We stand united 1x1 Maple Bat

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"Alright, seems our allies all prefer melee, any of you who prefer to do the same, go right ahead, I at least know I won't let the opportunity of close combat go to waste." Betamor said to his squad with a smirk as he drew his signature axe, and ran straight in the enemy soldiers who were occupied on other targets, as he was hacking and slashing his way through their ranks.

Some of the squad members drew their knives and did the same, which turned the attack into their favour, the rush was working overall perfectly.

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"Yeah, I was talking about Evelyn." Jack.

But then a smile grew on his face.

"But you are wrong in your second regard Celestia, we are not really stuck here. Have you heard of warp gates? Ancient structures that we used before spaceships where even a thing, forged by our very very ancient ancestors. All we will have to do is ask Karthspire if he knows where one could be on this planet. He knows alot, but I guess not many bother to even ask him such questions in the first place." Jack said.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Windphaser was needing to move so fast he only focused on hitting bullets where they went he wasn't worried about where they where going, unfortunately, one of them got knocked into Woody's leg causing him to stop singing "Gah, Wind! Watch out!"

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"Well... At least talk with Luna, Your mother, before you do something." Celestia sighed "I have no reason to stop you but I'll go with you if you want. Perhaps you should wait on the others at least before making such a drastic decision."

Edited October 8, 2017 by Maple Bat

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Betamor saw what was happening and quickly intercepted with the hook part of his axe as he caught someone's rifle with it and spun it to another enemies head when it fired, who had fired at Woody before, and only a moment later Betamor cleaved apart the head from the one who had fired.

"You need to keep focused Windphaser if the bullet had hit Woody's head he would have been dead instantly if it would have hit the brain that is." He said as he kept fighting.

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"Alright, i go talk to her, but i would appreciate it if you came with me, you don't usually offer to go with us when some things are going on, doesn't it feel better if you go start training again and join the others on missions? I know you feel like you made mistakes but don't let them bring you down, you are so strong, you could even surpass the strongest among us." Jack said.

Edited October 8, 2017 by Mickey Adaptus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Woody was too focused on his injury to continue singing so, Windphaser was deflecting as quickly he got it in the chest several times He had to move out of the way "S... Sorry Woodland. I should have focused..."

Woody sighed "It's ok... Just need to heal for a minute it... went through... Pretty clean but it still hurt..."

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"You believe I can be stronger than this? Well still, Cadence is the alicorn in Equestria... I'm not sure if I should be going back or not seeing as the infection could still be present." Celestia said "I'll keep what you said in mind though it seems... Like a great Idea."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"Celestia, everywhere else where the infection is, many still stand strong, this is perhaps one of the only places that still have some form of society like Equestria and some other planets, some even only have a group of 30, having to pit against an entire planet full of enemies, yet they all have a never-ending faith. Everyone in Equestria excels in Friendship and peace, we excel in keeping faith strong even in the direst of times, I may not have shown alot of faith in some moments, but most of us will NEVER lose a reason to fight, you might not believe it yourself but haven't you kept Equestria safe for all those centuries when Luna was not there? There might be heroes in Equestria who can protect, but one thing that will NEVER change is that you and Luna will remain the mother symbols of Equestria, whatever happens, if you would give up and then most would give up as well, because they are looking for guidance in these difficult times, both you and Luna have experience for over a 1000 years, no one in Equestria could ever hope to surpass that amount of experience." Jack said with a smile.

"Shall we head to Luna now?" He asked.

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As they were fighting, reinforcements of enemies were suddenly closing in fast.

"Festus! Could you make a wall of flames in that hallway? I and my men will hold them at bay from range while you all slay off the remaining ones!" Betamor called out.

"Also, Woody is still wounded, if anyone could cover him, that would be appreciated." He said.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Wind phaser was guarding Woodland "I've got it... Don't worry." He still had his blade drawn "Sorry about him getting hurt..."

Maple also disengaged her foes and stood in front of Woody "You'll be ok."

Woody shook his head "They need you I'll be fine it hurt but I'll survive."

Maple nodded "Fine. But If you get hurt anymore then I'm getting us out of here." Maple then reengaged the opponent she was against disarming them and they stabbing them in the chest and shocking them.

