The Five Year Struggle...

Rocky Mountain Range, three miles from Canterlot.

Captain Harrison T. 115th JSOC Forces

September 25th, 2018

0230 Hours

The UH-1 Iroquois Transport Helicopter flew through the night over the rocky terrain that made up the Rocky Mountains. The left side door opened up and a figure stood in the doorway, the interior behind it glowed a menacing red. The figure put a hand to the edge of the doorway and waited for the helicopter to end its flight.

"Sir, t-minus two minutes until touch down." The pilot called. Harry nodded to the pilot and put on his combat helmet. Securing it with a slight shake, he flipped down the single night optic scope that was attached to his helmet. He grabbed his M21 assault rifle and slotted in a fresh magazine into the rifle, pulling on the firing hammer to make sure it was ready in the event of an encounter. After attaching some miscellaneous items and extra magazines to himself, Harry gave a thumbs up to the pilot. The pilot nodded and banked the helicopter into a descent.

With a light bounce, the chopper landed and Harry jumped out into the night, his rifle raised and scanning the area.The co-pilot slammed the side door shut and the chopper proceeded to take off into the starry skies above. After the whirring of rotors vanished from his hearing, the night became filled with the night calls of insects and night owls. Stepping forward, Harry's boots crunched on loose rocks and gravel. With the flick of a switch, a night vision laser protruded from its emitter into the night. With another flick of another switch, the night vision Hybrid Optics on Harry's M21 flared to life, the reticules showing their custom design of a Zombie Horde on the ACOG sight, and a Splat mark on the Reflex sight.

Reaching a rock edge, Harry looked forward to Canterlot. It sat there on the mountain edge like a monument. A monument to what? Harry had no clue. Jumping down to the ground below, something caught Harry's eye, and he immediately raised his rifle to his shoulder. But the thing that caught Harry's eye was the bundle of rainbow colored hair that was tied to his rifles' long barrel attachment. Giving a sigh of relief, Harry walked forward, only to bump into a Changeling guard. The guard turned, saw Harry and hissed. A quick single shot from his rifle, and the guard dropped, the entry hole in its head smoking. Harry walked over the body, scanning to make sure there weren't others around. The coast was clear, but in the distance, Harry could see more guards as they buzzed around in a perimeter patrol.

"I'm going to have to make a break for it..." Harry said to himself as he slung his rifle behind him and got ready to sprint for the entrance. After kneeling down, Harry began to slow his breathing. His nerves calmed and his breathing became shallow. With a determined glance up to the castle, Harry took off across the dark and rocky terrain. The entrance grew closer, and Harry began to smile. No guards were there to stop him.

"As soon as I get to the guard post, I'm going to-" But his thoughts were interrupted when the ground beneath him gave away and vanished. Sensing the sudden loss of ground, Harry thrusted himself forward for extra momentum, and grabbed the edge of the ground above him. Hanging there, Harry glanced around with his night vision and saw that he was currently hanging on the edge of a large pit, the darkness below him wasn't inviting, and didn't seem to end.

"Damn it, I didn't come all this way just to fall down a hole..." He thought as he began to pull himself up. Unfortunately, the ground he was holding onto was mixed with loose gravel and rocks. Reaching forward for more ground, Harry's hand grabbed a fistful of gravel and whipped back to his side, a sickening pop accompanying it. Harry grunted in pain as he tried to make sure the shoulder hadn't dislocated. Thank fully, it hadn't, it was just a bad tendon pop.

It was then that Harry was aware of the voices nearby. The voices were low and buzzing every now and then.

"Damn it, more guards. They've probably seen the other guards' body..." He thought as he reached for his Five-Seven pistol. If the guards saw him, he'd kill them and pull himself out of the hole. But, the pain in his shoulder had kept him from getting the pistol up and ready to fire.

"Pinched nerve...can't move my arm that much..." Harry muttered to himself. The voices drew closer, and closer. Soon, they were right on him. A head popped over the edge and it sneered at Harry.

"Well, looks like we've found the infiltrator. What shall we do?" The guard ask his friend.

"Report him?" the other responded.

"Too easy. How about this?" The guard said as he hissed, fangs extended, and he bit down on Harry's good hand. Harry cried out in pain as the fangs pierced through the glove, his skin, and to the bones.The pain caused his hand to become paralyzed, and it sprung open, releasing his grip.

"Have a nice fall." The other guard said, and Harry fell into the dark pit below, his cries of pain and terror echoing after him.

*     *     *

His senses slowly began to come back. His vision was cloudy and his ears rang. His nerves began to pick up pain all over his body. The most pain came from a giant gash on the side of his head, the left half of his face soaked in crimson fluid. He tried to move his arm, but only pain responded. He looked to see that his right arm was at an odd angle, a compound fracture in his forearm stuck out at odd angles as blood dripped from the broken radius and ulna bones. Only his fingers were slightly twitching, showing that the nerves hadn't been completely shot.

Using his good hand, Harry slowly pushed himself up from the grimy ground he had been laying on. His night vision scope laid in shattered pieces a couple of feet to his left.  A couple of quick blinks cleared his vision and he looked up. Sunlight was coming from the hole that was now above him. The hole was the size of a pinprick now. His broken arm hanged limply at his side as Harry stood up fully. Suddenly, a foul stench bitch smacked his sense of smell and Harry gagged. It smelled like a combination of three week old trash and shit stained underwear. His eyes watered as Harry pinched his nose to keep the smell out. Looking over, he saw his M21 laying alone a couple of feet away. Making his way over to it, Harry knelt down to grab the rifle, when something caught his eye.

