Trees cracked and splintered as she forged on, as she tried to understand what she’d done.

She’d shot the pony leader. Oh shit, she was so fucking done for. The best she could expect was a firing squad, without a trial. The worst wasn’t much different, but involved airlocks and spacing. She blundered deeper inside the Everfree Forest, without much regard for anything. Wildlife scattered before her. She went on for almost an hour before she calmed down. Sure, she shot the princess. After all, she did warn her not to try anything, but no, she had to try and take her out. Another copse of trees disintegrated in her wake.

“Gold Leader, this your last chance for reinforcements; fleet’s pulling out in an hour. You sure you’ll be all right down there?”

“Yes, Overlord. Activating beacon now.”

“Receiving signal, Gold Leader, reinforcements underway. Good hunting. Overlord out.” Lieia found a small clearing in the forest, deciding to take a break. She climbed out, trying to steady herself, to shake the last of adrenaline out of her system. Damn it, her arms were shaking like she’d subsisted entirely on coffee and energy drinks since she was born. Speaking of coffee, it’d been ages since she last drank some. While she waited, she might as well get some grub ready for her reinforcements. She set about preparing some field rations, as the world around her slowly sinks in darkness. A while later, as she is thoughtfully chewing on some canned beef; she hears the whine of jet engines. A pair of spotlights flashed across the small fireplace, and moments later, the dropship landed nearby, sending a cloud of dust everywhere. The roar of jets slowly died down, and the hatch of the bulky flier opened, sending a dozen soldiers out to meet Lieia. The closest one, bearing the rank of sergeant, saluted to her “Sergeant Nicole Briggs reporting as ordered, ma’am. Where do you need us?”

Lieia clapped the woman on her shoulder “At ease, Briggs. Nothing’s happening at the moment. We’ll just have to wait until Coalition comes back. A couple of weeks are my guess. You hungry? I got some stuff cooked up over by the fire. Come on, take a seat.” Briggs motioned for the rest to follow and the group of troopers settled down around the small campfire and Lieia handed out the meals. The soldiers muttered their gratitude.

“Think nothing of it, guys. Right, what have you brought with yourselves?”

Briggs swallowed her mouthful of food before speaking “We got a pair M62 Jackals, both the standard one and the cargo model. Plenty of ammo, medication, food, and then some. Say what you want about Weaver, but she got us everything you requested, ma’am.”

“Then all we gotta do is wait until she returns, eh, Briggs?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“A’ight. How’ bout you introduce me to your squad, hmm?”

“Well, we got two 1st Battalion commandos, for starters; Mordecai Salwir and Thomas Driscoll.” She indicated to the two quietest soldiers present. They were shifty-looking individuals, both seeming ill at ease, like they were waiting for an excuse to start shooting, but there were few better soldiers in Corps.

“They ain’t the friendliest guys, are they?”

“Nah. They’ve hardly said anything, ma’am. Moving on, we got a couple of Ortalians on the loan. Sticks, Sharp, and the other two are… are… bleh, I can’t remember their tags.” Ortalians were clone troopers from a world that had been so deeply embroiled in war that the original inhabitants had died out long ago. The remaining clones kept fighting, until they were discovered by Asahi and integrated in their empire. Utterly fearless, the Ortalians were an excellent psychological weapon, since they would obey even the craziest orders, and usually be successful.

“Right, we also got an Asli sniper team. Alsivra and Wrimali from Ordantuu tribe. Twins, but I ain’t too surprised about that.” Lieia nodded. Asli twins were quite rare, but they worked as brilliant two-soldier teams.

“Tal Marrin, the heavy weapons and explosives expert, Faye Dunbar, our resident medic, and Xrengri, our tech specialist.” Briggs gestured to the two humans and a Xalathii. Xalathii were a race of robots, the only remaining legacy of a race long extinct. Though no one was sure how they died, most historians blamed a supernova. All that remained was the technology.

“Okay, then, thanks for introducing them, Sergeant.”

“Anytime, ma’am.” Briggs did a half-assed salute and sat down, munching absent-mindedly on her share of beef. The sky slowly turned black. Lieia stood up, stretching her back, wincing as her spine popped.

