"Indigo Team"

TWO YEARS LATER

SIGMA CLOPODIA, CRASSIFIED TRAINING GROUND (GHASLTY GULCH)

Cranklin Mendez, whom we've started to address as 'The Chief', started stalking our stats and putting us into teams for future deployments on insurrectionists.  Some of us were hungrier to impress Mendez, hoping we would be shipped to frontlines straight away.  In reality, that dream was father than we  thought it would be; It was hard to impress The Chief.  In a few weeks, the month-long augmentations would come.

But before augmentation and after morning drills and shock sticks, there were the endless training scenarios to mimic real battles.  Examples included capture the flag between two snow-capped mountains, a mock civilian outpost with training dummies, and crossing acres of grassland filled with landmines over the course of a day.  

Mendez and Doctor Sparkle probably wanted to tell us that innies were extreme to that extent. Although how a bunch of would overtaxed famers and anarchists acquire that many landmines?

Anyway, I can remember only a few of these training senarios.

--------------------------------------------------------

Indigo team; A six pony squad consisting of me, Snapshot-102, Lipizanner-039, Turning Fork-075, Mudd Slinger-077, and Blades-204.  

Two earth ponies, 077 and 039.

Two pegasi, me and 102.  

204 and 075 were the unicorns of our squad.

Turning Fork was an orphaned unicorn mare from Manehattan 2, while Snapshot was a thieving young pegsus stallion from an insurrectionist outpost at Trotton 9.

Dispite all our differences, we all had one thing in common - as per military regulations, our manes were completely shaved, leaving our heads bald.  I found that sort of depressing. Sort of.  Our ears seemed to grow in size because of the shaving of our heads but we had permission to grow our hair back after some amount of days.

-------------------------------------

Ghastly Gulch could be best described as a huge bowl in a continent of Sigma Clopodia that was devoid of anything but a few rock formations and stones white as snow.  This area-shaped canyon - Although, huge stone basin seemed to be a better description - was close to the north pole of the planet, so the sub-zero winds drove any life far away and no sunlight has ever touched it since last spring.

Mendez briefed us on the objective, which was to get to the Phoenix-dropship, somewhere in the huge-basin-canyon-land (I can't make up my mind what to call it).  Each member of my team had been dropped off in separate locations.  Once our hooves hit the ground, we only had about a few hours to regroup and make it to the dropship and get out. Otherwise we would fail Mendez's test.

Basically it was like a bunch of field mice trying to navigate their way through one end of the field to another.  I couldn't use my wings to get a bird's eye view of the canyon; AA guns with stun pellets were set up around the canyon's ridge to ensure that.  Still, I could cover long distances with my wings anyday. Sure beats trotting like an earth pony.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It didn't take me long to find Blades and Lipizzaner; they were hiding a small nook waiting for somepony.  Pretty soon, Mudd Slinger was found wandering in shadows, cautious of any traps that Mendez set up as a surprise in this canyon.  

Snapshot was doing the opposite, flying around in the moonlight as me and the other ponies I found.  It turned out that he and Turning Fork found the Phoenix. But it was damaged and was undergoing slow auto repair by nanites.

"I don't buy your story." I respond to Snapshot. Lipizzaner and Blades were taken aback but Mudd acted calm, perhaps also not believing it.

"What?" Snapshot wondered, surprised.

"Mendez didn't say anything about a crashed Phoenix. Also, nanties? Do those even exist?"

"Well Des', if you think about it, we don't exist. We're in a program created by the Parliament Of Naval Intelligence." Blades stated.  I had to then admit that was a good point.   While the UNSCOE was the light side of ponykind, PONI was the behinds-the-scene, a cold hard truth under the big picture that never existed to the public eye.

"And when does Mendez tell us everything at the beginning?" the magenta unicorn added.

"Snapshot did you come across any hostiles on way?" Mudd Slinger inquired.

"Ah, nope." Snapshot answered still hovering and rubbing his shaved head. "But we did find a huge stash of weapons in the phoenix."

-----------------------------------

When we got there, it wasn't just weapons in the idle phoenix resting against the canyon wall.  It was all kinds of real combat equipment; grenade launchers, a shoulder-mounted Griffon Laser, and lots of rifles.

Even on the outside, the scuttling and humming of the nanites was heard clearly from the concealed compartments of the phoenix.

Turning Fork came out from loading bay, lending different ranged and melee weapons out of all of us. I was handed a single-shot Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) and a combat knife.  From all of our exercises, including this, we all had to fire standing on our backhooves like the rest of military. Since they were unicorns, Blades and Turning Fork had chosen to magically levitate theirs, while remaing to walk on thier fours.

"What's the plan, Destiny-117?" Turning Fork asked.

No one had chosen a leader. So why me? I was no different, or so I thought "We just wait here until the phoenix is fully repaired." I settled.

