Maria stood in a large room, in front of her was Equestrians stargate and her only way home.

Maria was no stranger to the Ancient devices and had seen many variations from the ones in her home galaxy the Milky way, to the Pegasus galaxy, even the one aboard the Destiny before the expedition had gone silent.

But this one... this one was a work of art, it was made like most stargates, 7 locks along the outer ring and a inner ring, but unlike every gate other than the Destiny gates this stargate had no chevrons and the same was said about the DHD, it was made of some sort of gold naquadah and the inner ring looked like sky blue crystal, it was beautiful.

“It is breathtaking... isn't it?”

Maria hadn't noticed Luna’s entrance and glanced back.

“You have no idea” she chuckled “Your gate looks like more of a work of art than a working Stargate”

“Indeed, our creators left us with many gifts and hid them all over Equestria but left us with no way to find them”

“The Ancients never liked to make things easy”

“Hmmm yes,we only found this Stargate through folklore and legends and there are many legends that we are investigating”

“Princess I still have my doubts about this, Wouldn't it make more sense to bring a small squad of royal guard instead of some civilians?”

“You would think so, but the guard hasn't fought any conflict in thousands of years and the Guards who do had combat experience are already deployed at your SGC to guard it from attack from the infected”

“So they're more of police then soldiers?” Luna nodded “And these ponies had combat experience and have killed before?” again but reluctantly Luna nodded.

“Me and my sister have done everything we could to ensure Equestria is a paradise for our ponies, but even in paradise there is conflict”

They arrived at the large wooden doors for the throne room and two guards pushed them open allowing them entry, inside Celestia, Twilight and four other ponies stopped talking as they walked towards them.

*They look tense* Red said for the first time in hours.

“Where have you been” Maria said in her head.

*Sleeping, even other personalities have to sleep you know*

“Ah Luna, Maria, join us we were just discussing the mission”

“Don’t stop on my acount” Maria said as Luna took her seat next to her sister “I read the brief last night”

“Ok then, as I was saying once we arrive at the survivor fortress, we will locate the location of the Device and bring it back and hopefully use it to disperse the cure spell across the planet and either cure or kill all the infected on the planet”

On of the ponies stepped forward and Maria almost didn't recognise her out of her uniform.

“Princess, I couldn't even handle one of these things” Spitfire said “How are we supposed to go against a whole horde of them?”

“First of all you were fighting a Witch, not a common infected” Maria said bringing the rooms attention upon herself “Witches are some of the most dangerous Mutations of Infected other than the Tank and Your got lucky”

“I think I had better leave the talking about the Infected to you” Celestia said “You and Red are somewhat of experts yourselves”

Maria nodded and crossed her arms “While Red was incontrol before she started being more... Human, We saw many types of infected and the survivors we faced against all ahd names for them” she placed her hand on her chest “We were a Witch, on of the most dangerous, Witches are fast, strong and very agile with fingers that had grown into long razor sharp claws that can tear a full grown man to shreds in moments, You were lucky to have survived an encounter”

“I know, if you hadn't-”

“I don't mean lucky that way” Maria cut her off “You don't take on a Witch hand to claw, you keep her at a distance and used projectile weapons like, P90 of M16s”

She turned to Celestia “Did your guards bring any weapons back from earth?”

“Yes and these ponies have been trained in using them”

Two guards brought in a Large weapons black crate.

Maria walked over to them as the guards dropped the crate and allowed her to looked inside, inside was a number of the preferred weapons of SG1 and her own SG22 when they weren't armoured up, the P90 sub machine with Laser sight and a ALP.

*Whooo! Now that is a nice weapon*

Maria picked up a p90 plus a clip and slid it into the weapon before slamming the back to snap it securely in place, the weapons was in amazing shape for something that probably hadn't been used for a long time. Once again Maria was amazed at the ponys ability to learn as it was shown through the amount of human technology they were using in Canterlot.

