1709 hours
Ten (10) days after first contact
Everfree Forest

Vasilyev helped yet another former prisoner onto the helicopter, the man fairly weak from a combination of his bandaged wounds and being tied up for several hours. Thankfully, they had recovered all of the prisoners unharmed, easily found because of their still-active 'Net' units. While most of the ponies had managed to slip into the deeper forest, Vasilyev was satisfied with the victory they had gotten.

"That's the last of them..." He said to himself in Estonian, causing Sergeant Petrov to look at him curiously. He shrugged off the look and stepped onto the helicopter, followed shortly by the rest of his squad. The Mi-24 lifted off of the ground, banking back towards the city of Manehatten.

SPC Olivia Hall stumbled into an empty room and onto the ground, her hand held to her head. It felt like she was running a massive fever, and the damned headache wouldn't go away.

Her vision tinted blue for a moment, and she had a sudden realization, one that grew over her headache. It must have been the ponies! With their magic and other stuff that she didn't quite know about! What if it was the LT?

She shook her head, "That's too crazy, even for this..." She mumbled to herself, crawling along the floor until she reached a dresser, using it to help herself up as another spike of pain went through her head. When she did so, she momentarily glanced into a mirror and saw, to her surprise, that her eyes seemed to have changed to a slitted appearance. She gasped in shock, nearly losing balance and blinking...

When she did, it was gone.

"I must be losing my mind..." She whispered, guiding herself to the soft bed and sitting down on it.

It wasn't any sickness she had heard of. What caused hallucinations and a burning fever? She immediately discounted drugs, seeing that the proposition that she alone had somehow taken them in was ridiculous... So what did that leave her with?

'The ponies and your commander...' A voice at the back of her mind whispered.

She gently nodded, maybe that WAS the problem. Her LT had been annoying, after all... She shook her head again, irritated with herself. Maybe another nap would help...

All the while, another voice laughed hauntingly at the edges of her mind.

Sergeant Webster opened his eyes slowly, the light almost blinding. He blinked it away, trying to sit up, giving up after a few failed attempts and glancing around.

He was in a tent, that was certain. A man in medical fatigues came into his vision, and he realized he must have been wounded. Then the events of the convoy ambush came back to him, and he fought back a grimace.

"Oh, you're awake. Didn't expect that so soon." The man said, "How are you feeling?"

Webster tried to say something, but all that came out was a dry croak. The 'doctor', understanding, grabbed a canteen and placed it at his lips. The Sergeant eagerly drank his fill, and the canteen was pulled away. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Like shit." Was the first thing that came out of his mouth. The doctor chuckles.

"I can see that. You have three cracked ribs and second-degree burns over some of your left shoulder. Or, well, had. You were captured for a bit, and the ponies managed to stabilize you and heal most of it, but you'll be away from the front lines for at least three days."

"Only three?" He asks.

"Only three." The doctor confirmed, "All personnel with non-serious injuries are being rotated out of here. We're anticipating a surge of injuries when the latest push happens, and those on top want as many combat-capable soldiers as possible."

"Alright... Wait, next push?" Webster asks.

"Didn't you hear? They're taking their capital city in a few days or something like that." The doctor notes, writing something down on his clipboard, "Now, I want you to bear with me, and answer these questions as best as you can..."

1808 hours
Outside of the pony city of Baltimare

As the sun slowly approached the horizon, four towering steel ships approached the city of Baltimare. The Arleigh Burke-class DDGs Spruance and Halsey, together with the Kirov-class battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy and the amphibious assault ship Sevastopol, sailed towards the city, watched carefully by several UAVs above the area.

They were easily spotted by the outlying settlements, and indeed they were not making any kind of effort to hide themselves. Word spread quickly, and by the time they were a mere kilometers from the harbor entrance, a response had already been mustered. With militia from half a dozen local villages to assist the local Guards and recent conscripts, they threw together a decent-sized formation of pegasi to accompany the six wooden vessels that cast off from the docks, ready for war.

They sailed proudly out of Baltimare harbor, ready to engage the human forces.

The Pyotr Velikiy was the first to open fire, its' 130mm, fast-firing main gun launching a 33.4 kg shell towards the first ship, a galleon, gutting the bow before exploding deep inside, the high explosive charge blasting it apart. The second shell arrived three seconds later, blowing a massive hole in the side of the second ship.

The Spruance and Halsey were not to be left out, their slightly smaller 5-inch guns tearing apart the next two in a fantastic display of the capabilities of their 'Net' systems, the attacks perfectly coordinated with one another.

The last two ships turned to evade, but the human warships were well within range, explosive shells quickly targeting and sinking both... Which left the escorting pegasi forces, numbering nearly a hundred and seventy, in an odd situation, without any kind of ship to escort.

This was solved when their commander made the brilliant decision to attack.

They charged forward, closing to within four kilometers of the ships... Until they opened up, their duel-purpose guns and CWIS point defenses tearing through the swarm. What was easily effective on a missile going mach three twenty feet above the waves did much worse to a gold-armored pegasus flying at speeds no greater than four hundred kilometers an hour.

The formation was torn apart, massive explosions taking out whole flights, while streams of 20mm rounds killed the stragglers. Eventually, only a few dozen remained, and all were fleeing as the ships continued unopposed.

Although it was not a major operation, consisting of only a few hundred soldiers and the ships, the invasion of Baltimare was underway.

Deep inside of Olivia's mind, a dark presence lurked. Not content with altering her perception of reality, it examined every bit of her mind, learning more and more as she rested, slowly taking the reigns for itself...

Author's Note

Yay for another chapter!

Also, 100k words. Finally.