"That's it?" Mudd Slinger asked, picking up a rock out of boredom. "This is just too easy..."

Then, a low vibration started to shake some tiny pebbles.  The ground beneath our feet followed.  Off in the distance I could see a thick cloud of dust headed in our direction.

"Buck my big mouth for speaking too soon..."  Mudd groaned.

Looking into my scope I saw bunnies.

Not cute cuddly bunnies back home in the plains of Equestria, but very ravenous, fanged, mouth-foaming, earless bunnies with eyes blacker than midnight. I only thought there were bunnies because of how they skipped toward us and how their tiny noses were shaped

Mendez does have ways to ruin all of our childhood memories.

"Stampede! Lock and load, everypony!" I screamed and jerked the trigger.

*Kracow*, went the DMR. It had a little more recoil than the ones I trained with.  Though my scope, I see one bunny down from a fain white contrail, ten thousand more to go.

Chief Cranklin Mendez was either insane or creative, yeat he knew how to test us.

Lipizzaner, at first, wasn't willing to believe there was a stampede, just a trick of wind.  However, when the albino earth pony could see the carnivorous bunnies from seven meters away, that's when she shrieked in fear and ducked into the phoenix's loading bay. I couldn't really blame her for being the most scared out of the group.

Later Lipizanner came out,  with an activated flashlight attachment under her rifle's barrel. A thousand black eyes belong to tiny pale rabbits now reached the phoenix dropship and started to appear at all of our hooves hooves.  The muzzle flash from each of our weapons further lit the moonlight-illuminated, bowl-shaped canyon.

Both Blades and Turning Fork each telekinetically wielded two machine guns at once.  The voracious bunnies fell to ground in heaps in front of them, painted maroon.  I and Snapshot took to the sky, with me firing off bunnies that tried to get behind any of my squadmates' backs while Snapshot was enjoying raining a shower of golden bullets from his auto-firing assault rifle.

From were I was flying, a set of three ugly bunnies charged for Lipizzaner.  Acting on instinct, Lipizzaner fired her rifle at them in bursts, trembling slightly while attempting to hold her courage.  Two went down, but the third leapt up to her face.

Before its teeth could sink into Lipizzaner's snout, it was shot dead in midair by Slinger's rifle.

"I got you, L.Z.!" Mudd Slinger called out, spraying bullets on more killer bunnies. Then he proceeded to stomp on another one with his leg. A Second later, the muddy stallion swung the butt of his rifle at bunny hurdling towards his face.

However, Mudd Slinger didn't see a killer bunny crawl from under his legs, up his tail and onto the back of his neck. If Slinger noticed it, he wouldn't react in time to the bunny opening up its sharp jaws.  As for me, I was worried that if I fired, I could put a bullet into Mudd's neck. And I if didn't take the chance he was dead anyway.

Fortunently, Lipizzaner wasted no time and shot the sneaky little bastard off Mudd's neck.  The bunny's bleeding corpse went flying off into the distance.  Mudd placed a hoof where he the bullet grazed his neck, which left a fresh pink scar.

"Thanks," Mudd mouthed, seeing the corpse of the bunny hit the stone floor of the canyon.  He seemed more relived than irritated from Lipizanner's shot.  In response Lipizzaner shyly squealed, blushing.  For days, she never stopped saying that she was sorry thats she almost killed Mudd.  Mudd didn't care much for the risks, since he was still alive.

In a matter of minutes, we put the entire wave of voracious bunnies to 'sleep'. Mendez probably went a little too crazy in this exercise.  It was easy for us to shoot a dummies or a fellow trainee (with a paint gun).  But this was different -the test wasn't a matter of skill, but a matter of how brave one was to certain horrors.

-----------------

Just as we finished regaining our breath, another force was arriving in the distance, stampeding in similar fashion.  Clouds of dust concealed its form.

"What now, more of those mini-mongrels?" Turning Fork asked reloading four of her levitating weapons. The other ponies followed in unison as the ground shook.

Lipizzaner gulped. "Honestly, I don't think I could stand another wave of...those things."

"I know I can." Mudd Slinger replied, taking out a rocket launcher from the loading bay.

I zoomed with my DMR's scope to get better look at the enemy, still concealed by dust and night

"Be ready everyone. I confirm its is one unit, but it's big..." The creature then leapt into the air, giving me a chance to clearly see it.

Its body resembled a massive lion but it had the pointed tail of scorpion.  When it was in midair, it's bat wings blocked out the moon light, casting us breifly in shadow. And the growl it gave me brought back tales of a horrifying carnivore native to Equestria's the Everfree Forest.

"WATCH OUT, MANTICORE!" I shriek loud enough to piece everyone's eardrums.   But my voice is instead blocked out by the Manticore's howl as it sails through the air . But everypony is altered and starts firing.

