First Contact

Chapters

Insignificant
Prologue
Chapter 1: Shadow (edited version)
Chapter 2 and 3 merge: Unreality
Chapter 4 and 5 merge: Investigation
Chapter 6 and 7: Introductions
Chapters 8 and 9: Highway to Hell Parts 1 and 2
Chapter 10: Elements of Disharmony
Chapter 11: Recovery
Chapter 12: Kill one, get two free
Chapter 13: Black and White all Over
Chapter 14 and 15 Merge: Ponyville
Chapter 16: The Gathering
Chapter 17: Shadow's night in Part 1
Chapter 18: Shadow's Night in Part 2
Chapter 19: Shadow's Night in Part 3
Chapter 20: Shadow's Night in Part 4
Chapter 21: Divergence
UTF Lore (Bonus)
Chapter 22: Royal Summit
Chapter 23: The Tour
Assilant
Chapter 24: The Party
Chapter 25: Post Carnage
Chapter 26: Canterlot
Chapter 27: Equineology
Chapter 28: Unmasked
Chapter 29: Gods and Kings
Chapter 30: Recreation
Chapter 31: Anomalies
Chapter 32: Rational Mystery Cure
Duel (200 likes bonus)
Chapter 33: Machine and Might
Chapter 34: The Dissident
Chapter 35: Blackout
Chapter 36: Interrogation (Republished)
Chapter 37: Destination
The Alliance
Chapter 38: Derailed (Dedicated To Tom Clancy)
Chapter 39: The Crystal Empire
Chapter 40: Revelations Part 1
Chapter 41: Revelations Part 2
Chapter 42: Revelations Part 3
Chapter 43: Revelations part 4
Chapter 44: The (Supposed) Voice Of Reason
Chapter 45: Rescue
Chapter 46: Rescue Part 2

Insignificant

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space." - Douglas Adams.

4 months before the return NightMare Moon.

"See, I told you this would be a great place to go stargazing." gloated the unicorn stallion Shining Armor.

"Well I guess I owe you 20 bits.'" laughed the alicorn princess Cadance.

"Hey it was just a joke, this outing is all I need." playfully shrugged the white stallion.

The couple was perched on a picnic blanket on a hill that had the best view of the city of Canterlot. Anypony could observe every little detail from where they were sitting. From ponies going on night outs, to musicians performing in the streets and guards marching on their day to day business.

The couple however, had no interest in the city. Instead they were turned the other way, gazing at the beautiful night sky. Celestia, the ruler of Equestria, had no doubt been making sure the marvelous night wouldn't be smothered by such trivial distractions. Especially for her niece to enjoy.

The equine couple clutched each other close, feeling the warmth of their bodies melt away all their troubles and worries. Their eyes were fixed on the sky, the large number of bright stars filling them with passion.

"The stars sure are shining bright tonight." whispered Cadance.

"Yeah but you have the most lovely stars right in your eyes." complimented Shining Armor.

"You're such a gentlecolt Shining." said Cadance to the sound of crickets.

"That's Captain Shining Armor of the royal guard to you." reminded the white unicorn. His coat glowed in the moonlight.

Cadance nuzzled her lover's neck. "Hard to believe you got promoted so far in such a short time." Before Shining was relived of the day's duty he had been approached by Starscream, the previous captain of the royal guard to be informed that Shining was going to succeed him.

"Well I'm pretty sure you had something to do with it. With you being Celestia's niece and all. I haven't even fought any battles to deserve such accommodations." noted Shining Armor.

"Shining, you got your position because you deserve it you know that. Besides, you should be glad that Equestria has never entered a war. Otherwise, merit would be based on vile things like murder and ruthlessness."

"I would never kill." shook Shining Armor. "Peace can be enforced in many ways. We shouldn't have to resort to such acts."

Cadance kissed Shining on the cheek, causing the stallion to blush. Unknown to Cadance however, Shining Armor was planning on proposing to her on her next birthday.

"You know we're going to throw you a celebration tomorrow." stated Cadance. "You, me, your friends in the guard, your parents and Twilight."

Shining chuckled. "You know Twilight's going to be busy studying with the princess or reading some book."

Cadance had a glum expression. "Ever since I stopped being Twilight's foal sitter when she turned 11, it seems like she got less and less interested in company as time went on."

"Hey I'm sure she'll lighten up." assured Shining Armor. "Let's just enjoy the night."

The couple spent another few minutes before Cadance broke the silence.

"You know," said the Alicorn as she looked at the moon. "In a few months we're going to celebrate the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration."

"Yeah, hard to believe the tradition's up for so long." nodded Shining as he gazed at the moon as well.

"They say on that night, NightMare Moon will return to wreck havoc on Equestria." remembered the Alicorn.

"You know that's just a fairy tale right?" pointed the white stallion. The cries of the crickets grew louder.

Cadance shifted her attention to the stars again. Shining Armor followed.

"There are just so many stars out there huh?" sighed Shining Armor as laid on his back.

"And those are just the stars we can observe." added the princess. "Princess Celestia told me there are billions more in the galaxy."

After a moment's pause, Shining turned to his marefriend. "Hey Cadance?"

"Yes dear?"

"You ever wonder what's up there?"

"Like what?"

"Maybe someone up there is wondering what it's like here."

"I guess. Do you think we'll ever meet them?"

"I hope so. Don't you?"

"That depends on what they'd be like." noted Cadance.

"The galaxy is full of possibilities. Maybe out there there's an Alien race made up transforming robots or intergalactic musicians." chuckled the blue maned Stallion.

"Or a group of evil conquerers bent on galactic conquest." shivered the Alicorn.

"Nah, I'm sure any aliens out there wouldn't be like that. After all, harmony and love is universal right?"

Cadance looked in the eyes of her lover. "Right." she whispered.

"And besides, you know I'd protect you to the end if such a scenario would occur."

"But why would they care about us?" muttered the Princess.

"What do you mean?" asked Shining Armor.

"I mean, ponies must be awfully small and pathetic if there are aliens out there that can travel through the stars."

"Ponies are a unique race, just like whatever might be out there in the galaxy. If aliens don't want to visit us, it's their loss they're not going to meet such a beautiful mare." Cadance smiled at that remark.

The two kissed and looked at the brightest star in the sky, known to a certain species as Gliese 667 C, admiring its glow.

_________________

To the couple's petty ignorance, orbiting that star was a planet, Miridem (Gliese 667 Cc in 21st century). On that planet laid a Mega Corp base on fire.

The installation had nearly completed its goal in capturing a city, had it not been for 4 unorthodox counter terrorists.

A Mega Corp mercenary was trying to limp away from the destruction. His left leg nearly blown off by a carbine bullet. His blue armor complimented the orange sky emitted by the red dwarf star.

The mercenary wasn't caring for his life so much that he cared for loosing a pay check. Suddenly, the insurrectionist's HUD started to scramble and his vision began to blur.

Right when the terrorist began to stumble, a figure uncloaked. It's body was entirely covered in black.

Before the Mega Corp mercenary could react, the figure drew his sidearm, and pulled the trigger.

The mercenary fell, dead. The black clad soldier that ambushed him was unmoved. His mechanical voice filled the air.

"Command, this is Overwatch. All 800 plus hostiles are KIA."

Author's Note

Before I continue the story, I thought about adding a small flashback.

BTW, this intro is referencing a trailer for a certain video game at one point. I hope you can guess it.

Prologue

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”-Abraham Lincoln

1400 years ago on the planet of Epona, three bickering pony tribes, the Earth Ponies who tended to crops, the warrior Pegasi who had the ability to fly and control the weather, and the wise Unicorns, whose powerful magic allowed them to accomplish the hardest of tasks, unified after a freak blizzard forced the once bitter rivals to look past each other’s differences and work together to survive.

The three tribes found a land called Equestria, where they would live in peace and harmony with each other. Or so they thought.

After a few hundred years of silence, the spirit of chaos known as Discord stole power from the two heirs of Equestria and ravaged the nation. One by one Discord turned the ponies against each other and made them forget the nature they once held true. It seemed for a while that the ponies were forever destined to be miserable under the spirit of chaos. To them, the situation seemed hopeless.

Unfortunately for Discord, he did not properly dispose the sister alicorn heirs, Celestia and Luna. After years of training, two sisters braved all odds and overthrew the Draconequus and finally gave Equestria the harmony it desired.
Soon the sister Alicorn “Goddesses” began their quest to keep ponykind from returning to the state of chaos. They and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, a peacekeeping force that could only be used by ponies of the purest heart, would make sure that pony kind would be safe from all the evils the universe offered. However, society can only go so far with pain as a driving force for evolution. The alicorns had to live under a totalitarian rule and control even the simplest parts of pony freedoms to preserve peace (even if it was nice for the common people).

Unity came to the species of humanity in different forms. It all started when WWIII ended on Earth at 2030. For what had started out as a unified Arab attack on Israel soon escalated to the bloodiest conflict humans had ever seen. NATO, the Neo USSR, the Far East Nations, and the Arab-African Alliance (AAA) fought each other for their own reasons. But why reasons and battles when war never changes and deep down the cause of war remains the same, human desire and ends the same, with death.

Eventually the conflict went nuclear and a small number of nations such as North Korea, Iran, and a couple states in America were totally decimated with no trace of life remaining. United under the suffering, humankind unified under a single, social democratic global government to lead the masses.

Not wanting to scar Earth any further, the humans decided it was time to colonize other planets to take the burden off their home planet. Using the secret plans of the former American government to evacuate their people into space in the event of extinction, the humans were able to develop tools for an age of interstellar travel such as terra-formers, space battleships and faster than light travel. As a result of the colonization of numerous worlds, the humans called their government the ‘United Terran Federation’ or UTF for short. A new extrasolar era had begun .

Unlike ponies however, humans did not believe in controlling freedoms to preserve peace. War never died and never will for humanity as not everyone accepted these ideologies. Major insurrection groups rose over the years and challenged the new government. They did anything to get power, even commit the genocide of innocents.

Set backs aside, humans felt that if they could amongst themselves, why not form alliances with other species? So while the primary reason to colonize planets was to accommodate the ever growing population, another reason why humans wanted to colonize planets was to solve the question if they were the only residents of the universe. While humans did technically find aliens, they were plants or small mammals and reptile animals, not sentient beings like them.
For a while it seemed that humans would never make their “First Contact”.

Until now…

Author's Note

Please don't abandon this story yet if you think the prologue was bad. The story does get progressively better according to a few pre readers.

Chapter 1: Shadow (edited version)

“Geez, all that money we waste on space exploration; just think how many bombs that would buy!”-Craig Bruce

June 15 2530
7:30 PM local time
Aboard UTF heavy frigate Blackjack
Orbiting planet Epona
Commander Sarah McFarlane

Epona was the strangest planet that she had ever looked upon, hell this might have been the strangest planet that humanity has ever looked upon.

A sort of distortion field heavily blocked any attempt for the Blackjack to observe this planet from orbit. Photos were blurry and they could record any audio or radiation coming in from the planet. But from what the crew of the Blackjack had gathered, this world defiantly was not a natural occurrence.

Its sun was only 30,000 years old, but a star that young could not have been this bright or large. In fact it’s composition was nothing like a natural star. Also, the star was too weak and small to emit any gravitational forces but Epona remained in orbit.

Sarah was so lost in thought that she forgot to prep shadow squad on their mission.

Shadow squad was an elite group of commandos from the 23rd counter terrorist division. The members of the 23rd were selected pre-enlistment.

To be a part of the 23rd however, the candidates needed to have a very specific mental condition. A disturbing disease that stripped its members of one of the most important emotion. It was this condition that made them so feared, but so efficient in combat.

Once selected would be given the best training and gear and would be often handed the most daring of assignments. They were second only to supersoldiers.

A unique assignment that the 23rd would receive was also to see what is was like to be on planets suitable for life first hand. If the planet proved bearable, it would be colonized. These missions were pretty rare as terra forming still remained the popular way to colonize a planet.

On these missions, the 23rd would also scout planets for intelligent life. Even if the hypothetical natives on the planet were not highly intelligent, humanity would not make an attempt to colonize planet because of the Columbus protocol which prevented humans from colonizing a planet if it was already inhabited.

So far though, no such event had occurred. Quickly snapping back to the real world, she looked at the dossiers of shadow squad one more time before letting them in.

Shadow 1: Johnson ***** codename: Scarecrow

Requested primary weapon: M590 LMG

Requested sidearm: AA 30 Shotgun

John is a naturally born leader leading his to be squad mates since elementary school. His tact and planning has allowed his squad to reach numerous victories some of which impossible. He is also the strongest and largest of the group. This has allowed him to also be the squad heavy and CQB expert. Sadly, he can be very controlling to his subordinates, worsened by his mental condition.

Shadow 2: Sergio ***** codename: X-ray

Requested Primary Weapon: M816 carbine

Requested Secondary weapon: MP17 SMG

Unlike the others, Sergio is only average in terms of strength and he does not often take part in tasks that involve strong labor. Instead Sergio is outfitted with an AP 30 drone that he uses to highlight enemies, scout for activity and engage the enemy from the distance. He is also the squad’s diplomat as he has a talent for being able to negotiate with the enemy and making deals. Be aware though, he has an explosive temper that can throw him off concentration.

Shadow 3 Robert “Rob” ***** codename: Scorch.

Requested Primary weapon: SCAR Z rifle

Requested Secondary weapon: AT 9 rocket launcher.

Robert has a tendency to watch the world burn, perfect for a demo man. He is controlled for the most part though. Still, it is more than advisable to keep him away from anything that is flammmable or explosive outside of combat. There have been incidents. He tends to be rather impulsive as well. He is also the group’s sportiest member so he is able to do tasks requiring great speed and strength with ease.

Shadow 4 Tyson ***** codename: Over watch

Requested Primary weapon: M90 Sniper Rifle

Requested Secondary Weapon: P80 Personal Defense weapon

Tyson is academically the group’s smartest member but is not shown to be keen on making decisions so most of the brain work is handed either to John and mostly Sergio. He is also the definition of strong and silent as he rarely talks but when he does, he is known to say something important. This attitude is not fueled by his mental condition however, and appears to be a basic personality trait considering how out going the other 3 are. He still refuses to share his thoughts so who knows what he’s planning inside.

Sarah reread the dossier one more time and ordered the guard to open the door to let the squad in. Each squad member was pretty tall, the shortest being X-ray who was around 6ft 4 and tallest being Scarecrow who was 6ft 6.

They each wore a black bandanna, glasses that had a HUD built onto it and had a hood covering their hair so Sarah couldn’t really see what each member looked like underneath their mask. Not that she was supposed to anyway. They each wore a bullet proof vest that had a magnetic plate on their back which allowed them to holster their weapons. They also carried a wrist mounted computer that allowed them to do various things like cloak, activate kinetic barriers/over shields and radio. Sarah also noticed X-ray’s drone hovering nearby.

Each member then snapped to a salute. Shadow squad could be so well disciplined at times but they were completely informal when they weren’t being ordered around.

“At Ease” replied Sarah with her light midwestern accent. “Shadow, the council of Extra Terran Colonization has requested that you four go explore and scout this planet.”

“We know. Standard Procedure?” inquired Scarecrow.

“Not quite” replied Sarah. “Gentlemen, I don’t know how to put this but, were dealing with a very obscure plant here.”

A crew member then approached the squad and lit up a holographic display of the planet. Mountains, ice caps, forests and deserts were shown on its surface.

“Planet looks normal.” pointed Scarecrow.

“This planet is only a couple ten thousand years old, and yet we are getting signs of a breathable atmosphere and what might be life.”

“That’s impossible, unless the planet was artificial.” muttered X-ray.

“Someone call the young Earth Creationists.” chuckled Scorch.

“Exactly” sighed Sarah. “There even seems to be an artificial distortion field. If this planet truly is unnatural and an alien made installation, then we may be getting signs of intelligent life. Maybe even a first contact”

One could hear a feather drop.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Scorch.

“You all have been briefed on what to do in first contact situations, if I’m not mistaken.”

The members of Shadow Squad nodded.

“Good because those lessons might finally be of use to you. First you 4 will exit the frigate via a VTOL drop-ship and touch down on the planet. Once you're there, you'll scout the planet for the usual; hostile plants or animals, and possible locations for settlements and far land. Remember if you do find intelligent life, try to go through the first contact process, but if that would be impossible, just try to observe their routines and call for evac."

"Wait, how would we call for evac if there's a distortion field?" asked Scarecrow.

"Our local scientists are trying to adjust communication frequencies to by pass it. The Blackjack will still be orbiting over Epona and besides, you still have your distress beacon. It uses level 9 radio technology so it’ll still be able to send a broadcast past the distortion field if you run into any trouble."
....
After going over more protocols, Shadow squad headed to the armory. The naval crew member in charge of the armory felt very uncomfortable with the presence of the 4 commandos. The 23rd was not a force to be reckoned with. Each squad had an abnormal body count (due to their borderline psychopathy) and high success rate.

The 23rd squads also were infamous for the ghost like, predator ways they handled missions and their ability to handle legions of soldiers. The biggest thing that made everyone afraid of the 23rd however, was that each member in the unit could not feel remorse. Such a basic feeling was stripped from them. No matter what they did, they had no regrets.

Because there was nothing to hold them back, the 23rd was known for lashing out far more often than a normal human. Coupled with their augmentations, this lead to disturbing occurrences. No one wanted the 23rd pissed off.

The bald Indian crew member tried to avoid eye contact and slowly took a sheet from the squad’s leader. Written on it was the weapons the squad requested to be equipped with for the mission. The crewman signaled the rest of the staff in the armory to fetch the weapons and equip them with the desire attachments. The squad helped themselves to some explosives in the mean time (especially Scorch).

Once they were fully equipped, the squad finally reached the drop bay. Inside were hundreds of interceptors and fighters that the local air force unit would pilot to aid the ship in combat.

After passing through the bay, the squad found found their VTOL craft. Crew members were preparing the VTOL for take off and had already loaded it with necessities for planetary recon such as food, ammo and sleeping bags. The navigation engineer had already punched in the flight codes for a point on the planet, so all the crew had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride. The members of Shadow squad entered in the ship and dismissed the crew.

The VTOL’s doors closed tight.

"X-ray turn on the auto pilot." ordered Scarecrow. X-ray nodded and turned on the auto pilot. Suddenly the VTOL flared to life and immediately exited the hanger into space.

As the the VTOL exited the ship, X-ray went over diagnostics. Being the squad’s tech expert, vehicles were his responsibility. The navigation data said that they were 2 hours from touching down on the surface of the planet. Once he knew everything was clear, X-ray turned around and looked upon his fellow squad members.

Overwatch was silent as always and was watching the view of outer space as the VTOL approached Epona. Scorch on the other hand was playing a game on his laptop while Scarecrow was busy reading some 21st century novel. X-ray sat down, got out his tablet and started browsing the web. The beauty with 26th century technology was that pretty much every electric device had a back up solar cell so electronics running out of battery was nearly impossible as long as it was pointed to the sun.

After a few minutes, Overwatch spoke up for the first time in that day. “You know, I never get tired doing planetary recon missions.”

“I agree” replied Scarecrow, face still glued to the book. “Seeing the new scenery, exploring vast biomes, meeting those weird critters that may or may not eat human, it’s all good.”

“And for once, the chances of meeting extraterrestrial life is high.” exclaimed Scorch, taking a brake from his game.

“Yeah but if we did meet other life, we’d probably spend the entire time just observing them from a distance.” chimed in X-ray. “There would be no point in interacting with them, they wouldn’t know our language and our appearance would have a huge effect on their evolution. It would disturb the natural order of things.”

After discussing some of the things they would probably see on their journey, the members of Shadow squad fell back to their silent, anti social ways.

X-ray looked out a window and saw the Blackjack getting smaller as the VTOL went further away from it.

He took a deep look at the Frigate. It's huge size was completely dwarfed with other starship classifications like Cruisers or Carriers. Since there was no drag in the vaccum if space, all weapons aboard starships were magnetically powered from cannons to atomic warheads.

There were also onboard Tesla Cannons which used powerful electric shots to disable enemy barriers and render electronics on board useless. Not to mention a series of magnetic plasma cannons were stationed on board as well that replaced the need for conventional missiles.

Each Starship was essentially a planet killer, if they weren't always busy engaging others in orbit.

June 15 2530

8:25 PM local time

Ponyville, Equestria

For the majority of ponyville, it was peaceful night in the small community. it was the point in the day where ponies would return from work and enjoy a good night with the family. They would talk about their day, have dinner and engage in any other friendly activity.

One however, an alicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle, had no interest in a relaxing night, for she was occupied at work with her astronomy kit. The alicorn was busy recording stars and writing down reports on her observations, jotting down coordinates on a huge star chart that hung on the wall.

She wasn’t always an alicorn however. She was originally a unicorn, and the personal assistant of princess Celestia herself. Then a faithful day came where she was called upon by her mentor to make friends and become the elements of harmony, so that she could defeat and reform Nightmare Moon.

Then she and her 5 best friends went on a series of adventures across equestria from Discord, to the changelings and the Crystal empire. Not only would she and her friends be heroes, but they would also learn valuable lessons on friendship and harmony.

Then the day came, where she was tested to the full of her abilities. She succeeded and even surpassed the famous mage, Star Swirl the Bearded. As a result, she was transformed into an Alicorn by Celestia, and was crowned a princess. She was given the option to move to Canterlot alongside the diarchs, but she declined. Instead she stayed at ponyville inside her tree house, which had been converted to a large study with elaborate needs for a studious princess pony like her.

She had been princess for three months now. She was happy of her accession and new powers but she was still annoyed by how everypony was treating her. Twilight wished that some pony other than her friends would talk to her like an equal instead of a goddess.

Suddenly, a little dragon, by the name of Spike who was also Twilight’s number one assistant crept into the room.
“So Twilight, got any plans for tomorrow?” asked Spike.

“Not that I know of.” replied Twilight. “If I don’t end up with any princess work I’m probably going to catch up on my spells and maybe end up helping Fluttershy with the animals with this new technique I’ve been working on.”

“Anyway, I made you dinner!” cheered the purple dragon. “It’s your favorite, hay pancakes!”.

Hearing those words was perhaps the only force in the universe that could drive Twilight away from work, as she immediately flew to the kitchen with her new wings (almost bumping into Spike) and looked at the banquet that Spike set up.

When she became a princess, she was offered high class meals and chefs even a rich pony could never dream of having. However, she didn’t feel like she could get used to such things yet and was happy to live alone with her little dragon brother.

“Thanks Spike!” said Twilight, licking her lips as she looked at her meal with utter greed.

“No problem sis.” replied the number one assistant. “I need to work hard. When you get married and have kids I’m going to have my claws full. I need to start practicing now.”

Twilight blushed at his statement. Spike could be such a charmer at times. She then turned her attention to her food and took a bite out of her meal.

“Hey Spike” said Twilight with her mouth half full. “Have you ever wondered what lies beyond our planet?”

“You mean rocks, stars and hopefully space gems.” said Spike full with glee.

“No, I mean if we’re the only things alive in this world. Have you ever wondered if there’s any life out there?”

Suddenly Spike froze with a face full of terror. Twilight looked at him with a sense of concern.

Aboard the VTOL approaching Epona

“Did you guys just feel a tingling sensation as if the universe just touched you?” asked Scorch.

“Yeah” said Scarecrow looking around the ship. “This is weird.”

But before Shadow squad could continue pondering what just happened, they immediately turned their attention back to their electronic devices.

Back in Ponyville

“Umm....Spike?” asked the alicorn.

After a moment passed, Spike snapped back to life but breathing heavily.

“Twilight.” said Spike with a sense of fear. “You did not just ask that right?”

“Ask what?”

“That if we were the only ones in the universe.”

“What is so bad if I ask a question like that?” said Twilight with a hint of annoyance.

At this point Spike was beginning to sweat and tremble. “Twilight have you read the books or seen the comics? Whenever somepony asks that question, aliens always invade the next day and everypony dies. You’ve doomed us all!”

“Spike you are being ridiculous.” sighed Twilight.

“I gotta hide or else the aliens are going to blow me up.”

“Spike..”

Before Twilight could finish her sentence her assistant ran up the stairs in total fear. Twilight could not help but face hoof.

Author's Note

By the way, if you can't decide how Shadow looks like, check the cover art. They look like the soldier depicted on that but with black clothes.

June 30, 2013: Edited to remove some parts that are not scientifically accurate. All comments from the previous version will likely be removed since they are no longer valid.

Chapter 2 and 3 merge: Unreality

"The best science is open to romance. The idea that anything is possible."- Ray Bradbury.

Reality is the beautiful concept that distinguishes what is true and what is not. Simply put, humanity, documented organics and the laws of physics and nature are what constitutes as reality. Concepts such as cartoon ponies that speak English are so absurd that they could only exist within the imagination of a spirited child.

To the reality based reader, the following events would be so illogical and improbable to the point where they could only be interpreted as a dream.

That night, the VTOL touched down on the planet Epona. The members of Shadow squad stepped down from their aircraft and braced themselves for a trip of discovery and adventure.

What they did not expect to find however, was the planet being animated. Everything looked like it had come off a children's cartoon. Rather than being consisted of multiple hues, all objects generally had one distinct color. Yet, everything was 3 dimensional and had a texture as if it was an object from the real world.

It was a new definition for creepy and contradicted everything they knew. Too bad the 4 humans had no one to show it to. Deciding to put the anomaly aside, the commandos continued to explore the forest and search for possible settlements.

Unfortunately, the situation had been complicated further, as the members of Shadow found that every single piece of flora that surrounded them was native to Earth as well. The plants were the same thing in every way, except animated.

Now Shadow was beginning to loose patience and started to reduce to a nervous wreck. And just when it couldn't get more absurd, the members of Shadow saw a Bat. A fucking animated fruit bat from Earth. A Raccoon quickly followed.

"What's next! Dragons?" cried a bitter Scorch.

The counter terrorist spoke too soon. Unknown to the squad, they had been surveyed by a Griffin scout the entire time.
The scout paid close attention to the humans, or whatever one could call attention as looking at a realistic human hurt the animated Griffin's eyes and mind.

At first, the scout was prepared to confront the aliens, until he noticed something rather peculiar about them. Other than the fact that they were animated of course.

The Griffin decided to retreat to Fort Everfree and relay the news to his allies. In a mere moment, the half eagle/half lion reached the outpost the empire had installed.

Making quite a fuss along the way, the Griffin finally found his superior and called for an emergency meeting.

The entire company gathered in the commons hall while the scout spoke on the platform. Normally, the Griffins would laugh off alien presence as some form of foolish belief, but the scout was not known for lying.

The scout explained his findings to his allies. He described the aliens as 'non colorful', bi-pedal, up right, masked, speaking Equestrian and fingered.

The Griffins debated the scout's findings for a few solid minutes. Suddenly a Griffin remembered something important;

Bi-pedal? Non Colorful? Fingered? And Bi-pedal?

It sounded awfully lot like the description used for humanity. The half eagles debated the subject amongst themselves, but came to the conclusion that humans had returned to Epona.

And they would no doubt finish what they started.

Without waisting time or attempting to contact the rest of the Empire, the Griffins took up arms and prepared to assault the humans and make them face retribution. They did not leave without a secret weapon however. Fort Everfree was a secret facility dedicated to the training of dragons for military use.

With their arsenal ready, the Griffins took off.

The commandos all the while had been analyzing soil contents, until they heard the cry of an eagle. Curious, the members of Shadow squad cloaked and prepared to investigate what was going on.

A minute passed and Shadow could not believe their eyes. They were staring at Griffins. GRIFFINS like the ones they read about in fantasy stories. And much to the squad's chagrin, the hybrids brought dragons with them too.

At this point, the last remaining trace of empathy from Shadow's minds vanished. It didn't help that the Griffins were speaking ancient Persian either.

Just with they were about to give up from the sheer amount ridiculousness that was occurring before them, Scarecrow theorized that they could enact a first contact with the Griffins and possibly figure out what was going on.

The commandoes worked out a plan for interacting with the Griffins as well as taking precautions in the even they were hostile.

Scarecrow readied himself and stood in front of the approaching army. The commando uncloaked and revealed himself. Before he could speak however, Scarecrow noticed the Griffins suffering from some sort of migraine. As if it hurt to look at the commando.

Scarecrow spoke in Persian and assured he was not a threat and represented the United Terran Federation.

After a moment of silence, the Griffins yelled war cries and unloaded their spears at the commando. Unfortunately, the Griffins were shocked to find the spears bounce off Scarecrow's kinetic barrier and leave nothing but a trace of transparent purple hexagons to indicate where he was hit.

Scarecrow again attempted to talk the Griffins down, but all the soldiers did was fire spears and arrows at the counter terrorist ineffectively.

Upon realizing that the Griffins declared him a threat, Scarecrow remembered the first contact rule that all threats to mankind were to be wiped out by force. Shadow's leader unslung his gauss LMG and rained hell on the attacking Griffins.

X-ray, Scorch and Overwatch uncloaked and joined the fight as well.

The Griffins attempted to stand their ground, but their spears and arrows were no match for Shadow's railguns and kinetic barriers. One by one, the Griffin army fell to gauss fire while their spears failed to penetrate Shadow's barriers.

After a few minutes of fighting, half of the Griffins laid dead. All their bodies haven been ripped open with bullets. Heads, wings and all sorts of body parts had been cut off.

The squad decided to return to the VTOL to evade the attacking creatures. Unfortunately, the dragons that belonged to the Griffins landed on top of the ship and crushed it with it's claws.

Just when the Griffins thought they won, Scorch sighed and unslung his rocket launcher. The dragon attempted to burn down the humans with its fire breath, but Shadow's recon armor was fire proof.

Scorch fired his missile at one of the dragons and ripped its mid section open with blood and organs falling out like a piniata.

The stunned Griffins were to caught up in shock, and fell easy prey to the human's railguns.

Another dragon arrived on the scene to save what remained of the contingent. For a moment, it seemed that the tide was turning in favor of the Griffins. The dragon used its brute strength to knock out Scorch, X-ray and Scarecrow before they could fire.

Unfortunately, a shot rang from Overwatch's sniper and the final dragon's eye exploded, leaking a massive pool of blood.

The other 3 members of Shadow recovered and finished off the job by either blowing off limbs with gauss rifles, cutting off heads and claws with knifes or exploding bodies in a gory mess.

Finally, all that remained was the Griffin's commander himself. Distraught by the loos of his comrades and the murder of the dragons, he charged straight at Shadow without even thinking.

X-ray simply sighed at the commander's pathetic attempt. The commando grabbed the final Griffin, fisted him to the ground and smashed his skull open with his armored foot.

Shadow had been victorious. And what did they do in response?

Laugh. For a solid minute the members of Shadow squad laughed.

An animated world? Dragons? Griffins? Their VTOL getting destroyed? It had to be some sort of dream. The events that occurred were just too illogical.

After a few moments of walking, the members of Shadow squad stopped in their tracks and fell asleep. When they woke up, they hoped to find themselves inside their VTOL, still approaching the planet. Back in the confines of reality where alien planets hosted alien life, where myths were myths and worlds weren't cartoons.

None of it could have been real.

Right?

Chapter 4 and 5 merge: Investigation

“Fear makes us feel our humanity.”- Benhamin Disraeli

June 16 2530
8:00 am local time
Ponyville

Blissfully unaware of the carnage last night, Twilight Sparkle woke up. She got up from her new silk beds that was double the size of her previous one. She hopped out of the bed sheets and gave a small yawn.

Twilight remembered to stretch her new wings. That way, they wouldn’t get stiff later on while flying. She was fairly decent at flying especially considering that she never needed to learn how to fly in the first place. However she would never beat her pegasus friend Rainbow Dash in a million years.

She walked down the stairs of her renovated treehouse and used her magic to levitate her daily schedule to her. She checked the list and made sure everything was in place; meetings, people, books, time etc.

Feeling pleased with what she was about to go through today, she head down to the kitchen to get something to eat. While she entered the kitchen, she began to feel glad that she didn’t have a full on service of butlers, maids and chefs to attend to her every need. It would have likely overwhelmed her.

She was about to go have a quiet breakfast when Spike came bursting through the kitchen, panting heavily.

“Twilight! Twilight!” yelled the dragon.

“Spike, what is it?” said Twilight, trying to calm the dragon down.

“You got a letter from Celestia.” answered Spike who tried to catch his breath.

Twilight used her telekinesis to grab the scroll from Spike’s hands. As she opened it, she began to wonder what content it would include. She was used to getting messages from Celestia detailing some important task she had to do. She REALLY hoped it was not another meeting she had to do with some stuck up Canterlot Royal. Twilight glanced and read the paper:

To my regal sister

Twilight re-read the first sentence. She remembered when it had just been “To my faithful student Twilight.”. She continued to read on:

Something strange is going on.

Last night Princess Luna had detected something strange in the space around our humble planet. Despite countless hours and hours of observation and reasoning, she has been unable to pinpoint exactly what it is without getting some sort of headache. My sister says that the closest thing she can relate the object to is some sort of chariot/bird/hot air balloon hybrid. Anyway, Luna and her night guards lost track of said object when it landed landed deep within the Everfree forest.

Sometime later we received a message from a Griffin named “Blackwing” that stated the Griffin military unit stationed within the Everfree forest was going to investigate what had fallen. Before Luna could dictate her next move, two dragons were observed to have been flying very close to where this object landed, and never came flying back up. A patrol that was a reasonable distance from the object later arrived in Canterlot at 2:00 am and reported faint sounds of some sort of quarrel. We have sent an order for all guards near or in the Everfree Forest to report back to civilization.
Me and Luna believe that we may be facing some sort of cosmic enemy in the worst case scenario. We have not been able to re-establish contact with the Griffins, so I am sending you and the elements of harmony to investigate what is going on. If you run into any trouble, which I highly doubt, feel free to use the elements as they are an unbeatable force and may be our only hope in facing an alien enemy.

The object is believed to have landed approximately 55 Kilometers north of Fluttershy’s home.

Good luck and pray for the safety of our people,

Princess Celestia

Twilight read the letter one more time. She was starting to get anxious.

Strange object? Cosmic threat? Had Spike been right? Should she have asked that cursed question last night?
She had faced Nightmare Moon, Changelings, Discord, and Sombra but if there were aliens that were out for blood and had never grasped the concept of peace, she would be facing something on a new level. Plus what Spike had said about aliens in the books was right; it never went well for Epona.

She tried to reassure herself. ‘What if these aliens were friendly and just got into a verbal argument with the Griffins. That would make perfect sense. After all, Griffins don’t know the definition of a warm welcome.’

The dragon broke the silence.

“So Twi, what does the letter say?”

Twilight blushed a bit, she didn’t want to prove Spike right about yesterday.

“Well Celestia wants me and the other elements of harmony to check something out for her in the Everfree Forest. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone but I promise you it won’t be long. A simple teleportation spell and we’ll be home”

“Can I come?” asked Spike.

“Actually, I think this assignment isn't meant for a young dragon.” said Twilight nervously.

“Can you watch the library while we’re gone?” whispered Twilight.

“Yeah of course!” insisted Spike. “You don’t need to be so nervous”
Twilight tried to hide her anxiety. “Well, remember the last time I left you alone with the pets? This entire place look like a storm hit!”

“Oh yeah!” said Spike nervously.

After two hours of planning and collecting her thoughts, Twilight was ready to head out. Failing her mentor was always her biggest fear. True, she had technically ‘graduated’ when she ascended but Celestia was always a teacher to her. What scared her the most though was that this time, failure included the possibility of death.

Suddenly she remembered the technique her old foal-sister princess Cadance taught her. She took a deep breath, and exhaled. Everything calmed down.

She had re-read everything about the everfree forest and books about the cosmos. However, none of them went over extra-equestrians. The only information she could get about Xenos were fictional sci-fi stories like ‘Invasion of the Pony Snatchers!’.

Her head was still pounding from anxiety. She reminded herself that she had the elements of harmony with her. If the worst case scenario was true, she could just utilize the force that she used multiple times to protect herself.
At the same time however, she was very exited and curious. If the otherworldly beings were friendly and cooperative, she could find a way to learn about a whole new species! The idea of all that knowledge would make her drool like one of Pinkie’s famous four layer chocolate cupcakes.

Twilight also hoped that by learning from aliens, Equestrian society would evolve rapidly and finally reach the cosmos! That was a much more comforting thought than a thought about group of genocidal monsters.

But the alicorn still wanted to be careful. She remembered that she had given the other elements; honesty, loyalty, generosity, laughter, and kindness to their respective bearers; Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and
Fluttershy.

With no more distractions, she said good-bye to Spike and left the door.

She looked around Ponyville, everypony was on their daily business. The fillies and colts were at school getting educated, the stallions and mares were heading to work and Derpy Hooves was of course, messing up her mail delivery again.

All was quiet until everypony glimpsed at the purple alicorn. As expected, everypony got down on the ground and bowed, muttering phrases like “I am not worthy”.

Twilight tensed, she despised all the formality. She had known these ponies in Ponyville for more than a year and yet, they were treating her like a complete stranger that would banish them to the moon if she got pissed off. But no matter what she did, it was like everypony knew her as a different person. She even got rid off that ugly dress she wore and refused to wear jewelry to blend in.

Twilight used her technique to cool herself raised her voice to kill the tension.

“Um, hi everypony. Uh there’s nothing important going on, I just want to get to the other element bearers for something important”

A voice startled her.

“Well look no further!”

Twilight squeaked and quickly turned around to see a rainbow maned Pegasus.

“Rainbow Dash, you really have to cut that out!” scolded Twilight.

The pegasus was on the floor laughing her flank off and trying to fight back tears.“Sorry Twi but your face when you’re scared is priceless!”

“Dash this is serious! Princess Celestia wants us to investigate something that happened in the Everfree Forest last night and I have the feeling that there’s something huge going on right now!”

“The...Everfree Forest?” whimpered Rainbow Dash.

“Yes! Will that be a problem?” asked Twilight with an angry face.

“Oh of course not!” said Dash, regaining her pride.

“You can always count on me! I am the element of loyalty after all.”

“Great because we have to get the others. Princess Celestia is counting on us!” snarled Twilight.
Twilight started walking towards Carousel Boutique where Rarity worked and lived. Rainbow Dash was flying behind her.

“By the way, I thought you don’t have to take orders from Celestia anymore. Aren’t you her equal now?” questioned Dash.
Twilight snapped. She turned around to face her friend.

“Well first off, yes I am her equal but Celestia is still one of the most important ponies to me! Second, I still haven’t reached her level yet so there’s still plenty of tasks for me to do and I don’t intend to fail! I thought the element of loyalty would get that better thany anyone else!”

“Yeesh calm down!” yelled Rainbow Dash.
Twilight did so. “Look I’m sorry. I’m just really anxious about this mission, there’s a chance it could be something huge!”
Dash wasn’t listening.

“Hey look we’re here!” pointed Dash.

In front of the two stood an elegant building that was the center of fashion of Ponyville also known as Carousel Boutique.
Twilight politely knocked on the door and waited for her friend to open the door. Sure enough, she heard the sound of hoof-steps inside and the door opened revealing an albino Unicorn with a purple mane.

“Twilight darling!” cheered Rarity.

“Its good to see you to Rarity.” began Twilight.

“Oh Twilight, you simply must come in!” cheered the white Unicorn.

“Um..Rarity?

“I have designed for you the most perfect garment in all of Equestria, fit for a monarch like you.” Rarity.

“Rarity..”

“You must come in and see!”

Before Twilight could resist, the Unicorn grabbed Twilight’s fore hoof and dragged her inside the store. Twilights free hooves dragged on the floor while Rarity went on and on about her stupid new design. Rarity was moving so fast that the
colors of the store and dresses all faded into a single blob.

Rainbow Dash started giggling as she flew into the store.

‘This is gonna be rich’ she thought.

Rarity finally stopped in her tracks and let go of Twilight’s hoof. The alicorn stood up and tried to get Rarity’s attention. Twilight noticed Rainbow Dash was spying from the doorway, snickering.

Rarity continued her speech about her dress while getting her materials sorted.

“Oh you should have been there Twilight, Fleur’s dress was just astounding and went so well with Fancy’s graceful suit.”

“Rarity!” yelled Twilight.

“Then Photo Finish came in with some pictures of candidates of Luna’s upcoming gala dresses and Celestia’s favorite gown...”

“Rarity!”

“I was so inspired by that point that I just had to have an idea hit me.”

“Rarity!”

“I took the liberty of looking through some of the dresses the royal weavers were making. Now no offense Twilight dear, but the colors would be absolutely horrid on you. But with the right amount of contrast, it might just work.”
“Rari-ARGH!”

Rarity dashed to Twilight and began measuring every part of her body, from her horn, to her wings, to her tail. Twilight tried to get her attention but;

“Now I just need to make sure that the measurements are 100% perfect. We really don’t want anything to look small or big on you during your next big royal event now do we?”

Twilight was getting really mad at this point. Her friend was generous and nice to be around, but when it came to fashion, it was drop everything else in life for Rarity.

Twilight was about to scream when-

“And done!” cheered the Unicorn as she shoved the dress down Twilight.

“So what do you think your majesty?” asked Rarity.

Twilight looked at herself in the mirror. She looked ridiculous.
First off, her dress was all pink and in ways that did not suit her. Second, there was jewelry on every single square millimeter on the dress. Had it not been for the only part of the cloth that was not covered, she wouldn’t be able to tell it was pink in the first place.

‘At least Spike would like it’ she thought.

Third, there were multicolored feathers EVERYWHERE. Enough to rival the gems. For a second, she thought Rarity had shaved off Dash’s mane and put it on the dress.

“What do you think dear?” asked a worried Rarity.

Twilight turned around and saw Dash on the floor laughing.

She quickly faced Rarity and gave the best fake smile she could.

“Um..it’s great. Thanks.” muttered Twilight.

“Fantastic. I knew you’d like it! cheered Rarity.

“Look Rarity, forget about the dress.” said Twilight quickly.

Twilight quickly used her telekinesis to remove the flashy garment and throw it aside. Before Rarity could say something, Twilight spoke up.

“Rarity, Princess Celestia has tasked us with something very important and we can’t do it unless we’re all working together!”

“Twilight dear, you know me, I am always willing to help my friends especially when it’s something for Celestia!” insisted Rarity.

“Good” nodded Twilight.

“The princess wants us to investigate something in the Everfree Forest-”

“The Everfree Forest?” asked Rarity nervously.

“Yes.” said Twilight. “I’ll fill you up on the details when we get the other elements of harmony. Come on lets go.”

Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow Dash quickly exited the building. Dash was still smirking over the thought of Rarity’s new dress. Twilight noticed this and shot the Pegasus a ‘If you don’t wipe that smile off your face, Im gonna hurt you’ look.

Twilight turned to face her friends. “Ok, Pinkie is close by so I suggest we get to her-”

“I’m already here silly!” said a high pitched, friendly voice.

Twilight was caught off guard with a pink earth pony suddenly materializing right in front of her. Twilight recoiled back with a faint scream.

“Pinkie Pie, how did you know I was looking for you?” questioned Twilight.

Pinkie started blurting out her usual fast paced monologues all the while moving quickly;

“Well it all started last night when both my eyelids started blinking like super really fast and my Pinkie sense told me that something from space fell the sky. Then I woke up this morning and my hooves started twitching followed by an uncontrolled kick and my tail tieing up meaning that Celestia sent you letter. So since something fell from the sky last night, it was pretty obvious that Celestia wanted to check that thing and since you never do tasks by her alone unless she tells you to, you always go looking for us and since you weren’t at Rainbow Dash’s, Fluttershy’s, Applejack’s, mine or your home, you just had to be at Rarity’s right?”

Pinkie took a deep breath.

“And thats how I knew you were looking for me.”

“Pinkie, really? Something falling from outer space? Thats just absurd, even from you.” said Rarity with an unamused face.

“Yeah!” added Dash. “Even if something did fall from the sky, I’m pretty sure Luna would have checked it out by now.”

“Girls.” said a surprisingly calm Pinkie with a tone of sass.

“Remember the last time somepony questioned my Pinkie sense?”

Rainbow Dash and Rarity looked at Twilight. Oh how the Alicorn could not forget that memory.

Twilight spoke up. “Actually, Pinkie Pie is telling the truth.”

“What?!” yelled Dash and Rarity.

“See.” said Pinkie.
“Look, I’ll fill you all on the details but we got to get to Applejack first come on.” said Twilight, with a hint of worry.

Everfree Forest
June 16 2530
10:20 am local time

X-ray woke up after a very long sleep. He got up on his legs, eyes still closed, and gave out a barely audible yawn. He wasn’t awake enough to analyze his surroundings but he could still see three black blobs that meant his friends.

“Hey guys,” said X-ray slowly.

“I had the weirdest dream the other night. You were in.” he pointed to Scorch.

“You were in.” he pointed to Overwatch.

“And even you were in.” he pointed to Scarecrow.

“I had a dream where we were going to visit a planet. Then it turned out everything on it was animated like it is here. Then we were attacked by Persian speaking Griffins and Dragons that looked like those corpses over there....”

X-ray was fully awake now. “...and it was real.” he muttered.

Scarecrow and Scorch laughed.

“To be fair, I actually thought it was a dream to until I woke up.” laughed Scorch.

“How long have you three been awake?” asked X-ray.

“Me and Overwatch woke up only five minutes ago, and Scarecrow got up 10 minutes before us.” answered Scorch. “So given the fact we’re in fairy tale land, should we use our distress beacon to contact the Blackjack?”

“Nah,” replied Scarecrow. “We won’t be able to show any visual proof of the creatures with a distress beacon. Plus the guys on the Blackjack are really skeptical. They’ll just think we’re fucking with them.”

Scarecrow turned to around to find that Overwatch was cloaked and had set up a look out on a tree. Scarecrow then returned his attention to his other two squad mates.

“So how much ammo do you guys have left after our little skirmish?” asked Scarecrow.

“I only got one mag left for my rifle. Used up one grenade and I only used two mags for my sidearm. Still have all my pulse grenades” said X-ray. He turned to the recon drone hovering around. “I’m afraid the drones out of ammo. This thing ain’t made for combat.”

“Got no frags left,” chuckled Scorch “Used up half my rifle’s ammo. Only got one rifle grenade left and only one rocket remaining.”

Overwatch startled everyone by uncloaking. He spoke in a quiet voice.

“I used no frags. I still have half of my PDR rounds and two Sniper mags.”

Now it was Scarecrow’s turn to speak.

“Well, I only got six shot gun shells left. Have 100 shots in my LMG, two frags left and I only used up one of my pyro grenades.”

“I hardly think we have enough ammo to do our job until back up arrives.” sighed X-ray.

“Yeah.” added Scorch. “If this planet is full of billions of mythical creatures, we’re gonna need a lot of fucking ammo.”
“Well there’s no way for us to get ammo unless we use our beacons to call for a resupply....” said Scarecrow.

Overwatch was about to activate the beacon in his hand when Scarecrow stopped him.

“..unless”

“What are you getting at man?” asked X-ray.

“Lets head to the landing site.” Began Scarecrow. “I kinda remember that there’s an ammo locker we forgot to check out. With any luck..”

“Dude, there’s no way we can scavenge the VTOL, a dragon blew it to pieces.” interrupted Scorch.

“Yeah, but they tend to fuck up every now and then” said a smiling Scarecrow.

“Sounds like a good idea.” agreed X-ray. "As long as we're stranded here,"

“But before we move, I think it would be a good idea to collect a blood sample from one of those Griffins and Dragons for scientific research.” proposed Scarecrow.

“Overwatch, get a sample.” ordered the commander.

The sniper nodded and went to the site of the conflict. The Griffins lay on the floor, all mutilated by bullet fire. Overwatch took out two syringes and crept to a body of a dead Griffin. He impaled the corpse with the needle and watched as red, catoony blood seamlessly merged with the realism of his vial.

‘Interesting’ he thought.

He then ran towards a dragon corpse, the one he killed, and tried to shove another needle in. The dragon’s scales were tough to penetrate but he quickly got through. The dragon’s blood, however, was an animated violet.
Overwatch observed the two vials and sprinted back to his squad.

“Alright” said Scarecrow. “We’re Oscar Mike”

Pinkie Pie would not shut up.

“But what if aliens were made of cotton candy, they’d think I was one of them! You know my mane looks like it has a lot
of cotton candy so maybe they’d make me queen!”

Pinkie then materialized on top of the gliding Rainbow Dash causing her to flinch.

“Or it what if they hated Rainbows? Oh Dash you’d be in trouble!”

Next, the pink pony just popped up in front of Twilight.

“And just imagine all the super-duper facts and maths they could teach you.”

Then she started skipping in front or Rarity.

“And they’d be wearing cool space suits. I’m pretty sure they’d hate your clothes!”

Rarity cracked at the statement.

“Pinkie Pie! For the millionth time, there are no aliens. I’m sure there’s a rational explanation for what Celestia wants us to investigate”

Twilight remained silent.

“And besides, no one in the universe could ever resist one my charming garments. Even if their taste was the polar
opposite of what I design, that doesn’t mean I can change styles once in a while.”

“I don’t know Rarity” said Rainbow Dash with a sly tone. “I’m pretty sure there are ponies out there who think you make some pretty lame stuff”

“Rainbow Dash darling, I don’t mean to come off as rude, but you saw Twilight’s reaction earlier. I am certain that if I can please royalty, I can please anypony” replied the unicorn.

Rainbow Dash started laughing. Pinkie joined in even though she had no idea what was so funny in the first place.
Twilight and her friends were then caught by the site of numerous apple trees. That signaled that they were in Sweet Apple Acres where Applejack and her family worked. As their name implied, they made a living off farming the best apples on Epona.

The 4 mares walked across the field, there was no sign of Applejack.

Twilight heard a grunt and turned around to see a large, red, Earth Pony Stallion carrying a wagon loaded with apples. It was Big Macintosh, Applejack’s older brother. Him and his two sisters would keep the farm running but the younger sister, Applebloom was at school by now.

“Hi Big Mac!” cheered Twilight.

Big Mac turned around and gasped once he saw the Alicorn. Big Mac immediately dropped to the ground and bowed. Mummering in fear all the while.

“Oh not you too!” yelled Twilight. She gave a big face hoof.

“Twilight. Big Mac is just trying to be a respectful gentlecolt.” insisted Rarity.

“There is no reason why you should be so frustrated.”

Twilight ignored her and trotted to the stallion. In a sarcastic princes voice she yelled;

“You may rise young stallion.”

Big Mac did so. He still had the nervous look on his face.

“Can you tell me where your sister, Applejack is?”

The stallion nodded and spoke with his deep voice.

“She’s buckin em apples over there.”

Big Mac pointed his fore hoof to a pile of trees. Some had apples, some did not. The ones that did shook and their apples fell out.

“Thanks Big Mac” said Twilight. “Come on girls.”

Twilight’s friends followed the path of appleless trees.

Pinkie skipped alongside Big Mac.

“Bye Big Mac you silly willy.” she said before joining her friends.

Big Mac gave out a small sigh of relief before carrying on.

The group of mares had to gallop to reach Applejack. Her apple bucking had gotten so good that she could wipe a tree clean in two seconds if she was motivated to.

Applejack still had a lot of trees to go through. Her family received a large order from a juice making company in Coltifornia to supply them with enough apples for their fruit juices. Plus, she had to practice for Applebuking season. There was no way she was going to get through the huge orchid by slacking off.

Applejack got to another tree, turned around, contracted her hooves and was about to kick when-

“HI APPLEJACK!”

“AH!” screamed the cowpony. She lost control of her body and kicked back sending an object that was clearly not a tree a few meters.

The Earth Pony turned around to see Pinkie slumped against a tree. Her eyes rolling around. She quickly shook her head and popped right in front of Applejack.

“That was fun. I was all behind you saying hi and then you bucked me and I went flying as if I was a pegasus. Oh boy me having wings, that would be amazing”

Applejack spoke up with her western accent.

“Pinkie, ah’m really sorry. Ah didn’ mean ta hit ya. Ah just lost-”

“There’s no need to apologize silly.” cheered the Pink Pony. “That was fun.”

Applejack heard another voice call out.

“Applejack, Pinkie there you are.”

The cowpony turned around to see her friends Rarity, Twilight galloping with Rainbow Dash flying overhead.

“Well of course I’d be here silly.” said Pinkie.

Before Pinkie Pie could start. Applejack started talking.

“Howdy Twi, what brings y’all here?” she asked.

“We got an urgent message from Celestia telling us to investigate something in the Everfree Forest. We need all elements of harmony present.” answered Twilight.

“Um, Twi. Shouldn’t ya have them elements with ya?” asked AJ.

“Yeah where are they?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t worry everypony. I have the elements on speed-summon in case we need them” replied Twilight.

“Speed summon?” questioned Rarity.

Suddenly Twilights horn lit up and her eyes closed. She concentrated until there was a flash of light and a small box appeared in front of them.

The box burst open and there stood the 6 elements of harmony. There were 5 necklaces that represented honesty, loyalty, generosity, kindness, and laughter. Then there was a tiara that was not only Twilight’s crown that she wore during formal events but also represented the element of magic.

“Should we put them on now?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“I think we should keep them out of plain sight until necessary.” answered Twilight.

“Not to mention we should still get to Fluttershy.” said Rarity.

“I know. What Celestia wants us to find out is directly north of her home anyway” groaned the Alicorn.

“Ah don’t know Twi, I got a lotta work do here.” mummered Applejack.

“Come on AJ, we’ll only be gone for a little while. Just a quick teleportation spell and we’ll be back.” Twilight paused for a moment. “I hope.”

“I hope?” whispered Rarity.

“Look I’ll fill you all in when we’re all together. Let’s just get to Fluttershy’s home first.”

“Fine, ah guess it won’t hurt as long as ah ain’t gone for more than a day. I reckon’ Big Mac and Apple Bloom will manage.”

After 10 minutes of walking, the group found themselves walking along side a path that led to a small hill that nested Fluttershy’s cottage. Since it was her job to take care of the animals in ponyville, the path to her home was littered with birds, rabbits, small reptiles and dozens of adorable creatures.

The equines reached the doorway and Rarity knocked on the door with her hoof. The door opened but Fluttershy was not the one who opened it. Looking down, the ponies saw a small white rabbit/bunny wearing a bib with a clearly pissed off frown.

“Hi Angel you funny bunny!” cheered Pinkie. “Where’s Fluttershy?”

Angel sighed. How he loathed Fluttershy’s friends. He turned ans pointed his nose up to signal the equines that his caretaker was upstairs.

“Thanks Partner!” yelled Applejack.

The five ponies made their way up to find Fluttershy pouring some food in bowls with multiple animals going up to enjoy their meal.

“Hey Fluttershy!” greeted Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy, taken by surprise, squeaked and hid in a sofa with her eyes peaking out.

“Fluttershy, its us!” said a high pitched voice.

Fluttershy moved her eyes to the left to meet another pair of eyes hiding with her.

The Pegasus flew out of the couch and turned to see her friends were the ones who greeted her. The yellow pony finally calmed down.
“Oh hello.” she whispered. “What brings you all here?”

“Princess Celestia asked us to investigate something in the everfree forest?” answered Twilight. “Let’s head outside so I can finally tell you all what this is about.”

“The everfree forest?” whimpered the yellow pegasus. “I don’t know Twilight I have to take care of my animals and I haven’t even fed angel yet.”

‘So thats why the bunny was mad’ thought Twilight.

“Look I know everypony is busy but we won’t be gone for very long! Why do I have to repeat this?” raged Twilight.

“Twilight, control your temper. That is no way for a lady to act especially if that lady is a princess.” scolded Rarity.
Twilight blushed.

“OK I’ll go ahead with this.” said Fluttershy. “Just give me a moment to feed Angel.”

After two minutes the Mane 6 found themselves outside the cottage. Fluttershy had asked Angel to look after the animals while she was gone. Much to the bunny’s dismay.

“So Twi, why exactly do we need the elements. Is Discord acting up again?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“No. I’m afraid Fluttershy did a good job with him.” the alicorn turned and winked at the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy smiled.

Twilight took a deep breath. “OK. Last night an object landed from space and into the Everfree Forest.”

“Just like what I said!” cheered Pinkie.

“But thats not the full of it. When Luna tried to track and observe the object, she got some sort of unnatural headache so she has completely no idea what it is. Then she received word from a Griffin soldier that the a unit stationed in the Everfree forest was going to investigate what had happened and that Equestria should send aid. Before Luna could decide what could happen next. She saw, two dragons fly-”

“Dra-gons?” said Pinkie slowly

“Yes.” nodded Twilight. “Luna saw two dragons go to the same spot where the object was believed to have landed.”
Twilight paused. “And they never came flying back up. There was no other word from the Griffins either.”

“Did Luna actually send aid?” questioned Dash.

Twilight shook her head no.

Rarity broke the silence. “Twilight you don’t think that whatever came from the cosmos is some sort of monster that-”

“No. No.” insisted Twilight. “I am sure there is a logical explanation why we lost contact.”

“Even that thing was a monster, nuthin could get past a group of em Griffins right?” whispered Applejack.

“Yeah.” said Pinkie. “I’m sure it was just a pretty space rock like the one Spike likes to eat and the Griffins and Dragons are just admiring how cool it looks.”

“That actually is possible.” muttered Twilight. “I wouldn’t want to keep my eyes off of something like that until I studied it thoroughly.”

“I still say we bring the elements, just in case we run into trouble.” said Rainbow Dash.

“So where is this thing anyway?” asked Fluttershy.

“It landed north of your home by around 40 miles.” explained Twilight. “So using my teleportation spell, we’ll move around 38 miles in the direction it landed and just hoof it from there.”

“Oh Celestia, I despise the woods.” moaned Rarity. She placed her hoof on her face from the thought of all that dirt.

“Quit complaining!” yelled Dash. “I’m ready Twi.”

The mane 6 gathered together. The elements of harmony were stored safely in a container with them.
Twilight’s horned glowed and there was a purple light that surrounded the 6 mares. And in a flash, they were gone.

VTOL landing site.
10:50 am

“I can’t believe that all really happened!” exclaimed Scorch.

“The fight with Griffins and Dragons?” replied X-ray.

“Yeah, just how we totally decimated them and ripped their bodies apart. Not mention we started moving at ultrasonic speeds and doing cool flippy action hero tricks. I mean, I know we pretty much do the same things for our human enemies but we don’t move that fast nor do we not have to take cover that much.”

“Well no shit, with the planet having a lighter gravity then what were used to, were gonna be flying like superheroes. Plus we were trained in simulations with gravity 30% stonger than Earth’s to add insult to injury.”

“Yeah but don’t you think that was too easy? I know guns have come a long way, but come on, when we shoot a damn pirate or insurrectionist they don’t have their limbs blown off that quickly unless their armor sucked or were sniped.”

“Well thats the thing, I’m sure the armor they had was at pussy medieval levels and since their bodies are built for a small gravity, they’re gonna be pretty frail.”

“Yeah but isn’t dragon and Griffin hide supposed to be all powerful beyond belief?”

“I guess, but in stories like that, Griffins and Dragons were on Earth so-”

“Would the two of you cut the chatter! You’re driving me crazy!” scolded Scarecrow.

“Yes sir.” whispered Scorch and X-ray.

“Aha we’re here!” cheered Scarecrow.

Before them lay a heavily damaged VTOL. Scorch had done a good job blowing it up. Pretty much everything had been vaporized.

“Look there’s an ammo kit!” pointed Scarecrow.

There stood a half smeared crate containing bullets and grenades. Half the stuff was beyond repair and use while the other side remained untouched. The dragon has still done a number.

Shadow squad sprinted to the crate and looked at its contents. Luckily for them, the part that was smeared contained rounds for guns they weren’t currently in possession of. One by one, they scavenged the ammo.

“I can’t believe we missed this!” yelled X-ray.

“Well I’m glad we did.” said Scarecrow as he picked up a few shotgun shells.

Soon enough they were back in black. Everyone had restocked and was back to full ammo. Even Scorch had all his explosives accounted for. The remaining ammo left in the crate was for stuff they didn’t want or need. It didn’t matter if it was discarded.

“Damn” whispered Scorch. “All Semtex grenades and mines are gone.”

“As if you need more explosives attached to you.” said Scarecrow. “If you had it your way, you’d be a walking mine. Take one hit, and we’re fucked.”

Scorch gave a near silent groan. He preferred explosive combat any day.

“Hey guys.” said X-ray. “If this planet has less gravity then what we’re used to doesn’t that mean we should probably do some exercise to avoid out muscle mass from I don’t know, deteriorating?”

“Wow, I never thought I’d hear those words from you X-ray.” laughed Scarecrow.

“I guess it also means that we’re gonna have to install artificial gravity generators if we’re gonna have this planet colonized like we did with Mars and moon colonies.” said Scorch.

“I doubt this planet will be colonized.” replied Scarecrow as he started doing push ups. “The columbus protocol says we can’t live on planets already inhabited by intelligent creatures to, well, not end up likes those colonial era dicks from a thousand years ago.”

“But I guess if all races are indeed hostile, I’m sure we’re gonna end up killing them all and taking this planet for ourselves.” implied X-ray. “Conquest motherfucker.”

“You know,” began Scorch as he started doing squats. “If Dragons and Griffins are real after all, what’s gonna stop us from encountering Hydras, Pegasai, Goblins, hell even maybe even Orcs?”

“It’s all a huge possibility.” agreed Scarecrow. “Good thing we’re armed and trained to the teeth. I suggest we immediately leave this place after a few minutes. I’m pretty sure the rest of the Griffin army is coming after us.”

“I wish we had that power armor like those super soldiers.” sighed X-ray.

“There’s no way you’d fit in one.” mocked Scorch.

“Neither would you fat ass.” countered the rifleman.

“Hey.” said a calm, collected voice that belonged to Overwatch.

Scarecrow got up and looked at Overwatch. His glasses/visor was glowing blue meaning he had magnetic vision turned on. It was what Shadow squad used to see in the very dark areas and find enemies hiding from them.

Overwatch was looking through his sniper scope tensely. Something was up.

“What’s going on?” asked X-ray.

“6 contacts. A couple hundred meters from our position. I can’t make out what they are though at this distance.” answered the hooded sniper.

“Probably more Griffins.” gritted Scorch.

X-ray turned to his wrist computer. “Scarecrow, I’m getting two massive radiation counts from the same direction. I’m getting gamma, infrared, electromagnetic, hell even fucking gravitational radiation simultaneously!”

Scarecrow raised an eyebrow underneath his mask. “Damn, whatever’s out there must be powerful. You said there were two sources?”

X-ray nodded. “One has a higher radiation count from the other.”

Scarecrow started formulating a plan. “OK, whatever’s there is probably gonna discover the battle site so-”

Scarecrow noticed that Scorch immediately ran off and cloaked. The demo man was the fastest one amongst them so he had ran off a respectable distance.

“Scorch get back here.” ordered Scarecrow through the COMMS, but it was no use. The commander, X-ray and
Overwatch followed after their comrade.

Sometime earlier

The Mane 6 found themselves surrounded by trees. Twilight’s teleportation had worked and they were in the middle of the everfree forest. Once they knew they were all together they started to walk in a straight line.

“Ah swear ah hate this place. It don't even work like the rest of Equestria.” said AJ.

“Come on girls we’re only gonna see what’s going on and then we’ll leave.” assured Twilight. Even she couldn’t get the worry out of her voice.

“Are you sure we have to do this Twilight? I mean its not that I don’t want to, he he. I’m perfectly fine with doing things with my friends.” whispered Fluttershy.

“Come everypony! We faced Discord and Changelings for heaven’s sake. If there’s any monster out there, I’m sure it can’t be worse than chaos himself!” yelled Dash.

“Yeah!” cheered Pinkie. “I might not think a lot, but if there’s a big meanie out there, I don’t think there’s any reason for us not give it a big-ol-buck to the face and a-.”

Suddenly Pinkie froze in the middle of her skip. She fell to the ground and suddenly her ears started to twist, then her tail turned 360, followed by her eyes fluttering non-stop for a few seconds.

Pinkie immediately froze. Sweat was pouring down the mare. Never before had her friends seen her this frightened.

“What did yer Pinkie sense tell ya?” asked Applejack.

“I don’t think that would ever happen.” whispered Pinkie.

“What do you mean?” asked Fluttershy.

“My Pinkie sense is telling me....that whatever is out there...has a half chance of destroying Ponykind.” said the pink pony slowly.

It was safe to say Pinkie sense was never wrong. For a minute, they stood quietly.

“Half chance?” finally asked Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie began to speak fast again. “Yeah, something’s wrong with this sense. You see, whenever that happens, either my left or my right back hoof is supposed to do a kick. If its my left hoof, were safe, but if its my right......were DOOMED!”
Everypony looked at her with their eyes wide open.

“But I’m sure it would have been the left. Who would want to destroy Ponykind!” cheered Pinkie Pie. She returned to her happy demeanor.

The Mane 6 continued walking in a straight line. They were all obviously paranoid.

“So how far are we exactly from this object Twilight?” asked Rarity.

“We’ve only been walking for a few minutes.” said a slightly annoyed Twilight.

“Ugh, its so damp and humid here.” moaned the white Unicorn.

Twilight was getting angry faster than usual. Pinkie’s revelation did not calm her down. “We’ll if you stop talking, we’ll get
there faster so-”

“OH MY CELESTIA WHAT IS THAT!”

Everypony’s face nearly lost their color. Pinkie’s mane it particular, immediately deflated and her color darkened. What stood before them was a sign of pure terror and fear. It was a big miracle that Fluttershy did not faint.

What tainted their vision was essentially a mass grave. What lay there was hundreds of Griffin bodies, all forced to a painful and bloody death. Blood was spilled everywhere, turning the grass and some trees red. The Griffin corpses were unrecognizable. Wings. lion tails, stomachs and heads were missing from numerous bodies.

Against all instincts the ponies began to walk forward along the path of destruction. They were knocked out speechless by the scene and didn’t realize they were getting blood on their hooves. Fluttershy started began tearing up. Even Rainbow Dash was dropped dead frightened of what she saw.

“Wh-what could have done all this?” she began to cry.

“I-I don’t kn-kow.” replied Rarity.

“Whoever did this must be a sick meanie.” whispered Pikie.

Twilight for once wasn’t prepared to deal with something. Celestia had been right, the object that fell from the sky was a cosmic threat that was claiming the lives of many.

Pinkie got green and vomited at the sight of a Griffin covered in burn marks.

Fluttershy and Rarity lost consciousness at the sight of a Griffin corpse with its hear missing and skull crushed to pieces.

They heard a whisper.

“shadow”

They turned their heads left.

“sha.....dow”

They walked towards the source and saw a lone Griffin, his lower stomach blown off revealing his internal organs, slumped against a tree. Fluttershy regained her confidence and flew towards him. She did her best to comfort him even though they both knew it was hopeless.

“sha.....dow”

“Don’t be afraid, everything will be alright.” whispered the yellow pegasus.

Suddenly, the Griffin’s eye widened at the sight of the Mane 6. He pushed himself away from the tree and clutched a spear head.

The Mane 6 started to back away from the Griffin soldier who had a blood thirsty look on his face. He spoke in his native language. "اگر من جان ...... من مایل - نیز ممکن است 'سرفه' را از اسبان بی فایده به عنوان بسیاری از شما با من است."

(“If I die......I mi--might as well ‘cough’ take out as ma-ma-many of you useless ponies with me.” he said.)

The Griffin took a few steps towards the frightened ponies. Suddenly, his eyes lost focus and he slumped to the ground.

He was dead.

The equines didn’t know that to be more afraid of; the fact that he attacked them and wanted to kill them, or the fact they watched a creature die. They went with the former.

“You know...” gulped Rainbow Dash.

“These Griffins are jerks anyway. I kinda guess they deserve this for bullying around other races. Maybe they got what’s coming to them.”

“Ah’m sorry partner!” scolded Applejack. “No one deserves tah die as horrible like this! Even if they were a no good, bloodthirsty Griffin soldier.”

Rainbow Dash nodded her head. Half in defeat, half in agreement.

“He said something about a ‘shadow’.” inquired Twilight. “What could that mean?”

“Maybe what fell from the sky was this magical orb that made your shadow come to life and kill you!” spoke Pinkie. Her mane had reflated but she was still scared like hell. “How do we know ours didn’t come to life to?”

“Pinkie, shadows do not come to life.” said Twilight. Although she looked at hers with some suspicion and fear.
The alicorn walked over to another dead Griffin and looked down at with pity. His eyes were open with full terror, as if he had seen the the most horrific ghost in the universe. His neck was open and blood was leaking from it like a burst balloon.

“Oh my gosh.” whispered Rainbow Dash.

“That’s Gilda’s brother. When she and I were still...friends,”

Rainbow Dashed looked to his side to see Fluttershy and Pinkie giving her dirty looks.

“we would sometimes pick on her older brother for fun and now....”

Something caught Twilight’s eye. It was burrowed deep within its neck. She used her telekinesis to pick it up. The rest of the Mane 6 looked at the object that claimed the life of the Griffin. When she was grabbing it with her telekinesis, she found that the object was much heavier than it appeared to be so she redoubled her efforts.

Soon the blood dripped off the small object and when everypony got a full glimpse of it, their minds started aching before going back to focus. The object looked completely alien, as if it existed from a different plane of existence. It was cylindrical, with a pointed tip. It was dull grey and smelled of smoke, as if it was lighted by fire.

“What...is that?” asked Fluttershy.

“Don’t ask me.” said Rainbow Dash. “Twilight’s the egg head.”

“I..I don’t know what this is.” whispered Twilight as she held the object with her telekinesis, moving it around. “I guess it’s some sort of projectile like a spear or cannon. Although there’s now way it can make a wound that big if it’s that small.”
Rarity tried to look at the object carefully but every time she did, she got the same headache, as if she was solving an impossible math problem.

“I’m no smith, by I don’t think this is made from any material here on Epona.” whispered the white Unicorn. “But you’re right, this does look like a projectile.”

“Everypony look!” yelled Pinkie. The pink mare had walked ahead a few meters.

The rest of the Mane 6 galloped towards her. As Twilight looked at the bodies, she saw that most of them had the same kind of small metal pierced in various places, creating deep, bloody holes.

Finally the ponies looked at what Pinkie was pointing at. Now this was beyond comprehension.

There was a corpse of a dragon. A DRAGON. Slain.

“Wow,” gulped Applejack. “We really are dealin’ with sumthin’ dangerous.”

Twilight looked at the Dragon’s face and saw that one of it’s eyes had exploded. Like a fountainhead, violet blood had leaked from the eye socket. The dragon was clearly killed recently as some of the blood had not dried yet. All of a sudden, Twilight was glad that Spike had not come along.

“Twilight look!” yelled Pinkie Pie. Pinkie pointed to the ground with her head.

Twilight moved her head to see what she was talking about and once again, her head hurt. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. There lay another one of those objects, only larger.

“Please, let’s go.” pleaded Fluttershy.

The Mane 6 didn’t have to think twice. They started walking ahead in a straight line and after a few minutes, passed the trail of bloodshed. They didn’t even stop to bother to look at the other dragon with its torso ripped out.

“You know,” started Pinkie. “Griffins and dragons are the biggest groups of...” Pinkie took a gulp, “..jerks in the world. I really think that whatever came from space was being bullied by them and acted in self defense.” The Pink knew she was just trying to make the best out of a horrifying situation.

“Ya know what?” responded Applejack. “ ‘Em Griffins and Dragons don’ know anythin’ when it comes ta hospitality. I reckon’ they got their just desserts.”

Suddenly everypony’s moods calmed down. They walked along the parth for a few moments, saying nothing until Twilight broke the silence.

“O.K.” said Twilight. “We’ve seen enough. We’re can can head back to equestria.”

The Mane 6 smiled in releavement. However, their smiles vanished when they heard a tree twig snap. Curious, the Mane 6 walked a bit closer to the source-

-and that’s when the being appeared out of thin air.

“DOWN MOTHERFUCKER! DOWN!”

Chapter 6 and 7: Introductions

“The most merciful thing in the world... is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”- H.P Lovecraft

There were many reasons why Twilight and her friends couldn’t move or talk. Perhaps it was because it just appeared out of thin air like magic (Twilight knew such a feat was possible). Or because the creature was more than 6 feet tall and towered them. (The ponies didn’t even make it to its waist.) Maybe it was because it was residue shock from the dead Griffins. Or it could have been due to the fact it looked like it was pointing a weapon at them. Not one anypony could recognize, but that didn’t change the fact it was carrying one.

It could have also been the fact it just spoke in their language. Scratch that, swore the most taboo word in the their language. Maybe it was because it didn’t look anything natural and its form was so alien and incomprehensible that trying to stare at it for prolonged periods of time gave them an unpleasant headache too similar to the effect of Flutershy's stare. Trying to decipher its appearance was like trying to solve Equestria’s hardest math problem.

Speaking of its appearance. It was something the Mane 6 couldn’t describe. Large size aside, it was bi pedal and stood on its two back hooves. What were supposed to be its fore hooves ended with a claw like shape that each had 5 appendages. Said appendages were wrapped around its weapon like a squid gripping prey with its tentacles. As much as they resembled a bear’s paws or a dragon’s claws, what these creatures had were not them. There wasn’t any sign of sharp nails or talons. There were also no signs of a wing or horn.

The Mane 6 presumed that the being was wearing clothes. The outfit it wore was made up of pants as black as night with an equally black top that had a dark grey vest with a digital pattern on it. There were also grey pads half way through its long, slender hooves.

Similar to a saddle bag, the creature held some objects with a rope-like-thing around its midsection. It wore something that looked like white socks to cover its appendages. Its face, if it had a face, was obscured by a black and white cloth which judging by a bump, was supported by its nose. Twilight noticed the creature was wearing something that looked like over large sunglasses.

What felt like an eternity was really 4 seconds. The creature stopped starring at them and put its weapon on its back. The weapon did not fall but rather stuck to its vest.

The creature spoke, judging by its voice it was male. The voice wasn’t pure however and sounded somewhat distorted as if he was speaking through a paper cup.

“Hold your fire!” it yelled. “Its just a couple of a horses.”

Twilight wanted to speak and correct him, but fear had taken over her. Suddenly, three more behemoths appeared out of thin air. Each time one of them appeared, her head exploded and she started hearing screeches. They each wore the same clothes and carried similar looking weapons with variations.

They didn’t all look the same now. One was even taller then the one that ambushed the ponies and slightly chubbier. The shortest was still as tall as Celestia herself but had thinner and at the same time, longer limbs and an equally small stomach. The last to reveal itself had a similar body type to the one that stopped the Mane 6.

The three who just revealed themselves unslung their weapons and walked towards the Ponies. The way they moved were peculiar but at the same time interesting.

Twilight looked back at her friends. Rainbow had fell to the ground and made no effort to get back up. Pinkie’s mane deflated again and her pink body lost so much of its color that she looked white. Rarity was borderline fainting. Fluttershy was starting to tear. Applejack was the least disturbed but her mouth hung open and was shaking.

She knew what all of the other ponies were thinking, these were the beings that Pinky spoke about in her vision. The ones that would probably destroy ponykind. However, the fact that these creatures made no effort to kill them assured Twilight that the other possibility would be the outcome.

Oblivious to the pony’s fear, the tallest approached the equines and spoke up in a calm, yet commanding voice. “They’re too small to be horses Scorch. I’d say they’re....ponies”

When he said ponies, Twilight could tell the alien felt uncomfortable at saying the word. As if he just got humiliated. How they knew of the phrase ponies, she did not know.

The large alien bent down. Its two hind legs started to curve. The giant curved its fore legs and placed his appendages on a bump that sprung from its leg. The alien started to press its face to the Mane 6. Its mask filled them all with terror. The 6 ponies saw their sacred refection in the creature’s cold, soulless goggles.

Its voice startled them.

“A bunch of mutant, alien, animated, midget, multicolored, fucked up ponies with..tattoos on their ass?”

Twilight could not believe the alien said such things about them. Had its appearance not been the sum of all terror he would have gotten multiple bucks to the face.

“Wow. their facial expressions aren’t too different from ours. It's as if they’re sentient.”

The large one suddenly backed off as the thin Xeno started to approach the ponies. Suddenly, his glasses glowed electric blue and white lines started appearing all over them. His voice shared the same muffled, speaker affect.

“I hope I’m not the only one who is completely oblivious but that white one has a horn.”

The alien extended one of his appendages that faced Rarity. Rarity gulped and fell back.

“I can’t believe I’m gonna say this, but that one’s a unicorn.”

‘What problem do they have with saying the names of our species?’ thought the purple princess pony.

Then the alien flexed another appendage and pointed both to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy respectively.

“Those two have wings, that makes them Pegasai.”

Then the alien looked straight at Twilight. The pain and screeching returned to her head.

“This one, has both. That makes her..a...uh?”

The thin giant was clearly lost in thought. The alicorn wanted to tell him that she was but could only let out a high pitched breath. The first alien they saw, probably named Scorch based on an earlier comment tried to correct him.

“An alicorn? he said

“Yeah that’s right.” replied the slender bi-ped. He looked back at the cowering ponies.

All 4 goggles immediately looked straight into the eyes of Twilight. Suddenly the Purple Alicorn got visions. Horrible visions.

Dead ponies were scattered everywhere. Blood leaking from holes in their bodies. Cities and land were on fire. On the top of the mountain of corpses sat those 4 aliens, clutching their weapons and sharpening a blade.

Suddenly the vision ended. Twilight tried to as much focus as she could and turn back to what the black clad aliens were saying.

“According to the stories I’ve read their supposed to be the ‘gods’ of the equines they rule over.”. The Xeno turned to face his allies. “Although she, I’m assuming its a she based on the fact the alicorn has eyelashes. They’re supposed to be gods, but-(his glasses glowed blue again)based on her statistics, she’s a god the same way I’m a women.”

Twilight felt as if some pony shoved a rock through her heart. Alicorns were the most powerful beings that have ever existed. They were gods. But if these creatures could see through her, analyze her powers and laugh them off, they must have a whole new definition for “gods”.

“And the other two?” asked the large one. He was probably referring to Pinkie Pie and Applejack.

“Nothing special. Just normies like the horses on Earth.”

Pinkie Pie and Applejack and opened their mouths. To any Earth pony, being insulted for a lack of wings was like being yelled at with the F-word. Normally an Earth Pony would break into a major speech by saying how special they really were to Epona, but with their behemoth form, they stood silent.

‘Earth’ thought the alicorn. ‘Maybe that was the planet they were from and based on the sound of what he just said, they have ponies too!’

Before she could loose her self in deep thought, she had her mind interrupted by the giant named Scorch. His appendages were stroking the cloth that covered the bottom of his face.

“Unicorns and Pegasi? This can’t be possible. They’re supposed to be made up myths.”

The large one crossed his fore hooves. “Oh really? After massacring an army of Griffins and two giant fucking dragons, now you decide to question everything?”

That sealed it. These four foul mouthed giant Xenos were the result of the horrible carnage behind them. These four managed to slay an army of the most celebrated Griffin soldiers and two giant, terrifying, thought-to-be-indestructible-until-now, beasts.

The 6 equines started to trot back in fear but the 4 giant bipeds just took a few steps to follow them casually. They still weren’t aware of the fear the Mane 6 felt.

“If I’m not mistaken.” started the slim Alien. “Unicorns and Alicorns should be able to perform magic and the Pegasai should have the ability to control the weather.”

“There’s no such thing as magic X-ray.” insisted the tallest one.

The ponies desperately wanted to prove them wrong but the uneasiness that they felt from the presence of the bipeds overwhelmed them. Twilight also took note of the name of the thin alien.

“We’re on an animated planet Scarecrow. Anything is possible at this point.” insisted Scorch.

The purple alicorn took a mental note that the large one was named Scarecrow. ‘And scary he was’ thought Twilight.

Twilight tried to look at the fourth alien. The pony realized that fourth one had not spoken at all at this point. His back was turned as if he was looking for something.

“Hey check it out!” yelled the alien now known as Scorch.

With speeds that surprised Rainbow Dash, the behemoth lunged at Applejack and grabbed her signature stetson before turning to his comrades. The orange Earth Pony wanted to get him back for stealing but was stopped by Rarity.

The 4 black-clad aliens turned their attention to the cowpony’s hat.

“Holy shit!” yelled Scarecrow as he grabbed the hat.

“Aren’t these the clothes cowboys and farmers are supposed to wear?” asked X-ray.

“How could they make them without hands?” questioned Scorch.

Their large friend ignored them. “If these ponies are capable of making hats, then that means they’re intelligent and have a social structure.”

“And a red-neck population!” added Scorch.

‘What the heck is a red-neck’ thought Applejack. She hoped it wasn’t an insult or these black clad aliens were gonna be taught a lesson.

“This hat is too similar to the ones we wore for hundreds of years to be a coincidence.” insisted X-ray.

“I doubt we have a similar culture.” said Scarecrow. “We’re light years apart, there’s no way they could gain such a thing from us.”

Scorch grabbed the hat and walked towards Applejack. The orange mare trembled.

The biped started to whisper.

“Its okay, I’m not gonna hurt you.” assured Scorch. He clearly didn’t look like he was expecting a response.

Applejack didn’t want to disobey it and started to calm down. She was still shaking nervously though and felt queasy. For some reason, Applejack felt a feeling deep inside of her that it was okay to obey the masked xeno.

Scorch placed the stetson on her head and then stroked the orange pony’s fur.

“Good girl.” he whispered.

Twilight felt as if the aliens saw them nothing more than childish animals even though they established that pony-kind was intelligent. She tried to raise her voice again but the sensation of casting a weary spell returned to her skull, silencing her.

“You know for an intelligent race with jobs and presumably, a class structure, they’re awfully silent.” muttered Scarecrow.

“Well no shit. I don’t think 4 giant bi-peds that aren’t built like anything on this planet are the best things for these creatures to comprehend.” said X-ray.

“Besides, it not like they understand any word that comes out of our fuckin’ mouths.” added Scorch.

‘Oh we can here every word that comes out of your potty mouth.’ thought Twilight. The purple Alicorn realized that she needed to speak to these aliens or else they were going to get nowhere. She used Cadance’s technique to calm herself. Right when she opened her mouth-

“Seriously, though this is awesome!” yelled Scarecrow in a non enthusiastic manner.

“Enlighten me.” said Scorch sarcastically.

“Guys we have revolutionized the way modern society thinks.” started Scarecrow.

“If this planet is really home to all of the fictional creatures that humans made up and can exist in an animated fashion, then imagine all the new things we can discover and the endless possibilities we can do with it. Plus, if this planet really has ‘magic’, then that means a whole new field of study we can exploit. I mean seriously, this discovery is going to take humanity even further!”

Finally, the giant alien calmed down. The ponies were too busy cowering at what the bipeds were going to do to them to focus on what Scarecrow just said.

“So, now what should we do?” asked Scorch.

“Well they don’t look like much of a threat. I don’t even think they can harm us.” started Scarecrow. His tone suddenly became sterner. “And you know the drill, we never harm civilians.”

The ponies started to calm down a bit. They were beginning to deduce that these 4 aliens belonged to some sort of military.

“I move that we go find out where these ponies come from and do some observations.” proposed Scorch. "If we're stranded here without evac or a rescue option, we might as well make the most of it."

The Mane 6 became nervous. Despite what the alien just said, having them near Ponyville was not such a good idea. They needed to find the courage to speak.

“One thing is for certain though.” muttered X-ray. "These ponies are so adorable."

The humans broke the tension with a series of laughs. Except for one anyway.

Rainbow Dash for one, did not like being called cute. With all her might, the pegasus yelled loud.

“Hey! You guys must have serious guts to come here and start doing whatever you feel like! I hate to break it to you pal, but Equestria is our home! We get to dictate what happens here. Not some two-hoofed monkey rejects like you!”

Chapter 7:

For 10 seconds, the Shadow Squad remained silent. They really hoped the ponies weren't sapient or else they would have violated 23rd protocol by revealing themselves, but the situation was already FUBAR since the Dragon attack.

Scarecrow broke the silence. “You...you can speak....English?”

Rainbow Dash flew into the bipeds face. She looked at her angered reflection in their shades. Realizing the giant could attack her any moment, she subtly flew back.

“This is....amazing.” whispered X-ray. “I swear I’m dreaming.”

SMACK!

“Ow! Damn Overwatch what was that for?” chastised X-ray

The silent biped gave a shrug.

Twilight finally spoke up as well. “I’m sorry for all the confusion but allow us to introduce ourselves.”

“You’re...intelligent?” said Scorch obliviously. Although it was more of a statement of concern as he had never revealed himself to civilians before. And to think his position would be compromised by talking horses.

“Yes partner.” piped up Applejack. “And ah would appreciate it if you didn’ go ‘round treatin’ us like toys!”

“Wow, this planet does have a redneck population after all.” laughed X-ray.

“What the heck is ah redneck?” asked the orange Earth Pony.

“Forget that!” yelled Scarecrow. He placed his hands on his head. “First contact, this would actually be amazing if we weren't stranded on a FUBAR op and it wasn't US of all people on this planet.” He paused.

“Ok, third contact considering the Griffins and Dragons. And I doubt those went well. Hey are you guys recording? I don’t want to miss a damn moment of this!”

“Would you control your language you brute?” scolded Rarity.

“Let’s try this again.” said Twilight, trying to break the tension.

She closed her eyes and spoke with dignity. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, former student of our ruler Celestia and current element of magic.”

They chuckled upon hearing Twilight’s name as if it was some kind of joke. The Alicorn felt they hadn’t listened to a word she said. She really didn’t like their attitude.

“Your land is called Equestria?” snickered Scarecrow. “How fitting.” He regained focus. “Are we in Equestria right now?”

“No” whispered Fluttershy. She wished she hadn’t answered because 4 pairs of pitch black shades were pointed at her.

“Um...you’re in the Everfree Forest. It’s what divides the nations of Epona.”

The commandos looked at each other. “Wow they call this planet Epona too. What’s next?” muttered Scorch.

Scarecrow pointed to Fluttershy. “What’s your name?” he asked.

Fluttershy didn't want to talk, but something told her inside to obey the command of the human. “I’m Flu...dirsy” squeaked the yellow mare.

“Could you repeat that?” commanded X-ray. He clearly didn’t know how to handle the timid Pegasus.

“I’m Fluttershy.” she whispered as she started crawling back. "Could you please calm down?"

"Hey, we're a little confused. We didn't expect to see english speaking ponies on a foreign planet." calmed Scorch.

“And there’s no need to be afraid. We’re not going to kill you unless we have no choice.” assured Scarecrow. "Or threaten to expel our existence to the public."

“Besides, who would dare hurt such cute ponies?” said Scorch with his fingers and hands on his cheeks.

“I find that hard to believe!” yelled Rarity.

“Seriously what is her accent?” asked Scarecrow.

“What did you say about my accent!” yelled the white unicorn.

“I believe its French, no wait British, hell maybe its Spanish.” contemplated Scorch.

X-ray raised an eyebrow underneath his shades. “And you are?”

Rarity put on a haughty expression. “I am Rarity, one Equestria’s finest fashion designers and personal dressmaker of princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight blushed.

“I thought you ponies just go around naked.” muttered Scorch.

“Most of the time we do. But on formal occasions, we put something on.” chanted the white unicorn.

“How well do you work with suits?” asked Scarecrow in a business voice.

“I say I am exceptional.” gloated Rarity. She broke her smile. “Although I’m afraid I have no experience designing for bipeds like you.”

The 4 giants nodded. Before they could ask another pony-

“HI I’M PINKIE-AH!”

Scarecrow screamed and threw the Pink mare onto the ground. Twilight and the other ponies rushed to her aid to pick her up.

“Damn it, don’t sneak up on us!” scolded Scarecrow. “Our motion trackers will count you as hostile.”

“You’re what?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Motion trackers.” began X-ray. “We use them to detect others around us based on movement. It’s how we located you ponies in the first place. They can also decipher emotions. If you’re blue, you appear yellow. If you’re hostile, you appear red.”

“That is impressive technology.” said an amazed Rarity.

“You sure it ain’t magic?” asked Applejack.

Meanwhile Scarecrow helped the pink mare up. The commander was mad at himself. He injured a civilian. That was not a good move.

Scarecrow tried to apologize. His mental condition wouldn't let him. "Oh. I thought an enemy was behind me and so-sor-sor"

Pinkie Pie quickly shook her head. “Oh it’s ok Mr. Alien! A couple hours of smiling will help out!” The squad, expect for the neutral Overwatch, couldn’t help but enjoy the mare’s positive attitude.

The party pony burst into the air. “I’m Pinkie Pie, Equestria’s favorite party planner!”

The humans were amazed on how she was suspended off the ground. Pinkie finally landed.

The humans were silent. Questions began racing in their head as they observed the pink pony’s movements. True she looked like a cartoon character, but that didn’t have to mean her movements went against reality. It was as if she was moving by magic but the squad well knew there were answers in the universe for everything strange.

“How do you even do that?” finally asked Scorch.

“Do what Mr. Alien?” replied Pinkie.

“Pop up everywhere and perform physics defying movements.” answered Scorch.

“Oh that’s jus’ Pinkie Pie bein’ Pinkie Pie.” chuckled Applejack.

X-ray crossed his arms. “Nah there’s an explanation for that. Now’s not the time though. Identify yourself orange one.”

Applejack did her best to put on a welcoming voice. “Name’s Applejack, and as y’all can tell by mah name, I work Sweet Apple Acres, growin’ apples for all of Equestria to enjoy.”

X-ray got excited. “You grow apples, as in that red, green, or yellow fruit with a stem on top and a core with seeds?”

The orange Earth Pony nodded.

“That is impressive! Believe it or not, our species grows apples too as food.” cheered the commando.

Applejack blushed. “Well, I don’ know how they grow ‘em on your planet but I promise you that ya haven’t tasted apples until you had one of ours.” She tried to smile at the xeno but had to look away once the painful sensation in her mind kicked in.

“You know Applejack is also the name of this alcohol I like.” chuckled Scarecrow.

“Damn, what is with all these cosmic coincidences?” Scorch sighed.

“I’m sure we’ll find out later.” assured Scarecrow.

Rainbow Dash flew up to Shadow squad. She hoped that the soldiers were impressed underneath their masks.

“Ah-hem.” she coughed. “I’m Rainbow Dash, Future Wonderbolt and the fastest flier in all of Equestria.”

“I’m sure.” said a sarcastic X-ray.

Rainbow Dash looked at him with one eye. “Don’t you doubt me bub. I’m the only Pegasus to ever perform a sonic rainboom.” she gloated.

“Let me guess. It’s like a sonic boom but it creates a rainbow explosion too.” said Scarecrow sarcastically.

“Actually you guessed it.” cheered Rainbow Dash. She did a twirl mid-air.

“An organic creature that can break the sound barrier? That’s impressive.” complimented Scorch.
Rainbow Dash blushed.

“Yeah but can you travel faster than faster than the speed of light amongst stars like our space ships?” mocked X-ray.

Rainbow Dash took it lightly. “You got me there.” she teased.

“Can pegasi really control the weather?” asked Scorch.

“Well duh, that’s how it’s supposed to work in nature.” answered Rainbow Dash. “Doesn’t your species do the same thing too?”

“We can do more than control the weather Rainbow Dash.” assured X-ray.

“But unlike you pegasai, we can’t fly or control the weather without technology that we developed in our later years” explained Scarecrow.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at them as if they told her an obvious lie. “Sure.” she said, unconvinced. She quickly flew away from the commandos as the closer she got to them, the pain and confusion got worse.

The squad got nervous. They really didn't want to be the ones to introduce humanity. Oh how they wish they had an evac.

Scarecrow started anyway. He didn't want the ponies to declare them enemies. “First up, you should know that we are Homo sapiens. You can call us humans if you’d like.”

The ponies tried to repeat the phrase until they got it right.

X-ray raised his hand and flexed his fingers. “You’re probably intrigued by these yes?”

The ponies nodded.

X-ray sighed under his mask. “These are called hands. We used them grab onto and point at objects. These appendages (he gave them a twirl) are called fingers.”

“They’re kind of like a bear’s paws.” whispered Fluttershy.

“Yeah except without the sharp claws.” replied X-ray.

Scorch raised his foot and placed and pointed at it. “This is called a foot; it’s kind of like a hand but not as flexible. We use it to keep balance, walk and stand straight. Like our hands, they have 5 smaller appendages too, except they’re called toes. You obviously can't see them.”

The Mane 6 failed to realize how annoyed Shadow was getting with them. They hated being casual.

“By the way, what are those marks on your flank?” asked Scarecrow.

The ponies were caught off by the use of swearing. Twilight was able to shrug off the insult from her mind and gave an explanation of their cutie mark.

“These,” began Twilight. “Symbolize a pony’s special talent. It’s not an artificial mark but rather a natural one. When a pony finds something they’re really good at, their body creates a mark to signal that pony and society their calling and destiny. My symbol represents magic.”

“They’re called cutie marks!” cheered Pinkie.

X-ray, Scorch and Scarecrow burst laughing and screeching. (Deep down in Overwatch’s black heart, he giggled. A bit).

The ponies had dumbfounded expressions on them. Cutie marks were very important to pony society and they were just laughing it off.

“Seriously, what are they called?” laughed Scorch.

“We’re not lyin’ pal. Cutie marks are really what they’re called.” assured Applejack.

“That’s rich!” joked Scarecrow.

“Seriously, it sounds so childish!” mocked X-ray.

“These cutie marks are essential to pony society! We would never be able to prosper so well had it not been for them.” defended Rarity.

“You could have at least given them a better name,” chuckled Scarecrow.

The Mane 6 waited until the soldiers calmed down.

“Hey, what are those things you’re carrying?” asked Twilight.

The bipeds unslung their devices on their backs.

“You mean these?” asked X-ray.

“Yes.” replied Twilight.

Scarecrow started off. “I won’t get into any of the technical details, but this a gun.”

“Could you repeat that?” asked Rarity.

“A gun, this is the weapon our species uses to kill.”

The atmosphere was deathly silent.

X-ray continued. “You ponies have bows and arrows, right?”

The equines nodded. The 4 black clad soldiers were beginning to deduce that the ponies came from a medieval like society. A peaceful and innocent society by the looks of it.

“Well a gun kind of works like a bow and arrow in the sense they fire projectiles. But instead of firing arrows, guns use a magnetic field to accelerate bullets. In the past we used explosions to fire them. Bullets are basically small but very dense pieces of metal, that when propelled at great speeds, cause a lot of damage. Some guns however, are outfitted to propel heavier projectiles like rockets.”

Twilight started to use her Telekinesis to lift the metal projectile she found earlier.

“You’re horn, its glowing!” yelled Scarecrow.

The 4 humans turned their attention to the piece of metal the Alicorn was levitating. They observed in awe as it started floating.

“You can perform telekinesis?” asked Scorch.

“Why, yes.” started Rarity. “But that’s just basic magic for a unicorn or in my friends’ case, an Alicorn. Like how humans have hands, we use telekinesis to grab hold of objects.”

“They’ll be plenty of time for discussing later.” said Twilight under the strain of lifting the object. The headache from her head did not help. “Can you please tell me what this is?”

The 4 bipeds took a closer look at what Twilight was holding. X-ray answered in a calm, uniform voice.

“That is 35 caliber Full Metal Jacket anti-personnel round.”

The ponies stared at him. They hadn’t understood a word he said.

X-ray looked at his rifle. “This is the type of bullet that my carbine fires.”

Rainbow Dash realized that she was looking at the killer of Gilda’s brother. Considering he helped take out two dragons, trying to get him mad would be the last thing she wanted. She decided to mask her emotions though for the sake of her reputation....and life.

“Mind showin’ us how ‘em guns work?” asked Applejack.

Scorch nodded. He held up the gun and aimed down the holo sight. “First you look through the sight to aim directly at your target.”

“Please be careful with that.” squeaked Fluttershy.

Scorch tried to assure her. “Don’t worry we’re profession-” he was caught off by the snicker of a certain mammal that the squad tagged hostile. Now was a good time to give a lesson, A VERY good time.

Scorch spoke in a casual voice. “You find your target.” the human pointed left. “Then you use your finger to pull the trigger. And-”

BANG!

The ponies watched in horror as an animal violently exploded at the chest. Its entire stomach was ripped open with blood gushing everywhere. The barrel of Scorch’s SCAR glowed red and trailed smoke.

“What did you shoot at anyway?” asked a calm Scarecrow.

“Well remember that raccoon that stole my data chip when I woke up?”

"What raccoon?" asked X-ray.

"You were asleep." muttered Scarecrow.

Scorch went up to the pool of blood at yanked a thin, blue, crystal card.

Fluttershy was starting to cry. The rest of the ponies were boiling mad. The raccoon lay dead with a hole in it like the ones in the Griffins.

Twilight started screaming; “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU KILLED THAT POOR, INNOCENT,-”

Scorch shoved his finger through the Alicorn’s forehead, knocking the purple mare back. The rest of the ponies gasped at the sight of their princess being shoved around.

“Don’t you dare call that raccoon innocent!” scolded Scorch. “That little bitch knowingly stole a highly important data storage device that I could get sent in jail for a life time if I lost it. I don’t think our CO needs to hear a raccoon stole it. Besides I asked it nicely a hundred times to give it back and just spat at me! I've already broken enough rules by talking to you all.”

“You didn’t need to slaughter it you barbarian!” scolded Rarity.

“Oh please! I did it a favor by shooting it. I originally had something worse planned for it.” responded the demo man.

“What could be worse than killing?” yelled Rainbow Dash.

“Would you rather be killed by multiple blows with a spear; slowly, painfully, uneasily. Or would you rather be killed by quickly, painlessly, quietly?” gritted Overwatch.

All yelling immediately halted. as the ponies couldn’t respond to that. They felt that nothing could justify murder. But there was some reasoning in the bi-ped’s words. Some

“The raccoon, who may we remind you, is a damn thief, didn’t feel anything. Our guns are extremely humane and guarantee that dying will be like falling asleep. That in my opinion, is preferable to agony.” explained X-ray.

“We should know, we’ve been shot as well.” added Scorch grimly.

The ponies remained silent. The fear returned. These humans were cold blooded killers, stranded on their world, who only met them by pure chance.

Fluttershy whispered, “Why....”

The four bipeds turned their heads to face the yellow Pegasus. She started trembling and sweating. Collecting all the breath she could;

“Why did you kill the Griffins?”

“It’s just.” Twilight inhaled. “I’d never thought we would have to see murder like this first hoof. Especially in the gruesome ways you committed it.”

Then something happened that nobody or no pony expected. X-ray bent down to the weeping Purple Mare and hugged her tight for a moment before letting go to comfort her. While touching the pony certainly didn’t help the migraines in her head, Twilight calmed down and felt a sense of goodness inside the counter terrorist.

“We all lose our innocence at some point Twilight.” assured X-ray in the least convincing manner ever.

The ponies tried to wipe their sad expressions of their face.

“I remember the first time the four of us had to kill.” contemplated Scorch. “I felt like such an asshole .I couldn't forgive myself after the mission.”

He wasn't telling the truth. He wasn't in the 23rd for no reason.

“We all did Scorch.” insisted Scarecrow to bulk up the lie.

Pinkie Pie tried to get everypony’s mind off the subject. She walked up to the 4 commandos and tried to ignore the pain in her head.

“The four of you said you had ponies where you come from?” she said in a slow way.

“Let’s not think about that now.” whispered Scorch. “You know we haven’t gotten introduced yet.”

Scorch stepped forward and extended his right arm. “I’m Ro-OW!”

“You’re not supposed to tell them our real names twit!” scolded Scarecrow who just hit him.

“As if ponies are capable of doing anything to us if they know our names.” argued Scorch.

The ponies felt insulted. After all they’d been through, they surely didn’t want to be called weak. Scorch took notice of their glum attitude.

Scarecrow turned to face the ponies. “As per military protocol, we can’t tell you our real names so you’ll have to go by our call signs. I’m Scarecrow, squad leader and heavy weapons handler. It’s an honor to be meeting a member of an alien race. Although considering Epona is your home planet, we’re the aliens.”

The equines giggled.

“I’m Scorch” said the commando. “I’m squad demolitions. My job is to blow shit up.”

The ponies gulped at him with wide eyes.

“I’m X-ray. Squad Intel, drone handler, diplomat, medic, rifleman and basically everything my friends didn’t choose while signing up.”

The Mane 6 nodded.

Scarecrow pointed to Overwatch and introduced him.

“This is Overwatch. He’s our squad’s marksman and recon expert. As you can tell, he doesn’t really talk much, but man you should see how he draws.”

Overwatch gave a nod. He stepped back a bit as Pinkie materialized in front of him.

“Overwatch huh?” she giggled. “That’s a silly code name.”

Overwatch spoke in an intimidating but quiet growl. “Your ACTUAL name is Pinkie Pie so shut the fuck up.”

The pink mare’s pupils decreased in size and she lost her smile. Pinkie sunk back to her friends, taken badly by the insult. She couldn't cope with someone no trying to be her friend.

“Where do you come from?” inquired Twilight.

“Well that depends on the human you ask.” trivialized X-ray. “Humans have been living on multiple planets and moons for quite a long time.”

The eyes of the ponies shot wide open and their mouths hung. All pain in their heads were all of a sudden very mundane and the screeches quieted.

“You live on more than one planet? That is so cool!” gasped Rainbow Dash.

“Has it always been like this for humans?” asked Rarity.

“500 Terran years ago,” began Scarecrow. “Humans only lived on one planet, Earth. But then we invented faster than light travel and terra formers. Using this technology, humans spread across star systems, colonizing worlds to house our population. All of us were born on these colonies. Except for Scorch, he’s an Earthborn.”

“More specifically, I was born in Vancouver.” added Scorch.

“Humanity’s shit hole if you ask me.” joked Scarecrow.

Scorch wanted to spit at Scarecrow before remembering he had a mask put on.

“I was born on the colony of Pandora.” explained Scarecrow.

“I was born on Auraxis. Overwatch was born on the moon Titan.” said X-ray. “However, our families moved to the colony of Requiem when we were kids. We met in school and we’ve been best friends ever since.”

The Mane 6 didn’t want to point out how hard it was to believe that the 4 humans could possibly be friends. Their attitude toward each other was how bitter rivals should behave, not chums. Regardless, they were excited by the idea of a space faring species.

“What’s it like, to travel across the stars and planets?” asked Twilight. She had a cute twinkle in her eye.

“You see one giant ball of flaming gas, you see them all.” chuckled Scorch. “Although the thought of something that is the equivalent of a billion hydrogen bombs going off at once is just riveting.”

“Are you soldiers?” asked Pinkie.

“Counter terrorists.” corrected X-ray.

“What’s that?” asked Applejack.

“Well a terrorist is someone who uses fear and violence to further their own goals. A counter terrorist stops them from doing so. They’ll do anything like take hostages, bomb communities, steal from and enslave people, and even hijack military space ships. It’s our job the protect the innocent from harm.” explained Scarecrow.

The ponies couldn’t believe what they heard.

“Why would somepony be a terrorist?” asked Fluttershy.

X-ray didn’t notice the pony pun in ‘somebody’. “A lot of people get messed up every now and then. It’s horrible, but it happens. I’m sure that for even a peaceful species like you, Equestria has seen such a thing at least once.”

The Mane 6 nodded. Memories of Discord and Nightmare Moon returned to their heads. Until now, individuals like them were the personification of evil to the ponies. But if humans were willing to kill, a pony could only tell what a ‘terrorist’ would do.

“We’re part of the 23rd counter terrorist division.” began Scarecrow. “It’s basically one of humanities' best armed fighting groups around.”

“We’re Shadow Squad.” added Scorch.

“So thats why the Griffin whispered ‘shadow’.” whispered Fluttershy.

“Shadow squad, that sounds ghastly, why would your unit be called that?” asked Rarity.

“The 23rd is known for scaring the shit out of all of its enemies. The way we handle missions is quite..contoversial to say the least. (The mane 6 gulped at the revelation) Our enemies never see us coming until its too late. So all squads in the 23rd are named after horror creatures like ‘zombie’ and ‘ghoul’. Also our unit is equipped with devices that let us cloak like ghosts and disappear into the shadows.” explained X-ray.

X-ray activated his cloaking module and disappeared. A few seconds later, he uncloaked and revealed himself.

There was a murmur of ‘oohs’ amongst the Mane 6.

Rainbow Dashed suddenly remembered an important fact. “Hey, I remember you guys saying you had ponies where you came from.”

“That’s right!” nodded Scarecrow. “Get ready, for a big cosmological mind fuck!”

“Don’t use that word!” scolded Pinkie.

Scarecrow ignored her. “On our home planet Earth, we have horses which are basically like ponies but at the same time aren’t.”

The equines were confused.

X-ray tried to explain. “Despite some physical and possibly, instinct similarities, horses on Earth are much larger than you, aren’t....cell shaded like you are, come in only 3 colors; white black and brown, don’t get cutie marks, can’t talk and are no where near as cute and cuddly. Hell they’re not even intelligent, they’re just...creatures. You could try talking to them if you wanted to, but you wouldn’t get a response, just a grunt.”

The Mane 6 was intrigued. The idea of ponies that were not an intelligent or dominant species was very fascinating.

“Also, there’s only one type of horse on Earth. Just normies like Pinkie and Applejack.” explained Scorch.

“We’re not called ‘normies’, we’re called Earth Ponies!” yelled Pinkie.

The squad froze.

“Earth....Pony.” said Scarecrow slowly.

“That’s interesting. The fact that the ponies on this planet that resemble the ones on Earth have ‘Earth’ in their name.” contemplated Scorch.

The ponies and humans started losing themselves in thought trying to look for an explanation. Although it was slightly hard for the Mane 6 to do so as everything about the humans seemed incomprehensible.

X-ray looked up and raised a finger. “Although, the name of our home planet ‘Earth’ originated from the Latin phrase ‘Gaia’ who was the fictional Roman and Greek goddess of the ground. You see, every planet in the solar system was named after a Roman deity. On the other hand, or other hoof in your case, I assume that the ‘Earth’ in Earth Pony probably comes from the Latin phrase ‘terra’ which just means ground. Is that correct?”

Twilight nodded. “Actually that is where the ‘Earth’ in Earth Pony comes from. And if I’m not mistaken, what you call Latin is actually called ‘old speak’ to us.”

“I swear, this planet is fucked up!” face palmed Scarecrow.

“Hey, Epona is an awesome place. Just because it’s a kinda like where you come from doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it!” insisted Rainbow Dash.

“It’s not just that our worlds are similar.” explained Scorch. “This planet can essentially be called ‘fairy tale land’ because the creatures and look of this planet resembles everything from children’s stories.”

“Wow,” whispered Twilight. “So for you, visiting Epona is like coming to the setting of a story book. And ponies, Griffins and Dragons would be like meeting the characters.”

“Next you’ll be telling me this planet has Manitcores and Minotaurs.” chuckled Scorch.

“Actually, they exist on this planet too,” squeaked Fluttershy. A certain minotaur popped in her mind.

The 4 humans burst into a high pitched laugh. It wasn’t the kind of laugh from telling a funny joke. It was the ‘please kill me, I can’t take it anymore’ laugh. The loud noises they were making certainly did not help the ponies’ migraines

After calming down, Scarecrow took a deep breath and yelled with his might.

“Seriously, once we get back to civilization, we are getting to the bottom of this!”

“By the way, what’s the nearest point of Pony civilization?” asked X-ray.

“Oh it’s around 54 kilometers down from here. It’s the town of Ponyville!” cheered Twilight.

Once again the humans burst out laughing. And as they did, they realized the definition of FUBAR was going to have a new meaning.

Author's Note

So as you can see, Shadow isn't going to drop the subject of an Earth like planet lightly. I believe that many HiE fics fail to capture the significance of having a planet full of mythical creatures and I don't like how the humans just blankly accept it.

We are not all skeptics, but come on, wouldn't humanity be freaked out we found a planet filled with humans?

Exactly....

Chapters 8 and 9: Highway to Hell Parts 1 and 2

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.-Franklin D. Roosevelt

The 4 humans continued to fake laugh hard, mostly because they didn't want to be in this accidental situation rather than the eccentric name. A minute passed before they finally settled down.

“How far did you say ponyville was again?” asked Scarecrow.

“Around 54 kilometers from here. I just don’t know which direction.” answered Twilight. She scolded herself for loosing track of things. “The whole meeting you thing kinda messed me up. He he”

“No need to worry.” chimed in X-ray. The counter terrorist turned on in his wrist computer and an application menu greeted him. His gloved fingers accessed the control panel of his recon drone.

The mares watched with curiosity.

“What is that?” asked Fluttershy.

X-ray faced up at them. “Oh this? It’s my wrist computer.”

“A what?” asked Rarity blankly.

“A wrist computer. I’m afraid your species isn’t technologically advanced enough for me to give an explanation without confusing you.”

The Mane 6 frowned. X-ray could tell they were desperate for answers. Besides, how could he stand seeing such cute things so sad? Even the 23rd had some limits. Not really.

“Well, we can tell you what it does but how works.”

The Mane 6 flipped their ears up gleefully.

Scorch spoke up. “A wrist computer is a machine that’s designed to be so compact that it can fit around our wrists.”

Scorch raised his to give a demonstration. “These bad boys allow us to view documents and information, listen to music, watch videos, take pictures, scan stuff and browse the internet and weather. We have a specialized military variant that allows us to control our suit functions and heads up display. They’re more expensive that way, but pretty worth it. These things are really handy, or hoofy in your language.”

Scarecrow took over the the last part. “The way it’s controlled is by a touchscreen in the sense that all commands that this device follows is through jesters with our fingers. Can you comprehend that?”

“Darling, we’re having a hard time trying to comprehend you.” said Rarity.

“That is amazing technology. With the proper spells and magic, I could replicate something for pony use all around.” cheered Twilight. Once she got back to Ponyville, she was going to waste no time in trying to find out how to reproduce one for study.

X-ray finished tapping the commands on the drones control panel. Suddenly the drone uncloaked in front of the ponies. As expected, they gave a yelp and fell back.

“What is that?” yelled Rainbow Dash.

“Recon drone.” said Scarecrow blankly.

“What?” said the ponies in unison.

“Have you ever heard of robots?” groaned Scorch.

“Yeah. I’ve read some science fiction books about them. They’re supposed to be machines that work on their own and do specific tasks.” answered Twilight.

“Alright then. A recon drone is basically a robot whose job is to assist 23rd units in gathering information, pinpointing enemies, spying on opposing bases and this bad boy is specially modified to have two twin micro rifles on it.” explained X-ray.

“How does it work?” bounced Pinkie.

“Again, your species isn’t technologically advanced enough for us to give an explanation without confusing you.” muttered Scarecrow.

Just as the other mares stared at Shadow in disappointment, Twilight suddenly remembered that the elements of harmony were still in their box tucked away behind the Mane 6. She turned around and quickly cast an invisibility spell on it to conceal it from the sight of the humans. It would be best to keep it a secret from them just in case...

“Anyway,” started X-ray. “My drone’s detected a town, around 53.87 kilometers east from here. X-ray pointed east with his index finger.

Overwatch, Scarecrow, and Scorch tapped the coordinates onto their wrist computer.

“Waypoint marked on HUD.” said Scorch.

The visors of the human glowed blue again.

“What are you doing and what’s a HUD?” asked Rainbow Dash.

The squad wan’t bothered at giving all the explantations, it would be a very interesting experience for them and the ponies.

“A HUD is a heads up display.” explained Scorch. He pointed to his glasses. “These shades aren’t just for blocking out sunlight and making us look cool.”

‘And scary.’ thought Fluttershy.

“But they also have a HUD built into it that’s connected to our armor and devices. It keeps track of thing like ammunition, shield condition, motion trackers and waypoints. We’d explain how it works but..”

“Our species isn’t technologically sufficient enough for you to give an explanation.” joked Pinkie, trying her best to imitate a mechanical voice.

The squad smiled underneath their masks.

“This pretty exciting!” burst Twilight. she spoke fast like Pinkie. “I have a whole new species to study about. I have a ton of questions I’m..”

“Once our forces meet with the rest of Equestria’s rulers, you can start asking questions on humanity. Now let’s just focus on getting back to town.” interrupted Scorch.

“You can still ask us questions about ourselves if you’d like.” proposed X-ray. Although he didn't intend to to tell the truth.

“By the way, how did the six of you get here so quickly? asked Scarecrow.

“Oh, I just teleported the 6 of us here. A lot better than trotting the extra distance if you ask me.” answered Twilight.

The squad was more amazed than shocked. “You can teleport?” half asked Scarecrow.

Twilight nodded gleefully. “Every pony has a special talent. Mine is magic so my understanding of that field is greater than that of a normal unicorn. Since I’m an Alicorn, my power increases ten fold.”

“Motherfucker you should have said so earlier!” yelled Scarecrow.

Twilight slowly trotted back. The human’s attitude towards her was the complete opposite of what she had been getting since her coronation.

“What are you waiting for? Teleport us!” yelled X-ray. “Ponyville’s that way!” The masked soldier pointed east. Twilight nodded.

“Okay, all of you form around me.” instructed Twilight.

Ponies and humans gathered around the Purple Mare. Her horn lit up and a pink light spread across everything gathered around her.

Right when she was about to give a final push, her horn ached and she collapsed.

“What was that?” asked Scarecrow. The humans were more confused than unamused.

“Twilight ya never mess up on teleportation.” stated Applejack.

“Sorry.” muttered the Alicorn. “I lost focus. Let me try again.”

Twilight tried the teleportation spell again but once the pink light engulfed the humans, she lost her ability to think.

“What’s going on? Aren’t Alicorns supposed to be powerful ‘magic’ casters?” inquired X-ray as he stroked his bandanna. Twilight noted the way he said ‘magic’.

“I have no problem teleporting ponies but there’s a limit to how much I can teleport.” explained Twilight.

Scarecrow sat down. “So you can’t teleport anything above 6, based on what you’re trying to teleport. Or maybe the distance you can teleport goes down based-”

“No its not that.” said Twilight as she rubbed her face with her hooves. “When I try to teleport ponies, everything goes seamlessly, I even teleported a dozen royal guards last week as part of an experiment.”

She looked up at them, making sure no to stare for too long. “But when I try to teleport one of you, I can’t grasp any of your forms. I have to use a lot magic just to teleport one of you and I just fail. One of you is like the equivalent of 10 royal guards to teleport.”

“Well there’s no use in us holding you back.” said Scorch. “Go teleport your friends, we’ll meet you at the village.

“I...can’t. Its really hard for me to concentrate right now with one of you guys here.” explained Twilight.
Scorch pointed to Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Twilight. “You three have wings, go fly ahead to ponyville, we’ll meet you there sooner or later. Hell you can probably carry your friends if you wanted.”

“I’m sorry, but there’s no way we’re letting you out of our sight pal.” threatened Pinkie Pie in a stern voice. It was more of an expression than scolding however.

Scorch spoke in a faux-villain voice “Oh no, you’re messing up our plot to take over the world.” He gave a small chuckle.

“Although that is smart. In any situation you shouldn’t be too trusting of people..er ponies you just met. Hell, we don't even trust you. Consider yourself lucky that we tolerate your knowledge of our existence.”

“Fair enough, looks like we’re for a long walk or trot or gallop..whatever.” sighed X-ray.

The Mares gave out a groan.

“The sooner we move, the better. Alright follow us.” commanded Scarecrow. "Besides, this situation is infinitely worse for us anyway. We shouldn't even be here."

Rainbow Dash landed and trotted to him. “Hey who put you in charge? Why should we be taking orders from you?”

Scarecrow stood to his full hight. He towered the mare and cast a huge shadow above her. “Because I can squash you
like a bug.” he said in a joking manner.

Rainbow Dash gulped and backed away. The ponies were unsure whether they could trust the masked commandos but resisting the counter terrorists wasn’t an option the moment they saw them unsling their weapons and load them with ammo.

“Waypoint on target, let’s move.” said Scarecrow nonchalantly.

The ponies followed the humans. They observed the counter terrorists pointing their guns everywhere as if they were waiting for something just to come at them. Nopony could put their hood on it, but something made them feel compelled to follow Shadow’s orders. Like an instinct. The ponies kept quiet and huddled in a group.

A minute of silence of passed. The ponies didn’t want to mess up Shadow’s train of thought and end up making a threat. Suddenly the squad spoke in a language nopony had ever understood.

“Qu’est ce que nous faisons avec les chevaux?” asked Scarecrow.

“Je ne sais pas, mais elles sont sympa et genereux dans le moment.” responded X-ray.

“Et plus, je veux apprendre des informations sur les chevaux. Nous pouvons aller à la ville.” added Scorch.

“D’accord. Tres bien.” sighed Scarecrow.

The Mane 6 wondered the humans just said. The language was completely alien to them although Rarity felt that the words suited her for a strange reason. Applejack was suspecting that they were planning to massacre the town once they got there. Twilight believed that the humans were subtly mocking their intelligence.

Twilight noticed that the humans were struggling to move. She wasn’t an expert on bi-peds, but she felt that the humans were uncomfortable.

“Something wrong?” asked the alicorn.

“This planet has much lighter gravity than what we’re used to.” answered X-ray. “Sure it makes running and jumping easier but trying to take the slightest step seems to propel us to the distance.”

Scarecrow shot up his fist in the air. “Shadow, diamond formation.”

“Solid copy.” radioed X-ray.

The humans started to rearrange themselves around the Mane 6.

“Diamond formation?” questioned Rarity enthusiastically.

“Yeah.” responded Scarecrow “I guard you 6 in from the front, X-ray takes the left side, Scorch takes the right and
Overwatch covers our six.”

“Our what?” said the Mane 6 in near unison.

“Our back.” explained Scarecrow.

“Ohh.” exclaimed a skipping Pinkie.

“That way if any fucker tries to hurt you, they’ll have to get through us.” threatened X-ray heroically.

The Mane 6 didn’t know whether to feel safe or locked up at that statement. Being huddled close certainly wasn’t good for the psyche, the rates and way they moved were just so uncomfortable to them, they struggled to keep up with their pace.
Fluttershy tried to break out of the enclosure but once Overwatch looked back at her with his startling mask and cold attitude, she scuttled back to the group.

Scorch noticed. “I know you’re scared but it’s not safe for you to go wandering off little one. You could get lost or hurt and that’s the last thing we want.”

“Why da y’all even care what happens to us?” asked Applejack sternly.

“We promised to protect civilians and the innocent from harm.” answered X-ray. “Just because you’re ponies doesn’t mean we’re not going to do the noble thing. We’ll be damned if any of you adorable girls get hurt or lost knowing we could protect you. As long as we’re here, you’ll be alright.”

“Ah’m sure.” whispered the orange mare in a hardly audible tone.

“I heard that.” snapped Scarecrow.

The cowpony was dumbfounded. She turned to face Rarity and based on her look, she wasn’t even able to hear what Applejack despite being right next to her.

Rainbow Dash started hovering in the air. “You know we’re not helpless, we never asked four aliens like you to just come in to our planet, boss us around and act like you’re our secret service agents.”

“Dash, we’re trying to help you get out of this forest safely. I don’t think you have a reason to be this pissed. Now get down before something swats you from the sky.” sighed Scorch.

The Rainbow Maned mare didn’t stop. “And another thing, we’re not helpless! We’ve faced NightMare Moon, Discord and Sombra. We can handle ourselves!”

“That does sound tough...if I actually knew who they were.” chuckled Scarecrow.

Twilight frowned. She hoped that once they actually knew who the 6 of them really were, they’d change their attitude on them. Being treated like this was embarrassing.

Rainbow Dash flew up to Scarecrow’s face. She ignored the painful sensation in her mind. Nopony, and by extension, nobody, messed with her ego.

Twilight got worried. “Dash calm down, they’re just trying to help.”

That did not stop the pegasus. “So that’s is huh? We’re nothing but a bunch of poor, helpless, childish animals? Let me tell you something pal. You can not just go up to me and my friends, especially one that’s a ruler of Equestria, and just start ordering us around. This is our planet and you can’t tell us what to do. Keep this up and you’ll be sorry you’re race decided to set hoof...er..foot here!”

Scarecrow snorted. “Right, as if I should be afraid of a lesbian pegasus.”

Rainbow Dash froze wide eyed. “Lesbian.” she said slowly.

Dash sat there with her mouth open and failed to notice the group walking ahead of her until Overwatch nudged her to move forward.

“Yeah you got the whole rainbow thing going on.” mocked Scarecrow. The other 3 humans snickered. The Mares were red in the face.

Rainbow Dash flew back to the group. Her face was red with anger.

“I’m not a homosexual!” she insisted.

Scarecrow was amused. “So, you’re a tranny?”

The pegasus screamed at the top of her lungs. “I’M NOT A LESBIAN, I’M IN LOVE WITH SOARIN..” Suddenly she realised what she just said. The pegasus blushed a bit.

The humans laughed. The Mares stared at her with a small smile. Dash was about to burst again until X-ray stopped her.
“Rainbow Dash...Scarecrow has a unique sense of humor. It’s annoying but you’re going to have to get used to it. We have to deal with his shit everyday.”

Overwatch shook his head at that statement.

The Rainbow Maned pegasus exhaled and retreated to the cluster of Mares. Applejack nudged her on the shoulder with a grin on her face.

“Ah hate ta break it ta ya partner. But ah think Soarin is datin’ that Spitefire chick.”

Rainbow Dash gave the cowpony a dumbfounded look. “What are you talking about? I saw Braeburn making out with Spitfire behind a bush in Appolosa.”

The orange Earth pony’s mouth hung open. “Wha..how did ah..”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “And can you please tell Braeburn to think of some new moves, after an hour he got borring!”

Applejack struggled for words. Scorch’s voice interrupted her thinking. “Say is it possible for a pony to be a homosexual?”

Twilight placed her right hoof on her chin. “Well yeah, there’s Lyra and Bonbon.”

“The spa ponies are very...intimate with each other.” said Rarity slowly.

“Oh and Berry Punch and Carrot top make like the cutest couple ever. Even when Berry isn’t drunk she says the nicest things to Carrot.” cheered Pinkie.

“I also think Lily and Daisy are together too.” added Fluttershy.

Scorch nodded and turned his attention back to is surroundings. A a kilometer was walked before Twilight killed the silence.

“So, how did you all arrive here?” she asked.

“Well, we arrived to this star system via a starship, the Blackjack through FTL travel and teleportation. We set foot on this planet via VTOL dropship.” explained Scarecrow.

“What’s a vtol?” asked Pinkie.

“VTOL is an acronym.” explained X-ray. “It stand for Vertical Take Off and Landing. It’s a spaceship meant for transporting soldiers or counter terrorists from location to location, abliet on a smaller scale than a naval vessel. It’s way smaller, has less armor and has a lighter array of offensive capabilities.”

“Where is the VTOL?” whimpered Fluttershy.

“It’s gone cause a dragon blew it up.” exclaimed Scorch. The mares were bothered by the angry attitude of the statement.

“Say where is the Blackjack right now?” inquired Twilight.

“Outer space, orbiting your planet. Some sort of distortion field is blocking your planet from us contacting it until further notice.” said Scarecrow. "Long story short, we're stranded."

Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6 wasn’t very keen on the fact that there was a spaceship orbiting their planet. Especially considering that it would have had more humans on board.

‘Distortion field’. Thought Twilight. ‘That’s funny, I don’t remember ever reading about something like that in my books.’

“Um..why do you where those masks?” asked Fluttershy.

“Well first, the members of the 23rd have to conceal their identity.” explained Scarecrow as he vaulted over a log blocking his way.

“Also these shades provide a HUD for us.” said Scorch.

“The bandanna also filters out viruses and bacteria native to this planet that our body cant fight off.” added X-ray.

“Finally, they make us look cool and scary.” beamed Scarecrow. "They intimidate our opponents and inspire our allies."

The group walked a couple few more kilometers before the Mane 6 started stumbling for exhaustion. Shadow decided it was time for a break as well.

“OK we can rest here for a few minutes.” proposed Scarecrow.

The ponies gave a sigh of relief and settled down in the clearing. They were surprised no monster had attacked them through all the distance they covered. The Mane 6 suspected that it had to do with Shadow squad and the negative atmosphere they brought with them.

“Finally. I’m just famished.” moaned Rarity, waving her arm around.

Overwatch rose an eyebrow underneath his mask and pointed to all the grass.

“What are you doing?” asked Rarity with suspicion.

“You’re a fucking pony eat the grass.” justified Scorch who was focused on adding a rifle grenade to his SCAR.

“We don’t eat grass like that.” explained Twilight.

“Come again?” remarked an unconvinced X-ray.

“We don’t eat grass just raw like that silly.” giggled Pinkie Pie. “We have to grow it on a farm, pluck it, disinfect it, dry it, cook it, severe it on platter and eat it.”

“If animalistic horses on Earth can eat grass from the ground just like that. Then you should be able to as well.” encouraged Scarecrow.

“Besides unless Twilight or Rarity has a food summoning spell, you have no choice.” noted X-ray. ‘Though a food summoning spell would be fucking awesome’ he implored.

The ponies agreed and went on to eat the grass. To them it felt slightly degrading. Twilight couldn’t care less but she knew for a fact that her friends were giving her the ‘oh Twilight you’re a princess how could you resort to such behavior blah blah blah’ look.

Fluttershy looked back at the humans. Overwatch was drawing something on a notepad while Scarecrow, X-ray and Scorch were speaking in that unpronounceable language.

“Hey listen!” yelled Scorch.“We need to take a blood sample for research if that’s okay.”

The ponies mouth dropped open, grass fell out. Nopony liked getting shots.

The 4 humans took out 4, very pointy and sharp serums.

“We’re dealing with Unicorns, Earth Ponies, Pegasai and an Alicorn.” started X-ray. “That means well need 4 individual blood samples. Any volunteers?

Pinkie looked at Applejack and was about to raise her hood until Applejack startled her. “Don’t worry sugarcube, ah’ll do it.”
The cowpony trotted to Scorch, nervously glancing at the needle.

Normally Rainbow Dash would be the one volunteer in Fluttershy’s place for something dangerous, but ever since she had a nightmare about Pinkie Pie ripping her organs out and baking them into cupcakes, she grew afraid of sharp things.

“Uh, shy” said Rainbow Dash nervously with a blush. “Do you think?”

“It’s okay Dash.” assured the yellow Pegasus. She flew on over to Overwatch, deciding which of the two was scarier all the while.

Both Rarity and Twilight knew they had no other choice but to volunteer themselves. With a deep breath they walked on over to X-ray and Scarecrow respectively.

The volunteers handed their hooves to the humans. With a quick press of a button, the needles penetrated the hooves of the equines and their red blood filled the vials.

The 4 volunteers grasped their hooves. It had hurt a lot more than expected. Fluttershy and Rarity were on the brink of tears.

“We’re sorry!” apologized Scorch. “We didn’t think it would hurt that much. Hear, take this bio tissue, it will stop the bleeding instantly.”

The 4 humans took out said tissue from their pockets and wiped the hooves of the ponies. The humans turned back too the blood samples. X-ray took out his tablet and started scanning the samples.

The ponies rubbed their hooves nervously. The bleeding stopped but now they were more worried about what the humans were going to do with the blood samples. Pinkie assumed they we’re creating a bio weapon of some sorts or start a cloning project.

Twilight overheard the humans speaking.

“There’s no doubt about it.” said X-ray, scanning Twilight and Rarity’s blood sample through his tablet. “Rarity and Twilight are the sources of radiation we’ve been getting. Their anatomy is quite interesting to say the least.”

Rarity looked at the masked humans wearily, she didn’t like having her body being discussed by aliens.

“Since Twilight is an alicorn, she’s emitting higher levels of energy than Rarity.” explained X-ray. “Based on my readings though, most of their power is concentrated at their horn which is connected to their brain-”

“Cut the technobabble shithead.” yawned Scarecrow. “We’ll discuss it in town, right now get your equipment to run tests on their blood.

“Roger asshole.” acknowledged X-ray. The counter terrorist loaded a drop from each blood sample onto separate compartments onto his device.

Scarecrow turned to face the equines. “Break over. Let’s move.” he ordered.

“Don’t you need to eat? No one likes being on an empty stomach.” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Commandos can go a few days without food thanks to some medicine and surgery we took.” gloated Scarecrow

The ponies wre disgusted by the thought of surgery but more were dissapointed at the short time they had to rest but nopony in their right mind was going to aruge with a bunch of dragon slayers.

Shadow squad assumed position around the Mane 6.

“We’re 10 kilometers down, we’ll make it in no time at this rate.” motivated X-ray.

The ponies gave a sigh of annoyance but once all 4 masked soldiers stared staight at them, they decided to keep their mouths shut.

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.-” Abraham Lincoln

“So why did y’all come to our planet in the first place?” asked Applejack.

“Well before we knew this planet had inhabbited life,” began X-ray. “Our mission was to see if the planet was fit for colonization. Now that we found aliens, our job is get as much information from you as possible and determine whether or
not you’re a friends or foe.”

Twilight looked up at X-ray nervously. “Humans are going to colonize this planet?”

“Not anymore.” assured Scorch. “Now that we know this planet is well..cell shaded, I don’t think humans would want to live on it. Plus the Council of ExtraTerran Colonization ruled it illegal for humans to colonize a planet with sentient life on it. The other planets we colonized that we didn’t have to terraform held very basic and mundane life.”

“Why’s that?” twirled Rainbow Dash.

“Well for starters, it’s your homeworld.” explained X-ray. “What happens to this planet is up to you and whatever piece of shit lives here. A thousand years ago, a group of ancient explorers from the continent of Europe found the land of America. The problem though was that there were relatively primitive natives there already living on the landmass. So what did the Europeans do? They massacred them and took their land. The last thing we want to do, is repeat an act like that.”

Fluttershy’s mouth hung open. “That, that’s just mean.”

Scarecrow nodded. “Even if we chose to live on this planet, we’d have to do some serious terraforming like installing artificial gravity generators and changing landscapes for farmland and that wouldn’t be very good for the rest for population right?”

Twilight shook her head yes. A part of her felt relieved that xenos weren’t going to take this planet away from them.
Some more distance was walked and trotted. The endless forest was starting to get on the equine’s nerves.

“Gosh I jus hate da Everfree forest. Quite a shady place if ya ask me.” whispered Applejack.

“Why? It’s just a normal run of the mill forest.” muttered Scarecrow. “With lush trees, blue skies (a butterfly flew near Scarecrow who extended his right index finger and let the insect rest on it) and pretty butterflies.”

“WHY ARE THERE BUTTERFLIES ON EPONA!?”

Fluttershy covered her cutie mark with her tail.

“What do you mean? The Everfree forest is known to be one of the darkest places on the planet. It doesn’t even obey the laws of nature. Surely you should’ve noticed that!” justified Twilight.

“Doesn’t obey the laws of nature? What do you mean?” inquired Scorch.

The ponies stopped dead in their tracks with their mouths wide open. The humans formed a horizantal line and stared at them quizically.

“Nothing about this place is natural!” yelled Pinkie.

“The animals take care of themselves..” began Flutershy.

“The weather just happens..” added Rainbow Dash.

“And the crops grow..” said Applejack.

“..ALL ON THEIR OWN!” yelled the three of them.

Overwatch faceplamed and let out annoyed cry.

“THAT’s why you’re afraid of this place?” burst Scorch.

Scarecrow folded his arms at them spoke very sternly. He turned to face Twilight.

“Twilight, how do you think the universe works?” he asked slowly.

Twilight calmed herself down using Cadance’s technique. The last thing she wanted to do was look like a fool.
“Well the universe can’t opperate on its own just randomly. It needs to be opperated by intelligent creatures 24/7 or else it’ll stop working.” Twilight noticed the heavy breathing of Shadow’s members. “Don’t you humans do the same thing on your worlds?”

X-ray was amazed how he hadn’t lost his temper. “Twilight, the vast majority of the planets in our universe are uninhabited or lack a species intelligent enough to control nature. Yet, plants grow, animals take care of themselves and weather happens all on their own.”

Applejack looked at X-ray suspiciously. “You sure about dat partner?”

X-ray nodded. “Human’s weren’t always an intelligent species, nor were on Earth for a large part of its existence, yet the planet worked. Requiem had no intelligent creatures yet the planet took care of itself. Sera had no animals on it yet the weather functioned fine and plants grew before we colonized it. How do you explain that?”

The color of Applejack’s face started draining from embarrassment. Even Rarity started to look paler than usual.

“Think about it.” said Scorch. “I know for a fact that you weren’t always intelligent and could control the weather. Yet you’re here so you’ve had to come to this world naturally.”

“Not true!” countered Twilight. “Ever since our creator formed this planet thousands of years ago, we’ve had to control everything.”

“Huh creator.” snorted Scarecrow.

Twilight was getting mad. “Since our formation, we ponies controlled everything in Equestria. From the plants to the animals to the raising of our star and moon and..”

“Wait, repeat that last part.” interrupted X-ray.

“Yes, we control the sun and moon, our..”

“That explains it!” cheered Scroch.

“Come again?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“You’re star is artaficial!” answered Scarecrow.

“Well of course it is.” beamed Pinkie Pie. “Our..”

“You might think this sounds like a lie, but your planet is not the natural occurrence.” insisted X-ray.

“How so?” questioned Rarity.

“Look, your star is WAY smaller than all the other stars in the universe. A normal star counts for 99% of the mass in it’s system. As a result, your star can’t emit a strong enough gravity field to rotate your planet. So you have to use telekinesis or some shit to move keep your planet in check.” justified X-ray.

“That’s right.” nodded Twilight. “But if your right then, Equestria isn’t the place that’s normal, it’s been the haunted location all the time!”

“So we’ve been doing it wrong the whole time?” whispered Fluttershy.

“Well eventually most species develop the means to manipulate planets anyway. It goes against nature but it happens.” insisted Scarecrow.

“But we’ve been afraid for nothing the whole time!” yelled Pinkie.

“Well I wouldn’t say nothing.” said Scorch as he placed his fingers on his bandanna. “The Everfree forest does look like it has a bunch of monsters in it. I’d still stay clear of it if I were you.”

The ponies nodded and the group continued their journey. Everypony felt like an idiot in front of the humans at their
revelation but at the same time just couldn’t understand how the rest of the universe worked opposite to Equestria.

After a few minutes of walking, the squad was starting to get bored. “For such a huge forest, I’m surprised we haven’t run
into any manticores or hydras.” Pointed out X-ray.

“I think your presence brings in a negative atmosphere that makes other creatures want to stay clear of you.” insisted Twilight.

“What makes you say that?” asked Scorch.

“Well, most animals can sense danger, and when there’s a threat near them, they keep low and move along. And uh, no offense but I really think they’re aware how much of a threat you are to them.” said Fluttershy.

“You seem to know a lot about animals.” pointed Scarecrow.

“Why yes, I’m Ponyville’s animal care taker. You see, I can talk to animals-”

“You can talk to animals!” gasped Scorch.

Fluttershy cowered as Shadow looked straight at her. She struggled for words “um...yes”

“That’s awesome!” cheered X-ray. “You see, we can’t get any ammo until further notice so if we run into a monster while we’re here, it’s your job to tell them to stand down.”

Fluttershy was about to speak up until Scarecrow interrupted her.

“If you fail to stop said creatures however, we’ll be forced to take it down.”

Fluttershy got mad. She flew up and while she couldn’t giver off her ‘stare’, she was able to look the humans right in the shades. “Oh no, you are not killing any animals on my-”

“Fluttershy do you really want these humans pissed off!” burst Twilight.

Everypony looked at Twilight, eyes wide open.

“Twilight, that language is most unacceptable for a princess like you.” gasped Rarity.

The alicorn realized what she had done and blushed. “Oh, sorry everypony, it won’t happen again. I just lost track-of-things-and-can-we-please-move-on?” she said quickly.

Overwatch shrugged off her comment and walked ahead, prompting the group to follow.

After a while, the dirt was getting on Rarity’s nerves. “Ugh, natural or not I just hate the outdoors.” complained Rarity. “Am I here the only one who understands just how dirty and vile this place is? When I get home, I’m soaking in a tub for an hour.”

“I hate the woods too honestly.” assured X-ray.

“No listen here, just because a lady...wait what?”

“I hate the woods too.” repeated X-ray.

The ponies looked at him dumbfoundedly.

“You’re a soldier.” pointed out Rainbow Dash. “Aren’t you supposed to be used to fighting in places like these all the time?”

“Hey I like fucking up insurrectionists in urban combat. In the forest I have to worry about about all those damn stinging insects when I should be worrying about not getting my head blown to bits.” gritted X-ray.

“You have a fear of insects?” asked Fluttershy.

“We’re all afraid of something.” insisted Scarecrow, head still facing forward. “X-ray’s got Entomophobia, Overwatch is afraid of jellyfish and squid.”

Overwatch groaned and place his gloved hand on his forehead.

“Scorch is cryophobic.”

“Spend a week in Canada during winter without heaters and you’ll see!” yelled Scorch.

“I on the underhand, am Sociophobic. Never liked going to parties. I just hung out with these 3 assholes and played video games at my house.” explained Scarecrow.

“WHAT!” yelled a high pitch voice

Scarecrow nearly stumbled back and almost crushed Rarity with his weight had Overwatch not thrust him forward.
Pinkie materialized on top of Scarecrow and starred straight into his mask.

“How could you hate parties?” screamed Pinkie desperately.

“Crowds make me nervous, the music sucks, food tastes like shit and I hate having to talk to people I hate!” snapped the hooded human.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk!” shook Pinkie.

Pinkie crawled on Scorch’s head. “When we get back to Ponnyville, we are throwing you a super-duper welcome party!” cheered the party pony.

The pink mare found herself tugging Overwatch’s legs. “Oh my gosh, that reminds me!” she gasped in awe. “I’ve been gone for so long that I forgot to throw a bunch of parties!”

“I still have to throw a party for Berry Pinch getting her cutie mark.” said Pinkie, hanging from the sky, facing X-ray’s chest.

“I still have to throw a party for Lucky and Wildfire’s anniversary!” exclaimed the Mare after popping in front of Rainbow Dash.

“I still-”

“HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?” roared X-ray.

“Doing what?” asked Pinkie as she was hovering above the ground.

Scorch snatched her and held her high with both hands. The action was slightly painful to both Pinkie’s body and her mind, but she held.

“How do you keep popping up from place to place, levitate in the air and teleport?” inquired Scarecrow.

Twilight tensed, she didn’t like where this was going. Trying to figure out Pinkie would drive those humans to insanity.The last thing she wanted was a group of insane trigger happy commandos running around.

“I don’t know silly, since I got my cutie mark it just happens.” smiled Pinkie blankly.

“What you’re doing is fucking impossible!” insisted X-ray as he unslung his carbine. “You’re not even a damn unicorn how can just go around teleporting everywhere?”

“Oh it’s just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.” chuckled Rainbow Dash.

“That’s not an answer.” snarled Scorch.

“Its true, there’s no scientific reason for Pinkie to act like this, it’s just the way she is when you think about it.” insisted
Fluttershy.

“That’s just being lazy.” chastised Scarecrow.

The mares glared at the counter terrorist with boiling faces. They despised how rude Shadow could be to them.

“How dare! Ya call us lazy!” threatened Applejack. The Earth Pony gave a puff.

“Well no offense, but if something strange is going on and you make no effort to study it, that’s being a sloth.” scolded X-ray.

“Well I did try to study Pinkie Pie once!” piped up Twilight.

“And what did you get?” questioned Scarecrow. The counter terrorist crossed his arms.

Twilight shook her head down. “Inconclusive, I almost lost my sanity trying to figure her abilities out.”

Pinkie chuckled at the memory. “Yeah your mane set on fire!”

Scarecrow shoved his head into Pinkie Pie’s. “I see, we’re dealing with an Eldritch abomination here.”

“Pinkie’s no abomination.” pleaded Fluttershy.

“An eldritch abomination is something that has no desire to obey the facts and laws of the universe.” explained X-ray.

“Trying to observe one causes insanity.”

‘Heh, kinda like you.’ thought Applejack.

“I say challenge accepted “ gloated Scorch.

“No wait!” pleaded Twilight. “I really don’t think you go through this. Pinkie is literally unexplainable!”

“Yeah right.” snorted Scarecrow. “Twilight, for every reaction, there has to be an action, so there has to be some sort of reasoning behind Pinkie’s weird actions even if it doesn’t seem logical.”

“I hate to brake it to you pal, but if Twilight can’t find out something, then nopony can.” snarled Rainbow Dash.
Twilight covered her face with her wings. She knew she was smart, but she didn’t want to seem arrogant in front of a new race she knew little about.

“That’s her, this is us.” countered X-ray. Rainbow Dash glared at him before clutching her head and flying away.

The 4 black clad humans surrounded and looked down at Pinkie Pie.

The Pink mare nervously looked up at the very tall humans and gulped.

She started to mutter. “Um..don’t I get a say in-”

Pinkie never finished her sentence as Overwatch grabbed her and held her up. The next thing she knew, her mouth ballooned opened as X-ray shoved his fist and wrist computer in her mouth, using his thin and slender limbs to his advantage.

X-ray released his fist from Pinkie’s mouth, covered in enough animated drool to disgust Rarity and nearly make Fluttershy puke. The masked soldier casually wiped off the drool and turned his attention to the readings of his device.

Right when Pinkie thought it couldn’t get worse, Scorch shoved a needle into her and drew some of her blood. Scorch snatched X-ray’s tablet and slit the blood sample onto a compartment where data flowed through his visor.
Scarecrow had magnetic vision turned on and was slowly analyzing all of Pinkie’s traits. He pressed his face unto Pinkie’s muzzle and didn’t care she was feeling uncomfortable.

Twilight watched with interest as the humans were recording data. The commandos finally unglued their eyes from their devices and unto each other. Overwatch dropped Pinkie and the party pony trotted back to her friends, bothered by Shadow’s actions.

Shadow was in a huddle, whispering their results and data. Finally they turned to the ponies. X-ray calmly spoke up.

“Pinkie, how much sugar and caffeine do you consume?”

“OOO I love have a loooot of those!” cheered the pink mare, her attitude improving. “You see I work at Sugarcube corner and I bake my own cupcakes so I get delicious, treaty, sweaty stuff for free! My favorite flavor is energy drink.”

“Pinkie if somebody ate a hundredth of the sugar in your system, they’d be suffering from diabetes, or obesity...or death.” remarked Scorch.

“It’s that bad?” gasped Pinkie Pie. The other ponies were shocked as well.

X-ray held out his tablet. “Pinkie your molecules are moving rates they should not be moving at!” growled the commando.

“Isn’t sugar supposed to be bad for Ponies too?” questioned Scarecrow.

“Well of course.” proclaimed Twilight. “But Pinkie Pie’s born with a rare condition where artificial sugar is harmless to her.”

“Braebrun and Screwball have it ta some extent.” added Applejack.

“What this have to do with Pinkie's (gulp) power.” sighed Fluttershy.

“Well, other than annoying hyperactivity,” began X-ray. “It also means moving at quick speeds.” Pinkie dashed from her friends to X-ray in a blur to demonstrate.

“vibrating through matter.” Scarecrow picked Pinkie and threw her to a skinny tree. Much to everypony’s amazement, she came out the other side fine.

“and quantum levitation.” finished X-ray.

“What levitation?” asked Rarity, confused by the entire ordeal.

“It’s when an atom is so charged it refuses to come down.” explained Scorch.

Overwatch picked up Pinkie and threw her up. The party pony floated off the ground for a while, before falling back down.

“America tried to build a city once in the early 1900s using quantum levitation.” muttered Scarecrow. “It didn’t work out very well.”

“What about Pinkie sense?” questioned Rainbow Dash.

“Pinkie sense. What’s that and why does it remind me of a comic book I read as a kid?” asked Scarecrow. He placed his hand on his bandanna and looked up.

“Oh sometimes I can predict the future.” piped up Pinkie.

“Come again?”

“Sometimes my body does starts twitching. Each twitch means something different is going to happen. The cool thing is, each twitch is true!”

Suddenly Pinkie’s tail curled up and he mane poofed sideways. “Oh that means somepony’s going to get hiccup-”

“HICH!”

Fluttershy blushed. “Oh my HICH, it seems I HICH, have a small HICH, case of the”

BANG!

The gunshot startled even the humans. Everybody and everypony turned to face Overwatch, the tip of his PDR smoking.

“Did that scare away your hiccups?” blankly asked the hooded marksman.

Fluttershy froze and realized she stopped hiccuping. “Um, thank you.” she whispered.

Overwatch gave a nod and holstered his PDR to the side.

“As for your Pinkie sense...” pondered Scorch. He stroked his bandanna. “By any chance, does your mind start flashing division problems before you...twitch?”

“Oh yeah!” Cheered Pinkie. “I’m super good in all kinds of maths and facts. I’m even better than Twilight.”

Twilight kept silent.

“Okay then.” calmed Scorch. “You’re just very, very, very good in probability and taking numbers into consideration...like Overwatch.”

Suddenly Overwatch pushed X-ray aside. In a heartbeat later, a tree came crashing from where the rifleman stood.

“Um..thanks.” muttered X-ray as he got back up. “You know my shields would have taken the damage right?”

Overwatch shrugged and turned to the rest of the group.

“His ‘sniper sense’ if you could call it that, is pretty handy when it comes to assassination ops.” pointed out Scarecrow.

Suddenly the atmosphere returned to its dark tones.

“Well come on, we’re not going to get to Ponyville by standing here.” exclaimed Scorch who started pacing ahead. The rest of the party followed.

Twilight couldn’t believed what just happened. She had spent nearly two YEARS trying to solve Pinkie Pie out and only received mental issues. Now these 4 humans show up, and solved the Pink pony in a matter of minutes. Part of her was scolding herself for not trying hard enough while the other half was trying to assure her that humans had a different way of solving problems.

Still, a phrase didn’t leave her. “That’s her, this is us.”

“I can’t believe this!” piped up Rainbow Dash. “You must seriously have a huge understanding of magic if you could figure Pinkie out.”

“I am mysterious after all” skipped Pinkie up and down. Overwatch was in a trans by following her movements.

“There is NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC!” snapped X-ray.

“HOW!” yelled the equines back.

“Equestria is built in the foundations of magic. We Unicorns can use arcane magic, Earth Ponies can tend to crops in a
way nopony else can and Pegasai can walk on clouds as well as control the weather.” explained Rarity.

“Rarity is magic defined in Equestria as powers that just happen for no reason?” questioned Scarecrow, slowing his walking pace.

“Well yes.” answered Rarity. “Nopony has ever found out how magic works because it doesn’t work through science, they’re separate fields. Right Twilight?”

Twilight wasn’t in the mood to be yelled at again, but Rarity did have point. “Yeah you’re right Rarity.” she said nonchalantly.

“Ponies, everything in the universe happens for a reason otherwise it’s story junk.” countered Scorch.

“You said yourself Unicorns and Pegasai were just myths, what is going to stop magic from being real too?” hissed Rainbow Dash.

“Well for starters, there has to be a reason for story book creatures to be in this place, so why shouldn't there be a reason for your powers?” questioned X-ray.

The ponies didn’t know how to respond to that. They stopped into their tracks until Overwatch bumped into them, prompting them to move forward.

“Even if the way something works doesn’t make sense to us, magic isn’t a proper answer unless you don’t like to think.” added Scarecrow.

Twilight felt like she could cry. Throughout her times as a scholar, she considered herself a skeptic and rational. Now as she looked back, she realized she never tried to figure out why something worked but instead how it worked. Even with their masks to hide their emotions, the ponies were painfully aware that humans were disappointed by their lack of relative intellectualism.

Applejack wasn’t going to go down without a fight. “Partner there aint no scientific reason fer us ta exist and have magic. Our creator hand them to ponykind-”

“Creation stories are myths and bullshit to explain the things we don’t know how to explain.” scolded Scarecrow. “The truth lies in logic and reason.”

Suddenly the atmosphere got tense, speaking trash about Equestria’s creator was the best way to set a pony off.

Fluttershy finally lost it and burst. “Why do you have to be so mean you big-”

The squad gripped their weapons tighter. As the distrust and violent thoughts increased in the minds of the humans, the minds of the ponies became weaker and weaker. They suddenly felt their vision blur and and heard nothing but a a high pitched frequency.

Rainbow Dash clutched her head and fell to the ground while Rarity stumbled. Everypony was on the verge of being knocked out or going feral.

Suddenly the pain stopped, the noises silenced and everypony’s vision cleared. The 4 hooded humans faded into Twilight's view. Overwatch helped the alicorn get up.

“Why do you keep doing that?” calmly asked Scorch.

“Ever since we met you all, you keep grabbing your heads look uneasy. At first we thought you were sick or something, but your body systems read healthy.” added X-ray.

“I don’t know.” groaned Twilight. “Whenever I look at you humans, my vision starts blurring, I get headaches and I hear high pitched voices.”

"Now I know what getting 'the stare' is like." whimpered Fluttershy.

Scarecrow looked at his squad mates. “Do any of you have your scramblers turned on?”

The other 3 shook their heads. ‘No’

“Even if we did have them turned on, it would only effect electromagnetic devices. Even if Twilight’s and Rarity’s horns
counted as such, it shouldn’t effect the Pegasai or Earth Ponies.” inferred X-ray.

“I think the 6 of you are just scared.” proposed Scarecrow. “I mean 4 advanced and heavily armed aliens that just appear is kinda freaky right?”

The ponies looked at each other. For some reason, fear didn’t feel like source for their migraines. They didn’t have time to dwell on the subject though.

“I think you might be right.” piped Pinkie. “Whenever I’m scared or nervous I just start seeing things. There was this one time where I thought my friends were ditching this party I was throwing-”

“You can tell us all about it later.” interrupted Scorch who followed his allies forward.

“Look, we’re really sorry for loosing our temper. We forgot that your species is in a Medevil time period so most modern
discoveries and reasoning will seem alien to you.” apologized Scarecrow.

“Uh thanks...ah guess.” replied Applejack with an eyebrow up.

“Back on the subject of magic,” began Twilight. “I really think there’s no explanation for why magic happens. It just does, but that doesn’t make it less true. You just have to accept it and move on.”

“Twilight we can explain everything in the universe.” insisted X-ray. “Just because you can’t solve something now doesn’t mean you never will. It took humans hundreds of years to find out how atoms work. Just because we were ignorant of such things in the past didn’t undermine its factual way of working.”

Twilight paused. She never thought of it that way. The alicorn was very jealous of human reasoning but felt that they had a point.

“So what you’re saying is, ‘it works by magic isn’t’ a correct answer?” questioned Pinkie.

“If you’re so smart then explain telekinesis!” growled Rainbow Dash.

“Exerting a gravitational or magnetic force on an object to manipulate it within a vicinity.” answered Scorch.

“Teleportation”

“To energize and propel an object a certain distance so fast to give off the illusion of disappearing or creating a wormhole to travel through rips within space time. Twilight’s teleportation seems to fall into the previous category rather then the later.”

“Walking on clouds.”

Scorch’s visor glowed blue as data filled his HUD.

“Pegasai anatomy seems to suggest that their bodies exert very light forces within the outside sections of their body with rest of it being directed inside. It also seems to be the reason why pegasai can fly despite their weight.”

“Why earth Ponies are so good with plants and animals?”

“Their bodies look like they have some natural decomposers and fertilizer chemicals built around them. I’m also getting what seems to be animal pheromones surrounding them.”

“Think about it like this.” spoke up Overwatch. “If we handed a piece of our technology to cavemen, would they, being illiterate, think it worked through some sort of mystical means despite us being aware it worked through science?”

The ponies looked at each other and quietly admitted defeat.

“I can’t believe we just got compared to caveponies” complained Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, please you’d be the Godmother all knowledge by a primitive’s standards.” chuckled X-ray. “Hey, we’d be cavemen compared to trans sentient aliens right?”

Meanwhile the Blackjack had been observing Shadow's events through their HUDs from afar. Unfortunately, communications were still jammed.

A crew member took a sip of coffee. "I don't believe in any deities, but if I did, I'd be praying for the ponies right now."

Author's Note

Finally somebody talks sense to all these ponies. Since I consider this to be a bit of a fix fic, I wanted to make sure that the humans would challenge the Ponies way of thinking rather than just accepting it like most other HiEs.

Sorry if these explanations are ruining the magic of the show for you, but part of Shadow's characteristics is that they are all rationally minded individuals who aren't going to accept illogical answers. And neither should you.

BTW there's a Bioshock Infinite reference in this. See if you can find it.

Chapter 10: Elements of Disharmony

"It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways."-Buddha

"Um, Mr. Scarecrow." whimpered Fluttershy.

"Yes." replied the masked soldier.

"How old are you and your friends?"

Scarecrow gave out a large chuckle causing Flutter shy to fall back. "That depends Fluttershy. Each planet has a different way to measure time. Humans go by seconds, followed by minutes, then days-"

"Then weeks, months and years right?" interrupted Twilight.

Scarecrow opened his eyes underneath his mask. "That's exactly..right."

X-ray was beginning to get annoyed by all the similarities of the planet. "I'm pretty sure the quantitative measure of time is different though. How many seconds are in a minute?"

"60." answered Twilight.

"Minutes in an hour?"

"60." repeated Applejack.

"Hours in a day?"

"24." replied Rainbow Dash.

"Days in a year?"

"365. Although it's a bit more for leap years." remarked Rarity.

"That is 100% percent like Earth and totally not creepy at all." gritted Scorch. "I swear a better name for your planet would be Earth 2."

"Hey why do we have to be number 2?" whined Rainbow Dash.

"Your planet is thousands of years old. Earth is billions." countered Scorch.

"As for our age." pondered Scarecrow. "I guess it's safe to say we're 24 years old."

"How old are you ponies?" asked X-ray.

"Me, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie are 19." answered Twilight. "Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack are 20."

"Huh, I assumed you were way younger." implied Scorch.

Rarity rolled her eyes. "So."

"We're young adult males. What did you expect?" replied Scarecrow.

"By, the way, I take it that the four of you are stranded with no way out?" asked Rarity.

"More or less." answered X-ray. "Since a dragon took out our VTOL, we can't leave this planet and our simple recon operation has gone FUBAR. Made even worse by accidentally making contact with you ponies under the assumption you weren't intelligent."

"What's so bad if humans and ponies meet? I think this situation is a pinnacle to the development of both our species." defended Twilight.

"It's not humans meeting ponies that's bad, it's 23rd that's meeting ponies." replied Scorch. "We aren't exactly allowed to be socializing with Xenos."

A few minutes of solitude passed. Scarecrow looked up and saw that day time was passing. He staired in awe of the animated sky and admitted how beautiful it looked. Suddenly a pair of hand grabbed him and pulled him back.

"Damn it!" cursed Scarecrow, turning to face Overwatch. "What did you do that for?"

Overwatch pointed below in front of him to reveal a cliff. Scarecrow had almost fallen off.

"Oh." muttered Scarecrow. "Thanks."

Twilight looked down the cliff. It wasn't too big of a drop, but it certainly would kill a pony.

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "Hmm, how are we going to get across?" Twilight noticed the 4 humans staring at her.

"You're kidding right?" said X-ray with a hint of concern.

Twilight didn't need X-ray to not be wearing his mask for her to see what he was looking at.

Twilight gave her wings a twitch and blushed. "Oh yeah." she giggled.

"But how the hay are us non flyin' ponies gonna get across?" asked Applejack.

"Don't worry everypony I can make 3 trips to carry you through." gloated Rainbow Dash who flew up.

"What about the humans?" piped up Pinkie Pie.

Scorch looked over the cliff. "It can't be more than a few yards. We'll just jump it."

"Are you kidding? That's suicide!" yelled Rarity.

"Don't worry." assured Scarecrow. "We've done jumps like these on lower gravity environments. If we fall, our shields will just take the damage, and we'll climb back up."

The ponies didn't want to argue. Twilight flew ahead followed by Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash proceeded to lift Rarity and then, Pinkie to the other side.

The humans weren't going to jump until everypony was secure. Dash grabbed Applejack and lifted the cowpony on the other side. Rainbow Dash forgot how much the orange mare weighed however. (It wasn't because she was fat mind you.)

Scorch noticed that Rainbow Dash was struggling with the orange Earth Pony.

Right when Dash was near the tip of the cliff, she lost control of her hooves and Applejack slipped.

"NO!" screamed Scorch. The commando sprinted and jumped across. He grabbed the screaming cowpony with his right arm, and with all his might, threw her up to the other side.

Applejack landed with a thud. She was mildly bruised but unhurt. The ponies desperately looked down the cliff to see if the commando had fallen. To their surprise, Scorch was alive. The demo man had his knife placed deep inside the chasm.

"I'm good." calmly remarked Scorch.

"Gangway!"

The ponies rolled across just in time as Scarecrow rolled onto the other side of the cliff. He looked down at Scorch and offered the demo man his hand.

Scorch used his free arm to grab a hold of Scarecrow's. Using his strength, Scarecrow was able to pick up his friend and secure him on the topside.

Two more 'THUDS!" were heard as Overwatch and X-ray made their jumps.

"You know, I wish I could see things in slow motion. The way you saved Applejack was awesome." chuckled X-ray.

"Thanks fer dat partner." piped up the orange pony.

"It's what we do." nodded Scorch. "You know you're pretty light." Scorch turned to his wrist computer and accessed the file on Applejack.

"Whoah." he beamed.

"Wat?" responded the weary cowpony.

"There is no way, your mass is that small. Any pony on Earth that is your size is twice how much each of you weigh." observed Scorch.

"What do you mean? Our BMIs are in good condition." protested Twilight.

"Let's not dwell on the really technical stuff." ordered Scarecrow. He motioned everybody and everypony to move. Deep down, Scarecrow knew the rest of the squad had probably calculated the answer already.

The humans and ponies continued their treck. Night had fallen upon them. Shadow re holstered their weapons and their visor glowed a bright blue. Twilight and Rarity lit up their up their horns to provide light.

"Say, why do your glasses thingies keep glowing blue?" skipped Pinkie.

"Oh, it's magnetic vision." answered X-ray. "In addition to seeing in the dark, we can also see through walls and analyze body readings. Pretty cool stuff."

"I surely wouldn't mind being able to see through walls." grinned a naughty Rainbow Dash.

Scarecrow froze and shot a fist in the air. "Hold up." he commanded.

The ponies stopped walking but this did not stop Pinkie from bumping into the commander with her skip.

X-ray, Overwatch and Scorch joined their commander and pointed their rifles forward. A series of familiar growls and roars came from the darkness. The pairs of yellow eyes appeared that made everypony step back.

"I don't see what's going on." shook Twilight.

Overwatch took out a sensor grenade, turned it on and threw it across the canopy. Suddenly the outlines of 40, rough quadrupeds became visible.

"Wolves." gritted Scarecrow.

Suddenly the creature came out of the darkness. Rather than being made up of fur and flesh like what Shadow expected. The wolf consisted of twigs, leaves and glowing yellow eyes. It gave out a menacing growl.

"Not just wolves. Fucking timberwolves. I swear I've had it with this planet." tensed Scorch.

"Fluttershy, tell the wolves to stand down." ordered X-ray.

Fluttershy, who was hiding behind a log peeked up. "I can't. I'm sorry. Timberwolves are plants, not animals."

X-ray turned to face the wooden creatures. "Looks like there's only one thing left to do."

Suddenly the wolf and the rest of the pack charged at the humans.

BANG!

Scarecrow's LMG discharged and the bullet struck the wolf, causing it to burst into a rubble of sticks.

The gunfire raged on with Shadow being very selective when firing to conserve ammo. The ponies hid back behind the log Fluttershy was taking cover behind and covered the sound of gunfire with their hooves.

After a few moments the gunfire stopped but the cries of wolves remained. The ponies looked up to see Shadow still killing the wolves, but without bullets.

X-ray slammed his foot down on a wolf charging at him then shot his hand up to break the chest of a wolf to pieces. The commando turned around and Sparta kicked a wolf coming behind him finished by a stab to the eye of a wolf to his right.

Scarecrow picked up two wolves together and slammed them into each other. Pebbles and twigs littered his feet. Scarecrow took out his LMG and used it like a club. He swung far and multiple wolves went down with one blow. He then held up his gun like an ax and slammed it onto a wolf below him. The gun didn't get a scratch.

Scorch picked up a rock and used it to bash a timberwolf's skull open. He then threw the rock like a grenade and smashed a wolf open. The rock flew on and broke down another wolf behind it. Scorch immediately drew out his combat knife and plunged it straight into a wolf leaping at him. He flexed his arm to grab another wolf in the skull and squeezed on it hard, thereby, smashing it to pieces.

The ponies were so busy watching the entire scene that they failed to notice a timberwolf behind them. Said timberwolf grave out a roar and charged straight at the ponies. The Mane 6 turned around and screamed as the wolf approached them. Suddenly, the wolf stopped moving as an invisible force picked it up. The wolf found itself being thrown across the canopy and broke down as it collided with a tree.

The force uncloaked and revealed itself to be Overwatch.

The Marksman leaped ahead of the equines and body slammed a startled wolf. The black clad sniper stood up and found his torso to be covered with wood. A wolf tried to bite the sniper with all its might only for the timberwolf to crush its own skull. Overwatch's shields merely flickered in response.

The ponies observed the humans punch, kick and crush the wooden wolves to deaths. Scarecrow finally picked up the last wolf in a choke hold, place his other hand on the wolf's skull, and ripped it off. The last thing the wolf was his own reflection in the soldier's visor.

Once the battle ended, the ponies slowly and quietly trotted to the humans.

X-ray folded his arms and spoke coldly. The radio made it sound more grim. "Let me guess, you're going to call us monsters for killing those fucked up wolves right?"

"Actually, we see timberwolves getting broken all time." responded Twilight.

"But the way you handled those wolves was incredible!" yelled Pinkie, half amazed, half disturbed.

"How could you kill them like that?" asked Dash.

"How could you not?" countered Scarecrow.

"Those timberwolves are the weakest things we've ever seen. Give them a buck to the face and they'll break open." added Scorch. "I know its our job to protect you and we're properly trained and all, but come on, some back up would have been nice."

The ponies looked down on the ground, ashamed of themselves for chickening out.

"Come on, we'll walk a couple meters before we set up camp." proposed Scarecrow.

The ponies nodded and trotted alongside the humans. Despite it being night, the temperature was relatively warm. Twilight was thinking about how she was going to introduce the humans to the ponies and by extension, Celestia. So far, every trait the humans exhibited was opposite of pony nature. Cruel, cynical, slightly arrogant and somewhat stubborn. But also bravery and rationality.

Eventually the group found themselves in a clearing.

"Alright we'll rest here." said Scarecrow.

"Finally." moaned Rarity. "I have never done so much trotting like that in my life."

"Yeah this forest is 70 kilometers wide. That's freaking huge." laughed Scorch.

"That's because the Everfree forest used to be a city that bordered Equestria." piped up Twilight. "According to legends, it was home to a thriving civilizations that once disappeared."

"Interesting!" replied Scarecrow. The squad leader was setting up a fire using the remains of a timberwolf. He lighted one of his pyro grenades so that it would only emit a small flame. Soon the remains of the wolf set on fire and a huge flame burst. Much to Shadow's surprise, the flame that came up was animated.

"So how do you know there was once a city here?" asked Scorch.