Celestia watched as Maria repeated reloading three more times as years of military experiance began to flow back “We have been able to figure out much about these weapons and our guard contingent on Earth uses them In place of their old swords and spears, but we have been unable to ascertain what that other device does, when we used it on dummys it it did nothing”

“Thats because it’s not meant to be used on inanimate objects” Maria told her “This is a ALP, Anti Life Projector, when it makes contact with any living tissue it drains the life energy and leaves the target a lifeless shell”

Luna made a look of pure disgust “That is barbaric, why would your race create such a device?”

*They didn't have a choice* thanks to an enchantment that Celestia had put on Maria, Red could now communicate with others when she wanted *But they were left with no choice*

“What happened?” Twilight asked, seeing Marias face darken as she remembered what Red was speaking about.

“The 3 day War” she replied sadly “Human and The free Jaff’s shortest and most bloody conflict to date”

“Who was it against?”

Maria frowned touching her side where her large scare still was, the one wound that her witch abilities had not been able to heal “The Vorsoth, a race of beings that fed on the lifeforce of anything in our universe, Both us and our allies fought them on a worled call PPX-98789 and everyone suffered heavy losses because our normal weapons were ineffective”

Luna pieced it together quicker than the other ponies in the room “And your race created ALPs to fight them”

Maria closed her eyes and nodded as flash’s of the Battle and she found herself being drawn back.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Covering fire!”
“MOVE MOVE!”
“Bilbos down!”
BOOM!

______________________________________________________________________________

“Stay with me Jones... Where’s Mac!”
“He’s dead, so’s Romerize”
“Shit... See if you can get Rep back On- GET DOWN!”
BOOM!

____________________________________________

Maria snapped her eyes open and shook her head to ward off the bad memories.

“Are you ok Maria?” Celestia asked as she saw the distress in her features.

“It’s nothing... just brought up some bad memories all, Please continue”

Celestia gave her a unconvinced look but continued explaining the mission to the assembled ponies, but Maria wasnt paying attention, and Red couldn't tell why.

*You sure you're ok?* she whispered.

“Yes I’m fine... really, never better”

Red was about to say something but then the throne room doors began to open.

Standing at the doors was an Orange and blond earth pony with a Stratton hat and three apples for a cutie mark.

“Well howdy yall”

Twilight’s face lit up like a lamp “Applejack!” she half stepped, half leaped off her throne and rushed over to the pony wrapping her in a tight hug.

“Hi Twi, How are ya doing?” The cowpony asked “Still got your head in your books?”

The princess giggled “In books no, but work is a whole other story” she frowned “What are you doing here AJ?”

“Celestia asked if ah would go with her to this Earth Place”

Twilight looked at her friend, then at her fellow princess “Why didnt you tell me?” she asked.

“It was Applejacks decision” Celestia said “She’s had prior contact the Infected and was at the top of the list for this mission”

Twilight looked at her friend “What does she mean?”

*She’s been infected before* Red said making both Maria and Twilight’s blood run cold *She was a Tank*

Luna and Celestia looked at Maria and stared at Red within her “How did you know” Luna asked.

*I Can feel her, don't ask me how but I can feel when she was infected, what she became and that she only has traces of the virus left in her*

Twilight looked at her friend in horror “Why didn't you tell me?”

“Ah really wanted to Twi, Ah wanted to tell all the girls but I needed some time alone to get use to what being that thing did to me”

“sorry to interupt but” Maria started “I thought Equestrians couldn't get infected”

“We usually can’t but Applejack was very sick at the time” Celestia explained “Her immune system was useless against the virus, I managed to get to her before she infected anyone else”

“But I still don't understand how the virus even get here, thats what I want to know”

“We don't know, but I believe the answer to that lays in the artifact we are looking for”

The new few hours were spent explaining what they were to do, after arriving at the SGC, they would take a APC to Novus Colorado survivor fort just located near the john townstead reservoir, from there they would meet up with another group who would would give them the information on where the Artifact in question may be, after that they would have to wing it from there.

