The Ashes We Make Ch.3

By: TankFodder

Somewhere in the Everfree Forest

Martinez studied the angry equines arrayed in front of him. They varied slightly in size, but none them stood taller than his chest, although, the one he assumed was the leader would have come up to his collar if he had been unarmored. It shouted at the others. Yes, definitely shouted, as in intelligently, as in orders, because the little bastards moving to flank him! He turned, and brought his left arm forward, arming the machine-gun housed in his gauntlet

>>warning; SMG-05X ammunition feed obstructed.

…

Shit.

Thunder Beard ordered his scouts to flank the creature in the clearing. It was bigger than he had expected, towering over him, and it's metallic skin appeared cracked and dented in places, revealing... ah, so it was armor, then. It moved, suddenly, and brought up an appendage on it's upper torso and pointing it right. at. him... He could hear a clicking and whirring noise coming from it's armor. He let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. Whatever the monster had tried, had failed. It shifted again, facing him head on. Thunder Beard reared and flared his wings,

skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

and fell flat on his rump, writhing as the horrible, horrible noise burrowed into his skull

Martinez smirked and had to stop himself from laughing out loud. The LRAD had worked beautifully. The fact that it wasn't as intense as it could be was completely irrelevant at this close range.

He had the momentum now, so he a long, wickedly sharp combat knife, and charged at the horse on the ground in front of him.

Just in time to get run over from behind by a freight train.

Dammit, these horses were fast.

Phoenix Crash Site

The crew of the Phoenix had set up a fragile base camp around the downed vessel. Shallow trenches provided cover, and salvaged lights served as impromptu searchlights darting out into the shadows surrounding them all. The Phoenix had been lightly armed to begin with, and it's single remaining rail-cannon could only fire into or above the forest they had landed nearby. Several point defense guns had been removed from the hull, and now stood silently, watching over the perimeter, providing more intimidation than actual defense, as few cannon rounds were available.

Humans huddled around fires, or stood watching the darkness for any sign of the hornet's nest that they knew was stirring against them. “At least it's not raining,” muttered Brook, “then we'd be really miserable, sleeping in the open like this.”

“Because imminent death and dismemberment just gives you the warm fuzzies, eh?” Micheal walked up and sat down on the other side of the fire.

“No, but I can fight whatever attacks us. I don't plan on enjoying sleeping under the stars with no tent. It's too damn quiet, and too damn open. And if we move to somewhere more defensible, we lose the ship. We lose the ship, and everyone dies.”

Micheal raised an eyebrow, “I never thought I'd say, this, but you make a good case. Especially if we get hit by fliers, we're sitting on a big damned target.”

Ponyville

“Rainbow Dash! Down here!” Rainbow looked down. After that fiery object had flown overhead and all the unicorns in the post office had taken to hiding, Rainbow Dash had used some of her time to patrol around Ponyville, in fact, she was just about to check on Fluttershy when she heard Twilight below her. She slowed, and landed next to her. “Hey Twilight, what was that thing?”

Twilight shook her head “I don't know, Rainbow Dash, it's not long anything I've ever read about, or even heard of. I wanted to find everyone and make sure they're all right.”

Rainbow nodded, as if in understanding, “Good idea Twi! Once we gather our friends, we can go check it out, and find out what's going on!”

Twilight stared, “wha-? I didn't, that's not what I said!”

“Oh, well it's still a good idea, ok seeyouinaminutebye!” Rainbow took off towards Sugarcube Corner. It would be best to get Pinkie Pie's help to gather everypony quickly.

In less than an hour, they had gathered everypony but Fluttershy, and headed down the path to her cottage.

Everfree Forest

GGRRAAAWWWRR!

Sgt Petrov whirled around just in time to see a lion, just taller than he was, even in his armor, standing not 30 feet from where he stood. Well, mostly a lion, anyway. It's tail being replaced by long scorpion's stinger, complete with an armored carapace. It growled at him, and shifted to all fours.

“Well, COME ON, fleabag, let's get this over with.” he shouted at it, hiding his nervousness.

It roared again, and charged at him. Petrov didn't bother to step out of the way, instead, he braced, and swung an armored fist.

The manticore had been protecting it's territory against something it did not recognize, wanting to drive it away quickly or kill and eat it, if possible. It was the toughest creature in the area, excepting the Ursa Major's cave, and the possibility had never occurred to it that it would meet anything smaller than it that could beat it into the ground. Of course, it had also never counted on running face-first into three-quarter tons of steel and titanium at full sprint.

Time seemed to slow down, as Petrov watched the lion's face crunch and fold around his fist. It stopped running completely, but it's momentum carried it under his fist, and onto the ground next to him. “Damn, kitty, I almost felt that myself,” he grinned, then frowned, as he placed his gauntlet in the creature's face. Bam! And finished it off with a single shot.