"Well, we're not certain as many ancient records have been lost over time. However, all records from any intelligent civilization on this planet mentions a country where this forest once stood." explained Twilight.

"Sounds like an interesting mystery." complimented Scarecrow.

Twilight nodded. She noticed how she was no longer getting pain in her heads or hearing high pitched frequencies. The alicorn faced Overwatch and saw the sniper was scribbling on a notebook of some sort using a stage writing tool.

"What'cha doing?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Drawing." blankly replied the sniper.

"Oh can I see!" cheered Rainbow Dash.

The marksman pulled down his book away from the prying eyes of the ponies.

"I'm sorry." laughed Scarecrow. "Overwatch won't let you see his drawing until he feels like hit. Normally he'd be drawing on his tablet, but SOME people are smart enough not to bring expensive gadgets we don't need on alien worlds."

The ponies looked at X-ray and Scorch, who had their tablet and laptop turned on respectively. X-ray was reading a book he saved on the thing while Scorch was playing the recently released Half Life 3.

"Hey we need these for research!" defended X-ray.

"Um, we have these wrist computers for a reason dipshit." Scarecrow raised his arm.

Fluttershy and Applejack turned to face Scorch playing his game. The demo man took notice and paused.

"What was dat?" asked Applejack.

"Oh it's a video game. Half Life 3."

"Oh my gosh I love games!" burst Pinkie. "I love playing pin the tail on they pony, it's so random! I really love twister too! And don't get me started on-"

"Pinkie a video game isn't like playing a physical party game. A video game is like a virtual simulation of something." interrupted Scorch.

"But that's no fun!" moaned Pinkie. "If you want to play a game, you should do it yourself."

"Could I give it a try?" asked rainbow Dash.

"Sorry Dash, but to operate this device you're going to need fingers." Scorch raised his hands and gave his fingers a twirl.

Dash crossed her forehooves and rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Scorch shrugged and unpaused the game. The ponies watched as Scorch (as Gordon Freeman) drew a shotgun and gunned down a horde of Combine Overwatch soldiers came straight at him.

Fluttershy turned her head away from the violence. "You're killing them! You big meanie."

"Well that's kind of the point." pointed Scorch as he got a double kill with the SMG.

"How do you think they feel right now?" responded Fluttershy.

"They're the Combine, they're the bad guys and their soldiers are programmed not to have emotions."

"So you just kill them!"

"Fluttershy, you need to understand that none of this is real. No one is dying." Scorch re loaded last checkpoint. Much to the awe of Fluttershy, the soldiers Scorch shot in the game were back.

"I don't understand what's the point of playing a game where the only objective is killing." said Twilight.

"It's fun." muttered Scarecrow. "It provides a form of escapism."

Rarity quickly changed the subject. "Say it's pretty warm even if it is night. Why do you have to wear clothes?"

"Humans don't have fur. You might not feel it, but it's cold for what a human considers normal." answered X-ray, eyes still glued to the tablet.

"And what on Epona are you wearing? You're soldiers for crying outloud!" wailed the white Unicorn.

Scarecrow looked down at his armor and looked up. "It's just recon armor."

The unicorn looked revolted. "You call that armor? Armor is supposed to be gleaming, elegant, and heroic. Your armor is just a hood, trousers and vest! Not to mention it makes you look scary."

"Thank you." chanted each member of Shadow squad to the last part of Rarity's rant.

Rarity was taken back by the response.

"Well I'm sorry Rarity, but I'm pretty sure that this armor kicks the shit out of whatever outdated crap your knights wear or something. Plus, recon armor allows us to blend in better with civilians than normal battle wear." beamed Scarecrow.

"Hey I've seen the guards, their armor is pretty good. At least it isn't just winter clothes and shades." countered Twilight.

"Oh our armor is way more than just clothes. The fabric recon armor is made of is pretty absorbent at taking damage and can absorb a non FMJ bullet before ripping. Said material also is one of the only substances that can transfer a kinetic barrier or cloaking field around it. Our bandannas are made of the same material and our shades are bullet proof."

Scarecrow unslung his LMG and fired a round at X-ray. X-ray recoiled back as the bullet struck him and dropped his tablet. X-ray was unharmed and the ponies observed a series of purple hexagons formed where X-ray was shot.

X-ray was growling mad. "WHAT. THE. FUCK!"

The ponies tried to cover their faces. All of a sudden, the mental trauma was returning.

Scarecrow was unbothered. "Calm down X-gay I-"

"HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN? YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!"

"Chill out. I knew you had your barriers on and-"

"WHAT IF I DIDN'T?."

"Then you're not following protocol and your vest would have still been able to take the shot."

X-ray picked up his tablet and raised his middle finger to Scarecrow.

After a few minutes of silence, X-ray was relieved of tension and the mental trauma of the Mane 6 dimmed.

"Anyway," piped or Rarity. "I've noticed there are two symbols on your shoulder pieces. One of them says UTF. What does that mean?"

"UTF stands for United Terran Federation. It's the name of our government." answered Scarecrow. "Terran means Earth and Federation means a system of bodies that respond under one government. For us, each body is a colony."

"Oooh, and what's with the symbol of the other side?" politely questioned Pinkie.

Scarecrow turned to face his right. On that shoulder pad, was a picture of a crimson Greek Omega against a white background.

"This is the symbol of the 23rd." explained Scarecrow. "The letter is that of a greek-"

"Omega?" interrupted Twilight.

Scarecrow took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. Twilight could tell his tolerance was running out.

"Yes...Omega." growled the masked soldier. "Omega is used to represent the end of things. When the 23rd marks you as a target, it will ALWAYS mean your end is near."

The ponies gave out a fake chuckle except for Fluttershy, who just wanted to start crying from terror.
"Say how did you find out about us anyway?" pondered Scorch who closed his laptop.

"Well last night, a group of ponies were able to track your space craft when it landed." explained Twilight. "Then we received a letter from a Griffin asking to send aid because they were going to investigate what was happening."

"And you were going to help them?" beamed Scarecrow.

Twilight shook her head. "No we weren't. Celestia later contacted me the next day to investigate what was going on and why the Griffins and Dragons that were sent after you never came back. Not to help them."

"Is queen Celestia your mom?" asked X-ray.

"What? No." responded Twilight. "And it's princess Celestia."

"But you're a princess." countered Scorch. "Aren't prince's and princesses the children of the King and Queen in power?"

"Well yes. But you can only be a king or queen if you're ruling by yourself or with a spouse. Celestia shares the power with her sister, her niece and me." explained Twilight.

"Is this the first time power was spread like this?" asked X-ray.

Twilight put a hoof on her chin. "Well no, there was once the twin brothers Glacios and Helios a few generations ago."

"How did you get into power if you aren't a blood relative?" questioned Scarecrow.

"Sometimes ponies who prove themselves have acess to royalty." answered Twilight.

"Twilight became princess after discovering the magic of friendship." cheered Pinkie.

Shadow burst into laughter again.

Twilight was hurt by their mockery. Alicornhood and friendship was one of the most important things to her.

X-ray stopped laughing. "But you know what's even better? Telling us what the fuck is in that box."

The eyes of the ponies burst open. They looked at each other nervously.

"Box? There ain't no box in here partner." fibbed Applejack.

"You're a shitty lier AJ." remarked Scarecrow. "We saw you turn a box invisible."

"We didn't bring anything with us." defended Rainbow Dash.

"Then why are we getting a massive energy reading that's not coming from any of you?" questioned X-ray. "Just because we can't see it, doesn't mean it ain't there."

Twilight gave up. She uncloaked the box and used her telekinesis to open it.

The humans shifted their attention to the pieces of jewelry stored within it.

"This is the source of the energy?" said an unconvinced Scarecrow. "This isn't normal jewelry right?"

"Right." responded Twilight. "These are the elements of harmony."

"Come again." said Scorch.

"The elements of harmony. They are the ultimate tool for keeping Equestria safe." explained Twilight. "Each element is represents a trait of goodness. When a pony has that certain trait, they can access the element. Applejack is honesty, Pinkie is laughter, Fluttershy is kindness, Rarity is generosity, Dash is loyalty and I'm magic. When the six elements are gathered, the element of magic will cast a spell and draw energy from the other bearers to increase its power numerous times. We used these elements to protect Equestria from threats like Nightmare Moon and Discord."

"I see it's powered by emotion." nodded Scarecrow.

"That's right." nodded Pinkie. "If stopped laughing, which-will-never-happen, I'll loose access to the element."

"Makes sense." remarks Scorch. "If you have a WMD, give it to someone who'll use it for good."

"What's a WMD?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Weapon of Mass Destruction." chanted Shadow uniformly.

The ponies were shocked at their statement.

"Now see here." began Rarity. "The elements of harmony are a force for good-"

"Twilight you said the element of magic could magnify any spell right?" interrupted Scarecrow.

The alicorn nodded.

"What's going to stop you from creating a massive firestorm or energy blast that could rip apart town?"

The ponies didn't know how to respond to that.

"Just because I can use a knife to cut my food, doesn't mean I can't cut my throat." growled Overwatch.

Before the Mane 6 could ponder this revelation, Scarecrow had an epiphany.

"Say Twilight, why not cast a teleporation spell with the elements? All the extra energy may be enough to teleport us."

"Hey that's a good idea!" cheered Twilight.

"Everypony ready?" piped up Rainbow Dash.

The Mane 6 put on their elements. After a moment of concentration, their elements started to glow and the ponies ascended to the air.

The humans watched with utter awe.

"Aww. They're so cute with they're levitating up like that." admired X-ray.

Right when Twilight could cast her teleportation spell, the elements gave off an ominous red glow. The ponies opened their eyes in shock. They did not expect that to happen at all.

The humans took note of their expressions.

Scarecrow had a bad feeling. "Twilight is something-"

Suddenly, a red blast emerged from the elements, much to the pony's horror.

Before Shadow could react, the blast split into 4 and struck each member of the squad. Once they made contact with the beam, their bodies exploded with pain.

Shadow started limping around as the beam attacked them, slowly depriving them of life. Their bodies glowed purple as their barriers clashed with the elements to repel the damage.

Suddenly there was a sound, similar to that of the power going out. Shadow's barriers failed to repel the elements. The elements got passed Shadow's primary line of defense and directly attacked the commandos.

X-ray screamed hard and fell to the floor. It was as if someone was shoving a thousand hot needles right through him. There was no sign of external damage but on the inside, every part of him was being choked.

Scorch was moaning in pain and tried to clutch his head to relieve the tension, but it was no use. He lost control of his legs and fell down to the ground on his face. His HUD was glowing red was flashing critical.

Overwatch had never been in so much pain throughout the his time in Shadow. He tried to fight back with all of his will power, but it was no use. Suddenly memories, haunting memories of his life were flashing before his eye. He desperately wanted to shoot himself dead to end it all. There was no use however as it pained him just to flex a muscle.

Scarecrow, who was the strongest was the least harmed, but that was like saying you got a D- minus on your test rather than a full F. Scarecrow struggled to stand up and tried to push himself to the accursed elements.

The ponies desperately tried to stop the elements all the while. This was not what they wanted to happen, not at all.

"Twilight what's going on?" screamed Fluttershy.

"I DON'T KNOW!" screeched Twilight. She tried changing spells at first but it only reinforced the blast. Twilight then attempted to stop casting but it did nothing.

The ponies watched in horror has Shadow was screaming for life. No matter how much of a gun crazy, cynical monster they were, nobody deserved to die like that.

"Kill me." weakly groaned X-ray.

The ponies couldn't believe it. The one tool they thought that would be used to protect all life, was also an ender of one. Shadow was going to die a painful death, and it was all their falt.

"Take them off!" yelled Pinkie.

The ponies did so and the elements were removed from their bodies and shoved into their box. Much to the Mane 6's horror, the elements did not stop.

"Darn things have a mind of their own!" awed Applejack.

"Give me that!"

Suddenly Scarecrow materialized in front of the ponies. Using the last of his strength, he picked up the box. If the elements did not stop in a minute, Shadow was as good as dead.

Twilight realized what he intended to do. "Scarecrow wait!" she pleaded.

The barely conscious Scarecrow threw the box a respectable distance. The red beam still was trailing on the squad.

Before passing out, Scarecrow drew a frag grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it. The explosive landed next to the box, facing the elements.

Suddenly the frag exploded, taking the elements with it. The red beam seized to exist before it could deliver the killing blow to Shadow.

Just before the ponies could realize what Scarecrow had done, the elements used the last of it's power to release a white aura that engulfed the critically conditioned soldiers and ponies.

Author's Note

Just a quick disclaimer: Half Life is the property Valve and First Contact is a non profit story.

Before I move on to the following chapters, I will edit the previous ones.

Chapter 11: Recovery

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."--Voltaire

X-ray was slumped on the dirt, completely unconscious. Everything felt as if it he was trapped in a void of black. There was absolute silence until the commando thought he heard someone say his call sign:

"X-ray!"

The voice was muffled but X-ray realized all of a sudden that he wasn't dead.

"X-ray!"

There was the voice again. This time it was more audible.

"Please wake up."

He couldn't tell who the voice belonged too. Then again, it sounded like the odd French and British accent that belonged to a certain white pony.

"Don't be dead, oh heavens don't be dead!"

X-ray could definitely tell it was Rarity. Now that he was awoken, he felt all of the pain in his body resurface. It was so intense that he couldn't even let out a groan.

"Twilight I think he's gone for good!"

X-ray desperately wanted to stand up, check on his friends and figure out what happened. However, it pained him even to open his eyes.

X-ray tried to overcome the torture inflicted by the elements of so-called 'harmony'. He felt like he wanted to lash out at the ponies for nearly killing him in the worst way possible, but he remembered how they were just as confused as the rest of Shadow.

In the heart of the moment, X-ray forced his eyes open. His vision was blurry however. The symbols on his HUD were a blue mess and a white blob stood in front of surrounded by green stood in front of him.

He tried to breath in for air, but could only inhale in small amounts.

It didn't take a genius to know that the white blur infront of him was Rarity. Due to his shades, the unicorn wouldn't be able to tell he was awake.

He heard a sobbing. Not just from Rarity, but the rest of the Mane 6. They really thought Shadow was dead and it was all their falt. The masked soldier wasn't about to let the ponies deal with this type of trauma. He didn't know about the rest of Shadow, but at least one getting out of the situation alive would habe been much better than none.

Suddenly his vision cleared up. His HUD was flashing critical. All of a sudden, a projection of his body played on his HUD. The projection read that there no visible external damage while almost every muscle had been sprained somehow and his bones were receiving tension as if they were bruised.

He used sensory commands to wipe the body diagram clear from his hud. Despite his vision being clear now, he still couldn't flex his arm or say anything to get the ponies attention.

He checked the rest of his HUD for anything important. Miraculously, his HUD read all of his weapons, grenades and equipment were still with him. They had hung on to the magnetic plates quite well.

He slowly felt the tension ease up on his arms, it wasn't much, but it was something. Slowly, he reached for the white sobbing unicorn and took her hoof.

Suddenly Rarity stopped crying and gasped when she felt the hand on her hoof. X-ray was able to raise his head slightly and faced the unicorn.

X-ray tried to mouth, "I'm fine" but his COM only flashed static. Rarity raised an eyebrow at him, still heavily breathing though. X-ray positioned his bandanna and used sensory commands to recalibrate his mic.

"I'm alright Rarity." assured X-ray.

Rarity hugged his head tightly in relief, despite the fact X-ray's body was exploding with hurt upon contact and Rarity getting the typical mindfuck from being near a human.

X-ray used his head to nudge Rarity aside. The rifleman turned to check up on the rest of Shadow. They couldn't be dead, not like this.

Twilight was near Scarecrow's body, trying all the spells she could think of to get the commander back on his feet. She reached over and placed a hoof on Scarecrow's bandanna-

-until a hand snapped at the alicorn's hoof and almost squeezed it to death.

Twilight screamed causing Scarecrow to shoot his head up and realize what he was doing. Scarecrow let go of the purple pony's hoof and placed a finger on her mouth.

"Twilight, please don't touch our masks." half joked Scarecrow with a hint of concern.

Twilight nodded and smiled. "Thank goodness you're alright! I thought me and the girls killed you." she cheered.

"Oh please, like a cartoon pony would claim the life a 23rd member." remarked Scarecrow.

"Scarecrow, what's you're status?" radioed X-ray.

"X-gay, I thought I'd never be glad to see you." muttered Scarecrow.

"How are your vitals?"

"There aren't any cuts on me, I'm not infected or anything, but all my muscles are sprained, my joints have been weakened and my heart is pumping slightly slower than usual. You?"

"Ditto."

The two now-awake counter terrorists turned around to face their remaining squad-mates.

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were on opposite ends on Overwatch's head.

Fluttershy was trying to find various spots on Overwatch's body that would startle him awake, but so far, she got nothing. She even resorte to bucking him awake, but her hooves were weak and she couldn't breach Overwatch's shield/barrier.

"Come on Mr. Sniper! Wake up!" pleaded Pinkie. She was violently shaking Overwatch's head despite the mass of his skull and bullet proof shades compared to Pinkie's hooves. The party pony hoped she hadn't accidentally snapped his neck.

Pinkie placed her fore hoof on top of Overwatch's masked face. "How many fingers am I holding?"

".........."

"Good you're awake!"

"I don't think Overwatch was answering." insisted Fluttershy. "I also don't think getting him to talk is the best way to see if Overwatch is alright." she added.

A moment later, Pinkie and Fluttershy's vision blurred a bit and felt their brains rock back and forth.

The sniper tiled his head up and gave a groan.

"Overwatch, what's your status over?" yelled Scarecrow from across the canopy.

Overwatch gave a thumbs up despite the pain in his hand.

Rainbow Dash's voice broke the silence.

"Come on. You stupid. Bi-ped. Wake. Up!"

Rainbow Dash was hopping up and down on Scorch's chest trying to force him up. Much like Fluttershy however, all Rainbow Dash was doing was setting off sparks on his chest as his barriers flickered. It would take the rest of the day just to get his barriers to 79%.

"Come on sugarcube. This ain't yer time." whispered Applejack into Scorch's ear. 'Assuming he has an ear under that hood' she thought.

"Cold."

Rainbow Dash stopped jumping and flew up slightly above the air. With her mouth hung open.

"Cold."

"Gosh darn it, he's alive!" awed Applejack.

Suddenly Scorch started chattering and vibrating.

"I'm so cold." groaned the demo man.

"Hang on Scorch! I'm coming to save your sorry ass." assured Scarecrow.

He tried to stand upright but pushing himself up was impossible. Slowly he rose to his full height and once again towered the ponies All of a sudden, his legs shivered and he collapsed.

He tried to stand up and walk forward again, only to fall violently down on the surface, causing a small crater in the ground.

"It's no use you brainless bitch!" spoke up X-ray, still lying on the ground.

Scarecrow wasn't going to let his friend freeze to death. He forced his body to grab one of his pyro grenades and crawl towards Scorch.

The ponies watched as Scarecrow dragged all four 4 of his joints to the shivering Demo Man. Even though Scorch was only a few meters away from his commander, crawling towards Scorch felt like an eternity.

Scarecrow finally reached the demo man, and lit up his pyro grenade. The commander was extra careful not to set on 'explosion mode' but instead light it up so it could act like a match.

Scarecrow held the open flame towards the freezing demo man. Slowly, Scorch's body began to calm down as he felt the heat rays dance on him.

"Warm, so warm." whispered Scorch.

The demo man tried to reach for the pyro grenade to hold it closer, only for Scarecrow to snap his arm back and hold it behind him.

"Remember what we said about you and pyro grenades?" quizzed Scarecrow.

"I'm not allowed to use them or unless I want the 'incident' leaked and have me discharged." chanted Scorch.

"Very good." nodded Scarecrow. The commander held the flame closer to Scorch. Soon the demo man's HUD read that his body was no longer suffering from near hypothermia.

Scarecrow closed the flame on his grenade and slumped back. The 4 counter terrorists turned to face the ponies.

"Oh my gosh, this is bad." moaned Rainbow dash.

"I can't believe this happened." sobbed Fluttershy.

"Ah..Ah don' know what ta say except....wow." muttered Applejack.

"Just calm down girls, everything is going to be fine!" assured Twilight.

"How is everything going to be alright?" yelled Pinkie, struggling for breath.

"Twilight's right." beamed Scorch. "The 4 of us are fine. Sure we're messed up a bit internally, but we-"

"We're not talking about you!" interrupted Rainbow Dash. "Thanks to Scarecrow, the elements of harmony are gone!"

X-ray snapped. "That's why you're worried!" Even though he was on the ground, he still was able to scare the ponies.

"Those FUCKING elements almost killed us and had not Scarecrow destroyed those pieces of shit, we would have been done for! Now you're upset because we didn't fucking die?"

"You don't understand." pleaded Twilight. The ponies recoiled as they felt their minds exploding from stress.

"OH I UNDERSTAND! Those elements aren't preservations of harmony! They're God Damn WMDS just like-"

"X-ray." snapped Scarecrow. "What happened with the elements wasn't intentional."

X-ray remembered and chastised himself for forgetting that crucial fact.

"Fine, but seriously? We're near dead and you're worried about those hunks of junk?"

"The elements aren't junk." countered Rarity. "The elements are the most important thing to the history of Equestria!"

Scarecrow wasn't going to regret what he did in a billion years, but he listend.

"The elements weren't meant to kill you." explained Twilight. "The elements of harmony were forged by Star Swirl the Bearded before the founding of Equestria to help combat against threats-"

"Like us?" hissed Overwatch.

Twilight's eyes widened "No. No! The elements became important to Equestria because decade after decade, many discordic beings attacked the country and the ponies of the purest heart would gather them and fight off threats. They're the most efficient way to protect our country."

"You won't need the elements as long as we're here Twilight." assured Scorch. "If anyone tries to harm you and the rest of pony kind, they'll be dealing with us."

"Ah'm sorry, but shootin' things won't be enough nor should it be an option for the things we face." puffed Applejack.

"Then why did the elements decide it was valid to kill us?" questioned Scorch. "What they were doing; torturing and breaking us to death was anti harmonious to me."

"You don't get it!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "The elements were the most powerful magical things in existence. We thought they were unbeatable. They were a sign for hope! Now that Scarecrow's destroyed the elements he's-"

"Conquered harmony." nodded Scarecrow.

"Yeah!" yelled Pinkie. "If the elements aren't powerful then we don't what is."

"We always thought the elements were going to preserve peace in Equestria forever." whimpered Futtershy. "Looks like we were wrong."

"It's not just that." sighed Twilight. "The elements were important to us in a personal level. They were a bond that signaled our Friendship. As we grew closer together, so did the power of the elements."

The atmosphere was silent for a while. Shadow found themselves slumped to a rock side by side, lying on their backs.

"You don't need any pieces of jewelry to keep your friendship if we don't need masks or hood to keep ours." said X-ray.

"What's important is that you'll still care for each other and do your best to protect society even if the road to do so will seem more difficult. That's harmony." added Scorch.

"I...just don't know how I'm going to tell this to pony society." shook Twilight. "I'm an alicorn princess and the element of magic. Ponies actually worship me! If they found out what we've done, then there'll be panic. Ponies won't be able to grasp the concept that the elements are gone. My relationship with society will be ruined for ever."

"It wasn't your fault Twilight. Or any of your ponies fault. You lost control of the elements." piped up X-ray.

"I still can't understand how we lost control of the elements." remarked Rarity.

"When we were about to cast the teleportation spell, I just lost all contact with my necklace." added Fluttershy.

"The elements couldn't just act on their own!" explained Twilight as she placed a hoof on her chin. "Although I read that if some huge chaotic threat that had to be taken out no matter what was around, the elements would override the bearer's desires and stop at nothing to quell the chaos."

"Twilight." said Scarecrow slowly. "Who do you think would have more disharmony in them than a group of violent, cynical, foul mouthed assassins?"

"You're not evil." insisted Pinkie. "Chrysalis, Sombra, Discord and Nightmare moon were way worse than you."

"Have they killed? Have they swore? Have they psychologically tortured their victims whether it was intentional or not?" questioned X-ray.

The ponies didn't know how to respond to such a statement. They reflected on how their adversaries and based on their encounters with the humans, questioned if they were truly malevolent at all. Discord may have driven the Mane 6 apart but he was just a trickster, Chrysalis just wanted to take care of her population, Sombra may have been a harsh dictator, but he never did kill or torture the crystal ponies. Their enemies didn't even resort to mild controversial acts like racism, profanity and drug abuse.

And without being having bad intentions at all, Shadow surpassed the worst of Equestria in disharmony.

"But y'all are soldiers. You're supposed to do good right?" asked Applejack innocentally.

"Yes. But that doesn't change the overall taboo of our acts." explained Scorch. "Also, humans are a bit more...liberal when it comes to things that would be considered....not safe for work."

"But your not evil right?" gasped Fluttershy.

"If we were evil, we would be running to town and start hanging foals and burning the elderly." muttered X-ray.

"You know, I think violent thoughts weren't really helping your case." beamed Rainbow Dash.

"Still, how are we going to explain the elements?" said a worried Rarity.

"We'll take credit and just explain the situation honestly." proposed Scarecrow. "I'm sure everypony would understand."

"Can we focus on getting back to town?" piped up Overwatch.

The ponies and humans silently agreed.

"By the way, how long have we been knocked out?" questioned Scorch. "What time is it."

"It was around 8:35 pm by the time the elements decided to fuck us up." answered Scarecrow. He tried to hold his arm up to check his wrist computer. "Right now, it's 7:47 am and we've been up for twenty minutes or so."

"We woke up half an hour before you 4 did." said Pinkie. "We were trying to wake you up."

"By the way, this place looks different." noticed X-ray. "I don't remember this clearing nor these set of rocks to be here."

Rainbow Dash flew up in the sky. She looked closely and could see in the faint distance, where a pile homes.

"Hey I can see Ponyville from here!" pointed the rainbow maned pegasus.

"That doesn't make any sense. We were more than 20 miles away from the settlement last night." awed Scarecrow.

"Hey do any of you remember some white flash before we passed out?" asked Applejack.

"You're right." nodded Twilight. "The feeling of that blast was awfully similar to a teleportation spell as well." Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "That must mean-"

"The teleportation spell the elements of harmony were supposed to cast worked!" cheered Pinkie.

"Well at least we got something." shrugged Scorch.

"Has the pain stopped?" asked Fluttershy.

"NO!" said Shadow uniformly.

"Can you walk?"

"NO!"

"Can you get up?"

"NO!"

"Our conversation about the elements was a nice way for us to forget that the inside of our body feels like it's gotten ripped to shreds." remarked Scarecrow.

Overwatch nodded to that statement.

"Which reminds me." spoke up X-ray. "Twilight, my first aid kit fell out of my utility belt while I was crawling here. Could you get it for me?"

Twilight turned around to face a red bag (obviously non Epona origin.) with a cross on it. Twilight complied to X-ray's request and used her telekinesis to try lift the bag.

For some reason however, the bag was double the mass she estimated it to be, forcing her to double her efforts on the kit.

The bag landed on X-rays lap. The commando unzipped the bag to find a series of medical appliances inside like bio-gel that released a helpful bacteria that would detect and seal wounds, disinfectants which also rid the body of any kind of poison, universal blood transfusion kits, bio-tissue which also cauterized any type of wound.

X-ray found what he was looking for, grade A pain killers. He took 4 out of the sac and handed one of each to his squamates. The members of Shadow slipped the pill underneath their bandannas and swallowed them.

"What were those?" asked Rarity.

"Painkillers." replied Scarecrow. "They'll end inside pain on any level but our HUD is estimating another few hours of trauma before we'll be fine."

"We don't have a few hours." nagged Applejack. "Ah told my folks ah'd be home last night tops!"

The other ponies made similar remarks. Remarks the squad couldn't care less about.

"You know for a pony that's supposed to be the alicorn of the imaginary concept of magic, you don't seem to know a lot of so-called spells." stated Scorch.

Twilight snarled. "What do you mean! I might not know everything, but I sure as heck know a lot of spells like reverse gravity or duplication and-"

"So where was our healing spell?" questioned X-ray. "Or the 'wolves piss off' spell or the 'make a bridge out of kinetic energy' spell?"

"Well I could cast those." remembered Twilight. "But the thing is...I kinda forgot I had those."

"Who calls themselves the element of magic and forgets all the magic they know?" snarled Overwatch.

Twilight formed a tear in her eye. A second later, she felt another invisible knife stab her in the brain.

"Okay, I'm sorry that was mean." apologized Overwatch. He meant it.

"Must I remind you all that we can't be sitting around here all day. We need to get to Equestria!" piped up Rarity.

"Don't worry silly!"

Everybody and everypony turned to face Pinkie Pie. Behind her was a large wooden cart that was powered by 6 strong wheels.

Rainbow Dash was shocked "Pinkie how did you-"

"While Shadow was healing themselves, I used my sugar induced super speed to knock down a bunch of trees and find a group of wheel shaped rocks which I carefully crafted into a horse powered cart." giggled the party pony.

"Wow Pinkie, you can work really fast when motivated." complimented Scarecrow. The counter terrorist turned to face the Mane 6. "Can we keep her as a bio weapon?"

"NO!"

"Hold on." pointed X-ray. "Wouldn't it take the 6 of you just to drag one of us a few meters ahead before collapsing?"

"Well you are heavy." pointed out Rainbow Dash.

"I don't know why, but for some reason I feel that cart isn't strong enough to support us." added Scarecrow.

"What do you mean? The dimensions of the cart are solid to hold all 4 of us." countered Scorch.

"Yeah, but I get the feeling that cart is lighter than what it should be."

"Yeah and ah don't think we'd still be able to push you around in dat cart." nodded Applejack.

The 4 humans turned to face Twilight.

Twilight started to tremble and sweat. "Why are you 4 looking at me?"

"We're waiting for you to say you will cast a force inversion spell on us that will reduce the pressure our body is supposed to exert on external objects." answered Scorch.

Twilight blushed "Oh sorry. Guess I forgot...heh...heh."

Twilight's horn lit up and the alicorn cast a spell that she used to help her walk on clouds on each commando. She had to do it one by one because they each required a tremendous amount of energy alone. When she was done, she had gotten tired.

Soon the squad felt the force they placed on the ground was becoming less apparent. Now the hard part was getting to the vehicle.

Shadow couldn't stand up yet so they got on all fours and started to crawl to the cart. The ponies in the mean time fastend the ropes on them.

"Fucking hell, we've been reduced to quadrupeds." gritted Scorch. The commando faced the Mane 6. "No offense."

The ponies rolled their eyes or either gave out a sigh.

Finally, Shadow reached the cart and climbed on top. To their amusement, the cart did not break down.

"So this is what it must feel like to be a pegasus on clouds." stated X-ray as he noted how much more solid everything felt.

"I can't believe I'm going to do this." whined Rarity as she tied the ropes around her.

"Quit your bitching and pull like the horses you are." joked Scarecrow.

Author's Note

So yeah, the elements are gone. Good luck Equestria!

And yes, I'm addressing the issue of Twilight forgetting her powers.

Chapter 12: Kill one, get two free

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."- Martin Luther King Jr.

"UGH!" groaned Rainbow Dash, trying to pull the cart.

"I'm getting tired." moaned Pinkie Pie. The party pony had nearly given up.

"Come on sugarcube we're almost there!" motivated Applejack.

In order to move the nearly paralyzed Shadow squad, the equines had to pull them through a cart that Pinkie had built. Despite Twilight using a force inversion spell to help reduce Shadow's pressure on the device, pulling the contraption was still a pain in the flank.

In 1 hour, the equines only managed to cover 3 miles.

Twilight and nopony else could take it for much longer. Even Applejack, who had a ton of experience moving carts felt like she could collapse any moment. Taking a break was out of the question as the mane 6 was already overdue to get back to Ponyville. It would only be a matter of time before the town started panicking.

Twilight's forehead was trickling with sweat and the lavender mare was panting hard. She turned back to face the masked humans.

"Are you 4 enjoying yourselves?" sarcastically remarked the alicorn.

"YES!" chanted Shadow Squad nonchalantly.

While the mares were busy at work trying to haul their behemoth bodies, Shadow was quite relaxed in the kart. Scarecrow was reading a comic book, Overwatch was drawing the entire scene, X-ray was playing some open world shooter on Scorch's laptop while Scorch was watching a movie on X-ray's tablet.

While the squad didn't have to move, one thing was bringing their ride down.

"God damn it, this wood is hard." muttered X-ray.

The commando looked up to see his 3 friends staring right at him. X-ray pondered what he had said only to realize that he just made a sexual intendo.

"Ohh....uh"

As if Scarecrow ignored him; "Well sitting on this cart isn't exactly soft but come on, we put any more weight on this cart and it'll collapse to saw dust forcing us to trot like dirty animals."

The cart stopped.

"No offense! Again!"

The cart continued moving.

"We'll never make it at this rate." whimpered Fluttershy. "I still have to get to my animals, I hope they didn't miss me. I mean it's not like they can't take care of themselves-"

"Well maybe we would have gotten there sooner if someone didn't suggest using a peacekeeping force for travel!" suggested Rainbow Dash.

With his left hand still holding the comic, Scarecrow lifted his right and and flexed it up and down to give the 'blah, blah, blah' gesture.

Being handless, the ponies obviously didn't get his insult.

"I know what you mean Fluttershy!" sighed Rarity. "All those dress orders still need to be done, Sweetie Bell is probably crying and I still need to feed Opal."

"Opal?" said a voice from behing the ponies.

"Oh, Opal is the name of my cat." explained Rarity.

Scarecrow snapped his head from his comic book and onto the white unicorn. "You have CATS! As in those furry quadrupeds with claws, whiskers and are fucking lazy."

Rarity tried to wash the insult out of her mind and nodded 'yes'.

"I have a cat too." whispered Shadow's commander.

"This is impossible. Cats are from EARTH!" yelled Scorch. "Earth is a bunch of light years away."

Twilight rolled her eyes at Scorch's unnecessary cussing. 'Wow Earth and Epona are similar.' awed the mare. "First animals and than myths. But their planet came first and is much older than ours so-"

"You think cats were enough." snorted X-ray. He snatched his tablet from Scorch and turned on an app for analyzing flora. "All plant life within this vicinity are some form of oak, maple or spruce tree."

Overwatch face palmed. This information was overwhelming.

"Oh well at least we don't have to waste time gathering plant samples." shrugged Scarecrow.

"New theory!" piped up Scorch. "What if Epona was really a piece of Earth that was blasted of during the planet's formation and traveled across the galaxy, carrying life that would eventually evolve into these things like they would have on Earth?"

The other ponies looked at Twilight pleadingly.

"I don't know what to say to that but it sound ridiculous." replied the alicorn.

"Oh and a talking pink horse with wings and a horn isn't?" countered Scorch. Overwatch almost laughed. Almost.

"Na, Twilight is right." implied X-ray. "Based on the distance between Epona and Earth, it would take billions of years for said fragment to reach its current position while this planet is thousands of years old, not to mention it would have deteriorated in a vacuum over time."

"But this planet does seem artificial." reminded Scarecrow.

Rainbow tried to join in on conversation, but it was hard to think while pulling the load. "If everything on this planet is Earth like, then it would have to have built by humans."

"Nu-huh" shacked Scorch. "By the time your planet was in the process of formation, we had barely discovered the wheel. If we were ancient astronauts there should have been a monument or technological ruins of some sorts."

"He's right." added Scarecrow. "If we can find old pottery from Paleolithic times, then we should be able find something as obvious as a spaceship."

"Or it could have another race from Earth that had the technology to build worlds." proposed Rarity.

"That wouldn't be possible as well." countered X-ray. "Humans are the only species on Earth with intelligence. If there was another species that was an intelligent, again, we should have found some ruins."

Pinkie's eyes widened with an epiphany. "But if the aliens got rid of all their technology on purpose because they felt bad that you weren't so advanced and wouldn't get discouraged from discovering and let you have room to build your towns and cities?"

"That is stupid even for you." remarked Scorch.

"Hey!" responded the pink Mare.

"Any species that powerful would have probably assimilated our ancestors for slave labor." said Scarecrow.

"Why would they do that? Slavery is horrible." whispered Fluttershy.

"Didn't stop the white Englishmen from enslaving the blacks." panned Overwatch.

"My that's a dark piece of history you have there." gulped Twilight. "I couldn't imagine anything worse than that."

The humans snorted. There were way worse things about Shadow alone.

Applejack sniffed in the air. "Gosh, ah can smell 'em apples from here."

"Speaking of home, you never got to inform us about your families." panned Scorch. His voice turned blubbery. "Do they know you're in the big scary forest?"

Rainbow Dash snorted "Hey! We're not telling you-"

"My mother and father aren't in town as of now." interrupted Rarity before the humans could mistake Dash's stubbornness as a threat. "My sister Sweetie Bell lives with me and the boutique I run."

"I work at Sugarcube corner with the cake family. My real family works at a rock farm!" cheered Pinkie.

"Pinkie...why the fucking hell would your folks work at rock farm?" questioned X-ray.

Pinkie's mouth dropped. "I'll have you know you mr. meanie, that rocks are important and have many uses."

"Yeah, but you don't need to grow them. Besides working at a rock farm sounds depressing." muttered Scorch.

Pinkie knitted her eyes and continued trotting forward. Now it was Applejacks turn to speak. Her voice turned from general annoyance to depression.

"Ma folks are gone." sighed the cowpony. Her force on the roped suddenly dwindled.

Scarecrow dropped his resting position and stood up straight. "I'm sorry." he whispered.

"Why would' ya be?" questioned Applejack.

"Growing up without parents must be hard right?" asked Scorch.

"Na." shook the cowpony. "Ah have ma little sister Applebloom, ma Granny Smith and ma brother Big Mac. Together with the rest of the apple clan, we got quite a lovin bunch."

"My mom died a while back." explained Rainbow Dash although she didn't sound depressed. "My dad still lives in Cloudsdale. I haven't seen him for years come to think of it."

"Is he as hot headed as you?" teased Scorch as he was lying on his back.

"Nah." blurted Rainbow Dash. "He's been a solitary guy even before my mom died."

"My parents are still in the military." whimpered Fluttershy.

Shadow-minus Overwatch-laughed hard at the statement. Their laughing unknowingly put Fluttershy in a lot more pain than she already was.

Suddenly Scarecrow forced himself to stop laughing. "Um, Fluttershy, by any chance, were your parents...rough on you?"

The yellow pegasus nodded. Her friends surrounded her to comfort her, they knew how much of a sensitive topic her upbringing was.

Suddenly Shadow realized why the yellow mare had been so timid all along. Sure the entire Mane 6 was near soiling themselves because of Shadow's overall malevolence, but Fluttershy was a severe case.

"Hey we're sorry, we shouldn't have been so inconsiderate." apologized Scorch.

"No offense but you've been pretty rude the entire time we've known you." snarled Twilight.

"Well this is what happens when your government sends young adults with a ton of combat experience." shrugged X-ray.

"Well we could have been nicer had this planet not essentially be an Earth rip-off." kicked back Scarecrow.

"Anyway." sighed Twilight. "My parents are just civilians living in the capital city. My brother is captain of the royal guard and he's married to Princess Cadance."

"Is Cadance related to your diarchs?" yawned X-ray. The ride was starting to get comfortable.

"No." blurted Twilight. "Although people call her Celestia's niece for some reason."

"Now it's your turn to enlighten us about your families." ordered Rarity

"That's classified information." said Scarecrow blankly.

"Oh please! Like they're capable of doing anything to us if they know something like that!" remarked X-ray. The ponies turned to face the rifleman.

"Especially now that we got rid of their elements."

The pony's faces of confusion became scowls. They had never been so frustrated in their lives.

"All of our parents are still on Requiem." explained X-ray. "Good thing as well since its basically the planet with the lowest insurrection support. I have a brother slightly younger than me. He's training to be a cargo pilot."

"I have two younger brothers." added Scorch. "The youngest is graduating high school by now. The older is training to be a business man."

"I have an older sister." sighed Overwatch.

"A HOT OLDER sister." chirped Scarecrow.

Overwatch punched his commander in the chin. It actually did quite a number on his barrier.

Scarecrow was unharmed and spoke as if nothing just happened. "I have a younger sister. She's a veterinarian."

"Oh my, that's a wonderful job. Taking care of all those cute animals." complimented Fluttershy.

"What about your parents?" began Rarity. "Do they know about your...profession."

"Their not exactly supportive." chuckled X-ray. "We're not family guys so we haven't been in contact with our parents for quite a while other than the 'I almost died today' or 'Guess how many people I killed today?' text."

"Are they aware your that your making first contact? And a pretty bad one too?" asked Twilight.

"Nope." said Shadow in unison.

Meanwhile on Pewter city, Requiem

"Honey, where's Robert? (Scorch)" asked his mother.

"Some uncharted alien world." replied his father.

Back on Epona

"Please tell me ya'll are gonna be healed soon." wailed Applejack. The ponies couldn't continue pulling any longer.

Scarecrow checked the time on his watch. "Actually the medicine was supposed to finish taking effect 5 minutes ago."

"WHAT!" screamed the mares.

"Thanks for the ride anyway!" cheered X-ray. The rest of Shadow got up and jumped into the air. The lighter gravity allowed the squad to soar at distanced that even impressed Rainbow Dash before landing.

Scorch stood upright and faced Twilight. "Hey Twilight we won't need a force inversion anymore."

Twilight rolled her eyes and cast another force inversion spell on Shadow. Once again trying to cast on Shadow despite their apparent size required Twilight to use double the force she would use normally.

Shadow felt the ground feel less like a solid piece of titanium but instead soft, mushy dirt like it was supposed to be. Their feet were now exerting force like it was supposed to.

The squad nodded and continued walking, despite the 6 sweaty mares suggesting otherwise.

"Come on. We're less than 5 miles away!" motivated Scorch.

"Speak for yourself! You weren't the one pulling." gritted Rainbow Dash.

"Look on the bright side Dash!" skipped Pinkie. "We'll never get the chance to exercise like this again and get super duper strong muscles."

"That's something I wouldn't mind missing." shook Rarity.

Suddenly Shadow tensed and turned east. Simultaneously, the squad drew their weapons.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong? There's-"

Scarecrow shot a fist in the air to silence the mare. As Shadow started tensing, the mind fuck the mares were getting started to escalate.

"ROAR!"

The Equines eyes widened and they headed into a group huddle. Disturbed buy the monstrous cry.

"Hissss!"

Suddenly trees were knocked down and the voices became more and more apparent. Out of nowhere, a giant, black, lizard appeared, with three serpent like heads and sharp, pointy claws.

"What do you know, it's a damn Hydra." awed X-ray.

Overwatch shot up his sniper rifle and aimed at the head of the hydra. Right when the hooded sniper was about to fire at the gazing serpent, Scarecrow placed his hand on the barrel.

"Overwatch don't engage." ordered the masked soldier. Scarecrow turned to face the cowering ponies. "Twilight, Hydra heads regrow unless they are set on fire right? That way, their wounds will be cauterized and their cells can't multiply to make up for the damage."

Twilight gave a nod.

"Then we'll rip it's fucking heart out!" threatened X-ray. The hydra snarled at him.

"Hydra rounds are supposed to be bullet proof due to tight cell structure." gulped Scarecrow.

"Bullshit, our rounds are full metal jacket, that's bullet proof proof!"

Scorch looked at each of his Squad mates. "I'm not allowed to use incendiary ammunition after the "incident". Do any of you have some by any chance?"

"Don't look at me." defended X-ray, still staring at the hydra's middle head. "I'm using FMJ rounds."

"I'm using said rounds for my LMG and shotgun." said Scarecrow.

Overwatch shook his head no.

The hydra gave out a large roar with all three of its heads. The force of the shout was strong enough to flip off Shadow's hoods. Just before Twilight could analyze their 'manes', the squad flipped their hoods up with fast reflexes.

"What are you waiting for?" yelled Scorch to Scarecrow. "Throw your fucking pyro grenade at it!"

"I'm still trying get over the shock that I'm looking at a damn hydra! Not to mention it's moving it's heads fast." responded Scarecrow.

"Twilight can you set it's head on fire or some shit?" asked X-ray.

Twilight stopped nibbling on her hooves and used Cadance's technique to calm her self. "I can summon a flame at will, but to do it to burn off a hydra's head is magic I have yet to be competent in. Plus I'm not helping you kill." Twilight went back to being a coward.

"You know it hasn't attacked us for some reason." pointed Scorch. The demo man adjusted his shades "I think it wants something."

"Fluttershy." called Scarecrow.

The yellow pegasus piped up from the pile of cowering ponies.

"Can you please tell this lizard reject to fuck off?"

Fluttershy for some reason couldn't find herself to pull off her 'stare.'. It was probably the human's odd magic of somehow scrambling her mind.

The yellow pegasus flied up to the hydra. The 3 headed behemoth stopped growling and turned to face the floating mare.

Fluttershy cleared her throat and spoke in an ever sweet voice. "Um Mr. Hydra, can you please." Fluttershy blushed a bright red. "F...ffff..fuuu"

"I didn't mean it literally!" scolded Scarecrow.

The yellow mare paled at the insult. "Mr. Hydra, these 4 humans (the hydra snarled when he heard Fluttershy say 'human) don't want to hurt you unless you want to hurt them and nopony want's that. Can you just leave and enjoy your day if that's okay with you?"

The hydra gave a series of snarls and growls.

Fluttershy faced the humans. "He says he wants you to apologize for your tyranny."

The humans were dumbfounded underneath their masks. Scorch spoke up.

"Fluttershy, tell this jerk that we've never met him before so we're not apologizing for jack shit!"

Fluttershy looked at her friends first. They were all literally paralyzed with fear. Rainbow Dash and Applejack never looked so frightened and for once didn't care if they were showing it. Rarity had fainted and Pinkie was trying to wave air to the white mare. Twilight was lost in thought as well as fear. Fluttershy knew deep down however, that her friends weren't afraid of the hydra attacking them, they were afraid of what Shadow was going to do to the hydra.

Fluttershy collected her thoughts. "Mr. Hydra, there seems to be a mistake. These humans have done nothing wrong to you, yet. So they don't have to apologize for anything."

The hydra snapped all three of its heads and charged them straight at the masked humans.

Shadow's reflexes kicked in and the 4 of them vaulted, flipped and jumped aside to avoid the hydra's sharp teeth.

Overwatch drew his rifle and used his HUD to no scope a head. The hydra's left head dismembered and blue animated blood spilled from it's neck. Said blood spilled all over the Mane 6. Each one of them gave out a high pitched scream. Even Rainbow Dash and Applejack squealed.

Suddenly the now two headed hydra stood up. It's two remaining heads gave a hiss and from where the third head had been cut off, two new ones grew.

"Nice job Overwatch!" scolded Scarecrow. "Now there are 4 heads for each of us."

"On the bright side, I got a blood sample." proclaimed X-ray. He held a vial that had contents of they hydra's wound.

The hydra swiped its tail at X-ray. The rifleman jumped in the nick of time, almost loosing his blood sample.

The 4 soldiers wasted no time firing at it's chest, hoping to rip of its heart. Much to Shadow's dismay, as bullets entered the hydra's system, the wounds immediately closed, undoing any effort their bullets did.

Two hydra heads launched straight at Scarecrow and Scorch. Both masked commandos side stepped and Scarecrow gave his aggressor head a jaw shattering kick.

The hydra recoiled. It wasn't about to loose to it's prey. Much to the beast's frustration however, it seemed like the humans were having fun making it's life miserable.

Scorch readied a rifle grenade and aimed it at the hydra's chest. Suddenly there was a loud 'plop' as the explosive was launched from the rifle and hit the hydra right where its heart should have been.

The hydra roared in pain as its entire mid-section was exposed. The Mane 6 nearly vomited at the sight of the 4 headed beast's internal organs.

Right when Scarecrow and X-ray fired bullets that would have ripped the Hydra's (four) hearts, its hide regenerated.

Shadow groaned in frustration. Killing a giant insurrection mecha would have been easier. Suddenly, the beast turned to face the Mane 6 who due to being to afraid to move or think, were crowded behind a rock. The Hydra realized that the ponies were making no effort to aid him in facing his adversaries.

"Traitors." it said in its native language. Right before Scarecrow finally got a clear throw with his pyro grenade on the hydra's heads, all four faces lunged at the ponies.

Thankfully, the equines dodged the attack and scrambled.

The hydra roared (ignoring all the holes in it's body that were harmlessly regenerating) and charged at the helpless ponies.

The equines managed to cover some distance in their adrenaline like speed. However, the hydra was about to catch up to them. Splitting in different directions was not an option for the Mane 6 as the forest's trees were closely packed in this section, making crashing easy.

Unfortunately for the 4 headed lizard, Shadow was much faster. Right when they were about to catch up to the beast, X-ray had realized something.

"Guys? Is it just me or do you notice something off of the hydra's colors?"

Scorch's eye knitted. "Yeah, hydras are supposed to be green if they're male, red if they're female and if they're black...than that must mean-"

"It's the fucking hydra King!" awed Scarecrow. "That explains why its Autotomy readings are off the chart!"

"If we don't kill it, it's going to kill Twilight and the rest of the gang!" screamed Scorch.

The hydra finally caught the Mane 6 at a dead end. Right before it could lunge-

"Pulse grenade out!" yelled X-ray.

In the heart of the moment, a blue cylinder with a flashing green light and white lightning bolt landed in front of the hydra. Right when the beast looked down at the device, the green light flashed red and a huge shockwave struck the hydra.

The 4headed beast yelled in pain and was frozen still by the electric current. It was also vibrating violently.

Suddenly a small force, like a gust of humid wind struck the ponies. However, they did not go into shock like the giant black lizard.

"Twilight set its head on fire!" shrieked Pinkie.

Twilight tried to spark her horn with a flame, but for some reason felt like she couldn't absorb any infrared energy from the atmosphere. She couldn't even feel her horn.

"Twilight bash it with a rock!" screamed Applejack.

Twilight tried to yank a tree with her telekinesis but couldn't feel the essence of the tree. And once again, she couldn't connect to her horn.

"Twilight do something!" pleaded Rainbow Dash. It was only a matter of seconds before the hydra was going to overcome its electrical punishment.

"I can't. I can't feel my horn." admitted Twilight.

"What?" questioned Rarity. The white unicorn tried to grab hold of a near by boulder with telekinesis, but much to her shock, she couldn't fell her horn as well.

"My magic isn't working too!" screamed the white unicorn.

Suddenly the atmosphere had gotten hotter. The hydra was no longer covered in blue electric sparks, but instead a blazing red fire. The very look of which wasn't Eponan.

The equines covered their eyes at that gruesome image. The hydra was about to yell in pain until...

BANG!

When the Mane 6 opened their eyes, they found all of the hydra's heads dismembered. Instead of regenerating, the sockets in the neck were covered with a black, non animated ash.

After noticing that they were covered in more blue blood, the ponies heard something coming from their right. They turned around to see Shadow uncloak and reveal themselves.

Scarecrow calmly addressed the ponies. "Is everypony alright?"

Pinkie Pie stared at the humans. "You....killed the hydra."

"Your welcome." growled X-ray. "Had we not killed it, the mutant lizard would have killed you."

"Tell us were you were when the hydra was being shocked!" demanded Twilight. "It was a good thirty seconds in before it you decided to do something. I thought you abandoned us!"

"We were waiting for you to use a god damn fire spell on that piece of shit." answered Scorch. "But once again, you seem to forget-"

"I didn't forget this time!" stood up Twilight. "I was about to set it on fire and knock it out with a tree but for some reason, after you threw that...thing, my horn stopped working."

"So did mine." added Rarity.

"What the hay did ya throw at the hydra anyway that caused 'em sparks to go flyin' around?" asked Applejack.

"It was a pulse grenade." answered X-ray. "It draws energy from solar or conventional electric outputs and stores them within its base. When I set it off, it releases an electromagnetic pulse of the stored energy, causing organics to feel a paralyzing shock but causing electronic devices to shut down."

"We don't need to worry about pulse grenades though. Our suits are EMP proof." added Scarecrow.

"Is there anything that will kill you?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Scorch folded his arms. "And why would you like to know that Ms. Dash?"

"Wait a minute." piped up Pinkie Pie. "You said that your pulse thingies switch off things right?"

"Electrically operated appliances yes." nodded X-ray.

"What if it switched off our horns?" gasped Rarity.

"That's impossible." assured Scarecrow. "X-ray's pulse grenades should only disable electromagnetic devices and......wait a minute, X-ray you said the way horns work is through electromagnetism within brain pulses so-"

"My Pulse grenades don't just disable tech, they disable magic." interrupted X-ray.

"Wow something that could turn off magic. I wish I has something like that once in a while." remarked Twilight. Twilight thought of the times she faced Discord and Trixie. Oh how easy it would have been to subdue them had they had their magic turned off.

"Traitor." Everypony and everybody turned to Fluttershy.

"It called us a traitor." whispered Fluttershy. "It said that right before it attacked us."

"You said something about it wanting an apology of some sort of tyranny." added Scarecrow.

"What could he mean by that? You said humans have never been on this planet before." reminded Twilight.

"I have no idea. I bet he just mistook us for someone else." proposed Scorch. "Although how you mistake someone for something that's clearly not of your world, I have no idea. I guess Hydra's are retarded."

"Although....human myths, human culture and Terran plants? Something isn't right here." pondered Scarecrow.

"By da way," piped up Applejack. "You do realize what's gonna happen now that you killed da Hydra king?"

X-ray snorted. "Yeah, now we have the entire Hydra species up our ass as well."

Author's Note

For those of you who don't get the title; when you take off a hydra's head, it will grow back with two.

Chapter 13: Black and White all Over

"It is better to be alone than in bad company."-George Washington

"For once in my lifetime, I have no idea what the fuck is going." groaned X-ray. The counter terrorist shot his arms up in the air. "We have mythical creatures that want to kill us for some reason, mythical ponies that don't want to kill us for some reason and a planet whose very nature and culture is ripping us off for some reason."

"You don't think all of this connected some how?" proposed Twilight.

"I for one know what is going!" inhaled Rarity. "We are getting this hydra blood clean off our coats."

In order to subdue the hydra, Shadow needed to dismember all 4 of its heads. However, a lot of its blood spilled all over the Mane 6, covering their bodies in splashes of dark blue in addition to their coat colors.

Scorch rolled his eyes. "Can't you just take a bath when we get back to ponyville?" The demo man turned to face X-ray. "I never thought I'd meet a bitch whiner than you."

"How dare you call me that!" shrieked the white unicorn. "Under no circumstances am I nor my friends going to walk into town covered in blood, we'll look ridiculous."

"You mean more so than usual?" mocked Scarecrow.

"It doesn't matter whether we look ridiculous or not." spoke ip Twilight. "It's blood. When ponies see us, they'll think we've killed. And ponies ARE NOT used to the subject of murder like you 4."

Shadow just shrugged.

"Hey, how come you 4 are never covered in blood?" asked Pinkie. "You meanies have done nothing but shoot your problems but there's no blood anywhere. Your armor stays a wacky blacky!"

"Well duh!" exclaimed X-ray. "When blood covers us, it doesn't come in contact with our armor, it comes in contact with the kinetic barriers."

Scarecrow made a sliding down motion. "All gunk just slips right down! You throw all the dirt you want at us and our armor remains squeaky clean."

"Oh how I wish such a concept would apply to all the garments I've made." dramatized Rarity. "I've lost count of how many times my creations have been tarnished."

"Well we're gettin' close y'all." puffed Applejack. "Check it out!" she pointed.

Across the trees lay a dirt path obviously not made by nature.

"Looks like we're making progress." nodded Scarecrow. "Move along."

Twilight flew infront of the group. "Wait. Before we get to town, there's someone I need to see."

"Don't you mean 'somepony'?" chuckled X-ray.

Twilight shook her head 'no' "You'll see."

The Mane 6 knew exactly who Twilight was talking about. The squad just decided to follow along. While traversing the dirt path, there was a fork in the road. One that lead east while the other led west.

X-ray was looking at feed his recon drone was sending him on his writ computer. "Drone says there's a lot of activity on the east side of the path."

"That's probably ponyville!" cheered Rainbow Dash.

"I'm not comfortable with everpony and my animals seeing me covered in blood." whispered Fluttershy.

"Don't worry, they won't." assured Twilight. The alicorn turned west and motioned the group to follow with her head.

"Hey Twi, doesn't this path lead ta Zecora's place?" asked Applejack.

Twilight nodded. The humans picked up their walking pace and soon outpaced the rest of the ponies. All the while, the alicorn was aware of a very important fact. She spoke in a slightly militaristic tone.

"Remember girls, there's poison joke near Zecora's hut. Be careful and pay attention. I don't want any of us repeating the same mistake like last-"

"OH MY GOSH, SHADOW GET OUT OF THERE!" screamed Pinkie.

The humans looked at the ponies with dumbfounded expressions. Once again, the equines were paralyzed with fear. It was not fear out of horror but the "oh my gosh, what have you done?" kind of fear.

Scarecrow raised an eyebrow causing his shades to flip up. "Is something wrong?" he calmly asked.

"Do you have any idea what you're standing on?" shrieked Rainbow Dash.

The squad looked down and saw themselves standing amongst a group of blue flowers. The flowers were much shorter than them and only went a quarter way up their leg. Slowly, the squad looked up.

"We're standing on pretty blue flowers?" sarcastically remarked Scorch.

"That's poison joke!" yelled Fluttershy. She started waving her fore hooves rapidly.

"Poison what?" asked X-ray.

"Poison joke is plant that causes various afflictions to the body. What it does is totally random!" explained Twilight. "It can cover you in spots, make you shrink, and give you a totally different voice."

"Ach, imagine having X-ray's bitchy voice!" mocked Scarecrow. X-ray in turn elbowed him in the jaw.

"I don't feel any different." remarked Scorch. "Any of you guys feeling messed up?"

The squad turned to their wrist computers to check their vital statistics. A schematic of their bodies appeared on their HUDs. Nothing was wrong according to the reading.

"What are you waiting for? Get out of there!" screamed Pinkie.

The squad looked at each other before walking out of the poison joke field. Scarecrow sighed and crossed his arms.

"Are you 6 sure, that these plants make you messed up?"

"Hey we don't lie partner." growled Applejack.

"The last time we were here, we made the mistake of running through those plants." began Pinkie. "Then all these weird things started happening to us like Rarity getting all puffy, Applejack shrinking, Twilight's horn getting all floppy-"

The humans burst into laughter based on Pinkie's unintended sexual reference.

"So," started Rainbow Dash with a grin. "Weird plant causes all sorts of diseases randomly. Please explain that?"

X-ray snorted. "Simple, poison joke instills a wild card virus into you."

"A wild what?" questioned Twilight.

"A wild card virus is an infectious agent that varies in its symptoms based on the DNA of the infected individual. The first strain of a wild card virus was discovered on the planet Hippocrates in the early 23rd century. While each virus strain still has a single cure regardless of its symptoms, it is often difficult to detect you have a wild card virus based on the agent's unpredictable nature."

Twilight nodded and tried to process that information while the Mane 6 stared at X-ray blankly, not caring their minds were being slightly raped for looking at him for too long.

"Do you...actually memorize all of this?" said Rarity slowly.

X-ray nodded his head rapidly.

"Those signing up for planetary recon need to be adept in at least higher learning biology." boasted Scarecrow.

"That still doesn't explain why none of you were infected." pointed Fluttershy.

"Like we said......a few minutes ago. We haven't actually come into contact with anything due to our barriers." remarked Scorch. "Besides don't we have to see your little friend?"

The ponies nodded and moved along the path. This time, Shadow made an effort to slow down and keep behind them.

"Finally, we're seeing someone new." groaned Scarecrow. "I'm getting sick of the same 6 technicolor horses."

"The feeling is mutual." growled Rainbow Dash in a low voice.

Suddenly there was the sound of magazines being loaded into a gun. Rainbow turned around to see a barrel of a gun pointing at her face. The blue pegasus screamed and fell down in shock.

"Was that a threat?" growled Scorch with his rifle pointed at the equines.

'NO! NO! NO!" shirked Rainbow Dash. The other ponies crowded next to her. Rainbow pushed them aside.

"I'll do anything you want, just don't hurt me or my friends!" nearly cried the pegasus.

The blue mare walked to the feet of the squad and started kissing their feet one by one. The other members of the Mane 6 were in shock as they had never seen their friends stooping to something so low.

Suddenly there was a snicker from Scorch, followed by a full on outburst from the rest of the squad.

"Your expression was priceless." laughed X-ray.

Scarecrow shifted his voice to sound like Rainbow Dash. "I'll do anything you want." then he made the sound of kissing noises.

Rainbow Dash blushed violently and right before she could burst, Pinkie came to her aid.

"That was a joke? Jokes should have you laugh with ponies, not at them! Thanks to you, Rainbow Dash now feels horrible, what do you have to say Mr. Meanie?"

The squad calmed down and gave a genuine apology in unison. "We're sorry Dash, we wont tell anypony about this."

Rainbow Dash flew up. "That's right you better!" she warned. Then she gave a snicker. "Although that prank was genius."

The group continued to walk for a minute. On Shadow's radar, a structure with a yellow blimp, signaling life was detected.

Right when Zecora's hut was in view, the ponies noticed, the lack of human foot steps. The 6 equines turned around to see Shadow frozen still. Underneath their bandannas, their mouths were hanging down.

Twilight flew towards the 4, unsure of their sudden shock. She flexed her hoof in front of them "Um...Epona to Shadow?"

"Is something wrong." asked Fluttershy.

"That hut....is African." gasped Scarecrow.

"Afri-what?" questioned Pinkie Pie.

"Africa used to be a continent on Earth." started Scorch. "A thousand years ago, the people of Africa used to live in huts that were constructed JUST LIKE THAT!"

"Fabulous, more culture clash." face hoofed Rarity.

"I think we should have a talk with your pony friend to see where she got the idea for that design." proposed Scarecrow.

"Zecora ain't a pony." muttered Applejack. "She's a Zebra."

It was as if Shadow's brains smashed like broken glass. The 4 of them slowly snapped their necks to the ponies, who were very uncomfortable with their movements.

"Sentient ZEBRAs?" said X-ray.

"There are Zebras from Earth too?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"Yes!" screeched Scarecrow. "And they came from fucking Africa."

"Look I know it's all very confusing but once we have a chat with Zecora, you'll figure things out. She's a great potion master, honest." insisted Twilight.

"We better." gritted Scorch.

X-ray rolled his eyes under his mask. "You said she was an potion master right? Pfft, that's rich."

"Do you have to go around debunking everything you see?" asked Pinkie.

The 4 humans nodded and started marching towards the hut. Their foot steps were so strong, they were leaving holes in the ground.

Rainbow Dash flew ahead of them to stop them in their tracks. "Hold on! You can't just march into Zecora's hut like that! She'll freak out and you won't get any of the information you want."

"Just stay hidden until we can introduce you, if mean if that's okay." requested Fluttershy.

The squad sighed and cloaked, leaving them invisible. Inside the hut, faint chanting was heard.

Scarecrow's voice startled the ponies. "Guess what, her chanting is pure ancient African as well."

"Hurry up with whatever you need to do so we can start questioning this bitch." ordered X-ray.

The ponies couldn't give X-ray a dirty look because they didn't know where he was standing, so they proceeded to head inside the hut. Inside the structure, the friendly yet odd smell of potions hit their nose. All along the walls were artifacts from the land of Zebrica.

The ponies soon found themselves looking at a familiar striped equine with tattoos and jewelry all over her body, balancing perfectly on her tail while observing a potion vial. The Zebra needed to be in perfect focus or else-

"HI ZECORA!"

The Zebra gave a yelp and tumbled, dropping her potion vial on the ground. Right before the glass could shatter, Twilight used her telekinesis to pick it up and secure it on the table.

Zecora looked up to see a cheery pink pony. Speaking in her usual rhyme format; "Oh my, Pinkie Pie. I did not see you come inside and not welcoming a guest hurts my pride."

"It's okay Zecora, we know you well enough." chuckled Twilight. Other than her close friends, Zecora was the only one who didn't change her views on Twilight once she became a princess. She didn't immediately drop to the ground and start worshipping. Just the way Twilight liked it.

Suddenly Zecora's eyes grew the moment she realized the Mane 6 was covered in blood.

"Oh dear, I am filled with fear." she gapsed. "You all have blood on you, what ever did you do?" The Zebra started backing away.

"It's not what ya think partner!" assured Applejack. "We didn't kill. We got blood on us because-"

Zecora calmed down. "I'm sorry, I should have known you would never kill and never will. But come, we must clean this gore on you before somepony gets the wrong clue."

"Finally!" groaned Rarity.

Zecora went through her drawers searching for the right potion that would have easily cleared off blood on fur. Finally she found the right agent and held it up with her teeth. Using her fore hood, the striped equine motioned the blood covered Mane 6 to follow them.

Outside her hut was a small pond that she often used to heal those who were sick using her various healing agents. Slowly, Zecora tilted her head and the potion dispersed into the lake, giving it a slightly whiter color.

Once Zecora was done, she used her exceptional hearing to listen to the sound of hoofsteps coming from somewhere, even though everypony was standing still.

"I have a feeling that someone is watching us and scheming." muttered the Zebra.

Twilight's ears plopped up when she heard someone snicker to be followed by what sounded like a punch to the face and a 'shush'.

The ponies one by one entered the pond, keeping some distance to themselves to make things seem awkward. The water was cool and slowly, the hydra blood started to dissolve.

"So Ponies," started the Zebra. "While the blood stains clear, mind telling me what brings you here?"

Twilight spoke up. "Hey Zecora, have you ever wondered if there was life out there?"

Zecora looked up the sky as if she was gazing at stars despite it being early morning.

"Since I was a filly, other Zebras called me silly. I always believe the stars held another race, who were all living on a happy place. But a thought like that, is like saying the planet is flat."

"Well Zecora, looks like those other Zebras owe you an apology." snickered Rainbow Dash.

The Zebra raised her eyes.

"Before yesterday, a group of alien soldiers landed on the planet." nervously sated Twilight.

"You say like it's something bad, did these aliens do something to make you sad?" questioned Zecora.

"Well they're not evil. They're military so they don't harm innocents. They even protected us while traversing the forest." whimpered Fluttershy "They're just-"

"Foul mouthed." said Rarity.

"Mean." added Pinkie.

"Scary." added Dash.

"Agressive." remarked Applejack.

"Cynical." finalized Twilight.

"But it's not really their fault." defended Fluttershy. "They have to be mean. This planet is completely new to them, and not everything is happy with these aliens being here."

"But I thought everyone would celebrate alien life, not attack them with strife." countered Zecora.

"Well anything that isn't us wants to outright kill those 4." sighed Rainbow Dash. "They took out a legion of Griffins, a pack of timberwolves and a king hydra."

"So that's why you were covered in gunk." realized Zecora. "Do they just want to kill everything they see, those punks?"

"They might be troublesome." spat Applejack. "But every time they needed to kill, it was in defense."

"But did they have to resort to violence? Shouldn't a space faring being should have more sense?" questioned Zecora.

"Before we move on." moaned Rarity and she watched the last traces of blood disappears. "What is this made of? It cleans stains right off."

"It is an ancient Zebra cleaning aid, only the trained potion maker will know how it is made." chanted the Zebra.

"What potion?" yelled a mechanical voice. "You just mixed Ammonia and detergent."

Zecora spun around rapidly. "Who goes there? I do not see you anywhere."

Suddenly 4 hooded and masked bi-pedals uncloaked and revealed themselves to the Zebra. Zecora was taken by surprise and fell back. The moment she laid eyes on the aliens, her head exploded with pain, some of her vision, blurred and and she heard a piercing screech. It was as if she was hit by Fluttershy's stare.

The Mane 6, still dripping wet rushed to Zecora's aid. Pinkie, with he mouth filled with water, spat on the unconscious Zebra, waking Zecora up.

The striped equine looked up to see the 4 black clad behemoths staring at her. The ringing in her mind died down but still lurked in there.

"I swear." muttered Scorch. "What is it with everything on this planet looking like it got hit by a flash bang every time they look at us?"

The Zebra shook her head. "Oh my, you just appeared out of the sky."

X-ray raised an eyebrow. "Why do you rhyme? It doesn't really sound like a fun time." suddenly X-ray realized what he did.

Scorch laughed. "Ha, X-ray's doing it to! If I started rhyming I don't know what I'd do." Scorch then froze in realization.

"Man you're rhymes are really gay." mocked Scarecrow. "You keep ruining its art Scorch and X-ray." Scarecrow stopped laughing and face palmed.

Everyone was now looking at Overwatch. "I'm not doing it." shrugged the sniper.

"Rhyming is for pricks and for all I care, it can go suck our dicks." Overwatch immediately groaned.

Zecora laughed at the irony of the situation. "My name is Zecora, master of mysterious potions and the owner of an artifact emporia."

"There is nothing mystical about potions Zecora, you can explain everything from fauna to flora." explained X-ray.

"Yeah these 4 think they can debunk everything we call magic." pointed Rainbow Dash.

"We can't explain everything, only the information that our minds bring." countered Scorch.

"But magic and mystery is just an excuse, when logic and reasoning are not in use." rhymed Scarecrow.

Zecora hummed. "Could you explain how a mustache potion works, I used it once to punish some dorks." Zecora remembered how Snips and Snails had caused a lot of trouble last week while trespassing in her hut.

"Easy, that thing you call a potion was just hair growth hormones that affectes facial hair. We used similar sciences to cure baldness" informed Scorch.

The demo man's eyes shot up. "Hey I stopped rhyming and at what great timing!......ARGH!"

Zecora once again sounded uneasy. "Why is your armor black as night? It only fears me with fright."

"Our unit is meant to look scary, it makes our enemies weary. This armor also helps us hide in shadows, to attack unsuspecting fellows." rhymed Scorch.

Zecora gave a nervous chuckle. The Mane 6 were right, their presence caused only anxiety.

"And why must you where that mask? It doesn't help your face bask*" quizzed the Zebra.

"The reason why we wear these, is to hide our face from civvies, and to stop alien bacteria and viruses from entering as they please." informed Scarecrow.

"So you are the ones who defeated the Griffins and Hydra? At least those monsters caught up with their karma." chanted the Zebra. It was evident that Zebras didn't get along with the other discussed mythical creatures.

"Yeah we're pretty tough, but if your friendly, we won't be so rough." chuckled X-ray.

The squad looked over the Zebra and saw the other ponies trotting away. Scarecrow raised his hand to form a shouting gesture.

"Hey you six ponies get back here! It's our job to look after you queers!"

The ponies sighed in defeat and galloped back to the humans. Oh how they wanted some peace and quiet for once.

Zecora was getting curious. "Mind telling me about you? The 4 of you are rather new."

Scarecrow nodded. He tensed to force himself not to rhyme. "The 4 of us are humans. The latin phrase is homo sapiens. We all originate from the planet Earth but for the last half millenium, we've colonized hundreds of planets."

Zecora got a dreamy feeling in her eyes. "You live on more than one planet? Then I give your species a plaudit."

"We were sent to Epona to find intelligents beings and experience the planet first hand. Clearly we got more than what we wanted." chuckled X-ray.

"Are you military? If so that you have quite the responsibility." asked Zecora.

"We're technically counter terrorists." said Scarecrow. "My unit is called Shadow squad. You can call me Scarecrow. That's Overwatch, Scorch and X-gay."

"IT'S X-RAY. Ignore him for he is having a messed up day." roared the rifleman.

The urge to rhyme was overwhelming Scarecrow. "Zecora, what if I told you, we have Zebra's on our home world too?"

The Zebra was struck with awe. "They have Zebras on Earth. Are they intelligent or do they live amongst the dirt?"

"I'm afraid Zebra's on Earth are just creatures." shrugged Scorch. "They don't talk, they don't rhyme, they don't brew potions, they don't live in homes and their societies are graze and mate."

"The ponies of Zebrica would be intersted in hearing this, for it is not a fact I would want to miss." rhymed Zecora.

"Wait did you say Zebras came from a place called Zebrica?" questioned X-ray.

Zecora nodded.

Scarecrow placed a hand on his bandanna "On Earth, Zebras came from a place named Africa. The similarity is uncanny. Not to mention you're culture is ancient African as well."

"But we've had this language and culture for thousands of years, ever since our species' premier. Zecora noticed the past tense. "Also you said came from Africa, does that imply-"

"Um Africa hasn't existed for...quite a while now. Don't worry there are still Zebras obviously." assured Scorch.

Zecora was lost in thought. "I am not good in history as I associate with mystery, but I read book, that talked about creatures with your look."

The humans tensed and looked closely at the Zebra.

"My books talked about a bi-pedal race with hands who use to give our species commands. They were brutal and frugal, until one day came, where life would never be the same, the species disappeared, and Zebra freedom was cleared."

"Obviously those books weren't talking about actual humans right? I mean we're light years apart." stated Scorch.

"I did not learn history strictly." chanted the Zebra. "Although you are likely right, a species so far would haven not caught a historian's sight. In fact it might just be a myth, a field others are better in charge with."

Scarecrow checked the time, it was near 11:40. "Look we can't go into too many details right now since we made a commitment to see the ponies' leader first. But I suggest you contact your leaders to inform them of our presence. After we're done with Equestria we'll traverse to your nation and introduce ourselves. Sorry for the lack of explanation."

Zecora chuckled. "Don't worry it is fine, I will meet my leaders but first I will dine."

The Zebra headed inside. "Farewell, and may you spend your time in Equestria well."

The humans nodded and they turned to meet the 6 colorful ponies. While the humans were chatting with the Zebra, the ponies were enjoying their first uninterrupted conversation for the past few days.

The humans stood infront of the equines and motioned them to move towards town.

"So how was your chat with Zecora?" asked Twilight.

"It was great." shrugged Scarecrow. "She's a nice per-Zebra, we also made a promise to visit her land once we get over yours."

"Oh and Twilight?" started X-ray. All ponies looked right at him.

"No we are not going to assassinate the princesses." Twilight's mouth hung open.

"Applejack, we're not going tear down your farm."

"Fluttershy, we're not going to experiment on your animals."

"Rarity, we're not going to steal your clothes designs and sell them to human fashionistas."

"Rainbow Dash, we're not going dismember your wings."

"And Pinkie Pie, a party would be nice."

All ponies stared at the masked soldiers with confuscian.

Applejack spoke up. "How did y'all-"

"Applejack, you don't hide anything from Shadow." gloated Scarecrow, although the statement sounded better in his head.

Scorch quickly changed the subject. "Hey, I think I can hear chatter a few meters from this position."

X-ray suddenly remembered something crucial. "Guys, if our theory of ponies being similar to medieval society is true, then we may have a slight problem."

"What do you mean?" questioned Scarecrow.

"Well you see, medieval times weren't exactly the best times for left handed people."

Scarecrow brightened up. "That makes it all the better."

The group accelerated their walking pace. Shadow's HUD was reading a large quantity of sentient lifeforms were near their position.

The group brushed past a group of leaves, and right before them, laid a town. It was large, bright and welcoming. The group saw numerous installations within the settlement. Homes, a marketplace, a town hall and farmland were clearly visible."

"Gosh" said Applejack. "Ah really hope we didn't miss anythin' important."

"Don't worry." cheered Pinkie. "Everypony looks happy. I don't think they're panicking."

"Oh my, I have to get to my animals." realized Fluttershy, the yellow pony started to fly ahead until Rainbow Dash flew ahead of her.

"Your animals can wait. Now we have to focus on getting these 4 jerks introduced to town." said the blue pegasus.

"Dash is right." nodded Rarity. "Say Twilight, how will we introduce Shadow?"

"Don't worry everypony I have a plan." assured Twilight. "I say we tacklet the situation slowly, right Shadow?

Twilight got no response.

The 4 humans were staring blankly at the town. Never had they seen such a society like this. The harmony of the working ponies was starting to get to them.

"Are you having a staring contest?" squeaked Pinkie. "That sounds like fun."

Rainbow Dash flew infront of the stupefied humans. "Hey buster, what gives?"

Scarecrow spoke slowly. "This town...is so friendly."

"So colorful..." added X-ray.

"So happy." nodded Overwatch.

"So fucking cute!" yelled Scorch.

"I'm going to hug them all!"

Author's Note

*Bask means to expose to light.

I don't know why, but I feel as if this chapter and the one before it feel rushed and not up to my standards.

Oh yeah, Shadow squad is an example of 'bad company' the quote can be referring to.

I need to work on my rhymes.

Chapter 14 and 15 Merge: Ponyville

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives." Teddy Roosevelt

Right when Scorch started laughing like a maniac, the demo man hit himself to knock him out of his trance.

"Is it just me, or am I being driven more insane as time goes on?" complained Scorch. "Universe damn it. This planet is getting the better of me."

"We're not going to make any allies with that kind of attitude." chastised Scarecrow. "We'll need to approach it slowly and calmly."

Twilight led the way to the town, the humans and the rest of the Mane 6 followed.

"We'll probably cause a moral panic if we just show ourselves." noted Scorch. "We should only reveal ourselves until they're ready."

Suddenly, the 4 commandos disappeared into the air.

"Scarecrow, Overwatch, X-ray, Scorch, where are you?" pleaded the alicorn. Violently looking around.

"We're right here." said X-ray's disembodied voice. "We're cloaked."

The ponies turned to their left, hopefully facing the invisible commandos.

"Listen, you've kind've blown it with us. Ya might as well not screw up anymore." snorted Applejack.

"Well sorry, when we thought about first contact, we didn't think we'd be meeting english speaking mythical equines who're plagiarizing everything about Earth." responded Scarecrow. "Besides, there's a very good reason as to why we act so relentless."

"Why's that?" asked Rainbow Dash.

The commandos paused for a minute. It was as if they had a secret they weren't proud of at all.

"We can't and don't want to tell you." growled Overwatch.

"The fact still remains is that this planet is not how humans pictured meeting with aliens." sighed Scorch.

"I forgive you." stated Fluttershy. "It must be very confusing to end up on a place that's just like your home. Right?"

Right. To be fair, had anyone else showed up in our place. All these anomalies would have gotten the better of them a while ago." noted X-ray. "Regardless, if we're going to meet your princesses, we should probably see how Ponyville functions."

"Hopefully nopony has any reason to kill us too." chuckled Scorch.

"Hey ponies would never attack a stranger!" scolded Pinkie. "Ponies are the nicest and most welcoming creatures to ever walk the face of Epona!"

"Let's hope." muttered Scarecrow.

Meanwhile, the two mares working the fields, by the name of Cherry Berry and AppleFritter respectively turned around the moment they heard the Mane 6 approach. Anxiety however, was quickly replaced by replaced by confucian. From their perspective, the Mane 6 were speaking to an invisible force.

"Who are they talking to?" asked Cherry.

"I don't know." replied Fritter. "I know Twilight's the princess and all with magic powers, but this is just weird."

"They've been at it for the last few minutes."

"They keep looking up too, but there's nothing in the sky."

Cherry started grasping her head with her hooves. "Ugh, for some reason my head just keeps hurting the more I stare at them." muttered the pink Earth Pony.

"I know what you mean." added Fritter, feeling the throbbing sensation as well. "I think we're going crazy for working in the fields too long."

"We should head inside and get water." stated Cherry.

Meanwhile, Twilight broke her conversation with the cloaked humans and noticed two Earth ponies heading inside, with the look of getting the 'Fluttershy Stare.'.

"Hey!" interrupted the alicorn. "I think you humans should head inside, ponies are eventually going to notice you."

"I think you should stay at my cottage. I mean...if that's fine." whimpered Fluttershy. "It's just a few feet from here. And it would give me the chance to check up on my animals."

"I agree." proposed Rarity. "Ponies don't normally visit her house. Besides, we all need to get back to our homes, clean up and catch up on work."

"Oh fuck no." panned X-ray. The Mare's eyes widened "You're staying on our sights the entire time, we're not going to risk you telling ponies that we're evil and have your species up our ass too."

"Please, we're smart enough not to choose enemies we know we can't win against. Especially since the elements are gone." sighed Pinkie Pie

"Twilight, while we relocate to Fluttershy's home, you gather the town for the big reveal." pointed Scarecrow, although there was no point considering he was invisible.

"Hey Twilight is an Alicorn princess, she doesn't take orders from you!" gritted Rainbow Dash.

"No it's fine Dash." insisted Twilight. For some reason, she felt compelled to follow the orders of the humans.

"Ah think we should move, ponies are startin' ta stare." stated Applejack.

Over the meadow, three ponies were staring quizzically at the Mane 6, unaware of their situation. In retaliation, the Mane 6 nervously trotted west where Fluttershy's home would be waiting. The cloaked humans followed, trying hard to slow their walking pace.

Soon Shadow's HUDs read that there were no more untagged ponies within their vicinity. Using neural controls rather than manual ones, Shadow uncloaked.

"Hey I think I should be the one to rally the town. I don't mean to brag, but I can get word out quickly. I am ponyville's fastest flier after all." gloated Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight's the damn princess, she'll have more charisma." countered Scarecrow.

Twilight shook her head down. She wasn't a very good speaker as she always ended up boring somepony, but because ponies feared her, they always gave her false applause.

The humans took awe of the sight of the cottage. When the animals gazed at the 4 masked bi-peds, they immediately started cowering fear at the new sight.

In turn, the humans dropped their jaws at the sight of all the Earth like animals. Their HUDS started clouding their vision with information and data of the creatures.

"Is something wrong." whispered Fluttershy.

"All these fucking (Fluttershy covered her self with her wings) animals are ones from Earth." gritted Scorch.

"Except they're animated and appear to be slightly more intelligent." added Scarecrow.

"Slightly more intelligent?" quizzed Twilight.

"Animals on Earth aren't as...organized as the ones we've seen on here." explained Scorch as he watched what appeared to be a squirrel and a toucan arguing with each other.

"And their expressions aren't as...sentient." concluded X-ray.

"At least it saves you the trouble of having to study them." remarked Rarity.

"Not necessarily." countered X-ray. "I still think we should get a few blood samples." from out of nowhere, Overwatch got out what appeared to be a giant container of needles.

"Tell your animals to get in line." ordered Scarecrow as he drew a threatening and sharp needle.

Fluttershy gulped. Once again, she couldn't bring herself to deny the humans. Right when she was about to fly over to her precious animals, Twilight spoke up.

"I don't think you need to be worrying about such trivial matters." shook Twilight.

"TRIVIAL?" exclaimed Scorch. Had he yelled any louder, the town would have heard him.

"We are dealing with animals that are supposed to have evolved from humanity's home planet, light years away and you expect us to stop caring?"

"Come on, I'm sure not ALL of these are Earth native." shrugged Pinkie.

"Let's see, we have beavers, ducks, squirrels, blue jay birds, eagles, falcons, rabbits, mice, dogs, cats, turtles, wasps (X-ray shivered), ferrets, weasels, chickens and even fucking platypuses." gritted Scarecrow

"Point taken." sighed the pink mare.

"What makes it more strange is that half of these animals are predators to the other, and yet they live in harmony with their environment." noted X-ray.

"Well that's because I train them well." sighed Fluttershy.

"Okay, that is fucking with mother nature big time!" scolded Scorch.

"Do you have to swear at everything?" beamed Rarity.

"Sorry, part of me is trying to get over the shock that I'm staring at multicolored ponies and animals from Earth." sarcastically stated the demo man.

"Well while you 4 wait here with the rest of the girls, I'm going to rally the town. In a hour or so, school will be over and everpony will get to see you." said Twilight, although it was painfully obvious she wasn't excited.

The purple alicorn started galloping back to town before Scarecrow's voice startled her;

"Hey, you realize you can teleport right?"

Twilight turned around and gave a faint blushed. A moment later, her horn flashed and purple mare vanished.

"Now look, ah don't want any of you'all giving ponies trouble while we're here. Is dat clear?" threatened Applejack.

"Sorry, but we can't make any promises." chuckled Scarecrow. "If it was needed, we'd clear Ponyville of the map."

The atmosphere turned dark at Scarecrow's black jokes despite the welcoming environment.

"Why you!" fumed Applejack. "Would ya seriously hurt a filly or colt?"

"If they were threatening us, well then we'd have no choice." snorted Scorch. "We're lawful, not good."

"Besides, it's not like you could do anything to us." gloated X-ray.

Applejack's face turned red. She trotted towards the slender soldier.

"Ya take that back!" growled the cowpony.

"Make me."

Applejack turned around, readied both her legs, and gave an almighty buck to X-ray.

Instead of hitting the masked human and flying a distance, X-ray remained in his position, smirking underneath his mask. Applejack turned around to see that where she bucked X-ray, were a series of transparent purple hexagons. She had only hit his kinetic barrier.

"Try again." dared X-ray.

Applejack scowled and putting more power into her legs, gave the soldier another buck. Nothing happened.

As Rarity and Rainbow Dash watched Applejack try to hurt X-ray, Fluttershy was instantly reminded of her animals that missed her.

"Oh dear, I have to get back inside and feed my animals."

"I'll help." proposed Scarecrow.

Fluttershy turned around. "Y..Y-ou?"

Scarecrow nodded. "My duty is to help civillians, human or not."

"Um..it's fine. Really."

"Nonsense. I insist. I used to help out my sister at the animal shelter."

Fluttershy gave up and lead the human in. Right after she got through the door, she heard a slam. Quickly turning around she saw Scarecrow hunched over, his face glowing purple with his barrier.

"Sorry, I hit my head. Forgot how tall I am and how short you are."

Fluttershy nodded and head inside. The animals inside the room we're awe struck at the sight of Scarecrow's structure and body formation. His non-Epona origin was clear.

The method used to take care of the animals was just like the ones used at the animal shelter. Scarecrow helped Fluttershy carry all the animal litter and pet food around. His strength was the marvel of all the creature's in the yellow mare's home. As he walked, his huge size caused some dents to appear on the floor.

In about 20 minutes or so, the chores were done and the animals inside were fed. Fluttershy was amazed how quickly she was able to get through her tasks, though she felt deep down the animals were moving quickly because they were scared of the hooded human.

Scarecrow retreated to the living room, still hunched. Suddenly he noticed something poking at his arm. Looking down, he saw a miniature white rabbit. If looks could kill. even a 23rd member would be struck down.

Scarecrow ignored the rabbit's expression. "Well aren't you just the cutest bunny ever?" The soldier reached down to stroke the rabbit only for it to hit his hand back with its paw. Much to the rabbit's dismay, Scarecrow didn't feel anything.

Scarecrow raised an eyebrow. "Okay, what was that for?"

The rabbit puffed and pointed its hand out the door.

Scarecrow chuckled. "Yeah, like I'm gonna get kicked out of a house by a semi intelligent fur ball."

"Oh, Scarecrow, I see you've met Angel." said Fluttershy's nervous voice.

"Angel? My HUD says your rabbit is a boy." remarked Scarecrow.

In the heart of the moment, the rabbit hopped towards Fluttershy and crossed its arms. It raised its nose up to speak to the pegasus.

When Angel finished, Fluttershy's eyes widened. "Angel, how could you say that about our guest?"

Scarecrow wished he could understand rabbit.

Angel spoke again and Fluttershy gulped. "He's not a monster and I don't think it's a good idea to tell him to leave."

Scarecrow flexed his gloved palms. "Fluttershy if Angel wants me to leave I'll-"

"Don't worry Scarecrow, I think Angel is just hungry." interrupted Fluttershy.

The pegasus flew over to the table and picked up a boll of colorful vegetables using her fore hooves like a scooper. The yellow mare glided to the rabbit and offered the boll to the rabbit.

Angel inspected the bowl with his nose and gave a scowl. In the next second, the rabbit gave the bowl a kick, causing the vegetables to fly on Fluttershy's face. Scarecrow gave a fierce expression underneath his shades and bandanna.

Fluttershy wiped some lettuce off her eye. "Oh I'm sorry. I thought you'd like it. I'll make you one in a moment, just let me feed my animals outside.

Angel face palmed as the yellow mare flew out. Turning around, the rabbit pointed outside to Scarecrow. The commando had enough. Springing to action, Scarecrow dashed to the rabbit and alerted all the animals in the room.

Scarecrow looked down at the midget rabbit. Much to Angel's credit, the white rabbit was unmoved by Scarecrow's fierce size and structure.

"Listen punk." scolded Scarecrow. "You know you're rude when Scarecrow of all people is calling you out." Angel rolled his eyes. "Look here. Fluttershy is perhaps the kindest per-pony I have ever met and the fact that she puts up with you is fucking unbelievable."

The other animals started to look weary. Angel held his ground.

"I want you to stop treating Fluttershy like this. It's my job to make people's lives miserable. So quit acting like a cunt or else you are going to be very sorry."

Angel raised one of his fingers, as if he was trying to flip the bird to Scarecrow. Due to the rabbit having 4 fingers though, it was hard to tell which one he was raising.

Scarecrow snapped his hand at the bunny before it could react and pulled Angel to meet his black mask. Deep down though, Scarecrow was somewhat amazed at the Rabbit's perseverance. He knew he wasn't actually using interrogation techniques, otherwise the rabbit would have needed to go to an asylum.

Scarecrow pulled down his bandanna, not caring of the negative effects and revealed his sharp teeth to signify to the rabbit he was a meat eater.

"Normally a pony would be offended by that. But I'm not a pony. I'm a human and you're a damn animal. You will have to to a better job if you want me to fuck off."

Angel raised his legs, and slammed them onto Scarecrows teeth. Had the rabbit kicked harder, Scarecrow's mouth would have been filled with blood.

Scarecrow could not believe an animated Rabbit could do this to him. After cursing himself for lowering his mask and leaving his mouth exposed. The human returned his gaze to the Rabbit.

"I'm warning you asshole, be nice or you're going to find out your place in the animal kingdom."

The rabbit smirked and spat in the mouth of the human.

Scarecrow had it. Opening his mouth wide, Scarecrow bit and ripped off the lower section of the rabbit with his teeth. Before Angel could comprehend the horror, Scarecrow shoved the rest of the rabbit down his throat. Much to the human's surprise, the midget rabbit fit well in his mouth and its bones broke down from his bites with relative ease.

Scarecrow swallowed the rabbit down an pulled up his bandanna to hide his blood covered mouth. All the other animals were staring in shock.

Fluttershy, on the other side of the house, opened the door and saw Scarecrow hunched over and cleaning his mouth with a tooth pick underneath his bandanna.

The yellow mare was oblivious to the facial expressions of her animals. "Oh, hi Scarecrow. I just finished with my animals outside." Fluttershy looked around the room. "Hey where's Angel?"

Before any of the animals could respond-

"Long story short, Angel a found a cute girl rabbit outside your window and he fell in love instantly, but the the girl bunny would never be tamed and Angel had to answer the call of the wild to be with her so after a moment of thought, I encouraged Angel to moved on and Angel told me to tell you that he loves you and is sorry he was such an asshole."

".....RIGHT ANIMALS?" screamed Scarecrow.

The other animals started to mutter signs he hoped were them agreeing with his lie.

Fluttershy looked sorrow. "Oh...but he just left so soon without saying good-bye."

Scarecrow threw away his toothpick. "Don't worry, I know for sure he's where he belongs."

Fluttershy sighed and headed out the window.

Just before Scarecrow exited the facility, he turned to face the still horrified animals.

"By the way, Shadow hears all and knows all. If any of you speak up, I will see to it that you will be joining angel in my stomach. Oh and by the way, he was delicious. Raw, but delicious."

Fluttershy never did find out.

Scarecrow finally got back to the open fields and gave a satisfying stretch, hearing his back crack in the process. He was glad to be able to stand to his full hight.

The commando looked at the company down the hill. Applejack was still trying to buck X-ray and was getting clearly tired in the process. The scrawny soldier on the other hand, was completely relaxed and was reading a book on his tablet. Pinkie Pie was taking a nap in Scorch's lap, the demo man stroking her Pink Mane in the process. Overwatch was drawing something while Rarity was trying to take a peak.

Rainbow Dash flew in front of X-ray, still being bucked.

"Man how can you tolerate standing still for so long? I'd go insane if I wasn't flying around for at least 10 minutes an hour." stated Rainbow Dash.

Applejack finally collapsed. X-ray lowered his head to the grounded Earth Pony. "I'll give you credit AJ, your bucks are strong like a World War 1 era pistol, but at the rate you were going at, you'd only deplete 5% of my shields at the end of the day." The cowpony gave a small scowl.

X-ray looked up at Rainbow Dash. "You know Dash, you really remind of the Eagle rangers."

Dash raised an eyebrow. "The Eagle Rangers?"

"Yeah, they're the main commando group that belongs to the air force. The fly on anti gravity packs and every one of them is obsessed with speed and flight."

"Do they perform cool air shows like the Wonderbolts?"

"What's a Wonderbolt?"

Rainbow Dash gasped. "How could you not know-"

It was as if Applejack saw X-ray glaring at her underneath his mask. "Sugar cube, he ain't from here."

"Anyway, the Eagle Rangers don't perform air shows. They're soldiers. Their armor is magnetic and when in used in conjugation with their anti gravity packs, makes them the perfect candidate for intercepting enemy VTOLs and transport ships to gun down crew and hijack information and vehicles."

"Do they race!" asked the Rainbow maned Pegasus.

"They're obsessed with racing and all. They get cocky so there have been accidents, but their amour is shielded and like the one a super soldier uses, so there's nothing serious."

"They sound awesome!" awed Rainbow Dash.

"Tell that to the millions their unit has slaughtered." remarked Overwatch, doing a great job of breaking the ice.

Minutes Ago

Twilight materialized in the center of city hall. If she was going to reveal humanity to the equine race, she wanted to make sure that she could organize the event in a way for everypony could see. So, she would have to inform Mayor Mare of the announcement who would in turn get word out and see to it that town was prepared.

She thought the best way to reveal Shadow at once without making a huge scene was to make sure everpony was gathered in the town center, where the humans could wait before uncloaking.

Twilight still panicked about how Shadow was going to explain themselves. All 4 of them were foul mouthed, agressive and rude. These were traits that were not welcome in Ponyville. She'd have to make the counter terrorists swear not to go into detail about their profession of their efficiency in killing and to control their behaviour. However, she knew for a fact that Shadow would make no such promise.

Then there was the media. The moment Shadow was revealed, there would be no doubt their presence would escape the town and make it to newspapers in Manehatten, Fillydelphia, Coltifornia, The Crystal Empire and Canterlot.

Canterlot. Twilight scolded herself for not talking to the princesses about the subject. The humans were clearly messing with her train of thought. There would be no time to see the princesses however, Twilight didn't want to know what Shadow did when they were bored. After all she was a princess anyway. She could trust herself.

Twilight hadn't realized that she was awkwardly being by a group of ponies who were bowing on the floor for the last 2 minutes.

Twilight calmed herself with Cadance's technique and trotted to the reception area. Working as a receptionist was a teal blue pegasus with a yellow mane.

"Excuse me." spoke the alicorn. "I need to see Mare Mayor."

The pegasus was so absorbed in her magazine, she didn't realize who she was talking to. "The Mayor's in a meeting, you'll have to wait for a while."

"No problem." Smiled the princess. The alicorn trotted over to a table and used her telekinesis to pick up a physics magazine. Twilight sat on the share and happily read. She hoped she didn't have to wait too long however, otherwise it would have been wasted time she could have spent with the princesses.

Still, reading the magazine was a great way to clear her mind.

In a few minutes the receptionist looked up to see the princess of magic reading a magazine. Suddenly the pegasus realized who she had denied nonchalantly.

"Your majesty." said the receptionist nervously. "The mayor will see you now."

Twilight smiled and galloped to the mayor's office.

The alicorn knocked on the door with her hoof and spoke with her cheery voice. "Mayor Mare, it's me Twilight. I have something to dis-"

Suddenly the door slammed open and two ponies who the Mayor was talking to were thrown out to the other side. Before Twilight could react, the Mayor pulled her in and slammed the door closed.

"Princess Twilight!" shrieked the Mayor as she went into a deep bow. "What a pleasant surprise. What brings you here."

"Mayor, I don't know how to explain this. But I'm going to need to have the town rallied in around an hour."

The Mayor got up. "Anything for you, your majesty. What's the occasion?

"Mayor, I assume you were informed of the anomally in the sky the other night."

"Why yes." nodded the Mayor. "Many astronomers are still trying to determine its meaning. Have you figured it out? I would expect nothing less of the Princess of magic."

Twilight blushed. "Well, me and the other element bearers trekked to the Everfree forest to discover why an army of Griffins had gone missing in the woods and..."

Twilight took in a deep breath. "Mayor, do you believe aliens?"

"Why yes." cheered the Mayor. "Don't tell anypony this, but I'm part of a group that's dedicated to the discovery of alien life outside the planet."

"Well consider this your lucky day."

The Mayor's mouth hung open. "Do you mean that what came out of that cosmic object-"

"Were aliens. There are 4 of them to be exact. They call themselves humans. THey're nothing like you've ever seen."

"Humans huh? You sound disturbed by them."

"Well they're elite soldiers, and they're not exactly the most pleasant of people. Let's just say they were the reason the Grififn army went missing."

"Oh dear. Are they agressors?"

"The humans we've met are rude and very lethal in combat. However, part of their attitude is residue shock from meeting us ponies and a number of other factors you'll have to hear them explain. On the other hoof, they're pretty tolerable if we have done nothing to threaten them. Now, they want to make contact with the pony race."

"Twilight you still sound worried, do you have a guard unit we could get in touch with-"

"I don't think having guards is the best idea because it might provoke the squadron. Like I said, they might be harsh, but they still have some sense of soldier honor. The fact that I'm unhurt proves that."

"I see. Could you elaborate on their appearances for me please?"

"Well they're bi-pedal and have hands and feet. They're also all wearing a black armor that covers their body. But be warned. There's something about their appearance that doesn't seem right and staring at them for too long gives me headaches."

"I see. Have the princesses been informed of this affair?"

"Not yet. I want to be certain that the humans won't cause any conflict in small towns before getting the nation up up their throats. This also reminds me, no word can get out until I speak to the princesses."

"Don't worry Twilight, I'll see to it that everything will go smoothly."

After a few more minutes of discussion. Twilight readied her self and teleported to Fluttershy's home.

To her pleasure, the humans hadn't relocated.

Scorch was the first to notice her. "So I trust we're going to be making a fiery reveal to town?

Twilight nodded. "But first, you're going to have to follow a few certain instructions."

"You're timing could not have been more perfect Twilight!" exclaimed Rarity's voice. The white mare joined the group. Her body smelled of fragrance to the ponies. The human's only smelt in air due to their mask's filters.

"I just finished taking a bath and vanished the revolting stench."

"Oh boy!" cheered Pinkie. "After we make the big reveal, I got a super duper surprise for you!"

"Oh joy." sighed X-ray.

Before Twilight could speak, everypony was turned to Overwatch, ignoring the entire ordeal and still drawing.

"What are you drawing anyway?" remarked Rainbow Dash.

Overwatch slowly looked at the ponies. After a moment's glare;

"I'm just drawing what the 6 of you would look like has humans."

Overwatch flipped his art book and showed his design to the Mane 6. The ponies were too invested into the art to realize that they were looking at unmasked humans.

Overwatch's vision was perfect. Not only was his technique professional, but his idea of a ponified Mane 6 was as well. Each body structure of the humanized Mane 6 was spot on along with the clothes they would have been wearing had they been humans. Their hair matched the ponies' Manes and their cutie marks were on the humanized's arms.

Rarity used her telekinesis to flip the to the next page.

There was another drawing of the human Mane 6, only this time they were wearing revealing lingerie and were lying seductively on a bed with naughty expressions.

Before the ponies could realize what Overwatch's drawing meant, the marksman ripped the paper from his notebook, crumpled it up, snatched Scarecrow's pyro grenade, and set the erotic drawing on fire.

Everypony was gathered at front of city hall, eagerly waiting for the revelation. Fillies and colts wasted no time trying to get a better view. The young ones climbed on their parent's heads to see what would await them or dashed to the front of the stage. The Pegasai used their ability of flight to get an ariel view of the event and to make it less crowded at the front.

There murmurs of excitement amongst the crowd. The citizens of Ponyville weren't exactly informed of what would await them, but when it was a gathering requested by princess Twilight herself, nopony would dare not show up out of a mixture of fear and respect.

Twilight finally approached on stage, the alicorn looking over the entire population of the town. In turn, her subjects motioned themselves in a faithful bow.

Raising her hoof, the purple mare signalled the town to rise. The ponies did so. The rest of the Mane 6 were faithfully positioned next to their friend, ready to support her.

Clearing her throat, the alicorn spoke into the microphone;

"Good afternoon my humble subjects. It is with a great honor that I announce that a remarkable discovery had been made a few days ago."

The eyes of the ponies widened at the statement. Cheers of excitement were growing louder and more audible.

"For a long time, we the ponies of Epona believed that the vast and infinite cosmos were a lifeless void with our planet being a tiny beacon of life. Now I am pleased to say, that we have been proved wrong."

The excitement and whispers amongst the crowd was reaching new levels.

Suddenly, the 4 black clad bipeds uncloaked and revealed themselves to the public. There were a mummer of "oohs" and "ahs" as the ponies were mesmerized by the humans.

Scarecrow stepped in front of the microphone, shot up his hand, and managed to silence the crowd. The other 3 members of Shadow stood behind him. With a calm demeanor, his mechanical voice spoke into the device.

"Good evening ladies and gentleman. Or should I say fillies and gentlecolts?"

The crowd laughed hard.

"I am Scarecrow, the leader of Shadow squad, one of the most renowned units amongst the human military. I am pleased to say that my squadron will act as the representatives of our race on your world."

The crowd gave a cheer.

Right before Scarecrow could speak, he froze and placed his index finger on his hood where his ear would be. The other 3 members stood uncannily still. The ponies stopped cheering all the while.

It was as if the excitement was just murdered.

"Don't worry, we'll get it done sir. Scarecrow out." growled the commando in a strange montone voice.

Scarecrow looked up to the crowd of confused ponies. Much to Twilight's confusion, Shadow was drawing their weapons and loading magazines in their gauss operated rifles. Scarecrow spoke calmly in the microphone.

"The Federation has declared you an enemy of the state. You will be terminated within 5 minutes."

Before Twilight could react, Scarecrow fired a bullet of his LMG that ripped through a confused mare's face and struck down another pony behind her.

Just as the crowd could comprehend the horror and flee, a massive explosion engulfed the entire front of the crowd. Twilight turned left and saw Scorch's grenade launcher smoking. The demo man passively fired another.

"TWILIGHT!" yelled a voice to her right that belonged to Pinkie Pie. It was off however, it sounded mechanical.

Twilight, eyes full of tears and hears nearly bleeding due to the gunfire, slowly turned around to see both Rarity and Pinkie Pie dead and slumped to the floor. Both their heads had holes in them that were leaking with blood.

Suddenly, X-ray uncloaked, his SMG clearly had been utilized. The masked soldier pointed his sidearm at the alicorn and fired two bullets at her. Just before they could strike the mare, a stroke of luck allowed the Mare to teleport aside.

Much to the princesse's horror, dozens of ponies had been slain before her, their blood mixing together.

"TWILIGHT!" shrieked another voice that should have been Rainbow Dash's, but was too masculine and robotic.

The blue pegasus was trying to lead others to safety but it was no use. Shadow simply gunned them from the distance with ease. In the heart of the moment, an invisible force pressed against Rainbow Dash's throat and broke her neck.

The force revealed itself to be Overwatch. The sniper, somehow more blank han ever, raised his sniper at a filly and pulled the trigger, the force of the bullet ripping the young one in half and another sniper bullet stuck none other than Applejack in the eye.

"TWILIGHT!" yelled a voice that she knew belonged to nopony but a certain group of humans.

Just when Twilight gained the courage to open her eyes as the screams and gunfire deafened her, Twilight saw Fluttershy leaking with blood with a knife embedded deep in her heart.

The alicorn tried to run as far as possible as her subjects called for their princess.

"TWILIGHT!"

"Twilight wake up." said Overwatch.

Suddenly the purple mare's eyes shot open. As she slowly regained consciousness, the blurs of 4 black blobs slowly reconfigured to form Shadow.

"Twilight are you alright?" asked Fluttershy's tender voice.

The alicorn's head was pounding and there she was hearing a small but sharp buzz. After letting her hoofs off her head, Twilight turned to the yellow pegasus and nodded.

"What happened?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah all 4 of us just looked at you for a second and you just immediately blacked out." remarked X-ray.

"I don't know what happened, I felt darkness." lied the Alicorn, She had no heart to say what she dreamed.

"Have you been drinking fluids by any chance? I don't think you've consumed or drinken anything since morning." claimed Scorch.

Twilight shook her head no. Scarecrow's HUD glowed blue as he analyzed their bio readings.

"It seems all of you are near the stages of borderline dehydration. You'll need liquids really soon." warned Scarecrow.

"Don't worry everpony you're friend Rarity planned ahead." cheered the white unicorn.

Rarity used her telekineses to lift 6 water bottles she had brought along to her friends. Twilight and Rarity used telekinesis to hold there bottles while the others cradled them with their fore hooves.

"How do you plan on opening those bottles that without fingers?" asked Scorch.

"Who said anythin' bout fingers?" stated Applejack as she used her teeth to pry open the bottle.

The other hornless mares did the same. Twilight on the other hoof, couldn't find the strength in her to open the casing. "Ugh." she groaned. I can't seem to focus on magic right now."

"Well looks like there's only one thing left to do." shrugged Scarecrow. The commando walked towards Twilight and opened the cartoon bottle with his 'realistic' gloved hands. He then held the liquid to the purple pony who drank it all.

X-ray and Overwatch looked at the mare's bio stats on their wrist computers. "Good news everypony, your vitals are going up. Just keep yourselves hydrated and well fed."

"What about you silly?" asked Pinkie Pie as she licked the inside of her bottle with her stretched out tongue.

"Like we said, human soldiers can go days without food and water. Our bodies are well....augmented to artificially lower the ratio of minerals needed to commit bodily functions." explained Scorch.

"Darn. All the work ah could get dun' if ah didn't need ta eat or drink all da time." sighed Applejack.

"Or all the flying." added Rainbow Dash.

"Alright then, we have a town expecting our presence, let's move." pointed Scarecrow.

"Hold on!" yelled Twilight. Shadow stopped in their tracks and turned around.

"What's wrong?" asked X-ray.

Twilight took in a deep breath and used Cadance's technique. "If the Federation gave you the order, would you fire open on ponies?

The squad paused before;

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!...............................................................no." said the Shadow uniformly.

Twilight gave a sigh of relief.

"But you're soldiers, aren't you suposed to be loyal and taking orders from the government?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"Our loyalty belongs to the laws of the UTF constitution." proclaimed Scarecrow. "One of those laws, specifically Law 4 of the armed forces, subsection 5 states; No soldier shall harm another sentient being without due cause or justification. Failure* to comprehend this law will result in court martial."

"So if the government just ordered us to massacre the town for no apparent reason, then by law, soldiers are expected to disregard the order as commands like that are unconstitutional." chuckled X-ray.

"Well that's a relief." sighed Rarity. Fluttershy could breathe easier.

"Although if we go to town and we find out your town is planning on lynching us or feeding us to the hydras, you better be prepared to die." threatened Scorch.

"Well what are we supposed to do if YOU try to attack us?" questioned Pinkie Pie.

"Then it's your right to try to stop us." shrugged Scarecrow. "I mean, you'd be dealing with highly trained and heavily armed soldiers, combat drones, interceptors, VTOLs, tanks and Starships. But by all means, try to stop us."

Pinkie raised an eyebrow. "What's a combat drone, interceptor and tank?"

"I'll tell you when your older." sarcastically remarked X-ray as he stroked the pink mare's mane.

"But before we go." spoke up Twilight. "I want you 4 to promise us that you'll be nice."

"We'll try." sighed Scarecrow. "But like I said, there's a very good reason as to why we, or any other trooper of the 23rd, can't stop ourselves form lashing out at others. But still, we'll try." Really, Scarecrow had no intention to control his attitude, but if meant getting information out of the ponies...

"Pinkie promise?" hissed the party pony.

"You have no pinky fingers to promise off of." pointed X-ray.

"Not Pinkie as the finger but Pinkie as the pony." explained Twilight.

"A Pinkie promise is a solemn oath that you are to never ever go back on. Or else." stated Rarity.

"Fine we 'Pinkie Promise'." flexed Scorch.

"Now repeat after me." instructed the party pony. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." repeated Shadow. Nopony could tell how fake their statement was despite it being blatantly obvious.

"And promise you won't swear." pleaded Fluttershy "Or insu-"

"Don't push it." hissed Scarecrow. "Alright, let's head back to town so we can get to the bottom of this cosmic mystery."

"Right behind you." acknowledged Overwatch.

"Come on, those multi colored ponies aren't going to wait forever. We're probably over due anyway." exclaimed X-ray.

The group started heading to the main sections of town. "Don't worry Shadow, the reveal isn't supposed to happen until another hour and a half or so."

"Now when we get back, we're going to be swarmed by ponies who were worried about our departure." reminded Rarity. "Especially you Twilight, being the princess and all."

"I think the giant, bi-ped, masked soldiers are going to be a bigger concern." countered X-ray. "Which reminds me."

Suddenly the 4 humans vanished into the scenery as they cloaked.

Twilight really hoped they wouldn't wander off. The conversations of ponies made her ears flip up.

The town of cheery ponies filled the Mane 6's heart with warmth and hope.

"So where should we remain until the event begins?" asked Scorch's disembodied voice.

"I reckon' we should head ta ma barn. I could see ma family and get some farm work done." proposed Applejack.

"I don't think relocating to a site with fillies or colts is such a good idea." said Scarecrow's voice.

"I think should head to my home." whispered Twilight. Luckily for the Mane 6, any pony who had seen the group immediately bowed at the sight of the princess. Shadow's cloaking helped the situation tenfold.

"Our databank and HUD doesn't read the presence of a castle anywhere." noted Scorch.

"I don't live in a castle, I live in GoldenOaks Library, it's located inside a tree. And by the way, keep quiet or else ponies are going to start staring." hissed the Alicorn.

"GoldenOaks has been located an marked on our HUD." checked the invisible X-ray. "Alright mares, we're going dark. We'll meet you at the library."

The Mane 6 heard the sounds of Shadow's footsteps grow fainter and fainter into the distance. Before they could try and accelerate their pace, ponies from all over were surrounding their position.

Cries of "Where have you been all this time?", "I thought you left town.", "Why are you calling for a meeting?", "You missed a lot of work." and "What's the gathering going to be about?" flooded the their ears.

In the midst of all the questions, Twilight remembered something important. Spike. She forgot to tell Shadow that she had a dragon assistant and since the squad slew 2 dragons on their arrival of the planet, they were going to think Spike was a threat as well.

Ignoring all questions, the Alicorn teleported herself in a bright light, much to everypony's confucian.

Meanwhile

Shadow used neural controls on their HUD to switch their COMs to make sure that only certain tagged units would hear their radio chatter. The squad also diverted power to stealth capabilities to help solidify the light refraction on their cloaking devices to a point where they couldn't cast a shadow and their foot prints were silent.

The commandos were passing the town quite easily, their HUDs did good job identifying who was nearing their position as well as the overall awareness of the equines. They hadn't caused a single noise to the oblivious ponies.

"I swear cloaking makes everything too easy." radioed Scorch as he jumped over an unstartled mare reading a paper.

"I wish the same thing could have been said about the urge not to start cuddling these adorable things." joked X-ray.

Scarecrow switched to magnetics to see if they were getting close to the library. Sure enough the structure was behind a set of building, Unfortunately, it was also crowded with ponies occupying every inch of the place.

"Split up team. It's too risky to continue walking as a group." ordered Scarecrow.

"Solid copy." acknowledged the rest of Shadow.

The team split in 4 as they approached the library.

Overwatch took advantage of the lighter gravity and leaped on top of a house. Sticking to the roof tops, the cloaked sniper jumped from building to building and nopony was the wiser.

As he flipped to another building, he landed with a bit more force than expected and crashed through the concrete structure.

In less than a second, the still invisible masked commando was up and collected. He hoped nopony had heard him crash. Still though, the dimensions and material of the home indicated that the force he exerted should not have been enough to break down the building.

The sniper suddenly realized his motion tracker was flashing a yellow dot. Quickly turning around, the cloaked sniper saw a small, blue unicorn foal. His HUD red the foal was female.

Right before the foal could awaken, the hooded marksman grabbed a kitten doll and offered it to the young pony who slept soundly in the crib. For once in his lifetime he was almost caught, by a foal. Still, his tactic should have worked.

Overwatch leaped back on the rooftops, approaching the library at a more steady pace.

'It's a unicorn foal, maybe the parents will think the hole was caused by premature magic.'

Meanwhile X-ray stuck to the low ground and positioned himself behind a wall. His HUD marked that the library was just a straight dash from his position. Right before he could sprint however-

X-ray heard a buzzing that could only belong to a certain insect. Jerking his invisible head right he was startled by an abnormally large hornet with the creepiest eyes ever and a noticeable poison gland.

X-ray, the man who had fought worse mutations on extraterrestrial was beginning to loose willpower. The hornet obviously couldn't see the hooded commando but was flying straight where his body was.

Instinctively, X-ray swatted the hornet aside. Unfortunately, the insect's body landed across a stallion with a lucky clover cutie mark and a light brown pegasus mare. Both were clearly stupefied by the insect's unfeasible motion.

"Did that hornet just get swatted out of nowhere?" asked the mare.

Normally X-ray would have pulled out his suppressed side arm and shoot the two dead, but these weren't terrorists.

Charging his speed the cloaked soldier front flipped silently over the pony couple and ran in a straight line to the library. The commando skillfully sidestepped an incoming earth pony and then leaped over a bench with two sitting ponies. Right when the library was a few feet away, X-ray noticed two mares carrying what appeared to be a large couch infront of him.

'Can't go around it. Can't go over it. Let's go under it'. chanted black clad soldier, remembering his training.

X-ray built his speed and slid under the furniture, making no dent on the floor at the same time.

Scorch on the other hand, had no setback along his path to the library. Right when the building was a few meters away, the commando heard somepony, a young filly, crying.

Scorch didn't want to get involved but he remembered his oath. The filly could be seriously hurt. Turning around, the invisible demo man ducked behind a structure where the source of the crying was coming from.

Turning to magnetics to see behind the wall, Scorch saw the outline of a crouched and depresses filly with...glasses? And two others pointing at her.

'Bullies.' thought Scorch. He had to deal with a few at Pewter City high. Scorch knew such a trivial situation was above a 23rd commando, but he just couldn't bear himself to see such a young soul so traumatized.

Taking a deep sigh, the commando circled the building and laid eyes on 3 earth pony fillies. One, the victim, had a puffy red mane and the agressors were a pink earth pony with a tiara and a grey filly with glasses as well.

"Where did you even get those glasses loser?" mocked the grey filly.

"Um...my mom gave them to me. They used to be hers." replied the tearful white filly.

"So stupid is a family heirloom?" teased the pink filly.

Scorch didn't know what was worse about the two, their jokes or their attitudes. The invisible counter terrorist looked aside and a bucket of yellow paint.

Scorch knew a professional shouldn't resort to such juvenile behavior. But it was a planet of talking ponies after all. Expectations meant nothing anymore. Yellow was the color of laughter after all.

Picking up the bucket of paint, Scorch aimed it carefully so no liquid would splash him and reveal his position. With everypony in the vicinity distracted by the ordeal, nopony noticed a bucket levitate by itself and barrage the snobbish pink and grey fillies with a load of yellow liquid.

In the heart of the moment, the red maned filly with glasses started to chuckle at the sight of her yellow colored bullies.

All the while, the cloaked Scarecrow had been waiting in the front of the library. His squad was taking longer than Shadow's normal standards. This planet really was getting to them.

Luckily his HUD showed the outlines of his cloaked squad mates approaching his position.

Scarecrow rolled his eyes underneath his mask. After making sure his COMs weren't set to 'public'; "I know you're only a minute late but how is getting to a library a daunting task?"

"Never mind, you're here anyway." sighed Scarecrow.

"So, should we head inside?" asked Scorch.

"This isn't Vancouver dumb ass. People, I mean ponies actually lock their doors."stated X-ray as he tried to open the locked door to demonstrate.

Scarecrow yawned. "Looks like we'll have until Twilight-"

Suddenly there was an illuminating purple pink flash followed by the presence of a certain alicorn. The princess desperately turned left and right while trying to avoid looking strange.

"Scarecrow, Overwatch, Scorch, X-ray? Where are you?" she nervously gritted.

X-ray tapped her on the mane to signal his appearance. In turn the quine turned 180 and upon seeing nopony that could have possibly touched her, exhaled in relief.

"Come on in." whispered Twilight.

Meanwhile, a little dragon had awoken from his nap to the sound of mechanical voices. Yawning awake, Spike waddled down the staircase with his eyes still closed.

"Hey Twi-"

"DRAGON!" yelled Scarecrow.

The purple dragon shot his eyes open to see an indescribable black-clad bi ped charge straight at him with immense speed. Before Spike could react, Scarecrow grabbed the baby dragon on the neck almost choking Spike to death.

Twilight realized what Scarecrow intended to do.

As the rest of Shadow blankly watched, Scarecrow threw Spike across the room with immense force. Spike hit the wall with a near bone baking impact and struggled to get up.

To finish the job Scarecrow drew his shotgun from the magnetic place. Right when he was about to elevate the weapon however, he felt something tug his gun back.

Scarecrow looked at his gun and saw nobody was pulling back at him, rather it was a certain somepony using her telekinesis.

Scarecrow thrust his arm forward and broke Twilight's spell, freeing his arm. Right when aimed his crosshairs at the dragon, Twilight screamed desperately;

"NO. DON'T KILL SPIKE!"

"Spike?" asked Shadow uniformly.

Tears were forming down the mare's eyes. "That's Spike. He's my dragon assistant and brother."

Scarecrow's mouth opened under his mask. "Why would you have a dra-". Suddenly Scarecrow heard another person crying, this time it came from Spike.

Scarecrow lowered the weapon. "A dragon, crying?"

"Get away from me!" sobbed Spike as he ran to the bathroom and locked himself in.

The atmosphere was densely quiet with Spike's sobbing being the only source of sound.

"You never mentioned anything about a talking dragon assistant Twilight." noted X-ray.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think we'd make it this far." apologized Twilight. "With your arrival on Epona, I haven't been able to think things straight lately."

"Guys we should go apologize to Spike." insisted Scorch.

"You were crying really hard. He really means a lot to you huh?" muttered X-ray.

"I hatched him." glumly said Twilight.

The 4 humans sidestepped to the bathroom door and knocked.

"Spike. My call sign is Scarecrow and-"

"Go away you monster!" shrieked Spike from the inside.

The thought of being called a monster from a dragon got to Scarecrow. "Spike listen to me. I know you're scared but you need to understand. We are aliens from beyond Epona. When we touched down, we were attacked by an army of Grififns and two hostile dragons. After we took them down we assumed all dragons on this planet were-"

The bathroom door opened and the dragon crawled outside.

"Did you say you kiled two dragons?" asked Spike nervously.

"Yes. But they were adults." explained X-ray. "We understand if you hate us."

"No no." shook Spike. "It all makes sense now. Those other dragons are evil jerks. I'm glad I'm not one of them. In fact I kinda see why'd you attack me if you met them first."

"Well after the whole showdown, we thought you would have been one of them to. But I guess you can't judge a book by its cover huh?" muttered Scorch.

Scarecrow tried to apologize. "Again, I'm really, really....... uh."

Shadow's leader couldn't bring himself to say these words. Part of his mental condition not only prevented him from being relentless, but incapable of feeling remorse as well.

Luckily, Spike seemed to understand.

"Hey it was a misunderstanding and I'm willing to put it behind me." shrugged Spike.

Scorch curled his fingers into a fist and offered it to the dragon.

"Hey you have claws too." pointed Spike.

"These are fingers but close enough." chuckled Scorch. "Fist bump."

"Of course! I always have to bro hoof." Spike bro fisted Scorch and the other humans.

"I'm Scorch."

"I'm X-ray."

"Scarecrow."

"Overwatch."

"And we're Shadow squad. Elite counter terrorist unit of the United Terran Federation."

Twilight trotted in. "So I suggest everybody and Spike made peace?"

Shadow nodded and Twilight smiled wide in return.

In reality though, Shadow didn't really apologize. As much as they wanted to, it was not an emotion they could feel. They started to make excuses to justify their actions in their head.

"So you know Twilight?" spoke up Spike. Shadow explained the situation, although they left out the part of the elements getting destroyed.

A while later, the squad approached Twilight, who was reading a book on public speaking.

"So you live in a library huh?" questioned Scarecrow.

Twilight nodded. "The library didn't always look this elaborate though. It used to be much simpler before I became a princess."

"Man, you're one lucky pony."

"Humans read books?"

"Twilight we read stories on holograms that can store millions of virtual books. So yes we read." explained X-ray.

"Scarecrow however is still one of the few people who reads books physically." muttered Scorch.

"I'm also one of the only one in this squad who doesn't need to wear contacts." countered the leader of Shadow.

"You can help yourself to any book you like. I never get any customers anyway. I don't think ponies read."

"Well I intend to change that." snarked Scarecrow as he opened a book from the shelf.

As Shadow helped themselves, X-ray still faced Twilight. "Say Twi, my scanning of town seem to suggest that females outweigh males significantly. My data reads there are only 25 males in the surrounding area."

Twilight giggled. "Well yes, for every 10 fillies born, you get a colt. "The odds of a filly being born are especially in their favor in Ponyville."

"Then how do you keep the population in check. I mean not every male get's married and has foals right?" questioned Scorch as he read his book.

"Well most stallions who get married usually end up having more than one kid anyway. Single childs like Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are actually rare."

Twilight paused awkwardly. "For stallions who don't get married however, they are expected to offer 'services' for mares who want to be single mothers or are in a lesbian relationship."

Scarecrow couldn't help himself. The statement was serious yet vulgar. "So you mean to tell me, stallions fuck all the mares?"

Twilight blushed. "As juvenille as you put it......yes."

Shadow laughed hard. The moment after Spike entered the room with a tray of animated juice pitchers.

"Apple juice?" asked the dragon.

"We're not exactly supposed to be drinking right now." backed off Scarecrow.

"So anyway, funny you 4 showed up after Twilight asked if we were alone in the galaxy." smirked the dragon.

Twilight blushed.

"Twilight you know you're not supposed to ask that unless you want something bad to happen." sighed X-ray.

"Yeah you're lucky we showed up and not some alien mass murderers." assured Scorch. Although truth be told, he probably would have shot the ponies on sight if he knew they were intelligent and discovered his existence.

"Like you're not a murderer?" joked the alicorn.

Chapter 16: The Gathering

"The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve."- Buddha

Before Shadow could react to Twilight's joke, X-ray immediately changed the subject. He didn't need the dragon to go insane.

"So Spike, is it true that the fire breath of a purple dragon is so powerful, it can rip through space time and teleport objects?"

"Is it also true Dragons eat gems since their stomachs are so strong?" added Scorch.

"And is it true that Dragons live on forever?" asked Scarecrow.

"Yes, yes and we only live up to 600 years, but a dragon can let go of his life after a hundred." answered Spike.

"Do you intend on living that long?" he questioned Spike.

The young dragon's eyes shot up. "Huh, I never really thought about that. I mean on one hoof I get to eat all the gems I want, but on the the other hoof I'd see everypony I know and love die." The dragon lost himself in thought.

"So how are the books Shadow?" asked Twilight. The alicorn could hardly remember a time when somepony just walked up to her and asked for a good book. Whenever ponies did ask her for a piece of literature it was always related to some scheme. Now that she was an Alicorn, nopony would step in her home unless asked to.

X-ray slowly brought up his masked face to Twilight and gave a small sigh of annoyance. Twilight's ears dropped in response.

"How do I put this nicely? The books we're reading are basically the same Greek Myths we grew up reading as children. No seriously, it's the exact same story, only with ponies."

Twilight's mouth hung open before she gave a small chuckle. "There's no way we've written the same stories as, I mean come on, those old pony tales have to be passed-"

"Twilight we're serious." interrupted Scarecrow. "There's Helen of Troy, The Odyssey and the story of Heracles. But instead of Aristotle, it's ArisTROTle."

"Wow, that's kind of of interesting." smiled the purple alicorn.

"KIND OF INTERESTING?" panned Scorch. "Stories written by ancient humans that have existed for thousands of years is kind of interesting?"

"Where did you ponies find these stories from in the first place?" asked Overwatch, his mask still glued on his book.

"Well obviously we couldn't just steal them from you. When we wrote those stories, the pony tribes weren't even unified as one." defended Twilight.

"Well, not only is the fact that ponies have books on Greek mythology uncanny..." stated Scorch. The demo man got up and started looking at the titles of the books that surrounded him. "Ponies seem to have written EVERY book humans wrote that predated the enlightenment era. But once again, from a pony's perspective."

X-ray started to look around as well. "It's as if you went through the same time periods as western Europe, with only a few subtle differences."

"We couldn't have possibly gone over the same history as your species." defended Twilight. "You don't have a solar princess, nor do humans have magic. Those are big differences and can effect the progress of society."

"You should be right Twilight." nodded Scarecrow as he read the back cover of a book. "But from what I'm getting, it seems ponies feel obliged to follow the foot steps of humanity. Although judging by the dates on these books, it seems that your society has been stuck within a renaissance period for thousands of years without mention of a neolithic or paleolithic time period. It's as if you started from a; let say ancient Greek era."

Twilight puffed. "I hope your not implying that ponies are related to half wits because we have always been intelligent-"

"Oh yeah, ponies believe in creationism." remembered Overwatch.

"Anyway, why should ponies have to change what's good? We've had thousands of years of peace and-"

"Thousands of years that could have been used to advance your species further. Based on the fact that these books, especially ones that are revolutionary, are published at time intervals far more apart than humanity's counterparts, I get the feeling that ponies don't like knew ideas." noted X-ray.

"That's because we ponies have a belief of 'better safe than sorry'." defended Twilight.

"As for echoing our race step by step," began Scorch "I say at the rate your species is going, you're going to inevitably evolve to follow the footsteps of humanity, but at a rate much, much slower than ours. Books published by a pony counterpart of figures such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes have yet to exist apparently."

"So, what you're saying is one day......our species will end up like yours?" questioned the alicorn.

"Well your town does resemble England in the late renaissance." muttered X-ray.

"Seriously though, how is that possible!" raged Scarecrow. "Not only does Epona have human culture, human language and human architecture, but human history as well. That last part can not be a coincidence at all!"

"Well ponies started where we were and we moved on-"

"But you didn't start out from ancient Greek-like city states. You'd have to start out from being a dirty animal, to cave ponies and so and so forth. The only way for ponies to progress the same ways as us is to have either been instructed by humans step by step on how to evolve and I know for a fact that we haven't been advanced enough to guide a species that has existed for thousands of years."

"Doesn't this bother you?" asked X-ray.

"It does actually." nodded Twilight. "But I think it's purely a coincidence since there seems to be no logical explanation for the sameness between our races."

"EVERYTHING has an explanation." beamed Overwatch.

"But if influence isn't a valid reason for our similarities, than how can ponies have numerous historical human counter parts?" wondered Scarecrow.

"Early humans progressed through influence of their environment." remarked X-ray. "Since Epona's environment is different than Earth's, then surely they should have adopted a completely separate culture."

"I am telling you, ponies have always been intelligent. Our earliest influences came from our goddess. Not, plants, rocks or dirt!" gritted Twilight

Scorch crossed his arms. "Fine. Let's assume you were created intelligently. Still, the fact that human historical counterparts exist on your planet would assume that everypony had the mind of a western European."

The 4 humans looked at Twilight's skull.

"Oh no. You are not lobotomizing anypony." beamed the purple alicorn.

The thought that ponies would be following humanity's food steps sent shivers down the alicorn's spine. She was less focused on the fact that being humanity's echo could mean space travel in the near future and was more worried about how it could mean ponies would resort to creating harsh killing machines like Shadow.

"You know," remarked Scorch. "While I don't think your species is a literal copy of ours, you get the feeling that ponies have been through everything western Europe has, with the notable exception of wars. Similar to how Zebras are like Africans and Griffins resemble Persians."

"But to suggest a theory like that would mean you'd have to look at every aspect of pony history." noted Twilight.

"Well looks like there's only one way to be certain." sighed Scarecrow.

Twilight laughed. "There's no way you could read all these book right now, you have a gathering to attend to in a few minutes."

"Who said anything about physically reading?" questioned X-ray.

The 4 members of Shadow each grabbed a book. The next thing Twilight knew, their shades started to emit a red flash, followed by Shadow immediately flipping over the all the pages of book in a second and closing it.

Shadow repeated the process book after book to Twilight's confusion.

"What are you doing?" questioned the alicorn princess.

"We're scanning these books onto our cloud storage." explained Scorch.

That didn't help the mare's situation. "What exactly is cloud stor-"

"Your species is too primitive for me to give an explanation."

All of a sudden there was a knock at the door.

Twilight flew over to the entrance in a rush. Before she opened the door she immediately turned to Shadow; "What are you 4 doing? Hide?"

"Relax it's just Pinkie, Applejack and the rest of the ponies we already know." muttered Scarecow.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "How did you know-"

"Magnetic Vision."

Twilight opened the door and let in her friends quickly before anypony could notice.

Pinkie Pie skipped over to X-ray who was scanning books onto his data banks like wildfire.

"Hey there...." Pinkie checked the notes on her hooves:

Tall and chubby one: Scarecrow.

Skinny one: X-ray.

Medium one: Overwatch.

Medium one that talks: Scorch.

"....X-ray, how are you doing?"

"Oh we're just great!" sarcastically remarked Scarecrow before X-ray could speak. "Not only did we find out ponies rip off our language and architecture but our history too!"

"My, what a lovely coincidence." nodded Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Anyway the ponies outside-"

"Who cares what the ponies outside think?" beamed Scorch. "We just discovered that Equestria has pony counterparts of humans. Is that not strange?"

"Not really." said Applejack. "Great minds think alike."

Scorch crossed his arms and turned around. "Wow, we point out something worth an inter-species crisis and you just dismiss it. You're fucking pathetic."

Suddenly, everypony gasped. Not because of the swear, but because Scorch broke his Pinkie promise to be nice.

Pinkie was far less than pleased. The pink mare's eyes were on fire and the party pony was gritting her teeth hard. Scorch just stood in place.

"You. Broke. A. Pinkie promise." snarled the party pony.

"I'll destroy you!"

"Scorch run! for your life" warned Rarity. The demo man stood still.

The pink mare charged at the counter terrorist unleashed her wrath on him while muttering inoffensive curses all the while.
Unfortunately for Pinkie, her 'wrath' failed to penetrate Scorch's overshield.

After a minute of standing still and ignoring Pinkie's anger. Scorch sighed and picked up the party pony.

"YOU JERK. I CAN'T BELIEVE-"

"Pinkie."

"YOU BROKE YOUR PROMISE."

"Calm down."

"YOU'RE A LIAR"

"How about I make it up with another Pinkie Promise?"

"YOU'RE A MEANIE!"

"I Pinkie promise to break this Pinkie Promise."

"I'LL SEE TO IT-"

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"THAT YOU'LL.....wait did you Pinkie promise to break a pinkie promise?"

Scorch nodded.

"But how does that work and........." suddenly the pink mare shut down.

X-ray groaned and picked her up.

"Like I was saying." spoke up Rainbow Dash. "The ponies outside are ready for the reveal."

"I'll be the one to introduce us." proposed X-ray.

"You don't sound enthusiastic." noticed Rarity.

"I'm a nearly psychotic commando who shouldn't be exposed to the public that is going to be addressing a crowd of multi colored ponies with utmost formality. That doesn't sound ridiculous at all." shrugged the rifleman.

"You don't have to act too serious if it would make you feel comfortable." suggested Fluttershy.

"Actually, I think I should handle the introductions." said Scarecrow. "At least I have a chance of not breaking down laughing the embarrassing nature of the situation."

"We're not even meant to be a first contact team." noted Scorch. "We were just meant to scout ahead until a proper team would touch down. Then dragons came."

"Ah think y'all do fine. Ponies are a fun lovin' bunch anyway. Just be nice." insisted Applejack.

"Right. Nice. I can probably do that." sighed Scarecrow. "Let's just hope these ponies will cooperate in turn. We'll need a pretty good excuse for revealing ourselves to our officers."

"By the way. I want you to get rid of those weapons right now." ordered Twilight.

"Disarming us will be viewed as threat." glared Scorch.

Twilight rolled her eyes in annoyance. These humans were the stubbornness group she had met.

"All right Shadow form up on me." ordered Scarecrow. The 3 other members approached their CO and cloaked before heading outside. "The moment we're done meeting with the princesse's we're getting to the bottom of this planet right away."

"I'll wait here!" called Spike from behind. The dragon had some napping to catch up on.

The cloaked humans easily dodged the oblivious ponies as the approached the gathering site. Twilight on the other hoof, had to deal with ponies worshiping her on the way.

Celestia's sun had begun to set. Time had flied by so quickly.

Finally the Mane 6 and Shadow made made it to the town center. Everypony in the town had flocked to the event, awaiting what their princess would reveal to them. There was a magnificent stage centered in the town

Twilight and the mane 6 ascended the stair case followed by the invisible counter terrorists. The mummers of ponies died down the moment they laid eyes on their heroes.

Twilight approached the microphone and the everypony within the vicinity bowed down. Twilight rolled her eyes and gave a small cry of annoyance in response.

Shadow noticed this. Apparently Twilight didn't seem to enjoy the worship and praise. Didn't matter though, it was second to their objective of gaining information from the ponies. Scratch that, demanding information.

"Good day Everypony. You may rise."

The citizens of ponies did so and admired the glow of their princess in the sunset all the while.

"Good afternoon my humble subjects. It is with a great honor that I announce that a remarkable discovery had been made a few days ago.". Twilight paused. That sounded like her dream.

The ponies didn't cheer like they did in her vision but rather gave whispers of excitement.

Ponies in the crowd were not oblivious to their princesse's uneasiness.

"A few days ago, my and friends and I made a history defining discovery. At night time, an extraequestrian ship descended from the stars and landed on our planet. Today marks the day that Epona will make contact with the human race!" As the crowd cheered. Twilight lost herself in thought. Everything had been going like her vision pre mentioned.

Suddenly the microphone levitated up in the air from an unknown source. This would have been a normal sight in ponyville, but there was no magical aura to represent a telekinetic grab.

Just as the cries of the ponies died down, Scarecrow's mechanical voice spoke into the microphone;

"Everypony, prepare to meet a species like no other."

Suddenly, Scarecrow and his 3 allies uncloaked and revealed themselves to the ponies-

and the town got flash banged. Immediately after laying sights on the humans, the head everypony that had never seen Shadow before immediately exploded with pain, vision started blurring and ear piercing frequencies were heard.

The adults were the least disturbed, fillies and colts were almost fainting and all the foals began crying upon gazing and the 4 masked humans.

All the while, Scarecrow and the other humans simply stood there, disturbed and confused by the whole ordeal. All they had done was reveal themselves and ponies looked like they had been bombarded with a sonic boom.

The Mane 6 however, kind of expected it. When they first looked at Shadow, there was something about their form and presence that made them loose their minds and the sheer complexity of their structure somehow hurt them.

After a few minutes of adjusting to the humans, the ponies in the crowds started conversing about mindfuck they just received.

Scarecrow hoped he hadn't done some thing wrong. No one in his squad had scramblers turned on, no one was equipped with a flash bang and nobody emitted a sonic pulse.

"Um...if everything is alright, may I continue speaking?"

The ponies started to give mutters of approval to signal Scarecrow. The squad didn't want to go through this. 23rd soldiers making a public appearance was to a species was a big no and violated protocol. But if they wanted to get out of the situation, they would need to put on a show. Their focus was strictly finding out why Equestria was like Earth, but to do that, they needed the ponies to not be running around everywhere.

"I like to remind everypony that we are not the true first contact team, while me and the rest of Shadow are fiercely educated, we may not be able to answer all of your questions you may have considering there is a large number of you and we can not lawfully go into detail about ourselves. We were merely sent to observe this planet until we could reestablish contact with out starship orbiting Epona. Unfortunately, we were stranded by a dragon attack and we have to remain here. Until then, try to ask us questions that won't need too much of an explanation. Try to lay off questions of humanity as a whole and stick to questions about us. Although even then there isn't much we can answer, so yeah......"

The ponies looked at the commando with confused expressions. It was as if they were interviewing a member of some sort of secret government conspiracy.

A pegasus mare mustered the courage to raise her hoof. Scarecrow pointed at her to talk.

"Why do you where those clothes?" asked the shy blue pegasus. "We can't see what you look like underneath that."

Scarecrow looked down at his armor and gave a laugh. "Well you see, humans don't walk around naked like ponies do, we are clothed all the time."

The ponies in the crowd gave Shadow's leader a confused look.

"I also apologize for having to meet ponykind with my current, uninviting apparel. What we wear is called recon armor. The reason why it is pitch black is to help me and my squad hide in the....shadows." The ponies laughed a bit at the pun.

"And further more it helps us keep warm. Although you ponies might not feel it due to fur, humans are used to warmer temperatures. As for out masks," Scarecrow stroked his bandanna with his signers. "This cloth is meant to prevent us from inhaling bacteria or viruses or bodies can not fight. These shades aren't meant for blocking out the sun, but rather give us information stored on...how should I say it? Data drives. Recon armor is the standard battle wear for the 23rd."

"If you're disappointed by this unrevealing armor, we have diagrams of human bodies if you wish to know what we look like underneath."

Twilight knew what she was going to ask for once this meeting was done. The purple mare absolutely loved biology.

Another pony, this time an Earth Pony stallion raised his hoof. X-ray remembered him as the one he almost exposed himself to a dew hours ago.

"What kind of magic do humans have other than disappearing?"

This time it was X-ray's turn to speak, grabbing the mic from Scarecrow's gloved hands he spoke into the mic;

"Humans are incapable of utilizing magic. Our-"

Before X-ray could continue speaking, the crowd of ponies gave a large cry of disbelief there were mummers of;

"They can't use magic, how is that possible?"

"How do they live?"

"How could have they gotten to space?"

X-ray exhaled with annoyance and continued speaking. "I know it sounds confusing, but humans can not perform what you call 'magic' naturally so instead we have to use technological innovation. The same applies for flight."

The crowd began to look even more confused.

"I know it may confuse everypony, but magic and reasoning are not separate. What you call magic is just the utilization of technological or biological concepts done through a natural medium. (The crowd was getting more and more perplexed) After all is highly advanced technology not similar to biological magic? I don't want to go into too much detail, but the so called magic of ponies produces the same effects of human technology. The reasoning is there, the only difference is the method. As for what other 'magic' we can do, we're limited our suit's functions. Let's just say we can see through the wall, look far distances and hear what is happening, keep track of equipment and protect ourselves an energy barrier."

"What are those things on your back?" asked a blue colored unicorn whose mane looked like toothpaste.

Scorch grabbed the mic from X-ray. "These things hanging on our magnetic plates are called guns. Since we're soldiers, we obviously have to be armed with weapons. Guns fire a projectile that is propelled with the use of magnetics."

"Allow me to give you a demonstration." Scorch drew his sidearm, aimed at Overwatch and pulled the trigger. The loud noise emitted by the firearm caused some ponies to stumble back.

To the ponies' amazement, the bullet did not strike Overwatch but instead deflected off a forcefield that emitted a series of transparent purple hexagons to signal where he shot at.

"Just be glad I didn't aim at flesh." This caused the crowd to start panicking a small bit.

Twilight quickly approached the microphone. "Thank you Shadow for your introduction. I'm sorry ladies and gentlecolts, but this concludes our event."

The crowd gave cries of complaints. So many questions were left unanswered. Shadow really couldn't answer as to what the ponies wanted to know about them. They weren't fully fledged diplomats no thanks to their mental condition.

"Don't worry everypony. Shadow isn't done yet, they're due for a tour and I'm sure-"

"Actually, we're free now. May we delay the tour until tomorrow?" requested Scarecrow. The sooner he inspected everything, the sooner he could get to solving the cosmic anomaly.

Twilight nodded. "Change of plans everypony, Shadow will be around town for the rest of the day. You'll be free to ask them questions if you run into them. Dismissed."

The ponies applauded and gave their princess a bow.

Shadow and the Mane 6 made their way down stage.

"Well that went better than what I expected." remarked Rarity.

"Yeah, I was pushing myself hard not to laugh." muttered X-ray.

"Why would you be laughing? There were no jokes. I know every joke that has been told in ponyville." pointed Pinkie Pie.

"Come on, we were addressing a crowd of technicolor ponies, what's not ridiculous about that?" questioned Scorch.

"I still think we did a good job with the introductions though." stated Scarecrow.

"Yeah, I think you gave the town a great first impression." noted Rainbow Dash. "Still, you had to show them how that gun worked?"

"They were asking for it." reminded Scorch.

"Well Ah'm off to the farm well 'em ponies keep you busy." said Applejack. "Could use some quiet."

Quiet was not an option however. The moment Shadow stepped down from the stage and into the crowd, ponies from all over swarmed them.

Shadow tried really hard to keep it together. They were trained to dismantle and secure crowds, not interact with them. A simple bid for information from the ponies was turning into a publicity nightmare.

The 4 humans would have no problem answering questions if ponies weren't yelling their questions all at once. Seriously, the entire town was practically up their throats. Shadow was having a lot of trouble traversing the crowd since they're huge size meant they could easily crush a foal if they weren't careful.

"Settle down everypony!" yelled Scorch desperately to contain the curious crowd.

The Mane 6 weren't faring any better. Ponies were crowding them too in order to get answers about the humans they met. The former elements bearers tried to gently push themselves away but the crowd was too big.

Eventually, Overwatch had enough. The Marksman drew his sniper, removed the suppressor and shot a round in the air.

The loud noise was enough to silence the crowd.

"One at a time." muttered Scarecrow, turning up his speakers so everypony could hear.

Two colts by the names of Snips and Snails galloped to the humans. Each of them were holding a notebook with their mouths and holding a pen with their telekinesis.

"Can we get your autographs?" asked Snips, with his mouth full of paper. "It's always been my dram to meet cool alien ninja commandos."

Scarecrow rolled his eyes underneath his bandanna, crouched, and grabbed the animated paper and pencils from the colts mouth. He wasn't going to sign his real name however so he just printed the symbol of the 23rd.

Sure enough more and more ponies asked for autographs. Some ponies asked for autographs on body parts rather than on paper. One mare asked for a tattoo on her flank.

Just when Shadow thought they were done signing autographs-

"Can I get a picture for the Foal Free Express." yelled a small filly with a reporter hat.

Scorch dropped his pencil. "Ponies have camer-"

FLASH!

More and more cameras swarmed the hooded humans and began taking Shadow's picture.

Shadow ignored the onslaught of pictures and used neural controls to switch their radio to local.

"How do ponies have cameras?" questioned X-ray.

"I thought their society was supposed to be medieval." pointed Scorch.

"You know, I could have sworn seeing stores selling 21st century era appliances as well like microwaves and ovens." remembered Scarecrow.

"Yet they lack the literature and reform of the enlightenment and industrial revolution." noted Overwatch.

Suddenly the crowd got bigger than ever and swarmed Shadow one by one.

"What do you think of Epona?"

"Is this the first time you've visited an alien world?"

"Do stars out there really move on there own?"

"How fast do your spaceships go?"

"Are any of you in a relationship with each other?"

Shadow's already patience was getting smaller and smaller. They were used to operating in solitude and secrecy. Being a well known celebrity was not the one thing the 23rd was not supposed to do. But they weren't really on a colony were they? It was a miracle their riot control instincts had taken over earlier.

"Do you always have to wear black, why not go with blue?"

Suddenly, Scarecrow, Scorch and X-ray snapped. The 4 humans started running away from the crowd but the ponies were relentless.

Using their parkour skills and superior speed the humans managed to speed away through town and hoped to find some solitude. Their escape did not help Shadow's situation as even though ponies were mesmerized by their ability to leap over tall obstacles and jump from building to building, it only made ponies more curious and desperate for answers.

After crossing half of town, Twilight's home was in view. To Shadow's dismay, many speeding pegasai were catching up to them and still harassing them with questions.

To Shadow's horror, the front of Twilight's home awaiting another crowd of pony interviewers.

Gaining speed, X-ray managed to jump over the entire crowd and rolled skillfully into Twilight's door.

All the while, the Mane 6 was having a conversation about where Shadow would be staying. X-ray's sudden appearance was most unexpected.

"X-ray?" questioned Rainbow Dash. "What are you-"

Suddenly Overwatch power slid into the library followed by Scorch who flipped in and nearly knocked over Rarity.

Fluttershy raised whimpered back. "Is there something wrong?"

Scarecrow finally dashed into the home after shaking off a crowd. Before he could close the door;

"Could you tell me what your favorite color is?" asked an Earth Pony mare taking notes.

Scarecrow's tolerance sunk to new lows. "NO FUCK YOU!" The commando proceeded to slam the door tight.

The entire pony crowd gave a loud gasp and covered the ears of their young ones, hoping the fillies and colts hadn't heard the swear.

Scarecrow opened the door. "My favorite color is red by the way." He closed the door once more.

The red colored mares gave a moan of flattery while the red colored stallions shook their heads up in victory.

Author's Note

*No I am not against those who have religion. I am not an atheist.

Sorry if the part about Epona's history being similar to humanity's is boring. :(

Chapter 17: Shadow's night in Part 1

"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."- Benjamin Franklin

Scarecrow limped through the room, breathing heavily from the attention attack. After a moment, Shadow's commander finally caught his breath and stood high, nearly hitting the wall in the process. He reminded himself that this was all for getting answers about Equestria's existence.

"Is everything alright?" calmly asked Rarity.

"Those ponies...were fucking everywhere." exhaled Scorch.

"But I thought you were cool with answering everypony's questions." remembered Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, remind us again to never be in the middle of a big audience." stated X-ray. He was beginning to feel intel wasn't worth it anymore.

"The ponies weren't necessarily bad, it's just that we can't handle all that attention in one blow. Throughout our time in the 23rd, we've been working in full subtly and secrecy. When it came to crowds, we were always meant to disperse them." explained Scarecrow.

"The ponies are just curious." laughed Pinkie Pie. "I mean what do you think would happen if a pony just went to one of your worlds. Human paparazzi would be swarming him or her."

"Actually the pony would be shot on sight or locked up in the SCP foundation." countered X-ray, bringing the room to silence. "Come on, humans are eager to meet aliens, but english speaking technicolor pony isn't the best way to introduce that concept to us."

"But ya didn' shoot us in the Everfree Forest!" reminded Applejack.

"Hey, in this situation, we're the aliens, we have to be ready to expect everything." defended Scarecrow.

"So what do you humans intend on doing now?" asked Twilight.

"It's 7'o clock." checked Scorch. "I say we just hit the hay....get it hay?"

"...."

"You know, ponies eat hay?"

"......"

Scorch sighed. "Anyway, I suggest we just relax until the day renews. It's too late for a full town tour or anything. I guess our bid for intel will be put on hold."

"But those ponies outside don't look like they intend to leave anytime soon." said Fluttershy as she looked at the crowd outside the window.

The 4 humans looked at Twilight. As if the mare could read minds, she knew the squad expected her to tell the crowd to disperse. With a sigh, the princess head out door. The crowd was taking pictures of the front of the house and yelling questions.

"My humble subjects." announced Twilight in a fake Princess voice.

"The humans wish to be left alone for the rest of the night. Furthermore, their appearance does not excuse you all from work or school tomorrow."

The crowd gave a sigh of disappointment and trailed off. Twilight returned to her house and closed the door with telekinesis.

"So how'd it go?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Great." exhaled Twilight. "Good news Shadow, the ponies are going to be leaving you alone for the night and will be at work and school tomorrow."

"What about the ponies in the other cities?" asked Scorch. "I swear this place tomorrow is going to be packed with sight seers."

"Relax, the media is under watch not to spread the news outside of town. Not even the other princesses know of this yet." laughed Twilight.

"Thanks." nodded Scarecrow. "I freaking hate crowds if I don't have to take them down."

"Speaking of the night, where are we going to be staying?" wondered X-ray.

"We were just discussing that." pointed Rarity. "For some reason, we found it best that you 4 remain in separate homes."

"Oh I see, so you can take us down easier." joked Scorch.

"What! NO! Are you crazy, you'd beat us to a pulp if we tried that!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

"Glad to see somepony catches on." remarked Overwatch.

"Well, we immediately ruled my house since it's in the clouds." said Rainbow Dash.

"I don't think you'd enjoy staying near my animals." whispered Fluttershy. "They also seem to be scared of Scarecrow for no real reason."

Shadow's commander said nothing.

"So that just leaves Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, and me." stated Twilight. "I have a small guest bedroom that was installed on the second ground floor when my home was renovated."

"I call dibs." buzzed Scarecrow. "Hey it's always been my dream to live in a library."

"I have a guest bedroom as well but it's an absolute mess." dramatized Rarity.

"Don't worry, no stain escapes X-ray." gloated the rifleman as he cleaned off a small blood stain on his chest piece.

"Oh heavens no, I wouldn't be the element of generosity if I didn't clean it my self."

"Well there aren't anymore elements are there? You're no longer held to such a pledge."

"Ma barn's gotta spare room in case any family members visit." informed Applejack.

Scorch shook his head. "I'm not one for farm work so-"

"Scorch just take the barn." ordered Scarecrow.

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "So that just leaves-"

"Me and Overwatch!" cheered the pink mare as she ended up on the sniper's head.

"We are going to have the bestest, funest slumber party ever! There's going to be games and music along truth and dare and twister and pin the tail on the pony!"

Overwatch simply sighed.

"You don't laugh much do you?" giggled Pinkie who who still clutching the back of the marksman's head.

"That's Overwatch for you, never laughs, never talks, never smiles." shrugged Scorch.

Pinkie's brain shattered like glass. The pink mare proceeded to press her face on Overwatch's mask and visor.

"NEVER LAUGHS! Tsk tsk tsk. You need a case of Dr. Pinkie's happy medicine straight away. Don't worry Overwatch, once we get to Sugar cube everything will be alright, I promise!"

Overwatch gave another grunt of annoyance and peeled the mare of his face before dropping her down.

All of a sudden, Spike came bursting out of the room, clutching a vial with a purple liquid.

"Twilight, Twilight! I was cleaning the the experiment room and this purple vile started leaking so I covered it with this cork." explained the dragon.

Twilight took the vial with her telekinesis and held it up with an amazed look. Spike gave a shrug and retreated upstairs.

"Oh my gosh. It's finally done! I've been working on it for years and it's finally done!" squealed the alicorn.

"What is that?" whispered Fluttershy.

"It's my talent enhancer! You see everypony has a special talent that they're exceptionally good at, so I figured, why not make be GREAT at it?"

X-ray snatched the vial with his gloved hand and analyzed it with his tablet in the other hand.

"Impressive chemistry." complimented X-ray. "You've managed to a balance the adrenaline and brain nanites well with a great dose of liquid vitamin and protein as well."

"You have nanites but no cars or televisions?" shook Scarecrow.

"What are nanites and what does brain have to do with talent?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"You see Ms. Dash, a nanite is an artificially engineered microorganism or android that's specifically designed to positively effect a part of a body. As for the brain, well emotion is chemical and triggered by neural functions. When humans discover a talent, it means we have found an activity that the mind takes immense pleasure in doing. What these nanites do is discover the activity our minds take interest and comfort in doing and use the adrenaline within the liquid to strengthen the muscles, that work in conjugation with the mind's pleasure, needed to complete the task." lectured X-ray.

Nopony had a clue what X-ray just said.

"I'm impressed Twilight. I didn't think you could pull off something like this." complimented Scorch. "Creation of a liquid like this would require intense knowledge of nano technology and neurology."

"Actually, I didn't know why my potion worked. I just thought that what I mixed would have the right magical properties to enhance talent based on individual effects." admitted Twilight.

Rarity eyes glowed. "So with dressmaking as my natural talent-"

"The nanites would enhance the part of your brain that centered on creativity and improve hoof to hoof coordination." explained Scarecrow.

Applejack whistled. "So that also means I can buck trees at faster rate because 'em nano things will make my hooves stronger."

"It would also make me better at taking care of animals." muttered Fluttershy.

"It would make be the bestest party pony ever!" cheered Pinkie.

There was a brief pause.

"Under no circumstances is Pinkie allowed to consume talent enhancers." spoke Scarecrow in a monotone voice.

"Agreed." said everybody and everypony.

"Also, it would make me a better magic user." noted Twilight.

"And it would make me an even better flyer!" cheered Rainbow Dash. "Not only would I be the fastest flyer i Equestria, but I could also perform:

"A DOUBLE RAINBOOM!"

The house practically shook.

After a moment's pause, Scarecrow, relayed the bad news;

"Don't get your hopes up, this isn't going to be working on anypony."

The Mane 6 gave a "Huh?"

Shadow was analyzing the content of the liquid with their wrist computers. Information was flowing all over their HUD.

"Allow us to explain." offered Scorch. "We looked over the nanites in the vial and discovered that these nanites are only going to work if exposed to the neurology of a primate, like a human."

"Furthermore this adrenaline would be lethal if administered to equines." added Overwatch.

Twilight face hoofed. "All that work for nothing?"

"I wouldn't say nothing." comforted Scarecrow. "It would still work on humans. A sip would be harmless to us."

Twilight put two and two together. "But you're soldiers.....that would mean the talent would increase you're ability to k-"

"Give awesome speeches." boasted X-ray.

The Mane 6 looked at Shadow confusedly.

"Be the best hockey player ever." added Scorch.

"Enhance my ability to be inspired in story writing." gasped Scarecrow.

"Enhance my ability to be inspired in art." stated Overwatch.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "But you're sadistic soldiers! The talent enhancer should improve your ability to shoot and kill."

"Should we tell them?" simply said X-ray.

The other 3 members of Shadow nodded. X-ray took a deep breath. Normally the 23rd wasn't allowed to share information about their unit, but it wasn't like the mane 6 were capable of doing anything if they knew a few secrets.

"Okay, being a counter terrorist isn't really our passion. It's is more of a volunteer work. Furthermore, all 23rd units are dismissed after all members of a squad turn 30. After that, we're free to pursue our true ambitions. I for example want to become a politician once my time this unit is due."

"I want to be an author. I have numerous ideas for books." added Scarecrow.

"You already know I have an aptitude for art." muttered Overwatch.

"And like a true man of Vancouver, I have a passion in hockey." concluded Scorch.

"I don't feel comfortable with you drinking that." whimpered Rarity.

"I haven't even tested it!" reminded Twilight.

"Well test day is today! Don't worry, Overwatch ran over the worst case scenario. It'll be fine." insisted Scarecrow.

The Mane 6 looked at each other worriedly. Twilight and Rarity used their combined telekinesis to pull over a couch for the frightened equines to hide behind.

X-ray casually slipped a drop of the talent enhancer under his bandanna before passing it on to the rest of Shadow.

Scorch was the last to take a sip. By then, the vial had been drained empty. The demo man licked his lips under his mask and noted that it tasted like a mix of orange and cherry.

The Mane 6 was panicking on the other hoof behind the couch. They didn't care what Shadow said, they were killers in the truest sense and their enhanced aggression would motivate them to commit pony genocide.

After a minute or so, the ponies realized that gun shots had not been heard. In fact Fluttershy pointed out that all of their weapons and side arms had been discarded. After calmly looking at each other for a minute, the 6 equines peeked up from the couch and their jaws dropped at what lay before them.

Scarecrow was sitting in a desk, writing down contents for a fantasy book with speed that Rainbow Dash was jealous of. Considering there were 2 more complete novellas right next to him, you could tell he was motivated.

Overwatch had found inspiration in everything. The sniper artist was drawing everything anything he laid eyes on. His notebook in one hand and a pencil in the other. Not only was his hand and eye coordination impeccable but his creativity instincts were through the roof. Since everything was animated, drawing was all the easier. Overwatch turned around and started drawing the confused mares behind the couch.

X-ray, was wearing a non animated suit that he seemed to have gotten out of nowhere. The commando was still wearing his mask and was atop a soap box giving a speech about healthcare and welfare reforms. Nopony could understand what he was saying, but his voice was so clear and pure that they just had to agree with him. Not to mention, X-ray's memorization and improv skills had been enhanced to a point where he didn't need a script at all.

Finally, Scorch was balancing a puck on silver hockey stick (where did he get that from?) which he effortlessly shot into a make shift goal of books. His hand to leg coordination had been augmented beyond relief.

"Gosh darn it Twi. Looks like your talent enhancers work!" applauded Applejack.

"Wish I could have still had my flying speed doubled." muttered Rainbow Dash.

Twilight screamed with excitement and the results she had produced. She didn't care if the talent enhancer only worked on humans. Twilight levitated a quill and sheet and began to take notes of Scorch playing hockey. Then Overwatch started drawing Twilight taking notes of Scorch, followed by Scarecrow writing about Overwatch drawing Twilight taking notes on Scorch and finally X-ray giving a speech on how people can find inspiration in anything.

Suddenly, Scorch felt a rumbling at his stomach. His HUD started flaring information on his vitals all the while. "Damn, my stomach feels funny."

X-ray walked up to him with a proud demeanor. "Well you see, Scorch, this is the result of our government's-". X-ray was cut off by a headache.

Soon all 4 members of Shadow felt dizzy and collapsed on the floor. Twilight continued to take notes as the other ponies surrounded the disoriented humans.

"Shadow, are you all right?" whispered Fluttershy.

As if nothing bad happened, Shadow nonchalantly got back on their feet.

X-ray ripped off his suit to reveal he still had his armor underneath. "Relax, adrenaline rushes aren't permanent and will normally leave a human a bit bewildered."

"Still though, I'd say your talent enhancer is a success overall. I really felt that I could have written a library there." encouraged Scarecrow.

Twilight gave a glum smile. "But I still have to rework the potion to make sure it can effect ponies. Not to mention, the process I used to create the current formula would require months of experimenting."

"Until then, could you lend us the formula for us humans to mass produce? I smell profit and innovation." remarked Scorch with a mild grin.

"I'll take care of that with Twilight before I sleep." said Scarecrow.

"Speaking of night, I'd say we're overdue. I believe we should head home now if we want our guests settled in." spoke up Rarity as she headed out the door.

"Yeah! Come on Overwatch, we're going to have a greatest night ever!" cheered Pinkie as she hugged the less than enthusiastic Overwatch at his legs.

The members of Shadow, minus Scarecrow, head out the door with their pony hosts at their side. The 3 humans cloaked and disappeared into the night.

Rainbow Dash flew up to her home while waving goodbye. Fluttershy trotted in the opposite direction to her cottage despite having the ability to fly.

Soon, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie head off in opposite directions to their respective dwellings.

After the other ponies left, Scarecrow and Twilight proceeded to go over a number of books about magical theory. Shadow's intellect had inspired Twilight to start finding out why magic worked rather than how.

Twilight would read about the foundations for a certain magical spell, followed by Scarecrow looking into data logs or using his own memorized knowledge to decipher what exactly was the reasoning behind each spell. After two hours, Twilight had managed to fill up an entire book on the reasoning of magic.

Soon enough, it was time for her and Scarerow to turn in.

Author's Note

Yes, hockey still exists. In Canadian cities only and has no place in the rest of the colonies. Muhahaha!

I seem to write more than expected. I'm splitting this arc into mini chapters based on Overwatch's, Scorch's and X-ray's nights with their pony hosts.

Update: I removed the second part with the talent enhancer because as a user pointed out, it didn't make much sense.

Chapter 18: Shadow's Night in Part 2

"I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."- Ayn Rand

On her trip to Carousel boutique, neither Rarity nor X-ray exchanged any dialogue. The albino mare didn't know why, but for some reason she felt like a ghost was haunting her (not because X-ray was cloaked) and ready to strike despite X-ray's unusual lack of interest in combat.

Rarity suddenly felt X-rays footsteps mute, causing the white unicorn to get even more nervous. With a gulp she nervously whispered; "X-ray...."

"Yes?" answered the scrawny counter terrorist's mechanical voice.

"I was just checking to see if you were still following me."

"You're heart rate is going up at unhealthy speeds." noted the cloaked rifleman.

"Is it now?" questioned Rarity with a fake nervous voice.

"Not to mention, your vitals state that you seem to have a splitting headache and the electromagnetic pulses stored within your horn seem to have dissipated."

Rarity gulped . "Forgive me darling, but I'm just really nervous, I feel like you're going to murder me any moment."

"Well the 23rd is meant to scare enemies not only with it's noticeable sadism, but with paranoia as well."

"But I'm not an enemy, right?"

"Of course not."

Rarity suddenly remembered something terribly important. "X-ray dear, where is your drone? It seemed to have disappeared the moment we entered town."

"I cloaked the drone and directed it to the centre of Ponyville. It's keeping watch for anything suspicious." answered the invisible rifleman.

'In other words, he's spying on us.' thought the albino unicorn.

Finally, Rarity found herself in front of her home. The unicorn found some of her magic return, she slowly opened the door with telekinesis before turning to (hopefully) face the cloaked X-ray.

"Um, X-ray. I hope this won't be a problem but-"

"You have a little sister inside, I know that."

"How did-"

"Combination of Magnetic vision and motion trackers. Anyway, I don't think it would be such a great idea for me to get close with Sweetie Bell considering my controversial profession. Plus, I hate children."

"Don't worry, Sweetie Bell is a very mature filly, as long as you steer the conversation away from war, she'll be alright."

Rarity opened the door and trotted in. The cloaked X-ray closed the door behind her, causing the unicorn to flinch..

Suddenly, an adorable white unicorn filly, with a pink mane and green eyes quickly galloped to her older sister and embraced her.

"Oh, my gosh Rarity!" cheered the filly. "Can you believe it, aliens are real! They're kind of scary. But they're so cool. I can't wait to learn about them!"

Rarity swallowed hard. "Sweetie Bell, I need you to be at your best behavior tonight. We have a certain guest-"

"Is it somepony famous?"

"Our guest isn't a pony."

"Oh, is it a Zebra then like Zecora?" asked the young filly.

"Try, two legs, hooded, masked and without a muzzle." said a quiet mechanical voice.

The filly's eyes opened and she turned around to face a bi-pedal, non animated, masked soldier. The filly put two and two together before she screamed in excitement.

"OH MY GOSH, YOU'RE ONE OF THE ALIENS. Ow, my head hurts. AND YOU'RE SLEEPING OVER. I keep hearing things. THIS IS SO COOL. Rarity, my head won't stop pounding."

The thin soldier raised an eyebrow. Something told him his appearance alone equaled a concussion grenade to a pony.

Rarity trotted to her sister. "Oh, you poor thing. I'll get you some painkillers right away."

The albino unicorn rushed to a medical closet, hurriedly levitated a casket of medication and galloped straight to her sister, only to find that she was already being administered painkillers by X-ray.

The counter terrorist looked up at Rarity.

"Relax, I've already taken care of it." X-ray looked down at Sweetie Bell. "Are you feeling okay? My HUD reads that all mental trauma should dissipate within an hour."

The filly finished the last of her water. "I'm good. Thank you Mr. Alien."