“Aaagh, that’s better. Right, you lot, I’m turning in for the night. D’ya have tents or something aboard?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Whoo-hoo. Right, who’s first on guard duty?”

The commandos stood up “We’ll take care of it, ma’am.”

“Very well, but if you see any colourful horses, do not shoot them, or things will turn bad. Either knock ‘em out, or scare them away. It’s bad enough I shot one of them already.” Mordecai raises an eyebrow, but says nothing; instead he picks his weapon up and sets about patrol duty. The rest of Marines, Ortalians and the sole Xalathii also clean up, setting up their tents for the night. Soon, the ad-hoc camp was quiet, the only noises around were the stealthy footsteps of Coalition commandos.

Ponyville hospital

Twilight nervously fidgeted in her seat. Her friends weren’t faring much better. The horrible memory was fresh in her mind. The loud explosion, princess collapsing in the grass, and worst of all, the grim, uncaring face of her attacker.

“Told you I wouldn’t hesitate.”

She shuddered. How somepony could hurt others so simply was above her understanding. And the human was still at large, and the Royal Guard was combing the Everfree Forest for Lieia and the strange object that had dropped from sky earlier. It was the talk of the town; streets were awash with rumour and speculation. But all Twilight could think about was Celestia, wishing with her entire soul that her teacher survive. Luna was pacing to and fro in the corridor, her face blank. After two hours, the doors to the operation hall opened and a unicorn in bloodstained overalls stepped through, getting himself assaulted by a barrage of questions. Patiently, he waited until they calmed down.

“She’ll live. It was touch and go for a while, but she’ll be good as new in about a week. The projectile grazed one of her ribs, sending lots of tiny shards of bone flying.” He held up a blunted chunk of metal. “Luckily, they didn’t hit anything vital.”

Luna was hard-pressed not to squeal with joy. “Is she awake now?”

“Yes, but please be quiet. She’s very weak at the moment.” They filled the quiet room, looking at the sole bed in the room. Celestia’s usually pristine alabaster coat was dull and seemed to have taken on a sickly white pallor. Luna was immediately at her side, whispering quietly.

“Tia? Please, answer me, Tia.”

“I… I’m here, Lulu.”

“How are you? Does it hurt?”

“You have no idea. Serves me right for not paying attention, I guess.”

“What? She shot you, how can you even justify that?”

“When she was distracted, by Twilight Sparkle, I thought I could knock her out before things got out of hoof.”

Twilight stepped forward. “Don’t worry princess, we’ll find her. You just have to rest and recuperate.”

“Ah, Twilight, you always were so steadfast, always ready to fight.” Luna laid a reassuring hoof on Celestia’s shoulder.

“Worry not, sister. I shall take care of the court business until you return. And I will double the efforts to find the human. She will pay for what she did to you.”

Applejack tsk’ed sourly. Another tree was missing a sizeable number of apples. That human was making a mockery of the Royal Guard! Three weeks and she still was at large! Princess Celestia had recuperated without any problems, but that still didn’t make it all right. Angrily, she bucked the tree, filling the basket. As she bowed down to pick it up, something shiny caught her interest.

“Well, don’t that beat all!” A bar of gold was lying in the grass, glittering in the morning sun. A small note lay taped to it.

I didn’t have any local currency, and I doubt you’d take Coalition credits. Hope this covers it.

Though the note wasn’t signed, there was no doubting who the sender was. She scrutinized the gold further, when the wheels clicked in her mind. She knew how they would find the human. Oooh, she couldn’t wait to rub it in the Royal Guard’s faces!

Wrimali’Ordantuu was out gathering some berries when she heard the commotion. Dropping everything, she sprinted back to the camp. “Teelah! We’ve been found!” Lieia bolted upright immediately. “Get everything aboard the dropship! Take my rig as well! I’ll distract them! And no, this isn’t up for discussion! Just do as I say!” Briggs simply sent the command chain to hell. “No way, ma’am, you’re the reason we’re down here. Might as well see it through.”