“Hot damn Sarge! That was badass!” A second marine walked out of the foliage.

“That's why I'm in charge, now, you're the first back, so let's wait for the others before you report” Other marines move into the clearing over time, stoppping to gawk at the dead manticore over time.

Petrov cleared his throat, “Alright, listen up. We've found the town we were looking for, but we still haven't seen the inhabitants. We avoid it if possible, but I need to know what you all found on your scouting trips. Report.”

“There's a pretty large farm on the other side of the town sarge, but it's a long trek through the forest to get there, and the only thing on that farm is apples.”

“Apples? That's it? Nothing else, are you sure?

“I'm sure, sarge, I got a good look around. They are some damn good apples, though, I took a few, and stuck 'em in a bag I found in the barn.”

“Jesus, Paul, I don't know if I should congratulate you, or hide my wallet.”

“You should hide your wallet. Here it is, by the way.”

“what-, how- ?”

“Stow it Marine. As... worrying as that is, I dunno if that farm is worth the trip, it's better than nothing, though, if we don't find anything else. Anyone else? I don't care what it is, anything even slightly worth mentioning.”

“Yea, there's a herd of cows in the opposite direction, we'd have to cross open ground to get to them, though. And I swear on Miss October's sweet, sweet-” “keep it short.” “fine. I watched for a little bit, but no one was herding them, and I know I saw a group of them holding a conversation. Stop looking at like that, I know what I saw.”

“huh, I'll uh, keep that in mind, we don't have the manpower or equipment to haul or herd of bunch of talking cows, right now, so we'll put that under 'later'.”

“Hey Sarge, There's also a small cottage not far from here, lots of little animals running around, it's far enough from the town that it isn't likely to get visitors in the middle of the night, but close enough that whoever lives probably knows what goes on. Oh, and chickens.”

“Chickens? Honest-to-God Earth chickens? I vote we go there sarge.”

Petrov glared at the men, “This isn't a democracy private, now show some discipline. I own the chain of command here, and as far as you're concerned, the chain of command is the chain that I go get and beat you with to show you who's in command, got it? Now listen up, we'll mark the location of the cows and the farm for the real foraging parties to show up. We can't go back empty handed, so we hit the cottage today. If anyone is home, take prisoners. We can't have the townsfolk knowing that we're out this far, but we don't want to start an incident by killing off villagers either. Move out!”

Twilight and Co.

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Applejack walked down the path towards Fluttershy's house on the edge of the forest. As they approached the cottage, though, something seemed wrong. They all looked at each other, Applejack spoke up, “girls, it's too quiet, where are all of Fluttershy's critters?”

Twilight looked around “I dunno, but Fluttershy is usually outside tending to her animals around this time, maybe we should look around before we-”

clack-clack “howdy.”

In front of them stood seven feet of metal, standing on two legs, like Spike, with thick arms ending in blunt claws that looked like they were designed to grip things. Things like the metal stick it was pointing at them.

Fluttershy's Cottage

“Who are you?””What are you?””What have you done with Fluttershy?” The five mares all started talking at once. The creature stood its ground, but let them finish.

“listen, you'll get your answers soon enough, I think, but Sarge says we can't have anyone warn that town that we're her, so I gotta take you lot as prisoners.”

Rainbow Dash bristled “What? Do you know who you're messing with? Give us Fluttershy and I won't beat you into giving her up!”

The creature shrugged, and a small tube on it's shoulder spat a puff of smoke, sending an object sailing towards them. It landed, and then floated into the air, wrapped in a purple glow, Twilight glared at the creature, and started to shout when the flashbang she was holding at eye level exploded in a brilliant flash of light and sound, eliciting cries of pain and surprise from all five mares.

“Holy shit, did you see that?” The watchman's partner stepped out from his position at overwatch, and stared at the five cartoon horses that lay on the ground.

“That's a gen-you-wine unicorn, with magic and everything. And also, but I'm pretty sure I just saw the most painful experience in their lives. I mean really, putting a flashbang right next to your face like that?” The first marine shrugged, and they dragged the barely conscious mares back into the clearing around the cottage.

Ponyville

The first flights of Royal Guardsponies were setting up a camp around Ponyville to defend it against any encroachments by the creatures from the crashed ship. The commander was talking to the leader of a group of scouts who had been dispatched days ago to assess the situation.

“Scout-Sergeant, report”

“Sir, the town is secure, the creatures have been fortifying their crash-site, but there aren't many. Also, I have a prisoner.”

“What? Where? How did you get it?”

“He's-I'm pretty sure it's a he, anyway-in an unfinished house at the edge of town. As to the how, I found him lying in the forest.”