Throughout the meeting Maria had learned the names for the rest of the ponies she was going to be working with, there was a white pegasus called Feather Weight and her twin Heartrazor a red unicorn, then there was a red earth pony called Stonewall, apparently this pony had gone up against a massive hydra and won and he had the scars to prove it.
The last member of the team was Celestia’s new personal student Solar Flare, nobody really knew much about the mare other than she was an adapt pyromancer and that Celestia had brought her to the palace out of the blue and stating that she was her new student and nopony was to look into the mare’s history, not that there was much to look at, most of it was covered in black ink or had mysteriously disappeared, nopony had even seen her cutie mark before as she always wore gold, red and black cloak that went with her yellow,red and black coat and mane nicely.

By the time they were finally in the gate room it was approaching midday, in Celestia and Luna’s absence Twilight would handle moon while Candace would take care of the sun, both elder princesses had great faith in their younger counterparts and Candace and her husband wished them luck dispute not being able to be there to see them all off.

Twilight and Applejack were talking quietly away from everyone so nobody could hear them, but with her enhanced Witch hybrid hearing Maria could have listened in but decided against it and began inspecting her weapon glancing at Celestia and Solar Flare who were also away from the group wondering what they were talking about but no bothering to eavesdrop.

______________________________________________________________________________

“But I’m scared Princess what if I lose control like before”

“Flare I made you a promise that day and I intend to keep it” Celestia said firmly but reassuringly “ and If what the reports say is true you may have many infected to train yourself with”

Flare looked up at her mentor surprised “But aren't there people trapped within those things, won't that be killing innocents?”

Celestia shook her head “No, from what both us and the Humans have been able to learn is that the Witch’s are the only variant of infected that’s victim is conscious and the Witch itself can be reformed as Red has proven”

“So what you're saying is that any infected other than the Witch’s, we can kill without making the victim feel the pain?”

Celestia nodded “So dont worry My student, and if you do lose control I will be there to bring you back, I will not allow the Draken Fire to kill a mare as young as you” she closed her eyes as a look of regret passed over her perfect features “Not like her”

A voice blared over the loudspeakers “PRINCESSES WE ARE READY TO DIAL EARTH ON YOUR GO, ALL NO MISSION PERSONNEL PLEASE LEAVE THE GATE ROOM”

Twilight walked over to Celestia “Celestia please look after AJ over there and bring her back”

Celestia nodded and gave her former student a quick hug while Flare looked around to see if anyone was watching, once they broke the embrace Twilight walked over to Solar Flare and held her hoof out for the younger mare to shake “Take care of Celestia too alright?” Flare nodded quickly, totally geeking out over just shaking hoofs with the mare she had idolised since that very first time they had bumped into each over at magic school, granted she had looked a lot different back then so the older mare would never recognise her, as it should be.

“S-Sure, no problem”

The lavender alicorn winked as she left, closing the doors behind her, just then the Stargate began humming and the team gathered behind a yellow and black safety line as the first symbol appeared on the inner ring followed by one of the chevrons glowing gold.

“CHEVRON 1 ENCODED”

This was followed by three more locking in quick succession.

“CHEVRONS 2-4 ENCODED”

The sequence continued until the final 7th chevron

“CHEVRON 5 ENCODED”
“CHEVRON 6 ENCODED
“CHEVRON 7... LOCKED!”

With a FWOOSH the gate roared open, taking a few seconds to settle down and stabilize.

“Ooowee! will you look at that”

“Soooo awesome, wouldn't you say bro”

“Buck yea!”

“Meh... seen it”

Maria stepped up to the event horizon and looked back at the ponies behind her “you waiting or an invitation?” she asked as she stepped backward through the gate and disappeared.

The rest didn't need telling twice and one by one they stepped through until Solar Flare was alone standing before the watery surface of the gate, with a deep breath she closed her eyes, took and deep breath and stepped through.

Author's Note

sorry this took so long, it was a pain to write, as you will knotice there are alot of gramma errors in this chapter, AtonalPoet: is currently unable to work on the chapters so I need a temporary or a new permeate second proofreader/editor, anywho... here you go