressing another sequence of buttons on the console, the ship slowly pointed in the direction of the facility where the Queen Xenomorph could be held in. With a low hum, the ship quickly sped northwest, the trio of hunters ready to continue what their brother could not accomplish.

Author's Notes:

Thanks again to the people I mentioned for their help. I hope to continue this weekly releasing of chapters. See you all later!

And remember... I hope you all have Lovely Dreams.