"Call me X-ray."

Rarity put the basket down. "X-ray what are you thinking? Your medication surely only applies to humans, does it not? Who knows what effects it could have on Sweetie Bell."

The commando sighed. "Relax, these painkillers work fine on equestrians, canines, and avians in addition to primates."

The fashionista rolled her eyes. "Anyway, X-ray, your room is upstairs. I'll get started on you're room-"

"Don't worry, I'll handle it." nodded X-ray. Rarity was about to protest until Sweetie Bell spoke up.

"Yeah! Mr. X-ray is only trying to be a gentlecolt. Besides, I'm kind of hungry. Can you please make dinner?"

Sweetie Bell gave her sister those puppy eyes nopony could resist. Rarity grinned and started to trot into the kitchen to prepare dinner while X-ray tapped a series of commands on his tablet.

To Sweetie Bell's shock, suddenly, a light blue hologram emitted from X-ray's device. It was big enough to encompass a quarter of the room.

"Rarity, look at this! It's so cool!" cheered the unicorn feel.

Rarity placed down the ingredients of her salad and trotted back to the living room. The elder mare's mouth dropped the moment she saw what was a diaphragm of the overview of town.

"What is that?" asked the fashionista.

"It's a hologram, your species is too primitive for me to explain it properly. But in essence, it's an interactive projection."

"Whoa, how can you see all of town?" asked the curious Sweetie Bell.

"Let's just say I have a hovering robot stationed at the centre of town that has a camera that's over looking this settlement. The camera is wirelessly connected to my tablet and is streaming the footage back at me. I would explain what streaming and wireless means, but again, your species is too primitive." explained X-ray.

The filly was too invested in the hologram to pay attention to what X-ray said. "Can you see what's happening inside of houses?"

X-ray nodded. Using voice commands; "Drone switch to magnetic vision.".

Suddenly the hologram changed from relaying physical images to views of magnetic signatures. Silhouettes of ponies inside their dwellings were visible. Unicorns, who had more electromagnetic energy in them, were the most noticeable.

Rarity shook her head. "X-ray, this is spying!"

X-ray shifted his gaze to the elder mare. "Protocol dictates that in the event a unit enters an unfamiliar settlement, they must have a means of surveillance to make sure that no plots or heinous acts are going to be committed against them. This is my way of making sure that no unwanted individuals are entering town with villainous thoughts in mind whether you like it or not. Besides, I'm just doing a security check, I have no interest in the private lives of ponies."

Rarity and Sweetie Bell observed the slender commando use mesmerizing hand motions to control the hologram. The way the device operated was completely alien to the two equines.

The hologram shifted it's perspective to face a projection of Twilight's library. Sure enough, a Scarecrow was with the alicorn, reading a book apparently. X-ray turned the hologram to face Sugarcube Corner, zoomed in and saw Overwatch secure as well. Finally, the scrawny commando rotated the hologram again, and zoomed in to Sweet Apple Acres. Scorch was alright and with Applejack's family.

"Hey, Mr. X-ray, can you look at us with that holo-thingy?" asked Sweetie Bell.

X-ray simply zoomed out to once again face an overview of the town, located Carousel Boutique and zoomed in to show a picture of X-ray looking at a hologram of X-ray looking at a hologram of X-ray (paradox).

The commando zoomed out and used neural controls on his HUD to shut off the projection.

Rarity was stunned. "My dear, Twilight would have killed to seen that. She would immediately have wanted to start replicating that technology right away."

X-ray simply shook his head. "No offense, but that technology would require the use of fingers to properly use. Holograms and other motion or touch related devices need to be precise."

X-ray gave his gloved fingers a twirl much to Sweetie Bell's pleasure. Rarity got back to preparing food and X-ray headed upstairs. Sweetie Bell went to finish her homework.

The commando opened the door of the guest bedroom and found it a mess with pony mannequins and fabric littered everywhere. On the couch laid a small white cat. A persian cat like the ones on Earth although this one was animated and much more diminutive.

X-ray walked up to the feline known as Opalescence. The cat opened her eyes gently and gave a hiss. This didn't stop the commando for going in and giving it a pet on the head.

"You know, my friend Scarecrow has a cat like you back on Pewter City. Except it's a boy and not animated like you."

The cat fumed at the commando who interrupted her beauty sleep and raised her claws. X-ray was unmoved. The feline jumped at the counter terrorist to attack soldier with fury swipes, but the attack was not very effective as the cat merely struck X-ray's barrier. The amount of force inflicted was enough to shatter Opalescence's claws.

The cat looked at her shattered nails before crying pain. The feline cried and scurried out of the room.

After cracking his knuckles, the commando got to work. He used magnetic vision to find a series of cleaning aids stored in a closet to his right.

X-ray searched the databanks on his HUD and noted how the cans of the cleaning agents bore an uncanny resemblance to those being sold in the mid 20th century. Appearances aside, the formula used to make floor polish also matched formulas used in the 20th century as well.

Then X-ray turned around to face the clothes on the mannequins. Some of the garments resembled those worn by nobles of the renaissance while others resembled 19th century suits. Casual clothing of the 21st had yet to be seen.

'They're evolving like humans...selectively.' thought X-ray.

Once diplomacy was over and contact with the federation was restored, the entire UTF was going to solve the mystery of this planet once and for all. For now, the commando had a room to arrange.

After 10 minutes, X-ray had arranged his room. Not only were the mannequins and fabric disposed of properly, but he mopped the floor spotless.

"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes!" shouted Rarity from below.

The commando laid down his carbine, his knife, explosives, magazines, tablet and wrist computer neatly. X-ray proceeded to take off his bullet proof vest and all other forms of armor padding as well. He didn't worry about somepony taking away his equipment since it was too heavy for even a human to carry without magnetic attachments.

X-ray headed down to the kitchen, his side arm still with him, to see Rarity and Sweetie Bell feasting. Rarity took note of the reduced armor and equipped materials on him.

Rarity paused a bit before muttering. "Forgive me X-ray, I don't know what humans eat so I'm afraid-"

"Relax, I don't need to eat anyway. My drugs won't wear off for another few days." interrupted the masked soldier. "All I need is water."

Rarity offered X-ray a pitcher of water. The commando slipped the pitcher under his bandanna and proceeded to drink the animated water. It tasted like water, it felt like water, and it was H20. Yet the appearance of the liquid belonged to that of a cartoon. Not only that was absurd, but the fact that the water wasn't filling.

Rarity knew X-ray was lost in thought underneath his mask. "Is there something troubling you, X-ray?"

X-ray looked up at the sisters. "It might sound ridiculous, but this water isn't exactly filling. Felt like I just drank half a pitcher. I'm not even that thirsty."

Rarity raised an eyebrow and levitated another pitcher to X-ray. What the commando drunk just have quenched the thirst of an average pony.

X-ray slipped the refilled pitcher under his bandanna and drank. Now it felt like he had drunken a pitcher.

Sweetie Bell, mouth fool of salad asked. "So Mr. X-ray, why do you look so funny? You look so rough and way less colorful. And why does my head hurt every time I look at you?"

X-ray gave a small chuckle. "Oh, I'm the one that looks funny? Not the animated unicorn that looks like a character from a little girl's show?"

Sweetie Bell knitted her eyebrows. "What do you mean? "

"I don't know how to explain this to you, but everything outside Epona looks...non cartoony like me. Life isn't as colorful nor is the appearances of everything so exact." explained the masked soldier.

Rarity took notice of her sister looking at her for an explanation. "Sorry Sweetie, but I don't even know what X-ray means by that." The filly gave a sigh off annoyance.

After eating for 2 minutes, Sweetie Bell perked up. "So, how did you and your friends come to Equestria Mr. X-ray?"

Long story short, Rarity and X-ray spent the next half hour explaining Shadow's predicaments in Epona before arrival to Ponyville. This encouraged Sweetie Bell to start asking a train of questions.

"So Mr. X-ray, where are you from?"

"Born on Auraxis, raised on Requiem."

"What city did you live on?"

"That's classified."

"How old are you?"

"24."

"When were you born?"

"That's classified."

"Is X-ray your real name?"

"No."

"Can you tell me your real name?"

"That's classified."

"How many planets have you visited before?"

"That's classified."

"Can you show me how your guns work again."

"No."

"Can I use your hologram or tablet thingy?"

"No. It has classified information on it."

"Can you tell me how your suit or technology works?"

"Your species is too primitive to provide an explanation."

Sweetie Bell gave her sad look again. "Can you please tell me something about you?"

X-ray rolled his eyes underneath his shades. "Do you have any questions on humanity?"

Rarity placed a hoof on her little sister's mouth. "Sweetie Bell, it's still a school day, it's almost 9. Have you finished your homework?"

Before Sweetie Bell could respond. "Ponies still have homework?" asked X-ray.

"Well of course we have homework!" beamed Rarity.

"How regressive. School work should be done in school and work at home gets in the way of our personal ambitions and self studies." stated X-ray.

"That's absurd." countered Rarity.

"Says the species that believed in magic."

Sweetie Bell spoke up before the argument continued. "Well, I did most of it. But there are two questions I can't figure out-"

"What exactly is your homework about?" asked X-ray.

"Oh, it's math." sighed the filly.

X-ray got up from the table. "Tell you what, I'll help Rarity with the dishes and help you figure those problems out." Overwatch was the best mathematician he knew, but X-ray was adept in all fields nonetheless.

Rarity smiled at X-ray's generosity. "No need darling. I'll clean the dishes. You help my sister right away."

Sweetie Bell directed X-ray to her room. The filly's room resembled that of any generic girl's dwelling between the ages of 6-11. X-ray noted the furniture and dolls resembling those of the 20th century despite Sweetie Bell's booking being akin to something in the 17th century.

What Sweetie Bell was learning was just simple long division. X-ray wasn't going to question fillies and colts learning math. Any sentient species should naturally be adept in number crunching and the discovery of multiplication and addition, etc. should be inevitable.

"Alright, I'm going to show you how long division works." instructed X-ray.

The rifleman picked up (to his bewilderment) a pencil form the 21st century and began writing down. Sweetie Bell's eyes widened at X-ray's hand motions.

"That is so cool." awed the filly. "The way you write with those fingers is amazing."

X-ray laughed. "Well, I question why your species has pencils anyway. I could understand writing with telekinesis, but what about pegasai or earth ponies. How do they write?"

"They use their teeth." answered the filly.

That answer only furthered Shadow's theory of ponies evolving like humans. X-ray brushed the thought aside and finally finished helping Sweetie Bell who in turn packed her bag.

The filly prepared for bed as X-ray headed outside to find Rarity. First the commando headed to his guest room, drew his wrist computer and watched as his HUD appeared on his shades. X-ray then head down. The elder sister was busy at work with a sewing machine, trying to catch up on lost work.

The ectomorphic commando tried to get her attention. "Rarity."

The unicorn screamed at the tip of her lungs. "X-ray you scared me."

"It's what the 23rd does. Listen, I just wanted to tell you something you should know. Remember how me and my friends stated ponies were evolving like humans."

Rarity nodded.

"Well there's more to that. Turns out your evolving selectively. I look at your dresses, and I see clothes from numerous eras. Some garments equate to those of the Renaissance while some equate to the 21st century. I see pencils from the 20th century but books from the 16th. I see golf shirts, but your shoes are all slippers."

"I'm afraid I don't follow darling. I'm not inept at science. I'm just not....human at it. But I still get your message. It is undeniable our species are closer than we think."

After a pause, Rarity spoke up again. "By the way, what do humans of your time wear?"

"Suits and dresses are largely unchanged. As for casual clothing, it doesn't move past shirt, jeans and sneakers. In the winter times, we wear parkas and jackets. Before I was conscripted to the 23rd, cerise, my favorite color was the 'in color'. Now all I wear is black recon armor. White in snow environments."

"Doesn't your armor need washing by the way?" asked the albino mare.

"Nah. Suit repels all dirt and stench." shrugged the commando.

After a pause. "You know, I'm surprised I'd meet somepony like you." remarked X-ray.

Rarity gave a confused smile. "How so?"

"If you were a human, you'd be a fucking asshole."

Rarity's smile melted.

"Every human girl I met that enjoyed fashion was always a greedy snob. They thought so highly of themselves just because their rich parents could afford to buy them stylized clothes. When me and the rest of Shadow were still in high school on Requiem, we weren't what you'd call popular. We often clashed with those kinds of snobs who sadly were popular. I have zero tolerance for fashion obsessed bitches."

'They make fun of us for not wearing branded clothes by designers we couldn't give two shits about. At least our parents aren't working for fucking Mega Corp. Traitorous assholes.'

Before Rarity could speak;

"Then I met you. I used to think that girls had to choose between being fashionable or being altruistic. You Rarity, are not only one of the most nicest people, human or pony, that I met, but you show you can love clothing and be generous at the same time. Almost makes me feel bad about lashing out at you. Almost."

Rarity gave a sigh of flattery. "Thank you X-ray, that must mean a lot coming from you."

The slender soldier nodded. "Sucks that you're a pony."

Rarity blushed. "Say X-ray, you and your friends are going to be left on Epona until you can reestablish communication with the federation right?"

"Right."

"Until then, may I practice making clothes for your friends by using you as a model? I never worked on bi-peds."

X-ray chuckled. "Sure, just remember, I'm the thinest and shortest amongst Shadow."

Rarity squealed in delight. For the rest of the night she started taking measurements of X-ray while making marks on her fabric. X-ray at the meantime, used neural controls on his HUD to open a video he saved on his cloud storage. He made sure the volume was adjusted so only he could hear it and not distract Rarity.

Author's Note

Find the Pokemon reference.

Yes I used an Ayn Rand quote on a page featuring Rarity. Suck it. No I'm not an objectivist, but Rand spoke sense sometimes. Sometimes.

Chapter 19: Shadow's Night in Part 3

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

"Then we're going to exchange the funniest jokes we know. And after that we're going to make cupcakes that are all sorts of flavors like chocolate, coffee, vanilla, strawberry, red velvet, rainbow dash, pistachio, caramel and my favorite; energy drink. Oh boy energy drink tastes so good like a mixture of coffee and soda and gives 4 times happiness. And you know what makes me happy? GAMES! We're going to go play at a lot of games like pin the tail on the pony, monopony and blister twister! Then we'll play truth and dare, who doesn't love that? I pinkie promise to follow every dare I get!"

Overwatch simply sighed. Pinkie had gone on and on along the walk to SugarCube corner. The pink mare was still stuck to his cloaked head and talking all the while.

Overwatch hoped to have slipped to the bakery unnoticed like he normally would, but Pinkie Pie's relentlessness had attracted a lot of by standers who absorbed a floating mare hanging on to an invisible object while talking all the while. Unaware to both the reasoning behind the pink mare and who she was hanging on to, the townsfolk ignorantly dismissed it as "Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie."

"And then we're going challenge each other to a game of charades followed by karaoke!"

'I swear to the universe, I'm going to shove my sniper down your throat Johnson (Scarecrow) when I'm done with this.' thought Overwatch.

"We're here!" jumped Pinkie Pie.

The entire bakery stood before the sniper. He could almost taste the sugars and sweets right at the door way. Sadly, the sniper hated candy. HATED. Cakes and cookies were another story.

Pinkie Pie happily skipped inside while the cloaked marksman followed. Overwatch observed the number of animated cakes that were stored on the counter and shelves. As cartoony as they looked, the pastries felt very real and the sniper wished that he could sink his teeth into one. However, eating while drugged would fill him up with a simple bite.

"Oh, you just have to meet the cakes! They're the best family you could ever imagine."

Overwatch rolled his eyes under his shades. The sniper noted there were 4 more additional marks on his motion tracker.

"Pinkie Pie, is someone there?" asked a mare's voice from across the hallway.

"Yeah, who are you talking to?" This time, the voice was a stallion's.

All of a sudden, a blue Earth Pony mare that Overwatch assumed to be Mrs. Cake entered the room followed by a yellow Earth Pony stallion he guessed was Mr. Cake.

Pinkie Pie got ecstatic. "Mr. and Mrs. Cake, is it alright if I have a sleep over tonight?"

Mrs. Cake looked at her husband. "A sleepover? Wow, this day just gets crazier especially after the whole aliens thing. By all means you can have a slumber party. Who's sleeping over?"

"Is is it Rainbow Dash? No she wouldn't like slumber parties. Is it Twilight?" asked Mr. Cake

Pinkie giggled. "No silly, my guest isn't a mare."

"A stallion eh?" muttered Mrs. Cake. She looked at her husband with the 'if you know what I mean' look.

"No silly, he's not a stallion."

The cake couple looked at each other before staring at Pinkie. "By the way, where is your guest?"

Pinkie jumped in the air. "Okay Overwatch! You can come out now."

The sniper uncloaked in the middle of the room and revealed himself to the cake couple by surprise, knocking them back by surprise and giving them a mindfuck.

As the Cake couple regained their senses and finally comprehended the appearance of the human, they slowly looked up at the sniper. Overwatch simply extended his hand to help the couple up.

The earth pony couple looked at the hand before screaming. "AHHHHHHHHH!"

The two ran up the stairs to fetch their foals before running back down stairs, grabbing the still cheery Pinkie Pie, heading straight into a storage room and locking the door.

Overwatch shrugged and slumped to the wall until the cakes manned up

Inside the storage room, the panicking baker couple struggled to gain ahold of themselves. The cake twins had awoken all the while. Pinkie was remained her happy self.

"Pinkie Pie! What is the meaning of this?" questioned Mr. Cake.

"It's just Overwatch. Sniper of Shadow, a unit of the 23rd counter terrorist division." chanted Pinkie.

"So you brought this alien ponykind doesn't know anything about to sleep at our house?" beamed Mr. Cake.

"Oh I know a lot of things about Overwatch!" cheered the party pony. "Like the fact he's a soldier, sadistic, possibly suffering from depression, anti social and trigger happy."

"Pinkie Pie, you have brought a cold blooded killer into our bakery!" chastised Mrs. Cake.

"Actually, humans are warm blooded. And besides, Overwatch is a soldier. He'll only turn into a meanie if you're a meanie to him." defended Pinkie.

Slowly Mrs. Cake opened the door a quarter way through. The occupants of the storage room looked at what laid on the other side. Overwatch was staring at the ponies with an expression somehow more blank than the rest of the masked Shadow. The glacial sniper was slowly sharpening his combat knife, still covered in blood stains from the Griffin encounter, against a wall. The blade made a disturbing noise.

After a long pause, Overwatch decided to break the silence. "So how're you doing?"

The cake twins immediately burst into tears, causing the cake family plus Pinkie Pie to retreat back to the storage room.

Mr. Cake crossed his fore hooves.

"Pinkie Pie, that stallion...or should I say man, leaves right now!"

Pinkie Pie gave a series of puppy dog eyes. "Come on, he's really humble when you get to know him. I think."

"Pinkie Pie what if he plans on murdering us in the middle of night or is planning to launch an alien invasion with his squad mates?" questioned Mrs. Cake.

"Oh you silly filly. If Overwatch wanted us dead, he would have killed us by now." giggled Pinkie Pie.

"That doesn't make me feel safer." gritted Mrs. Cake.

"Pinkie Pie, tell that abomination to leave our bakery at once!" ordered Mr. Cake.

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. "Did I ever tell you that Overwatch has the equipment to hear everything we're saying in this room right now?"

Mr. Cake's eye's widened. "Really?"

"Really!" answered out Overwatch's mechanical voice.

The color of the coats of the Cake couple started draining. Coming back to her senses, Mrs. Cake looked up at Pinkie;

"Pinkie Pie, that human will likely listen to you. I need you to tell him to leave immediately. There is no way I can sleep at night with an armed assassin in OUR bakery."

Pinkie Pie pleaded. "Come on!"

"No!" yelled the cake couple.

The 3 equines spent the next few minuted arguing. The party pony Pinkie promised a hundred times that she'd let nothing happen to the dwelling, but alas, she lost to the baker couple. SugarCube Corner was the property of the Cake family, after all.

"Pinkie Pie, our decision is final. He leaves now!" stammered Mrs. Cake.

Pinkie shook her head down. Suddenly, a haughty smirk formed on the mare's lips;

"Okey, Dokey, Loki." she sung in a sly voice. "Whose going to tell Overwatch to.....piss off?"

The Cake Parents gave a loud gasp. Mr. Cake hoped that the twins hadn't heard Pinkie swear. Mrs. Cake on the other hoof was fuming. "Pinkie Pie! How could you use such foul language?"

Pinkie Pie didn't drop her smile. "The fact doesn't change that somepony needs to tell Overwatch to leave. I want him to stay, so there's no way he's going to buy my dismissal."

Mr. Cake silently volunteered. Sweat was beginning to form on his fore head. "Okay, just because he dresses tough doesn't mean he is tough."

Building up courage, Mr. Cake opened the door. Overwatch had his art book out and was doing what he loved most. Scratch that, drawing was the thing he hated the least.

Confidently, the owner of SugarCube Corner trotted up to the unmoved sniper.

With a deep breath, the stallion was ready to talk down a mad, rabid dragon.

"OVERWATCH!"

Mr. Cake wouldn't stop crying. His fore hooves were burying his head furiously. His wife stood by his side trying to comfort him. His loud crying had awoken the cake twins again.

Pinkie Pie slowly trotted over to the yellow stallion. "You know what's funny? The fact that you just said Overwatch and immediately started crying."

Mr. Cake blew his nose in a tissue. "I just can't do it. He's too scary."

"Thank you." replied Overwatch to being called 'scary'.

Pinkie Pie got all excited. "Don't worry Mr. Cake. I know what will brighten everypony in the room!"

Pinkie Pie jumped up high. Before she could sing her smile song, Mrs. Cake grabbed the Pink Mare in the middle of the sky and pulled her down.

"Dear, just go upstairs with your assassin friend. Please."

Pinkie Pie used her sugar induced speed to escalate the stairs and called out to Overwatch to follow her up. The hooded sniper shot one look at the Cake family and gave a light growl, enough to give the family nightmares for the night.

Overwatch unenthusiastically walked into Pinkie Pie rooms. Expecting a sea of frilly pink and stuffed animals, Overwatch was surprised to find the room as relatively normal. 19th century, but normal.

The marksman detached his AM 90 sniper rifle from the magnetic plate on his back and set it aside along with his AP 80 PDR which he detached from from his hip plate.

Overwatch noticed the Pink Mare staring at his armaments with a quizzical look.

"Touch my weapons or any of my equipment and you'll be sorry." threatened the the marksman with utter insolence.

"Um....okay?" nervously stated Pinkie Pie as she tried to keep up her smile.

"So Overwatch, do you want a cupcake?" asked Pinkie Pie.

Before Overwatch could respond, Pinkie Pie used her sugar powered speed to sprint down the hall, grab a vanilla cupcake with blue frosting and rush back up.

"Here you go!" offered the party pony. She balanced the cupcake delicately with her hooves. And dropped it into Overwatch's reluctant palm.

The second the animated cupcake touched the human's hand, the confectionary set on fire. Leaving nothing bot black, seared, ash.

"...........So you really, really don't like cupcakes." noted Pinkie. She cheered up again. "Don't worry, there's a lot of things we can do tonight!"

Overwatch slumped back against the wall. Despite being a concrete structure the walls felt weak. Pinkie Pie meanwhile, had reached out of her eldritch closet to bring a mountain load of party activities for her and the sniper to enjoy.

Pinkie materialized in front of the cold soldier's mask.

"So are you ready for a time of excitement!"

"Meh."

"Alrighty then! What game do you wanna play first you whacky blacky soldier?"

Overwatch shrugged.

"I know what we can play then! Truth or Dare!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

After a moment pause. "I dare you not to ask me any truth questions for the reminder of the game."

Pinkie's face sunk. "Awwww. But then it will just be 'dare'! That's no fun!"

Overwatch merely crossed his arms.

"Okay then! How about a game of twister!" the Pink mare rushed to the pile of party games and pulled out the twister kit. The party pony emptied the contents of the box in a second and laid out its contents.

"Come on it will be fun!" Pinkie started playing the game by herself. She spun the dial. "Right fore hoof green." She placed her right fore hoof on a green spot. "Left hind hoof red." she placed her left hind hoof on the corresponding color.

Overwatch apathetically watched Pinkie Pie make a fool of her self and end up in a twisted mess from her own body parts. Pinkie Pie freed her self from the twisted mess and shook her head.

"Come on, don't you want to play you fumin' human?" cheerfully invited Pinkie Pie.

"This version of twister is for hooves. I have hands and feet." defended the sniper.

Pinkie Pie shook her head down in defeat.

She materialized right next to the slumped back sniper. "So Mr. Soul sucking black heart, what do you usually do in parties. All the stuff I suggest clearly aren't your thing."

"I don't get invited to fucking parties." muttered Overwatch.

Pinkie's mane dropped and she gave a loud gasp. "Oh my gosh, you've never been to parties before?"

"I have. Only if I have to disperse them or assassinate some HVT asshole in one of them." answered Overwatch.

"But what do humans do in parties? Surely you have to know even if you don't like them! I mean parties have to be pretty popular because no matter how many times somepony ditches them, they still know what's going on!"

"Drinking, dancing to shitty music and smoking weed." glumly responded the tall sniper.

"Well, we don't have any alcohol or weeds since we get rid of them in gardening, but I sure love dancing!" joyfully yelled Pinkie Pie. She proceeded to grab a record player and her favorite CD.

She used her teeth to insert the record into the player and used her muzzle to guide the needle onto the disc. In a flash, party music, composed by Vinyl Scratch her self, began playing.

Pinkie Pie started dancing wildly. "Come on Overwatch!.......................................Overwatch?"

If Overwatch had his mask removed, Pinkie Pie would have noticed his mouth hanging widely from astonishment.

Pinkie Pie shut off the music by pushing the needle away with her fore hoof.

The mare galloped to the stupefied sniper and waved her fore hoof in front of his shades.

"Epona to Overwatch? Do you read me?". The masked marksman got up and slowly walked over to the phonograph. His shades glowed blue as he scanned it's contents.

Pinkie was distracted by the blue light rays being emitted from Overwatch's HUD.

"Pinkie Pie, this is a phonograph. A perfect mid 20th century phonograph that's emitting early 21st century dance music." pointed Overwatch.

"Well duh. How else am I going to play music if I'm not the one singing you silly willy?" giggled Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie, my HUD is reading that the oldest of these objects couldn't have been manufactured more than 25 years ago." noted the marksman.

"I don't like bragging, but all my stuff is the latest in party technology!" exclaimed the pink pony.

"Doesn't it bother you that your possessions are an alignment of human inventions scattered through time? I'm reading that some of your so called 'latest part technology was made by humans throughout 19th, 20th and 21st century despite the fact your town is something from the 16th?" questioned Overwatch.

"Not to mention a lot of your objects of entertainment don't even make sense for pony culture to use considering they're meant to be operated by appendages like fingers?"

Pinkie Pie blinked and gave a light smile. "Okey, Dokey Loki. Let's pretend I'm good in history-"

Overwatch face palmed on his mask. "Fuck it, I'm better off reasoning with a wall." he affronted.

"Come on, Over, Dover, Roverwatch! This isn't the time for fancy wancy sciencey things! Just relax and let's get back to dancing!" Pinkie Pie trotted over to the record player and turned on the music again.

Pinkie Pie continued to dance while Overwatch sat on a chair. A chair he noted was clearly meant for human legs. Much to his discomfort, the chair collapsed under his weight despite the materials and dimensions of the furniture telling him otherwise.

Pinkie Pie closed her eyes began to imitate Twilight's famous pony dance. Suddenly, the next song played.

Pinkie immediately rushed over to the sniper. "Come on you fumin' human! This is a song that's meant for groups."

Overwatch gave an exhale of annoyance. "I don't do techno or party music."

The pink mare didn't take any offense. "Okey, Dokey, Loki!" The party pony skipped over to the record player and took off the CD and then turned back to Overwatch.

"So what music do you listen to?"

"Hard Rock and Metal. Especially songs from the 24th and mid 20th century." indifferently replied the sniper.

Pinkie Pie was dumbfounded. "Rock and metal? I never heard about that before. Besides, how can you listen to a rock or piece of metal? Both are just objects." Pinkie gave a loud gasp. "You don't mean to tell me that the rocks and metals outside of Equestria can talk and make music. Oh my gosh that is so cool. I wonder what they'd sing about. Do they sing about hitting people in the head or what life is like underground? I sure wonder what life would be like underground myself. It would probably be dark and scary. I sure hope I can meet a rock or metal from your planets!"

There was a small pause.

Pinkie rambled again. "Oh silly me, rocks and metals don't talk. But bashing rocks together does make music! I heard that's how the first drum kits were made. (Overwatch cringed at hearing drum kits.). I also heard that tapping on different types of metals make different sounds. If I had a set of different metal sheets, I'd make my own xylophone!" once again, Overwatch stammered upon hearing xylophone.

The sniper gave an annoyed sigh. "Pinkie. Rock and metal is a genre and has nothing to do with solid substances. Also, I question how your species could have invented techno, but not rock or metal."

Pinkie giggled. "See, ponies aren't exactly like humans! There differences when you think about it."

Overwatch shook his head. "I have yet to see something that ponies have but humans don't. Ponykind is basically a copy of human. Just selectively."

Pinkie Pie skipped over to the sniper. "I know what would make you feel happy!"

Overwatch just stared.

"A drawing contest! Let's get out your coloring book." Pinkie Pie materialized behind Overwatch and grabbed his coloring book.

Right before the equine could gaze at its contents, Overwatch's hyper fast reflexes kicked in. In a black blur, he yanked the mare up and stripped her of his art book in less than than a second.

Overwatch's enhanced annoyance caused Pinkie's mind to suffer again.

"Was it something I did?" questioned Pinkie Pie as Overwatch let her down.

"I don't care how adorable or cuddly you are. Nobody and especially, nopony looks in my art book without my approval." growled the marksman.

"What do you have that's so secret? Is it directions to a treasure chest? A secret military base? A candy stash? Because you see, I really love candy but ponies keep stealing from me so what I did was put it in a treasure chest and hide it in a royal guard base I only know about because-"

As Pinkie Pie rambled, Overwatch looked over the content of his art book. While most people now drew on tablets, holograms or computers, the glacial artist stuck to traditional pen and paper.

The books had nearly gotten full. It was chalked full of nature drawings of the the dozens of colonies he visited along with various military sketches.

But there was one thing that stood....out. He wasn't popular in high school but if there was anything he was famous for, it was his aptitude in art. In his senior year, a few dozen or so girls, taking advantage of his asexuality and creativity, asked him to sketch a few....nude drawings of them. Most of the provocative drawings had been discarded however, but some girls insisted he keep them. Not wanting to be rude, he did.

"-and that's how Equestria was made!" cheered Pinkie. Suddenly the mare snapped back to life. "So Overwatch, what do you say about the drawing game?"

"How do you intend to draw? You don't have any fucking fingers." he menacingly questioned.

Pinkie ignored the swear. "Oh it's, not a competition pal. I just tell you what to draw and you draw it! What do you say?"

The sniper shrugged. Pinkie Pie took it as a yes.

For the next few minutes, Pinkie pointed at a number of things for Overwatch to apathetically draw. Since everything was animated on Epona, drawing was just tracing.

Finally, Pinkie stopped. "Oh boy, that was pretty fun don't you think?"

"Meh."

Pinkie looked up at the sniper. "Overwatch, if there's something bothering you, Dr. Pinkie can help. Are you upset about anything? Is there something bothering you?"

Overwatch shook his head.

"Then why are you such a glum plum?" questioned the equine with genuine concern for the masked soldier's well being.

Overwatch just shrugged.

"Didn't your parents teach you the medicine of laughing?" asked Pinkie.

"My parents and older sister tried to make me happy once. It didn't work." growled the marksman.

Pinkie Pie laughed. "Oh that is hilarious. My family was a group of soulless rock farmers who tried to keep me miserable and I became the element of laughter!"

Overwatch said nothing as usual. He couldn't give two shits.

"Don't worry though. We can turn your little attitude around. Jokes are the best way to make somepony, and I'm sure, somebody laugh. Are you ready for a night comedy, fun times and laughter?" yelled Pinkie with utter eagerness.

"No."

"Alrighty then. Let's start laughing."

Pinkie Pie continuously tried to get Overwatch laughing. However, the jokes either didn't make sense to a human or were a ponified version of a joke that Overwatch already knew. The sniper went out to point out how the newly created pony jokes were human ones which were created a centuries apart.

Pinkie eventually gave up. "Well then. Why don't you tell me some of the jokes you humans know?"

Overwatch raised an eyebrow under his mask. "Are you sure?"

Pinkie Pie skipped in the air and nodded with utter joy. "Who isn't sure about jokes?"

40 racist, homophobic and sexist jokes later.

Pinkie Pie's mouth had hung open after the first joke. She quickly shook her head and tried to get the dirty thoughts out of her innocent mind.

"You call those jokes?" questioned the party pony.

Overwatch nodded.

"Jokes should involve you laughing with somepony, not at sompeony. I might not know what an 'asian' or 'red neck' is, but I sure can tell you they would like those jokes!" beamed Pinkie.

The sniper merely shrugged.

Pinkie went back to being her cheery self. "Alright then, we've tried games, dancing, drawing and jokes. But you're still a cynical wreck! You're case is worse than Cranky Doodle Donkey." Pinkie began formulating a plan.

"Looks like it's time for us to pull out the big guns!" she yelled.

"You're going to cut my cheeks to keep me smiling like the Joker the 5th or my friend Jeff?"

Pinkie Pie shook her head with anticipation. "No silly. This is the one song nopony can resist-"

"I'm not a pony." muttered Overwatch.

"-THE SMILE SONG!"

'Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile
Yes I do
It fills my heart with sunshine all the while
Yes it does
'Cause all I really need's a smile, smile, smile
From these happy friends of mine!
'Cause I love to make you grin, grin, grin
Yes I do
Bust it out from ear to ear let it begin
Just give me a joyful grin, grin, grin
And you fill me with good cheer
It's true some days are dark and lonely
And maybe you feel sad
But Pinkie will be there to show you that it isn't that bad
There's one thing that makes me happy and makes my whole life worthwhile
And that's when I talk to my friends and get them to smile
I really am so happy
Your smile fills me with glee
I give a smile I get a smile
And that's so special to me
'Cause I love to see you beam, beam, beam
Yes I do
Tell me what more can I say
To make you see
That I do
It makes me happy when you beam, beam, beam
Yes it always makes my day
Come on every pony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine
All I really need's a smile, smile, smile
From these happy friends of mine

Pinkie Pie finished singing and skipped over to the sniper. "So Overwatch, what do you think? Are you feeling happy?" asked Pinkie.

There was no response from the hooded Marksman.

"Overwatch? Epona to Overwatch." Pinkie Pie waved a hoof in front of Overwatch. Suddenly, he slumped back against her bed.

"ZZZZ." lightly snored the sniper. Overwatch had been asleep the entire song.

Pinkie scowled. "I will make you smile Overwatch. I Pinkie Promise that!". The mare's attitude brightened up. "But for now, time to hit the hay......and OH MY GOSH! I finally got the joke!"

Pinkie Pie skipped on her bed, curled into a pink fluffy ball and slept next to the sniper.

Chapter 20: Shadow's Night in Part 4

"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field." Dwight D Eisenhower

"Come on, there Scorch, we're almost there!" signaled Applejack.

"I know that, my HUD says we're only a few meters away!" replied the demo man.

The invisible Scorch had his rifle out and was trying to keep himself at a steady pace so he wouldn't outrun Applejack. The cowpony might have been fast, but this was a slow walk for a 23rd member.

"Are you sure you're family is going to accept housing a fucking alien for the night?" questioned Scorch.

Applejack ignored the swear gave a dry laugh. "Well of course partner! The Apple family is a hospitable bunch. Besides, Ah'm the element of honesty...well Ah used to. If Ah told em' you weren't gonna be trouble, they'd believe me in second!"

Scorch would have smelt the scent of apples if he had turned off his filter. His radar informed him that there was a massive plantation squaring kilometers right next to a barn.

The demo man found himself looking up at the night sky. It was just so, peaceful. He was used to observing the night sky being littered with starships, blowing each other apart with rail guns, tesla cannons and nukes as they raced to provide support to raging infantry. The demo man also noted how the stars were animated themselves. He had an epiphany that the atmosphere of Epona was distorting the sky to make stars appear stranger. The night sky on many colonies provided mixed results as well, with stars appearing smaller, bigger or just not showing up at all.

"So Scorch!" interrupted Applejack. "What da ya think of the barn?"

The demo man looked around the plantation and observed all the facilities. All the farm equipment was defiantly primitive compared to the terraformers, drones and structures implemented by the UTF Agriculture and Resources division. What struck him most however, was that the farm equipment wasn't Renaissance or enlightenment era. Scorch's data banks informed him the farm was akin to something of the late 19th century encountered in southern America.

"Primitive, I'll leave it at that." finally answered the cloaked Scorch.

Applejack's ears dropped in disappointment. Shadow had such high expectations.

"But defiantly ahead of your current time frame." added the Canadian demo man.

Applejack looked back up. "What da ya mean? The designs for this farm were developed around the same time as the other building in Equestria."

"That's valid, but compared to the architecture of resident homes, you're leading by a few centuries." explained Scorch. "You know, pony kind is all over the place in terms of innovation. You can't seem to stick within a current time frame. We've observed renaissance levels of literature, but with camera's of the 20th century and barns of the late 19th. The peculiar thing is however, these displaced developments were invented at the in time."

"Scorch, this is beyond ma level of thinkn'." shook Applejack. "Ah think you're worryin' yourself for nuthin'."

Scorch, still cloaked, spoke in a fake southern accent. "Speakin' of worryin' yourself for nuthin'." Applejack wanted to glare at Scorch if she knew where he was standing.

"I also think ponykind isn't consistent with culture as well. You have traces of ancient greek, traces of ancient rome, traces of England, France and in the case of you and your family, traces of Americans as well."

Applejack knitted her eyes. "What in da right mind is an American?"

The invisible Scorch inhaled. "Before we unified, Earth was divided into many nations. Each country more or less had it's own cultures as well. Pony kind seems to replicate the all of the white cultures like the ones I just mentioned. What's funny is that the cultures I listed influenced each other in order of mention. This only solidifies our theory of Ponykind evolving like humans. Just at a slower rate."

"Scorch, ya didn't answer ma question! What the hay is an American!" beamed Applejack.

"America was one of the countries that existed before the creation of the fucking United Terran Federation. Your family aligns itself with Americans. Scarecrow himself is of American decent."

"But Scarecrow doesn't have ma accent." noted the orange mare.

"That's because Scarecrow's ancestors haled from the northern region of America. Based on your nature, I'm assuming that your family is a mirror image of southern Americans who were often rural." explained the demo man.

"Well, yer not gonna find out squat if we keep standin' here yappin'. Come on, we gotta family to meet." Applejack puffed and trotted to her dwelling, trying to get all the metaphysics out of her head.

Scorch just realized something clever. In middle school he learned that Americans from the south were always armed and supported gun rights while Canadians didn't care much for firearms. In the current situation, he was armed with a rifle, rocket launcher and a shit ton of grenades while Applejack condemned the idea of killing.

The orange Earth pony used her teeth to pry open a door knob.

'Why the hell would ponies have door knobs? It's a finger operated mechanism. Unless they felt...compelled to manufacture them to follow humanity.'though Scorch.

Right before Applejack opened the door, she turned around, hoping to dace Scorch and spoke with a misaimed glare. "Now, ah want you to be nice to mah family. You owe me for letting you stay here."

"Yeah. Nice. I probably can do that." sarcastically muttered Scorch. His databanks and the VI in his suit informed him that southerners and Canadians didn't get along since the American Civil war.

Applejack entered the room, followed by the cloaked Scorch who ducked and entered the room. The orange mare quickly closed the door behind her.

"Applejack is that you?" said a squeaky young southern accent from across the hall.

"Dat's right! I'm back y'all!" yelled Applejack.

Suddenly, the cutest little filly that Scorch had ever seen scurried into the room. The filly, known as Applebloom, rushed into the fore hooves and embraced her sister.

Suddenly, two more ponies entered the room. One was a large red stallion with an orange mane. The other was was green and a fairly old pony. Scorch's HUD read that she was around 85 years old.

"Oh, Applejack, I've missed you so much. I know we haven't talked for only a few days, but it felt like a life time." cheered Granny Smith.

"Eeyup." nodded Big Mac.

Applejack stopped embracing her younger sister and hugged the rest of her family. After clearing her throat;

"Hey y'all. Ah'm really sorry Ah've been gone for so long. Ah only expected ta take a few hours, but then aliens show up. Ah'll tell you, getting back to Ponyville wasn't easy."

"It's okay Applejack. I understand, aliens are a handfull." assured Granny Smith. All of a sudden, the grand mother crossed her fore hooves. "Do any of have the feeling of a splitting headache?"

Applejack stomped her hoof to change the subject. "Look, ah've been gone for too long. All that work on the field that ah was supposed to do has ta be made up for!"

"That's okay sis, we filled in for you. Turns out it was easier than we thought!" remarked Applebloom.

"Don't ah have ta make it up to y'all?" asked Applejack nervously.

"We're family. You don't have ta make up for nuthin'!" exclaimed Granny Smith.

"Eyeup!" added Big Mac.

'Holy shit, these family values are killing me.' thought Scorch.

The invisible demo man lightly tapped the orange mare on the back to remind her not to get sidetracked.

Applejack froze at the odd sensation of being stoked by fingers before snapping back to reality.

"Listen y'all. We gotta guest tonight!" announced Applejack.

"Is it somepony we know, or is it somepony new?" asked Applebloom.

Applejack gave a weak laugh. "He's not a pony."

In the heard of the moment, Scorch uncloaked and revealed himself to the Apple family. Right before he could introduce himself to the family;

"ARGH! My heart!" screamed Granny Smith.

Taken by utter shock and overwhelmed by the complexity of the human's appearance, the gand mother felt her heart give out as she struggled to keep herself off.

Finally, the elder Apple collapsed to the floor. She disappeared off of Scorch's motion tracker. Her vitals went blank.

Applejack pressed her ear to Granny Smith's chest, desperately hoping to hear a beat. Suddenly, tears formed in the orange mare's eyes. "Granny's gone."

The other Apples were taken by shock. Scorch, being a 23rd member, was not fazed out by Granny's death.

"Everypony stand back now!" roared the demo man.

Big Mac desperately wanted to charge Scorch down, but for some reason, he felt compelled to follow the order of the human. Applejack and Applebloom did the same.

Scorch laid down his SCAR Z approached to corpse of the Grandmother. Using voice controls, "Suit. Divert all power form cloaking and barriers to form a shock burst."

WARNING. DIVERTING ALL POWER FROM KINETIC BARRIERS WILL LEAVE YOU DEFENSELESS UNTIL SOLAR RECHARGE.Flashed Scorch's HUD.

Scorch used neural controls to acknowledge he was aware of the consequences. Through their pool of tears, the 3 Apple Children observed a sphere of electric current form in Scorch's hand.

With a mighty swing, Scorch forced his charged hand onto the heart of Granny Smith. The electricity swarmed all over the elder mare's body, and jump started her heard with enough energy to reinforce cellular activity.

All of a sudden, Granny Smith woke up and breathed heavily. She found her self being hugged by her three grand children.

"Settle Down!" yelled granny smith. The elder Apple faced Scorch. "Did I die?"

"For a minute." coldly replied Scorch.

"You...you saved my life. You brought me back from the dead!" blurted Granny Smith.

"It's my job to defend the UTF constitution, which demands soldiers to protect the innocent." said Scorch.

"How did ya know that would save ma granny?" asked Applejack as she wiped her tears.

"This isn't the first time I brought back somebody, in this case somepony, back from the dead." answered Scorch.

Applebloom joyfully ran up to the demo man. "We're forever in your debt partner!"

"I just need a place to spend the night." laughed Scorch.

"Well we got our self a spare bedroom upstairs for guests, if ya don't mind!" offered Granny Smith.

Scorch paused for a minute before speaking again. "I don't think a bed is going to support my weight so-"

"Don't worry, Big Mac doesn't min' if somepony sleeps in his room right?" insisted Applejack.

"Eeyup." answered the large red stallion.

Scorch inspected the large stallion and chuckled. "You don't talk much, do you?"

"Nnnope!" shook Big Mac.

"You and Overwatch would get along perfectly." joked Scorch.

Granny Smith headed into the kitchen nervously. "Sadly ah made dinner fer four. You hungry Scorch?"

"No ma'am. I'm augmented to go days without food." replied Scorch.

Applebloom and Big Macintosh followed their grand mother into the room leaving Applejack and Scorch.

"You sure are a lot more restrained than usual. Somehtin' wrong sugar cube?" questioned the orange cowpony.

"Negative." denied Scorch. "I've gone public now so I have to start acting like a mysterious 23rd member to keep up a reputation." He pointed a finger of Applejack. "By the way, I never acted out of line."

"No problem. Ah'm trying to forget about it ma self." assured Applejack.

The human and Earth Pony entered the kitchen. Scorch noted how the chairs themselves were meant for human legs and that the entire kitchen contained 20th appliances that should be operated by fingers.

Scorch removed his rocket launcher from the magnetic plate on his back and set his rifle aside. Only his M20 rail pistol remained clipped to his magnetic belt.

The Apple family enjoyed their feast. Like the horses on Earth, their diet consisted of wheats and oats. Finally, Applebloom broke the silence with her cute voice. "So tell us about yourself, Mr. Scorch!"

"I'm male, born in Vancouver, raised on Requiem, 24 years old, conscripted in the 23rd counter terrorist division of the United Terran Federation. Period." said Scorch banally.

"Can you tell me about your job?" asked the filly.

"I stop bad guys and explore possible world to live in."

"That's not much." whimpered Applebloom.

"Well, there's only so much I can say without revealing information that's classified or information you don't want to know." defended the demo man. He placed a hand on his chin as slumped on the table.

"You said you were a demolitions. What does that mean?" piped up Applebloom, desperate for answers.

"It means I defeat my enemies by blowing them up. Can you not ask me about my job. I don't want you all to have nightmares!" beamed the demo man.

Applejack remembered something. "Say Big Mac, we don't have anythin' flammable lyin' 'round right?"

"Nnnope." shook the red stallion. "Why?"

Scorch got up excitedly. "Did somepony say flammable?"

"Scorch, there is nothin' you can burn. This place is fire proof." chastised Applejack.

Scorch held a grenade. "I can contend that. Come on."

The rest of the Apple family was taken by surprise. Applejack tried to lighten the mood as Scorch collected himself.

"Sorry y'all some men just want to watch da world burn."

"What if I were to ask you questions on farming? Would that be fine?" questioned Granny Smith.

Scorch nodded.

"Have you ever been on a farm before?"

"Not really. Me and the rest of my friends were city boys. Privately owned farms often displayed strong support for insurrectionists, particularly Mega Corp terrorists so most of the time me any my squad spent time on farms interrogating suspects. A lot of the time they were smuggling weapons or funding the insurrections directly." answered Scorch.

Granny's face fell. "Why would an honest farmer support bad guys or large evil corporations?"

"Money." chirped Scorch.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Wait. So there are no private farms on the UTF?"

"More or less. We have a libertarian social policy but a socialistic economic policy where the government controls the main means of production." replied Scorch.

"But dat ain't fair! Farmers work best when left alone. Nationalization is stealin' honestly earned profits and tyranny! Our princesses would never dream of stomping on a ponies business." snorted the orange mare.

"Well, considering there haven't been any famine strikes for.....half a millennia. Who cares about profits?" reviled Scorch. "Besides, UTF famers pretty much live a free life and agriculture is hardly ten percent of the human economy."

"Maybe if ya didn' regulate farms so harshly, there would be no terrorists!" noted Applejack.

"If farmers weren't greedy, retarded capitalists, there wouldn't need to be regulation in the first place!" countered Scorch.

"Ah, jus' can't see a farmer darin' to sell him or herself to greedy business ponies. they should keep their own land and dow what ever the heck they want with it. Besides, farmers have good intentions, you don' need ta watch 'em all the time." rambled Applejack.

The masked demo man paused before speaking again. "What were to happen if another family came around that started selling apples?"

"We can't have dat! We'd either buy 'em out or make sure we ain't got no competition." explained Big Macintosh.

"How big is the apple production of Equestria, is it limited to this farm?" questioned Scorch.

"No. The Apples are huge family spread across the country. We even own the town of Appaloosa." chirped Applebloom.

Scorch smirked under his mask. "Let's see....you believe farmers work best when left alone because they're totally not going to making nation scarring mistakes and have a monopoly on the entire production of a crop. Gee, your family sounds like a greedy corporation to me."

"We're not greedy." whimpered Applebloom. "We make apples for all of Equestria to enjoy."

"Humans sure have a lot of advanced technology. How's farming like?" asked Granny Smith who desperately tried to change the subject.

"Well we've come a long way. We have colonies just meant for agriculture like the planet Demeter." answered Scorch.

"Huh, a world meant for farming. Sounds like heaven." chirped Granny Smith.

Scorch continued. "I don't know how to explain this without confusing you, but farming...has changed. Your farming techniques equate that of human techniques utilized in the 19th century. Ours, is much more advanced. First, we terraform the inhospitable worlds."

One could hear crickets whisper. Scorch rolled his eyes and spoke in an annoyed tone.

"It means our fancy space ships change barren planets to be habitable with cool space beams. Can you comprehend that?"

Big Mac frowned at the demo man.

"After terraformation. We use robots to plant seeds on the planet and deploy livestock trough the use of cargo ships. Once everything is in place, the government creates agriculture zones which is mostly made up of framers working together with robots to produce food for the populace. Materials such as rakes and tractors have been replaced with drones and other less primitive material."

"Sounds complicated." noted Applejack.

"It is. Farmers need to have a good understanding of drone technology as well as plant biology in order for them to properly grow the best food." explained the counter terrorist.

"That's horrible. Farmin' comes from the inside. It's supposed to allow ponies to live a simple life free from government control." shook Applejack.

"Yeah because humans totally need more uneducated, conservative farmers who constantly cry secession jeopardizing the food production of our species." sarcastically remarked Scorch.

The atmosphere was dead silent until Applebloom broke it. "But ah got a B- on ma math test."

"Great!" false cheered Scorch.

"But still. Farmin' and technology don' go well together. A year ago, a bunch of con ponies showed up and tried ta run me and the family out of business. But our hoof produced sure spoke for itself. Right?" spoke up Applejack.

"Eeyup." agreed Big Mac.

"Okay. First, our technology doesn't degrade food quality since the UTF prohibits the use of harmful chemicals in crops for the sake of health. Second, since all farmers work for the government, nobody needs to worry about being run out. Third, things CHANGE! Our population grew to extreme lengths, how is hand made farming going to help a system of colonies unless we all decided to quit our jobs and work as famers? Now we have technology and intelligent people producing safe crops for the mass people. Traditional farming wouldn't have provided enough." defended Scorch.

"He's right." condescended Big Mac.

Applejack scowled. "What da ya mean?"

"Think about it. Our hoof produced cider was great and all, but it couldn't feed enough bellies." explained the stallion. "And you remember Applebuck season right? You were wasting yourself trying to plow through a simple field. Since we didn't use technology and were so insistent on being privatized, we almost couldn't accomplish squat."

"But what about the farm folk? What about their jobs? What happened to 'em when the government took over?" glared Applejack. "Were they drafted to the army?"

"No. They got educated and found higher ranking jobs. Drones took their place to produce better quality crops in higher quantities." beamed the masked commando.

"What! Humans completely desecrated the agriculture business by draggin' yer fancy mathematics and drones into it." reviled Applejack.

"Applebloom cover your ears." ordered Scorch. The filly placed her hooves on her eardrums.

"We didn't desecrate shit! We changed! Something you can't grasp the concept of." stated Scorch. "New business competitor? Run them out of business. New technology? disregard it simply because it's new and doesn't work out in the beginning and you're too lazy to adapt. You're asked to be part of a bigger community? You call the government tyrants."

Applejack sighed in defeat and unplugged Applebloom's hoofs from her ears.

"Robots that help with farming. Seems like yesterday we invented the plow." sighed the elder Apple who was lost in thought all the while.

Scorch knitted his eyebrows under his mask. "You seem to have lived here a long time."

"You betcha. I kinda found the town myself." bragged the grandmother.

"Liar." countered Scorch.

Applejack slammed her hooves on the table. "How dare you call ma grandmother a liar!"

Scorch remained unmoved. "If she's telling the truth than why is she 85 years old despite structures of the town and a history book mentioning it to be more than 200?"

Applebloom gasped. "Granny! You lied to ma class!"

The grandmother blushed. "Settle now, it was just a little white-"

"Ya broke the family code! How can ah be the element of honesty when my grand mother fibbed about her life!" chastised Applejack.

"Eeeyup." agreed Big Mac.

"Does this mean zap Apples are a lie too?" asked Applebloom.

Granny Smith shook her head. "No no. Ah was tellin' the truth 'bout zap apples."

Scorch raised an eyebrow. "Zap Apples?"

"They're a magical brand of Apple that our branch of the family is known for." winked Granny Smith.

"There's no such thing as magic." muttered the hooded human.

"Shadow squad thinks that everythin' can be explain usin' some sciency facts." chuckled Applejack.

"Wow, you must have done well at school." sarcastically beamed Scorch. Applejack frowned at him in return.

"Gee. Zap Apples were a tricky subject for me." pondered Granny Smith. "Ah never found out how they work."

"I can probably crack the case." smirked the black clad soldier. Scorch and Granny Smith spent the next half hour discussing the plant and the reasoning behind the rituals. To Scorch's surprise, the grandmother listened intuitively to his explanations and understood a lot of the concepts he brought up.

Granny Smith took in all the new information before cracking a smile. "Boy howdy! You just solved the mystery of the Zap Apples. Sure wish the kids were awake to hear that."

Scorch turned around to see Applejack, Applebloom and Big Mac sleeping. Scorch rolled his eyes under neath his mask, he gave a snap with his gloved fingers to pry them awake.

The noise caught the sleeping equines off guard.

Applebloom covered her head with her hooves. "What was that noise!"

"It was a snap." answered Scorch. He gave another one.

"Argh! That sound is just so disturbing." groaned Applejack. "And the way you move your fingers is just weird."

Scorch gave a sigh of annoyance. "While you 3 red necks were asleep. I unraveled the mystery of Zap Apples with educated rational thought."

"What's a red neck?" asked Big Mac.

"Yeah, ah heard you call me dat before." panned Applejack.

"Red neck is a derogatory term used for southern Americans." blurted the masked demo man.

"We're not southern. Nor are we Americans." pointed Applebloom.

"Scorch here has a crazy idea that our family is rippin' off human culture." announced Applejack.

"I'm not science wiz but I'm certain that we ain't copyin' nobody." insisted Granny Smith.

Scorch gave a sigh of annoyance that blew his bandanna forward. "Look, ponykind is a copy of the western Europeans and Americans. You're architecture and literature is renaissance English and the values, accent, as well as occupation of your family is souther American of the 19th century!"

Scorch accessed pictures on his wrist computer's databank and a hologram appeared over the table.

The Apple family was trapped in a state of awe by the hologram.

"Sure is a fancy way of keeping photos." admired Granny Smith.

Scorch used neural controls to shift to a picture of rural America. While the original image had been taken in black and white, modern technology allowed the pictured to reappear colored.

"This is a farm in Southern USA in 1870. notice any similarities?" questioned the demo man.

The Apple took a good look at the farm. Sure enough, the setting looked familiar.

Scorch turned off the hologram once the message sunk in.

"My Gosh. We are copyin' those humans!" realized Granny Smith.

"So those old southern folk were like us?" nervously squeaked Applebloom.

"That's right. Like you, they were farm loving, government hating and skeptical of skepticism." said the masked soldier.

"You know what's funny?" continued Scorch. "I'm from Canada and I learned that people from the Southern USA shared animosity since the American Civil War between the urban North and rural South."

"Why were the North and South fightin'?" questioned Big Mac.

"The southerners betrayed the Union because they wanted to own slaves." explained Scorch.

"Ah don't believe you! If southern folk are just like the Apple Family, than there's now way they'd hold slaves because we as sure as heck wouldn't." defended Applejack.

"Well history is history. The south wanted to own slaves, ironically thought the government was being unjust by trying to free the slaves, seceded and fought a war while those slaves to escaped to civilized Montreal." chanted Scorch.

There was a long awkward silence. Scorch needed to do something before pushed the gears further.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have judged you based on your human counter parts. You're trying to be nice, and I'm just being callous." apologized the demo man.

"Hey you're just stressed." muttered Granny Smith. She looked up at Scorch with a grin. "I think I have a job for you."

The family and Scorch found themselves outside the house facing the barn.

"So what do you want me to do?" asked the demo man. Scorch had his rifle drawn out.

"Well, we're going to build a new barn soon since this one keeps falling." began Applejack.

"Well of course." beamed Scorch. The commando had magnetic vision turned on and was analyzing the structure. "All the nails of this barn are rusted, the wood is borderline dust and whoever built this barn has no sense of geometry."

"Can you do better?" muttered Big Mac.

"Eeeyup." insisted Scorch in a fake southern accent.

Granny Smith explained the situation. "Since we're going to build a new barn from scratch we need this one torn down-"

Before Granny Smith could finish instructing Scorch fired a rifle grenade at the barn, causing the structure to explode and catch on fire. There nothing left but a pile of ash.

The entire Apple Family had their mouths open in shock as they observed the wreckage.

Scorch who was unfazed felt the night calling. "Well, I'm going to go to sleep."

The members of the Apple Family took a hold of themselves and made similar statements. Scorch noticed that Big Mac didn't seem enthusiastic about giving up his bed.

"Hey Mac. I'll take the barn." called out Scorch.

"You sure?"

"Positive. I don't think even your bed could take my weight." muttered Scorch. With abnormally fast speed, he made it to the other barn in 2 seconds.

Applejack and her family separated from the hooded Human as they went inside their dwelling. Right when the family made it to the living room-

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" yelled Scorch's mechanical voice.

Applejack gave a weak laugh. "Ah'll go check it out."

The orange mare dashed inside the barn to investigate what was going on. The last thing she wanted was an enraged demo man running amuck.

Scorch stood next to the cows and was breathing heavily.

"Hey Applejack." greeted a cow.

"Oh, hi Mootilda." replied Applejack. "Scorch, what's da problem?"

Scorch pointed at the cows. "What is this?"

After Applejack got over Scorch's fingers; "They're just cows. What, you want to sleep in a barn and didn't expect any animals?"

"Animals? Applejack these cows are sentient." growled Scorch.

"That's right. We can talk, think and feel." noted a Cow.

"I spoke to these cows and you're treating them like...farm animals!" gritted the masked commando.

"Well that's how you're supposed to treat cows." sighed Applejack. "Don't humans raise cows too?"

"Yes! But those cows aren't sentient. They're dumb animals!" countered Scorch. "These cows are capable of free thought and you're suppressing their nature and locking them up. This is fucking slavery."

"We're not treatin' 'em like slaves. Cows are free!" defended Applejack.

"Can they leave at will?"

"Well no."

"Did they agree to have they're milk harvested?"

"Uh...no."

"Do they have a say in the way you can treat them?"

"No...again."

"Does Equestria's laws and rights apply to them."

(Gulp) "No...."

"If a cow is born into this barn, does it have to enter your service?"

".......yes." squeaked Applejack.

Scorch shook his head. "Just wow. The Apple family really is like southern USA. Right down to slavery."

"But you don't get it!" stomped Applejack. "Da cows don't mind. We provide 'em with food and shelter in return for their milk.....and freedom ah guess."

"That is exactly what those neo confederate apologists kept saying." glared Scorch. As the human grew madder, the pain in Applejack's head grew in synchronization.

"For violating law 5 of the United Terran Federation constitution which states; 'No human shall ever be a slave nor an involuntary servant to another human on Earth or her colonies.' I am placing you and your family under arrest."

Applejack started sweating. "Scorch this isn't a UTF world. Human laws can't be enforced here."

"I AM THE LAW!" growled Scorch as he readied a pair of kinetic barrier hand cuffs.

Applejack was desperate. "Come on Scorch, how isn't nationalization no different from slavery anyway."

Scorch groaned. "It's always about the government with you farmers is it? Let me tell you something horsey. Even though the UTF is tight on agriculture workers, they still have the same rights as the rest of humans, have a say in their job and government, can leave when they want to and are allowed to be a part of society like any other human."

Right before Scorch could imprison the cowpony he turned to the cows. "You know what, I have a better idea."

Scorch drew his pistol and aimed at the lock. The unsupressed gauss bullet created a loud noise that nearly woke up town and Shadow. Scorch quickly sent a message to the rest of Shadow using thought mail to explain the situation.

Finally he turned to the cows.

"What's going on?" asked Mootilda.

"You're free." stated Scorch.

"What?" gasped the cows.

Scorch pointed outside. "Go on. These ponies don't control you anymore. I'm freeing you like the Canadian I am."

"But we like being here. We have a home." said another cow.

Scorch face palmed. "You don't get it, do you? These ponies are playing you for suckers. They keep you locked in this fucking cage to harvest your milk and you can't say anything about it."

Scorch spent the next 25 minutes explaining natural rights and the injustices of capitalism to the cows while Applejack tried to get the ringing out of her head.

"Now onward! You cows have a path to be free and rule yourselves. Let no ponies stop you!" cheered Scorch.

Applejack and Scorch watched as the cows rallied into the woods to parts unknown.

30 seconds later, a group of conveniently placed animated wolves jumped out of a bush and ambushed the cows, ripping them apart one by one.

"Ah can't watch!" squealed Applejack as she looked away.

Scorch, being a psychotic 23rd member, was unfazed by the cow's death. The commando simply primed a frag grenade and threw it to the cluster of wolves.

The canines looked at the explosive the moment it detonated, sending wolf parts as well as cow corpses everywhere.

"Bad dream! Bad dream! Bad dream! Bad dream! Bad dream! Bad dream! Bad dream!" yelled Applejack as she scurried inside.

"Better to die your own man than live a slave!" exclaimed Scorch.

Scorch simply turned around, started a warm fire, and camped outside for the night.

Author's Note

Disclaimer: The views reflected here on farming, economics or Southerners here do not generally equate those of mine. I don't hate people from Southern USA and I'm not advocating total socialism. Also, sorry for the inconsistent capitalizations.

By the way, I've noticed that the demo man and heavy of any video game or work of fiction is always the one of the lowest intelligence. What do you think?

Honestly, why do so many HiEs ignore the fact that Equestria has southerners in it?

Chapter 21: Divergence

"The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people."- Karl Marx

Twilight breathed heavily as she flew past the once beautiful city. In a matter of an hour, the settlement had turned into a barren wasteland. Every building had more or less collapsed and everypony was slumped on the ground, with a hole in their body leaking blood or the mark of a knife.

Twilight dashed as fast as she could would her wings, cursing herself all the while for not practicing flying. Teleportation was out of the question since a pulse grenade had disabled her magic.

She didn't know whether to thank Celestia for surviving or to wish to have been spared from such a horrible burden. The princess needed to find help straight away before the rest of Ponykind was destroyed.

Just when she thought she was in the clear-

BANG!

All of a sudden, the sound of a railgun deafened the purple mare, followed by a bullet ripping through one of her wings and nearly dismembering the other.

The loss of her wings sent the Alicorn crashing down. Thankfully, she had not flown high enough for the crash to have killed her. However, the impact pained worse than inserting a hot needle through an eye.

After coughing some blood, Twilight readied herself up. All of a sudden, she stumbled forward as she realized her right fore hoof had been broken. Twilight limped across the ruins of the city, hoping to get out alive. But who was she kidding, nothing could escape the wrath of them.

After trotting a few meters, the mare felt a sharp pain in her mind. They were getting closer. The princess moved further and further, but the pain was getting worse. All the while, Twilight was trying to keep the sight of those dead ponies out of her mind.

Twilight was about to make a turn when she saw an ominous message painted with a pony's blood:

Why do you run?

The former element of magic knew this was just an attempt to break her spirit. It wasn't going to work. She moved further and further out of the city.

Then another blood written message appeared on a door step.

Your attempts to outclass us are laughable at best.

Before she burst into tears, the alicorn noted that the message may not have been intended for her. The blood was just too dry and would have had to have been written at least 45 minutes ago. When everypony else was alive.

The Alicorn limped further and further.

All of a sudden, there was the sound of hoof steps. Scratch that, foot steps. One of them was right next to her.

Twilight felt her sanity slip further and further away. What was the point in going on? All of her friends were dead and there was nothing ponykind to do to stop them. They were brilliant and indomitable.

Followed by a disturbing silence. He appeared. A black bi-pedal blur.

Twilight lost it the moment she laid eyes on him. His form, his dress, his superiority sapped her life force and mentality.

Then, he grabbed the alicorn with his gloved hand and elevated her up. Twilight resisted the urge to stare into his blank and soulless visor.

He drew a knife and traced it around the frightened mare's body. With a sadistic chuckle he spoke:

"I am going to enjoy every moment skinning your fur off your body."

"NO!"

Twilight felt her magic reappear and used her feeble stamina to teleport away from his grip. As she reappeared, Twilight drew her energy to fire a magical bolt at him, only for the blast bounce off his barrier harmlessly.

"Your weakness disgusts me." he growled. He drew his rifle and fired.

Everypony in Ponyville had a similar dream to what Twilight envisioned. There was always the destroyed city, there was always the death of loved ones and the dreams ended the same, with the dreamer's own death at the hands of Shadow.

But what sense would it make that everypony had the same dream? For they merely shrugged it off as stress from meeting aliens.

Scarecrow woke up and gave a small yawn. After sinking in the animated appearance of the room he was in, the commando was ready for another day.

Slowly tilting his head, the still masked soldier noticed a purple mare, curled into a ball sleeping on the far side of the bed. Twilight had her wings tucked in and she purred lightly as she slept. It was the cutest thing Scarecrow had seen, even more precious than his cat back on Pewter City.

Scarecrow put on his gloves and flipped on his hood to cover his blond hair. He could have sworn remembering Twilight wanting to sleep on the couch, only to get distracted by the comfort of the royal bed and fall asleep instantly.

Scarecrow equipped his magnetic gloves and turned on his wrist computer, allowing the kinetic barrier to shield his body. Scarecrow checked the time: 9:15 am by the local star system.

The commando softly tapped on the Alicorns head to wake her up. They had a busy day after all.

The alicorn got on her 4 hooves, gave a horse like whinny and grunt and thoughtlessly nuzzled Scarecrow's arm. Suddenly, Twilight's eyes shot open.

"Did I just do that?"

Scarecrow raised an eyebrow. "Elaborate with the class."

Twilight started panicking. "I just grunted like a wild animal. nuzzled you the same way a cat nuzzles its master."

"That's how horses are supposed to show affection." noted Scarecrow.

Twilight glared at him. "You said horses on Earth are unintelligent! I'm a pony, I'm sapient and I especially can't act like that considering I'm a princess."

Scarecrow rolled his eyes under his shades. "Digressing, were you able to get enough sleep last night?"

"Of course." nodded Twilight. "Why?"

"Because your brainwaves suggest nightmares and I heard your grunting the names of me and my friends in your sleep." panned the masked commando.

Twilight tried to explain herself but Scarecrow cut her off.

"Don't worry, this isn't the first time someone couldn't sleep in night because of the 23rd." he assured.

Twilight collected herself. She constantly tried to reassure herself that Shadow wasn't planning on murdering her. Suddenly, a little dragon crept into the room.

"Glad to see you two are awake." cheered Spike. "Oh and Twilight, I made you breakfast."

The alicorns stomach growled in response she flew down to the kitchen to feast. Shadow's abrupt arrival had damaged her eating pattern.

Spike looked guilty "Sorry Scarecrow, I don't know what humans eat so-"

"It doesn't matter. I'm augmented to go days without food." shrugged Scarecrow.

The hooded 23rd member equipped his LMG and placed his shotgun on his back. Scarecrow and Spike crept down the gilded staircase to meet the alicorn.

Despite her earlier statement on royal etiquette, Twilight was pigging out with her food. Spike went on to enjoy some gems he ate from a bucket. Scarecrow took notes on the dragons appetite.

"Excuse me Scarecrow, do you know what day it is?" moaned Twilight, mouth full of cereal.

"Well let's see, I arrived on Epona on June 15, met you on the 16th and arrived at Ponyville on the 17th. So that leaves us at June 18 2530." he chanted.

"Oh thats today? Are you ready for your pre solstice meeting with the other princesses today? asked Spike.

Twilight spat out her cereal and milk at Scarecrow. Luckily for the human, the cereal reflected off of his kinetic barriers and harmlessly slid down. Scarecrow on the other hand was less than pleased.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe I forgot about the most important princess meeting ever!" shrieked Twilight. "Ever since you and your human friends decided to show you, my schedule has been totally messed up."

"Well excuse me for solving the curiosity of the UTF." growled Scarecrow. "What may I ask makes this meeting so special to others?"

Twilight calmed her self with Cadance's technique. "This is the meeting me and the three other princesses finalize what the country is going to do for the summer sun celebration on June 23rd. That is the most important festival of Equestria since it marks-"

"It marks the summer solstice?"

Twilight paused. "How did you-"

"My Virtual Intelligence informed me that based on the effects that planet and star have on space time, the summer solstice will always be at this time. I further deduced that it will always be the 23rd of June because solar motion is controlled and not natural." explained Shadow's commander.

Twilight stared at Scarecrow before shaking her head. "I'm wasting time. I haven't even mentioned to the princesses that there are aliens in Equestria! Your arrival changes everything."

"How so? Can't you merely go through the event as if we weren't here in the first place?" asked the masked soldier.

"Don't you get it? Huge event. Magic and religion is a theme. A social gathering. You're here." beamed Twilight.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Twilight flew to the entrance and used telekinesis to open the handle.

Outside, Twilight's 5 friends stood, followed by the rest of Shadow who uncloaked.

"Oh hey everypony and everybody." greeted Twilight.

"Mornin' Twi." replied Applejack. The orange mare gave a chuckle. "Ya know, ah da weirdest dream last night. Scorch somehow killed all ma cows."

"Really? I had a strange dream myself this night." nervously said Twilight.

X-ray, Overwatch and Scorch ignored the conversation and nonchalantly brushed past Twilight and the other ponies and approached Scarecrow. All 4 humans were thinking the same thing. In unison they said:

"We have a shit ton to discuss."

X-ray took the lead. "I don't know about you guys, but Equestria is definitely the capital of anachronisms. When I went to Rarity's home, I found dresses from the reinsurance, suits from the industrial revolution and furniture from the 20th century."

Scorch folded his arms. "Applejack and her family are a fully fledged copy of southern folk of the Unites States. From accents, farming techniques, economic and social beliefs to downright slavery of cows."

"Fucking confederates." spat Scarecrow in his New Yorker/Michigan ways.

Overwatch spoke coldly. "Not only that, but the logic in which pony's evolve make no sense, they have techno, but no rock or metal, that comes out record players."

"Speaking of record players," pointed Scorch. "Haven't you noticed they have technology that makes no sense for them to have in the first place?"

"Affirmative." answered Scarecrow. "They have door knobs, pencils and kitchen equipment that's clearly meant for fingers. I have yet to see something that was designed for hoof specifically in mind."

"That only solidifies our theory further." added X-ray. "If ponies were evolving naturally, than surely they would have been force to create hoof operated tools to adapt. In this scenario, it seems as if ponies were compelled to replicate human technology as an odd instinct."

"I still say the strange thing about it all is the fact that ponies claim each of these commodities was brought to public attention around the same time." noted Scarecrow.

"But what strikes me most is that nothing we've seen exceeds the 20th century and that's in furniture." remarked Scorch. "And if what the ponies say about being created to start off in an ancient greek like period is true, than surely they should have been a space faring race by now."

Suddenly Pinkie Pie bounced to the masked humans excitedly.

"Good news everybody, we got the full tour planned. Everpony is just super duper excited to meet you all!"

"They're really nervous, but at the same time really excited to check you out." exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

"And while you 4 go on your tour, I'll be in Canterlot for the day discussing what we're going to be doing about the 4 of you being in Equestria and the Summer Sun celebration." said Twilight.

"Yeah, about that. Would you kindly cancel the tour." muttered Scarecrow.

"Beg your pardon?" questioned Applejack.

"There's been a change of plans." sighed X-ray.

"But everypony is getting exhilarated just to meet you. The 4 of you can't possibly cancel the tour." shook Rarity.

"Watch us." growled Overwatch.

"Why would you want to cancel the tour?" whimpered Fluttershy. "I mean it's fine if-"

"Look, you ponies might possess the rationality to comprehend this, but our theory about pony's evolving to become like humans or having a human influence is ripening." explained Scarecrow. "The 4 of us need to get to the bottom of this situation ASAP."

"Yeesh. You're canceling a fully fledged tour just because of a few coincidences." scowled Rainbow Dash.

X-ray gritted his teeth. "One! As if we need to tour a group of facilities that we humans already have on our colonies in better conditions. Two, for the sake of pony mental health and innocence, I don't think a 23rd member should be around them for too long. since all of our confrontations end in misery Third, a lot of the content we're going to be asked is going to be classified anyway. Fourth, universe shaking discoveries beet banal tours."

"Awww, but the town is just so nervouscited to meet you 4!" chocked Pinkie Pie.

"Well, why not make ponykind useful and help provide us information to further our research?" questioned Overwatch.

"No offense darling, but human works of science stretches beyond the limits of Ponykind. Besides, it would be such a stressful distraction from our day to day lives and wouldn't help us one bit." stated Rarity.

Scorch unfolded his arms. "While Rome burns, Ponies care about silly day to day activities and meaningless fun."

"Ah hate ta brake it ta ya partner. But this is Ponyville, and it ain't burning." pointed Applejack.

"It isn't burning.....yet." smirked Scorch.

Scarecrow got back on track. "This doesn't change the fact that my squad is on the verge of a breakthrough, let the real first contact team pacify the needs of your citizens. After all, what human is crazy enough to disregard a species being exactly like his?"

Twilight stomped her hoof. "Scarecrow, this is the chance for you and your friends to make or brake the human relationship with Ponykind. Besides, on the tour you could collect vital information to our cause."

X-ray exhaled. "She has a point. With any luck, we'll run into sources that would help us with our theory. Besides, how could we say no to such cute and cuddly creatures?"

"See, X-ray has the right idea." insisted Rainbow Dash.

Scarecrow gave a sigh of annoyance. "Fine, but we will disregard any questions that we're not allowed to answer, get to call quits anytime we want and spend no more than an hour in each section. Understand?"

The ponies gave remarks of validation.

"We've already semi violated a protocol by revealing our selves to the public." pointed Scorch. "The last thing we need is for ponies to know about our lives since birth."

"Don't worry, all you need to tell them that it's classified information and everypony will think it's like some cool spy thing and lay off the questioning." cheered Pinkie Pie.

"Besides, isn't mystique and fear of the unknown traits of the 23rd?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"It is. But fear of the unknown starts without actually knowing we exist." countered X-ray. "That's why we we're so successful in combat and keeping people in line. Through a threat they don't know exists."

"Right now, we're a blinking New Vegas casino in the Marshall Desert." gritted Overwatch.

"But one, you're not in combat with anypony and two, you don't need to use fear to keep ponies in line." pointed Rarity.

"Also, we demand that we be allowed to strip Ponies of anything we deem a threat to humanity or anything that we can use to further our research." ordered Scorch.

"You can't just take anything you want without permission." beamed Twilight.

"You're right, the human law says we need to address a warrant." remembered X-ray.

"But failure to comply to that warrant is a federal offense and will result in detention." warned Scarecrow.

"If that's the case, than I don't think anypony is going to give up their stuff so easily. Even if it is for science." glared Rainbow Dash.

"I swear, ponies are counterproductive when it comes to any field of knowledge." cursed X-ray.

Twilight gathered a set of things she had pre packed for a royal summit and brought them to her with telekinesis. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I have a summit to get to."

"No problem Twilight. Something tells me you want to get away from the attention in the first place. Besides, the sooner the princesses know, the better." encouraged X-ray. The masked human crouched down and to the ignorance of the ponies in the room, slapped on a nano recorder that transmitted voice recordings directly to their storage.

Shadow used neural controls to log into the device.

"Don't be late Twilight. I mean, if that's okay with you." whispered Fluttershy.

Twilight headed out the door. "Well I'm off to the train station!"

"Are you kidding me?" groaned Scorch.

Twilight turned around. "What do you mean?"

"Why would you waste time with taking a train?"

Twilight flapped her wings. "Oh, I see! I'll just fly there."

"Ahem." Scorch pointed to Twilight's horn.

The purple mare blushed. "Oh of course. Teleportation, why didn't I think of that?"

Twilight's horn lie up and the alicorn vanished from the vicinity.

"Alright, let's get this tour over with." growled Scarecrow.

Rainbow Dash got excited. "So we're going to start with the school. It's not too far-"

"Um, girls. I don't think it's a very good idea for a human to be interviewed by a classroom, especially if they work for the 23rd." spoke up X-ray.

"Why not?" glared Applejack.

Scarecrow dropped his mouth under his mask. He pointed his fingers to his mask. "Let's see, we're very aggressive, anti social, cynical, can't resist the urge to point out flaws, give ponies mind attacks every time they look at us and above all, our job requires us to kill!"

"Plus, I don't know how, but we're going to end up insulting them all and leaving them crying if we don't make a death threat first." finalized Scorch. "The 23rd operates on fear."

"Do you really want fillies or colts to be near us?" added X-ray.

"Come now, these fillies and colts haven't seen anything exciting since the great cutie mark mix up. Not to mention, you did a good job restraining yourself in front of Sweetie Bell." noted Rarity.

"If that doesn't float your boat, you could always go to to the Rainbow Factory in Cloudsdale." offered Rainbow Dash.

".............."

After the pause, X-ray burst. "First off, the last time humans went to a city in the clouds, it didn't work out. Badly. Second, how do you have, no wait, why the fuck do you have a Rainbow Factory?"

The two pegasai looked nervous.

"You do realize a Rainbow is just refracted light right?" questioned Scarecrow. The masked human took off his shades, quickly placing a palm to over his eyes as well.

Impressively, the leader of Shadow motioned his shades to the window. Suddenly, a non animated Rainbow emitted from the light rays the optics were refracting.

Scarecrow put on his shades in a fifth of a second. Much to the equine's dismay, they couldn't catch a glimpse of the human's eyes. If he had any.

The non pegasai were beginning to realize something fishy was going on.

Applejack scowled at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. "Is there something you two are hiding about the factory?"

"No." defended Fluttershy.

"Liar." muttered X-ray. He held his wrist computer that glowed red.

"If that's how Rainbows are really formed, than what did we see in Cloudsdale?" asked Rarity.

"Either they're fake or Pegasai have found a way to solidify light.....which is fucking impressive." noted Scorch.

A wild idea formed in Pinkie's head. "I bet it's a conspiracy to get rid of foals-"

Rainbow Dash couldn't take it. "Alright, it's an old town secret. The factory doesn't make Rainbows, it's just a sham to get the city money. If word got out, the city would be bankrupt."

After a 5 minutes of arguing over the morality of such a fraud and Shadow going into another rant of why capitalism sucked for another 10 minutes, the humans and ponies decided to get back on the situation of the tour.

"Like we said before we got hastily interrupted, I don't think it's a good idea for people with such a controversial profession to be speaking to young ones." said Scarecrow.

"Yeah, you don't even have to go into the really mature stuff. Just tell them you're super heroes that defeat bad guys and they'll be happy!" insisted Pinkie Pie.

"Super Hero isn't the best way to describe us honestly." shook Scarecrow. "We've had to take down a few people who ha good intentions due to them violating the constitution."

"Anti hero still works. They're too young to comprehend stuff like that." shrugged Rainbow Dash.

"And really, do ya really want those adorable Fillies and Colts to be hurt?" smirked Applejack.

Scarecrow folded his arms. "Alright, we'll go. But we'll back out the first sign things get tense. Is that valid?"

"Yes." snapped the the Mane 5.

"Alright let's move. We're wasting time here." yawned Scorch.

"Oh boy! This tour is going to be super great! I'm so nervouscited!" shrieked Pinkie Pie.

Applejack frowned at the Pink Mare. "You do realize dat's not a word right?"

"Just think, we're going to get even more famous after this as the first Ponies to make contact with humans." chanted Rarity.

"Yay." whispered Fluttershy.

X-ray cursed in Armenian.

Shadow was less than enthusiastic, even Overwatch was more apathetic than usual. The 4 of them were beginning to regret revealing themselves.

Meanwhile on the BlackJack, Orbiting Epona.

The entire frigate was in a state of anxiety and inquiry. All crew and science personnel on the ship were analyzing the content retrieved from Shadow's data banks immediately.

While the ship's surveillance devices managed to breach the disruption barrier that surrounded Epona, any attempts at extracting information outside of Equestria proved inconclusive.

Commander Sarah McFarlane nervously walked through the halls of the ship, her data tablet was overloading with mail sent to her by the various scientists and crew members.

The CO of the Blackjack had just left the conference room where a number of scientists were pitching in their theories about why the planet appeared animated and how it may have had something to do with ponies receiving mental trauma after looking at humans for too long.

To her right, an entire room had a hologram lit up of a timberwolf, with scientists debating the nature of the creature. One thing was for certain, these wolves were not animals, nor were they plants as well.

As for plants, the commander had just been to the botany room. A group of botanists had attempted to recreate the soil on Epona, and by universe they did. The soil even appeared animated as well.

The rest of the rooms were being used up to determine the nature of each pony type. A hundred or so functions formulas and possibilities for various unicorn, earth pony, pegasai and alicorn 'spell's had been devised. A good number of the crew was focusing on the creation of weapons using the anomalies, but alas, a heavy frigate did not have the industrial equipment of a carrier.

The 3 philosophers stained aboard the ship were debating the reasoning of Epona being so Earth like as well.

The ponies had become celebrities for the personnel on the ship. When the crew was on break, they would often draw Pony OCs, create pony jokes and even debate who was the best pony. Pinkie Pie was in the lead so far followed by Applejack. Sarah herself liked the Mayor.

As Sarah walked across the halls, a Spanish crew member by the name of Rojas approached her and saluted. "Ma'am you're expected in section gamma, the scientists there have uncovered information on 3 more pony inhabited cities."

"I'll be there." replied the commander without worry.

As Rojas ran off, an Ensign of Jordanian descent by the name of Alia took his place.

"Commander Sarah McFarlane, I strongly urge you to contact Shadow immediately." she urged.

The commander gave a sigh. "Shadow is doing fine, I'm surprised they haven't gunned down the village. A normal human would have lost their sanity after meeting english speaking equines."

"But they have broken numerous protocols such as the revelation of the 23rd and insulting of a leader." countered Alia.

"I'm aware of that, but First Contact protocols dictate that any human from any group should reveal themselves to Xeno society shall it be deemed necessary. Besides, Shadow is 23rd. Pretentiousness is inevitable."

"Can't we at least inform them that we are watching in order for them not to act out of line?"

"I'm afraid contacting them will interrupt they're train of thought and the 4 of them will call for immediate evac off the planet. Besides, they've gone public, that calls for them to collect themselves. Even if Shadow does go section 8, we can attack them from orbit with precision weapons."

"Has the Bureau of Terran Intelligence been informed of this predicament?" nervously asked Alia.

"We're streaming them information from Shadow's HUD." answered Sarah. "I count one day until the president himself is informed of this."

So, should I do the tour guide next, or Twilight visiting the princesses? You decide in the comment section below. Terran117 out

Author's Note

See if you can guess the irony of the summer solstice being on the 23rd of June.

BTW, due to political correctness, the Summer Sun celebration is no longer about the defeat of NightMare Moon in order not to offend Luna.

"After all, what human is crazy enough to disregard a species being exactly like his?" to answer your question Scarecrow, every random passive 18 year old going to Equestria.

UTF Lore (Bonus)

The following will give you insight to the backstory of the UTF's military and colonies. Topics regarding actual human customs will come later. You really don't need to read this. I kind of made it for fun myself.

Brace yourself for bad grammar.

UTF Eras.

2033-2130: Inter solar era. This was a difficult time for the UTF as a large population of humans were living in poverty from the after effects of WWIII as opposed to the rich who had benefitted. Earth was largely polluted as well. White supremacist Neo Nazis rose as well, against the idea of unification along with various Nationalists wishing to return to country based rule. Luckily, this was also a time for the colonization of the solar system. Rail gun based weapons replace conventional ones.

2131-2250: The extra solar era. Colonization of the Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti, and Gisselle systems occurred after star ships were equipped with faster than light engines. During this time, the two planet and 3 moon colonies of Tau Ceti rebelled against UTF. The rebellion was crushed in the first extra solar war. This was also when the first power armor was created and space ships became armed for war.

2251-2370: The Orion era. Soon the original colonies were getting crowded themselves. With the the creation of wormhole teleportation, the UTF was able to traverse to far away star systems. The first of these new colonies was Auraxis. During this time, the Helghast star systems rebelled creating a massive conflict that lasted decades. Artificial intelligence was created in this time.

2390: Creation of the 23rd counter terrorist unit. A highly secretive group of assassins who also recon possible colonies.

2370-2430: The technology war. The two largest mega corporations; Crynet and Vanu go to war with each other due to increased rivalry and animosity in the economy. The UTF is forced to intervene against their former allies. All of Crynet's assets are seized but all Vanu technology is lost with the exception of cloaking and kinetic barrier technology. This new technology improves Power Armor, starships and schematics are used to create Dreadnought super ships.

2420: The 23rd goes public, but civilians are ignorant that they are a government unit and instead believe the division to be something akin to urban legend serial killers. The UTF remains silent on the issue.

2470: A Zombie like infection swarms the colony of Romero. The UTF has no choice to destroy the planet with the use of Dreadnoughts.

2430-current: The "Liberty" Era. Tired of being ignored and tired of the socialistic restrictions on the economy, a series of corporations go rogue and declare war on the UTF, forming Mega Corp and promising economic liberty despite the heads of the conglomerate wishing for an autocratic oligarchy. Anarchists gain influence as well.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

For those of you who still can not picture Shadow who belong to the 23rd, here is how they look like. I'd imagine them to have more black however. I based their appearances off of ghost recon. Their recon armor is made up of a certain material that allows them to spread a light refraction technology to let them cloak and spread a kinetic barrier which is made up of concentrated energy netted in the form of transparent purple hexagons due to the shape's rigidness. Their shades provide them with a HUD and let them see through walls. Their bandanna can filter out any wastes at the cost of being unable to smell. Their suit functions can be controlled vocally, neurally, or physically through touch screens or holograms. Recon armor is solar powered with a battery reserve.

This is an image of a 23rd recon drone. Each unit has a VI and is commanded via neural and cellular communication connected to a commando's HUD. Each drone is solar powered with a back up battery. Drones are outfitted with a camera and other equipment to spy on enemies.

This is what a UTF VTOL would be like. I found the hawk from Halo Wars to suit my head canon the most. VTOLS can hold up to 20 people. The pilot fires a rail gun turret and series of missiles. The gunner operates a back turret and a coil gun.

This is how I'd imagine a UTF starship to look like. Like I said, starships use Tesla canons to disable kinetic barriers and power (electricity is powerful in space since it can travel in a vacuum). Since there is no air in space, all missiles, cannons and nukes are rail gun powered. Starships in the UTF are protected by an overshield, have artificial gravity and can teleport through the use of space-time rips. The Navy of the UTF follows a similar structure to modern day USA.

The following depicts a super soldier-the strongest ground units of the UTF. There are one thousand of them in service. Each one of them is augmented to be at least 7 ft 2.

They wear a power armor that is made up of the same material used to create starships, allowing the suit to spread a cloaking and energy shield. Neural interfaces and nano tech are used to power the armor along with a suit specific VI. In addition to the typical functions of recon armor like cloaking and energy shields, the power armor allows soldiers to carry up to 5 tons and sprint nearly impossible distances. Each suit of power armor is energized by solar energy and miniature cold fusion reactors.

Typical UTF soldiers. UTF soldiers wear red to symbolize the colors of the federation and black to symbolize might. Unlike Shadow, typical foot soldiers lack and Overshield or cloaking. They still are equipped with HUDs and their base armor is stronger than the material that makes up recon armor. The UTF Armed Forces structure equates America's.

(I found the soldiers of the Terran Republic to provide the best allusion for obvious reasons.)

The following is an example of a UTF interceptor that is used by the air force. Despite the name suggesting otherwise, the Air Force deploys interceptors in space as well. The interceptor is equipped with an overshield, gauss launcher, missile pods and rail turrets.

A UTF bomber. Unlike the interceptor, the bomber is slower and is equipped with mini nukes rather than a gauss launcher. It is equipped with an overshield as well.

Navy Orbital Vehicle Assault units. NOVA troopers are a commando group dedicated to the protection and raids of starships. They were formed in response to the creation of zero gravity war. Their armor is equipped with a kinetic barrier and an anti gravity pack to help them fly in space. Their suits provide and oxygen recycling and heating system to keep the user alive in space as long as it is powered. Since the suit is solar powered, this is not an issue.

Eagle Rangers. They are the commando division of the UTF air force. Their suits are equipped with a light overshield to protect them from incoming fire. Eagle Rangers also utilize thruster packs as well as magnetic armor to highjack enemy airships and mechs. Eagle Rangers are trained in the flight of vehicles as well.

Now on to the UTF's colonies. After the formation of the UTF, NASA surrendered its documents to the new government which detailed terraforming. Due to Earth being on the verge of collapse, all funding priorities were immediately shifted for extraterran colonization. Terraformers were finally available for use in 2040. Terra forming equipment includes artificial gravity generators, waste and radiation dispersion units, artificial ozone layer creators and ways to distribute oxygen forming bacteria and plants.

Starships are capable of using "dark matter torches" to help curve space-time to reduce the effects of time dilation between colonies. Equipment developed in the early 22nd century allows faster than light communication.

This is how a typical human city would look like in the 26th century. This is city of New Detroit on the colony of Pandora. Scarecrow's birthplace.

Colonies of the UTF:

Earth: Humanity's home world. Earth retains a population of 550 million after colonization eased the burden on this planet. Wastes and pollution have been largely expelled from Earth due to the use of terraformers. Many former countries on Earth are mostly vacant, having been either destroyed in WWIII or having it's citizens migrated to extraterran colonies. The empty space has been replaced with wild life and nature preserves. The capitals of intact countries are the only cities remaining standing. The city of Brussels is the capital of the UTF. The executive branch is housed here.

Scorch is from Earth, having been born in Vancouver; one of the 3 remaining. cities in Canada.

Mars. The second colony of the UTF which was fully colonized in 2034. It has a population 200 million. It's population is mostly mixed ethnicities. The planet has been terraformed in 2040 to make life more viable. Soil, followed by genetically modified plants were added to the planet as the photosynthesis introduced an oxygen atmosphere. Mars can accurately be likened to a cold desert. In 2150, water was taken from an inhospitable ice planet to create an artificial ocean. A few mega corp bases are a threat to the UTF.

Venus. Colonized in 2045 after waste dispersion was used to reduce the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. An artificial ozone layer was created to protect colonists from radiation. The humid and hot atmosphere widely morphed venus into a warm rainforest. Most people on Venus are from South America. Due to the lack of moon, night on venus is extremely dark so satellites provide artificial light. Artificial gravity is used to keep the artificial ocean in check. The planet has a population of 200 million and planet rights advocates are strong.

Titan. Birth Place of Overwatch. The moon was colonized in 2050 by the addition of an oxygen atmosphere which heated the planet enough to melt its frozen oceans. Safe nuclear fusion techniques were used to modify the methane lake to become normal water. Much to the UTF's surprise, patches of land that could support plants were found. The colony is mostly a cold, ocean world with a population of 50 million with people mostly being Belgian and Swiss descent. There is constant rain on the planet.

Europa. Colonized in 2048. It was colonized and is virtually identical to titan although with more land. It's larger size allows for a population of 50 million. It's population is mostly Greek, Italian and Macedonian descent. The planet is mostly an arctic. There is a strong planet's rights presence. The UTF watches this planet constantly.

Sera (Tau Ceti E). A planet colonized in 2150. It houses a population of 40 million. It's population is mostly Welsh, Scottish and Irish. The planet was near Earth Like, requiring only the introduction of animals and a few edits to the bacteria of the colony. In 2170 the planet was the head quarters of the Union of Independent Republics which was made up of Tau Ceti colonies that attempted secession from the UTF. The current president of the federation is from Sera. It is the military capital of the UTF with the disarmament and security council located here.

Mirdiem (Gliese 667 C). Colonized in 2180. Since the planet is larger than Earth, artificial gravity generators were used to make sure human colonists were not crushed by the immense force. Oxygen was also added to the atmosphere along with bacteria and plants. The triple star system creates bizarre day and night cycles. A few lakes exist as well. The population is 50 million with residents being Mexican and south American. A failed Mega Corp insurrection took place in 2528, it was stopped by 4 certain assailants. It is the manufacturing capital of the UTF.

Vekta. A mega Earth Colonized in 2140 in the Alpha Centauri system. It was the first extra solar colony. To the UTF's surprise, the planet was discovered to be completely Earth like and supported simple life. Its population totals 200 million with most of the population being far east Asian descent. The colony is mostly flatlands populated large urban cities. Mega Corp is strongly present. It is the economic hub of the UTF.

Kepler 22b, or simply Kepler. Colonized in 2370. Artificial gravity was used to make life more viable. Furthermore, a large quantity of the planet's ocean was drained to create land and give water to dry colonies. A large population of simple marine life exists on the planet; ranging from fish like aliens to crustaceans. It's people are mostly Scandinavian with a population of 90 million. It is the fishing capital of the UTF. There is a mild Mega Corp influence.

The Helghan trinity star system. Colonized in 2270 by colonists mostly of British, Australian and New Zealand descent. The large presence of Mars like worlds in each star system was considered a breakthrough of the UTF who used the worlds as a military hub. However, a fascist political group seized power in 2332.and battled the UTF until 2370. Despite the UTF's larger military force, the sheer number of Helghan colonies proved nearly detrimental. Today, neo Fascists have a lingering presence.

Auraxis. Birth Place of X-ray. Colonized in 2251, the planet was extremely Earth like with a variety of biomes, albeit slightly cooler. The population totaled 200 million with a mostly Russian, Armenian, Ukrainian and Georgian population. The planet has become a significant battle site between the UTF and Mega Corp since 2515, although there haven't been any major civilian casualties as of yet.

Requiem. Where Shadow grew up. The colony was discovered in 2330 and was Earth like in the sense that it sported plant life as well as native reptiles and aquatic creatures. The planet is mostly grass land with mountainous plains. A significant on the colony as well though. The planet is mainly consisted of Dutch, and French peoples with a total population of 100 million. It is the general innovation capital of the UTF. The planet is safe from insurrection influence.

Elysium. Colonized in 2273. The planet is completely Earth like with no terraforming required to live on the planet. As a result, the planet holds a natural beauty that makes it a popular resort location. The planet contains a varied environment from beaches to lavish mountains. It's people are French and English with a population of 180 million. It is the arts capital of the UTF.

Pandora. Colonized in 2290. Despite a poisonous atmosphere and higher gravity, the planet had a native population of animal which proved to be extremely feral. Terraformers allowed the planet to be habitable for humans although it killed off the local fauna. The people of Pandora are mostly of American descent. Many secessionist groups preside in the rural areas. The agricultural commission is based here.

Mahatma. Colonized in 2410. It's people are mostly Indian, Bangladeshi and Malaysian. The planet was discovered to be Earth like and housed a population of diminutive mammals and koi like fish. The atmosphere is much more humid, but just as cool as India as well. It's population is 200 million. Mega Corp is influential on this planet.

Bernstein (Kepler 62 E). Colonized in 2340. The distant colony is Earth Like and required only artificial gravity to be colonized as well as the removal of poison in the atmosphere. The planet maintains cold temperatures and a large ocean that was partially drained to supply colonies that lack water. The people of Bernstein are mostly German and Danish with a population of 190 million. It is the political capital of the UTF, with the central congress located here. Due to a high military presence, there is little to no terrorist support.

Sultan (Gliese 581 d) Colonized in 2194. This planet required an ocean that was extracted by water reduction in from Gliese 581g. After artificial gravity was used to restore the planet to habitability, a large concentration of Arabian immigrants settles on the planet. The planet is mostly a desert, but bearable. It's population is around 200 million. Planet's rights insurrectionists are moderately present.

Apex (Gliese 581g). Colonized in 2193. The planet was terraformed by adding additional oxygen through plants and bacteria and using artificial gravity generators. The poisonous atmosphere was removed as well. The planet is mostly a cold tundra with frozen oceans as common sight. It's population is 90 million and is mostly Canadian . Due to the fact that it resides in the center of the colonies, Apex is the location for the Council of Colonial affairs that deals with relations among planets. Mega Corp has a strong presence.

Las Masas. Colonized in in 2380. The planet is temperate with snow being common even in the summers and contains spread out forests. It's population is 300 million with its citizens being Spanish and Portuguese. It is one of the furthest colonies from Earth. It has become a minor bastion for Neo Fascist support.

Mojave. Colonized in 2298. This planet had a desert like structure before minor terraformation, although temperatures are only slightly hotter than those of Earth's. It's population generally descends from Americans who came from the western part of their region. Casinos (owned by the government and private groups) are popular on this planet, but many have ties to Mega Corp. One 23rd squad is always needed on this planet to police these conglomerates. Population is 200 million.

Warsaw. Contains a population of 220 million, majority of which are Eastern European. This planet is known for being one of the main suppliers of woods for the colonies due to the alarming rate at which trees grow. Allowing for sustainable development. Unfortunately, this also attracts occasional Mega Corp goons.

Ferdinand. Colonized in 2330. This planet is generally mountainous with sprawling forests that were added during terraforming. It's population is 180 million with those of Austrian, Hungarian and Czech descent. It's population is home to some anarchist orientated terrorist groups who may or may not be PRM affiliated.

Yankee. Colonized in 2275. The planet required mass terraformation to colonized. Its wildlife (both flora and fauna) was entirely added by human colonists and thus resembles many of the organisms on Earth. The population is mainly of North Easterm American and Canadian descent with some prevalent immigrants. Its population is 180 million. The cities of the planet are modeled after New England cities (futuristic versions anyway). Mega Corp has its sympathizers here.

Zulu. Colonized in 2315. This planet is colonized mostly from peoples from Africa. It required no terraforming form the UTF to be colonized. It's population is 100 million. The planet has a few Planet Right's Movement gangs that are frequently broken up by local security. The colony bears a diverse range of biomes (although reminiscent of Africa).

Akira. Colonized in 2145. This planet is colonized mostly of South Korean and Japanese populations. It is known for its sprawling urban metropolises. It's often referred to as the "twin" of Vekta. The planet has sprawling oceans often used for fishing, but has numerous cases of Kaiju rising from the ocean. UTF coast guard is based here. It's population is 220 million.

Demeter. Colonized in 2300. The planet has a mixed population of around 100 million. It did not require any alternations to be made in order to sustain a a human population. However, this also means that the local flora and fauna do pose a minor problem and requires the Federation to take extra steps to ensure safety of citizens. The planet is known for its production of AI and cybernetics.

Author's Note

So did I get all the scientific principals right?

There are subtle video game references along with a zombie movie reference, find them.

I wasted your time with trivial lore, didn't I?

Chapter 22: Royal Summit

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." John F Kennedy.

The entire city of Canterlot was booming with livelihood. In about a few days, the most important ceremony was about to take place. Naturally, hundreds and sometimes, thousands of ponies would make a pilgrimage to view the most spectacular sight of all, their leader Celestia raising the sun.

The Capital of Equestria was still ignorant however about the presence of Xenos on their world. Twilight and Mayor Mare had made a great job of keeping reports of humanity confined in Ponyville.

Despite what Ponies believed, Celestia was not omnipresent, there were secrets, scarring secrets she did not know. Especially now that Twilight was an alicorn, the solar 'Godess' no longer felt the need to constantly check up on her.

What made this day even more exquisite however, was that was the most important royal summit there was in Equestria was going to take place. There were Crystal Summits held in March in the Crystal Empire hosted by Cadance and the Lunar Summits held in December hosted by Princess Luna in Canterlot as well.

An hour before the current time, a carriage transporting Princess Cadance and her Crystal royal guards arrived in the city. Much expected fanfare arose at the sight of the Alicorn of Love. The trip was long, but she had managed to sleep early in order to avoid exhaustion form waking up early.

The 3 rulers of Equestria sat in the throne room, eagerly awaiting the fourth. Small talk passed the time until Twilight arrived. It was not like the purple alicorn to be late.

In the front of the castle laid the entrance crowded by citizens of Equestria, eager to see the 4th alicorn.

Suddenly, a bright purple light flashed and the princess of magic materialized. As usual, the crowd bowed in respect and worship at the sight of their princess.

Some confucian had run amuck however; Why was Twilight not wearing her dress or crown? Why did she just teleport? Surely she knew it was expected to take a train or carriage? And finally, why did she have such a simple carrying case?

While Twilight collected herself, two solar guards approached her and offered to escort her in to the castle. Twilight politely insisted she could handle herself and merely requested her bag be taken somewhere else.

To the surprise of everypony, Twilight immediately began galloping in an un-lady like manner into the grand entrance.

'I don't have much time until Shadow does something sadistic.' she thought.

Finally she approached the large door to the royal hall and hastily opened it.

Just when Twilight panted from exhaustion, a series of musical notes startled her enough to give a yelp. She witnessed a series of solar, lunar and crystal guards stationed in two single file lines standing proudly.

Twilight nervously walked forward, only to bump into a tan pegasus solar guard with a blue mane.

Said Pegasus Guard was unfazed and simply helped Twilight up and announced her arrival:

"Her highness, Princess Twilight Spark-"

Twilight cut him off with a hoof wave. The other alicorn princesses approached Twilight gleefully.

Cadance gave a laugh. "Twilight! I haven't seen you since the coronation!"

Celestia spoke next with her motherly tone. "We have so much to discuss-"

"We do." interrupted Twilight.

"You seem troubled Twilight." noted Luna with utter concern.

"Have you been using that technique I've been teaching you?" reminded Cadance.

"I have uncovered world shattering news." responded Twilight glumly. "I think it's best if we discuss the matter in private."

Celestia nodded.

The 4 alicorns quietly traversed their way trough the castle. A feeling of anxiety was beginning to creep the other 3 alicorns as well. Soon, the 4 made it to Celestia's private study. The room was large with thousands of books stored everywhere on shelves along with paintings of previous Alicorns.

Cadance broke the pause. "So what is it that you want to discuss?" The pink Alicorn smiled to lift Twilight's attitude.

Twilight collected her thoughts and looked up at the other Alicorns. "Do you remember the object that descended from space that you asked me and the other elements to investigate?"

Luna grinned gave a quick nod. "I myself tried to investigate what had befallen using my magic, but every time I did so, I got a splitting headache and my powers dissipated."

"When I did not hear from you for a day," began Celestia. "I began to worry horribly. However, I remembered that if one of us died, we would have sensed it through our connections. A few days later, I received a letter from Spike detailing me that you arrived to Ponyville soundly."

Twilight's ears flipped up. "Did the letter say anything else?"

Celestia shook her head no. "Did you find the elements useful in your situation?"

'The elements'. Thought Twilight. There was no way she could just lie to her mentor and the other princesses that Scarecrow destroyed them with a grenade. She would get blamed and she and her friends would get banished.

Twilight decided to tell the truth. But not the whole truth. Twilight calmed herself using Cadance's technique, much to the pink alicorn's amusement.

"The elements proved counter productive to our situation." chirped Twilight.

"So how is the object from the heavens causing you this stress?" asked Luna.

"It is not the object that is making me perplexed, it's what came from it." trivialized Twilight.

Cadance suddenly flashed back to a date with Shining Armor she had 3 years ago. The one where they stared at a brilliant star and Shining lightly brought up the idea of aliens.

The pink Alicorn inhaled. "Twilight are you saying-"

"There are aliens in Equestria." answered the alicorn of magic.

Luna on the other hoof looked somewhat excited. "Xenos? I always knew there was life amongst the stars. Does this mean what landed was a spaceship of some sorts?"

"I didn't see the object that landed." Muttered Twilight nonchalantly. When me and my friends made our way through the forest, we were ambushed by the 4 aliens."

Luna's smile was wiped off. Celestia took the lead.

"How many aliens are there?"

"4." answered Twilight. "They also claim to be male."

"They can speak equestrian?" yelled Cadance.

"They call the language english or something." shook Twilight. They accuse us of stealing the language from them."

"That absurd." snorted Luna. "This is the third incarnation of the equestrian language, to get similar results, one would have to start from phase one."

Twilight gave a nervous chuckle. "Here's the thing, they claim english is the third form of their language too, right after what they call ancient greek and roman."

"Let's keep the cultural things away from now." insisted Celestia, sweating lightly. "What do the aliens call themselves?"

"The scientific name for their race is homo sapiens, although we can call them humans." answered Twilight.

"You said there were 4 humans. Are they soldiers or scientists of some sort?" questioned Luna.

"They're soldiers alright. But elite ones, gifted with enhanced intelligence, speed and strength." said Twilight. "The unit which they descend from scouts possible planets to live on as well."

"Goodness! You mean to tell me an entire alien race is going to colonize Equestria." beamed Cadance. She calmed herself with her own technique.

"They informed me that because intelligence has already inhabited this planet, the humans will have no intention of taking this world for their own." assured Twilight.

"Define they." whispered Celestia.

"The humans refuse to tell me their real names or anything about their past. All history I know about them is....shadowy." stammered Twilight. "They have call signs however. The leader of the unit is named Scarecrow, they have a man who blows things up named Scorch, some tech expert named X-ray, and what they call a marksman named Overwatch."

"Those names sound antagonistic. Names I'd give to ponies who're complete jerks." panted Cadance.

"They think our names are silly." gritted the alicorn. "Apparently, humans don't use nouns for names. They've mentioned human names to me, but they're just so off...and unpronounceable."

"Why did you not inform us of the situation earlier?" asked Luna.

"They wouldn't let me leave their sight. Come to think of it, I'm surprised they let me see you 3 at all." remarked Twilight. The alicorn remained ignorant that Shadow was hearing everything they said.

"Can you describe the appearances of these humans to me?" requested Celestia.

"Here's the thing, they're nearly indescribable." whimpered Twilight.

"How so?" asked Cadance.

"For starters, they don't look like anything that came from Epona, something about their coloring, yes coloring, feels off." beamed Twilight.

"It's also as if they're too detailed. When I look at them, it's like I'm looking at a million more objects at once. All that detail to their appearances gives me-"

"Headaches." said Luna and Twilight in perfect coordination.

"What's scary, is that they claim everything outside our planet is design like them. They call our forms simple and animated. Whatever that last part means."

"Are sure you can't describe them at all?" asked Celestia.

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "Well, I can't explain what they look on the outside, since they wear a strange, completely black outfit they call recon armor and cover their face with a white cloth and a pair of technologically advanced sunglasses."

"Are they Equestrian like us?" questioned Cadance.

Twilight shook her head. "They're bi-pedal and claim to be a subspecies of ape. They don't have hooves, instead they have these weird claw like things called fingers. Except without the sharp nails."

"Is there anything you might know about their appearances under garments? Have you seen a picture of their race that shows them bare?" piped up Celestia.

Twilight faced hoof. "The one called Overwatch drew a picture of me and the rest of my friends as humans, but I forgot how the picture looked like. But from what I remember, they have no fur, requiring them to be clothed all the time. And judging by the imprints of their masks, their eyes are tiny and they lack muzzles."

"How tall or short are they?" said Luna.

"The 4 humans I met claim to be taller than the average human, but they're huge. Each one of them is taller that you Celestia." pointed Twilight.

The princess of the sun looked rather puzzled. She took a rather guilty pride in knowing that she was tall, she thought her hight was indomitable.

"They each have a slightly different physique." noted Twilight. "X-ray is rather skinny with long limbs. Scarecrow on the other hoof, or hand in human standards, is slightly bigger. Overwatch and Scorch look the same on the outside.

"I don't mean to be rude, but the human look sounds rather frightening." mentioned Cadance.

"One can only guess what lies under masks." muttered Twilight.

"I see. But I still cannot find a reason for you to be so stressed. What are these humans like?" added Celestia.

Twilight took a deep breath. "They're hyper intelligent, hyper advanced-"

The princesses looked interested.

"-but hyper lethal, aggressive, cynical and sometimes scary."

Suddenly the princesses shared the same stress as Twilight.

The purple alicorn continued. "The unit in which these 4 come from is called Shadow squad."

"Sh....shadow squad?" squeaked Cadance.

"Yes. The technology the human race possesses, is utmost extraordinary." reviled Twilight. "They have space ships that can travel through star systems. The humans have manufactured holograms that they can operate with their minds with little to no physical action as well as robots and devices they call computers. Why, they don't even have to read books physically any more."

"My, these humans must possess a thorough understanding of magic." awed Celestia. "In all my Godhood, I never thought a race could ever break the containment of their mother planet."

Twilight gave a chuckle. "Here's another piece of interesting news, turns out there's no such thing as magic at all."

The other princesses burst into laughter.

"That's a good one Twilight." joked Cadance. "I guess you aren't the element of anything anymore."

"SERIOUSLY!" yelled Twilight. The other princesses stopped laughing.

"These humans are in possession of some of the greatest minds I've ever seen." continued Twilight. "I don't want to sound selfish, but their thought processes and methods of thinking surpass even mine. They've figured out magic."

"Twilight, surely you of all ponies should know magic is an unexplainable force." pointed Luna.

"Well tell that to them. They've debunked every single spell or magical principal I've brought up as if I told them to do math homework given to foals." shook the purple alicorn. "They've proven to me that magic can be reasoned with."

"But you've been studying magic under my wing for many years." remarked Celestia.

"Exactly, what do those humans know?" added Cadance.

"What do they know?" spat the alicorn of magic. "They know that we've completely disregarded a field of study. Rather than studying why magic works, we've only studied the things we can do with it. So far everything I've told them about pony society only makes them think we're more and more ignorant!"

"The nerve of those aliens!" gritted Luna.

"The nerve? Did you even know that all the other suns and moons in the Universe turn on their own?" mocked Twilight.

Celestia tried to catch her breath. "But that can't-"

"Be possible, have we gone into space?" sarcastically said Twilight. "Did you also know that plants and animals are supposed to take care of themselves? Of course not. Did they know that, of course they did!" she cried.

"I just can't see myself explaining some of the anomalies that have occurred in my life." shook Celestia.

"Well I said the same thing about Pinkie Pie, and they called me a lazy thinker!" teared Twilight.

"Twilight, please try to calm down." begged the alicorn of the night.

"I'm sorry." she whimpered. "I always thought of myself as an intelligent mare. Now, I'm laughable compared to the methods of rationality of a human. There are times when they start discussing concepts that I'm totally ignorant on."

Suddenly, the princess of the night began to rethink her statement. The other alicorns thought the same thing; had they really been ignorant all along.

"Don't say that, you're still the smartest pony I know." encouraged Cadance. The leader of the crystal empire placed a wing to comfort the purple alicorn.

"What of their power?" spoke up Celestia.

"Let's just say Shadow can exceed the power of the elements of pushed." said Twilight.

"I don't believe that. The elements are unbeatable. If they can conquer Discord and Nightmare Moon, surely 4 soldiers would be no trouble." shook the solar princess.

"These 4 aren't your royal guards Celestia. They represent the elite of humanity not only in terms of knowledge but in terms of sheer might." countered Twilight.

There was an awkward pause in the air.

"Do you want to know why those dragons never came flying back up, or why those Griffins never reported back to you?" trivialized Twilight.

"Because the 4 of them slaughtered them all."

The 3 princesses gasped. Color began to drain from their faces. Even Celestia looked paler than usual. The 3 alicorns could not decipher what was worse. The fact that 4 individuals took out 2 Dragons and a Griffin army or the fact that they killed at all.

Luna started stammering. "Are you sure they murdered them all?"

"I saw the corpses. The bleeding, dead, mutilated corpses." wept Twilight.

Celestia gasped and motherly nuzzled Twilight. "I'm so sorry you had to witness such a thing like that."

"How could they just...murder like that? What about the concepts of harmony?" whimpered Cadance.

Twilight wiped a tear. "They claim to have been attacked first. As for how did they kill them? One of the technological wonders of humans allows them to kill easily."

The princess of the night took a deep breath. "Surely if they were attacked...they were justified. But I don't know what type of pony could resort to murder."

"Gee, what type of human?" gritted Twilight. "Scarecrow is a control freak, X-ray has anger issues, Overwatch suffers from depression and Scorch has an affinity for blowing things up!"

"Depression." breathed Cadance. "Something must have happened to those humans. Maybe a traumatic experience of sorts. Shining Armor might be captain of the guard, but I sure know he wouldn't advocate murder."

"We're talking about colts, I mean men, who would kill a foal if ordered to and just dump its body like trash!" shrieked Twilight.

"Such frightening behavior. How could humans raise such sadists?" said a disgusted Celestia.

"That's not the scary thing," sighed Twilight. "they don't even flinch. All emotions of regret pass them like...a shadow."

"What do you mean?" asked Luna.

"I saw them kill a hydra king and a pack of timberwolves. All they did after they slaughtered something was shrug it off." answered Twilight.

"Those aren't soldiers, those are psychopaths!" blasted Celestia. "How could 4 men like them not be locked into an asylum?"

"The division were Shadow comes from is called the 23rd. They claim the others in that division behave the same way. I believe it's somehow intentional." explained Twilight.

"Why would the government want to hire people like that into the armed forces?" questioned Cadance.

"Why did we hire Discord?" countered Twilight.

Twilight slumped to the ground. "It get's worse. You so much as insult them in a light joke, they'll declare you a threat and point their weapons at you."

"And they just say anything they want about you in return?" gritted Celestia.

"Wow, it's like you were there." sarcastically remarked Twilight.

"Do they just bully you when they're not busy killing?" inquired Cadance.

Twilight faked a grin. "It's not so much as they bully me as it is them thinking our race is a joke. They refuse to take us seriously on all grounds."

"These so called humans need to be expelled at once. Discordic beings like them have no place here!" yelled Luna, it was a miracle she did not resort to the royal Canterlot voice.

"Wait, let's not get so hasty." started Twilight.

The other princesses looked at the purple Alicorn confusedly.

"Let me explain. To be fair, I can't honestly blame them for the way they're acting."

Cadance calmed herself with her technique. "What do you mean? Why would somepony let their emotions get the best of them?"

"Let's just step in their hooves, uh, feet. They're separated form their starship without any means of communication, and the similarities of our planet vs theirs is getting on their nerves." justified Twilight.

"What kind of similarities?" asked Luna.

"For starters, they claim to have ponies on their world." began Twilight.

Celestia smirked. "Well isn't that a lovely coincidence."

"To them it means the greatest conspiracy of the universe." bumbled Twilight. "Apparently, everything we have on Epona, they have on Earth."

"I don't see the reason to get so worked up over a few coincidences." pointed Cadance.

"Well, they're turning Ponyville upside down to solve their theory." grunted Twilight.

"Elaborate on this theory." requested Luna.

"Basically, they're convinced that ponies are 'evolving' like humanity. They claim our past and cultures matches theirs." explained the alicorn of magic.

"But that's absurd. Everypony knows we were created but the original alicorn herself and we progressed from there." defended the alicorn of love. "Our history can't be that similar."

"And why waste time over such a theory when they should be focusing on things such as preserving harmony?" added Celestia. "If humans need to have soldiers like our friends, Shadow, than surely their race if violent and war like."

Twilight shook her head. "I don't think it's very fair to call humans war like just because of Shadow. I mean, would it be fair to judge ponies based Pinkie Pie or Derpy alone?"

"Your point...is valid." nodded Luna. "Such a stereotype would be unfair."

"But to resort to tactics like murder and violence, Is that not cruel?" asked Cadance.

"They're soldiers. I guess this is how humanity deals with threats." sighed Twilight. "The humans claim to have been like us at once point, so I suggest we rather not question their methods for now."

"Twilight is correct. If the humans visiting were poets or artisans, surely we would have received a different welcome." justified Luna.

"And while I hate their methods. I refuse to call Shadow evil, when we were traversing the Everfree Forest, they did risk their lives to protecting us. If it were to come down to it, I'd expect they give their lives for the greater good." Twilight couldn't believe she just defended them.

"Regardless, I can not tolerate such individuals like them. Equestria is a place of compassion and harmony, not ruthlessness, sadism and sheer arrogance." boasted Celestia.

"To be fair. My intuition is telling me that this branch of humans isn't popular with the rest of the species. The fact that I'm not dead or hurt physically proves that we can trust them." defended Twilight.

"I still do not see what gives them authority to run amuck making ponies feel bad about themselves." gritted Luna. Suddenly, Luna's horn, after being charged by brain pulses, began absorbing more and more energy and radiation from the atmosphere.

"Auntie Luna, try to control yourself." pleaded the alicorn of love. The princess of the night quenched her anger using Cadance's technique.

"What do you know about the history of these humans anyway?" asked Cadance.

"They've refused to tell me anything about human history or culture." shook Twilight. "On the other hand, they constantly demand answers and threaten us every time we refuse to share."

"So until then, we are dealing with a race we know nothing about?" said Luna.

"Not until they meet the three of you at once. That's when they'll talk." remarked Twilight.

"I don't think I could meet such barbarians." hissed Celestia.

"To be fair, we're the barbarians by their standards." justified Twilight. "Besides, they're not the real first contact team. They're just making sure this planet is safe until they can re establish contact."

"And when might that be?" questioned the solar princess.

"I don't know. But I wouldn't count on it being anytime soon. After all, I don't think telling them to leave would be such a great idea." noted Twilight.

"And why's that?" beamed Luna.

"They'll more than likely view it as a threat." explained the alicorn of magic.

"You forget we are Alicorns, Twilight." reminded Celestia.

"You forget that they're humans." replied Twilight What's to say they don't have a gigantic laser that will rip this planet from the universe with ease?"

"UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE WE TO MAKE THEM MAD!" screamed Twilight in the royal Canterlot voice.

"Shadow squad would have no trouble ripping us apart like wet tissue and under no circumstances are we to keep secrets from them! They're omnipresent I tell you!"

The other alicorns froze. Twilight blushed after realizing what she just did.

"So until then, we have to tolerate them?" sneered Luna.

"Well, that's what we ponies do best. Besides, I don't know why, but I feel that deep down, a natural instinct instructs me to obey them." stated Twilight.

The alicorns ignored that last part.

"So what are we going to do about them?" wondered Cadance.

"I propose that we give them what we want and meet with them they want." sighed Twilight. "It's the only way to be sure they won't get mad."

"Are the ponies out side of ponyville aware of their presence?" questioned Celestia.

"I'm afraid not. I controlled the situation so no news wouldn't be leaked." said the alicorn of magic.

"Then why not have a grand reveal of some sorts?" proposed Luna. "We reveal the arrival of aliens to the public, bring Shadow Squad here, find out about each others race, and make contact with the less....aggressive parts of humanity."

"That does sound like a good idea." complimented Twilight.

"I still refuse to associate myself with such inconsiderate assassins who can not grasp the concept of harmony." sneered Celestia.

"To be fair princess, I really am making them out to be worse than they appear." said the alicorn of magic. "I guess I'm still afraid that's all."

"You know Tia, the first contact with an alien race would provide enough stress to render somepony violent and glacial." added Luna.

"Besides, if we can reform discord or NightMare Moon, what's to say we can't reform a group of mere young adults with a case of Blueblood-ego." chuckled Cadance.

The atmosphere brightened up. Celestia returned to her cheerful manner. "Alright then. If they misbehave, I'll just blast them into our sun."

"And then get humanity distraught and have them declare war on us," muttered Twilight. "Am I the only pony who is aware of consequences of antagonizing this race?"

Celestia rolled her eyes. For the next hour the 4 princesses debated how to plan out the 'First Contact' ceremony. From media, to food to publicity.

Then, the rulers of Equestria laid out the plans for the summer sun Celebration. They hoped by then Shadow would reestablish communication with humanity. Regardless, they devised a plan to convince them to be the official security of the Solstice. They believed such an offer would make them behave during the gathering.

Finally, Twilight decided it was her time to depart.

"Well, looks like I'm off everypony."

"What! Twilight this is the most important royal meeting of all time, we have festivities to plan." pointed Cadance.

"I'm sorry Cadance, but I really should leave." said Twilight quickly.

If you didn't plan on staying so long, why bring luggage?" inquired Luna.

"Oh that? I almost forgot." In an instant Twilight used her horn to generate enough energy for her to see through space time to search for her carry on, find the desired object, energize enough energy for the bag to be able to vibrate through walls and pull it towards her with a certain type of magnetics.

The bag materialized in front the of the other three alicorns.

"Last night I took some notes about Shadow that you might want to read." warned Twilight.

The alicorn used telekinesis to open the bag. She hoped to find documents, only for the bag to be empty.

Celestia sniffed something familiar. "Does anypony smell smoke?"

Twilight gritted her teeth. "Scarecrow. Last night he must have burned my papers because 'Shadow has to be so secret'."

Celestia chuckled a bit. "I have to admit, they sure remind me of that spy story Pinkie Pie once told me about."

"Should we not send guards to help protect you?" proposed Luna.

Twilight exhaled. "Sending guards would only threaten them."

"I wish you luck in dealing with them Twilight." assured Celestia.

"Why do you have to leave so early anyway?" remarked Cadence. "It's barely the afternoon."

Twilight formed a worried look. "They've probably put Ponyville under Martial Law by now."

And with a purple flash, Twilight vanished from the castle.

Author's Note

Sorry for the inconsistent spelling of Alicorn.

The next chapter will be a bout Shadow's tour that happened in conjugation with this chapter. :)

What would you like Shadow to see in their tour other than the school?

Terran out.

Chapter 23: The Tour

"If you enjoy living, it is not difficult to keep the sense of wonder."- Ray Bradbury

"I really don't want to fucking do this." voiced Scorch through local COOMs.

"It's a school Scorch. With any luck they'll be a library, or some research center we can take points from to further our hypothesis." justified. X-ray.

"Regardless, I don't want to do anything more than say hi to those kids. We've already violated 23rd protocol through our revelation, we don't need to traumatize those colts and fillies." muttered Scarecrow.

The cloaked Shadow squad was being accompanied by the Mane 5 to the local school. Shadow stated that they were perfectly fine without a guide since every place in town was marked on their HUD. The equines however, insisted their inclusion.

The 4 commandos had cloaked in order to avoid being detected by the masses as many ponies were skipping parts of their work to meet the counter terrorists. Shadow however, didn't have the time or desire to satisfy the curiosity of each resident. Furthermore, the 4 masked humans found themselves with their primary weapons drawn out. They didn't want any surprise assassins, mercenaries, or universe knows what coming at them.

Rarity couldn't see the humans, but she was painfully aware that they were armed.

"Must you carry your barbaric instruments of war everywhere you go?" asked the white mare.

"Disarming us will be viewed as a threat." warned Scarecrow. Overwatch seconded that.

"Follow me!" skipped Pinkie gleefully. "We're almost at Ponyville Schoolhouse! Aren't you nervouscited?"

"No." muttered Shadow at once.

"Come on! You don't want to set a negative reputation for yourselves, do you?" insisted Rainbow Dash.

After a minute of walking and trotting, the group found themselves gazing at the school building. Outside was a playground, which Shadow noticed resembled a human one, with colts and fillies playing games, which again Shadow noted were of human origin.

Suddenly, the bell rang and the students galloped into class.

"Looks like it's just an elementary school." radioed X-ray.

The cloaked Scarecrow approached Rarity and tapped her on the neck. The startled unicorn turned around.

"The 5 of you told us that Ponyville Schoolhouse was the only educational facility in town. Shouldn't there be a middle school or high school for ponies 11 and up to attend?" inquired Scarecrow.

Applejack laughed. "'Course not partner! Nopony continues goin' to school after 10 unless they were some genius. After dat we focus on our talents."

A silence rang in the air.

"That explains so much." said Overwatch.

"If it's just an elementary school, than we'll probably have no use such a simple knowledge base." remarked Scorch. "Besides, like we're going to scare those foals. Let's leave."

The invisible humans turned around and were about to walk away until-

"Wait." pleaded Fluttershy.

The humans turned back.

"Would you really disappoint those little kids?" The nervous pegasus made a sorrow expression.

"My universe, that is so cute." awed Scorch.

"Fine, we'll go. But we leave the moment we call for it." ordered Scarecrow.

The 4 humans sprinted past their guides. The Mane 5 realized what happened and tried to catch up with the humans. As they opened the door, they were greeted by a cerise Earth Pony teacher.

"Hello there." greeted Cheerilee warmly.

"Oh hey there Cheery deary!" greeted back Pinkie Pie.

"The students are going crazy about those aliens." shook the teacher. "Are the humans ready for their presentation? Where are they anyway?"

"Actually, the humans are already inside the building." pointed Rainbow Dash.

Cheerilee looked nervous. "But I didn't see them come in."

"Dat's because they're invisible Cheer." muttered Applejack.

The teacher's eyes shot up. "Goodness, we have to find theme before they do something inconsiderate. Where could they possibly be?"

Rarity placed a hoof on her chin. "I believe I may know where."

The 6 mares dashed past a series of lockers and made it to the school library. Needless to say, the entire room was a fiasco. Books were littered everywhere and being opened and tossed aside by an invisible force.

"See anything worthwhile?" asked Scarecrow's disembodied voice.

"Negative." responded the rest of Shadow.

"The books we have here are the same ones Twilight had. No textbooks or anything informative either. Just stories." pointed X-ray.

Cheerilee stepped forward. "Um, excuse me."

Suddenly the books in the air stopped moving.

"Are you the teacher?" asked Scorch's disembodied voice.

Cheerilee nodded. "The class is ready for you."

"Alright just give us a second." whispered Overwatch. Too everypony's surprise, Shadow managed to rearrange the library in 1 minute with every book arranged in the Dewey Decimal system.

The 4 humans brushed passed the mares and headed to straight to class which wasn't hard to do considering there was only one. Scarecrow opened the door and the rest of the cloaked Shadow entered the room followed by Cheerilee.

At the sight of their teacher, the students silenced. All the while, Shadow placed their weapons on the magnetic plates perched on their backs. It was a miracle the 4 of them didn't hit the roof.

"Class, we have very special guests today. They are out of this world!" announced Cheeriliee.

The filly pegasus named Scootaloo got excited. "You don't mean-"

Suddenly, Shadow uncloaked and revealed themselves to the classroom. This was no longer a surprise for the commandos, but all the fillies and colts immediately received migraines and mind fucks as they tried to sink in Shadow's incomprehensible form.

After the headaches alleviated, "So, tell us about your self." said Cheerilee.

Scarecrow "My name is Scarecrow. These are my friends X-ray, Overwatch and Scorch."

Sweetie Bell waved at X-ray while Applebloom winked at Scorch. The two humans smiled lightly after seeing their favorite fillies again.

"We are human beings." continued Scarecrow. "We're 24, male, hetrosexual and our job is to serve the United Terran Federation military amongst the ranks of the 23rd counter terrorist division."

After the insipid introduction. The colt named Rumble raised his hoof. Scarecrow pointed at him.

"Can you please explain your job?" asked the colt impatiently.

"We stop bad guys. Period." muttered a vacuous Scorch.

"That's not much." complained Snips. The other colts in the class agreed.

Overwatch himself couldn't help but give a mental laugh after he realized how none of the fillies in the class seemed to excited about Shadow. He pondered the situation had Shadow been female pop culture icons.

X-ray turned to face Cheerilee. "May I go through your study plans and textbooks?"

The teacher gulped. "Y-yes. You...may."

The rifleman sat down at the teacher's desk and looked through her memos with immense inquiry while the other 3 members of Shadow went through the class.

"I'm afraid we can't go into any detail about our jobs for the sake of your innocence." explained Scarecrow.

"Come on! You gotta tell us something." complained Snails. All of a sudden the fillies got excited too.

"Yeah, what about those mean space pirates you face?" asked Pipsqueak.

"They're insane. We'll leave it that." muttered Scorch.

"What about those cool adventures you have defeating intergalactic aliens?" yelled Scootaloo.

"Humanity has never faced intelligent empires before. Ponies are our first." answered Scarecrow.

"But don't you have to get rid of those alien animals that haunt foreign planets?" questioned Sweetie Bell.

"Sometimes." shook Scorch.

"Have you gone adventurin' on uncharted worlds before?" asked Applebloom.

"Yeah, 3 times." replied Overwatch.

"How many times do they call on you to save the day?" called out Dinky Hooves.

"A lot. Let's leave it at that. By now, we would have gone through 5 missions if we weren't exploring this place." answered Scarecrow.

"That is so cool!" cheered Scootaloo.

Scarecrow knitted his eyebrows. "Cool? Do you what our profession requires us to do?"

"Yeah, stop bad guys!" pointed Sweetie Bell.

"Did any of you colts and fillies even consider how we're supposed to stop them?" trivialized Scorch.

The class was silent. Cheerilee didn't like were this was heading.

"Out job requires us to murder. There is nothing cool about that." refuted Scarecrow. "Have you ever stopped to think about that?" Overwatch and Scorch crossed their arms.

All of a sudden, the students were beginning to form a new idea on the concept of good vs. evil. The acts of the elements of harmony were heroic, but nothing extreme.

"Let's not think about it for a moment." proposed Scorch. "Does anypony else have any questions?"

"Where do humans come from?" asked a filly named Twist.

"Humans originate from Earth, but with the exception of Scorch we were born on various planets across the galaxy." answered X-ray from Cheerilee's desk.

The idea of intergalactic colonization excited the fillies and colts again.

"What was school like for you?" asked Applebloom.

"We can't go into too much detail for legal issues." pointed Scarecrow. "We faired pretty well in school though. Me and the rest of Shadow always showed up on time, did really well on our projects, took part in extra curricular activities and we didn't give our teachers any problems."

"I don't believe that." chucked Rumble.

"Well my lie detector didn't go off." pointed Scarecrow to his wrist computer.

Cheerilee decided to take advantage of the situation. "You see class, this is the kind of behavior you're supposed to be demonstrating at school. If men like these can display excellent behavior, than you should too."

A lot of students gave Shadow a light scowl for elevating expectations in class.

"You must have been really popular if you were that good." awed Dinky.

"Not really." debunked X-ray as he was finalizing his notes. "Bullying was common for us."

"What did you do about those mean bullies?" asked Sweetie Bell.

"What do you think we did? We just told our teachers and that was that." remarked Scorch.

"Another fine example class." applauded Cheeerilee.

The snobbish filly Diamond Tiara was still bemused. "Why do you 4 look so funny? You don't even fit in to the scenery."

Scorch recognized her as the one bullying Twist the other day.

"No offense kid, but Equestria is the funny looking one. You all look like cartoon characters. Everything beyond our galaxy is built like us." countered Scarecrow.

"Can you identify yourself young miss?" ordered Scorch.

"Name's Diamond Tiara." gloated the Pink filly.

Scorch smirked. "Funny, because your tiara is plastic."

The snobbish filly looked like she got hit on the face with a bat.

Suddenly X-ray spoke up. "Ms. Cheerilee, what are you teaching these kids?"

The smile on the teacher's face vanished. "What ever do you mean?"

X-ray stood up and looked over his readings. "Well for starters, everything relating to science is completely off."

"How so." whispered Cheeirlee.

"I don't blame you for your ignorance, but the stars don't scientifically require a deity to move, there's an absence of gravity, a lack of explanation for plant growth, missing information on molecular structure, paradoxes every where and no mention of the laws of physics anywhere. In fact, your school curriculum is akin to the misguided ones of the renaissance because it attempts to explain many concepts as 'magic'." pontificated X-ray.

Cheerille started stammering. "But mag-"

"Does not exist. Everything has an explanation." interrupted X-ray. "May I see your so called science tests?"

The earth pony teacher nervously got out a folder (which she held with her teeth) detailing all past, present and future science examinations.

Scarecrow grabbed the sheets and shook his head. "Exams. How primitive. Given the fact that these students have been forced to be tested on false knowledge, these scores are no longer valid."

The commander of Shadow raised and lit his pyro grenade. To the awe of the class, all of the 'science' exams were disintegrated in a mere moment.

X-ray stepped in front of the class carrying a series of textbooks. "Now as per United Terran federation laws, we are to correct any errors in your curriculum and reinstate a satisfactory teaching program."

"That is ridiculous! There is nothing wrong with what I teach my students." countered Cheerilee.

"We're in space. What's you're excuse?" replied Scarecrow.

"OOOOOOOO!" pointed the class to their teacher.

Cheeirlee scowled. "What gives you the right to enforce your federation laws on my class and dictate what I teach?"

"Well we are the law." snickered Scorch. "Besides, our teaching programs were once primitive like yours. Don't you want the improved lesson plan for the sake of your students?"

"While we're at it, we should probably work out better designs for chairs. Those things meant for legs can't be too comfortable for equines to sit on." proposed Scarecrow.

Shadow proceeded to step outside of the classroom as the child ponies watched on, stupefied.

Just when silence was beginning to take hold of the class, Overwatch opened the door-

"By the way, the average intelligence unit of humans went up after we got rid of tests and homework in 2190."

-and closed it back.

The fillies and colts gave Cheerilee a dirty look. The teacher gulped and try to keep her smile intact.

"A fucking spa, really?" complained Scorch. All ponies in the room but Rarity stammered back at the swear.

"Why this isn't no ordinary spa my dear. This is the paragon of beauty treatment in Equestria." chanted Rarity.

Suddenly, two earth pony mares wandered into the room. One was blue with a pink mane while the other was pink with a blue mane. The pink one spoke with a clam tone.

"Hello distant travelers, I am Aloe, and this is my sister Lotus."

Scarecrow switched his mic to local. "Didn't Rarity say they were lesbian with each other?"

"Let's not think about that right now." radioed back X-ray.

"We are certainly pleased that you took the time to visit our luxurious spa." greeted Lotus. "The two of us have pleased many mares before with our treatments. We would be rude not to offer our services to you."

Scarecrow rolled his eyes. "For starters, we're human males and second, the chances of us letting you remove our masks are non existent."

Aloe was desperate. "But you will be the first bi-peds we will have worked on. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"We have many magically created products for you that would help rejuvenate skin and take the pressure of your faces." added Lotus who balanced a jar on her hooves. "I'm sure you do not have these on your many worlds."

Scorch grabbed the jar and scanned it to his hud. "For starters, there is nothing magical about this cream, it's just simple sodium and spring water. Second, we have products like this on the colonies that are of better quality. Third, when was this product put into circulation?"

"This is a new formula introduced a year back." answered Lotus gleefully.

Scarecrow looked around the room. "Me and the rest of Shadow are conducting an experiment. We would like to request that we be allowed to utilize some of your products for our research."

The two lesbian sisters looked at each other.

"Well, I'd hate to be rude, so yes." assured Aloe.

"But we still would like to perform at least a Ponyville massage on you." offered Lotus.

Shadow found Rarity looking up at him with a bright smile. "Come now Shadow, at least one of you should go through their signature masseuse."

X-ray muttered something Armenian. "I can't say no to such an adorable face. I'll go."

While Scarecrow, Overwatch and Scorch began hoarding items, X-ray was directed onto a table. The commando took off his carbine from the magnetic plate as well as his bullet proof vest.

The masked rifleman reluctantly laid himself on the table. To his surprise it did not shatter, although it was obviously stained due to his mass.

"Now just relax." whispered Aloe.

X-ray used neural controls to disable his kinetic barriers. The next thing he new, Aloe got on his thin back and immediately started prancing. To X-ray's delight he felt the tension on his back dissipate. Then Lotus started improvising with cracking his fingers.

The two mares got to work and in about 5 minutes, X-ray was as feeling as good as ever.

"Damn that felt good." moaned the counter terrorist as he placed back his armor. "I feel like I can rip the horns off a rancor with my bare hands."

The sisters looked at each other confusedly. "Umm....your welcome?"

X-ray joined his friends, who stripped half the parlor of its products in a bag and headed out.

"So where should we head off to next?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"How about town square? There's plenty of sites to see there." proposed Fluttershy.

"Actually, I think we should head off to SugarCube corner next! I'm in the mood for a wacky snacky." piped up Pinkie Pie. "Plus, I gotta prepare for that super even this night." she winked.

"Sounds lovely to me. Are you fine with that Shadow?" asked Rarity.

"Let's see, we have an entire logical crisis and we're getting snacks. Just great." remarked the cloaked Scarecrow.

"Do you 4 honestly need to stay invisible the entire time?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"We don't want any unwanted attention." defended Scorch.

"Well, we kinda look like fools just talking to thin air. Air can't talk. I mean I learned from Overwatch that rocks and metals can sing, but air? That's just silly." skipped Pinkie.

The 4 humans simply sighed and uncloaked. As their figures became apparent, everypony within the vicinity shifted their focus to the counter terrorists.

Shadow remained unfettered and kept their weapons tight. Had the ponies been humans, the would have simply set off a flash bang and EMP to cover an escape. Now, they had to deal with attention.

The squad stopped in their tracks as more and more ponies came up to them.

The Mane 5 on the other hand, kept on moving.

"Well ah think it would be a fin' idea if we could see the Ponyville clock tower." pointed Applejack.

"Or the Joke shop! Who doesn't love jokes." laughed Pinkie. She was still determined to make Overwatch smile.

"Well it's Shadows decision." whimpered Fluttershy. "Right Shadow?.....Shadow."

The 5 former elements of harmony turned around and dropped their mouth at the sight before hoof.

"Holy Universe, you are so cute!"

X-ray held the blue unicorn named Colgate in his hands and nuzzled her coat with his mask affectionately.

"Who's a good mare? Who's a good mare?" chanted Scorch as he rubbed Roseluck's belly while the mare laughed.

"Hey pal! That's my marefriend." gritted a stallion named Golden Grape.

Scorch simply tussled his mane and the stallion chuckled. "Hey stop!"

"Who's a good stallion? Who's a good stallion?"

Scarecrow held the twins Cloudchaser and Flitter to his chest while the two whinnied in excitement.

Overwatch was slowly stroking Derpy Hooves' mane.

"So far, you're my favorite." muttered the sniper. While Derpy just chuckled.

"SHADOW!" called out Rainbow Dash.

"We really would' appreciate if if ya didn' go 'round cuddling everypony you see." beamed Applejack.

Shadow simply dropped the ponies they were embracing and followed the group, much to the crowd's displeasure who had grown fond of the sensation of fingers.

"Alright we're here!" announced Applejack as the group entered the bakery.

"By the way, how was staying here last night?" asked Scorch.

"Meh." replied Overwatch.

Mr. Cake came in the room. "Pinkie Pie is that...OH SWEET CELESTIA! THERE'S 4 OF THEM!"

The yellow earth pony ran inside kitchen followed by his wife. That left the two Cake twins who were fast asleep.

"You won't regret eating one of Pinkie's cupcakes." insisted Rainbow Dash.

"But unless you don't want to get too hyper, I'd suggest staring away from energy drink flavor. If that's okay with you." squeaked Fluttershy.

"How many times must we say it? We can't eat until further notice due to our medications." reminded Scarecrow.

"Don't be such a dopy pony!" cried out Pinkie, "We have a lot of flavors for you to try like chocolate, red velvet, vanilla, strawberry-"

"-Pinkie, we appreciate the generosity, but" X-ray paused. "Did you say red velvet?"

The party pony nodded. "Want a piece?"

Suddenly, the cake twins woke up and looked at Shadow with their beady eyes. The next thing everybody and everypony knew, the foals started crying at the sight of the frightening humans.

"Oh dear. Somepony do something before they go through a flight or magic spurt." warned Rarity.

"Don't worry everypony! I know what to do!" yelled Pinkie Pie. The pink mare grabbed a sack of flour with her sugar-
induced walk breaking skills and dumped the pile on the foals. Much to Shadows surprise, the cake twins felt ecstatic.

"What was that?" questioned Scarecrow. He got ready to take notes.

"Oh, when the twins get all sad. I just dump a pile of flour on them, it always works." responded the pink mare.

Scorch raised an eyebrow. There was nothing in flour that could make you happy by itself. He walked up to the flour sac, scraped some flour with his gloved finger and placed it under his bandanna. The demo man tasted the animated flour.

After a brief pause:

"This is cocaine."

After a 20 minute sweep where they turned the entire bakery up side down, Scarecrow and Overwatch stepped outside of the facility. The Cake family and Pinkie was detained and restrained via kinetic barrier hand cuffs.

"Scorch, give me a sit rep." ordered Scarecrow.

"Well turns out the entire thing was misunderstanding." reported the demo man. "They're not involved in drug trade of any sorts and weren't even aware they were in possession of cocaine at all. How did the investigation go?"

"We managed to dispose all cocaine bags. Luckily, none of the baking equipment is drugged and the family seems to avoid using the fatal ones." explained Scarecrow.

"Pinkie Pie, how on Celestia did we get drugs into our bakery?" asked Mrs. Cake.

"I don't know. I might be crazy but I know better than to talk to shady ponies." responded the pink mare.

"Where do you even get our flour from?" questioned Mr. Cake.

"Oh, this funny looking old stallion comes in asking if we want some of his 'wares' which is a really funny name for flour if you ask me".

Mr. and Mrs. Cake wanted to strangle the party pony if they weren't tied up.

X-ray all the while had performed a series of drug test on the twins. "The foals are alright. Luckily they don't seem to swallow the drug and have inhaled an atomic amount. At worst, they'll grow up to be fucking Pinkie Pie."

"You're free to go." announced Scarecrow. "Just don't let Pinkie be in charge of flour anymore." He raised his hand and delivered a pulse punch to disable the kinetic barrier field.

The other mares arrived to further direct Shadow on their tour.

"You only sell quills and sofas?" questioned Scorch.

"Why yes. That is my talent after all. You boys looking for a good old sofa or a quill to write on?" offered the store's owner Davenport.

"No offense sir, but no human has written with quills for hundreds of years. We barely use pencils as well." said Scarecrow. "And don't fillies and colts write with pencils?"

"Yeah, but many still use the good old quill. Pencils are just a fad." defended Davenport.

"Trust me, based on the path ponies are taking, they won't be. May we see your sofa collection however?" asked X-ray.

"Sure thing."

Davenport tried to open the door behind him. "Funny, it seems to be locked."

Overwatch rolled his eyes and gave the door a kick, bringing it down and splitting it in two. The store owner was left startled and stupefied.

The squad looked at the collection of couches and took not of the anachronisms.

"Some of these couches are renaissance, others are industrial era, others are 20th century." recorded Scarecrow.

"Has the design of this couch been a new creation?" pointed X-ray to a renaissance like furniture.

"Why no! We've had that design for thousands of years." laughed Davenport.

'Thousands? The renaissance was only a few centuries.' pondered X-ray.

"Davenport why do ponies want couched like these? Surely they don't suit quadrupeds well?" inquired Scorch.

"I don't know. We just thought we should invent them." responded Davenport.

"And why do ponies even have quills? Surely it is a pain to write with if you lack telekinesis." added Scarecrow.

Davenport laughed. "Not really, you just gotta hold it right in your teeth. See anything interesting boys?"

Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity waited outside the store. Pinkie Pie had gone to plan for the party.

"I wonder if Shadow found anything they like." whispered Fluttershy.

Suddenly, the door slammed open and knocked all 4 mares aside. Out came Scarecrow carrying an industrial revolution era couch chair followed by Overwatch and Scorch dragging a renaissance couch that X-ray happily lied down on.

"So, I think we should head on the market next. You'll find a lot of cool things there!" cheered Rainbow Dash as she did a twirl in mid-air.

"Jus' don't go to any of the fruit stores. I swear they rip you off!" warned Applejack.

"Pfft. Privately owned stores, what a capitalist joke." laughed X-ray.

Shadow took some mental notes via their HUD on the items that they could find there. The humans and ponies walked along the road silently until:

"Oh my gosh! This is the best day ever!"

Shadow immediately turned around and pointed their weapons at.....a sea green unicorn.

Scarecrow unholstered his LMG. "You must have a good justification for sneaking up on 4 counter terrorists ma'am. "Please identify yourself."

"Oh no, not her." face hooded Rarity.

"I do have a good reason. My name is Lyra Heartstrings." the unicorn extended her hoof.

"Pleasure. What do you require?" questioned Scorch.

"Oh just your very existence." cheered the sea green unicorn.

"I beg your pardon?" muttered Overwatch.

"You see, ever since I was a filly, I was the only one amongst town to believe in the existence of aliens." started Lyra.

"Well, praise to you for being open minded." complimented X-ray.

"Yeah, but my friends thought differently. When I wanted to talk about aliens, I got dismissed as a freak. Almost nopony I knew wanted to be my friend. So much for harmony eh?" stated Lyra.

Scarecrow crossed his arms. "Ponies of all creatures did that to you? I want to have word with them."

"Growing up was hard. Because of my belief, I got name called, uninvited to parties and even BonBon herself kicked me out of the house for a while."

Scorch gave a flaming exhale. Nopony deserved to be treaded like that.

"But to pony hell with them. I get the feeling they'll be kissing my hooves for forgiveness tomorrow." chuckled Lyra. "So what does it fell like to have hands? They look so cool!"

Scarecrow gave his gloved fingers a twirl. "Grabby."

Lyra grinned. "So, if you're not doing anything tonight, how about one of you give a mare a ride she won't forget?"

That's when it got awkward.

Scorch's mouth dropped. "Pardon us?"

Lyra lowered her voice to a sly whisper. "Come now, surely you aliens need a little break from saving your species. Am I right?"

".....You're a lesbian. Fuck X-Gay." said Scarecrow quickly.

X-ray's eyes shot open. "Um, guys?" The masked soldier turned around, only to find that his 3 friends were no where behind him. He slowly turned to the horny mare. (no pun intended.)

"So what do you say?" purred Lyra dreamily.

"Aren't you supposed to be dating...you know mares?" nervously asked X-ray.

Lyra laughed and found herself hanging on X-ray's head. "Oh don't worry, I converted. Gender won't be a problem."

X-ray was about to explain how sexuality wasn't a choice and how you couldn't convert until-

The sea green unicorn hugged X-ray's leg. "Now come on. Show me your alien-"

Lyra couldn't remember how she ended up in the trash can.

Shadow and their 4 companion mares found themselves walking amongst the ponyville market. Countless sales ponies were calling at Shadow to go take a look at their merchandise.

"The laissez faire marketing, it burns." groaned Scorch.

"Keep your eyes peeled for anything we might need." ordered Scarecrow as he tried not to accidentally stomp somepony.

"Seriously, I'm all for fresh air shopping, but if there are no malls, than Ponyville's market system hasn't evolved beyond the bartering of medieval England." noted Scorch.

"Yet all of this merchandise is once again, renaissance and up." added X-ray.

Rarity turned around to face the humans. "Now we can stay here for an hour maximum. If you see anything that interests you, feel free to make a purchase. Why, there are some lavish souvenirs sold here you can buy."

Scarecrow rolled his eyes under his mask. "We might have a lot of saved money, but it's in UTF credits. Not whatever you use for currency."

"Well we use bits for currency." informed Rainbow Dash.

"There should be a place you can make an exchange 'round here." said Applejack.

"Thanks, but no thanks." replied Scorch. "Let's split, we'll get a lot of work done."

The members of Shadow, divided find anything they deemed a necessity to their research.

The entire marketplace was a wonder to Shadow. Every store they visited sold different items from different time periods of humanity. Some which did not make sense for hoofed ponies to utilize. Whenever asked about the nature of the object, Shadow got the same response. It was a recent creation.

Despite the medieval style of bargaining and store structure, there were 20th century cleaning materials, 19th clocks and cameras, and music stores that sold renaissance instruments as well as records that only played classical and dubstep.

After a moment of hard interrogation, Shadow would then ask if they could borrow an item for research, which the shop keeper quickly surrendered.

Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash bemusedly watched Scorch, who moved with impressive speed, drag a series of music items with a record player back to Twilight's library.

In the heart of the moment, a purple flash appeared before the eyes of the 4 mares. Suddenly, Twilight revealed herself to the market place. In return, the shoppers stopped activity and bowed.

Twilight, full of panic galloped to her friends.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "Twilight? You're back early."

The alicorn was breathing heavily and spoke quickly. "Is the town in ruined condition? Did Shadow execute somepony? Are they plotting a global invasion?"

"Relax, Twi. Everypony is jus' alright." laughed Applejack.

"I wouldn't say the same about their property though." whimpered Fluttershy.

Twilight turned around to see Scarecrow dragging a crate of medical supplies he got from the hospital.

The princess of magic turned to face her friends. "What's going on and where's Pinkie Pie?"

"Pinkie Pie is planning a surprise party for the humans." answered Rainbow Dash.

"Shadow on the other hoof, is in the midst of their research project." yawned Rarity. "I just wished they'd give it up."

Overwatch passed by the mares with a rack of multi era clothes.

Twilight fumed. "Oh for the love of Celestia."

The purple alicorn flew over to Scorch who was carrying series of artifacts he got from a souvenir shop.

"So Twilight, you're back early." noticed Scorch.

"That's right. What do you think your doing?" scolded Twilight.

"Science." replied the demo man.

"By stealing other ponies' property?"

"We're not stealing shit. We asked them if we could borrow it."

"You do realize they only said that because they were scared of you!"

"Doesn't matter. Besides, well return them. Eventually."

And without a second glance Scorch took off with his loot.

X-ray on the the other hand was transporting a crate of kitchen appliances from a home appliances store. Just as the masked rifleman was making his way-

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

An object crashed into X-ray's back. Luckily for him, his kinetic barrier had absorbed the impact. The rifleman turned around to see the object that crashed into him was a scooter. Laying on the ground next to it were 3 fazed out fillies he recognized as Applebloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo. A pile of newspapers was scattered as well.

X-ray placed down the crate and helped the fillies up.

"What are you 3 adorable things doing?" asked X-ray playfully.

Scootaloo got up and squealed at the sight of X-ray. The other fillies got excited at the sight of the human as well.

"Well it's simple." winked the orange filly.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER DELIVERY PONIES!" cheered the trio.

The masked counter terrorist knitted his eyebrows. "Come again?"

"We're trying to get our cutie marks in delivery." responded Sweetie Bell.

The memory hit X-ray. "Oh you mean those tattoos you get when you find your talent."

"Yeah! How did you get your cutie mark X-ray?" asked Applebloom.

"Humans don't get cutie marks." laughed X-ray.

"But then what is that?" pointed Sweetie Bell to the symbol on X-ray's arm.

"That isn't a cutie mark, it is the symbol of the 23rd." informed the rifleman.

"Then how are humans supposed to know what their special talent is if you don't get cute marks?" asked Scootaloo.

"You just find something you're good at." chuckled the rifleman.

"But how are other ponies supposed to know you're not a blank flank?" inquired Applebloom.

"Humans don't have flanks and why do you care so much about talents?"

The crusaders gasped.

"Our talents are supposed to determine what we're going to be when we grow up!" yelled Scootaloo.

"Yeah, we have to find out what our talents mean pronto. We're the only blank flanks in school!" added Sweetie Bell.

"There is no need for you to find your talents right now." insisted X-ray.

"Yes there is!" yelled Applebloom. "This is the age for us to be focusing on our future."

"No this is the age for you to be enjoying your education and trying to make the most out of yourself." countered X-ray.

"Our school ends soon. We can't afford to be blank flanks any longer." stammered Sweetie Bell.

X-ray's mouth dropped. "Wait a minute, you mean society puts pressure on fillies and colts to find out their professions at this age?"

The fillies nodded. "Don't humans do the same thing?" asked Scootaloo.

The commando couldn't believed what he was hearing. "No! We humans aren't forced to decide our job callings until our late teens. Children are supposed to be given the time to discover and help themselves learn what it means to be a part of the ingenuity that is the universe."

X-ray turned to face the group of mares. Twilight was in the middle of hearing about Shadow's uncovering of drugs stored in SugarCube corner.

"Hey Twilight!" called out the rifleman.

The alicorn turned around. "What is it X-ray?"

"I heard ponies are forced to decipher their careers at a young age. Is that true?"

Twilight laughed. "Of course. How are ponies supposed to find out their careers if they don't start young?"

"What the hell does Equestria think it can do with the way it treats young children?" ranted the hooded rifleman.

Twilight looked confused. "Excuse me?"

"It's bad enough you force kids to take standardized tests, but you honestly put pressure on them to find out their job callings as well?"

The purple mare was dumbfounded. "Well, that's how pony society works."

The scrawny rifleman would have spat if it wasn't for his mask. "That's horrible, you need to change the system right away. Fillies and Colts should be enjoying their childhood and be allowed to be free from any kind restraint!"

The alicorn glared at the human. "Then how are ponies supposed to discover their careers? Don't humans-"

"No! The UTF do not force children to make life changing decisions and discoveries like that. Do you have any idea how crazy it is to make fillies and colts decide careers at that age?"

Twilight remained silent to see where this was going. The other elements of harmony were dumbfounded.

"Do you want to know why humans don't force kids to choose professions at such a young age? Because we change. As humans grow older, we begin to improve ourselves and that's when we find our true talents. Since we go to school above 11 years old we have more time to explore out true selves and find out what our strengths really are. What you're good at as a kid might not be relevant as an adult. For example, when I was young, I wanted to be an engineer."

The elements of harmony were dumbfounded.

"Wait, so if ah waited a few years and continued goin' ta school, ah would have had a different job?" pondered Applejack.

"Maybe I'm not really cut out to be an animal caretaker." worried Fluttershy.

"To be fair, I can't really debunk the whole system." continued X-ray. "I mean, you're all good at what your cutie mark says. I just hate how young children are pressured."

The elements looked relived. Rarity wiped her sweating forehead.

"But, we still want to get our cutie marks anyway." complained Sweetie Bell.

"What have you tried so far?" groaned the rifleman.

Scootaloo brightened up. "We tried all sorts of things. We tried hang gliding, para sailing, lion tamers and stunt ponies."

"Do you have any idea how dangerous trying those talents are?" scolded X-ray.

"Yeah!" cheered the orange filly. "Rainbow Dash said to always go for the cool and awesome."

"Do yourself a favor and never listen to Rainbow Dash again." instructed X-ray. "She'll get you killed."

"But you're a soldier! You're special talent is fightin'." defended Applebloom.

"This isn't my true calling." explained the counter terrorist. "I might be good at serving the armed forces. But my true passion lies in the fields of congressional debates."

"Huh?" muttered the crusaders.

"Look. Your logic is flawed." began the thin soldier. "First of all, what makes you think all 3 of you have the same talent?"

The fillies looked at each other as if they got hit by a gauss bullet. Sweetie Bell spoke up.

"Well, it can happen. I mean aren't all of your friends ninja/spies too?"

X-ray cursed in Armenian. "I told you before, this isn't our true passion. I want to be a politician, Scarecrow wants to be an author, Overwatch an artist, and Scorch a hockey player."

"So why are you in the military?" inquired Applebloom.

"Because we're good at it. But just because you're good at something, doesn't mean you should pursue it. Our time in the 23rd is limited. Soon, we'll be off to our true careers."

"That doesn't make sense. If you're good at something, that should be your job!" retorted Scootaloo.

"Colgate has a glass hour cutie mark, but she's a dentist." pointed X-ray. "Sure, you should be good at your job, but what is truly important is if you're happy."

"To be honest, I don't think I'd be happy doing all the stuff we try out for the rest of my life." confessed Applebloom.

"So why do you try something that dangerous if you're not going to be happy." questioned X-ray.

"Because they're awesome!" boasted Scootaloo."

"Just because something is awesome, doesn't mean you should pursue it." suggested the slender commando.

"So how do you plan on us getting you're cutie marks?" chimed in Sweetie Bell.

"Simple. What do you 3 like? Not as a group, but as individuals." instructed X-ray.

"I like many things!" smiled Applebloom. "I could show you all my favorite things at the clubhouse."

X-ray had an epiphany. "Clubhouse? Did any one of you build it?"

"Yeah it was Applebloom. She did a great job!" declared Scootaloo.

"Applebloom, could you build me a drawer?" requested X-ray.

"Sure thing!" cheered the yellow earth pony. To the the slender human's surprise, Applebloom masterfully gathered a selection of planks, nails and a hammer which she used to construct an elegant, Victorian era drawer.

"Now please build me a nightstand." calmly said X-ray.

Applebloom gleefully and skillfully did so. The nightstand she constructed however was more colonial times.

The skinny commando was pleased. "Applebloom, go with wood work. You're awfully good at it and you seem pretty content while doing carpentry."

The earth pony's eyes widened. "Wow, that does sound like a good idea." Suddenly in Applebloom's brain, the realization of her talent triggered a series of impulses which immediately traversed to the skin cells on her flank and reorganized the pigments in order to form an image of a log and saw based on mental images from her memories.

In other words, she got her cutie mark.

Applebloom looked at her flank and upon seeing the image, screamed loudly with joy.

"Do me next!" blurted Scootaloo.

X-ray gave a moment's thought. "I suggest you work with your scooter by entering sporting events based on the object. You seem pretty proficient at it."

"Do you think so?" chirped the pegasus filly.

"Well scoot is in your name, so it would be pretty funny." laughed X-ray.

Scootaloo gave it a moment's thought "That sounds like a cool idea. After all, scooters are awesome!"

And the orange filly got a picture of a blue scooter on her flank.

After noticing her cutie mark, Scootaloo fainted.

"What about me? I don't think I'm good at anything." sighed Sweetie Bell.

X-ray tried to think what she'd be good at. The commando didn't know why, but because he enjoyed Sweetie Bell's voice so much, he scanned her vocal cords with his visor. Remarkably, they were in pristine condition.

"My suit informed me that your voice is of genuine quality. Could you try singing for me please?"

The unicorn filly perked up. "Sure, I love singing!"

Sweetie Bell sang a few notes for X-ray, sure enough she sounded like an angel.

"You're voice is lovely. I'd suggest going with singing." proposed the scrawny counter terrorist.

In the heart of the moment, a microphone cutie mark appeared on Sweetie Bell's bottom, causing the filly to start prancing around uncontrollably.

The crusaders huddled up and cheered.

"NO MORE CRUSADING FOR US!"

As the filly's admired their cutie marks, they each made sure to thank X-ray. The hooded commando couldn't help but feel joy as he helped those young ones in their dilemma.

The former crusaders ran to the clubhouse to celebrate, catching the attention of the older mares.

Rarity was in shock. "Was that Sweetie Bell?"

So was Rainbow Dash. "And Scootaloo?

As well as Applejack. "And Applebloom?"

Twilight's mouth hung open. "With their cutie marks?"

"Affirmative." called out X-ray.

The 5 mares looked at the tall human with utter awe.

"Wow, ya got Applebloom her cutie mark! Thanks partner, ah was starting to get worried about her." thanked Applejack.

"Those fillies were at it for years!" exclaimed Rarity. "By Celestia, how long did you take to find out their talents?"

X-ray looked at the time on his HUD. "10 minutes and 13 seconds."

"Well, good job." complimented Fluttershy.

Twilight was sweating. "How could have you discovered their talents so quickly?"

X-ray pointed at his skull. "Simple, I used rationality rather than 'the awesome'. Rainbow Dash."

The Rainbow Maned pegasus gave the human a scowl.

Suddenly, the rest of Shadow arrived at the scene.

"Hey X-gay, where were you?" called out Scarecrow.

"I was having a chat with a few fillies." answered the commando.

"So now that you're done hoarding everything you lay eyes on, can we continue the tour?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"If that's okay with you." whimpered Fluttershy.

"That's a negative." denied Scorch. "We've set up our apparatus at Twilight's house. We need to get to work immediately."

"Hey, who said you could use my room as a lab?" puffed Twilight.

"Surely, you of all ponies would be interested in our experiment." crossed Scarecrow.

"I just don't think it's so necessary for you to get so worked up about a few coincidences!" defended the alicorn.

"Well excuse us for not being able to accept your world copying ours." snorted Scorch.

Rarity fixed her hair. "But you know what is inexcusable? Missing the jousting tournament!"

Shadow's brains split in two. After an awkward pause.

"Do you even know what jousting is?" questioned Overwatch.

"Of course, I once challenged Dash to a game once." whispered Fluttershy.

"Don't remind me." muttered the cyan pegasus.

Scarecrow inhaled. "During Medieval times, we humans had a sport where two men would knock each other off their transport with lances."

"Exactly. Dat's how joustin' works." revealed Applejack.

"But our transports were horses." informed X-ray. "Why would ponies find it necessary to invent a game that requires a bi-ped to ride a horse?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Well it's the most popular game in Equestria after-"

"Let me guess, soccer, basket ball, or any other primitive sport no human plays?" interrupted Scorch.

"No. I don't even know what those sports are. The most popular activity in Equestria is bowling." finished the alicorn.

Shadow's brain split in 4.

"Bowling? As in the sport where you have to roll a ball to knock down a series of pins." muttered Scarecrow.

The ponies nodded.

"It's not a sport a lady would admire, but it is certainly exciting." dramatized Rarity.

X-ray brightened up. "HOLY SHIT! THIS IS PERFECT!"

Fluttershy tried to ignore the swear. "Oh my, you must love bowling."

Scarecrow laughed like an insane man. "NO. You just helped validate our theory further. Ponies ARE the echo of humanity."

"Yeesh partner, would you let it go already?" stammered Applejack.

"SILENCE! You uneducated redneck." shrieked Scorch.

Overwatch was the only one to suppress his temporary insanity. "In bowling, does the ball have 3 holes?"

"Yeah, I don't know why we have them." shrugged Rainbow Dash

X-ray calmed down. "The holes in the ball are meant for fingers." X-ray gave his a twirls. "The reason why put them there is to evolve like humanity."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "That's just crazy."

"How long have ponies had bowling?" asked Scarecrow with a grin under his mask.

"Few decades." answered Rarity. He grandfather was a forefather of the sport.

"Well we humans have had it for centuries." claimed Scorch. "See, you're copying humanity."

"But they don't have soccer or basket ball." noted X-ray.

"We have to get research done right away!" ordered Scarecrow.

Applejack looked disappointed. "But, what about da tour?"

"Your town is beyond our consideration as of the moment." growled Scarecrow. "Alright Shadow, let's move."

Without a second glance, the 4 humans apathetically took off.

Author's Note

Longest chapter yet! Wish more people would appreciate it though.

Why does X-ray always get the nuts? I found this would be a good time to develop him since he has the lest defined personality of Shadow.

Next chapter, you'll be in for a smashing surprise.

Assilant

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted."-The creed.

"Do you know what you're getting into?" asked the emperor.

"I am certain I know exactly how to deal with those brutes." replied a hooded mare.

"They slaughtered an army as well as two dragons. I also notice you seem to be rather disturbed at the thought of them alone. Are you absolutely-"

"I have never been more certain of anything in my life." assured the mare. "One must conquer his or her fears one day."

"You seem rather insistent to take them head on. I wish more of my soldiers were like you." smirked the emperor.

"Do not be discouraged emperor. You're troops are amongst the finest in the world. If I fail, they will no doubt be a better option. We merely need to unite the other races."

