Equestria in Conflict - Discovering Home

John opened his eyes as a ray of sunshine played on his face, the golden light pushing away his sleep. He sat up and looked around, spotting Wesley leaning against the side of the building, outlined in the brilliant orange of the new day. His friend was looking out over the city, at the buildings jutting into the sky, smoke still streaming out of holes in various highrises.

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were still sleeping on the top of the roof, probably exhausted from the previous day's excitement. If you could call fighting your way across a mile of heavily urbanized area 'excitement'.

Pushing away the fog of sleepiness, John slowly rolled over and pushed himself to his feet. He staggered over to Wesley, looking out over the city. Both of them stood in silence, looking out over the city rocked by carnage.

"I bet it used to be beautiful." Wesley said after a moment.

"It probably did." John replied, detached.

"You know, history books never tell us about what happens in the aftermath." Wesley said, continuing. "All that they show is numbers and maps, and all we see are the chess pieces moving around the board. When thousands are being killed around you, and you huddle in what used to be a coffee shop, or somebody's home. Hell, even a hospital. You never seem to notice the toll it takes on your surroundings.

"Cities crumble to dust as the fighting races across the landscape, fields turned ripe to fallow, and the ruined machines of war marking the landscape. We have fought as one as we ran from Seattle, through the cold hell of the Cascades, and finally in a race against time to stop a nuclear war. Along the way, I think we might have lost something. Part of what keeps us in this fight. Right now, we're only fighting because we have to."

Anton stepped up beside them unannounced, looking out at the rising sun.

Wesley continued. "We need to fight because these ponies, no matter how different, deserve our help."

"We need to fight for them." Anton concluded with a smile.

-=-=-

"What's the plan today?" Wesley asked as they looked down the street they were walking on. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were having an animate discussion about 'their last time here', while John, Wesley, and Anton walked five feet ahead, carrying on their own.

Ten minutes before, as the fighting was about to pick up again with the coming of day, a pegasus guard in full steel armor had delivered them a message, instructing them to return to the command post four blocks down, and one to the west. After that point, they had climbed down the building, walked past the crude barricades of stone and overturned items that the guards had set up, and continued down the street.

"I don't know" John answered for the third time.

"Will they have a special mission for us?" Wesley asked.

"I don't know." John said as he mentally counted it up.

"Will we get to be like that British spy or something? Blowing shit up all across whatever this planet is?" Wesley continued.

"I don't know." Five.

"Is there going to be new guns for us?" Anton asked, purposely misspeaking in order to help Wesley with annoying John.

Said soldier's eyebrow twitched as he automatically replied. "I don't know." Six.

"Oh, are we going to-"

"I don't know! Just shut the fuck up for five goddamn minutes!" John said.

After that, the trip was fairly quiet, until they finally came upon a fairly bustling spot on the road. Ponies of all types were moving in and out of a small building that looked like a café. Pushing past the ground, the guard let them all in after they passed through a small, cyan barrier.

"What's the magic for, Twilight?" John asked as they walked further inside.

"It's a shield spell attuned to Changelings." She explained. "You see, it's quite simple. Because of the interaction between..."

After that point, John tuned her out, until they reached the small room in the back that they were pointed to just as Twilight was finishing.

"... And all of this results in something that drops any illusion or transformation spells, such as the Changeling's natural magic."

"Thanks, Twilight." John deadpanned as he knocked on the door. "You might try shortening your lecture by about three minutes, though."

Before the mare could answer, the door handle was enveloped in a green glow and the door opened. The three humans and two ponies stepped inside of the small room, which had a single table with several local maps on it, some equipment, and about seven other ponies surrounding it, as well as two Changelings in guard armor. All of them turned to look at the newcomers.

John cleared his throat before sheepishly saying the first thing that came to mind. "Sup? This the place we were supposed to be at?"

One of the ponies, at the front of the table, was the first to respond. "Correct. We need the Element of Magic here, and she is often comfortable around you."

"I am right here." Twilight deadpanned.

"So you are." The guard said. "Come, we have come up with an idea. What do you know of Changeling magic?"

"Not much." Twilight admitted as she and the others sat down on stools around the table. "I know that it is linked to regular magic, but only in the sense that it is by the same method. Most of it is completely subconscious. We really don't have many Changelings who have told us anything."

"Which is where we come in." One of the Changelings at the table said. "Me and Steel here were both part of the Baltimare Changeling Resistance, the group fighting against Chrysalis. We know all the 'ins' and 'outs' of how it works, and we have come up with an idea."

"What is it?" Wesley asked, leaning closer.

The Changeling called 'Steel' answered first. "Changeling magic is like normal magic, except for two things: Most of it is natural, and preformed subconsciously. The other difference is how it works. While a normal spell requires the attention of a caster, and indeed we are limited by that for normal magic, Changeling magic in and of itself has a completely different and identifiable energy to it."

The other one picked it up at that point. "We built a device powered by a green focusing crystal  that is designed to find the connections of the Hive Mind in the local area. When a telepathic connection is made, the device senses it and links to it. From that point on, we can easily listen in on the conversations taking place. But we have one problem: Power."

