Doppler's Log

It didn't really occur to me how often the anti-feminist rhetoric comes up this chapter. Hopefully the part with the Delta members on the helicopter will make up for it (though it's pretty much just her defending herself from exaggerated problems that someone brings up)... Hopefully, if you find yourself disagreeing with any of it, you'll notice that I *try to make the characters avoid a one-sided debate... Also, sorry in advance for the lengthiest of chapters.*

-June 8, 2021

-Equestria, Ponyville

A Pinkie Pie Perspective

Today was LOADS of fun! Well, not all of it, but I did meet a handful of new friends! These friends were super special, because they aren’t even from our planet and stuff. I guess they just like clothing on at all times and whatnot, I think they’re shy of their bodies…

But it confused me why it was all black… hrm…

Anyways, we met when Mister Brai- er… Bradley had bumped into me when using his invisibility powers. It’s neat-o because they can all do that, even Sherry. Then they were all a bit of sore losers, so they swept me and Rarity away and hid us in some bushes for a little while.

Before I could really understand what was going on, I was being dragged towards Twilight’s library. They must’ve known I didn’t like reading… Fortunately, Twilight was there along with all of my other pony friends.

…Well, Twilight didn’t seem very happy with seeing them, but I was! Especially with Sherry, she seemed so nice. Miranda got along amazingly with Fluttershy while their leader… um, Captain Balance or something struggled to get to know anypony. He felt really uneasy on the train ride…

Oh yeah! We went on a train ride to meet Celestia and introduce Onyx team… Well, actually we were supposed to go as a pony-only party to address the changelings, but then you know what happened.

Celestia was a bit happy to see them from what I could tell. She even said they could stay in Ponyville to have fun with us over their 15-day expedition. After that, we got back on the train to Ponyville and had a rousing conversation about sports and stuff! Mister Bradley even challenged Rainbow Dash to a hoof-race… or a… leg-race… whatever.

After we got close to home, I invited Sherry to spend the night at my place, and I totally convinced her to come over! She seemed a bit shy at first, but we baked some muffins together, and it made her a teeny-bit more comfortable.

She thanked me at least a thousand times for letting her stay over before we went to bed in my room upstairs. I kept telling her it wasn’t a problem and ended up hugging her after what felt like the 437th time she said thank you. She giggled after that and I knew she’d be fine staying over for the night. Maybe we could do that a few more times over her exploring in Equestria.

Either way, I know the next 14 days are gonna be awesome!

The F2000 was created by FN Herstal (Fabrique d' Nationale) in Herstal, Belgium. It sports a bullpup design, meaning the entire mechanism is behind the trigger of the rifle. It also features an ejection port on the foremost point on the rifle, making it fully ambidextrous.

-Langley, Virginia

-3:18 AM

“Dude, where the fuck are they?”  David questioned before Jeff barked at him.

“Why do you keep swearing? Seriously, you need to act more professional if you wanna keep this job,” Jeffrey groaned in frustration. He was a bit tense as well, except there were three things bugging him.

One was Onyx not showing up in a timely manner, for something may have happened to them. The second was how he had stayed up for the past 20 hours waiting on them and he was tired… Third being the mentally defective co-worker breathing down his neck as he worked…

“Sorry, I’m as worried as you are though…” he sighed and set down another can of Dr. Pepper for his partner in crime. It sat nicely next to the seven other empty ones, exposing a long night for what it was worth.

David was worried about losing his job as well for not being able to monitor Onyx… even though they really had no control over that. They just had to hope that the team showed up on time…

Regardless, Onyx was over 8 hours late… And that couldn’t possibly mean good fortune came to them. “I gotta send in someone after them, to see what happened,” Jeff stated calmly.

“Who?” Dave asked with interest after opening a snack-size bag of pretzels.

“Most likely a Delta squad. These guys have been doin’ ops for us longer than I can remember. Just lemme mail the boss an’ tell him what’s up.”