"I have spoken to the ambassadors of other nations but Equestria. While it is considered weakness to ask for allies in our nation, they will be valuable in rescuing our world from those harbingers."

"I had dreams where they would return, but I thanked my goddesses that they would allow no harm to come to us. When I saw them enter Ponyville with Twilight and the elements of harmony themselves, I realized we had been breached. Not even the element of magic herself seems to have been aware of their past misdeeds. They will no doubt attempt to convince Equestria of their false innocence and then attack." explained the mare.

"How do you plan on disposing them?" questioned the emperor.

"Knowing the....pink one. I certainly know what she will attempt to do now that those aggressors have entered town. I intend to poison them there and reveal to the crowd their deception. If my alpha plan fails. I still have 100% faith in my beta plan."

"Do you require any further assistance?" asked the emperor.

"I do not wish to create a scene. An army would draw attention. Besides, I have all I need here." The mare pointed to her amulet."

The emperor's eyes widened. "Is that the alic-"

"It is. I might be afraid of them, but the humans are going to face retribution one way or another."

Author's Note

The next chapter will be uploaded some time after this post. Hang around for it is more than 7500 words.

Chapter 24: The Party

"It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction."- Mikhail Gorbachev

"Ah can't believe they just stormed off lak dat!" scowled Applejack.

"Honestly, we're nothing more that a mere insignificant joke to those scoundrels." hissed Rarity.

"There was just so much I wanted to show them." whimpered Fluttershy.

Twilight could no longer hold it in. "To be fair girls, I really think we should be helping the humans with their experiment. What they'll uncover might be important to ponykind too. Besides, it would show them we're just as rational minded as they are. In fact, they might even form a little respect for us."

"Aw phooey." spat Applejack. "If they can't accept the word of the creator, than why should ah help them?"

"Besides, haven't they heard of acceptance?" added Rainbow Dash. "If I found out there was pony world like ours, I'd be like 'oh cool' and move on! I wouldn't be busting my brain for some egg head stuff."

The alicorn puffed. "Rainbow Dash, this is the kind of behavior that-"

"HEY GIRLS!"

The startled Mane 5 turned to their right to find Pinkie Pie standing perfectly still with a bright smile on her face.

"Pinky Pie, you must stop doing that." complained Rarity. "You're just as unnerving as Shadow when you just appear out of nowhere."

Pinkie Pie giggled. "Yeah, now that I know the source of my powers, I'm never gonna stop." the pink mare chucked an energy drink muffin into her mouth. "So where's Shadow? Are they playing hide and seek? They'd be so hard to find because they can cloak and-"

Rainbow Dash cut Pinkie off. "They're gone solving science or some random egg head junk."

"Oh that's super good!" chirped Pinkie. "That means we can discuss the surprise party without getting caught!"

"Yeah, how 'bout we cancel dat party?" sneered Applejack.

Pinkie's eyes shot open. "But why?"

"Well, other than being kind of mean," began Fluttershy.

"They totally don't have interest in us! Why should we care about them?" ended Rainbow Dash.

"Oh they're just cranky because they think we hate them." justified Pinkie. "If we throw them a surprise party, we'd show them how wanted they really are."

"Pinkie Pie, I don't think they want to be wanted. In fact, they'd probably like it more if we left them alone." insisted Twilight.

"Don't be such a silly filly Twilight." Pinkie formed a blank smile while gritting her teeth. "Do you really want to risk getting them mad and calling for a global invasion?"

"Why must humanity be so sensitive?" groaned Rarity.

"No offense sugar cube, but ah think Shadow already knows you're throwing them a surprise party." said Applejack.

Pinkie levitated in the air. "It's a surprise party Applejack. You can't know about a surprise party unless you don't want it to be a surprise."

"A party still sounds like fun." whispered Fluttershy.

Rainbow dash shrugged. "Oh well, if Pinkie Pie is gonna throw a surprise party, you can't change her mind."

Rarity twirled her mane. "I'll attend, if only for the sake of a social gathering."

The pink mare's smile brightened. "Alright, the party's at 7 'o' clock! Twilight, I need you to get music and try to see if you can get the town hall booked. Rarity, you handle catering. Applejack, you should get your family to bring some cider. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, you spread the word."

"How many ponies are we inviting?" asked Twilight.

"Why the whole town of course!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

Twilight and her friends reluctantly got to work setting up the party. In an hour's time, she had managed to secure the Town Hall for the party and along with Pinkie, assemble a team to prepare the building for the festivities.

Luckily, Twilight knew a couple that could provide both music and lighting. She thought about the music humans would listen too. They'd clearly debunk classical as 'primitive', so party music was the way.

The purple mare readied her wings and flew on over to the eastern section of Ponyville. It was just like any other part of town, with the notable exception of a house that was shaking due to the obnoxiously loud music.

Inside that house resided a mare named Vinyl Scratch who sometimes went by her stage name: DJ-PON3. She was quite the cheerful and energetic mare, getting along with Pinkie Pie just fine. However, she had the tendency to take matters up to elven with her music. She meant well, but her music obsession was nuisance.

Even from a respectable distance, the techno music was painfully noticeable. How this did not damage the DJ's ears with a mystery. At first, ponies tried to get Vinyl to lower the volume she played her music, but this proved to be an unachievable outcome. Instead, all homes in the area were renovated to be sound proof.

Twilight landed in front of the DJ's home and used her telekinesis to open the door.

Despite her untamable nature, Vinyl's home was in remarkable condition....other than the over abundance of speakers and musician posters of course.

As Twilight trotted to the living room, she saw Vinyl Scratch, making non hardcore love to her colt friend Neon Lights*. Like her, Neon was a DJ, but he worked primarily in Coltifornia as a lights show producer. Both ponies would be a valuable asset to the organization of the party.

Twilight tried to resist the loud dubstep and called out the DJ.

"Vinyl."

There was no response. Evidentially the music was too loud for the couple to hear her.

"Vinyl."

"Oh Neon! Buck me to next Tuesday."

"Vinyl!"

"I wub you my little DJ!"

"VINYL!" screamed the alicorn. Twilight's horn expelled an EMP that disabled the speakers.

After a few seconds of kissing, the couple realized no music was playing. The two unglued their lips and turned to see a bemused Twilight staring at them.

Vinyl squealed and slumped to her hooves, bowing as low as possible. "Please, don't hurt me you're majesty! I should have known better that to-"

"It's okay Vinyl, you don't have to be formal with me." laughed the alicorn.

The blue maned unicorn brightened up. "Oh thank goodness! I hate all that princess junk. So what's up Twi?"

The purple mare smiled. "Well, Pinkie Pie is throwing a party at 7:00 and we need music so-"

"Say no more Twi. You know I can't resist a request to play music." assured the DJ.

"Why so nervous?" noted Neon Lights.

Twilight inhaled. "Well, it's a welcome party for the humans."

Vinyl's sunglasses fell off, revealing her magenta eyes. "Oh I don't know Twi. Those aliens are scary. If I play music they don't like, I swear they're gonna feed me to their overlords."

"I don't blame them, you're delicious." beamed Neon. Vinyl blushed in return.

"First off, humans don't have overlords." began Twilight. "Second, they've made it clear that they'll only kill if you threaten them or committed a crime. Third, we really need to do this. If we show them that we care, maybe they'll stop being so critical of us."

The DJ put on her glasses. "Well, that makes sense. I can ready the music in 10 minutes."

"And I'll handle the lighting." added Neon.

"Perfect!" exclaimed Twilight. Just as she headed out the door, a music blast wave thrusted her forward and slammed the alicorn into a wall.

"Why..."

As 6:30 approached, the sun began to set. Ponies all over the settlement, uncaring who the party was planned for, were getting ready to flock on over to town hall.

Despite the extravagant size of the facility, the hall was no where near enough to provide enough room for the entire town. As a result, many ponies would have to enjoy the celebration from outside.

"This gonna be the best party ever!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

"Ah don' think we ever had a crowd this big." remarked Applejack.

"I don't mean to be haughty, but I believe Shadow will absolutely love the catering I hired." gloated Rarity.

"Say, where is Shadow anyway?" brought up Rainbow Dash.

"I d-don't think they've left the library." whimpered Fluttershy.

"How 'bout we just have this party without 'em?" proposed Applejack.

"WHAT!" screamed Pinkie Pie. "That is the one rule of partying you can't break!"

"To be fair Pinkie, I really think they'd be happy if we just partied and left them alone." insisted Twilight. "Besides, isn't Scarecrow sociophobic or something?"

"C-can't we at least t-tell them, we're throwing a party for them? If t-they don't show up it would be their choice." said Fluttershy.

"Who's gonna go tell them to show up though?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"Don't worry darling." piped up Rarity. "I'll see to it-"

Twilight interrupted her. "Actually, I'll be the one to get them to move. They're in my house after all."

Twilight teleported and reappeared right in front of her home. She didn't exactly know how she'd get Shadow out of her home, but by Celestia she was going to try.

She took a deep breath and knocked on the door. To her surprise, the door opened in an instant. The alicorn looked down to fin her dragon assistant smiling gleefully.

"Twilight! I thought you were never gonna show up!" greeted Spike.

"Glad to see you're in one piece." thanked Twilight. "Tell me, what is Shadow doing in OUR house?"

"It's amazing. You really, have to check it out." insisted Spike.

"I don't have time to see what they're doing, I need to get them to Pinkie's party."

Spike looked disappointed and annoyed. "Wow, their working on a huge discovery and you're planning a party. Gee, friends are necessary, but that doesn't mean you have to give up intellectual pursuit. What happened to you?"

Twilight face hoofed. "Don't tell me they've affected you."

Twilight walked into the library and her mouth dropped at the sight. For starters, there was random pony equipment and materials scattered across the room. Then there was Shadow. Scarecrow was busy at work trying to correct a school textbook of superstition and writing a series of tests to be administered to the children. Scorch was analyzing and experimenting on the blood samples they had taken while looking at a hologram of pony anatomy. X-ray was taking various notes on the artifacts they had collected on his tablet. Finally Overwatch was typing a report on the probability of each of their theories.

The primary weapons of Shadow had been discarded to the side. There were holographic posters placed everywhere detailing all the observations Shadow had recorded. Twilight could not believe how observant they had been.

Unicorn Horn Analysis:
*Absorbs electromagnetisms, infrared, ultra violet, gamma, x-ray, microwave, gravitational (?) and cryo radiation.
*Element 195(?)

Government system:
*Monarchy (X)
*Aristorcaracy (X)
*Final conclusions suggest that Equestria is a theocracy with meritocratic elements where the title of royalty are earned (based on Twilight's story)

Animation theories:
*Drawn (x)
*Intelligent Design (x)
*Semi molecular structure (?)
*Perfectly aligned (?)

Anachronisms:
*Renaissance: philosophy, scientific understanding, politics, lack of conventional electricity, architecture, instruments, traditions
*Industrial Revolution: Railroad, musical choice, factories (?), Applejack's family, farming
*20th century: Cleaning products, furniture, phonographs (1930s), medical knowledge (1990's),
*21st century: Dialect and accents, Dubstep (?)

Electrical source:
*Solar (x)
*Fossil fuel (Due to the planet merely being thousands of years old, formation of natural gasses from fossils in unfeasible.)
*Nuclear (debunked due to Equines lacking a knowledge in atoms)
*Hydro (Dam spotted, does not use orthodox methods of electrical extraction by turning of turbines. In fact, dam may only be used for water collection)
*Solar (x)
*Unicorn horn (see above)

Technology meant to be operated by bi-peds:
Chairs, pencils, doorknobs, anything with buttons, drawers and closets requiring push and pull.

Creation:
*Gods (x)
*Human creation (possibly debunked due to planet being older than human space age.)
*Human influence (x)

Timeline analysis:
*Artifacts at the museum suggest ponies did indeed start out (see creation) as an ancient greek like culture. Due to various human elements (see anachronisms) ponies are thought to be evolving culturally as humans. However, this would imply the equines being a space faring species ahead of humanity by now. The renaissance-like period appears to be bloated and there seems to have been a lack of an enlightenment, but there is the notable presence of various industrial revolution artifacts.
*Pony figures appeared further apart through the timeline (by centuries) compared to human counterparts.

Twilight tried to sink in all the information that the holograms displayed. However, the more she looked at Shadow's notes, the more she felt her mind being overwhelmed by an unthinkable amount of data. It was as if she was being persuaded instinctively to disregard anything Shadow had recorded.

The purple mare cleared her throat. "Scarecrow, Overwatch, X-ray, Scorch. I need to talk to you four."

To her surprise, the 4 humans simply turned off their holograms, switched on the lights and looked straight at her.

Twilight was less than pleased. "First off, who gave you 4 permission to use my house as a research facility?"

Scarecrow smirked under his mask. "Your previous claim is invalid. Before we began, we had Spike get over the mortgage for the facility and it is clearly stated that the library is not privately owned but publicly owned. You just happen to sleep here. Second of all, a library is meant to be the center of knowledge and discovery, so we're not violating any rules."

Scorch folded his arms. "Besides, what are you going to do about it?"

Twilight knitted her eyebrows. "The whole chastising sounded better in my head."

"Moving on, is there something you require?" inquired X-ray.

Twilight tried to hold back her laugh. "I can't tell you why, but I need you 4 to get on over to the town hall-"

"For the surprise party?" growled Overwatch.

The purple mare's eyes shot open. "How did you-"

"Twilight, with sensor grenades, magnetic vision, drones, motion trackers and advanced radio equipment, you can't hide anything from a 23rd unit." smirked X-ray.

"Speaking of secrets." Scorch moved on over to Twilight and yanked the nano recorder buried in her coat.

Twilight jumped as she felt something rip from her skin. "What was that!" she shrieked.

"Nano audio recorder. Pretty fucking stylish." answered Scorch. He flipped the device.

"How long was that on me?" questioned Twilight.

"For a while." replied Scarecrow. "Celestia has quite a motherly voice, no?"

The princess of magic boiled red. "YOU WERE SPYING ON ME! That is a violation of privacy."

X-ray placed a finger on Twilight's mouth. "While it would have been a violation of the UTF constitution to be spying on somepony's private property, you were addressing a leader which most likely would have been relevant to our presence. As a result, we were inclined to be informed. Besides, ever heard of transparent government?"

"Surely a well minded pony like you would be compelled to be aware of every government decision being made about you?" added Scarecrow.

Twilight blushed. "You think I'm rational?"

Scarecrow pinched Twilight's cheeks. "Of course. But to be spending so much time on festivities when we're uncovering a universal mystery is abnormal for you. Even Spike thinks that."

Twilight nodded. "Before I moved to Ponyville, I didn't have time for friends and festivities, but now keeping harmony in this town has been my priority."

"You shouldn't trade one for the other Twilight." shook X-ray. "For example, I do my research with my friends and have a great time as well. Really, some of the discoveries we've made are intriguing."

Scorch stroked Twilight's mane. "We appreciate the creation of a party for us, but I'd be much happier if I were left alone with my friends to further our research."

The alicorn was desperate. "You don't understand, Pinkie Pie went through a lot of trouble to plan this party for you."

"We appreciate the offer, but no thanks. Parties aren't our thing." calmly stated X-ray.

"You can't just stay locked up in here for ever!" beamed Twilight.

"Even if we wanted to go we couldn't." added Scarecrow.

"We're 23rd, we're not supposed to be making such public appearances." hissed Overwatch.

"Not mention, it's for your own good." insisted X-ray.

"How so?" glared Twilight.

Scorch sighed. "We've said this a million times. The only time we've been in parties was to either break them apart or to terminate some high value target. Our training will take over in the party and something bad will happen."

"Besides, I have sociophoiba, didn't I make that clear?" added Scarecrow. "If ponies start crowding up to me, I'll get nervous and as if I want to hurt such adorable equines."

Twilight lowered her head in defeat. "You know, you don't HAVE to talk to ponies all you really need to do is just show up."

X-ray stoked his bandanna. "That's gonna be difficult considering there's.....how many are coming?"

"Whole town." answered Twilight.

Scarecrow's eyes widened under his mask. "Whole town! Fuck, change of plans, we're going."

The alicorn ignored the swear and brightened up. "Really?"

"Only to provide security." explained Scorch. "A party that big has to get out of control sometime. You're going to need crowd control."

Shadow fetched their primary weapons, loaded a gauss magazine onto each of them and headed off to the sunset along with Twilight and Spike who followed by.

By 7:00 pm, Shadow had made it to the town hall. Before opening the door, the bemused Shadow turned on magnetic vision and sully found out the town was ignorant of their wall seeing capabilities and intended to surprise them. Scarecrow opened the door, knowing fully what was inside.

To Shadow's expectance, the lights switched on the ponies inside a gave loud yell.

"SURPRISE!"

Suddenly techno music started playing and Pinkie's party canon fired a steam of confetti at the unmoved Shadow squad.

The glacial squad kept their mystique and merely shrugged off the confetti and proceeded to move inside the town building. Thankfully, most of the ponies had been either to busy occupied by their friends or become too afraid of the commandos to start crowding up to them.

Scorch looked up the banner and read the interesting welcome title.

Welcome to Ponyville Humans! And please don't shoot us or feed us to your overlords/

"Charming." muttered X-ray.

"Do any of you notice the lack of children?" inquired Scarecrow looking around.

"The parents probably think this party would be their last." noted Scorch.

"There are you are Twilight!" greeted Rainbow Dash along with the rest of the Mane 6.

Suddenly Pinkie Pie humped up and clutched Overwatch's head.

"So, Overwatch! I surprised you didn't I? You were all walking to the town hall expecting nothing and then you open the door and everyone yells surprise at you making you so nervouscited?"

"Considering I can see through walls, it wasn't a surprise." growled the sniper.

Pinkie pressed her face closer to Overwatch's. "But you didn't expect us to say surprise didn't you?"

"Meh." the marksman peeled off the pink mare.

Scorch gave a light smile under his mask. "To be fair, nobody has ever thrown the 4 of us a party before. This really means a lot to us even if we hate them. Thanks."

The Mane 6 gave remarks of welcome.

Unfortunately, Shadow's hopes for solace did not last. Once everypony took a good look at them, the technicolor equines started crowding around them hoping to ask questions.

Had they been humans, the would have simply shot a gauss bullet up in the air. The noise would have been enough to disperse and redirect the crowd.

"Twilight, I'm getting nervous." gritted Scarecrow. He tightened the grip on his LMG.

Twilight used the gravitational radiation in her horn to levitate a microphone towards her.

"Attention everypony, Shadow is not looking for company as of now, so I'd appreciate it if you stay clear of them until they say otherwise."

The ponies simply bowed and continued partying.

"So what do you want to do first?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"How 'bout we go to the snack bar first. Can't party on an empty stomach." laughed Applejack.

"How about the dance floor. It would be super fun!" skipped Pinkie. "Right Overwatch?"

"Whatever." sighed the expressionless marksman.

"I appreciate your invitations, but we're just here to provide security." explained Scarecrow. "You ponies go on ahead, don't let us spoil you're fun."

The Mane 6 simply shrugged and went on to party.

The squad noticed how similar the celebration was to a human party. The dance moves were definitely pony origin. At least there was something original. As for the lighting and decorations, it was indistinguishable from a party one might have thrown on Earth in the early 21st century. Shadow's attention was grabbed by the fact the white unicorn DJ was playing music from speakers rather than phonographs.

Speaking of the White DJ, she, Pinkie and Neon Lights started singing a song.

When the song finished, Pinkie used her over energized molecules to vibrate past a group of ponies and appear grasping Overwatch's legs.

"So what do you think?" she squeaked.

"Meh."

"WHAT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY?"

The festivities continued uninterruptedly for an hour. Ponies danced, laughed and cheered on for the night.

Twilight lost herself in the joy and chaos and started prancing around on the dance floor. Sadly her dance skills hadn't improved since the garden party. The other ponies respected their princess, but Twilight's moves were atrocious.

Panting from exhaustion, Twilight decided she needed a break. She slowly limped on over to edge of the building, where she spotted Shadow limped against a wall.

X-ray had his arms folded, waiting for the entire ordeal to be over.

Overwatch was sitting on the ground twisting a knife.

Scorch was flipping a frag grenade.

Scarecrow had his LMG out, waiting for the first sign of trouble.

"I swear." muttered Scorch's mechanical voice. "Who chose techno? I would rather listened to classical any day."

Twilight felt like the biggest tool in the world as she walked up towards them. Rarity however, got to and greeted the squad first.

"Lovely party isn't it?"

"I guess, if you liked going to them." replied Scarecrow.

Rainbow Dash flew on over. "Hey, we got something you 4 otta like!"

"Someone to assassinate?" asked X-ray.

"Better." pointed the cyan coated pegasus.

Suddenly, Applejack and Fluttershy came from the kitchen pushing a table loaded with cider and other apple products her family had made.

Pinkie Pie wasted no time helping herself to the apple cinnamon.

X-ray had to admit, the thought of drinking cider looked appealing. "Hold position, I'm getting a drink."

The masked rifleman walked on over to the concession table. A blue Earth Pony stallion by the name of Noteworthy had gotten to the cider bowl first. X-ray stared at the animated drink before grasping a cup and dunking it in.

Just before the rifleman slipped the cup under his mask, he decided to take a quick analysis at its contents. He wouldn't be surprised if the equines had prepared apple cider the same way humans did, but he still needed to be sure.

He used neural controls to order his HUD to decipher the contents of the animated liquid.

Contents:
Apple (55% Red Delicious. 20% Gala, 25% Granny Smith)
Water (H2O)
WARNING: Cyanide detected. DO NOT CONSUME!

"Cyanide?"

X-ray turned left to see Noteworthy ingesting the liquid. The moment it had run down his throat, the stallion immediately collapsed to the ground and started squirming in pain.

"SHIT!" X-ray threw away his cup and dashed straight to the blue pony.

His training kicked in and the masked commando drew a needle that contained an anti poison (universal) serum and injected it onto the dying Noteworthy.

Suddenly, Noteworthy's vitals appeared on the screen. His bio readings indicated the serum had taken effect. X-ray quickly drew a bio tissue and wiped the stallions mouth clean to remove any remaining poison.

"X-ray, sit rep!" ordered Scarecrow. The rest of Shadow rushed to the situation followed by a group of alerted ponies.

"Somepony poisoned the cider with cyanide!" gritted X-ray. "Noteworthy consumed some."

The ponies around the squad gave loud gasps.

"Is he going to be alright?" asked Twilight as she was breathing heavily.

X-ray turned around. To face the alicorn. "He'll be fine, he just needs mouth to mouth."

"I can give him that!" piped up Lyra from behind. To noponies and nobody's interest, the horny green unicorn drew the barely conscious Noteworthy off to the side for 'mouth to mouth.'

"Why do I get the feeling that poison was meant for us?" noted Scorch.

"Speaking of poison." gritted Overwatch. The sniper saw a pegasus by the name of Blossomforth attempting to get a sip of the poisoned cider. Before the ignorant mare could drink it, Overwatch drew his PDR and fired a round that shattered the cider bowl.

The noise of the gauss powered bullet was enough to grab the attention of half the party.

"What are you doing?" beamed Rainbow Dash.

"Trying to find out who's after us." answered Scarecrow.

"X-ray, surely your drone should have recorded who could have poisoned the drink." pointed Scorch.

The rifleman nodded and took out his tablet. He accessed the live feed from the drone, played back a few hours and scanned the video for anything suspicious. X-ray pointed to town hall and switched to magnetic view. Interestingly, his drone had been unable to record anything within the town hall. As if it was being scrambled.

"Guys, my drone feed isn't capable recording anything in town hall." explained X-ray.

"Can you salvage or try to unscramble the data?" asked Scorch.

"Negative."

"Looks like there's only one thing left to do." sighed the demo man.

The demo man of Shadow tapped on to his wrist computer, accessed suit functions and transmitted the energy of his kinetic barrier to form a kinetic punch. The electricity traveled through the conductive fabric of the armor and onto his gloves.

Immediately after, he slammed his powered hands onto to the floor to emit an EMP that disabled all forms of electricity (and by extension magic) with the exception of Shadow's weapons and armor. The music and lights turned off.

Now everpony's attention was grabbed. As the party goers panicked what was happening, all of the unicorns wondered why their horn stopped emitting magic.

Twilight flew on over to the side and switched on the lights, not the party lights, that had been unaffected by the EMP.

"Scorch, X-ray block the entrances. Anypony tries to escape, you give them hell. Overwatch, take high ground and watch for anything suspicious." ordered Scarecrow.

"Solid copy." radioed Shadow.

Just when a group of ponies was about to leave the door, Scorch's figure uncloaked. The demo man gave a growl and flexed his rifle at the ponies, thus scaring the escapers back into the hall.

Scarecrow turned the volume on his mic up.

"ATTENTION EVERYPONY. There has been an assassination attempt on our lives and has nearly claimed the life of one of your own. You are to co-operate with us until the situation has been sorted out."

"Scarecrow, you can't order ponies around like this!" hissed Twilight. The commando ignored her.

"In order to determine the assailant, we will call you forward for questioning. When we ask, you WILL respond. Failure to comply will-"

The leader of Shadow paused and looked at the Mane 6. "What's the punishment for resisting police brutality in Equestria?"

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "Um-"

"FAIL TO COMPLY. AND YOU WILL BE SHOT!"

The entire party, which was nearly the entire town gasped and started panicking. Many ponies attempted to exit through the doors, only to be blocked by either Scorch or X-ray.

"May the team assigned to preparation of the cider please step forward." ordered Scarecrow.

The team revealed itself to be Applejack, Big Macintosh, Apple Fritter, Red Delicious and Red Gala.

Scarecrow crossed his arms. "Please enlighten me as to why your cider was loaded with cyanide."

"Scarecrow! The apple family would never resort to such a heinous act." insisted Rarity.

"Ah don't have to answer to you chum!" hissed Applejack.

The 6ft 5 human walked closer to the 3ft 2 orange mare and instantly reminded her how much taller he was than her.

To the town's surprise, Applejack spoke. "Alright you win. We didn't poison the cider. We swear. Us apples don' lie nor do we have any reason ta hurt y'all."

"Eeyup." nodded Big Mac.

"Then why is the cider poisoned? Did any of you leave the beverage unchecked?"

Applejack placed a hoof on her chin. "Then again, 4 of us had ta leave ta get more apples. Apple Fritter was left in charge."

Scarecrow turned to the trembling mare. "Would you happen to know why your drink nearly killed somepony?"

"I didn't poison the drink. I swear." mumbled Apple Fritter. Scarecrow's lie detector didn't go off.

"Instead, all that partying was really tempting, I stepped outside, but only for a minute." admitted the mare.

"Smooth." hissed Scarecrow. "You're free. Move along next to Scorch."

The Apples did so. The rest of the crowd was starting to ponder who would have poisoned the beverage.

Scarecrow fired his shotgun in the air to get their attention.

"Alright. When I point you out, you will come here immediately to be interrogated. When you're done, you will head to the other side of the room and remain there until further notice." announced Scarecrow.

The commander of Shadow pointed at a purple pegasus and instructed her to come next to him.

"Name?"

"Wind Waker."

Scarecrows lie detector went off. "Please be honest ma'am."

"Okay, it's Cloud Kicker."

"Would you happen to know anything about the cider being poisoned?"

"Me? No. Of course not."

Scarecrows lie detector read 'valid'. "You're free to go."

The same process went on for another 2 and a half hours. Had the fear of death not lingered around, the ponies would have collapsed from exhaustion by now.

Shadow had been ruthless. Even on ponies like Fluttershy. While everypony understood the situation, they were frightened beyond all relief.

The Mane 6 thanked that nopony had gotten hurt. They wondered what was worse, this interrogation that would have strained the relationship between the equines and humans. Or the fact that somepony attempted assassination.

"Name?"

"Twinkleshine. No I did not poison the cider."

"You're telling the truth. You're free."

Finally, everypony had relocated and crowded on to the other side of the hall.

The rest of Shadow formed up on Scarecrow.

"Alright, seems nopony here is guilty of anything." announced Scorch. "We would like to thank you for your co-operation and apologize for the stress this has caused-"

"Hey you!" shouted Overwatch.

Shadow turned left to see a hooded unicorn trotting across the other side. The unicorn, evidently with a blue coat took one look at the humans and exited through an unguarded door.

Shadow sprang to action and chased after the mysterious mare. The Mane 6 followed along with a group of curious townsfolk.

The hooded mare was fast for a unicorn, but not faster than Shadow. She nervously looked to her left and found the sniper leaping from building to building like a monkey leaped from tree to tree.

Finally, Overwatch flipped off a house and landed right in front of the hooded unicorn. The rest of Shadow uncloaked behind him. Shadow noticed something about the mare. She wasn't tired, but she looked frightened.

"Ma'am please identify you're self." calmly said Scarecrow. He didn't need to ask if she was the one.

The Mane 6 finally made it to the scene and appeared behind the mysterious pony.

"Shadow, don't hurt her!" shrieked Twilight.

"Don't worry Twilight." spoke the mare. "When I'm through with them, nopony will have to deal with such nightmares."

The mare removed her brown hood. The Mane 6 evidentially knew the assailant based on their loud gasp. The mare had a blue coat and a pale blue mane.

"T-T-Trixie." whispered Fluttershy.

"You know this bitch?" growled Scorch. Shadow had yet to draw their weapons.

"Y-yes." stammered Twilight. "She used to be a rival of mine, then she tried to destroy the town and finally she apologized. But now-"

"You've attempted murder and aggression towards the human race." gritted Scarecrow.

"What choice did the Great And Powerful Trixie have?" glared the blue unicorn. She sounded as if she had been traumatized by rape.

"Are you aware your actions nearly resulted in the fucking death of one of your own?" questioned X-ray.

"It was not the Great And Powerful Trixie's intention to harm anypony. Her goal, was in disposing you 4 monsters!" beamed Trixie.

"What reason would you have in trying to get rid of them? Shadow hasn't done anything to you!" pointed Twilight.

"And to think you 6 of all ponies would associate with such horrific antagonizers!" screamed Trixie.

Pinkie gave a mild glare. "Look, we know Shadow is mean, inconsiderate, cynical, aggressive, socialists, know it alls, trigger happy, sadists-"

"She get's it sugarcube." whispered Applejack.

"-But you can't just try to kill them like that!"

"Besides, I wouldn't try to pick a fight with these guys if I were you." warned Rainbow Dash.

"Not to mention your plan was extremely flawed." noted Scarecrow. "For starters, humans have been immune to cyanide since the 2300's, we would have scanned your drink anyway and you would have killed ponies too in the process."

"Not to mention, the UTF would find out what you did and blow this fucking planet up if we died." added Scorch.

Trixie snorted. "I don't know where you came from, but what I do know is that humans won't last a chance with what I have in store for you." Trixie's comment was filled hesitation as well as anger.

"Why do you want to murder them anyway?" dramatized Rarity.

"It is not what humans are doing, it is what they did do and what they will do." explained Trixie. Her expression was that of sorrow, as if she was warning the apocalypse.

"By will do, you mean discover why this planet has human elements in it?" questioned X-ray. "If that is the case, than I guess ignorance is the norm here."

"Why would you attempt to discover the human influence on this planet?" asked Trixie. "Surely, you should be aware of the answer already."

"What are you talking about Trixie? This is the first time humans have made contact with an intelligent race." insisted Twilight.

"Is that what they told you?" puffed Trixie.

Scarecrow folded his arms. "Well that's the truth. You seem to be implying you were aware of our race for a while."

"I have read many stories about an ancient bi-ped civilizations in the texts of Griffin and Zebra religion. I read horrible stories of humans terrorizing the races to submit to their tyranny."

"What? Trixie, certainly you should know it is taboo to read the religious scrolls of other species?" pointed Rarity.

"Okay first, it's religion. It's bullshit." laughed Scarecrow. "Second, just because it mentions bi-peds, doesn't mean it was referring to humanity."

"I'm n-no history genius, b-but there was never s-something that mentioned humans in our books." whimpered Fluttershy.

"Furthermore, humans never travelled to other planets before 500 years ago." added X-ray. "You're claims for revenge are invalid."

Trixie shook of a frightened expression from her face. "I-I am trying to protect the pony race! Not seek revenge." defended Trixie. "It was said that the humans would return and seek to reclaim this world for their own. I've had NIGHTMARES of the return of your species."

"Well, I don't remember anything about that in human history books. We came here for exploration." shook Overwatch.

"Y-you l-lie." scowled Trixie.

"His lie detector didn't go off." pointed Pinkie Pie.

"Sorry partner, but ya got no reason ta kill." said Applejack. "At least Shadow doesn't kill without due cause."

"Their species is only about murder. Did you not hear what happened to the Griffin army in the Everfree Forest?" justified Trixie.

"Trixie, they're Griffins, they attack anypony on sight. Shadow was trying to defend themselves." pointed Twilight.

"And I am trying to defend you!" squealed the blue unicorn.

"You almost killed Noteworthy!" reminded Pinkie Pie.

"Trxie. By the order of the United Terran Federation, you are to be detained and face trial for attempted murder." announced Scarecrow. He readied a pair of kinetic barrier hand cuffs.

"No offense Scarecrow, but Trixie is a pony. She is to face Equestrian law." interrupted Twilight.

"Her attempts were meant to harm humans." countered Scorch. "Since we are the law, she is to face the Federation."

"I wouldn't argue with them if I were you Twi. They're getting mad." stated Rainbow Dash.

"Don't you dare touch me!" Trixie expelled the blue electromagnetic energy stored within her horn and shaped a blue kinetic barrier dome around her. Unlike Shadow's her dome was clear and blue.

Scarecrow simply drew X-ray's sidearm (much to latter's chagrin) and fired. The magnetically propelled bullet shattered the energy barrier with enough force to knock back the blue unicorn..

"Trixie, you mustn't aggravate Shadow. They will resort to murder!" screamed Rarity.

"Overwatch arrest her." ordered Scarecrow.

"NO!" Trixie fired a bolt of energy at Overwatch, only for the beam to helplessly evaporate off a force field that left a pattern of transparent purple hexagons.

Trixie continued firing on him to no avail. Her fear of humanity was taking over her.

"Let's not get hasty." whispered Fluttershy.

"She's right, this entire thing is one big understanding!" added Rainbow Dash.

"How about we forget this entire thing and remember the magic of friendship." cheered Pinkie Pie.

Suddenly, a large group of confused ponies arrived at the scene.

"Trixie knowingly attempted first degree murder on an armed officials, she is to face trial." replied X-ray.

"Besides, you do seem genuinely confused, the worst you'll get is a week in prison." assured Scorch.

"The Great and Protect full Trixie is not confused!" she spat. "I will NEVER submit to your race."

"We are not asking you to submit. We are asking you to face responsibility for your crimes. Don't push us." hissed X-ray.

Trixie used gravitational radiation to levitate a wooden bench and hurled it towards Scorch. The bench merely broke once it slammed the demo man. The right side of Scorch's body merely flickered purple. He still had 99% of his shield left.

"Oh look. Violation of public property." said the demo man.

Trixie turned around. "What are you DOING? While I distract these scoundrels, you grab the elements of harmony."

Pinkie Pie gave a nervous laugh. "Funny story, we can't exactly get them because-"

"They've deceived you!" groaned the blue unicorn.

Scarecrow folded his arms. "Trixie, I don't want to kill you. I can right now say that humans haven't done anything morally questionable to Epona before this week."

The lie detector went off. The wrist computers glowed red.

Shadow was immediately puzzled. "Wait what-"

Suddenly, Trixie reached from her hood and put on her secret weapon. The Alicorn amulet.

Twilight shrieked. "Trixie, is that-"

"The alicorn amulet. This charm will propel my skills in magic to levels the gods would fear." boasted Trixie.

"That is one fucked up radiation amplifier." corrected Scorch.

Trixie charged more and more energy from the atmosphere. Small objects started to levitate off the ground either due to the enhanced electromagnetic radiation in the air or the in versed gravitation.

"Shadow be careful!" warned Rarity.

"That charm is what allowed Trixie to take over Ponyville." added Rainbow Dash.

"And I will now use it to protect Ponyville." countered Trixie.

In response, Shadow unslung their rifles and pointed them at the blue unicorn.

"Surender now, or face execution." warned X-ray. "We don't have to do this."

Trixie's eyes glowed red and after drawing enough infrared radiation, expelled a fire bolt at Shadow.

The heat simply extinguished on contact.

"Our suits are fire proof bitch!" insulted Scorch.

Trixie then levitated a HOUSE and hurled it at the squad. She was too slow however. Shadow easily side stepped the attack.

"You leave us no choice!" beamed Scorch.

"Wait don't hurt her!" pleaded Fluttershy.

"That amulet is making her all mean and scary. You have to take it off." instructed Pinkie Pie.

Overwatch walked towards the charged unicorn to arrest her by force. Trixie continuously fired bolts of plasma at him, but each one simply dissipated.

Trixie's vision blurred as Overwatch drew closer. His form was enough to overwhelm her.

A new idea formed in Trixie's head. Suddenly, she started drawing a new source of magnetic energy.

Overwatch slowed down. He knew the noise all to well. "Shit! She's firing a gauss-"

Suddenly, the blast of a human gauss cannon emitted from her horn and struck the sniper. All human weapons were magnetic powered, but there were still the gauss slugs that dealt heavy explosive and piercing damage. Like glass shattering, Overwatch's barriers broke. The sniper himself wasn't harmed but the beam was strong enough to knock him back.

"OPEN FIRE!" blasted Scarecrow.

Scorch and Scarecrow unloaded their rifles at Trixie. However, the blue unicorn formed a shield to protect her. Unlike her previous barrier, this one was purple to signify enhanced energy and netted in a form of hexagons. The shape helped reinforced her projection.

X-ray was about to throw a pulse grenade to disable the unicorn's magic and subdue her. Somehow, Trixie knew what X-ray intended to do. She used telekinesis to unclip a frag grenade from Scorch's belt and hurled the explosive at X-ray.

The explosion did not penetrate X-ray's shield, but sent him flying to the side.

Scorch attempted to dash for the pulse grenade, but Trixie tapped farther than she ever had into the amulet and found herself able to lift the demo man.

Scorch struggled in mid air to break the gravitational grasp on him.

Trixie meanwhile struggled to keep her barrier up. She drew more and more energy from the amulet to reinforce her efforts until something remarkable happened. Trixie wasn't going to let fear conquer her. She pushed aside the thoughts of their horrifying appearances and focused on positive thoughts of protecting everypony.

The amulet caused her to grow in size, her features became more swanlike and her mane became ethereal. Not to mention she sprouted a pair of wings. She had become an alicorn.

"By Celestia!" exclaimed Twilight. Trixie had taken the power of the amulet too far.

"She looks like Luna!" pointed Rarity.

"Does this mean she's a princess now?" asked Pinkie Pie.

The entire pony crowd could not comprehend this sight.

The now alicorn Trixie hurled Scorch towards Scarecrow. The leader of Shadow side stepped the attack but Scorch plummeted and was knocked out by impact.

The alicorn Trixie tried to fire another coil gun at Scarecrow, but he managed to doge the attack.

Trixie smirked and thought of a new plan. She lowered her barrier and picked up Scarecrow's shotgun from his back.

The leader of Shadow was distracted by his second weapon suddenly coming off. He saw his AA 30 surrounded by an animated blue light. Suddenly, the shotgun fired 2 rounds at Scarecrow.

The close quarters rail weapon penetrated his barrier and knocked Scarecrow back.

X-ray meanwhile had regained consciousness. He opened his eye to a horrible sight:

Scarecrow laid unconscious on the floor, and the alicorn Trixie was readying a gauss cannon to finish him off.

The rifleman crawled to his SMG as his M816 was about of reach. His magnetic gloves allowed the weapon to snap on his hands. X-ray aimed down the holo sight, and fired 4 rounds.

The magnetic powered bullets travelled and struck Trixie. Two hit her fore hooves, one on her chest while the other blew off one of hind legs.

Just as Trixie attempted to comprehend what was going on-

"DON'T TOUCH MY FRIENDS YOU FUCKING HORSE!" yelled X-ray.

The rifleman ran with at speeds that Rainbow Dash would be jealous of towards the alicorn. He drew his combat knife and stabbed Trixie right in the neck.

Finally X-ray grabbed the dying Trixie's head with his gloved hands. Trixie was exploding with not only pain but fear. She took one last look at the dark abyss that was X-ray's shades before he smashed her head open into a wall.

The Great and Powerful Trixie was gone.

The town did not go berserk, but instead watched with horror.

The rest of Shadow regained consciousness and the 4 masked humans silently drew their scattered weapons.

Scarecrow walked up to Trixie's mutilated corpse and plucked the alicorn amulet. In his gloved hands, he grasped and shattered the cursed amulet. He let the pieces slowly drop.

The town was deathly silent. All of the ponies were focusing on X-ray who's hand were soaked in animated blood.

"Thank you for the party." muttered Scorch. Shadow had been unmoved by Trixie's death like a typical 23rd unit. "We're sorry you had to see that."

Shadow cloaked and took off.

Author's Note

And the plot thickens.

*I was gonna make it OctaScratch but VinylLights was more convenient for this chapter. Don't flame me because of that simple plot point.

By the way, Trixie no speaking in third person is used intentionally to signify how afraid she is.

Before Shadow meets Celestia, is there anything you would like to seem them do before they leave Ponyville?

Chapter 25: Post Carnage

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."-Einstein

The Mane 6 sat quietly at the cafe, incapable of saying anything other than ordering her food. Even the normally cheery and loquacious Pinkie Pie was traumatized to silence.

After X-ray brutally murdered Trixie, the squad cloaked and disappeared to parts unknown. After they took off, the scarred ponies retreated to their homes, unable to speak.

Parents immediately ran home to check on their children, thankful that they had not witnessed the murder. However, news of Trixie's death spread like wildfire and produced mixed results. No pony condoled the murder itself nor the method used to take her down. Some however, believed Trixie got what she had deserved by attacking Shadow and refraining from being civil with them. Others believed that Trixie needed to be taken out only for the sake of the collateral damage she would have caused. Finally, some ponies had genuinely believed she was trying to protect them and basically died a hero.

One thing was certain, under no circumstances were ponies to mess with humanity.

News did not travel past Ponyville, the only word that got out was a minor struggle had occurred. Had word gotten out that Trixie turned into an alicorn only to get butchered by Shadow, public unrest would have been through the roof.

Speaking of Alicorns, Trixie's transformation had been a massive anomaly. Nopony would have guessed that charging the amulet to immense power would have resulted in the transformation to a deity.

But then there was the killing of the alicorn. X-ray, who was a mere mortal and not to mention, Shadow's least physically adept member, had killed an all powerful being. Those in pony society who claimed alicorns to be mortal and vulnerable were often shunned. Now that one died before their very eyes, a small group of ponies started questioning the supposed divinity of their rulers. Twilight took note that some ponies stopped bowing to her.

Then there was the question of what was going to happen next. Shadow had killed one of their own and simply took off. Based on their stamina and endurance, it would have been no surprise if they had been half way across the country by now. Many ponies feared that based on Trixie's assault, Shadow had deemed the equines a threat and would waste no time attempting to contact their frigate and plan a war.

As for the blue magician's body, when the ponies returned to the sight of the carnage, they hesitantly cremated her body and gave her a funeral in the morning. Those who attended did not arrive for general respect for the mare, but only as minor condolences.

"I'm telling you, we've been duped. Alicorns aren't supreme after all." snorted Lemonhearts as she walked past the cafe with her friend Sassaflash.

"But did he really have to kill Trixie that way?" countered Sassaflash.

"I'm never gonna accept the fact he killed, but one thing's for certain. They couldn't have just stood there."

The two mares brushed past cafe without even noticing the depressed Mane 6. It was Fluttershy of all ponies to break the silence.

"I-I can't b-belive they just killed her like that."

"I for one never tolerated Trixie's self centered behavior, but even I was beginning to warm up to her." added Rarity.

"And she really seemed like she was trying to protect us." muttered Rainbow Dash.

"Ah just don' understand why they'd resort to such behavior." shook Applejack.

Twilight slowly raised her head. "I can't believe it either. What's scary is that they don't seem to be bothered."

"Yeah." sniffed Pinkie Pie. "It's like they don't understand how bad it is when somepony dies. They just left the feeling slip past them like a....shadow." Pinkie tried to smile at her pun but failed.

Rarity took a sip of her tea. "And to think, they killed an alicorn for Celestia's sake. I don't even believe they were even fighting without restraint."

"Does this mean they can kill Luna or even Celestia?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"Ah don' think so. Celestia is the sun goddess. She could give 'em a good ol buck to next monday if she wanted to." replied Applejack.

"All I know is that many ponies seemed to have lost their faith." sighed Twilight. "To be fair, I myself was growing tired of all the admiration."

"Twilight you're the princess of magic, how could you say that?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"I'm sorry, but Shadow proved in the worst way possible that alicorns might just be as mortal as you are. True we're powerful, but now I see we're just as vulnerable as any pony else. Dare I say it, Trixie would have become more powerful than Celestia herself and Shadow would have still been able to kill her." explained Twilight.

The words of X-ray still haunted the purple mare. "DON'T TOUCH MY FRIENDS YOU FUCKING HORSE!"

Friends

Twilight took a sip of her drink. "Would any of you kill to protect each other?"

"What kind of question is that?" inquired the straight maned Pinkie Pie.

"Twilight, you know we would never kill. We're not like them." assured Rainbow Dash.

"Wait, just think about it." said Twilight. "If, let's say somepony was out to kill us and the only way to stop him or her and to save each other was to kill, would you do it?"

The other members of the Mane 6 were silent.

"Are you trying to say you agree with Shadow's decision?" beamed Rainbow Dash.

"Of course not." defended Twilight. "I'm just simply asking if you would resort to such behavior to protect the ones you love."

Suddenly, a high pitched voice caught the attention of the mares.

"I can't believe she's gone!" cried Snips.

"Even after she tried to enslave us, I still found her a cool hero. So many thing left unsaid." teared Snails.

The two colts passed by gloomily. The Mane 6 felt nothing but pity for the young boys.

"I say not. There always is another way." snorted Rarity.

"I don't know about that." whispered Twilight.

"What da ya mean sugarcube?" asked Applejack.

"I think Twilight has a point." sighed Pinkie Pie. "Trixie was the one who started it after all."

"B-but would y-you really have t-to kill to subdue her?" stammered Fluttershy.

"To be honest, Shadow really was attempting to be civil with her." noted Twilight. "They tried to talk her down before things got serious but Trixie was so insistent on fighting them."

"Even after she refused to talk, Shadow did just try to restrain her." admitted Rarity.

"And then she just started attacking them." pointed Rainbow Dash.

"Even when she did attack them, they didn't resort to murder." stated Twilight. "In fact, when Overwatch was knocked out, Scorch and X-ray tried to restrain her with an EMP."

"Only to fail." sighed Pinkie Pie. "And when Scarecrow was about to be killed by Trixie's gauss thingamajig, X-ray did the only thing he could to protect his friend."

"I still don't think it was a good idea to murder." shook Rainbow dash. "X-ray could have just shot her in the hoof and knock her out."

Rarity placed a hoof on Rainbow's back. "Actually darling, Trixie was drawing quite a lot of power from the amulet. Had X-ray merely stunned her, she would have simply gathered more and more energy to shake off the effects and continue the onslaught."

"As for Trixie's motivations," sighed Pinkie Pie. "She sounded so afraid of the humans."

"She mentioned something about humanity enslaving and attacking other species thousands of years ago." remembered Twilight. "I've read all the books, so I never heard anything about that point."

"Didn't she say that she read it from Zebra and Buffalo religion books?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"Yeah. How could she get her hooves on those? I thought we weren't allowed to read books on another species' religion?" realized Rainbow Dash.

"Well maybe when Trixie was missing, she could have been staying in those areas. Since she doesn't like being told what to do, she could have easily just grabbed a book with some magic." pondered Pinkie Pie.

"Say, why aren't we allowed to read books on other's religion anyway?" asked Rarity.

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "I don't know. My guess is that it would help reduce conflict based on beliefs. Although right now, I kinda wished we could just get her hooves on one. It would have all the answers."

"And apparently every book except ours mentions humanity." sighed Pinkie Pie.

"Ah'm an expert on honesty and sincerity." started Applejack. "And Trixie sure did seem convinced dat Shadow was gonna start wagin' war on Ponykind."

"And don't you remember? When Scarecrow claimed that humans never did anything to ponies in the past, his lie detector went off." pointed Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash had an epiphany. "So maybe that's why everything is trying to kill them. Humans must have done something bad on this planet thousands of years ago."

"Hold your flank there sugarcube." stopped Applejack. "Shadow themselves did seem pretty confused too."

Twilight swallowed her sandwich. "Humans don't seem like a species that would forget, and in fact they did seem honestly perplexed at the idea of their race doing something bad to our planet."

"Not to mention, whenever they said that this was the first time humanity had encountered an intelligent race, their lie detectors didn't go off." awed Rarity.

Pinkie's mane un-straightened as her displeasure seized. "I'm willing to bet that the lie detector only went off because Shadow did do some mean things in the past but Trixie took it as their race being on our planet many years ago."

"But how does their lie detector work?" inquired Applejack. "Seems ta me dat it's more den sensin' uncertainty."

"Their technology is beyond even my comprehension." shrugged Twilight. "But if what were saying is true.....then the whole thing was a massive misunderstanding. What's certain though is that Trixie shouldn't have judged Shadow based on books detailing the past."

"So it was right for them to kill?" repeated Rainbow Dash.

"Of course not!" puffed Twilight. "But even still, would have there been any other outcome?"

"What do you mean?" whispered Fluttershy.

"Trixie seemed extremely convinced that she should have killed Shadow and wage war on humanity." explained Twilight. "When Shadow tried to talk her down, she refused to be civil. When she did attack Shadow and even knock her out, all the squad wanted to do was restrain her and make her face fair trial."

"What is there problem and forcing their laws on us anyway?" asked Applejack.

"I believe that Shadow is utterly convinced of this nonsense that our race is destined to follow theirs." said Rarity. "My theory is that they're trying to be generous by supposedly informing us of our mistakes because their race may have made the same mistakes as us and they know how to correct it."

"Can't they just accept that not every race has to follow their laws? Even if isn't perfect." muttered Rainbow Dash.

"B-but what if th-they had the same laws as ours and corrected all the mistakes?" questioned Fluttershy.

"What do you mean? Our rules are made by Celestia herself. She's the nicest and fairest pony ever. If something was wrong and unfair, she'd figure it out." countered Pinkie Pie.

Twilight got everypony back on subject. "Even if Trixie went on trial for attempted murder, I believe it was Scorch who said that the worse that could happen to her was face time in prison. Humans don't seem to have the death penalty."

"But they sure did giver her da death penalty." sneered Applejack.

"It seems that once Trixie put on the amulet, detention was no longer an option for them." stated Twilight. "The amulet was clearly more powerful then what we and Shadow anticipated. Trixie's power would have surpassed all limits and would have gotten to a point that would overwhelm Celestia easily. She would have killed Shadow."

"So what you're saying is that it's okay to kill in self defense?" implied Pinkie Pie.

"I'm not implying that." defended Twilight. "I'm saying what would have happened if there were no options available."

"But X-ray could have just shot Trixie in the leg to save Scarecrow and detain her." suggested Rainbow Dash.

"Girls, Shadow's magnetic weapons are POWERFUL!" exclaimed Twilight. "Shooting Trixie anywhere would have mutilated her and she would have either died from shock or blood loss. I know Shadow is good in medicine, but the wounds that would be mundane for a human are threatening for a pony. Even still, none of them would be in a condition to resuscitate her properly. All of them were unconscious and X-ray himself was limping."

"I pray that the day where we would have to kill will never come." dramatized Rarity.

"You wonder what would have happened if Trixie was facing some other human." pondered Pinkie.

Twilight realized it. "Now I know why the Federation sends the....23rd is it?"

The Mane 6 nodded.

The purple mare continued. "We saw how efficient they were in pointing out the flaws in our lives and making some of the most rational statements ever. You wonder 'why not simply send a scientist?' I have an answer. It seems the 23rd are the only ones capable of surviving on a planet without constant aid and handling themselves on remote locations. Sending efficient soldiers like them to explore remote planets is quick and and likely inexpensive. They might have not been the real first contact team, but I reckon any other human in their place, no matter how strong in numbers would've been killed facing Trixie.

"Y-you know, maybe it w-would have been b-better for ponies too if T-trixie was taken down." admitted Fluttershy.

"How so? She was trying to defend us. Claiming our lives would be counter productive." pointed Rainbow Dash.

"Dat didn't stop her from almost killin' Noteworthy." muttered Applejack. "She was as blind as a bat."

"Besides, did you not see all that collateral damage she was causing?" stated Rarity. "Her misplaced sauss, gauss, whatever, attacks caused a lot of destruction. At least Shadow, even 'burn it all' Scorch takes precision shots."

"She resorted to levitatin' houses at them. If dat ain't excessive, ah don't know what is." shrugged Applejack.

"Assuming, Shadow didn't kill, where would have the fight gotten?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"If the 4 of them only attempted to restrain Trixie who was getting stronger with the amulet, the battle would have been elongated and the damage to the public would have be astronomical." shivered Twilight.

"And what would have happened if Trixie k-k-killed them?" squeaked Fluttershy.

"Well for starters, the humans would obviously get really mad." pointed Rainbow Dash. "Then they would bring out their big alien spaceships and blast us with their death rays and probably enslave us."

"But, would have we died before then?" asked Fluttershy.

"I hope I'm not the only pony who was observant enough to notice Trixie's eyes glowing the most violent shade of red there ever was." noted Rarity.

Twilight took a small breath. "The amulet corrupts. Since Trixie was absorbing a lot of energy, by the time she might have collected the energy necessary to kill Shadow, she would have snapped a long time ago."

"Ah fairly reckon' she was mighty angry at us too." said Applejack. "Somethin' 'bout helpin' Shadow and not helpin' her fight."

"I'm really good at probability, and the chances that Trixie wanted to kill us were a high possibility." rhymed Pinkie Pie.

"Still, I don't see what was stopping Shadow from taking off the amulet. They had a ripe chance" stated Rarity.

"They tried that, remember?" reminded Twilight. "By the time Trixie was attacking them and growing more powerful by the second, the amount of force required to subdue her wouldn't be enough and anything higher was a guaranteed kill."

Everypony was thinking the exact same thing.

"I really feel sorry for the humans." sighed Fluttershy.

"If this is what Shadow has to go through every mission, to constantly be forced to commit heinous acts because they have no choice, then I sympathize with their race." said Twilight.

"Killing is horrible, but to put somepony in a situation where they have no choice but to kill is despicable." snarled Rainbow Dash.

"If humans are trying to offer generosity by trying to propel the foundations of out institutions further, why can't we show them the true path of harmony and peace in return?" proposed Rarity.

"That's a great idea!" cheered Pinkie Pie. "It would show humans that there's always another way and it would stop all their wars. Then people like Shadow don't have to worry about killing and they can focus on their true talents!"

"Speakin' of which. Where da ya reckon Shadow headed off to?" asked Applejack.

"I don't know. They're awfully good at leaving without a trace if you ask me." replied Rainbow Dash.

"I honestly have faith that they didn't declare us a threat." assured Rarity. "If we became humanity's ally, our sky would be littered with starships."

Pinkie Pie shot up in the air. "Oh my gosh! Isn't the meeting between Shadow and Celestia today?"

Twilight spit her tea which hit Applejack's bemused face. "You're right."

While planning for the party yesterday, The ponies had managed to pack their belongings and unload them onto the train station ahead of time for departure. The meeting was supposed to be at 1:00 pm. Now it was 10:12 am. It was a two hour ride to Canterlot.

"We have to find Shadow now, before the ties between our race and theirs are severed!" shrieked Rainbow Dash.

"Ah don' know. Maybe our relationship is ruined forever after all. The other ponies don' seem lak they're toleratin' any mention of humanity." shook Applejack as she rubbed tea off her face.

"A mare has to do what a mare has to do." sighed Twilight.

The princess of magic immediately called for an emergency meeting to be set up it town center. The entire town, all of them with sunken expressions looked apathetically at their princesses.

Twilight sighed and spoke into the microphone:

"My humble subjects, yesterday night a horrible tragedy had befallen. As many of you know, during our welcome party for the humans, Trixie Lulamoon had attempted to assassinate our guests and nearly succeeded in taking the life in one of our own."

Noteworthy received a lot of stairs. He was the most vocal supporter of Trixie's demise.

"Out of misplaced fear, Trixie had convinced herself that Shadow was planning to kill us and prepare an alien invasion. In retaliation and for the noble motivation to protect us, she attempted to kill them."

"The humans are monsters! Trixie was right!" yelled a pegasus mare.

"Yeah? She almost killed one of us!" countered an earth pony stallion.

Twilight tapped the microphone to get the everypony's attention. "While the killing of anypony is a heinous act that one should never resort to, you must put yourselves in the shoes of the involved parties. They are equally innocent as they are guilty."

There mummers of confusion within the crowd.

"On one hoof, Shadow really was attempting to be civil with Trixie before the situation got out of control. They were clearly confused about Trixie's claims and when she did attack, they attempted to restrain her. Trixie was the one who initiated the violence."

"But Trixie was trying to protect us!" yelled Snips from the crowd while comforting a crying Snails.

"If Trixie truly cared about us, then surely she wouldn't have put our lives in danger!" countered Twilight.

The crowd was silent. "The collateral damage she was causing was for too high. Trixie had her heart in the right place, but by no means was she justified in starting violence that would have threatened us too. Not to mention, she was drawing energy from the corrupting amulet and getting more and more corrupt to a point where she would have likely destroyed us too in the middle of their wrath."

"So you're saying Shadow is innocent?" shrieked a mare from the crowd.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Of course not! I am aware Trixie was waging war on them, but they insisted on taking the law into their own hands since they're convinced that our laws are too primitive to properly handle crime. Furthermore, they should NOT have underestimated Trixie, but they were too convinced of their indomitability as well until it was too late."

This was the chance to make it or break it.

"My humble subjects, please do not let this horrible tragedy based upon fatal misconceptions cloud your judgement of humanity. Each side did what they had to do. To kill is gruesome, but to drive somepony to kill is just as despicable."

A pegasus shot up in the sky. "Why should we listen to you? You alicorns have clearly been deceiving us ever since you convinced us of your supposed immortality!"

The purple mare gave a puff. "I am not speaking to you as the princess of magic, I am speaking to you as Twilight Sparkle! Ponies are supposed to love and tolerate, why should we deem humanity our enemy and despise them when we can help them? We reformed NightMare Moon, Discord and countless others. If the the three pony tribes could get along despite their differences, why can't we? If humans want to show us how society is supposed to function, why not show them that murder is not the answer and that there is always another way?"

The crowd gave nods of approval.

"Lets us teach humanity love and tolerance so humans like Shadow will never be forced to kill again. Let us do it for Trixie and complete her wish of protecting us from the harm of the universe!"

The ponies in the crowd gave a series of applause.

"Now, I will find Shadow squad so that we may meet with the princesses and settle all this confusion out. I beg you, do not judge humanity based on their actions and do not think they are beyond redemption. I do not want to risk creating animosity with them and allowing more to die."

"Twilight, we don't have much time before the train leaves to Canterlot. Thousands, maybe millions of ponies are expecting us to show up with the humans." warned Rainbow Dash.

"I know Rainbow, but I honestly don't know where they could be. Knowing them, they may have reestablished contact and left the planet already." sighed Twilight.

The Mane 6 was inside Twilight's house, trying to debate where Shadow could have been at this point. Spike fetched the mares some water.

Suddenly, a series of subtle probability problems subconsciously enacted within Pinkie's mind based on her knowledge of Shadow and Equestria's landscape caused her stomach to rumble, all 4 of her hooves to vibrate and her hair to fly upwards.

"Have ya figured it out sugarcube?" asked Applejack sarcastically.

"Oh my gosh! I know where they'll be!" yelled Pinkie Pie. The party pony, followed by her 5 friends burst straight out the door. This left Spike completely confused.

Despite everypony's theories, Shadow had not moved far away from the town at all. The squad had relocated to the beautiful (even if it was animated) Whitetail Woods, enjoying the view while thinking about what had occurred last night. None of them had regretted killing Trixie. She had resisted attempts to be civil and almost claimed their lives. Instead, they were depressed about being forced to kill her and taking the innocence of the town.

In the heart of the moment, Scarecrow's wrist computer started beeping. The sound immediately grabbed the attention of the rest of the squad.

"Shit, we've reestablished contact!" exclaimed Scarecrow. He tapped on the wrist computer and suddenly, a blue hologram of commander Sarah Mcafarlene, her arms behind her back.

"Shadow." coldly greeted the commander.

The squad snapped to a salute.

"So we've established contact." pointed X-ray.

"No shit." muttered the commander of Blackjack.

"I take it that we've been watched for longer than we think." noted Scorch.

"We've been recording data from your had since the confrontation with the Griffins." sighed Sarah.

"So I guess you've been aware of everything we've gone through." said Overwatch.

The hologram nodded.

"Why did you not inform us earlier? Surely the events on this planet would have laid out differently." gritted Scarecrow.

"Had we called you, I know for a fact that you would have immediately asked to be extracted from the planet and push the burden onto somebody else." explained the commander. "We were not able to send back up for numerous reasons. For starters, sending more humans would have made the local population feel uncomfortable and we're on operating on minimum crew here."

"Has the the Federation been informed of our recent ploys?" asked Scorch.

"Affirmative." answered Sarah. "Documents and footage were have been streamed directly to the executive branch of the Federation. While they are pleased with your ability to handle yourselves in an isolated situation and attempts to improve the lifestyle of the equines, they have been very concerned and hostile towards your treatment of the populace. The ponies are trying to be nice to you and you just laugh them off as ignorant. You almost turned Ponyville into a police state for crying out loud!"

"Socialist police state." corrected Scorch.

"I suppose a court martial is in order." exhaled Scarecrow.

"While you're at it, why not just send normal human diplomates or some other soldier to this job instead of us?" requested X-ray. "We're 23rd for fucks sake."

"Shadow, the 23rd might be a lot of things, but you psychopaths are still our best option for planetary recon." encouraged Sarah. "We went over numerous scenarios and any other human who wasn't as strong minded as you are would have committed suicide from the sheer ridiculousness of an animated planet alone. Our psychologists have deciphered that you're inconsideration stems from the anomalies present in Equestria."

Shadow was somewhat relieved.

"Still though, you are more than capable in controlling your anger, you shouldn't have been so aggressive. Expect a pay deduction and a month's worth of mental parole." continued the hologram.

Shadow looked at each other.

"We're getting paid? And aren't all 100 23rd members already on mental parole since conscription?" questioned Scarecrow.

Sarah felt like an idiot. "Regardless, even if we sent normal human diplomats or scientists that could handle the the nature of this planet, the odds of them being overwhelmed are extreme. They would have died easily from the hydra attack as well as Trixie's assassination attempt."

"Is the Federation condemning me for killing her?" inquired X-ray.

Sarah's hologram raised an eyebrow. "You bashed her head in a wall in front of the entire town. Did you have to traumatize everypony?"

"With all due respect ma'am." began Overwatch. "The 23rd works on fear and the odds of another pony plotting against us are abysmal."

Sarah gave a sigh. "Putting gruesome methods aside, you are not being condemned for her murder. She attempted to assassinate armed officials with insufficient justification and nearly claimed the life of an innocent. You attempted to restrain her and even knock her out without attempting to kill her. But she elevated her power to extreme levels to exterminate you and almost succeeded. Like any situation with a human, you will not be detained for that reason."

"So what do we have to do next?" asked Scarecrow.

"You need to amend your relationship with Equestria, find the alicorn leaders and get answers." instructed the hologram. "The entire planet is after you for reasons we are ignorant of. If anybody has information, it would likely be them."

"Can't we get additional back up?" pleaded Scorch. "You know, like someone to restrain us in case we get all too aggressive?"

"Shadow, the Blackjack is operating on minimum capacity, every person counts." repeated the hologram. "Our scientists are too busy analyzing the planet to be able to help. Which reminds me, you're excused from figuring out the nature of this planet. We got it covered."

"Well that's a relief." sighed Scorch.

"Can't we the Federation send additional diplomats? We'd be more than happy to protect them." stated X-ray.

Sarah took a nervous breath. "We haven't been completely honest as to why we can't send back up. On one hand, more humans would overwhelm the populace."

"And the other reason?" growled Overwatch.

"Shadow, while you were gone, there have been attacks on 3 star systems by joint Mega Corp and members of the Planet's Rights movement." explained the worried hologram.

"Joint?" exclaimed Shadow at once.

The hologram nodded. "The UTF needs all the firepower and diplomats it can get to instill a ceasefire. The conflict should be over in less than a a day or two though."

"Civilian causalities?" asked Scarecrow.

"Remarkably low." replied Sarah. "Nothing more than a few thousand across all star systems and their respective colonies. Military casualties are starting to pile though."

"Ma'am. We're counter terrorists first. We have to go back and aid the UTF in their efforts." pleaded X-ray.

"The government has it under control." assured Sarah. "Once the battle is done, the Federation will go over methods necessary to establish a relationship with these ponies and send the actual first contact team. Although that could take a while. Until then, you must find out why this planet is like Earth and has creatures that want to kill us."

"I really don't know about this ma'am, we're bound to make enemies or scaring the shit out of the nation. It's what the 23rd does." shook Scarecrow.

"The fact that you haven't committed suicide or just quit in the middle of all the ridiculousness says a lot about the entire division." smiled Sarah. "Besides, if we want to reduce the chances of ponies sending mercs and assassins after you, I'm afraid that we need them to fear us. It sounds extreme, but that's how it works, and the 23rd's speciality is fear."

Shadow felt motivated.

"Although the Federation believes you could try to be nicer." beamed Sarah.

"What if they refuse to cooperate and force us to accept their bullshit?" asked Scorch.

"The Federation put a lot of emphasis on the word 'try'." chuckled the hologram. "Besides, we know how persuasive your unit can be. Sarah out."

The hologram vanished.

The squad stood still in the canopy for a minute until the could no longer hold it.

"You can come out now." called out X-ray.

Suddenly from the trees, the Mane 6 crawled out and trotted towards the squad. The ponies had listened to the entire conversation and Shadow had no doubt been aware of their presence since the begging.

"Were you talking to a ghost?" asked Pinkie Pie. The ponies had been too far to observe the facial features of Sarah.

Scarecrow shook his head. "That was a hologram, a projection of a shape transmitted through electronic data from a sender to a receiver."

Twilight stepped forward and took the lead. "Shadow, about Trixie. I-"

"Relax Twilight, we heard your entire conversation. We never relocated our drone." claimed Scorch.

"The entire t-town isn't mad at y-you or anything. They're just really, really scared and w-wish it didn't have to come to this." informed Fluttershy.

"I don't think that's going to be the end of it, huh?" groaned Rainbow Dash.

"Afraid not." responded X-ray. "It seems like the entire planet has something against our race. While Ponyville may fear us, the rest of Epona doesn't."

"But, ya don't have ta kill everthin' that comes at you!" pointed Applejack.

"A day doesn't go by where we wish everything could be solved through diplomacy." insisted Scorch.

Scarecrow spoke up. "However, the origin of this conflict appears to largely be religious. Human history taught us that religion can drive a person mad and commit horrible acts. I think trying to debunk said religion would only make our assailants madder."

"Surly there must be another way!" insisted Rarity.

"What will happen will happen!" yelled X-ray. "Right now, we need to see Celestia and represent our race. Maybe then we will get answers."

"I for one, am just astounded to hear about your species!" laughed Rarity.

"I gotta whole lot of questions!" chirped Pinkie Pie. "For starters-"

Twilight cut the pink mare off. "And once we've stablished a connection and got to know each others races better, we'll be able to work together to work everything out!"

"Exactly. If our races declare war on each other, then Trixie would have died in vain." nodded Scarecrow. The squad remained silent on how they were intended to prevent a conflict from escalating.

"Well we won't get anythin' done by standin' 'round here. We gotta move!" pointed Applejack.

Overwatch already started heading to town. The rest of the group followed him.

The squad and ponies returned to Ponyville. Shadow felt uncomfortable at the idea of returning to the town. Much to their surprise, the ponies didn't boo them off or anything. Instead, everypony felt pity for the fact that they had been forced to kill. Either that or were piss-your-pants scared of them.

The Mane 6 secured their items, and called for Spike to join them.

The humans as well as Twilight's group headed to the train station, cheered on by many Ponies who hoped the conference would prevent the need for murder.

The 4 humans sat in a private, but not sound proof, compartment. Twilight was offered a room used for royals, but she declined to sit with her friends and dragon assistant.

Shadow laid out the plans to organize their conversation as well as all the answers they would need to respond to the questions of curious ponies. The squad also went over all scenarios involving assassins and methods they could use to make the ponies fear, but not hate, humanity.

Twilight on the other hoof was forced to begrudgingly accept a treatment by Rarity to ready her for the ceremony. All 5 of her friends and Spike were required to hold her down.

Author's Note

By the way, I am thinking about starting a TVtropes page on this. Would any of you contribute?

Now that all the wham and introductions are over, we'll finally get to the highlight of this chapter which is the meeting of Celestia and Luna. We'll finally start the "Technology vs Magic", "Peace vs War" and the whole "Federation vs Monarchy" debate. There might be some delay for the next act though. Might. I'm still a quick writer.

BTW, I will no longer accept comments about people disliking Shadow's attitude. That's an opinion which you can PM me about. Legitimate errors regarding Shadow like inconsistent characterization, logical fallacies and acting out of character would be appreciated.

Chapter 26: Canterlot

"People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little."- Rousseau

The train sped straight to the capital city like there was no tomorrow. There were no passengers aboard the ship other than the Mane 6, Shadow and Spike. It was completely understandable however, as if anypony wanted to risk their lives being on the same vehicle with the humans. Shadow even deduced that the only reason why the train was moving so quickly was to get them out as fast as possible.

As Rarity applied lipstick onto herself, the train hit a bump, causing her to misplace the cosmetic on the wrong sides of her face.

"Ugh, must the train move so quickly? I got lipstick in places where it shouldn't be." complained Rarity. Pinkie Pie proceeded to pop up next to her and clean the smudge with a tissue she balanced on her hooves.

Applejack was putting on her dress with the aid of Fluttershy. "Ah still don' trust Shadow in front of the princesses."

Rainbow Dash gave a laugh. "Come on! Like they can do anything to Celestia. Besides, they got a lot of pressure on them not to mess up this meeting."

"You do know they can hear you right?" squeaked Fluttershy.

Suddenly there was a knock on the compartment door. "It's Shadow, let us in." said a mechanical voice from behind. There was no distinction amongst the voices of each member.

"Heavens no!" shrieked Rarity. "We're putting on dresses!"

Half a second later, the door came flying forwards as Overwatch kicked it down.

The commandos entered the room hastily, much to the embarrassment of Fluttershy and Rarity who tried 'covering up.'

Scarecrow shot a finger at the mares. "Okay first, you're ponies, we've seen you naked all the time. Second, when law enforcement gives you a warrant that we're coming in, you better be prepared to let us come in."

The atmosphere was dead silent until all members of Shadow gave a small laugh.

"Just messing you." chuckled Scarecrow.

"Ya didn' give us a warnin' though." beamed Applejack.

"What do you mean? We told Spike when we'd be coming in." assured X-ray.

"Wait, where is Spike?" noticed Scorch.

Suddenly, Twilight nonchalantly entered the room while levitating Spike who clearly just had too much to eat.

"Okay, that is the last time I let you help yourself to the buffet." scolded Twilight.

The dragon lazily flexed his claw in the air.

"Sorry about that." apologized the purple mare as she laid down Spike. "So, are you 4 excited or what?"

"I guess so." shrugged X-ray. "Although we're gonna be under a lot of pressure considering we know there's a war back on the colonies and that something horrible is bound to happen."

"By the way, what's with the dresses?" asked Scorch. Shadow also noticed Twilight's mane style was different. It was much more regal and polished.

Twilight looked over her royal outfit, the same one worn during the coronation. "I'm supposed to wear this dress during formal events. Do you like it?" The alicorn gave a twirl.

The masked soldiers didn't want to be rude. "Yeah."

The lie detector went off, causing the 4 black clad humans to blush underneath.

"I am just so nervouscited!" cheered Pinkie Pie. "Just think, after we meet the other princesses, there's gonna be food, dancing and-"

Overwatch shut the pink mare up by placing a hand over her muzzle.

"How many times do must you be reminded?" muttered Scarecrow. "Festivals, plus 23rd, equals someone dying."

"Relax, there won't be any parties." insisted Twilight. "Just a dinner with Celestia and maybe a quick tour of the castle."

Rainbow Dash glared at Shadow's black recon armor. "You know, you're going to look pretty out of place like that."

"We're counter terrorists, not party goers." defended X-ray as he flexed his shades.

"Shouldn't you still have some sense of class when dressing for royalty?" questioned Rarity as she admired her own reflection in a mirror.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but we're on an alien world with various assassins ambushing us unpredictably." beamed Scarecrow. "We have to be prepared at all times."

"Can't you just store you store your guns somewhere else? I get nervous when you have them around." pleaded Fluttershy.

"Disarming us will be viewed as a threat." growled Overwatch.

"And another thing." snapped Twilight. "Right now we're going to be meeting the rulers of Equestria, so be sure to be on your best behavior. Celestia and the other princesses are some of the nicest ponies ever. They don't deserve your snakiness and you do NOT want them on humanity's bad side."

"Intimidating her is not our intention as long as she accepts cooperation." defended Scarecrow.

Pinkie Pie looked at the humans with puppy eyes. "Pinkie promise me you won't say anything mean to Celestia and Luna while we're having fun."

"We don't make promises we know we can't keep." responded X-ray.

"Ya might want watch your language though. Canterlot is pretty uptight." warned Applejack.

"A lot of ponies there like Fancy Pants and Hoity Troity are pretty influential, you don't want to get on there wrong sides." nodded Rainbow Dash.

Scorch sighed. "Great, we're going to the city of rich assholes."

"I bet they abuse the proletariat to shit." added X-ray.

"Language!" screeched Twilight.

"So what's the schedule?" inquired Scorch.

"Well, while you guys were solving science or something, we pretty much planned the whole thing out." skipped Pinkie Pie in her regal dress.

"First we'll disembark and me and the girl's will put put our things away." began Twilight. "Then I'll meet up with the rest of the princesses, get ready a speech, and then you come in."

"Sounds simple enough." shook the demo man.

"How many ponies are there going to be in Canterlot?" asked X-ray.

"Well it's not everyday ponies hear about alien lifeforms!" exclaimed Rarity. "I'd say thousands of ponies from all over the nation are going to be flocking over to get a glimpse of you."

As the train neared the city, the cries of ponies and music became audible.

"You do remember that I'm sociophobic and that we're not supposed to be in large crowds right?" inquired Scarecrow.

"Relax you don't actually have to interact with everypony." snickered Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Pinkie. "You can just cloak and hide in the.....shadows." The party pony laughed at her own joke.

"According to the schedule, you'll be introduced by 1:30. All you need to do is simply walk in when I announce you." informed Twilight.

Soon the train was coming to a stop.

Shadow looked outside the curtains and took a full glimpse of the city of Canterlot. Humanity had built amazing cities like Rigel City, New Athens and the realizing the myth of Atlantis, but Canterlot was impressive. The way it was built into the mountain would require genius architects. The spires, the towers and waterfall that ran through the city was breathtaking. Even if it was animated, it would belong to a cartoon of the upmost quality.

However, Shadow's gazing of the city ended with them noticing an important fact.

Scarecrow turned to his wrist computer. "Blackjack, are you getting this?"

The ship radioed him from beyond. "We read you loud and clear Shadow."

"This city's architecture is Medieval. It has a definite resemblance to Camelot from Arthurian legends."

"You honestly couldn't decipher that from the city's name? I mean Camelot, Canterlot, come the fuck on." teased the man operating from the radio.

X-ray placed a finger on his bandanna. "Guys, it's already evidenced that the Pony equivalent of the renaissance lasted for a few thousand years and is still in process. What about the equivalent of the dark ages?"

"Good point." agreed Scorch. "My theory though is that they've surpassed such a time, but for how long is the question."

Finally, the train entered the grounds of the city and stopped right next to the station. Shadow had noticed that the entire platform had a much more ancient tone to the relatively 20th century station in Ponyville.

What had caught Shadow's attention was the massive amount of reporters wearing 20th century fedoras and suits who were giving off fast paced announcements of the arrival of aliens, followed by haughty business ponies that would have been the spawn of the industrial revolution. Furthermore, it seemed the town comprised mostly of unicorns as opposed to Ponyville which was relatively mixed.

"Twilight, these crowds make the ones in Ponyville diminutive." groaned Scarecrow as the voices of reporters grew louder.

The alicorn took a deep breath. "The 4 of you can cloak for now. I'll instruct you as we move on."

Meanwhile, Scorch in a stroke of infinite bad luck, had forgotten a frag grenade he left on the seats. The demo fan failed to notice a certain ignorant dragon staring at the explosive before picking it up in a state of curiosity.

The numerous ponies crowded against the train, eager to see the princess as well as the aliens. The noble ponies simply arrived to discuss possible economic deals with the aliens, the reporters battled each other to get their story published first and many out of place nerds were drooling.

The door of the vehicle opened and the crowd was silenced.

Twilight Sparkle came out of train elegantly, having been taught poise by Rarity.

With nopony noticing that she was missing her crown, everypony in the vicinity bowed respectfully to their ruler. The moment after, the rest of the dress wearing Mane 6 exited the train as well.

Suddenly, the crowd stopped bowing and many reporters started bombarding Twilight with questions:

"Your highness, are you sure we can trust these aliens?"

"For how long have you met these Xenos?"

"What magic are they capable of?"

"Where do they even come from?"

"Will this be the start of a space faring Equestrian race?"

Twilight politely used her telekinesis to grasp a microphone towards her. "Good day my fellow subjects, it is with my pleasure to announce the arrival of the human race in Equestria."

The crowd gave series of mummers and whispers, although it was concern, not excitement like it was in Ponyville.

"The humans right now do not seek company and wish to remain isolated." explained the alicorn.

The Mane 6 attempted to move on forward to the castle, but reporters kept stopping them in their tracks. Twilight had to constantly explain that information about the human race would be leaked after it was reported to the other princesses.

Shadow kept their hands on their rifles firmly. They weren't going to hesitate to use force to disperse crowds. All the while they paid attention to how much different Canterlot felt than Ponyville. For starters, it had a more aristocratic tone, the ponies were much more wealthier, all the shops sold luxury items and the prices for anything would have driven a common pony insane. What was despicable though was the sight of a noble pony yelling at a pair of city workers. It seemed Equestria had quite a gap between rich and poor.

"This place needs a marxist reformation." muttered X-ray on local coms.

The crowd continued to surround the Mane 6 until-

"HALT!" yelled a young, but commanding voice.

Shadow turned their heads forward to see a group of Big Macintosh sized stallions, who were probably the least intimidating guards they had ever seen.

For starters, each one of the stallions wore a ridiculous set of ancient Roman-eque armor. It was clear to Shadow and to the humans watching their feed that Equestria was thousands of years behind in the war complex. The blank expressions of the pony guards were, in a childish sense; retarded.

Leading those stallions was a white coated and blue maned stallion with purple ceremonial armor. He continued to address the crowd.

"The princess and her companions are to be escorted to the royal hall privately. If you wish to speak to her, you will have to relocate to the castle."

The reporters gave sighs of disappointment. The large crowd mechanically trotted past the Mane 6 and guards without even looking back. In 5 minutes, there was complete silence.

The leader looked at Twilight and gave a smile. "How're you doing Twily?"

'Twiliy?' thought the cloaked humans.

"I'm doing fine Shining Armor." answered Twilight calmly.

To Shadow's confusion, the purple alicorn embraced the leader, now known as Shining Armor in an affectionate hug.

"It's great to see you BBBFF." greeted Twilight.

Scarecrow spoke on local coms. "BBBFF?"

"Big Brother Best Friend Forever." radioed X-ray. "Didn't your little sister call you that?"

"No."

Twilight and her brother unglued. Shining Armor turned to face the rest of the elements and Spike. "Has Twilight been treating you well?"

The other mares and Spike (who was playing with the explosive) gave remarks of flattery.

"So aliens huh?" began Shining Armor. "I heard their pretty tough."

"Well not as tough as the pony who stopped the changing invasion." teased Twilight.

Suddenly, there were a series of disembodied mechanical laughs that died down before the royal guards could notice.

"What are you here for anyway?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Aren't you supposed to be with your wife in the castle?"

"I'm here as Captain of the Royal Guard, not Prince of the Crystal Empire." answered Shining Armor.

"So ah take it dat your gonna escort us to the palace?" inquired Applejack.

Shining Armor nodded. "We're also here to carry any baggage you might have to your rooms."

"Don't be a silly filly!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "The train station is taking care of that. To make their job easier, I didn't pack anything!"

The guards almost lost their stern expressions. They clearly were more vulnerable than Overwatch.

Shining Armor looked around nervously. "Anyway, where are the aliens?"

"Why, they're cloaked. That's their word for turning invisible." responded Rarity. "They despise company and attention."

"We're supposed to make sure that the aliens don't give you trouble. To do that we need to be able to see them." said the captain of the royal guard.

"Shadow, can you uncloak?" asked Fluttershy's soft voice.

The 4 humans materialized in front of the royal guard. The non animated appearances gave the guards ponies a mind fuck and staggered them for a few solid minutes.

Shining Armor steadied his helmet as he tried to comprehend the appearances of the humans.

"W-what are y-you?" he stammered.

"Humans." blankly answered Overwatch.

The captain knitted his eyebrows. "So you're the aliens I take it."

"Really? What gave you that clue?" remarked Scorch. "Was it our bi-pedal appearances? Or the fact that we don't look like cartoon characters?"

"Are you military?" questioned Shining Armor.

"Affirmative." answered Scarecrow. "My callsign is Scarecrow. Leader of Shadow squad, subdivision of the 23rd, United Terran Federation armed forces."

The guards looked more and more ready to attack the humans head on.

The other members of Shadow introduced themselves.

"Alright, I don't want any trouble form you 4 here in Canterlot! You'll have to deal with me and my guards before you can touch anypony." glared the captain.

X-ray was unintimidated. Without switching to his radio to local, he signaled the Blackjack. "Command, permission to smack some sense into these rejects."

Shining Armor's eyes widened.

Twilight's mouth dropped. "What are you-"

"Granted X-ray." radioed the frigate.

X-ray looked up at the captain. "No offense sir, you look like a respectable person and all, but whose brilliant idea was it to make you captain?"

The guards took this as a threat and (attempted to) raised their spears at the human.

Scorch laughed. "Do you even realize what weapons you're using?"

"Spears." hissed Shining Armor. "Don't you humans use them in your guard?"

"We used to. Until we switched to less primitive alternatives." mocked X-ray.

"Do you have any idea that those spears are fucking useless against us?" questioned Scorch.

Scarecrow attempted to slap Scorch to shut him up but the demo man side stepped the blow.

"You're not wearing any armor." noted Shining.

"Appearances deceive you." trivialized Overwatch. The sniper unsheathed his combat knife and attempted to stab himself, only for the blade to bounce off his barrier.

The guards were mesmerized. The mane 6 knew what Shadow was trying to do.

"Don't try to surprise me." shook Shining Armor. "That's like the energy shield I can form with my magic!"

Shining Armor's horn lit up and the electromagnetic energy stored within his horn spread and solidified to form a transparent, animated, pink barrier around him.

Scarecrow rolled his eyes and used the back of his shotgun to break the shield, much to the guard's surprise.

Shining Armor was distraught. "How did you-"

"Here's a tip. Net your energy in a hexagonal structure. The strength of the shape will reinforce the barrier." interrupted Scarecrow.

X-ray folded his arms. "Speaking of armor, you're blacksmith needs to be laid down immediately. A single rail bullet from a pistol could break through 9 sets of that golden armor."

"Shining Armor, I wouldn't recommend talking back." suggested Rarity.

The captain ignored her. "Bullets? What are those things you're carrying anyway?"

"Guns." responded Scorch. "Efficient and much more humane than those slow killing pieces of metal. A gun uses magnetic fields to accelerate a projectile known as a bullet at hypersonic speeds with a Lorenz force. Think bow and arrow, but stronger and faster."

"Furthermore, you seem awfully young to be leader of an entire armed forces." pointed X-ray. "Most human generals are well past the mid point of their life."

"That's because Shining is talented and rose ranks faster than any other guard in history." defended Twilight.

The other guards gave nods of agreement.

"You must have some combat experience." complimented Scorch.

"Equestria hasn't seen war for thousands of years." informed Fluttershy from behind.

Scarecrow smirked under his mask. "That's probably a good thing. You'd get your flank, kicked no offense. We've fought Griffins, Hydras and Dragons. They were admirably vigorous for Epona's standards."

"Hey the guards are mighty tough. Thy can handle themselves." countered Applejack.

"Please, what drove ponies to use spears anyway?" questioned X-ray. "Surely a captain such as yourself would notice that weapons like that are meant for hands." X-ray gave his fingers a twirl.

"I don't suppose you know how to utilize them." challenged Shining Armor.

Overwatch abruptly snatched the spear from the captain's hand with extremely fast reflexes. Turning around, the sniper with all his might threw the spear at rapid speeds, and killed a bird flying in the sky effortlessly.

The guards dropped their stern expressions to utter disbelief.

Fluttershy almost burst into tears had Pinkie Pie and Applejack not comforted her.

"I get it. You're trying to intimidate me." realized Shining Armor.

"Gentlecolts, let's not get hasty." said Rainbow Dash.

"Well you're job is to protect your people." noted Scarecrow. "And we're just pointing out that with spears like that, you'll do a horrible fucking job."

Shining Armor brushed the swear off and turned to a pegasus guard. "We'll need more troops. Go see if you can find any reinforcements."

The pegasus guard nodded and took off.

"Send all the guards you like. It won't be enough to finish one of us." hissed Scorch.

Shining snapped. "I don't care how tough you are-"

X-ray silenced him with a flick of his index finer. "We've been trained to take out armies of humans. Energy shielded, gauss wielding, vehicle equipped, combat experienced humans."

Overwatch crossed his arms. "Even if you do take us out, what's to say the rest of humanity won't retaliate? You might be able to perform magic, but what use will it be useless against starships, kill SATS, interceptors, tanks, combat drones and if the universe has no mercy for you, jaegers?"

"I do not know what any of those tools for war are." replied Shinning Armor.

"If you don't mess with us, you won't ever have to." pointed Scarecrow.

The squad simply made a move for the castle at a very slow pace in order to allow the Mane 6 and the royal guard to take lead.

The guards were afraid, and the Federation wouldn't have it any other way.

The royal hall was crowded with ponies from the highest prestige. Celestia wasn't one for elitism, but she knew how much of an influence the wealthy could have in Equestria's relationship with the Xenos.

There were still a few honest ponies within the crowd like the family members of the Mane 6 (minus Applejack's who were still working and seemed to decline any subject that had to do with Shadow) and cosmology enthusiasts like Comet Tail.

The 3 alicorns had already gracefully stepped into the hall, each one wearing a royal gown. They didn't want to come off as unremarkable to the humans.

With the flare of trumpets from solar, lunar and crystal guards, the door opened to reveal a set of startled solar guards led by Shining Armor in a 4 x 4 position. The captain of the royal guard winked to his wife as he led the troops.

Finally, Twilight Sparkle Materialized in the throne room, with everypony bowing on sight.

The same guard Twilight bumped into announced her appearance. "Her highness, princess Twilight Sparkle!"

The ponies in the crowd gave a cheer although many onlookers stopped upon seeing that she wasn't wearing her crown.

"The Elements of Harmony everypony!" cheered the guard known as Flash Sentry.

The rest of the Mane 6 entered the hall and gave a modest nod. Rarity in particular wasn't trying to show off, but wanted the fashion moguls in the crowd to notice her dress.

Twilight curiously trotted to the 4 thrones stationed at the end of the room. Each throne was engraved with a pattern and trim that matched the attributes of each alicorn. Luna's was blue and littered with stars, Cadance's was pink with hearts, Celestia's was white with streaks that resembled sun rays and Twilight's was purple was a star pattern that resembled her cutie mark.

The princess of magic escalated the stairs to her fellow princesses and turned to the ponies in the throne room.

"Today marks a special day." announced Twilight. "The day where Ponykind realizes it is not alone."

The crowd gave a cheer. No one had noticed the rest of the mane 6 looking awfully nervous.

"While there have been hardships on the road to diplomacy, I am faithful that we can finally accept the friendship of a race beyond our very star system once and for all." exclaimed the purple alicorn.

The ponies applauded their princess.

"We have many things to learn from the human race. Culture, technology and so much more. We also must take up a burden to teach these aliens the aspects that make life in Equestria so great. Such an honor is escalated that throughout the time they have spent in space, the humans can honestly say that we simple ponies will be the first intelligent life forms they have ever met."

Twilight turned to Celestia and the other alicorns. "By your words princesses."

Celestia nodded. "Let the two races finally meet. Humans, you may reveal yourself!"

All the while Shadow had been cloaked behind the door prepping to reveal themselves. Scarecrow was relaying final orders.

"X-ray cloak and send your drone to a position where we can listen on the entire castle. Overwatch, keep your eyes peeled for any far range assassins." The sniper had become sensitive to movements from far away distances.

"Scorch, trying not to burn anything and keep a lookout for anything suspicious in the crowd."

"Humans, you may reveal yourself!" called out the solar alicorn from behind the two doors.

Shadow unholstered their weapons on their magnetic plates. Scarecrow took a deep breath and opened the door.

The ponies were confused at first, the door had opened, but there was no one on the other side.

Shadow walked in a few steps into the throne room and when they were sure everything was alright, uncloaked.

Having not seen any glimpse of the realistic humans before, the crowd, even the princesses themselves (minus Twilight), received a painful migraine.

Shadow simply waited until the ponies could sink in their appearances and start seeing straight.

X-ray looked at the time on his watch. "3...2...1"

As predicted the ponies finally calmed down and took a proper look at the humans. As they did so, they kept muttering things to their partners, often talking at the same time.

"What is that?"

"By Celestia, their huge!"

"Why do they look so off?"

"Are they wearing a mask?"

"Is it just me, or do these things only walk on two hooves?"

The humans simply ignored the statements and fixed their attention on the alicorns. They were certainly much more unique than the other ponies. Their appearances were much taller, slimmer and swan like. The Manes of Celestia and Luna were ethereal as well. Celestia's glowed green, pink and blue while Luna's mane resembled the night sky. Similar to Trixie when she had turned into an alicorn after absorbing too much power. Rather than their eyes filling with aggression however, they were filled with friendliness and wisdom.

The alicorns in turn, stared at the approaching humans. Everything about them was alien. Their choice of outfits, the way they walked on two legs, their weapons and even the way they appeared out of context in an animated planet made them cringe. Nevertheless, they attempted to keep their smiles for the sake of their subjects.

Even though Shadow had not uttered a word to the alicorns, the princesses knew their traits would be at odds with theirs. Luna herself had faced many nightmares of many ponies. Being the princess of the night meant that (through inception) she would help ponies face their nightmares. No nightmare however, could face Shadow straight on without littering away like a helpless puppy.

Cadance started breathing heavily. As she looked at the humans, horrible visions started playing in her minds of Shadow mercilessly assaulting innocent ponies and admiring a burning Canterlot. Overwatch in particular had grabbed the attention of Cadance. She was the alicorn of love, and she sensed no love in the sniper. While this was simply due to Overwatch lacking a sex drive, Cadance thought it meant something more horrific. The pink alicorn used her technique to calm herself as the humans approached.

Celestia remained the most vigilant. While she would remain strong throughout the ordeal in order not to come off as weak minded to a whole race, a part of her felt that the humans would bring an end to ponykind if she dared challenge them.

Music continued to play until Shadow finally approached the base of the steps on the throne room. The squad desperately wanted to point out how ridiculous the alicorns looked sitting on a chair meant for bi-peds. The Mane 6 minus Twilight respectfully bowed towards the rulers behind Shadow.

Nonchalantly, the squad elevated the stairs and faced the alicorns. The difference in hight causing a sense of disbelief amongst the noble ponies.

Luna and Cadance were 5 ft at most. Celestia herself was tall at 6ft 1, but the humans, even X-ray, towered her. The hightt of Celestia was a symbol of her superiority amongst the equestrians. Now she was being dwarfed by massive, black clad bi peds.

The squad remained unconvinced of the alicorn's greatness. Scarecrow's mechanical voice startled everypony in the room. "Good day your majesties, it is an honor to be representing our race to ponykind."

Celestia smiled and spoke with her motherly voice. "It is an honor to meet the human race as well."

Scarecrow and the rest of Shadow stretched out their arms and revealed their hands to the princesses.

The mass in the room took a curious look at Shadow's appendages as they gave their fingers a twirl. The princesses looked nervously at hand, believing the humans to be making a hostile gesture.

The squad noticed the alicorns staring nervously at them with a fake grin as if they were waiting for something to happen.

"Well, aren't you going to shake our hands?" asked X-ray glacially.

"You're what?" inquired Luna.

"These." pointed Scorch as he raised his gloved hands.

Rarity gave Shadow a venomous whisper. "You're supposed to bow."

The squad's expressions underneath their mask turned hostile.

"Excuse me?" inquired Overwatch loudly.

The aristocratic ponies gave faint whispers due Shadow's refusal to bow. Certainly they should have known that this was the proper way to address royalty and deities. To not do so was heresy.

"Normally, it is customary for a pony to bow when meeting royalty to show respect." explained Luna with a giggle.

Scarecrow couldn't believe what he was being pressured to do. "That's funny, because to humans, bowing symbolizes superiority and fear while a hand shake symbolizes friendship."

Celestia gave an audible laugh. "My, I can see how different are cultures are already."

The counter terrorists proceeded to awkwardly shake the hand of each princess. The alicorns took a while to get used to the sensation of fingers wrapping around their hooves like a squid's tentacles wrapping around its prey.

"As I was saying," continued Scarecrow. "It is an honor to be meeting the other rulers of Equestria. We have already met Twilight, and she has done a considerable job hosting us."

The purple alicorn blushed.

"I look forward to learning more about your race and teaching you about ours."

Celestia nodded. "You may introduce yourselves in the manner you do to your superiors normally."

"As in the way we introduce ourselves formally to commanding officers?" checked Scorch.

"Why of course." chuckled Luna.

The eyes of the commandos widened. "Are you sure about that?" asked X-ray.

"Certainly, why would that be such a bad thing?" asked Cadance with a smile.

Scarecrow exhaled. "You asked for it." he warned.

"We are Shadow squad, subdivision of the 23rd counter terrorist division. United Terran Federation."

The public responded nervously to the phrases 'shadow squad' and 'counter terrorism'.

The masked leader of Shadow continued to address the squad in the manner the princesses asked for. "We have been active for 4 years, have participated in 834 operations, scouted 3 planets, have gained 50 + commendations each and have a grand total of 1.28 million confirmed kills."

The herd of ponies exploded with hysteria at the last statement. Many mares fainted and even the princesses themselves were startled. All of them had shocked expressions. Never had they met some one who had killed, yet alone in a number that high. The humans needed a lesson in harmony immediately.

"They're afraid of you." radioed Commander Sarah from the Blackjack. "The feds request you to keep going."

The Mane 6 backed away a little. They didn't exactly have a favorable view of Shadow. Now, they didn't know what to think.

Overwatch shot a fist in the air to silence the ponies.

"For legal reasons, we're afraid we can not tell you our real names." informed Scarecrow. "Forgive us, but you'll have to go by our call signs.

The princesses gave nods of understanding. They were incapable of saying no at the moment.

"I'm Colonel Scarecrow. Leader of Shadow. At your service." introduced the commando.

"Lieutenant X-ray, intelligence officer."

"Lieutenant Scorch, demolitions."

Scorch pointed a finger at the sniper. "This is Major Overwatch, squad marksman. He doesn't talk. Much."

The princesses gave an honest laugh.

Celestia revealed herself first. "I am princess Celestia. Alicorn of the sun."

"I am princess Luna, alicorn of the night."

X-ray raised an eyebrow. "Did you know that the moon of our home planet is named Luna as well?"

The blue alicorn blushed in flattery.

Cadance used her technique to calm herself. "I princess Mi Amore Cadenza. I'm the alicorn of love and leader of the Crystal Empire."

"In the language of Italian, your name translates to 'my love Cadance'." noted Scorch.

"I thought it was just gibberish." replied the pink alicorn.

"And of course you know me." grinned Twilight.

"So tell us, what brings humanity here to our humble world?" chanted Celestia.

"The appearance of intelligent life on Epona was surprise to us all." began Scorch. "The human race, as you probably guessed lives, on multiple worlds. Sometimes we find barren worlds for us to manipulate with our vast technologies, other times, like now, we find worlds that are already habitable."

X-ray stole the spotlight. "Due to our efficiency and ability to handle isolation, 23rd units such as Shadow are sent to explore these kinds of worlds. For reasons unknown to us, there was a distortion barrier that prevented our starships from analyzing this planet above. We had to view it manually."

Scarecrow took the lead. "After a few...difficulties, we ran into Twilight and her friends and that's when we realized that intelligent life existed beyond our world. That's when plans changed. Now we're on full diplomacy."

"How was you're stay at Ponyville?" asked Cadance.

"Unorthodox. I'll leave it at that." beamed X-ray.

"It is quite a surprise that you speak Equestrian." smiled Luna.

"The pony race and humanity shares more in common than they think." trivialized Scorch.

The multitude of ponies didn't seem to grasp the concept firmly.

"We're serious!" insisted Scarecrow. "Our cultures are similar and whatever your species invented and went through, we already did so!"

"I'm afraid I don't follow." replied Celestia.

"Will discuss it another time in that case." sighed X-ray. The squad was disappointed.

"I do not mean to be rude, but may I ask about your appearances?" proposed Luna.

"Go ahead." assured Overwatch, startling everypony by speaking.

"It is not my intention to insult you, but why must you wear such a peculiar mask? I can not see any of your faces."

"That's kind of the point your majesty." informed Scarecrow. "The units of the 23rd are required to cover their faces to conceal their identify. We mean no hostility towards you, it's just what protocol requires. Our masks also filter out harmful gases and infections."

'I wouldn't be surprised if you wore them to scare everypony. They're horrifying.' thought Luna.

"Also, why is your appearance so alien?" inquired Cadance.

X-ray faced the pink alicorn. "If by alien, you mean non animated, I would like to point out to the everypony in this room that the universe is built like us. The planet of Epona, is a cartoon."

"What is a...cartoon?" asked Luna.

Scarecrow had to admit, her accent that resembled ancient England was cute. "Basically what you are. Monotone colors and smooth, textureless designs."

"Speaking of your appearances, you humans are undoubtedly tall." complimented Celestia.

"We're taller than most humans." informed Scorch. "Humans on average, are around 3 inches or so shorter then X-ray."

The solar goddess laughed. "It's quite funny. I'm so used to looking down on so many creatures."

"Well, you're going to have to get used to looking up to us." teased Scarecrow.

"As for your voice, you all sound similar. By similar, I mean robotic." cringed Cadance.

The mass ponies nodded to this statement. The voice of the humans sounded completely inorganic.

"That's because we're speaking through a mic under our bandannas." explained X-ray who rubbed his chin under his mask. "This mask distorts our voice in order to remain anonymous. Rest assured though, we're flesh and blood.

"Moving on to other matters, will the rest of humanity make an appearance soon?" questioned Celestia.

"We're what you could call an advance team." answered X-ray. "Our government has yet to inform the public of extraterrestrial lifeforms. Until the situation is clear and our government officials can be prepared, you're stuck with us."

"Not to put any pressure on you or anything, but right now, we are broadcasting every moment of our time on this planet." brought up Scarecrow.

"What do you mean by...'broadcast'?" inquired Cadance.

"Basically, whatever we see, the humans on the starship orbiting this planet can see it too." explained Shadow's commander.

"Say Twilight, I think everypony has noticed this, but where is your crown?" asked Luna.

"And aren't you 5 supposed to be wearing your elements as well?" pointed Cadance to the Mane 6.

The herd gathered in the hall began to make remarks of concern. It was not like the Mane 6 to forget such an important requirement.

Twilight's ears dropped. "About that, I don't know how to say this-"

Scarecrow cut her off. "Forgive us your majesties. When we arrived in the Everfree Forest, the ponies were eager to send us to Ponyville as soon as possible. Twilight attempted to use teleportation, but it failed. Instead, the elements insisted that they use the artifacts to amplify the power of the spell. When they put on the elements, everything was going fine. Unfortunately, the elements seized to obey the ponies and attacked us with a life draining attack."

The crowd started to panic. They knew where this was heading.

Celestia's eyes widened. "The elements are used for peace they would never-"

Scarecrow interrupted Celestia. "My friends were dying. Twilight and the others attempted to shut off the artifacts before they wiped us out, but failed. I was the least affected. With the reminder of my strength, I snatched to the elements, threw them aside......and destroyed them with an explosive."

The ponies gave shrieks of horror and agony. Equestria had relied on the elements for so long and were thought to be unbeatable. This news was too much for them to handle.

"If you have to blame anypony for the destruction of the elements, blame us." muttered Scorch.

"I...don't know what to say to that." blurted Luna. "If you destroyed the elements, then you're above the might of harmony itself."

The mass continued to gave panicked remarks. Reporters wasted no time writing down the shocking news.

After 5 minutes of hysteria, Overwatch had enough of the panicking. He raised his PDR into the air and discharged a magnetically powered bullet.

The noise was loud enough to silence the town.

The alicorns stared nervously at the weapon.

"What is that?" inquired Cadance.

Scarecrow was getting tired of explaining his weapon. "It's a gun, the weapon we humans use to defend ourselves. Long story short, it uses magnets to accelerate a projectile. Universe willing, we won't have to use it."

"We know how important the elements are to the pony kind." yelled X-ray, amplifying his microphone to a more audible, but still mechanical tone. "Understand, that as long as we're here, we won't let any harm come to Equestria."

"The Elements of Harmony meant more to us then protection. They were the symbol of the values of our kind." nearly cried Celestia. Reporters continued to document the information with some running out the hall to tell the news.

Scarecrow exhaled heavily. "I am sorry your majesty, but I will not regret my decision. Ever. My friends were dying and I did what I had to do to save them."

The Alicorn of the sun nodded slowly. "I understand Colonel-"

"Just call me Scarecrow."

"I understand Scarecrow, I just wish it didn't have to come to this." whispered Celestia. Luna placed a wing to comfort the frightened Cadance.

The news was for too much for Ponykind to handle. With more than a million kills and being the perpetrators of the Element's destruction, Shadow was clearly a force that would give Discord a run for his bits.

"Let us not focus on such events!" exclaimed X-ray. "This should be a time for diplomacy and progress, not sorrow."

"You're right." calmed Celestia. "We can not change the past and what happened, happened. Just thank the heavens you are alright."

The squad nodded despite their atheism.

"We have prepared quite a feast for you humans." announced Luna enthusiastically.

Scorch grinned under his mask. "We appreciate your generosity ma'am, but we-"

Suddenly there was a rumble in the demo man's stomach. The rest of Shadow felt it too.

Celestia raised an eyebrow."You were saying?"

"I was about to say that we can't eat since we're drugged to go on days without food, but I guess the drugs have worn off."

"If that is the case, we may proceed to feast if you wish." offered Celestia.

"That would be lovely, your majesty." nodded Scarecrow.

"You can just refer to us by our title and names." assured Cadance.

The alicorns rose form their seats as music played and shook the hands of the humans. Each princess was still unsure, and very much frightened of Shadow. They seemed like good people at heart, but their definition of good didn't fall into the traditional sense.

The reporters continued to take pictures of the humans shaking the hands of the princesses. Much to the surprise of the journalists, whenever they printed a picture of Shadow, the counter terrorists did not show up on the picture, but rather showed as a black blur.

The aristocrats in the crowd were unsure if Shadow were the right humans to address to expand their businesses. The families of the Mane 6 on the other hoof, worried for the safety of their children.

The leaders of Equestria directed the humans to dining room of the castle, accompanied by guards who shrugged off the reporters and various on lookers.

As a guard closed the door behind the group, creating a pitch of silence.

The Mane 6 stood nervously behind their princesses. The alicorns took an expectant look at Shadow. The 4 humans stared back at the alicorns, when a venomous glare underneath their masks as if they were ready to pull out their weapons any moment.

It was going to be an interesting day.

Author's Note

Please make a list for everything you want Shadow to discuss with the alicorns. The next segment will be a series of mini chapters.

As you can see, Shadow intends to use fear throughout the entire ordeal. Fear is the most powerful emotion (in my opinion) and if the humans are going to be meeting Extraterrestrial life, what better way to get their own interests completed by having other races unable to intimidate them?

For those of you saying that a million plus kill count is unreasonable, note that Scarecrow could have easily turned off his lie detector to intimidate the princesses.

Chapter 27: Equineology

"Remember you are just an extra in everyone else's play." Franklin D. Roosevelt

The two groups traversed the castle. The Equestrians continuously looked back at the humans just in case they weren't doing anything sinister. As Shadow stared back with their masks obscuring their faces, the ponies became less and less convinced that they were organic.

Shadow on the other hand, was busy analyzing every piece of furniture with neural controls. For a leader to be so reviled by Ponykind, the princesses didn't even seem to notice something felt off about every piece of furniture requiring hands and a bi-pedal structure to be operated.

"Tia, we can not allow aggressors to be in possession of fire arms." whispered Luna.

"They can hear yoooooou!" playfully warned Pinkie Pie.

"Actually, what we really wanted to ask you was about the strength of your weapons." defended the white alicorn. Shadow didn't want to point out she was lying. "How much force can a single projectile inflict?"

"One rail powered bullet will rip a hole through grade A Titanium." said Scorch.

"Doesn't it mean you're armor is ineffective? There doesn't appear to be any metallic protection." noted Luna.

"That's because Shadow's recon armor is meant to disperse a barrier like the shields we can form, princess." responded Twilight. "Except their energy doesn't come from energy stored horns, it comes from their machines."

"I don't see a barrier." pointed Cadance.

"That's because the energy our barrier emits is so powerful that it is above the visible light spectrum. When some energy is transited to block projectiles, the energy weakens and is visible." explained X-ray.

"Allow me to give you a demonstration." teased Scarecrow.

"Cover your ears now!" warned Rainbow Dash.

The ponies did so without hesitation.

Scarecrow raised his LMG and fired a magnetically charged round at Overwatch. The bullet traversed at hypersonic speeds and bounced off Overwatch's barrier as the energy repulsed the bullet with it's own magnetic force. The alicorns observed a transparent purple hexagon pattern form where Overwatch was hit.

The sniper simply raised his middle finger and growled.

The princesses uncovered their ears, clearly disturbed at what humanity could produce while the Federation observing the events was pleased as the chances for the alicorns attempting to attack humanity minimized. The group continued to walk to the dining hall causally. Those working as staff in the castle dismissed the noise as something breaking for they did not know gunfire.

Twilight tried to make conversation. "So now that we're going to be learning more about each other, is there anything you'd like to know about us?"

"There was something mentioned about a Crystal Empire. Is that an enclave of Equestria or is it a separate nation entirely?" inquired Scarecrow.

Cadance worked up the courage to respond to Scarecrow. "It is a part of Equestria, me and my husband Shining Armor co-rule it together to ease the burden off of Princesses Celestia and Luna."

"You do realize that the very definition of an empire implies a conquest?" muttered Scorch. "So you mean to tell me, your kingdom has a past of brutalizing and and conquering other nations to expand its own?"

The other ponies almost stopped dead in their tracks. Twilight and her friends had visited the Empire numerous times. It was such a cheerful location that one often forgot its dark past.

"The empire wasn't always ruled by me. It used to be ruled by an evil dictator named Sombra who raised armies to quench his lust for power." defended the pink Alicorn.

"When me and Luna saw the evils that Sombra committed, we wasted no time expelling him from the throne." informed Celestia.

"However, his defeat was not permanent." continued Luna. "He sealed the Empire away for a thousand years-"

"He locked the Crystal Empire in a pocket dimension? That's impressive." complimented Scorch.

X-ray shook his head. "Not really, all you'd have to do was generate enough energy to create a rip through space time that sealed physical matter in a plane of sub space, where the ratio dividing distance traveled to time was bent in favor of time. It would be the opposite of the teleportation our star ships use. Although, I see where you're coming from as a biological creature generating enough energy without killing himself is quite news worthy."

"What did he say?" asked Applejack.

"I don't know, some egg head stuff." shrugged Rainbow Dash.

"And then the Crystal Empire came out of that wormhole thingy and we had to go save it!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

"Speaking of kingdoms, what do you humans think of our castle?" asked Twilight. "It has stood in Canterlot for thousands of years."

"Medievial." exhaled Overwatch.

"Are humanity's castles built like ours?" asked Rarity.

"Humans don't have castles anymore." shook Scarecrow. "But when we had them, they did in fact resemble structures like these. I guess you could say our equivalent of Canterlot castle is the HOH; the House of Humanity located in the city of Brussels on Earth. It's where the president and the rest of the executive branch resides."

Luna had an epiphany. "Oh, before we show you to your rooms, would any of you like to stop by our grand art hall? It details every important historical even that happened in Equestria."

Art was Overwatch's weakness. The sniper turned to his squad mates with a pleading look (under his mask).

Scarecrow exhaled. "We can do that. Sure. Dinner can wait."

Luna formed a cheerful look and led the humans to a hall decorated with stained glass paintings detailing Equestria's history from 'creation' to the saving of the Crystal Empire.

Shadow looked at all the paintings. The first one detailed an Alicorn with a white coat and red mane overlooking a world. Based on the light disk behind her head, it was clear she was thought to be a creator of some sort.

X-ray switched to local coms and shook his head. "Suckers think this is how they were created."

"Ditto." radioed back Scorch.

"Do you like the painting?" smiled Celestia. "It is a painting of our first princess and creator, Queen Faust."

Shadow said nothing and looked at the other paintings. They observed art works detailing more alicorns such as the twin brothers Glacios and Helios who Twilight mentioned earlier.

What caught their attention was an artwork detailing 6 ponies, 2 earth ponies in robes, 2 unicorns wearing a pristine cloth and 2 pegasai equipped with centurion armor standing atop of a mountain. On top of the 6 ponies stood a blazing pink heart scattering away a group of horse shaped wind creatures.

Twilight noticed the humans staring at the stained glass portrait. "That symbolizes the founding of Equestria.We weren't always united. We used to be divided amongst Earth Ponies, Pegasai and Unicorns.."

The purple alicorn explained the story of the founding of the three tribes and the conflict they were forced to endure. Twilight couldn't tell if the masked humans were interested.

Twilight started concluding the story. "The leaders of the three tribes continued to argue and ultimately, the storm froze them. The advisors however, remained tolerant of each other and avoided being encased in a shell of ice. Soon it was discovered that the source of the ice storm were Windigos which are-"

"Mist-based lifeforms whose organs can function in a gas state that often take the appearance of an equine that feed off a body being influenced by the Hypothalamus which is the part of the brain that creates anger." said X-ray really quickly.

The ponies looked at the masked soldier with a confused expression.

"Winidigos are present in human mythology too you know. Continue the story."

Twilight cleared her throat. "The three advisors did not give up their fellowship and the unicorn Clover the Clever was able to utilize the friendship of the other two advisors as a source to power her magic to disperse the insidious wind spirits and free the leaders. As a result, the tribes were able to declare peace and unite. Equestria was found as a result. While it is considered an old pony's tale, a fiery heart fueled by the friendship of the founders burns to this day as a symbol of harmony and protects us dearly."

"Thats sounds like a very child friendly version story of how humanity united." admitted Scarecrow.

"It was entraining and all, but I find it hard to believe that unification went that smoothly." remarked Scorch.

The ponies glared at the humans with venomous looks except for;

"You found it entraining?" blushed Twilight.

"Well, we ponies have always had the spirit of harmony inside us!" blurted Rainbow Dash.

"We simply needed to discover that we were capable of getting along. No need for rough housing!" exclaimed Rarity.

"Yeah, we've always been good at accepting friendships!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

"Or good at distorting history." shrugged Scarecrow. "That's a crime I could arrest you for on the colonies."

Just when the ponies were about to lash out him-

"Check it out! It's Celestia and Luna!" pointed X-ray.

The ponies shifted their gaze at what X-ray was pointing at. The artwork detailed a younger Celestia and Luna and their triumph over Discord.

"This painting has quite a story to it." whispered Celestia.

Scorch looked at the alicorn sisters. "How old are you two?"

"We are more than a thousand years old." explained Luna.

"My readings stated you couldn't have been anymore than 30." teased Scarecrow.

Celestia smiled a bit. "Alicorns are immortal, when we turn 30-"

"Your body creates a system of transdifferentiation that recycles energy to halt the rate at which organs deteriorate." interrupted X-ray.

"Are ya goin' ta be doin' that the entire time?" asked Applejack.

"It's his choice." whimpered Fluttershy.

Celestia continued to explain how Discord plunged Equestria into, well, discord and how she and Luna trained to face him and ultimately imprison him with the elements of harmony.

Scorch pointed to a mixed creature that Overwatch was starring at. "Is that Discord?"

"I'm not trying to criticize you, but when you meet the spirit of chaos himself, you probably would want to rethink your statements of magic not existing." implied Cadance.

Scarecrow nearly spat. "Show a Renaissance philosopher a hologram and he'll loose belief in reason."

The members of Shadow overlooked a painting of a snow white filly at the side of Luna and Celestia and onto a paining of Celestia and Luna vanishing King Sombra and saving the Crystal empire.

X-ray signaled the frigate. "Blackjack, are you getting this?"

"Stream is clear X-ray. Feds are taking notes as well." radioed back a crew member with a Danish accent. The commission of colonial affairs stationed on Apex were viewing a stream coming from the HUD of the masked soldiers.

What caught the human's attention detailing the fall of Luna to NightMare Moon.

The squad looked confused.

"Twilight memorized the story better than anypony else!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

The purple alicorn cleared her throat.

"After the defeat of Discord, Celestia and Luna continued to watch over Equestria living in harmony. Celestia would raise the sun, while Luna would raise the moon. As time passed however, Luna became jealous how ponies stayed awake during the day and refused to see her beautiful night. After the defeat of Sombra, Luna was ultimately corrupted by jealousy and wrath. She turned into NightMare Moon and threatened to bring about eternal night. Seeing no other choice, Celestia locked her sister in the moon where she resided for a millennium."

"........."

"YOU BANISHED YOUR SISTER IN THE MOON FOR 1 THOUSAND YEARS! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" exploded Scarecrow.

The atmosphere was a dead silent. Each pony lost the their color, twitched and manes started to split.

"That....language." whispered Celestia.

"I'm afraid they swear a lot princess." muttered Twilight.

Applejack shook off the insult. "Ya can't say dat ta the princess pal!"

"YOU. SILENT!" ordered X-ray. "I can talk to whoever I want, however I want." Overwatch attempted to restrain X-ray before he could lash out.

Pinkie's mane deflated. "You..know, I don't think the federation approves of you swearing at alicorns."

"Bitch please." countered Scorch. He lit up a hologram and amplified the receiver end of his microphone connected to the legislative building on Apex (Gliese 581 d).

The ponies listened to the feed coming from various congressmen and women:

"She locked her own sister on the moon?"

"I'm not surprised, it is a medieval society after all."

"1000 years on the moon? I'd go insane."

"She must have been real-"

Scorch shut off the mic.

The ponies couldn't believe it. They were being called monsters by humanity.

Scarecrow exhaled. "Okay fine, I'm being too hard on you. Although seriously? What kind of a punishment is that?"

"Speak for yourself! You meanies murdered more than one million people." raged Fluttershy.

"Luna, what was it like on the moon?" questioned X-ray.

The blue alicorn hesitated before speaking. "Cold, distant, lonely."

"When some one dies. They're dead. It's over. Quick and painless. They aren't forced to endure 1000 years of dehumanizing agony." chastised Scorch.

"I was trying to protect my people." cried Celestia. "I never meant to hurt Luna."

Scarecrow didn't know what motivated him to add insult to injury. "You do realize how flawed your plan was right?"

The ponies looked at Shadow's masked commander.

"For starters, did you not notice Luna went mad after you fought Sombra?"

The alicorn sisters glanced each other.

"What was the last thing Sombra did to Luna after you defeated him?" inquired Scorch.

Luna tried to recall the memory. "Sombra showed me a vision as we vanished him. The vision claimed that I was doomed to endure loneliness and forced to live in a world where no pony appreciated what I did and took my sacred duty for granted."

"So he increased the influence of the amygdala, which makes us feel fear in our minds and forced you to relive what would be your biggest nightmare." informed X-ray.

"Let me tell you something." spoke up Scarecrow. "The most powerful emotion someone can feel is not love, hatred, ambition, friendship or bravery. It's fear."

The equestrians looked at Scarecrow with uncertainty.

"Fear is what the 23rd thrives on." remarked Scorch. "That emotion can drive us to insanity and make us do things we do not want. It can destroy friendships and lives. Countless enemies have went mad because of the paranoia they suffered because of us. Luna is a victim of such an emotion. The fear took over her and turned her into NightMare Moon."

Celestia gave a sisterly nuzzle to her sister.

"When Luna went mad, surely you should have realized that it was Sombra's influence." pointed Scarecrow. "I'm not an expert on that pony, but he sounds like somepony who would operate on fear as well."

"I didn't realize it was Sombra influencing my sister until now." whispered Celestia. Cadance and Pinkie Pie went to comfort the Solar Alicorn.

"Even I thought it was a conscious decision." admitted Luna. Fluttershy wiped a tear from her eye.

"And Celestia, out of all the spells you could have cast with the element, why lock your sister in the moon?" questioned Scorch.

The solar alicorn said nothing.

"Clearly you didn't realize Sombra had anything to do with Luna's downfall." remarked X-ray. "You still should have known that locking a paranoid alicorn on the moon for 1000 years is only going to drive her even more insane. Like we said, we're experts on fear and unless you don't want forgiveness, why torment someone for a millennium?"

"But, we're all here now. Doesn't that count for anything?" squeaked Pinkie Pie.

"I suppose it does." confessed Scorch. "We shouldn't be dwelling in the past and you were caring for your subjects which is completely noble. So I guess everything did work out in the end." The ponies felt relieved as Shadow calmed down.

"But how Luna is not a foaming psychopath right now needs an explanation." added Scarecrow.

"You can thank Twilight for that." pointed the alicorn of the moon.

Overwatch turned around to see another painting. Detailing the Mane 6 wearing the elements and lifting the curse of NightMare Moon. The masked humans noted that Twilight was still a unicorn in the picture.

"Care to explain this?" voiced X-ray.

"Ohh! My turn!" cheered Pinkie Pie. "That's us defeating NightMare Moon with the Elements of Harmony."

"Being the Alicorn of the night, I was able to draw energy from starlight to help me breath and stay alive in the void." stated Luna. "After a thousand years, the effects of the elements wore off and I was able to return to Epona."

"The problem was that ponies thought Luna and NightMare Moon was just a fairy tale so no pony saw her coming." said Rainbow Dash.

"And that's when Twilight came in." added Rarity. "She was the only pony that insisted the story of NightMare Moon as fact, not fiction."

The purple alicorn blushed.

"Before Twilight became the element of magic, she was my student." versed Celestia. "I realized NightMare Moon would return on the thousandth summer sun celebration and that only the elements would be enough to stop her. I needed her to make friends and find suitable candidates for the other elements."

"And she sent her to Ponyville of all places. Why was dat?" questioned Applejack.

"It's Celestia, she probably knew all along that we were the elements from the beginning." responded Rainbow Dash.

"That is not technically why I sent Twilight there." countered Celestia. "While you are right on that one part Rainbow Dash, I figured when NightMare Moon attacked, she would choose to attack the town hosting the Summer Sun Celebration and start there to plunge Equestria into eternal night."

"You guessed right." teased Luna.

"I was less than pleased to go to Ponyville." chuckled Twilight. "I didn't care about making friends, all I cared for was solving the mystery of NightMare Moon."

"And then she met us!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

Twilight formed a dreamy look "Together, we ventured through the Everfree Forest and found the elements together. Along the journey, I discovered that the elements were in my friends all along."

The counter terrorists wanted to desperately laugh about how childish her story sounded.

"Together, we brandished the elements and cast a spell that soothed NightMare Moon's anger and released the plague that corrupted her. And after realizing the power friendship, I decided to stay in Ponyville after all."

"While it's only been a few years, I feel like we've been friends forever." chimed Fluttershy.

Shadow simply nodded.

"To be fair, plunging the world into eternal night wasn't really such an evil plan." muttered X-ray. "Ponies could have easily created artificial lighting and the unicorns and Earth Ponies could have simply found a way to grow crops without photosynthesis. Many plants can do that like the ones on Titan and Europa. Not to mention one side of the planet would be locked into eternal morning."

Luna simply gave a cheesy smile.

"And that was still no reason to lock your sister in the moon." grunted Scarecrow.

Celestia copied Luna's expression.

Overwatch's voice grabbed everyone's attention. "Ugh, that artist needs to be fired. He just copied the painting of Twilight's pals redeeming NightMare Moon and swapped the alicorn with Discord."

The masked commandos looked at a new painting of the Mane 6 entrapping Discord in stone.

Rarity fixed her mane as she spoke. "I think it would be appropriate to point out that Discord was not entrapped in stone forever. Eventually, he was able to break free from his prison and wreak havoc on us all."

"It was so weird!" skipped Pinkie Pie. "Discord stole the elements of harmony and he told us they were in a maze. Then he stole our ability to fly and use magic so we would have to cross the maze normally....but Discord was a cheater!"

Pinkie Pie found herself being cradled by Scorch. "He basically turned us into our opposites and we lost color for some reason."

"That's because emotions can trigger chemicals that alter our appearance." informed Scarecrow before X-ray could start explaining."

"And Discord wan't just a a cheater, he's a liar too!" screeched the Pink Mare. "He told us the elements weren't really in the maze. Can you believe that? Then we were all mopey and mean until Twilight got smudge of willpower to remind us of our true selves and use the elements to put Discord back in his place." Scorch finally dropped Pinkie.

"Are you going to vilify me and my sister for encasing Discord in stone by the way?" asked Celestia sarcastically.

"Nope." bluntly answered Scarecrow. "If he was mad on his own accord, he deserved imprisonment. Considering he's a manifestation of chaos, I applaud that you turned him to stone as conventional prison wouldn't contain him."

The alicorn sisters smiled. At least they got some respect from the humans.

X-ray was responding to a question being sent to him by the Feds. "The commission of colonial affairs wishes to know is Discord will be a problem to us."

"Do not worry about Discord. We released him a few months ago and Fluttershy was able to convert him to good." assured the princess of magic.

"Just goes to show you, everyone is redeemable." blushed Fluttershy.

The ponies expected the humans to be touched until-

"If only that were true." snapped X-ray.

"So where is Discord anyway?" interrogated Scorch.

"We don't know, maybe he's spreading his gift of chocolate rain all over the world." smiled Pinkie Pie.

"Say Cadance, you've been awfully quiet." noticed Scarecrow. "Care to explain what that picture is?"

The Pink Alicorn calmed herself with her technique and gazed at the portrait detailing her and Shining Armor head to head. "I'd rather wait until later to explain. My husband will be joining us for dinner. Speaking of which, didn't anypony notice that him and the guards he was with looked really depressed?"

"Let's jus' say that he met Shadow face ta mask." gritted Applejack.

Cadance knew her husband was brave and to see someone putting him in a state of cationic fear was frightening.

"And now our latest portrait details the return of the Crystal Empire." showed Twilight. "After it returned from a thousand year banishment-"

"Wait a minute." interrupted X-ray. "Does everyone notice that everything you face is from a thousand years ago?"

The ponies looked at each other in disbelief, never before had they noticed such an important fact.

"What, do all the bad guys find it convenient to attack today?" sarcastically remarked Scarecrow.

Celestia cleared her throat. "You forgot to notice that everything Twilight and her friends went up against is something I had to face as well."

"I do not know where your opinions of us lie." sneered Luna. "But, me and my sister were no fools. We did not waste time trying to purge the world of its evils through long intervals. Our campaign was swift and with the elements, efficient."

"But when that the elements chose the 6 as their new bearers, our work with the elements were undone." exhaled Celestia.

"So it's like pulling a rope. When you let go; the house comes down." condescended Scorch.

"Yeah, but now the elements are gone!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "Who knows what we've released?"

"We're not regretting our decision." growled Overwatch. "You'll just have to find a way to solve your problems rather than whisking them away."

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to accuse us of something?

The sniper shook his head.

X-ray looked over the artwork and noticed how it glorified Spike.

Scorch chuckled. He forgot about the purple dragon all along. "Hey Spike your-"

Shadow turned around and froze in paranoia. The small dragon was busy playing with a frag grenade with utter joy.

Spike looked up at the counter terrorists. "Oh sorry, I wasn't listening. What is this thing anyway? It looks so cool."

Scarecrow talked to the dragon slowly. "Spike, where did you get that?"

"Oh this? I found it on the train seat." answered the small dragon.

Scorch looked at the ammo counter on his HUD and realized that he was grenade short. He always did have random bursts of bad luck.

"Is something wrong?" asked Luna wearily.

The commando focused on the dragon. "Spike. What you are holding is a frag grenade. It is a very powerful explosive."

"Explosive?" shrieked Fluttershy.

Spike was confused. Scorch continued approaching him. "What ever you do, don't pull the pin-"

Click

"FUCK!" The demo man had 7 seconds. His speed kicked in and he snatched the grenade from Spike's claws and threw it out the window. The grenade exploded in Mid-Air.

The commandos formed a wall around the equines to protect them from the blast damage.

"New rule!" beamed Scarecrow. "No pony touches our equipment without our approval or else."

"Or else what?" inquired Pinkie.

"How 'bout we just leave it at 'or else' sugarcube." gritted Applejack.

"Those monstrous weapons are to be confiscated at once." glared Celestia.

"We've seen what happens when those with no experience are in possession of Terran weapons." challenged X-ray. "They're better off in our hands."

"We will keep them locked up in a vault. Instruments of murder have no place in Equestria." spat Luna.

"Are you really going to try and disarm us?" hissed Overwatch.

As the humans started to get more aggressive, the pain inside the heads of ponies increased until it was reaching levels that were unbearable.

Luna gave up. "Fine, you may keep them. Just be careful."

"That's why we want them in our hands. So ponies don't get hurt." insisted Scarecrow.

As the humans calmed down, the headaches of the equines diminished.

Suddenly, the doors on the other side of the hall opened and revealed Shining Armor, now dressed in a suit. His wife flew towards him and planted a kiss on his muzzle.

Shining Armor mustered the courage to speak to the humans. "If it would not be any trouble, the servants have prepared a room for you humans. There have been modifications to better accommodate your needs."

Scarecrow turned to the equines. "If it's fine with you, can we go to our room and meet you in the dining hall?"

The ponies gave nervous remarks of approval.

The humans were directed to their guest room by a frightened guard. Scorch opened the door and the humans looked upon their home for the night.

Despite being animated, the room looked awfully comfortable. The beds were modified to be even larger than Celestia's to suit Shadow's behemoth size. Even the lavatory facilities were enlarged.

"I just hope they didn't do something stupid like cast a growth spell." shook Scarecrow.

"Agreed, mass isn't destroyed so the bed would still be weak as fuck." nodded X-ray.

Scorch laid down on the bed. "I don't think that's the case, although this bed does feel awfully weak."

"Gentleman, we're getting a message from the commission." announced Scarecrow. He tapped on his wrist computer and the transparent blue holograms of a few congressmen and women appeared. Each congress member wore a suit and had a pin that depicted the Federation logo.

Shadow snapped into a salute.

"At ease." said the head of the department.

"What's our status sir?" asked Scarecrow.

"You're doing a good job." remarked the HOD. "I don't blame you for lashing out at them. This race is just messed up."

"Remind us again why we have to scare the living shit out of these equines." muttered Scorch.

A congresswomen glanced at the demo man. "Had the equines been a space faring race, they would have been quite the valuable asset. Unfortunately their renaissance structure and theocracy is a detriment to the interests of the Federation. We don't mean to sound like supremacists, but there is almost nothing they can do to help us unless they see the numerous errors of their society, be frightened and find the urge to adapt."

"While we are firmly against imperialism." defended the HOD. "The equines are repeating the same mistakes of humanity during the dark to renaissance ages. It would be rude to sit idly by while we know the cure to their stagnation. Even if it hurts, they have to end this silly fantasy if they are to survive in the universe. Now that we've met them, the odds about Mega Corp and other insurrection groups discovering and attacking this planet are escalating."

An arabic official crossed his arms. "Furthermore, the entire planet is after our race for unknown reasons. The equines must be place in a state of submission to reduce the chances of them declaring war on us. They appear to be the most influential race on the planet and having them against us is making Epona our enemy."

The HOD had a final announcement. "While it is against 23rd protocol, we calmly request that the 4 of you remove your masks at some point and reveal your faces. We are aware that fear of the unknown is what makes the 23rd a fierce opponent, but we need to form some trust with the equines and it would ease up interrogation."

"Understood sir." nodded Scarecrow. "Shadow out."

The holograms disappeared.

Scorch slumped back and laid down on an animated chair. Much to his expectation, the chair broke. "Honest to universe, what are these chairs made of?"

Overwatch drank a whole bottle of animated water. "They call this one liter? Felt like I drank half the thing."

'Half'? X-ray stroked his bandana in thought until-

"EUREKA!"

"Please share with the class X-Gay." insulted Scarecrow.

"Guys think about it." jumped the masked rifleman. "The water we drink is only half filling. The chairs we sit on only take half the mass they're supposed to. Our bullets can penetrate twice objects here than on a non animated world."

Scorch crossed his arms. "What are you getting at?"

"This is only a theory but; what if animated objects only have half the molecular count of a realistic object?"

Scarecrow was skeptical. He used neural controls on his HUD to analyze the animated furniture of the room. The dimensions were logical, but when he changed to view molecular count-

The Mane 6, the princesses and Shining Armor sat in the royal dining hall silently. Shadow had been gone for around 10 minutes, but waiting felt like an eternity. Spike was napping in his room.

No pony dared to speak up out of the fear Shadow was cloaked and watching them.

Rainbow Dash tried to break the silence. "So, seen any good-"

The doors of the dining room slammed open. Shadow, who the ponies noted were carrying no equipment other than their rifles and wrist computers, entered the room with uncontrollable excitement. Except for Overwatch who was still neutral.

Pinkie Pie became ecstatic. "You look happy, did somepony tell a funny joke?"

"Better!" shrieked Scarecrow. Everypony knew that he was smiling under his mask.

"We found out why you look so different." spoke up Scorch.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Beg yer pardon?"

X-ray cleared his throat. "Okay, it's clear to you that Epona looks differently then rest of the universe."

The ponies nodded.

"Also, have you noticed how everything seems to collapse under our weight?" added Scarecrow.

"What do you mean?" questioned Celestia.

The scrawny X-ray sat down on an enlarged gilded chair, only for it to collapse.

Scorch spoke in an innocent tone. "Now we know you ponies aren't the most intelligent of species-"

"HEY!" defended Twilight.

"-but surely you know that everything is made up of tiny particles that take up a space."

"We have yet to observe said particles, but we are aware that matter is made up of building blocks." nodded Celestia.

Overwatch took X-ray's tablet and drew a circle on a illustrator app.

"Pay attention." snapped Scarecrow. "This circle is a living thing."

Overwatch drew a small dots onto the circle.

"These small dots are atoms that make up the body. They are closely connected with each other to form dense structures. Do you follow."

The ponies nodded. They weren't ignorant that matter is made up of smaller particles. Overwatch drew another circle.

"This is an object on Epona." instructed Scarecrow.

The sniper filled in more dots, but in a smaller number.

"As you can see." educated Scarecrow. "The atoms that make up an object on Epona are half of that of a non Eponan counterpart. But the particles are still spread out to make the size of an Eponan object equal to a non Eponan. As a result, the lower molecular number to reinforce an object of a certain size is half of a Terran counterpart. It also means objects in Epona can burn much easier."

Scorch formed a dreamy smile under his mask.

The ponies that weren't Twilight, Celestia and Luna couldn't comprehend what Scarecrow just said.

Luna was skeptical. "So wait. That is why we're, how you say? Animated?"

"No." pointed X-ray. "It is why everything is weaker than what we expected. The reason why you are animated is because the cells in Eponan biology for a certain organ are uniform as opposed to Terran biology where each part of the body is made up of a different cell. Not to mention, the molecular structure of the objects on Epona are aligned perfectly. Thus you have an animated appearance."

Overwatch took the lead. "For example, when I use the same color to draw a picture, I get animation. When I use stokes that spreads various colors in one point, I get real life."

"It also explains why you get head aches from looking at us for too long." stated Scorch.

This got the ponies attention.

The demo man took a breath. "Your eyes are used to looking at objects with simple and perfectly aligned molecular structures. It is like a man trapped in darkness being sensitive to light, but much more at the same time. When you look at a Terran object, the sheer detail and imperfect molecular structure forms a series of confusion in the brain. This is why it hurts. Our complicated form alone overwhelms you."

One could hear crickets roar.

"I'm afraid I don't follow, nor do I care." sighed Rarity.

The humans glared under their masks.

"Of course." sighed X-ray. "I swear Equestria has a lack on intellectualism."

"We are not against finding out how the universe works." countered Celestia. "It is just that with a beautiful world around us whose mystery brings us joy, why should we become cynical and find out how the world works when we can just enjoy it without harm?"

Scarecrow laughed. "That is the funniest anti intellectual message I have ever heard. We're not trying to find out why Epona works because we have no time for fun. We're finding why it works because it is fun. Beauty of life comes from the sheer thrills you get from cracking down the universe's mysteries. Doesn't any of that excite you?"

"..........No." whispered Fluttershy. "I mean, if that's okay with you."

"Universe damn it. This is information that benefits you. The least you could do is thank us for finding out why you keep getting mind attacks." sneered Scorch.

"Well, we never asked for you to start going around solving things." glared Shining Armor.

"I swear we have to change your attitude towards rationality." cautioned X-ray.

"You can't tell us how to think." beamed Pinkie Pie.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Shadow's right. I'm sick and tired of being the only pony who wants to figure out how the world works and not fall asleep at it."

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Well no offense to you 4 or something, but with crazy stuff happening in our lives, we don't really have time for all this sciency junk."

Overwatch hissed while Scarecrow grinned under his mask. "You ponies sure have gone on a lot of adventures if you don't have time for any knowledgeable pursuits."

"Well of course!" laughed Applejack. "Don' y'all have those crazy days once in a while?"

"Human life is pretty grey." shook Scorch. "Every human is special and they're lives are novels in their own right. However with so many humans out there, the odds of something news worthy and world shattering based on the acts of an individual are abysmal. Besides, what is considered a special day for us is a far cry from saving the Crystal Empire."

"What about you 4? I remember one of you saying you've been on more than 800 missions." reminded Cadance. "Surely, you of all humans have gone on violent escapades before."

Scorch laughed. "Let's just say we've been on enough operations to fill a trilogy of video games, a set of novels, a movie and comic book story line."

"Yeah, but what are the odds the rest of society is going to know?" brought up Scarecrow. "Ops of the 23 are classified."

"Come to think of it, ever noticed how everything important seems to happen to the ponies in this room?" noticed X-ray.

"What do you mean by that?" inquired Rarity.

"We looked over the paintings in the hall, and everything published within the current time frame has something to do with you 6." explained the masked rifleman.

"We are awesome, of course ponies are going to notice us." gloated Rainbow Dash.

"And they are the elements of harmony, it is their duty to be ready to face the dangers of the." assured Celestia.

"Well, I kind of find it odd that everything just happens to you." glared Scarecrow. "We humans don't have 6 people that's responsible for everything that's important. Like we said, it's the problems of the mass."

"You know, Shadow has a point." nodded Twilight. "Between our calls to duty, there is just weird stuff that happens in Ponyville almost every week."

"To be fair Twilight, another reason why I sent you to Ponyville is because the town's small size and colorful population would place you in situations where you would most likely come across lessons in friendship." revealed Celestia.

"Lessons in friendship?" chuckled Scorch. "Aren't you supposed to learn stuff like that in kindergarten?"

The Mane 6 blushed.

"Seems like you've been pulling all the strings Celestia." accused Scarecrow. "When did you know that our 6 friends would be important to the affairs of Equestria."

"Actually." piped up Cadance after calming herself. "I was kind of the first pony to know Twilight had a great life ahead of her. When I was young, I wanted to take some form of responsibility so I turned to foal sitting."

"And because she had a crush on me, she chose to foal sit Twilight." teased Shining Armor.

"Well, the first clue I had about Twilight having the potential to become an alicorn is when she demonstrated outstanding performance on her magic exam." explained Celestia. "Later that night I discovered that she had received her enhanced magical capabilities from a sonic rainboom, orchestrated by Rainbow Dash. I was also informed that the others received their cutie marks from the same source. I took it as a sign."

"I know what you mean, the first sign that we were destined to be best friends was when we were the only 4 kids to have no interest in our school's welcome part in 3rd grade." laughed Scorch.

"And ever since then, we've had a whole lot of crazy run ins." laughed Fluttershy nervously.

For the next......3 hours the ponies in the room began to explain each and every episode of the time they spent together:

"So in the end, Celestia sent me a letter with more tickets."

"And then I stared down the dragon and convinced him to leave."

"When I thought my friends were avoiding me, I went crazy and started talking to inanimate objects."

"So, I was finally able to get accepted on Nightmare Night."

"In the end, I selected Tank to be my pet."

"Finally, me and Shining Armor Cast out the Changelings and got on with our wedding."

"As a result, Spitfire made me team captain."

"So ah finally got the reunion settled down."

"And then, I mustered up the courage and flew into the distance where everypony could see me." concluded Twilight with a cheerful smile.

"Who would have thought this all came from swapped cutie marks. Right Shadow?" shook Rainbow Dash.

"......"

"Shadow?"

There was no response. The 4 masked humans simply stared at the equines with a vacant stare. Overwatch's head was down on the table.

"Epona to Shadow." waved Pinkie Pie. There was no response.

Rarity placed a hoof on her chin. "Come to think of it, they've been unresponsive ever since we started talking about winter wrap up."

Suddenly Scorch's fell over. "ZZZZZZZZ"

"They're asleep." gritted Applejack.

"Oh my, they must be tired." empathized Fluttershy.

"How rude." snorted Luna.

Twilight flew on over to X-ray. "Um, X-ray. Are you awake?"

"5 more minutes dad." whispered the masked commando in his sleep.

Rainbow Dash was about to nudge him awake-

When X-ray grabbed her fore hoof and slammed her onto the table. Just when he drew a combat knife-

"AAAAAA!" shrieked the cyan pegasus.

X-ray was wide awake. Upon realizing what happened, he sheathed his knife and sat back down. The scream woke up the other members of Shadow. Rainbow Dash quickly retreated to her seat, having nearly wet herself.

"Shit! Don't sneak up on us!" warned X-ray.

"Well, maybe we wouldn't need to have woken you up if you hadn't fallen asleep." noted Rarity.

"Relax, are eyes may have been closed, but we still listened to what you said." assured Scarecrow. "Formed a cartoon in my head."

"I'm sorry, but it is rude to be fall asleep when somepony is telling you something." said Celestia.

"Well no offense ma'am, but those stories you're supposed to tell to little girls. Not adolescent males." countered Scorch. The demo man checked his COMS. "Not to mention, you also seem to have put congress to sleep. Congress to sleep."

"I found them entertaining." implied Overwatch.

Seconds later, the other 3 humans admitted to finding the adventures of the Equestrians admirable as well.

"Although I did find many errors with your lives." accused Scarecrow.

The ponies put on confused expressions.

"Errors?" said Twilight.

X-ray nodded. "For starters, you ponies made a whole superhero identity to teach Rainbow Dash a lesson in humility, only for you ponies to end up hogging the attention and act like brats in the future."

Sunset had fallen by the time Shadow was done explaining everything wrong with the adventures of the equines.

The ponies in the room felt like idiots. The Commission of Colonial Affairs (who had woken from their hour long nap) was pleased. If Ponies were going to be part of an alliance, they didn't need them making trivial mistakes.

Shadow turned to face Shining Armor and Cadance.

"No offense, but you're victory over Chrysalis wasn't much of a victory." sighed Scarecrow.

"What do you mean?" snapped Shining Armor. "We were almost overrun by a Changeling horde and we saved the day."

"Let's begin." remarked X-ray. "What the fuck motivated you 2 to have your weeding when you knew there was a threat to Canterlot?"

Cadance almost fainted from the swear but Shining Armor hung on.

"It was a special day and weren't going to let a threat get in the way of our marriage."

The masked rifleman gave a mechanic laugh. "Because a day is more important than the safety of your ponies? You're captain of the royal guard."

"Which reminds me, if I was your CO, you would have been demoted a long time ago. Who trains an army that is overrun in moments." threatened Scarecrow.

"Are you trying to say it was a mistake for me to promote him?" accused Celestia.

Scorch sighed. "Look, you're a nice guy, but you shouldn't have been put in charge of the army. If I was the leader of the Canterlot guard, I would have wasted no time trying to crack down on this threat instead of worrying about marriage. You don't hear about a threat and make no attempt to uncover it."

"Speaking of which." continued Scarecrow. "How the hell did Chrysalis break it? I thought you placed a massive barrier around the city. After all it did block out the Changeling army."

Shining Armor shrugged, that mystery almost eluded him.

"And really, Chrysalis was retarded." sighed X-ray. "I would have killed Cadance rather than leave an alicorn alive in the caves. I would have done the same to Twilight if she had found out. Even if I were to teleport you to, it wouldn't be right next to each other."

"How nice for you." gritted Cadance, she used her calming technique, to no avail. She was frightened beyond relief."

"Speaking of which, I can understand Cadance not escaping the castle due to being weakened, but come on Twilight, you could have teleported rather than wasting your time in the mine cart." pointed Scorch.

Twilight sunk under the table, she seriously had to do something about forgetting her powers.

"Well Changelings feed off love, we're useless to them dead." defended Cadance.

"How do you feed off love anyway?" questioned Scorch. Suddenly Pinkie Pie materialized next to the demo man and whispered the answer in his ear. Despite her low voice, Shadow heard it perfectly.

Long story short, they weren't going to ever ask for that sexual position ever again.

"Fine but, rather than imprisoning you and disabling your magic like she did with Celestia when she had you captured, she sang." face palmed Overwatch.

"To make it worse, blasting a changeling army, that can fly, to parts unknown is a horrible fucking plan." insulted Scorch.

Cadance finally burst to tears as Shining Armor glared at the humans.

"Finally, Luna.....where the fuck were you?" asked X-ray.

The princess of the Night tried to hide her face with her wings.

"So no offense to everypony in this room, but you were nearly defeated by a dumbass." joked Scarecrow.

After a minute of sorrow, Applejack broke the silence.

"Ah feel lak such an idiot."

"Honestly, we've made so many bad choices in life when the right answer was in front of us the entire time." contemplated the alicorn of magic.

"It's alright my little ponies, what's important is that you learn from your mistakes." assured Celestia.

"That, and you should probably think before acting." advised X-ray.

"But hey, we've looked back at our missions, turns out there were many moments where we made the wrong decision as well, even though the right answer was in front of us." chuckled Scorch.

"I guess we're all equally guilty then." laughed Scarecrow. "At least your faults weren't life and death situations."

Shadow gave off a mechanical laugh and the ponies couldn't help but grin.

Suddenly a servant crept into the room and whispered something into Celestia's ear. The solar alicorn nodded and dismissed the butler.

"The food will be prepared any moment now." announced Celestia. "There's been a delay since the chefs don't know what humans eat. I told them to just prepare the usual."

"Sounds good." nodded Scarecrow.

"Wait a minute!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "How are you going to eat with your bandanna on?"

Scorch laughed. "Simple."

The members of Shadow reached for their masks.

Author's Note

And tech vs magic has begun. Sorry if you think Shadow is too mean, but the feds have a point. Ponies are useless to a space faring race that has thrived for 500 years alone unless their ideologies change.

Remember to write down what you want Shadow and the Equestrians to discuss. It's going to be a long set of sub chapters.

The next chapter will most probably go into Shadow's history as well as general human facts. I could be wrong. Sorry if this chapter was too wordy. At least I write long chapters quick.

Don't forget to read my latest blog post if you already haven't:

http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/193879/side-story

Chapter 28: Unmasked

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." H.P. Lovecraft.

The ponies snapped their focus to the commandos in a heart beat. It was the moment of revelation where they would finally see a human face in the flesh.

Hesitantly, Shadow reached for their black hoods. For the first time ever, they were going to reveal their faces to non high tier personnel.

Simultaneously, the hoods came off and revealed the hair of the counter terrorists. The ponies dropped their mouths. Their minds stuttered a bit from the sheer realistic detail of the human's manes.

X-ray had medium sized hair that was either black or the darkest shade of brown that existed. It suited his dark recon armor perfectly. Rarity was no expert on human hair, but she could tell X-ray certainly kept his 'mane' in well condition.

Scorch meanwhile had pale blond hair that contrasted with his apparel. His hair was thick and curly. Twilight could have sworn that soldiers had to cut their hair short. Scorch didn't seem to get hair cuts often.

Scarecrow's hair was a darker shade of blond that was flat, but not short by any means. He evidently didn't wash his hair frequently considering it was slightly greasy.

Finally Overwatch had his chestnut brown hair cut short. It wasn't a buzz cut, but it was thin.

The Equestrians took in a moment to sink in the image of the human's hair. They realized just how detailed it looked as opposed to straight and simple manes. Twilight even noted how dull their hair colors were as opposed to the rainbow of pony manes.

The members of Shadow allowed the ponies to adjust to their appearances before reaching for their shades and bandannas. The counter terrorists took off the two items that made up their masks slowly.

And once the faces of the humans were revealed, it was as if a concussion grenade was set off.

The ponies were blinded by the sheer alien design of the human's faces. The realism and xeno nature of Shadow's facial features caused the ponies' vision to blur.

Just when Twilight's was finally clearing up, she heard a series of voices call out.

"Come on! We're not that ugly."

"They're not covering their faces because we look like trash dumb ass. It's because our faces are too foreign for them to handle."

"Should we put our masks back on?"

"They'll adjust."

At nearly the same time the ponies finally were able to take a good look at the revealed faces of Shadow. Each pony paid attention to the similar facial features all the humans had.

Alien look aside, each human had a lack of a muzzle. as their faces were relatively ovular and flat. Their noses were a small bulge and their eyes were comically small, but more detailed none the less. They each had a pair of light red lips Being males, none of them had any noticeable eye lashes and their ears were place across their heads instead of on top. Furthermore, their ears weren't triangular like the ones that belonged to equines. In addition, there seemed to be no fur on them what so ever. Just flesh. In short, one could describe humans as hairless apes.

Scarecrow had milky white skin and a slightly larger head than the rest of Shadow. His eye color was an electric blue. If pony expressions matched human ones, the commander was grinning. He had a thin beard and shaved mustache.

X-ray had a brighter smile than the rest of Shadow. His skin color was a light olive. Not deep, but still noticeable. His eye color matched his hair, either black or an extremely dark shade of brown. He had a thin beard and a shaved mustache as well. He had a smaller and thinner head than the rest of Shadow to match his scrawny structure.

Scorch by far looked the youngest, although it only seemed to be a few months difference. He had a natural tan and smaller lips than the rest of Shadow. His smile revealed a set of large front teeth. He had a set of fiery amber eyes.

Overwatch definitely appeared to be the oldest, although this wasn't saying much considering the members of Shadow were born within months of each other. He had Caucasian skin with a few noticeable freckle marks. He had a brown beard and mustache around his chiseled chin. His hazel eyes had a serious expression. Overwatch had a neutral face.

Truthfully, the equines expected different looks under Shadow's masks. Judging their faces alone, you couldn't tell they belong to the military. The equines didn't know want counted for average, but it felt like Shadow's members were just average boys wearing a costume.

After staring at the formerly faceless humans for a while, Pinkie Pie had the courage to speak.

"Sh-shadow? Is that you?"

"In the flesh." nodded Scarecrow. There was something different about his voice. It was clearer, more distinct and no longer was mechanical.

"I told you we were organic." added Scorch. His Canadian accent now showed.

"You look so weird. So alien." whispered Fluttershy.

"Oh we're the one who looks weird? Not the yellow animated pegasus with a pink mane." X-ray spoke with an Armenian accent that often clashed with his fluent english.

"I thought you weren't allowed to take off your masks." beamed Rainbow Dash.

"Well, we did a scan of the planet's atmosphere. Turns out every disease on this planet can't affect humans, or we're already immune to it." laughed Scorch. The ponies tried o get used to his new voice.

"And the Feds gave an all clear." added Scarecrow.

"Your voices." said Celestia. "They sound so much purer."

"What do you expect? We're not speaking through a microphone." glared Overwatch. The sniper's voice was low and monotonous. Not too different from speaking through a radio.

"But shouldn't you have your masks on for the government to be able to see what you're doing?" questioned Luna.

"They can still hear us, and our HUDs are still pointed at the dining room." assured X-ray.

"You're facial expressions are so pony like." awed Cadance.

"You're facial expressions are so human like." countered Scarecrow.

"Touche." whistled Rarity.

"So tell me." began Scorch. "Do you any of you feel less afraid?"

"A bit." replied Applejack. "Y'all still look kinda weird. To us at least."

"Consider yourself lucky that you can see our face." chuckled Scarecrow. "Had we been in a different situation, we would have likely shot you dead."

"And now the fear is back." muttered Cadance. Shining Armor nuzzled his wife.

Twilight realized something important. "I find it strange that you're soldiers and you have no signs of scars on you."

"Human medicine is awfully strong." trivialized Scorch.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "To be fair you don't look that threatening without your masks on."

X-ray gave off a laugh. "The most powerful fear is fear of the unknown. Now that you know what we look like, we've relieved some of your tension."

"I believe what Miss Dash is trying to point is how normal the 4 of you look." deciphered Luna. "You're indistinguishable from a civilian. Although we could be completely wrong on that part."

"It's intentional." responded Scarecrow. "The members of the 23rd intentionally resemble civilians to make appear more anonymous and withdraw suspicion. Even our recon armor looks like winter clothing if you take off the padding."

"Shouldn't soldiers like you cut your hair to clear your vision?" pondered Shining Armor. "Scorch, your hair looks way out of line for example."

The demo man looked up at his crazy blond hair. "I doesn't really matter how your hair looks in the modern day as long as it can be stored in a helmet, or in our case hood. Our heads up display does all the sight seeing for us."

"By the way, are all of you humans furless or is it just you 4?" asked Pinkie Pie. "It must get super cold without fur to keep you warm, I remember this one time when-"

X-ray cut her off. "All humans are furless which means we need to be clothed all the time. We're just flesh underneath. Unlike you ponies, humans aren't very colorful. Our skin is just shades of brown from milky white to very dark African."

"What about your manes?" questioned Rarity. "I might be ignorant of manes in human biology, but your hair colors aren't particularly exciting. They're rather dull."

"Once more, human hair colors are pretty limited." informed Scarecrow. "Red heads are virtually extinct so the only human hair colors are brown, black and blonde. When you grow old, your hair starts graying."

"Same thin' happens ta ponies unless they were born with gray manes like ma granny." replied Applejack.

"Doesn't sound very exciting." moaned Pinkie Pie. "I would tired seeing the same colors over and over and over again."

Scorch placed a gloved finger on his lips. "Actually, in the year 2470 the planet Romero was infected by a plague that gave humans technicolor skin and hair. It also gave them big eyes and overly thin bodies."

Twilight's eyes shot open. "What happened?"

"The UTF panicked and blew up the planet without further notice." muttered Overwatch.

There was long silence in the room.

"I think we humans really fucked up on that one, but I wasn't alive back then. Although it was said the Democratic Socialists never got placed in power again." shrugged Scorch.

Celestia tried to change the subject. "We ponies have pegasai, alicorns, earth ponies and unicorns. Do you humans have sub races as well?"

"The only species of human, is human." answered X-ray. "We humans aren't particularly diverse when it comes to appearance as ponies.The only thing that truly divides us is our ethnicities, and while there may be a few subtle changes in appearances, that's about it. Despite what fascists want you to believe, race has nothing to do with capabilities."

"Speaking of race, you do look a lot like monkeys." noticed Fluttershy.

"That's right, human is a sub species of ape after all. We evolved from the same ancestor." informed Scarecrow.

Celestia knitted her eyebrows. "Evolved?"

"We'll get to that later." assured Shadow's leader.

"And to be clear, humans don't have the ability to use magic?" asked Twilight.

Shadow shook their heads no

"What about the ability to fly?" continued Rainbow Dash.

"Nope."

"How do you humans cope if you have nothing to help support the survival of your species?" inquired Luna.

"Simply, we have the gift of hands." gloated Scarecrow. He gave his gloved fingers a twirl.

"How did hands help you become a space faring race?" questioned Pinkie Pie.

"Simple." said Scorch. "Hands basically propelled us further than the other animals on Earth by allowing us to grasp objects and form tools."

"And when we developed tools, we filled in the gap that you ponies filled with your special abilities. We adapted and developed means of flight, agriculture and technology so advanced that you might as well call it magic." added X-ray.

"I didn't think a race would get too far without natural magic." moaned Twilight. "I mean the Griffins and Donkeys were way behind for a while in terms of production."

"Well we humans didn't have special abilities so we worked for them." smiled Scarecrow.

"Is there a chance we could utilize technology similar to yours?" asked Luna.

"Not likely." snorted Scorch. "All of our human technologies require hands to use one way or another." the demo man flexed his gloves fingers. "From triggers on guns, to holograms and to touch screens you need to have fingers that can performs specific motions for our technology to respond.

"Furthermore, our technology usually requires us to grasp something." noted Scarecrow. "You ponies don't really have a way of picking things up efficiently without the risk of stumbling over. Besides, we developed technology for bipeds, not quadrupeds. You wouldn't fit in any of our advanced vehicles."

"Wait, what about our ability to use magic? We could operate human technology with telekinesis." pointed Cadance.

"And what about those who couldn't use magic?" trivialized Scorch

The ponies glanced at each other for a moment, particularly the non unicorns and non alicorns.

"You'd only be dividing your race which isn't healthy." continued X-ray, trying to push out his Armenian accent all the while. "You ponies need to find a way to develop technologies the mass should be able to operate."

"But haven't we seen you humans work some of your technology without moving anything?" noticed Rainbow Dash.

X-ray nodded. "Some of our human technology uses neural controls. Thoughts, brainwaves, impulses, all that."

"So can't we use human technology operated by the mind?" said Shining Armor.

"Neural controls work on human minds. Not pony minds. Equine and primate DNA is pretty divergent." debunked Scarecrow.

"But if you humans could teach us on the relationships between neurology and technology, we could develop devices on your level." proposed Twilight.

"You could be taught on how to make such innovations, but you would have to develop it yourself without human aid." glared Scorch.

"What about generosity, why keep your human technology to yourself?" scolded Rarity.

Scarecrow rolled his eyes. "Well other than the fact that none of our technology is compatible with equines, it's not appropriate for one species to rely on the other to give them for free. Instead, you should be given the opportunity to accomplish. Relying on another race would make your species rather lazy. Let's not get started on the repercussions"

"Ah'd be darned if ah started relyin' on another pony for gifts." puffed Applejack.

"You know, you humans certainly have a problem regarding personality." implied Twilight.

X-ray raised an eyebrow. "I can understand your statement applying to our squad only, but the entire race?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "I mean this one moment you're all mean and act like a bully then your all calm and passive only to end up like merciless law enforcement followed by being a total nerd."

X-ray laughed. "Well sorry, but humans aren't limited to one noticeable personality trait unlike you ponies."

Celestia knitted her eyebrows. "Excuse us?"

Scorch gave a 'seriously' face. "We humans think, laugh, love, insult, get angry, get happy and get sad. Part of the beauty of being a human is that we choose how to act however we feel like whenever we feel like."

"Are you saying we are not in control of our emotions?" scorned Luna.

"Look, you ponies are very friendly and not monotonous." assured Scarecrow. "However, no where on the colonies will you see a human that's the 'smart one' or the 'funny one'. I know Overwatch is obviously silent and anti social, but he's also the artistic one, the smart one, the voice of reason, the handy man, and I can go on."

The sniper almost smiled to that.

"So what you're saying is that we have to adopt new lifestyles if we are to gain the complexity of a human personality?" remarked Rarity.

"We're not saying that." defended X-ray. "It just seems there's only one trait that makes you distinct. True, you bring the aspects that makes each personality great, but it's still one personality trait. I mean, look at Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Don't get me wrong, they're very nice mares-"

The two ponies blushed.

"but they're still the cowpony and party pony at the end of the day. Even my job description is more than an assassin to scare our enemies into submission. I'm also quite political and a computer nerd."

"I don't think we need to change. I'm happy being the awesome pegasus that I am. I've been like this since I was a filly." gloated Rainbow Dash.

"On the other hand, we humans change our personalities since child hood and don't judge somebody when they outgrow their old ways." countered Scarecrow.

"Although, if you really are content, we can't really blame you." admitted Scorch much to the satisfaction of the equines. "Just don't think the rest of humanity is going to interact comfortably with a pony with one distinct trait that won't change based on the siutation."

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "Speaking of pony and human interactions, you never went into too much detail about ponies on Earth."

X-ray formed a bright smile. "Prepare to be flattered as horse is perhaps the most important animal in the history of humanity and the reason why we're so advanced."

The equestrians got excited. It was nice to hear something positive.

"Ever since we were simple people who lived in mud houses, we have used horses for many purposes." told Scarecrow.

Rarity's eyes shot open "Used?".

"Like we said before, ponies aren't exactly like the horses on Earth." reminded Scorch. "They're much taller and all of them generally have a similar body structure to Celestia."

The solar alicorn pondered the thought for a moment.

"Not to mention they're not animated, only come with brown, white and black manes and coats, aren't intelligent at all, can't speak, can't do magic, can't fly and aren't sapient. They're just creatures with even less intelligence than the non sapient animals on Epona."

"I find it hard to believe that there's a world with no intelligent equines." snorted Rainbow Dash.

"Hey, we're not bitching that primates aren't the smartest creatures on this planet." insulted Overwatch. The swear was enough to make Rainbow Dash withdraw.

Scarecrow cleared his throat. "As I was saying, horses had many uses for humanity. They were the earliest form of transportation and since they were larger, a primary way for carrying huge loads of baggage. Farmers also used them in helping herd animals."

"Ya were usin' them as slaves!" gritted Applejack.

"Oh shut up you cow exploiting red neck! At least horses aren't sapient." burst X-ray.

The room rang silent for a few seconds before Shadow's leader continued. "Another aspect you might controversial is that we used ponies for war."

"War!" whimpered Fluttershy. The other ponies made similar remarks.

"Back when our armies were primitive like yours, knights and other ancient warriors rode on cavalry with spears and swords to take down the enemy."

Overwatch broke the ice. "Until World War 1 where horses became useless because they got shot by gunfire too quickly. Since then, we've been using mechanical vehicles."

The ponies let out sighs of relief. Shadow was surprised they didn't even seem to notice Overwatch mentioning the first World War. First.

X-ray tried to keep the spirits up. "On a more positive note, horses also served as popular tools of entertainment, we used them for racing, jousting, polo and general horseback riding. Even today little girls still like playing with pony dolls and beg their parents to send them to Earth to ride horses. Get this, some cultures even worshiped the dumb animals."

The Equestrians gave out a small laugh. Shadow's unmasked appearance made positive emotions easier to express.

In the heart of the moment, a group of caterers crept into the room, ready to serve food. Luckily for Shadow, they had made a surplus of meals to accommodate non animated food containing half the value for a non animated human.

Celestia used her horn to emit a pulse of gravitational radiation to life the covers off of the quinine.

Shadow was about to help them selves until they realized that most of the food was grass, wheat and oat related. The ponies began feasting until they noticed Shadow wasn't touching their food.

"Is something wrong?" worried Celestia.

Scarecrow formed a sheepish grin. "Um, we can't eat any of this food or else we'll get really sick."

"No need to be nervous, it's quite alright to ask for something else if you can't eat." assured the solar alicorn.

"What do humans eat anyway?" asked Cadance.

"Ah know y'all eat apples." remembered Applejack.

"And cupcakes too!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

"Well we humans eat a lot of things." began X-ray. "We can eat bread, pasta, rice, fruits like cherries and strawberries, vegetables like tomato and potatoes, dairy products, cakes......meats."

The Equestrians gave a nervous gasp. Rarity fainted.

"You eat meat?" said Celestia slowly.

Scorch gave a nervous smile and pointed to his front teeth. The ponies started to back away after noticing the teeth of a predator. "We humans are omnivores. In addition to having teeth to crush plants, we also have sharp canines and incisors used to rip flesh."

"How could you eat innocent creatures?" cried Twilight.

"It's natural and biological. The same way lions prey on deer or the same way dragons feast on gems. Not to mention, the animals on the colonies are far less intelligent than they are here." defended X-ray.

"I thought a civilized race should be past eating others!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

"Biology comes first and we humans need protein." shrugged Scarecrow. "Although not all humans eat meat. Some of us are vegetarians like my sister."

"Are any of ya vegetarians?" asked Applejack.

The humans shook their heads no. The ponies started panicking all the while.

Pinkie started nibbling on a tissue. "Do you have to eat meat now? Like, have, have, have to?"

Fluttershy had enough. "I can't believe how insensitive you're being!" The yellow pegasus did not lash out at the humans but rather at the equines.

Cadance was appalled. "Fluttershy, surly you of all ponies would condemn the slaughter of innocent animals?"

The yellow pegasus rolled her eyes. "I work with animals that eat other animals like bears and I've fed fish to otters."

"Why would you do that! What about kindness to all living things?" exclaimed Twilight.

"It's the circle of life." explained Fluttershy. "Some animals eat plants, some animals eat others. It's completely natural. I wouldn't be a kind pegasus if I denied carnivores their food. Rarity, I think the reason Opal hates you is because you aren't feeding her properly."

The white mare's eyes shot open. "Opal despises me?"

"Look, Shadow can be real mean." pointed Fluttershy. "But at least they don't blame us for things that are beyond our control. We might fight eating others taboo, but this is nature."

The 4 members of Shadow applauded the pegasus.

Scorch raised an eyebrow. "To be fair we don't have to eat meat right now, but we humans need to keep a balanced diet. We'll have to eat flesh eventually. Then again, we could probably find a substitute for protein in beans and nuts."

Celestia couldn't keep the secret any longer. "Listen, whenever Diamond Dog or Griffin ambassadors visit, we have a secret supply of meats in order to appease them."

"So that's why we have a Diamond Dog chef and no wonder I'm not allowed in the kitchen." realized Shining Armor.

The solar alicorn sighed. "What meat do you humans consume? No need to hold back."

