Two hours later
Aboard the Gerald R. Ford

Captain Henderson looked at a technician with a deadpan glaze, wondering about what he had just heard.

"Can you run me by that again, Junior Information Systems Technician?" Henderson said slowly.

"There are eight of the, uh, ponies, on a hill three miles away from our base and slightly into the forest." The Technician said in reply.

"And what is so special about them that you come and bother me about it?" Henderson asked. "We've been seeing ponies every goddamned day since we've landed here. Those pegasi only pissed off half a day ago, and now even more are back, only this time they're ten miles away instead of a thousand feet!"

The entirety of the bridge crew flinched at his words, before continuing with their work.

"One of them is the pony that the Russian team encountered in their supposed capital, the presumed leader, the blue one." The Technician hastily added. "With it is another pony, also with both wings and a horn, accompanied by six others, three of whom are ones that the Russian observed in their brief journey."

Henderson paused, before looked out of the bridge windows at the supposed hill.

"Move a UAV feed to that hill and patch it through to the center screen." Henderson ordered.

The Technician hastily gave a salute and walked over to the UAV station, quickly typing in a series of commands for the control station six decks below. Within five seconds, a live video feed overlaid on the main screen, replacing the radar map of the area. It showed a wide perspective of a hill, with the base out of view, before quickly zooming in to show the mentioned ponies.

Much to Henderson's surprise, it was as the Technician had mentioned. Two of the 'leaders', who matched the descriptions that the two ponies they held had given of 'Celestia' and 'Luna', stood on the hill overlooking the camp. With them were six others, several of whom Henderson recognized from his review of the Russian 'Net' video feeds.

The six regular ones, a mix of the various types they had encountered so far, started to step forward. A light started to grow from them, although the UAV could not zoom in enough to make out from where. It slowly grew brighter as Henderson grew more worried.

"Everyone, get into action." Henderson said. "We might have a problem."

Vasilyev looked towards the forest, at the quickly growing light on the hill. He looked at it with curiosity, and then worry. Ignoring the half dozen notifications coming through the 'Net' glasses about it, he continued to watch as it grew into a ball of pure light, before shooting at the camp in a large beam of light. He had no time to flinch as it hit dead-center, sending off a bright wave of what looked like multicolored light.

The wave passed by him, with the only result being a slight tingly feeling. Vasilyev was confused as to what had just happened, being that nothing had apparently changed. Shrugging, he went back to what he had been doing previously: Browsing through the 'Net' for any information that had been gathered on where they were, along with what had just happened.

Captain Henderson looked on at the results, or lack thereof, of the brilliant light. He had no idea what had just happened, until he looked at the UAV feed. The hilltop still had the eight ponies on it. With the UAV having moved closer, the expressions on their faces of shock and... Disappointment? He didn't know how to tell, but he could hazard a guess.

"My best idea as to what the hell just happened, is that whatever they just tried, failed." One of the Technicians said out loud. A chorus of agreement went through the room.

Henderson looked out at the camp with apprehension. Whatever had just happened, it had changed everything.

Four miles west of Combined Forces Firebase
Ten minutes later

Sergeant Davit Meskhi of the Georgian Special Forces Brigade looked out on the road, waiting for the market targets. He knew the basics of what this land was from scattered 'Net' transmissions that he and the others had caught, but it was still hard to believe. An entirely new world? It would have been dismissed, if they had not seen it for themselves.

He and the five other GSFB soldiers were scattered along the trail, keeping in occasional contact via their 'Net' systems. After their defeat in 2008 and again in 2014 at the hands of the Russian Federation, who were working with the Ossetia rebels, the Georgian military had invested all that they could in renovating their hardware. They had purchased top-of-the-line 'Net' systems from Israel in early 2015, along with a shipment of various advanced weapons. With that, Georgia had become one of the world's best trained and equipped militaries, if not one of the smallest.

When war had broken out between the Russian Federation and the New Russian Federation, Georgia had sent a team of soldiers deep into Moscow. If the current government had bad relations with Georgia, the military-controlled coup had worse, and had immediately rebuffed Georgian attempts at diplomacy.