-Hues here,

Onyx hasn’t come to tell us of their exploring in that new world. We think something’s wrong, for they are 8 hours late. Could we have permission to scrape together a small Delta force and see what’s going on?

Sent.

Jeff twiddled his thumbs for a few moments while staring blankly at the mailbox tab on his monitor. David frantically chomped on pretzels while staring attentively at the screen too. Why, oh why, did they have to share the computer station? There was no time for his companion to annoy him further, for a reply appeared in his in-box. Hues quickly double clicked it.

-Yes, by all means. I’ll arrange the team for you soon. Within maybe a half-hour, you should receive some activity. If not from me, then from the four going there.

Everything should work out fine, I’ll be dragging in professionals now, so don’t hesitate when they contact you. They need precise directions on what they’re going to be doing, alright? I need you two to be responsible using this team, Delta have too much trust in the CIA for you to tarnish it.

And Jeffrey? If you wake me up in the middle of the night again, you’re fired…

“Well that wasn’t very nice,” Dave said while scolding the text.

“Who cares? At least we didn’t completely fuck up.”

“I thought you said swearing was unprofessional a second ago…”

Jeffrey rubbed his temples while staring at the desk…

Mist, A new recruit of the EPOW, had no military career prior to her acceptance. She really just needed a form of income to maybe live independently someday. She couldn’t quite recall a day where her mother didn't tell her to get a job and move on with her life…

-Omaha, Nebraska

-3:22 AM

Two occupants of a house were sound asleep together in one king-size bed, one male, the other a female. The woman teetered in her slumber however, for a heat flash washed all over her. She threw the covers off with a sigh which woke her partner up. He lazily sat up and looked around, “Whaz’zat? Who’s-? Oh, can’t sleep?”

She curled up and wrapped her arms around her knees to form a cannon ball to stay somewhat cool, “Yeah… When’s that AC supposed to get here?”

Her friend got out from under the uncomfortable covers as well, “’Not sure, it said in eight or ten ‘business days’, so like three days from… today today… Like, it’s three AM today.” He leaned over and pecked her cheek, "We can stay above the covers to keep cool. Or maybe other activities might be enough to tire us out 'til we don't care about the heat."

She cuddled against him with a warm smile, "hmm, I'm afraid I don't follow; could you show me what you had in-?"

A text message forced her phone to ring blatantly and ruin their moment… She sighed and reached over the night stand to retrieve it. “Please don’t be work, please don’t be work, please don’t be-”… She growled at the phone when reading that the message was from Virginia. That’s all she really needed to know to know it was work…

The male put a worried glance on, he didn’t like seeing her upset, not one bit. But he kind of figured he knew what the message was, “Didn’t you just get back?”

“Literally two weeks ago,” she sighed… “Listen, hun’, it’s from straight from the Agency, I’ve got to go ASAP,” she sighed. Then got up from the bed and walked over to gather an outfit from the closet.

He hit the lamp next to the bed so she could see better while navigating. He smirked when an idea popped in his head. What once began as a serious lecturing turned into a playful test. He wanted to see if she'd fumble with her duties in the CIA “So, where are you heading?”

She smiled, knowing that she surpassed him in the ranks of the military. “Sorry, babe, it’s against the rules to tell ya. ‘N besides; all of this is above your pay grade,” she finished with a little spin. “But! I know what we can do before I leave to remember each other!” she excitedly hopped next to her partner in the bed.

Lift, like his other friends in the EPOW, currently remains rank-less. And like his other comrades, he had no experience prior to the acceptance of this group. His timid nature only elaborated this to his superior in any exercise that involved fighting…

-Equestria, Eagle Pointe

-3:25 AM

Lift snored in a corner of the cell… Barron and his aggravated sister sat still on wooden chairs with their hooves duct taped to the table in front of them. Eos stared coldly at them, either for indirectly depriving him of sleep or refusing to talk over the past few hours… likely both.

