0105 hours
Firebase
Nine (9) days after first contact

The Firebase had been specifically built to house around six thousand men, along with all of their assorted equipment. With the recovery of the National Guard from the forest, however, the spots inside of it were quickly filled up. And so trenches were filled in along the coastline, allowing many of 3,200 National Guards to set up their own areas.

Thus, entirely overnight, the Firebase had grown by half of its original size, leaving it spanning an area two-thirds of a mile ashore, and going along one and a half miles of the coast. The coastline itself was rapidly growing, as the engineers worked around the clock to pour concrete (the Sevastopol had contained hundreds of bags of cement, and various other units had what they could find), quickly turning the coastline into a decent port. Word had come down from Trottingham, the city on the island, that they would be making arrangements for building materials, but that was far off in the future.

On the south side of the camp, surrounded by high fences on all four sides and covered overhead in a layer of camouflage netting, sat a large, enclosed area. It housed the nearly two hundred ponies that had been taken prisoner a week ago, during the first attack on the Firebase, as well as a small number that had been taken in the night attack mere days afterward.

Day and night, a group of around a hundred US and Russian soldiers patrolled the perimeter, while a group of ten monitored everything from thermal images to a small group of seismographs. Lacking the delicate equipment needed to detect movement underground, in case of tunneling, the group had turned to a small supply of seismographs, usually used in detecting earthquakes but otherwise used to detect movement.

While some would think that vehicles rolling past, as well as all the other necessities of a modern combat unit, would result in an array of false signals, they would be both right and wrong. A small group of linked computers used the various sensors to triangulate every signal they received, and excluded those that were located outside of the small prison.

It was using this system that, two days earlier, they had detected movement underground. At the same time, the thermal cameras had recorded unusual activity centered around one building, with ponies that were 'housed' nowhere near it entering, and only leaving after a period of hours.

The sounds had progressed at around ten meters per hour, going down eight meters before heading outward, towards the forest. While they could have swarmed in and uncovered the operation, the men merely notified their superiors, and kept watching as it steadily trailed outward. They began to notice odd, small piles of dirt appearing in the camp, as well as an unusual amount appearing by the sides of the prefabricated structures that housed the ponies.

The men inside of the observation post watched with growing amusement as the tunnel reached two hundred meters away from the camp, stopping there before beginning to dig upwards. Thus, a team was quickly assembled to meet where it would appear, driving out in a pair of Humvees and making a small circle around the spot. One of them directed a small spotlight on the top of a Humvee towards the area, bathing it in light.

All they had to do was wait.

Six meters below, Spring Wind followed behind a unicorn as they steadily tunneled upwards. The unicorn was slowly using his magic to take bits and pieces of the dirt above him away, compressing the rest against the side into a wall that was nearly as hard as rock. It was energy-intensive, however, and the unicorns generally had to be sent back up after an hour of work. She was mere the second pony in this team, there to make sure they were a good distance away from their infernal prison when they surfaced.

Immediately after they had been imprisoned, the planning had begun. One of the pegasi in her group had the bright idea to make a tunnel. Without tools, it had to be done entirely by unicorns, but the end result was worth it. Now, hopefully, they could get as many ponies out as possible to warn the rest of Equestria.

With a grunt, the unicorn compacted another one and a half meters, levitating a small bit of dirt behind him and past her, where another unicorn picked it up and carried it down the tunnel. Compressing the walls in, as well as making the tunnel stable, also allowed them to make it around two meters across, as well as cutting down on the amount of dirt they had to scatter and hide.

Another bit of dirt levitated past her, the unicorn pausing to use one of his forelegs to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. With that done, he continued with his work. Thankfully, the slat upwards was only at a forty-five degree angle, much better than the near-vertical tunnel from the strange buildings they had been assigned to.

Finally, the unicorn's horn glowed again, scanning the area above him.

"It's clear, one third of a meter up." The stallion said. "There are some objects in the area, probably some rocks. Those should hide us from the view of their camp. Spring, I can't let them see the glow. Can you take the last bit?"

"I can." Spring Wind replied, moving past him and looking up at the uncompressed dirt above her. Unicorns may have been able to use magic, but a small portion of excess energy always bled off, proportionate to the power of the spell or use of magic. At night, it would be easily visible. Bracing her wings upward, she used her natural pegasi strength in those appendages to push the final bit of dirt upward, finally breaking through the surface. Eagerly, she poked her head up.

I thought it was still night outside! The voice inside of head screamed as she blinked at the amount of light. It was almost blinding, but her eyes quickly adjusted. The first thing she saw was a vague bipedal form, pointing a strangely familiar object at her.

The mare sighed as this sunk in. "Aw, buck."

"And they were apprehended?" Lieutenant Brownfield of the British contingent asked, sitting down at his desk in the Firebase Headquarters building.

"Successfully, and returned to the camp." The corporal replied.

Brownfield sighed, rubbing his eyes with one hand before returning his attention to the soldier. "You're dismissed. I'll write up the report, and advise your American companions to do the same."

The corporal saluted, walking out of the room a moment later.

Lieutenant Brownfield, late into his shift at night, gave himself the comfort of a small, internal sigh. "I shouldn't have joined the bloody army. I've wasted years fighting around the world, and now I'm spending my time fighting Greek mythology."

With that out of his system, he went back to the work of keeping the Firebase in order.