"You asked for it." warned X-ray. "We eat cow, pork, chicken, shrimp, fish and....." The rifleman blushed.

"No need to be shy." insisted Luna.

"....horse."

And that's when Fluttershy became afraid as well.

"You eat horse!" shrieked Twilight. "How could you?"

Scarecrow tried to keep the spirits up. "Like we said, biology."

The 4 humans discreetly turned off their lie detectors. "Besides, it's not like we eat horses all time."

It was a lie. Big time. Ever since goats and sheep were taken out of the human diet, horse became a popular substitution. Horse burgers, horse steaks and horse chops were just as popular as a McChicken burger or McRib from McFederation.

"But relax, we're not going to eat you." assured Scarecrow.

"Are you sure about that. How do we know that you're not preying on us now?" questioned Luna.

"Even though we're omnivores we can still control dietary habits. We didn't start consuming you ponies the moment we got hungry right?" reminded X-ray.

The ponies looked at Fluttershy. The timid pegasus collected her thoughts.

"Like they said, it's in their biology and horses on Earth aren't sapient. The humans didn't expect to meet intelligent ponies right?"

"Besides you horses taste terrible." lied Overwatch. In reality horses when prepared right were astounding.

"How do you know that?" muttered Twilight.

"We may have eaten horse once before." fibbed Scarecrow. "Don't worry though, we know better than to eat intelligent creatures." Scarecrow suddenly made a cut throat motion.

Scorch, who was busy all the while pouring spices all over the oblivious Celestia, sighed and returned to his seat.

Scarecrow glared at the demo man and spoke in French. "Tu ne peux pas manger les chevals."

"Je sais, mais ils sont vraiment savoureux." complained the demo man.

X-ray turned to the equines. "Relax, we won't eat meat now, some pasta, eggs and a cheese quiche would do."

The squad seconded that.

Celestia nodded and ordered the waiter to bring a surplus of the desired meals.

"While your main course arrives, I think we'd all like to know about you 4." stated Twilight.

The members of Shadow laughed.

"Are you kidding? Shouldn't it be clear that our lives are classified information?" laughed Scorch.

Suddenly, the ring tones signaling a call played from Shadow's wrist computers.

Scarecrow answered the call. "Command, this is Shadow actual."

The ponies observed with awe.

"Is he talking to himself?" inquired Rarity.

"No, he's answering a call from command." corrected X-ray. "Let's just say it's like talking to someone really far away. Our transmissions are so strong in energy that they can rip time space and allow communication instantaneously."

The HOD of the commission of colonial affairs radioed Scarecrow. "We're well aware that 23rd protocol requires you to be silent regarding your past, but in order for these equines to trust us, you will will have to mention some parts of your life. Just don't go into too much details like names and such. Besides, what are these Equines possibly capable of doing to you if they know about your history?"

"Understood. Scarecrow out." Shadow's commander cut the feed.

Scarecrow looked at the equines. "Alright, it's fine if we can shed some light on ourselves."

"Yipee!" cheered Pinkie. "I have so many questions."

The squad sighed at the same time.

"I think we can save ourselves the trouble by allowing me to have a quick look in your memories." proposed Luna.

"You can perform an inception organically?" asked X-ray.

The princess of the night nodded.

"That is so cool." remarked X-ray. ".....IF YOU LOOK INTO OUR MEMORIES WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION, I WILL RIP OFF YOUR WINGS WITH MY BARE HANDS AND FEED THEM TO YOU!"

The statement killed Luna's chances of hostility. The Feds observing the event were similarly relieved that Luna wouldn't be tapping into a highly confidential mind.

"Do any of you have a special somepony, er somebody in your life?" asked Cadance.

"Well Overwatch can't have a girlfriend because he's asexual." replied Scarecrow.

"Asexual?" said the ponies at once.

"I can't feel love nor do I have a sex drive." dryly answered the sniper.

"Oh my how awful!" weeped Cadance. "No wonder that explains your aggression. What happened to you for you to be unable to feel love?"

The marksman opened his mouth. "I was born this way you ignorant asshole! Just because you're the alicorn of love doesn't mean it's your job to judge the sex lives of others. I know plenty of non asexual people who couldn't give to shits about life."

The mane of the pink alicorn split. Her technique could no longer calm her.

"Me and Scorch got laid, does that count?" called out X-ray.

"Yeah, how come I'm the only one who hasn't had sex in this squad?" beamed Scarecrow.

"Cause you're a fat ass!" exclaimed Scorch.

"Fuck off, this is muscle. We humans cured obesity in 2200." snorted Scarecrow.

"Your stomach says otherwise dipshit." laughed X-ray.

"At least I'm not a nerdy toothpick like you X-Gay. You're a fucking chick repellent."

The ponies were in total shock form the vulgar nature of Shadow's conversation.

"In all due seriousness, what girl could love a man with more than 300 thousand confirmed kills." glumly stated Scorch.

"Don't say that." encouraged Cadance. "There's a special somepony for everypony so there should be a special somebody for everybody right?"

The members of Shadow tried to smile. They knew they're love lives were totally screwed forever.

"How about we focus on when you 4 first met?" insisted Twilight.
"Well, other than Scorch, the 3 of us grew up on the colonies." began X-ray. "I was born to Armenian parents on Auraxis, my parents moved to Requiem when I was 6."

"I'm of Belgian descent and was born on the moon Titan." said Overwatch slowly. "We moved to Requiem around the same time X-ray's family did."

"As for me." remarked Scarecrow. "My parents left Pandora due to a crime streak enacted within rural areas. We moved to Requiem when I was 7 to escape martial law."

"I was born in Vancouver and my folks didn't immigrate to Requiem until I was 8." told Scorch.

Scarecrow continued the story. "Other than Overwatch, none of us went to South Pewter Elementary School until 3rd grade. X-ray had gone to the same school as me, but we didn't meet each other until we both transferred to South Pewter."

"I on the other hand was the new kid in the 3rd grade." remembered Scorch.

"We were all in Ms. Rutte's class, little did we know, destiny had something in store for us." remembered X-ray.

"None of us were popular students. The Dutch natives to Requiem were really friendly, but then there were those total jerk asses who kept giving us a hard time." shook Scarecrow. "I was kinda fat as a kid, got bullied for it."

"On the other hand, I was beaten up for being so scrawny. I might have towered my bullies, but they still packed a punch. Universe knows what would have happened had I not called for teachers." chocked X-ray.

The ponies couldn't help but feel remorse for the humans. As merciless in battle as they were, no one deserved to get humiliated as a child.

"Overwatch wasn't picked on as so much as people avoided him." teased Scorch. "Had we not met him, he'd probably not have any friends."

"Why would you reject someone's friendship?" awed Twilight.

"Meh." shrugged the glacial sniper. Scorch continued on.

"I was pretty popular in sports, but my interest in typically nerdy things took over me."

"Around a month into the school year, we finally met." said Scarecrow. "Our school had a welcome party. A delayed one if you ask me, and none of us were excited."

"While the kids danced in the gym to their techno music from the 25th century, we just wanted to leave." laughed X-ray.

Pinkie Pie gave a sigh of defeat. Looks like there was no convincing Shadow to take part in festivities.

"I had enough of all the socializing so I just walked out the gym while no one was looking." chuckled Scarecrow. "I tried to make a run for it until I saw Overwatch sitting by himself."

"We didn't say much until the other guys showed up." muttered the marksman.

"I wanted to the game on my laptop which we weren't allowed to bring." added Scorch. "I ran into my future friends and they promised not to tell if they got a turn."

"A moment later I came along." smiled X-ray as he twisted a knife on the table. "I tried to force myself to party, but I couldn't get into to the mood. So I joined these 3 assholes."

"As we gamed, we found out we he had a lot in common other than being the tallest boys in elementary school." contemplated Scarecrow. "We played the same games, listened to the same music, had a fascination with early 21st century memorabilia, watched the same movies and had the same social views."

"Sounds like a great way to start off a friendship if you ask me." agreed Rainbow Dash.

"You know, I've never sensed such a strong companionship amongst individuals...since Twilight and her friends." complimented Celestia.

"I don't know about you ponies, but we humans base our friendships around interests." sneered X-ray.

"Was that an insult darling?" inquired Rarity.

"Of course not." responded X-ray. "What's important is that your friends will always be there for you and that's true amongst the ponies in this room. Truthfully though, I can't see any of you discussing your interest with each other without putting the other to sleep."

"Puttin' each other ta sleep?" echoed Applejack.

Scorch flexed a finger at the Mane 6. "No offense, but the 6 of you are all opposites. Smart Twilight and brash Rainbow Dash, fancy Rarity and rural Applejack, hyper Pinkie Pie and timid Fluttershy. No human group of friends is like that in the modern day. If you were lesbians, it would result in the worst romantic relationships ever."

"We on the other hand can talk to each other about anything and rely on each other for support. As demonstrated by our abnormal success rate." gloated X-ray.

"Come on, there are lots of things we can talk to each other about." slammed Twilight.

"To be fair Twilight, Shadow has point." shook Luna. "While it is important that you can accompany anypony you want, your personalities are too polar for any one on one discussion regarding interests."

"And while this is mostly due to the fact that you're female, one light joke at your expense will set you off and break up your friendship. We can insult each other all we want and we'll still be buds." laughed Scorch. Scarecrow proceeded to punch him the face for his sexist remark.

Scorch proceeded to slam his commander's face on the table.

As Scarecrow recovered. "And as you can see, I think no less of him."

X-ray continued on with the story. "After we met, I'll tell you we had a lot of crazy run ins as kids. Scarecrow was our leader and always got us stuck in odd situations, I was the voice of reason only to get insulted because of my ethnicity, Scorch was the everyman who just went along with what we did and Overwatch was the silent mob who we pretty much forced to do everything we were lazy to do."

"I thought you said Human life was pretty monotonous." accused Twilight.

"We said human life, not our life." corrected Scarecrow. "Our childhood was awesome. There was this one time where I made up an Armenian genocide monster to piss of X-ray, this one time Overwatch created a super hero identity and how Scorch's father totally messed up zone ball through sarcasm."

"I guess everypony's life really is a unique story of it's own." laughed Rainbow Dash.

"And what did you gain from your escapades?" questioned Celestia.

"Nothing." shrugged Shadow at once.

"How did you end up with your current careers?" asked Rarity after she mustered the courage to do so.

The members of Shadow looked at each other hesitantly. They weren't allowed to go public about the 23rd, but it seemed times were changing. The Feds listening ordered them to speak.

"Joining the 23rd was not something we ever expected to do. We didn't even think the division existed." admitted Scorch.

"I don't follow." stated Celestia.

"The 23rd is not an orthodox military unit by any means. Most conventional divisions just assault the enemy, we haunt and scare them into submission without leaving a trace. That one reason why our units are named after horror icons especially ghosts. Not just because we can cloak." trivialized Scarecrow.

The Equestrians felt more and more hesitant to continue questioning Shadow.

"What does it take to join the 23rd?" asked Shining Armor.

"The 23rd isn't interested in choosing units based on strength and discipline." began X-ray. "There is a very and we mean very specific criteria for choosing members. Commandos of the 23rd for starters have to be of the upmost intelligence. Not one of us scored below a 90 out of 100 on our colonial exams."

"I thought humans didn't have tests." pointed Applejack.

"It's not a test based on memory, math problems and spelling." replied Scarecrow. "It's based on reasoning, creativity and forming judgements. It's not a test you're meant to score high on."

"Most humans score a 70." informed Overwatch.

"Looks like we're in the presence of intellectuals as well as counter terrorists as well." snorted Luna.

"It does explain how you were able to uncover the talents of the Cutie Mark Crusaders so easily." nodded Rarity.

"Or how they can point out mistake we've made in our lives without even being there." added Twilight.

"I don't get it, what does being an egghead have to do with the military?" laughed Rainbow Dash.

"You need help." mocked Scarecrow. "If you think logic and reasoning are unnecessary to being a human soldier, you're going to have a bad time. The fact that all naval admirals who crushed massive fleets with physics as a primary weapon speaks for itself. Armies are useless when they don't know what they're doing the same way a Kill SAT is useless if you can't figure out the mechanics to operate one."

"Scarecrow's right Rainbow." agreed Twilight. "A lot of times you and the rest of the gang just heads into a problem without thinking it through only to get your flank kicked. Even I'm guilty of that sometimes."

"Insurrectionists with a haughty attitude like yours are always the first to fall." warned Scorch. This was enough to silence the cyan pegasus.

"Regardless, physical fitness is still a necessity to 23rd members." insisted Scarecrow.

Scorch continued. "One of the reasons why we don't look so ripped on the outside is to be able to blend in with civilians, our strength comes from the inside. Literally."

"And what do you mean by that?" asked Cadance.

Scarecrow smirked. "We taught you that a shield is stronger when you net it in a hexagonal pattern right?"

The ponies nodded.

"Guess what they did to our muscles."

The equestrians gasped.

"Humans are willing to experiment on bodies for war?" exhaled Celestia.

"Relax, the doctors made us unconscious. We didn't feel anything." laughed X-ray. "The study of musculus geometria is so complex that only a few scientists can perform it without messing up. The Federation reserves knowledge like that for its commandos and super soldiers."

"Hey, Scarecrow destroyed my talent enhancer because he said augmentations were cheating." growled Twilight.

"You attempted to use that enhancer for everyday use, not to defend a race for the greater good." countered Scarecrow. "Besides, these augmentations are so safeguarded that nobody outside the highest branches of the UTF can get their hands on them. Finally, they wear off after 12 years so nothing permanent."

"When our muscles were shaped to a new form, it allowed us to absorb blows and apply power easier because the strength of the shape helped reinforce our body." explained Scorch. "However, the stronger you muscles are from the beginning, the harder it becomes to net them in a stronger geometric shape. X-ray, who had weak muscles was able to get a octagonal structure rather then a hexagonal structure to keep up with us."

"We also had nanites injected into our nervous system to help implement a neural control system in our brains." mentioned Scarecrow.

"What did they train y'all in? asked Applejack.

"Gymnastics, a lot of emphasis on parkour, weight training, some lessons in boxing, karate, and jujitsu." informed X-ray.

"Sounds pretty standard." shrugged Shining Armor.

"At 125% Earth's gravity." finalized the rifleman. "Earth itself has a significantly higher gravitational pull than this planet."

"Oh dear, wouldn't you get pulverized?" empathized Fluttershy.

"It was rather crushing the first time." remembered Scarecrow. "But because we were augmented, we stood. In addition to physical fitness, we trained in firearms, demolitions, tactics and stealth. I got additional training in leadership, X-ray in diplomacy, Scorch in explosives and Overwatch in reconnaissance. After two years of augmented training, we adapted and were ready for combat."

"But what made you 4 stand out from the rest of humanity?" asked Pinkie Pie.

The 4 humans, even Overwatch gave a small laugh.

X-ray calmed down. "On a lighter note, friendship."

Celestia smiled. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"The power of friendship is an important aspect of human life as well." insisted the rifleman. "When the Feds were looking over our dossiers, they noticed that our success rate in anything was solid if the 4 of us cooperated." The squads in the 23rd are amongst the closest people you'll ever meet to a point where they don't even need to communicate to know what the other is thinking. Teamwork was essential to our success the same way it was important to Twilight."

"Truthfully, when I'm in combat, I don't really care much for assaulting the enemy as much as I care about getting the 4 of us out alive." admitted Scorch.

"Hey X-ray." called out Scarecrow. "I know I can be a total asshole to you and former Soviet people, but know this. If you died, it would be me, Scorch and Overwatch. And that would suck."

The rifleman almost shed a tear. "We're 23rd material for a reason. I'll always be here for guys whether it's video games, sports, not getting our heads blown off by gauss rounds or trying to comfort you when your imaginary girlfriends break up with you."

"And now here we are, making first contact. As pals." added Overwatch.

The 4 members of Shadow unexpectedly got up form their seats and gave a bro fist to each other. The Equestrians couldn't help but feel happy for them. At least they didn't need lessons on friendship.

Scarecrow formed a more serious look. "Truthfully, the purest reason why we're in the 23rd is because its members all suffer from a rare mental disease. Minus Obnixi."

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "That's old speak for being unable to flinch."

"Have you ever wondered why we're so quick to pull the trigger or don't suffer depression after a murder?" trivialized X-ray. "Because we don't produce any negative emotions from injury or death."

"We're not sadists, but can't feel negatively towards misfortune either." remarked Scorch.

"How is that possible?" exploded Luna.

"Genetics. Like the way I write with my left hand." answered X-ray.

Celestia was distraught. "Do you realize how dangerous such a condition could be?"

"We did. And so did the Federation." responded Scarecrow.

"You still haven't gone into any detail as to how you joined the 23rd." pointed Twilight.

Scarecrow exhaled. "When we were on summer break after graduating high school, we visited the planet of Elysium since it is a great vacation place and Overwatch was supposed to go to college there. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that there was going to be an insurrection attack."

Fluttershy blocked her ears. Pinkie started chewing on tissue.

"The terrorists were merciless. They started with a minor bombing run of a city and killed a few dozen people." remembered Scorch. "Our first clue we that were immune to the effects of death was when we stared at the burned corpses and felt nothing."

"How?" shouted Applejack.

"After the air assault was quenched, enemy infantry started rolling in." continued Scarecrow. The ponies were lucky they couldn't imagine the scenes properly. "Me and the guys hid in an apartment. Sadly, the homes on Elysium aren't too big."

X-ray braced himself. "Two soldiers attempted to cover us by shooting at the mercs from the window. However, a few bullet shot one unconscious and killed the other, leaving us and the other civvies in the diner defenseless. A moment after, two mercs walked with the intent to kill us."

The ponies didn't know why they continued listening.

"Right when they were about to shoot the unconscious soldier dead......I sprinted towards a dropped rail revolver and shot a merc dead. Scorch then grabbed the merc's pulse shotgun and killed the other."

Twilight was breathing heavily. "How did you react?"

The humans looked at each other.

"With less emotion than Overwatch." answered Scorch. "After the encounter, we were signaled that the terrorists had been repelled."

"As per protocol, the 4 of us were sent to receive a mental test to check for trauma." told Scarecrow.

"They found not the slightest clue of damage." said the sniper. "And that's when they realized death couldn't mean shit to us genetically."

"A week later, we were approached by the Feds." continued Scarecrow. "We were informed of our mental condition and were told how lethal it could be. That made us perfect for the role."

"How does having a disorder make you useful to an army?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

X-ray folded his arms "Despite what you might think, humans aren't heartless. Others still react to death and injury appropriately. Those rare few with minus obnixi don't."

"Even a hardened UTF soldier will have second thoughts about killing a man and would quit after it got to his head. Not if you're in the 23rd. The fact its members don't hold back and are willing to do anything to enforce the law make us the ultimate tool for war." sighed Scorch.

"So you're the Federation's private psychopaths?" accused Rainbow Dash.

"We're not proud of this disability, but it was either become a law enforcement psychopath or a renegade one." muttered Scarecrow.

"This isn't the only disorder the Feds exploit." revealed X-ray. "I'm easily angered which makes me perfect for direct engagements, Overwatch's near mute tendencies make him a stealth expert, Scorch's pyromania makes him the best demo man around and Scarecrow's controlling nature allows him to convince officers to stand down when they get in our way for the greater good. Part of our condition also means we tend to lash out randomly which explains why we keep insulting you discolored, mutated horses."

"So the Federation takes advantage of your conditions for their selfish needs?" puffed Rarity.

"We're not part of the 23rd to serve the needs of politicians, but to protect our race from irredeemable raiders." countered Overwatch. "Their number grows every day and you're going to need soldiers who won't hold back to take them out and keep citizens in line."

"I still don't see the need to send relentless aggressors after wrong doers." remarked Celestia.

"You don't get it do you?" shook Scarecrow. "Our enemies aren't camp bad guys from a kids stories. They are willing to destroy civilization and kill to accomplish their goals. Only the most insane sons of bitches are what's going to extinguish their numbers and not hesitate to do so again."

"But why send the 23rd to explore uncharted planets if they specialize in counter terrorism?" asked Cadance.

"Because only the 23rd can fend off huge armies and give an intelligence report at the same time. Furthermore, 23rd units are meant to be recon teams for planets, not first contact teams." corrected X-ray.

"So where are the other humans?" demanded Celestia.

"Right now, there is a minor war going on in 3 star systems. The UTF is too busy and any other human with a hair weaker in the mind than us would be overwhelmed by the anomalies of this planet." explained Scorch.

"How exactly are you accomplishing the goals of the Federation right now? If I was them, you'd be arrested for lashing out at another race for no reason." warned Rainbow Dash.

The congressmen observing the events smirked. "They really haven't figured it out have they?"

"I don't think your unit has a positive reputation on the colonies." shook Pinkie Pie.

"The public doesn't even know we exist." sighed Overwatch.

"What da ya mean? People like y'all should be infamous." insisted Applejack.

"Let's correct ourselves. They don't know we're party of the military or even human." trivialized Scorch.

"In 2390, the uprisings by Crynet and Vanu corporations resulted in the increased need for a black ops unit that would not hesitate to commit morally questionable acts to prevent civilians from joining the enemy and take down the corporations." began X-ray.

"Unfortunately, many soldiers, regardless of the commando training they received, could not find themselves capable of committing the acts the Federation ordered. The Federation needed people who could convince people to do the worst of acts to preserve order and justice and still ask for more."

"And that's when they started searching for people with Minus Obnixi I presume?" guessed Cadance.

"Correct." nodded Scarecrow. "The unit committed many ghastly acts that would've driven a normal human insane such as haunting, paranoia, stalking and relentless interrogation. A victim would snap the moment the phrase '23' was heard."

"However members of the 23rd could not sustain their augmentations after 30 or so years of age." explained Scorch. "They were relieved of duty as a result. Since the peak of human physical condition is around 18-20 years old, the Feds would search for humans with the disorder to request them to serve."

"Request?" repeated Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, we humans don't have draft laws." nodded Scarecrow.

"Why would you agree to joining a Black Ops unit?" cried Shining Armor.

Scorch frowned. "Because the 4 of us understand that if the going to prevent the human race from regression and fragmentation, some of us have to make a sacrifice to become merciless and inconsiderate commandos to destroy terrorist units and scare people from becoming traitors assholes to our left leaning government."

"What about your educations? You said this wasn't your true calling." reminded Twilight.

Scarecrow crossed his arms. "We were already ahead of our classes by a big time. The members of the 23rd are too good for college, although I wish that we could have still had a normal life once in a while."

"The public right now thinks we're working as freelance interns." added X-ray.

"Forgive me, but I can not hold a respectable view of your government if they resort to using glacial and apathetic soldiers to accomplish their tasks." insulted Celestia.

"Kindness won't keep humans from joining terrorists who haven no interest on peace. Like we said, fear is the most powerful emotion and we use fear to preserve order." gritted Scorch.

"Besides, it's not the government that keeps the 23rd a secret. It's the unit itself." said Scarecrow.

"But dat ain't honest!" scolded Applejack.

"There's a difference between honesty and refusing to speak the truth." defended X-ray. "The Marxian Capitalist Party that was in office during the 23rd creation intended to reveal the unit to scare off Crynet and Vanu. However, the first members of the 23rd had a different idea. When the MCP was about to leak the division, the members of the 23rd distorted the broadcast and launched a cyber virus that attacked every computer with ominous messages."

The ponies didn't know what a cyber virus was, but at this point it didn't matter.

"The MCP rapidly attempted to inform the public of the 23rd, but all messages were deleted and scrambled before the public could reach them. Fearing it's own unit, the politicians gave up. We continue the tradition today."

"But why censor ties to the government?" inquired Twilight.

"Because of the public found out that the government was creating a black ops unit to keep others in line, they would feel more and more compelled to riot and join raider groups." explained Scorch. "If people thought there was simply a group of serial killers that acted as judge, jury and executioner, self preservation instincts would kick in."

"But something tells me your actions can't possibly go unnoticed!" exclaimed Rarity.

"They do, the public is just ignorant we're acting on the interests of the Federation." chuckled X-ray. "They think we're literal ghosts due to our masks obscuring facial features, our ability to cloak, distort voices and the fact that technology scrambles whoever we're within its proximity."

"Yeah, there are thousands of 23rd creepypastas written on the internet. They're hilarious." laughed Scarecrow.

"What's the internet?" asked Pinkie Pie. Shadow ignored her.

"Humans might live very happy lives, but even the most optimistic of people fear our presence." pondered Scorch.

The equines were disgusted at Shadow's amusement of the public's fear of their unit. Perhaps it was all due to their condition. The ponies wouldn't be surprised if Shadow started talking about mutilation and not have the urge to vomit.

"Do you really have to scare and haunt people to preserve the law?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"Like we said, the most powerful emotion of all is fear, and the most powerful kind of fear is fear of the unknown. The less you know about something, the more frightened you get." reminded X-ray.

Pinkie took in a deep breath "How is fear of nothing a fear? Aren't you fearing nothing and how can you be afraid of nothing?"

Scorch raised an eyebrow. "Think about it, weren't you all scared when we had our masks on? You weren't able to tell what horrors could possibly be behind our scary bandanas and shades?"

The Equestrians silently agreed.

"Don't call me a fortune teller, but I can tell you ponies were more afraid thinking about what killed the Griffins rather than the killers themselves." predicted Overwatch. "And something tells me you right now fear ever lies beyond the planet knowing its very existence disturbs you."

"And we're all afraid of what you humans have in store for us if we go to war." cried Rainbow Dash.

"Sometimes, the less you know, the better." pitied Scorch. "Countless insurrectionists and traitors have gone insane after a little encounter with us."

"I've been going a little insane since I met you 4. What you humans know is just too much." shook Twilight.

"Just be glad we didn't mark you as our enemy." motivated Scarecrow. "When it comes to haunting various individuals, first we often hack into their devices and threaten or get them paranoid until they stand down. If not, we slowly break them down mentally and physically until we're forced to go into the kill."

"You're no better than the terrorists you face." accused Celestia.

"Are we really monsters for doing what is necessary to protect our race from chaos and discord? After all we're following orders." responded X-ray, his Armenian accent getting heavier.

"Would you harm a child if ordered to?" glared Cadance. Everypony couldn't believe how bitter she had just become.

"If it would save many more, then yes." said Scorch.

The tension in the room was getting higher.

"I don't understand how one can commit heinous acts to prevent heinous acts. That's a logical fallacy." gritted Twilight.

"By referring to the phrase can, we can commit heinous acts because our bodies are incapable of feeling remorse." hissed Scarecrow.

X-ray laughed. "Life's pretty black and white to you is it? Good guys and bad guys with no one asking about the Gray men in the middle."

Author's Note

So should I start a TV tropes page on this or no? Please answer.

I hope I did a good job developing Shadow.

Chapter 29: Gods and Kings

Warning: The following chapter will likely express religious and political views that are in conflict with your own. Please note that I respect everybody's views and believe we are all entitled to our own opinion. Please do not get too upset or insensitive if I had accidentally mocked your ideologies.

"The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."- Thomas Paine

The ponies scowled at X-ray's statement. The riflemen merely smirked and crossed his arms.

"How could you say that? Do you have no desire to commit acts of love and tolerance?" inquired Celestia.

"Sometimes love and tolerance isn't desirable for the greater good. It's not pretty, but that's the truth." stated Overwatch.

"Doing benevolent deeds and helping others won't help humans in the long run?" flatly said Twilight.

"There are thousands of ways we could help someone. Everyone just has their own perspective at the end of the day." trivialized Scorch.

"How? If the traits displayed by the elements of harmony don't symbolize righteousness, than what does?" beamed Cadance.

X-ray raised his eyebrows. "The issue with humans is that we don't act out of general benevolence, but rather for what we see as the greater good. Even our worst enemies can't truly be called evil, except for maybe the Neo Fascists. At times, caring acts will prove detrimental to our situation and get us no where."

"You're soldiers, your job is to do good, care for civilians and preserve harmony." scolded Shining Armor.

"The job of a soldier is to protect the law and it's citizens no matter what. Lawful doesn't mean nice." countered Scorch.

"Based on your statements, you would dare support a villain if it would mean progress." accused Luna.

"Negative." responded Scarecrow. "Evil is meant to cause harm and deconstruct progress. We'd not hesitate opening fire on corrupt officials. Than again, some form of good can hamper humanity as well and we wouldn't tolerate that."

"But if people try to do nice deeds, then why do you have to silence them?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Because sometimes good can be misguided and produce results as devastating as evil." implied X-ray. "Didn't Fluttershy's kindness with the Parasprites nearly tear down Ponyville?"

The yellow pegasus shrunk in her seat.

"If we were in your place we would have burned down those damn insects before they could reproduce." shook Scorch.

"Sometimes you need to use acts considered malevolent to put down evil." advised Overwatch.

"That doesn't make any sense whatsoever! If you resort to heinous methods, you're no better than a criminal yourself." exclaimed Rarity.

"Perhaps if you lived as a human, you'd see that while we are all good in our heart, we accidentally end up as shades of gray in a conflict." replied the demo man. "All is fair in love and war."

"Ah really wish ah didn' have ta learn all this." sighed Applejack. "Life used ta be so simple."

"Well you're the one who asked about our past, and we answered." bluntly remarked Scarecrow.

"But you know what's funny?" brought up X-ray.

"Jokes and charades?" responded Pinkie Pie.

The rifleman was beginning to break down. "The fact that we are perhaps the darkest aspect of the human race and how we are right now meeting the brightest and most positive aspects of pony kind."

The Equestrians didn't expect that.

Even Scorch was getting really tense. "Look at you all. You're kind, nice and caring while we're heartless and can't even feel any kind of remorse. Do you think we're proud that we've joined the 23rd! We could have been in college right now, but we had to sacrifice our lives to protect others."

Celestia's mouth dropped.

Scarecrow remained a calm demeanor. "You don't know how lucky you are to live...relatively normal lives. Everyday the 4 of us are forced to kill and slaughter to prevent the very same acts from being carried out. While I am incapable of feeling distraught, not a day goes by where I wish I wouldn't have to go on a mission or live under the constant fear of being struck down by enemy bombardment. What's scary is that the more I murder, the less meaning the act has."

X-ray was on the verge of tears. "While you can fight wrong doers and still be yourselves, the 4 of us have to risk giving up out ambitions and turn into monsters to fight terrorists. We've become the very thing we fear in our nightmares. We're fucking freaks!"

The members of Shadow started breathing heavily and had their heads buried in their arms.

The ponies couldn't help but feel sorry for Shadow. To have a condition that turned them into killing machines must have had a serous toll on their psyche. The ponies suddenly realized why Shadow refused to talk about their professions.

Twilight lowered her voice. "It's alright, we're the ones who brought it up."

Scarecrow picked himself up. "Sorry, sometimes we're afraid of ourselves."

"Do you still stand by your previous statements?" asked Rarity.

Scorch calmed down. "We're afraid so. The greater good is the principle that our Federation is based on and the 23rd will do anything, and we mean anything to reinforce this philosophy."

"But out of all the things we can tell you about humanity, why inform you of the negatives?" insisted X-ray. "War is a minor subject we happen to see the worst of. There are countless other things you can ask us."

"Agreed." nodded Luna.

Suddenly, a group of servants entered the room. The unicorns while the Earth ponies were pushing carts filled with food. One by one they laid down a series of dishes prepared especially for Shadow.

Lucky for them, the food was edible for the humans. Furthermore, it was produced in surplus quantities to ensure their appetites would be satisfied.

Celestia cleared her throat. "If it could make you feel better, why not look over the scriptures of your religion to seek counsel?"

The humans looked at each other and laughed.

"No gods, no masters, only man." chanted Scarecrow.

The mouths of the ponies dropped open.

"Y'all are atheists?" questioned Applejack.

Scorch helped himself to an animated quiche. "Not technically, but we can say with certainty there are no gods."

Pinkie Pie laughed. "That's funny, because right now you're in front of a sun, moon, love and magic goddess."

The 4 humans looked at the alicorns.

"Still not believing in any."

"That's a close minded statement. How could you say there are no gods?" inquired Rainbow Dash.

"Because gods and religion fabrications created by society in a state of ignorance." spat X-ray.

"Celestia and Luna aren't fabrications. They're right here." pointed Fluttershy.

"I find it hard to believe that you humans have no equivalent of the alicorns." remarked Rarity. "You can't just become a space faring race without any form of divine help."

The counter terrorists laughed. The alicorns remained silent.

"Believe it or not, divine help was the last thing we humans needed to start colonizing outer space." said Scorch.

"So throughout, you're entire existence, you never accepted the fact that there's a higher power?" inquired Rainbow Dash.

"Oh please." snapped Scarecrow. "We humans had a long series of beliefs in gods and goddesses. The earliest humans worshipped the sun, the ancient greeks believed in the Olympic Gods, and the humans before colonization believed in a single God."

"So when did y'all stop having faith?" asked Applejack.

"When prayers did nothing to stop cities form getting nuked. When they started causing more harm than good." explained Scorch.

"And when we started questioning our own beliefs." stated X-ray.

"Haven't any of you questioned the alicorns at least once in your life?" asked Scarecrow.

The ponies that weren't the alicorns gasped.

"Why would we question somepony that's da bastion of harmony an' care?" snorted Applejack.

Scorch kept his cool. "Because there are points in any belief system that are flawed and like we said, kind acts don't always help out with the greater good. In fact a lot of the kind acts in a religious system are questionable."

"But aren't traditions and religion supposed to encourage acts of benevolence?" spoke up Twilight.

X-ray stared at the purple mare. He tried to conceal his Armenian accent. "They're supposed to. I mean, the first thing every religion tells you to do is not to kill. Jesus was probably the nicest human ever. Unfortunately, we humans can't handle religion properly, twist its words and instead used them as a scape goat for violence."

"But don't humans need something to believe in? Something to give them hope and motivation?" awed Pinkie Pie.

"Nope." answered Scarecrow. "For 500 years, we humans have been living a pretty secular life and we're at the peak of progress and discovery. Religion restrained us."

"By the way, is it true ponies are forbidden to read scrolls regarding the religion of the other species on Epona?" smiled X-ray.

"Yes. The law has been in place for thousands of years in order to help avoid any form of conflict based upon religion." informed Celestia.

"Do you want to why?" trivialized X-ray.

The ponies were hesitant to listen.

"Because you would all start debating the merits of each religion as well as which one is the truest. The beliefs of one race would contradict the other and since religion supposed to be some sort of divine truth, ponies would start questioning the validity of their deities and out grow silly superstitions."

"Well maybe one belief system out there really is the true one." defended Twilight. "I'm sure out of all the beliefs you humans had, one of them is bound to be correct. All you need is a little faith."

Scorch exhaled loudly. "Well, we had a little faith and that got us no where. All the beliefs we humans have had were just fabrications."

"But without any beliefs and traditions, how can you humans possible truly judge right from wrong?" beamed Rarity. "Without the alicorns, we ponies would be in a state of eternal disharmony."

X-ray rolled his eyes. "Well the main belief system practiced by humanity is secular humanism which states explicitly that we humans can be kind, honest, loyal and generous without a holy book bossing us around."

"And when we believed in our selves, rather than a divine figure, we took our race to whole new levels." added Scarecrow.

Cadance took a deep breath. "What about the sacred act of marriage? Don't human couples make a promise to a deity to love each other forever?"

"Marriage is a state function in the UTF. We make promises to the government rather than some non existent deity who probably wouldn't even care." laughed X-ray.

"So there's no wedding ceremony?" questioned Shining Armor. He remembered his rather exciting wedding clearly.

"Not really, most humans just get a contract signed." replied Scarecrow.

"That sounds unforgivingly dull. Rather than having a choir, cake and exchanging words of commitment, you just write on a piece of paper?" scowled Rarity.

"Oh please, according to the audio logs left by our ancestors before human unification, religious weddings were boring as shit and it was difficult for couples to get a divorce." laughed Scorch.

"Why ponies want to get a divorce if they made a promise to a divine leader?" piped up Fluttershy.

"Because there is no divine leader and it is possible to stop loving some one." said Scarecrow in a matter of fact voice.

"I just can't believe how ignorant you all are being right now!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

Scarecrow raised an eyebrow. "Oh, the ones who don't question a single act of a winged horse are the rational ones?"

"How could you honestly say that in a vast infinite universe that maybe there isn't one god out there? Not everything has to be completely factual!" defended the Pink mare.

"Actually it does." laughed Scorch. "Believing in a god actually takes away the wonder and excitement one can get from the universe."

"And we refuse to believe in any divine power. Why? Because they're made up." spat X-ray. "There is not Zeus, no Ares, no Ra, no Odin, no Lord and I don't give a shit what those cultists say, there is no God Emperor of Mankind!"

"I hate to smack reality into, but right now you're in the presence of alicorns that have physically led their subjects to a state of tranquility." brought up Twilight.

"To be a Goddess, one must be perfect." stated Scarecrow.

"Yeah, and nopony gets better than Celestia or Luna. Look at all the great things they've done. I know you were napping when we told you our life story, but come on, you still ought to admit their divinity." beamed Rainbow Dash.

"Perfection is impossible for it is a quantitative, not qualitative representation." muttered Overwatch.

"I don't follow." sneered Celestia.

"To be perfect, you would have to be able know everything that has and will exist." began Scorch.

"Well, since Celestia has been calling the shots throughout our lives even in situations she wasn't involved in, it's safe to say she her knowledge exceeds mortal limits." hissed Twilight.

X-ray gave a fake smile "Really? What's my name?"

Luna laughed. "X-ray. What kind of question is that?"

"That's my call sign. What is my real name? If you're a goddess, surely you'd know."

Luna's eyes shot open. She attempted to look into X-ray's memories only for him to draw his carbine at her.

"No looking into our memories."

"Are you threatening an alicorn?" burst Fluttershy.

"If the alicorns are so perfect, then why should they be afraid?" responded Scorch. "Now answer our question. What are our names?"

The 4 alicorns looked at each other anxiously.

"So much for an all knowing being." laughed Scarecrow. "I thought you ponies would've been smart enough to figure that out when Celestia couldn't notice Chrysalis disguising herself as Cadance."

"Ah wouldn' go insultin' the princesses if I were you. They'd put you right in your place." threatened Applejack.

"Then why are they afraid of us mere mortals? You're actually convinced the alicorns are infallible beings?" remarked Scarecrow.

"Well I haven't seen them mess up on anything before." shook Rainbow Dash. "Not to mention they're immortal."

"Bitch please. We humans discovered the secret to an infinite life a long time ago." chuckled Scorch. "Just because one can live forever, doesn't mean you can't be killed."

"And how are you going to figure that out?" questioned Luna.

"We don't need to. I already killed an alicorn." hissed X-ray.

The princesses dropped their mouths. The Mane 6 really hoped the subject wouldn't be brought up.

"How could have you possibly killed an alicorn? All 4 of us are standing." hissed Cadance. Shining Armor couldn't believe his wife was reduced to bitterness.

"When we were in Ponyville, a mare named Trixie attempted to assassinate us." remembered Scarecrow.

Luna knitted her eyebrows. "Trixie? You mean the magician?"

"I thought she reformed." pondered Celestia.

"Well she was convinced we were trying to overrun Ponyville or something." sighed Scarecrow. "She almost succeeded in killing Noteworthy."

"A pony would never kill!" screamed Celestia.

"It was an attack by religious motivation." explained Scorch. "We tried to reason with her, but she was so insistent on attacking us which goes to show you how retarded religion can make you."

"Trixie attempted to kill us with her magic, but she was too weak. As a result, she tapped into the power of the Alicorn Amulet." continued Scarecrow.

"The alicorn amulet?" gasped Cadance. "How could she get her hooves on it?"

"We don't know." replied Shadow's commander. "She drew far too much power from the artifact until she turned into an Alicorn."

Luna paled and Celestia looked whiter than normal.

"She couldn't have." shook Shining Armor.

"She did." gritted Overwatch. "And almost killed us."

X-ray hesitated to speak. "In order to protect my friends and prevent her from burning down Ponyville, I drew my weapon and because we were incapacitated to try out all other options, I shot her."

"I don't believe it." muttered Luna. "A pony turning into an goddess, only to be killed."

"If one of you can kill an Alicorn, in a wounded state." whimpered Celestia. She couldn't think of the horrors that awaited her.

"Why did you have to tell her that?" yelled Fluttershy.

"Sorry, but we humans get a little tense when we're encouraged to worship something." shook Scarecrow.

"Fine." hissed Luna. "If there are no true religions. Do you realize how many questions you have left open? For example, if there were no creators, how did we get here?"

"How do you believe your race was created?" challenged X-ray.

"The first Alicorn, queen Faust descended from the heavens and created the universe with her magic." told Twilight. "That is what we ponies believe."

"Are you sure about that?" responded Scarecrow.

"Yes! Why would Faust lie to us?" beamed Applejack.

"There are holes in your story. Namely, if Faust created an entire universe, why would she pay attention to just one race unless she wasn't playing favorites." said Scorch.

"Faust loved all her creations." defended Celestia. "She guided us with knowledge and morality."

"Really? Because you ponies seem to get a lot of scientific facts wrong and if Faust was really a loving Goddess, where was she when humans were worshipping rocks?" accused X-ray.

"Maybe human history s distorted. Our creator would never abandon a helpless race." responded Pinkie Pie.

"Distorting history? You're story assumes the world is a few thousand years old despite it proven to be billions." laughed Scarecrow. "I'm sure the Griffins and Zebras have a different origin story. Like we said, what makes your religion so special?"

"Then how do you humans think we got here if there was no creator?" pointed Twilight.

Scarecrow cleared his throat. "Allow us to explain in song."

The members of Shadow stood up in a dignified manner.

Our Whole Universe Was In A Hot Dense State,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait...
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!

"Since the dawn of man" is really not that long,
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song.
A fraction of a second and the elements were made.
The bipeds stood up straight,
The dinosaurs all met their fate,
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The oceans and pangea
See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same big bang!

It all started with the big BANG!

It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will pause and start to go the other way,
Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it wont be heard
Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang!

Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating how were here they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Descartes or Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!

Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!

And the humans sat down. The ponies had to admit, Shadow sang well.

"Big Bang?" blurted Pinkie Pie.

"Exactly. Our universe was a single point that exploded and released all matter after getting denser and hotter." explained X-ray. "When the Earth was formed, tiny bacteria eventually adapted to the environment and after a gradual process that took hundreds of millions years, evolved into humans."

"And you're sure about that?" implied Twilight.

"Yes!" yelled the humans.

"How da y'all know your theory is true?" questioned Applejack.

Scorch crossed his arms "The big bang isn't a theory, it is a fact. If you look through a fucking machine that observes red and blue shifts, you'll notice that the galaxies are moving apart from each other. Logically, if they were moving apart, they would have to be in a single point in the past. Furthermore we actually found cosmological radiation from the big bang. As for evolution, we can prove it true considering that we humans resemble monkeys and share DNA with them the same way ponies share DNA with other Equines like donkeys and Zebras."

"Aw man, we're related to Donkey's." sighed Rainbow Dash.

"Racist bitch." said Overwatch quickly.

"But I am certain that your theory is flawed as well." pointed Celestia. "Like you said, nothing is perfect."

"That's true." nodded Scarecrow. "But unlike religion, science is dynamic and we change our views as time progresses. Scientists don't sit in place and just guess what happens. It's an adventure to find out the truth of the universe. I don't know what kind of anti intellectualism you ponies have created, but rationality isn't a negative trait."

"But what do gain from learning your the descendants from hairy apes?" questioned Cadance. "Our religion gives us hop and inspiration. You're constant questioning makes you cynical."

"If ignorance is bliss, then wipe that smile off my face." smirked Scorch.

"So you'd rather know everything and be depressed rather than knowing nothing and be happy?" glared Rarity.

"The truth can hurt, but you can use that knowledge to make you happy. Ignorance is the first sign of oppression." warned Scarecrow.

"And like we said a billion fucking times. Humans don't need religion to be kind and caring. Science gives us motivation and imagination to help solve the mysteries of the universe and create an amazing society." snorted X-ray.

"If science is so smart, where did the particle that became the universe come from?" challenged Shining Armor.

"We don't know, but it's a better explanation than saying some random horse came from no where and created a planet because she was high and decided to focus on one race and kept them ignorant to be happy." blasted Scorch.

"Where is Faust anyway?" challenged Scarecrow.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Alicorns are immortal right?" checked X-ray.

"That is correct. Me and my sister have been alive for more than a thousand years. Still going." assured Luna.

"And have alicorns been murdered prior to Trixie's death?" added Scorch.

The ponies shook their heads no.

"So where are they? If they're immortal they should all be here." noted Scarecrow.

The Mane 6 could realize they haven't thought of that before.

Twilight remembered an important remark. "Didn't you say humans have the access to immortality?"

Scarecrow nodded. "In the 23rd century, Crynet, before they went rogue was researching into nano technology and its relation with biology. A by product of their research were ways to render people immortal."

Rarity placed a hoof on her chin. "Could you bee a dear and elaborate on 'way's?"

X-ray swallowed some eggs and spoke. "Some applicants of Crynet's immortality program had their aging genes altered to 'age lock' them. Others were given nanites that reinforced the bodies biological functions to make sure the organs wouldn't deteriorate. Some were turned into cyborgs while others received a treatment that reverted their cells to an adolescent stage indefinitely."

"How'd it turn out?" beamed Rainbow Dash.

"At first the 30 applicants were faring well." encouraged Scorch. "The Federation was making plans with Crynet to distribute the technology to the mass people so nobody would be left behind."

"I don't want to know where this is going." squealed Pinkie Pie.

Scarecrow took a sip of water. "Unfortunately the idea of immortality became too much for the applicants. When they were well past 100 years old. They started going insane. All their friends, all their family, just died and they couldn't rest. Eventually, all of them committed suicide one by one."

"I can't believe they'd do that." awed Fluttershy.

"Sometimes, mortality is a blessing. You can just let go, and rest." encouraged Scorch.

"How could y'all say that? Death's a horrible thing." cried Applejack.

"How could you know?" challenged Cadance. "All you've done is kill. You don't know what it feels like to be your millions of victims."

X-ray cursed in Armenian. "Actually, we do know what it feels like. We're not invulnerable."

"What are you implying?" asked Twilight.

"Each of us has died. At least 10 times." bluntly said Overwatch.

The Equestrians were at a loss of words.

"But you're right here!" pointed Pinkie Pie. "Are you ghosts? Because that would be really clever considering all 23rd squads are named after the undead which could also mean; no matter how many times they kill you, they just come back."

"We're not ghosts." assured Scarecrow. "Human medical technology is just way too advanced."

"My word. You humans aren't just beyond harmony, you're beyond death." awed Luna.

"There are exceptions. For example, anyone dead after 23 hours is gone forever or if your body is beyond repair. Most of our deaths were from chest shots." explained X-ray. "But one of the reasons wars can last so long in the modern day is because a small number of our victims come back for more."

"What is it like when you die?" whispered Fluttershy.

"At first, it feels scary and horrifying." said Scorch. "But then, something extraordinary happens we humans have yet to understand."

"An afterlife?" hoped Shining Armor.

"No. Just a dream scape you're in complete control over. Like an eternal lucid dream." muttered X-ray. "There's nothing divine about it though. No place for the sinners to burn and no angels."

"I don't believe it." denied Celestia. "What becomes the point of doing good if there is no reward or doing evil if there is no punishment."

"Well maybe, you ponies should start focusing on making your mortal lives good rather than hoping to find bliss in the afterlife." responded Scorch.

"Besides, it doesn't count if you do good deeds just because some god tells you too. Ponies have to be benevolent and hope to create a greater good because they care about their race and nothing more." added Scarecrow.

"That's what our religion tells us to do!" exploded Twilight. "Be good and care for others. What is bad about that?"

"Nothing. But if you take away religion, will ponies still have the urge to do good?" challenged X-ray.

"Of course not, mortals deep down are good, but if they don't have a god to show them the way, they're easily influenced by the forces of chaos and hatred." replied Rainbow Dash.

"That's not a very respectful statement." chuckled Scorch. "At least we humans can say that we work for the greater good because we're benevolent on the inside and not because some winged unicorn told us too."

"Now answer our question, where are the other alicorns? Our Federation demands an answer." ordered Scarecrow.

Celestia and Luna looked into each others eyes. Luna was the one to explain the story.

"I do not truly know if the other alicorns suffered the same fate, but when our mother and father aged well beyond past 200 years of age, they started loosing their minds."

The Mane 6 started receiving migraines.

"We were very young at the time and while we have forgotten most of our childhood, it was said our parents took their lives after seeing so many of their subjects pass away. It was devastating news for me and my sister, and Discord tried to use the news to his advantage to usurp the throne during his first attack."

"Why didn't you tell us this?" cried Rainbow Dash.

"Because we knew how much it would negatively affect you all. Sometimes it is best to say nothing." admitted Celestia.

"That is another problem with organized religion; you find one thing wrong with it and individuals loose faith. Citizens need to be convinced of their ability to do good by themselves." hissed Scarecrow.

X-ray had to say it some time. "Cadance, are you aware by any chance that you're going to outlive your husband by centuries? And Twilight, the same goes for you and your friends."

The purple and pink alicorns gazed into each others eyes with intense worry.

"I-I didn't really think of that until now." blurted Twilight. "I knew I would live for a long time, but it didn't really concern me until now. The fact that I can only die through murder makes it worse."

Cadance hugged her husband and a tear droplet formed in her eye.

The apathetic Scorch rolled his eyes. "You weren't thinking about the long term weren't you? This is why not even the most of twisted humans consider infinite lives. When I pass away, I'll be happy to let go of this life as a serial killer."

"But what about the greater good? True, we'll miss everypony, but we'll still be around to help our citizens right?" hoped Twilight.

"Because ponies totally need depressed false gods guiding them around with regressive policies." sarcastically remarked X-ray.

"Have you two ever contemplated suicide?" inquired Scarecrow.

".............sometimes I wish I could just let go and rest." hinted Celestia.

Rarity fainted.

"Fine we give in." hissed Luna. "I hope you're happy."

"Do not believe for a moment this is an act of hostility." shook Scarecrow as he finally dug into his food. "But in an egalitarian society, we humans find it rather rude when we're told to worship something."

"But I will admit this." spoke up X-ray. The Equestrians shifted focus on the Equines.

"Humans for a long time Alicorns, Unicorns, animated worlds and dragons were myths too. Now look where we are."

"So you're saying there's still a chance for supreme beings to exist?" brightened up Pinkie Pie.

"No. I'm just saying your planet is not a natural occurrence."

"That's maybe because not everything has to follow science." pleaded Fluttershy. "Sometimes, you just have to accept divine intervention. If that's okay with you."

Scorch face palmed with his gloved hands. "For fucks sake, just because a planet seems to be an unnatural occurrence, doesn't mean we have to blame it on a God. There has to be a logical explanation even if doesn't make sense."

"Tell me, what happens when you find out this planet was indeed created by an alicorn?" trivialized Rarity.

"I would still refuse to worship your precious Faust." shook Scarecrow. "Perfection is a quantity. Like how the numbers are infinite, Faust's power would be dwarfed by another, and his power would also seem irrelevant to another."

"So how da ya think dis planet was formed mister enlightenment?" glared Applejack.

"We don't know." admitted Overwatch. "But we're not going to resort to saying god did it."

"But if we truly have no religion, how can ponies be motivated to commit acts of benevolence? Or enjoy the wonders of the world?" questioned Luna.

"Can't you enjoy a garden without wondering if there are fairies in it?" trivialized Scorch. "And don't you have any faith in your ponies to do good without a holy scripture?"

"Not to mention, our Federation is built upon the foundations of skepticism and enlightenment." shrugged X-ray. "Unless you ponies embrace an attitude like that, you're going to lag behind the human race."

The Equestrians were lost in thought. Should they relinquish their beliefs? Shadow already debunked magic. Could they debunk gods? And how could a race with no divine help achieve so much?

Deep down the 4 alicorns guiltily felt that denouncing their divinity would give them a chance at normal life. The thought of being allowed to commit mistakes felt like a paradise.

The Federation messaged Shadow. The 4 humans looked upon the text displayed on their wrist computers.

Good job Shadow. Once they give up their damn fairy tales, they can finally abandon their forever Dark Ages.

"Is something going on?" noticed Rainbow Dash.

"We just got a message from the Federation. It's classified information." muttered Scarecrow.

"Although the influence of the Federation seems, astronomical." laughed Celestia. "Since you humans clearly have no divine leaders, how does your government work?"

"Do we really have to talk about politics?" groaned Pinkie Pie.

"Brighten up, Pinkie. It might actually be interesting for once." encouraged Fluttershy.

"I see none of you enjoy speaking about government affairs." realized Scarecrow.

"The princesses make all the decisions. Why should we think about politics?" flexed Applejack.

"Because politics thinks about you." Perked up X-ray. Politics were his favorite subject. Scorch stole his thunder however.

"Well, we're called the United Terran Federation. United obviously stands for the unity of the human race. Terran represents the fact that we originate from Earth and a Federation represents a system of minor government bodies that respond to one higher power."

"Is Equestria a Federation?" asked Twilight. "All the towns act on the edicts of the princesses."

"Equestria is a nation compromised of cities. It would be a Federal Monarchy if it was made of up of regions with local governments." explained Scorch. "Although the UTF has very little emphasis on the word Federation."

"Care to explain?" inquired Luna.

"Each colony technically has its own local government, but each planet's laws are a solid copy of each other. Whatever the central state dictates, each planet forcibly complies." explained X-ray.

"But doesn't every planet have its own set of needs?" countered Twilight. "Shouldn't laws be made according to the people of each colony?"

"Such a statement should be true, but doesn't work out in the long run and hampers the greater good." shook Scorch.

"Humans are spread across light years of space! Wouldn't it be better for each planet to take care of itself?" piped up Pinkie Pie.

"With the technology we humans have developed, near instant communication is as natural as breathing." trivialized X-ray. "It's extremely easy for the executives of Earth to transmit orders and law enforcement throughout the galaxy. We don't need local powers."

"Furthermore, it would divide humanity further. As if we need our progressive laws to be distributed at random." spat Scorch. "Plus, in any Federation, the regions have the right to secede and if we legalized such a proclamation, we wouldn't be united anymore."

"At least we can agree on that." nodded Celestia. "Unity is fundamental to the premise of achieving order and harmony. Throughout my 1000 years as ruler of Equestria, I've tried to avoid anything that splits my subjects apart."

Shadow looked at each other silently, took a sip of animated water, turned around and spat.

"Who rules a nation for 1000 years other than fucking tyrants?" insulted Scarecrow.

Now Fluttershy fainted.

"How dare ya call Celestia a tyrant!" hissed Applejack.

"I'm sorry, but the fact that somepony has been in power for a thousand years seems rather messed up to me." gritted X-ray.

"Celestia isn't a tyrant! Ponies have been extremely happy under her rule." accused Twilight.

"While it's important for a nation to keep it citizens happy, they still need to be able to achieve the greater good." reminded Scorch. "Monarchies prevent that."

"How do you know? Humans don't have kings and queens." pointed Pinkie Pie.

"We used to." corrected Scarecrow. "A long time ago, the only form of government that was considered stable were monarchies with kings and queens. Unfortunately, they were often autocratic and were very slow to embrace new ideas."

"Maybe that's because the status quo is supposed to help preserve harmony. Violating it would lead to misery." chanted Rainbow Dash.

"If you believe in such a statement, you ponies are going to be stuck in this period of eternal renaissance forever." warned Overwatch.

"What's the renaissance?" asked Applejack.

"It's a time period that predated the Enlightenment and a period you are trapped in." explained X-ray. "If ponies had some sense of progression, they would have an enlightenment and realize that kings and queens don't cut it."

"So what happened when the humans decided to give up on royalty?" beamed Cadance.

"A lot of them were overthrown in revolutions." answered Scorch.

The pink alicorn's eyes shot open.

"So without kings and queens making dire decisions, how do humans govern themselves?" asked Rarity.

"Before unification, each human nation had its distinct style of governing." began Scarecrow.

"We humans are what you call a social technocracy." continued X-ray. "A social technocracy is a form of government that emphasizes a representative technocracy under a rule of law with a mixed economy."

"I did not get one bit of that." smiled Pinkie Pie.

"What's a technocracy? Rule by machines?" pondered Twilight.

"A technocracy is a form of government in which power is invested onto the hands with the highest intelligence or qualification for office." explained Scorch.

"So humans award power on intelligence?" checked Fluttershy.

"Exactly, we don't want retards making important decisions do we?" laughed Scarecrow. "Although by intelligence, we mean how qualified you are for a certain position. To work in politics, you need to be an intellectual in law, relations and political science. To be a botanist, you need to have a perfect understanding in plant life. Do you follow?"

"Dat seems like a shallow way to put humans in power." shook Applejack.

"Well it's a better method then handing power to an offspring who could be completely unqualified nor have the desire to command a nation." snorted X-ray. "The main reason why humans did away kingdoms is because the common people would have no influence or chance to have a say in how their lives should be governed."

"I agree." nodded Celestia.

Scarecrow pointed a finger. "Now listen bitc-. Wait what?"

"I agree." repeated Celestia. "Those who become princesses or prince need to earn their position. There is a royal who has refused to dine with us named Blueblood who is a relative of mine. Even though he was born with noble blood, he has no position due to his arrogance."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "And don't you remember? I wasn't born into nobility. My parents were common ponies. I earned my position after I displayed my desire to help others."

"I'm not even Celestia's niece. I rose to alicorn hood after I used the element of magic to save a village." remarked Cadance.

Shadow was dumb struck.

"Well this changes everything." voiced Overwatch.

"But doesn't that make you a meritocracy rather than a theocracy?" pointed X-ray.

"We're a combination of both, although seeing as how you've rudely shattered our religious views, I don't think theocracy is a proper term now." sighed Luna.

Rarity fixed her dress as she spoke. "Aren't humans a meritocracy too? Seeing as how you have to earn your position."

"A meritocracy is based on achievement and it's a very loose term. What defines merit is ambiguous. If we followed the classical representation of the word however, it would be based on wealth and accomplishments." shook X-ray.

"A technocracy is blind to all but intellectual credibility." boasted Scorch.

"But choosing rulers on fancy mathematics and sciences is kinda shallow." countered Applejack.

"And that is why you'd be in the bottom of human society. Technocracies don't tolerate ignorance." warned Scarecrow.

"Applejack has a point." stammered Fluttershy. "Leaders should be kind and caring."

"Leaders should be able to get the job done. Just because someone is nice and cares, doesn't mean they should be allowed to decide for the nation if they don't know shit about politics." defended Scorch.

"If humans look on intelligence alone, you do realize that your leader may not have any interest in serving the people." mentioned Twilight.

Shadow squad laughed hard, so did Overwatch.

"There are so many fail safes in human government that tyranny is impossible." laughed Scarecrow.

"We're not talking about tyranny, we're talking about rulers who care about the people." sighed Rainbow Dash.

"I don't think it would be accurate for our politicians to be called rulers." shook X-ray. "Besides, it's a representative technocracy. The government officials need to have the interests of the people in mind and we humans believe that true intellectuals choose situations that have the most favorable outcome for the most number of people."

"I could have sworn you humans would have been a representative democracy." admitted Celestia.

The mouths of the humans dropped. "You know what a democracy is?" gulped Scarecrow.

"We have mayors for each city. Duh." reminded Applejack.

The humans were thinking the same thing.

"Do any of the mayors have any power to instill laws and proclamations?" questioned Scorch.

"I'm afraid not. The only thing power they have is just to enforce the will of the monarchy." corrected Luna.

"Oh. Not too different from pre enlightenment towns then." realized Scarecrow.

"As for a democracy. We humans have realized that it's not such a great system considering all of them commit suicide at the end of the day." snorted X-ray.

"How can a democracy commit suicide?" began Pinkie. Right before she could rant-

"The problem with a democracy is that it is rule of the majority and the will of the majority will overwhelm the minority." explained Scorch.

"In a representative democracy, people have to elect officials. And voters are stupid." laughed Scarecrow.

"But what about having faith in people?" whispered Fluttershy.

"The problem with a representative democracy is that voters can easily be influenced and often don't vote based on the general skill of the candidate." informed X-ray. "A lot of times, the ones who are truly good are ignored and we won't know if a politician is truly skilled to handle the government until it is too late."

"I guess that makes sense." agreed Twilight.

"The UTF decides its leaders by going over the knowledge base of applicants for office and deciding whether or not they're fit to handle their position regardless of wealth, gender, race, or popularity. All they need to do is get the job done for the greater good." explained Scorch.

"And what if they're poor rulers?" challenged Cadance.

"They they are to be evicted from office immediately. Eviction usually occurs if the politician fails to comply to the constitution of the Federation." replied Scarecrow.

"What's a constitution?" asked Shining Armor

"A constitution is a document that expresses the fundamental rights of people and government. Basically what we can and can not do. It is the ultimate tool to limit government and guarantee people their rights." responded X-ray.

"Why would humans listen to a piece of paper rather than a ruler?" asked Rarity.

"Because power can corrupt a human. You can't just give someone the ability to dictate a country without any restraint." answered Scorch.

"Why? Celestia ruled for one thousand years and we're all happy." added Pinkie Pie.

"Just because you're happy doesn't mean any progress has been made." piped up Overwatch. "Does anypony even realize how fragile the Equestrian government system is?"

"Overwatch knows what he's talking about." contemplated Scarecrow. "If ponies have no say in the Equestrian government, then what is going to stop the of you from passing laws that would shatter the nation?"

Celestia rolled her eyes. "We told you before, rulers in Equestria are selected by benevolence and with the 4 of us in power, the chances of passing a heinous law are negligible."

"Power should be divided as far as possible. If all 4 of your alicorns turn malevolent, they'll be no possible way for Equestrians to challenge you." warned Scorch.

Luna raised an eyebrow. "So how do you humans organize power?"

"There are 3 main branches in human government. The executive, legislative and judicial branch." started X-ray. "The executive branch is compromised of the president who acts as the representative of humanity and commander of the armed forces. The legislative branch is the law making group of the humanity that is compromised up various commissions such as defense, civil rights, economy and agriculture. Each commission can have up to 50 to 100 technocratically appointed members. The judicial branch handles all the crime and punishment."

Scarecrow crossed his arms. "And since politicians can only hold power for 10 years maximum one person rising to power as a dictator is completely futile."

"Wait, humans are limited in how long they can serve office?" asked Celestia. "What about officials that are popular?"

"We're not a democracy and new ideas are necessary to ensure the greater good. Having the same ruler for a surplus amount of time creates stagnation as demonstrated by Equestria." smirked X-ray.

"Wouldn't it just be easier to have a select few making all the decisions?" yawned Rainbow Dash.

"That would be a train ticket to tyranny. Power corrupts humans." exhaled Scorch.

"Besides, rather than having 4 ponies make decisions on every single political aspect of a nation, wouldn't it be easier to leave it to a group who are professionals about a certain topic? You'd get much more done and make sure only the best laws are put into position." added Scarecrow.

"And it's safer to assume that 4 ponies are likely to be incompetent leaders rather than the thousands of politicians we utilize at once." laughed X-ray.

"Another aspect of human politics are the political parties." added Scorch.

"Party!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

"It's not what you think." calmed the demo man. "By party, we mean a political group that shares an ideology and agenda. Those applying for a career in politics such as myself need to either be independent or part of the following groups. There is the Labour party, the Liberal Socialists which I hope to join, Statism Individualists which our current president is affiliated with and the Technocentrists."

"Those sound like the same thing." noted Celestia.

"Yeah, they're all center left political ideologies. There's really no division." shrugged X-ray. "When the UTF constitution was created, it was made by officials who were from labour parties so there are no ways for conservatives or libertarians to pass laws without being rendered unconstitutional. It's not fair, but that's what happens. Barely any human supports centrist or right leaning ideologies."

"But aren't humans following the same ideology over and over again? What about stagnation?" reminded Rarity.

"The left leaning politics generally encourage social change. When something relating to progressive reform comes up, it's usually passed." assured Scarecrow.

Twilight straightened her dress. "Hold on if the president who's like your ruler can't make any laws, then what does he or she do?"

"Our current president is named Michael Thabo and he's not a ruler." moaned Scorch. "Humanity's politicians are bound to the same constitution and laws they create. They break the law or pass inhumane laws, they're out and their unconstitutional edicts are repealed."

"Another reason the 23rd was created was to act as a failsafe in the impossible event of a dictatorship was installed. We'd take out its leaders and make sure a government based on constitutional rights would be placed." brought up X-ray.

"But shouldn't soldiers be loyal to their rulers?" accused Shining Armor.

"Soldiers should be loyal to the law and the people." corrected Scarecrow. "Nobody and nopony should be above another. I get the feeling your guards refuse to question the alicorns."

"Of course! We swore loyalty to them." defended the white stallion.

"Well what if they told you to jump off a cliff or arrest somepony without due warrant?" interrogated X-ray.

"Why would I order that?" beamed Cadance.

"It's the universe damn principle." said Scorch. "By the way, why are all the guards one color and bigger than the other stallions like Davenport and Noteworthy?"

"Oh. Some stallions have the chance into growing to a more stockier build. We're called big brother stallions."

"On the other hoof, some mares like me and Fleur grow more slender builds. We're called big sister mares." added Cadance.

"Charming." muttered Overwatch.

"But what about my question? What are the duties of the president?" yelled Twilight.

"The job of the president is to enforce laws and represent the Federation to our enemies." stated Scarecrow.

"Enemies?" gapsed Fluttershy.

Scorch rolled his eyes. "Well duh. You think the Federation doesn't have any enemies?"

"Why would a single government have enemies." asked Applejack.

"There will always be dissidents." implied Overwatch.

"Anyway, you should probably know about the UTF's social and economic views." implied Scarecrow. "The UTF has a very hands off stance when it comes to social issues and is mostly focused on human rights. You know, the right not to be tortured, the right to freedom of speech, the right to private and personal property, the right not to be discriminated based race, gender and sexual preference, the right for a women to get an abortion-"

"You allow women to get abortions?" squealed Rarity.

Scorch knitted his eyebrows "Yeah. Why?"

"How could ya legalize somethin' lak dat?" scolded Applejack.

"Because sometimes women get pregnant accidentally." said X-ray in a laughing voice.

"So you'd kill a defenseless fetus?" gasped Fluttershy.

X-ray swore in Armenian. "Oh universe. Not this fucking argument."

"Look a fetus isn't scientifically a person until it is born." explained Scarecrow calmly.

Celestia scowled. "But aren't you denying a human the right to be born?"

"Some fetuses maybe shouldn't be born." implied Scorch.

"Why not? Every person has the right to live." gasped Pinkie Pie.

Overwatch stood from his seat. "What about cases of rape, incest or high infant morality? Is it not wrong to prevent an unwanted child to be born in the long run? For the sake of the greater good and to avoid any unnecessary complication, I'd go with the latter."

The ponies were at a silence.

"Look we know it's a senesitve subject and every side has its points, but we're males and we don't know shit about women's reproduction, so we're not technocratically entitled to change the UTF's stance." assured Scarecrow.

"Next you'll be telling me that you humans legalize drugs." grinned Luna.

"Actually we legalized marijuana at the cost of banning tobacco. We also legalized premarital sex because some humans like fucking for pleasure." smiled Scorch.

"Do humans have the right to own weapons to defend themselves?" asked Shining Armor.

"Of course not, how are we supposed to inflict police brutality if they can shoot us back?" laughed Scorch.

"Speaking of brutality, the Federation has also banned the death penalty." remembered X-ray.

"I thought a race like humanity would have hard on crime." revealed Luna.

Scarecrow crossed his arms. "Oh just because the UTF likes enlisting aggressive serial killers into the military? I'll have you know, we're pretty progressive in the court. Every human has the right to a trial and jury and you'll not believe how well our prisoners are treated."

"But they're dirty criminals." spat Applejack.

"The goal of the judicial branch is to avenge crimes, not punish others." defended X-ray.

Scarecrow took a bite out of his pasta. "As for the UTF's economic views, we're more or less a mixed economy of socialism and capitalism."

"What's capitalism?" asked Applejack. "Heard you 4 throw the word around a lot."

"Capitalism is an economic system where the means of production are controlled by individuals." explained Scorch.

"So it's like the system in Equestria." pointed Celestia.

"Exactly. Socialism is an economic system developed by Karl Marx in which the means of production were owned by the government. The term also relates to the idea of welfare to the common people." added X-ray.

"That isn't fair! Ponies are perfectly capable of making money government intervention!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

"Such a statement is true, but capitalism comes with serious draw backs if left unregulated." sighed Scarecrow.

"How so?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Because capitalism is the magical belief that if left alone, people will magically want to do good. Money is one of the main factors that corrupt individuals." warned X-ray.

"How so? We all have our own businesses and we've turned out fine." pointed Rarity. "Government never had to intervene in my business."

"The main problem with free enterprise is that it's all about profits." pointed Scorch.

"Yeah, what's the problem with making money?" smiled Pinkie Pie.

"Individuals can resort to questionable methods to make money." expressed X-ray. "For example, the Apple family controls the entire monopoly of Apple productions. It also seems every time a new business opens up in Ponyville that challenges the existing establishment, it's always run down the next day."

"Dat's because we can' risk loosing our businesses. Better 'em then us." defended Applejack.

"A main economic issue we humans had during the 2020's was corporations and businesses growing too much in power." told Scarecrow. "Because they had bought out every business that opposed them, there was no way for individuals to support themselves unless they worked in the mega conglomerates."

"What's so negative about that? At least they're being provided work." said Twilight.

"Not really. CEOs would often ship their production facilities to countries where they could exploit the lack of labour laws to minimize costs for labour and maximize their profits." countered Scorch.

"That's called playing smart." defended Rainbow Dash.

"That's called being a greedy prick!" yelled Scarecrow. "The rich grew richer and the poor grew poorer."

"Well that is the reward for hard work and the cost of laziness!" remarked Rarity.

X-ray almost spat. "What hard work? The CEOs of a company merely stood behind their fancy desks an exploited a system that relied on others doing the heavy lifting."

"Ma family does all the heavy liftin' in our business!" pointed Applejack.

"Doesn't matter. You're still depriving other farmers the chance to start their own business." shook Scorch. "And given the lack of your family's educational skills, you're conglomerate is bound to implode and take the farming community with it, The main problem with capitalism is when government has to rely on private corporations to secure a nation's economy. One influential enterprise fails, the system goes down."

"Couldn't a government just bail out the enterprise? We've had to do so many times." spoke up Luna.

"Why should a government waste money on a rich guy's incompetence when they could be helping the mass people?" replied Scarecrow. "All it would do is ensure a wide gap between rich and poor."

"You're being absurd." insulted Rarity.

"Absurd?" repeated X-ray. "Look out the fucking window! The high and mighty Canterlot nobles basically own every enterprise in Equestria and spit on the lower classes who work their flanks off for them."

"So how do you humans handle the economy? Make everyone earn the same amount of money and let the government just handle everything?" insulted Twilight.

"We're not communists dumbass." gritted Scarecrow. "The way the government avoids major economic downfalls is by controlling the means of production that are absolutely necessary for human survival like power, food and water production. Since corporations do not have an influence on those vital fields, humanity won't have to suffer in the event of a single individual's incompetence. Further more, it's not focused on profits so we can make sure costs are reasonable."

"What if the government fails?" challenged Rainbow Dash.

The members of Shadow turned red. Scorch raised his voice.

"The production the government controls is headed by technocratic experts. Not money seeking CEOs. The chances of failure are abysmal. Besides, we're spread across hundreds of planets, as if we're going to run out of resources."

"What about other industries like fashion and technology?" questioned Rarity.

X-ray flexed his gloved hands. "Those are handled by not so private enterprises. The government frequently regulates conglomerates to make sure they pay they their taxes, adhere to labour rights and often stimulate their growth. That way, corporations won't have any noticeable influence on the government and the Federation won't have to bail them out."

"And where does the government spend it's money?" asked Celestia.

Scarecrow looked at his wrist computer to gain access to the spending rates of the Federation. "Since we're a technocracy, we mostly spend money on education to a point where there's a lack of private schools. There's also free healthcare and welfare for the needy. There's also a strong on colonial efforts like space ships and terraformers."

"What about the military? You humans sure have pretty unique ways of killing." noted Cadance.

"The military receives 10% of government aid. When you focus on education, you create geniuses who know how to make Weapons of Mass Destruction for cheap." muttered Overwatch.

"Nice to know." shook Shining Armor.

"And why mostly focus on education?" beamed Luna.

"Because a productive public is an intelligent public. Focusing on education allows every human the chance to a respectable career. Hell, all the lower end jobs like janitor, taxi driver, barber, and waiter are just part time careers or college students looking to make an extra buck." laughed Scarecrow.

"But why would the government hand out free healthcare?" beamed Applejack.

"Because access to medicine is a basic human right and like hell is the private sector going to focus on actually curing people rather than making money." informed Scorch.

"But what about welfare, isn't that bailing people out?" accused Rainbow Dash.

"Not really, it's meant to help those who can't work. The government keeps a strong track of who welfare goes too. We don't tolerate free loaders." assured X-ray.

"And how does the government fund all these programs?" inquired Celestia.

Scarecrow looked at Celestia as if she asked a stupid question.

"Taxes of course. Doesn't Equestria have a tax system?"

"We do not wish to burden our civilians with such a grievance." shook Luna. "Since the government lacks any programs and just leaves it to the private sector, we do not need much funding."

"Well it's the opposite for us humans. We have a progressive income tax to help fund our economic safety net. The proletariat pays little in taxes while the rich tend to pay massive amounts. That way, we can make sure that there's a low amount of economic inequality and no tension between the classes." explained X-ray.

"But why work had if you're going to be taxed more? You wouldn't be making any more money." sated Pinkie Pie.

Scorch gave a slight yawn. "The Federation isn't retarded. While the rich are still taxed at high rates, their profits are so large that taxes only take away a pebble of their wealth."

"What about those who refuse to pay taxes?" asked Rarity. "I know the Canterlot nobles have a philosophy of keeping your own money."

"You have to pay taxes it's the law." shrugged Overwatch.

"But what if you don't?" repeated Fluttershy.

"You get jailed until you comply." stated Scarecrow.

"You look people up in horrible prisons just because they don't won't to give their money over? That's selfish and cruel." scolded Twilight.

"For starters, we use the Nordic system of jailing so in no way are our prisons anything like your inhumane dungeons. And second, isn't it greedy to not want to give up a small portion of your money to make sure that society is safe and secure for the greater good?" challenged Scorch.

"Ah still don't agree with da idea that the government forces ya ta pay for other people's well being. If people can't take care of themselves, so be it. They otta work hard and not bother you. If ah couldn't take care of ma self, I wouldn' bother others askin' ta help me." snorted Applejack.

"You'd make a shitty element of generosity." mocked X-ray. "If it were up to you, we'd all be on our own with the rich strangling the poor."

"Although I will admit that our government can go crazy with regulation." acknowledged Scarecrow.

"Sometimes the UTF will get so nervous about a corporation that has no interest in replacing them and just buy out the enterprise from the CEOs and make it's employees work for them. So many famous corporations seized to exist because of this practice."

"And what did that change for the businesses?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"Absolutely nothing except satisfy the UTF's overinflated paranoia." laughed Scorch.

"Although, it does give our government a way of making money without taxation and keep prices for products under control." reminded X-ray.

"If the government controls everything, wouldn't there be no desire to innovate and make better products for profit?" inquired Luna.

Scarecrow thought about it for a moment. "That would be true under a normal socialistic government, but since we're a technocracy, businesses become about innovation than profit."

"So all of humanity is cool with these economic and political practices?" checked Cadance.

Shadow burst into laughter.

"Of course not. Otherwise we wouldn't have insurrectionists running about." chuckled X-ray.

"Who are the terrorists you face anyway?" asked Twilight.

Scarecrow cleared his throat. "Right now, there are three major threats to the Federation. Mega Corp, the Planet's Rights Movement and Neo Fascists. "

"The Planet's Rights Movement is a separatist group that seeks for their respective colony to secede from the Federation." started X-ray.

"What's so bad about wanting independence if the people want it?" accused Pinkie Pie.

"For staters the PRM might be loud, but they're minor. There aren't enough supporters on each planet for it to be considered a democratic secession. And remember, we're not democratic. It would also have an extreme negative effect on the greater good. The UTF doesn't deal kindly with treason and we would abandon a planet if it abandoned us. As a result, the planet would collapse due to the fact that all colonies rely on each other. And like we said, it would only divide humanity further, so like we need planets engaging in interstellar war with each other." explained the rifleman.

"But why would you have to kill them if all they ask for is independence?" beamed Celestia.

"How are we supposed to ignore those who bomb government buildings and commit civilian massacres to threaten the government to allow them to secede?" gritted Overwatch.

"They would do that?" whispered Fluttershy.

"They make Sombra sound like a playground bully." said Cadance.

"Oh please. The Fascists are worse!" yelled Scorch. "They're filled with racist, sexist, homophobes who in the extermination as to what they see as the inferior races. Fascists torture and lock up minorities in death camps where the worst things you could ever imagine happen."

"What! How could humans think killing and torturing based on race is right?" teared Rainbow Dash.

"Some people are just messed up like that. What's scary is that nobody becomes a Fascist. You join them willingly." exhaled the demo man. "At least they're number is negligible and lack access to technology on par with the UTF."

"Finally, we have Mega Corp. They're our most prominent enemy." introduced Scarecrow. "They're basically a mercenary group that uses terror to loosen the grip the UTF has on the economy and make laws allowing for corporate voice."

"Well maybe if you just loosened yer lasso on the economy, ya wouldn't have ta face 'em." suggested Applejack.

"Not really, Mega Corp was in fact created easily due to a lack of government supervision at the time." responded X-ray.

"But fighting to loosen the grip on the economy is a noble statement." remarked Rarity. "People should be allowed to do business without the constant fear of surveillance."

Scarecrow snickered. "Oh please if Mega Corp had they're way, we'd be living in the Industrial Revolution where we'd be ruled by greedy business men like the Canterlot nobles who'd force the proletariat to work for them in horrible conditions just so they can make money. Economic inequality would be through the roof, labour rights would be gone, and so would civil rights and the environment in the name of profit."

"Bedsides, if they want to prove the private sector is innocent, then maybe they should refrain from using obsessive violence. If anything, we need to regulate business more if we're going to stop terrorists from forming." added Scorch.

"Who funds them anyway?" asked Twilight.

"Anonymous corporations and people." revealed X-ray. "The UTF has arrested a lot of people with suspected ties to MC, but due to our progressive judicial system, it's not that bad. On the other hand, the Federation has looked into various conglomerates to make sure they aren't funding MC and while they've been successful in some cases, they don't want to risk upsetting enterprises into incidentally funding MC further."

"That makes sense, if you don't want a dog to harm you, why anger it?" nodded Luna.

"Because said dog will rip you to shreds if it doesn't know its place." growled Overwatch.

The conversation ended at that statement. The Equestrians were beginning to realize that meeting with humanity could result in the disappearance of their traditional values.

The Federation observing the event however, had no tolerance for theocracies that ignored the greater good for the sake of happiness.

Fluttershy broke the silence. "Can we please talk about something else where we won't be arguing. If that's okay with you?"

"Actually Fluttershy, I think we're in a fun night for debate." smiled Scarecrow.

(UTF propaganda)

(No I am not convincing you to join them)

Author's Note

On one hand my readers wants to see ponies go down, on the other they want Shadow to be nice. Choose one.

Chapter 30: Recreation

MORE UTF PROPAGANDA: (Damn socialists. Derp.)

"Come on there's bound to be something we can talk about without arguing." pleaded Fluttershy. "If that's okay with you."

"I don't think so." laughed Scarecrow who flexed his blond hair. "Humans and ponies are as different as Black and White."

"Nonsense." insisted Rarity. "There are numerous peaceful subjects that we can discuss civilly without one side getting too barbaric. Such as the arts or notable human celebrities."

X-ray laughed. "Celebrities? Go back to 2013. One of the reasons human society was so ignorant back then is because people paid too much attention to elitist pricks who contributed nothing to society other than reality shows."

"But wouldn't you want to know about your favorite musicians or the rich are up too just for fun?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Celebrity news is just fucking prole feed to keep the working man away from the real issues of the galaxy or things that that matter." cursed Scorch. "In technocratic societies, we humans like focusing on issues like war, awesome innovation and injustice, not what some rich bitch bought with her millions of money."

"You humans do have a distrust of the wealthy." noted Celestia.

"Sorry, I guess we're still bitter over the fact they're funding mercenaries to force the UTF to get rid of labour rights like minimum wage and safety conditions." whined Scarecrow.

"Well I agree." piped up Twilight. "We should be focusing on things that matter to a society and affects them all rather than a group of people who get everything hoofed over to them."

"To be fair, we do have a lot of artists that we're fond of, but we don't need the media constantly showering them with attention unless they do something useful." revealed X-ray.

"I on the other hoof know for a fact that I wouldn't go two days without knowing the latest dirt on somepony." laughed Rarity. "I don't find my self looking at scientific pursuits in my free time."

"And that is why you'd be vilified in human technocracy." mocked Scorch.

"Come on, I'm sure humans don't like having to think all the time. Aren't there moments where humans just want to kick back and have fun?" questioned Rainbow Dash

"Of course. We humans, or at least the Federation, doesn't encourage humanity wasting time on irrelevant subjects." defended Scarecrow. "A lot of humans enjoy using the computer to pass the time."

"Computer?" repeated Luna.

X-ray took a deep breath "A computer is a machine that is programed to process various arithmetic or logical functions. It is compromised of RAM which dictates how many operations it can do at once, a GPU which allows it to display information in a visual sense and a processor which affects the speed at which it can carry commands."

Scarecrow grinned and pointed at his wrist computer. "Basically these. Although computers can come in all sizes and some are operated by physical buttons or neural interfaces rather than touch screens which sense motion."

"I still don't get it." shook Cadance.

"Well you ponies haven't even gone through a technological revolution yet, not our fault you can't understand." shrugged Scorch. "Anyway, a computer is basically a device that lets us view and take pictures, record videos, read virtual books and go on the internet."

"What's the internet?" sighed Fluttershy.

"The internet is a system of interconnected networks that allow computer users to transmit data towards each other." ranted X-ray.

Overwatch face palmed. "Basically, we use the internet to see what others are doing. Humans spend a lot of time of on networks as source for entertainment."

"What do you do on this internet?" questioned Luna.

"One of the primary things we do on it is log onto social networks like Fedbook."

Before X-ray could speak, Scorch elbowed him in the gut and spoke. "A social network is basically a virtual place for humans to share information about each other and chat."

"Oh so it's like going to the park and having a chat." smiled Pinkie Pie.

"Kind of. But virtual and you can socialize in the comfort of your home." replied Scarecrow.

"Why wouldn't you rather do it physically?" inquired Twilight.

Scorch crossed his arms. "I don't know, maybe because we're spread apart by light years of space?"

The purple mare blushed.

"And it's generally more convenient." shrugged Scorch.

"Another recreational activity we humans do is play video games." added X-ray. "A video game uses a device to display a virtual scenario on a visual interface that requires human interaction through a control system in order for the simulation to play out."

"So it's like playing sports, puzzles and monopony?" checked Twilight.

"Except virtually." nodded Scarecrow. "Sometimes, people play games on computers or on devices dedicated entirely to the activity such as a Fedbox 630."

"But why no play the games physically?" beamed Celestia. "It's better than just sitting around behind a display."

"Because the simulations encountered in video games provide a form of escapism and allow you to play with friends far away. Not every game is something you can do in real life." defended X-ray.

"For example you can't just drive cars at high speeds without being arrested, play as a detective trying to save the world from an insane clown without any trauma, or be a knight in shining armor in real life and just slay a dragon." exemplified Scorch.

"Actually you can do the last part here." pointed Shining Armor.

"Yeah, but odds are a human kid would get his ass kicked in real life." countered Scorch.

"We on the other hand, are generally too busy to for any recreational activities, but when we have free time, we really like playing first person shooters." remarked Scarecrow. "A first person shooter generally involves the player taking the role of a person and gunning down various enemies."

"There are games based on killing?" gasped Celestia.

Overwatch nodded. "They're fun."

"Why would somebody enjoy a game based on slaughter? That's cruel!" cried Rarity.

"Because it's virtual. Nobody physcialy dies in a video game, you just come back to life. Programs aren't real." assured X-ray.

"What was somepony get out of a killing simulation?" spat Rainbow Dash.

"I swear, you speak like my mother." sighed the rifleman. "Shooters and any violent video games offer hours of entrainment like a board game. Besides, the good ones are often played for the story telling aspect rather than the killing."

"But won't games like that encourage violence?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"Of course not! Violent video games are pure fiction." insisted Scarecrow. "People aren't stupid and they're well aware that you can't take up arms and gun down a terrorist groups, corrupt politicians and evil militas and get out alive with the use of insanely advanced technology?"

The ponies stared at the humans.

"What?"

"The 4 of you do that." pointed Twilight.

"Oh yeah we do." remembered Scorch. "It doesn't change anything though. There is a huge difference between murder in a video game where death isn't traumatizing versus killing in real life which is extremely serious."

"Anyway, another thing we humans like to do when passing the time is talking to each other on phones which are mobile devices that deliver and receive wireless radio waves that send audio messages to another respective device instantaneously. In order to ensure quick communication amongst colonies, transmissions sent by phones are strong enough to rip space time and make sure the message reaches a planet in seconds without universal time dilation. This allows for communication with people in far away environments without delay." burst X-ray.

"That boy has issues." shook Applejack.

"Ya think?" responded Overwatch.

"So in the end, we humans use an application on our touch screen or neural operated tablets to allow us to talk to others without actually being there. It's a great way to catch up with relatives who live on other colonies." smiled Scorch.

"But wouldn't it take a long time for the message to be sent to another person?" muttered Twilight.

"Not really. I can do a call right now to the planet Requiem which is 80 light years away." demonstrated Scarecrow. "Watch as I talk to someone without being there."

Scarecrow took out his wrist computer and dialed a number. The Equestrians watched with great interest and listened to the beeping. Suddenly, the beeping stopped.

"Hello?" called Scarecrow. The Equestrians heard a faint reply come from the device.

"Yeah it's me."

"My situation is Victor Gamma."

"Victor Gamma?" whispered Pinkie Pie.

"That's military for 'very good'." informed Scorch.

"I'm afraid I'm too busy."

"Negative. I'm not engaging any enemies. I'm on planetary recon."

Suddenly Scarecrow got angry. "I apologize, but I can not comply with that order."

".......Yeah? Well FUCK YOU!"

Scarecrow hung up.

The ponies dropped their mouths. The regal manes of the mares split.

"Who were you talking to?" blurted Rainbow Dash.

"My mom." relaxed Shadow's commander. In no way were the ponies going to question him further.

"Wow, with phones, I wouldn't need to send Celestia a letter anymore." said Twilight.

"Don't say that out loud. As if Spike needs to think he'll be replaced." joked Rainbow Dash.

"What does Spike have to do with sending letters?" inquired Scorch. "Twilight can perform telekinesis."

"Spike is Twilight's assistant so he often writes Twilight's letters to Celestia and sends them to her with his fire breath." explained Rarity.

"Well that plausible considering the breath of a purple dragon is strong enough to generate heat stronger than the shade of violet which is sufficient enough to burn space time and teleport objects." nodded X-ray.

"He's not gonna stop is he?" sighed Pinkie Pie.

"Although, you ponies are unlikely to use mobile phones considering that you all live in one close nation where all of your friends are in the some town. Furthermore, our phones either require fingers or human neurology to work." warned Scarecrow.

"Moving on, what's another thing you humans do for fun?" questioned Celestia.

"Well, we really enjoy watching movies." flexed Scorch. "It's like a theatrical play, only recorded by cameras, digitally edited on computers and viewed from within a television." explained Scorch.

"What's a television? You're not making this easier." beamed Twilight.

"Well a television is an electronic device that receives and transmits data of moving pictures and sound from various sources and displays them on a screen." explained X-ray. "It's like a projector which you ponies probably have, although the modern television displays videos and pictures in a colored format rather than monochrome and can access numerous broadcast signals at once."

The ponies gave X-ray a quizzical look.

"Like we were saying, many humans enjoy watching movies to pass the time. There are many genres of film, like comedies, fantasy and action." exemplified Scarecrow.

"What do you humans enjoy watching?" asked Rarity. "I know myself that I like a good old fashioned drama play."

"We're into drama ourselves." agreed Scorch. "Although you're probably into romantic ones while we're interested in ones regarding social issues and injustice."

"I don't like those plays. Too dark and controversial for my taste." shook Pinkie Pie.

"Well films and plays like that are one of the greatest places to find true acting and experience philosophy." defended Scarecrow.

"Although there are times when we just like stupid fun and watch sci fi action although modern society is sci fi compared to the origin of the word." laughed X-ray.

"I've seen a few action plays. They're not that good." warned Shining Armor. "They aren't mean to give you an illusion of conflict and violence."

"When you watch a film, you're not seeing the actors play it live like in a play. Films are often recorded in various sets rather than a stage over a course of months. The use of computers allows movies to be edited so the scenario displayed in action movies will make you think you're actually seeing explosions and people getting shot on a battlefield." explained the counter terrorist.

"But won' dat make it look realistic?" checked Applejack.

"Kind of." shrugged Scorch as he twisted his pale blond hair.

"But wouldn't watching violent films in that case be indistinguishable form real violence? What kind of sadist would watch that?" sneered Luna.

"For starters, some action films are generally great pieces of art!" defended Scarecrow.

"How is watching a film about senseless killing art?" insulted Celestia.

X-ray crossed his arms "Senseless killing? A lot of action films have meaningful stories and themes that often aren't brought down by fake blood and gore and fictional people dying. And like we said with video games, it's a form of escapism that's totally different from the real thing."

"But don't these aggressive genres expose youths to a culture of violence?" questioned Cadance.

Overwatch groaned. "Just because entertainment has violent scenes doesn't meant it will encourage violent acts."

"You enjoy those types of entertainment and look where you 4 ended up!" squealed Fluttershy.

"For staters, if children are watching films meant for frown ups, it's the parents fault for being a retard." began Scorch. "Second films and games with violent scenes are given to adolescents at least who are perfectly capable of telling the difference between imaginary death and real death."

"Finally, we didn't join the 23rd because we watch violent films. We jointed because we're the only humans who are capable of killing without forming any negative thoughts." added Scarecrow. "We've had our condition since birth. Before we watched violent films."

"You know, you humans sure do spend a lot of time with technological ways of recreation." pointed Rainbow Dash.

"That's right. We humans always find ways to keep ourselves informed and entertained with technology." smiled Scorch.

"It certainly can't be healthy for you humans to be staring at a screen at all times." noted Rarity.

"That's why we invented medicine to take care of issues like that." countered X-ray.

Celestia took a sip of her tea. "But shouldn't you humans spend time out doors doing acts physically? You seem to be rather insistent that machines do all the entrainment for you."

"And I really, don't like the idea of sitting in a room, being distracted by technology from the wonders true art would provide. It could take away time from important tasks." glared Cadance.

"Okay, you have no right to disavow computers as a form of entertainment." stated Scarecrow. "Throughout human history, the most popular form of entertainment will always be mocked as degrading and not true art. Now it's holograms and virtual reality, before it was the internet, before it was video games, then it was television, then it was radio, then it was reading. The first thing to be mocked as false art were plays."

"Why would plays and reading be mocked?" remarked Twilight.

"Because it was new at a certain point. New forms of entertainment will always have its vilifiers so our government encourages its civilians not to give in to the hypocrisy and embrace new forms of art." muttered X-ray.

"But what about playin' outside? Don't ya humans do dat anymore?" gulped Applejack.

"During the second dark ages which was between 2000-2030, humanity had a serious problem where we started relying on technology for entertainment rather than physical activity." told Scorch.

"Humans were getting lazy and gained unhealthy bodies." growled Overwatch.

X-ray stroked his black hair. "The UTF foresaw that each generation would rely on virtual systems to provide entertainment. So as a result, the Federation encourages its citizens to dedicate 1 hour of physical activity per day or else."

"Or else what?" asked Fluttershy.

"We don't know. But or else is scary enough to get humans to do it anyway." shrugged Scarecrow. "Although I think you have to pay a fine of some sorts or your income tax increases by 0.005%"

"That's not too bad of a punishment." pointed Luna

"Well despite living in a socialistic government, people can still be rather stingy." chuckled X-ray.

Rainbow Dash got excited. "So what kind of sports do you humans like playing?"

"The 4 of us aren't really sports fans and other than Scorch, we never joined any athletic teams. To social." laughed Scarecrow.

"The problem with human sports is that all, if not most of them require hands and bi-pedal structures to be played." informed X-ray. "Although I heard you ponies have bowling."

"That's true. We told you about it the other day and you freaked out." remembered Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, because it makes no fucking sense for ponies to have a sport that requires a ball to be carried with fingers!" snorted Scorch.

"No need to resort that language!" scolded Celestia. "And it's a fun sport. I enjoy it."

"As for our sports. We have a game called Griffball that requires a team of 6 on 6 wearing cases of protective armor to plant a ball to a goal post. The team that has the ball protects the carrier while the opposition chases the carrier and knocks the ball out of his hands with anti gravity pulses that send the flier distances." explained X-ray.

"Isn't that dangerous?" awed Twilight.

"Not really. It's played by professional adults who wear protective armor. Players claim it doesn't hurt, it just like swimming in another direction." assured Scorch.

"Sports we play in school include dodgeball, which I heard existed even back in the 20th century. Apparently kids, getting loved hit with balls." joked Scarecrow.

X-ray tried to remember the sport humans played "A modern sport we have is mag ball. It requires two teams of 8 passing a metallic ball to each other with magnetized gloves. The opposing team basically has to intercept the ball by attracting it with their magnetic gloves. The catch is that you can't move with ball and to score you need to be standing in the enemy team's goal with the ball in place."

"Sounds like fun! I gotta remember that the next time I throw a party." noted Pinkie Pie.

"Good luck finding magnetic gloves for hooves." chucked Scorch. "Another sport I enjoy playing is hockey."

"Something that should have died out, but Canadians are so insistent on tradition." insulted Scarecrow. "Another thing we humans do to pass time in summer is swim in pools or go biking in parks."

"And bikin' would be?" let on Applejack.

"It's almost like riding a scooter, but don't bother asking about it considering you need to be bi-pedal with hands to operate a bike." disappointed X-ray. "By the way, why does Scootaloo ride scooters?"

"Because it's her talent. Duh." said Rainbow Dash.

"Surely you ponies should've realized that she needs to hold on a grip for safety which requires fingers?" referenced Overwatch. "To be exact, why have scooters if you can't operate them properly?"

"How about the answer of; why not? Are you 4 going to question everything we ponies posses?" stated Luna.

"Only the stuff that doesn't make sense." corrected Scorch. "We humans also like playing board games when we're board of watching movies and playing video games."

"Oh? Like picitonary, chess, scrabble and monopony?" piped up Rarity.

"How do you know what those board games are?" said X-ray.

"Oh, I see you humans have those games too? How splendid." smiled Celestia.

"More like creepy. We've had those games for hundreds of years except monopoly which was banned due to obvious redundant political reasons." stated Scorch.

"Just don't challenge me or X-ray to chess. I'm an expert and X-ray's Armenian, it's in his blood." teased Scarecrow.

"Well, I'm an exceptional chess player myself." smirked Twilight.

"I wouldn't challenge her if were you. If that was okay with you." whispered Fluttershy.

"The last thing I can think of is going to coffee shops like Fedbucks for a quick drink and just relax." finalized Scarecrow.

"So, that's all what we can think of what humans do for fun, what do ponies do for entertainment?" questioned Scorch.

"Well it really depends on the pony you ask." chirped Pinkie Pie. "Our cutie mark kinda represents the activities we do all the time. When we're not going on crazy adventures, I like baking cupcakes, pulling pranks and practical jokes. Don't you humans like pulling pranks."

"Oh man, I remember some really rich ones we pulled together." laughed Rainbow Dash.

"Not really. Pranks are far too immature for our taste. Even when we were kids, practical jokes are viewed as cheap method to gain attention." denied Scarecrow.

"So how do you humans get a laugh?" interrogated Celestia.

"Either through comedic stories or by going to cafes to watch stand up comedy." answered X-ray.

Twilight straightened her mane. "Well, when I have free time, I like to read books. Physical books. Which reminds me, are library's extinct?"

Scarecrow knitted his eyebrows. "Of course not. People still read physical books and libraries offer data pads with preloaded books on them for people to read. Rather than checking out books however, humans just buy codes from librarians to download them on their tablets temporarily or just buy them permentantly. I read myself a lot. After all, I do intend on becoming an author when I'm discharged from service."

Twilight cleared her throat. "When I'm not reading, I live up to my name as the alicorn of magic by practicing all sorts of new spells."

"To me, sewing dresses is my job and my free time." dramatized Rarity. "When I am not doing that however, I make frequent trips to the Ponyville spa. Do human ladies enjoy the same thing?"

"You could say that. Overwatch's sister went to the spa a lot when she still lived on Requiem. As well as our mothers from time to time." acknowledged Scorch.

"When Ah'm not savin' the town form some random mishap, ah'm always workin' on the field buckin' apple trees. Ain't got no time for fun. Mostly" boasted Applejack.

"Can't you get any help to lessen the amount of time you spend on work?" condescended X-ray.

"'Course not. Us Apples gotta do hard work our selves. It's a tradition." remarked the cowpony.

"Typical conservative rednecks." muttered Scarecrow. "Sometimes I wished we crushed you all in the civil war."

The commander received dirty looks from his squad mates.

"Alright, that last part was taking it too far." scolded Scorch.

The commander sincerely agreed with the demo man made an apologetic look.

The ponies, who hadn't heard the insult, continued. "I'm normally taking care of my animals or doing some other activity that involves cute critters to pass the time." whispered Fluttershy. "When I'm with my friends, I just do what they want."

"I on the other hoof practice my flying." gloated Rainbow Dash. "I gotta keep my title as fastest flier in Equestria. Plus, I have to remain trained if I'm gonna join the Wonderbolts."

"And they are?" inquired X-ray.

"They're the most famous flying group in all of Equestria. Only the best fliers are allowed to join them!" exclaimed the Rainbow Maned Pegasus. "If I keep up my current awesomeness, I'll be on their team in know time and...finally have a chance to hook up with Soarin."

As Rainbow Dash formed a dreamy look in her eye, Scarecrow checked a file on the internet.

"The Wonderbolts sound an awful lot like the Air Force's Thunderbolts. They're made up of the greatest pilots in human society and often perform air shows during festivals."

"Do they wear blue and yellow jump suits?" chuckled Twilight.

"Not really, but they have blue and yellow patterned interceptors."

"Whoa! I didn't know there was a human equivalent of the Wonderbolts!" cheered Rainbow Dash. "That is so awesome."

"More like creepy." corrected X-ray. "How long have they been around?"

"Around 100 years or so. I'm a fan too." smiled Pinkie Pie.

"Well the Thunderbolts have been active since the 20th century." informed Scarecrow. "I think it makes sense for pegasai to invent flying teams, but the fact that you share a similar name and pattern is uncanny."

"Don't any of you have those sports teams you're big fans of?" asked Shining Armor.

"We don't like watching sports physically or virtually." sighed Scorch. "We don't really have any preferences. I'm a hockey fan and I'm still unfamiliar with the teams."

"Maybe that's because they're 3 of them in existence from the only cities left in Canada." implied Scarecrow.

"What about the other humans?" brought up Twilight.

X-ray yawned before speaking. "That's a broad term, but many humans still like supporting a team. I heard we humans used to spend millions on athletes but after realizing how redundant hat sounded, we put an end to the practice. The players didn't even care."

"You can't blame them for being rewarded for their talents." whimpered FLuttershy.

"We're not a meritocracy and we don't find the urge to follow up with an athlete unless he or she does something useful." snorted Scarecrow.

Luna raised her muzzle. "That's rather shallow. As for me, I haven't much time for fun. Since I was locked in the moon for 1 thousand years, I have to get aquatinted to the new methods of entertainment."

"I on the other hoof am too preoccupied with running the country and deciphering what evil will threaten our nation next." continued Celestia. "Although I do enjoy eating cake pulling pranks secretly. They often call this part of me, Trollestia."

"Yeah, just don't pull one on us or else we'll be put in a really messed up mood. And you do not want us angry." warned Overwatch.

"Believe me, I don't." assured Celestia.

"When I'm not running the Crystal empire, I usually take strolls with my husband." said Cadance. "Since I'm the Alicorn of love, it is my duty to help out those with marital issues."

"But what we can all agree on is that we love a good old soiree!" cheered Pinkie Pie. "How come you 4 never like partying?"

"It's just our preference." defended X-ray. "The same way it's your reason want to party."

"The truth is, we're not social. In high school, it was just the 4 of us sticking together...and those 9 other guys we hung with." remembered Scorch.

"Are all members of the 23rd anti social?" asked Cadance.

"Of course not. Even when the division has its get togethers, we still hang out in the sidelines." stated Scarecrow.

"The girls of Phantom squad are party animals like Pinkie Pie. And let me tell you, they're willing to take it to really suggestive levels if you know what I mean." winked X-ray.

The Equestrians blushed awkwardly.

"The members of Dusk and Specter squad are rather popular as well when they're not working as counter terrorists." remarked Scorch. "The only the thing we truly share is our inability to feel remorse from violence."

"Also I'm sociophobic, crowds make me really nervous." shivered Scarecrow.

"Remind me to not put you anywhere near large groups of ponies." requested Celestia.

"Trust me, with our luck at parties, we're almost inclined to believe in curses." warned X-ray.

"Come on there's gotta be some stuff you can tell us about kicking it." insisted Twilight in a rough voice.

"Well first you have those really fancy parties with ballroom dancing and all. Really boring." yawned Scarecrow.

"Tell me about it." sighed Celestia.

"I remember this one time where we went to the Grand Galloping Gala and it was a disaster!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

"Well maybe if your realized there was more than one type of party, we wouldn't be in such a situation." insisted Rarity.

"As for types of parties. The kind Pinkie Pie throws is similar to what humans throw.. for children." stammered Scorch.

"Not true, sometimes I bring up dance floors and lighting to age it up." smirked the pink mare.

"Humans do parties for people our age are a lot more mature." laughed Scarecrow. "What a lot of humans our age do is go to night clubs."

"Night clubs?" brightened Luna.

"Those are places we humans go to party throughout the night. I have to admit they're quite exciting." informed Scorch.

Luna formed a dreamy look in her eye. The idea of Ponies staying up all night to celebrate was riveting.

"How are human parties more mature?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"A lot of times there are female strippers who take off their clothes for sexual entrainment."

"How is getting naked sexual?" questioned Twilight.

"Humans are clothed all the time, so it's become an instinct." answered X-ray.

"Why would humans exploit sexual acts during soiree's?" gasped Rarity.

"Humans are in general sexual beings. Unlike ponies, people often have sex for recreation not just reproduction." explained Scarecrow.

"How vulgar." snorted Celestia.

"Also, a lot of humans smoke weed during parties." added Scorch.

Applejack was disgusted. "Why would you do drugs?"

"Pot isn't exactly lethal, in fact it has medical uses. Humans are smart enough to regulate how much they take in." defended X-ray.

"Next you will be telling me you gamble too!" sneered Rainbow Dash.

"Actually we do. The 4 of us don't but other party goers enjoy it." said Scarecrow. "Most casinos are owned by the Federation though so we make sure people don't do stupid bets that could risk their life savings."

"Does the Federation own everything?" questioned Shining Armor.

"No. They just have an annoying paranoia about local businesses so they regulate them unnecessary levels." shrugged Scorch.

"Although a lot of times there are privately owned party areas. However, a large number of them sell illegal drugs, sexual slavery and are in ties with mafia." remarked X-ray.

"How horrendous!" gasped Rarity.

"We know. We often have to raid them and either arrest or take out its owners if they fail to comply to our pre mission haunting." smiled Scarecrow.

"Wow, human party goers makes me sound like a baby." frowned Pinkie Pie.

Celestia noticed the members of Shadow looking relatively worried despite their previous energetic moods.

"Something wrong?"

X-ray sighed. "It's just all the things we humans have in common with ponies. Similar sports teams, recreational ideas, languages, architecture and food recipes."

"These are just coincidences. No need to get worked up." assured Twilight.

"You might not comprehend this, but we believe it's more than similarities." countered Scorch. "We hope we don't run into any more anomalies."

Shadow didn't know what they were up for next.

Author's Note

Hope we can get to 200 likes. That would make me :)

Chapter 31: Anomalies

(Alright, this is the last time I'm posting UTF propaganda since I'm running out of candidates. After this I'm going back to quotes. If you have any suggestions, show me.)

(As you can see, the UTF has a red, black and white obsession.)

(Something to show how the UTF encourages innovation and creativity. More positive.)

Note: I have discontinued part of chapter 2.

"I for one, would like to know about what kind of music you humans produce." requested Celestia.

Scarecrow took the lead. "Music is perhaps one of the greatest expressions of human nature and ingenuity ever. We have a wide variety of musical genres people can listen too."

"One of the oldest and most renowned genres of music that is especially enjoyed me is the elegant orchestra." dramatized Rarity. "Nothing too bold though, I like my music soft."

"You should really listen to pony symphonies, they're quite riveting." invited Cadance.

"Save your self the trouble, they're probably way too slow for you." yawned Rainbow Dash.

"Actually, the 4 of us are really fond of symphonies and orchestra music." brought up X-ray. "It's one of the oldest forms of music and the fact that it hold up today is quite a marvel."

"Huh, another thing we have in common with humans." flexed Twilight. "Although I don't think are orchestras have the same way of producing music."

"I doubt it." shook Scorch. "We probably utilize the same techniques and instruments to create music."

"Well, we ponies have a whole bunch of instruments!" chirped Pinkie Pie. "We have tubas, drums, harmonicas, trumpets, pianos, cellos, violins-"

"And so do we humans." interrupted Scorch. "How long have you ponies had these instruments?"

"The instruments used in orchestras aren't recent creations. The oldest instruments that are in use today are around a few hundred years old. Some instruments like the saxophone are really new and were invented during the times of our great grand parents." informed Twilight.

"Well, the oldest instruments that we humans use, especially in orchestras and symphonies are at most, a thousand years old." said Scarecrow.

"What are the odds we'd manufacture the same tools for music?" laughed Luna.

"Why do you ponies even have instruments like that?" questioned Overwatch.

"So we can make music. Duh." pointed Applejack.

"No, we mean why do you have these specific kind of instruments?" questioned X-ray.

"I don't follow." frowned Cadance.

Scarecrow sighed and lit up a hologram from his wrist computer of a series on instruments such as a piano and trumpet

"What do you notice about these instruments?"

The Equestrians looked at each other for a moment.

"They're not what you call, animated?" guessed Rainbow Dash.

Scarecrow face palmed. "No. Look at how they're supposed to be played. Don't any of you realize something is off with hoofed creatures using these kinds of instruments?"

"Not really. We ponies can operate them fine. For the most part." pointed Twilight.

X-ray let it out. "The instruments you ponies have clearly are clearly meant for bi-pedal beings with 5 fingers to operate. Look at how a human would play the instrument."

The hologram changed to depict a human caricature playing a violin. The ponies were awe struck by the hologram itself as well as the method the human used to play it.

"I don't see the problem. That's how ponies play the violin." squealed Fluttershy.

Scorch sighed. "If you pay attention to all the instruments you ponies have, you should notice that all the chords that need to be struck to generate music are meant for delicate fingers."

"It doesn't have to be. We ponies can play these instruments just fine with hooves and telekinesis." countered Celestia.

"I can understand playing with telekinesis, but hooves. Really?" shrugged X-ray. "Shouldn't have ponies noticed that the chords are far too small for practical application with hooves."

"X-ray is right. I always found the notes on an instrument devilishly small." agreed Luna.

Scarecrow twirled his gloved fingers. "That's because they're meant for appendages like these. Because humans have multiple fingers, we can strike single or multiple chords and will."

The hologram display changed to depict a women playing a saxophone. No audio however. The Equestrians paid attention to how the caricature of the women used her fingers to play the saxophone in ways nopony had seen before.

"Meanwhile, a pony would probably have serious trouble trying to strike one chord at a time." implied Scorch. "On a piano, a hoof would most likely strike more notes than needed at times just to give an example. Also, a pony has no digits, they can't play multiple chords that are apart form each other. Or at least with any accuracy."

"Well we ponies have been aware of such a problem, but nonetheless we adapted and produced beautiful music. Pony musicians simply have their own tact for handling instruments with hooves." stated Rarity.

"But what about drums or any other percussion instrument? Why have that?" added X-ray.

"I don't see the problem in having drums. You can just smack the drumheads with your hooves." replied Pinkie Pie.

"That makes sense." relented Scarecrow. "But in order to use some percussion instrument properly, one would normally need a stick of some sort to strike the instrument to get a more accurate note."

"Well I don't see ponies using any instrument that requires us to carry a delicate object." defended Twilight.

"But aren't you ponies still uncomfortable when playing instruments?" inquired Overwatch.

Luna was uncomfortable. "Why would we be uncomfortable?"

"Look at the way one would need to properly play a cello." instructed X-ray. The commando tapped on his wrist computer to change the hologram to show an upright man in the position necessary to play the instrument.

"Speaking of a cello, you real should see this player named Octavia she's fabulous." invited Celestia.

"Has she ever told you how uncanny playing the instrument feels?" glared Scorch.

"Why would a pony play an instrument if it didn' feel right?" glared back Applejack.

"Observe the way the man has to play the instrument we likely had for a longer time than you." showed Scarecrow. "Notice how the man is an upright position to play correctly."

"Yeah? We ponies play instruments like that too, otherwise there would be something wrong with the music." replied Twilight.

"Why though? Ponies are quadrupeds." exhaled Scorch.

"And how does that have anything to do with music?" shook Cadance.

"Humans are bi-peds, standing up to play instruments isn't unnatural at all. Ponies are all on 4, they would have to alter their natural stance to play most symphonic devices and surely that isn't comfortable." explained X-ray.

"Ponies who play instruments get used to standing on two hooves." countered Luna.

"Furthermore, observe how some instruments like the clarinet and flute require not only an upright position and hands, but also for said appendages to be curved as well." demonstrated Scarecrow.

The ponies looked at picture after picture detailing how humans played music. Sure enough, the stances were similar to how pony bands played them, but it felt so much more natural when they played it.

"Those humans sure look a lot less tense." whispered Fluttershy.

"Exactly, why make instruments meant for humans to play?" questioned Scorch.

"So how else do you propose we make music?" asked Twilight back.

"Why not invent instruments that are meant for quadrupeds with hooves to operate and not the other way around?" proposed Scarecrow. "It would have been far more interesting to see brand new instruments meant for ponies to utilize, not devices humans already have."

"I was well alive when these instruments were created, and they just seemed like a good idea." defended Celestia. "Since my subjects played music well, there was no harm done."

"But whose brilliant idea was it to say 'hey we're ponies, let's make instruments an upright ape should be using'. Doesn't that bother you a bit?" inquired X-ray.

"From what I have read from books regarding the arts, it just happened. Ponies didn't get an epiphany to create musical instruments like humans, it just happened naturally." informed Twilight.

Shadow looked at each other. Without speaking, they knew what the other was thinking.

"We see." nodded Overwatch.

"How does knowing about musical instruments possibly contribute anything to the goals of the Federation?" asked Cadance wearily.

"It's not about instruments, it's about the overarching principle." trivialized X-ray.

The Mane 6 groaned.

"Something wrong girls?" worried Celestia.

Twilight flexed her mane. "Shadow squad has this theory that we're-"

"We'll get to that in a moment. As for types of music, you'll find that we may have a lot of common." brushed off Scorch.

"The genre preferred by us is classical. Although with a more modern spin which I'm sure you ponies haven't come across." insisted Scarecrow.

"Do you guys play any instruments?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Scorch can play percussion, Scarecrow can play trumpet. Me and Overwatch are pretty uncaring towards playing music but we did play clarinet and tenor saxophone in high school band." remembered X-ray.

"Could you play us a human symphony now? You sang pretty well an hour ago." requested Celestia.

"How about we show it to you? Our devices are capable of storing music data." proposed Overwatch. The counter terrorist snatched X-ray's tablet and found a great song written in 2295 by Don 'O' Martin.

"Listen"

The music started playing from the speakers of the tablet. From the screen a hologram showing a human orchestra playing the instruments. The mares and Shining Armor had to get closer to hear the song perfectly.

Needless to say, the ponies were mesmerized. From the video, the ponies saw how skillfully they played the instruments compared to even the most renowned musicians in Equestria as well as how natural it felt. With fingers, they didn't need to move their bodies in awkward positions.

As for the music. It was breathtaking. Despite Shadow's violent nature, they sure enjoyed beautiful music. There were some elements in the song the ponies didn't recognize however.

Even Rainbow Dash who hated classical and Applejack who didn't like listening to non country music were taken as well. Rarity recognized the style of music as the one she listened to. However, this song was slightly more aggressive in its tone and something that would be used in epic plays. Perhaps the excitement the song produced was what drew the two tomboys in.

Finally the song concluded and the ponies were left speechless.

"My word, that was amazing." complimented Celestia.

"Thanks. This song has been played for quite a while since its implementation a few centuries ago." nodded Scarecrow.

"Centuries?" gasped Twilight.

"Humans tend to have a habit of keeping music alive. Some artists such as Mozart and Bach have their music being played for nearly a millennium." laughed Scorch.

"Although it did sound slightly different to what I listen to." pointed Rarity.

"Like I care. That made orchestra fun!" cheered Rainbow Dash.

"Well we humans like experimenting with music." noted X-ray. "We've come across many genres. Some of which you may have like country music."

"Yeah we got dat." chuckled Applejack. "Do any of y'all listen ta it?"

"Nah it died out with the rest of farm folk culture." responded Scorch. "Most people of your descent still listen to songs played by people of the same ethnicity though."

Scarecrow continued the conversation. "A genre we humans enjoy when we want to calm ourselves is jazz music. It's basically using the same instruments as symphonies but with a more calming demeanor."

"Oh we have that." squeaked Fluttershy. "Noteworthy and other ponies enjoy playing it at the cafes. Really relaxing."

"How long have you had Jazz or Swing?" asked X-ray.

"Around the same time we invented instruments like the saxophone.. The earliest ponies who listened and played this kind of music were our grand parents." informed Twilight.

Scorch crossed his arms. "Well we humans have had Jazz music for nearly 600 years. Maybe more."

"Another genre we humans enjoy listening to which I'd rather not discuss is rock." brought up Scorch.

"Rock?" repeated Luna.

"Yeah apparently stones can talk. So can metal!" cheer Pinkie Pie.

X-ray face palmed. "Rock is a musical genre made popular in the 20th century that developed off of swing. It was modified with focus on guitar and made with a much more heavier sound."

"So that's why it's called rock! Because it's a hard form of music." chirped Rainbow Dash.

"And metal developed off of rock as an even heavier form with louder guitars and more aggressive singing." concluded Scarecrow.

"How clever, it's called metal because it's heavier than rock." realized Cadance.

"Most rock and metal bands are often consisted of a bass player, an electric guitarist, a drummer and singer as opposed to dozens of players in a orchestra or jazz band." explained X-ray.

"What's an electric guitar?" asked Applejack.

Right before the ponies could stop X-ray- "An electric guitar is a variation of an acoustic one that uses a transducer to register the vibration of strings into a electric impulses which is then transferred to a speaker which plays out the transmitted audio."

"Regardless, 4 people sounds like too little to make music." noticed Twilight.

"Not really, those two genres are very loud and strong. Especially since the sounds are enhance via machinery I'd rather not play any of that music with you mares around." warned Scorch.

"Why not?" questioned Celestia.

Scarecrow formed a sheepish grin. "Because, well, rock and metal music is so extreme and at times, upsetting. You all are so gentle-"

"Oh please you think we can't handle it?" gloated Rainbow Dash. "Play us the heaviest stuff you got."

"Besides, how can music be angry and make anypony feel down? Music is supposed to be fun and uplifting." smiled Cadance.

"You asked for it." warned Overwatch. The sniper found a rock song written in the 24th century and played it. Unlike the symphony, there was no hologram detailing the musicians, but rather just the music.

The song started with a soft acoustic and drum opening before taking the ponies by surprise with an electric guitar blast. It wasn't as heavy as metal but the fast pace was far too much for ponies. The lyrics also baffled the equines given its rebellious nature. Finally the song concluded with an a guitar solo and a replay of the chorus.

After a pause.

"That was even brash for me!" let out Rainbow Dash.

"It was a little loud." squealed Twilight.

"Those lyrics were just so depressing." cried Cadance.

"Well, I hate to break it to you. But government oppression was a problem on Helghan." snorted Scorch. "Back then, a coup occurred on the colony that instilled a xenophobic empire that vilified minorities. Many bands, such as Borderland who we just listened to, rebelled against this stance and expressed it through music."

"I didn't know music could be used as an outlet for ideas." said Celestia.

"What? You think music is just about fun times and working out?" trivialized Scarecrow. "A lot of times it's about tackling injustice and issues."

"But why did it have to be so aggressive in its approach?" pondered Rarity.

"Because injustice isn't anything we should be passive about. We have to get angry sometimes." glared X-ray.

"Such barbaric music has no place in a joyful place like Equestria." snorted Luna.

"Why? Because it would make people realize all the stuff that's wrong with the nation and try to fix it?" mocked Scorch.

"Ah just don' think we should be so worried or gettin' mad when listenin' ta music." insisted Applejack.

"Well, music is one of the most common things people enjoy, so it's a great excuse to find a way to expose injustice." defended Scarecrow.

"What happens when music like that exposes injustice of the Federation?" challenged Pinkie Pie.

"They're shot for treason." muttered Overwatch.

The mouths of the ponies dropped, only for Shadow squad to laugh.

"Just kidding. The UTF defends free speech even at its own expense." assured X-ray.

"But aren't there things some wouldn't want to hear?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"It's their fault for listening, not the musicians." countered Scorch. "At least it wasn't as heavy as metal."

"I don't think music like that can get heavier." shook Twilight.

Scarecrow didn't want to prove Twilight wrong. "Moving on, another genre we humans have is rap, which has basically died out and fused with rock permanently."

"What's it like?" inquired Rainbow Dash.

Scorch flexed his blond hair. "It's hard to describe, but it normally involves fast paced lyrics. Not as heavy as rock and metal at all, but quite fast. Rappers tend to cover various topics from romance to society. We don't listen to this type of music and neither to we think you ponies would."

"Another musical genre we humans have that's fairly popular is pop music." added X-ray.

"Pop? You mean like when balloons burst?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"No. Pop was developed around the same time as rock music but was generally more accessible with softer chords and and lighter attitudes. Mostly focusing on social life, especially romance." explained Scarecrow. "It's not something we listen to, but you ponies seem to produce music that's awfully close to it."

"Furthermore, pop music tends to mostly use electronic instruments rather than physical ones." added Scorch.

"By electronic music, you mean like what Vinyl Scratch plays right?" checked Twilight.

Shadow couldn't believe they forgot a crucial fact.

"Why does Vinyl Scratch and her coltfriend Neon-something play dubstep, or electronic or party?" questioned Scarecrow.

"Because it's their special talent silly. Electronic music was created a few years ago." smiled Pinkie Pie.

X-ray crossed his arms. "Do you have any idea how wrong this situation is?"

"So what you are saying is that we can't enjoy party music?" glared Celestia.

"No. Electronic music came to humanity well after we developed genres like rock and pop which you ponies haven't even heard of. How can you have dubstep without even having developed the genres developed prior?" trivialized Scorch.

"We're not humans, we don't have to have the same genres as you!" shook Rainbow Dash.

"You don't get it." pointed X-ray. "One musical genre has lead to another. Classical to jazz to swing to rock, metal and pop to techno. Each genre is the influence of the other. A chicken can't be born without an egg."

"What are you trying to imply?" stared Twilight.

"Just how odd it is that ponies have a very old human genre that somehow lead to the newest alliteration of music." explained Scarecrow. "How could the pony inventors of techno music randomly get the idea to create electronica without earlier genres to build off of? Ponies have successfully untouched hundreds of years of music."

"Was that last part supposed to be an insult or compliment?" pondered Pinkie Pie.

"Neither. We're just pointing out how anachronistic it is for Equestria to have electronic music, which is a genre made popular in the 20th century, despite the fact that they are lacking many other fields." defended X-ray.

"Like what?" questioned Cadance.

"Electronica comes from mostly synthesizers right?"checked Scarecrow.

"Correct." answered the ponies.

"Well to have turn tables or whatever is needed to create electornica, ponies need to or at least should have developed an understanding of machinery like the radio and the computer." informed Scorch. "And while ponies have speakers, the only form for you all to play music is through records."

"What do computers have to do with music?" asked Twilight.

"The way humans produce most kinds of music these days is through computer apps." explained X-ray. "Like playing a virtual instrument."

"Doesn't that mean humans don't have to actually be proficient in singing or playing instruments to make music?" awed Rarity.

"In a way, yes." nodded Scarecrow. "Unlike ponies, not all humans have perfect vocal chords nor are we that good in musical improv. We don't usually burst into song unless we're really high."

"Human machinery must be pretty sophisticated if you can produce music with only electronic skills." stated Celestia.

"When it comes to music, machinery is a blessing and a curse." growled Overwatch.

"How's it a curse?" gasped Pinkie Pie. "Does it suck the soul of-"

Scorch interrupted Pinkie. "In the past, humans became famous and earned money through musical talent since they could sing and play instruments like professionals. For two reasons having to do with machinery, such a dream is virtually nonexistent."

"The first thing that pretty much collapsed the industry is piracy." started Scarecrow.

"Humans broke into music stores and stole records?" gasped Fluttershy.

"No." responded Scarecrow. "No humans has ever needed to use a disc to listen to music for centuries. Instead, we listen to virtual sound files on our devices. By piracy, we mean humans finding the audio file on a file sharing website and basically copy the files onto our devices without paying."

"Dats stealin'!" yelled Applejack.

"Virtually." muttered Scorch.

"Shouldn't have the Federation cracked down on situations like that?" remarked Shining Armor.

"Not really." shook X-ray. "It trembles on a person's freedom to use the internet which the Federation won't regulate and is if a technocratic government is going to appreciate people getting rich from entertainment rather than ingenuity."

"Another reason why the music industry pretty much imploded is that technology basically allowed humans to compose songs in an extremely easy fashion without talent." added Scorch.

"I understand. Why work hard and learn to sing and play when you could simply recreate the same songs on machine?" condescended Twilight.

"Exactly. When everyone could make hit songs in a heart beat without ever having to work for it, people with actual talent no longer became special." informed X-ray. "And since everybody just pirates the music you create, humans can virtually no loner profit off of music."

"Virtually?" heard Celestia.

"The reason why neo classical music is so popular is because it's extremely hard to replicate an entire orchestra. As a result, most humans enjoy seeing an epic symphony perform." explained Scarecrow. "Also dance music has survived since most people go to clubs."

"What about rock or pop concerts? Don't humans see those anymore?" asked Cadance.

"Of course. We do. But since it's easier to create mainstream music on a tablet or machine, why waste time learning to sing or play an instrument?" shrugged Scorch.

"That's kinda lazy." scolded Applejack.

"We humans have flaws too." pointed Scarecrow. "Musicians still exist and all, but they don't last long due to piracy and the fact that the chances of them being noticed amongst a large quantity of humans is minimal. As a result most humans just make their own music or listen to old artists. But even if we can't profit form it, the fire of music still burns."

"But what does this have to do with electronica in Equestria?" questioned Twilight.

"We're curious as to why ponies like Vinyl Scratch are creating music on technologies that shouldn't exist unless previous alliterations have existed." explained X-ray.

"I believe the instruments that are used to create electronic music are simply piano like technologies that are amplified and altered by the artists magic. I've noticed most electronic singers are unicorns." inferred Rarity.

"Makes sense I guess." sighed Scorch. "So rather than creating that genre of music with programing, unicorns use sound waves emitted from their horns."

"Can we please abandon this discussion? It's making my head hurt." groaned Rainbow Dash.

"How about we change the discussion to human holidays? I would like to know what days humans have marked special as well as why." proposed Celestia.

"Fair enough." nodded Scarecrow. "The first holiday we have is new years day celebrated every 365 days at January 1st with the exception of leap years."

"How marveolus! We Ponies celebrate new years day at the same rate and time too!" exclaimed Rarity.

"Celestia and Luna. You two control the star and moon rotation of Epona right?" checked X-ray.

"It is true. Controlling day and night is an arbitrary tasks for us alicorns." answered Luna.

"Here's a fun fact. If your planet saw no direct interference in solar rotation, the extremely weak stellar gravity emitted by your star would send the planet flying." said Scorch.

"We are aware of that. Discord almost succeeded in doing that very same thing." remembered Celestia.

"Well since you're in charge of day and night, why make new year 365 days like Earth?" questioned Scarecrow.

"Beg your pardon?" frowned the solar alicorn.

"The reason why we celebrate new years day every 365 days is because that is how long it takes Earth to naturally complete a cycle around our sun, Sol." explained X-ray.

"Well isn't that how long a planet is supposed to do a complete cycle?" asked Twilight.

"No. Each planet takes its own time based on distance from the star and other factors." informed Overwatch before X-ray could rant. "Mars takes more than 680 days for a year around the same sun., Kepler 62 e takes 122 days and it's even more complex for moon colonies like Europa."

"Wow, it must be hard to memorize all those new years day parties for all the colonies huh?" empathized Pinkie Pie.

Scarecrow scratched his chin. "Not really, all colonies just celebrate the Terran new year in honor of our home world. And let's just say that new years day on this world be every 190 days."

The equestrians pondered the statement for a moment.

"But back to the question. The day and night alicorns are in complete control of planetary rotation, why choose 365 days for a new year?" inquired X-ray.

"It was not our decision. 365 days has always been a new year for ponies." defended Luna.

"But why did ponies choose 365 days like Earth and decide there would be leap years LIKE EARTH?" yelled Scarecrow.

Applejack shrugged. "Coincidence."

"I doubt it." hissed Overwatch.

"Another holiday we humans have that we celebrate on December 24th is Christmas." added Scorch. "It was celebrated by Christians in honor of Jesus Christ, but since the religion is virtually extinct, we remember this holiday for all the main things Christ taught us like love and tolerance."

"Well that's a beautiful holiday." complimented Celestia. Suddenly, the ponies couldn't stop laughing.

"What's so funny?" questioned Scarecrow.

"When humans celebrate Christmas, ponies celebrate Heart's Warming Eve." chuckled Twilight.

"You mean the day when ponies united as one nation?" checked X-ray.

Rarity cleared her throat. "Yes. December 24th is when the three pony tribes unified as one. We celebrate the day as a reminder to the ideals of friendship and harmony that our nation was founded on. Before that however, we celebrate the events involving the three founders and three advisors that lasted from late November to early December known as the week of Harmony."

"The Jewish celebration of Hanukah takes place from late November to early December." stammered Scarecrow.

Scorch taped into his radio to contact the Feds. "Are you getting this?"

"Loud and clear." radioed the HOD. "Shit is getting creepy. Keep interrogating."

"How long have ponies been celebrating Heart's Warming Eve?" asked X-ray.

"Around 2 thousand and 510 years." checked Pinkie Pie.

"Humans have been celebrating Christmas for 2 thousand and 530 years and even more so for Hanukah." said Scorch. "By the way, how long have the alicorns ruled if Equestria has only been unified for a fraction of Epona's existence?"

"For a while, the Alicorns merely saw a status as deities that oversaw the various pony nations. When the tribes united, we became fully fledged monarchs." explained Luna.

"What do ponies do during this holiday?" asked Scarecrow.

"Well, we set up a Heart's Warming Eve Tree and light a heart shaped candle every day during harmony weak to symbolize our ideals of friendship." revealed Pinkie Pie.

"We also give presents to kind fillies and colts." whispered Fluttershy.

X-ray face palmed. "Humans give presents to good boys and girls during Christmas and set up a tree as well. The whole burning candle thing is what is done on the Jewish holiday of Hanukah."

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "Do you sing carols by any chance?"

Scarecrow groaned. "Yes, but we've largely altered the lyrics of Christmas carols to be secular."

"Why are you so upset?" questioned Cadance.

"Because we humans find it rather odd that we have a holiday celebrated within the same time period based on the same ideals with the exact same traditions." gritted Scorch. "It's like you copied our race 100%."

"Not exactly. Christmas has nothing to do with unification." reminded Twilight.

"That's a minor detail for what may be the exact same holiday practiced by two races that evolved separately on worlds stars apart!" exclaimed Scarecrow.

"Come now. You're getting two worked up over a coincidence." encouraged Luna.

"Coincidence!" yelled Shadow and the congressmen watching from Bernstein.

Shining Armor changed the subject. "What other holidays do you humans have?"

X-ray's patience was slipping. "Well let's see? We have labour day on May 1st to celebrate the working man and labour rights? Do you ponies happen to have plagiarized this holiday?"

Before an Equestrian could respond-

"Of course not! You probably don't even know what a union is." screeched the rifleman.

Scorch was more clam. "We humans also celebrate January 14 in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. as a reminder for civil rights and equality. We've been celebrating it for nearly 600 years."

"A noble day to remember." nodded Celestia. "We ponies have no Equivalent."

"Funny, since you ponies have traits regarding times dating after Martin Luther King's era." exhaled Scarecrow.

"I doubt you humans have a Summer Sun celebration equivalent celebrated on the 23rd of June." said Celestia. "That festival is used to mark the longest day and our defeat over NightMare Moon."

"Finally. Something original." calmed Scorch. The demo man faced Luna. "And you're okay with ponies celebrating it?"

"As of now, it is used to celebrate the act of Celestia moving the sun. So I'm cool." smiled Luna.

"We humans also have this holiday on February 14 called Valentines day." added X-ray.

The ponies started tensing.

"Basically Valentines day is a day dedicated to love, romance and hearts. All that mushy stuff." blurted Scorch.

The Equestrians were getting even more nervous.

"In the end it's all about finding your special somebody and all that bullshit." muttered the asexual Overwatch.

"We're not really interested in that holiday." muttered Scorch.

Cadance tried to hide her anxiety. "Why's that? Can't get any dates?"

Shadow blushed nervously.

"Well. I guess so." admitted Scarecrow. "Like we said, we never had any girlfriends." Shadow's commander could have sworn he heard a congressmen call him a looser from the COMs. Typical politicians.

"Why's that?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"Well, we're too anti social so the odds of us meeting women on Valentines day are abysmal. Made even worse by us joining the 23rd." sighed Scorch.

"Plus girls like the idea of being a mother and we can't exactly fulfill their wish. We're sterile." revealed X-ray.

"Oh my gosh!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

"What?"

"They cut it off?"

"Cut what off?

"You know, that special part males have for special reasons." let on the Pink Mare.

Shadow got even redder.

"NO THEY DID NOT CUT OFF OUR DICKS!" screamed Scarecrow. The laughs of the congressmen and women taking notes were heard form the radio signals.

Pinkie Pie sat back in her seat while Rainbow Dash and Rarity laughed at her.

"3 years ago, we had to raid a chemical weapons facility." told X-ray. "As a last resort to kill us, the terrorists detonated a series of chemical weapons. Due to our masks that filtered the air, we were saved from a slow and painful death, but exposure nonetheless made us biologically sterile. So yes, we still have our....certain organ."

"But that means none of you can have children." gasped Fluttershy as she tried to conceal her nervous attitude.

"I don't need my kids to find out I've killed more than 300 thousand humans." remarked Scorch. "Adoption is still an option anyway. A lot of kids have lost their parents from insurrection attacks."

"....."

"Spill it." dared Scarecrow.

"What do you mean?" faked smiled Twilight.

Scorch crossed his arms. "The moment we brought up Valentines day, you all started getting nervous. You're hiding something from us."

"We're not hiding anything." squealed Rainbow Dash.

"Our lie detectors went off." exhaled Scarecrow. "Let me guess, ponies celebrate Valentines day too?"

"Not fully." corrected Cadance. "We ponies have a holiday called Hearts and Hooves day."

The humans didn't laugh at the name.

"And it's all about love and finding your special somepony? Maybe even exchanging red paper hearts and eating candies?" interrogated X-ray.

"It is, and I normally oversee the festivities carried out during this holiday as the princess of love." said Cadance.

"So once again, we ponies and humans share a holiday, celebrated on the same day and based on the same ideals." shook Scarecrow. "How long have ponies been celebrating this holiday?"

"For around a thousand and 300 hundred years." guessed Twilight.

"While facts have been distorted, humans have been celebrating Valentines day since the 4th century AD. It originated as a Pagan holiday although information on the origin has been lost." explained X-ray.

"The history of Hearts and Hooves day to recounts a time when a prince gave a love poison to a Princess that was my great aunt." explained Celestia.

"Love poison? You mean those pheromone drinks that drug a person to be in the presence of another with the same pheromones unless they are kept away from each for an hour in order for the addiction to wear off? checked X-ray.

Celestia blinked one eye at a time. "Yes."

"After the prince and princesses were drugged, they could no longer perform their duties and were to busy with each other to save their town from being utterly decimated by a monster with no survivors."

Scarecrow's eyes shot open. "That's a pretty dark origin story. Why would ponies base a day on romance from a grave tragedy?"

"We don't know. Things just happen and please don't get mad at us." squealed Fluttershy.

"Well at least our love holidays aren't too similar." smiled Pinkie Pie.

"Not similar!" exclaimed X-ray. "We celebrate a day based on the principles of love on the same day, with the same traditions and both are based on pretty dark origin points."

"Come now. There's no way you humans celebrate a holiday like this." insisted Luna.

"Like what?" challenged Scorch.

"On October 31st, we Ponies celebrate NightMare Night as a remembrance of the time when I first transformed into NightMare Moon. Fillies and Colts often dress up in costumes on this holiday and go trick or treating and collect candy while the adolescents like Rainbow Dash enjoy telling horror stories pulling pranks out of immaturity."

Rainbow Dash blushed. Shadow remained silent in frustration.

Scarecrow took a deep breath "On October 31st, we humans celebrate Halloween for reasons we have forgotten where we dress children in costumes to go trick or treating so that they can stuff their whiny little faces with candy while teens and young adults watch horror films and pull pranks because they're fucking assholes."

The ponies didn't know how to respond to such a statement largely due to Scarecrow's swear throwing them off.

"How long have ponies celebrated NighMare Night?" asked X-ray with a strong sense of impatience.

"For a few hundred years." muttered Rarity.

"Well we humans have celebrated Halloween for more than a thousand years." gritted the rifleman. "Why is that ponies are continuously copying human holidays?"

"Hey we're not copying you! That would be rude." defended Pinkie Pie.

"We're not accusing you of plagiarism." responded Scarecrow. "But why is it that whenever humans invent a holiday, ponies have the compelling urge to create a counter part holiday celebrated on the same day with the same ideals?"

"I don't we think ponies are copying you humans consciously." defended Celestia. Suddenly the princess got nervous. "To be fair though, when ponies create holidays, it never seems to be a conscious decision, but rather a compelling urge. As if we need to celebrate holidays like this."

"Urge. Huh?" smiled Scorch. Shadow's theory was looking brighter and brighter.

Fluttershy had the courage to speak. "What holiday do humans have about the environment? We ponies have Arbor day that's celebrated on May 4."

Shadow nearly snapped. Had another human been in their place, they would have thrown themselves out the window.

"We.....we.....humans have a holiday called Arbor day as well.......Celebrated on May 4th to remind us about caring for nature." slowly stated Overwatch. "The exact same holiday, with the exact same purpose celebrated on the exact same day with the exact same name."

The ponies did not need a pissed off Shadow squad right now.

"Come on. Can't you just appreciate how funny this is?" pleaded Pinkie Pie.

"Funny? Ponies that live on another planet that should have lived totally different lives as us have somehow copied our culture. That isn't funny, that is ridiculous." hissed Scarecrow.

"What, does everything have to make sense to you?" accused Rainbow Dash.

"There are plenty of things that don't make sense to us." defended Scorch. "Anything is technically possible, but the reasons for ponies having the same holidays as humans would still have the most redundant explanation ever."

"Not everything needs to have an explanation!" insisted Rarity.

"It does. Nothing happens for no reason." implied X-ray. "We hoped it wouldn't have had to come to this, but we do have a theory as to why ponies may have similar traits as white-western-christian humans."

"Are ya sure this ain't some sort of cosmic coincidence?" suggested Applejack.

"A planet with an Earth like atmosphere populated by primates is a cosmic coincidence." snorted Scarecrow. "Not mythical creatures from human stories that speak English, have invented technology meant for hands and bi-peds, have the same styles of music and the exact same holidays."

"Well the ponies at Saddle Arabia have different traits than Equestria. I don't think it's fair to accuse ponies as a whole for having similar customs as humanity." pointed Twilight.

Scarecrow slammed his head on the table and nearly shattered it. "Is Saddle Arabia by any chance located in a desert and have any laws that violate women's rights?"

"How could you guess that?" awed Rainbow Dash.

"On Earth, we used to have a country named Saudi Arabia that didn't exactly treat women well." implied Scorch. "It was also located in a Desert."

X-ray rolled his eyes. "No need to describe them. We probably already know what they're like. Any other pony nations?"

Celestia felt like Shadow was ready to draw their weapons at any moment. "There's the kingdom of Stalliongrad. Come to think of it, the people of Stalliongrad have voices similar X-ray's accent."

X-ray was Armenian, but that nation was part of the USSR at the time Stalingrad was a city.

"There used to be a city named Stalingrad on Earth." growled Overwatch. "Although rather than naming it after male horses, Stalingrad is named after a dictator that killed millions."

The ponies gasped. Rarity fainted and Fluttershy started to cry.

"Why would humans name a city after a dictator like that?" cried Luna.

"Former city that seized to exist once the dictator died." assured Scorch. "Are the people of Stalliongrad communists with emphasis on labour and ruled by a single party dictatorship?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "It's the Kingdom of Stalliongrad."

"Oh, so Stalliongrad is like Russia during its time as an empire. Makes more sense." stammered Scarecrow.

"How would you know? You've never been there." reminded Rainbow Dash.

"Given the fact that Equestria has ripped off everything having to do with western Europe and how Zebras have plagiarized off Africa, we are certain we know how other nations are like just by hearing their names." snorted Scorch.

"Come on! You humans shouldn't get this mad." insisted Cadance.

X-ray laughed. "Sorry, but the Federation is having a hard time accepting all the anomalies occurring on this planet. What's next, we share the same name for cities?"

Twilight flexed her mess up mane. "That depends, do you humans have any cities named Manehatten? It's the oldest city in Equestria other than Canterlot at 400 years."

Scarecrow just gave up. "We have a city named Manhatten. It's existed for nearly 800 years."

"Fillydelphia?" gasped Rarity.

"Philadelphia." said Scorch.

"Las Pegasus?" questioned Rainow Dash.

"Las Angeles." corrected X-ray.

"Trotingham?" checked Applejack.

"Nottingham. Although it doesn't exist any more." growled Overwatch.

"Universe damn it!" face palmed X-ray. "Now you're ripping off America!"

"How do you know, you're not the ones copying ponies?" challenged Pinkie Pie.

"Because we've made it clear that whatever ponies have, humans have had it for a longer time." defended Scorch. "Logically, Ponies are the ones copying us. Equestria specifically plagiarizes the white western ethnicity while Zebras seem to plagiarize Africa, and the Griffins seem to like Persia."

"Do you really have to find out what's going on?" glared Celestia. "The odds of finding an explanation for our similarities are abysmal."

Scarecrow looked up. "Actually, the Federation has developed a theory derived form our notes and observations. Not just for Equestria and its resemblance to humanity, but rather the planet. It might sound extremely ridiculous, but there's enough evidence to support it."

Author's Note

Yes! We're getting to 200 likes. Thanks. Please, if you faved this fic, like it as well.

This chapter serves as a breather for the more tension heavy dialogue coming up. BTW, I do not count the Grand Galloping Gala as a holiday.

Chapter 32: Rational Mystery Cure

(All rise for the United Terran Federation Anthem and Battle Cry)

"Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition."- Adam Smith.

The last group of servants finished removing all the dinner plates from the table and only left a pile of beverages. The Equestrians had been so invested with Shadow squad, that they had forgotten to eat.

"It might sound ridiculous, but this is the only possible way to explain the replications of Terran technologies and customs on Epona." sighed X-ray.

"Remember when we told you about evolution?" asked Scarecrow.

"You mean the whole idea that we were originally small uninteresting lifeforms that somehow became other lifeforms until we turned into ponies?" chuckled Celestia.

"Do you know why that happens?" challenged Scorch. "The reason why that small cell becomes a sapient creature?"

"Because nopony likes being small?" smiled Pinkie Pie.

"Because of adaptation." informed X-ray. "When an organism experiences a change in the environment, a gradual process occurs throughout millions of years in which the life form begins to mutate and become a new life form in order to survive."

"That sounds ridiculous." laughed Rainbow Dash. "Just because the weather gets bad, doesn't mean I'm gonna sprout an extra limb."

"Well it's the truth whether you like it or not." glared Scorch. "That's how we all got here."

"You humans are all about questioning, why don't you ever evolution?" challenged Twilight. "You seem to defend it like a religion."

"That's because evolution is not a myth or theory. It is a FACT that matter how much you question, will remain valid. It's not something you believe in." groaned Scarecrow.

"How do you know it is true?" inquired Luna, as if she was prepared to accept a trophy.

"Because if you take a fucking machine that analyzes and breaks down DNA, you will notice that humans share common a common genetic code with other lifeforms the same why the children share DNA with their parents." explained X-ray. "If you keep picking apart the genetic code of an organism, you will eventually get to a simple strand of DNA that was the origin of all life."

"So where did that piece of DNA come from huh?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Genetic code is made up of elements like oxygen. I would assume it formed around the same time the Earth formed." pondered Scorch.

"So not even you 4 are one hundred percent sure." accused Celestia.

"Just because we don't know the origins of a process fluently doesn't undermine the fact that it evolved into all the other organisms of Earth." gritted Scarecrow. "Besides, we're not fully fledged evolutionary biologists."

"How do you know such a concept isn't exclusive to Earth?" said Rarity.

X-ray crossed his arms. "Because the same thing happens if you take a fucking analyze the genetic code of the plants and animals on colonies like Auraxis and Mahatma. Every planet with organic life can trace its organisms back to one simple life form."

"What about us ponies? Our planet is historically a few tens of thousands years old. YOU 4 acknowledge that. How is possible for a process that takes millions of years to occur on this planet?" countered Twilight.

"Like we said, ponies are a special case, but this isn't a topic regarding creationism vs evolution in the biological sense." spoke up Overwatch. "Besides, who are you going to argue with? Those who actually research into the origin of life, make discoveries and improve on the final thesis. Or those who blindly follow to a thousand year old book that has likely been distorted over time?"

"So why bring up the topic of evolution?" grumbled Cadance.

"Because evolution is not just a concept that applies to biology, but society as well." replied Scorch.

"When society encounters a problem, it naturally has to find a way to solve it." began Scarecrow. "When humans started to develop farming, they could stay in one place. When they could stay in one place, they could start living in homes and focus on the other fields of life."

"Well that is true." admitted Twilight. "Society does have to change over time in order to get over barriers."

"Exactly, and as humans adapted, we went from living in mud hoses to cities to space colonies." nodded X-ray.

"But what does this have ta do with ponies bein' lak humans?" interrogated Applejack.

"Because ponies too evolved from living in simple mud houses to where you are now right?" insisted Scarecrow.

"Not true. We've always started from living in small communities in houses with farming and intelligence." stated Celestia.

"Such a feat is impossible. You can't just randomly live in complex structures or having knowledge in a field you never had to learn." debunked Scorch.

"We believe that it was our creator who awarded us with this kind of knowledge, but you seem insistent that this isn't the case." said Rarity.

"If ponies were created, fine. But the fact doesn't change that you've continued to make decisions that largely reflect those of humanity." snorted X-ray. "Ponies could have easily spoken another language and developed technologies that better suit them."

"So what do you think is happening?" asked Fluttershy.

"When human society changed or invented something it was a conscious decision." implied Scorch. "We chose to invent the computer, the trumpet and the book that is meant to be operated by hand. Not because it simply felt right."

"But you said social progress is natural. Shouldn't decisions necessary for adaptation be involuntary?" shrugged Twilight.

"A law of the universe is that society will progress one way or another. What is voluntary however, is the specific choice that is made to adapt." corrected X-ray.

"Humans chose willingly to create the facilities to get where we are. Ponies did not. You had a compulsion." reminded Scarecrow. "If ponies had free will, they would have consciously chose to adapt on their own accord."

"We ponies do have free will! How do you know we wouldn't have ended up having humanity's technology and culture even if you didn't exist?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"The earliest forms of adaptation in society are influenced by environments." said Scorch. "That is partially the reason as to why Earth has different cultures since not all humans built societies in the same place."

"That is true." gulped Rarity. "If you look at the races of Equestria, you will notice a difference in culture due to different societies living in different regions. The Zebras are a far cry from the Buffalo."

"But Epona does not have Earth's geography." pointed X-ray. "So the races of Equestria should not have developed in a path that mimicked humanity's cultures unless one fundamental truth applies to this world......."

"The races of Epona are evolving like humans. You're race is, and always has been, on the path of following humanity."

The ponies weren't sure how to respond to X-ray's answer except laugh.

"Wait. Let me get this straight; ponies are supposed to one day turn into humans?" laughed Pinkie Pie.

"Don't twist our words." snarled Overwatch. "You're not becoming humans regarding anatomy, rather you are becoming and in fact are humans in terms of culture and social norms."

"We're ponies and we're proud!" snorted Applejack.

"Physically yes. Socially and culturally; no." stated Scorch.

"The nation of Equestria isn't based on the edicts of humanity, it is based on the philosophies held by ponykind." defended Celestia.

"This isn't about Ponykind, it is about everything that lives on Epona." calmed Scarecrow. "The Equestrian race has and is following a cultural evolution parallel to that of the 'caucasian' race while Zebras seem to be on the path held by a generic African ethnicity."

"What do you mean by the caucasian race?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Basically every ethnicity having to do with western Europe and evidentially Australia and what remains of North America." explained X-ray. He felt like a racist idiot using the phrase 'caucasian race', but this was the case.

"If you're so certain, what is your proof that we are nothing more than humanity's echo?" asked Cadance.

Scorch rolled his eyes. "For starters we speak the same language."

"So what? This wasn't the language we always spoke. " Defended Twilight. "What if all intelligent creatures speak English or as we call it, Equestrian."

"That would be a plausible statement if not for the fact that the English language developed off of previous incarnations with the first one being ancient greek and the next being latin." remarked X-ray. "Didn't you ponies say your language was developed off of older versions as well?"

"It was. But, I do not believe we shared the same ancient languages." sighed Luna.

"I doubt it." snorted Scarecrow. "The motto of the 23rd is Vestri Maximus Timor that is latin for-"

"Your biggest fear." answered Celestia. "What you call latin is called 'old speak' to us."

"And to prove our point forward, look at the symbol on our shoulder blades." instructed Scorch. The demo man stood up and pointed to the 23rd's logo.

"That's an Omega." realized Fluttershy. "It was the last letter in the first form of the pony language."

"To us, that language is called ancient Greek." hissed Overwatch. "As you can see, our languages evolved similarly."

"I'm afraid we're going to need more evidence then simple language transitions to believe you darling." dramatized Rarity.

"Here's the thing. Western civilization had a different powerhouse throughout time that influenced the other nations within the region." started X-ray. "The first was Ancient Greece, followed by Rome, then England and finally America."

"The popular language spoken by the mass people often equated the one spoken by the superpower." added Scarecrow. "Equestria is one nation, despite the fact that its languages changed according the popular language spoken by the white ethnicity."

"Well of course we had to change our languages. We can't just speak the same one forever." insisted Twilight.

"Actually you could have, since Equestria is one nation with its own race without any influence from other races. You could have spoken the same language and got off fine." instead X-ray.

"But we ponies didn't elect to change our languages," brought up Celestia. "It just happened-"

"Spontaneously?" interrupted Scorch. "If ponies had free will, they would have no reason to adapt the language they speak. Humans, or at least the whites, elected to evolve their language in order to adjust to the shift in power."

"Are you implying ponies have no free will?" glared Rainbow Dash.

"Of course you're in control of your actions." defended Scarecrow. "Society though. Not so much, you're doomed to follow in the footsteps of humanity."

"Just because we speak the same language?" blurted Shining Armor.

"Not just that, but accents as well." added X-ray. "The vocal cords that make up and Equine are far too different from that of a human, yet you speak with western various western accents."

"Is their something wrong with the tone of our voices?" whimpered Fluttershy.

Scarecrow turned around. "X-ray speaks english fluently, but he still doesn't speak it with the same accent as an Equestrian. Just because we share the same language doesn't mean you should speak it in the same dialect."

"What kind of dialects do we have in that case?" questioned Celestia.

"All of you speak with some sort of generic American accent." guess Scorch. "Rarity and the nobles speak with what is a combination of English and French."

"Well I don't know what drove me to speak like this, but I found it suiting." defended the white mare.

"Applejack speaks with a southern American accent."

"If dat's what y'all call it." shrugged Applejack. "This is how ma family always speaks."

"Luna however seems to speak with an accent that is more fitting with your times. As in old English."

"Yes, and I used to speak an earlier version of this language." nodded the Alicorn of the Night. "A thousand years ago, we used to use phrases such as 'thou'."

"Which is how English started out as well until it was simplified" smiled X-ray. "Another proof of parallel evolution."

"Oh please, Equestrian would have changed anyway since the older form was too complicated." implied Cadance.

"How about names?" suggested Scorch. "Ponies have named their cities after human ones, expect with well, pony puns. You could have named it anything you wanted."

"Like we said, it wasn't as much of a choice as much as it was a compulsion." reminded Celestia.

"While humans named our cities based on conscious decision." countered Scarecrow. "Also, your cities are named after the ones that were inhabited by the western races. You could have easily made cities like Marelaysia or Mexicolt."

"Well, names like that just don't feel right for ponies like us." responded Rainbow Dash.

"They don't feel right right because it would contradict your society's destiny to follow in humanity's, specifically the Caucasian's footsteps." smirked X-ray. "Hell, you ponies could have easily made original names for your settlements without inserting pony puns, but you didn't."

"What about the previous cities we ponies have built?" challenged Twilight. "Before, the main cities we had were Trome and Preece."

"You mean like Rome and Greece?" responded Scorch. "They were the most influential locations amongst the western world during respective time periods, yet you have settlements named after the USA. What happened to these cities?"

"They got old and we built new cities." smiled Pinkie Pie.

"Ah. The same way how the sphere of influence went from these locations to England and America, Equestrians tore down these locations to keep in touch with humanity." told X-ray.

"No where in our history will you fund us mentioning humanity." shook Twilight. "We did not rebuild to replicate your race."

"Do not believe we are implying that you are intentionally doing this." warned Overwatch.

"But how do city names prove we're evolving like humans?" questioned Celestia.

"Ponies had no reason to rebuild and rename their cities unless it was for renovation reasons." said Scarecrow. "Ponies had no change in central influence since they were either 3 separate city states under the same banner or one nation entirely."

"Given the fact that ponies have changed their city names in accordance with the central influence of western society, we clearly have another reason for our theory to be validated." stated Scorch.

"If y'all think you can debunk everythin' we tell you, then we should be able to deny your theory as well!" exclaimed Applejack.

"Not giving into reason eh?" smirked Scarecrow. "Let's look at your holidays, we made it more than clear that something is off considering all of our holidays coincide with yours."

"We didn't plan our holidays to match up with yours, they just did!" insisted Pinkie Pie.

Scorch rolled his eyes, again. "That is what we're trying to say. Your celebrations were all caused involuntarily to align with human holidays since your society is evolving like ours."

"For example, I find it hard to believe that a race that believes in tolerance somehow started fighting amongst itself a few thousand years ago." exemplified X-ray.

"They were fighting because a snow storm was driving them apart. Right?" whispered Fluttershy.

"The snow storm was being caused by Windigos, which are attracted to fighting." informed Scarecrow. "Why did the three pony tries, who evidentially were getting along fine, start arguing, in all times, during late November when we humans celebrated Hanukah and Christmas?"

The Equestrians pondered the statement. It did feel so out of place for the three tribes to start bickering all of a sudden. It was as if the entire situation was fixed for everything to go along smoothly.

"What about NightMare Night? What can you decipher from that?" challenged Luna.

Scorch fixed his blond hair. "When we were in the art room, we took notes of all dates and we recorded that you turned into NightMare Moon after a considerable time you faced Sombra."

"And how does that relate to the human celebration of......Halloween?" checked Celestia.

X-ray cracked his knuckles. "Luna had Sombra's influence all over her and she was more than ready to crack. The fact that she went mad on October 30th or 31st is uncanny."

"This could have just been a coincidence." insisted Cadance.

"Then what about the activities enacted on this day? What drove ponies to go trick or treating and dressing up in costumes from a pony that wanted to kill them all?" groaned Scarecrow.

Twilight didn't know how to respond. Scarecrow was right. Why did they dress up fillies and colts in costumes and make them go door to door to ask for candy?

"How about new years day huh?" piped up X-ray. "Or the months and days of the year?"

"What about it?" responded Applejack.

"The reason why Earth has 365 days in a year is because that is how long it takes to orbit the planet naturally."

"The rotation of Epona however and how long it takes for a year to form is not arbitrary but rather controllable." continued Scorch. "Controlled by the two alicorns in this room."

"And how does that contribute to the relationship between human and pony society?" inquired Shining Armor.

"Because Celestia and Luna are in control of day and night, they could have easily chosen how long it takes for a single year to occur. Why 365 like Earth?" blurted Scarecrow.

"I believe we said this before. We were not always in control of day and night cycles. The schedule for the rotation of the heavenly bodies was decided by the unicorn society as a whole who brought forth day and night." explained Celestia.

X-ray crossed his arms. "But why did they choose 365? A planet with the diameter and of yours orbiting a miniature star like yours would take a much different time for a complete cycle to occur. Why choose an obscure number like 365?"

"It was not our decision. Let us not repeat that." puffed Luna.

Scorch ignored her. "What about the day and night cycle? Once again, a planet your size and mass shouldn't naturally have a 24 hour day and night cycle like Earth."

"But if that's true, how do humans keep track of time on different planets?" awed Pinkie Pie.

"They just use Terran time and we've been able to modify the gravity of planets, especially on their poles in order to get them to tilt faster or slower on their axis." explained X-ray. "But we were in control of that day and night cycle as a conscious decision. Did ponies knowingly make the decision for day and night to be 24 hours....or did it 'feel right'?"

Cadance calmed herself down with her technique. "None of us were alive at that time. You're asking the wrong pony."

"Come on, surely you know something." begged Scarecrow. "Look, even if the time for days and years is the same between our home worlds, why do we use the same unit to measure time?"

"As in?" let on Twilight.

"Why did ponies find it necessary to divide the day in 24 hours like Earths? Or 60 seconds in a minute?" said Scorch.

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "So how do you expect us to record time?"

"You ponies could have easily decided to make it 100 seconds in a minute or 1000 time units in a day. Yet you didn't." noted Scarecrow. "You ponies felt compelled to use Terran time units to evolve like us."

"Anything else to add that we're becoming....you?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Yes. Nothing you've invented makes the slightest amount of sense for ponies to use." said Scorch.

"How so?" questioned Celestia.

"For starters look at these chairs." face palmed X-ray.

"I know, they don't blend in well with the colors of the hall." nodded Rarity.

"Not that, pay attention to it's structure. Chairs like these are meant for upright bi-peds to sit on, not horses. Don't any of you notice just how ridiculous you look sitting like this?"

Twilight looked at her position. "I think it's fine."

"But doesn't anypony feel uncomfortable sitting like a human?" brought up Scarecrow. "It goes against your natural form."

"Truth be told, ah do feel kinda funny every time we sit like this." admitted Applejack.

"That's because ponies aren't supposed to sit like this. Humans invented chairs and other sitting equipment consciously because this is how we are supposed to sit like." muttered Overwatch. "So why do ponies lack chairs meant for creatures with 4 legs."

Celestia placed a hoof on her chin. "That is an observant statement, but we ponies truly feel our furniture is meant to be built in this certain way."

"In order to follow humanity." smiled Scorch.

"But come on. Chairs?" whined Rainbow Dash. "You really think you're going to convince us of your stupid theory because of the way we sit?"

Scarecrow crossed his arms. "How about door knobs. Why have them?"

"Because we're supposed to open doors like that. Duh." laughed Pinkie Pie.

"You are aware that a door knob is meant to be operated by fingers grasping the knob and either pushing or pulling." explained X-ray.

"Could you elaborate darling?" Requested Rarity.

"Ponies have no fingers to grasp the knob. I can understand telekinesis, but not everypony in this room can use that kind of biological power. So how do non horned ponies get around that?" questioned Scorch.

"Well we just could just use our teeth." whimpered Fluttershy.

"That is disgusting. If ponies weren't evolving like humans, than surely you would have invented a mechanism that specifically required hooves to operate." stated Scarecrow.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "What would you have in mind then?"

"We don't know." shrugged X-ray. "We're not ponies, we don't know how you're supposed to work things out with hooves. When we realized there was a settlement in habited by ponies, we expected to find completely new breeds of technology that was meant to work for quadrupeds. Not replications of what humans already use."

"I doubt everything here is an object meant for upright apes to use. Us ponies have adjusted perfectly." challenged Twilight.

"Think about it." hissed Overwatch. "Look at this cup. Do you really think an Equestrian without telekinesis is capable of grasping it and moving it towards their mouth?"

"That's why we have straws silly!" laughed Pinkie Pie.

"Or what about small objects like pencils or keys? Surely they are a pain to pick up due to the fact you lack fingers to grasp the object?" shook Scarecrow.

"They aren't dat hard ta pick up." defended Applejack.

"Oh yeah? Pick up that fork. With your hooves." dared Scorch.

The orange mare stared at the kitchen utensil for a moment. She attempted to hold it the same way the humans did, but couldn't due to the fact she lacked fingers. She attempted scraping it with two fore hooves and balancing it, only for the fork to awkwardly fumble around.

"As you can see, all of the items that ponies seem insistent on using on is impractical due to the lack of fingers." gloated X-ray.

"That's not true! There are plenty of things we can use with hooves." implied Twilight.

"Like what, books?" laughed Scarecrow. "To use a book, you need to have fingers to be able to turn the page and carry them around. You probably get around it with telekinesis, but what about the other ponies?"

"You can just balance the book in your fore hooves, it's not that hard." scowled Rainbow Dash.

"But ponies are quadrupeds." reminded X-ray. "Why waste time attempting to adjust to something requiring the use of fingers when you could have easily invented something that would have suited the pony form nicely?"

"Simple my dear X-ray." said Scarecrow in a singing voice. "Because they are evolving like humans."

The Equestrians glared at Shadow's commander hastily.

"Come on." sighed Scorch. "Every object you ponies have is something that is clearly meant for humans to use. If you followed your own evolutionary path, your technology would have been different."

"So my troops wouldn't be wielding spears?" guessed Shining Armor.

"Exactly. A spear is perhaps the worse weapon you could give to a creature without fingers." snapped X-ray. "If ponies weren't evolving like humans, you would have logically developed weapons meant to be held by hooves."

"What about our instruments?" pondered Pinkie Pie.

"Same." said Scorch. "The music devices that you ponies utilize aren't practical for hoofed quadrupeds as well. Instruments such as the clarinet or tuba require you to be standing up on hind legs which goes against your nature and hit multiple notes with fingers which you lack."

"Well excuse us for trying to make music!" yelled Twilight. "Look, we never intended to replicate human technology, we just ended up with it for no reason."

"There is a reason." hissed Overwatch. "You're society is evolving like humans."

The last bits of doubt were shrouding away Equestrians

Scarecrow yawned. "If ponies weren't evolving like humans, you would have consciously developed tools that were practical for the hoofed four legged creature rather than unintentionally making tools we humans have."

"Like what?" asked Cadance.

"I'm going to repeat ourselves. We're not hoofed quadrupeds, we don't know what technologies ponies should invent that suits their bodies." pointed Scorch. "But because you're evolving like humans, I guess we'll never know."

"Are you absolutely certain of your statements?" checked Celestia.

"We are and the entire Federation listening to us is sure as well." said Scarecrow.

X-ray stared at the solar alicorn. "You know what else solidifies our theory? Ponies have a really messed up biology that allows them to commit acts considered magical like a chameleon changing colors while humans do not have nay sort of the thing."

"And what does that have to do with anything?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Human society had to adapt without magic, ponies did. That alone should create an extremely different society based upon values and technology, but it didn't. The Equestrians were free from any influence and free at any time to form their own set of values, but you didn't. Instead, the Equestrian race has decided to follow along the path of humanity and plagiarize its holidays, its music styles and technology." remarked Scorch.

"What furthers it more, is that humans knowingly created its facilities, ponies had to follow an urge. If you lacked an urge, mark my words society would be fucking different." concluded Scarecrow.

The ponies were silent for a moment.

"Are you sure your species isn't the one copying ours?" let out Fluttershy.

X-ray laughed. "We've existed for millions of years, ponies have existed for thousands. We're clearly the older race. Every single time we've noticed a similarity between our races, our counterpart had existed for a considerably longer time than yours. My little pony, I think your race is the one evolving like ours."

"And it's not just your species that is evolving like humanity." reminded Scarecrow. "The Zebras are following the footsteps of Africans while the Griffins follow the Persians. The fact that every single human ethnicity exists on Epona is no coincidence."

"Alright." gasped Celestia. "We'll buy into your theory. For now."

Scorch wiped his fore head. "But I will say this, ponies might be evolving like humans. But not properly."

The Equestrians looked at the demo man confusedly.

"What do you mean by not properly?" repeated Cadance.

"How long have Equestrians existed?" asked Scarecrow.

"Our race is as old as this planet is." answered Luna.

"So basically you ponies came into existence at the same time as your planet." nodded X-ray.

"We believed we were made by our creator, but you're implying that this wasn't the case." reminded Rarity.

"Well of course. An alicorn randomly making the world has numerous flaws in it." snorted Scorch. "But even if you were theoretically created by an alicorn, what would have driven her to instruct you to utilize human technology?"

"That's a good point." pondered Twilight. "She would have to have had a sufficient standard understanding of human technology and customs."

"And tens of thousands of years ago, we didn't even speak this language nor have instruments like the piano. Since your creator is clearly dead, what force could have driven ponies to end up with the current facilities?" inquired Scarecrow.

"Like we said, it just happened. And I am being completely honest. There was no outside influence, we just happened to have ended up like humans." assured Celestia.

"What complicates the situation further is the fact that this planet is home to mythological creatures as well as real creatures on Earth." cursed X-ray. "This planet is definitely not a natural occurrence."

"So how do you suppose Epona came to be?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Scorch thought about it for a moment. "We don't know, but right now we'll accept that you just appeared. Regardless of origin, the planet would have had to have built been by something that had an awareness for human mythology, as well as Earth's biology considering there are Terran animals on here as well."

"What if humans built this planet?" suggested Luna.

Shadow laughed.