“Why were you so close to Canterlot, eh?” he said while his baggy eyes betrayed him and drooped shut for a second. Gilda, Stride, and Helios left it up to these two to interrogate the changelings they captured. So far, they accomplished nothing, for the two had no more information than when they started. The two black creatures stared back at him blankly, just as they did so many hours ago.

Eos sighed, “Lift, you’re taking on, I need to sleep… Lift?” he turned to see that his friend had been asleep the whole time. Not that it should have surprised him, but his sense of hearing was growing worse as the minutes stretched on, so he couldn’t hear Lift’s snoring. He groaned and made for the metal door.

Upon opening it and walking out, Eos made sure to piss of at least one person indirectly before all of this ended, “Mist loves you, good night.”

The out cold gryphon woke suddenly in time to hear the door close and lock…

...

Lock?

Lock!?

He forced his eyes open after rubbing them hastily. With the door closed, Lift was locked in and alone. “Oh shit, Eos! Wait! I’m awake, I won’t fall…” he sat on his haunches and stared down, “asleep…” Sighing, he knew he’d have to get comfortable with the hard and cold floor… and the changelings…

The thought directed his gaze behind him to see the changelings from earlier. Lift stared at them with uncertainty. He opened his mouth to speak- “The room is soundproof as your friend mentioned before you fell asleep and he locked you in here,” the sister said in a less than amused tone… “Just, thought I should remind you of, y’ know, why he couldn’t hear you…”

He took note of their magical suppressors weaved onto their horns which would prevent them from shifting to any form that they could use to threaten others. “Y-yeah? Well, you’re stuck here too!” he boasted, unable to really think of a comeback… an effective one at least… It failed to phase her even slightly.

“Really? I thought we were doing bondage and we were your subs,” she rolled her pupil less eyes as the remark made him blush. “Of course, if you’d like, we could actually do that; we’re rather hungry at the moment, and you seem like a decent fellow. Tell me, who is it you have feelings for? I bet I can mimic them and do even better,” she said with a seductive twist at the end.

“W-what?” Lift nearly gagged.

“Oh, come on now, surely you know of-"

“Just knowing it was you would be enough to make me throw up during intercourse!” he shouted, proving he was fully awake now. The three hours of sleep was enough to get the new recruit up and about for the moment. Her expression remained that of nothing as he set his claws on the table with a slam.

“And I’d be careful if I were you! My captain won’t be too happy when he hears of your disgusting sex drive being blatantly tossed about. I can’t believe this; can’t you just be happy he fixed your hoof? You would've died if he hadn't done anything! And what the hell were you doing near the castle!?”

“Waiting for you to make a move on me, baby,” she said with her mouth open and tongue hanging down while fluttering her neon eyes. Lift backed off from the table with a frown of disgust.

Barron sighed, “Skits', would you just drop it? There will be time to eat later…”

Almost instantly, her believable seduction changed to a scolding of her brother, “And when will this be? How do you intend to break from this prison before we die of hunger, brother? And I almost had him; his heart is still pounding heavily.”

“Is not!” he yelled while punching his chest to try and calm his BPM…

“Fine, we’ll pretend I can’t sense your lust for a few minutes. Will you just tell us about one you deem special? Brag about her… or him if that’s your true preference, perhaps both?” she asked which drove Lift into confusion.

Maybe they would be willing to open up in exchange for some food. The gryphon took off his saddle bag and placed it on the ground. He then opened up the top while reaching inside, "Listen, I can give you some bread or something if you-".

“No, imbecile! We require love. That is our nourishment, our source of life. That is our, how you say, bread and butter,” she said harshly, making Lift stop digging through his bag… She then fidgeted like something crawled on her, “Seriously, can you just sit there and masturbate or something? We won’t judge y-”

“Thaaaaat won’t be necessary…” he shook his head with his eyes closed, hoping to stop the conversation where it was. Lift sighed, “Just talking about her will make you feel better?”

“Aaah, getting somewhere now, are we?” she smirked. “Tell me, what is she like? Does she have a larger behind? Powerful wingspan? Perhaps a sweet smelling cu-.”