Festus nodded and lit the hallway on fire "Is that good?"

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"Yes. Let's go find Luna." Celestia smiled "I think you've got a lot of potential to be a wonderful leader Jack. What you just did was very inspiring. Thank you."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"Yes it is, good work, that should slow them down from coming close." Betamor said as he and his squad started firing their weapons through the flames.

So far they had been lucky as no heavy strains had shown up, but that luck would not last forever...

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"Thanks, I guess my father's genes do play a good part in my personality regarding leadership." Jack said with a smile.

 

When they reached Luna, Jack asked her "Hey there, i think i know of a way we can get off this planet, things called warp gates, is it ok if me and Celestia perhaps go looking for one? I think Karthspire might know the location for one of those." Jack asked her.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Festus put his shield up to block shots coming through the tunnel of fire. "So where should we be trying to get to!" He shouted, "WE need to find where she's being kept remember!"

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"Well even if it is your father's genes it's still part of you Jack" Celestia had said before they found Luna

Luna, after being told said "Alright you can go find one. However, Celestia has to accompany you at all times. And! You can't leave the planet without telling me first

Edited October 8, 2017 by Maple Bat

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"I am aware of that, I had to wait for an opening for that second reinforcement group to arrive, because while the main group holds them off, Windphaser and Matiel can pass them via the ventilation shafts, which should eventually lead to the control room, that's where they store their data as well!" Bemator said during the sound the of the battle as they were fighting hard.

"In other words, the rest of us will be holding them off, preferably here as this is a one-way location, but if anyone else has a better place in mind, I am up for suggestions!"

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"Alright, i understand." Jack said with a nod.

He then looked at Celestia.

"We should head to Karthspire first, he knows this planet like its the back of head." Jack said to her.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Festus looked outside the door "Windphaser got shot too. Best if you-" He was then interrupted by Maple screaming and slashing open a vent going into it quickly. "Welp there's the backup plan. Best if Matiel goes with her then and they'll need to hurry Maple's not gonna slow down."

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Celestia smiled "Sounds like a plan. Let's get going. Don't worry sister I'll be in touch."

Luna nodded and hugged Jack before they left. "Go easy on autie 'Tia. She's really old."

Celestia recoiled from the comment "So! I'm not that much older than you are sister!" She said angrily

Luna was dying of laughter so much so she couldn't seem to talk to Celestia

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"Then she will have to deal with him not being as fast." Betamor said with a growl.

"Matiel, follow her through the air vents, but head towards your destination at the same time, if she ends up going the wrong way and leaving you behind, then it will be up to you to the hacking part and defence yourself. But this is only speculation, just see how it plays out." He said.

Matiel gave a salute as he then climbed through the air vents and started crawling his way through it.

"I don't know if she does this alot but I cannot press enough emphasis on trying to discuss things before charging away like that, if she keeps this up i will no longer be taken her on any missions. It can endanger the lives of others as well when they try and look for her." Betamor said with a sigh.

"Just stick to the plan, with us fighting here, it will reduce the number they would have to face drastically, that is our aim."  He said.

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"At least you too are immortal, I know I don't have that luxury." Jack said with a laugh.

They eventually reached Karthspire after a while of walking.

"Karthspire, do you know if there are any warp gates on this planet?" Jack asked him.

Karthspire looked at him with curiosity.

"Yes, there should be a few, but this planet is big, some of the warp gates are a year removed of travel, but i know one who is nearby, its pretty nearby, about an hour of travel on foot. Let me guess, you wanted to utilize those to get back to Equestria?" Karthspire asked him.

"Yes, i was hoping we could get those to work once we need to head back." Jack replied.

"Not sure of that one is still intact, but it might, its near the nagesia ruins, those ruins are not that big, so you shouldn't find anything to dangerous there except for some infected perhaps." Karthspire said.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Woody stepped closer "Don't worry about my sister. She might seem like she doesn't knwo what she's doing but I promise if she's not sure where to drop down she'll wait on Matiel. She's reckless but not stupid."

Once Matiel got into the vents maple was a bit ahead of him but was stopped "Sorry had to make sure there was enough room for you to get out of the firing area. Which way?"