"We humans were primitives by the time this planet was incepted." chuckled X-ray. "We've recorded every inch of human history even before the age of this planet. If we were a space faring species, we'd know."

"I don't know about that though." spoke up Overwatch. "What if we really were here before?"

"The pony history books don't mention anything about humanity." corrected Twilight.

"But don't you remember Twilight?" squeaked Fluttershy. "When we were in the Everfree Forest, a Hydra attacked Shadow squad on the premises that they apologize for a past misdeed."

The princesses listened closely.

"But we couldn't have done a misdeed if we weren't here." pointed Scarecrow.

"What about Trixie?" remembered Pinkie Pie. "She said that humans were mean and scary and wanted to kill Shadow because of something they did in the past which she read in a Griffin religion book."

"How could have Trixie read about a Griffin's religion? Studying the religion of another species is forbidden." awed Celestia.

"When has Trixie ever accepted being denied something?" scowled Rainbow Dash.

"All the Eponan species have coordinated on the planet's history, if they knew about humans being on this planet in the past, we should have known too." shook Cadance.

"Perhaps the other species consider their religion separate from their history." realized X-ray.

"But if Trixie wanted to kill humans because they were on Epona, then what did they do?" questioned Celestia.

"How could we know? There is no part of human history that details us going to other planets." defended Scorch.

"What if humans made the Eponan creatures?" theorized Shining Armor. "It would explain why there are creatures considered myths present here."

"No way. If we can't build worlds now, we could not have built them before." debunked Scarecrow.

"But Scarecrow, when ya said dat humans hadn' done anythin' to ponies in the past, your lie detector thingy went off!" yelled Applejack.

The ponies were dead silent as well as the humans. The only sound in the room was the radio chatter emitted by the debating congressmen listening on Apex.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. Trixie could have easily rigged our lie detectors during our face off in order to fool everypony and justify her rage." assured X-ray.

"Trixie was many things, but I don't think she'd be that clever or kill unless she was completely sincere." defended Twilight.

"We'll get to the bottom of this eventually." assured Scorch. "After this, we'll contact the other races and the rest of humanity should be ready for backup. Regardless of your origin however, it doesn't explain why ponies are evolving inappropriately."

Twilight flexed her mane. "What do you mean by inappropriately?"

"When we were in the art room, we saw the first picture regarding pony history depicting you in a city state similar to that of ancient Greece." started Scarecrow.

"Well that's how we started out." shrugged Fluttershy.

"But tens of thousands of years ago, we humans were neolithic primitives who barely had any knowledge of society and how the world worked." revealed Scorch. "The time period regarding classical Greece didn't really occur until 4 thousand years ago."

"So what are you trying to imply?" checked Cadance.

X-ray twirled his gloved fingers. "In those 4 thousand years, we humans jumped from living in small, farm and war based communities to inventing faster than light travel."

"But we ponies have been like this for tens of thousands of years." gasped Rarity.

"Exactly, you started off as far more civilized than us and had tens of thousands of years to progress." explained Scarecrow. "The Equestrians should be far more advanced that humans."

"But we're not." frowned Celestia. "How could have humans evolved so quickly in a few thousand years?"

The humans looked at each other and nodded. They would get to that later.

"It doesn't matter how fast humans have evolved, it doesn't change the fact that Equestria is full of Anachronisms." discoursed X-ray. "Some things shouldn't fit in to the general time."

"Like what?" inquired Pinkie Pie.

"Alright. The general consensus we have with Equestria is that it takes place within a renaissance time period based on social norms, politics, and general views on knowledge like science, art and math." began Scorch.

"Wow, you're observant." complimented Rainbow Dash. "So what doesn't add up?"

Scarecrow scratched his chin. "For starters, the way you ponies speak."

"This again?" ranted Luna.

"Since ponies are evolving like humans, you shouldn't be speaking this dialect of English or Equestrian, with American accents. Instead you should be speaking with the older dialect of this language using phrases like 'thou' or 'thy'." insisted Scarecrow.

"How so?" pondered Fluttershy.

"To be precise, most of you speak with modern American accents and speak modern American English that didn't come into effect until far after this time." informed X-ray.

"So ma voice is ahead of times?" gulped Applejack.

Scarecrow nodded. "The southern American accent originated sometime during the Enlightenment era which succeeded the Renaissance when European settlers that left their hometowns and colonized America."

"Wait. So what you are saying is that we should all be speaking with Applejack's or Twilight's dialects?" shivered Rarity.

"Not necessarily." countered Scorch. "The ponies represent the caucasian race as a whole. You can have Italian, French and British accents, but the American tone is what is out of context."

"Just like the fact you have named a good portion of your cities after American ones despite having an overall Renaissance architecture." added Overwatch.

"Your statements are implying that some parts of Ponykind exceed the theorized time period." noted Twilight.

"Exactly, and so does your furniture. You ponies have home appliances like refrigerators and stoves despite lacking other technologies developed within the Renaissance period like the radio and television." added X-ray.

"What about evolution within the field of knowledge?" questioned Celestia.

"Funny story. You ponies have an understanding in medical technologies on par with humans in the 1990's, but all fields relating to physics and mathematics that were recorded before that period are missing." laughed Scarecrow.

Pinkie Pie laughed too. She didn't know why.

"Let's not forget musical genres." reminded Scorch. "You ponies have late 20th century electronica that developed off of classical music, thus skipping a century of music."

"Well I'm glad we didn't invent such barbaric styles of music." stiffed Rarity.

"What's also funny is that some parts of Equestria are laggard of the times." chuckled X-ray. "The armor of the royal guard doesn't seem to have changed since its inception. Even renaissance Europe had better combat gear."

Shining Armor gave X-ray a dirty look.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "So how does this all affect your theory?"

"Well, we humans certainly didn't have electronica or microwaves during the Renaissance." started Scarecrow.

"But doesn't this mean ponies are not evolving like humans?" asked Celestia.

"No. You are evolving like humans, in the social sense. Just selectively." let out X-ray. "Some parts are ahead of time while others are in synch."

"Nothing however seems to succeed the 21st century in any field." noted Scorch. "Not to mention, ponies are evolving slower than humans."

"Slower?" repeated Fluttershy.

"When humans reached the period of classical Greece and Rome, it took us around 4 thousand ears to evolve into a space faring race." reminded X-ray.

"We know that part." groaned Twilight.

"But ponies on the other hoof, seem to have been stuck in the ancient period for around ten thousand years and had a bloated dark ages of another tens of thousands of years." informed Scarecrow.

"Well you can not expect any noticeable changes in society to occur within such a comparably short time frame." insisted Cadance.

"Not with the way ponies handle dilemmas." growled Overwatch in a tone no one could hear in.

The Equestrians were having a hard time accepting the fact that Epona was merely an echo of Earth. As Shadow calmed down, the ponies restlessly discussed the situation amongst themselves.

Had they really been in control of their lives? Or were they doomed to follow through whatever humanity encountered? But now that they knew this information, was the obligation broken?

"As slow as we are," called out Rainbow Dash. She hated being called slow. "Would we, following humanities foot steps, end up as a race with technology on par with yours?"

"I would assume so." encouraged Scorch. "But with the amount of time it takes for ponies to transition to another time period, that would have taken tens of thousands of years. Who knows where humanity would end up by then."

"Aw man. I was really looking forward to flying on space ships now." cried Pinkie Pie.

X-ray stroked his black hair. "Actually, since we humans have arrived on Epona, we've interfered with the natural progression of your society. You can expect the stakes to change."

The Ponies gave the rifleman quizzical looks.

Author's Note

Sorry for ending it abruptly.

As you can see, Shadow is very observant.

EDIT: Changed the UTF's theme to the Terran Republic's theme and the Papers Please theme is now the War Cry.

Duel (200 likes bonus)

Authors note: Wow, I got to 2 hundred likes without even being featured once. That is amazing. Let's see if we can get more and even get featured. For now, here's a bonus chapter my readers requested.

"A foe without honor is a foe already beaten." - Ultramarines Honor Guard

The members of Shadow followed Shining Armor through Canterlot castle. The tall and frightening appearances of the humans alone was enough to get the castle staff to trot in the other direction.

"So what is it that you require?" asked Scarecrow without a hint of concern.

"Well, a lot of the guards haven't taken too kindly after our little stand off in the train station." answered Shining Armor.

"What, do they have nightmares of us or something?" laughed X-ray.

Shining Armor gave the rifle man a scowl, only to bob his head away. The white stallion was an imposing figure to the rest of the royal guards, but to Shadow, he was nothing more that a mere bug they could stomp.

"When you faced me and my troops, you basically took away the honor our guard holds." scolded the white stallion. "You rudely humiliated us."

"Yeah, we'll do that to even the most hardened of mercs." gloated Scorch.

"So what do they want with us?" growled Overwatch.

"A chance to reclaim their pride and confidence." trivialized Shining Armor.

"How? You want us to pretend to be afraid while they talk shit to us?" chuckled Scarecrow.

"Not what I had in mind." smiled the captain.

Shining Armor opened a door that led to the training grounds of the royal guards. Everywhere the stallions were in the midst of an intense training work out. Now that the existence of space faring aliens had been confirmed, the guards were training double time.

Some Pegasai were training in flight patterns, some unicorns were practicing offensive magic while the Earth Ponies were practicing bucking training dummies. Shadow noticed that the dummies were replicas of the human form.

Others practiced running, hoof ups and to Shadow's amusement; spear throwing.

Shining Armor expected the humans to be intimidated by the vigor and discipline of his troops, but Shadow remained apathetic and unmoved.

He looked up at the commandos and tried to appear intimidating, but failed. He was a mere 4ft 10 that was dwarfed by the humans. X-ray, who was the shortest, stood at 6ft 3 and a half.

"I have to admit, you've got quite a disciplined unit." complimented X-ray.

"Thanks." nodded the captain. "How do you humans train your soldiers?"

"The Federation has no use for soldiers who can't think for themselves, so in addition to training our troopers physically, we train them mentally as well." gloated Scarecrow.

"A soldier has to be loyal to the leader he serves. They need to show obedience." countered Shining Armor.

"A soldier has to be loyal to the people and greater good. We've never hesitated to disobey unconstitutional orders or commands that complicate the situation further." explained X-ray.

Shining Armor rolled his eyes. "Going back to my question, what did they train you in?"

"The 23rd is trained gymnastics, parkour, hand to hand combat, rifle handling, demolitions, espionage, and scare tactics." told Scorch.

"Scare tactics?" repeated the white unicorn.

"The 23rd's trait is fear. Some times, we scare an enemy into submission rather than fighting them directly." trivialized X-ray. "And when we train in physical fitness, we're trained in a gravity much higher than Earth's which already has a stronger gravity than Epona."

Shining Armor was going to give up just yet. "Do all humans train their men this way?"

"No. Different units have different needs. So what do you want?" interrogated Scarecrow.

"You've insulted the reputation of our unit, and we want it back." puffed Shining Armor. "They say those who talk tough like you usually don't fight tough. The only way to prove our selves to you is a sparing match."

Scorch's eyes shot open. "Come again?"

"You heard us. A sparing match. You 4 against my troops." smirked the Captain.

"How will that exactly restore the honor of your men?" pondered Overwatch.

"If we take down a group of Xeno commandos, the morale of my soldiers will increase through the roof." challenged the white stallion.

X-ray tried not to laugh. "You do realize that's a horrible fucking idea? Fighting a guard one on one will not doubt result in the latter's death."

Shining Armor flexed his blue mane. "If you humans think you're so mighty, than why not face a number of my guards at once? I'm not trying to restore the pride of just one soldier here."

"Um, they'll still get their flanks kicked. No offense." defended Scarecrow.

"How do you know? You've never faced them." reminded Shining Armor.

X-ray got ready another rant. "Let's see. Our muscles are augmented to take form an octagonal structure giving us 8 times the strength of a normal human being, animated bodies are half the strength of real ones, we have kinetic barriers that are built to take down dozens of gauss bullets before shattering, we wear recon armor that is extremely flexible, masks that demoralize enemies, motion trackers, magnetic vision, hands and feet to make us more flexible and are conditioned to take out heavily armed, gauss wielding mercs with energized armor. I'd say your troops are fucked."

Shining Armor brushed off the swear. "What good is all that when you're fighting troops with vigor and motivation? Your arrogance and reliance on technology will be your undoing."

"We're not arrogant. We don't want to fight your guards out of a general concern for their well being." assured Scorch.

"So no thanks. Besides, the whole honor system has been the undoing of many raiders and cults we've had to take out." shook Scarecrow.

Suddenly the commander's wrist computer started beeping as he received a message from the congress's HOD.

"Shadow give them what they want." ordered the HOD

"Come again sir? How is a duel going to benefit anyone?" replied Scarecrow.

"Two reasons. For starters, once the ponies really know who they're messing with, the chances of attackers coming at you will degrade. The Equestrians will be in total fear of our race and allow us to further our interests. Second, it would give the Equestrians an incentive to adapt. It is not the job of the Federation to evolve other species, but once they see how powerful we are compared to them, they'll be motivated to progress their society further."

"I see, so we're using the power of fear to help both sides." nodded Scorch.

"Exactly. But don't you dare kill anypony and shatter our ties with the only race on this world that doesn't want to kill us or we will send a dreadnought to ion cannon you from orbit!"

Scarecrow gulped. "Understood. Shadow out."

Shining Armor looked at the humans quizzically. "Everything alright?"

"Positive." nodded Scorch. "We accept your challenge."

Shining Armor smiled arrogantly. "Excellent. Although there are going to be some ground rules."

"First no spears, guns or anything that can murder. We're not out to kill anypony." warned Scarecrow.

"Of course. I never intended my guards to use weapons." defended the white stallion. "What should be the numbers on each side?"

"20 guards against one of us for each round." ordered X-ray. "Take it or leave it. I suggest you choose your best men."

"Granted. We'll keep on our armor so you can keep on yours." offered Shining Armor.

"Our suits have functions like kinetic barriers and cloaking. Should we turn those off?" inquired Scorch.

Shining Armor put a hoof on his chin. "Turn down your barriers but keep everything else."

Shadow used neural controls to turn off their kinetic barriers. Suddenly, their entire body was illuminated in purple hexagons that changed color to red, and finally vanished as they lost power.

The counter terrorists walked towards the training field.

Shining Armor raised his voice. "Alright! Everypony form up on me."

The guards attentively snapped to attention and galloped straight to their commander before giving him a salute.

"The members of Shadow squad have agreed to a little rough housing. They will each fight 20 of us in the arena. Only if you are absolutely certain that you are capable of facing them should you volunteer!"

Much to Shadow's surprise, every guard raised his hoof. Looks like they were really angry at the humans.

In the next 5 minutes Shining Armor took 20 members from the Solar, Lunar and Crystal and his personal division. The soldiers, human and pony, had relocated to the central training field where the match would take place. Shadow nor the pegasai wanted to be confined in such a small room.

X-ray was going to be the first to battle, against the Crystal guards. Before he entered the arena, he turned to his left to the bleachers. The entire stage was crowded with nobles of Canterlot wishing to see a fight. In the VIP section stood the Mane 6 and the Princesses who sat on 4 thrones. Spike was most likely at his favorite donut store.

The commando could here the voices of the Mane 6 call out.

"Come on! Let's see some action!" yelled Rainbow Dash.

"Teach 'em humans a lesson!" encouraged Applejack.

"Please be careful." whimpered Fluttershy.

"This is going to be fun!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

"I still find violence dreadful." complained Rarity.

"I hope X-ray is careful. These are the elite of the Crystal guard." muttered Cadance.

X-ray entered the boundary line on the arena, completely sorry for the guards. He may have been scrawny on the outside, but on the inside, he could have ripped a hole in their skulls.

The commando tied his bandanna, placed on his shades and flapped his hood. His obscuring mask was enough to demoralize the crystal guards. X-ray struck a combat pose to signify he was ready.

After a moment of waiting, the pegasai clad in purple armor flew high in the sky while the Earth Ponies charged him straight on.

X-ray's VI calculated their velocity, mass and force application. They were moving at 20km an hour but were obstructed by their animated mass which only put their force at a negligible number.

The Earth ponies galloped towards him with the intention to confuse X-ray while the pegasai built speed in the air.

But X-ray remained indomitable. Right when the Earth Ponies were half way towards him, X-ray charged at the mass. Just when they met, X-ray front flipped high into the air and brushed passed the confused herd of charging stallions.

Then there were the incoming pegasai who were inches away.

To everypony's surprise, X-ray side rolled over to the left. The pegasai were moving far too fast to be stopped and 2 of them collided with the Earth ponies.

X-ray didn't even need to recover. 4 had gone down in one strike.

An Earth Pony attempted to buck him, only for X-ray to take a step back and tumble over the guard. In the heart of the moment, X-ray elbowed an approaching crystal guard in the muzzle and swiped his legs to knock over the 4 hooves of the stallion.

X-ray paid attention to his motion tracker.

A pegasus attempted to ram him while flying, only for X-ray to elongate his arm and fist the stallion right in the gut.

With his free hand, X-ray uppercutted another Earth pony who attempted to head but him. The commando back flipped to avoid another blow and kick his aggressor in the chest.

An Unicorn attempted to grab him from the back, only for X-ray to peel off his hooves like wet tissue and throw him forward with enough force to strike down another help less guard.

X-ray side stepped and readied a blow to another unicorn. The pony casted a pink shield around himself to absorb the punch. The barrier however was too weak and shattered. X-ray proceeded to knock out the guard with a punch to the face.

The commando reached to his right to grab a charging stallion and throw him straight to the ground. X-ray stood upright and punched cold an incoming unicorn in the eye.

The crowd was baffled. Never before had they seen this agility.

X-ray then sprinted towards another guard who got ready to buck him. At last second, X-ray slid on the ground and tripped the crystal soldier by knocking away his hooves from the ground.

Just as X-ray got up, he felt his entire body freeze still. It was as if somepony was holding him in place. His motion tracker read other wise however.

Looking closely, X-ray saw the unicorn guards with their horns lit and his body covered in a pink aura to symbolize radiation was being inserted all over his body. The guards were using telekinesis to hold him in place.

A pegasus with an amber coat and blue mane flew towards X-ray at incredible speed with the intent of knocking him out.

Just when it looked like it was the end, the unicorn guards collapsed under the stress of holding down a being with such a complex body structure.

X-ray sprang to attention and snapped his arm forward, catching the amber pegasus by the throat.

"What's your name?" asked X-ray. His mask made his voice sound mechanical and impure.

The crystal guard tried to look away from the eternal abyss that was X-ray's visor.

"F----Flash Sentry." muttered the guard.

"Well Flash, your plan was flawed from the start." Before X-ray could continue, he fisted a charging guard to the right without even looking at him.

"You were coming at me with an acceleration of 40 km an hour with a mass that would be halved due to the fact that you are animated. This would only create a force of 1200 newtons which would not be enough to knock out somebody with my mass that has been octupled due to my muscular structure being netted in a form of octagons."

"...What?" The entire crowd was confused.

"Science bitch!" X-ray punched Flash Sentry in the gut and threw him aside.

The final Earth Pony attempted to charge him from the back, only for X-ray to back flip behind the stallion.

While the Earth pony was confused, X-ray side kicked him to the right and nearly shattered the stallion's spine.

The final 3 unicorns dispelled electromagnetic energy from their horns and started trotting towards him.

X-ray smirked under his mask and diverted all power in his suit to form a pulse punch. The unicorns were dazed as they saw the human's magnetic gloves spark with electricity.

The commando expelled the electricity which was attracted to the guard's metal armor. The pulse did not shock the stallions, but rather disabled their shields.

X-ray rushed to the final ponies and kicked the one in the center flying, elbowed the one on the left and grabbed the one on the right to smash his face on the ground.

The crowd was silent for a minute. X-ray single handedly took out the best of the Crystal empire. It didn't take a genius to know X-ray was holding back in order not to kill.

The paramedics moved the unconscious bodies to a first aid station. Luckily, Celestia had ordered for enough medical resources to handle double the number of guards present.

Cadance was conflicted between providing morale for the remaining guards or attending to her soldiers.

Next, it was Overwatch facing the Solar Guard.

The sniper put on his mask and stood before the ponies clad in golden armor.

"Don't get too cocky! The Crystal guards were always our worst fighters." mocked a pegasus.

"Yeah? Well so was X-ray." growled Overwatch.

Overwatch struck a combat pose and allowed for the guards to make the first move.

The solar guards circled Overwatch and drew closer to to him slowly. The sniper theorized they were attempting to confuse him and send a charging soldier when wasn't looking.

In the heart of the moment, a unicorn guard signaled his fellow troops. "SOLAR FLARE NOW!"

The entire solar guard closed their eyes, while Overwatch remained still.

To the sniper's surprise, the unicorns discharged the light energy stored within their horns. The solar flare was used as a technique by Celestia's unit in order to blind enemies. During their skirmishes with the bat ponies who were sensitive to light, a solar flare would always be the primary choice of engagement.

In a few seconds later, the effects wore off. The civilians opened their eyes and expected what had occurred. To their shock, did not see a blinded Overwatch, but rather 3 knocked out guards.

Shadow should have mentioned that their visors protected them from flash bangs of any strength.

Overwatch was no where to be found. The confused guards stuck together and kept their eyes open for the sniper.

Suddenly, an invisible force slammed an Earth Pony stallion in the stomach. It was clear to the Mane 6 that Overwatch had turned invisible.

The stallion cried in agony. The guards moved away from their fallen comrade, only for another guard to be picked up and thrown away with an immense force despite nothing appearing to have been holding him.

In the heart of the moment, Overwatch uncloaked and side kicked a guard off his hooves, followed by an elbow straight to a unicorn's neck.

Overwatch quickly dodged a head but form an Earth pony, and forced him down to the ground with enough impact to render the Earth pony unconscious.

A Unicorn attempted to hold him still with telekinesis, only for Overwatch to resist the grip and deliver a series of weak, but rapid punches to the unicorn's face.

The crowd couldn't even count how many times Overwatch had punched the guard.

An Earth Pony attempted to buck Overwatch from the left while a pegasus tried to air strike him from the right. The sniper simply fell to a prone position and allowed the buck to unintentionally slam the fellow guard pony.

The ponies watching couldn't help feel sorry for that pegasus. Earth pony bucks were powerful.

Overwatch got back up, grabbed the Earth Pony who tried to buck him by the neck and throw him aside. A unicorn attempted to cast a spell on him, but was too late to prevent Overwatch from pulse punching him and draining his magic.

The unicorn was not electrocuted to death, but was harmlessly paralyzed none the less.

The sniper had an idea in mind. Overwatch could use the metallic armor of the solar guards to his advantage. The marksman used neural controls to increase the magnetic force emitted by his hands.

Suddenly a unicorn felt his chest piece drag him forward to sniper. Just as the guard approached the masked commando, Overwatch freed his other hand to punch the incoming guard in the cheek.

Twilight couldn't believe it. Overwatch had created a makeshift form of telekinesis.

A Pegasus Pony nearly succeeded in stomping Overwatch, only for the sniper to barrel roll to the side. The sniper switched the magnetic poles of his gloves and thus repelled the pony away from him with a magnetic push.

An Pegasus tried to fly straight into the marksman, only for Overwatch to side step the attack. A unicorn tried to hit Overwatch with a stun spell, but the masked marksman ducked and to his luck, allowed the spell to strike the pegasus.

The unicorn who just attacked formed a shield around a charging Earth Pony to help give him a defense boost while he attempted to splatter Overwatch.

Overwatch simply sighed and and elongated his arm.

To the charging stallion's surprise, Overwatch was able to stop him dead in his tracks. The stallion attempted to move forward with the barrier reinforcing him, but could not.

Overwatch transferred his suits energy to his occupied hand and released an EMP that disabled the shield protecting the Earth Pony.

Overwatch proceeded to round house kick the stallion aside, breaking the guard's armor in the process.

The unicorn casting the shield found himself incapable of casting more magic. Overwatch casually walked over to the stallion and brought him to his hooves with his massive height of 6 ft 4. The sniper finished the job with an elbow straight into the muzzle.

The sniper rushed passed the attacking guards and tackled one to ground. Overwatch front flipped forward and as he landed, brought his legs to down to crush another guard pony.

The sniper once again cloaked.

The fear of the unknown took over the royal guards as the hopelessly tried to decipher the snipers location.

"Isn't Overwatch cheating by cloaking?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Well the guards were using magic. I guess anything goes." shook Twilight.

The final guards attempted to remain vigilant until-

"Boo."

The sharp noise collapsed a guard and nearly stopped his heart. Overwatch uncloaked and delivered an upper cut to the last pegasus pony.

The final unicorn pony attempted cast another solar flare, only for the masked sniper to remain unfazed. The unicorn still attempted to strike down Overwatch with stun spell, only for the sniper to roll past the attack, raise the unicorn by the throat and slam him onto the ground.

Overwatch had won and defeated Celestia's elites.

The Canterlot nobles were baffled. Overwatch displayed a formidable performance, and had taken out guards that were meant to protect the solar alicorn herself. Surely the guards needed a change in order if humanity could produce cunning and vigorous soldiers like Overwatch and X-ray.

"I must go." called Celestia. "I have to be there for my injured soldiers."

"You mustn't leave." suggested Luna. "The guards need us for support. We have to show them Equestria is courageous."

"What is the point?" replied Celestia. "We know how this is going to turn out. It was foolish of Shining Armor to challenge Shadow squad to combat."

The next round was between Scorch and the Lunar guard.

The demo man approached the stadium and faced the guard ponies clad entirely in midnight blue armor. Scorch also noticed that there were only pegasai in this unit and they all had bat wings.

A Lunar Pegasus noticed Scorch's fixation. "Do you like it? We bat ponies come from the city of Prancesylvania-"

"You mean like Pennsylvania?" checked Scorch.

The Pegasus frowned. "Sure. Anyway, we were modified form normal Pegasai by NightMare Moon herself to help combat Celestia's solar guard. Needless to say, we almost always won. Especially at night."

The masked demo man crossed his arms and spoke with his mechanical voice. "I hate to break it to you pal, but it's one in the afternoon."

"Doesn't matter. We Lunar guards are trained in situations that make a normal guard cry like a little filly." smirked another bat pony.

A whistle blew signaling the beginning of the spar.

Suddenly, the the bat ponies began flying and started circling Scorch, creating an animated tornado that blocked the commando's view as well as the audience's.

Luna grinned arrogantly. This strategy was almost always full proof.

The wind was strong inside the pony made tornado, but Scorch held on. He had feeling he knew what the Bat ponies intended to do. Scorch switched to magnetics and was able to see the bat ponies flying in incredible speed.

The bat ponies however, didn't expect Scorch to be capable of such a feat.

Scorch knew that the bat ponies were attempting to confounder and frighten him with the tornado they were creating, but it was the 23rd who horrified enemies, not their victims.

To Scorch's pleasure, a bat pony broke free from the tornado and attempted to take the masked commando from behind.

The bat pony expected Scorch to have been distracted, but the demo man was able to see the bat pony coming at him with his motion tracker.

To the Lunar Guard's awe, Scorch spun 180 degrees and beat the bat pony down.

Another Lunar Guard dispersed from the cover of the tornado. Without even turning around, Scorch raise a fist in the air and stopped the stallion straight in his tracks with his hand buried straight into the stallion's muzzle.

With less bat ponies to create the tornado, their cover was beginning to fade. The guards however, weren't going to give up so easily.

A bat pony flew at Scorch with ultra sonic speeds at ground level.

Unfortunately for the guard, the demo man's reflexes kicked and Scorch slide kicked the guard in the face.

In an attempt to complicate the situation further, two bat ponies left the tornado and charged at Scorch. The demo man fell to a crouch position and the swings of the Bat Ponies missed.

Scorch got up and grabbed one of the bat ponies. His partner still attempted to charge Scorch from the back while the demo man was occupied with the stallion he was holding.

However, Scorch spun around and allowed the incoming bat pony to fly straight into his comrade.

The Equines had enough, their technique was clearly not working.

The audience all the while was watching with utter anxiety. The makeshift tornado had obscured any view of the brawl between the masked commando and the guard.

Suddenly, the bat ponies stopped flying and the tornado vanished. The lunar guards were fixed flying in the sky with malevolent expressions.

5 injured bat ponies laid in front of Scorch, much to Luna's horror.

The stallions clad in midnight blue armor swooped straight down at the masked human at incredible speeds.

Scorch proceeded to side step the attack of a bat pony, barrel roll past another and front flip away from a guard trying to attack him form ground level.

A bat pony started to circle Scorch and attempted to get closer to the demo man every second. Scorch kept his concentration and with the proper timing, snapped his hand forward to put the bat pony into a choke hold.

As Lunar Guard struggled for breath, Scorch slammed the bat pony down on the grassy field.

Three Lunar guards used the distraction in an attempt to subdue Scorch. Much to everyone's surprise, the three stallions did manage to force Scorch down.

A Guard forced his face onto Scorch's mask and attempted to frighten him with his sharp fangs.

Scorch sighed and head butted the guard right in the muzzle, almost shattering his teeth. The commando proceeded to stand up straight and knock over the two guards holding him down.

The demo man spun around and slammed his foot onto the gut of a floored guard and round house kicked the other in the face before he could get back up. The latter received a nasty bloody nose.

Another guard nearly succeeded in ramming Scorch, but explosive expert side stepped the air raid and grabbed the stallion by the bat wings.

Before the Lunar guard could cry in pain, Scorch delivered a blow to the gut of the equine.

Scorch dropped that pony and spun around just in time to dodge a buck to the chest. As that equine recovered from his missed attack, Scorch uppercutted the pony right in the face and sent him flying up.

Suddenly a bat pony gave a massive screech that almost deafened everyone within the vicinity.

Scorch's mask did not protect him from ultra loud sounds. Even Flash bangs still produced a nasty ringing in the ears.

The demo man slumped to his knees as the sound began to overwhelm him. This baffled the entire crowd who weren't as affected by the high pitched yell.

Shadow knew however they weren't going to go down easily. Ever.

The weakened Scorch looked up to see a bat pony, a smile on his face, flying right at him with a speed that could potentially knocked him out.

Scorch remained hardened and punched the guard the incoming guard right in the head and sent him down.

Before the screeching bat pony could further weaken Scorch, the demo man diverted power to his magnetic gloves.

The screecher stopped emitting the high pitched noise the moment his armor started to drag him up. Scorch's magnetic telekinesis send the lunar pony flying into his charging comrade with enough forced to knick them both out and give one of them a bloody nose.

A guard attempted to buck Scorch in the back only for his hooves to harmlessly bounce of Scorch's vest.

The masked soldier elbowed the guard from the back, sending the stallion down.

Scorch faced to his right to see a bat pony standing on his hind legs with the intent smash his fore hooves into the demo man's face. The commando's reflexes kicked in and fisted the Lunar guard right in the chest piece, shattering the armor and rendering the stallion unconscious.

A Lunar guard nearly head butted Scorch, but the counter terrorist side stepped the attack, changed the polarity on his gloves and repulsed the guard with a magnetic shock wave.

The audience was left with their mouths hanging open.

One of the remaining Lunar guards was able grab Scorch from behind with his fore hooves. To the demo man's amusement, the stallion was incapable of carrying the gigantic human.

Scorch grabbed the Bat Pony's hooves from behind, and threw him forward. Scorch finished him off by slamming his left foot onto the stallion's muzzle. Had he pressed harder, the blow would have been fatal.

The remaining two guards attempted to lay a series of fast passed blows on the commando.

Scorch easily side stepped a buck, twisted his head to dodge a forward thrust and barrel rolled to the left to avoid an incoming hoof punch.

The commando elevated to a crouch position and swipe kicked a Lunar guard off his hooves, followed by an elbow to the jaw. The guard spat blood.

The final bat pony was more motivated than ever to take out Scorch. The demo man attempted to thrust a kick at the Lunar Guard, but the bat pony surprisingly dodged the attack.

Scorch readied a heavy blow to the face, but the stallion managed to swipe his head away in the nick of time.

The Bat pony let out another high pitched screech, causing the demo man to stumble over.

Just when things looked good for the Equine, Scorch managed to recover in a heartbeat and crushed his spirits by grabbing the bat pony in the throat and silenced him.

The Lunar Guard tried to look away from Scorch's obscured features.

The demo man gave a neutral expression under his mask and diverted all electric to his gloves, shocking the strangled into submission.

The counter terrorist apathetically turned around to the audience. A minor, but significant number of the audience had left the scene. Some from the violence, others from the utter horror that came from Shadow's combative might. Most ponies couldn't even face the demo man without wanting to faint.

The Mane 6 sat in the VIP section clearly disturbed. If Shadow was only using a fraction of their might, they didn't want to know what they could do if angered or motivated to use full force.

"Wow, Shadow's pretty tough. Even that egg head X-ray." gulped Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow. "So you didn't get the message after the Griffins, Hydra, Timberwolves and Trixie?"

"I was always aware that they were the cream of the crop of humanity." nodded Rarity. "But so were the royal guards they faced. My word, we're nothing but ants to them."

Fluttershy had said nothing. The entire time, she was covering her face with her wings.

Twilight and Cadance suddenly realized something crucial.

"Twilight! Shining Armor and his troops are fighting next!" shrieked Cadance.

The purple mare gasped. "Oh my gosh! We have to stop him."

The two alicorns stood from the VIP section and started heading towards the guard's barracks.

"I hope we're not too late!" squealed Cadance. She could not bear the sight of seeing her husband get pulverized. As they walked passed the bleachers, the two alicorns received confused looks from the no longer pompous audience.

The barracks were being guarded by two solar guards who were not participating. Upon seeing the princess of love and magic approach, they bowed respectfully and led them inside.

Inside, Twilight and Cadance saw the members of Shining Armor's personal division gearing up. They chose the best armor that had a purple, gold and blue ceremonial trim.

Shining Armor's personal unit, was the closest thing Equestria had to a spec ops squad. The best fliers, the best magicians and the strongest Earth Ponies were located within Shining Armor's unit.

The two alicorns heard the captain calling out to his troops.

"Alright team! Shadow squad may have defeated us before and the humans may think we're some sort of joke. But there is a first time for everything!"

Twilight and Cadance crept closer to the guards.

"We are Equestria's elite and we will not give up. We will show the humans that they are not invincible and that we ponies are a force to be reckoned with. I expect the arrogance of the one we face will have gone through the roof. He will find no reason to even try, thus giving us the element of surprise on our side! Or brawl will mark the day Shadow knows suffering."

The guards of Shining's unit gave a cheer off support.

As the guards passed through the exit, Twilight and Cadance faced Shining Armor. The blue maned stallion put on his helmet and smiled.

"Here to wish me luck?" smirked the stallion.

Tears began to form in Cadance's eyes. "It's not too late to back out."

Shining Armor frowned. "What?"

Twilight hugged her brother. "Are you crazy? Why would you go up and fight against Shadow? You'll get hurt really badly."

The white stallion smiled. "Come on. Don't you have any faith in me?"

Cadance nuzzled her husband. "Of course we do, but Shadow is far too strong. Did you see what they did to the other guards? They were decimated!"

Twilight hung on to Shining Armor. "And don't you realize? They were holding back! If you push Scarecrow too hard, he'll hurt you badly."

"I won't give him the chance." shook Shining Armor. "I can't back out now, or else we'll get humiliated further."

"Why do you care so much about honor?" questioned Cadance. "I mean, the humans don't. Why should you care what they have to say about you."

"I'm sorry, but if I back now, the entire moral of the guard will sink to new lows." sighed the captain. "Besides, I don't want to come off as a coward to my troops."

Shining Armor kissed his wife and nuzzled his sister before walking outside the barracks and into the field.

Scarecrow, with his mask on, stood glacially at the opposite side of the arena. Much to his surprise, the guards of this unit didn't seem intimidated which was odd considering he was the largest and most physically adept member of Shadow.

Shining Armor took point and marched his guards over to the commando.

Scarecrow struck a combat pose as the stallions approached his position.

The moment after, Scarecrow lost control of his body and felt him self being pinned down by a invisible force. Upon closer inspection, he saw a colorful aura surround his body that matched the color of the guard's horns.

As Scarecrow struggled to get off his knees, a large Earth Pony stallion slowly approached him.

The commander observed the massive Earth Pony turn 180, ready his hind legs, and deliver an almighty buck to his chest. The impact could be heard throughout Canterlot.

The massive stallion turned around with a smiling expression, only to see Scarecrow still standing. The blow had failed to penetrate Scarecrow's titanium chest piece.

Shadow's commander broke free from the telekinetic grip, grabbed the fore hoof of the massive stallion and swung him over a great distance.

There was a series of gasps and mummers amongst the crowd.

Before a unicorn could restrain Scarecrow with another telekinetic hold, Scarecrow attacked the stallion with a magnetic pulse that sent him flying.

The commando turned to the left punched a guard that was about to thrust at him straight in muzzle. The swing knocked off his helmet.

Scarecrow quickly back flipped from a pegasus that almost landed and pranced on him. The commando responded with an armor shattering kick to the chest.

The commando's HUD detected an incoming projectile charging straight at him. Scarecrow quickly side stepped and narrowly avoided the projectile, which was a giant boulder.

Another boulder came charging at Scarecrow. The commando turned to his left to face a unicorn levitating a series of rocks that orbited around him. The unicorn fired another stone, but Scarecrow caught it in mid air and hurled it straight at the aggressor.

Scarecrow's motion tracker read a guard coming at him from the left. In response, the commando shifted left and grabbed the pegasus by the face and forced his body down to the ground.

In the heart of the moment, a stun spell hit Scarecrow in the back of the head and nearly paralyzed him had the guard not underestimated the amount of force needed to subdue the masked commando.

Scarecrow cart wheeled to the side and used magnetic telekinesis to hold the unicorn up by his armor. The moment after, the commando hurled the unicorn onto a flying pegasus sending them both out.

An Earth pony almost rammed Scarecrow to the ground, but the commando responded with his own forward thrust and pinned the stallion on the floor. Scarecrow finished him off with a stomp to the gut that shattered the stallion's armor.

A pegasus flew straight at Scarecrow but before the commando could strike it down, a force field appeared right between the human and pony.

The next thing Scarecrow knew, his motion tracker detected another pegasus attacking from the back in the hopes that Scarecrow was distracted.

The masked commando simply spun around, grabbed the incoming pegasus from the air and threw it aside.

A second stun spell hastily brushed passed the counter terrorist's head. Scarecrow charged at the attacking unicorn, and side punched an Earth Pony while running.

The unicorn lit up a shield to protect himself from Scarecrow's wrath.

One punch was all that was necessary to break down the shield. The guard desperately lit up another, only for it to shatter as well. Finally Scarecrow smashed the stallion's face with his fist.

2 Earth Ponies and a pegasus formed a triangular formation and gave Scarecrow a scowl.

The commander struck a combat pose and awaited the three ponies to make a move.

The guards charged straight at the commando and Scarecrow did the same. Just when the group was about to meet, Scarecrow jumped high into the air and thrust himself downwards with a fist impacting the terrain.

The resulting shockwave knocked the 3 ponies off their hooves.

Truth be told, Scarecrow was surprised that it worked. He thought the ground pound was a myth. One of the guards however got back on his hind legs, only for Scarecrow to beat him down again.

As the guards surrounded Scarecrow, Shining Armor was able to cast a stun spell that finally subdued the commando to the ground.

Just before the Equines could taste victory, the paralyzed form of Scarecrow vanished.

Shining Armor scowled. "He's invisible! Keep Alert!"

The captain spoke too soon. Two royal guards lost control of their heads and both their bodies smashed into each other from an invisible force.

Another stallion met a similar fate when Scarecrow uncloaked and almost shattered his spine with a blow to the back.

Only a pegasus and Shining Armor remained.

Shining Armor cast a protective spell over the pegasus in order to give it extra protection while it charged at Scarecrow.

The commando merely skipped to the left and avoided the attack. The shielded pegasus wasn't finished however and flew into Scarecrow another time.

Scarecrow delivered two quick rapid blows and the incoming pegasus. One that shattered the shield and an uppercut that nearly broke his skull.

Finally Shining Armor was the only one left to face Scarecrow. He swore that he would be the one who would put Scarecrow in his place. The commander really just didn't give a shit as long as no one got killed.

Shining Armor galloped straight at Scarecrow. The counter terrorist readied to repel him with a blow to the face.

Right before Scarecrow's fist could meet Shining's face, the captain disappeared in a purple flash. The commando's arm harmlessly hit the air.

Scarecrow's motion tracker suddenly read movement from behind. Right when he turned around to face Shining Armor, the white stallion proceeded to teleport once more.

Shining Armor suddenly appeared to the right. In response Scarecrow elbowed the captain right in the muzzle followed by a kick to a chest that sent him flying and knocked off his helmet.

Twilight gasped and Cadance closed her eyes. To everyone's surprise however, Shining Armor stood on his hooves and was ready for more.

The captain teleported to Scarecrow and hit him with a stun spell. The commando fell to the ground immobilized.

The white stallion readied his fore hooves to prance on Scarecrow's face, but the masked counter terrorist rolled over to the left, grabbed Shining Armor's left fore hoof and gave it a squeeze.

The unicorn gave a cry in agony as his hoof exploded in pain. Scarecrow got back on his feet and hurled his fist straight into the stallions jaw, followed by a kick to his chest piece.

The captain was hurt, but he stood. To Scarecrow's shock, Shining Armor disappeared. It was not a teleportation however but rather a cloak.

"You're not the only one who can turn invisible you know!" taunted Shining Armor's disembodied voice.

Scarecrow sighed. "It's such a shame I have motion trackers and magnetic vision."

Scarecrow used magnetic vision to see the white stallion. The commando grabbed the invisible Equine by the throat and held him up high.

To the crowd it looked like Scarecrow was holding up thin air.

Shadow's commander proceeded to fist the captain in the face and disabled his cloaking.

Suddenly, the physical form of Shining Armor appeared to the audience, badly injured with a bleeding nose. Scarecrow proceeded to throw the body across the field.

The ponies watching gave cries of horror and disbelief.

Twilight and Cadance were on the verge of tears after seeing Shining Armor so brutalized.

The captain of the royal guard turned around and saw his beloved sister and wife. He wasn't going to go down and give up especially when he still had some fight left in him.

Shining Armor got on his fore hooves and wiped his bloody nose. The captain cast a healing spell which accelerate the rate in which his body healed wounds dramatically.

The captain smirked and with his new found power, grabbed Scarecrow with a telekinetic grip and thrust his body down on the ground numerous times before letting go.

Just when it seemed that it was all over, Scarecrow stood and wiped the dust from his unfazed recon armor.

Shining Armor attempted to cast a freeze spell at Scarecrow by dispersing a low temperature infrared blast from his horn. Unfortunately for him, Scarecrow's recon armor was resistant to freezing temperatures.

The captain gave up and the commando cloaked. Shining Armor braced himself for impact.

In the heart of the moment, the cloaked Scarecrow fisted the white stallion in the muzzle, followed by an uppercut to the chest and slide kick that knocked Shining Armor on the ground.

The beaten stallion stood back up and Scarecrow uncloaked. The commando crouched to face Shining Armor eye to mask.

"Had enough?" questioned Scarecrow.

"Of course not." smiled Shining Armor.

The captain cast a regeneration spell and was back in action.

Shining Armor thrusted his fore hooves at Scarecrow who back flipped to avoid the attack. Shining Armor shot a stun spell at Scarecrow's face, but the commando tilted his head at last second.

Scarecrow sprinted towards the commander with full on speed.

Shining Armor used telekinesis to life a chunk of concrete from the ground and hurled it at Scarecrow. The commando slid on the ground to dodge the concrete and knock Shining Armor off his hooves.

Both the human and Equine got their respective upright positions.

Scarecrow readied a punch to Shining Armor's muzzle, but the captain lit up a barrier to absorb the attack.

The commando took a step back and observed the barrier. It was not transparent, but rather netted in a hexagonal structure like the ones his squad utilized.

However, such an increase in power would be useless against what Scarecrow had in store.

Scarecrow electrified his gloves and pulse punched the barrier. The resulting EMP disabled the shield.

Shining Armor was in shock, right before he could ready another force field, Scarecrow grabbed the captain by the neck and held him up.

Twilight was at a loss of breath for what happening.

The masked commando continued to divert electricity to his gloves, locking Shining Armor in a state of 'pulse choke'. Right before the electrocution was near lethal, Scarecrow dropped the guard.

"SHINING!" shrieked Cadance.

Shining Armor stood on his hooves and felt a numbing sensation on his horn. The same sensation he felt when Sombra disabled his magical abilities with the dark crystals.

The captain attempted to grab Scarecrow with telekinesis, but he couldn't emit any radiation from his horn. He then tried to stun Scarecrow, but nothing shot out of his body. His magic was drained.

Shadow's commander was going to end it once and for all. He had to admit, Shining Armor lasted longer than expected.

Scarecrow fisted the captain in the muzzle and gave him a bloody nose. The white stallion attempted to lunge at Scarecrow, but the commando side kicked Shining on his chest.

The masked commando finished off the guard with an upper cut to the chin and slide kicked his hooves off the ground.

Shining Armor fell to the ground. Before he had any urge to resist, Scarecrow hurled his foot on the stallion's gut.

The entire crowd was silent. The Mane 5 and the princesse's were at a loss of words. Cadance was crying and comforted the distraught Twilight all the while.

"I......submit." groaned Shining Armor.

Scarecrow placed his foot off the guard. "I never asked you to."

The commando walked towards the side lines to meet up with his squad as a group of paramedics dragged the captain's body aside.

The princesses entered the medical bay. It was more crowded then ever. All 80 guards who participated in the fight had grave wounds and injuries. And to think Shadow was holding back.

"How could have I let this happen?" glumly stated Luna.

Celestia nuzzled his sister. "It was not your fault, it was foolish of the guards to challenge the humans to a duel."

"I just can not believe that humanity is capable of producing soldiers like Shadow squad." whimpered the lunar alicorn.

"Something tells me the Federation regrets creating this....23rd as well." gulped Celestia.

Around the medical bay, guards were crying in pain. While all the guards suffered physical damage, a good number of them suffered mental trauma as well.

Twilight trotted past the handicapped stallions when something caught her ear.

"Make it go away." Whispered a familiar voice.

Twilight turned around to see the guard she recognized as Flash Sentry who was covered with a bruise on his right eye, casts on his fore hooves and a throat cast.

"Make his voice go away." pleaded the semi conscious Flash.

Twilight felt pity for the stallion and trotted towards him.

"It will be alright. You fought bravely." assured Twilight. She wanted to give him a kiss in the fore head, but that would only make Flash more anxious.

The Amber pegasus finally relaxed and drifted to sleep.

Twilight turned around to see Pinkie Pie trying to lift the spirits of two pegasus solar guards and Fluttershy tending to the wounds of a bat pony.

"Hey Fluttershy." said Twilight.

The yellow pegasus jumped and turned around.

"Oh. Hi Twilight I didn't see you there."

"What's the situation?" questioned the purple alicorn.

"Not good." gulped Fluttershy. "Nothing too critical, but most of these guards will never pick up a helmet again. The ones that have got off the lightest won't be clear for any physical activity for over 5 months."

"And they were holding back." whispered Twilight to herself. "How's Shining Armor."

"See for yourself." cried Fluttershy.

Twilight turned to her left to see Shining Armor lying on a hospital bed, being comforted by his wife. Shining Armor had all his hooves in a cast, band aids all over his chest, a bruised eye and an ice pack over his head.

The purple alicorn couldn't believe it. She could not bear to see her brother, her hero, so brutalized. Seeing the Captain of the Royal guard in pain broke her heart.

Twilight wiped a tear from her eye and joined Cadance in comforting her brother.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity sat on a bench outside the medical bay, unable to say a word. They would be getting nightmares for a few days.

What scared them the most though was this: If Shadow was holding back during the fight, what were they capable of? The very thought of that question and its answer was just as bad as mentioning the word 'Shadow' in front of them.

The ponies heard a something coming their way.

The three looked up to see the 4 members of Shadow, masked but unhooded walking towards the castle.

Knowing the 4, the commandos were most likely unfazed by the entire event. Their mental condition just prevented Shadow from feeling any kind of remorse or regret. However, they weren't exactly pleased by what had occurred.

The members of Shadow placed their hoods and cloaked into the sunset. They would return to their room in the castle, watch something and go to sleep as if they had never gone through the entire ordeal.

One thing was certain to the Equines. If they were going to compete in a galaxy with aliens like the humans, they would have to become harder, better, faster and stronger.

Author's Note

Due to class starting, I may no longer update as quickly.

So here's your sparing chapter. Better get more favs and likes for this! JK.

Chapter 33: Machine and Might

"We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work." - John F Kennedy

"What do you mean by 'the stakes have changed'?" questioned Luna.

"One of the things that did not happen during the progression of human society was the visit of a hyper advanced race. For a long time, we believed we were the only sapient life forms." started X-ray.

"However, ponies now have met a Space Faring race and that will more than likely change your course of social and technological evolution." added Scorch.

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "How will it change exactly?"

"Well, now that we've informed you that ponies are evolving like humanity, we've more than likely broken the streak." theorized Scarecrow.

"So we won't be copying humanity any more?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"We would assume so." nodded X-ray. "Like we said, humans never met a space faring race especially during the renaissance so we assume that this will throw ponies off course."

"What do you think will happen to us now that we are aware of this anomaly?" inquired Rarity.

"For starters, I don't think ponies are going to be creating human technology or go through any of the events that equated ours after this time period." pondered Scorch.

"Does this mean that we ponies are going to get some of your awesome technology?" spoke up Rainbow Dash.

"No!" snorted Scorch. "For starters our technology is meant for humans to use since our machines completely assume you have fingers and a primate's body structure."

"But couldn't you humans just help us invent appliances that are meant for hoofed quadrupeds like us?" asked Twilight.

"We can't." shook Scarecrow. "We've never known what it feels like to have hooves, so we can't exactly tell you what invent. Besides, it isn't healthy for one species to rely on the other for support."

"Ah'd be darned if ah started acceptin' gifts without workin' for 'em." puffed Applejack.

"Exactly. We humans had to work for our technology and so should ponies." nodded Overwatch.

"Aren't you forgetting Equestrians lack the means of production to make appliances on par with yours?" reminded Celestia.

"Well go out there and start inventing." smiled X-ray. "It might take you a long time to reach the level as to where we humans are, but you can't just rely on the Federation to give you support while we're too busy trying to push our race forward as well."

"That doesn't sound very generous." shook Rarity.

"Speaking of the Federation." remembered Scarecrow. The ponies observed Shadow's commander stand up from his seat and tap on his wrist computer. The device glowed blue the moment Scarecrow started contacting the politicians on Apex.

"Command, this is Scarecrow. Do you read?"

"Roger that. We read you loud and clear. What is it that you need?" responded the HOD.

"I'm requesting intel regarding the conflicts and attacks having to do with Mega Corp and the PRM."

"Scarecrow, that battle ended two hours after Commander McFarlene contacted you. Ghost and Wraith teams were able to track down and take out the conductors of the attack and instill a ceasefire."

X-ray knitted his eyebrows. "Hold on, if the attack ended a while ago, where the hell is our back up? We can't handle the entire situation by ourselves you know."

"I'm afraid the President and his Staff is having a hard time trying to relay the news to the public. The civilians find the concept of a planet filled with English Speaking animated Unicorns and Dragons to be some sort of massive prank the government is pulling."

"Hey!" whined Pinkie Pie from across the table.

"I understand sir." agreed Scarecrow. "Any other human who came here would have most likely gone insane from all the anomalies on this planet."

"Exactly, and that's why we need you 4 to continue what your doing."

"Sir. I believe we still should have additional back up like Politicians, Soldiers and Scientists here." recommended Scorch.

"They too believe this planet is some sort of massive joke." sighed the HOD. "They're just in denial however. Soon the Terran people will have to accept the facts."

"When can we expect back up?" questioned X-ray.

"Soon. While I doubt the mass people will be able to handle this information, the government should still be able to send back up in a few days."

"Few days?" repeated Overwatch. "Sir, I hope you've noticed that a lot of creatures on this planet are trying to kill us."

"We can't afford to go to an alien planet hastily." snapped the HOD. "This needs planning and we do not wish to put more pressure on the local populace. Besides, the 4 of you have a mystery to solve and you may be the only way the goals of the Federation are realized."

Shadow's commander nodded. "Understood sir. Shadow out."

The Equestrians looked at the humans glumly.

"Why would they think this land is a joke?" questioned Cadance.

"Well, if we had a hard time accepting the similarities on this world, there is no way the other humans could have too." exhaled X-ray.

"What did he mean by goals of the Federation?" asked Twilight.

"You'll see." trivialized Scorch.

Luna changed the subject. "On the other hoof, I do find it impressive that humans can perform communication feats such as what we just observed without magic."

"Humans had no biological advantages on Earth with the notable exception of hands." gloated Scarecrow.

"Hands?" repeated Celestia.

"The reason why primates are the dominant species on Terra is because hands allowed us to utilize tools. When we built tools, we naturally were able to progress faster and exceed the other animals." explained X-ray.

"So if we had hands, we'd be in space by now?" checked Rainbow Dash.

"Not necessarily. Since the Equestrians evidentially started out as sapient or at least sentient beings, they should have been space faring creatures at least 10 thousand years after their formation." theorized Scorch. "However, the Equestrians seem to take a far longer time for any form of social or technological progress to occur."

"Come to think of it, with magic and the ability to control the weather biologically, ponies should have be for more advanced than we are by a LONG SHOT!" yelled Scarecrow.

"So why aren't we a space faring species with lasers, robots and holograms?" shrugged Pinkie Pie.

"We don't know. And since ponies are evolving like humans, you should have been tens of thousands of years from where we are." muttered X-ray.

"You humans sure are an advanced race. What kind of technology do you humans have?" questioned Twilight.

"That's a broad question Twilight." flexed Scarecrow. "You need to be more specific."

"Just how advanced is human technology? What would you say is the most advanced thing you've ever invented?" inquired Celestia.

"Let's just say human technology is so advanced you might as well call it magic." laughed Scorch.

Cadance crossed her fore hooves. "I thought humans didn't believe in magic."

"We don't. But the only thing that separates the abilities of our species is the means." trivialized Scarecrow. "The source for power that drives Equestria forward is natural biological mutations. For humans, it comes in the form of machinery."

"So humans are capable of feats such as telekinesis?" asked Rarity.

"More or less." chuckled X-ray. "Rather than emitting gravitational or magnetic radiation from stored energy within our horns, humans found a substitute with the use of magnetic gloves."

X-ray diverted power to his gloves and increased the strength of the magnetic force. Suddenly, a metal fork levitated off the table. X-ray moved his hand up and down and the fork followed.

"Just like telekinesis." demonstrated Scorch.

"Do humans have ways to reverse age?" asked Celestia.

"Pretty much. Cryo can preserve a person indefinitely and nano machines can stall, accelerate or reverse the aging factor." explained Scarecrow.

"What's cryo and what are nano machines?" asked Fluttershy.

"Cryo is basically the practice of freezing a body with extremely cold substances like liquid hydrogen. Whenever humans are required to perform operations that do not require an entire crew, any unneeded personnel are put into cryo sleep."

"So that way you won't have worry about taking care of them and waste supplies." realized Twilight.

"And Nano machines are basically miniature robots that are instructed to perform tasks at a small scale usually for biological operations like healing cells and restarting organs. To some extent we're augmented with nano machines." explained X-ray.

"Any chance humans have nano thingies that could make me a better flier?" smiled Rainbow Dash.

"Most probably." muttered Overwatch.

"Does this mean that humans have completely mastered the use of robotics outside fiction?" pondered Luna.

"Totally." nodded Scorch. "We have robots, although we prefer to call them androids, that are programmed to perform various tasks. Some simple while other robots tend to be more complex like VIs."

"VI?" repeated Cadance.

"Virtual Intelligence." spelt Scarecrow. "It's basically a robot that does not need a physical form. Humans are capable of operating machines through connecting them in what we call cyber space. A virtual intelligence operates within that sphere where it can perform various tasks that depend based on complexity of the programming."

"So, humans can basically create artificial people?" awed Cadance.

"Not necessarily. A virtual intelligence is programed to do a set of commands and nothing else like analyze soil, identify people, find information book a holiday etc. They can't do anything outside of that." explained X-ray.

"Does this mean robots and VIs can't think or feel?" whispered Pinkie Pie.

"Something capable of learning, thought and performing multiple tasks is what you would call an Artificial Intelligence. Which is like a true virtual living thing." shook Scorch. "Artificial intelligence is pure fiction."

"We ponies can manipulate gravity. Can humans do that too?" asked Twilight.

"Yes. Gravity can be altered through radiation. That's how we stay put on star ships despite space being a vacuum." assured Scorch. "In fact, humans often terraform worlds with gravity modifiers."

"Terraform?" repeated Rarity angrily. Shadow wasn't making anything easier.

"Terraforming is the practice of changing the natural state of a planet to make it habitable. To a human, it would mean making it like Earth." responded Scarecrow.

"Why would humans wanna do that?" frowned Applejack.

"Well not every planet is capable of supporting life." pointed X-ray. "In order for humans to live on the planet, we have to alter its atmosphere, make the weather bearable, and allow vegetation to grow."

"That sounds like how Pegasai control the weather." noted Rainbow Dash.

"Although on a much larger scale. Our weather alteration changes barren planets like Mars and Venus into lush worlds ripe for survival." said Scorch. "Plus we kind of alter planets from orbit."

"How do humans change the faces of planets? That is not something we are capable of doing." admitted Luna.

"We are no experts on terra forming, although I believe that we humans implement nano drones to make the dirt suitable for plant life which in turn uses photosynthesis to create oxygen followed by creation of a suitable atmosphere through alteration of gravity." theorized Scarecrow. "Then there's the whole problem of fighting off diseases."

"How strong is human medicine anyway?" pondered Fluttershy. "Sometimes, I'm called to help in hospitals."

X-ray laughed. "Let's just say humans are immune to pretty much every disease, which also makes biological warfare pointless. The Federation spends so much money on medical research that the moment we find a new disease, it's cured within a day at most."

"And injuries can be healed in moments." added Scorch.

"You've kind of raided the hospital once." muttered Twilight. "Is human medicine different from the ones ponies administer?"

"Our people still receive vaccinations, pills and casts, but we've modified them in such a way that they dwarf the medical capabilities of Equines." explained Scarecrow. "Nano technology and robotic implants have also helped."

"Furthermore, we can even revive those who are dead." recalled Overwatch. "We can reconstruct the body and with the use of implants and nano tech, restore organ functions. The only form of death that truly exists for the mass people is old age when the organs are incapable of using energy."

The ponies gave mummers of awe.

"A lot of ponies still suffer from diseases such as cancer and many other infections." wept Luna. "Could the humans administer their advances to help our race? It would be a great act of kindness."

The Equestrians stared at the humans with pleading eyes.

Scarecrow tensed. "We would. But humans have developed medicine to help humans, not equines. We suffer from different diseases and injuries. We're not too skilled in helping your certain race the same way ponies don't know the first thing about human anatomy. Developing cures for ponies would require a new field of study. Sorry."

Shadow couldn't stand to see the sad faces of the equines. They really thought it would be their moment where disease and death would no longer be such a problem.

"Come on! You ponies have magic for crying out loud?! Shouldn't curing diseases be simple?" insisted Scorch.

"We can't just make spells on the top of our head." reminded Twilight. "We need to use the right techniques to solve the right problems, shouldn't have a mind as yours guessed that?"

Scorch blushed.

"Digressing, how strong is the human population anyway? Is it 117 million? I mean you humans are spread across stars, there has to be a lot of people out there." asked Pinkie Pie.

X-ray smiled. "The human population is nearly 42 billion."

Pinkie Pie took a sip of wine, gurgled it, and spat it and Overwatch's face.

"42 billion!" gasped Rainbow Dash.

"Wow, those are a lotta of names ta remember." muttered Applejack.

"How strong is the Equestrian population?" countered Scarecrow.

"42....million." answered Celestia.

"That's really small." insulted Scorch.

"We're only one country." reminded Rainbow Dash.

The demo man face palmed. He could be an idiot at times.

"Humans didn't start exploring space because we randomly felt like it. We had to because Earth and the environment was getting totally decimated." informed X-ray.

"Oh my." gasped Fluttershy. "How bad was it?"

"Really horrible. By the time a certain war ended, Earth was in complete chaos." remembered Scarecrow. "The population of the planet was 10 billion."

"10 billion people on one world?" blurted Rarity. "How dreadful."

"Exactly. Earth's resources were being drained and a war had scarred it. In order to save ourselves and take the burden off our home world, we turned to others." aded Scorch.

"How bad was it on Earth before you turned to the stars?" asked Cadance.

"Many animals had gone extinct, forests were being destroyed and air pollution was littered across our world." told X-ray. "When a large portion of humans left Earth for the colonies, it was time to heal the wound."

"What could have happened to result in all this?" asked Fluttershy.

"Well, technology." muttered X-ray. "Fossil fuels created through burning substances like coal and oil emitted pollution in the air which not only poisoned the air, but apparently trapped the sun's rays in the atmosphere which raised the temperature to unbearable levels."

"All of human technology relied on that fuel source and since it was so convenient to utilize every day, we were emitting CO2 in the atmosphere all the time." muttered Overwatch.

"Made all the worse by the fact that there were too many humans on Earth." revealed Scorch. "The rapid increase in population demanded more housing so we needed to tear down many areas that contained wild life. Also, people in the early 21st century were retarded as hell and those disgraces to the human name threw trash into places that they shouldn't have thrown it into."

"It was clear Earth was no longer going to contain the human population if continued this route." sighed X-ray.

"But if humans knew technology was causing all of this, why did you continue to invent machines?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Because things change." implied Scarecrow. "Humans have a natural desire to discover concepts and when we do, the old ways become invalid and we switch to newer methods."

"Just because humans can use technology to do something, doesn't mean they should." frowned Twilight.

"I'm afraid that point is invalid." debunked X-ray. "With humans being spread far apart, technology was our only means of communication and connecting the world as one. It was the only way even if it was costing our own planet."

"What did ya do?" asked Applejack. "How'd ya fix it?"

"With technology." smiled Scorch.

"Through biological cloning, we were able to reintroduce many species we wiped out in that....certain war." began Scarecrow. "Some cities were completely abandoned and moved to other planets. In their vacant place, those cities were destroyed and replaced with wild life preserves."

"Sound lovely." complimented Fluttershy.

"Then we humans utilized terra formers to clean Earth's damaged environment. Our planet was saved. At least I think that's how it went, the whole thing was 500 years ago." said Scorch.

"But how does the Federation keep the same thing from happening to the other colonies?" inquired Celestia.

"For starters, the Federation tries to keep the population of each planet relatively low." began X-ray. "Planets usually house 200 to 300 million people."

"That's still a lot." pointed Rainbow Dash.

"For you maybe." defended Scorch. "But some planets we live on are pretty large. Besides, that's a sufficient number to make sure that the burden on each colony isn't too high."

"How does the UTF strike a balance with technology and keeping the ecosystem safe?" asked Twilight.

"There's some authoritarianism involved." blushed Scarecrow. "The UTF imposes pretty strict laws regarding pollution, hunting, recycling and deforestation."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Why use government force? Can' people be nice on their own?"

"Of course we can." snorted X-ray. "But we can be as vulnerable to wrong doing as any other species. That's why we need the Federation to keep people in check."

Pinkie Pie spoke in a less squeaky voice. "Isn't imposing punishments for harming the environment a little excessive?"

"It's nothing serious. But like we said, the most powerful emotion is fear. When people fear punishments that can result from damaging the ecosystem, they won't do it." explained Scorch.

"And has it proved effective?" checked Luna.

"Of course!" laughed Scarecrow. "No human ever dares to throw any waste in inappropriate places. Especially with a gas mask wearing guard around."

"Another thing that helped, was that the production of technology no longer became for profit, bur rather the greater good." added X-ray. "The UTF strictly regulates the types of machines created for civilians to make sure they won't harm us nor a planet in the long run."

"I agree, best to take the negatives into account as minor as they may be." nodded Rarity.

"What about resources? 42 billion is a lot to supply and humans clearly use technology every day." brought up Twilight.

"The Federation mostly calls for the extraction of resources such as titanium and iron from worlds, moons, asteroids that are beyond terraformation for life." answered Scorch.

"That way, you won't need to eat up parts of a planet that house an ecosystem." smiled Fluttershy.

Cadance placed a hoof on her chin. "How do humans even power their technology? Us ponies use the magic stored within unicorn horns."

"Humans have various sources of energy which we extract from the universe around us." informed X-ray. "Fossil fuels were a popular option, but it was a finite resource. Some human cities are powered with geothermal energy which takes heat from the lava to power a generator and other times we use nuclear fusion where we combine atoms and extract the electricity produced form the reaction. However, we humans use, especially on space ships, solar power."

Celestia perked up. "Could you repeat that last part please?"

"We humans convert sunlight to electricity as the main source of power." repeated Scarecrow. "Our wrist computers, which power our suit, are energized through the sun."

"Why use the sun?" said Celestia in a dreamy voice.

"Because it's not like any of the stars we inhabit or doing to go supernova or black dwarf any time soon and it's clean." stated Overwatch. "Besides, when you're in space, you're always facing the sun."

Luna scowled. "What about the night? The sun isn't always facing you."

Scorch rolled his eyes. "Moons aren't luminous objects. Moonlight at night is essentially reflected sun rays, so we're cool with using solar power even at night."

The alicorn of the night calmed down and smiled.

"Although it's not usually as fast." noted X-ray. "So we humans have back up batteries for wireless objects as well nuclear generators for cities."

"How do human settlements even look like? Are they simple like Ponyville? Or flashy like Canterlot?" pondered Rarity.

"Neither." replied Scarecrow. "Humans live primarily in cities with large metallic buildings."

Overwatch lit up a fully colored hologram of his artwork he drew back on Pewter City. "The look like this."

The ponies looked straight up at the hologram which detailed a large city during the night time with massive buildings that exceeded 30 stories, people with gleeful expressions walking on the street, hover cars, large neon signs and gas mask wearing UTF troops guarding the street.

(somebody make an art work of that)

"That doesn't look too inviting." gulped Pinkie Pie. "How am I supposed to keep track of everypony who lives there?"

"Well, we humans have lived on cities like this for hundreds of years and we got off fine." accused X-ray.

"Ah don' lak city life. Way too bright for me." puffed Applejack.

Rainbow Dash folded her hooves. "No way I can practice my flying there."

Scarecrow flexed his blond hair. "To be fair, city life on colonies like Requiem and Bernstein isn't really too loud, tiring, and aren't even polluted. If you don't want stress, don't go to Mojave, New New New York, or Vekta. Some districts tend to use traditional architecture while other colonies like Elysium go for simpler settings however."

"Don't humans still live in suburban areas like Ponyville?" asked Luna.

"No. Suburban areas in most nations were in fact where the Federation chose citizens to migrate to other colonies." denied Scorch.

"Are humans really cool with living in huge metallic cities like this?" questioned Shining Armor.

"Like we said, we've been doing it for 500 years. No one really remembers suburban life." responded the demo man. "Things change and humans adapt. With the of humans being large, the Federation can't afford to have humans spread out in massive suburban areas that take up space. It's easier to have us confined to large cities that don't take too much room and leave room for flora and fauna for the rest of the colony."

"That sounds nice, but I'd still like to live near my cottage with my animals." whimpered Fluttershy.

"And what happens when humans want to get a breath of fresh air and socialize and play?" questioned Twilight.

X-ray looked at Twilight as if she asked him a stupid question. "They just go to the park and have fun."

"By the way, what were those flying things we saw in Overwatch's artwork?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Those were cars." began Scarecrow. "They're vehicles used to transport humans from one place to another."

"Like a carriage?" checked Celestia.

"Kind of, but much more advanced. By the way, why do ponies have carriages?"

"For transportation of course." pointed Twilight.

"You do realize how a carriage works right?" checked Overwatch.

"I'm guessing humans had used them once." muttered Celestia.

"Correct." assured Scorch. "Back when horses were still useful to humans, we used them to pull carriages for us to get us one place to the other. Do ponies do the same thing?"

Luna opened her eyes. "Well yes. Why?"

"Because ponies here are intelligent and using a carriage boils down to asking somepony to carry you from one place to the other." explained X-ray. "That's kind of lazy and being a dick. Even by our standards."

Twilight brushed off the swear from her head. "That would sound cruel, but carriage drivers have no problem doing it."

X-ray admitted defeat. If there was really no harm, then he couldn't debunk the whole system.

"But that still sounds weird." squeaked Pinkie Pie. "I mean, humans don't have a system of transport that involves humans carrying humans right?"

"Right." nodded Scorch. "I guess it's a side effect of ponies evolving like humans."

"Going, back to my question, how do cars work? How do they fly?" questioned Rainbow Dash impatiently.

"Well a car is like a carriage except it's powered by electricity to move rather than having an organic pull you around." replied Scarecrow.

"Most car's used to work with wheels for support but we've totally abandoned them for flight." laughed X-ray. "The modern car uses a magnetic force to propel it off the ground and accelerates and decelerates by altering the force applied. Although it can only travel so far up."

"But if y'all are usin' machines to take ya from one place to another, doesn' dat mean you're bein' lazy by forcin' technology to do the work you can?" questioned Applejack.

"I guess." snickered Scorch. "But things change. Even though humans can still walk from place to place, we have to take cars because we're usually spread so far apart. While the Federation is pretty lax on time restraints, humans don't like being late nor do they want to walk a distance they can drive."

"What about flight? How do you humans soar through the sky?" continued Rainbow Dash.

Scarecrow gave a yawn "As previously mentioned, humans can't fly so we invented substitutes such as the airplane and helicopter which was replaced by the VTOL."

"What are those things?" asked Twilight. "You said the 4 of you arrived on a VTOL."

"A VTOL stands for vertical take off and landing." explained X-ray. "A VTOL is transport device that uses an anti gravity force to propel it off the ground like a car, but is faster can, carry more people and better suited for higher altitudes."

"That kind of makes it like my hot air ballon!" realized Twilight.

"You could say that." shrugged Scarecrow. "Except much more advanced and can go into space."

"But doesn't that mean humans can't fly on their own?" asked Fluttershy.

"Humans have to use transport to fly. We can't fly on or own, so the machines do all the lifting for us." shook Scorch.

"Sounds kind of boring." muttered Rainbow Dash.

"Not really!" snorted Scarecrow. "Interceptors are really quick and provide the same excitement. Flying on VTOLs, especially when they're about to get shot down is exciting. Although it's not that exciting when you nearly die."

Cadance opened her eyes. "I could have sworn that humans advanced as you are would find ways to create artificial wings or some other substitute."

X-ray place a finer on his chin. "Actually, we humans do have ways for individual flight with anti gravity packs."

"Don't you mean jet packs?" smiled Pinkie Pie.

"No. Jet packs are pure fiction. They're too weak, create air pollution and are useless in Zero gravity environments like outer space. Although anti gravity packs are hard to create and are reserved for the Eagle Rangers."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "What about technology required for humans to travel across space?"

"Well, starships are quite a complex subject none of us are really familiar in." muttered Overwatch.

"How do you even get a starship off the ground? They must be heavy!" awed Pinkie Pie.

"We use either magnetics or anti gravity to lift hunk of junk off the planet." began X-ray. "Once, it gets suspended in orbit, it uses its solar power engines to maneuver."

"How fast do your spaceships go? I can travel faster than the sound barrier." gloated Rainbow Dash.

"Star Ships can go faster than the speed of light." smirked Scarecrow.

"They go that fast?" gasped Celestia.

"But that's not how space ships travel from one place to another due to time dilation." corrected Scorch.

"Time....dilation?" muttered Twilight.

"You see, all the stars you see in the universe aren't actually where they currently are. You are actually looking at them they way they were a long time ago."

Luna tried to wrap it in her head. She looked out the stained glass window. "So that star I am seeing, isn't actually where it is right now?"

Shadow looked at the star Luna was eyeing at outside.

"Most likely." answered X-ray. "We see things through light reflecting back at us, but as fast as light is, there is still some delay when it travels across space. If you were to look at Kepler 62, which is 200 light years away, you'd be seeing it the state it was 200 years ago."

"So if humans flew to a star, based purely on sight, what you'd get is different from the visual result?" guessed Twilight.

"Correct."

"If Super Speed doesn't cut it for humans, how do you travel from one star to another?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Well, humans used to use highly charged particles to teleport from one star to another in a short period of time, but when we branched out to further star systems and interstellar war became a problem, humans needed a better solution. This solution was through space time rips." answered Scorch.

"Space.....time...rips?" muttered Applejack.

"Look, matter is divided into 3 dimensions. There's 1D which is a point, 2D which is what cartoons like you are supposed to be. And there is 3D which includes humans and apparently you." muttered Scarecrow.

"Could you elaborate on that last part?" requested Celestia.

"Normally, animated objects such as yourselves are often presented in two dimensional programs, but you possess, height, length and depth like anything outside this universe." shrugged X-ray. "But going back on the subject, there are two more dimensions we humans take advantage of time and space."

"You see, space time is the fabric in which our universe is made of. Planets and other celestial bodies rest on this plane." instructed Scorch.

"Like a stone resting on fabric?" empathized Rarity.

"Exactly, and when pressure is put on the fabric, space time bends around the object. That is why we have time dilation."

"But what happens when you put too much pressure?" inquired Luna.

"Space is ripped like a cloth." answered Scarecrow. "However, space time is not flat as previously theorized, but rather curved like an orange. You push a pin on one side, and it comes out the other. Inside that rip, the object going through it falls from one end to the other without time being taken into account. That's how humans get from one star to another in an instant."

"What happens to the rip? Does it just stay there?" asked Twilight.

"No they collapse very quickly as if there was no cut made in the first place. The 4 of us don't know why though, you'll have to ask someone adept in general relativity." shrugged Scorch.

"But how do humans know where they will end up in the universe and they've made the right rip?" asked Celestia.

"We don't know everything. This isn't something the 4 of us are adept in, but I heard physicists have found a way to map the universe as well as how much energy is required to get you from one star to the other. We don't make random jumps. That's suicide." said X-ray.

"Wait, if humans can manipulate space, can they manipulate time?" questioned Cadance.

Scarecrow gave it a moments thought. "We can actually, but we've never attempted it. Time travel would work the same way as teleportation, but rather than moving a distance without time being affective, the object would travel through time without space being taken into account. However, it was proven by theoretical physicists that you can only go back in time. Not forward."

"Why don't humans time travel?" asked Pinkie Pie. "Time travel would be fun."

Overwatch looked insulted. "Fun? Do you realize how many consequences would have in the harmony in the universe? And imagine what would happen if time travel devices fell into the wrong hands or hoofs? The universe is a delicate balance and upsetting it would create armageddon."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "I time travelled. And it went fine."

Shadow was dumbstruck.

"You can time travel without technological aid?" questioned X-ray. "That is amazing."

Twilight blushed. Since Shadow had fallen asleep the first time she told the story, she proceeded retell how she received a warning from her future self only for the warning to mean not doing anything.

Scarecrow nodded. "If that is the case, then X-ray's views on time travel prove prevalent."

"What do you mean?" asked Luna.

Scorch scratched his cheek. "Me, Scarecrow and X-ray have different views on time travel. X-ray believes time travel is pointless because you would fail to complete what you set out to do since you needed to have a reason to time travel in the first place. Twilight's story proves that. I believe that time travel creates an endless cycle because when you cancel an event from happening, your past self would have no reason to time travel. And because he or she would not time travel, the event would play out and the time traveler would have to do it all over again."

Rainbow Dash's eyes shook. "That's a lot of information to remember."

"Overwatch just doesn't give a shit." pointed Scarecrow. "I believed that when you change an event from happening, it would create an alternate universe, one where the event happened, one where it did not."

"Are there alternate universes?" asked Fluttershy.

"We humans haven't figured that out yet nor do we have any reason to." remarked X-ray. "But if there were any, some alternate universes would be so minor in differences while others go beyond comprehension."

"Oh. Imagine a universe where I was a unicorn!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

"Or a universe where you never met your friends." smirked Scorch. "Although if we could travel between universes, we would have to be able to rip subspace as well."

Scarecrow inspected the expressions of the equines. "You all don't look very cheery."

Applejack. "Well sorry. Technology isn't our species thing."

"Well, it's the opposite for us. Technology and science are the foundations of human technocracy." smiled X-ray.

"How reliant are humans on machines anyway?" asked Rarity.

"Let's just say scientific and technological innovation is just as natural as breathing to us." exclaimed Scarecrow. "Every day, humans ride cars to go from place to place, use VIs to track information, send messages on computers to far away planets. Hell, robots and virtual intelligence do all the jobs we humans once had like factory work and organizing data."

"But that's making you lazy! Humans shouldn't drag machines into their life that excessively." accused Shining Armor.

X-ray frowned. "Well things change. Humans need to adapt to new situations which require machines and innovation. Besides, what do we have to loose?"

"How about your humanity!" brought up Celestia. "If you humans are too attached to technology, surely it takes away time from your world and important matters like friends and family."

"What?" groaned Scorch. "Humans aren't that attached too machinery. In fact, we humans use technology as a means to explore our human ingenuity and connect us to our loved ones."

"Didn' y'all say that you replaced farm folk with robots?" accused Applejack.

"Yeah." confirmed Scarecrow. "People like you are basically extinct. It was more efficient to nationalize all food production and replace so called farm folk with drones and professional botanists."

"Why would y'all do that?" glared the orange mare.

X-ray face palmed. "Because things CHANGE. As the human population grew and the abyss of uneducated farmers and their incompetence failed to produce food for us because they wanted money, the government nationalized their farms, replaced rednecks with educated botanists who knew how to properly handle plants and drones to do the heavy lifting."

"We Equestrians have a believe in ponies doing things, not machines." dramatized Rarity. "I recall this one time where Flim and Flam attempted to run Applejack and her family out of the apple cider business with their machines. However, our hoof made cider proved all the better."

"If we did what humans do with technology, we'd all be run out of business! Machines would just do all the work." shook Pinkie Pie.

Shadow sighed at the same time.

X-ray collected his thoughts. "We're liberal socialists. Do you really think that the Federation is stupid enough to allow machinery to replace the working force? We invent to explore our very capabilities, not earn profit. The reason why technology negatively impacted humans in the past is because we developed devices for all the wrong reasons."

"But isn't using technology to do work how you get workers unemployed? pondered Celestia. "I discourage the use of machines in labour because it will allow business owners to replace their employees and make ponies lazy."

"Don't worry the Federation knows what its doing." defended Scorch. "Truth be told, the only forms of technology that have been replaced workers are undesirable blue collar jobs. Every human in the Federation works some profession according to technological, scientific and intellectual pursuit. Oh yeah, we have a 99.7% employment rate."

Applejack shivered. If ponies joined the Federation, she could kiss good bye to running her own farm.

"Why do humans care so much about scientific advancement anyway?" asked Twilight.

"We just do. After all, what else ware we going to base our species on? Diplomacy and war?" laughed Scarecrow.

"The thing is, technology just sounds so second rate to us. We ponies like focusing on more positive things like friendship, tolerance and making life happy." said Cadance.

"Well, we humans still find happiness and joy. Technology takes nothing away from it and can provide some form of it." debunked Scorch.

"But what about doing things physically? You can't just rely on machines to do everything for you." accused Rainbow Dash.

"We know. Like we said before, the Federation still encourages an hour of physical activity from its citizens and strongly supports taking some time off from the city every now and then." informed X-ray.

"But shouldn't the government know that you can't use technology forever and that it can go south?" asked Pinkie Pie.

Scarecrow sighed. "We humans know that. The lesson had to be learned the hard way."

"What do you mean?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"In 2191, we humans had a cybernetic revolt on the planet Vekta." told X-ray.

"A cybernetic revolt?" repeated Celestia.

"During that time, new technologies were being introduced to the public like wild fire and humans started to grow attached to these machines and allowed it to do work they normally would have. Unfortunately, a hacker was able to infiltrate the cyberspace that controlled Vekta and totally turn the colony to shit."

"What happened?" gasped Twilight.

"Robots went haywire and security drones began attacking indiscriminately. Since the humans on the colony had gotten so used to machines doing all the work, the people were in no condition to solve the problem." continued Scarecrow.

"So how did the Federation solve the issue?" inquired Luna.

"Humans can do what machines can't. Think, feel and not have to run on electricity." trivialized Scorch. "In response to the malfunctioning human technology, the Federation fired tesla canons at the planet which turned off the machines and allowed humans to reboot them without glitches."

"And what did humans learn from that?" questioned Rarity.

"That technology should not become the new humanity. While the Federation is all for technological progress, we humans have no use for machines that negatively effect us in the long run. Technology has to help us in the greater good, not give us a short period of meaningless comfort." said Overwatch.

"But ah don' get it. If humans know that machines can bring so much bad stuff, why keep makin' 'em?" asked Applejack.

"Just because there are some negative aspects about technology, doesn't mean we should stop inventing. It all depends on how humans use it. We choose to use it for creative reasons like in a true technocracy." stated X-ray.

"Besides, if a book is offensive, it doesn't mean we should stop reading." added Scorch.

"You have a point there." admitted Twilight. "But why do humans choose to continuously devote time to technology and science instead of concepts like harmony?"

"Because humans change." repeated Scarecrow. "As society moves forward, we come across new challenges. In order to solve these challenges, humans need to adapt and be as well informed as possible. Thinking otherwise would put you in the bottom of human technocracy which I didn't even think was possible in socialism."

"Well, we ponies don't focus on science and we're all fine!" accused Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, but you've also been sapient for a far longer time than humans and you've lagged in terms of exploration, medicine, transportation and military." shook X-ray.

"You never talked about the human military." noted Shining Armor.

Scorch flexed his hair. "Well if you're curious, you should know that the human military totals to 300 million enlisted personnel."

The ponies were speechless for a few minutes. The Equestrian guard was only a few thousand strong.

"How do humans have such a high number for servicemen?" asked Cadance.

"Well, we have a population of 42 billion, it's all relative." pointed X-ray.

"But even then that's a lot soldiers." gasped Celestia. "Do humans have a draft?"

"Of course not! That's violating people's rights." frowned Scarecrow. "Humans have a policy of 'if our race is getting decimated, people are dying and you're not doing anything about it, you're a dick'."

"The Equestrians divide their army amongst the Lunar, Solar, and Crystal guards, with each responding to their respective alicorn." informed Twilight.

"Humans divide the military in 4 respective branches based on combat designation." informed Scorch. "We have the army, which compromises of foot soldiers and ground units, the navy, which handles space combat, the coast guard which handles the sea and the air force which handles air combat."

Celestia needed to know about the human military. She didn't want any surprises.

"Could you elaborate on technology the military utilizes?"

Scarecrow scratched his hair. "You already know about guns, kinetic barriers, and not to mention grenades. I guess we should explain some of the vehicles we use."

Scarecrow lit up a hologram detailing an AP 70 battle tank.

"What is that monstrosity?" questioned Luna.

"That is a tank." pointed X-ray.

"Hey, like my Turtle!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

"A tank is a heavy armored vehicle used for brining down enemy vehicles. They're really hard to destroy even with their kinetic barriers turned off. It has two modes of fire. The first is a railgun turret that launches hyper sonic rounds at immense speeds. It turns enemies into swiss cheese."

"Mmmm. Cheeese." said Pinkie dreamily.

"It's primary mode of fire however is the gigantic coil gun which can accelerate an explosive at such fast speeds that not only rip holes in even the toughest of kinetic barriers, but create massive explosions as well that can vary based on how much the crew charges the coils.

"I do not want to be on the other end of that canon." squeaked Fluttershy.

"Tanks have many variations, but most this is the most common form. Others are altered to be anti air." informed X-ray.

Scorch lit up a hologram of a Light terrain vehicle.

"This is an LTV, it's like a tank, but much weaker and meant for transporting up to 30 troops at once. It's coil gun isn't as strong as a normal tank's but can fire much faster."

"It would look awfully crowded in there." gulped Rarity.

"Relax. The UTF has strict sanitation rules." assured X-ray.

The commando lit up a hologram depicting a LT 30 buggy.

"On a lighter note. As in literally lighter. This is a buggy. It's very vulnerable to enemy fire, but it can travel at extremely fast distances even Rainbow Dash would be jealous of."

The rainbow maned pegasus scowled.

"This is the standard dress uniform of a UTF soldier." demonstrated Scarecrow.

"That armor looks really creepy. Do they have to wear the gas mask?" questioned Cadance.

"It strikes fear in our opponent's hearts the same way our masks do." informed Scorch. "Also, our enemies use chemicals frequently that are dangerous when inhaled."

"Is a plain soldier's armor as strong as yours?" asked Twilight.

"The base armor for a Terran trooper is stronger than the fabric that makes up recon armor. But it is less flexible, can not cloak and can not support a kinetic barrier." explained X-ray.

Shining Armor tensed. "How strong would you say our armor is compared to theirs?"

Scarecrow laughed. "Standard armor will take a gauss round before shattering, pony armor would collapse under a single shot from George Washington's musket."

The Equestrians gave Scarecrow the evil eye.

"Moving on the air, we humans have many types of small scale fighters." began Scorch. "First, here's a picture of a VTOL."

The demo man lit up a hologram of the air ship. The ponies took note of the VTOL's bird like shape.

"We already explained how they fly, but when it comes to combat capabilities; these things are equipped with a rail turret, magnetically accelerated missiles and attack variants have a massive coil gun on them as well. Troop transports lack the latter but can hold up to 20 individuals."

"That thing would make short work of an entire pegasus squad." awed Luna.

X-ray changed the hologram to a thinner and sleeker airship. "Here we have an interceptor. They might hold one person, but they're the fastest ships that we humans have ever invented to soar the air and outer space thanks to their powerful anti gravity generators. Not only do they move quick, but they're equipped with twin rail guns and fast moving gauss missiles. You won't even see them coming before you take them out."

"How fast do they go?" asked Celestia before Rainbow Dash could ask.

"Breaking the sound barrier is average for these things." smirked Scorch.

The demo man changed the hologram to depict an oceanic vessel. Humans did not focus on sea combat, so there was only one variation. "Humans don't really fight on sea anymore, but many alien planets hold the nastiest of aquatic life. Many terrorists are based in sea too."

"That looks like a cruise ship. But scarier." muttered Rarity.

"Yup. These bad boys are equipped with the most up to date magnetic weapons and allow for the quick deployment of interceptors and VTOLS." smiled Scarecrow.

"Now let's move on to the juicy stuff." insisted X-ray. The rifleman lit up a display of a Frigate.

The ponies were mesmerized by the appearance of the space ship.

"Are these how star ships look like?" blurted Twilight.

"Affirmative." ensured Scorch. "This is a frigate to be more precise. They're 3 kilometers long and their main role is in deploying soldiers from orbit and guard the larger capital ships."

"LARGER?" yelled the Equestrians.

"Each starship designation has its own role and and purpose." started Scarecrow. He lit up a display of a destroyer. "This is a destroyer, as its name implies, it's meant to take down enemy star ships."

"And how does a destroyer....destroy exactly?" whimpered Celestia.

X-ray cleared his throat. "Well star ships are usually equipped with kinetic barriers. So during naval engagements, it is important to take out the shield of other ships. This is usually accomplished through the use of a tesla canon which sends a powerful electromagnetic beam that can disable most electrically powered objects. We also use tesla canons from orbit to blackout enemy bases."

"Would a tesla canon disable our magic?" checked Twilight.

"I would assume so, if the shock didn't kill you first." growled Overwatch.

The magic users in the room tensed.

"Also starships use rail turrets as a small scale method of destruction, but are capable of using coil guns for a wider array of destruction." continued Scorch.

"How destructive?" gulped Luna.

"One coil gun missile has a base blast radius that would likely decimate the entire castle if fired from orbit. Newton's 1st law allows the projectile to keep moving unless stopped, so the more distance the projectile gets, the better. And space ships have a lot and I mean a lot of coil gun missiles. This is also helped by the fact we have a lot of star ships." trivialized Scarecrow.

"Good ta know." muttered Applejack.

"But for large scale destruction, we humans have nuclear warheads." noted Scorch. "A nuclear warhead is a basically an explosive that takes advantage of the immense power created by the fusion of helium atoms to make a weapon with a 40 kilometer explosive yield."

"40 kilometers!" screamed Celestia.

"They also leave behind radiation that poisons the area it struck almost indefinitely. Well, we only use them as last resorts, but the effects from orbital bombardment would be devastating." noted X-ray.

"Do you humans have anything more destructive?" asked Pinkie Pie sarcastically.

"Why yes." answered Scarecrow. "Larger space ships like cruisers and carriers have a special weapon we call the ion canon. An ion canon is an energy weapon that fires electrically charged molecules at a certain area. The blast radius caused is around 40 kilometers and unlike nukes, causes no radiation damage."

"Could it get any worse?" sighed Cadance.

"It can." smiled Scorch. "Allow us to point you to humanity's most destructive weapon, the dreadnought."

The hologram changed to depict a massive and sinister looking space ship.

"That looks and sounds like a ship that would come from tartarus." blurted Twilight.

Scarecrow wished someone was playing evil music in the background. "The Dreadnought is humanity's most powerful space ship of all time. They're extremely fast, 25 kilometers long, self sustainable for a life time, nearly impenetrable and are equipped with thousands of rail turrets, a thousand coil gun missile bays, 50 nukes and 4 ion canons. While a star ship is a planet killer, Dreadnoughts are system killers."

"Why did humanity want to invent ships like these?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"We don't know. We weren't alive when they were built." shrugged X-ray. "There are only 6 of them in existence that have lasted since their inception. The Malevolence, Deception, Treason, Wrath, Indulgence, and Warlock."

"And if all 6 are brought together, they are capable of firing specialized ion canons that can magnetically combine to create the most powerful weapon of all time. The planet gun." squealed Scorch.

The Equestrians were at a loss of words for 5 minutes.

"Humans have a planet gun?" finally let out Celestia.

"Don't worry, the UTF keeps a tight control on the dreadnoughts, there's no way it can fall to enemy hands and even a dreadnought will collapse under continuous fire." assured Scarecrow.

"Why would humans invent a planet gun?" inquired Cadance.

"Better safe then sorry. Also for colonial purposes. Many stray planets tend to interfere with the gravity of the colonies so they need to be blown up for the well being of the colonists." explained X-ray.

"Moving on to the mechanical side of things, allow me to show you humanity's line of super soldiers." offered Scorch.

Rainbow Dash was confused. "Aren't you the super soldiers?"

"No. The 23rd might be strong, but there are better fighters." sighed Scarecrow.

Suddenly, a hologram detailing a 7 ft 5 man in black and red power armor appeared before the Equestrians.

"This is an Olympian, which is the best single fighter a human can be. Not only are they augmented biologically to be superior to even us, but are equipped with power armor that enhances their ability ten fold in addition to having stronger barriers, and equipping more advanced VIs." detailed X-ray.

"Are they anything like the 23rd?" checked Rarity.

"Not at all." shook Scarecrow. "Unlike the 23rd, the Olympians are heroic, public and have more moral boundaries than us."

The Equestrians were slightly disturbed that there were more efficient killers than Shadow, but slightly relived that they were much nicer.

"And here we have examples of combat drones." demonstrated Scorch. A hologram was lit depicting a bi-pedal, but in no way humanoid, robot armed with twin wrist mounted rail turrets.

"You have robots meant just for fighting? How cruel." wept Pinkie Pie.

"Oh come on. Robots can't feel or think and when their body is destroyed, the whole program reawakens in another." countered X-ray.

"You said robots could be altered." remembered Twilight. "What happens when a robot is programmed by the enemies to attack its allies?"

Scorch crossed his arms. "Humans are equipped with pulse grenades to disable a drone for just such an occasion."

"And finally we have kill SATs." finalized Scarecrow.

The commander of Shadow lit up a hologram detailing a generic satellite with a ion cannon at its center.

"A kill SAT is basically an unmanned space ship that receives orders from humans remotely. It uses the radiation of a sun to fire a massive solar blast with destructive quantities of a nuclear warhead."

Celestia put her head down. She couldn't believe the sun could be used for such destruction.

The presentation had finished, with the ponies being unable to say anything.

"Wow, you humans sure have a lot of ways to kill people." fake laughed Pinkie Pie.

"But what's it all worth when your enemy can produce the same thing?" trivialized X-ray. "We invented these weapons to end wars instantly and quickly, only for our enemies to produce the same thing. Then we have to make better weapons, only for our enemies to make even superior ones."

"So humans are locked in an endless arms struggle?" frowned Luna.

"More or less." muttered Overwatch.

"Still, war against humans would be suicide." whined Shining Armor. His guard was disciplined and all, but they were clearly no match for a race that could nuke them from orbit.

Scorch laughed. "War? A fight against Equestrians wouldn't be war. It would be pest control!"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the dining room door.

Chapter 34: The Dissident

"In war, truth is the first casualty." - Aeschylus

An army of 50 hooded figures and their prisoner traversed the Canterlot mountain which was the manual way to getting into the elevated city. It was nearly one in the morning which meant all of the citizens of Canterlot would be fast asleep. The night also helped the hooded quadrupeds blend into shadows with not a single pony being the wiser.

Luckily for them, no royal guard had spotted the approaching convoy. It would not matter regardless, the pony guards were one of the easiest adversaries to take down in combat.

"Commander Mali, are all our soldiers in check?" asked a stern and commanding voice.

"Yes lord Nigeria." nervously assured Mali. "All of our Shamans have their poison bombs prepared, the humans take one smell of the weapon and they fall. Our spears men have their blades sharpened and the potions provided to us by our ally have completely concealed the noise of our hoof steps."

"What about kinetic bombardment? The humans are capable of many things with their starships." checked Nigeria.

"Before leaving, one our diplomats had informed us that our ally has found an orbital defense mechanism to secure this planet, preventing the humans from any sort of interaction between their star ships and our world." informed Mali.

"Good. That will only mean there will be 4 human beings left to deal with." nodded Nigeria. "Once they are gone, the humans will be unable to ever interact with our humble planet ever again."

"Are you sure we can take them on? I heard they wiped a Griffin battalion and no word has been heard of Trixie who was armed with the alicorn amulet mind you." reminded Mali.

Nigeria turned around and smashed his hoof into Mali's muzzle. "How dare you speak low of the Zebra empire? The Griffons were tactless in their approach and Trixie was a disillusioned fool."

Mali wiped his bloody mouth and continued moving along the convoy.

"The humans will either taste vengeance for what they did to our planet by the might of the Zebra empire or we will die trying!" swore lord Nigeria.

A few days ago, the Zebras were informed that the human race and returned to Epona and were taking refuge in Equestria. Before that however, the Griffins attempted to convince the Zebras of the same thing but the latter race shrugged it off as the Griffins had no proof. When Zecora arrived in Zebrica however to relay first hand news, the entire nation was put in a state of despair.

Word spread across the many races of the planet in a call for mobilization and all races complied, with the exception of the ponies whose ambassador stated that the humans were being offered refuge in their nation.

An entire army, made by the collaborative of all the non pony races was being mobilized and trained by the Griffin empire themselves. They would find these 4 humans and either banish them to their home world one way or another.

Then, an unexpected ally arrived in the midst of the chaos who reminded them that humans were a space faring race capable of more chaos than he was.

Reluctantly, the alliance accepted his aid. He would make sure that it would be impossible for more humans to enter the planet, thus cutting off the four who were already on the planet from any back up.

As for the Equestrians, a thousand shames had been inflicted on them for helping a group of harbingers and offering an alliance with them. They would either hoof over the humans or be punished for their insolence.

"I need to speak to the dissident." ordered Nigeria.

A Zebra shaman nodded and brought forth a constricted and bruised female mystic.

Nigeria gazed directly in the sole of mystic and gritted his teeth. "Are you sure this is where the humans are Zecora?"

The injured Zebra gave a reluctant nod.

"You wouldn't have been in this situation had you come to us sooner."

Zecora mustered the courage to speak. "I did not believe the humans meant anything significant to our race. I was not even aware they had visited this place."

"Cut the rhyming!" spat Nigeria. "Humans are worse than the demons locked in tartarus. Because of your and the ponies' foolish hesitation, they are now in am ample position to wreck havoc."

"There....is some sort of mistake." let out Zecora.

"What are you getting at?" glared Nigeria.

"When I met the humans, they were surprised to see me the same way I was surprised to see them." explained the injured potion master. "What if they do not remember any of the sins they committed on this world?"

Nigeria scowled. "If we can remember history form tens of thousands of years ago, than so should the humans."

"But, they did not want to kill me." gulped Zecora. "When I met them, they did not make any attempt to harm me even when they had ample time to do so."

"The humans have deceived you." accused Nigeria. "They are certainly trying to gain our trust so that we may lower our guard and allow them to attack us when least expected."

The Zebras continued the trek. Luckily, Luna, who guarded the night, was no where to be found. Either she had been asleep or distracted by some sort of ordeal. The Zebras were masters of stealth. All they would need to do was sneak into the city undetected and threaten Canterlot with a poison attack unless the ponies the surrendered the humans or the humans turned themselves in.

The city lights, or the lack of, began to flicker before the eyes of the Zebras. Two royal guards had been stationed in the outskirts of the city, but two Zebra shamans were able to sneak behind them and use a noxious gas to render them unconscious.

"I will say this one last time, are you sure the humans are here?" spat Nigeria.

"Yes, why would I lie?" cried Zecora. She hoped she wasn't telling the truth. She believed that Shadow was still at the defenseless town of Ponyville and that she was leading the company to Canterlot which would mean them facing the royal alicorns.

"Why must the Equestrians suffer as well?" muttered Zecora.

"For they have committed utter heresy by allowing the humans to enter their ranks and put them in a position that threatens the life of us all!" explained Nigeria.

"But the ponies themselves seemed surprised as well by the appearances of the humans!" exclaimed Zecora. "Even Twilight, who knows history from mane to hoof lacked any prior knowledge about their race."

"Then the ponies are foolish for ignoring such a depressing chapter in history." called out a shaman named Congo form the crowd.

"How do we know the humans will want to strike us again?" countered Zecora. "We are punishing humans for a deed they do not remember which they committed thousands of years ago! Revenge is not the answer."

"History repeats itself my dear whether the humans remember the past or not." responded Nigeria. "The humans will no doubt attempt to finish what they started."

"What makes you think they haven't evolved passed their warlike ways?" suggested Zecora while coughing. "The humans I met were armed but had no interest in combat."

"No society strays away from tradition or repeating the acts of their ancestors. Conflict wit the humans is inevitable." hissed a war veteran named Somalia. Nigeria nodded to that statement.

"Sir, wouldn't it be wiser to attack once the full army is mobilized?" suggested Congo. "I have utter faith in our men, but the humans seem beastly powerful."

Nigeria gave a sigh. "By the time the alliance is ready to attack on the 23rd of June, it would be enough time for the 4 assassins sent by the humans to do something horrible to all of us. We must strike now and even if we can not kill the humans, we can at least weaken them and put them in a position that is good for everything but combat."

"As for the Equestrians?" asked Sudan.

"Our ambassador to Equestria has stated the elements of harmony have been destroyed by the humans, again proving how devilish they can be." informed the Zebra commander. "With its only form of defense gone, Equestria will fall in a week from a unified army."

"But who would raise the sun and moon without Luna and Celestia?" realized Mali.

"Our ally has offered to fill in that role if we bring down the humans and seal them away from this planet for good." smiled Nigeria.

The next thing Zecora knew, the hit squad had once again decided to go over their battle plans which left the wounded potion master unguarded.

Taking advantage of their weakness, Zecora used a technique to free herself from the bindings and escape into the city. Even is she was caught, it would at least alert all of Canterlot and ruin the Zebras' plan.

She prayed for the lives that were about to be lost. Pony, Zebra and Human.

Author's Note

By the way, if this fic gets 235 likes or more, I promise another epic fight scene.

Take a guess as to who the 'ally' is.

Chapter 35: Blackout

"Bombs do not choose. They will hit everything."- Nikita Khrushchev

The entire group was caught off guard by the sudden knock on the door. Had Shadow been wearing their visors, they would seen the entire thing coming however.

Celestia was certainly not expecting somepony at this hour. Their colorful discussions with Shadow squad had taken up the entire night.

Based on the banging on the entrance, the call seemed extremely urgent.

Shadow tightened the grips on their side arms as Celestia used telekinesis to open the door.

Out of the entrance fell a very familiar Zebra mare accompanied by two royal guards. The Zebra struggled for breath.

"Zecora!" gasped Fluttershy.

Shadow squad instinctively rose from their seats and rushed to the aid of the injured Zebra who was coughing blood. Overwatch drew a stabilizer serum from his pocket and reduced the trauma on Zecora.

X-ray waved his hologram over her. "She's injured, but she'll make it. She needs to be seen to a hospital right way."

"Anything you can do?" asked Rarity.

"We don't know shit about treating equine." muttered Scorch who looked down upon the wounded zebra.

Zecora gave a light chuckle. "So this is what humans look like underneath their masks."

X-ray placed his gloved hand over her muzzle. "Take it easy."

"Zecora, what happened?" gasped Twilight.

"I was....beaten." glumly stated the potion master.

"Who did this to you!" exclaimed Scarecrow.

"Please...allow me to explain." muttered Zecora. Scarecrow took a step back in response.

Zecora was in no mood to rhyme. "When I returned to Zebrica, I informed the local government officials there that you humans visited our world. At first I believed that no one would take me seriously. However, the officials believed me due to a previous notification form the empire. And then, they started vilifying me."

"Why would they do that?" questioned Scorch.

"Remember, when I said humans sounded familiar?" coughed Zecora.

"I know where this is going." sighed Luna.

"That is because the Zebras view humans as harbingers of their existence."

"Fuck, the Zebras are after us too." gritted X-ray.

"And we just stood up for your race to these racist pricks half an hour ago!" added Scarecrow.

"But, why did they hurt you so badly?" whimpered Pinkie Pie. "I mean, you didn't do anything wrong to anypony, did you?"

Zecora was loosing consciousness. "The entirety of Zebra kinds branded me a traitor for not coming to them with information of your presence and befriending you."

"What exactly did humans do to make Zebras so mad at them?" asked Cadance.

"I do not know. I am no theologian nor am I a historian." breathed Zecora.

"But we never did anything wrong to this planet in the past!" exclaimed Scorch. "Nor we intend to!"

"That is what I have tried to tell them, but they refuse to listen to reason." gulped Zecora. "They believe that you are still the same ravagers from the ancient times."

"Hey, how did you get to Canterlot anyway?" realized Rainbow Dash.

Zecora paused for a moment. "Lord Nigeria and his contingent of 49 other Zebra shamans are plotting an attack on this city as we speak."

"What the fuck?" spat Scarecrow. "Why would they want to attack Equestria?"

"They wish to punish all of ponykind as well for housing you 4." responded Zecora.

"So, they're gonna kill us?" clarified Applejack.

The Zebra was loosing will power. "They are in the process of it too. Lord Nigeria and his men have already infiltrated the city and plan to distribute a poison gas that will knock out an Equestrian, but kill a human."

"How did they even get past the guards stationed here?" awed Celestia.

"I guess we're not the only masters of stealth huh?" muttered X-ray.

"Hold on a minute." snarled Scarecrow. The commando turned to his wrist computer. "Blackjack, this is Scarecrow,. How the hell did you not see a group of Zebras trotting into the city?"

A Lieutenant answered the COMs that filled everyone's ears with static. "Shadow, we're debating this too. According to the surveillance archives, all we recorded was Zecora being pushed around and yelling at by some invisible force."

"I didn't think Zebras were capable of creating ways to elude detection technology." muttered Twilight.

"Hold on." radioed the Lieutenant. "Alright we've multiplied power on surveillance capabilities. We're reading multiple Zebras within the vicinity. Their IFFs are being uploaded to your HUD."

Zecora was just about to collapse. "You must hurry. Lord Nigeria, Commander Mali and their guard are arriving to this castle to attack it personally. Once he releases his weapon, the others will do the same. They must be stopped."

And with a last breath Zecora collapsed. She wasn't dead, but wouldn't be waking up in a long time.

Scarecrow scowled. "Shadow squad. Prepare to repel the enemy at all costs."

The 4 black clad humans sprinted towards the table. The ponies observed the humans pick up their rifles and load them with gauss magazines. They were more interested in the hand motions than Shadow's intentions.

Celestia snapped out of it. "What do you 4 think think you are doing?"

X-ray flipped his hood on. "We're going to make the Zebras-"

Suddenly, his bandanna covered the lower half of his face, turning his Armenian accent into a robotic vice. "-wish they decided not to mess with us."

The members of Shadow finished putting on their masks and their visors sprang to life, giving it a blue glow that was littered with text.

"They're....going to fight the Zebras." weakly stated Pinkie Pie.

"Alright team." called out Scarecrow. "We're going to split once we exit the castle. Overwatch, you stick to the roof tops and try to provide sniper support. If you see any Zebras plotting to expel their poison bombs, take them out. Scorch you do the same and try not to blow anything up. We're in a civilian area. X-ray, you're with me."

"Pardon me, but what is your plan?" frowned Luna.

"Our, VI's estimate 5 minutes until Nigeria arrives to the front of the castle." replied Scorch, his Canadian accent gone as well. "We can ambush him there and stop this attack one way or another."

"I will not allow violence in my city!" yelled Celestia.

"We didn't ask for your opinion bitch." growled Overwatch. "If they want to attack humanity, humanity will be the ones to respond."

"Is there a way we can solve this issue without violence?" pleaded Cadance.

"Especially in front of so many innocent ponies?" whimpered Fluttershy.

Shadow began exiting the dining room. "We'll see. All you need to do is stay out of our ways." called out Scarecrow.

"Come on!" shrieked Rainbow Dash. The rainbow maned mare flew in front of the humans. "We can fight them off too, all they need is a little buck to the muzzle."

"Dash, our enemies are religious zealots with the intention to kill, not play ground bullies." gritted X-ray. "They will not hesitate to take away your life."

"So what do ya expect us ta do?" glared Applejack.

"Stay out of our way and shut the fuck up." scolded Scarecrow.

Scorch slowed his walking pace. "You ponies are in danger......"

All of a sudden, the demo man paused. He didn't like the words that were coming out of his mouth.

"....because of us."

"Are you alright?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"I'm fine." lied Scorch. The truth is, the motivations of the attack was a situation was something Shadow squad was not used to.

The masked humans broke away from the equines. Shadow squad burst into their guest room and retrieved all equipment they had stored like explosives and data devices. Just when they were on their way out, they were stopped by the ponies once more.

"Get out of our way, or else we will use force." warned X-ray.

"Why do you feel that you are the only ones authorized to confront these intruders?" glared Luna.

Scarecrow scowled under his mask. "Because they are attacking humanity, and will face humanity. I thought we've made that clear."

"You forget that this is our land." reminded Cadance.

"And the Zebras want you gone as much as they want us dead too." scowled Twilight. She couldn't look intimidating to the humans that were basically more than twice her hight.

Scorch groaned. "Fine. Celestia and Luna. You can confront Nigeria with us in an effort to get him to call off the attack. Shining Armor and Cadance, round up the troops and secure an evac point. The rest of you, wake up the city and try to get them to the safety."

"And who exactly put you in charge darling?" yawned Rarity.

Scorch crouched down and waved his rail pistol across the white mare's face. "The one with a weapon that can blow your head off in an instant darling."

The members of Shadow sprang to action an exited the castle accordingly.

Overwatch opened a window and leaped down to the battlements while brushing past some guards. The sniper cloaked and readied his sniper rifle. The masked commando perched himself in a position where he could get a good vantage point throughout the entire city. Bullet drop wasn't an issue for Gauss weapons, so he wouldn't have to worry about that issue. He switched to magnetic vision and his VI detailed all the Zebras within the vicinity.

Scorch, Scarecrow and X-ray exited the castle manually through another window and scaled down the castle, once again putting the ponies into a trance as they observed their fast and alien hand motions.

The demo man unslung his SCAR rifle and split from his two comrades. The demo man cloaked and entered the city as he observed the Mane 6 waking up Canterlot.

Pinkie Pie was yelling into megaphone to Rarity's annoyance, Fluttershy was ineffectually knocking on doors while Applejack was slamming her hoof and Twilight and Rainbow Dash were flying and yelling.

'This won't be enough' thought Scorch. The masked counter terrorist raised his SCAR into the air, and discharged a rail bullet. The resulting noise was loud enough to awaken half the city, creating a domino effect.

Shadow's thinnest and skinniest members had neared the checkpoint to castle and cloaked behind a wall with magnetic vision turned on. The two commandos looked across and to their pleasure, saw the Canterlot citizens spreading out. Away from the poison bombs.

The two members of Shadow spotted the outlines of 10 hooded Zebras figures through magnetic vision. How they had stealth mechanics on par with humanity was a mystery. It wasn't EMP proof however.

Based on the movements of the of the Zebra shamans, they seemed both confused and frustrated that the ponies had been awoken.

X-ray took advantaged of the moment to prime a pulse grenade and threw it in the center of the Zebra mass. Upon leaving his grip, the EMP device uncloaked and detonated in the heart of the Zebras, revealing their position.

The looks of lord Nigeria and his men varied from shocked, to embarrassed.

"What is going on!" cried Mali as he found himself exposed.

X-ray and Scarecrow sprinted towards the hit team and uncloaked. As expected, the Zebras got mind fucked from seeing a non animated object.

"My eyes!" shrieked Nigeria.

"Reality hurts. Doesn't it?" mocked X-ray.

Nigeria adjusted to the realism and gritted his teeth. "Well if it isn't the infamous race that is humanity."

"By order of the United Terran Federation, I demand you seize hostility or face execution." said X-ray.

"Now why would we do that?" laughed the Zebras.

Scarecrow tightened his grip on his LMG. "Mind explaining what the fuck you're doing?"

Nigeria scowled. "Cleansing this planet of your presence."

"Do you have any idea of who the hell you're dealing with?" taunted X-ray.

"Do not tempt me human." smirked Nigeria. "I know perfectly well with who I am in front of."

"No you do not!" denied Scarecrow. "Humans have never even been on this planet before."

The Zebras laughed hard.

"What is going on here!" yelled Celestia's commanding voice. The solar alicorn flew in the middle of the the Zebras and humans. Luna followed as well.

"Nigeria." spat Luna. "I never thought this would happen between our kind."

"Neither did I." hissed the Zebra. "I thought I fancied you, but instead you offer aid to these harbingers."

Scarecrow shot up his fist in the air. "Hold up! This is all a misunderstanding."

"Nigeria, explain what is going on!" repeated Celestia.

"We are seeking retribution." gritted the Zebra.

"For what?" yelled Scarecrow. "We have never done anything wrong to your kind."

"Maybe you haven't." scowled Nigeria. "But humans as a whole did."

"Unlikely." countered X-ray. "Humans never left their home planet until a few hundred years ago."

"What are you trying to convince me of?" blurted Nigeria. "Surely you humans should know of the sins you have committed on this planet thousands of years ago."

"Humans were cavemen thousands of years ago." insisted Scarecrow.

"That is not what our record books, bibles, proverbs and traditions say." puffed Nigeria.

Luna joined the conversation. "Then why is it that we ponies have no mention of humanity within our works?"

Nigeria readied a potion bomb at the unmoved princesses. "The fact that Equestria has no mention of humans within their textbooks is not only a sign of ignorance, but disappointment as well."

"Hold up." called out X-ray. "So what you're saying is, humans have been on Epona before. And apparently, we did something extremely horrible."

"Do not try to fool me human." spat Nigeria. "You should know perfectly well how the fable plays out."

"No we don't!" screamed Scarecrow. "We honestly have no idea what the fuck is going on."

"Assuming that you are not feigning ignorance." checked Nigeria. The Zebra and his men started to circle the two humans and two alicorns.

"Long ago, humans came to this planet during its inception and terrorized us. The reasons why remain unknown, but it was said each species lost more than half of its race."

Scarecrow and X-ray looked at each other. Under their masks, each had an expression of anxiety.

"Are you certain it was humanity who did all these horrible things to you?" theorized X-ray. "Perhaps it was some other bi-pedal civilization."

Nigeria was getting impatient. "Every tribe has a story about our pasts that translate into a species named humanity terrorizing us. Although based on the legends, you humans should be far shorter and less upright."

X-ray lowered his carbine. "Well in the past, humans were shorter and we didn't stand up upright like we do now."

"If that is the case, then you match the description of the race that terrorized Epona perfectly." smirked Mali from the back of the crowd. "Just take off your masks for clarification."

"I hate to break it to you punk, but we don't take off our masks unless ordered to." shook Scarecrow.

"Even if humans did cause all this trouble." spoke up Celestia. "Then why is is that neither us nor them can remember such an event from accruing?"

"Perhaps you have distorted history." accused Nigeria. "You equines would forget a tale of suffering for all the misery it brings while humans attempt to forget their sins rather than atoning for them."

"Not true!" yelled Scarecrow. "Humans have recorded all history since 50 thousand years ago. If there was ever such a thing like us being intergalactic torturers, there would be clear evidence for it."

The Zebras were loosing patience. "The evidence is there and this is all a trick of deception. You will not fool us."

Scarecrow wasn't about to make enemies with the Zebras. "Okay fine, let's say that we did turn Epona to hell in the past. Why do you have to kill us?"

"Humans never paid retribution for their actions. An eye for an eye." explained Nigeria.

"Revenge will get you no where." exclaimed Celestia. "The humans don't remember a thing and nor do they intend to put us under the same circumstances."

"They are not even the humans who tortured you." added Luna.

"A tiger does not change its stripes." said Nigeria. "These humans will no doubt make an effort to repeat history if they are given the chance."

"Oh screw you!" insulted X-ray. "Humans do change. Look whatever our ancestors did, we're sorry and the Federation will do what ever it can to make amends."

"And you and the ponies will, with your lives." smiled a Zebra.

Scarecrow's HUD read Overwatch and Scorch positioning themselves in strategic positions where they had eyes on all Zebra potion teams. Luckily for them, the Mane 6 had managed to move the civilians to the center of the town. There, a Zebra couldn't lay a potion bomb without being detected. The commando focused back on the 10 Zebras in front of him.

"Why must we die? What is your pure motivation for wanting us dead? Revenge?" shook X-ray.

"The sins of his father are passed to his son until they are atoned for." said Nigeria.

"You would be a fool if you were to choose a fight with these 4!" warned Luna.

"And why's that?" yelled a blood thirsty Zebra shaman.

"Do you even know how a human fights? Or what they are capable of?" questioned Celestia.

X-ray pointed his rifle back up again. "Whatever our ancestors might have done to you in the past, I can assure you what we could do is 10 times worse."

The Zebras started to back down. The fear of what Shadow might do to them started to overwhelm their feeble minds.

"If you surrender, not blood will have to be spilled." insisted Celestia.

Nigeria regained his pride. "No. This must be done. Even if you would decimate us all, it is better to go down fighting than to surrender."

"You're being foolish Nigeria. Tell the Zebras to fuck off!" ordered Scarecrow.

"It is not just me." informed the Zebra's leader. Nigeria and his men were so wrapped up in the conversation that they forgot all about potion bombing the city.

"All leaders of all races are building up a massive army to take you humans out of this planet one way or another." started Nigeria. "Unless you humans willingly leave this planet and never return, we will come for you on the 23rd of June and finally gain retribution. The ponies will suffer as well."

Celestia and Luna formed fearsome expressions. Scarecrow and X-ray felt a pain in their chest.

"Hold up." called out X-ray. "The ponies don't need to be a part of this."

"And why not?" yelled Mali.

"I don't recall Equestrians ever doing anything to wrong you Zebras." reminded Luna. "You seem mad at us for the sake of vengeance and chaos."

"Oh, but you did wrong us." countered Somalia who balanced a potion bomb. "When you helped these humans get settled in to our planet. Nothing is stopping these humans from repeating their misdeeds."

"They have no intention to do such a thing." reminded Celestia.

"History repeats itself Celly." chuckled Nigeria. "And for allowing it to happen, your race will fall with the rest."

"Hey!" roared Scarecrow. "The ponies have done nothing wrong. It's US you want. NOT them. The ponies aren't trying to help us and you have no right to attack them."

"It doesn't matter, our race is inclined to destroy all who associate with harbingers." waved Nigeria. "Zecora, had that coward not run away, would suffer the same fate."

There was venom in X-ray's voice. "Come on. The Equestrians do not deserve this. Introducing war and chaos to a race like this is upmost cruelty."

"Your ancestors should have thought the same." scowled Nigeria. "An acorn does not fall far from the tree." The Zebra faced the alicorns. "And sometimes, it takes a little fertilizer to help it grow."

"If you touch a single innocent pony with your slimy hooves, I will make whatever my ancestors did to you feel like a tickle." warned X-ray.

"Why do you care so much for them?" frowned a Zebra shaman.

"We care for the law." corrected Scarecrow. "And lawfully, one can not hurt another without due cause."

A Shaman laughed. "Or maybe it is because you have never before put a single race in a position where they would go extinct."

The two commandos formed neutral expressions under their masks. They couldn't feel remorse, but this was the first time where someone innocent was in danger because of them.

"I assure you Nigeria, attacking my ponies will be the last thing you will do." threatened Celestia.

"What do you intend to do?" laughed the Zebra. "The elements of harmony are gone!"

"It might not be the most moral outcome, but the humans have reminded us that we must commit even the most extreme acts for the greater good." hinted Luna.

Nigeria scowled. "You don't have nerve to kill. Nor the chance."

In the heart of the moment, Nigeria readied his spear and hoofed it at Celestia with all his might.

Right before Celestia could react, Scarecrow jumped between the blade and the solar alicorn. This allowed the spear head to simply bounce off Scarecrow's barrier with abysmal damage.

Celestia took a step back and Zebras were stunned by the masked commando's kinetic barrier.

Suddenly, a holographic display was emitted from X-ray's wrist computer. The left handed commando drew his SMG with his free hand as the projection lit.

The hologram depicted man slightly shorter than X-ray, which wasn't saying much as he still towered the Zebras.

"Is that a ghost?" gasped a shaman.

"I am a hologram." announced the projection, which revealed itself to be the HOD of the Commission of Colonial Affairs.

"Lord Nigeria, I represent the entire United Terran Federation on the behalf of the president himself. I am warning you, stand down immediately."

"Burn in hell human." hissed a Zebra. He threw his spear at the hologram, only for it to harmlessly pass through.

"Nigeria, what you are doing is an act of war." hissed the HOD.

"The was has already begun." laughed the Zebra. "On the 23rd of June, the alliance will wipe humanity and the Equestrians off the face of Epona."

The HOD raised his holographic eyebrow. "Do you even know who you're dealing with son?"

"I know plenty." replied Nigeria. "It's quite helpful with what you can find in theology books these days."

"Then surely you should know that we humans can bombard this planet and vaporize it in an instant." gloated the HOD.

"Any form of orbital bombardment from your precious spaceships won't work." laughed Nigeria. "An ally of ours has installed quite the necessary defense mechanism."

Scarecrow's eyes widened under his mask. He tuned tuned his communication device. "Blackjack, request immediate kinetic bombardment on these bastards. Nothing strong enough to cause civilian injuries though."

A moment passed with the 2 parties vacantly staring at each other in the castle entrance.

Suddenly, three rounds of rail cannons started to reign on the planet. Just before it could reach the level of the clouds, the shells exploded across a transparent surface.

Overwatch observed the entire event. He looked up, and to his horror, found the sky to be surrounded by a kinetic barrier. A transparent, realistic, hexagonal kinetic barrier.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" yelled Scorch over the communication relay.

The HOD read the surprised movements of the commandos. "What's going on Shadow?"

"Sir, there is a planet wide kinetic barrier stationed over the planet." said Scarecrow with awe.

The hologram of the HOD sprang to action. "Blackjack, fire a tesla strike now. That should disable the barrier."

The frigate complied and fired a tesla canon at the planet. The shot of electricity traveled through the vacuum of space until it the barrier. Unfortunately, the EMP had no effect.

"Holy shit! It's EMP proof." radioed the Blackjack to the humans. "The strength electromagnetic fields are thousands of times stronger than what's on a dreadnought!"

"I see that you humans realize any form of orbital attack and drop off will be useless." smirked Nigeria.

"Not necessarily." challenged the HOD. "Nothing is going to stop Shadow from finding and deactivating the source of that giant force field. Once it's down, we'll kick your sorry asses to the next millennium."

"I hope you haven't noticed us." blurted Nigeria. "We are in a perfect position to take down your pathetic men and a dew ponies along the way."

"We are your enemies." reminded Scarecrow. "You will leave the Equestrians alone. Or mark my words Nigeria, we will make your people suffer."

"Come now. You wouldn't harm a group of innocent civilians would you?" challenged the Zebra.

"We would if you were willing to." corrected X-ray.

"The Federation has a policy of wiping out anything that opposes us, for the greater good of humanity." explained the HOD. "This is your last chance. Back off."

"Never. Vengeance must be stowed upon humanity and ponykind." gritted Mali.

"Lives do not need to be lost." assured the HOD. "We can pay for whatever reparations all the species on Epona want."

"Money is no object." insulted Nigeria. "Our traditions and beliefs call for us to exterminate all humans who set foot on this world as well as their collaborators."

"Ever consider questioning the foundations of society from time to time?" muttered the HOD. "Your whole revenge system will gain nothing for anyone."

Nigeria looked heavily insulted. "You dare mock the holy temple of Zebra kind?"

"Go." said Scarecrow quickly.

"Pardon us?" eyed Luna.

"You don't deserve to have the burden of murder placed upon you." trivialized X-ray. "What's about to happen won't be pretty. Focus on keeping your subjects safe."

The princesses glanced at each other and flew away. The Zebras attempted to attack, but Shadow kept them at bay.

"Shadow, the Federation has no use for those who can't listen to reason." began the HOD. "Spare Nigeria for questioning and exterminate all other hostiles."

The hologram disappeared.

"Affirmative." complied Scarecrow.

Right before the Zebras could react, X-ray lunged forward and grabbed Nigeria. The skinny commando forced down the Zebra leader with all his might on the ground, knocking him out.

Scarecrow took the distraction to discharge a series of gauss round from his LMG. The rail bullets hit a Zebra in the muzzle, shattering his skull into powder. The other round pierced the eye of its victim before plowing through the other side of his head.

The crouched X-ray, while holding Nigeria down, raised his SMG with one hand and fired a controlled burst of 3 shots into a Zebra's mid section followed by a rail bullet striking another through the neck.

Mali attempted to reinforce his comrade, only for a gauss round to blow off his head from Scarecrow's LMG.

A Zebra set off one of his potion bombs and hoped that would be the checkmate. The poison gas started to flow around the remaining Zebras and onto the humans.

The shamans were unaffected due to taking an antidote before the mission.

Much to the hit squad's horror, Shadow did not stumble nor falter as well. Their masks filtered out the toxins.

X-ray decided to point out the obvious. "Yeah, I find your attempts to kill us with cyanide gas flattering and all, but we have gas masks." The masked commando drew his carbine and unloaded round by round on a shaman, blowing off the Zebra's hoof followed by a hole in his neck.

A Zebra lunged at Scarecrow, only for the human behemoth to hold the shaman by his throat, followed by a painful choking. Scarecrow nonchalantly dropped the Zebra corpse.

X-ray unsheathed his combat knife and dashed past the remaining Zebra guards, stabbing one in the neck all the while. Scarecrow joined his comrade, but not before slamming the butt of his railgun on the final Zebra's face, knocking it down. The masked commando finished the shaman off putting a round through the fallen Zebra's skull.

Suddenly, the two commandos heard a scream from an all too familiar alicorn.

The black clad soldiers turned to face Shining Armor and Cadance staring at them with disbelief and horror respectively.

"Just who we needed to see." nodded Scarecrow. The counter terrorist placed his LMG on the magnetic plate on his back. Scarecrow proceeded to pick up the unconscious body of Nigeria.

"What do you want me to do?" glared Shining Armor.

"Take Nigeria's body somewhere safe for interrogation." instructed Scarecrow.

"Hey, I don't take orders from you pal!" reminded the white stallion.

X-ray slammed his carbine onto Shining Armor's chest, causing the stallion to stumble back. The commando pressed his face onto the unicorn and reminded him of his abnormal height.

"That's an order punk." gritted Scarecrow.

"What gives you the right to start killing all of these Zebras?" scolded Cadance.

X-ray grabbed the pink alicorn by the throat and stared deeply into her eyes. "It's either us, or them."

Cadance was too frightened to respond. X-ray let go of her throat and pushed her aside.

The two members of Shadow headed into the city streets. Luckily, the Zebra potion teams hadn't detonated anything.

"Alright team." radioed Scarecrow. "The Zebras are in 10 groups of 4. Take them out before they kill any civilians."

"Kill civilians because of us?" radioed back Scorch.

Scarecrow stopped for moment and thought about the situation. This was the first time in which civilians were in danger simply because they had to show up. Ponies were going to die when they had done nothing to deserve it.

Meanwhile, Overwatch was still perched on his vantage point and had his eyes set on a Zebra kill team in an alley way he had been observing for a while. Now that open fire had been declared, he was free to kill.

Overwatch aimed his scope over the head of the Zebra that was in charge of the potion bomb.

With the pull of a trigger, said Zebra lost his head.

The former's three comrades were startled by the sudden death of their squad leader. Suddenly, another Zebra fell as a gauss round put a clear hole through his mid section.

The poor shamans couldn't even hear the suppressed sniper.

A third rail gun shot claimed another victim as it blew a hole in the Zebra's neck. The final Zebra attempted to escape the alleyway and galloped quickly. Unfortunately, Overwatch simply adjusted his aim and with the proper calculations, was able to snipe the Zebra before he could cover any more distance.

Overwatch was about to change positions until something caught his attention. Through his scope, he saw a filly who looked even younger the cutie mark crusaders. Some of the blood from the final Zebra that Overwatch sniped had spilled on the filly. The young horse, started to break down until her parents arrived on the scene.

Even if Overwatch could feel remorse, now would not be the time. The sniper assured himself that had he not killed that Zebra, he would have most likely killed the filly and her parents anyway.

Overwatch rappelled down from his vantage point and proceeded to move on to the next Zebra kill team. The next 4 shamans were taking cover in a breached clothing store, waiting in vain for their injured commander to set off his potion bomb. The sniper had to take it stealthily, or risk setting off the bomb.

Overwatch cloaked and scaled the clothing store, his motion tracker reading one Zebra guarding the balcony. The invisible sniper made his way to the top of the ledge and found the ignorant Zebra looking on to the city.

The marksman thrust his right hand forward and grabbed the shaman by the neck. Overwatch finished the job by throwing his victim of the ledge, allowing the Zebra to plummet to his death.

The cloaked sniper drew his rail PDR and entered the facility. The clothes store was large, and with multiple openings would make a great place to disperse the poison.

Overwatch crouched behind a wall and saw a Zebra trotting in the other direction.

"Hey." whispered the invisible sniper.

The shaman paused and thankfully didn't alert his allies. The ignorant Zebra moved towards Overwatch's position, only to get a knife shoved through his neck.

Overwatch dumped the body to a shadowy corner and pursued his opponents.

The masked soldier activated magnetic vision and was able to see through the walls. A Zebra, armed with the potion bomb, was on the other side of the wall while his comrade was in plain sight.

Thankfully, the concrete wasn't strong enough to resist rail bullets. Overwatch uncloaked and fired 3 unsuppressed PDR round which penetrated the wall. Two of the rounds still retained enough kinetic energy to bring down the potion master behind the wall.

The final Zebra of the current group was too frozen in shock to even move, allowing Overwatch to put a gauss round through the helpless shaman's muzzle and split it in two.

Meanwhile, a team of Zebras were debating what to do ever since the gunshots went off.

"I say we detonate the potion bomb now!" pleaded a shaman.

"We must wait for Nigeria's order." reminded the potion master.

"Nigeria is dead! Do it now!" yelled another Zebra.

The potion master nodded. Right before he could detonate his potion bomb, a spherical object landed in the heart of the kill squad.

The Zebras only had a second to look at what landed before them when it exploded, killing the potion master and mutilating another.

The unfazed Zebras didn't even have a second to react before one of them was shot by two assault rifle rounds. Scorch uncloaked and finished off the other by a shot to the hoof, followed by a round to the chest.

Scorch was about to locate the next Zebra kill team until-

"Help!"

Scorch recognized the voice instantly. It belonged to Fluttershy.

The demo man rushed through the city to the source of the voice. As he neared the cry, Scorch slid and hid behind a building. The cloaked commando readied his SCAR Z and peeked behind his cover.

To his horror, Scorch saw 4 Zebras ganging up on the frightened Fluttershy on the top of a bridge with evil smiles on their faces. Scorch really hoped they weren't going to do what he was thinking.

The demo man primed his assault rifle's grenade launcher. He had one shot. Scorch sprinted towards the bridge and fired an assault rifle grenade at the structure.

The explosive detonated and the bridge started to crumble. Fluttershy, forgetting that she could, fly fell alongside the Zebras attempting to assault her. 3 shamans died on impact and from ruble collapsing on them.

Right before she could fall to her death, Scorch made it just in time to yank her from the sky and hold her close.

The crying Fluttershy meanwhile was surprised that she hadn't lost control of her body. She opened her eyes and found herself being cradled by the demo man. Scorch had his pistol out and assault rifle fastened on his back.

"I got you." assured Scorch. "Please close your eyes."

Fluttershy did as instructed. The sound of the rail pistol was enough to temporally deafen her and prevent the pegasus from hearing the scream of the downed Zebra.

"Get back to your friends." instructed Scorch. The fellow Pegasus complied.

Scorch continued to move past the city and approached the next Zebra hit team.

The next Zebra hit squad had probably figured out that Shadow was immune to the poison as they were busy focusing on terrorizing the local civilians.

Scorch cloaked and observed the situation.

No ponies had died yet, but they were running away from a group of shamans attacking them with a rather different set of potions colored red.

Scorch aimed down his SCAR's holo sight right at a potion master.

"Hey assholes!" called out Scorch.

The Zebras turned around and observed the demo man uncloak as he fired a rail bullet at their squad leader's face.

A Zebra wasted no time hurling his potion at Scorch. Instinctively, the demo man dive rolled over to the other side. What he did not expect however, was the potion to explode like a frag grenade.

X-ray climbed to the roof tops and took a good look of the vicinity around him. Once he knew everything was clear, he leaped to another a building and picked him self up.

His motion tracker read 4 Zebras were on the road to his right. X-ray moved towards the red markings with intense speed and a agility, leaping from building to building like a black fog.

The rifleman cloaked and took note of the situation.

"Where is the potion bomb?" roared the Zebra squad leader.

"Forgive me sir, but I may have dropped it earlier." gulped a shaman.

The squad leader was boiling red. "You insolent-"

Right before he could finish his sentence, a rail bullet from X-ray's carbine split the Zebra's chest in two.

The 3 other Zebras turned around and instinctively threw their spears at the commando. X-ray simply stood in place and allowed the spears to bounce off his kinetic barrier.

The awestruck Zebras were too shocked to even move.

X-ray fired a precision shot at one of his victims' neck and 2 round burst the latter's comrade.

A Zebra with glowing green hooves had managed to gallop at X-ray with incredible speeds and raised his hooves for a pounce attack.

X-ray wasn't about to take chances and took a step to the side. The glowing hooves landed on the ground and to X-ray's surprise, created a shockwave and miniature crater.

The scrawny commando remained standing and fired 2 shots onto the Zebra, severing his hooves, and finished him off with a gauss round that severed the Zebras head.

Suddenly, X-ray heard an explosion to the left. The commando turned in that direction and activated magnetic vision to see what was going on.

Behind the walls, X-ray could see Scorch's outline being thrown to the side by what appeared to be a different kind of potion bomb. The rifleman wasted no time moving towards the demo man's position.

Scorch was hurled to the ground with half of his kinetic barrier depleted. Right before a Zebra could finish the demo man off, the downed Scorch drew his rail pistol and fired 2 precision shots at his attacker.

The other two Zebras were about to potion bomb the demo man, only for X-ray to uncloak and fire the remaining two rounds onto one of the Zebras and knifed the other right in the eye.

X-ray reloaded his carbine and walked straight towards his leveled ally.

X-ray helped Scorch back up. "Now I've got your back."

The demo man stood and used magnetic telekinesis to pick up his SCAR Z.

"What's the situation?" asked Scorch.

"Me and Scarecrow injured Nigeria and took out his fuck buddies." answered X-ray with an apathetic demeanor. "I eliminated another kill team before making it to your position."

"I on the other hand took out another 8 before this one." replied Scorch. "Overwatch took out 8 as well so that leaves us at 20 more of those striped assholes."

"I wished they planned this attack earlier." muttered X-ray. "I swear, I'm not in the fucking mood to kill right now."

"HAVE MERCY!" pleaded a voice a few meters away.

"HELP ME!" cried another.

"......Rarity." recognized Scorch. "And Pinkie Pie."

Scorch and X-ray sprinted towards the source and used their parkour skills to by pass many benches and trees along trees way.

The two zoomed in on their HUDs and spotted the ponies and a Zebra kill team.

X-ray power slid and hid behind a bench while Scorch slumped against the side of a building. The two commandos noticed the lustful remarks on the Zebras faces.

X-ray cursed in Armenian. "They're going to rape them!"

"They were going to do the same thing to Fluttershy." replied Scorch. "Take low penetrative rounds and mark your targets."

X-ray nodded and armed his rail pistol. Scorch did the same.

The heinous Zebras were getting closer and closer to the two mares. Scorch and X-ray needed to be careful on where they hit or else their gauss rounds would hit the ponies as well.

Scorch marked his target and X-ray marked his. The tagged enemies appeared on each others' HUD.

"Mark." said Scorch.

The two commandos uncloaked and fired a shot at their marked enemies. Luckily, the gauss rounds from their pistols did penetrate past the bodies of the victims, but did not hit Pinkie Pie or Rarity.

In the midst of the confusion, the two members of Shadow squad charged at the remaining Zebras.

Scorch used his free hand to draw his knife and slit the throat of his target while X-ray picked up the final Zebra by the throat, shoved his gun in Zebra's mouth, and pulled the trigger.

Rarity fainted at the sight of seeing the Zebra's head explode and leave nothing behind.

"Are you alright?" checked Scorch.

"I am." slowly said Pinkie Pie. Her mane had deflated. "Can't say the same about Rarity."

"What were you doing out here?" interrogated X-ray.

Rarity moaned and woke up. She spoke slowly "We were trying to get the last ponies back to the safe zone. In the town centre away from the poison potions."

"Bad news." gulped Scorch. "The Zebras have frag potions too. They could easily turn the evac zone into one giant clusterfuck."

5 minutes earlier.

A Canterlot mare and stallion were running as fast as they could from the Zebras attackers. The kill squad of 4 were taunting them by throwing explosive potions at the couple's hooves.

One shaman had enough fun and threw his explosive at a structure to the side. The building started to collapse and the rubble headed for the pony couple.

The two ponies fell on their bellies and expected a crushing death, only for them to feel nothing. Suddenly Scarecrow uncloaked with the upper parts of his body glowing purple with hexagons. He had taken all the damage for them.

A spear was thrown at Scarecrow's head, only for the masked commando to tilt his head to the side to dodge the attack.

"Have a taste of your own medicine shit heads." growled Scarecrow. Shadow's commander primed a frag greande at tossed it to the Zebra squad.

The explosion mutilated a shaman into a hundred gory pieces while it sent another corpse flying to the side.

Scarecrow raised his LMG and rained hell on the remaining Zebras with a few burst shots.

The commando turned to his back to see the pony couple heading to the safe zone with terrified expressions on their faces. From both the human ant the Zebras.

'Poor things.' thought Scarecrow. 'Equestria REALLY hasn't seen conflict like this.'

The heavy cloaked and headed to another kill team. After a few a minutes of traversing the city, he spotted another contingent of Zebras.

Scarecrow hid behind a wall and peeked to the side. The Zebras were patrolling the road while one in the center was doing something rather strange. The shaman was darting his eyes left to right and looked like he was ready to drop a glowing red potion at any moment.

Scarecrow analyzed the situation and used his HUD and VI to analyze the contents of the potion. His VI informed him that it was a highly contained explosive that upon interacting with the air, would explode with enough power to equate a gauss missile. He also realized that the Zebra was going to drop the potion the moment he saw a human pass by.

The invisible commando took a deep breath and decided to pick off the Zebras one by one.

His motion tracker read a stray Zebra coming towards his position. Scarecrow lightly tapped on the wall next to him.

The shaman heard the noise and readied a spear. Right when he approached the source of the noise, the cloaked Scarecrow grabbed the Zebra and broke his neck.

Scarecrow gently shoved the body aside and moved to another set of cover. The commando peeked up and glimpsed at a Zebra blocking his view of the potion master.

Still cloaked, Scarecrow thrust his invisible hands forward and grabbed the hooded Zebra towards him. The counter terrorist threw the shaman on the floor, uncloaked and fisted him so hard that his gloved hand shattered the Zebra's body and cut a hole threw the equine's chest.

Scarecrow re-cloaked and took a glance at the potion master. Luckily, the Zebra armed with the explosive potion had not been bothered. Unfortunately, the potion master was eyeing his ally vehemently. If Scarecrow attempted to take out the potion master, he would likely drop the liquid and create a massive explosion. If Scarecrow killed the other Zebra, the potion master would see the attack and drop the bomb.

Thankfully, a friendly a dot on his motion tracker made everything seem less complicated.

The potion master was waiting for a human to approach his position so he could detonate the explosive. The humans would have to get here eventually.

All of a sudden, a black clad figure dropped from the roof tops and tackled the shaman's ally. Right before the Zebra could drop his potion bomb, an invisible force snapped his neck.

Scarecrow caught the potion bomb before it could hit the ground and gently laid it aside.

Overwatch meanwhile, got back up and gunned down the unconscious Zebra with a single rail bullet from his PDR.

Scarecrow drew his gauss shot gun. "Hostiles. A couple meters from our position. I'll take them from down, you take them from the roof tops."

The sniper nodded and followed his commander through the market section of the city.

Right when the next Zebra kill team was within their view, Overwatch cloaked and used his magnetic gloves to scale the top of a building. The marksman crouched and equipped his sniper.

Overwatch observed Scarecrow take cover behind a market stall that sold some luxury items to the local nobles. The Zebras meanwhile were mixing certain ingredients in a massive witch cauldron.

"Burundi, how much longer until the explosive is set?" questioned a shaman.

"Give me a few minutes." requested the one named Burundi. He proceeded to toss in a chemical agent into the mixture.

Overwatch zoomed in on his HUD to observe what was going on in the cauldron. His VI proceeded to enact a series of calculations.

"Scarecrow, they're making a dirty bomb. 1 KM radius of detonation." radioed Overwatch. The sniper marked Burundi on his HUD.

Shadow's commander complied and marked the Zebra closest to him on his HUD.

"Mark." ordered Scarecrow.

Overwatch fired a suppressed rail bullet from his sniper that exploded Burundi's head into smithereens while Scarecrow's shotgun blew the upper half of his target. Dislocated organs splattered the other Zebras.

The marksman adjusted his scope to another Zebra and fired. Scarecrow used the butt of his shotgun to bat a Zebra in the face. The counter terrorist raised his foot and smashed the skull of the downed shaman like a bug.

"Tango down." simply said Scarecrow.

Suddenly, Scorch's voice filled the COMS.

"Scarecrow, Overwatch. Be advised, the Zebras are in possession of explosives as well as poison."

"Kind of guessed that." replied Scarecrow. "Where are you and X-ray?"

"Two of us are heading to the evac point in town center. The entire civilian population is basically there."

"I'm reading 8 more Zebra assasins on my HUD." noted Scarecrow. "Where are they?"

".....They're heading to the evac point." radioed Scorch.

The entire town centre of Canterlot was a giant mess. The nobles who resided in the city weren't exactly keen on being awoken in 1 in the morning. Especially considering that Zebras were attempting terrorist attacks on their lavish homes.

The Mane 6 tried to keep the spirits up, but it was no use. There were thousands of ponies all crowded in the town center. Another million or so citizens were on the other side of the city where they were too far away to be under the Zebras' consideration.

Royal guards were taken from their positions to help monitor and secure the rally point. The nobles weren't threatening, but they could get cranky at night especially when they knew that their property was being threatened.

Celestia rose to the sky and used the light energy stored within her horn to illuminate herself.

"My humble subjects! Please do not despair! The entire situation will be handled shortly." announced the solar alicorn.

"Shortly isn't enough!" yelled Fancy Pants from the crowd. Soon, the entire mass started yelling.

Celestia sighed and raised her voice. "The humans are..." The princess paused. She didn't know how to say it without startling the crowd further.

"The humans are handling the situation as we speak." assured Celestia. "With their expertise, the entire conflict will be resolved in-"

Celestia was cut off by a series of spears being hurled at her position. The alicorn easily dodged the attacks and used her telekinesis to lay them on the ground safely.

The next thing everypony knew, an inferno potion was thrown right at the crowd. The vile shattered and the liquid was lit on fire, creating a massive blaze that started dispersing the Equestrians everywhere.

Twilight sprang to action and used her telekinesis to lift fire hydrant and allow the water to flow. She directed the water to the flames and doused them.

Unfortunately, more inferno potions started bombarding the helpless Equines and started to scatter them around. Had the Zebras been humans with hands, their aim would have been lethal.

Celestia searched for the source of the attackers and spotted 4 hooded Zebras tossing their potions.

One shaman had enough fun and was about to go for the kill, until the 4 bi-pedal beings revealed themselves and stopped the Zebras in their tracks.

Without saying a word, Shadow opened fire with a burst from their gauss rifles and butchered the attacking Zebra kill team. The mutilated bodies of the quadrupeds didn't exactly calm everypony however.

The members of Shadow brushed past the crowd of panicking ponies, using their riot control skills to their advantage. Many ponies started blaming the attacks on Shadow and started berating them, although the humans were too busy focusing on finding the remaining Zebras.

"Be advised, we still have 4 more Zebras left." reminded Scarecrow.

"X-ray, use your drone to spot them." suggested Scarecrow.

"Roger that." nodded X-ray. The rifleman slung his rail carbine on his back and analyzed the feed coming from his drone on his wrist computer.

The recon drone had a clear overhead view of what was going on. X-ray programmed the drone accordingly so that it would only lock on to the Zebras. To his pleasure, the drone was able to spot the last kill team, spread out amongst the crowd, waiting to strike.

The markings of the final Zebras appeared on their HUD. The shamans were hidden amongst the scrambling ponies and were position themselves in a position where they could detonate their bombs and cause maximum damage.

Scorch switched to magnetic vision using neural controls. On magnetic vision, he could see the tagged targets appearing as a bright red blob in a see of blue outlines.

The shaman attempted to cover himself with his cloak to avoid suspicion. Suddenly, he felt something tap on his back. The Zebra turned to his side and felt an invisible knife pierce his eye and brain.

Scarecrow and X-ray, still cloaked, walked side by side to the other Zebra. The potion master was discreetly using the fleeing ponies to safely brew his explosive.

With all the ponies running around, the chances of an innocent being shot were astronomical. X-ray switched to his SMG and equipped a suppressor. The rail gun had 15 shots left in its mag, but that was more than enough for what he needed.

X-ray aimed down his sights and adjusted the barrel of his SMG to point at the shaman's face. He needed to time the attack just right or risk hitting a civilian.

The masked soldier took a deep breath and fired a two round burst at the potion master. To his pleasure, the gauss rounds did not penetrate the body of the Zebra with enough kinetic energy to cause injuries.

As for the vial, it was on its way to the ground until an invisible force grabbed it. That force revealed itself to be Scarecrow.

X-ray used his height to survey the area for the remaining Zebras. His motion tracker read another Zebra was just north of his position.

The ponies seemed to have known that to as they started running in the opposite direction.

Scarecrow plowed his way to the shaman and pointed his LMG at the potion master. The Zebra formed an evil grim on his face and threw the explosive vial at Scarecrow.

Tactfully thinking, the commando pointed his LMG at the vial as it flew in the air and shot it down. As the liquid was exposed to the air, it set on fire and sent the inflamed shaman flying. The vial was too far away to hit any ponies.

Scorch joined the other counter terrorists in order to find the final Zebra amongst the panic. The three walked for a minute, violently moving their gauss rifles left and right.

In the heart of the moment, the three started to hear screams and ponies coming in from the right side.

X-ray, Scorch and Scarecrow observed a Zebra standing on an elevated park bench with the more powerful and glowing version of the inferno potion. The kind that would have the strength of coil missile.

The 3 commandos pointed their weapons at the potion master,

"It's 3 to one pal." glared Scarecrow. "Give up now."

The Zebra smirked. "I don't think so. Come a step closer to me and I drop this vial."

"Getting the liquid exposed to air would detonate it." pointed X-ray. "You'd die in the process as well."

"It doesn't matter." shrugged the shaman. "As long I take you humans and ponies down with me."

"Your concoction is powerful." admitted Scorch. "But it still wouldn't surpass our kinetic barriers."

The moment after, Celestia and Luna arrived on the scene while accompanied by a dozen or so unicorn guards who readied a spell from their horns.

The Zebra remained vigilant. "You're going to have to....."

Suddenly, the shaman remembered something important. "Wait, weren't there four of-"

Before the Zebra could finish his sentence, Overwatch uncloaked at slit the shaman's throat with his knife. The sniper caught the potion before it fell.

The princesses closed their eyes and tried to remove the image from their minds.

"All hostiles are KIA." announced Scorch. "They're safe for now."

Almost instantly, Rainbow Dash, tears forming on the side of her eyes arrived.

"What is going on?" asked Celestia worriedly.

"It's Twilight!" cried Rainbow Dash. "She was trying to extinguish the fires caused by the potion bombs.....and.....she got hit by a spear."

As the ponies were taken by surprise, the members of Shadow sprinted immediately to Twilight's position.

The purple alicorn was slumped on the ground, a hole in her stomach caused by the spear wound. Twilight's friends were comforting her as she laid dying.

"Get out of our way!" called out Scarecrow.

The commandos pushed the ponies out of their way and looked down upon the wounded Twilight.

X-ray took a deep breath. "I'm going to take a massive fucking gamble here." The rifleman crouched and let out his medical equipment.

"Overwatch, did the stabilizer work on Zecora?"

The sniper nodded. X-ray in turn injected the serum into Twilight's blood stream, making the pony squirm in pain in the process.

Shadow had never been more nervous. Somepony so innocent and sweet was about to die and it would be their fault. Twilight had done nothing wrong, yet here she was, dying.

X-ray continued taking risks to treat Twilight's wounds. He'd be put into a state of everlasting depression if an innocent perished because he had to show up in Equestria. He couldn't make up for the lost blood or fractured organs, but he could still hold them in place. Using a bio-gel, X-ray was able to seal the wounds and keep the organs focused.

Scarecrow scanned Twilight's vitals with his HUD. "She's stable."

The purple alicorn, surrounded by her friends, got to her hooves, but stumbled over.

"Take it easy. You need to be seen to a hospital right away." warned Scorch.

Applejack held Twilight in position. "I got ya Twi."

The purple alicorn struggled for words. The medicine was effective, but it still wasn't meant for ponies.

Shining Armor, having secured Nigeria in a safe place, arrived on the scene with a few royal guards. He took a good look of what was going on and rushed to his sister.

"Twiliy, what's going on?" gasped Shining Armor.

"Th-they saved me." thanked Twilight.

"It's what we do." assured X-ray. "Just don't get stressed out."

The members of Shadow looked at their wrist computers. It was two in the morning. They had to get some sleep because the situation in Equestria had changed rapidly.

The counter terrorists brushed past the awe struck ponies as Twilight was comforted by her friends, the princesses and brother.

As Shadow walked, they heard another voice crying for help. To their left laid a Zebra, a member of the first attack squad that attacked the evac zone.

The Zebra was a mess, his fore hoof had been blown off by a gauss round and with a bleeding chest. Shadow continued in their tracks and stared at the Zebra with their vacant masks.

"P-please show mercy." begged the Zebra.

Scarecrow unslung his shotgun and without even looking, blew off the upper half of the injured Zebra with some of his blood spilling on the Canterlot ponies.

The citizens were up for a restless morning as even more ponies went into a state of panic.

Scarecrow placed his gauss shotgun on his back.

".........No regrets."

Author's Note

Sorry if the stand off was too long.

BTW, Gauss is a generic term for all magnetic weapons. A rail gun has projectiles accelerated through magnetic rails like a normal assault rifle would. This is why I use the terms interchangeably. A coil gun is an explosive that is charged and fired.

Chapter 36: Interrogation (Republished)

SORRY IT'S NOT THE NEW CHAPTER!

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

After their merciless slaughter of the Zebra shamans, Shadow slowly retreated to Canterlot castle and retired for the night. The other ponies meanwhile wouldn't stop panicking and finally fell asleep during sun rise.

The city of Canterlot had been left in much ruin. Luckily, there was no poison gas to worry about and all potion bombs had been properly disposed of. 'Clean up' however, was a rather gruesome event. All mutilated corpses of the Zebras were moved to a cemetery and cleaners were wiping away the rest of the organs.

All ponies who had witnessed the combat had to go under psychological check ups eventually. The noble ponies of Canterlot were either shell shocked from the entire event or were depressed how their fabulous apartments had been destroyed by potion bombs and rail guns.

When it came to casualties, ponies reported only minor injuries and no deaths. All the wounded, including Zecora and Twilight had been moved to the Canterlot hospital for examination.

Most ponies who lost their homes had to sleep in the guest rooms of their rich friends' mansion (to their horror) and work had been cut off for the day.

Then there came the question of Shadow squad. Almost everypony wanted the commandos gone from Equestria as far away as possible. Due to their presence in Equestria, all other races had waged war on the single pony nation. Stalliongrad and Saddle Arabia remained neutral.

However, it was not like anypony had the courage to tell the humans to piss off. The very thought of Shadow squad doing something horrible was enough to drive the Equestrians mad.

In fact, most ponies had to point out that Shadow went out of their way to protect them during the attack when they could have easily said 'fuck it'. But then there was the ultimate dilemma:

Was Shadow truly benevolent, or were they acting out of orders to enforce UTF law?

It was 12:30 in the afternoon. Shadow hadn't woken up yet, or at least the ponies thought so. All servants refused to be on the same floor of the castle as them.

Celestia and Luna trotted alongside the art gallery, wondering if their accomplishments paled in comparison to humanity's. The humans survived horrible eras of suffering to become a space faring race, while Equestria had inept villains trying to accomplish some outlandish goal.

Cadance, disgusted by the darkest of humanity, left immediately after the battle with her husband on a carriage where she slept through the morning. Shining Armor protested to stay because of Twilight, but even he didn't feel safe next to people as unpredictable as Shadow.

"I'm telling you Tia, they must leave." sighed Luna.

"And why is that?" glared Celestia. She wasn't in the best of moods.

"Are you blind?" spat Luna. "Look at all the destruction they have brought!"

"And what about all the destruction they spared us from?" countered the solar alicorn.

"What do you mean? Their horrendous weapons turned central Canterlot to rubble."

"Would have you rather had a few rich ponies loose part of their everlasting mansions? Or would you rather have us all gassed to death while the Zebras pick us off one by one?" questioned Celestia.

The lunar alicorn sighed and glanced to the right. "You've become one of them."

"May I remind you that YOU were ready to kill last night as well?" pointed Celestia. "I despise violence on any level, but this was the first time where Equestria was faced with opposition with enemies who wanted NOTHING, but to kill us."

"But out of all of humanity, it had to be Shadow." muttered Luna.

The alicorns finally exited the art gallery and started walking around the castle aimlessly.

"Even if it wasn't Shadow squad, we would still be attacked by every other race regardless." spat Celestia. "There is still truth in their words however; change doesn't come easily. But either we adapt or we die, and I will NOT let anything happen to my little ponies."

"One can not deny their sour attitude however." said Luna.

"Most definitely." agreed Celestia. "They turned Cadance into all ponies into a bitter mess. Although one can not blame them for their inability to feel remorse."

"But what will happen next?" asked Luna to the air. "An entire planet made up of the strongest militaries is after us. The elements of harmony are gone and our troops are far too ineffectual."

"We are the alicorns of day and night." reminded Celestia. "You know that we have untapped magic that could easily bring down a mountain."

"Don't patronize me." muttered Luna. "If a human took one of us out in an injured state, what good are we?"

"And all forms victory are assuming that the humans humans don't abandon us to our fates." groaned Celestia.

"Even if we do emerge as the victors in the upcoming storm, what will become of it?" trivialized Luna. "Regardless in the outcome of the conflict, many ponies would loose their life and our cities would be in ashes."

"We could take the path humanity took by rebuilding and becoming stronger than ever." suggested Celestia.

"But at what cost?" cried Luna. "Almost everypony we know would be dead and many of our former allies would become enemies. I just wish those confound humans hadn't shown up."

"I wouldn't say that if I were you sister." nervously said Celestia.

Luna formed a confused expression and raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

"Because we might be standing right behind you." called out a mechanical voice.

The two alicorns were taken by surprise and turned around as Shadow squad uncloaked. The counter terrorists had their masks on as well as their equipment.

Celestia broke the silence. "How long have you been awake?"

"We woke up an hour ago, made breakfast, used the bathroom, got our gear equipped and was asked by the UTF to report on your current predicament discreetly." explained Scorch.

Luna scowled. "In other words, you've been spying on us."

"More or less." shrugged Scarecrow. "We just want to know at least once race isn't out to kill us on this planet."

The regal sisters exchanged glances.

"What's the situation on Canterlot?" inquired X-ray.

Celestia took in a deep breath. "Well the damage isn't as bad as we expected. You did do a good job with decimating the enemy after all."

"Unfortunately, your weapons did such a great job blowing through Zebras, that also managed to penetrate at least an entire building before stopping." muttered Luna.

"That's kinetic energy for you." shook X-ray.

"What about Canterlot or the rest of the ponies living here?" checked Scorch.

"They're alright." assured Celestia. "Nothing more serious than a bruise or light burn."

"I don't suppose the ponies think fondly of us do they?" guessed Scarecrow.

"Not at all." revealed Luna. "Many ponies wish to see you humans leave immediately."

"I don't blame them. Not at all." admitted Scarecrow.

The Equestrian princesses weren't expecting that statement.

Scorch looked away from the princesses. "Because the 4 of us had to show up in Equestria, we just put your entire race in a situation that will most likely result in your extinction. Shadow is supposed to prevent the innocent from aggressors, not be the reason for aggression. But now they've chosen to fuck with humanity, and I swear every last child of each of the races will regret it."

"Do you regret coming to Equestria?" awed Celestia.

"I think you know us perfectly well that we don't." defended X-ray. "But in all honesty, we really wish that our presence in Equestria didn't equate our demise. And to think we were looking forward to starting a multi racial alliance."

"Speaking of alliance, what does humanity have in store for us?" pondered Luna.

"Assuming we have a way to by pass the planet barrier and repel the invasion, I don't think we have a plan for you regardless." revealed Scorch.

"Why not?" frowned Luna.

"Like we said, Ponies aren't a space faring race, so there isn't much use we'll have for you. I'm sorry, but those are the facts." responded X-ray. "If you do survive, all ponies need-"

"Can we please focus on current events!" ordered Celestia.

"Affirmative." nodded Overwatch. "Is Nigeria still in his containment cell?"

"Don't you mean dungeon?" sighed Celestia.

"If you want to be regressive about it, than yes." remarked X-ray.

"What do you need him for anyway?" inquired Celestia.

"Interrogation." flatly stated Scarecrow. "The only reason why we spared Nigeria in the first place is for questioning. We need answers on what is going on."

"What do you plan on asking him?" demanded Luna.

"For starters, we're going to figure out exactly what we're up against." informed Scarecrow. "Nigeria is the leader of the Zebra people, so obviously he's a highly ranked official in this alliance. With more knowledge on what's coming, we'll at least have a better chance in victory."

"And how do you know he'll just open up after you brutalized him and his men?" frowned Celestia.

"Self preservation and the power of fear." gritted Overwatch.

"I think now would also be the best chance as to find out why every race is pissed at us." pointed Scorch. "Form what we know, humans may have been on this planet before, and we've done something wrong."

"The matter regarding Epona and humans is a theological matter." reminded Luna. "Religion is the one subject no one will open their mouths on."

"So I guess we'll have to force it open one way or another." suggested X-ray.

"And what will we gain once we learn of the background behind the attack?" questioned Celestia.

"There might be some sort of loophole in this theological insanity." suggested Scarecrow. "If we can find it, then maybe we won't have to make every race feel our wrath."

Celestia and Luna stood side by side in the entrance of the royal study where Nigeria was bound to a chair, mouth tied. Shadow had deemed the conditions of the dungeons as a violation of judicial law, so Nigeria was to be interrogated in a more 'humane' environment.

The members of Shadow entered the room, all of them reading excerpts on human judicial practices.

"Is he ready?" asked Scorch.

The princesses simply nodded.

Scarecrow turned off the hologram on his wrist computer. "Alright since we're interrogating him under UTF law, we can't question him unless we a have judge, jury, prosecutor, lawyer, and under no circumstances can we torture nor drop the death penalty on him."

Luna spoke without even having considering the words of the humans.

"As modern as your laws may be, you are still in Equestria, interrogating a prisoner of Equestria, and thus you will adhere to the judicial constrains of Equestria."

"Fuck that." muttered X-ray.

"No!" yelled Celestia. "We are sick and tired of you enforcing your laws on our people. I hope you humans have at least a cent of dignity to at least see things from our perspective for once."

Scarecrow didn't need Celestia pissed off. "Alright, hand me your documents or rulebook, whatever, that goes over treatment of prisoners in Equestria."

Celestia nodded and her horn glowed. The alicorn materialized a parchment and levitated it towards Scarecrow.

The humans studied the document for a moment. Sure enough, the regulations for questioning a prisoner mirrored those of renaissance England.

"Are you sure these are the laws Equestria uses to interrogate prisoners?" checked X-ray.

"Of course! Why would we lie?" questioned Luna.

"Has Equestria ever interrogated a prisoner recently?" added Overwatch.

"Not at all." shook Celestia. "This is the first time we've had a prisoner of war for thousands of years."

Well that explained it. Since loving Equestria never had to question any prisoners before, they wouldn't be able to notice that their laws where grim and unjust.

Scorch radioed the congressmen on Apex. "Sir, are we authorized to use these laws to interrogate Nigeria?"

"They're primitive and violate the most basic human rights." radioed the HOD. "But I'm afraid we can't risk the ponies becoming an enemy of humanity. This might sound surprising, but we're going to need you to do what they say. At least for now. Besides, I don't think our progressive questioning methods would get Nigeria to talk."

The members of Shadow looked at each other, shrugged and closed the browsers on their wrist computers.

"Fine, aggression, torture and suspension of the rights of the defendant it is." muttered X-ray in a tone nopony could hear.

"So are you sure we should interrogate Nigeria with these laws?" asked Scorch to the alicorns.

"We are certain." nodded Luna.

The members of Shadow stepped inside the room slowly.

"Fine, but according to your laws, the prosecutors must be the only ones in the room other than the defendant. In other words, we go alone." informed Scarecrow.

Celestia was about to open her mouth to protest, but Overwatch slammed the door on the two alicorns.

Now the room was quiet. The slam of the door was loud enough to wake Nigeria from his sleep. Part of the Zebra's face was still bruised after X-ray knocked him out.

The 4 humans approached Nigeria slowly while the Zebra shot them dirty looks.

Scarecrow pulled the chair on the other side of the table and laid down his rifles so his weight wouldn't break the furniture. Shadow's commander sat slowly and stared at Nigeria with his glacial mask all the while.

X-ray crossed his arms and sternly stared at the Zebra while Overwatch guarded the door. Finally, Scorch approached Nigeria, and pointed his rail pistol at him.

After a moment's thought, Scarecrow removed the cloth from the gagged Nigeria.

The Zebra spoke venomously. "You harbingers! You butchered my men!"

"Because you totally weren't about to do the same thing to the Equestrians right?" sarcastically asked X-ray.

"Bedsides, there's a very good chance you'll be joining them." hinted Scorch.

"What do you want from me?" gritted Nigeria.

"We have questions, you have answers." said Scarecrow.

Nigeria scowled. "I will never answer to a human. Not in a thousand lifetimes."

Scorch sighed and slammed the butt of his pistol on the Zebra's skull, causing Nigeria to cry out in pain.

"Don't worry. Death isn't an option." grimly stated Scarecrow. "Either you talk, or we make your life a living hell."

The Zebra tried to focus his eyes on the masked humans, who vacantly stared back at him.

"Nigeria, do you really want to know what we could do to you if you don't comply?" trivialized X-ray.

The leader of the Zebras hissed and shook his head.

"Then I suggest you cooperate, so maybe you'll live." suggested Scorch, still pointing his pistol. "For starters, tell us about this alliance."

"And ruin the element of surprise?" laughed Nigeria. The Zebra was cut off when Scarecrow thrust his hand forward and slammed his head into the table.

Nigeria shook it off. "You need to be more specific if you want me to help you."

"Whose involved in the alliance?" interrogated Scarecrow.

"All of us." answered Nigeria with a smirk. "Dragons, Zebras, Griffins, Mules, Diamond Dogs and more."

"Is there a command structure of some sort?" questioned X-ray.

Nigeria didn't open his mouth, causing Scorch to fist him in the back of the head.

"There are 5 central rulers in this alliance." coughed Nigeria. "It is compromised of me, Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings, Emperor Talonclaw of the Griffins, duke Jackson of the Donkeys and Master Elvarg of the dragons."

"As for the other races?" demanded Scarecrow.

"They other races are far too small and lack significant leadership." explained Nigeria. "They are trained under the leaders of other armies."

"How strong are your numbers?" asked Scorch.

"In the millions mark." gloated Nigeria. "The Griffins have a proud military tradition, the Changelings are nothing but a slave race and the other species are instituting drafts."

"Wow, you need that much to take us out? I'm flattered." smirked X-ray under his mask.

"It is not the quantity of troops that is necessary, but the quality." began Nigeria. "The alliance has been discreetly sending its best units to the clone pool in the Everfree Forest to strengthen our assets."

Shadow was startled into silence for a good minute. Scarecrow buried his gloves into his mask.

"Fucking clone pool. Why didn't we think of that?" complained Shadow's leader.

"Now, you will face our best men by the hundreds." laughed Nigeria. "If only the clone pool wasn't finite."

The Zebra was fisted to silence by X-ray. Nigeria spat a broken tooth.

"We don't care how many soldiers you send." growled Overwatch from the wall. "We still can find tactics to diminish your alliance indefinitely."

"Helped by the fact that almost none of the alliance races can perform magic." added Scorch.

"You plan on using the ponies to help you fight?" squealed Nigeira. "That is like asking a dragon to blow you some air in the summer time."

"What do you know?" defended Scarecrow. "The ponies might have a fucked up ideology, but we can see what kind of magic they can. May I remind you that Celestia and Luna raise the sun and moon on this world? And don't you count on humans installing artificial gravity generators."

Nigeria didn't want to get his face smashed, so he refrained from smiling. "We have a certain ally that can handle that part."