“No, no, no, we’re doing this my way," he cut her off. "I’ll tell you all about Mist after you tell me why you were near the castle, what that stuff you were wearing was, and if your queen intends on doing any assaults soon. We have a Deal?"

Barron nodded at his sister and made her sigh, “Very well…”

I bet no one saw that coming!

Bellhop doesn't favor the outcomes of most of his missions, specifically the ones he leads. Though all of them were deemed successful, he never shakes the death tolls of his own men. It hardened him to an extent, but he just figured that was all part of the job and pushed himself to move on…

-Equestria, Ponyville

-3:29 AM

It didn't take long for Bellhop and Spade to find Mercury again a little less than three hours ago. The fillies had tagged along gleefully. After a quick chat about Mercury’s remarks, they continued their night watch by aimlessly floating around the town.

About an hour in, Sweetie Belle fell asleep from exhaustion. Bellhop was skeptical on allowing the still awake ones to continue going, but they convinced (begged) him to let them do so… And fifteen minutes later, Scootaloo and Applebloom were out cold. Spade held Sweetie Belle, Bellhop held Applebloom, and Mercury needed persuasion to carry Scootaloo around.

Two Hours and forty minutes later is the present time…

Mercury dragged his feet along the grass which made it rustle excessively. He fell backwards suddenly and lay in the grass with scoots on his stomach. “I can’t do this. Why the fuck do we need t’ be walkin’ around and all this othe’ non-sense? Wouldn’t it’a been better if we just set up posts or somethin’?” he questioned.

Bellhop sighed and rubbed his face while sitting down as well. He gently placed Applebloom onto the ground. Spade did the same with Sweetie Belle.

…

What?

They didn’t know where the young ones lived, so they dragged them around for the past few hours, nothing wrong with that. They were sure the parents weren’t too worried. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) They've got this, don't worry.~

Bellhop sighed, “I don’t know, you’re probably right… I’m sorry, okay?”

Mercury shook his head while staring at the night sky. The sleeping orange Pegasus rose up and down due to the medic’s breathing. “Fightin’s not gonna get us nowhere, so your forgiven I guess, Cap’.”

They heard a light chuckle. “Hey guys, watch this,” Spade said with a smile. Watch they did as he wiggled his gloved index finger on Sweetie’s cartoonish and plump stomach. It made the white filly squirm while she grinned in her slumber. Her hooves made feeble attempts to bat away the offending digit.

Bellhop immediately shuddered, “Can you not do that?”

Spade stopped and looked up in confusion, “How come? Do you not like chil-?”

“Mate, ya best be happy feminism never got to this place or your arse ‘d be jailed for pedophilia in a moment’s notice. Ya gotta keep in mind these are lives that are as valuable as any other human child,” Mercury said while narrowing his eyes.

“I get the value to life thing, but you are mistaken. You two see my action as pedophilia because society sees it that way, not just the... eh, feminists," Spade said while cringing. "Let us be honest here, if you saw Miranda or Sherry tickling one of them, you would find it adorable, not dangerous. Furthermore, pedophilia is a mentality. One cannot be imprisoned for a thought process, unless they act on those thoughts. Molesting a child is a crime, not the thought of doing it... Follow?”

“True… All true,” the medic sighed. “I just though it was always funny: women are the most likely people to attempt infanticide, yet the man is always the one who needs supervision at daycare centers. ‘Explained it to the cunts a thousand times, but stereotypes prevailed as always…”

“That was your line of work before this?” Bellhop questioned calmly.

“Yeh, got fired for using said argument when they kept breathin' down my neck. Eh, kids weren’t that nice to be around after a while, ‘specially if all the nurses are on yer arse for no reason.”

Bellhop sighed and finally lay down to let his back release tension after a day of walking around. “Y’ know I don’t mean to discourage you two, and this’ll inevitably be used against me at some point, but I don’t think command picked the right guy to lead this op…”

“Why not?” Spade asked with concern. It wasn’t a good sign of leadership if the leader questioned his or her leading abilities. Obviously.