WHAM!

The beast cashes onto ground, forming cracks. As our formation broke from the force the impact, I am knocked off my hoofs, catching a glimpse of the massive animal crawl toward me.  This maticore was one-and-a-half-stories tall.

However, I was not going to let the Manticore's yellow eyes, teeth, and whiskers become the last things saw.  I began flapping my wings backwards as it jerks it paws to grip me. Before it can swipe me into its jaws, I zip into the air.  There, I repeatedly fire my DMR at the Manticore's face - particularly it eyes.  Then again, my shots didn't do anything other than make it look mad.

"Well, buck me..." I murmur at the manticore's holed face below.

"G'day you big Bloke!" I saw Blades was distracting the Manticore, while levitating and charging up a Griffon Laser. I waited to see the manticore get burned from the griffon lasor.

Fzzzzzzzzzzzzz-shplam!

Or maybe not.

The blinding crimson laser prickled a bleeding hole into the Manticore's shoulder.  But all it did in the end was making the weakened beast give up trying to catch me and go for Blades.

"Somepony check on those nano-machine repairs!" I ordered.  Maybe we could fly out of this canyon instead of fighthing out of it. Turning Fork started to back into the Phoenix, but Lipizzaner rushed into cockpit before Fork could.

Focusing my attention back onto the Manticore, it did a roundhouse spin, swinging its tail wildly. While Blades was venting heat from the Griffon Laser, the Manticore's scorpion tail gashed though her fatigues and flesh.

"BLADES, NO!" I shout.

Blades coughed out the words "Bloody...moggie...." as she tumbled onto the ground.  Her magenta coat was paling fast in the moonlight.

The manticore was going to strike at her again. This time with a clawed paw at her small head.

Fluttering my wings until they were all but blur, I ram into the Manticore's backside before it could do any more harm to Blades. Blinded with rage I try to twist the beast neck.  Obviously that didn't work, but I got a grip anyway.

The Manticore challenged me, trying to shake me off. Stabbing my combat knife into his backside I persistently held on, swaying back and forth as in a rodeo.

Mudd Slinger raised his rocket launcher to find a spot to hit the Manticore but he couldn't, since I would get caught in the blast. He gave up and tossed the heavy weapon away, going into a charge and rammed his head into the belly of Manticore.  

Then Mudd Slinger bought up his back hooves and kept bucking it the stomach.  The crack of rips could be heard under the beast's howls of agony.

At the same time, Turning Fork approached the beast's behind and magically implanted a stone on its scorpion tail, preventing the Manticore from using it or running off.

As the beast hollowed in pain, Snapshot followed it up with an armor-piercing sniper rifle shot to the Manticore's cranium.  The Manticore's wailing was broken off in a blink.

Slowly, the mighty beast collapsed belly first into the floor of the canyon of Ghastly Gulch.  I tear out my bloodied knife out of the beast and clean it on my fatigue's sleeve.

My caramel eyes look off into the unmoving picture of the distance, hopping the cheif hadn't planned on launching another surprise attack.  Thankfully, only silence was left of Mendez's tests

---

Since the combat was now declared over, I sung my rifle over my back and resume walking on my four hooves.

I rush over to Blades who was still alive, using her own magic keep her alive.  If she was any other kind of pony, like a pegasus or an earth pony, she would be dead. "Nothin' can kill me, mate."

"Get some rest, Greenhorn." I chuckle.

While nursing Blades's wounds, Lipizzaner told me that the nano-machines have reported that they have completed 97% of repairing the phoenix.

"Is there a screen that reports how much is completed?" I asked looking around the cramped cockpit. The dropship window was huge enough so a pilot could see every corner of the battle around him.

"No, they can actually talk! B129 and CD24 remind me a lot of Blades and you." Lipizzaner chimed, amazed and happy. I took the assumption that she made new friends. But I had other questions.

"Lipizzaner, why did you run back into the dropship as the rest of us fought those bunnies?"

The albino then states she needed a flashlight, which was unture beacuse the moonlight was good enough. Then Lipizzaner shared that the sight of those bunnies reminded her that she wasn't back at home petting her own cute bunny, Gabriel. The albino had tried to push aside those personal thoughts; being her first real life-death scenario deviously set up by Mendez.

It was goo enough for me that she had promised to try harder to be brave.  When I was done speaking with her I pointed a hoof to Turning Fork and Snapshot

"Which one of you can fly a phoenix?"

"I can." "I can" the unicorn mare and the pegasus stallion say at once. They both glare at each other after they answer me.

Seeing as that everypony else was settled I then ask, "Hey, where's Mudd Slinger?"

Snapshot replies, "The last time I saw him was under the Manticore, bucking its nuts."

"More likely he was kicking it in the midsection or where the ribcage is." Turing Fork bickered, starting an argument between Snapshot.