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"Oh a few infected should be nothing I've battle quite a lot of them myself so it's not a problem. I'm going to go look for it then." She started to walk "Come along Jack let's go find that gate thing."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"I guess, but I would have preferred if she would have waited for us or at least told us her plan, but there is not much to do about it now anyways." Betamor said.

 

Once Matiel caught up he thought for a moment.

"Should be 3 blocks away from where we currently are, but there will once be a dropdown in the vents, a pretty one, so watch out when you head downwards." Matiel said.

He then looked at her metal-plated hooves.

"You have those reinforced cushions under your hooves? That is smart, you do have to watch out though, with your current weight you should slow a bit down with movement, or else they will bonking regardless from those muffled enhancements." Matiel advised.

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Jack nodded.

As he was about to walk he suddenly realised something, and then facepalmed himself.

"I can't believe I just thought of this now, but wouldn't it just be better to fly there instead? We could decrease the travel time to 45 minutes, perhaps even 39 tops. How about that?" Jack asked her, feeling a bit ashamed he did not think of something so simple.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple nodded and slowed down her pace of moving but she had to think about going slow otherwise she'd speed up again due to wanting to save her mother but if Matiel got hurt that would be a LOT harder. Maple saw the downward drop and looked at it. "My wings have enough room if I use the jets on them so I can lower us safely but it'll be a bit noisy. It's up to you."

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Celestia laughed "Well you thought of it before the one who could actually fly did." She levitated Jack and started to fly while carrying him with magic "Alright flying's easier anyways so we should be there in no time."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Matiel hesitated a bit.

"Well, I guess your suggested method might be safer, but once we do, we need to make a bee line for that control room. Once we arrive i could try to shut down doors via the control, to give us extra time, but you will have to hold them off while i do the hacking, you think you can do that?" Metiel asked her, wanting to be sure.

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It was about a while later when they eventually got close to the ruins, it was a few broken within the middle some sort of portal wall, but it looked very old, very very old.

"I see some infected down there, only around 6, that should be easy right?" Jack asked Celestia.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Well If I jump down it'll be loud anyways. Don't worry though. I've faced armies before this and I can do it again. I'm ready for whatever they throw at us." Maple said with a final nod Motioning for Matiel to hold onto her. As she lined up to descend.

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Celestia looked. "Should be fine. I could take them out now actually." Celestia summoned 6 golden energy bolts and fired them at each infected before landing on the ground ready to fight the ones she missed.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"That's the spirit." Matiel said with a smile as he held onto her.

As they eventually descended, the enemy had been alerted to their location.

When they landed, he crawled a bit further and then smashed open the thing that blocking the vent.

He then jumped straight down into the control room

"I will try to seal the door, but you guard it in the meantime!" He called out as he ran to the controls.

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As Jack landed, he saw that one had survived, but a few more had appeared from afar who were now charging from behind.

Jack drew his pistol and killed the one who had survived.

But now 8 were heading towards their location.

"Could you take out those 8? I can't really use more ammunition at the moment." Jack said.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple nodded and stood ready at the door. "Do your best and be calm no point in hurrying and messing it up not since we made it this far!"

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Celestia nodded to jack firing more of her golden projectiles in order to knock down the other infected that were attacking them

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"Don't worry, I have been trained to perform these do and retreat type of things, and it's better to avoid unnecessary injuries if possible." Matiel said.

He then quickly closed the door via the control panel.

As he was busy scanning through the things, he suddenly found something.

"Her name is Fluttershy, right? I have found 3 instances, one of them has the race term Pegasus, but the 2 other are heavily encrypted files." He said to Maple.

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As the infected were dying one by one, Jack fire small magical blast from his hands, killing the last 2 ones in the end while Celestia had killed the other 6.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Yes she's the pegasus. Looks as though we got lucky I'm curious about the other files but we don't have time..." Maple waited on him for a second waiting impatiently on him to pull up the file. "Well... Come on hurry." Her tone was more of a confused worry than anger. She had no idea about this sort of tech but was really scared of Fluttershy's well being.

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Celstia looked at what she thought to be that gate. "So... How's it work?"