The question received another sigh, “I’ve, uh… made a few mistakes before this... I dunno if you were being serious Bradley, but it’s stunted my confidence in all of this stuff lately. Not what you said, just... the mistakes part...”

Mercury chuckled at that statement, “Nah, if you had the attitude of who I was thinking of, you wouldn’t ‘a gone n’ apologized, let alone admit to makin’ mistakes…” No one granted it a response as they all looked up to the stars and really bright moon complimenting it.

Bellhop stood up randomly, “You can watch them while I’m gone?”

“What?” Spade asked while sitting up to see his commander walking off.

“Where are ya headin’?”

“Just set up a camp and go to sleep or something, I need to be alone for a little,” he answered as he disappeared into the night.

Spade sighed and took off his backpack to dig something out of it. Mercury took a second to carefully lift Scootaloo off his stomach and set her aside. A moment later, the Russian was next to him with an unfolded sleeping bag, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom in his arms. He carried the bundle like a crate and used the bag to hold the two fillies like a small trampoline.

He set them down, “they can rest on top of this for the night. It will probably be better for their backs and such… I am still confused as to how they never woke up with all of our fidgeting and moving,” said Spade while rubbing his head tiredly.

Mercury chuckled while setting Scootaloo on the sleeping bag next to Applebloom. The Russian spoke up, "So what lead you to that bit of information you brought up? The thing about infanticide being-?"

"Don't dwell on it. I know what you're askin' of me Vas', okay? I don't deny that men make things unfair for women sometimes too. My experiences just seemed rather one sided in the crazy scheme known as gender expectations..." Mercury sighed. Spade nodded while his eyes drifted back to the sleeping ponies. The medic chuckled, "I'd say we should take feminine advice from them though. Sun's comin' up in a few hours..."

Hazel enjoys the company of others, but feels... afraid when alone. Sometimes it results in her talking to herself to give herself the false sense of someone being near her. As a child, she played with split personalities and found it entertaining to mimic people on television and other media sources…

-Knoxville, Tennessee

-3:34 AM

The pub was as dim as it always was, even at two in the morning… Fortunately, for a few, the place stayed open a bit too late… or early in this case. Only about eight people had been pulling an all-nighter while drinking, two of which did not consume much of anything over the last three hours except water.

These two just wanted to spend time somewhere together and think… Both were male, and both had gotten to know each other well over the last year due to their dedication to higher authority… The darker-skinned one was downing some crispy French fries while his lighter friend was focusing on his phone.

An obnoxious giggle forced the one eating fries to stop and stare up in frustration. That was the eighth time he heard the feminine drunk cackling very, very loudly across from her partner. The two were sitting at a table maybe four feet behind the table he and his buddy sat at, and the woman in particular had been giving shit to the other people in the bar for the past hour...

Whenever someone told the woman to quiet down, her damn boyfriend or something would get up and yell right back. It happened twice so far, and two times, they made the person leave in the interest of other patrons. They did not want to be the ones to start a fight, but it sure looked like these two were ready...

“Just let it go, Matt,” the white male said without looking up from his device.

Mathew rolled his eyes and turned to see what the hell that lady was giggling at every five seconds. Her face was beet red from the alcohol and he could nearly smell it from his seat. She got up suddenly and sulked over to the counter to clank her glass against the polished wood.

“’Nother round, deary,” she said while using any leg strength she had to post herself against the counter. Matt raised a brow while watching the generic scene play out just like in all the movies.

“I think you’ve had enough, deary,” the tender said as if on cue.

The woman, instead of somehow escalating the situation into a brawl, sighed audibly and turned around. She caught Mathew staring at her and shot a scowl at him. “What are you looking at?” she spat.

“Yes, excuse me; you’ve been very rude over the past few hours. Can you tone down your laughter a bit, or better yet, leave?” he responded quickly.