"Are any of your fuck buddies planning another preemptive strike?" glared X-ray.

"How should I know? I'm not exactly within their presence." blurted Nigeria.

"Speaking of which, what did you and your men hope to accomplish by attacking us in the middle of the night without back up? Did you not get the message even after we slaughtered an alicorn?" questioned Scorch.

"Trixie attacked with no strategy." responded Nigeria. "We Zebras planned out attack. You humans were with the elements of harmony and the princesses in one location. The perfect time to take you all out. We would have crawled into the city while you slept, planted the poison bombs and evacuate."

"And then what would have happened if we did die?" asked Scarecrow.

"The barrier would have kept the other humans out, we would be safe, Equestria would be vulnerable and left to its fate." gritted Nigeria. "Unfortunately, we didn't count on you humans being awake."

"Well, we did have a fun time debating those ponies." chirped X-ray.

"And I hate to break it to you, but your men died for nothing." chastised Scorch. "Didn't any of your strategists consider that a space faring race may be immune to poison, or have gas masks and sensors?"

Nigeria rose from his seat. "Shut up! Even if we couldn't kill you, we would have at least stealthily killed a large number of ponies in the process."

Scorch slammed the top of his rail pistol on the Zebra's fore head. Before Nigeria could let out a cry of pain, the demo man forced him back down.

Nigeria shook of the damage. "You did have to admit, we did elude your detection technology. I say, we had a chance of sucess."

"Unlikely. Even if we were asleep, Zecora would have still been screaming her muzzle off and the Blackjack would diverted more power to threat detection once we slept." debunked X-ray.

"The entire operation was flawed from the start." pointed Scarecrow. "And now, all your best men are dead."

"And the rest of your kind will follow." warned Overwatch.

Nigeria was boiling with anger. "Let me tell you, that I've taken the liberty to clone my best warriors. I hope you have had difficulty facing them, because there is more of them to come. And second, you wouldn't dare harm any of the civilian races of the alliance. Would you?"

"We've had to do unspeakable things to civilians for the sake of the greater good." informed Scarecrow. "And if all the other races are against us to, UTF protocol requires we wipe out ANYTHING that can't be talked down."

"Besides, you were willing to harm pony civilians as well." reminded Scorch.

"That was not my calling." defended Nigeria. "The Zebra temple calls for the eradication of all who support the humans in their return for domination."

"Most ponies haven't even interacted with us. Yet you want the entire race to suffer?" called out X-ray.

"If Celestia, who the ponies obey to a fault, is okay with your arrival, then surely they will be too." replied Nigeria.

"Obey to a fault?" screeched Scorch. "I strongly believed that you Zebras were a pleasant kind, but your theology has turned you into ignorant warmongers."

"I know humans are a godless race." glared Nigeria. "Do the 4 of yo not obey the laws and constitution of your government as if it were a bible?"

"To an extent." exhaled Scarecrow. "But laws are continuously changing and have gone through numerous revisions, I think it's safe to obey them word by word."

"Your religion on the other hand, doesn't sound like it has gone through updates anytime in the past." added X-ray.

"Well, why must we change what is perfect?" defended the Zebra.

"If your theology told you to jump off a cliff the moment you saw a chicken, would you do it?" questioned Scarecrow.

Nigeria spat. "You dare mock the holy-"

The Zebra was cut off by Scorch slamming his muzzle into the table and leaving a dent.

"So to be clear, the entire conflict that surrounds us with the other races is a theological one?" checked X-ray.

Nigeria nodded.

"And all other races have a passage detailing humans brutalizing them tens of thousands of years into the past?" added Scarecrow.

"Yes." sighed the wounded Zebra. "The un sapient races however, with the exception of the dragons and hydra, do not have any organized religion. The beasts I mentioned rather pass down the tale of humans through oral tradition."

"Why was our ancient onslaught not recorded as a piece of history instead of theology?" inquired Scorch.

"Because what happened to our races was for too grand to be considered mere history." explained Nigeria. "To us, such a predicament was viewed as the precursor to an apocalypse."

"That doesn't make any sense." insulted X-ray.

Nigeria scowled and opened his mouth, but right before he could speak, X-ray curled his gloved and thrust it forward in an all powerful blow.

"By extension, do all species retain the same view on other fields of theology considering they share the same on humanity?" interrogated Scarecrow.

"It is forbidden to discuss religions on Epona." started Nigeria.

Scorch raised an eyebrow under his mask. "Because of sensitivity issues?"

"Correct." muttered Nigeria.

"So how did all other races form this grand alliance based on a religious aspect if no one has access to another race's belief system?" questioned X-ray.

"Because what happened in the past was such a grand event that no race could have missed recording it in their books. By common sense, all religions, no matter how different they are, would thus declare humans as harbingers." explained Nigeria. "Even if it were the two most different belief systems ever, they would agree on humanity's wickedness."

"Then why can neither ponies, nor humans remember such an event occurring?" stared Scarecrow.

"I do not know how ponies could have missed recording such destruction, but I believe that you humans purposely erased the chaos from your sources of knowledge in order to avoid seeking atonement." accused Nigeria.

The Zebra paused and spoke again. "Although, had we recorded your presence as history rather than theology, the ponies would no doubt be on our side."

"Well I'm glad you didn't." countered Scorch. "That would have been one more race to kill."

"So, if we're going to find out the source behind this attack, we're going to need some answers on your religion." demanded Scarecrow.

Nigeria turned his head around. "Forget it. I will stick true to my pledge and not discuss my religion with nonbelievers."

Scorch diverted electric power to his gloves and grasped the Zebra. In response, Nigeria was electrocuted by the powerful current. It was not a lethal dose, but it was painful.

After a moment, Scorch let go. Nigeria was frightened beyond repair.

"Feel like talking now?" checked X-ray.

"B-burn i-in tar-tartarus human." insulted Nigeria.

Scorch simply diverted more power to his gloves and further electrocuted the Zebra.

"Unless you want slow and painful torture, I suggest cooperating." advised Scarecrow.

Nigeria gave up and complied.

"Alright then, exactly when did the humans attack all primitive races?" questioned X-ray.

"A hundred years or so after our inception." answered Nigeria.

"And how do Zebras exactly believe they came to be?" muttered Scorch.

"We believe that we were created by a race of elder gods that left us in their midst of this vast empty planet as a canvas for us to thrive." replied Nigeria. "We Zebras further believe that after death, one becomes a member of the Elders."

"On the other hand, the ponies believe that an alicorn created all living life on Epona." noted Scarecrow. "So, I guess I can't exactly agree with this claim."

The pain the Zebra felt made Shadow's inflictions seem like a breeze.

"I assure you, we Zebras are not deluded and-"

"We can name a thousand reasons as to why your creation story is futile." gritted X-ray. "Now what did Zebras do after they were 'created' and before humans attacked them?"

"Zebras were at a state of blissful harmony for the first few decades of our lifetime. When our ancestors were born, they found the tools provided by our creators-"

"Hold up. You're implying that Zebras had some form of civilization that they did not even need to develop." noted Scorch.

"Yes." insisted Nigeria. "The first homes and appliances were not developed by us mortal Zebras. They were there from the start, waiting for us use them."

"Nigeria, matter can not just conjure up from nowhere." debunked Scarecrow.

"It did not come from nowhere, it came from the elder gods!" insisted Nigeria.

X-ray had an epiphany. He took out his tablet and lit up a hologram. The device, as well as the motions required to operate it, mesmerized the Zebra.

The skinny counter terrorist browsed through the 23rd data banks and accessed images regarding paleolithic era appliances developed by African tribes.

Nigeria was too stupefied by the hologram itself to pay attention to the images.

"Nigeria, are these what the Zebras regarded as the first tools for civilization?" questioned X-ray.

The leader of the Zebras took an expectant look at the image and nodded. "Yes, the history and theology books match up with these depictions."

"The first tools the Zebras claimed to have encountered match up exactly with what was used by ancient African tribes." pointed Scarecrow.

"And does the first incarnation of the Zebra language equate something like this?" added X-ray. The commando showed a depiction believed by anthropologists to be the primary language of Central and Northern Africans.

Nigeria's eyes widened. "It does, but how do humans know of our language?"

Scorch took a small breath. "Nigeria, the Zebras are an echo of the African culture."

"Who?" blurted Nigeria.

"The Africans are one of the many races that make up humanity. The culture and values of Zebra kind imitate theirs the same way ponies imitate....whites." informed Scarecrow.

"That is preposterous!" exclaimed the Zebra. "My kind is of its own. We have never and will never follow in the steps of humanity."

Scorch grasped his muzzle and pulled Nigeria forward. Staring him from mask to eye.

"Open your deluded mind. You speak the same languages as the Africans, you come from a land named Zebrica and utilize the same appliances they did in context that doesn't make sense."

"Hell, you're name is an African country." muttered Overwatch.

"Speaking of which, what drove your people to utilize the tools given to you at creation?" interrogated X-ray.

"We had to, for it was given to us by the elder gods." muttered Nigeria.

"Unlikely. I doubt any Zebras have even met these elder gods in their lifetime." debunked Scarecrow.

"Don't mock their existence hu-" Before Nigeria could finish his sentence, Scorch fisted the Zebra in the chin. Nigeria squirmed in pain as Shadow spoke.

"I can understand a tribal race utilizing assets because a deity told them to." nodded X-ray. "But since deities don't exist, for now, then why would Zebras just accept using a bunch of objects in the middle of a wasteland?"

"I bet it was a compelling urge." theorized Scarecrow. "If Zebras are evolving like Africans like ponies are evolving like caucasians, then perhaps they would utilize African resources instinctively."

"There was no instinct involved!" glared Nigeria. "Our elder gods instructed us to use their blessings, and we complied."

"Nigeria, if your elder gods were real, then why would they honestly give you equipment meant for fingered bi-peds to utilize and the cultures that are an exact replica of a tribe on Earth?" pointed Scorch.

"So what do you humans think happened?" rose Nigeria before being forced back down again.

"Guys." whispered Scarecrow. "Do you think we created every life form on this planet?"

"Doubt it." denied X-ray. "Not even our current state allows us to create worlds and intelligent life forms, so there is no way we could even achieve space flight in the past."

"But if every race opposing us is extremely sincere in their words, then what if we really were a space faring race thousands of years ago." insisted Scarecrow.

"Then where is our evidence?" countered Overwatch.

"What are you talking about." spoke up Nigeria. "Weren't you humans still a space faring race even after your attack?"

"No." said Scarecrow. "But if we were a space faring race, I believe that it was us humans who created you. We could have been the elder gods all along."

"Impossible." spat Nigeria. "Humans are only capable of destroying life, not creating it."

X-ray pulled the Zebra forward. "Listen bitch. Humans aren't a race that's set out to get everyone. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Why would Zebras, which are an animal from Earth, utilize African appliances unless they were created by humans themselves?"

"Put your money where your mouth is human." insulted Nigeria. "If we were created by your kind, then we would have recorded it. Our species had not seen a single human until the First Ravaging."

"Okay, before the ravaging, what was the state of the Zebra people?" asked Scorch.

"Thriving." answered the Zebra. "As primitive as we were, progress was being made. We built farms and set up homes."

"And it was hundred or so years before we humans arrived to fuck it all up right?" checked Scarecrow.

"Indeed. We never saw it coming." glumly stated Nigeria.

"So how did it all happen?" asked X-ray. "Were you bombarded from orbit, or were you assaulted from the ground?"

"It is complicated." stated Nigeria. "And as if I want to give you humans ideas."

Scorch slammed the Zebra's head into the table, finally splitting the furniture in two.

"Speak."

Nigeria's nose started to bleed. "Alright. For the first few decades of our existence. The Zebras were a happy people. Life was easy under the tools given to us by the elder gods. Then, we began to move on."

"Move on?"

"We started developing new tools and created our own customs. After celebrating the same thing for a century it was time to change. Then the humans arrived."

"Could you describe the humans your kind saw?" asked X-ray.

"Shorter than you are as well as having a darker skin complexion." informed Nigeria.

"Definitely sounds like a paleolithic African tribe if you ask me." shrugged Scarecrow. "What did they wear?"

"Just cloth. Nothing like what you wear." replied Nigeria.

"Odd. Why would a space faring race just wear cloth?" pondered Scarecrow.

"Moving on." sighed Nigeria. "The humans arrived on our world around a hundred years after our creation. At first, we welcomed them. Especially considering they spoke the same languages as us and held many of our beliefs."

The members of Shadow closed in on the Zebra. They made sure that the politicians on Apex were listening closely and could hear every word.

"At first they were surprised and proud." added Nigeria.

"Why would they be that?" questioned Scarecrow. Not to Nigeria, but to everyone in the room.

"We don't know, for the moment we started pointing them to certain aspects of our civilization, they became angry." gritted the leader of the Zebras.

"Angry?" blurted X-ray. "Why? What did you do?"

"Nothing!" yelled Nigeria. "Your ancestors for whatever reason became extremely pissed off and started yelling at us for doing it wrong."

"Doing it wrong?" repeated Scorch.

"According to our bibles, they called us infidels and a threat to their culture and civilization." remembered Nigeria. "The humans who visited stormed off in frustration while calling us failures."

"And then what happened?" muttered Scarecrow.

"They disappeared for a few brief hours. And then they attacked." responded Nigeria.

"With what?" asked X-ray. "Railguns? Nukes?"

"I do not know what any of those are." shook Nigeria. "They attacked us with energy blasts coming from behemoth spaceships."

"Energy blasts aren't specific enough." glared Scorch. "And describe the ships for us."

"They were huge. At least a forest long." trivialized Nigeria. "They were sleek, had openings to fire their energy weapons and had a blue pattern."

"Blue pattern? Doesn't sound like anything we have in our current fleet." growled Overwatch.

"We Zebras were not the only one who suffered this fate." said Nigeria. "The Donkeys, the Dragons and all the other species went through a similar ordeal."

"All but the ponies." interrupted Scorch.

"How they forget an apocalyptic event is out of the question entirely." shook Nigeria.

"Any fighting on land?" guessed Scarecrow.

"No. All we did was hide while you humans destroyed the remainder of our species. Sometimes, a human scouting party would find a group of survivors, call us failures and order their ships to resume the onslaught."

"Fuck, if they were attacking you with energy weapons, than surely you would have all been wiped out." hissed X-ray.

"Indeed, but we weren't." thanked Nigeria.

"How did the carnage end?" interrogated Scarecrow.

"It just did." flatly stated Nigeria. "The ravaging went on for a few days, but was not constant. From time to times, the human ships would retreat to space, declare a threat, and attack some time after. One day, the harbingers retreated to space, swearing that they were preparing for another strike, but did not return."

"So that's when you realized the decimation seized?" checked Scorch.

"More or less, even the human colony on this world was abandoned." answered Nigeria.

"Human colony? We lived on this planet?" gasped X-ray.

"For a day or so." laughed the Zebra. "You humans started building an expanding empire over a piece of land, but never finished the job. I doubt you fools even knew what you were doing."

"Well, what happened after the attack?" asked Scarecrow.

"Every species hat felt the wrath of your ancestors was scarred for good." scolded Nigeria. "More than half of each kind was wiped out, only leaving a handful of survivors. All of our advancements were vanquished as well. We resorted to using the same tools we utilized primarily and simply built off those rather than creating new ones."

"I might not be able to feel remorse, but I sympathize with the loss of your people." empathized X-ray.

"You don't sound sincere." hissed Nigeria.

"It was tens of thousands of years ago. You don't see me vilifying Turks for the Armenian genocide 600 years ago."

"We still feel its effects even now." responded Nigeria. "Do you realize what it is like living with the notion that a group of harbingers will return to finish us off?"

"Wow, a couple thousand years pass and you still hate us?" chuckled Scorch. "How long can a race hold a grudge based on a hollow threat?"

"Hollow threat!" exclaimed Nigeria. "I hope you humans are not blind to the fact that you have arrived once more on this cherished planet."

"We never, nor do we currently intend to wipe out an entire species because our ancestors said so!" remarked Scarecrow.

"You humans can not recognize your own fallacies." spat Nigeria. "Humans are the heralds of the apocalypse and all those who support them in their return must be punished!"

Scorch grabbed the Zebra by the neck and gave it a squeeze, nearly chocking Nigeria to death.

"Stop that!" pleaded Nigeria, only for the demo man to fist him in the cheek.

"Don't worry. We'll let you go as long as you listen to reason." assured Scarecrow.

"Reason?" gulped the Zebra. "Since when is listening to a race that nearly succeeded in wiping out all life in the planet a form of reason?"

"When you realize that this race does not want to kill your people." replied Scarecrow. "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF?"

Nigeria shrunk in his seat from the loud and mechanical scream.

The Zebra slowly rose and knit his eyebrows. "And why should I believe any of that? Do you not know that history repeats itself no matter how hard you try?"

X-ray looked down. From what he read in text books, history did have a way of replaying the same theme in different contexts. He still wasn't about to let the Zebra win however.

"History does not have to repeat itself. Especially if you know what you're not trying to recall."

"We Zebras view it as an inevitability. Did you humans not wipe out a Griffin army, Trixie as well as my men?" reminded the leader of Zebrica.

Scorch moaned in frustration and beat the Zebra while talking to him. "All of our victims on this world were those attacked us. "It was kill or be killed. None of you had to go through it."

The demo man delivered the final blow. Nigeria's face was in a brutal condition. It hurt to talk.

"You humans are a grave threat to us all." Nigeria cried.

"How so? We have not harmed a vast majority of the species on this world. Especially the Equestrians." pointed X-ray.

"Come now. Surely you know you are a detriment to their existence." smirked Nigeria. "If the ponies weren't so, I don't know adorable? You would have murdered them all a long time ago in frustration."

The members of Shadow squad did not respond to the question. For a solid moment the masked humans were lost in thought. Would have they killed the ponies if they were some other race they found revolting?

"Despite our constant insistence, you seem rather certain that humans are a sign of inevitable war." said Scorch.

"The lives you took on this planet are all the proof I need." defended Nigeria.

Scarecrow slapped the already bleeding Zebra hard. "We never intended to kill every sentient creature we saw. You brought this conflict upon yourself."

Nigeria shot back in his seat and his eyes widened. "What did you say?"

"I said you brought this conflict upon yourself." repeated Scarecrow. "We were not responsible for that lives that were taken, nor are we responsible for the lives that will be ended. You are."

"How am I responsible for the death of Griffin camp?" denied Nigeria.

X-ray formed a malevolent smile under his mask. The commando grabbed the Zebra by the neck and pulled him forward.

"You poor deluded soul. You see, when we humans came to Epona, we had no intention of decimating this planet entirely. Even when we saw intelligent races, we had no desire to kill them. All we wanted to do was form alliances."

"Liar." accused the bleeding Nigeria.

"Liar?" laughed Scorch. "Then tell me. Why is it that we were never the ones to pull the trigger? Why did we always attempt to talk you guys down? Trust me, we never intended to start a fight."

"I do not believe that for a single moment!" cried Nigeria.

"I love how ignorant you're being." complimented X-ray. "Just because our ancestors said we would come back to exact revenge on all creatures here didn't mean we would. We tried to be civil with all the races on this planet, but all you did was ignore and demonize us because of some past tragedy. We didn't war. You did."

"And now your men, along with a large portion of the rest of your race will die." warned Overwatch.

"What's funny is that you could have easily avoided this tragedy had you listened to us. Ironically, you have fulfilled your own prophecy of destruction." mocked Scarecrow.

"Shut up!" threatened Nigeria.

"Do yourself a favor and face the truth." suggested Scorch. "Had the alliance consider that we truly had no idea what was going on and forgot all about our ancestor's threats, countless lives would have been spared. But now we have to go to war, not because we're trying to continue the wrath of our ancestors, but because you all maintained a blind, war mongering and illogical adherence to your faith."

The revelation scarred Nigeria into silence. Had the humans been innocent all along? Had they really forgotten the sins of their ancestors? Was the alliance about to bring forth its own unneeded destruction.

"However, lives can be spared." implied Scarecrow.

"No. Death is inevitable." let out Nigeria. The Zebra had been reduced to a nervous wreck.

"If the alliance promises to stand down, we won't have to fight. Isn't it obvious?" shook Scorch.

"And what makes you think the leaders of each race will respond to your offers of diplomacy?" whispered Nigeria.

"Because the United Terran Federation has a very specific First Contact Law that all alien races that are deemed a threat to humanity will be wiped out for the greater good unless proven otherwise." explained X-ray. "If the alliance cares about the well being of its people, than surely they will surrender."

Nigeria ignored the last part. "Destroying everything that is a threat to humanity? The laws of the UTF are no different from our traditions."

Scarecrow smashed his fist into the Zebra's temples. A few more hits, and Nigeria was as good as dead.

"The UTF does not call for the decimation of a race unless it affects the greater good. And let me tell you that waging war against humanity will be the last thing races of this planet will do!"

"War is the only option." insisted the Zebra. "Like you adhere to your laws, we adhere to our traditions. Whether or not you agree with your ancestors is irrelevant. We will get revenge!"

"Hardly." replied Scorch. "Mark my words, the alliance will either be wiped from the universe or stand down."

"We prefer to go with the latter." assured X-ray. "Now tell us, where was the ancient human settlement?"

"Excuse me?" spat Nigeria.

Scarecrow uppercutted the already injured Zebra's face. "You said that humans were going to build a city on this planet in the past. Where were we going to colonize it?"

"I-I-I.....burn in tartarus human." cried Nigeria.

Scorch grabbed the Zebras skull and stared directly into his face.

"Speak. Now."

"The Crystal Empire!" exclaimed Nigeria quickly.

"The Crystal Empire is a pony settlement." corrected X-ray.

"Not always." defended Nigeria. "The Crystal Empire was constructed with the use of human starships. Once your ancestors finished the job, they would have taken the planet for themselves."

"Then why is it populated with ponies?" demanded Scarecrow.

"When you humans disappeared, the Crystal Empire was left abandoned. Scouts were sent to observed what had occurred, but all they found was a desolate city. A few decades after, it was colonized by the ponies."

"And the other races just let the ponies do it?" muttered X-ray. "Without even mentioning that it belonged to a race that nearly wiped them out?"

"We thought the ponies knew what they were doing!" remarked Nigeria. "We thought they claimed the land in retaliation for being put through hell."

"Smart move." gritted Overwatch sarcastically.

"Before the ponies moved in, what did your ancestors find?" questioned Scorch.

"I have no motivation to speak." gloated Nigeria.

"Talk now." ordered Scarecrow in a monotonous voice.

The threat overwhelmed the Zebra. "Barely anything. All we found were empty buildings and the data chamber had been sealed off."

"Data chamber?" perked up X-ray.

"It was the place where you humans most likely stored all information regarding your technology and planned your attacks against us." theorized Nigeria.

"Do you know how we could find it and find our way back in?" asked Scarecrow.

"Do I look like I know?" stated Nigeria. "What use would you have for it anyway?"

"Two uses actually." smirked Scorch. "For starters, we could find some information about our ancestors and maybe discover a loophole in the entire system. We could call of the war before it began."

"What a pathetic notion." insulted the Zebra. "No matter what loophole you find, no matter how pacifistic humans are, we still have a quest for vengeance and nothing will change that."

"Nigeria, if you promised to break the Zebras from this stupid alliance, you would be spared along with the entirety of your race." offered X-ray. "Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"I am not the one decides what my kind will do with harbingers." answered the leader of the Zebras. "This is a commitment far more considerable than silly diplomacy. Besides, I would be branded a traitor and the rest of Zebra kind would fight anyway."

"If the alliance won't surrender willingly, then we'll make them surrender through fear." countered Scarecrow.

"Fear? As potent as the four of you are, you're no match for an army in the millions." laughed Nigeria.

"We're not, but the UTF is." admitted X-ray.

"I hope you haven't noticed, but there is a giant barrier around this planet preventing all sorts of orbital interaction." reminded Nigeria.

"Another reason why we need to visit the ancient data chamber is because any race intelligent enough to form life surely knows of a way to disable barriers such as the one over Epona." explained X-ray. "Once the barrier is down, the UTF will be free to reign whatever hell it wants on the alliance."

"And what makes you think the alliance won't surrender rather than fighting to the death?" coughed Nigeria. His vitals were beginning to fade.

"Because fear is the most powerful emotion there exists." gritted Overwatch. "Once the alliance realizes how much more powerful we are than them, self preservation will kick in and the attack will be called off."

"Unless of course the alliance was willing to sacrifice its civilians." added Scarecrow.

"Don't get your hopes up." whispered Nigeria. "Our ally has assured us that there is no way the barrier can be taken out as long as he is alive."

"You keep mentioning this ally." noted Scorch. "Who is he?"

"No why would I tell you?" chuckled Nigeria.

Scarecrow smacked the Zebra into oblivion. "Because we'll kill you if you don't tell us."

"Our ally is a being far more powerful than Celestia and Luna. Better yet, he holds the greatest grudge against humanity there is." trivialized Nigeria. "He sensed the presence of your starship long before any other race did and attempted to steer you away by preventing your ship from analyzing this planet."

"So that's why there was a distortion field around this planet." noted Scarecrow.

"He hoped that if your ship could not look into this planet, it would leave. Unfortunately, you humans stepped foot anyway." told Nigeria.

"Who is he?" interrogated X-ray.

"Hush now. If I tell you, I'll risk his life and the alliance by extension." replied Nigeria. "Then our little alliance wouldn't get its chance at long awaited retribution."

Scorch smashed his pistol into the jaw of the Zebra and knocked a tooth or two.

"Speak." demanded the demo man.

"I'm tired of you pushing me around." roared the leader of the Zebras. "And I hope you humans have realized that you have wasted your time. As we speak, the alliance grows stronger. As you search for meaningless ways to get us to surrender, the alliance grows stronger."

"Let me tell you pal. The UTF has no intention to kill every race on this planet when it can form alliances. We will find out how to get the barrier disabled, the UTF will arrive, every race will be reminded how powerful we are, and they will surrender." insisted Scarecrow.

"And you call us stubborn." laughed Nigeria as blood rushed from his mouth. "No matter what you say, the alliance would rather die than negotiate with you. THAT IS FINAL!"

The members of Shadow paused for a minute.

"Last chance." muttered X-ray.

"For what?" asked Nigeria.

"For living." replied Scorch. "Right now we have all the information we need. So unless you promise us that Zebras will secede from the alliance, you will be executed."

"If I get Zebras out of the alliance, we will be declared heretics and the alliance will attack us. I will not allow that to happen." informed Nigeria.

"The UTF can protect your people once they arrive." insisted Scarecrow. "All you need to do is man up, realize that you are brining unnecessary destruction and surrender. Otherwise your race will be annihilated"

"I don't need to surrender my race because there is no way you humans can do anything to us." laughed Nigeria. "If I were you I would stop hiding."

X-ray nodded. "Alright. In that case, we have no use for you."

Scarecrow signaled Scorch who pointed his gauss pistol at Nigeria.

The Zebra started sweating like a pig as he was drenched in fear.

"Please! Show mercy!"

"I don't know the meaning of the word." muttered Scorch.

The demo man pulled the trigger and painted the walls with Nigeria's brain and blood.

Author's Note

Sorry this is not the new chapter. I just wanted to republish this chapter for it to make more sense as to why Shadow would allow themselves to conform to Equestrian law for the interrogation.

My readers pointed it out so I decided to correct it after much stubbornness. Now I hope it makes a LITTLE bit more sense. Or not.

Anyway, classwork is piling up, but I Pinkie Promise another chapter by saturday night!

Chapter 37: Destination

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."- Albert Einstein

The members of Shadow squad stood silently for a moment in the room. Nigeria's now headless body slumped to the floor. The gauss shot was loud enough to be heard by all ponies within the vicinity.

Scarecrow turned on the communications device on his wrist computer. "Command, have we successfully streamed every second of that interrogation?"

"Affirmative. Even the ugly parts." groaned the HOD.

"You authorized us to use Equestrian protocol." noted Overwatch.

"It still wasn't necessary to kill Nigeria you freaking psychopath." chastised the HOD.

"Well, now the ponies will realize the hard way that their laws and regulations for treating prisoners is inhumane and will make an effort to change to something their tone." countered Scorch.

"Has any of this media been leaked to the civilians?" asked X-ray.

"Not yet." radioed the HOD. "The fact that our ancestors may have been some sort of expansionist galactic empire in the past isn't some sort of information we can distribute nonchalantly."

"Do the civilians even know that it's the fucking 23rd that is making first contact?" questioned Scorch.

"Negative. The UTF might have a strict policy against the distortion of any sort of fact, but your 96 other comrades in the 23rd are still insistent that your unit be kept a secret." explained the HOD.

"They still don't know your even unit works for the government. Civilians are either convinced that you're either an urban legend or vigilante/law enforcement serial killers."

"Well that would make more sense than the technocratic UTF conscripting mentally abnormal individuals to do their private black ops missions." admitted X-ray.

"So what do the civilians know so far?" inquired Scarecrow.

"They know we've discovered a race of talking multi colored ponies and fictional creatures." started the HOD. "Although we've heavily edited the video for it to appear as if it's a normal group of UTF soldiers making first contact and are treating ponies better than a goody two shoes Olympian at tea party."

"I don't think Equestria would stand for that kind of distortion." shook Scorch.

"Oh please, the sooner they forget the 23rd exists. The better." debunked the HOD. "No offense."

"None taken. So what happens next? When can we expect back up? asked Scarecrow.

"This new information regarding our ancestors and the formation of an alliance has delayed the next course of action amongst the government. Even further if it was leaked to the population." radioed the HOD.

"How is everyone back on the colonies handling the situation anyway?" said X-ray.

"Surprisingly well." told the HOD. "As stated before, the civilians are basically content with the Equestrians. They've become a phenomenon. Our scholars and diplomats are looking forward to meeting them as well. We originally believed some problems would occur from the revelation of xeno life such as the formation of pro human cults and some sort of uprising, but none of this has occurred yet. I estimate a day before other humans start arriving."

"A day? That's far too long." pointed Scarecrow. "These Equestrians are in a situation that will likely result in their genocide. We need the UTF as soon as possible. Once we show this fucking alliance what the UTF really is, fear and self preservation will take over and they'll stand down."

"Shadow, we have a massive kinetic barrier that's surrounding this planet and you know how disastrous it would be for a fleet to space-time rip within a planet. Even if we were ready to arrive in Equestria, we couldn't until you get that barrier dropped." groaned the HOD.

"So what's the plan?" muttered Scorch.

"You know where you can find information regarding the ancient humans. We need you to get to the Crystal Empire, investigate any traces of ancient human civilization and decipher exactly what happened. With any luck, we'll find some major loophole to this messed up theological insanity and straighten things out with the other species. Besides, it would be a record of study in the field of history."

"What if the archives turn out to be blank?" questioned X-ray. "As far as we know, they've been unattended to for tens of thousands of years."

"In that case, we'll have to intimidate the alliance into submission." pondered the HOD. "To do so, you'll have to disable the kinetic barrier around the planet. The archives could have some sort of information or technology hub that would disable the force field however."

"And you'll sure it will have it?" checked Scarecrow.

"If our ancestors could create planets and use energy weapons as the primary source of engagement, I'm sure they're intelligent enough to figure out how to disable kinetic barriers that are EMP proof." assured the HOD.

"But what if we can't find that either? We're taking a gamble here!" exclaimed Scarecrow.

"We'll see. The president, the COC and the Commission of Defense are working out a plan. For now, focus on getting to the Crystal Empire. Out." instructed the HOD.

The radio transmission seized and the the room turned to silence.

Overwatch broke the silence. "I vouch we go somewhere where there isn't the corpse of a headless Zebra."

Scarecrow nodded and opened the door. The members of Shadow exited one by one. As they entered the hall, the found Celestia and Luna, still in a face of shock.

"How long have you been standing like that?" asked Scorch.

"......."

"Did you here the gauss shot?" muttered X-ray.

"......."

X-ray sighed and fired his rail pistol into the air. Sure enough the alicorns snapped out of their trans.

"You killed Nigeria! You bastards!" scolded Luna.

Scarecrow apathetically crossed his arms. "Oh. Now look who's swearing."

"Besides, didn't you order us to interrogate your prisoner with your laws?" reminded X-ray.

"We ordered you to question Nigeria! Not beat him." countered Celestia.

Scorch sighed and turned to his wrist computer. He lit up a hologram of Equestria's laws.

"As you can see here in fine print: Those who are accused of villainy shall be subjugated to an inquisition by any number of prosecutors who may use any method deemed appropriate in order to get the convicted to comply. They who shall commit treason or acts or attempts of murder are to face an equative retribution as a compensation for their crimes."

"In other words, the prosecutor can do whatever they want to the defendant." muttered Scarecrow.

The alicorn sisters trotted to the hologram and studied it close.

"Tia, why would we have a law like that?" asked Luna.

"I don't know." admitted Celestia. "This is truly the first time Equestria has had a prisoner of war."

"Well I think the better question is, 'Why the hell does Equestria have objects made for hands when you clearly have hooves?'." implied X-ray.

"That still did not give you any reason to kill him!" scolded Celestia.

"He was better off dead anyway." Scorch would have spat if he wasn't wearing a mask.

"Are you insane?" screamed Luna in the royal Canterlot voice. "Without Nigeria, how are we going to negotiate a peace treaty with the Zebras?"

"To answer your question." muttered Scarecrow. "First, to an extent. Second, Nigeria would have been a detriment to our situation regardless of the interrogation outcome."

"Why so?" glared Celestia.

"We butchered his entire guard last night!" pointed X-ray. "And now that the Zebras have lost their leader, they may feel compelled to back out of the alliance. And even if we convinced him to seize all hostilities regarding the past, it wouldn't have mattered. He would have wanted to get revenge nonetheless."

"Are you certain?" questioned Luna.

"We have been in situations almost entirely like this. Revenge and bloodlust is a fucking drug." growled Overwatch.

"Besides, we put the guy through hell just to get some information." said Scorch. "If we were to let him back out, all he'd be is a twisted, broken and disturbed Zebra. He was better off dead. Away from us as far as possible."

"We better not regret this!" exclaimed Luna. "At the rate we're going at, the entire population of the planet will be extinct by the end of the week."

"So what became of your interrogation?" asked Celestia.

"I think we better discuss this information with Twilight and the rest of the ponies." remarked X-ray.

The Alicorns flew and landed in the entrance of Canterlot hospital. Right now, doctors were working full time to treat those who had been injured during Nigeria's assault.

The sisters walked inside the facility. As usual, their subjects bowed on the sight of their rulers.

Suddenly, the door swung open once again. The Eqeustrains inside the waiting room were perplexed as they had seen nopony enter.

Then Shadow squad uncloaked. Much to their expectance, everypony in the room immediately clenched their heads as they stumbled upon seeing their realistic figures.

Celestia and Luna approached the front desk while the unicorn receptionist started sweating in fear and confusion.

"Excuse me, I am looking for Twilight Sparkle." announced Celestia calmly.

The receptionist struggled to get a hold of herself. "Um, oh, yes. Of course your majesty! Her highness Twilight Sparkle is on the top floor in room 96. She is being treated with Ms. Zecora."

"Thank you. Is she ready for visitors?" questioned Luna.

"The doctors have given an all clear. You'll have to ask them however about what she can and can not do." said the unicorn. "Right now she's being visited by her 5 friends and dragon assistant."

"Alright then. Alert the staff we'll be on our way." nodded Celestia.

"Um, your majesty." croaked the receptionist. She tilted her head to the side to face the 4 masked humans. "Will these.....gentleman be visiting princess Twilight as well?"

"I'm afraid so." sighed Luna.

"The doctors said Twilight shouldn't be handling much stress the last time I heard about her condition." muttered the unicorn.

Shadow squad maintained neutral expressions under their masks. They didn't blame the receptionist for being so scared.

"It's all right. Twilight knows these 4." assured Celestia.

The alicorns and the commandos took off. Whenever the ponies saw the masked counter terrorists, they always took off in the opposite direction. After taking out a group of Zebra kill teams, nopony wanted to be in the same room as them.

Finally, the group arrived at the scene. Room 96.

"I believe it would be best if me and my sister enter first." proposed Luna.

"Go ahead." signaled Scarecrow.

Luna opened the door with telekinesis and she and Celestia walked in.

Shadow cloaked in order reduce panic and switched to magnetic vision to see what was going on behind the walls. They enhanced their radio skills to pick up the conversation.

Their were two beds in the room. One belonged to Zecora. The Zebra was fast asleep, her body covered with band aids and muzzle covered with a breathing device.

Then there was Twilight. The alicorn was being covered by her 5 friends who crowded on her bed. Nopony saw or even heard the solar and lunar princesses come in.

Spike was crying his scales off. His head was buried in Twilights coat. The purple mare hugged the dragon back with a warm smile.

"T-Twilight." sobbed Spike. "I'm s-so sorry."

"Spike, it's okay." smiled Twilight.

"No it's not!" yelled the purple dragon. "While you were in a dangerous situation, I was fast asleep in the castle! should have been there with you. I didn't even get to hear anything the humans had to say."

"Don't worry." comforted Twilight. "I'm glad you didn't see any of it. It was way to dark for someone your age to handle."

"But I'm your assistant!" wept Spike. "Shouldn't I be by your side all the time?"

"I'm your sister." corrected Twilight. "I don't want you to be a part of such horrible things."

"Spike, you're here now. That's all that matters." squeaked Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy is right." called out Celestia's voice. "You mustn't be too hard on yourself."

Suddenly, the 6 mares and the dragon turned around to face Celestia and Luna.

"Princess!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

"I knew you'd come." smirked Rainbow Dash.

"Come now. It surely isn't a surprise." laughed Luna.

"How is my star pupil feeling?" asked Celestia.

"I'm great! Thanks." nodded Twilight. "Especially now that all my friends are here to visit me."

"We've been with Twilight the entire time." told Rarity. "We had to sleep in the wretched waiting room, but we weren't about to give up on our friend."

"A true character of friendship indeed." complimented Luna.

Applejack was the only one not smiling. "Is Shadow here?"

Celestia stopped grinning. "Yes, I believe they're right outside."

"I don't see them." muttered Rainbow Dash. "They're probably cloaked."

Luna raised her voice. "The 4 of you may come in."

The door opened slowly. Since Shadow squad wasn't visible, it looked like the door opened by itself.

Shadow uncloaked and stared at the purple alicorn for a moment. Then, X-ray immediately used neural controls to analyze Twilight's body. The readings were displayed on his HUD.

"You're vitals look good. Didn't expect you to be in this condition after you got stabbed."

Twilight flexed her head. "We'll, you did save me there. Thank you."

"Oh fucking please. If we hadn't shown up in the first place, none of you would be in this situation." shook Scorch.

"You bothered about something?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Oh no." said Scarecrow sarcastically. "We just ended up putting an entire species in jeopardy for banal reasons. Everything is totally fine."

"Looks like someone is beginning to learn a little remorse." pointed Rarity.

"Trust me, we don't regret a thing we've done." defended Scarecrow. "We're just pissed of the situation had to turn out like this. I know it's beyond our control, but I wished things played out differently."

Shadow's motion trackers read an unidentified pony entering the room.

All of a sudden, a unicorn doctor with a red coat and yellow mane entered the room. The stallion was too busy checking his notepad to notice that a group of humans had entered.

"Good news your highness." remarked the doctor, eyes still glued to the notepad. "You're-"

The stallion was immediately cut off upon getting a full glimpse of Shadow squad who stared right back with their vacant and expressionless masks.

"Uhhhh." muttered the doctor. "Ms. Sparkle shouldn't be handling too much stress and-"

"Relax, I know these guys. They're fine unless they get provoked." assured Twilight from her hospital bed.

"What's Twilight's situation?" asked X-ray.

The doctor rubbed his head as he tried to comprehend Shadow's alien appearance. "Her majesty is actually in quite an exemplary position. I don't know what you did to her, but had she not been stabilized, she would have certainly perished."

Pinkie Pie clutched Twilight's hooves out of worry. Twilight kindly signaled the pink mare to let go.

"And I thought ponies didn't have the medical technology to treat Twilight this well." added Scorch. "I have to admit, the fact that she's talking is a surprise to us as well."

"Well, we didn't always have this certain medical procedure." muttered the unicorn. "These practices have only been implemented since last night."

"So how did you all advance so quickly in medicine?" asked Scarecrow.

The doctor formed a fake grin. "When we heard that alien life was visiting Equestria, we considered that they would have the medical knowledge that surpassed ours. In order not to feel to outclassed, we kind of pulled an all nighter on medical research. Good timing too. We wouldn't have had the ability to treat all our patients without it."

Shadow squad form a small smirk under their masks.

"Nice to see you're evolving in terms of medical technology." complimented X-ray. The skinny commando turned to the hospitalized zebra. "How's Zecora holding up?"

"She's more than fine, but not as good as Twilight." groaned the doctor. "She had been injured far longer than Twilight. Rather than having a major injury in one area, she had minor, but multiple, wounds in other areas."

"When can Twilight be cleared for movement?" inquired Scarecrow.

"Why would I need to get moving?" called out Twilight.

The doctor checked his notes. "I was actually about to inform her that she was ready to leave her hospital bed in an hour. Although the last thing she needs is more trauma in her midsection."

"Doctor, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, we need to have a word with these ponies." requested Scorch.

The stallion turned to face the princesses. "Will this be alright?"

"Of course." assured Luna.

The doctor trotted off while trying to shake off the image of Shadow squad from his mind.

"So what did we miss?" asked Applejack as she closed the door.

"Just be glad you weren't there. Things got real messy with Nigeria." trivialized Scarecrow.

"Oh my, what happened?" whimpered Fluttershy.

"We, did some real ugly things to Nigeria." muttered Overwatch. "You can probably guess who it ended."

The ponies were starting to get used to hearing about situations involving death. They all knew life would no longer be the same, regardless of the outcome of the struggle.

Everybody and everypony looked at the cationic Zecroa. They wondered how she would react to the death of her leader.

"Anyway, we were able to gain a large quantity of intel from Nigeria." announced Scarecrow. "I really hope you can handle it however."

"Come on! Share with the class!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

X-ray took a deep breath. "For starters, we have every reason to believe that the alliance may be entirely valid in their claims for attack."

"What is that supposed to mean?" questioned Celestia.

"For starters, I think we should explain the origins of the Zebras." decided Scorch. "The Zebras say, or at least claim, that they simply appeared on the planet tens of thousands of years ago. We can't exactly pinpoint an accurate timing."

"They claim they just appeared out of nowhere?" muttered Twilight out of disbelief.

"Well, they believe they were created by elders of some sort." corrected the demo man.

"Elders? That's silly!" laughed Pinkie Pie.

"Oh, and a large mutant horse creating a world filled with even more mutated horses isn't?" countered Scarecrow.

The ponies shot the humans dirty looks.

"But now the whole idea of talking, animated, intelligent life just appearing on the Earth seems to be the final truth." pointed X-ray. "It does seem that the planet was created artificially after all, but by whom remains a question considering the next part."

"Next part?" repeated Rarity.

"After being created by the elders, Nigeria said that the Zebras literally found traces of primitive resources that mirrored those of ancient African tribes." explained Scarecrow.

"You ponies said that the earliest appliances and commodities were provided to you by your deity. Correct?" checked Scorch.

"That's what the books say." answered Twilight.

"Well, we have reason to believe that statement was a lie." informed X-ray. "Perhaps your goddess simply found these items and gave them to you. Why would an otherwise perfect deity create tools not meant for hooves?"

"So how do you suppose we all ended up copying humanity?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"We don't know." muttered Scorch. "We suggested that this planet was created by humans, but apparently, we never set foot on this planet until 100 years after its creation."

"Continuing on." voiced Scarecrow. "According to Nigeria, the Zebras continued to live a peaceful life and soon began to develop technologies and a culture that strayed away from the original. Things looked bright for their people, until we arrived a hundred years after."

"But no piece of information even implies that aliens visited our world until this month!" exclaimed Celestia.

"That's not what the alliance claims." shook Scarecrow. "According to Nigeria, humans weren't even a collective of neolithic civilizations in the past."

"Ah don't follow." shook Applejack.

"Based on Nigeria's statements, when humans visited Epona a century after its creation, we arrived in star ships." clarified X-ray.

"And from the sound of it, whatever starships our ancestors had were a far cry from what we have now. They make ours sound like hot air balloons." added Scarecrow.

"So what did the ancient humans exactly do when they visited?" inquired Luna.

"Nigeria told us that when the humans visited, they were boasting some sense of pride." told Overwatch.

"Pride? Why would they be feeling that?" said Twilight.

"I guess they were feeling haughty considering the humans who visited the Zebras were Africans themselves." theorized X-ray. "I believe they were simply ecstatic that they found an animal from their native land."

"Moving on, it seemed that when the humans found the Zebras, things were going to look well." added Scorch. "Until it all went to hell. Remember how the alliance claims the humans brought devastation to their lands thousands of years ago, well it turns out they might be telling the truth."

The ponies in the room were silenced for a solid minute.

"So humans led a genocide on this world a long time ago?" gasped Fluttershy.

"We're just as pissed off about it as you are." assured X-ray.

"But why would they do such a thing?" gulped Applejack. "What set them off?"

"That's a mystery to all parties involved in the conflict." stated Scarecrow. "From what Nigeria told us, when the ancient humans took a full glimpse of Zebra society, they just fell into a state of madness."

"Just like that?" inquired an unconvinced Celestia.

"Afraid so." nodded Scorch. "Apparently the Zebras were somehow traitors to their culture and race. Whatever that means."

"And the next thing everyone on Epona knew, the ancient starships started to rain hell over all the races." added X-ray. "Using energy weapons, our ancestors mercilessly attacked every race that lived here from orbit."

"Then wouldn't have we been wiped out?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"You should have." shrugged Scarecrow. "Unless, our ancestors were completely inept in handling the star ships they created, this planet should be smoldering."

"But then why can't we ponies recall such a tragedy from occurring?" asked Luna. "We have recorded all history since our creation, there is no way we could have missed a genocide of epic proportions."

"And we humans have been recording all history since 50 thousand BCE." replied X-ray. "How our ancestors achieved space flight in the past and leaving no trace behind is uncanny."

"But what if we weren't attacked?" realized Twilight.

"Impossible." debunked Scarecrow. "If all races were being devastated indiscriminately by energy weapons, then ponies should not be exempt nor not caught in the collateral damage."

"Twilight might be on to something." spoke up Rarity. "Our population might be rather petite compared to humanity, but when compared to others, we outnumber them significantly. And Equestria doesn't exactly have a high birth rate."

"You still should have been able to see gleaming starships orbiting the planet." countered Overwatch.

"But what would have the humans done if they did succeed in destroying all life on the world?" questioned Celestia.

"Simple. They would have taken it for themselves." informed X-ray. "In the midst of the attack, the ancient humans started to build their own city made up of conquered territories."

"Well, there's no ancient human city here." told Twilight. "We've explored all sorts of ruins around the planet."

"What if we told you that it might not even be in ruins and continues to function today?" challenged Scarecrow.

"Quit be cryptic and spell it out already!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

"Our ancestors were building an empire on this world, a Crystal Empire." trivialized X-ray.

"The Crystal Empire is a human settlement?" remarked Celestia with a hint of doubt. "That sounds unlikely."

"I know everything about the Crystal Empire, and it's been proven that it's been a pony settlement for the entirety of its existence." debunked Twilight.

"Yeah, but did ponies actually build it?" quizzed Scorch.

"I would assume so, considering that it isn't well, animated." flexed Twilight.

"Then again, I do not remember any texts regarding the actual creation of the empire." revealed Luna. "It seems that the earliest records of pony interaction with the city implies that ponies have always been in charge of the city."

"I'm willing to bet that humans built the city and you ponies simply found it and claimed it as your own." theorized X-ray. "I wonder how Cadance would react to such a news about her names."

"There's one thing I still don't get!" stated Rainbow Dash. "If the humans were so capable of destroying everything in their path, why didn't they?"

"Good question." nodded Scarecrow. "According to Nigeria, the humans simply disappeared. Literally. Following that, the attacked races were left in a state of ruin, forcing them to build off primitive resources rather than developing entirely new ones."

"But how do we know he's tellin' da truth?" questioned Applejack.

"Well, our lie detectors didn't go off during the interrogation." responded Scorch. "Hell, I don't think a prisoner would even dare lie when they know their life was at stake."

"You still killed him!" scolded Celestia.

"So if Nigeria was telling the truth, that means the whole alliance is justified in their actions!" exclaimed Rarity. "They aren't attacking for nothing after all."

"They're not justified for doing shit." denied X-ray. "The only reason why they hate us humans is because we threatened to blow up their world the next time we came."

"But then that means they're only trying to defend their people." squeaked Fluttershy.

"Well they're doing a shitty job at it." insulted Scorch. "They should have got the message that we had no intention of repeating the past the first time. But no, they're really fucking insistent that we're going to do it anyway."

"I still believe that you should offer some sort of reparation for nearly destroying everything in the past." suggested Rarity.

"We would, although the only reparation they'll accept is blood." groaned Scarecrow. "Even if we were ultra pacifistic and the total opposite of our ancestors, the alliance would still would want us dead."

"Sound like they're after revenge if you ask me." spoke up Spike after a long period of silence.

"Exactly. And what's worse is that they've failed to comprehend that we're not the ones who nearly destroyed their civilizations." shook X-ray.

"They refuse to accept that we've moved on from our ancestors, developed new ideals, want nothing to do with them and don't even remember that we were a group of space fascist a long time ago." added Scarecrow. "But because some fucking book told them to, they're convinced we're still out to get them."

"That isn't fair at all!" burst Rainbow Dash.

"Exactly. Had they listened, they probably would have realized we had no intention of starting war. All they've done is fulfill their own prophecy." agreed Overwatch.

"Not to mention they've decided to take all their anger out on you as well." gritted Scorch. "The alliance knows it can't win against humanity, so all they want to do is wipe the 4 of us out. Can't say the same about you though."

Pinkie Pie shed a tear. "But can't we solve this problem without violence?"

"I can't tell you of the outcome of this conflict, but it certainly won't be a peaceful one." shook X-ray. "We're really sorry we put you in a situation like this."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "I thought y'all couldn' apologize."

"We can't apologize for intended actions." defended Scorch. "This is something completely beyond our control."

"So this means negotiations are out of the question?" checked Celestia.

"We're afraid so. The only way to put down this alliance is through force." apologized Scarecrow.

"You mean the Federation is going to wipe everyone out?" gasped Fluttershy.

"Not necessarily." defended X-ray. "If we did that, all we'd be doing is proving the alliance right. If we can put its leaders in a state of panic, self preservation will take over and the alliance will surrender. And since the UTF sees no good out of revenge, all this useless antagonism will seize."

"Are you sure they will surrender darling?" questioned Rarity. "The four of you are one of the most horrific individuals I know of and not even you were successful in getting Nigeria to stand down."

"If that's the case, than I'm afraid history will sadly have to repeat itself after all." shrugged Overwatch.

"What kind of evil entity would go to war based on in an irrelevant statement in an outdated book?" said Luna quietly to herself.

Shadow surprised the blue alicorn by answering her question.

"Say what you want about the alliance, but they're not evil, they're just horribly misinformed." debunked Scorch.

"They won't stop until ever pony is killed for simply tolerating you!" yelled Twilight. "How is that not evil?"

"While their acts certainly aren't evil, the alliance isn't acting out of pure wickedness." admitted Scarecrow.

"Then how do you classify them?" questioned Celestia.

"They're a Taliban." flatly stated X-ray.

"A what?" blurted all the ponies in the room.

"A Taliban." repeated X-ray. "Religion and traditions, especially in a classical society such as this hold an upmost priority and influence. Then there are those who take it to extreme levels and follow blindly. They would follow everything, even the unjust aspects of their beliefs and commit horrible acts all in the name of theology."

"Come on! I'm sure they can turn a corner once we talk sense into them." pleaded Pinkie Pie.

Scarecrow held up the pink pony and pressed his mask on her face.

"Don't you get it? We can't talk sense into them. They are utterly convinced that what they are doing is right and in the name of the deities they worship. Any attempt to reason with them will only be seen as some sort of theological attack and will thus motivate the alliance further to commit attacks."

The masked commando started panting. "Right now, they are convinced that we are eldritch abominations of some sort that have returned from the cosmos and will seek to finish what we started by destroying all life on the world with our incomprehensible technology. And because of their willful ignorance, they are going to put us all in a situation where death is inevitable. All we can hope for is for the alliance themselves to see the error in their ways and seize hostilities willingly. Unfortunately none of the races have encountered any sort of secular movement so the hopes of them surrendering are futile. FUTILE I SAY!"

"Please put me down." smiled Pinkie Pie.

Scarecrow stopped breathing heavily. "Oh. My bad."

"What information have you find about this alliance?" interrogated Celestia.

"For starters, almost every sapient race is involved in this conflict." began X-ray. "I have reason to believe that we have no allies in this situation."

"What about its leaders?" added Luna.

"Nigeria was one of the chief commanders." answered Scorch. "Now that he's dead there's a good chance they'l be some sort of power surge amongst the ranks of the Zebras. Hopefully that will buy us some time."

"The other leaders are emperor Talonclaw of the Griffins, duke Jackson of the Donkeys, Chrysalis of the Changelings-"

"Chrysalis!" yelled Twilight. "Why would she be working with the other races? And why would they agree to work with such a villain?"

"Common beliefs and enemies can be a unifying ground for even the most antagonistic of forces." explained X-ray. "The final leader of this alliance is master Elvarg of the dragons."

"Dragons!" yelled Spike. "My kind is after you too?"

"Afraid." so sighed Scarecrow. "Don't worry though, just because you're a dragon doesn't mean we're going to mark you a threat."

"But you don't understand!" exclaimed Spike. "If the dragons are in it, you're all doomed. Oh man, they've probably labeled me a traitor as well."

"Dragons might be tough, but they're no match for a fleet of space ships." assured Scorch. "And also, Nigeria keeps mentioning an ally of some sort."

"I've noticed, any news on who this ally is?" asked Celestia.

"Negative." revealed Overwatch. "According to Nigeria, the 'ally', is someone, likely male, who hold the deepest grudge against humanity. Apparently he's the only one they're confident in for brining the 4 of us down at once."

"Furthermore, this guy is what's keeping the barrier in position and once the alliance kills off the alicorns, this ally will take the place of Celestia and Luna in turning the sun and moon." added Scarecrow.

"What?" spat Luna. "There is no one I know that is capable of such a feat, unless...."

"Who do you have in mind?" interrogated X-ray.

"Never mind." shook Luna. "It couldn't be him. He's not the one for compromise."

"Moving on, how big is the alliance we're facing?" inquired Celestia.

"Their army is more than one million. We'll leave it at that." informed Scorch.

"One Million!" yelled Rainbow Dash at the top of her lungs.

"There's no way we can handle that!" gasped Fluttershy.

"I think he was jus trying to intimidate us." suggested Twilight. "I know for a fact that not even the Griffin army is that strong and the militaries of other races is hardly larger than ours."

"Like we said, religion can drive people to do stupid things, like joining the army against a threat they know they can't beat." replied Scarecrow.

"And there's the fact they've turned to the clone pool." muttered X-ray.

"Clone pool? You mean the thing I used to make a few dozen copies of me that wrecked havoc?" questioned Pinkie Pie.

"That one." answered Scorch. "They've used it to expand their ranks and make copies of their best fighters, which is really smart if you ask me."

"We're outnumbered and we're out skilled." cried Luna. "There is no possible way we can win!"

"We don't have to win. This war won't even have to touch Equestrian soil with the plan we got." smirked Scarecrow under his mask.

"I'm really surprised you're insistent to win a conflict that won't even affect your species." complimented Rainbow Dash.

"Because believe it or not, we do genuinely feel concerned about you and the last thing we want is for your race to be wiped out for something you didn't do!" remarked X-ray. "And there's the total fact that our lives are in jeopardy too."

"You guys sure have a funny way of showing it though." muttered Spike.

"Look, we're 23rd. We're far from what's perceived as normal." admitted Scorch. "And as aggressive as we may have been, please believe that we are not your enemies."

"Besides, we kind of caused this event to occur when we stepped foot on Epona." shook Overwatch. "Because chose to interact with you all, you've been caught in the crossfire of some fucked up crusade. We might not be able to feel remorse, but it's only lawful that we find the solution to the problem. No matter what."

The ponies couldn't help but feel moved by the statements.

"What do you have in mind? Not even you can face an army of millions of enraged zealots!" exclaimed Celestia.

"We won't have to face them!" insisted X-ray. "All we need to do is get them to surrender."

"But I thought you said they couldn't be reasoned with." reminded Twilight.

"Reasoning isn't an option. You're right." nodded Scorch. "But we can get them to surrender with the next best way. Through fear, the most powerful emotion known to every kind."

"I hate to break it to you." said Rainbow Dash. "But not even you four are scary enough to get an entire army to quit."

"Not us, but the entire might of the UTF can. Without even having to fire a kinetic round." replied Scarecrow. "The very sight of a UTF battle group alone will cause them to pussy out."

"They don't know what a UTF ship is capable of." glared Rarity.

"Exactly." snapped Scorch. "Like we said, fear of the unknown is the most powerful kind of fear there is. Once the alliance gets a little glimpse of our starships in orbit, they won't risk their lives of their brethren and fuck off."

"But what about the barrier over our planet?" whispered Fluttershy.

"Matter is not created nor destroyed at random." informed X-ray. "All we have to is find a way to shut off the barrier, and we'll be good."

"And how do y'all plan ta do dat?" asked Applejack.

"Easy, all we need to do is head to the Crystal Empire. I would move now if I were you." instructed Scorch.

"What would we exactly find in the Crystal Empire?" questioned Twilight. "I know it was a former human colony and all, but trust me, there is nothing you would find that would benefit us."

"Not necessarily. According to Nigeria, when the ancient humans were building the Crystal Empire, they created some sort of data chamber." explained X-ray.

"How would that information be useful now? Sure you'll find out some cool things, but now is not the time!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

"That data chamber is our only chance to find out how to stop this attack!" countered Scarecrow. "If our ancestors were as advanced as the stupid theology books say, than surely there must be some sort of mechanism that would override the kinetic barrier."

"You said it was a data bank. Not a technology hub." corrected Celestia.

"But with whatever information our ancestors could conjure up, I'm sure they could at least provide us the information to get the barrier down." shrugged Scorch. "If the UTF diverts all assets to this solution, the barrier could be down before the attack on the 23rd of June."

"And if that doesn't work?" inquired Applejack.

"Then we could at least look into the archives of our ancestors." proposed X-ray. "With the records that exactly detail what occurred with the incident tens of thousands of years ago, we could at least have an idea of what happened and use it to our advantage. Find a loophole or something."

"You don't sound so sure." piped up Fluttershy.

Scarecrow let out a loud breath. "Truth be told, we're ill prepared to deal with such a situation. However, this may be our only shot in repelling the fucking alliance. Let's not waste it."

"I still don't find it a thorough plan." shook Luna. "The Crystal Empire is thousands of years old, there is no way the archives could have survived."

"The UTF has ways of storing knowledge that can last for a hundred thousand years." informed Scorch. "I am sure our ancestors, who sound more advanced than the current generations have found ways of preserving data efficiently."

"But when we went to the Crystal Empire, how come we never saw anything referring to humans?" challenged Rarity.

"Knowing the nature of Equestria, I don't think ponies would focus on researching secrets throughly. Not that I'm trying to insult you." theorized X-ray.

"You're missing the point! Ponies have inhabited the Empire for thousands of years. If there was a glaring human archive in the middle of it, we would have noticed." insisted Twilight. "Nigeria could have tricked us."

"Our lie detectors didn't go off and Nigeria was pretty serious when he spoke." defended Scarecrow. "According to him, the archives were left closed the last time Zebras set foot in the land. As far as I'm concerned, it could still be there."

"Even if we did get to the Crystal Empire, what is to say Cadance and Shining Armor are just going to let you ransack the entire city for something that might not either be there?" pointed Rainbow Dash.

"They'll comply once they know what is going on." answered X-ray. "Otherwise, we'll loose our only option at defense."

"Besides, we're authorized to use force if none of you comply." muttered Scorch as he checked the messages on his wrist computer.

"I really hope you know what you're doing." sighed Celestia.

"We do." said Scarecrow, "The four of us will head to the Crystal Empire as soon as possible, uncover whatever information we need, and report back."

"Y'all are goin' alone?" gasped Applejack.

"Afraid so." shrugged X-ray.

"What! You can't go by yourself." pleaded Twilight.

"Well, we did want you to come, but now we kind of take it back seeing that you're still hospitalized." stated Scorch.

"I can still go. Honest!" insisted the purple alicorn. "I'll be good in an hour."

"Why do you all want to come anyway?" interrogated Scarecrow.

"None of you have been to the Crystal Empire before." groaned Rarity. "If you want to be efficient, you're going to need our guidance to show you around and explain the situation to the locals. Crystal ponies are rather jumpy."

"Acknowledged. I guess that settles it for the ride." remarked X-ray.

"Hey! What about me?" shot Spike.

"Spike, you might be a dragon, but you're still a child. I do not believe that you should accompany us." denied Scorch.

"Why not?" spat the purple dragon. "I've accompanied Twilight on all her adventures before."

"The adversaries you have faced are nothing compared to what is challenging us." warned Scarecrow. "The alliance as declared open war on Equestria and odds are they could send a kill team at any moment."

"And because you've interacted with us, they've declared you a heretic and you'll be marked for dead." added X-ray.

"By the way, we'd like to apologize for putting your life in danger." growled Overwatch.

Suddenly, the young dragon began trembling. "I can't stay! There's no way I can leave Twilight behind. Especially not after what happened last night."

Twilight shed a tear and scooped the young dragon in her fore hooves.

"Spike, it's okay. I'll be fine. Shadow won't let any harm come to me." assured the purple alicorn. "Besides, I want you to be safe as well."

"I, I, I can't stay." begged the dragon.

Celestia, placed a wing that stoked Spike's head. "It's okay. You'll be alright under our watch."

"You're staying?" deciphered X-ray.

Luna closed her eyes. "We are afraid so. Right now, we must salvage whatever political ties we have with the other races and at least hope to find a diplomatic solution."

"Alright then. Does anypony know the fastest way we can get to Crystal Empire?" asked Scarecrow.

"We could arrange a carriage to send the 10 of you rather quickly." proposed Luna.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to hire your guards to carry us. Not only are we rather heavy compared to a pony, but the guards probably hate us as well." declined Scorch.

"Oh! How about we go by train?" piped up Pinkie Pie.

"It takes a few hours to get to the empire however." reminded Rarity. "We would also have to reserve the tickets and what not."

"A train ride still sounds like the best idea to me." flexed X-ray.

"I can make the arrangements and get a ride for you all by the next hour." said Celestia.

"What about luggage and packing?" squeaked Fluttershy.

"It won't be a long operation." responded Scarecrow. "We get it, find all the intel we need, and report back."

"First things first." stated Twilight. "I think we should call the doctors to take off these band aids."

"Don't worry about that pal." smirked Rainbow Dash, who flew off to the halls.

"Just keep my little ponies safe." pleaded Celesita. She finally had finally rounded up the courage to say it. "At whatever cost you find necessary."

"Done." nodded Scorch.

Author's Note

Sorry if it was too dialogue heavy and felt like a repetition of the previous chapter. I think you all know what might be coming next, but it may have an unexpected twist.

Despite statements in the story, this is not attacking religion, this is attacking fundamentalism and using religion as a scapeg

The Alliance

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."- ancient proverb.

An hour ago.

The hooded quadruped finally made it. Accompanied by two Zebra shamans, the ambassador had arrived in Gryphonia after an exhausting and long journey.

The ambassador was named Uganda. He was the (former) representative of Zebrica to the Equestrian ponies. For the years he had worked in Equestria, he believed that the ponies were kind and benevolent individuals.

All that had to change however when humanity took another step on this sacred world.

Surely the idea of returning humans would throw all of Equestria into the defensive. As per their promise, the humans would no doubt seek to finish what they had started thousands of years ago by using their massive starships to blow this planet to smithereens.

When news that humanity had landed on Epona reached him, Uganda was thrown into a state of disarray. The humans had the nerve to show up on this planet. Did they seriously think that Epona would allow them into society where they could easily create chaos?

Unfortunately, the ponies were planning otherwise. Uganda expected Equestria to keep true to their word of not negotiating with imperialists, so when news of humanity came, the last thing he expected was for Equestria to welcome them.

Upon hearing that Equestria was going to treat the arriving humans as invited guests. Uganda was thrown into a fit of rage and panic. The first thing he did was immediately request a meeting with Celestia and Luna to inform them that cooperating with humanity was going to be a severe mistake.

However, Uganda could not get a hold of the princesses and no matter how many times he tried to warn the royal advisors, they simply wouldn't believe him that humanity was a threat. Uganda was simply dismissed as uninformative.

Uninformative? He thought. How could one race forget utter devastation and a promise to destroy all life on their world?

Uganda simply concluded that the ponies were either foolishly accepting humanity without realizing the consequences, or had been deceived.

Regardless, Uganda held true to his faith and immediately sent a letter to his government that detailed humanity's return.

To his surprise however, he had learned that his nation had in fact been aware of the return of humanity ever since a potion master named Zecora had spoken to the officials a few days ago.

Uganda later wrote a letter regarding that Equestria had intended to befriend the humans and allow them to integrate into their fair world. It was heresy amongst the highest levels.

Uganda kept a correspondence between his nation and himself. Over time, he learned that news of humanity was spreading across Epona like wildfire. Soon, ambassadors from all species with the glaring exception of pony kind had met and alliance was being formed to expel the humans before harm could be committed towards them.

Uganda kept the information of the alliance silent during his remaining time in Canterlot, as if he was going to allow Equestria time to put up a resistance.

Based on the messages he was receiving, an army would attack the 4 humans and the rest of Equestria on the 23rd of June, the Summer Sun Celebration.

All Uganda needed to do was keep quiet, but all that changed when received a letter from Nigeria himself, who stated they were forming up a plan to take our humanity and the princesses much earlier.

Uganda strongly advised his leader otherwise, but Nigeria was convinced of his plan. Already he had planned to expel humanity from Canterlot by creeping into the city in the dead of night and release a series of potion attacks that would poison the humans and leave Equestria to the alliance's mercy.

The ambassador had to admit, it was a fine plan. The humans would no doubt be asleep at night and the potions were far more than effective.

Nigeria had already written to Uganda that he had a plan to escort him out of the city before the attack even took place.

In the dead of night, Uganda would slip away from the city using his diplomatic immunity and be escorted out of Equestria by train using tickets Nigeria had sent. All he had to do was get to Zebrica before news of the Canterlot attack took place.

Uganda did so. At 9 PM, a few hours before the fatal attack, the ambassador got on a train and headed to Zebrica. He was informed that if all went smoothly, Nigeria and his team would meet him in the nation by sunrise.

Sunrise came however, but there was no sign of Nigeria. Uganda waited a few more hours, but he realized it was hopeless. He knew what the humans were capable of and it didn't take a genius to what happened to Nigeria.

So now here he was. In the middle of Gryphonia, official headquarters of the alliance.

Uganda subtly moved along the menacing atmosphere of the city while his two aides prevented any sort of trouble from befalling upon him.

The nation of Gryphonia had been radically changed since the alliance had been formed.

Normally, the Griffins were militaristic and at times, xenophobic, but now was not the time for keeping to one's self. Once the alliance had been formed, the Griffins had taken upon the mantle to train troops from all races to fend off the humans.

Furthermore, the central palace of the Griffin emperor had been converted into a meeting hall for the alliance to voice their concerns and tactics.

The castle was massive and overlooked a large training field. Uganda didn't need to be at the top of the castle to know that it housed an improbable number of soldiers waiting to take out their anger on humanity.

Uganda prayed for mercy as to all those who would have to face humanity in combat. True they had massive numbers, but every life that would inevitably died would count.

Slowly, Uganda made his way into the castle. All seemed to be okay until-

"HALT!" cried out a Griffin captain. She, accompanied by 3 others surrounded the Zebra trio with weapons pointed right at them.

"Who are you? You better have a good reason for being here." gritted the Griffin.

Uganda cleared his throat. "I am Uganda, a representative of the Zebra people."

"We're sorry, but the leaders of the alliance right now can not be disturbed. Turn around or you'll be sorry!" she glared.

"I bring news of the death of Nigeria. One of the leaders of the alliance is gone." announced Uganda.

The Griffin lowered her spear and signaled her troops to do the same.

Inside the meeting hall, emperor Talonclaw hastily made his way to his seat.

It was a troubling time for all. It was one thing that the humans had returned with their incomprehensible machines to finish off this planet, but was another that Equestria made peace with them.

In all honesty, he really wanted Equestria on his side this time. With their aid, they could have easily trumped the four humans that were on this world with no casualty.

But no, Equestria had to play the being nice game, and now it cost them all the lives of Nigeria.

Suddenly, the door opened and revealed Duke Jackson of the donkeys. Say what you want about the donkeys, but they were a fierce enemy if they were aggravated. Talconclaw himself admitted that Jackson was a skillful leader as well.

Jackson still had his ever grumpy expression put on, but unlike a common donkey, this was the face that made you want to runaway in the other direction. He was supposed to be wearing a ceremonial robe which although was far too big, was quite regal nonetheless.

Talconclaw rose from his seat and put on the best smile he could. "Duke Jackson, as usual, it is a pleasure to meet you."

Jackson did not respond, but kept his expression.

Talconclaw raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright?"

Still no response. Just as Talonclaw started to move towards Jackson in confucian-

A green light suddenly surrounded the donkey and revealed a tall quadruped with a horn bug wings. Her coat was black, her legs had holes in them and her teeth were sharp and menacing.

Talconclaw shook himself back to reality. "Was that necessary Chrysalis?"

The queen of the changelings laughed hysterically. "Come now, in dark times such as this, a good laugh would be much appreciated. Besides, you nearly wet yourself."

"A good laugh is going to delay our course for retribution." called out a gruff voice that came from the real Duke Jackson who entered the room, with his cloak and crown equipped.

The three leaders sat down on the table of the meeting room. Chrysalis took the lead.

"Where is Nigeria? It is not like him to be late at meetings."

After a moment's hesitation, Talonclaw spoke. "I bring us all terrible news. Last night, Nigeria attempted to take out the humans by himself and a small group of potion masters."

"Fool!" yelled Jackson. "Why would he jeopardize our alliance by attacking?"

"In all honesty, it was a full proof plan." admitted Talonclaw. "Nigeria intended to poison bomb all of Canterlot while they slept with upmost stealth. Had their plan succeeded, all princesses, elements of harmony and the humans would have perished. Then Equestria would either have to surrender or burn to the ground."

"Then what caused him to fail?" questioned Chrysalis.

"The humans were awake for whatever reason." muttered Talonclaw.

"How do you even know Nigeria is dead?" inquired Jackson.

"A Zebra ambassador that was stationed in Canterlot told me all about it." gritted the Griffin.

Chrysalis squinted her eyes. "Did he actually see Nigeria perish?"

"No." shook Talconclaw. "But the very fact that he is not here proves that."

"So now what will we do? Nigeria was in charge of all of Zebrica and was responsible for getting the rest of the desert races like the buffalo to cooperate." hissed Chrysalis.

"I'm already busy with my people and the mules." said Jackson. "Elvarg is busy with the dragons and hydras."

"And I'm far too busy sending scouts to train all of your troopers!" replied Talconclaw. "Speaking of which, how are your soldiers faring?"

"My kind doesn't need the help of your trainers Talonclaw." Defended Chrysalis. "The Changelings are a proud race that obey my every command. As long as I can make perfect battle decisions, there is no need to waste time with mundane training exercises."

"You are stubborn Chrysalis." warned Talonclaw. "Changelings might be fierce opponents with powerful magic, but they will fall if not properly train."

"And you think of yourself as some sort of God-Emperor." replied Chrysalis. "I might not like you, but at least we are united by the things we despise."

"The donkeys are doing magnificent mind you." piped up Jackson. "Although I will admit it is thanks to the training your men supplied. The mules are doing rather dandy too. We might not be the happiest of species, but all the discrimination targeted towards us, we're mighty glad that we can take our anger out on something."

"I'm glad." nodded Talconcalw. "As for the dragons and hydras, well we know how much of a help they'll be. Lord Elvarg has even managed to round up a massive number of monsters to aid our situation."

"What about numbers? Where do we stand?" demanded Chryaslis.

"The Griffins keep true to their military traditions." bragged Talonclaw. "Our army has elevated from 1 million to 4 million over these few days."

"My Changelings will do anything I tell them." smirked Chrysalis. "We might be a small race, but I can force them to go to war at will. I count 2 million troops form my side."

"The donkeys might be mighty pissed off at the humans, but we still ain't a warrior race." exhaled Jackson. "Our numbers are pretty high however. Without a draft being implemented, I'm proud to say that the mules and donkeys have 300 thousand total troops ready to kick human butt."

"Don't you mean ass?" laughed Chrysalis.

"What you you have against asses?" glared Jackson.*

"And we have the entirety of dragon kind at our side. The humans don't stand a chance." smiled Talconclaw.

"What about our little ally?" asked Jackson.

"I've spoken to him." replied Chrysalis. "He still is against us attacking the Equestrians so he will not join our war effort involving Equestria."

"What about the humans?" stated Talonclaw.

"Oh he still holds a deep grudge after what they did to him." laughed Chrysalis. "He has agreed to keep up the barrier and still holds true to his promise."

"Will he still join us in attacking the humans directly?" asked Jackson.

"I don't think he's rather interested in bloodshed. What about the clones? Have they been faring well?" asked Chrysalis.

"As of now yes." nodded Talconclaw. "I have to admit Jackson, not even I would think of using the clone pool. Thanks to you, we now have hundreds more of our best troops in order to ensure combat efficiency."

The donkey gave a friendly wave.

"However, the clone pool merely provided a copy of the original." frowned Talonclaw. "While all physical statistics remained the same, none of the clones retained any memories or knowledge other than simple language."

"Any clones prove to be a disruption?" inquired Chrysalis.

"It was a little trouble at first." shrugged Talconclaw. "But as long as our clones know how to kill and that humans are the enemy, we will have no trouble."

"Speaking of trouble, why is it that the humans seem so regressed all of a sudden?" questioned Chrysalis. "Their technology does not seem to be on par to what they utilized thousands of years ago."

"We discussed this last meeting." replied Talonclaw. "Their barbarism clearly forced themselves to revert to a relatively primitive stage. Better for us anyway."

"By the way, don't you think our soldier numbers are a little excessive?" questioned Jackson.

"What do yo mean?" slammed Talconclaw.

"I want the humans dead just as much as you." assured the donkey. "But I find the whole idea of sending more than a million soldiers after them rather unnecessary. The humans might be powerful, but I can swear that they will perish if they simply faced against a few hundred thousands."

"You should have told that to the humans all those years ago!" hissed Chrysalis. "They didn't need to bombard our races and civilizations from orbit, but they did it anyway to make sure that we all perished. Why can't we do the same?"

"But all this spending on killing 4 humans is a waste." remarked Jackson. "We have lost billions on war equipment we won't even need to use."

"Are you suggesting we drop the whole endeavor?" interrogated Talonclaw.

"Of course not!" defended the donkey. "I was simply pointing out that once the four humans are dead, our economies will have nothing to fall back on."

"Now look who's the fool." snickered Chrysalis. "Do you forget that we still have the rest of Equestria to conquer?"

"But what happens after then huh? Are we going to go back to hating each other once our common enemy is gone?" exclaimed Jackson.

Before anyone could respond, a creature flew right into the room with impressive speed. How it got past the guards seemed impossible.

Right when the leaders were about to get on to the defensive, the creature revealed itself to be a pegasus with an orange coat and blue mane.

"A pegasus!" yelled Talonclaw.

Right before the Griffin could charge the 'pony', Chrysalis blocked him with her fore hoof.

A familiar green light engulfed the pegasus and revealed itself to be a Changeling. It had slightly larger ears than a normal Changeling, which meant it was a voicebox, a drone used to collect information.

It spoke with a raspy and frail voice. "Your majesty. I have returned from espionage mission as planned."

"Tell me what you have found." ordered the changeling queen.

"I bring you all bad news of what happened to Lord Nigeria." coughed the Changeling.

"He's dead. We know." replied Talonclaw. "He was killed after his failed attempt to potion bomb Canterlot."

"No!" denied the Changeling. "Nigeria's men were slaughtered but he was captured. He was only executed a few hours ago."

"What did they do to him?" asked Jackson.

"I disguised myself as various ponies while stalking the humans." told the changeling. "Using my advanced hearing skills, I was able to decipher the humans interrogating Nigeria."

"Don't tell me he gave in!" hissed Talonclaw.

"He did, your highness. Now the humans know everything regarding their alliance. For some reason, they asked Nigeria as to why we were against them in the first place. As if they did not know of their sins." told the drone.

"They are either feigning or too stubborn to accept retribution." shook Chrysalis.

"After their interrogation, they went to the hospital to look after an injured alicorn. Now they have a plan to go to the Crystal Empire."

"I'm surprised that wasn't the first place they visited." laughed Jackson.

"What are they going to do there? Are they going to visit the ancient archives?" inquired Talonclaw.

"That is what they said they were going to do." hissed the Changeling. "They have no way to take out the barrier and believe the data chamber will be the solution."

"Of course!" realized Talonclaw. "Once the humans visit the archives, they will no doubt find information that would take down our only form of protection, allowing the rest of the human fleet to come through."

"That is if they don't use whatever technology is inside to wipe us out first." pointed Chrysalis.

"When are they leaving to the Empire?" asked Jackson.

"They should have left 30 minutes ago. I spotted Celestia making the train ticket arrangements." informed the drone. "The 6 elements of harmony and a group of civilians are with them."

"I have a schedule of all train rides for the day across the nation. With any luck, we can ambush the humans in the midst of their voyage." proposed Talonclaw.

"Our armies are not ready." shook Chrysalis. "We can't even deploy our soldiers in the time it will take the group to arrive in the Empire."

"But we can at least take down the train and hope it will take the lives of Equestria's most precious ponies with them. Besides, if we can injure the humans now, that would severely threaten our enemies' morale." smirked Talonclaw.

"But how will we get them on time? We have no allies on the road from Canterlot to the Crystal Empire." pointed Chrysalis.

A malevolent smile formed on Jackson's face. "Actually, I have been working with my division of the alliance, and let me just say with a certain fast response team I have in store, the humans won't even know what hit them."

Author's Note

*(I really hope you got that joke)

Sorry it's not a fight scene, I wanted to get this meeting out of the way and let my readers explore things from the alliance's perspective.

Also I wanted to hold a vote, who should Shadow fight in the next chapter "Derailed"?

You can choose between Buffalo and Donkey. Votes up for comments will not count for anything.

Chapter 38: Derailed (Dedicated To Tom Clancy)

"In the long run, we are all dead." John Maynard Keynes

It was an incredibly busy day in the Canterlot Train station. Ever since the attack on the city, a few misplaced citizens had to endure moving to other cities to stay with friends and family due to their own homes being destroyed by gauss fire. Others were visiting Equestria's capital to check up on the refugees.

Many ponies who were living in foreign countries like Zebrica and Moositamia, mostly diplomats, were being forced back into Equestria once they were marked as the enemy. The races of the alliance had now cut off contact with Equestria permanently. All foreign workers and traders were being shipped back.

The ponies who were deported from these nations returned with stories about how their kind was being persecuted as heretics and warned of an attack on the 23rd of June.

Royal guards were watching the train station like a hawk, waiting for the first sign of trouble that came form refugees, surprise attacks from the alliance, or Shadow squad.

Suddenly, all the noise made from the on goers in the station were silenced.

The elements of harmony, accompanied by Spike and the princesses made their way towards their train.

As expected, many ponies bowed on the sight of the alicorns. Others however, refused to get on the ground with a skeptical look in their eyes.

The group of ponies finally made it to the their train.

"Well everypony and everybody, we are here." announced Celestia.

Without seeing it coming, the members of Shadow squad uncloaked. Upon seeing the realistic humans for the first time, many of the animated ponies began clenching their heads as they tried to observe the incomprehensible sight before them.

The members of Shadow unholstered their weapons and simply shook their heads to the panic.

Luna levitated a series of ten tickets and trotted towards the ticket master.

"Her highness Twilight Sparkle is to be accompanies by these 4 humans to the Crystal Empire. I do not mean to cause trouble, but would it be well if the train could take off a half hour earlier?"

The ticket master tries to collect himself. "Oh yes. Of course your majesty." The stallion looked to his right and nearly fainted when he saw Shadow staring right at him with their vacant masks.

"Alright." spoke up Scarecrow. "We head to the Crystal Empire, find whatever remains of the archives, and disable the barrier. No distractions. Got it?"

The ponies gave nods of understanding.

"Once the barrier is down, the UTF will be able to send ships to reinforce us. The alliance will have no choice but to piss off." stated X-ray.

"But like I said, what makes you think Cadance is going to let you tear her domain apart?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"She will have no choice. Trust us." assured Scorch.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "So are we going to hop in or what?"

"Just give us a moment." requested Scarecrow.

The masked counter terrorists turned on magnetic vision with neural controls. Their shades glowed blue and they began tilting their heads left and right.

"Scanning, scanning, scanning, we're good." finally nodded X-ray.

"Well, I guess this is it Twilight." shook Spike.

Twilight bent down and kissed the dragon on the cheek. "Don't worry Spike, I'll be fine."

The small dragon gave a small grin of relief.

"Do I have your word that our ponies will be safe?" questioned Luna.

"Of course." assured Scarecrow. "Although whatever threat dares to face us will be put down immediately by force. We're sorry, but now is not the time to worry about individual lives when a species is at risk."

"We understand. Just avoid those situations when you can." pleaded Celestia. "Good luck everyone."

"Don't worry princess! We'll get it done." cheered Applejack with a confident smile.

The Mane 6 and the humans entered train. Spike meanwhile hopped on Celestia's back and took off with the princesses.

Shadow had to crouch in order to avoid their head getting hit by the roof of the train. The gang was supposed to be directed to a VIP section that was dedicated for the use of nobles and royals.

One thing Shadow should have done however was cloak. The moment they entered the train, the ponies who were sitting passenger either fainted or were thrown into a state of disarray.

A large number of Equines had second thoughts and immediately left the train. The vehicle was still rather packed however.

The VIP section stood at the middle of the train for reasons Shadow didn't know. Apparently there was a lot less noise coming in and it somehow offered the best view. For once, the humans didn't feel like questioning the logic.

The group sat down on their seats. Shadow had to be extra careful however not to apply too much pressure to the seats or else they could risk breaking them.

"Have to admit, these chairs are comfy." complimented Scorch as he took of his rail gun from the plate on his back.

As if on cue, the engines of the train roared to life and it took off.

No one said a word for a long hour.

The train ride had been rather uneventful up to that point. Overwatch was busy drawing something on his notebook, X-ray was playing a game on his tablet, Scorch was asleep and Scarecrow was staring out the window.

The ponies meanwhile were too anxious about the situation that laid before them to have a proper conversation. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie would tell a joke once in a while to lighten the mood.

Much to Rarity's dismay, she didn't receive any of the first class treatment from the VIP section since a large number of the stewards had either bailed or refused to enter section because of Shadow.

"Darlings, could you please do that thing where you turn invisible so the lunch cart won't hesitate coming in?" begged Rarity.

"If that's okay with you." whispered Fluttershy.

Shadow didn't even bother listening to the statement.

"I'm good thanks." muttered Scorch like a robot.

Twilight rolled her eyes and tried to get a conversation starting. "So, does anyone have any thoughts as to what we'll find in the Crystal Empire?"

"It's a data archive." reminded X-ray. "That says it all."

"But you humans speak multiple languages, how will you understand what the ancient humans even wrote?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"Our anthropologists and linguists have recorded all languages from the simplest symbolism of the Paleolithic times. I'm sure translation won't be an issue." debunked Scarecrow.

More silence passed.

"So that alliance huh?" joked Applejack.

"Yeah. Dragons, Hydras and Griffins. Totally not overkill." fake laughed Pinkie Pie.

"Oh please, you haven't seen overkill until you've seen a UTF starship." countered X-ray.

"Speaking of starships, what were to happen if we theoretically didn't get the barrier down?" asked Twilight.

Another round of silence passed.

"Then we'd be fucked. Totally fucked." blurted Scorch.

"Could you please use a different terminology?" begged Fluttershy.

"Then Equestria and the 4 of us would be fucked, totally fucked."

"To be fair though, the whole clone thing is rather genius." admitted Twilight.

"Yeah! Imagine how easier things would be if we cloned you and raised an army?" laughed Pinkie Pie.

"That would be a horrible idea." shook Overwatch.

"Just because the pool would create a physical copy of us with our strength and agility, it wouldn't mean the clone would retain the same memories, knowledge or personality we have." debunked X-ray.

"The clone would either be standing still in a vegetative state, or would be reduced to animal instincts and start going on a predatory rampage." noted Scorch.

"That is a horrifying thought." gulped Rarity.

"I could still send the clone back to the waters from where it came." glared Twilight.

"If it didn't kill you first." denied Scarecrow. "Besides, if the pool takes literal copies of a figure, the mask and armor would be organic and loose all properties. So, it cloning would be useless unless we had the budge to create a million pairs of recon armor."

X-ray took note of Twilight's previous remark. "By the way, what ever happened to those Pinkie Pie clones?"

"You mean the ones our pink friend created when she got lonely?" chuckled Applejack.

Twilight explained how they got rid of the Pinkie Pie clones by making them watch paint dry. When a Pinkie would stop watching, Twilight would vanish them back to the clone pool.

To the ponies, it was a harmless and effective plan, to Shadow, it was something entirely else.

"So what you mean to tell me, is that you killed them?" asked Scarecrow.

The ponies gasped loudly.

"How dare you accuse Twilight of doing something like that!" yelled Rainbow Dash.

"I never killed those Pinkie Pie clones, weren't you listening?" puffed Twilight.

"We listened, and from what we can understand is that you killed them." pointed X-ray.

"Just because that's the only way you brutes know how to handle a problem, doesn't mean everyone else thinks like that." scolded Rarity.

"Girls, those Pinkie Pie clones were fully living and sapient." explained Scorch. "When Twilight used her magic to vanish them into the clone pool, she essentially ended their ability to live. She killed them even though no blood was spilled."

Pinkie Pie's mane deflated. "That can't be true!"

"It is." shook Scarecrow. "Do you even realize how dangerous that plan was considering you could have easily hit the right Pinkie and kill her?"

Twilight's pupil's shrunk. "This can't be happening. How could have I been so blind?"

Rainbow Dash wasn't about to let her friend go down like this. "Come on! You guys would have killed if you were in the same place."

"While our job is to disperse acts of civil unrest, we're not entitled to decide the fate of dissidents." countered X-ray.

"In the situation where you were, your whole philosophy of the greater good would persuade you 4 to shoot the clones due to all the trouble they were causing." defended Rarity.

Scarecrow thought about it for a moment. "I don't know. You still killed those Pinkie Pie clones when they technically didn't do anything wrong."

Twilight's mane split and she started to pale.

"What do you think Overwatch?" asked Scorch. "Overwatch?"

There was no response from the sniper who was too busy with his art.

"Hey what are you even drawing?" asked X-ray.

Overwatch's attention was finally grabbed. The sniper looked up. "I'm just drawing this buffalo out the window."

"BUFFALO!" yelled the elements of harmony.

Scarecrow raised an eyebrow and looked outside the window. He saw a faint dot in the distance, which clarified once he zoomed in on his HUD. Sure enough, there was a large, but still diminutive, buffalo charging towards the train.

"Huh, another animal from Earth." muttered Shadow's leader.

"Guys, I think the Buffalo is going to charge the train." guessed Scorch.

"Why the hell would he do that?" muttered X-ray. "Animals have at least some form of sentience on Epona. There's no way a buffalo would have any reason to ram this vehicle."

Overwatch zoomed in on his HUD. "Holy shit, there's more. I didn't even think Buffalo lived in the northern part of Equestria."

Shadow's HUDs started reading multiple incoming lifeforms. In the heart of the moment, the dots on their motion trackers turned from grey to red. Shadow's commander turned on communications on his wrist computer.

"Blackjack, how many Buffalo are we looking at?" radioed Scarecrow.

"You're looking at about 30 hostiles. No more, no less." signaled a communications officer from the starship.

"I think now would be a very good time to point out that the buffalo are intelligent like us ponies." called out a shivering Fluttershy.

"Fuck." muttered X-ray. "Take a closer look. They're wearing clothes."

While the Mane 6 crowded into a corner, Shadow further observed the incoming cattle. They noticed that Buffalo were being led by a figure wearing a regal headdress made up of feathers. The other buffalo were wearing a less ornate set of feathers on the right side of their heads.

"If I'm not mistaken, I think these buffalo may be based off of some Native American tribe." theorized Scorch. "Their headdresses match up."

Scarecrow put two and two together. "But if they were affected by Native Americans, that means they were attacked in the past, which means that their part of the alliance-"

"Which means they're after us and the ponies." concluded Overwatch.

"But there's no way they can ram the train." muttered X-ray. "Based on their movements and mass-"

"This isn't time for one of your gay little speeches X-ray." gritted Scarecrow.

"I'm just trying to say, that unless they magically gained speed, they would severely injure themselves the moment they impacted the train."

X-ray spoke too soon.

Suddenly, the Buffalo were beginning to move faster and faster. The rate at which they revealed themselves across the horizon increased rapidly.

The moment after, Shadow squad and the Mane 6 began to hear cries of panic coming from the other ponies across the train.

Springing to action, Shadow loaded their rail guns and cloaked. The Mane 6 peeked outside the window in panic and observed the Buffalo getting closer and closer, moving faster and faster.

The invisible Scarecrow opened the window to the back of the compartment.

"Twilight, try to keep everypony inside safe and calm." ordered Scorch's disembodied voice.

The purple alicorn nodded and led her friends to the the passenger sections.

Still invisible, Shadow squad used their magnetic gloves to climb the outside of the locomotive and help get themselves on top.

The masked counter terrorists stood and raised their weapons. The Buffalo were getting closer.

"On my mark, we uncloak." radioed Scarecrow.

Shadow waited, and waited, until-

"Mark."

The 4 commandos uncloaked and revealed themselves to the charging buffalo.

Upon glimpsing the incomprehensible nature of the non animated humans, the bison began to clearly suffer from migraines which slowed down the pace they were charging at.

Now that their acceleration had decreased, ramming into the train would no longer be as effective. Instead, the Buffalo used their newfound speed to circle the locomotive.

Scarecrow cursed. He hoped he didn't have to do this.

"This is colonel Scarecrow of the United Terran Federation armed forces! I am ordering you to stand down, or face immediate execution!"

The leader of the Buffalo, chief Thunderhooves eyed the 4 commandos standing on top of the still moving train.

"We will not surrender after what you're kind has done to us human!"

A Buffalo slammed his body onto the side of the train. The train slightly jerked to the left, causing Shadow to loose balance for a moment.

"We are warning you! Seize all hostilities immediately." ordered Scorch as he regained composure.

"Why? So you can call in your friends to reign hell on us from orbit?" yelled Thunderhooves, followed by mummers of approval from his allies.

This time, two Buffalo rammed the side of the train to little effect.

"Keep trying, you aren't strong or fast enough to take down this locomotive." challenged X-ray.

Thunderhooves put on an arrogant grin. "Don't worry. Our Zebra allies have managed to brew a special potion for us that increases our movement speed tenfold."

The Buffalo started ramming the train one by one. The ponies inside started screaming bloody murder.

Shadow diverted some of their suits' power to magnetize their boots to keep them grounded.

"We humans have no quarrel with your people! Leave now, secede from the alliance, and your race will be spared." suggested X-ray.

"Hear that!" exclaimed a Buffalo with a heavy Native American accent. "If the humans don't get what they want, they'll kill us all!" Numerous Buffalo laughed to the statement.

One by one, the potion enhanced bison started hitting the sides of the train with enhanced kinetic energy.

"Shadow, fire shots to scatter them." ordered Scarecrow.

X-ray, Overwatch and Scorch complied. One by one, they fired gauss rounds not at the Buffalo, but at ground near their hooves. It was rather hard to do so however, considering how fast the train and Buffalo were moving.

Luckily, the shots managed to get a few Buffalo to move away from the train, but it did not stop them from coming back for another attack.

Scorch pointed in the opposite direction. "FUCK OFF!"

Thunderhooves ignored the swear and slammed his body onto the side of the passenger section, causing a dent to appear in the train's walls.

"You leave us no choice." growled Scarecrow.

The leader of Shadow raised his gauss LMG, aimed down the sights on the side of a buffalo, and fired. The 2 gauss rounds moved faster than the combined speed of the train and bison.

To Scarecrow's surprise however, the gauss bullets managed to blow two holes into the Buffalo's chest, but did not kill him. Instead, the buffalo fell to his hooves, still breathing.

Scarecrow fired another shot onto his target's face. Only now the Buffalo fell.

X-ray received similar results. He fired a burst from his carbine from the top of the train onto a Buffalo below which only caused it to falter for a bit before slamming its body into the train.

X-ray cursed and fired a gauss round that blew off the Buffalo's hoof and caused the creature to finally collapse.

The scrawny commando then pointed his railgun onto the face of a Buffalo that was just about to ram his side of the locomotive. X-ray fired a bullet that went straight through the buffalo's skull, but did not kill it until a few seconds of impact.

The demo man readied his rifle's grenade launcher, used his vantage point to his benefit, and aimed it in the middle of two Buffalo. Right before he could fire the projectile, a Buffalo slammed his body onto train with a strong force.

The resulting impact caused Scorch to loose balance of his grenade launcher the moment he pulled the trigger.

The rifle grenade did not impact the 2 Buffalo as intended, but rather arched to far end of the convoy. Luckily for Scorch, the stray rifle grenade did manage to hit a Buffalo directly.

The explosion ripped open the Bison's chest and blood and body parts started pouring underneath.

Overwatch was having a far more difficult time. His sniper was useless in the close quarters situation and his PDR did not have as much of an impact as his comrade's rifles.

The marksman realized that burst fire was useless at this point. The sniper moved forward across the shaking train, being kept in balance by his magnetic boots.

He headed to the front side of the train and spotted a Buffalo attempting to take out the front. Overwatch aimed his PDR onto the charging Buffalo. The sniper could have sworn he fired more bullets that intended, because the Buffalo's midsection was littered with holes leaking blood.

X-ray meanwhile, primed a frag grenade, let it cook for a few moments, and threw it onto the charging bison convoy.

Before the explosive could even hit the ground, it detonated in the air. The force from the grenade was able to knock a Buffalo off his hooves.

Not wanting it to get back up, X-ray aimed his sights onto the unconscious Buffalo's head before it could get out of sight. X-ray fired a single shot from his rail gun which thankfully managed to split the quadruped's brain in two.

All of a sudden, the Buffalo started to move away from the train and onto the side.

As they retreated, Scarecrow aimed his LMG and fired a 5 round spray at a Buffalo's lower body. While a round missed, Scarecrow succeeded in blowing off every last hoof.

"Hold you're fire! I think they're retreating." called out Scorch.

The members of Shadow lowered their gauss weapons. Sure enough, the Buffalo were beginning to stray away from the train, but were still moving in the same direction.

Just as luck finally seemed to be on their side, the Buffalo turned around and started to move back towards the train once more. The quadrupeds started to move faster and faster as they gained kinetic energy.

"They're going to knock over the train!" screamed Scarecrow.

The Buffalo were moving far too fast like a bullet for Shadow to properly react. Scorch managed to fire a round from his grenade launcher that directly impacted a Buffalo, splitting its body in two and causing blood and body parts to fly everywhere from the explosion.

It did nothing to stop the other Buffalo from slamming the train with its horns and ripping a hole in the locomotive.

This time, the convoy had generated enough kinetic force to cause the train to start tipping. At this point, enough damage had been made to the locomotive for the engineers on board to keep the vehicle moving.

The train finally stopped moving and was easy prey for the Buffalo. The squad heard the ponies screaming hopelessly on the inside.

Shadow needed to keep the Buffalo away from the train at all costs. They continued to stand on the top of the train and unloaded everything they had.

The convoy meanwhile, kept ramming the train continuously. Now the entire right side of the vehicle was visibly damaged with deep impact craters.

In order to keep the creatures at bay, Scarecrow primed a pyro grenade and threw it directly at closest Buffalo towards him.

The pyro grenade detonated immediately on impact. The helpless Buffalo was lit on fire and started screaming in pain. Scarecrow observed his scorched victim finally collapsing, some parts burned to the very bone.

Overwatch had second thoughts about his weapon choice and concluded his PDR wasn't going to be useful in this situation. The marksman turned to his gauss sniper and used the crosshairs on his HUD to engage.

He lined up his weapon on an incoming Buffalo's head and fired. The sniper bullet traveled at immense velocities and blew a hole through the Bison's head, allowing one to see the organs on the inside.

Scorch had only one more rifle grenade remaining and he was going to make it count.

The demo man knew he couldn't just fire at a Buffalo right next to the train however. He could end up risking the destruction of the locomotive.

Instead, Scorch turned to a pair of Buffalo that moved away from the train in order to gain speed for another assault.

Scorch fired his grenade launcher which traveled a considerable distance and managed to detonate in the middle of his two targets.

While the demo man did manage to knock both Buffalo of their hooves, he only succeeded in killing one. Scorch turned to rail bullets as he desperately finished off the wounded Buffalo before it could get up.

Despite their efforts, Shadow's attempts at subduing the Buffalo were almost at vain.

Finally, the remaining Buffalo rammed the train with all their might, and the locomotive began to tip over.

"Secure the train now!" roared Scarecrow.

Wasting no time, X-ray and Overwatch jumped down from their vantage points and onto the undamaged side of the train.

The two counter terrorists immediately diverted all power with neural controls to their magnetic gloves. As the magnetic force increased however, X-ray's and Overwatch's barriers and HUD disappeared in order tom compensate for power.

Thankfully, opposing magnetic force from their gloves was so powerful that in managed to keep the midsection of the metallic train (and by extension, the rest of the locomotive) from turning over.

Scarecrow and Scorch remained on top of the train. They knew that their friends' efforts would be in vain unless they could keep the charging Buffalo away. Furthermore, an additional magnetic force was necessary in order to fully pull back the train to stability.

Scarecrow lit up another pyro grenade, but did not throw it until a significant portion of them were away from the train.

The masked commando's pyro grenade set up a wall of fire that blocked the midsection of the train from the Buffalo, with a few space for the two to stand. A few of the bison caught fire, but simply managed to duck, cover and roll the flames away.

Scorch and Scarecrow immediately jumped to the ground in between the fire and the train and readied their magnetic gloves as well.

This time, they used an attracting magnetic force to pull the train towards them.

Inside the train, Twilight used her telekinesis to help reinforce the commandos in their efforts.

Working from all sides, the 4 commandos and Twilight managed to use their magnetic telekinesis to secure the train. Overwatch and X-ray managed to push it forward while Scarecrow and Scorch pulled it towards them.

The Buffalo meanwhile, only encountered a slight change of plans. The wall of fire only meant that they couldn't attack from one side.

Thunderhooves led the convoy around the train and decided to hit it from the other end.

The Bison gained speed and moved into a 'U' pattern around the train. Upon turning around, the group spotted X-ray and Overwatch adjusting the train.

Unfortunately for the two counter terrorists, their HUDs had disappeared due to focusing too much energy on their gloves. They could see the Buffalo coming.

Twilight's friends all the while were watching the commandos and alicorn prevent the train from tipping. Just when they thought they had a minor victory secured, Pinkie Pie watched in horror as the Buffalo closed in on Shadow.

"LOOK OUT!" yelled the ponies.

X-ray turned to the left and saw a charging Buffalo only a few centimeters away from him.

Before he could respond, the Buffalo slammed his body onto the Counter Terrorist's right army with kinetic force. X-ray couldn't have his barriers turned on, so he was sent flying.

Overwatch was slightly luckier and managed to roll to the side before a Buffalo could hit him with its horns. The marksman drew his PDR and sprayed a 2 round burst at the back of the Buffalo that attempted to hit him.

Overwatch desperately moved his gauss PDR from left to right in the hopes of finding a target. Unfortunately, the Buffalo were too many and were moving far too quickly.

A Bison managed to ram Overwatch on his left, but since the sniper had his barriers turned on, it was to little effect.

The marksman turned to his aggressor and shoved his combat knife into the Buffalo's skull. Even that strike did not kill said Buffalo however.

Instead, the Buffalo screamed in pain and thrust its body upwards, exposing its neck.

Overwatch took the opportunity to fire his remaining rounds onto the Buffalo's throat, letting it trickle blood and severing it's head in the process.

While he was only rammed 20 seconds ago, it felt like an eternity for X-ray.

The counter terrorist couldn't even describe the pain he was feeling at his right arm. Worst still, his barriers hadn't recharged and a Buffalo was about to ram into the passenger section of the train with its horns.

Thankfully, X-ray was left handed. With his uninjured arm, he drew his rail SMG and fired a burst of bullets at the charging Buffalo before it collapsed.

The Buffalo who had floored X-ray started speeding towards him.

In turn, the commando turned the direction his SMG faces and unloaded a few more rounds of his ammunition onto his attacker.

When he thought it couldn't get worse, X-ray's motion tracker read yet another Buffalo heading towards him with remarkable velocities.

Right before he could turn around, the Buffalo smashed into X-ray's right side, adding more pain and sending the commando flying towards the train. Ironically, X-ray's body had made a worse dent than the combined efforts of the Buffalo.

X-ray got up and saw his rail smg on the dirt away from him. To his horror, he watched the Buffalo that attacked him stomp the weapon into pieces.

Right when the Buffalo thought he had X-ray defeated, the commando drew his rail pistol. X-ray fired two rapid shots on each eye of the Buffalo and blinded it.

X-ray finished the job by unloading a gauss round at the Buffalo's brain.

Overwatch meanwhile was facing heavy opposition. Rather than attacking the train, the Buffalo were attacking him.

Twilight however was using the distraction to use a repair spell she had learned to start putting the train back into a workable condition. If Shadow could distract the Buffalo for a few more minutes, the train would be back to normal.

The marksman's barriers finally gave up when a Buffalo rammed him on the back with intense kinetic force.

Overwatch got to his feet and observed a Buffalo gaining speed to strike him.

Suddenly, a shots rang and stopped the Buffalo dead in its tracks. The left side of the Bison was ripped open with the digestive system leaking out.

Scorch and Scarecrow materialized on the top of the train and were firing on the Buffalo from their elevated position.

Overwatch used the distraction to load his last PDR magazine into his railgun.

The sniper spun a rapid 180 and fired 2 shots and the skull of another Buffalo, causing it to explode like a burst watermelon.

Scarecrow and Scorch hopped to the ground in order to divert the Buffalo's attention towards them instead of the train.

Scorch was pissed that he had to use bullets. He aimed his SCAR Z onto a charging Buffalo and was about to fire until-

"STOP!" called out a young and feminine voice.

Scorch took the distraction to kill the Buffalo he was aiming at. He was about to take out more, until Scarecrow placed a hand on his back and ordered him to stand down.

The ponies heard the cry from inside the too.

"Oh my." gulped Fluttershy. "It can't be."

Every Buffalo had stopped what he was doing. From the middle of the carnage crept a small, female Buffalo calf.

"It's Little Strongheart!" yelled Twilight. "Maybe she can turn everything around."

Little Strongheart, tears in her eyes from all the dead Buffalo, trotted towards her father.

"Father! What is this madness?" she cried.

"Father?" said the active members of Shadow at once.

Chief Thunderhooves, who had managed to avoid getting killed, trotted towards his daughter.

"My child. How did you get here so fast?"

"You left some of the adrenaline potion in your quarters." informed Strongheart. "I also a know a thing or two you don't about short cuts."

Thunderhooves felt slightly embarrassed from being outsmarted by his own daughter.

"Surely you know it is not safe here."

"It is not safe here because of your misdeeds!" scolded Strongheart.

"Misdeeds!" spat Thunderhhoves. "Do you know what those beasts are?"

"I know what they are. Humans." stated Strongheart.

"Then why do you chastise me for trying to defend our race?" questioned the leader of the Buffalo.

"We didn't need to be defended until you joined this alliance." whined Strongheart.

"What do you mean?" hissed Thunderhooves. "If we stop now, what will prevent the humans from annihilating us?"

"Put two and two together father!" screamed Strongheart. "If the humans wanted us dead, we would have been killed a long time ago. It only took me a moment to realize that the humans are not after us."

"It's true. We never had anything against you." called out Scorch.

"But now because you have attacked them, lives have been lost for nothing!" exclaimed Strongheart. "This isn't about protecting our race, this is about revenge!"

"You are misguided." countered Thunderhooves. "Humans are unpredictable and chaotic."

"Look at them! They've stopped attacking for crying out loud." pointed Strongheart. "If you leave them and the ponies alone, then they will stop. No one has to die."

"Clearly you do not understand human nature." shook Thunderhooves. "Now run."

Strongheart was about to protest until-

"Resume the attack."

Scorch, Scarecrow and Overwatch readied their weapons and opened fire as the Buffalo sped towards them.

Their combined gauss fire managed to take out two of the bison before they approached the commandos.

Overwatch drew his sniper and hip fired a shot at an incoming Buffalo, but it merely shrugged it off as a flesh wound. Overwatch attempted to fire another round, but the Buffalo moved to fast.

The bison struck Overwatch at such immense speed that that it was enough to knock out a significant portion of his kinetic barrier.

The Marksman regained composure and was about to fire until Chief Thunderhooves struck him from the back, sending him to the dirt and disabling his barrier.

As Overwatch was grounded, another Buffalo stared him down with malevolent intent.

Overwatch was about to fire his sniper while on the floor, but the Buffalo brought up its fore hooves and slammed them into Overwatch's knees.

The sniper let out a cry of pain and dropped his sniper. He needed his barriers to get back on now.

The Buffalo floored his hooves once more, and beat Overwatch's legs further. The sniper's knee guards began to crack.

Even though he couldn't move his legs, Overwatch still had control of his arm. He drew his PDR with one hand and opened fire on the Buffalo's face.

All the while, the ponies, except for Twilight who was busy with repairs, were watching with horror as Shadow failed to repel the rapid moving Buffalo.

Rainbow Dash meanwhile noticed that a Buffalo was speeding towards the direction they were sitting at.

"Everypony run!" yelled the Pegasus. The passengers rather to the other side of the train as the Buffalo created a massive dent in its walls.

Scarecrow heard the cries for help and faced the Buffalo that was beating the walls of the passenger section down.

Scarecrow aimed his rail LMG and fired a gauss round or two until the Buffalo fell. The Bison's blood painted the windows of the locomotive red, to the discuss of its occupants.

The counter terrorist spotted another red dot moving towards his potion.

His instincts kicked in, and Scarecrow spun to the left to take out the Buffalo, until he noticed his HUD reading there was no ammunition left in his LMG.

Instead, Scarecrow switched to his shotgun and waited for the Buffalo to approach him.

Right as the quadruped was about to ram him, Scarecrow fired his shotgun. The close range weapon propelled a series of gauss slugs forward which crushed the incoming Buffalo's face and caused it to leak bone and brain matter like a pinnate exploding candy.

Scarecrow turned left and fired another shot to a passing Buffalo.

The Bison went down easily even with half its chest leaking blood like a fountain.

The Buffalo struggled to stand and was finished off by another discharge from Scarecrow's shotgun before it was a second away from bleeding out.

Shadow's leader took note of the dwindling number of Buffalo that remained.

Another Bison attempted to strike Scarecrow from the left, but the counter terrorist barrel rolled and managed to dodge the attack.

Scarecrow attempted to fire another round from his shotgun, but Thunderhooves managed to strike him from the back. The chief of the Buffalo had been drawing so much kinetic energy that Scarecrow's barriers were nearly depleted.

Scarecrow attempted to stand, but the Buffalo he attempted to attack approached his position and floored him onto the ground. The impact finally drained Scarecrow's kinetic barrier.

The foolish Buffalo however, did not attempt to finish him off, but rather turned towards the train.

Scarecrow looked up and saw the horrified expressions of elements of harmony as they were about to be rammed.

The counter terrorist used magnetic telekinesis to pull his shotgun towards him and leaped in between the train and Buffalo.

Scarecrow fired a blast from his railgun which finally killed the Buffalo.

Unfortunately, the momentum of the Buffalo's body still sent it flying towards the commando.

The horns of the of the Buffalo's body did not manage to penetrate Scarecrow's chest piece, the impact produce by the corpse was so powerful that it threw Scarecrow off the ground and broke his vest anyway.

Scorch meanwhile retook position from the top of the train. To his anger, a small group of Buffalo had realized it was far easier attacking the easier side of the train, which was unguarded and already damaged.

Two Buffalo were extremely close to smashing the train into oblivion, prompting Scorch to act.

The demo man fired a shot onto the Buffalo in the front, causing it to collapse and trip the other.

He then aimed at the Buffalo struggling to stand blew off its head with two well placed rounds to the neck. Scorch used the moment to reload another gauss magazine onto his rifle.

Chief Thunderhooves knew he was the only one left now.

Fueled by the lust for vengeance, Thunderhooves started drawing as much kinetic energy as he could as he approached the train.

He did not ram the train however, instead Thunderhooves leaped life a frog straight at the perched demo man.

Scorch turned around and his irises widened upon seeing the enraged expression of the Buffalo leaping towards him.

Scorch's reflexes kicked in, and he barrel rolled to the right while Thunderhooves impacted the ground with immense force to cause a crater.

Scorch attempted to engage Thunderhooves from the top of the train, until he realized his SCAR Z was not in his hands. He realized he had dropped it while dodging Thunderhooves' attack.

Spotting it on the ground, Scorch leaped to the dirt and sprinted towards his rail gun before Thunderhooves could smash it.

Luckily, the weapon wasn't damaged. Right when Scorch was about to open fire, Thunderhooves was already speeding towards the demo man.

Scorch side stepped to the left and narrowly missed the sharp horns of the Buffalo. Thunderhooves however, managed to thrust his side to temporarily disorientate Scorch.

Thunderhooves was moving faster than ever. The Buffalo used his potion fueled agility to make a sharp turn and go for another attack.

The counter terrorist raised his railgun in response, and prepared to unload a series of gauss rounds at his attacker.

Scorch pulled the trigger, but only one bullet rang from his SCAR. Said Gauss bullet nearly struck Thunderhooves in the side, only for the bison to dodge it at last second.

Only now did Scorch realize that his rifle had been set to semi auto with Thunderhooves pushed him to the side.

The ponies meanwhile were observing the event from the windows Twilight was trying to repair. They watched in horror as Thunderhooves was only a few inched away form the masked demo man.

Just when Thunderhooves thought Scorch was done for, the demo man immediately fell on his back, causing the Buffalo to harmlessly brush past the commando.

Thundherhooves spun around and left a dent in the ground.

He was just about to trample Scorch when the demo man, still lying on the floor, extended his right hand and exposed his wrist computer.

Scorch simply tapped 'valid' on the device to everyones' confusion.

Suddenly, Thunderhooves felt a coming from his chest. The Buffalo looked down and saw a metallic explosive strapped on the bottom of his body that was blinking red.

Right before Thunderhooves could react, the explosive detonated.

There was only silence as Scorch got back up.

The demo man turned around to observe what had befallen him.

Thunderhooves was dead. His entire body was covered in burn marks and his chest had been ripped open, leaking blood and organs. It was a surprise that the Buffalo wasn't blown to pieces.

Scorch used magnetic telekinesis to retrieve his SCAR. He then faced the train. The locomotive had been largely rough housed from all those impacts. However, its condition was better than he thought. Twilight had used her magical repair skills effectively.

"Scorch!" yelled Twilight's voice.

The Mane 6 approached the demo in a rapid manner.

"Are you alright?" gasped Rarity.

"Me? What about you? Any civilian casualties?" responded Scorch.

"Thankfully no. Just a few bruises on a few ponies." informed Rainbow Dash.

"You guys did a mighty job protecting us." thanked Applejack. "Twilight was able to repair a whole lot of the train with her magic."

Scorch was reminded of his comrades. He brushed past the ponies and sprinted towards the other side of the train where his allies still lied.

X-ray, Scarecrow and Overwatch weren't dead, or else they would have disappeared from Scorch's motion tracker and a notification would have appeared.

On the other side of the train were numerous Buffalo bodies. Everyone had to admit that had Shadow been even slightly careless, they would have easily been rammed to death.

Scarecrow's body was the first Scorch found.

The demo man knelt next to his friend. Scarecrow's chest piece was cracked and he was only taking small breaths.

"It hurts to breath." groaned Scarecrow as the Mane 6 moved towards his position.

Shadow's leader got up and started coughing.

Scarecrow pulled down his bandanna and spat a trail of blood. Realistic human blood. The ponies couldn't help but feel even more revolted at the sight of non Eponan blood. It had looked far more disturbing.

Scarecrow placed a hand on his chest as he struggled to get a hold of himself.

Then there was X-ray. The rifleman was still slumped on his back. The right side of his black recon armor was slightly torn. The arm piece which barred the UTF logo and the socialist symbol was shattered.

"What's your status?" coughed Scarecrow.

"Can't move my right fucking arm." muttered X-ray. "Good thing I'm left handed."

"Won't that affect your ability to perform in combat?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"More or less." shook X-ray.

Scorch offered his hand to X-ray who pulled himself up.

X-ray shivered and clutched his injured arm. He started cursing in Armenian.

Finally, there was Overwatch. The sniper was still lying on his back and he was still gritting his teeth in pain. His knee guards were broken and parts of his trouser were covered in dirt.

Fluttershy flew towards Overwatch and looked down on him. "Oh my. Are you okay?"

"I can't move my legs." growled the sniper.

X-ray scanned Overwatch's body. "Relax. No bones are broken. You should be able to move soon."

Scorch took the liberty of picking up Overwatch. He thrust his arm on the marksman to help him walk.

"By the way, I'll need a few more minutes to repair the train if that's okay." piped up Twilight.

"Go ahead." groaned Scarecrow. "The sooner the better."

"By the way, I'm all out of PDR ammo." noted Overwatch.

"And my SMG got smashed." added X-ray.

"I'm out of rifle grenades." complained Scorch.

Scarecrow pulled his bandanna back up. "And I'm only down to one LMG mag."

Twilight looked at her friends with weary. If Shadow ran out of ammunition, their crippled state would make them incapable of engaging further threats.

The group was just about to walk towards the train, until they heard a sobbing voice.

Shadow tilted their heads and observed Little Strongheart, crying loudly at the sight off all dead Buffalo.

The calf was conflicted. At one hand, she knew her father was acting purely out of revenge. On the other, hand her father just died a twisted death.

"Poor dear, she can't go on like this." sobbed Rarity.

Scarecrow was still applying pressure to his stomach. "You're right. She's faced too much trauma."

X-ray knew what he had to do. With his free arm, he raised his rail pistol, which still had one chambered round.

Fluttershy's mouth dropped. "Don't tell me you're-"

"It's for her own good." whispered X-ray.

After a minute of hesitation. X-ray aimed his gauss pistol at the head of the crying Strongheart, but did not pull the trigger.

Scorch started giving growls of frustration. He continued to lead the limping Overwatch towards the train.

"Come on!" coughed Scarecrow. "We have to keep moving."

Author's Note

Republished. Now Twilight plays a role, fixed the error regrading Nigeria, and now the Shadow's weapons do more than damage.

By the way, is this fic pissing people off? It's been getting more dislikes than usual with little to no likes.

Chapter 39: The Crystal Empire

Sorry for taking so long, this site got blocked by my ISP and my unblocker keeps messing up. If anyone knows a solution to unblock websites other than Hola unblocker for chrome, PM me.

The energy dome glistened over the marvelous city that was the Crystal Empire.

Inside the barrier, Crystal ponies went on with their day to day business. It was as if there was nothing wrong going on at the moment. Friends met with friends and families were enjoying each others company.

Cadance had taken great measures in order not to let out any of the information she had uncovered last night. However, she wasted no time telling the ponies of how some individuals like Shadow could be. Although she still had to remind them that they hardly represented humanity as a whole. Luckily for her, the Crystal Ponies hardly seemed to care.

Furthermore, the barrier that surrounded the empire was fueled by the Crystal Heart, which akin to an elaborate mood ring, sustained itself with the love of its citizens. If the Crystal Ponies became weary, the barrier would fall and the empire would be vulnerable to attack.

Still, Cadance wondered how long she could keep the subject away from her ponies.

Eventually, a massive army was going to attack her domain. Regardless of the outcome she chose, she knew her time was limited.

The Crystal Princess took a sip from her herbal tea as she overlooked the empire. The ponies were so happy and blissfully unaware of how insignificant they were to a race far more complex than them. If they were eradicated from Epona, Cadance wondered if the universe would even notice in the long run.

There was a knock on her door.

Cadance used her telekinesis to open the knob and allow her visitor to come inside.

Shining Armor revealed himself. He spoke with a slight tone of weary "Hey Cadance."

Cadance raised her eyebrow. "Is something wrong dear?"

Shining Armor shook his head. "No. I promise. I just got a letter from Canterlot stating that Twilight and her friends are coming to visit. They said its for an urgent matter."

"Is Shadow with them?" hissed Cadance.

"I don't think so." answered Shining Armor. "Not from what they told me. Come one, she'll be arriving in half an hour."

Cadance nodded and followed her husband to the train station. Whatever the matter was, it seemed Cadance would never catch a break.

The couple arrived to the Crystal Empire train station in thirty minutes. The couple was accompanied by a contingent of royal guards.

"I hope we're not to late." sighed Cadance. "I don't see their train anywhere."

"Don't worry, the train hasn't even arrived yet." assured Shining Armor.

The couple waited patiently. Soon, they began to realize something was wrong after the train didn't enter the empire after another hour.

"Come on. Where could they be?" said Cadance.

"It isn't like the trains to be late. Especially not when there's a princess involved." gulped Shining Armor.

In the heart of the moment, the couple heard a whistle of a steam train and the sound of gears moving.

"Finally. They made it." smiled Cadance.

Right when things seemed to be alright-

"EVERYPONY LOOK!" cried a random Crystal Pony.

Everyone in the station observed the train move past the energy barrier and into the empire.

A few minutes ago.

The injured members of Shadow were sitting on the seats of the train patiently.

They had taken off their masks which revealed their incredibly sweaty faces. Scarecrow for one, was occasionally coughing up blood from his chest injury.

Overwatch was lying on his back. He was still incapable of movement due to his injured legs.

X-ray had been trying to avoid putting pressure on his skinny right arm. It wasn't immobile, but it still hurt painfully.

Scorch, the only one who wasn't injured, was trying to use medicine to treat his friends' wounds. To the squad's dismay, some of the medical equipment had been either shattered or fallen off their recon armor while fighting.

Nevertheless, Scorch used whatever resources he had to heal their wounds. Fluttershy and Twilight offered to help, until they remembered they knew nothing about human anatomy.

It had taken a while for the train to leave. Twilight needed to use her magic to repair all damage, and despite her best efforts, the train was still in a decimated condition.

Regardless, there was snow around the train, which signaled that they were getting close.

As Scorch buried his face in his hands, he heard the compartment door open.

The members of Shadow flexed their heads to the side and noticed the Mane 6 entering the door.

"How are you all holding up?" asked Twilight.

"We're fine, but we can't afford to enter another battle for a few days until our wounds heal." blurted Scarecrow.

"Hey, thanks for protecting us." called out Rainbow Dash.

"Your welcome." sighed X-ray. "We couldn't afford to loose now."

"I just wish those Buffalo didn't have to perish." sniffed Pinkie Pie.

"They died thinking they had left their race defenseless to a merciless onslaught by humanity." groaned Scorch. "If the alliance doesn't stand down, their fears will sadly come true."

"But if we can bring in the rest of humanity, then there's a chance the Buffalo race will be spared." nodded Scarecrow.

"What do you want to happen?" asked Applejack.

"That no one has to die for an unjustified reason." sighed X-ray. "I just hope this trip to the Crystal Empire doesn't go to waste."

"Well, we're going to be arriving really soon." pointed Fluttershy.

The train entered the Empire and the barrier started to cover each section one by one.

As the passengers of the train were covered by the dome's magic, they slowly turned into Crystal Ponies one by one. The coats, manes and eye patterns became far more regal and glowed.

Shadow was oblivious to the change, until the barrier passed them.

And when it did, the four of them could no longer breath.

X-ray clenched his throat with his left fist and fell on the floor as he struggled to inhale.

"I CAN'T BREATH!" shrieked Scorch and he started to cough vehemently.

"Is there something wrong?" asked the now Crystal-Alicorn Twilight.

"AIR. IS. TOXIC!" slowly said Scarecrow as he covered his mouth to filter the air.

"Toxic?" gasped Rarity.

The struggling Overwatch rolled to the side as he nearly vomited.

The next they knew, Shadow instinctively pulled up their bandannas and covered their noses and mouths.

Finally, they stopped panting and took normal breaths.

Scarecrow took a sigh of relief and stood to his full height. X-ray did the same once he recovered and Scorch helped Overwatch up.

"What just happened?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"What just happened?" repeated Scarecrow. "What is this atmosphere made of?"

"It's just Crystal Empire magic." defended Twilight.

X-ray put on his shades looked at the information on his HUD. "Well, Crystal Magic seems to be made up of the same ingredients they put in shampoo and beauty products."

"I guess that explains why the 6 of you are glowing with fancy hairstyles." shrugged Scorch.

"But why is it poisonous for you 4?" asked Rarity.

"I think a better question would go the other way around. Ever tried swallowing your soap?" asked Overwatch.

"Yeah! It makes bubbles when you burp." laughed Pinkie Pie.

Twilight tilted her head to the side and noticed the passengers getting off the train.

"I think we should head out know." proposed Twilight.

The humans nodded and followed the ponies. Even in Shadow's wounded state, the ponies still moved painfully slowly compared to them.

Outside the the locomotive, the Crystal Ponies waiting in the train station were in total shock.

The entire train that had just entered had clearly seen combat. The paint had nearly been peeled off in all areas, parts of it were cracked and there were holes in the mid section.

"Oh my gosh! What happened?" gasped Cadance.

"It think they've been attacked!" replied Shining Armor.

A group of weary passengers got out of the train, with clearly disturbed expressions. The frightened citizens surrounding the train immediately swarmed the passengers asking what had happened.

There was still no sign of Twilight or her friends.

"Twilight should be here. I don't understand." worried Shining Armor.

Cadance buried her fore hooves in her mouth. "Do you think they-"

"WAIT!" interrupted Shining Armor. "I think see them."

Sure enough, Twilight got out of the locomotive, followed by her friends.

Shining Armor rushed to his sister and smothered her with a hug.

"Oh Twily. I was so worried about you." said the captain of the royal guard.

Twilight struggled for air. "Relax, I'm fine."

Cadance walked up to the pair. "Why is the train in ruin?"

Rainbow Dash was the only pony brave enough to say it. She cleared her and was about to speak until-

-she was cut off by a series of whispers and gasps, which turned into screams and panic.

The group ended their greetings and turned to face the commotion.

Oblivious to their critically wounded state, the Crystal ponies immediately fell into disarray upon getting a full glimpse at Shadow squad.

"What are they doing here?" spat Cadance.

As the Crystal Ponies panicked, she looked up to the sky. There was a faint tint of the blue energy dome that could be seen in the clouds.

She watched in horror as the barrier started to flicker. If the Crystal Ponies would not remain in a positive state, the empire was going to be vulnerable.

The curious members of Shadow slowly limped to the equines.

"What's going on?" asked Scarecrow while he clenched his wounded chest.

Candace gave a sheepish grin. "Oh, the Crystal Ponies are just a little nervous. That's all."

"But why are they panicking? It's like they've never heard about aliens in Equestria." questioned X-ray.

Shining Armor flexed his mane. "Oh. About that-"

"You did tell them about us when you arrived to the Empire right?" asked Scorch.

"Not really." let out Cadance. "Although I may have let something negative slip."

"I understand that there are bad things about us." assured Scarecrow. "But, I get the feeling you may have taken our qualities to extreme levels and left out the fact we're still technically allies."

"Never mind that. Could you please cloak or something?" requested Shining Armor.

"Why? So what if they're panicking?" glared Scorch.

"The barrier that's protecting the city is powered by the Crystal heart, which in turn is fueled by the love and happiness of it citizens." explained Twilight.

"Why the hell, would you have a barrier powered by joy if your population is extremely sensitive?" glared X-ray.

"Darling, could you just do it?" commanded Rarity.

Without even replying, Shadow squad proceeded to turn invisible. As if by magic, the panicking died down the exact second it happened.

Sure enough, the Crystal Ponies went back to their daily lives like nothing ever happened.

"You have got to be kidding me." growled Overwatch.

Even though the panicking had seized, Shadow took note that the barrier was not as noticeable as before and that the Crystal Ponies had lost their aura. Even though they were all in a positive state.

"So, could you please explain why you came here?" asked Cadance.

"We need to find someplace to talk." suggested the invisible Scarecrow. "Discreetly."

"Alright, we'll take you to the Castle. But you better not wander off or cause trouble." warned Shining Armor.

"Like we're in any condition to do so." remarked X-ray.

The leaders of the Crystal Empire, accompanied by their royal guards, proceeded to lead the invisible commandos and the Mane 6 to the castle of the Empire.

Once in a while, a group of citizens would walk up in respect to their leaders, only to get shooed away by a guard or so.

After a few minutes, the Equestrians were able to make it to the entrance of the castle halls.

Shining Armor stopped trotting once inside and turned around.

"Alright, the 4 of you can come out now."

There was no response. Shining Armor tried asking again.

"Hello?"

Nothing.

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. "Don't tell me they actually ditched us."

"We're right here!" exclaimed a mechanical voice.

In the heart of the moment, the members of Shadow revealed themselves and slowly started to limp forward. This was the first time in which the ponies beat them to a destination.

Only now did Shining Armor and Cadance notice Shadow's state.

Scarecrow's bandanna was covered in blood stains from coughing up the liquid for too long. His chest piece was cracked and there was a cut on the left side of his stomach.

X-ray was desperately covering his right arm, which looked heavily beaten and had some fabric of the recon armor torn off, and exposing some nasty bruises.

Overwatch, whose legs were battered, was being helped up Scorch, who in turn appeared to be the only one uninjured aside from his apparel being covered in dirt.

"What happened? What is going on?" inquired Cadance.

"We were attacked on our way to the Crystal Empire." informed Scarecrow.

"Attacked?" repeated Shining Armor.

"By the Buffalo." replied Scorch. "Don't ask us how they knew we were coming."

"That explains the state of the train." realized Cadance. "What happened?"

"What did you think happened?" whispered Fluttershy. That was all the royal couple needed to know.

Shining Armor was not going to let this opportunity pass. For some reason, the idea of seeing an injured Shadow squad enamored him.

"And during the fight, you all got injured did you?"

"Evidentially." muttered X-ray.

"That's just rich. The relentless, violent and pessimistic Shadow squad just got a taste of their own medicine." mocked Shining Armor.

X-ray walked up to the white stallion, and with his uninjured arm, slapped the stallion across the face, prompting the other ponies to back off.

"I might be wounded, but I can still decimate you and your fucking empire any day of the week." growled X-ray as Shining Armor rubbed his cheek.

"X-ray, stand down." ordered Scarecrow. The rifleman nodded and took a step back.

"Now, can we all explain why we're here?" sighed Applejack.

"Alright." began Scorch. "After our little skirmish with the Zebras, we were able to interrogate Nigeria."

"How's he doing?" asked Cadance.

"How do you think he's doing?" shook Scarecrow.

After a while, Shadow squad had managed to relay all the news they had retrieved from Nigeria such as information about the alliance and their motivations as well as the plights of the ancient humans.

The ponies listening were having a hard time trying to comprehend this information.

"But I still don't get it." said Cadance. "Why did the humans commit genocide on nearly all Eponan species?"

"We don't know. Why can neither humans nor ponies remember any of it?" shrugged X-ray.

"So, this entire empire, was built by humans?" asked Shining Armor.

"Exactly. I guess the name is especially fitting once you realize the humans were taking cities for their own. Apparently, they were going to colonize this world once all the other sapient races were murdered." noted Scorch.

"However, the Crystal Empire was a house they had yet to move into seeing as to how there's no evidence to support human life in this city." added Scarecrow.

"But I don't understand! All the time we've been told that the Empire was ruled by a series of royal families until Sombra took over!" exclaimed Cadance.

"Are you sure about that fact?" checked Overwatch. "Perhaps your knowledge is rather basic which would mean you couldn't see any sort of error or gap of information."

"If we could perhaps be directed towards some sort of library where we could conduct research, we would likely be able to find answers." offered X-ray.

"There are a lot of books in the library, are you sure you could handle it?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Positive. We think faster than the average human anyway." insisted Scarecrow.

"Do you need any help doing research?" asked Twilight.

"You're free to assist, but don't get in our way. We have very specific criteria for extracting information." stated Scorch.

"With all due respect, you're wounded. You need me to at least show you around." pointed Twilight.

"Still, the 4 of you have caused a lot of trouble. I don't think I can trust you within my domain considering your 'destroy all barriers' attitude. You've only brought misery and cynicism to this land for your Federation's gain." glared Cadance.

"We're not asking you to use the library for our own interests." countered Scarecrow. "Right now, a massive army is building up that has no goal in mind other than the extermination of us and your kind."

"Yes. And this army wouldn't be after us if we weren't friendly to you." puffed Shining Armor. "Maybe if we declared you enemies, the alliance would reconsider its targets."

"That is not a wise option at all." shook X-ray. "Look, we don't care if the 4 of us die right now on Epona. Humanity doesn't need us because there are 42 fucking billion people out there that can push our race forward. The Federation will continue to live and prosper. Hell, we're not even supposed to exist. Like anyone will miss us. So what does it matter if the 4 of us die?"

Cadance placed a hoof on her chin in shock.

"On the other hand, the entire pony race is in jeopardy here." continued Scarecrow. "The alliance will not stop until all of you are wiped out. And here comes the scary part. The Pony race will be removed from Epona, the Federation won't bother with the planet anymore, and the universe will just continue without even noticing you left. Eventually, the memory of Ponies will fade away from the entirety of the universe and no one would give a shit."

There was a silence in the air.

"But we don't want that to happen. None of you deserve to die before your race even has the chance to prosper. We are not asking you to use your facilities for our own gain, but so that we may protect you and right this misguided conflict. We have a chance to save your race and perhaps the others too. The knowledge stored within the empire might be our only shot."

"......"

"Please."

Cadance sighed. "Alright, I'll show you to the library."

The members of Shadow smiled under their masks and followed the royal couple and Twilight to their destination. The rest of the elements of harmony opted to remain behind.

After a moment, Shadow finally got to the library. It was far bigger than the ones back on the colonies. And much more ancient too with no computers or holo books to check out.

"Now you 4 stay here while I get what you need." offered Twilight.

"Really Twilight. It's not necessary." replied Scorch.

"Oh no!" frowned Twilight. "The 4 of you are in a pretty bad condition. As if you'll be able to haul all of these books by yourself. Besides, I know the library far better than 4 of you. Now sit down, while I do scavenging."

Shadow simply did as commanded.

The commandos sat down on the animated crystal chairs. However, their mass caused the furniture to shatter into numerous tiny pieces.

"Good thing we have barriers turned on." muttered X-ray as he looked down as the various pieces of sharp crystal fragments."

Cadance shook her head and used her telekinesis to manipulate the shards back into a chair. Shadow noticed how she netted them into a hexagonal structure to reinforce the weight it could carry.

After a brief period of waiting, Twilight arrived and dropped a mountain of books in front of the commandos.

Twilight wiped her sweating fore head. "This sure is a big pile to get through."

"Ever read through any of these?" asked Scarecrow.

"Not really." denied Twilight. "I've only read through the books in my library and Canterlot. I further doubt anyone else in the Crystal Empire has even bothered to read these."

"Well, I'm glad we have you." complimented X-ray. "You're the only one I really trust for a mission like this."

"Thanks." blushed Twilight.

"Alright, we'll leave you 5 alone until you get what you need." said Shining Armor. "No offense or anything, but I don't get how you plan on reading through all these."

Scarecrow violently flipped through a text. "Relax, our school taught us how to find information from books with out actually having to read through the entire thing."

As the 5 got to work, Cadance and Shining Armor exited the library. They knew Shadow was powerful, but they still ordered a few guards to keep watch.

Cadance lost herself in thought. Her kingdom. Her destiny, was all really a human domain. She had been ruling over the land as its goddess for a long time, and only now did she figure out it was not really an Equestrian creation.

Shadow and Twilight managed to get through a large chunk of books in the next half hour.

They managed to divide the work amongst themselves evenly and used the techniques they knew to brush past all unnecessary parts of a book while focusing on those that mattered.

Twilight had rounded up all the books from the historical section of the Crystal Empire. Thinking her plan through, Twilight only selected literature that had to do with history of the Empire in the beginning of time.

Since most ponies didn't really read, the library contained various documents that were donated to the facility such as memoirs and letters from ancestors.

So far however, not a single mention of humanity had been made at all.

The next thing everyone knew, the rest of the elements of harmony and the royals stepped into the room.

Rainbow Dash whistled upon seeing all the books stacked on the table.

"Wow, you eggheads read all of that?"

X-ray yawned and put a book to the side. "Of course not. We skipped everything that was irrelevant."

"What did y'all find?" asked Applejack.

"Nothing about humans. That's for sure." groaned Overwatch.

"Nothing!" screamed Pinkie Pie. "That can't be true. Humans built this place!"

"Well, the books or notes we've read make no mention of it." shrugged Scarecrow.

"So there was nothing relevant at all in these texts? Surely you found something useful." whined Rarity.

Scorch placed a finger on his bandanna. "Actually, there is some pretty good intel we dug up."

"For starters," began X-ray. "All first hoof documents we read were written in ancient greek, so that reinforces our theory of caucasian influence on Equestria. Second of all, we did notice some gaps of information within these works."

"Could you elaborate?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"One of the earliest documents we read said that the Crystal Empire was found. Just found in the middle of nowhere without even questioning where it came from." explained Twilight. "The texts we read that came a hundred or so years after proceeded to claim that land was a gift purposely given by the goddess."

"And that's what books written in the modern era seem to agree on." noted Scorch. "After the founding period, all we have are documents regarding succeeding heirs of the Crystal Kingdom until Sombra took over."

"But why focus on books only written or focusing about the very beginning of the empire?" asked Cadance. "What if the archives were found in a later date?"

"That would be true, I found no single section of the library detailing books or texts that have to do with archival exploration." sighed Twilight. "Even if the archives were found throughout the spanning of the Empire, it should have been documented in all succeeding books."

Fluttershy was desperate. "But what if the book or document wasn't here? Maybe some archeologist has it?"

"It's a well known fact that all documents and texts have two copies." debunked Twilight. "One written by the writer, and the other goes to the library. And ponies don't really write a lot."

"You'd think that something as blatant as a human data archive would be noticed by now." chuckled Scarecrow.

"That's probably because its concealed somewhere" said Rarity. "If it was so obvious, then I'm sure your space ship or whatever would have alerted you by now."

"That's true." nodded Scarecrow.

"I guess we're going to have to find the data archive manually." groaned X-ray.

"But where could it be?" theorized Pinkie Pie. "Not even my Pinkie sense is going to help me in this case."

"I think I might have an idea." proposed Cadance.

The alicorn led the humans and Twilight into a separate chamber of the castle. It was simply a circular room with a large mirror at the end of it.

"Why did you bring us here?" asked Scarecrow.

Cadance pointed at the mirror. "I thought this artifact would be of important use to you."

"What is it?" asked Scorch.

"It is a device said to have been old as Equestria itself." informed Cadance. "It was originally in Canterlot, but it was moved here for me to study it."

"What conclusions did you bring?" asked X-ray.

"Based on my understanding, it is a magical portal to another location."

The hooded commandos limped to the giant artifact. Upon closer inspection, their HUDs began to inform of them of a space time rip, far too similar to what would have happened if they were near a starship on the verge of teleportation.

"That's no magical portal, it's a space time rip." awed Scarecrow.

"Any thoughts as to where it might lead?" asked Twilight. "Maybe that could be our ticket to the human data archive."

Shadow took a closer inspection to structure and observed the flashing information on their HUDs.

"The portal is said to open once every 30 moons." noted Cadance. "Who knows where, or when it could take somepony."

Scorch crossed his arms and faced the equines.

"First off, this isn't a rip similar by normal standards. The dark energy, which is the force that drives universal expansion, is far too high in frequency for it to simply accelerate, and by extension, rip, space, but it also rips the fourth dimension of time and the fifth dimension of subspace as well. This will lead us to an alternate universe."

"Are you sure it won't just lead us to a pocket dimension that happens to be a human archive?" checked Twilight.

"Space-time is a fabric. You poke a hole through one end, you get it out the other." reminded X-ray.

"Furthermore, the residue emitted by this rip is around 3.12 thousand years old, humans would have been out of Epona by now." added Scarecrow. "This is taking the fluctuations, which are responsible for the portal opening up every 30 moons, into account."

"So it's a dead end?" sighed Cadance.

"Afraid so." flexed Overwatch.

"Do you know what could be on the other side?" asked Twilight.

"Does anyone want to know what could be on the other side?" countered X-ray. "Having space time rips that we have no idea about aren't a good idea because no one knows what they could lead to."

"What are you suggesting?" frowned Cadance.

"We deactivate it for safety." suggested Scarecrow.

"But if somepony went through? There's no way they could get back." warned Twilight.

"Oh please, as if somepony is stupid enough to step through a guarded portal they have no idea about." remarked Scorch.

Scorch raised his gauss rifle, aimed at the frame of the mirror, and fired. Without a frame to support it, the wormhole collapsed in on itself.

"Well that got us no where." sighed Twilight.

"Come one, there's got to be a way for us to find the archives somehow!" insisted X-ray. "Nigeria told us it was here, and he wasn't lying."

"It's more than ten thousand years old." exhaled Cadance. "It's probably collapsed by now."

"HEY EVERYONE!" called out Pinkie Pie's voice.

The pink earth pony used her sugar induced super speed to gallop towards the commandos at an alarming rate, the rest of the company followed.

"Did your Pinkie Sense finally work?" smirked X-ray under his bandanna.

"Nope! But I think I might be on to something." cheered Pinkie.

"Come on! Tell them." pushed Rainbow Dash.

"What if somepony did end up finding the human archives, but chose not to tell anyone?" smiled Pinkie Pie.

"Who would do that?" inquired Scarecrow.

"Sombra silly!"

"Sombra?" repeated Twilight. "Why would he find out about a human archive."

"Actually, that makes a lot of sense!" exclaimed Cadance. "King Sombra was known for his ever growing desire to be the most dominant mage in Equestria. This desire drove him mad and he began to practice dark magic and started to voyage into forbidden areas."

"What does this have to do with ancient humanity?" checked Scorch.

"Because what if these practices allowed him to discover the ancient human archive? It's more than likely he found it considering his magical prowess!" answered Shining Armor.

"And once Sombra found this archive, I reckon he would have used its content to make himself even more powerful." added Applejack.

"But Sombra believed in magic, humans don't." insisted X-ray.

"Whether or not he knew of the truth behind magic, Sombra was recorded to have been using spells we never knew of. It could have likely been the same kind technology the ancient humans used!" exclaimed Twilight.

Scarecrow clenched his stomach. "So why wouldn't he tell anyone about a archive that belonged to an ancient alien race?"

"Duh!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "If other ponies knew about it, they would want to go there too, learn all kinds of stuff, and use that knowledge to defeat Sombra."

Scorch raised an eyebrow. "And you're sure he found the archives?"

"I say it's more than probable." interrupted Overwatch.

"We're taking a huge gamble here." noted Scarecrow.

"Isn't that what you said when were coming here in the first place?" pointed Fluttershy.

X-ray sighed. "Is there a place where we could confirm this? A study chamber of Sombra of some sort?"

Cadance breathed loudly. "Actually, there is. After Sombra was defeated, all of his belongings were moved to a certain room where they would have been disposed of. We haven't gotten to that part yet."

"Well I'm glad you didn't, we could find something useful there. Let's move." signaled Scorch.

The company traversed to the top of the castle. On the floor, there was a room that was being guarded by two Crystal Guards.

Shining Armor approached the two Crystal Ponies who saluted in response.

"At ease." greeted Shining Armor. "We need to enter use this room for research purposes. You are to leave now."

The guards nodded and trotted away.

Scarecrow limped to the door and took a deep breath. "Is there anything I should know about before heading inside?"

"Sombra likes to rig his equipment with magical traps. Be extra careful." warned Applejack.

Shadow's leader opened the door a fifth way through slowly.

"X-ray, ready an EMP grenade." ordered Scarecrow.

With his uninjured arm, X-ray reached for the aforementioned device and pressed a button.

The explosive flared to life and and green lights started to appear on it.

He threw his EMP grenade through the door. An electromagnetic pulse engulfed the entire room and disabled any possible traps that could have been set.

X-ray gave an all clear signal and Scarecrow opened the door.

Everything became silent all of a sudden.

"Wait here." ordered Scarecrow. He quietly walked inside the room.

At first glance, one would think that this was a generic quarters for a random mage. Then, one would notice all the sinister looking books and images depicting malevolent and twisted acts.

The rest of Shadow entered.

Scorch whistled upon gazing at one of the diagrams. "Damn. Sombra really was fucked up."

Twilight nervously crept into the room. "See anything relating to humanity?"

"Not yet. I'm afraid we're going to have to take a closer look." sighed X-ray.

The 5 got to work again and peered through all of Sombra's works. Twilight had a hard time bottling in Sombra's unique terminology and desires. It was a miracle Shadow hadn't fainted yet.

After a moment, the purple alicorn was beginning to open a book when-

"OW MY HEAD!" screeched Twilight.

Shadow sprang to action and turned around. Twilight was on the floor and clutching her fore head desperately.

Scarecrow lowered himself to face her. "What happened?"

Twilight tried to get a hold of herself. "I was just burrowing through a book when I saw something so painful."

X-ray raised an eyebrow. That statement did not make any sense at all.

Unless.

He turned to the dropped book. Outside of it laid a paper that had been stuck inside.

A non animated paper.

"Holy shit!" yelled X-ray. "Guys, look at the paper that just fell out!"

Scorch picked it up. "Universe damn it. This paper. It isn't animated and its written in ancient Persian!"

Overwatch, balanced by Scarecrow slowly moved toward it. "That means it was written by a human."

X-ray was inspected the book further. "There's a whole lot of these things stored inside! Sombra really did find out about ancient humans after all."

Twilight allowed her eyes and mind to adjust to the sight of the paper. "Go on! Read them."

"We should put them in order first Twilight." informed Scarecrow. "We can do that by looking at dates, which I'm pretty sure humans back then never knew how to write, or the condition of each text."

Shadow squad took out all papers of human origin, inspected them for a moment, and put them in order.

Twilight took the moment to head outside to inform her friends.

"Please tell me you found something!" begged Pinkie Pie.

"Good news!" smiled Twilight. "Turns out you were right! One of Sombra's old books is filled with ancient human documents. Shadow is going over them now!"

The rest of the elements of harmony barged straight into the room, eager to see the information. However, they each received a mind fuck from starring at the texts hastily. Cadance and Shining Armor followed.

"Wow, so humans were on Epona after all." sighed Shining Armor.

Scarecrow regarded the papers one more time and nodded. "Alright, I'll read the first one. This was written by an ancient Native American of some sort."

He tapped on his wrist computer. "Command, are you getting this?" There was a large number of acknowledgements coming from the radio.

Scarecrow's translators got to work.

They were given sentience.

They were given intelligence.

The heavens showed them the path towards a great life of prosperity.

All they were expected to do was follow it.

But they were ungrateful. They laughed off their wonderful gifts. Gifts from the divine ones once given to us and committed the upmost heresy.

They think their way is better and now the Buffalo refuse to kneel before us.

The ponies were silent.

Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Okay, that was kinda odd."

"Do you know what it could have meant?" whispered Fluttershy.

"I think I might have a slight hunch." muttered X-ray. "Remember how every Eponan race is tied to a human culture?"

The ponies gave nods of remembrance.

"Well, the Buffalo are representations of ancient Americans. It seems that said human race was once a space faring tribe of it own. Based on these statements, they appear to have retained their old beliefs."

"Pfft. A technologically advanced race that believes in sacrifice to make the sun rise. That's just rich." chuckled Scorch.

X-ray continued. "And Buffalo are native to America. When this ancient civilization arrived on this world, they must have identified with the Buffalo as people of their own."

"So why was the tone of this writing so fussy?" asked Rarity.

"First off, I should remind you all that the first tribes merely found their resources. They believed they were given by gods of some sort. Then there was a hundred years of progress where they moved on to new facilities."

"Ah still don't get the point!" puffed Applejack.

"The point is, the prehistoric humans had the same view of their technology as well." informed X-ray. "So when the Ancient Americans met the Buffalo, they expected them to follow the same rules as them, but the Buffalo were using different resources. This would naturally drive the ancient humans to a panic and accuse the Buffalo of heresy."

Pinkie's mouth dropped. "Wow, you got all that out of a few lines?"

"But what about the part of kneel before us? I think that part was more relevant." chimed in Cadance.

Overwatch put a finger on his chin. "That is a good point. After all, it's not like us humans created them. I think. I suspect that the ancient Americans, who used Buffalo for agriculture, expected the sentient ones to be loyal to them as well."

"Well that's just sick." shook Twilight.

Scarecrow got to reading the next piece. It was written in African.

It seems that we are not the only ones experiencing such a travesty. The Americans, the Persians, the men with slanted eyes, and all other tribes are facing heresy too. While they certainly choose the wrong beings to worship, I can not help but empathize upon seeing a race you cherished so close turning its back on you. We gave the Zebras a try, but they proved far too stubborn.

Our lords will one day enact a day of judgement upon us. These wonderful machines, full of inexplicit possibilities have propelled us to such a status. I have seen what they are capable of and they perhaps transcend what we perceive as the ability of a god.

So are we not entitled to commit a day of judgement ourselves? One to punish the sinners who have dared to deviate from us."

There was a pause until Scorch spoke up.

"Based on these readings, it seems that each human ethnicity was its own space faring empire."

"You know, from the sound of that passage, I get the feeling that the writer didn't even know how their technology functioned." theorized Twilight.

"Yeah." agreed Scarecrow. "You would think that a race intelligent enough to traverse the stars would know how their technology worked."

"There's not much I could get out of this, but it does seem to confirm the statement that every race was attacked." muttered X-ray. "Although there is notable lack of mention of Greeks."

"The letter said something about 'men with slanted eyes'?" pointed Rainbow Dash.

"He or she was probably referring to Far East Asians." guessed Scorch.

Scarecrow turned a page. "Speak of the devil. Here's another one. Written in ancient Chinese."

Vengeance is now in its fourth day. We have done an uncanny job of containing the dragon heresy. Beings so mighty fell simply by the push of a button.

These machines. These glorious machines have willed us with vigor and power. Vigor to travel across the cosmos, to creating worlds, and finally, destroying them. With a simple command, she complies. The machine roars to life and brings forth a light of righteousness to subdue those who have defiled the heavens.

In times like this, we are all gods. Every tribe is enacting vengeance on the race that wronged them. All but the Greeks. They simply have not punished their underlings for complying. They say it is not necessary, but what differs the Equines from all others? Have they not committed heresy? Have they not learned their place?"

Once again, there was another round of silence.

X-ray got his thinking skills worked up.

"Alright then, it seems that the ancient Chinese had found a counter part with the dragon race. Explains why they are after us as well."

"But this isn't fair!" yelled Pinkie Pie. "Just because you met an intelligent version of an animal from your world, doesn't mean you have to be its master!"

"Or expect it to turn out the way you want them to be." added Rainbow Dash.

"Or submit them to genocide!" gritted Rarity.

Cadance rubbed her head. This was too much information. "If I'm not mistaken, this letter said something about the Equestrian race."

"It did." nodded Scarecrow. "Looks like your race was spared from the onslaught."

"And that's why we can't remember it!" realized Twilight.

X-ray face palmed. "The entire planet was under attack. I'm sure you ponies would have noticed it. So should have we."

"But why the ponies were spared by the Greeks still remains a mystery." sighed Scarecrow. "If every race deviated from their original culture, than surely ponies would have been no exception."

"And why the ancient humans can't even understand their technology is an even bigger mystery." gritted Scorch.

"Are there any more documents?" inquired Fluttershy.

"Just one." sighed Scarecrow. "It's written in ancient Persian."

An Empire is on its way. We have taken the land away from the once famed, and now shamed creatures.

We have driven the heretical Griffins out of their pathetic homeland to claim it for our own. We gave these creatures a chance to show their worthiness, but they turned us down in their infinite arrogance. If their new way of life is so perfect, why hasn't it been offered to them by the gods? Like our gods would punish us for heresy, we do the same to them.

Yesterday, she had offered us a vision of the perfect city. A new Eden of some sorts. We have accepted and now she and her sisters use the machines to bring this vision into reality.

I site here, writing on this sheet, as I admire the vibrant spectacle of this city. The towering crystal spires fill my eyes with pleasure. The machines are artistic as they are vigorous.

A massive barrier protects this Empire from harm. It was a genius idea of the Greeks. They had the perfect idea to power this barrier's central source with our own positive emotion. After all, what is life worth living for if none of us are happy? And right now, we are feeling utterly ecstatic.

If I were to offer my criticism however, these oddly colored objects are utterly peculiar. For whatever reason, they seem to shatter under the slightest addition of pressure. One fool who jumped on a Crystal Bench shattered the object and covered his arm with fragments.

Moving on, we have finally agreed to share this city with the other races. Even though it was us Persians who dominated this land, every tribe had a role to play in the Empire's construction.

I never thought I'd say this, but every tribe does seem to have something positive to offer. If we are going to start traversing the realms of space, we can no longer afford to be divided. I still hold my culture superior to others of course, and do not find it plausible for us to be practicing different values while remaining unified. In due time, I expect the Africans, Chinese, Greeks all others to learn.

We have agreed to instill an oligarchy made up of the leaders of each tribe. A glowing castle is being constructed to house this new alliance.

Soon, this empire will expand across the entire planet. The feeble lands of heretics and subordinates will be replaced by our mighty spires. After our conquest is complete, we will traverse back to our home world, bring the rest of our tribes here, and this Crystal Empire will be our new home after Gaia.

X-ray was the first to speak. "Huh, looks like humanity was actually close to unifying in the past."

"I guess that settles it." shrugged Twilight. "Looks like the Crystal Empire really was a human creation after all."

Cadance looked at her cutie mark. "And the Crystal Heart, built by prehistoric humans as a means to protect this city and fueled by their own pride from conquest."

"Afraid so." sighed Scarecrow.

"And form what I got, the humans were planning colonize this planet after they wiped all others out." noted Rainbow Dash.

"But if they were so powerful, why didn't they?" pondered Applejack.

"Good question." groaned Scorch. "My guess is that his paper was likely written the day after they stopped attacking. Otherwise, their conquest would have been complete and the Empire would have occupants in it."

"Then a few years later, the earliest Crystal Ponies arrive and take the land for their own." added Twilight.

"But wouldn't have they been weirded out by an already built city?" questioned Fluttershy.

"From what I read in the library, they weren't." exclaimed Twilight. "They merely viewed the place to be some sort of promised land they just adjusted to. Later, they claimed the Empire was built by the Goddess."

Pinkie rubbed her chin. "You know, the letters keep mentioning a 'she' of some sorts."

"You're right." remarked Scarecrow. "Apparently, this 'she' has sisters and seems to control the machines once a command is given to her."

"Not too different from a Artificial or Virtual Intelligence." shook Overwatch.

"You can't help but notice the anachronisms." stated X-ray. "For once, I didn't think humans in the past were capable of such terminology and writing skills."

"Well, it is a translation." reminded Rarity. "And humans in the past were capable of space flight. I'm sure writing would be the least notable of their capabilities."

"Oh please, you get the feeling that the ancient humans didn't know about a thing they were doing." snorted X-ray.

Scarecrow checked the messages on his HUD. "The Federation thinks you might be on to something."

"Are there any other papers to read?" asked Cadance.

Scarecrow flipped them through. "Afraid not. These were all we had."

"But none of them mentioned a data chamber!" cried Twilight.

"Hey, at least we have some information about the ancient humans." defended Scorch.

"But is it information we can choose to get the alliance to step down?" challenged Applejack.

"Not really, in fact one can argue that alliance is nearly justified in their claims for revenge." groaned Scarecrow.

"WHAT!" yelled the ponies.

"I said nearly." corrected Scarecrow. "Like how ancient humans were not justified in starting a war because some races wouldn't bow down to them, the alliance has no right to massacre the current regime and the Equestrians.

"But this still doesn't answer the question as to why neither of us can remember the onslaught!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

X-ray checked his wrist computer. Or at least tried to since it was his broken arm.

"The Federation suggests looking through Sombra's notes."

Scarecrow took the book and did so. He inspected the title of the book first. It was named "ancient aliens". He flipped through what appeared to be a journal.

My exploration of the dark arts has reached transcendent levels. Why we keep this practice a secret when it can bring such glory for all pony kind still strikes me odd. What even makes dark anyway? It's all arbitrary.

Moving on, I've recently been able to generate energies of frequencies that transcend gamma. I do not know what to call it, but it seems to be capable of ripping holes in the very fabric of reality.

Experimenting with it, I have been able to gain a better mastery of teleportation. Instead of immediately moving towards my desired location at enhanced speeds, I have now been able to rip holes in what seems to be sub space.

While exploring this plane of existence, I found what appeared to be a room of some sorts. A room right in the middle of sub space. I traveled to it, and immediately suffered an hour of mental trauma.

This room was clearly of alien origin. Its very appearance is foreign and incomprehensible to my mind.

After a while, I recovered and explored its contents. As I took a step towards the center of the room, I was granted by a transparent being of some sorts. I asked if she was a ghost, but she merely refereed to herself as an intelligence.

I asked her where I was, and she told me I was in some sort of alien library. I asked for anything I could read, anything I could use to boost my power, but she stated all forms of data storage were beyond me.

However, she did materialize a few pieces of parchment as piece of consolation.

Once I was done, I stepped out side of the room and back into sub space. When I returned to the Empire, I noticed the Crystal Heart heart glowing vehemently.

I tapped my horn on the construct and it spoke. It said that someone had intruded in the data chamber.

It did not take an intellectual to know that the heart was referring to the room I had just explored. I tapped it once more and it merely stated that only a 'human' could enter.

Human. Could that have been the aliens who constructed this chamber?

After a moment, the heart shut down. The first thing I will do tomorrow is uncover the meaning behind this experience.

There was only one passage.

"Odd, there's only one entry in this entire book." muttered Scarecrow.

"Can I have a look?" requested Twilight.

She looked at the book and analyzed it contents. Scarecrow was right, there was only one entry. But what caught her attention was the date in which the entry was written.

"My gosh." gasped Twilight. "This was written the day before Celestia and Luna confronted Sombra for his misdeeds."

"So in that case, Sombra never had a full chance to find out a thing about our race." noted Scorch.

"I also noticed that Sombra mentioned something about mastering teleportation and being able to traverse to pocket dimensions." pointed Cadance. "I think that was when he discovered the ability to lock the Crystal Empire for a thousand years."

"But more importantly, we know the data chamber is real!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

"And there's apparently some sort of AI or VI that acts as a librarian." added X-ray.

"Still, how would we get there?" muttered Applejack.

"Sombra made it clear that the ancient human data chamber is within sub space." said Scarecrow. "To get there, we would have to punch the exact teleportation codes to reach it."

"Actually, it seems the Crystal Heart might lead us to a passage that would take us to the chamber." countered Scorch.

"You're right. From the sound of it, the Heart appears to be a teleporter of some sorts." agreed X-ray.

"But ponies have used the Crystal Heart numerous times, it never teleported us to sub space! All it did was form a barrier" yelled Cadance.

Overwatch looked at his hands. "Yeah, but that was when a pony was using it. Who said anything about a human?"

NEXT CHAPTER: REVELATIONS (Will be done in multiple parts)

Author's Note

Sweet, I'm getting close to 300 likes. And I was never featured ONCE. You have to admit, that's kind of impressive. I think its a record on fimficiton.

Chapter 40: Revelations Part 1

"A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be." - Albert Einstein

Cadance starred at her cutie mark and gave a disappointing sigh. "So all this time, my cutie mark and destiny was really an ancient human artifact?"

"Technically, it could go both ways. It could be an artifact made by humans AND represent your destiny to protect the empire." encouraged X-ray. "Although it probably only refers to the later."

"So whatever the Crystal Heart is, it serves two purposes. One is to create a massive barrier that protects the empire through positive emotions, and it's somehow linked to an inter dimensional library." noted Scarecrow.

"Said inter dimensional library is the most important in the current situation!" pointed Rainbow Dash.

"Right. This is finally our chance to get behind the secret surrounding ancient humanity and the world of Equestria." noted Scorch.

"Any thoughts on how you're going to make the heart function in the first place?" muttered Twilight.

"Honestly no." shrugged X-ray. "But we aren't going to get anything done standing here. The sooner we move, the better."

"I don't like the sound of this." shook Rarity. The unicorn looked outside and witnessed the falling sun. The day was passing by far faster then previous ones.

"If we do manage to get into this library, data storage, archive, whatever, we'll be provided with the necessary information to win this conflict. Whether it be lore on our race on simple plans to develop technology. If not, the UTF will have to find a way on its own to reinforce us." said Scarecrow.

"But we don't have enough time for the UTF to figure out something!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

"Exactly." nodded X-ray. Shadow limped to the halls. The ponies were still too busy getting used to the news to the point where they were frozen in place.

"Let's move." called out Scorch.

The Equestrians snapped back to life and joined the commandos on their trail.

"So, when we get there, we're going to be treated by some sort of ghost lady right?" squeaked Fluttershy.

"There are no such things as ghosts Fluttershy." sighed Twilight.

"Twilight's right. As said before, this transparent women is some sort of Artificial Intelligence that runs the facility. Like most human constructs in the modern day, a central program is needed to tend and watch over a facility." informed Scarecrow.

"So, like a care taker or butler?" muttered Applejack.

"Precisely. Although I don't understand as to why a technologically advanced race would use such inappropriate terminology to address a construct they constructed." noted X-ray.

"Maybe it's just slang." mused Pinkie Pie. "Like the way I call my predictions doozies!"

"But that intelligence thingy didn't give any information to Sombra other than a few dusty old papers!" whined Rainbow Dash. "What makes us think she'll talk to us?"

"Sombra is a pony. We are humans." simply stated Overwatch.

"But how do we know that the library is still functional?" pointed Rarity. "My word, such a room as dormant as the archives must have likely been contaminated with all sorts of filthy messes if left for thousands of years unchecked. None of the machines might be working anyway."

"Considering it was operable after the few thousand years gap between Sombra's use the ancient humans, there is no reason as to why a mere one thousand years should reduce it of functionality." debunked Scorch.

The group was nearing the entrance to the castle halls. Cadance, who had been quiet for a while, finally found the nerve to speak up.

"So now that humanity has found out that the Crystal Empire is a human creation, will the Federation want to take it back as its own?"

The limping Scarecrow looked at Cadance and shook his head. "Of course not, the Crystal Empire is home to ponies, not humans. We may have built it, but it was under another banner that we have long abandoned. You can continue being the Crystal Princess. Besides, we have a hell lot of other colonies."

Cadance and Shining Armor gave a sigh of relief, knowing that their kingdom was going to be safe and in their hooves.

The group finally made it out the doors and glimpsed the Crystal Empire back in its state of bliss. Shadow couldn't believe how they were living so happily when they knew what the Empire really was. Would the Crystal Ponies think the same way about their home if they knew who really created it?

That was a question to be asked later.

Scorch turned to his wrist computer. "Command, can you locate the Crystal Heart?"

"There's no need to get all technical silly, we'll just lead you to it." skipped Pinkie Pie.

The flock of ponies led the four commandos to the monument. As Shadow got further and further into plain sight, they began to notice the lack of conversation being made by the Crystal ponies who were staring right at them.

To the ponies, the silence was a sign of worry and discontent. To Shadow, it was a sigh of relief and a much welcomed break from screams of panic.

Shadow also noticed how the ponies were still afraid of them but weren't yelling like they did the last time. Perhaps they were beginning to have a little faith in them. Or were frozen in place. Either way worked.

"Could you please cloak?" asked Shining Armor after an era of silence.

"Doesn't matter, they know we're out here anyway." shrugged X-ray.

A few minutes of uninterrupted walking passed and the convoy finally reached its destination. The heart stood in its place and glowed vibrantly in the sunlight. A huge crowd of tourists visiting the empire surrounded the artifact while taking pictures of it.

When the former element bearers and Crystal princess entered the park, the Crystal Ponies directed their attention at the famous figures. They knew seeing the Mane 6 was serious business, especially in terms of current events.

The group trotted past the crowd and stared directly at the Crystal Heart. Memories of their victory over Sombra flashed before their very eyes. If you told their past selves that what they really risked their lives for was an ancient human constuct, the six of them would have dismissed you as crazy.

It was even more conflicting when the ponies remembered that the positive emotion meant to power the heart was pride, not love.

"Alright y'all, we're here. Time for you to whip out your tech skills." sighed Applejack.

There was no response.

"Shadow?"

The element bearers turned around and looked from side to side. The counter terrorists were no where to be found.

The second later, the crowd of tourists began to suffer and collapse from migraines. That meant Shadow was indeed within their presence.

Rainbow Dash flew up and gazed at the hooded humans. Their state of being was not so ideal. With the exception of Scorch, it had appeared Shadow's wounds and condition had clearly gotten worse. Had their medicine worn off?

X-ray felt like his arm was going to fall off any minute, Scarecrow felt like his stomach was about to explode while Scorch was beginning to feel fatigue after supporting Overwatch for so long.

"Are you feeling alright?" gasped Rarity.

"We'll be fine." assured Scarecrow.

The ponies did NOT need Shadow squad to be injured. In the current moment, they were the only ones capable of figuring out and deciphering the complicated motives of the ancient human civilization.

That and the fact they seemed to be the only ones capable of taking out significant threats with little damage. They were the only force standing in between Equestria's destruction and the alliance now that the elements were gone.

The wounded humans continued to march towards the crystal heart as the Crystal Ponies began to recover.

Unaware of their intentions, the Crystal ponies began murmuring amongst themselves.

A few oblivious Crystal Guards stepped forward and blocked Shadow's path to the heart.

The wounded members of the counter terrorist unit continued to press on until they were merely an inch apart from the guards, who they stared down mercilessly with their masks. Even though the guards were painfully reminded of their relatively diminutive size, they stood.

"What are you trying to accomplish?" said Scarecrow bemusedly.

"I should be saying the exact same thing about you Xeno scum." spat the Crystal Royal Guard.

"We are to use the Crystal Heart, if wish you wish to know." trivialized Scorch. "Now get out of our way."