"And you want me to power it?" Twilight asked.

"Correct." The head guard said. "It would take five unicorns to continuously power this. Because of your special talent in magic, and your raw power, you would be able to charge it in a few seconds to work for hours."

Twilight sighed, before turning to the others. "Give me a moment. I should be able to imbue it with enough energy."

The unicorn's horn glowed bright magenta as a faint stream of magic poured into the strange equipment. After a few seconds it cut off, with Twilight showing some signs of tiring. Wesley noticed the device having a light on the front that glowed a faint green, probably from whatever crystal was inside. From what he had learned, crystals and gems were useful in focusing some types of magic.

"Done." Twilight said, lifting her foreleg up to wipe a faint sheen of sweat from her face.

"Thank you, Element of Magic." One of the Changelings said before turning to the device. Its horn glowed a lime green as it seemed to mess with the device, testing it.

From the crystal, faint sounds started to some out, sounding faintly like voices. As John and the others leaned it, they grew louder, until the words became clear.

"Everyling in the east sector, report to Grid six-dash-eight for orders on-" "-seen heavy cloud formations moving east. Don't go skybourn: It'll just slow you down." "We need support from two smallunit groups by the shorefront. Ponies are moving to-" "They're coming from the north and east! Everyling in smallunit A-2, retreat back to-"

"It's like a radio." John commented as the connections drifted from link to link, catching snippets of the traffic on the Hive Mind.

"I didn't know the Changelings depended on the Hive Mind so much for communication." A pegasus guard admitted.

"They do." The Changeling controlling the device said. "It's convenient, and they believe that nopony can every take a peek inside."

"Well, now they are wrong." Anton finished.

After a short pause filled with the sounds of the device, Wesley decided to ask the obvious question.

"So, where do we go now?" He said.

One of the night guard, a batpony, answered him. "We could use some help by the waterfront. From what that says, they're about to launch an attack there. However, we wish for the Element of Loyalty to stay and relay messages between the fighting groups."

"Sure." Rainbow Dash said.

"Sounds about right." Wesley said. "Twi, any chance of teleporting us?"

"Yes, hold on a moment." The mare said, lowering her head in concentration as the three humans crowded around her. Together, they disappeared in a blink of light-

-=-=-

-And appeared right in the middle of a street.

Magical bolts flew by on every side as the four scrambled over a barricade several guards were defending. As Wesley rose above the wood and stone construction to fire, he quickly noted that, not twenty meters away, about two dozen Changelings stood behind cover, coming out to trade bolts with guard unicorns. The fog had already rolled in, and was a mere one hundred feet above the ground.

Wesley glanced over the barricade made of wood and chunks of stone, glancing down the debris-filled street towards where the Changelings fired from. Wesley rose above the barricade and fired several sounds from his Sa-58, the 7.62x39mm rounds punching through wooden carts and obstacles to pierce through hard chitin. Several screams rose up from those injured, and the green blood from the dead pooled on the ground.

The battle was not entirely one-sided, however. To John's right, a Unicorn flopped down on the ground, his face melted away by a direct magical blast. Several Changelings flew lower overhead, launching green bolts into the barriers, occasionally striking ponies.

"When do you think they'll give up?" Twilight said as she telekinetically threw a large stone at several Changelings behind a cart, who were knocked down or flattened when the rock hit their cover.

"How the hell should I know?" John demanded as he reloaded his rifle.

"You're better at fighting them!"

"Like hell I am..." John muttered. Turning to his friend, he tapped Wesley on the shoulder, causing the man to turn around.

"What?" Wesley said.

"Do you need any ammunition?" John asked.

"The magazines on our rifles are incompatible, even if they share the same round." Wesley deadpanned, turning to continue firing.

"Well, ain't you a bundle of joy." John sarcastically stated as he rose up to fire again, his rounds only rarely striking a target. The Changeling here seemed much different than his earlier encounters: Most wore armor, took cover quite often, and had good accuracy with magical bolts. Two were being downed to every pony loss, but at this rate, he hopes they would run out soon.

At last, the flow of Changelings began to die down just as twenty reinforcements for the ponies arrived at the barricade. They took their place at the wall, waiting for the word to advance forward.

"Are you ready?" John asked Twilight as shouts and yells started to echo across the city.

"Yes, I am." The mare stated.

"Then let's do this." Wesley said, pulling back the bolt on his rifle to load a new round from a fresh magazine. Turning towards the barricade, the human put his left hand on it, thrust himself over, and started charging.

"Forward!" John said as he followed Wesley out. From the edges of his vision, he could see that the ponies had followed his lead, jumping forward from behind the barricade and charging forward, the unicorns firing blasts from their horns while the pegasi took to the air.

John jumped over an overturned cart and shot a Changeling on the other side with his AEK-971, deftly sidestepping the falling body. He opened fire on two more that had already cut down three pegasi in the air, quickly dropping them from the sky. To his left, Anton quickly killed a Changeling standing in front of him with his Sa-61 Skorpion, the black bug-like equine falling to the ground in a mist of green blood.