Her eyes narrowed as Matt took notice to the gentleman that was at her table a moment ago. As expected, that man got up and began to make way towards the two. “What’d you say to her?” he asked, clearly not as drunk as his possible wife was. The man had a slightly larger build than Mathew, and he was willing to bet that he was taller as well.

“I asked her to leave. It’d be nice if you could take her somewhere where she doesn’t have to bug everyone else while they think to themselves, ‘kay, friend?” he said without much of an expression. Matt noticed the bar tender bring out a cell phone while he eyed the other man.

“You best watch your mouth, son,” he said which also revealed a southern drawl.

“Maybe you should tell your wife to-.”

“Kale, enough… Just ignore him or something,” Matt’s friend sighed.

“I’ve been ignoring them for the past three hours, I think it’s time they went and ignored me by leaving,” Mathew Kale said sternly.

“Kick ‘is ass, Johnny,” the woman said while tipping left and right…

“Here’s a better option, Johnny: Take your wife and get the fuck out of here. Or, have her fight me, not you. You aren’t the one giggling like a psychotic bitch…”

The man standing right over Matt clenched his hands and started a swipe. “I’ll show you, ni-,” was all he could mutter before Kale backhanded his fist out of harm’s way. He followed with a rather cruel punch to the man’s jaw and made him fall over on the tabletop and into his plate of fries.

Matt was about to knock him unconscious with a quick blow to his target’s temple, but had his fist blocked by his friend’s outstretched arm. His hand was open with his phone facing Kale and had a text message opened up. “We gotta go,” said Matt’s bar mate while staring at him with an annoyed glance.

-Dale, I know the break has been short-lived, but I need you for another assignment… You have a new fire team leader since your last mission for reasons I don’t need to get into right now.

Do make haste; your new team leader, Lt. Piers, seemed unhappy about waking up for work so early.

Get to the Agency for briefing. You should be meeting Stafford as well.

Kale sighed and started to feel the vibration of his own phone against his lap, which would tell him the same thing inevitably. He let go off the man’s arm and let the somewhat conscious buffoon fall to the floor.

Mathew and Dale got up from their seats. The lighter of the two went up to the bar tender, who had already called the police… Dale put a twenty-fold on the counter, “They started it,” he winked. Then he caught up with Kale. The path to the exit of the pub would cut through the woman who pretty much did start the whole thing. Sure, the husband failed to try and stop it, but...

As Matt walked by her and her tipsiness, he shoved her on the shoulders lightly to make her fall crudely to the floor. Dale chuckled lightly before a voice of distaste called out. It was not the idiot that Kale beat down, but another bar dweller, "Hey, what the hell'd you do that for? You don't hit wo-."

"But it's okay for women to hit men? Is it okay that this skank got her man to attack me because she got offended? Huh? Wake the fuck up, blue-piller," Kale said, not wanting to hear this. It at least made the man he directed it to sit back down, only in mild confusion...

Dale sighed, "You take this shit way too seriously, brother," he said with a smirk. Mathew gave no reply as they headed outside into the dark.

In 2016, the Selective Service System expanded to include women ages 19 to 23, as opposed to the men being 18 to 25. Unfortunately, Syria required said act to go into effect for the fourth time in the history of the United States. However, the draft was only in effect for 3 months, from mid-April to early July…

-Equestria, Ponyville

-3:37 AM

"sixty-seven... sixty-eight... sixty-nine... seventy... seventy-one..." Bellhop counted mentally as he strained his arms to heft his body weight up from the grass and drop it back down parallel to it. He did push-ups all the time... but now? Training did not seem like something he should have set his mind to. Not during an operation, even if it did scale over the course of two weeks.

His arms gave out suddenly and prompted him to roll on his back after absorbing the earth face-first. The soldier panted lightly, for he spent the last half an hour doing such activities. Other than push-ups, he practiced kicks, punches, cover swaps, and basic melee swipes with his firearms... Safety feature on, of course.