Metal bars sat before him, rusted and grimy with age. Obviously a prison cell. But there was something inside the cell that Harry could barely see. Reaching for his flashlight, Harry shinned the light inside the cell. What he saw made his heart break and fall to pieces. Inside the cell were three emaciated fillies. He didn't need to look further to see that the corpses were little Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle; the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Tears came to his eyes as he looked at them. Their frail and thin bodies were huddled together in a three-way hug. Only now had Harry realized how cold it was down here. They must've been trying to keep warm with what warmth they had left. Tears rolled down his cheeks as Harry placed his flashlight on the ground, put his hand to the bars, and said a silent prayer to the deceased fillies. Standing up quickly and grabbing the flashlight, Harry proceeded to walk down the hall that sat before him.

Water dripped from the ceiling. He must have been at least one hundred feet below the castle, in the dungeons. Stopping, Harry pulled out his second Five-Seven and attached the flashlight to it with the small tactile rail on the pistol.

"There, now if I encounter any of these sick monsters, I can put them down with ease." He muttered darkly. Those girls didn't deserve to die down here. And now, no one else will; not when Harry's done with the place. After a while, Harry cam upon a junction. On the hall entrances sat signs.

Human Prisoners

Way back to castle

Specialty Prisoners

He was here for the humans, but there was something about that last sign that seemed to scream 'COME DOWN HERE!'.

"I'll check it out later..." Harry muttered as he went down the hall to the human prisoners. The smell down this hall was worse than the hall the Crusaders were in; this smelled like human death. Picking up his pace, Harry kept the pistol up and ready as he came upon the rows of cells. There were about fifteen total, most of them containing dead and rotting corpses, while the others held live humans. All of them wore tattered and dirty combat uniforms. A tired woman looked up at the sounds of Harry's boots hitting the stone floor and she gasped.

"Rescue! Guys, they're here to get us out of here!" She said hopefully to the others. The other six looked up and smiled through bruises and blood.

"Oh, thank Christ." One said.

"Ooh Rah!" Another called. Harry stopped and frowned, in which the others returned.

"You're all that's here, aren't you?" The woman asked.

"Yes." Harry responded.

"You're even fucked up. Look at his arm and head guys." A young man pointed out. Once the others did, they looked down with hopelessness. The looks on their faces must've been the same on the Crusaders as they sat in the cell, waiting for rescue, or death, with the latter coming for them in the end. Harry's grip on his pistol tightened.

"I'm getting you guys out of here. Captain Harrison Tetreault, one-hundred fifteenth JSOC operative. Now let's get you out of here. When we get back to the RV, I'll call for evac." Harry said as he began to shoot the locks off the door. The prisoners stood up and pushed the doors open, exiting the cells.

"Which way chief?" The woman asked. Harry used his gun to gesture back the way he came.

"Take a left at the intersection. Proceed down the hall until you come upon the entrance above. I have to check something out really quick and then I'll meet you guys back there and call for evac. Got it?" He asked. The woman nodded and saluted him, then hugged him.

"Thank you so much." She whispered. Harry patted her back and nodded.

"You're all very welcome. Now go. I'll meet you there soon." Harry said releasing the woman. She and the others nodded and proceeded to run down the way Harry had told them to go. He followed them and continued straight to 'Specialty Prisoners'.

*     *     *

The hall that Harry entered looked a bit more clean. The only difference was the fact that the cells were not iron bars, but instead separate rooms. On the steel doors sat more signs, this time each had numbers. They numbered from one to fifteen, and doors one through six were closed and locked while the others sat open. One of the doors, number three, looked like there was cracked stone around the door frame, apparently evidence of a struggle. Harry's heart began to race. Anything could be beyond those doors.

"Even..."

In a single breath, Harry fired six shots in rapid succession at the locks, each of them falling off the doors. Their respective doors slowly swung open, a groaning slowness that ate away at Harry's patience. He kept the Five-Seven raised in the event of an attack. Silence filled the air, and Harry cleared his throat.

"This is Captain Harrison Tetreault of the United States Joint Special Operations Command! I order you to exit the cells with your hands raised above your head, walking out slowly!" His voice rang out. More silence filled the air. Time seemed to stretch seconds into hours.

"I'll say it again! Come out with your hands up and--" But he was cut off when a purple hoof reach out of the door way. That hoof soon turned into a foreleg, which became the front half of a pony with its other foreleg up above her head. A swollen eye was present on the face of the mare as she looked to Harry, tears forming in her good eye.

"H-Harry..." She whispered. Harry's gun dropped to the ground and he rushed forward to embrace Twilight, tears rolling down his face as he ran to her. She reared onto her hind legs, fore legs open, and Harry slid on his knees and grabbed her into a tearful hug.

"I can't b-believe you're he-he-here!" Twilight chocked out as she spoke.

"It's alright T-Twilight, I'm h-here. Where a-are the others?" He asked. As if on cue, the two were embraced by five others, tears and cries of happiness filling the air.

"I can't believe you're all okay!" Harry said as he pulled away and looked at his girls.

"We can't either." They said as one.

Wait a minute.

"You girls okay?" Harry asked.

"We're fine. Come on Harrison, let's go home." They said as one again.

Something wasn't right. They've never called him by his first name before. Harry stood up and began to back away from the six ponies.

"What's wrong Harrison? Aren't you happy to see us? Don't you...love...us...?" Suddenly, the six began to transform. They grew taller, their multi-colored fur coats and manes became black and murky green. Their colorful eyes became a sickening green. Horns erupted from the non-unicorns and grew into long, holed horns. A buzzing filled the air.

"And isn't this just precious?"

*     *      *

Harry woke and saw green. Just green. It surrounded him, encased him. He turned his head and saw a clear layer of the casing he was in. A pair of green eyes looked back at him, a wicked grin on the owners' face.

It was Chrysalis.

"Welcome to my home, Captain."