They were still in Moscow, planning a deep-infiltration assault on the Kremlin, when the bomb had gone off. After awakening in a forest, they wandered for two days before finding a large source of 'Net' transmissions. When they had found out where they were, they set to work on remaining secretive. However, the arrival of the 'leader', as the 'Net' systems said it was, had complicated things.

Yet again, Davit replayed the audio logs in his 'Net' system files. He had already gotten the go-ahead from his squadmates, but he was having problems believing he was doing this. Finally, he opened up a 'Net' connection, quickly forcing his way through the security barriers into the 'Net' System of the 'Gerald R. Ford'.

Half a second later, the little box that accomplished the intrusion sent a notification to his 'Net' unit that it was done. Davit quickly sent several commands before anybody could notice the intrusion, breaking into the 'Net' radio system and routing it to a direct line between the Bridge and his 'Net' system. With that done, he cleared his throat and keyed his mike.

"Gerald R. Ford, this is Sergeant Davit of the Georgian Special Forces Brigade." He said in his High School-equivalent English. He was a bit rusty from years of misuse, but he could speak it well enough. "I know you are wondering who we are. We have kept hidden the past few days as we have observed your 'Net' traffic, in the event that we found something. We did."

There was a short pause before a response came. "This is Captain Henderson of the Gerald R. Ford. I'll be inclined to ignore your intrusion into our 'Net' systems if you would tell us what the hell you meant."

"Sending video log now." Davit said, quickly issuing a series of voice command that sent N:/S_3_Davit/Logs/B07 along the 'Net' systems and, with deft use of the little hacking kit inside of the box, deposited it into the files used for the bridge screen, where one of the 'Net' operators quickly picked up on it.

All Sergeant Davit could do now was hope they watched, and then listened. What happened after that, to him, was up in the air.

Video Log B-07 (N:/S_3_Davit/Logs/B07)
Sergeant Davit Meskhi, 3rd Combat Team
Location UNK R/9274-GPS_notvalid

The video quickly started, showing a view from the camera, mounted on the right side of the helmet. The image quickly grew is resolution, showing a view from the top of a forested hill, numerous thick trees filling the edges of the screen. In fact, it seemed as if the recorder was in a tree.

"Now that you're up there, what can you see?" A voice asked from below in Georgian, which 'Sergeant Davit' had helpfully translated into basic English and put in the form of subtitles at the bottom of the camera view.

"Shut up." A voice hissed, coming from right next to the camera, presumably 'Sergeant Davit'. "All I can see a bunch of yellow figures in the supposed 'Pony' camp." The voice finished with some uncertainty.

"System, Magnify Camera, twenty ex." Davit said after a short time.

Instantly, the view of the camp magnified 20x. It popped into view, with hundreds of white ponies encased in gold armor walking between dozens of tents. Several seemed to patrol around in formation, as ones in red jackets seemed to shout orders. The volume was nearly mute, due to the fact that it was some distance away from the camera, but the traces of yells could be faintly heard.

"Jesus Christ." Sergeant Davit muttered to himself before keying his mike. "They've got a couple companies there."

"Only one place they could be headed: That Russian and American base on the coast, the place with all the 'Net' traffic." Another voice below said.

"How fast can we get there?" Sergeant Davit asked, turning around and beginning to climb down the three.

"Three hours, four at max." The second voice replied.

"Then let's go."

With that, the video feed cut out.

There was silence on the bridge for a total of five seconds after the video cut out. After that point, first one, and then the rest of the bridge crew started to get to work, issuing orders over the 'Net' system to the dozens of vessels n the fleet, as well as various ground units.

An attack was coming, and they had to be ready.

Author's Note

Part two of today's chapters. If you see any errors or things you want to notify me about, no matter how small, tell me through a comment or a message. In general, if there's anything you want to say, feel free to use the comments section. That's what it is there for.

Thanks for staying with us all this time. Only one more chapter to go until Act III ends.