The captain forced himself to get up again. He swatted the air quickly with a clenched hand and followed up with the other. Bellhop attempted to focus on inhaling and exhaling properly while delivering punches. After four attempts at the same maneuver, he quickly buckled down and sprang to do a roll to the right. After hitting prone, the determined soldier shifted the weight of his F2000 over his right side and grasped it. In another swift moment, he had it pointed.

It was a fine trick if you were ever stripped of cover... Only he forgot to breathe since he landed the aerial twist. He let out a prolonged sigh to get said respiratory cycle in motion again. He scolded his hands that gripped the bullpup rifle...

He had to get it right; he had to try harder...

Bellhop let the three-point sling hold the rifle on his back as he crouched. Getting ready for the move again, he thought back on the day. He flashed a thought of the train ride... that instant where he was at that thing's mercy...

The captain pictured himself sweeping the changeling in his vision. Clover would have never had to shoot it, and he could have successfully disarmed it when it fell over. Maybe he could have just smacked down the first martyr and kept Mercury from killing that one... If only he could have seen it coming in time.

Bellhop finally noticed that he was mimicking the scenarios he played out in his mind and paused. The mind was a powerful thing, no doubt. Imagination becomes reality in some extreme cases, cases like these at least. It can make you talk at nothing, jump at nothing, behave in front of nothing, argue with nothing, and even see nothing... Bellhop did not think of himself as extreme; he just liked practicing for his next encounters, whenever they may come around.

He did feel bad about forcing his squad mates to do an unnecessary night watch. Whether Bellhop was aware of it or not, his conscious was forcing himself to do the activities to keep him awake. The Captain passively felt it as a form of punishment for his wrongful decision.

He didn't let his team sleep, so neither could he. He forced a night watch, so he had to finish it; alone if required. Not like it mattered; Bellhop couldn't sleep anyways. The time he had spent practicing alone constantly made him rethink scenarios he could've done something better in. The problem was that it also made the man think on his failures that weren't relevant to the mission or Equestria... Those... eight he got-...

He shook his head left and right rapidly for a moment to avoid the thought again. The Onyx leader tried to focus again on his methods of apprehension and applied thought into situations like the one on the train ride. Occasionally, he'd stop due to the thoughts on his journey this far... But he shrugged them of...

At the end of the day; all he could do was shrug it off...

Spade is able to efficiently give people spare magazines and cartridges individually if they need to be loaded into the magazine manually. He must carry a black cloth-wrapped box on his back that sits next to his regular backpack. Would it ever come to them needing the extra rounds, he did not know...

-Delta, Colorado

-3:43 AM

Thread.

Lots of it was scattered about through a narrow hall. The stuff varied in color, but kept an overall melancholy scheme going as it wrapped around the walls and ceiling. Fortunately, he had a flashlight to dimly illuminate the area ahead of him.

He walked, to what he assumed was forwards, slowly after checking behind him to see complete darkness. The same pattern of cloth was somehow weaving through the wall. A murky green color on top, some stained red on the left wall, and a dark purple on the right. The floor was tiled white, which he couldn't understand. The thread looked like it was soaked in water before being stitched up, making much of the material sag against the wall.

He walked forward for several minutes and started to think that maybe he went the wrong way... He turned around, and to his surprise, found a door there. He didn't think much on how it might have gotten there as he turned the-... There was no knob... The man pushed on it in and witnessed it creak open.

He stepped back a bit while it continued squeaking to reveal the other side slowly. It ceased its squeaking and actually stopped at about a 45 degree angle with the wall. Raising a brow, he attempted to angle the flashlight from where he was standing; hoping to be able to see past the cheap panel without touching it again.

The man took notice to some purple curly thing through the crease. He was starting to think that the room was a source for the thread, before the door slammed shut and startled him. It forced him to take a step back, thinking that something would jump at him, but he was halted again.

He turned around to see that a wall had caught up with him and kept him from moving back at all... He was now in a closet rather than a hallway. Without any other option, except the abyss that was the ceiling now, he slowly reached for the door.