Wesley quickly sidestepped to the right to avoid a green bolt flying straight at him. A unicorn to his left fired a blue magical bolt into the Changeling, killing it. They had progressed half a block, and already were running into heavy resistance. Gritting his teeth, Wesley dropped his empty magazine and inserted a fresh one, loading a new bullet into his rifle.

-=-=-

Ten minutes and four blocks later, John burst into the hallway of the Bay Hotel, gunning down two of the Changelings foolish enough to stand in the open. Twilight killed four others in a rapid-fire magical burst, and Anton helped Wesley cut down the remaining two. As the ponies outside traded fire with the Changelings while digging in, John and the others continued further inside, headed for the stairwell.

"How tall is this building?" John asked Twilight as he opened the door and started climbing the first flight.

"About eight stories." Twilight recalled from memory. "The top is mostly flat, with cover here and there, along with the sides."

"Perfect." John said as they started on the third flight of stairs. "We'll be able to see down most of the seaside street. We'll be in a perfect position to snipe. Wesley, do you still have your PSO-1?"

"Sure do." The soldier said as he pulled said scope out of his backpack and started to fit it on the rifle rail. All while climbing the stairs.

John nodded. "Good. We'll be able to establish an effective firezone. Twilight, can you handle anything that comes into range?"

The mare nodded. "Yes, I can."

"Good. The cloud cover will be, at most, a dozen feet over our heads. Don't forget that most pegasi - and Changelings - will be flying below our height."

They finally reached the top floor and burst through the door. No Changelings stood to greet them. As John had predicted, the cloud layer was little over twenty feet above them, providing a comfortable barrier to attack from above. Wesley and the others quickly moved to the side of the building, looking down at the fight brewing. The Changelings were beginning a heavy attack, and the ponies were starting to lose more than they gained - this group of Changelings was obviously more skilled, hiding behind solid cover and only breaking it to fire precise shots at the ponies.

They never saw death coming. John pulled the trigger on the M203 below the modified underrail of his rifle, sending out a 40mm High Explosive fragmentation grenade into the center of their formation. It burst among them, killing around a dozen, and sending nearby objects - and fragments of hot steel - racing around to strike others.

The Changelings advance almost instantly broke down, as John assumed he had hit their leader, by the light blue stripes one of them had on its armor. Wesley shot left and right, taking down Changelings in single hits, while Anton selectively sprayed the crowd. Twilight simply kept up a basic one-way forcefield, as well as slinging magical bolts whenever she could.

Finally, the Changelings withdrew, content to fire from the buildings and down the street, where the humans could not easily kill them.

The sound of an object hitting the ground behind them was audible. They all turned around to see Rainbow Dash standing there, looking at them.

"Hey everypony, the boss unicorn guy said he wanted us to do something." The blue mare said.

"And what would that be?" John asked.

"He wants us to go down in the water tunnels." Rainbow said. "Apparently, some Changelings have been heard to be going underground, and they want to know why. So they send me to tell you and then go along to see what happened."

"Awesome." John said after a few seconds. "When do we leave."

"Right now, probably." Twilight said. "From what I know of the layout, there is an easy entrance to the underground water tunnels in the basement."

"Let's go then." Wesley said, walking towards the staircase. A moment later, the others followed.

"So... Are these sewage or what?" John asked as they started to descend the stairs.

"No." Twilight said. "They provide drinking water that half the city can pump up. It's almost crystal clear down there: You could drink straight out of it, if you wanted to."

"So it is like a water pipe." Anton summarized.

"Precisely."

The group descended into the ground floor, and then beyond it, within a few minutes. Sure enough, at the bottom level they found a concrete stairwell twisting downward.

"Anybody else have a bad feeling about this?" Wesley quipped as they went down.

"Stop quoting." John said. "And stop jinxing it as well."

"Whatever." Wesley said as they found themselves in a tunnel. "I'm just too awesome for you."

The tunnel they were in stretched for twenty feet to their left, and about four hundred feet into the distance to their right. The raised path they were on was made of stone, and was two feet above the water level. Light blue gemstones in the ceiling provided plenty of tinted light, casting a beautiful reflection of the clear water on the ceiling.

"This is amazing." Was the only thing John could say.

After a few moments, Anton was the first one to speak up.

"Let us keep moving." The Russian said. "We do not have the entire day."

The group moved down the hallway, picking up faint echoes in the distance. The tunnel turned twice, in a zigzag pattern. The voices grew steadily louder, although John's comprehension of them did not increase.

"What do you think they are?" Wesley asked in a whisper.

"I don't know." John hissed. "They're right around the next corner, twenty feet ahead."

The group approached it slowly, the tunnel opening up beyond the bend. They stood beside the sharp change of direction to the right, with John in the lead. He held up his rifle, held up, a fist, before dropping it.

As one, all five ran around the corner.

To see five sets of blue eyes attached to black masses, staring at them in the bright blue light.

"Oh fuck..." John summarized.