Outside of the phoenix, I call out for Mudd Slinger.

"Mudd? Mudd? Zero-seven-seven?"

Not to my surpise, I find him under the Manticore's reeking corpse. His forehoof is the only part of his body that isn't underneath it.

"Get this dead...thing...off of me!" Mudd Slinger moaned, muffled.

I could not resist chuckling, following up with laughing out loud.  My laughter echoes throughout the moonlit, cold, Ghastly Gulch.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SAME TIME

EQUESTRIA, PONYVILLE

HEART'S WARMING EVE

The Treehrouse library's lobby was occupied by a few ponies singing the songs of the joyous winter holiday.  It snowed outside while Luna's moon disposed of the need for street lights and torches.  A fire place crackled in below the chimney, dancing in back and forth over its wood.  All the ponies from Destiny's family huddle around it, humming carols.

The only ones missing from last year's gathering were Cogneto and Destiny.

"So, you are being deployed tomorrow?" Raysin asked November Flare, a third-cousin to her.

"Yes; there is much sleep needed. I will have to arrive at first light." November replied, studying the detail of the fire, like how it moved, how the embers that flicker off it, and it's base eating the blackening wood.

November Flare wasn't like other stallions; he spent his time with technology and artistic detail. You could say he was both left and right brained. Or in other words a 'feather brain', scince he too was pegasus. November amazed everypony from piloting Broadswords to Phoenixes.  

His eyes were as red-orange as warm flare keeping the cold away, and his coat came in a lemon-yellow that ran in Destiny's family. His mane was charcoal black and he had unique tri-pronged tail. The only similarities he shared with Raysin were his pegasus wings and the hobby of experimenting within his spare time.

"I take it that you're getting a promotion soon? You know, for what you did at New Manebassa?" Raysin wondered.

Just recently, the UNSCOE had tried to take back New Manebassa.  However, the insurrectionist fleets were more than ready. Just when the UNSCOE feet were about to be defeated, out of the black of space came a Phoenix Dropship with a nuke, piloted by November Flare.

The rest of the story ended with huge explosion, a weakened UNSCOE fleet, along with plenty of funerals. But thanks to efforts of November Flare, the UNSCOE could repair that damage that done to their ships, rather than replace them.

After a long uncomforting pause, November Flare sighed sadly, turning his head to Raysin for the first time. "New Manebassa; I was proud to save the fleet, but I was also upset that for two years  we have never been successful in taking it back."

Raysin warped a hoof around him as the other family members continued chanting carols. "What's really bothering you is Cogneto, huh?"  

Because they both served in the military, they were extremely close. The two pegasi crossed paths at least five times up till now.

November turned his head back to the fire, replying "...And Destiny.  The cute filly had to die at an age so young. She didn't get much of chance to make friends after she lost her mind-reading powers in that tragic accident."  

Last year, Raysin had found Destiny (unknown to her, the flash clone destiny not the actual Destiny) dead in morning after slowly falling victim to some sickness still unidentified.  Nevertheless, Raysin could only say that her sister was at peace now and with her brother.

Raysin moved her hoof over his own hoof to warm it.  "It was tough on all of us, but we have to move on. And from now on, November, we'll always be there for one another."

November knew better, that Raysin was just trying to make him feel better. But he couldn't dare say We weren't there for Congento and Destiny on that day. Nopony was there for my mother.  Nopony is ever there...

"It's lonely here now?" He asked, changing the subject.

"No, Raggs comes and visits me everyday."

"Raggs? You mean the Zebra at Carousel Boutique?"

Raysin nudged November's shoulder, partly irritated. "Don't tell me that just because he's different means I should never love him."

November shrugged, giving relaxing smile. "I don't have a problem with it, even if everyone else in family has one. I think he's a nice guy. Anyway..."

The stallion pegasus started to get up, revealing his cutie mark of purple feather and five deep-blue starts near it. "I better get some sleep; like I said, my shore leave ends when Princess Celestia raises the sun."

He tightened his twin saddle bags around his back and started for the door.  He didn't want to say goodbye to the other relatives, for it would delay him and they would plead him to stay.

"Before you go...can take these? They were Destiny's favorites...as well as her brother's" Raysin pleaded, balancing a tower of several books on her back.

November observed all those books. Then he looked at Raysin's pleading face. "I'm going need three more saddle bags to carry those; Maybe five."

---------------------------------

Once outside in peaceful scene snow-caped town of modernized Ponyville, November Flare discreetly pulled out a data pad from one of his bags and began typing the worlds with his snout.

Doctor Sparkle,

I'm ready to leave. I still hate that you covered up what you are doing in a curel way...but as long as the real ones are alive, I'll agree working for you.

Don't make me regret this any further.  I serve ponykind only.

N.F.