“I told it wasn’t up for discussion, Briggs! If you stay, we’ll all get captured! And I think we won’t be alive when TEC returns!” She tore her dog tags off. “Take these. I’ll be around, I guess.”

“Whatever happens, it was an honour serving with you, ma’am.”

“Fight well, Sergeant.”

“Will do, ma’am.” She took off towards the dropship and seconds later, it flew off. Lieia turned around, checking her trusty sidearm for the last time, making sure her combat knife was also in place. The undergrowth behind rustled as dozens of ponies advanced on her.

“How’d you find me?”

“You left gold for the apples you took from the Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack’s dog was easily able to track your scent to this place.”

Lieia chuckled slightly. “I knew I messed up somewhere. So, what happens now, huh?”

“You will surrender and be taken into custody.” Lieia turned around slowly. “You know what? Where I come from, attacking a high-ranking person equals death penalty, without any chance to render it null and void. And I’m not going to let you capture me again.” She was facing Celestia again. “Not while I’m alive.” She raised her revolver to the side of her head, her finger tightening slowly. Celestia immediately understood what she was trying to do and leapt forward, a cry of terror on her lips.

“No! Don’t do it!”

Lieia flicked her wrist, sending eight bullets above her head. Everyone ducked instinctively and Lieia took off, full pelt. She splashed through the shallow stream in her path, eventually ending in the river proper. She heard the distant voices of her pursuers. A small smile forms on her lips. Maybe she’d escape after all. Briggs was a good soldier, she’d be searching for her. Then she fell down a waterfall, without her even having a say whether she wanted to or not.

Balls.

She crawled out of the river, the dull frothing roar of the waterfall behind her now. She must’ve struck a sharp rock or something and was bleeding like a damned siv. She got up, her legs screaming in protest and wandered towards the trees. She didn’t get far. Slumping against the first tree trunk she reached, she inspected her wound. Blood was pulsing out of her stomach, and she grimaced. She wouldn’t last long. She checked her comm-bead. Somehow, it still worked. Tapping it once, she began speaking.

“Briggs, this… this is Grisova. I’m sorry, but I won’t be seeing ya again. Take care of everyone will ya? Gnnnh… Damn, it hurts. Never mind. Listen to me. When you have time, go to Linv. I have a small stash of rare candy hidden in my house. You can have it, you stubborn bitch. When you pass away, I’ll be there. Drinks are on me.” Unbeknownst to her, she had a listener.

“Cara, this is your lil’ sister. Take care, will you? Nnnnnn… I… I don’t have much time left. Take care of Dad, will ya?” She coughed violently, sending flecks of blood flying. “Shit. Listen, back in my quarters aboard Hope is a box hidden in my mattress. Remember you thought you’d forgotten those old pictures? Yeah, they’re there. Have fun.”

“Naela. I… I don’t even know what to say. Remember how we met? That was the most awkward encounter ever. Well, you gotta take care of yourself now. I won’t be there to keep you safe anymore. And… and… I leave the Thundercharge to you. Take care of that car, she’s a vintage beauty. Right, I’ve an appointment to keep with good ol’ Death. See you on the other side.” Her hand fell as the weariness overtook her, but then she heard the branches crack and Celestia appeared, a somber expression on her face. She sat down in the grass in front of Lieia, looking at her sadly.

“What am I going to do with you?”

Lieia pulls out her knife and looks at it.

“Take it.”

“What?” Celestia seems confused.

“Take the knife.” It floated out of her grasp and Celestia observed it.

“Well, then. Do it. Finish me. Put it through my heart. Be quick about it.” If Celestia’s surprised, she doesn’t show it. She’s got one helluva poker face.

“Defiant to the end, aren’t you?”

Lieia offers a bloody grin. “That’s the EXO way, lady. Now, if you don’t mind puttin’ me out of my misery…” She lost consciousness, falling on her side. She welcomed the darkness. It was calm, soothing, promising to take all her worry and pain away.

She was lying somewhere soft. That was all she could discern of her surroundings. Forcing her eyes open, the first thing she saw was Celestia’s benevolent smile.

“Welcome back, Lieia.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 6 Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 14 Minutes