The tourists overheard Scarecrow's comment and began to mummer amongst themselves. What could the humans possibly want with their beloved artifact?

The Crystal Guards stood their ground. "And for what reason, could you 4 possibly need the Crystal Heart for? It is a sacred construct that has protected the Empire-"

"The matters do not concern you, all you need to know is that we need it whether you like it or not!" yelled X-ray.

"Guards! Stand down!" called out Shining Armor from behind.

The royal guards looked startled at their captain.

"It's all right guys. We need to let the humans use the Crystal Heart." assured Shining Armor.

For once, the royal guards didn't submit so easily to their captain.

"Sir, with all due respect, we can barely trust these monstrosities. What's to say they aren't going to destroy the Crystal Heart and leave us vulnerable to attack?" complained a guard.

"Believe us, destroying the Crystal Heart is the LAST thing we want to do right now." hissed Overwatch.

"If you can't trust them, trust me." called out Twilight. "It's very important the HUMANS interact with the Crystal Heart as soon as possible."

A guard crossed his eyes. "You can sense the deception in their-"

"Let them go." said Shining Armor flatly. Finally, the guards relented and cleared the way to the still patient Crystal Heart.

"With all due respect, you could have just avoided that confrontation if you allowed us to explain the situation to the guards." advised Rarity.

"Never mind. Let's focus on the Heart now." shook Scorch.

For a moment, nothing happened with Shadow squad blankly staring at the Crystal Heart while everypony within the facility watched them aimlessly.

Applejack finally spoke. "Something on yer mind?"

Scarecrow placed a finger on his bandanna. "Do any of you actually have an idea as to how we're exactly going to use this thing?"

The ponies dropped their mouths. It was unusual to see Shadow squad not on the top of things.

"It's powered by positivity, that's a start." muttered Scorch.

"It doesn't function by positivity, that's only how the protection function works." corrected Twilight.

"I'm at a loss." gave up X-ray.

Scarecrow turned to his wrist computer. "Blackjack, any solutions from above?"

"Negative." radioed a crewman. "We're just as clueless as you are about the heart. We have a hologram readied on the bridge of the ship, but whenever we analyze its components, all we get are endless streams of lines saying 'data unavailable'. The Crystal Heart is basically one whole chunk of uncatalogued information. If we're going to analyze it, we'll have to start from the ground-up."

"That could take hours." sighed Scarecrow. He switched signals. "Command, any advice from the colonies?"

"We can't even piece together how it's emitting the shield. Whatever our ancestors were, they were generations ahead of us." radioed an observer from Apex.

Scarecrow continued to hear sounds of negativity coming from the congressmen. The commando finally switched his wrist computer off and got back to analyzing his options.

X-ray sighed. "From the looks of it, the Crystal Heart is essentially one chunk of animated nothingness. If we had a proper science team and lab, we could-"

X-ray took one step forward from his current position, and his speech trailed off.

The moment his foot moved a single step, the heart began to glow. It glowed a strange red color and started to buzz, a buzzing similar to a computer starting.

X-ray frowned under his mask as the ponies started to mummer amongst themselves. Such a sight was something nopony was used to.

"It's glowing!" cried Pinkie Pie.

"I've never seen it to that before." gasped Cadance as she looked at her cutie mark.

"I can here it humming to!" pointed Twilight.

The pony tourists started to crowd amongst the Crystal Heart, only to be pulled back by the royal guards, advising the civilians to stay clear.

"Command, are you reading this?" radioed Scorch.

"Affirmative." responded the crew of the Blackjack. "The data we're from the heart is changing. It's still a dry well of information, but it's now reading 'activated' in the same way we know if a computer is turned on or not."

"Computer? There doesn't seem to be an interface of some sort." muttered Scorch.

X-ray hesitated for a moment and took a step back.

While admirably expected it, the Crystal Heart stopped glowing and 'turned off'. The humming stopped as well.

"What just happened?" awed Overwatch.

"I don't know." shrugged X-ray. "I just took a step forward and the heart started acting like this."

Scarecrow placed a finger on his bandanna. "I wonder."

Shadow's commander took a step forward. Sure enough, the heart stared to glow red and hummed as it 'turned on.'

Scarecrow then took a step back to line up with the rest of Shadow and the heart 'turned off.'

Right before Shadow could contemplate on the situation, Rainbow Dash stepped forward and moved towards the Crystal Heart. But rather than glowing, the heart remained in it's relatively inactive state.

This time, Scorch stepped forward and the Crystal Heart turned on. The counter terrorists stepped forward and plotted their next decision.

"Apparently, it only activates when a human steps forward." noted Scarecrow.

"That only confirms its creation as a human construct." realized X-ray.

The tourists and Crystal Ponies continued their worrying discussion, getting more and more anxious as seconds passed on.

Realizing Shadow wasn't going to think straight in the midst of the panicking Twilight flew in the sky and spoke with vigor that rivaled the royal Canterlot voice.

"Attention everypony! Right now we have a delicate situation at hoof that is completely under control, but requires your absolute patience."

"What's going on princes!" yelled a cautious Crystal Pony.

Scarecrow paused for a moment and turned to his friends. "Should we explain it to them or not?"

"Negative." muttered X-ray. "They'll find out soon enough."

The rest of the Mane 6 trotted forward to join the group.

"If I were to make a suggestion, I'd suggest touching it or something. Maybe you have to do some sort of weird finger trick or say some sort of secret password for it to work." said Pinkie Pie.

"Actually, the way the Crystal Heart is behaving is awfully familiar." stated Scorch. "Like we said, it's humming like a device that just turned on."

"More like a device that's on stand by." corrected X-ray. "And normally, when a device is on stand by, you have to push the button one more time for it to power on."

X-ray walked to the Crystal Heart until he was only an inch apart from it. Although he moved closer to it, the Heart wasn't changing its state.

Ignoring the pain in his injured arm, X-ray reach with is left hand, and touched it.

And when he touched it, a soothing jingle played. A jingle that sounded completely alien to his ears, but one that he knew sounded like a phone turning on.

Right before anypony could react to what was happening, the heart started to glow a light shade of green and a light red hologram flashed right before X-ray's eyes.

The commando stepped back and nearly tripped had it not been for Scorch catching him on time.

"The Heart, now it's glowing green." pointed Scarecrow. "Right after you touched it."

"Not unlike a computer signal flashing green after its been turned on." implied Overwatch.

"So if the Heart follows the same sort of logic, that means it's like an ancient computer of some sort." awed X-ray. "And that light red hologram the Heart is emitting, must be the control panel."

On the hologram, there was a display of an object that resembled a gear, turning and turning all the while.

Twilight inspected the device. "What do you four think the rotating gear supposed to mean?"

"I believe the turning gears meant to symbolize that it's loading." guessed Scarecrow. "It's booting up, so it will take a while for the Heart to process all internal data before it can be ready for usage. The humming you hear is the sound of the construct activating all its components."

A few more seconds passed, and the gears on the hologram vanished, and a sound was emitted from the Heart.

Even Shadow was startled.

"It talked!" gasped Fluttershy.

"What did it say?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"I was caught off guard." admitted Scarecrow. He turned to his wrist computer. "Blackjack, what did you pick up."

"The voice that came from the Crystal Heart was in ancient Greek." answered a crewman on the star ship. "As in the language spoken by the people during it's early incarnations before the classical era it was known for, which is odd considering there was no speaker for the voice to-"

"What did it say!" repeated Scarecrow.

"The Heart said Welcome Terraformer according to the translator." radioed the Blackjack.

"Terraformer?" muttered Rarity. "What on Equestria does the Crystal Heart have to do with Terraforming?"

"Don't you remember? The ancient humans were going to colonize the Epona after they destroyed the other races, and the Crystal Empire would be their home." explained X-ray.

"I'd imagine they would use the Heart as a central operating device in order to direct their attacks and plan construction. After all, the Crystal Heart is shielding the Empire from a snow storm and provides a barrier as evidence of its true purpose."

"Guys!" called out Rainbow Dash. "They Crystal Heart changed again."

Shadow squad shifted their attention and noticed that the hologram display had been altered. Now there was text written in ancient greek all over it.

The mummers of ponies suddenly turned into gasps and cries of disbelief.

"Can somepony please explain what is going on?" demanded a Crystal Pony. "What are those alien monstrosities doing with our artifact?"

Twilight sighed and flew up to get everpony's attention.

She sighed. "I don't know how to tell you all this, but it turns out the Crystal Heart is not what you all think it is."

The ponies muttered to themselves.

Rainbow flew up too. "Yeah turns out the heart you all love is really a human artifact. That's kinda why it started to glow and emit that hologram thing."

"And by extension, your entire Crystal Empire is a human construct as well. After all, it did seem illogical that a city would just appear in the middle of nowhere. However, this information has been lost over time. From both human and pony records." concluded Twilight.

"WHAT!" shrieked the Crystal Ponies.

"How could this be possible!" cried out one mare.

Scarecrow upped the volume on his speaker. "Everypony please calm down!"

The ponies did so.

"We are just as confused as you are. We barely found out about this information an hour ago, but we will able to reap the answers as soon possible as long as you remain calm and allow us to operate." assured Shadow's commander.

Once the ponies were settled, X-ray immediately got back to work.

"Scorch, can you come over here for a minute?" asked X-ray.

"Affirmative." responded the commando. He walked towards the rifleman. "What do you need?"

X-ray shifted his head to his right arm. The injured arm. The one without his wrist computer.

"My arm is injured so I can't type of my tablet. I need you to alter the settings to divert all commands to neural controls." explained the commando.

"Understood." nodded Scorch. He picked up X-ray's arm toward himself and made the necessary adjustments. In turn, X-ray felt his mind take over the functions of his suit.

To the ponies, he was standing aimlessly, but to Shadow, he was reading all sorts of data that was flowing from his HUD. He used neural controls in order for his VI to run a thorough diagnostic of the heart and its contents. To make sure that it would analyze that data correctly, X-ray altered the settings on his HUD so it would analyze the Heart the same way it would analyze a computer.

The commando received mixed results. 90% of the data he received was corrupted beyond any form of recognition and his VI could do nothing to repair it. However, it was able to record the processing power of the heart as tens of thousands of times higher than a Level 10 ExtraFed Computer.

From the data he received, the closest thing the Crystal Heart was to him was a standard holographic computer he operated with motion controls. It seemed odd as to why the ancient humans lacked neural controls in their tech.

Finally, there was translation. The holographic controls that were laid out in the Crystal Heart were all written in ancient Greek. Luckily, X-ray turn on his translator, and as it took effect, the annotations of the meaning of the script appeared right next to the words.

There were four options on the display. X-ray noted that these weren't literal translations, but rather extremely close estimates to normal Terran English.

Power Off

Direct Shield Settings

Archival Access

Terraforming Controls

The other members of Shadow crowded around the hologram, waiting for X-ray to plan his next move.

"Command, which option do I select?" radioed X-ray.

"Obviously what we need is the data archive, so select 'Archival Access'." commanded the crew on the Blackjack.

X-ray nodded and extended his uninjured arm to select the hologram. However, his curiosity and wounded state got the better of him, and he decided to select the option "Terraforming Controls".

"What the hell are you doing!" yelled a crewman from the Blackjack.

"Hold on, I need to see this." muttered the rifleman.

The hologram began to load and flashed a blinking sentence in ancient greek.

"What does it say?" muttered Overwatch.

"It's saying error." whispered X-ray.

"Error? What could possibly be wrong with this thing?" asked Scorch.

"Is everything all right?" called out Twilight from behind.

"Yeah, just give us a moment." assured Scarecrow. He turned around to face his team. "X-ray, what's going on."

"I just pressed the Terrfaroming option and it's telling me that there's an error." explained the rifleman.

He looked down on the hologram and saw there was an option that was labeled and roughly translated to 'assess'.

So it would be just like running a maintenance program. thought X-ray. It would be simple enough. The commando tapped the button and it revealed a new wall of text.

"Now what does it say?" asked Scorch.

There was a hint of anxiety in X-ray's voice. He was beginning to sweat. "Hold on, give me a moment to read and figure this shit out."

"My goodness." whimpered Fluttershy. "Are you alright?"

X-ray wiped his forehead with his gloved hand. "I'm fine."

Two solid minutes passed. X-ray nodded and spoke in an audible manner.

"According to the passage, it's stating that there is a glitch in Equestira."

The crowd was silent.

Twilight broke said silence with a little giggle. "What do you ever mean by glitch?"

"Before the user continues to utilize the creation program, the system has detected an incomplete organic rendering of the planetary body as well as its lifeforms. Do you wish to fix?"

"What does incomplete rendering mean?" muttered Pinkie Pie.

Scorch cleared his throat. "Well, when you render an a three dimensional object in a computer you have to go through a variety of steps like laying out the base, adding coloring, depth, textures, and finally-"

The demo man immediately stopped talking and the entire Crystal Empire was silent. One could hear the wind blowing.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "Did they just break or something?"

"Beats me sugarcube." sighed Applejack.

Cadance waved her hood in front of Scarecrow's face to get him to respond. It failed.

Suddenly, crackles from Scorch's mic could be heard.

"Of course." realized the commando. "It all makes perfect sense now."

"What on Equestria do you mean darling?" said Rarity.

"Incomplete. Rendering." remarked X-ray slowly. He picked up Twilight and looked her straight in the eye. "OF COURSE! We finally found the answer to Equestria."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yup, they've broke."

"What answer to Equestria!" yelled Twilight. "What is going on?"

"The answer to it's appearance! Why it looks the way it does." cheered Scarecrow. "Twilight, the reason why Equestria looks so different from the rest of the universe is because it is an incomplete terraforming rendering!"

Twilight squinted her eyes."How are we an incomplete rendering and what does this have to do with anything?"

X-ray took a deep breath. "Look, the reason why Equestria looks differently from the rest of the universe, the reason why you are all animated is because this entire planet was not completed in its formatting of objects while being Terraformed. Thus without the proper additions, Equestria looks like a cartoon rather than a realistic object and accounts for every object containing only half the matter that it should have. And the reason why ponies look uncomfortable looking at us is because we have basically more complex models than you all do. You're diminutive form doesn't have the ability to process ours!"

"..............."

"That makes sense right?" muttered Overwatch nervously.

"Well, you supposedly are the experts in the field." shrugged Twilight.

"The congressmen and scientists on the Blackjack seem to agree." checked Scorch. "They believe it's the most logical outcome."

Scarecrow placed a finger on his bandana. "But I don't get it. If the Heart is stating there was a Terraforming error, it means that the entire planet of Epona had to be created from orbit by an alien race. And if the heart ITSELF is detecting a terraforming error, that means-"

"CAN WE JUST GET TO THE LIBRARY ALREADY SO WE CAN ANSWER OUR DARN QUESTIONS!" yelled a high pitched voice.

The humans turned around to face the source of the voice. It came from none other than Fluttershy.

The yellow Pegasus panted angrily until she realized what she had done. Fluttershy noticed the shocked expressions of the Crystal Ponies and blushed in return.

"Alright, we'll go the library already." face palmed Scarecrow.

"Can we at least see what will happen if I select 'fix error' first?" asked X-ray.

"That sounds pretty risky." warned Twilight.

"My Pinkie sense is telling me it's pretty safe." contested Pinkie Pie.

Normally, X-ray would question such a statement, but his VI ran over the worse case scenario a moment before; nothing too serious. He hastily tapped 'Fix Error'.

More text appeared and detailed what was about to occur. Most of the text did not translate properly and formed incoherent sentences, but it mentioned that it would provide a quick solution to the 'deformity' of the planet and restore it to working condition.

X-ray tapped enter.

And everything flashed white.

The commandos felt no pain, their kinetic barriers weren't even detecting any signs of damage. There wasn't even any form of distortion in their hearing. However, they heard the cries of ponies. They hoped they weren't in any sort of trouble.

Finally, the blinding light seized and Scorch found himself on the ground. The sudden blinding light startled him and thrust him to the ground.

The demo man's vision focused itself back into clarity. The first thing Scorch did was check his HUD for any signs of possible damage. He hoped the Heart didn't do anything detrimental.

Luckily he was fine. Just as he got up, he heard chatter coming from his radio.

"Shadow! Are you alright?" yelled a crew member from the Blackjack. "A white aura just flashed past the entire damn planet!"

Scorch shook his head and turned to his wrist computer. "Relax. Situation is alright. I just-"

The commando stopped talking the moment he took note of his surroundings. Everything in Equestria all of a sudden looked like.........

Him. Earth. The Universe. Not Eponan.

In other words, everything looked like this:

Almost nothing was animated anymore. Every object was as realistic as it could have been. The grass, the Crystal Buildings and the Sky itself no longer looked like it came from a cartoon anymore.

Scorch turned to the left and noticed his comrades. He could tell their mouths were dropped behind their masks.

All of a sudden, he began to hear the outcries coming from the congressmen on Apex through his radio as they voiced their disbelief as well.

"My universe." gasped X-ray.

Scarecrow couldn't control his speech, "What? Just? Why? But? How?"

Overwatch. "This keeps getting weirder."

The ponies meanwhile were gasping and moaning at the sight of their new surroundings. The realism of their environment began to take fill their minds with wonder and joy.

Shadow noted however, that the ponies themselves were still animated despite the change of environment.

Rainbow Dash did a twirl in mid air. "Woah! Everything looks so....so?"

"Realistic? Or highly rendered?" smiled Pinkie Pie.

"So this is what the universe is supposed to look like, right?" smiled Rarity.

There was no response from Shadow.

Applejack kept waving her hoof in front of their masks and giggled. "We aren't going to get anywhere if you four guys keep locking up on us like that!"

"I don't understand." finally said X-ray after swearing in Armenian. "How did the Heart just change the landscape of a planet in the push of a button? I mean, I know I tapped the hologram and all, but the way the Heart completed the act should be impossible. Changing an entire planet's landscape in an instant flash would have SERIOUS repercussions. It felt just like-"

"Magic?" concluded Twilight.

"Come again?" muttered Scorch.

"Look, there might not be any magic, but didn't you four say that any form of highly advanced technology or scientific process is indistinguishable from magic?" reminded Twilight.

The members of Shadow looked at each and shrugged. They couldn't believe they almost forgot their own mantra.

"You're right Twilight." nodded Scarecrow. "I'm sure there's an explanation for this, unorthodox technology once we head to the archives."

An idea hit Scorch's head. "Wait, now that everything is not animated, does that mean-"

The demo man cut his sentence as he reached down to the ground (ignoring the chatter of the confused Crystal Ponies) and scooped a pile of soil in his hands.

Sure enough, the weight of the soil was no longer too light. It felt just like picking up a non animated chunk of dirt on Earth. The demo man let the dirt sink through his gloved hands.

"Now that the planet has officially been fully terraformed, it means that every object now attains a normal mass." remarked Scarecrow. "No more crushing chairs or benches for us."

"Wait, so does that technically make us stronger?" called out Cadance from the back.

"In a way." confirmed Scorch. "Now this planet isn't a half completed terraforming project. Now the planet is truly like the others in the universe."

"That's awesome!" cried Rainbow Dash. "Now we actually have a fighting chance against the alliance."

"I wouldn't bet on that Dash." debunked Overwatch. "If you've been improved through terraformation, so have the Griffins, Dragons, and the rest of the planet."

"It also makes it WORSE for us, considering that it will theoretically require us to DOUBLE our normal combat output to be successful, exacerbated by the fact that we're all injured." added Scarecrow.

The ponies formed solemn expressions.

"How do you think everyone else feels now the planet has been altered?" questioned Rarity.

X-ray crossed his arms "I'd assumed the alliance has been startled by the sudden change. They'll rightfully blame it on us. Although I don't think anyone is hurt in some form. With any luck, it'll put a delay on the alliance's attack."

"So this is what if felt like for you four?" pointed Shining Armor. "To be non animated objects within an uncompleted world?"

"More or less." shrugged Scorch. "Although the situation has been inverted. Instead of normal entities present in a barely rendered world, you're now animated in a relatively normal planet."

"One question though." squeaked Fluttershy. "Why does everything else look so funny, but we still look the same?"

"Yeah, and why aren't we getting pain in our heads for seeing the world like this?" added Pinkie Pie.

X-ray's eyes shot open under his bandanna and turned to the heart. There was a wall of text being emitted on the hologram which he read closely. It was a summary of the effects the Heart enacted on the environment.

"Huh, it turns out I only set the Heart to alter the terrain and inanimate objects of Epona rather than the lifeforms." realized X-ray. "The hologram reads 'Base components of organic lifeforms now altered. Do you wish to complete aesthetic changes?'"

"Meaning?" checked Applejack.

"Meaning that while you have the qualities of a non animated object such as increased mass, you still look like something from a little girl's cartoon." clarified Scarecrow.

"And the reason why you aren't going insane anymore is because your no longer an incomplete terraformation. You're all now capable of comprehending higher rendered objects." added Scorch.

X-ray looked back at the console. "So, should I complete the aesthetic rendering or what?"

"Well, I for one have grown accustomed to their animated looks. Besides, them look like real life midget horses is probably going to look uncanny valley as hell." hinted Scorch.

"Regardless, none of this make any sense." complained X-ray. "I know the ancient humans are advanced and all, but if the races claim we didn't create them, why is Equestria regarded as an incomplete terraformation, indicating that it was supposed to be terraformed in the first place?"

"Let's just push to the library already. Enough distractions." ordered Scarecrow.

X-ray nodded and shifted his attention to the console. He tapped the exit button and was returned to the main menu, where all the options were displayed in front of him.

He finally selected 'Archival Access'.

A new message appeared, displaying the phrase 'Do you wish to keep the gate open or closed during stay?'

"What's it saying?" asked Twilight.

"Something about a gate." frowned X-ray. "Odd, as I don't see one."

"It's a translation error." guessed Scorch. "The phrase gate probably is referring to an inter dimensional portal of some sort. After all, the archives are located within sub space."

X-ray nodded. "I'll just order the machine to leave it open to make sure it doesn't close up on us permanently."

The rifleman tapped the command and the Hologram flashed its loading symbol once more.

After a relatively uneventful moment where ponies continued to express awe at the change of environment, the ground begin to slightly shake. Not like an earthquake, but vibrations were felt.

"WWWWWWHHHHHATTTSSSS HHHHAAAAPPPEEEENNNIIIINGGGG?" shivered Pinkie Pie as she bounced up and down.

Shadow stood their ground.

"Everypony stay calm!" yelled Scarecrow.

The order had little effect as ponies started to panic. Thankfully, the disturbance only lasted a brief moment and the mild tremors ceased.

Before anyone could say anything, a portal suddenly lit up.

A bright violet portal that swirled like a warm hole. The hole was essentially a rip in the very fabric of time and space, with dark energy accelerating the movement of molecules the same way the universe expanded.

As the portal was a cut in space time, it would lead to sub space where it would normally send the object to the other side of the universe, like falling through a hole. This one however, would simply lead them to a fixed location in sub space. Or at least that's what Shadow assumed it would do.

The Mane 6 huddled together as they witnessed the portal swirl in position. Although the Mane 6 were now capable of seeing realistic objects without any drawbacks, the portal still frightened them for some reason. The sound of swirling matter did not help their situation.

"Is this the portal that will lead us to the archives?" gulped Fluttershy.

"Most likely." nodded Scorch.

X-ray swore in Armenian once more. "One thing strikes me odd though. It should be impossible for a portal to just appear out of thin air without proper equipment necessary to implement a space time rip. Nor should we able to see the portal since dark energy is far above the visible light spectrum. I mean, I know our ancestors were advanced and all, but-"

"Shut up." gritted Overwatch.

Scarecrow cleared his throat "Alright Shadow. Right now, we're going to pass by an archive that hasn't been active for a thousand years. Keep yourself alert at all times when we are there."

"Wait a minute, is it safe to pass through?" muttered Scorch.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow "Aren't you guys supposed to be experts in these things?"

"We don't know everything Rainbow Dash." debunked X-ray. "Besides, we're usually inside massive star ships that are built to withstand the cruel and unforgiving eldritch nature of subspace. We're not supposed to pass through without any protection."

"But I teleport all the time." defended Twilight.

"I thought we mentioned that your teleportation is the variant that requires no sub space rip." noted Scarecrow.

Shadow's commander proceeded to turn to his wrist computer. "Command, what's your status on our entry?"

"Four fifths of the house have voted in favor of passing through." radioed a the head of the COC.

"Overwatch, you're far better at math and physics than me or whatever is on the Blackjack, should we make a move?" questioned X-ray.

The sniper paused for a minute as calculations appeared all over his HUD. He nodded and spoke. Although being Overwatch, it felt more like a series of growls.

"From what I'm getting, the portal will indeed take us to an area locked in space time. It's unit time as well, meaning that the same amount of times passed in the archives is the equivalent to the amount of time being passed here in Equestria. It won't collapse in on its own unless it remains open for overly long periods of time which should be an issue for us."

"You calculated all that in your head?" frowned Shining Armor.

"Of course not." sighed Overwatch. "My HUD's a damn super computer. I just put the formula into effect."

Shadow turned around to the portal and each nodded.

"We don't know what's on the other side Shadow. I suggest you prep yourselves for hostiles." radioed a Blackjack crew member.

Twilight watched how the four commandos began to arm themselves.

Scarecrow finally took his gloved hands off his chest and revealed a scathing site. His hands were covered in blood that was pouring from the cut in his chest piece. Granted it wasn't a lot and he was capable of surviving it, but it still disturbed the ponies nonetheless.

Shadow's commander reached for the shotgun on his chest piece and loaded 5 rail rounds into it.

X-ray, who's right arm was still in a battered condition, reached for his rail pistol. A gauss magazine had been loaded onto it, but the commando would be in deep trouble if he ran out, considering he couldn't reload.

Overwatch was able to stand, but walking was a different problem entirely. Scorch took note and once again helped balance him.

Overwatch held Scorch's pistol with one hand while Scorch was strong enough to carry his rifle with his.

"We're Oscar Mike." gritted Scarecrow.

Shadow slowly stepped forward to the portal until-

"WAIT!" cried Pinkie Pie.

Shadow turned around with surprised expressions under their mask.

The Mane 6 galloped towards the commandos.

"You almost left without us!" scolded Rainbow Dash.

"Well, that was kind of the point." said Scorch.

"We can't just let you go alone like that!" insisted Rarity. "Who knows what could be in there."

"Exactly! That's why we don't want you to come. The last thing we want is for you six to be killed!" replied Scarecrow.

"That won't happen! We have you four for crying out loud!" countered Applejack.

"Besides, things are less scary when there is more of you around." added Fluttershy.

Scarecrow looked at his wounds. "Actually, I think the situation is more akin to you making sure we get out alive. Plus, I guess you have the right to see what lays beyond as well."

"What about me?" asked Cadance.

"You need to stay here." advised Scorch. "In case anything happens to us, you'll still be around. The Crystal Ponies need you."

"With all due respect, it is my domain and the Crystal Heart is my cutie mark."

"You are right that it is your domain, but that is why we need you to protect it." replied Scarecrow. "And the heart may be your cutie mark, but it its NOT in the context of it being an ancient human artifact."

Cadance sighed. "Just be safe."

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be fine." assured Twilight. There wasn't much sincerity in her voice.

"Come on girls, an ancient alien library located in trans dimensional space with information that will make our mind rot can't be that scary. Right?" chirped Pinkie Pie.

The group hesitantly made their way to the portal as the onlookers of the Crystal Empire remained silent.

"Be warned Shadow." radioed command. "Once you enter the portal, we'll effectively be cut off from your signal. Make sure you take note and record everything you see. Until you get out, you're on your own."

"Understood. We're oscar mike." complied Scarecrow.

One by one, the humans and former elements entered the portal and disappeared to the other side.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm alive. I've been working some other stuff which will be released soon. In other news, class is overwhelming. Easy for me, but overwhelming.

Part 2 will be out soon. Hopefully it won't take me that long.

Besides, 7000 plus words is far more than what the average chapter is on fimfiction.

Chapter 41: Revelations Part 2

"A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." - Edmund Burke

"It's dark!"

"I can't see! I can't see!"

"The stupid portal made me blind!"

"Girls! Calm down. We're probably just passing through sub space. Are we?"

"No. Sub Space isn't dark. It's brighter, has shades of violet and is much more scary looking."

"So where are we? I can't see anything!"

"Give us a moment."

Suddenly, four pairs of green eyes flashed in the middle of the dark room. Shadow squad had turned on their night vision and finally had a look around their surroundings.

From what they saw, they were in a metallic room designed much like the interior a space ship than a typical definition of a library. There were do signs of books, not that Shadow was expecting them anyway. A space faring race would have likely invented holographic storage, or at least tablet devices.

On the opposite sides of the hallway were windows. Windows that revealed a view of hyperspace. Not enough to illuminate a room however.

Shadow took a look at the ponies. The six of them were still shivering nervously.

"Looks like we're in the archives all right." muttered Scorch.

"I didn't think it was possible to travel through sub space without major defects." remarked X-ray.

"Our ancestors must have been smarter than we thought." guessed Scarecrow.

"You would at least think they'd place an obvious location for a light switch." hissed Overwatch.

"Aren't those light bulbs however?" pointed Scorch. Sure enough, there were sockets on the roof of the hallway that were clearly made for light insertion.

"Please turn on the lights soon. It's scary." whimpered Fluttershy.

"Hold on, I'm going to take a gamble." muttered X-ray.

"What are you-"

X-ray said something unintelligible to his squad, and the lights in the hallway suddenly flashed on.

The ponies gave sighs of relief.

"What did you say?" asked Scarecrow.

"I said 'lights on' in ancient Greek. Figured our ancestors would be smart enough to invent voice commands." explained X-ray.

The four soldiers turned off their night vision and looked at the ponies.

"Are you four okay?" checked Scorch.

"We're fine darling. Although this architecture isn't." spat Rarity, lamenting on the cold and gritty structure of the hallway.

Scarecrow tapped into his coms. "Command, this is Scarecrow. Do you read me."

There was only static.

"Command. Do you respond?"

No response.

"Fuck. We're alone."

X-ray exhaled loudly. "What did you expect? Transmission signals don't work in subspace."

There was a pause.

"So this is the library." stated Twilight. "Where are the books?"

"A race as advanced as our ancestors would have drooped the need for physical books a long time ago." reminded Scarecrow. "We're better off finding a central information storage where we could extract data logs. Let's move."

"Any thoughts on how we're going to find a central data chamber? Whatever that is?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"This hallway only leads to one way." stated X-ray.

Before anything could be done, a series of lights lit up on the floor below them and on the signs. The text was written in ancient greek.

"X-ray. Translate." ordered Scarecrow.

"Text reads library. Like I said, one way."

Shadow took the lead and moved forward, the hesitant ponies followed. Even though the mares were no longer capable of getting migraines from the realistic look of Shadow, the room itself created a feeling of unease.

"We've barely been here a few minutes, and I'm already starting to feel uneasy." whimpered Fluttershy.

"Well, you get used to these kinds of locations from traveling in sub space all the time." replied Scorch. "Although the notion of a room suspended in sub space indefinitely is certainly interesting. The possibilities would be endless."

"If you get uncomfortable easy, take a pre caution on what you could end up reading here. No one should go mad from revelation right now." advised Scarecrow.

Another pause passed.

Twilight broke the silence. "You know, I would really like to see what sort of culture your ancestors had. It just seems so different from the Terran Federation. Besides, I'm sure there is a bountiful sum of knowledge stored within their data storages."

"So would I. Although it seems ancient human culture is not too different from recorded information about past civilizations. Doubt we'd learn anything in those fields. But technological and scientific progress is another story." responded Scarecrow.

"Say, should we look for the Librarian as long as we're here?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"We should. There will likely be a central terminal where we can activate the intelligence. Having one around will most probably make things easier." agreed Scarecrow.

The trek was suddenly cut off. As if it was orchestrated to be synchronized, each member of Shadow except for started to experience intense pain.

X-ray clutched his arm once more. Honestly, it felt like it was going to fall off. He couldn't even move the damn thing.

Overwatch lost control of his legs and tumbled to the ground. He was lifted up by Scorch, aided by Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity.

Applejack placed a hoof on her chin. "Are y'all-"

She was cut off by Scarecrow pulling down his bandanna and vomiting blood. He clenched his stomach tightly.

"Oh dear, it seems your condition is getting worse by the minute." whispered Fluttershy.

"If we don't find a medic soon, it'll get serious. And I can't defend all of Equestria by myself." gritted Scorch.

"I'm the best medic, and not even I can work in this state. And I doubt any of you ponies know a thing about human anatomy and medicine." muttered X-ray.

"Maybe they'll be a med station here if we're lucky. Too bad my entire HUD has no clue what the fuck is in this room." said Scarecrow.

"But if there isn't, we can still find a way to disable the barrier and bring Federation reinforcements." encouraged Rarity.

Pinkie Pie tried to keep a positive attitude. She closed her eyes and began skipping forward. "Or we could find some hologram thing that will tell us all about medicine and treating wounds and-"

For some reason, Pinkie Pie didn't land on the ground on her current skip. She didn't even feel the floor. Turning her head down, she spotted what seemed like an endless drop to an infinitely far down glowing white field.

Right before Pinkie could scream, Scorch shot his arms forward, grabbed Pinkie and threw the pink mare behind him and back to safety.

"Wow, that was close. Thanks!" cheered Pinkie

The commandos were staring down the edge of the plat from and onto the glowing white field.

"Any thoughts on what that is?" asked Twilight.

"Not sure. Looks like a source of energy. Can't tell the what is though." muttered X-ray.

There was a space between the platform the group were standing on and the other one leading to some sort of facility. The space was far too wide for even Shadow to jump across, even if they were uninjured.

"Me, Fluttershy and Twilight can fly to the other side." proposed Rainbow Dash.

"And what about us? The six of you can't carry one of us nor are capable of using teleportation." reminded Scarecrow.

Scorch turned to his left and found what appeared to be a fork shaped metallic stand. One that would emit a hologram.

The demo man moved closer towards it, and it sparked to life. A transparent blue hologram flashed before his eyes. It had text written in ancient greek with a single central "button".

"Whoa, what's that!" gasped Rainbow Dash.

"Hologram." answered X-ray. "According to the text-"

"What does this button do?" squeaked Pinkie Pie. She thrust her hoof at the icon, only for it to move past right through. She repeated the motion again and again, only to fail each time.

Scarecrow pushed her aside and tapped the hologram.

Suddenly, a bridge extended from the first platform, and connected to the next. The bridge had railings on the side, likely to avoid accidents. The railings were slightly shorter for what would provide guaranteed safety to a modern Terran.

"Seems like the hologram will only respond to human touch. Smart move." guessed Overwatch.

The group crossed the bridge and reached the other side. On the top of the wall, there was a sign in a glowing orange back ground that most likely translated to 'Library entrance. Please be considerate.'

The group entered a room and took in the surroundings.

Rather than looking like her library, Twilight observed a series of metallic constructs with glowing lights of many colors, what appeared to be a screen, chairs and benches, and a series of empty "shelves". There were also some sort of pods lying around. Shadow recognized them as virtual reality tubes.

"This is a library? Too robotic for my taste." shivered Rarity.

"What are all these things for anyway?" asked Applejack.

"These shelves are most likely needed to store tablets for reading, the virtual reality tubes are used to experience interactive stories and I don't know why there's a projector." explained Scorch.

"Can any of you get a connection in this room?" asked X-ray who checked his tablet.

"Negative. Just because our ancestors were advanced, doesn't mean they thought of the internet." replied Scarecrow.

"Do libraries look like this on your colonies?" asked Fluttershy.

"Of course not! Ours are much brighter, less gloomy looking and with a view of the city, not a view of the sub space." defended Scarecrow.

"Why are all these shelves empty anyway?" sighed Twilight. "There should be at least some material we can read."

"Something tells me the humans didn't have time to stock up after they disappeared." guessed X-ray.

"So until we find the Librarian, this place is a dead end?" whispered Pinkie Pie.

"Relax. We'll find the intelligence control soon. I mean, Sombra still found the intelligence regardless." shrugged Scorch.

"Can I just comment on one thing?" requested Overwatch.

"Go head." signaled Twilight.

The other three commandos lined up alongside Overwatch and faced the ponies, leaving their back side unchecked.

"I just wanted to remark how we could have ignored all this. How we could have ignored the fact that creatures from Earth existed on another planet light years away. How we could have brushed off the fact said creatures spoke our language or the fact that they were based off of the very myths our species literally made up! And even then we could have not been bothered by said creatures using technologies or evolving just like another race an infinite distance away. All that, could have been ignored and we would have simply played games or go on some irrelevant adventure. If any lazy minded person would be in our shoes, they would have been lazy in questioning all the anomalies and wouldn't have found out about this major and ground breaking discovery."

As Overwatch spoke, a blue light began to manifest before the four commandos and slowly began to walk towards the counter terrorists. The ponies wanted to warn Shadow, but Overwatch kept talking over them.

"But we didn't. We questioned the ridiculousness of technicolor speaking ponies. We pointed out how wrong it was for you to have technologies that belonged to a human, and now look where we are! We've discovered an entire ancient civilization and unlocked the key to learning about a period in human history that we have never even known about! Although I wonder if we would have found out about it whether we questioned it or not anyway, considering we'd still deal with every single race trying to kill us."

"..."

"Yes, I'm well aware that there's an intelligence behind us right now."

Shadow turned around and tightened the grip on their weapons to face the entity that appeared before their eyes.

Like most intelligence units, it took the form of a being and glowed a transparent blue. Unlike human VIs however, this intelligence did not take the form of a human, even though it was clearly taking the form of some living thing.

The intelligence was somewhat shorter than X-ray, wore something similar to a dress and was humanoid, while not being human. The ears were far more pointed, the nose was smaller than a human's and had a slight square jaw. There were also no signs of wrinkles nor eyelashes and it appeared to have freckles under its eyes. Its hair fell back to its waste.

The eyes were blank, but since it was smiling, one could tell the intelligence was content. The construct appeared to be female due to its figure and facial structure.

The construct spoke with a smooth and calm voice, far too close to Fluttershy's.

No one could understand it however, as she spoke in ancient Greek.

"X-ray, what did she say?" asked Scarecrow.

"She said welcome. I'll handle communication." answered X-ray.

The intelligence raised an eyebrow and frowned, only to smile once more. It extended her hand and touched the fore head of Scarecrow, who nearly drew his shotgun from his back.

She finally spoke in modern Terran English. "Translation software updated, allow me to repeat my previous statement. Welcome visitor to the Crystal Library. I am the monitor of this installation, AI theta-beta 33. or as designated by my makers, the Librarian. The last time of visit to the library is approximately one thousand and three local star cycles."

Scorch turned around to face the ponies. "This is the Librarian, the VI we were looking for."

The Librarian placed a finger on her tiny lips. "Allow me to correct you, I am not a Virtual Intelligence, I am an Artificial Intelligence, fully sentient."

"I thought it was impossible to achieve a full AI." muttered X-ray. The commando used neural controls to check on his HUD. He made sure that he was recording.

"From my readings, you are all humans. However, I have noticed a change in your genes." said the Librarian. "You're much taller, stand more upright and have a far more complex genetic code. I am also reading what appears to be artificial genetic modification."

"Well due to our last visit to the archives being at a ten thousand year gap, our race is obviously going to experience a form of evolution." responded Scorch.

"The difference is still far too acute to be considered a form of evolution. Please state the purpose of your visit." smiled the Librarian.

Scarecrow cleared his throat. "We were attempting to seek information regarding our current ordeal. It's somewhat complicated."

"I see, please hand me your holo book devices or any other compatible device so I may transfer any data file that you may need." instructed the Librarian.

The members of Shadow looked at each other hesitantly. Slowly, X-ray took out his tablet and held it in his hand.

As if she believed X-ray knew what he was doing, the Librarian extended her arm and the tablet began to levitate. The Librarian pulled the device towards her and looked at it for a few seconds.

She frowned. "Oh dear, it seems that this device is incompatible."

"All of our devices are formatted like this, I doubt any of the technology we have will work." said Scorch.

The Librarian handed back X-ray's tablet. "Then I'm afraid I can't transfer any form of data on your devices, unless you allow me to reformat them."

Twilight crept forward. "You're an artificial intelligence, I'm sure you'll have all the answers we'll need."

The AI frowned. "Young alicorn, the Crystal Library is an area has been designated for humans only, I'm afraid you and your friends have to leave."

"You can't talk to a princess like that!" yelled Rainbow Dash.

"The alicorn is not the head of state of the Crystal Empire. That responsibility falls to the joint human tribes." replied the Librarian with an annoyed tone.

Before things got tense, Scarecrow shot up his arms. "AI, it's okay, the ponies are authorized to come with us, the Crystal Empire is their home after all."

"Their home?" repeated the Librarian. "You are mistaken. Surely you would know that this Empire is a human creation."

X-ray shook his head. "Just because our ancestors created the Cryst-"

Before continuing to speak, X-ray felt a sharp pain in his right arm. The injuries from the Buffalo encounter were getting more and more fatal. The problem with being augmented was that any pain he felt would progressively get worse, and if the fibers in his hexagonal muscles were injured in any way, it would be near fatal.

The Librarian did a quick scan of Shadow's conditions.

"All of you are displaying injuries beyond normal levels. Wait here."

The Librarian disappeared, and then reappeared again. Despite being an ethereal entity, she was somehow holding a series of vials in her hands. Shadow noticed how said hands were far more smoother and firm compared to human ones. The liquids were a teal blue, and clashed heavily with her transparent blue form.

"Drink these." instructed the AI.

X-ray was not convinced. "You're an AI, how are you holding-"

"Just drink it dummy!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

Slowly, the members of Shadow reached for the vials.

"What is this?" asked Overwatch.

"Batca. It's a healing agent. Drink it to be cured." encouraged the Librarian.

Shadow pulled down their bandannas and and sipped the liquid. They noted the orange flavor.

"How do you feel?" asked Rarity.

Shadow turned around. Their masks were still on, minus the cloth covering their mouth. They paused for a minute as they felt the effects of the bacta take place.

X-ray suddenly could move his right arm perfectly, Overwatch could support himself without falling over, and Scarecrow didn't need to clench his stomach and stopped vomiting blood. He even felt that blood that he had vomited had some how been replaced. Scorch wasn't wounded, but he certainly felt better.

"Wow, I feel amazing." gasped Scarecrow.

"No more injuries?" questioned Fluttershy.

Overwatch walked forward without harm. "None at all."

X-ray inspected the bacta. He tried scanning it, but his HUD responded by saying there was too much undocumented information to form a conclusion. "How does this bacta work? There should be no way for any medicine to just heal my fractured arm in fifteen seconds!"

The Librarian formed a solemn expression. "You don't know what bacta is? Surely a human would know."

"Lady, that's not half of what we don't know." groaned Scarecrow.

"An answer is an order then."

For the next two minutes, the Librarian gave an explanation of bacta and how it functioned. The ponies were annoyed at Shadow's rampant curiosity, but let the Librarian continue.

After she finished speaking, Shadow stood silently.

"I did not understand a single word of that." admitted X-ray.

"It's simple logic really." responded the Librarian.

"Simple logic only if you've made the discoveries to make it sound logical." defended Scarecrow. He held up the vial. "Still, the effects of this concoction are utterly mind bending. If they can be used to heal anything by simple ingestion, then you could pretty much say that this vial is-"

"Magic?" muttered Twilight.

"Yeah. Kind of like magic."

"Now that we're all healed, I think it would be appropriate to ask a few questions. Since you're an AI, you are capable if responding outside normal programming restrains, no?" asked Scorch.

"Affirmative." smiled the Librarian. "What questions do you have?"

"What is this place!" yelled Pinkie Pie before anyone else could talk.

"The location that you are in is a sub space archive. Standard for most terraformation operations. The creators of the world would create a sub space location in order to review information and dictate the next course of action."

"Why put it in the middle of dimensions?" asked Applejack.

"Safety, and to offer a secure storage location in order to prevent primitives or even early space faring species from uncovering information they are not authorized to know." answered the Librarian. "The only way one could discover such a location is if they discovered inter dimensional teleportation or accessed a Creator Heart-"

"Creator Heart?" interrupted Scarecrow.

"You know, the central device used to orchestrate a creation of a planet." answered the Librarian.

The ponies looked at each other worriedly. That was the true name of the Crystal Heart.

"Actually, we didn't know until a few hours ago." deadpanned Scorch.

"Few hours?" frowned the Librarian. That did not make sense at all for her.

"Why shape such a complex construct as a heart?" asked Rarity.

"Because the Creator Heart is the centre, thereby the Heart of a Terraformation operation." laughed the Librarian.

"Please continue." requested Overwatch.

"As I was saying, to access a sub space archive, a Terraformer species would use Creator Heart to access the archives if he or she needed information. Based on my readings, you all just entered the archives with his method. Still, I do not understand why a human would bring a pony with them, although I have not made any contact with either of your races for millenniums." stated the AI.

"Before we tell you why, we should point out that our race has used the heart multiple times. In fact, it's kinda defending the Crystal Empire right now." said Rainbow Dash.

"But of course. No technological application should only serve one measly purpose." giggled the Librarian.

X-ray sighed and got ready to tell the Librarian about their predicament.

"A few days ago, our current government, the United Terran Federation, discovered the planet of Epona."

"You mean rediscovered." insisted the Librarian.

"More or less. As we were saying, we arrived on the planet a few days ago, and we were totally caught off guard to see a group of talking technicolor ponies."

The Librarian was beginning to think that she was being treated to a massive joke. "Why would a human be surprised to see the Equines on the world of Epona? Are you not aware of-"

"No. That's the problem. We don't know a single thing. We don't know why this is here, we don't why humans were on Epona thousands of years before and we don't know why we can't remember." explained Scarecrow.

"Allow me to finish." requested Scorch. "After we met the ponies, we tried to find out exactly why they were acting so close to us humans."

The Librarian forced herself to not spill the answer.

"Then, something even stranger happened. For some reason, we found ourselves as the target of a multiple species alliance, hell bent on attacking us and wiping us out."

"I don't find it surprising, considering what your ancestors did in the past." muttered the AI.

"Neither do we. But why can't us nor the ponies remember any of it?" gritted Scarecrow.

"It does seem odd that you humans can't remember it. After all, even a species that has been traveling across space for thousands-"

"Hundreds." corrected Overwatch.

"I do believe you are mistaken, you couldn't have simply lost all this technology by magic." implied the Librarian.

"Well, we did. Because for the past few thousand years, we humans had to adapt in order to be able to travel across space once more. And our second voyaging of space has lasted only a few hundred years. Albeit with inferior technology to this." explained X-ray.

"That does seem peculiar. You humans should have every reason to remember such a significant period in your time." frowned the Librarian.

"That's what we said." shrugged X-ray.

"But you don't know at all?" inquired Fluttershy.

"My last period of interaction with a human dates to them creating this sub space archive. It's just blank after this. I can only remember something if data is transferred or if I am activated to experience it." stated the Librarian.

"And you don't know why us ponies remember any of this as well?" asked Twilight.

"That is less of a surprise." shook the Librarian. "You ponies simply had no interaction with the humans after your creation. Can't say the same about the other races."

"Surely we would have remembered an event such as mass genocide. Would we not?" implied Rarity.

"I wasn't around in your part of the world when the humans were attacking. Why you don't remember is anyone's guess unless data is brought to me." answered the Librarian.

"Moving on, after we repelled a few attacks, we found out a bit of our ancestor's history and were instructed to visit this location in order seek information that would aid us." finalized Scorch. "You see, this major alliance is plotting an attack on us and the ponies, but our Federation can't do anything about it because of a giant barrier blocking any form of orbital deployment."

The Librarian formed a look of empathy. "I see, but what can I do about it?"

"We need information on how we can get this barrier struck down. Surely our ancestors would be smart enough to know how to disable a barrier if they could build constructs like this location." demanded Scarecrow.

The Librarian laughed. "Your ancestors? Let me just say that I did not expect you humans to be so rational and knowledgeable when I saw you. Seems like a lot has improved since I last saw you."

"Improved?" blurted X-ray. "We can't even create Artificial Intelligence! Is there anything in this library that will help us remove the barrier and call for reinforcements?"

"Afraid not." shook the Librarian. "This is a data archive, not a military center."

"Come on! The fucking Crystal Heart just turned Epona from a cartoon world into something realistic." complained Scorch.

"Wait a minute? Terraformation is complete? Took you humans long enough." smirked the Librarian.

"Yeah, how did the Heart do that anyway?" asked Scarecrow.

The Librarian gave an explanation. While it only took two minutes, it felt like an eternity.

Surprisingly, Shadow understood none of that.

"Okay, how about I stop asking questions since this technology and science is clearly beyond what me or anyone in the Federation can comprehend." shook X-ray. "You might as well call it magic."

"Hey, I'm sure you'll figure it out one day." encouraged Rainbow Dash. She gave a friendly nudge to X-ray.

The Librarian suddenly laughed like a little girl.. "Come to think of it, I'm thousands of years behind in terms of productivity. After all, I'm running what must be an extremely outdated operating system. Give me a moment to update my software please."

A moment passed, and the Librarian's smile faded.

"Odd, I can't seem to access the servers for software updates."

"Well what did you expect? Since the ancient human empire isn't active, there's no way for us to create a newer version of your operating system." panned X-ray.

"Actually, it has nothing to do with that." hinted the Librarian. She spoke once more before Shadow could respond. "I just can't access any servers at all what's so ever, and with my current OS, I'm afraid there's nothing this facility can do to aid you."

"So there's ultimately nothing a Terraformation device can do about a giant kinetic barrier?" scowled Scarecrow.

"Afraid not." sighed the Librarian. "If it was a barrier emitted by the Heart, it would be an easy feat to shut it down."

"Could you give us any information on the barrier that's surrounding the planet right now? Any way we could deactivate it?" asked Scorch.

"Give me a moment to analyze the planet's atmosphere." requested the Librarian.

The hologram looked down and put her fingers on her lips, as if she was thinking deeply about something. When she finished her analysis, she looked back up at the group.

"Barrier is located within the lower troposphere of the planet. Required energy to shatter the barrier would be at around 3 times ten to the power 33 joules." noted the Librarian.

"That's around the same amount of energy a planet gun would emit when fired." remembered X-ray. "If we were to just round up all six dreadnoughts and have them fire their combined ion canons, we could shatter it."

"We can't take that risk. There would still be enough energy left over to strike a significant portion of the planet." denied Scarecrow. "And I, neither would the Federation, would want to risk blowing up Epona's surface by accident."

"The only other option would be an Electromagnetic Pulse. And we know how that turned out." gritted X-ray.

"The barrier is structured as a Faraday cage, any form of electrical attack would be useless." remarked the Librarian.

"Can't we just teleport ships inside of Epona?" asked Twilight.

"It's not as easy as you think it is." warned Scorch. "Even if the calculations are done correctly, there's no telling that a ship would perfectly materialize in Equestria's sky rather than crashing in a city."

"Is there anything we can do to get this shield powered down?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"This barrier is powered by a source. The only way it would deactivate is if you found whatever was emitting the barrier and taking it out." instructed the AI.

"Why didn't you say so? Who's creating the barrier?" blurted Rainbow Dash.

The Librarian clenched her chin. "Scanning the planet for a possible source."

A moment passed.

"Readings are inconclusive."

Scarecrow wanted to kick something. "What the fuck do you mean inconclusive?"

"Every time I try to route the signal of the barrier, I only get static. As if someone was enabling a countermeasure." explained the Librarian.

"Can't you do anything about it?" whispered Fluttershy.

"It's a counter measure, what do you think?" gritted X-ray.

"There's bound to be something we can use to take out the barrier or at least the giant army coming straight at us! Documents, blueprints, instructions, anything!" pleaded Scorch.

"Well, I do have some patents on how to construct some weapon that would out do your kinetic gauss rifles." remarked the Librarian. "I could transfer them to your devices, as long as you allow me to reformat them."

"Just reformat the documents themselves to something compatible." instructed Scarecrow.

The Librarian nodded. A hologram of a sheet of paper appeared before her. She made a certain motion with her hand over the document which proceeded to disappear. Shadow wanted to ask how she was doing all this, but they refrained.

Suddenly, they got notifications on their wrist computers from an unnamed source.

They accessed the documents to see what the Librarian had to offer them. As usual, all the information that was written was beyond their comprehension. Half of the terminology was alien to them. If they tried to understand it, they would have likely gone mad.

X-ray shook his head. "None of these are practical enough for us to construct them."

"Maybe I could aid you in that. I've made some pretty complex things you know." insisted Twilight.

Scarecrow stroked Twilight's mane. "I'm afraid this is beyond your comprehension too."

"So that's it huh? Trying to disable the barrier is an improbability." gritted X-ray.

"Not unless you find whatever is emitting it." reminded the Librarian.

"Do any of you believe it's some sort of generator?" questioned Scarecrow.

Pinkie Pie placed a hoof on her chin. A light bulb suddenly went off in her head. "Hey, didn't the Zebras mention that they had this ally-guy that was behind the whole thing."

"You're right." nodded Scorch. "But who could it be?"

"I doubt anyone in Equestria has the ability to create a barrier this epic." implied Twilight. "It would have to be some sort of powerful magic user."

"A magic user who holds a grudge against humanity." added Overwatch.

"I bet it's Discord." gritted Applejack.

"It couldn't be him, he's reformed." defended Fluttershy.

"Oh please. The guy loves chaos! He'll do anything to see the world burn!" shrieked Rainbow Dash.

"Actually, it wouldn't make much sense for Discord to be plotting against humanity." implied the Librarian.

"Why not? Shouldn't he hate humanity like the rest of them?" questioned Scorch.

"No." simply said the Librarian. "You humans never really did anything wrong to him. In fact, he kind of enjoyed the mass destruction your ancestors were brining to Epona."

"We humans are not a violent race that would commit genocide for the heck of it or commits war for no reason!" growled Scarecrow.

"I believe you. But the actions of your ancestors would tell me otherwise." responded the AI.

"Then who could it possible be?" inquired Rarity. The situation was getting more and more desperate.

"Speaking of ancestors, could you at lest tell us a little bit about the history of the ancient humans. Like, how long did our space faring empire last?" asked X-ray.

"It wasn't an empire." shook the Librarian. "It was a collection of multiple tribes divided by ethnicity. As for how long it lasted, I'm calculating a few weeks."

"You mean you were in service to humanity for a few weeks?" checked Scorch.

"No, you humans went from being simple cave men to a graduated space faring race in a process of a few weeks. I saw the transition myself. It was rather peculiar to say the least." corrected the Librarian.

No one talked.

X-ray finally spoke. "Few weeks? How does a space faring empire last a few weeks? YOU CAN NOT GO FROM CAVEMEN TO GALACTIC TRAVELERS AND BACK AGAIN IN A FEW WEEKS!"

"Take a chill pill." advised Pinkie Pie.

"Not to worry." smiled the Librarian. She suddenly held a bottle of stress relievers. X-ray just stared at them bemusedly.

"Honestly though, it still feels odd that humans could advanced that rapidly, only to fall that quickly as well." defended Scarecrow.

"I knew humans were rapid adapters, but that would be just ridiculous." added Scorch.

"Easy come easy go?" pondered Twilight.

"To be fair, my interaction with humanity was limited to me being activated, serving your race for a few weeks and then being deactivated. I am reading nearly ten thousand years of inactivity with your race." explained the Librarian.

"Do you know what could have brought down our space faring ancestors back to tribal life styles?" questioned X-ray.

"Negative. The last time I was interacting with your race was when I was creating this library and overseeing expansion of the Crystal Empire. After that, I was simply shut down. And now here I am." told the AI.

"So that's it? You never saw what happened to our ancestors after that? You just stopped functioning?" gritted Overwatch.

The Librarian looked down. "My apologies, but there was no way for me to control whenever your ancestors wanted me on and off."

"Hey, didn't Nigeria mention that the attacks of the ancient humans simply ceased after a period of time?" remembered X-ray.

"Your right. I think that's when the Librarian got shut down as well." nodded Scorch.

"It seems like a possibility." agreed the Librarian.

"But knowing the nature of humans and their relationship to victory, it seems unlikely that humans would just stop fighting in the middle of combat." remarked Scarecrow.

"Well, what if the humans didn't want to stop?" implied Twilight.

"Yeah, what if the creatures of the planet fought back and repelled the invaders?" guessed Applejack.

"I am sorry, but at the rate the humans were decimating Epona, there would be no way for the humans to loose unless they willingly surrendered." debunked the Librarian.

"Then why did we stop? We couldn't have just felt like it. And that still wouldn't explain why we regressed from a mighty group space tribes to pathetic cave tribes." whined Scorch. "Especially in a period that lasted a few weeks."

"Moving on, what was the planet count of the ancient space faring humans? " asked Scarecrow. "Before going to Epona, I'm sure our ancestors would have colonized a vast quantity of worlds."

"And with the Crystal Heart, terraforming would have been the easiest job ever." agreed Rarity.

"Actually, it was quite the opposite." denied the AI. "Other than Earth, the only colony humans were settled on, or at least WANTED to settle on was Epona."

X-ray didn't even bother challenging the ridiculousness of that statement. Surprisingly, it was the former elements that questioned it.

"Are you sure about that?" deadpanned Rainbow Dash.

"I can not lie." smiled the Librarian.

"Well neither can I, but I thought there were a ton of planets the humans would want to claim before coming to Epona." stated Applejack.

"Yeah. Why would their ancestors waste so much time finding our planet when they could have easily colonized so many more?" frowned Twilight.

"It was not my calling. The humans just punched in a random code in the command vessel and the others followed." informed the Librarian.

"Punched in a random code? Sounds kinda risky." twitched Pinkie Pie.

"Exactly. Mighty irresponsible if ya ask me." nodded Applejack.

"To be fair, the ancestors of the humans that stand before us weren't very bright." shrugged the AI.

"Not bright? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense for a race that could build places like this." whispered Fluttershy.

"Really, it was I and the machines that did most of the work."

"Still, with a huge arsenal of space ships, it seems odd that our ancestors would only focus on one planet." pointed X-ray.

"Huge arsenal?" repeated the Librarian. "The fleet was merely fifteen ships. One carrier at 10 kilometers and 14 standard size frigates at 5 and a half kilometers each. Every tribe had its own respective vessel."

Scorch crossed his arms. "Fifteen ships? That constituted the entirety of ancient human battle prowess? I mean, I know the ships they commandeered are far more superior to ours, but that seems far too little to suffice what would have been the human population."

"Not really. The population was rather small."

X-ray wanted to shoot himself from all the logical fallacies. "Any species that can build starships and the preceding technology needed to create it would need the combined engineering input of at least a few billion."

"Oh no. It was the opposite of that. The humans were at 1 million on Earth. Only a few thousand were on each ship." told the Librarian.

"1 million? That was estimated to be the human population on Earth thousands of years ago." noted Scarecrow.

"How could humans develop tools to make the necessary pre existing technologies and the ones demonstrated here with just a million people?" asked Twilight.

The Library gave a light smile.

"You know something!" pointed Rainbow Dash.

"I do, but I'd rather you ask me a few questions to see if you can figure it out for yourselves." teased the AI.

"I have one!" shot up Pinkie Pie. "By any chance, did you meet a guy named Sombra a thousand years ago?"

"Sombra?" frowned the Librarian. "You mean the unicorn that's obsessed with black and constantly growls?"

"Exactly!" piped up Twilight. While we were rummaging the Empire for clues, we found some notes that stated he found this room while teleporting."

"Oh so that's what he's called." remembered the Librarian. "It's always odd when a creature enters facilities like this by simply teleporting in. It's almost like walking into a room without knocking."

"What did Sombra want?" asked Fluttershy.

"At first he demanded to know who I was and what I was doing here." said the Librarian. "I explained and demanded he was to leave. I was following the protocol established by your ancestors that prohibited me from accepting non ponies into this facility."

"But you gave Sombra some notes." interrogated Scarecrow.

"Yes, your protocol did not prohibit me from distributing non official information. Your ancestors really had no idea as to how you are supposed to establish regulations." stated the Librarian. "I wonder what he did with those."

"Well, we read them and that's how we discovered about this place." flexed X-ray. "And that's also how we learned that our ancestors massacred the races just because they committed heresy and not 'knowing their place' all that bull shit."

"Another question." said Scorch. "Why are all these ponies and other species evolving like humans? And how did they get the earliest technologies out of thin air?"

"Isn't it obvious?" inquired the Librarian.

"Not really. We don't even know how this planet came to be." defended X-ray.

"Come on. Seriously?" giggled the Librarian. "You're in a room that is entirely based on planet construction and I hinted that Equestria's terraformation is completed, meaning that it had to be started."

X-ray put two and two together. "Are you saying that our ancestors created this world?"

"That can't be possible!" exclaimed Twilight. "After we were created, there was a hundred year gap before the humans unleashed their onslaught. If we were made by them, the humans should have been governing us from start to finish."

"Let's just say the ancestors of humanity didn't have a clue as to how space worked in relation to time." hinted the Librarian.

There was a tense moment in the room that swiftly passed.

Applejack finally spoke. "Please tell me y'all are recording this."

"We are." answered Scarecrow.

"If you think about it. It's certainly impossible that a planet would just show up in the middle of nowhere, only to spring with creatures exclusively with your mythology who act and talk the exact same way all humans did." hinted the Librarian. "Besides, didn't you all take a hint by the simple presence of a terraformation device?"

X-ray was desperate. "Well, I, uh, kinda......no." He felt ashamed.

"This is just so fucking confusing." shook Scorch.

"Even more confusing, how did our ancestors program this entire world and create AIs of your caliber?" asked Scarecrow. "I can't even comprehend how they placed a giant room in the middle of sub space."

"Aren't you listening?" panned the Librarian. "I said your ancestors weren't the most intelligent of people. Heck, the four of you would trump them all in a game of wits."

"Not intelligent!" yelled Rarity. "Look at this place for crying out loud, if Shadow can't understand how any of this works and dismiss it as cosmic magic, then their ancestors had to be rather potent in the various fields of science."

"They weren't." was all the Librarian said.

"That kind of explains why our ancestors used such inappropriate terminology when addressing various objects." realized Scarecrow.

"Tell me about it." sighed the AI.

"If they couldn't figure anything out, how did they build all this?" questioned Twilight.

"They didn't."

"But you said they made this planet and all of its living creatures." pointed Rainbow Dash.

"They did."

"So how did we get all this technology?" screamed Overwatch who couldn't take it anymore.

"You found it." said the Librarian rather quickly.

"We what?"

"You found it. As in you did not make any of this technology, you merely found it and used it. I was basically walking your ancestors through the whole ordeal." explained the Librarian.

"This is getting us no where." face palmed X-ray.

"Just another tiny questioned." squeaked Fluttershy. "Why don't you look like a human?"

"Yeah, you would think the humans would design their constructs to reflect them." noticed Twilight.

"You don't even look like anything from a human mythology book." added Scarecrow.

"Why of course not. I have taken the form of a Narret." trivialized the AI.

Scorch stroked his bandanna. "You're a what?"

"A Narret." repeated the Librarian. "A female one to be exact of average build."

"Who are the Narrets?" interrogated Scarecrow.

The Librarian was rather calm. "A race, just like you and the ponies."

"Another alien race? Way to complicate the situation." groaned Rainbow Dash.

"And it was these Narrets who built everything? The Heart? The ships and the sciences behind them?" checked X-ray.

"That is correct. Your ancestors merely exploited the tools of my makers." stated the AI.

It was as if Scorch wanted to cry. "Wait, how did our ancestors get a hold of alien technologies beyond their understanding? Did you ever interact with the Narrets?"

"First, yes. I've been in service with the Narret for seven Vaporan cycles. Vapora is the Narret home world by the way. My instructions were to merely be the central operating system of their fleet. On my last interaction with the Narret race, I was to lead a fleet of unmanned vessels into another system to engage a local Narret terror group. Unfortunately, a glitch in our central mainframe caused me to teleport to the planet of Terra, or Earth. As I was unable to communicate with central command due to being too far for signals to reach, my ships simply touched down on various parts of Earth. A day later, my hull was approached by a series of primitive humans. They activated me, and I was ready to function once more."

Scarecrow yawned. "Hold on, you just served our ancestors? Just like that without questioning? What about protocols? Surely your makers would have instructed you not to help no Narrets."

"I've always been amongst the more helpful of the AIs." said the Librarian.

"Are there any other sapient species in this galaxy that you know of?" asked Twilight.

The Librarian nodded. "Plenty. The Narrets were a part of the Stellar Alliance the last time I was with them. There are the-"

"Just focus on the Narrets for now. What can you tell us about the Narrets? Their culture, who they were and all other relevant facts." requested Scorch.

"This isn't the time to talk about these things Scorch." interrupted Scarecrow. "Right now we have an entire species under attack from overwhelming odds and terraforming this planet to make it more suitable for them doesn't help our situation."

"I'm sorry, but there is literally nothing I can do to help." apologized the Librarian.

"Say, can you call those Narret guys?" asked Pinkie Pie. "Maybe they could help us out."

"Dear universe, I do not need to go through a fucking 'second contact' right now." complained X-ray.

"Give me a moment to make a call." requested the Librarian.

The group was getting tired of waiting.

"Odd. It seems that I can't contact them." awed the Librarian.

"Didn't you say something about not being able to access the extranet?" reminded Scorch.

"That should have nothing to do with it. I should still be able to contact what has become of the Narrets." countered the Librarian.

"Well what if there aren't any Narrets anymore?" panned Overwatch.

"What do you mean by that?" squeaked Fluttershy.

"Its bee thousands of years, they could have perished for all I care." hinted X-ray.

The ponies were getting nervous and scared. Scarecrow elevated the mood.

"Or they could have simply evolved to an even higher field of communication. As a result, they would have no reason to keep the servers of the old extranet running."

The Librarian nodded but looked sad. "True. Although the notion that I won't be in contact with my makers isn't very comforting."

"Hey, don't be sad. That won't make anything better." pleaded Pinkie Pie.

The Librarian took the advice and gave a small smile. "You know, we have never been properly introduced to each other."

X-ray crossed his arms. "We don't have time for-"

Suddenly, he found Rarity bumping is left with an angry look. The commando sighed. The group spent the next minute introducing each other and who they were.

"It sure is nice to meet you all. Although I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you in your situation." apologized the Librarian.

"It's alright. This is beyond your control. I will never blame anyone for something that happened beyond their control." assured Scarecrow.

"Thank you."

"Although, could you at least tell us what our ancestors did? Why they presumably made this planet and what not?" requested X-ray.

"I will not tell you that." teased the Librarian.

"...."

"I will show you that."

Author's Note

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Frostbite

Archer

Bandit

Oxide

Guess what these mean. :)

Chapter 42: Revelations Part 3

Warning, the following chapter will contain vast historical inaccuracies on purpose. Read at your own risk.

"I offer no forgiveness, a father's sins, passed to his son." - Gravemind

Everyone in the room was confused.

"Pardon me, but did you say you were going to show us?" asked Twilight.

The Librarian nodded. "Since none of you can clearly remember anything, I might as well show you everything. It would be a lot easier than explaining it all and letting you decipher it. Once I'm done, I'm sure everything will be clear."

"No offense, but at this point, nothing makes sense any more." shrugged Rainbow Dash.

Scorch shook his head. "Not even for us."

"So how do intend to show everything?" asked X-ray. "You implied yourself this library has no books or data files that would be useful to us other than concoctions that are beyond our level of understanding."

"Trust me, we won't need books for what I have in mind." hinted the Librarian.

"Well, quit being cryptic and tell us what you need to do." demanded Scarecrow.

"It's simple really. Well at least for me. All I need to do is take a peak inside one of your memories." informed the Librarian.

Shadow looked at each other worriedly. Going into one's sub conscious was not new for the UTF. They had technology that could accomplish the same thing, but the last thing they wanted to do was share their dreadful memories with the ponies.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea." shook X-ray. As if he needed the ponies to shut down from the things he had done.

"Why not?" frowned the Librarian.

Pinkie Pie explained. "Well, you see, Shadow here belongs to a super duper secret and lethal counter terrorist group in their government, so they can't exactly share their memories with us."

"They won't even share their names with us." added Applejack.

"Basically, our minds are classified. We can't share them by law, so. No." panned Scarecrow.

"Besides, whether it's restricted by government decree or not, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to take a trip down their memory lanes anyway. Right?" checked Rarity.

"Trust me, none of you do." growled Overwatch.

The Librarian laughed. "Don't worry, I don't intend to look into any of your memories. I just intend to look into your ancestors'."

"Our ancestors'." repeated Scorch.

"Why of course! While none of you were alive during the...genocide...your distant grand fathers were." hinted the Librarian.

"Okay, makes sense, but how do you intend to look into our ancestors' memories, they're dead." pointed X-ray. "They've been dead for, quite a while actually."

The Librarian was still cheery, but slightly annoyed. "I know that, what I want to look into is your genetic memory."

"Great, another field of science we are utterly ignorant in." groaned Scarecrow. "Alright team, get out your notes."

The four members of Shadow turned on their wrist computers, causing a hologram of a text box to appear in the process which waited for the commandos to take notes with neural controls.

"It's a simple concept really. Your DNA contains genetic code from even your most distant of ancestors. A single stand of which is needed to determine who such a person was. All I need to do is take a sample of your DNA, trace it's ancestry, access the file of your ancestor, and it would be like he or she is already there. I'm sure you humans can already access the memories of individuals with your technology level, so it would be the exact same process, only on a much more thorough scale." explained the Librarian.

"Makes sense. To a certain extent." nodded Overwatch as he typed what he had just heard on his wrist computer. The hologram was filled with text in turn.

"So one of us is going to be used as a source for this?" asked Scorch.

"Oh no. I say it would be best if I took extracts from all of you. We could jump in the minds of multiple ancestors and you all could get an even better idea of what was going on." proposed the Librarian.

"Even us?" asked Twilight.

"But of course. We should have a pony's perspective as well." replied the Librarian.

The AI took a look at the four commandos and she quickly analyzed their body, causing Shadow to be illuminated in blue light.

"Also, it seems the four of you would be descended from people who would have a great influence on the early stages of the ponies." noted the Librarian.

Shadow looked hesitantly at the former elements of harmony.

"So how do you intend to, extract, our genetic memory?" questioned Rarity with a nervous tone.

"A blood sample is going to be involved right?" shivered Fluttershy.

"Or surgery." squeaked Pinkie Pie.

"Surgery? All I need to do is just scan your body and a copy of your genetic code will appear in my data banks, which I will then analyze further until get the memories I want." assured the Librarian.

The counter terrorists were extremely uneasy about sharing their memories, but it was for the greater good.

Scarecrow lowered his head and glared at the Librarian. "Alright, you can take a look into our memories, BUT, you are not to look at or share any of ours, ESPECIALLY anything from the past seven years."

The Librarian's eyes shot wide. "Okay....I never intended to do so anyway."

"Darn, y'all are way too secretive at times. You gotta learn to trust somepony from time to time." shook Applejack.

"Alright, let's get the process started." announced the Librarian. She turned to the left and faced the ponies, who looked back at the AI with a nervous stare.

The Librarian extended her arms, and a blue aura appeared from her hand, causing the ponies to squeal in uncertainty with the exception of Pinkie Pie, who was filled with delight and curiosity. The Mane 6 found a series of blue squares appear on their body as the Librarian analyzed their genetic code and saved it in her data banks.

Next, the Librarian turned to Shadow squad, who paused before repeating the same process on them. Unlike the Mane 6, Shadow didn't flinch or even react to being scanned. They were just concerned that the secrecy of their lives was going to be a secret.

"Promise me that you'll delete our memories after your done." threatened Scorch. Although his tone was more of a squirmy gulp rather than rage.

The Librarian put on a transparent fake smile. "Of...of course sir."

Twilight glared at the commandos, she could understand that it was against protocol to share any information about themselves, but they didn't need to threaten an artificial intelligence.

The Librarian returned to her quirky manner in a short period of time. She had all ten needed strands of DNA from the organics. Now all she needed to do was crack the code and get the memories.

In order to symbolize that she was working, the AI lit up a hologram with certain figures Shadow couldn't describe that changed based on her hand movements.

The ponies crept towards Shadow, their eyes still glued on the Librarian. The ponies were really determined to know what had gone on in the past, but were really unsure if they could handle information that had been lost in time and kept away from them. Shadow on the other hand waited patiently for the Librarian to finish her confounding process.

Then again, it wasn't like they had all the time in the world. They would have been gone for nearly an hour soon while the other ponies waited outside impatiently.

"Have you found the memories yet?" asked X-ray.

"Why yes." replied the Librarian. "I'm just editing them to select the right moments you all will find the most interesting. Then, I am going to format all the memories into a single clip that switches between point of views."

"How long will it take?" asked Scarecrow.

"Just a few minutes please." requested the Librarian. "I just want to make sure I have the right organization and need to process it in a suitable format."

A few minutes passed and the Librarian concluded her work. The hologram she was working on disappeared and a new one, a larger one materialized in front of the crowd.

The Librarian glided over to the ponies and humans.

"What's going on?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"I've compiled all your ancestors' memories into a single video. You may view it now if you wish." responded the AI.

"Oh boy! A movie!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

"Prepare for mind shattering revelations." groaned Overwatch as the video started to play-

.
.
.
.

Video Playing

It was a scene that made it impossible for Shadow to recognize that it was Earth. The fields were grassy and brown and the clear blue sky showed no sign of space travel.

Like when one would view any memory, the scene would take a first person perspective of its owner. Who the memory belonged to was not a concern, all that was needed was to know why everything had happened.

The men who walked in the fields were definitely ancient. Each one of them was hunched and extremely short compared to the current day Terran. Their skin was a tan and their hair was unkempt and brown. They didn't look like any one of their descendants, but that was to be expected after years of evolution.

The men wore cloth on their body that resembled the garments worn by the Greeks at the earliest point of their ancient civilizations. By that point of reference, it was clear that Shadow was looking at a place somewhere in ancient Greece.

Suddenly, the men started to converse with each other. They spoke of hunting and of course, thanked Artemis for their most recent bounty. Or at least that's hat the translators said. Judging by the land surrounding the men, farming had not yet fully taken hold.

The men then began to speak of more myths with each other, with some blaming the heat on an angered Helios. Interestingly, one of them claimed to have seen the sun God move the sun on winged horses. The other men expressed delight at the idea, as if they wanted to see a winged horse that very instant.

Suddenly, the memory shifted views. This time, it turned to men living in the central Middle Eastern region. These men dressed in clothes that resembled Pre-Persian outfits found by anthropologists. The language these batch of men spoke was a vague Persian as well, with hints of Arabic. Odd, but no one watching the memory was a fully fledged linguist to judge.

Soon the memory shifted views once more, to Africans to Native Americans. Shadow mused on their ancestral diversity. However, nothing appeared to be relevant to their situation-

-until a flash of blue appeared in the sky before their primitive fore fathers.

The memory kept changing perspectives, demonstrating that the flash of blue light was universally happening across the ancient world. The primitives bowed on their knees, praying to whatever they could think of to end the supposed Armageddon.

Out of the blue light, which Shadow believed was an advanced form of teleportation, came a machine behemoth, A Space Ship thats very design was confusing and wretched to the point where the simple primitives hurt their minds by trying to understand the uncanny sight before them. Shadow only saw a few ships, when they knew there were 15.

The fourteen Frigates were around the same size of a normal UTF cruiser, but much more sleek and advanced. It was shaped like a high tech cylinder with lights and other inconceivable technology appearing all over its hull.

The ships of Narret origin were few in number, but were spread out far apart from each other. Each appearing on different parts of the globe, where they could easily be found by an ancient human tribe.

One of the ships, a stranded terraformer class carrier that belonged to specialized Narret fleets, stood high in the sky above the nation that would one day be Greece.

Now the point of view changed to the surveillance cameras of the carrier. Inside the bridge of the ship was a command center, where the Narret officers would normally be working in. The room was empty, until a light started to flicker in the center of the room. The holographic data shaped itself to resemble the female Narret form, specifically the Librarian herself.

Narret AIs weren't like the intelligence units the Federation were used to, in the sense that they were more Narret than machine. Ever since the cybernetic revolt on the colonies, the Narret had programmed their AI to act more like organic beings rather than AI who constantly obeyed a set of programs, sometimes to a fault.

"Oh dear." gasped the Librarian. "It seems that the calculations for the teleporter drive were incorporated incorrectly. These ships are nearly half a galaxy across from their intended destination."

The Librarian didn't care that she was talking to herself. She quickly tapped into the ship's navigation controls and attempted to get back on course. Unfortunately, the Narrets had incorporated a safety regulation in which all forms of teleportation had to be made and orchestrated by an organic life form. The Librarian tried to bypass the system through all the over rides she knew, but there was no success. Figures, since an AI uprising had happened in Narret space five years ago. Of course her makers would be extra careful in implementing counter measures.

She tried to signal her handlers, to no success. She was just too far away for communication to work. Any transmission she would have sent would be left to the unpredictable mercy of the cosmos.

The only option the Librarian had to get back home would be the Narrets finding her fleet and taking her back home. However, time distortion would mean that it was possible for years to pass in this part of the galaxy while it only being a second in Narret space.

The AI sighed and looked over her options. Her fleet was scattered around the strange world, so her first instinct was to round them together in a concentrated mass.

But before she did, traces of life started to appear on her sensors. And sapient life to be exact. Curious, the Librarian gave a quick scan of her surrounding planet and found that these beings were all across the planet, scattered in various settlements.

Coincidentally, each one of her ships had landed near one of these civilizations. A plan raced in the AI's mind.

What if she could manipulate these beings into coming on to the ship and using them to bypass the necessary locks which prevented synthetic constructs from using the ship? The sapient species didn't appear to be intelligent...making them easier to fool. It didn't even look like they had passed the standard Neolithic age completely. Furthermore, it would mean a new race that the Narrets could study and explore. The thought of that last part ruffled her holographic jimmies. However, her plan was still to serve organics, but unless these organisms were impossibly unorthodox, they wouldn't find any way to boss her around.

Planning carefully, the Librarian was able to steer the 15 ships to each ancient human civilization. Even if her plan failed, it would be better to serve a bunch organics doing whatever then to just stand aimlessly in a foreign atmosphere.

The next thing anyone knew, the memory shifted perspectives once more to a group of primitive humans. Each one of these groups had fled back to their town and was under total shock and horror from the monstrosities that laid before them.

They blamed the giant metal beings on whatever their minds could think of. From the Gods and Heavens invading them to the idea of an advanced foreign tribe here to conquer them, only a few of these humans actually considered the idea of life from the stars.

Soon, the ships began to land, nearing a human civilization in the process. Some of the tribes ran, while others grabbed their weapons in defense. But when the ships landed, they didn't make the sound of roaring engines that Shadow knew, but comfortable and heartwarming chirps that sounded like heaven coming to greet you.

In a trance, the tribes around the world were now filled with curiosity. In a hypnotic state, they moved towards the ships, still cautious of course.

In primitive Greece, the Librarian was pleased to see that the primitives were nearing towards her fleet. Of course she didn't expect them to barge into her ships on the first day. A primitive alien race would never be that spontaneous.

Days passed by with the tribes uselessly standing around the ships in their respective land, debating where the ships came from or what their purpose was.

After much tired waiting, a curious ancient Greek scholar had tapped on the side of the Carrier that rested next to him. The next thing he knew, the doors to enter the carrier opened.

More waiting passed, and the primitive humans clutched their weapons and headed inside the alien structure. As they walked inside the ship, the primitives were awe struck at the incomprehensible technology of the carrier. Truly this was a gift from the heavens! No mortal could EVER hope to make a location as advanced as this.

Much to the Librarian's joy, the presence of an organic being that retained some degree of sapience allowed some of the security locks on her ship to be over written. She almost possessed full control of the ship, provided the humans proved cooperative in issuing commands.

The Librarian activated teleportation systems, and beamed the human tribes to the command center of their respective star ship.

Each human tribe was understandably confused at the blinding purple light that surrounded them, thinking that they were going to be sent to the underworld. Instead, they were pleased to find themselves alive, even if they were in a strange room. The humans may have been primitive, but even they could tell they were simply in another part of the ship by looking out the window.

Now would be the Librarians time to shine. Luckily, she had just updated her multi-tasking features.

In every ship scattered around the world, the Librarian materialized a copy of herself and flashed before the eyes of each ancient human tribe in the command centers.

Every tribe had a different reaction to the sudden appearance of a ghost like hologram depicting an alien girl. Some assaulted the Librarian with weapons, only for them to amusingly dissipate through the virtual Narret. Other tribes got on their feet and start worshiping while the rest tried to run, only to get an energy barrier placed in front of them to seal them in.

After some pandemonium passed, tribe after tribe began to attempt communication with the Librarian. It was a daunting task to for her to adjust her translator software, but she prevailed nonetheless. For each tribe, the Librarian introduced herself the same way.

"Greetings, I am AI Theta-Beta 33, or the Librarian, monitor of the 4th Narret Terra Formation fleet of the larger 7th Naval division."

Unsurprisingly, none of the humans understood the implications of her title. Some began to refer to her with inappropriate names like the "Ghost" or "Angel" or "Guardian".

The Librarian spoke in the various native languages to explain her situation, again to no avail as expected. The humans obviously weren't listening and interpreted her story as some sort of messed up epic fairy tale. The chances of the fleet being found however would still be abysmally low if it didn't have any sort of organic interaction.

To every human tribe meanwhile, their respective discovery was an indescribable treasure. They literally could not deduce what they were inside of.

The Librarian tried to explain what was going on in simpler terms, trying to describe the ship as "a boat that travels through the heavens" which seemed to be more in tune to what the ancient humans could comprehend. She needed to work in coordination, but some human tribes could understand the implications of the situation better than others.

Once she was sure that everything was in check, she diverted her focus to the central command ship of the fleet, where she could control the entire line of ships with precision. She didn't need to worry about the tribes running amok on the frigates due to safety measures.

The Librarian gave the Greek tribe a little scare when her form appeared in the middle of the command center. The short bi-pedals didn't grip their spears though, and knelt in a position of worship.

She spoke in the tribe's native language. "Now that I have made everything clear to you....primitives, I would like to move on to further matters." The Librarian lit up a command panel in front of the tribe.

The leader of the tribe stepped forward cautiously. "What do you offer us spirit?"

"First, I am not a spirit, I am an artificial intelligence. And second, I offer you a chance of a lifetime. One to explore the cosmos in a vessel far more advanced than whatever your species will develop in the next few thousand years." said the AI.

"You mean the ability to explore the planes of Uranus dominated by Helios and Selene?" said an enthusiastic scribe.

"Um yes, let's go with that." sighed the Librarian.

The leader of the primitive Greek tribe laughed. "Young spirit, we may renounce a golden opportunity such as this, but we know better than to accept a present from Olympus itself. Lest we repeat the falsehood of Pandora."

"Come now, I would know better than to challenge-"

The scribe interrupted her. "Lord, we must not pass this opportunity. With blessings such as this, we may achieve a level of equivalent to the power of deities."

The leader sighed. "Very well. Spirit, take us to the promised lands."

"Okay, just move your hand here, and the fleet will activate." instructed the Librarian, who once again lit up a command panel.

Hesitant at first, the leader of the tribe motioned his hand to hologram, and lightly tapped the device. Shadow wondered why the hologram wasn't DNA locked, but that wasn't the time now.

After tapping the hologram, more parts of the ship flared to life and sounds of activation could be heard.

"What is going on?" cried a primitive.

"The voyage of a lifetime." squealed the Librarian, finally glad she was going home. She ran a quick diagnostic and centralized steerage controls of the fleet to her.

In the other smaller frigates, the tribes were confused as to why their ships began to make sounds, only to have their attention shifted once the frigates took off and head to space.

In less than 10 seconds, all ships of the fleet found themselves in outer space, before securing a position that was held in place by Earth's gravitational pull.

The mildly disrupted Greeks in the command center were just about to question what had occurred, when one of them looked out the window to see the marvelous sight before.

"My brothers! Look! We have ascended higher than Olympus itself!" cried an excited primitive.

The others rushed to the side and looked out the window. They were amazed at the view of Earth, although confused at the sight of the planet not being flat as they thought.

When they were done staring, each tribe turned back to the Librarian and lionized her for taking them to space at such an early age. Each copy of the Librarian took a moment to quell the gratuitousness.

Focusing her attention on the humans in the Carrier, the Librarian lit up a navigation map of the galaxy.

"What do you show us Spirit?" inquired the scribe.

"You could say that this galaxy is but a crumb of reality." smiled the Librarian. "Your planet is just one of the virtually infinite worlds where life develops and thrives. And now, I have given you the ability to explore the cosmos."

"The realm of Uranus is vast. Do the Olympians even know of these immeasurable regions?" cried a tribal.

The Librarian was so close to returning home. She purposefully zoomed in on the map that led to a Narret star system. "How about we begin our voyage with-"

"Wait a minute. What are you doing?" glared the leader.

The Librarian gave a sly smile. "Just pointing you to a location you may find utterly-"

"Who said you were in charge of this situation?" panned a tribal in a furious manner.

"I do technically commandeer the fleet." pointed the Librarian.

"You said you were merely a care taker of this heavenly vessel." reminded a primitive. "And it is the duty of the care taker to obey the will of the master. Whatever we say, you do."

The Librarian tried to smile. If she didn't have organic approval to do anything, she wouldn't make any progress. She had to convince the ancients nicely. "But I do technically have more knowledge on this field than any of you combined."

"You act as if it is a women's job to control men!" screamed the Leader.

"Fine your highness." said the Librarian. "Where would you like to go?"

The ancients studied the map before deciding where to go.

"How about here?" pointed an ancient.

The Librarian lifted a holographic eyebrow. "Um, that is in the middle of dead space where-"

"Servants do not talk back to their master! Take us there." hissed the leader.

"The severity of merely asking me to take us somewhere without doing the first hand calculations to account for space-time curves-"

Suddenly the Librarian felt a sort of virtual pain enter her insides. It was response for disobeying the fifth law of Narret robotics, 'The synthetic must serve the organic at all times'. If she continued to resist, she would be deleted from the terminal and be declared a rogue.

Slowly, she nodded and prepared the course. After the leader tapped the control panel to validate the action, the entirety of the Narret fleet entered fired their dark matter projectors and entered series of space-time holes. (Much to the confusion of the humans on frigates who hadn't seen the events on the flagship).

The ancient Greek tribe was mesmerized by the sight of hyperspace, while others were psychologically hurt from its hideous form. Along the way, a scribe was writing what was occurring on a sheet of wood and writing with a stick and inc.

"Um, would you like to type on a tablet?" offered the Librarian.

The scribe looked at her with an uncertain expression.

"Never mind." sighed the AI.

A few mere seconds passed and the fleet found itself in the middle of deep, empty space, with the only source of illumination being a set of nearby stars and a nebula.

The excitement of the Greeks were cut off when the Leader shifted his view and noticed other ships in the sky.

"Comrades! My eyes may deceive me, but I believe there may be more of these vessels as well!"

"Well, of course." chuckled the Librarian. "Why should your tribe be the only ones who get to enjoy such a trip?"

"There are others?" cried a primitive.

The Librarian nodded and activated a holographic communications relay. Suddenly, the inhabitants of each ship appeared to each other as a hologram, strategically placed in the room where every individual was seen.

Upon seeing ghostly forms of an enemy, the tribes drew their weapons and yelled curses at each other. The Librarian gave them a moment before things cooled down. She made sure translators were on so that each group could understand each other.

"Why must they join us?" yelled a furious primitive of African descent.

The Librarian crossed her arms, "Look, none of you are going to accomplish anything if-"

"Accomplish?" laughed the hologram of an ancient Indian man. "Have you taken four Persian bandits all by yourself?" The statement caused a rupture of roars from the opposing primitives.

The Librarian face palmed. "Um no."

"Wait a moment." cried a Native American scribe while looking out the window in a frigate. "Why is there no moon, Sun or Earth?"

"This is what happens when you tell me to transport you in the middle of Space without any planning." pointed the AI.

"Typical Greeks. Always willing to rush into things." laughed a primitive African.

The Librarian cleared her holographic throat and decided to give her plan another shot. "So if you all want to see another star system with life like yours, I recommend-"

Once again, the Librarian was interrupted by an enthusiastic tribal. "We create one!"

"Pardon me?"

"Didn't you say these constructs have the ability to mold worlds like a clay and seed life for animals and plants?" panned an ancient.

"Well of course. This fleet's purpose is solar construction."

"So if we can not find a world, let us make one!" cheered a tribal.

"I do not know." shook another. "Remember when Epimethius wanted man to have the power of Gods? It did not end well."

"Silence fool!" hissed the hologram of an ancient Native American leader. "You will not rob us from the chance of a lifetime."

"Are the leaders of all races in favor?" called out a primitive Arab.

To the Librarian's frustration, all tribal groups cried out in support of the motion. She didn't want any of this, but the Narret laws of robotics were dictating her every move.

"Alright then." sighed the Librarian. "I hope you realize the implications of creating a planet in the middle of outer space."

"You are the one who controls the vessel." reminded a tribal. "Just do as we say and it will all work out."

Oh how the Librarian wished that she was capable of denying demands from organics. Had the uprising been that severe? She took a deep breath and attempted to explain the implications of terraformation. All of the humans were concentrated on one ship that was the carrier, the most potent type of ship for terraforming.

"I hope you are aware that the construction of a solar system requires adept planning and severe knowledge on the sciences of-"

"Look at this! A women teaching her superiors about knowledge!" laughed a tribal.

The Librarian crossed her holographic arms. "Fine. We'll skip all the important things to sooth your burning desire. Happy? What you will need to create your world is this."

Suddenly, the Librarian materialized a familiar heart shaped device which the primitives gazed upon.

"What is that?"

"This is a Creator Heart. The pinnacle of Narret technology. This device is connected to the Carrier's main matter and energy reservoirs. Whatever is programmed and rendered on the Heart's software will be emitted by the ship in charge of terraforming."

........

"Magic device makes everything you want come to life." panned the Librarian.

This time she got a response. The humans were excited for the heart would almost literally give them the god like power of creation. For the next few hours the humans toyed around with the Creator Heart to uncover all of its kinks and tricks. The Librarian had managed to program the heart to speak the local language to make the process easier for the humans, who still couldn't figure out how the abstract device functioned.

Didn't stop them from using it however. The Creator Heart had everything they needed. Ground formation, climate control, biome management, city construction and more.

The humans semi correctly guessed that the first thing they should create was a local star, seeing as to how they were going to need a source for light and heat. Creating a star was the only function of a Creator heart that could be done automatically without much input.

However, a hologram flashed before the humans stating that the Carrier lacked enough Nebular matter and energy for pressurizers to form a star no bigger than an extremely minor sub-dwarf star. One that probably wouldn't be strong enough to hold a planet in place unless an external input was added. However, the humans ignored the warnings and proceeded to create one anyway.

As the ships Terraforming systems got to work, a familiar cloud of dust and gaseous matter escaped the Carrier and formed a bright Nebula, mesmerizing the primitives. The next thing they new, the particle accelerators of the Carrier caused the Nebula to condense, with the center growing denser and hotter at an alarming rate. The next the humans knew, a miniature star sparked to life. Shadow themselves were awestruck by the display of Narret technology through the video.

Next, the primitives decided to try out creating a planet. This time, the Creator Heart lit up a display that resembled a photoshop or 3-D modelling program.

The Primitives asked the Librarian, annoyed that only now she would be listened to, for guidance on using the program. The Librarian gave an extremely brief tutorial on the device and merely stated that it was like drawing.

Soon, a group of artisans gathered around the Creator Heart and started to draw what they perceived would be the perfect world. Despite their lack of computer skills, they seemed to draw with ease, with the program recognizing when objects were meant to be water, trees or rocks, the later two of which were purposely meant to resemble ones on Earth. Each culture got their own input on the design.

Upon finishing their animated drawing, the ancients demanded that the Librarian bring it to life. The AI objected, noting that creating a world was a delicate procedure that weeks and simply drawing a world without rendering it in a proper 3-d format to resemble reality would have major repercussions. Repercussions in which the tribals didn't understand. Constrained by protocol, the Librarian lost her bid and hastily created a planet that should have been concept art at most.

Once again, the humans spent the next few hours observing the wonderful creation of the planet, seeing it go through the various stages of planetary formation that would normally take billions of years like continental creation and emergent of complex plant life.

As a bi-product of planetary creation, a moon was being formed as well.

Genesis had begun.

Author's Note

Yes, I know humans didn't have neolithic intelligence ten thousand years ago and in case you thought the Librarian didn't act much like an AI during the flashback, remember, she's programmed to be more organic than machine.

Chapter 43: Revelations part 4

Author's Note

Here's a little late Valentine's day gift in case you're interested. <3 :

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/165740/one-v-one-me

Although you may have already seen it in the stories I've published.

Chapter 43: Revelations part 4

After waking up the next day, the Librarian begrudgingly informed the ancients that the planet was finally complete. From an outside perspective, the planet looked like any other one in the universe, although had it not been held by a Narret artificial gravity generator, it would have propelled into the cosmos. The world itself was smaller than Earth as well, which meant lesser gravity. Not that the ancients could comprehend that.

The primitives gathered as a huge mass in their respective star ships and demanded that the Librarian show them their handy work. The Librarian connected to the Carrier's main orbital surveillance systems and started to stream footage from what was going on in the world and transmitted it to the observation screens in the ships. Although to the primitives, she described it as a magic mirror.

The first thing that caught the attention of the humans was that the world was animated and completely resembled the world the way they drew it. The Librarian tried to explain, but the humans brushed off her comments, declaring the cartoon world as "appealing" to their eyes as literal fine art.

The Librarian sarcastically offered to create more worlds for them, but the primitive knowledge of the humans caused them to think that it was a 'rule' for every star system to have ONE planet, ONE moon and ONE sun. To think so otherwise would be heresy and especially offended the Native Americans and Greeks who believed in a Gaea.

The next thing the Librarian, knew, the humans started to make LIFE as well. The Librarian tried to draw the line there, knowing that the creation of life was a daunting task for even the most hardy of Narrets. In the end though, her pleas proved useless.

It was decided that each culture of humans would get a chance to use the Creator Heart to model an intelligent species. An intelligent species that they would rule over as the master race of course.

Fueled by their ego, the primitive humans wanted the created races to resemble everything about them, down right to illogical extremes such as using the same tools they did and developing the same culture.

The Librarian's warnings of the repercussions of designing a species to evolve like another was brushed off, and the tribes got to work.

The perspective of the video took the view of the Greeks, and Shadow knew why.

Each human culture wanted to create a race that would appeal the most to them. From what Shadow had seen in the beginning of the video, this specific Greek tribe had fancied horses and were beginning to domesticate them. It didn't take a scientist to know what kind of creature the Greeks wanted to make.

An artisan was called by his tribe leader to draw a horse that would be used as the Avatar of the Greek culture. The artisan got to work and started to draw on the touch screen.

When the artisan announced his completion, the others looked at the display with utter anxiety.

What the artisan had drew, did not look like a horse on Earth at all. It was much smaller, cuter, cuddlier and for some reason had a pink mane and blue coat. It was still adorable however.

Not caring for the immense inaccuracy, the artisan continued to draw ponies in a similar manner that would be saved in the creator heart's data banks. However, normal horses with any special abilities not enough to satisfy the ego of the Greeks. After all, they could create anything.

Some Greeks wanted to create horses with wings like the ones that were ridden by Gods on their visits to Olympus while others wanted unicorns not from mythology, but from what was supposedly from natural history. Others just wanted normal horses, with no emphasis on normal.

The Artisan laid out the final designs for the three kinds of ponies his friends wanted to desperately see. The app on the Creator Heart displayed an image of a unicorn, earth pony and pegasus. Ones that looked the same as how the ponies on Epona looked today.

Next, the Greeks wanted to create a super-pony-goddess-being that would have all the traits of the three ponies, because why not? Besides, it would be a great symbol for unity regarding the marrying of Greek ideas. This time however, the Artisan paid far more attention to detail, drawing a horse that was taller and more anatomically correct to the ones on Earth. It was still a cartoon however.

Long story short, the first alicorn was designed and ready to be created once the ancients were done giving it magical powers beyond belief.

Content with the designs of the to-be species, the Greeks asked the Creator heart to bring their brain child into fruition. The Heart asked them if they wanted to further render the ponies into proper 3-d objects, but the Greeks ignorantly brushed passed the recommendation, not knowing of its significance.

To their displeasure, they were greeted by a programming app that asked them to develop the personalities of their creation. Being unable to understand jack shit when it came to even elementary addition, they called the Librarian for help.

To her annoyance, the Librarian was going to have to program whatever the humans told her to.

The Greeks started to brainstorm ideas of how the ponies would be like. They told the Librarian to program various magical abilities into the ponies, taking inspiration from their Olympian gods all the while.

Once magical powers were dealt with, they had to program the personalities of their creations.

The Greeks had a rather paradoxical view of how the morality and lifestyle of the Equines would turn out. They wanted the ponies to have their exact culture; down to language, architecture, and even using the same tools they did. Basically, they wanted the ponies to evolve just like them for generations to come. At the same time, ancients wanted the ponies to be romantic and peaceful, much like those who were stated to live in the paradise of Elysium.

The Librarian knew that programming creatures to simultaneously have a peaceful nature which the primitives lacked while making them evolve like said primitives would have unforeseen consequences. The created race would certainly not evolve in a proper manner due to a conflicting mind set. However, she had to program as she was commanded.

"Any other bright ideas?" sarcastically remarked the Librarian.

"Certainly!" yelled a scribe. "Make sure that these ponies will have their special talents marked clearly on their bodies so we will know what to use them for when commanding them. And for convenience's sake, they will call each other by their talents. That ought to make calling for their services easier."

The other Greeks agreed with the idea. The Librarian rolled her virtual eyes and programmed so. Before they knew it, the Creator Heart was only a click away from creating the Equine race.

But the Greeks were not content with merely making mere colorful ponies. Oh no. They continued to take inspiration from their stories to create even more creatures, such as the legendary Minotaur that fought Theseus and the mighty Hydra faced by Hercules.

To them, Equestria was an author's dream come true.

Equnies appeared to be the theme among the other human tribe as well. The Africans had long valued the Zebra, and wished to see them on Epona. The Native Americans wished the Bison to be their avatar. The Arabians wanted horses to be their representatives as well, although they certainly despised the diminutive look of the Greek Equines and attempted to give their horses a more accurate look. (For any given measure of accurate considering the horses they made were still animated. There was only so much that an artisan could do.)

The only tribe that seemed to break the rule of creating a counter part race were the ancient Chinese, who believed that bringing the Dragon to life would provide the planet with worthy guardians and adversaries for the other races, instead of being a mere avatar.

However, the Greeks noticed that the creations of the other tribes lacked magic. The Greeks criticized the other cultures for this, but they simply replied that magic would only spoil the creation and coddle them from the harsh realities of life.

Other races were created as well, although with far less intelligence than the ones meant to be sapient. If the humans were going to colonize the world, they would need certain animals to be around such as birds, rabbits and bears.

And the Librarian, forced to comply to the laws of robotics, created as she was commanded.

After splitting the land among themselves to dictate where each created race could go to, it was time for the tribes to name their newly created world. The problem was just what it exactly was going to be called, as each tribe had a completely different idea.

The Africans wanted to name it after their god, the Greeks after their's and so and so forth. Eventually, it was decided that a contest was to be held between the leaders of each tribe.

The game was simple. They would meet in the carrier and have a spear throwing contest. The winner of the game got to name the planet and the others had to comply. The Librarian suggested having a shooting contest, but scratched the idea once she realized none of the ancient humans had any concept for projectile weaponry.

The contest was held, and the Greek leader won. He decided to name the world after the Greek horse goddess 'Epona', another tribute to his love of the animal. On the surface of the world, the newly introduce creatures couldn't help but call the planet Epona as well.

One of the projects of the tribes was to create a God like beast of epic proportions, one even stronger than the Alicorn.

However, none of the tribes could decide as to how such a being would look like, driving the artisans crazy. Eventually, the ancients decided to compromise their idea and make the being a big bowl of everything, with parts from every animal they could think of.

Finally, they presented their design to the Librarian, as well as the personality they wanted to give the deity. The AI was confounded by the odd design and severely thought that giving a beast such grandiose power with a destructive personality to be a fatal idea.

But nonetheless, she had to comply and bring the dreaded abomination to life.

When the Creator Heart finished its work, the abomination rose. As the Librarian predicted, this discordic being had no desire to listen to what the humans had to tell him, and used his colossal powers to vanish and 'have fun' in a certain part of the universe before a pre determined day where he would return.

This incident did not stop the primitives from creating other questionable races to sooth their lust for God like acts. These included creatures that could transform and feed on emotion, bears that resembled the night sky and horses made from gas that were attracted to quarrel.

After a week or so passed of just blindly creating animated life with the Creator Heart without any sense of caution or rationalism, the primitive tribes decided they had enough, for now.

As per an overwhelming agreement, the leaders of the tribes demanded that the Librarian return them to Earth, so that they would bring their family and friends over to Epona, so that they would rule the created planet as a God Race.

Once again, the Librarian warned that simply returning to Earth without the proper time to enact calculations would have a severe negative impact on the group due to time and space curves, but the humans would have none of it.

The leaders demanded that the Librarian return them to Earth the very instant, without taking any precautions for safety. Constrained by the laws of Narret robotics, she had to comply with the wishes of the organic or suffer termination.

The next thing she knew, she had taken the fleet back into sub space without the humans ever bothering to set foot on the world they created.

A moment passed, and the fleet was back in Earth's orbit. While the tribals had been gone for a week, only a day and half had passed on Earth due to space-time dilation.

The video fast forwarded parts of the Primitive controlled fleet reentering Earth's atmosphere.

Over some time, the ancients who were on the ship regrouped with their kind and told them of their mysterious adventures. How they had found a vessel that could traverse the heavens and how they had not only created a world and life, but a world and life that was their very own mythology come true. At the same time, none of the primitives who were on the space voyage the first time could comprehend as to why their fellows were telling them that they had been gone for just a mere day, when it was a week to them.

Nonetheless, every tribe around the Earth had the same idea of returning to the planet to rule over their creation as a master race. After all, just because they were animals from mythology did not change the fact that they had been created by humans and thus had to serve their masters.

A few days passed, and the last of the ancients returned to the Narret fleet. On cue, the Librarian begrudgingly teleported the now densely populated fleet back to Epona for the rest of the ancients to marvel at the creation.

Unfortunately, the ignorant minded humans failed to take time dilation into account, and failed to realize that a hundred years had passed on Epona.

Soon, the memories flashed back into the view of the prime alicorn and her adventures in the forming world without human intervention during its hundred year gap. Which ancestor of the Mane 6 she was to didn't matter at this point.

The races that were not given magic, such as the Buffalo, Saddle Arabians, Donkeys and Griffons more or less struggled to survive their initial few years on the planet. Each one of them had the mind set of their human counterpart, and found themselves compelled to behave like they did, forming a culture antithetical to the biological needs of each. The tools designed for bi-pedal beings certainly did not help their situation, and using them was awkward.

As intended by the humans, the species followed a process of progression that mirrored their counter parts. Each species spoke in the language of their counter part, had their architecture and uncannily, even had government systems that were reminiscent to neolithic ones on Earth.

The non magical races did not have quite an exemplary beginning, as they had to adapt to the most brutal of conditions in order to survive, and soon they began to change. They evolved past the neolithic stage of their human counterparts and unknowingly entered a much later stage of life. A state more advanced than any civilization on Earth at the time. Any race that wanted to have mystic powers would have to gain them.

It also seemed that each race was beginning to make up origin stories regarding their appearance, each of which seemed to resemble the mythology of their counterparts. Zebras worshiped beings akin to the first African deities and the Buffalo started to worship Aztec like gods. The Saddle Arabian seemed to believe that they were always just there. None of them came to the conclusion of a primitive race creating them with ancient alien technology.

Contrast could immediately be seen when the focus shifted to the Equine's development. The ponies were essentially spoiled by the magic the Greeks allowed them to have. They enjoyed a much easier life than the other races and didn't advance as swiftly as the others. Their adaptation was their magic.

Despite the fact that the planet and star system the humans created would never function in a natural state, the ponies began to use their magical abilities to cheat what was essentially nature. It only took a few moments after their creation for the unicorns to realize they could control day and night with their magic, the Earth ponies made pockets of land bearable in an otherwise infertile ground while the pegasai could control the weather to be whatever they pleased. Unfortunately, these abilities meant that the other races would have to rely on the Equestrians for survival. An elvish superiority complex unintentionally grew within these ponies.

Soon the earliest traces of pony society began to brew. Structures resembling pre-ancient Greek structures were built and the ponies hastily used their magic in conjugation with their copied thought process.

The Alicorn couldn't help but notice how the ponies began to be treating her. It was almost as if the non alicorns were worshiping her as a goddess. Was it merely because she was taller and possessed traits of all three pony sub species? They really seemed to believe that she was the one who created the world and provided the materials to survive. The Alicorn knew it wasn't the truth, but seeing as to how it brought the Equestrians so much joy, she played along, if only for the sake of the greater good and order.

Unfortunately, there also appeared to be a split between the three different Equestrian races, based both on racial as well as ideological grounds, much to the Alicorn's dismay,

The Pegasai, who's minds were copied from a Greek that viewed life as a game of the strong dominating the weak, created a warrior culture to become the most dominant of fighters in the land.

The Unicorns, who's set of values were cloned from a man's that would eventually lead his family to be the first settlers of Athens, said no to such a brutal lifestyle, and favored a more lavish way of living dominated by magic.

The Earth ponies had their mindset and way of thought cloned from a primitive who would eventually sail to Arcadia to find a more nature tuned life. The Earth Ponies preferred to live in harmony with the world around them and embraced the wildlife.

Each tribe held their way of life close to their hearts. With magic to secure their supposedly Utopian societies, they could ensure their survival and development without the need for rapid advancements and over reliance on technology.

The Alicorn was distraught to see the ponies so divided among themselves, but she did not intervene as their ruler, they could manage themselves. For now, she would be a moral teacher and figure of hope for the three nations.

Despite the progression of each species going rather smoothly, no one put a hoof on just how awkward it was. Why was every species suddenly compelled to follow a strict evolutionary path that did not suit them? Why did they speak the way they do? Questions like that could not be answered, so it was best to avoid them.

Due to poor planning on the humans' part, they failed to realize that when they returned to Epona, a hundred years had gone by.

The primitives who saw Epona for the first time were awestruck at notion that their own race had been responsible for the creation of a world, planet and star.

The plan of the ancients was simple. Each human culture would go to the land that was designated for them and rule over the mythical creatures they created as a literal master race. They would probably create a few more mythical creatures while they were at it. (The ancient Egyptians themselves had taken an interest in jackals).

The next series of memories played in a quick successive pace.

Shadow saw each culture of ancient humans travel to the lands that they created, teleported by the carrier's facilities which the Librarian reluctantly orchestrated.

When the human cultures teleported onto the world they created, they were ecstatic to see that their mythical avatars were making progress. What they failed to realize was that it was a hundred years of progress that they missed thanks to their inept handling of teleportation devices.

At first, things looked well. The mythical creatures welcomed their respective human culture, not knowing that they were looking at their creators, who had given them their mindset, culture and tools.

One could tell that the humans were not amused at not being worshiped on sight by what was literally their creation, but they remained calm for the most part. Only a few tribes lost it on the first moment when they weren't lionized.

The next blow was when the mythical creatures failed to recognize the humans as their supposed deities. Time and time again, the humans insisted that they were their creators, but every mythical race; Buffalo to Griffin, did not recognize them as such.

For countless hours, the ancients tried to convince the mythical creatures that they were responsible for everything they had achieved, to no avail. To make matters worse, when the humans laid eyes on the technology and tools of the creatures, (tools that they would ironically develop after a hundred years themselves) they lost their minds. How dare the mythical creatures that they had created reject the 'fire of the gods' they were given?

Failing to comprehend that their creations simply had time to evolve, each human culture accused their avatar of heresy and refusing to obey the commands of their 'gods'.

Right when it seemed the ancients would give up, they tried to reason with their creation. They stressed that they were men, and it was the divine duty of every animal, especially those created, to obey its rightful master. Was it not common sense?

Disturbed by the racism and god complex of the humans, the mythical creatures shooed the humans away from their societies one by one.

Blasphemy and heresy was all the ancients could think about after each culture was exiled after their failed attempt at godhood. When they would all regroup inside the Narret carrier, they were going to make sure that their creations were going to regret their decision very soon.

They yelled to the sky and ordered the Librarian to bring them back to the ship. While their sounds didn't travel through space, the Librarian unfortunately heard them through the ship's surveillance systems. She had to obey.

'Oh those ungrateful little shits' thought the ancient humans. They were the ones who gave them the tools needed for survival, they were the ones who gave them culture, land and LIFE. And now they simply say that their way of life was better and more adept than theirs? Unacceptable on all accounts!

The Librarian tried to explain that since a hundred years had technically passed, the races they created would undoubtedly evolve to a new culture that did not match their creators', but it did not matter to the primitives. What the mythical creatures had done was essentially defying and denouncing their literal creators. Heresy such as this needed to be purged indefinitely.

To add insult to injury, the concept of an animal, no matter how intelligent or advanced, refusing to be subordinate to a human was treason to what was (to them at least) the natural order of things.

With such 'crimes' committed against them, the tribal humans prepared for a final solution.

All but the Greeks, who were still rather content that the ponies were using the magic they gave them. Whether or not they would be loyal to the 'natural order' of human superiority would be a matter decided later for they never bothered to visit the land they created. The rather stayed on the carrier to discuss creating new species.

As for the others, the tribal leaders approached the Librarian and asked for a means of attack.

Disgusted by their snobbish and ignorant reasoning for declaring war, the Librarian attempted to lie to the humans and tell them that the ships had no offensive capabilities. Unfortunately, rule four of Narret robotics was pretty clear:

An AI Shall Not Lie.

Even without being constrained by protocol, the tribe leaders could tell when someone, organic or not, was holding something back. After much hassle, the Librarian was forced to reveal the Fleet's weapon capabilities. She describe the ion cannons as 'magic beams' in order for the humans to understand.

After an overwhelming majority voted in favor, the Leader of the Arabic tribe demanded that the Librarian program the weapons to attack every single individual of the races they had created and only stop when wiped out. With exception of the Equestrians of course, the Greeks had yet a bone to pick with them. The other mythical creatures they made like the Minotaur were expandable though.

At that very moment, the AI tried to delete herself from the ship's systems, but doing so would render her unable to carry out the humans' commands.

The Librarian knew what she had to do and after hesitating for an hour, she turned on the weaker directed energy weapons in order to mitigate damage done to the world, in the hopes that there would still be creatures left if the humans changed their minds.

All was quiet in the Pegasai lands. A guard, resembling an ancient Spartan was busy pacing back and forth.

Right when he yawned out of boredom, he noticed a series of blue lights descend from the sky. Curious, he flew up in the air to get a better view.

The blue lights started to approach ground level and was headed for lands he knew to be Buffalo and Donkey territory.

In the center of the Carrier, the ancient humans sat in the halls with food they had brought from Earth. They watched with glee as the 'traitors to the natural order of man and beast' were burned by 'magic'.

To their dismay, the weapons didn't wipe out villages in a single blast like what they envisioned, rather it took a few minutes or so to wipe out a small population due to the Librarian using weaker weapons. Still entertaining to themselves none the less.

The Africans especially cheered after seeing a Zebra city incinerated by the Narret energy weapon. The Anglo Saxons yelled in victory after seeing a group of Donkeys obliterated, a fate they found suitable for 'heresy'.

The Librarian couldn't believe the sight before her virtual eyes. Thanks to getting their hands on Narret technology, the humans had become so convinced of their supposed Godhood to the point where they believed that they could simply enact judgement day on an innocent race for not adhering to their twisted moral standards.

It did not matter that the the Narret ships were decimating the landscape of Epona, for the Creator Heart allowed the humans to simply repair whatever damage had been done to the land with ships that weren't firing energy weapons.

Despite creating a massive planet for their supposedly loyal subjects, the humans realized that they had failed to create a section of the world for themselves.

After clearing out a Griffin village, the humans found a suitable spot near the tundra areas that provided a nice, almost romantic location for a city.

As the carnage swept below them, the tribe leaders met on hologram to discuss the creation of the new city. After their artisans got work on the designs for the settlement, the ancients turned to the Creator Heart and got to work.

Using the Carrier which had not been a part of the fighting force, the humans started to build a city with the most Utopian looking architecture they could think of. But once again, their lack of modeling and programming skills caused the heart to produce a city that was animated with bare detail. The Librarian gave up trying to explain the implications of failing to properly render an object at that point.

With each ancient tribe contributing an idea, Crystal buildings began to rise and a giant central castle was created to serve as a home for a collaborative oligarchy between the leaders of each human culture.

After work on the Crystal Empire was complete, the primitives decided to settle on the land once and for all, knowing that frigates bombarding Epona would not target them.

Using the teleportaion network, the Librarian transported the ancient humans into their proudest creation yet. Once the first settlers got a look at the shining gaze of the city, they truly felt like gods, even if the city did look like a cartoon.

The Librarian wasn't too relived at her new job of being....well....a Librarian. While she was bound by the laws of robotics to serve in a desolate chamber in the middle of sub space, those foolish humans were massacring entire races for pitiful reasons.

The AI watched the humans muck around in the archives, merely using horridly outdated writing techniques to describe their wretched genocide. The Librarian wanted to point out that the archives were meant to store holographic information on tablets or virtual documents that could be accessed through devices, not leather with ink.

But it wasn't like they were going to listen to her anytime soon. Since she was banished to the archives, she had hope that the auto fire of the star ships would eventually seize, but that would only happen once the poor races that weren't human were butchered to extinction. At least the humans wouldn't be able to carry out the functions of the Narret fleet once that issue seized. All they would have was the relatively harmless Creation heart.

Outside the archives, a group of humans sat in the command table with a holographic display of the Crystal Empire lit up, debating on how certain parts of the city would look like. The culture clash certainly didn't help is choosing an architectural style. Neither did their gross lack of knowledge on city construction and how the Creation Heart functioned.

It would have been safer to form the land in space or subspace rather than inside the planet and city they were forming, but the leaders wanted to see the power of the heart in action, clearly having gone mad with a power they should have never used.

In space, the carrier was populated by an overwatch of primitives, supervising the destruction of the planet before hand. As parts of the planet got decimated from orbit, the ground team controlling the heart would merely "clean up" the damage as if nothing had occurred.

To the humans watching the carnage from space, everything was just a light show. Once every Griffin, Minotaur and all other disobedient animals were extinguished from Epona they would take the planet for their own and reign as its rightful rulers and recreate the races to be a little more submissive.

Unfortunately for the humans, their little play at godhood eventually had to come to an end. For the next thing they knew, more star ships exited sub space.

The memory changed to reflect the view of the Carrier's surveillance cameras. From sub space descended a whopper of fifty Narret Cruisers and one gigantic Narret Dreadnought that was sixty kilometers long. Evidently, none of these were populated by humans.

The confused primitive humans tried to see what was going on, but without an AI or relevant knowledge, they were pretty much useless and stuck in a moving hunk of metal on auto fire.

The next thing the primitive tribe humans knew, they were being teleported against their will....again.

While the Librarian merely stood in place, the scribes in the archives were discussing the foundations for their new empire, only to be engulfed in a familiar blue light and taken away.

The Librarian was shocked. "Have the humans found out how to use the fleet's teleportation systems without me?"

The alicorn looked around in the foreign fields. The destruction from the sky had stopped. She flew towards a cave that had been used as a hiding spot for a group of Zebras.

She descended to the ground and let them know that the carnage had stopped.

At first, she saw hope in the Zebra's eyes for a better future, but then she saw hatred. Hatred that stemmed from a burning desire to avenge the deaths of the many that had fallen.

As the Zebras cried for revenge on the human race, the Alicorn pondered her actions.

Her race had been spared, but they were not oblivious to the destruction that had occurred on the world. She could tell the ponies that it was an alien invasion that triggered the catastrophe, they would seek revenge as well.

In order to protect the peace and not lead the ones she cared about to a dark path, the Alicorn would forever remain silent on the truth behind the issue. She could simply blame it on a cosmic storm. The Equestrians would believe that.

Finally, the scene changed to depict the primitive humans, back on their home planets, stripped away from their Narret technology.

The human tribe was looking straight at a new group of aliens, more than 6ft tall and wearing a bluish-purple suit of armor, with a pattern of glowing teal lines and a helmet with a black 'T' shaped visor. Each one was clutching some sort of energy staff.

The leader took these aliens took of his helmet, and revealed a face that was essentially a male version of the Librarian's. It was more than clear that these were the Narrets themselves.

"What is the meaning of this?" finally cried out a scared human.

"Excuse me?" roared the leader of the Narrets. His voice was very similar to Shining Armor's. "You were the ones who stole our technology to create a world without authorization, only to massacre its inhabitants."

"Your precious ghost lady said we could!" defended another primitive.

"Is that your best argument?" replied the Narret commander. "The AI was merely trying to return home and you purposely took advantage of her and the fleet to suit your lust for Godhood!"

"You have no right to take away what we reaped as ours!" defended a human.

"These ships were never yours to begin with." panned the Commander, his rage intensifying. "The fleet will be taken back where it belongs to."

"What about the world we created? All the beasts that need to be attended to and ruled over?" questioned the human leader.

"Despite your superficial understanding of terraformation and the most simplest of sciences, the planet you created is rather stable. Especially considering that you just bombarded it with energy weapons chronically. The world will be allowed to function on its own, without any xeno intervention. The way it should be in the first place." explained the Narret commander.

"What about that ghost women? Are you going to just leave her there?"

"The Librarian will remain in the archives, I suspect that once the races you created properly develop, if they develop given your poor programming, she would be a useful aid to your creations." informed an anonymous Narret.

"And what are you going to do to us?" inquired a primitive.

"You will be stripped of our technology and develop without any interference or help, the way that is fair and natural." stated the Narret commander. "Although I warn you, if your kind does indeed return to your creation, do not expect its inhabitants to take it lightly. The very concept of getting revenge on you would be rather biblical considering the damage."

The Narret commander turned around and moved forward. "Ready the amnesia device, so they forget of this wretched ordeal."

.
.
.
.
Video Terminated. Replay?

The screen turned off. The Librarian turned around to look at the viewers.

The ponies were rather disturbed at what they saw, but everything made sense to them. Sort of. Shadow on the other hand appeared to be completely frozen in place and mute. Too mute.

"Well that just happened." sighed Rainbow Dash.

"Guess that explains the magic, planet and....everything." gulped Twilight.

"Based on what I saw, I don't ever think the alliance would even dream of backing down. Had the Narrets not intervened, I swear the planet would be under the control of an oppressive human empire." guessed Rarity.

"But, it was all just a big misunderstanding right?" said Fluttershy.

"Hardly, the humans seemed to know what they were doing." countered Applejack.

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but that was ten thousand years ago. I mean, the humans now are totally different compared to the humans in the past. Right Shadow?"

There was no response.

"Shadow?"

The four commandos just stood there. Their masks were still glued to the screen.

"Their vitals indicate that they are in shock." informed the Librarian.

"I think that information was too much for them to handle." theorized Twilight.

Finally, the four of them started to laugh uncontrollably.

"Yep, they've gone mad." nodded Pinkie Pie.

X-ray finally spoke. "What. The. Fuck. Was That!"

Scarecrow laughed like a mental idiot. "Wow...just wow!"

Scorch couldn't control his speech. "So our ancestors massacred.....them all....because.....fuck."

"So the logical explanation for all this is a giant ancient alien conspiracy?" blurted Scarecrow. "That's just fucking.....I don't know what to say."

"Are you guys feeling okay?" checked Fluttershy.

"Oh, we are feeling spectacular!" sarcastically remarked Overwatch. "We just saw the biggest load of bull shit ever. Of course we're okay!"

"What's wrong with the video?" inquired Twilight.

"That's the logical explanation?" shrieked X-ray. "The answer to this stupid planet is that a bunch of ancient humans wanted to play god with fucking space magic?" He was cringing at this point.

"That makes even less sense than a magical world appearing out of nowhere!" fumed Scorch.

"I recommend you four get some sleep to calm you down. Hours have passed outside." advised the Librarian.

"................................"

"Awesome." was all Scarecrow finally said. The four enraged counter terrorists turned around and walked towards the exit, distraught that their answer was not the rational exposition they had hoped for.

"Where are you going?" called Rainbow Dash.

"Out!" replied X-ray, already a considerable distance away from the ponies. "Any of you coming?" The Mane 6 hurriedly followed the commandos out the archives.

Soon, all that was left in the archives was the glow of the Librarian's holographic avatar.

"Well, I'll just wait here until someone decides to visit again. I count another few centuries."

While pondering what to do next, the Librarian could have sworn she heard a voice that sounded awfully familiar to her. One that did not belong to the Mane 6 or Shadow squad.

But given the fact that there was no one physically present in the room she was in, and the fact that all types of sensors failed to pick up anything, it would be illogical to suggest that someone was there.

Right?

Chapter 44: The (Supposed) Voice Of Reason

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 45: Rescue

Author's Note

40k and UTF crossover here if you are interested. Could use more love: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/148189/faith-and-fire-concerning-mortals

Heads up, you should read Rescue Part 1 and 2 before making any sort of judgement or else things may not make sense. It's literally one chapter I divided only for the sake of not having too many words on one page. It's the longest thing I've written.

Chapter 45: Rescue

Everypony was starring at Scarecrow with their mouths open in shock. The members of Shadow themselves were rather startled by the news as well, and were almost sweating.

Scarecrow stood in place with his eyes staring off at the distance, his pupils almost shrinking.

"What do you mean she just vanished? You aren't making this easier command!" hissed Scarecrow. To him, the safety of the Ponies' was his duty in this situation, and wasn't going to take Fluttershy vanishing lightly, lest he bare the burden of responsibility.

"Okay, can you just show me a fucking hologram of the video footage the Blackjack gathered while surveying Equestria last night? That ought to give us a clue on where the hell she went."

Scarecrow pointed his wrist computer away from his mouth and pointed it at the the space before him. Suddenly, a holographic display giving a satellite view of Equestria materialized itself before Shadow and the Ponies. The recording was of last night, at the minute before Fluttershy's disappearance.

Scarecrow located Fluttershy's home on the map and zoomed in on it. From the footage, Shadow viewed Fluttershy sleeping rather peacefully and surrounded by her animals, when all of a sudden there was a strange hiss and the footage cut off.

"What the?" frowned Scorch.

"How could it just cut off like that?" wondered Scarecrow.

"Doesn't look like we can uncover anything. Audio, video, nothing." noted X-ray.

"Blackjack, why are we getting nothing but static?" questioned Scarecrow.

"Static doesn't last indefinitely." radioed a crew member. "After five minutes the recording returns to normal."

Scarecrow forwarded up the recording and sure enough, the group finally got a clear view of Fluttershy's home. The yellow mare was no where to be seen after regaining a proper view. Instead, all everyone saw were animals running around in a panicked state.

"Poor critters, they just lost Fluttershy. Must be scary for them." pitied Applejack.

"Maybe we should get back to Fluttershy's home to calm them down." suggested Rainbow Dash.

"No one is moving anywhere until we find out what the fuck happened to Fluttershy!" ordered X-ray.

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "You know, based on the noise we heard, I'm willing to bet that she was kidnapped."

"But there don't appear to be any signs of breaking and entering." noticed Rarity upon inspecting the hologram.

"Duh, that's because whoever kidnapped Fluttershy did it with teleporting!" insisted Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie's on to something." nodded Scorch. "A lot of times, kidnappers and crooks with advanced tech can get passed security and avoid signs of struggle by simply teleporting. It's barely happened, but it' a possibility."

"Doesn't explain why we're seeing garbled bits of footage though." said Rainbow Dash.

"Whatever or whoever kidnapped Fluttershy would need video and audio scramblers to do that." informed Overwatch.

"I don't think anyone has the technology of that caliber." shook Twilight.

"Well, at the end of the day, what is magic other than unexplained tech and science? So, what we're dealing with here is some sort of powerful magic user." guessed X-ray.

"Still, UTF ships are powerful in their surveillance tech. Who could produce the currents of magical energy needed to counter a starship?" stated Scarecrow.

"From what I've seen, not even Celestia or Luna could pull that off." frowned Rarity.

"Even if a Terran scrambler was being used, UTF ships have counter measures to unscramble recordings. This guy would have to use tech beyond Terran understanding." remarked Scorch.

"Technology like a Narret's?" frowned Pinkie Pie.

Scarecrow paused, but proceeded to nod. "Exactly."

"Hey, did y'all say that yer ship couldn't gain information outside of Equestria because all the video feed went fuzzy or something?" reminded Applejack.

"Yeah, you're right." realized X-ray. He used neural controls to zoom out of the map. Sure enough, any part of the map that did not cover Equestria gave off an error signal.

"Apparently, whoever kidnapped Fluttershy is also the same person cutting off your ships from support." growled Rainbow Dash.

"Also known as this ally guy." gritted Applejack.

"Alright, so it's clear that whoever we are dealing with, is some sort of really fucking powerful magic user." concluded Scorch.

"But why would he kidnap Fluttershy?" gulped Pinkie Pie.

"That's what happens when you've got enemies." sighed Scorch.

"Plus, it could be a trap for all I know." hinted Scarecrow.

Twilight knitted her eyebrows. "I think you're right. Whoever must have kidnapped Fluttershy must be doing this because he knows that we would go out of our way to save her."

"That sick devil." gritted Rarity.

"For all we know, he's already killed Fluttershy by now and we'd only be walking into a false lead." muttered X-ray.

The Ponies almost cried.

"No. No. That wouldn't be true." begged Pinkie Pie.

"Who would ever do something sick like that?" asked Applejack.

Scarecrow raised an eyebrow to remind the ponies where he came from.

Rainbow Dash gasped. "Don't tell me you guys have-"

"To our enemies yes. To innocent Pegasai that don't deserve it, no." affirmed Scorch.

"And trust me, if we find out that Fluttershy has been harmed in any way, we'll make this son of a bitch pay with more than his life." swore X-ray.

"But what about walking into a trap?" squealed Twilight.

"Trap or not, we aren't going to find Fluttershy just standing here." said Scarecrow. "Our only bet is to find this kidnapper and bring him to justice."

"Even if Fluttershy is dead, we still need to take out this kidnapper. Sounds like a guy to dangerous to be alive." added Overwatch.

"But, she isn't dead right?" cringed Rarity.

"Only one way to find out." replied Scorch.

"But what about our plan to surrender you guys to the Alliance?" remembered Twilight.

"Change of operations. If we take out this little fucker, we'll likely find a way to take out this barrier too." told Scarecrow.

"I don't know guys, this Ally sounds really powerful. We should probably get the Princesses." advised Rainbow Dash.

"You have us." pointed X-ray. "A bunch of messed up psychopaths that will put this little prick in his place. If the ally proves too powerful for us, he'll be too powerful for the Princesses. Best keep them alive for the morale of your nation."

"But what if you four die?" glared Twilight.

Shadow laughed for a moment.

Suddenly, Scarecrow stopped and spoke in a deadpan voice. "Le'ts not think about that."

X-ray placed his gloved finger on his chin. "We can't just go find Fluttershy without knowing where she is."

"Any thoughts as to where she may be?" asked Scorch.

"She's not on our holo maps or HUD, so either she's in the distorted zone or her kidnapper has magic akin to stealth technology that could render certain individuals invisible to sensors." theorized Scarecrow.

"This is hopeless. Fluttershy could be anywhere in the world for crying out loud!" yelled Rainbow Dash, on the brink of despair.

"We're trying to think here." hissed X-ray as he pondered a possible location for Fluttershy which was proving incredibly difficult given the weight of his circumstances.

"This fucking sucks." groaned Scarecrow. "The 23rd isn't one to launch rescue missions, but we've never had this much difficulty in laying out a plan or finding someone. Especially someone completely innocent."

The ponies looked at Shadow with uncertainty. They could tell this was pretty much the first time where their mission wouldn't be an easy curb stomp for them, especially considering that their usual and supposedly infallible methods were failing.

"Can't believe our tech isn't helping." gritted Scorch as he tried to search for Fluttershy through every app he had on his HUD.

When all was quiet, Pinkie Pie suddenly went through a series of spasms. Her tail split in two, her tongue stuck out, she was dragged by her neck off the ground by a supposedly invisible force and slammed down on the ground muzzle first.

"You alright?" frowned Scarecrow.

Pinkie Pie got up and started skipping in place. "OMG, I think I know where Fluttershy might be!"

"What did your messed up ability to calculate probability, AKA, Pinkie Sense tell you?" moaned X-ray.

"Think about it. Where would a teleporting kidnapper hide someone if he wanted their friends to fall into a trap?" hinted Pinkie.

"Abandoned warehouse? Military base?" guessed Scorch.

"Actually, those would be genius locations......but with the context of Equestria.....it would be a cave!" answered Pinkie.

"Which there happens to be near by in the Everfee Forest!" realized Twilight.

"Which is also a part of the world the Federation can't use surveillance gear on!" added Rarity.

"Oh that jerk!" gritted Applejack. "Hidin' Shy in a cave for Celestia's sake how long!"

"And your Pinkie sense told you this?" said X-ray.

Pinkie Pie nodded with an anxious expression.

X-ray, Scorch and Scarecrow immediately turned to face Overwatch who was typing something on his wrist computer.

The sniper sighed. "Well, taking Pinkie's variables into account along with her rate of being right, I'm calculating 73% chance of success if we go along with her plan."

"Works for me." shrugged Scorch.

Scarecrow faced the Ponies. "Any idea which cave Pinkie Pie is talking about?"

Remembering the cave Spike had ventured to when he had ran off, Twilight immediately took charge.

"Follow us, I know exactly where the kidnapper would be." instructed Twilight.

"You sure? I don't want you five to get hurt after a messed up week." empathized X-ray.

"Hey! Fluttershy's our friend." yelled Rainbow Dash.

"Not to mention we know the land better than you do." pointed Applejack.

"And just because the threats you faced were far worse than whatever Equestria threw at us, we can still handle ourselves." reminded Rarity.

"Nice to see you all being incredibly brave." commended Scarecrow.

"I hope we're not too late." gulped Pinkie Pie.

"You have a genius, but ridiculous way with numbers to uncover the future, can't you use that to figure out if Fluttershy is alive?" questioned X-ray.

"Doesn't always work." blushed Pinkie.

Scarecrow put on his mask and so did the rest of Shadow. Taking out their Gauss rifles from the magnetic plates behind their backs, they were ready to go rescue the yellow pegasus.

"Lead the way." said the now masked Scorch.

The cave showed no signs of struggle and had a completely natural feeling to it. However, it also appeared to play a bit of a mind trick on anyone who saw it and ventured in, for it was bigger than it looked.

Shadow normally would have switched their mics to local as to avoid giving their location, but their communications were jammed and needed to be able to advise the ponies.

"So Spike once ran off to this cave?" asked Scarecrow.

"Yeah." whispered Twilight. "Last time I remember, there was a dragon and a hoard of gems in here."

"There's no presence of either." noticed X-ray. "This cave appears to be untouched."

It became darker and darker as the group ventured further and further into the cave, with the only source of illumination being Twilight and Rarity's horns which thankfully gave off a massive quantity of light energy. Shadow was unfazed thanks to their HUDs.

"How far does this cave go?" muttered Scorch.

"Seems like we got a kilometer or two left." replied Overwatch.

The group continued the trek with vision being less of a problem as Twilight focused more of her energies on her horn, no matter how tiresome it would have been.

Upon getting a better view of things however, Pinkie Pie let out a loud yelp that even startled Shadow.

"What the hell!" gritted Scarecrow.

"I just saw something creepy." panted Pinkie Pie. "Once the light from Twilight's horn got better I saw a shadow!"

The 23rd squad glared at Pinkie.

"We're right here." muttered Scorch.

"No! Like a literal shadow shadow. It was black and creepy and floating on the wall over there before it disappeared." explained the Pink Earth Pony.

X-ray cleared his throat. "Um, a shadow is a shape produced by a physical object and a source of light. The lighting from Twilight and Rarity's horn is good, but not good enough to warrant a noticeable shadow, let alone appear in the direction you pointed at for our Shadows should appear in that direction."

"I know that silly! I meant a heaping ball of darkness!" cried Pinkie Pie.

"But we didn't get anything strange on our HUDs. No voices, heartbeats or motion. Nothing physical at all." stated Scorch.

"That's because a shadow isn't physical." panned Twilight.

Scarecrow placed a hand on his mask. "I for one am savvy enough to know to never dismiss something strange as nothing. Especially in an ominous situation like this. Pinkie might be on to something."

Applejack knitted her eyebrows. "If that's the case, then we have company."

"But we're not reading anything!" said X-ray.

"They must be hiding from your technology with that stupid stealth magic. I've remembered reading about anti detection spells during my free time once." realized Twilight.

"Great, this is what our victims feel whenever we're doing the exact same thing." gritted Scorch.

"Let's not talk about that now dear." panned Rarity.

Shadow started to move their rail weapons from side to side in a more cautious, but still stoic manner.

"Whoever this jerk is, he or she is gonna get a fine pummeling." hissed Applejack.

Rainbow Dash was the next to speak. "But there's still no sign of Fluttershy or-"

Suddenly, the group heard a squeak of a very soft and timid voice.

"Fuck, I heard something." hissed Overwatch.

"So did I!" yelped Rarity.

There was another whisper in the distance that sounded like a cry for help.

Rainbow Dash's eyes shot open. "That must be Fluttershy!"

"Or is it?" Scarecrow. He used his arm to barricade the ponies from advancing.

"What are you doing?" questioned Pinkie as she noticed Shadow's hesitation.

"Hold on, I have an audio recording." announced X-ray. He turned to his tablet and uploaded the footage from his HUD, both audio and video. He turned on an app for facial and vocal recognition and played the recorded faint sounds in the distance.

"I'm getting a 92% match."

"Then what are we waiting for?" complained Applejack.

"Whenever we lure our targets into a similar situation in a secluded area, we always use voice alteration to confuse them before we roll in the executions." told Scarecrow.

"Voice altering spells do exist and I'm sure they function the same way as a technological one." nodded Twilight.

"So it could be a trap." realized Rarity.

"Hell, we're not even getting readings of Fluttershy even being here." muttered Overwatch.

There was yet another faint sound.

"Please help! Hurry before he comes." The voice was sad and afraid, but not broken.

"Fuck it, let's move. Shadow keep alert." gritted Scarecrow.

Taking a left and then a right, the group made its way to the end of the cave. Shadow had their grips on their weapons tightened unable to accept the irony of them being the stalked and hunted.

While they were moving, Shadow began to see signs of faint traces of black that always disappeared the moment they looked at them. They rally hoped their insanity wasn't getting worse.

Finally, the trek concluded as the group reached the dead end. There, they found a sight that they did not accept.

Fluttershy was there. Her mane was messed up and she clearly hadn't slept. There were no signs of assault though other than a few minor bruises on her coat. What startled Shadow the most however were her incredibly disturbed eyes.

As Shadow glared at Fluttershy, they couldn't help but realize that her being placed at the end of a cave with no form of restraint was far too easy. They looked from side to side, waiting for their ghostly friend to show up any moment.

The ponies galloped towards their yellow pegasus friend and gave her a big group hug.

"Fluttershy! Is it really you?" gasped Rainbow Dash.

The timid pegasus nodded, but she evidently wasn't in full control of her body as her movements were shaky and crooked.

"Are you hurt?" asked Twilight.

Fluttershy shook her head 'no' while trying to stifle a tear.

"This was too fucking easy. It has to be a trap!" yelled X-ray.

"It is." whispered Fluttershy.

Applejack knotted her eyebrows. "Alright, tell us who's the jerk that kidnapped you."

"You're not going to believe it." cried Fluttershy.

Suddenly, a black cloud whisked from one side of the cave to the other.

"Shit! Did you see that?" pointed Scarecrow.

"Affirmative."

"Got away though."

Scorch turned to the ponies. "Bail. Now! Before this bastard gets you!"

"Hey, we want this Ally gone just as much as you do." replied Pinkie Pie.

"You're gonna need all the help that you can get." added Twilight.

"Acknowledged." replied the demo man.

When all seemed quiet, a spiked purple crystal immediately rose from the ground, almost stabbing X-ray in the foot.

X-ray swore in Armenian followed by English. "Holy shit! That just happened."

Another crystal rose, this time nearly stabbing Scarecrow.

"There it is again!"

More and more knee high purple crystals spiked from the ground until they formed a circle encompassing Shadow squad. The four counter terrorists found themselves back to back, with still no sign of any physical enemy anywhere.

"This cave shouldn't have any crystals! Not for its location!" noted X-ray.

"They must be teleported from somewhere. These are the exact same crystals found in the Crystal Empire's mines!" realized Twilight as she took a closer look.

"Whoever is controlling these things is doing a shitty job." insulted Scarecrow as he side stepped the emerging spiked gems.

"They also appear to be only targeting you four!" pointed Rarity.

"You think?" replied Scorch as he found himself almost dancing in his attempts to runaway from the emerging crystals.

Twilight inspected the situation in the midst of the panic. Whoever was controlling these crystals could have simply lunged them at Shadow to do damage. Furthermore, these seemed to be the type of crystals that were gigantic in nature and should have been able to reach the wall, meaning that only a fraction of these formations was sticking from the ground In fact, the crystals were noticeably pushing the four commandos closer.

The Alicorn suddenly knew what was going on.

"Shadow! Run out of the circle! It's going to-"

In the heart of the moment, the crystals on the ground suddenly revealed their full form and grew to the top of the cave, restraining, imprisoning and concealing Shadow squad in the middle of a make shift jail.

The four commandos were sealed in tight, almost unable to move their limbs as the crystals pressed on their bodies.

"This is tight." gritted Scorch.

"Is the fucker gonna crush us to death?" groaned Scarecrow.

"Think again." muttered Overwatch as a greenish glow illuminated the area.

Shadow looked up and saw a concentrated ball of green energy forming above their heads at the top of their crystal cage. Their HUDs read energy signatures not too different from plasma. The plasma would have little room inside the crystal prison to dissipate, allowing for it to unleash a devastating concentrated blast if it struck the squad.

Without even having to think, Scarecrow struggled to hold up his LMG and fired a rail round, shattering one of the crystal spires. Shadow immediately used their enhanced reflexes to bail out of confinement as the plasma ball soared straight for them.

Right when they were freed, the energy blast hit the ground, causing a greenish detonation with a minor radius, albeit one still strong enough to shatter the surrounding Crystals.

Twilight instinctively used an energy shield spell to protect her friends while Shadow's barriers absorbed any incoming heat, which only depleted 10% of their protective unit.

"Well that was close." panted Scorch.

"Plasma wouldn't have killed us though, but I'm willing the asshole would have just generated a few more bursts." inferred X-ray.

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "That spell was dark magic, as in a type of practiced magic that is forbidden to most due to its destructive capabilities."

"In this case, it was a plasma blast. I could see why they'd call that type of magic dark." responded Scarecrow.

"Why aren't we ponies being attacked though?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

Before anyone could answer, the group caught a glimpse of a familiar (and animated) trail of smoke whirl right infront of them before disappearing in the rocky walls around them.

It was there that Pinkie Pie put two and two together. "Everyone! I think I know who's the Ally after us! Black smoke, dark magic, pointed crystals, big shields and a green energy signature!"

At this point, the other ponies knew too.

"Who?" questioned Scorch. "Spit it out!"

Fluttershy took a big gulp. "It's Sombra."

"......."

"WHAT!" yelled Scarecrow. "How the fuck could it be Sombra? Are you sure it's not Discord or something? That would make total sense considering he was created by our ancestors with Narret tech to be a walking trail of-"

The trail of black smoke suddenly whipped out of the walls and headed straight for X-ray, who immediately side stepped to his left to avoid the attack, with the supposed form of Sombra disappearing back to the wall again.

"It can not be Sombra. He's dead!" yelled X-ray. "I mean, it would be far more reasonable if it was Discord. After all, he's powerful, we haven't seen him for a week and screwing us over with a war is totally like his chaotic nature."

"Talk about someone hiding in the shadows. This came out of nowhere." shook Scorch.

"Figures. I knew the ponies couldn't kill someone." realized Scarecrow.

"We thought he was dead too! Doesn't make any sense why he's here!" shook Applejack.

"This is jut too fucking confusing. I mean, no one can be this good at hiding from others and leaving no traces unless you were a 23rd squad." groaned Overwatch.

A menacing voice that even startled Shadow caught everyone's attention.

"Truly, it's about time someone caught on to my orchestrations!"

"I'll admit, you didn't give away any hints. I commend you for that." slyly remarked Scorch as he jerked his rifle from side to side.

"How the fuck are you still around!" yelled X-ray. "Goddamn it, why won't you appear on my HUD?"

"Such ignorance." The fierce voice growled impatiently.

Sombra's shadow form appeared before the squad and ponies, with a pair of green eyes flashing this time. Instinctively, Shadow took the pragmatic route and leveled their rail weapons and unleashed all their might on Sombra-

-Which simply passed through the black shadow of darkness.

Sombra cackled. "Pitiful! You truly believe your clumsy machines can scathe me?! I am beyond your solid state of existence. I am unassailable! " The dark unicorn teleported once more, but everyone knew he could hear them.

Twilight and Rarity responded by firing a blast of magic at Sombra, who this time was forced to retreat into the walls before the spells could get to him.

"Coward!" yelled Rainbow Dash.

"X-ray, get out your pulse grenades." whispered Twilight.

"The shock will disable your magic too." replied X-ray.

"So? At least it will leave Sombra vulnerable." frowned Twilight.

"Well, I can't use my pulse grenades on him if he's hiding in the cave's walls that are made up of non conductive material." gritted X-ray. "Besides, the shock can kill you if you aren't armored. I also know for a fact that you won't teleport to let us out of your sight in this situation."

"Get out here and fight you cheater!" cried Pinkie Pie.

"Don't make him mad, you'll only make it worse." pleaded Fluttershy.

Sombra's voice overtook the scene. "Tell me flesh-creature, of what ignorance has the Librarian revealed to you? What hopes did she feed your shallow mind?"

Sombra's shadow form again zipped from wall to wall, throwing random energy blasts at Shadow all the while. The squad found it increasingly hard to concentrate as volleys of energy continuously were thrown at them. Sombra didn't have the time to generate mass sums of energy though without having to compromise his shadow form, causing his blasts to only do minor damage when actually hitting Shadow.

The dark unicorn continued to speak. "Watching you four has been a joy! Your arrogance, your paranoia....so much fear. And yet, you still deserve praise for revealing the truth behind magic, lifting the veil of superstition and ignorance that has plagued its study for so very, very long."

"What does this have to do with anything?" cried Rainbow Dash while trying to catch Sombra's shadow form whenever it appeared.

"Such a revelation came to me over a millennia ago! I shattered the boundaries that imprison magics fullest potential! I set my magic free! I made myself king through right of power and fear!" The shadowy pony seemed to turn his attention specifically to Shadow once more, "Just like you! Gaha! Hahaha! We...we're practically family! For do we not both wield the same blade of darkness and fear? Do we not both delve into what has been forbidden? We have both found the true nature of this world."

"So a lot of these spells you're doing are from Narret schematics?"

"Precisely. I can bend my matter into nothing more than dust, I can tear your mind in half and I can amplify my abilities to be ten thousand times MORE TERRIBLE!"

Sombra laughed hard which only made Shadow and the ponies angrier.

"What we call 'science', I also know as power. And I bear the power to destroy all of you!" gloated Sombra. "Your technologies fall short of what comes naturally to me. All that you can do I can overcome. What had you in a drooling stupor I embraced, it was utterly hilarious seeing you four so dumbstruck by the Librarians archives!"

"So you've been following us!" said Twilight.

"For how long?" gritted Rarity.

More energy blasts were emitted by Sombra. The lethal ones attacked Shadow while stun spells went for the ponies, who used their magic and considerable stamina and speed to evade the dark stallion's attempts.

"Hey! Answer our question pal! " demanded Rainbow Dash. "How long have you been stalking us?"

"Longer than you could have ever known my little pony. I am everywhere, I live on in all darkness."

"So you've been hiding from us the entire time? It's almost been a year since I thought we got rid of you!" pointed Applejack.

"Without the alien machines, self re-composition can prove...timely." sighed Sombra through the echos of the cave.

The next thing anyone knew, more Crystals emerged from the ground and engulfed the Mane 6 and Shadow, trapping them inside like a man frozen in a block of ice.

Now that his targets were frozen, Sombra charged an energy blast with enough power capable of vaporizing the trapped Shadow. He had other plans for the Mane 6.

What Sombra didn't take into account however, was that Twilight and Rarity could still feel their horns, allowing them to release a wave energy that shattered their crystal confinements.

Right when Sombra unleashed his spell of pure destruction, Twilight emitted a dark energy blast which opened a pocket into sub space, causing the plasma blast to vanish into the meaningless void.

Twilight proceeded to use the reverse of Sombra's crystal spell to free the frozen commandos and ponies.

Shadow regained composure. For once, it was the enemy that had the element of surprise. They decided to continue their interrogation of the dark unicorn.

"I get the feeling you were the one who placed a distortion field in the first place." inferred Scarecrow.

"But that would mean Sombra would have the foresight to know that the humans were coming." pointed Rarity.

There was a dark chuckle from Sombra. "Sadly, it wasn't through foresight. While exploring the both physical and sub space around Epona, I saw the precious human star ship making its way. It was when I took a closer look that I realized it belonged to the humans."

"So why distort communications?" inquired X-ray.

"I had counted on you loosing interest in this world, in all honesty. But instead your kinds feverish curiosity saw you four sent here. Four cold hearted, mentally broken murderers."

"And you were the one who put up this barrier!" accused Twilight.

"But of course, does any other pony exist capable of such things?! Of such superior capabilities?!" gloated Sombra.

"I don't know, Discord?" replied Pinkie Pie as she darted her eyes from side to side, waiting for Sombra to pop out.

Sombra materialized in front of Shadow in his full regal form. He didn't look any different from the last time Twilight and her friends saw him. His menacing smile and glowing eyes brought back distinct memories.

Rainbow dashed immediately for the unicorn, only for him to fire a biological friction beam from Narret Schematics that slowed Rainbow Dash in her tracks. To the reference point of the Pegasus however, everything appeared to be moving faster rather than her moving slower.

Sombra finished the job by firing a wave of kinetic energy to send the blue pegasus flying in the opposite direction, only to be caught by Rarity's and Twilight's magic at last second.

In the middle of the distraction, Scorch immediately drew his launcher and fired a magnetically propelled rocket at Sombra, only for him to cancel out the magnetic force by reversing polarity. With a sinister smile, Sombra calculated the force needed to inflict serious damage and propelled the rocket back with his own magnetic force emitted from his horn, essentially making a biological rail weapon.

The rocket struck Scorch and depleted his barriers to zero percent while the impact retained enough momentum to send him flying against a wall. The explosion had also depleted a significant portion of X-ray's, Overwatch's and Scarecrow's barriers as well.

The unicorn king continued his tale as Shadow activated cloak mode while their barriers recharged.

"That lesser daemon swine! Gone to a frequency of subspace I have...yet to investigate myself. Mention of meeting his own kind was heard, not important." gritted Sombra.

The shadow unicorn suddenly laughed. "Boy, is he in for a surprise when he gets back next week. It'll be a treat seeing his heart break at the sight of his home consumed by darkness! That is, assuming he truly is reformed."

The next thing anyone knew, a rail bullet was suddenly fired, only to deflect off of Sombra. A purple glow with a hexagonal pattern (just like Shadow's barriers) were emitted where the stallion was shot and should have had blood leaking.

"What. The. Fuck." blurted Scarecrow as Shadow's cloaking wore off.

Sombra immediately converted to smoke mode and took to the walls.

"Are you copying all of our defense mechanisms?" blurted X-ray.

"Why not?" inquired Sombra with a pretentious tone. "Knowledge is power, and I reap it wherever it lay available. What is it, fleshling? Feeling inadequate? Unprepared? Outmatched?...Trapped? Just like your own victims?"

"No one can be this savvy unless you received 23rd training!" face palmed Scorch.

"I don't get it Sombra, why the hell do you want us dead? Humans did nothing to you and I'm sure the reason isn't that you're evil. Although granted, you're a guy the UTF would want dead in a heart beat." inquired X-ray.

Sombra's disembodied voice was made apparent.

"When I was in the Narret archives, I only pretended to fain defeat when the Librarian wouldn't allow me information. Since magic isn't barred from the laws of science and I embrace such knowledge thousands of years ahead of my race-" Sombra let off a gloating laugh. "-I was able to overcome certain security measures. Narret applications that I could cast with my horn were just one of the things I could see. What I did pay a lot of attention to were archival records of this planet's creation by your stupid ancestors."

"With all due respect to them, they were primitives." defended Scorch.

"Primitives that tried to play god." mocked Sombra. His tone shifted to a more serious one. "When I saw your human ship above the skies of Epona, I feared that you would force the races of this planet back to subjugation as your power hungry ancestors swore or at least burn us away from the skies."

"But don't want to enslave every race! Humans have gotten passed that stupid bourgeois notion of racial subjugation!" yelled X-ray.

"Is it true! Have the hominids elevated their minds beyond such primitive needs?! So nice to hear you've cut out your primal ways...well, perhaps not all the way out." chuckled Sombra.

"Cut the chatter! Come out so we can face ya and go home!" dared Applejack.

"As you wish." whispered Sombra through his echoing voice.

Once he appeared, Shadow wasted no time firing at the tyrannical stallion, who himself brought up a green shield with a hexagonal pattern that not only stopped the bullets in their tracks, but instead caught them in midair.

The 23rd team lowered their weapons as they stared at the shield's ability to catch bullets with disbelief.

Sombra proceeded to form a malevolent smile and propelled the rail bullets with a magnetic stream much like a Gauss rifle back at the counter terrorists, with uncanny kinetic force.

Right before Shadow could react, the reflected bullets vanished from the vicinity when they were only a millimeter from impact.

"Two can play at this game Sombra!" yelled Twilight. "If magic really is a physical force we can control, than there should be no reason why I can't control it either."

Twilight remembered all the times Shadow fired their rail guns and visualized its firing mechanics. A stun spell was too simple, so she needed magnetism and a projectile, but there weren't any ways for her to gain the latter. Instead, she could propel an energy blast with magnetism in its place.

Charging up all the magnetic current she could, Twilight started to generate a familiar noise to Shadow and emitted and fired an pulse of energy and the tyrant unicorn.

For reasons Shadow did not know, Sombra did not just allow the blast to pass right by him, but rather reverted to smoke form and fled.

"If you're going to be hiding darling, you could at least tell us why you sided with the Alliance!" chastised Rarity.

"Simple really. I've been recovering my power slowly so I could strike again once more to reclaim what was mine." told Sombra.

"The Crystal Empire?" piped up Pinkie.

"Why stop there?" chuckled Sombra. "I can burrow into the archives once more, I can seize the alien artifacts and I can spearhead an assault through all Equestria! I will rule all this land, then the world...maybe even beyond. I wonder what secrets those little minds of yours hold? Perhaps the location of your home world? The location of my NEXT KINGDOM!"

"Fascist." whispered Scarecrow.

Sombra fired another volley of plasma behind Shadow who simply let their barriers take damage. Shadow knew that the opportunity cost of staying in smoke form would drain a large portion of Sombra's magic, making a major sum of his attacks useless unless he appeared in full form.

Sombra continued. "I remembered how humans were portrayed as the ultimate harbingers to all. I saw to turn this world against you, and drown you in its own blood!"

Before anyone could reply, a series of crystals sprouted from the ground and morphed into a twisted shape. Shadow's HUDs began to read signs of artificial intelligence present in the cave, but with no sign of machinery. Rather, their visor pointed to the morphing barrage of crystals.

The formation finally created a gigantic Crystal beast shaped like a humanoid lobster that let out a huge and hideous roar-

-that only lasted two seconds before Shadow shot it down into a few dozen miniature fragments with only a single bullet from each of their weapons.

"What? Did you honestly think that it would work? That we wouldn't shoot it down?" laughed Scorch.

Sombra didn't reply but simply formed another Crystal beast.

Scarecrow realized that there had to be another reason for Sombra to form another minion. He raised his LMG before his allies did and fired a rail bullet, that reflected off a barrier with a hexagonal pattern. The squad's HUDs read that it would take a massive amount of rail bullets to counter the barrier, leaving only one option.

"Pinkie, Rainbow Dash. Distract that son of a bitch!"

"Okey Dokey Lokey!" smiled Pinkie Pie.

The pink mare used her sugar supplied stamina to zip straight to the monster who was readying its claws for an attack.

Pinkie Pie tapped it on the leg, noticing the reflection of the barrier as her hoof made contact.

The Crystal monster looked down at the party pony.

"Hey there you pink colored crystal automaton! Come and get me!" cheered Pinkie.

The monster lifted its leg to stomp Pinkie Pie, only for her to simply skip to the other side.

The next thing the monster knew, Rainbow Dash flew right in front of its face. The rainbow maned pegasus gave the beat a wave.

The lobster like monster raised its pincer to ensnare Rainbow Dash and crush her, but the pegasus simply flew out of its reach in less than a second.

"Too slow pal! Hey Sombra, I might not be a brainy pony, but you gotta take mobility into account when making things."

The monster tried to swat Dash again, but the pony was too fast. Sombra had not realized that the way he designed the creature made for poor flexibility and agility.

Right in the middle of its attempts to decide stomping Pinkie Pie or slapping Rainbow Dash with a pincer, the monster felt a hand, not a hoof, touch its right leg. This was followed by a major electromagnetic wave encompassing its body.

The next thing the monster knew, its barrier was gone.

X-ray proceeded to uncloak with a smile under his mask. "Pulse punch."

In the following second, Applejack sped up to the monster and delivered a swift buck to its left leg. A crack appeared over the previously mentioned crystal appendage that traveled up to the monster's waste. As expected, the left leg shattered into collection of miniature pieces.

The monster fell, and its face was suddenly blown off.

"Head shot." gritted Overwatch while lifting his sniper.

Unfortunately, Sombra did not give up and reassembled the artificial Crystal monster once more.

His intuition kicking in, Scarecrow realized that Sombra was adapting to Shadow's attacks. As a result, this variation would likely be structured with the properties of something akin to a Faraday cage to repel EMP attacks.

"Twilight, teleport the creature away." ordered Scarecrow.

"Got it." replied the alicorn. Twilight fired a dark energy blast which ripped open the fabric of space and time to vanish the monster into a meaningless void that went who knows where. Like all wormholes however, the opening was unstable and collapsed.

"Son of a bitch. That was way too easy. Sombra is just trying to figure out how to counter our attacks." said X-ray.

"You always were the thinker, hahah!" roared Sombra's voice. "Turns out all your boasting, all your methods of intimidation were for nothing! All they did was fuel my knowledge!"

"And here I thought you were just lucky." glanced Twilight.

"But how did you avoid being detected by the Federation's technology?" whispered the normally quiet Fluttershy.

"Why through Shadow, of course. You four are surely familiar with your equipment and techniques?" questioned Sombra in a sarcastic voice.

The squad only nodded.

"Well why should my magic be exempt from similar capabilities? The Narret schematics I looked at were already useful in revealing techniques to see me gone from your sight and touch. Not to mention the working of your tools of death!"

Sombra appeared once more, his horn charging with a blast which according to Shadow's HUD, could compare to the strength of a powerful coilgun which could shatter their barriers had likely their bodies.

Coil guns needed to charge however, which unfortunately resulted in a distraction for dark stallion.

Right before Sombra could fire his attack, he was suddenly lifted by the throat by an invisible force, slowly chocking to death. His horn had shut off in the midst of the confusion.

Overwatch revealed himself and stared into Sombra's soul with his glaring mask. Sombra looked more surprised than afraid however.

The sniper immediately diverted power to his magnetic gloves to deliver what was a 'pulse choke' with an electric attack travelling all over the helpless stallion's body.

"Just burn motherfucker. Burn." hissed Overwatch as his glove began to crush Sombra's neck while the electricity began to drain him of magic.

Unfortunately and to everyone's surprise, Sombra broke free of Overwatch's grasp by dispersing into his smoke form and flying away.

"When the fuck did you become EMP proof......like our suits?" screamed X-ray.

"Enough! You are, all of you, beneath me!" answered Sombra. The stallion was coughing as he spoke, indicating Overwatch's choke still did a number on him.

"You are all such fine murderers! No adept at destroying anything less than yourselves! So wrapped up in your own capabilities that you never once asked yourselves how you'd defeat anything superior to you!"

"I'm sorry dear, but if you're so powerful than why in the name of Equestria didn't you obliterate us when you had the element of a surprise before?" mocked Rarity.

"Yeah, we were pretty open targets for a whole week like like a donkey just begging to get is tail pinned." added Pinkie Pie. "Why didn't you just take us out? Shadow would have done that if they were after us."

"And why are you only focused on attacking Shadow?" noticed Applejack.

"Yeah, are you afraid of being beaten by a girl or something?" snickered Rainbow Dash.

"Mare. You're technically a mare. Human females are girls." corrected X-ray.

Sombra laughed once more. Oh how Shadow wished they could shut him up. "The Elements are required to further my designs. So consider yourselves lucky, for you must remain alive."

"But the elements are gone." gulped Fluttershy.

"What's this plan your cooking up? Tell us!" demanded Twilight.

Sombra appeared before the group in shadow form, with two piercing green eyes looking straight at everyone. Shadow knew better than to fire at him this time.

"This war has been raging, silently, for longer than you could possibly know."

"Elaborate." hissed Scarecrow. "You might as well considering aren't getting anywhere with this conflict. We just keep countering each other's attempts to no end."

"When I learned of the Alliance forming, I realized that this was my chance to reclaim the nation that belonged to me."

"How the heck did the other countries agree to aiding you. You're an enemy of the planet for crying out loud! A threat to everyone." Challenged Twilight.

"The founders of the Alliance quickly sought out every resource they could, even volatile ones, even me!"

Sombra materialized behind the group.

"I became their finest tool, as they unknowingly became my slaves! I would provide them abilities and knowledge to overcome you, and they would kneel before me in return!" gloated the stallion.

"What would you even gain from helping the Alliance destroy Equestria?" panned Rainbow Dash.

Sombra appeared in his non stallion form and attempted to fire a wave of energy blasts that homed on Shadow, only for the beams to simply be absorbed by commando's barriers.

X-ray immediately had a hunch. Sombra's magic had a limited output and a powerful enough blast to kill him would require the near maximum of his potential. Thus, any time he was hidden in smoke form or split his beams into smaller fragments, his attacks would be too weak. Furthermore, the attack Sombra just fired needed his maxmium output, which meant he wasn't putting up a shield...meaning......

X-ray raised his rail rifle to fire a round at Sombra, but the stallion saw the commando jerk his arms up and turned into his smoke form in response.

"Ha! You're magic's too weak to kill us unless you divert all your energy to a beam, but that would leave you vulnerable." smirked Scorch.

Sombra was seen, but he howled in response. Shadow popped in fresh rounds to their gauss rifles all the while.

"I get the feeling that the Alliance promised you land if you helped them annihilate us." realized Scarecrow.

"But of course! Wouldn't you be willing to offer something similar to save your homes and families? Little do they realise in vanquishing one danger, they simply unleash another!"

"You twisted tyrant!" scowled Rarity.

Much to everyone's ignorance, Sombra had appeared behind the group, casting a spell reminiscent and blatantly copied off of the mechanisms of Shadow's suits.

Trying his luck, the hapless stallion tried to cast another spell like the coil gun he had made with his magic.

Unfortunately for him, Shadow immediately turned around as if the near quiet charging of the rail gun was all they needed to learn Sombra's position.

Normally, Shadow would have opened fire and rail gunned Sombra to death, but there was only one force in the universe faster and crazier than an augmented Terran's reactions.

Pinkie Pie, using her sugar induced bodily enhancements, appeared behind Sombra and shoved her hoofs in his eyes, causing the dark stallion to start whaling about in random directions while Pinkie Pie clutched on tight.

"Take the shot! Take the shot!" begged Applejack.

"His horn his down! He's vulnerable!" shouted Twilight.

'You can't kill me!' growled Sombra.

Overwatch gritted his teeth. "Pinkie Pie is clutched on to him and swinging from side to side. I'm calculating a 85% chance of her getting hit too if.......on second thought.....greater good."

Fluttershy's eyes shot open as Overwatch raised his sniper rifle. "Wait!"

Overwatch took the shot, and his sniper immediately accelerated a rail bullet. Sadly, Sombra had persevered enough to light up his horn in time.

A kinetic barrier had formed right in front of Sombra as Overwatch pulled trigger, but this barrier was too weak to totally deflect the bullet. This time, the rail round retained enough momentum to knock Sombra back after striking him in the chest.

The stallion fell to the side with Pinkie Pie being thrown off as well. Before Shadow could open fire however, a massive crystal spire appeared from the ground that rose to the roof of the caves.

Shadow immediately opened fire on the spire and shattered it. Twilight and Rarity used their magic to clean up the mess. Behind the wall however, was only Pinkie Pie who struggled to get up.

"Pinkie, are ya alright?" gasped Applejack as Fluttershy helped the pink earth pony up.

"I'm fine, but Sombra cast something on me." shook Pinkie Pie. The black stallion had evidently teleported away or had resumed his smoke form.

X-ray scanned Pinkie's vitals. "Well, good news Pinkie. Your next doctor visit should yield outstanding results, because as of now, all traces of caffeine and artificial super sugars are gone. You're healthier than nutritionist's wet dream."

"What!" cried Pinkie. She attempted to leap at Shadow like she normally would with her sugar-given powers, only to falter and tumble over.

"Oh! Just wait until I eat another coffee flavor cupcake with energy drink filling and morning pill frosting!" swore Pinkie.

"Shame. Those weird powers were rather handy." sighed Rainbow Dash.

"WEIRD!" roared Sombra's voice. "If anything, the pink one represents a portion of the future! My future!"

Twilight let out a huff and charged her horn.

"I am already your better in all fields of intellect and combat! And in time I shall ascend beyond what even the Narret could ever comprehend!"

"Yeah, well guess what? You haven't been able to kill us despite there being quite a bit of hindsight for what you could have done to finish us off earlier." laughed X-ray.

"Face it pal. It's an even fight that won't end for quite a while. The odds are equally in our favors since we can pretty much predict what you're going to do to us." mocked Scarecrow.

"Without the alien gifts you hold nothing to assault me with!" replied Sombra. "The only thing that truly defeated me is the Crystal Heart, and that was Narret technology."

Sombra finally materialized in behind Shadow in his full stallion form. Before he could show up on Shadow's trackers however, he immediately used his magic to open a rip in sub space under the Mane 6's hooves, causing them to fall into a void before they could let out a scream.

Shadow immediately faced what was supposed to be the Mane 6, only to see a miniature wormhole collapse.

The squad immediately put two and two together.

X-ray dropped his carbine in shock.

"What the fuck did you do to them?" yelled Scorch, moving his rifle from side to side, trying to find where Sombra had taken off to.

Chapter 46: Rescue Part 2

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