0620 hours
South of Trottingham

First Lieutenant Grishin was having a boring night. He and his Svetlyak-class Patrol Boat, the молниеносный (lightning), had been tasked with patrolling ten kilometers away from the harbor of the city, stopping incoming ships and inspecting them. While Grishin had done a stint in the Border Guards, he had never admired the people doing customs. His task, however, was much simpler: To inspect every ship for weapons that could be used against the human forces.

So far, over the past several days, he had only been directed by the radar on top of the massive mountain towards a total of six ships, and none had turned up anything remotely close to contraband. One ship had tried to run away, but that was difficult to do in a sailboat, and it later turned out to be carrying a small amount of books. That investigation was still ongoing, but it seemed that some literature had been banned under the 'former management', and therefore had to be smuggled in and out of cities.

The radar on the hill had detected a small boat, closing on the city at a sedate pace, and his boat had been dispatched to search it.

As they closed in on the small craft, it became easily visible in the low light, due to the multiple lanterns hanging from various portions of it. It had a pair of sails and was low on the water, and seemed to only have two floors, one below the deck, and one on a small superstructure at the rear. Once their small boat reached five hundred meters away, the large floodlight on the bridge snapped on.

"Attention! This is Russian Navy!" The First Lieutenant said over a large set of speakers in his limited English. "Prepare to be boarded. This is a routine inspection."

Several ponies appeared on deck, staring at his ship. Comparing them both side by side, theirs was about two-thirds the size of his, although theirs was longer. As soon as his ship turned and slowed alongside their ship, several Russian Marines threw lengths of rope down the two-foot drop to their deck, hopping down to secure them moments later while others covered them with AKS-74U carbines. Grishin himself grabbed his AK-105 carbine and ran down the stairs, moving to join the team that would be boarding the ship.

By this time, a crowd of around a dozen ponies had walked onto the deck, watching the small group of Russian Marines. As Grishin hopped down onto the deck, a single unicorn angry stalked out onto the deck, heading straight for him.

"You!" The pony said. "Why did you stop us?"

"We inspect your ship for contraband." Grishin replied in English.

"You'd better make it quick." The pony said, glaring at him.

"Перейти, поиск корабль!" He ordered, telling his team to move forward. Six of them moved to the stairs in the middle of the ship, descending moments later into the bowels of the ship. Several tense minutes passed as both species stood on the deck, staring at one another.

"Lieutenant, you have to see this!" A voice echoed from down below. Gripping his AK-105 in his hands, the naval officer ran to the stairs and headed down, into the cargo hold. He saw hundreds of sacks, probably filled with grain. Several dozen of them had been tossed aside, and two of the team were standing beside a crate that had been buried beneath the other cargo, its top open.

Grishin walked forward, looking into the opened crate. Inside of it, several dozen crossbows sat, neatly stacked and packed in. Looking to the left and right, the Russian saw several similar boxes, each likely containing more of the weapons.

Several seconds later, Grishin stalked out of the ship, walking across the deck towards the captain with his hands on his rifle. Stopping just short, he raised his rifle, aiming at the pony.

"You are all under arrest for attempting to smuggle weapons into the city." The Russian barked in English.

0750 hours
City of Trottingham

"Twenty-four crates?" Major Thompson exclaimed as he read the report. "Jesus, that wouldn't be good."

"Yes, sir." His orderly, who had delivered the report, replied. "Sir, I'd like to remind you that a meeting has been scheduled for 0900 hours, and you've been asked to attend by Captain Henderson."

"Yes, yes. I remember." The major replied, waving off the orderly. "Can you get the captain of that boat on the line? I'd like to talk with him about the incident."

The orderly nodded, heading out of the room. Half a minute later, as he was finished reading the report, the phone on his desk rang. Although the building itself had little electricity, dozens of lines had been laid out on the floor and through various walls, leading to various antenna that were set up on the roof of the building.

"Yes, this is Major Thompson." A voice said something on the other end. "First Lieutenant Grishin! I'd like to discuss what happened earlier this morning..."

0800 hours
Alexander Nevsky

"Right, five degrees." Captain Leskov said, looking through the periscope of his beloved submarine. His current mission had only given him a location, an extensive list of targets, dozens of photoreconnaissance pictures, and a coded signal. He had quickly set a course northward to the location, and over the past day, his submarine had crept closer to the point.

Looking through his periscope, he could see the outline of a massive city, the golden orb of the sun setting a perfect backdrop for it. Unlike the other city, which had contained only a few dozen tall buildings, this one had hundreds, and contained a skyline which would rival some of the American cities he had seen. According to the reconnaissance photographs, it had two harbor entrances, wrapping around an island that contained much of the center of the city, leading to an inner area with dozens of harbor installations.

According to the maps, he could easily sail through the 1.5km-wide passage into the harbor whilst staying entirely underwater. From there, he could set down on the silt bottom inside of the main harbor itself, almost three kilometers across and estimated at eighty meters deep. With the dark top to his submarine, he would be almost invisible as he sat on the bottom.

With another correction to his heading, the submarine was headed for the channel. In the meantime, some of his crew would be reprograming the ship's compliment of cruise missiles. After that, all they would have to do would be to sit back and wait.

Author's Note

Well, a few days ago, one of my friends on Skype told me that he randomly encountered a fan of my work. I don't know where, but that's kinda startling. Especially considering that there are 150-200 of you among the 7+ billion people on Earth.

Anyway, the next chapter will probably be long, and will certainly include several important events. Anyway, if any of you have questions, comments, or an extensive deconstruction of this, this story has an extensive comments section, currently coming close to five hundred.