“You searched the Everfree forest and found him? You scouts are all insane. Good work, though.”

Pfc. Martinez groaned, and shook his head to clear it. He jumped suddenly, when he noticed a couple of things. One, he wasn't in his armor. Two, he was in a wooden room, real wooden, like one of the old houses built with timbers, rather than plaster. Three, there was a cartoon horse looking at him through the now-opened door.

Thunder Beard opened the door to the prisoner's room. It was awake, he saw, and looking at him. It had taken all of his unicorns to get the thing's blasted armor off, which he thought was too bulky to be of much use. He cleared his throat, “stand back prisoner, or I won't hesitate to beat you down again.”

when the creature complied, he and the Guard-Commander walked into the room.

Two of the little horsey bastards walked in, Martinez recognized one of them as the one he had hit with the sonic in the forest. He hoped the little bearded horse wouldn't take it too personally, he was pretty sure he could take it on, even unarmored, but not with its friends so close by.

“What's your name?” the second one asked him, in a tone that pointed out exactly who was in charge here. Unfortunately, Martinez was a bit of a smartass, and decided he didn't like a 4 foot tall bright green horse trying to intimidate him.

“Oh, great horselordship, he who gallopth mightily across the sky, wreathed in a trail of fire and- OOF” the bearded one just hit him! Damn horses. Philistines, the lot of them, with no appreciation for a good performance. “Private First Class Martinez, Sol Systems Alliance Marines.”

“Control yourself Thunder Beard, he's no use to us dead.”

Martinez burst out laughing, “your name is Thunder Beard? Don't get me wrong, it is a mighty impressive beard, but- OOF” Damn horses.

“Quiet Prisoner, speak only when you are spoken to. Now, what are you?”

“I'm a human, now what are you?”

“We are ponies, heyu-man. Why are you here, why did you threaten equestria?”

“I don't even know what Equestria is. But I'm pretty sure we ended up on the wrong planet.”

“Wrong planet? Where did you come from, that you speak of coming to Equestria like you knocked on the door.”

“I can't tell you that, but I like the analogy. That kind of fits what happened.”

“You can tell us, heyu-man, and you will.”

“We came from a planet like this one, from across the stars, but I will not tell you more about that.”

“We'll come back to that. What is that crashed... thing? What does it do? Where were you planning on going?”

“That is the Alliance ship Phoenix. She goes really fast, and explodes, it's pretty simple actually, and I can't tell you that last.”

“She explodes? Like in that message you sent us.”

“What message? Oh, and yes, she explodes.”

“What message? You threatened all of Equestria with extermination, and now you act like you didn't do it?”

“Well, I didn't, I'm just a grunt, I don't get paid to threaten tiny cartoon horses with exterminati-OOF”

“We are ponies, you will address us with respect.”

“yes, oh great bearded oppressor of- OOF” touchy little bastard.

ROOOOOAAARRRR

“uhh.. horselordship, what was that?”

Phoenix Crash-site

ROOOOOAAARRRR

“WHAT THE HELL?! THAT'S A DRAGON! A DAMNED DRAGON IS GOING TO KILL US ALL!”

The panicked shout from a sentry started a frantic scramble by men and women all over the make-shift camp to grab weapons and turn them to the sky, as a massive fire-lizard of mythology screamed overhead and landed next to the crashed Phoenix

“I am the Dragon Ehecatl, and You are stepping in places you do not belong. You have no claim to this land, and you would dare to threaten it?” The dragon snorted, violet fire bursting from it's mouth. The human's all around the camp just stood and stared in awe. The dragon nearly rivaled the Phoenix in size, it was so huge. A few simply fell to their knees. “You will explain yourself to me, or I will destroy you here and now.”

The 40mm Point Defense turrets swung around and pointed at the dragon. The ship's Captain stepped out from his tent.

“Actually, glitter scales, I think you and I are going to have a little heart-to-heart, and then you will leave, or I will destroy you.”

Author's note: Sorry it's late folks, I caught sick last weekend, which led to the homework I had been pushing off being suddenly due a lot sooner than it had seemed at the beginning of the weekend. I didn't have time to write for several days, and for several more after that, I just didn't want to. Even now the internet at my school has been unreliable at best for the past couple of days, so I'm not actually sure when I'll be able to upload this.

On to the story!

Eh, I got nothing. Sorry it's late, though. I don't own MLP:FiM, etc. Oh, so yeah, this story was inspired by some movie I saw a coupla months ago but can't remember what it's called. So, yeah the bombship came from that, and everything else came from sci-fi cliches and my imagination. (Cylix, really? that's a horrible name. God, I am so bad at naming things. And I can't believe I named the damn ship 'Phoenix', that's not cliche at all. >:/)