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"I am trying to hurry, but this is not something you can get done by a few clicks, but the normal file doesn't show her location, only her information like race, personality traits and things, and the small thing from that capture order, but it *taken to xxxx*, meaning the location is being held in one of the encrypted files as a security measure. So just give me a moment, even I am having  a bit of difficulty here since they have updated their security quite well." Matiel said.

Eventually, he managed to encrypt one of the files.

"Alright, I got it! It says.... Alaysian 439, alright that should do it! Hold on... There is more..." He says as he looked closer.

"It says here they have been taken DNA samples from her and are injecting it in one of their other subjects, the name is not really there, just subject 43. Might be a good idea if you remember that part, it seems odd that they are injecting DNA from her into someone else, it doesn't make any sense." Metiel said.

"I am going to try and encrypt that last file as well, it might show more about her current status, who knows." Metiel said.

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Jack looked at it as he walked a bit around it and touched it.

"Well... That is a good question, sometimes they can be turned on by uttering a certain word or words. But this one doesn't seem to have any power, these things used to be powered by a specific spell, but that is why i have been keen to reading that diary as well, its not just a diary but an information book about all sorts of things, including powerful spells that have been lost to time. Just hope its in here." Jack said as he started reading through it.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Mother's DNA isn't anything special. She's the nicest pony in Equestria it's in her DNA so if they use that in one of their strains then it'll be a rather nicer strain." Maple said again not understanding how this all worked "I agree with you it is odd. Maybe we should find this... Subject 43. Try to find out what they were doing maybe?"

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Celestia looked at the gate. "Equestria." She said to it seeing if that was how it worked.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"Good plan, though I don't really think a *nice* strain would benefit them, they want to murder their enemies after all, and it seems rather weird because they would use something non-sentient as a strain base, they are aware that a sentient subject would not be the best approach on that." Matiel said thoughtfully.

As he was searching for subject 43, he suddenly gasped a bit.

"Wow... This is out of the ordinary, they sure like to use this subject as a guinea pig, it's not just your mother, but a series of DNA's from 37 different subjects all implanted into this one person... I guess it makes it even more disturbing that one of the 37 DNA's is from someone called Celestia, I think that is the very one who entered our city before. In fact, most of these DNA's have been taken from your group who had been captured for, at least everyone except Jack it seems, his DNA was not included because the original subject was already blood-related to him, Guess that makes sense? Subject 37's name is... Ashera, huh, i haven't heard of that name before. Can't find alot more about this subject tough because there are a couple hundred of files about her." Metiel said.

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"I don't think that works sadly, at least not yet. It needs something... Perhaps some sort of spell, or... a word in their ancient language." Jack summarized.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"I know my mother's at risk here. But Karthspire said that this slave trader wouldn't hurt her... We need to find this..." Maple read the name again "Ashera and help her. If they finish this... plan. Then it could be bad for us... all of us. Can you get her location off of this machine. I can cover you as long as I can." She readied at the door in case they breached it "And try to hurry but don't mess up so you do you."

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Celestia thought about it "Didn't luna, to get into the vault place where you found that book have to read ancient equestrian to open the door? Perhaps there's a connection there?"

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"Alright, give a moment, going to need a bit because I need scan through all these files." Matiel said.

After a while, he found something interesting.

"Ok, I think I did find her location, but this is going to be a rather hard one, she is being in some sort of massive conversion centre, but this.... seems all very twisted.... They *drown* their captured victims for a newer emerged type of conversion process, it all contains forms of rapid mutation and lots of water. Tough given the important status of this Ashera, she would not be drowned, but I can't really say she would be very... normal if we do manage to rescue her somehow, 37 injections of DNA is way past the capacity then a body could hold, which could end in the case if you would save her she would be suffering. Regardless, you will have to tell Karthspire about this, it seems indeed odd they would focus so much attention on a single subject, and I can say this, there is no breaching that conversion centre without a massive army, its one of the biggest on the planet." Matiel said as he shook his head.

"Also... You might have heard of this blood-related thing? You gonna have to be careful with telling Jack about this, who knows what could happen." He said as he was almost done.

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"Yes, that could be it, but I don't remember how Luna did it, I was not there, we were holding them off way further in the snow remember?" Jack said to Celestia.