He pushed it quickly and dragged his arm back to prepare a fighting stance, or a defensive one, whatever would help him more against what rested on the other side. Instead of the shady room with the thing he saw, it was replaced with a bright light and a grassy earth. The door opened completely also to reveal a walkway leading up to a tree... with windows, a balcony, and a door...

The door had a depiction of an old style candle on it. The adult, stepping out of the closet like room, looked to his left and right to check for any aggressive beings that would hurt him. He figured it was safe enough to move forward to the door, for there wasn't really anywhere else he could go to.

He continued observing the bright and repetitive terrain around him. The plains of grass stretched on until his vision ark met with a blue and cloudless sky. The man wasn't able to see beyond the tree house anymore because it had covered his vision entirely now that he was in front of the door. Slowly, and with an exhale, he reached for the-... again there was no knob. He didn't get it, but he began to stretch his arm out to push it open like the previous-

The door shattered apart to reveal a Blood covered white equine with purple curly hair. His heart stopped for a moment as his spine rattled while the frowning monstrosity with pupil-less eyes stared blankly at him. He couldn't comprehend anything beyond that because the creature started to wail at him in a frustrated female scream while reaching a hoof out.

It shocked him awake to the motel he slept in over the past few hours... The man noticed his heart rate skyrocketing as his frantic panting went on. He rubbed his face and obnoxiously groaned. "Fuckin' jump scares, agh..." he sighed while shaking his head left and right in his palms.

He heard a rumble on the nightstand next to a portrait of... people he once cared for, one of which he was no longer allowed to care for... Still a bit dazed, he patted his hand around on the surface until he gripped the slim rectangle of a phone. He looked at the screen which blinded him slightly before his eyes adjusted.

-Langley, Virginia 4:36 AM

Michael, I know it's early, but something important has come up. We need you at the Agency as soon as possible, briefing for your new task will be there.

The objective at hand shouldn't require too much of your time, do not worry. I understand you have just returned from Syria, but this is urgent. Kale and Oaks will also be present, along with your new fire team leader, Miss Courtney Piers.

As far as your personal problems with your family go, I assure you this will not interfere with them. You will go in and go out in a fast manner I promise. You know how to get here from where you are I'm certain, do make haste, Stafford.

That last paragraph, if you call three sentences a paragraph, made Michael sigh and look over to the portrait. It was a photo of three people: Mike to the right, a younger girl, and a woman to the left. That made his makeshift family up until about two weeks ago... "I'll see you soon..." he sighed at the portrait. Michael hoped the mission wouldn't stretch on for too long, for he had a trial to attend in August. The right to see his own child was on the line, and he'd be damned if he didn't show up... With a sigh, he tipped the portrait so it lay face down. The man got up, determined to approach the task with vigor. He would need it so that he could finish it quickly and come back to have a successful trial.

You should probably close out that Cry of Fear video if it's still playing, it was meant to just give more pizzazz to the feminine scream. Unless you enjoy hearing this guy shoot water monsters with a Glock 19 and sucking at a puzzle map...

Ingot was hoping that he could just use his time in the military to fund a college education but spiraled into somewhat of a clinical depression when he took courses. His grades suffered immensely as his mind refused to do the work given to him. Without a college education, he had nowhere else to go for work really in life, so he just continued working up the ranks of the USMC...

-Equestria, Ponyville

-5:50 AM

Miranda stood anxiously with the lengthy board attached to her winter boots. She looked back to her friend in a very worried way, unsure about being atop a snowy mountain. The friend to her right and also had a snowboard engulfing her boots so it would stay on during the ride down... the inevitable ride down...

"I, uh... I don't think this was such a great idea, Anna... C-could we maybe go-" Her screaming cut off her question. Her friend, Anna, had pushed her and gravity took over to pull her down the mountain. The friend smirked and hopped towards the slope to get some extra thrust when starting downwards. In mere moments she caught up to Miranda, who was holding her mouth with both hands in utter terror.

Her eyes were peeled open widely while she watched the terrain in front of her shoot by at dangerous speeds. Her friend chuckled while moving parallel with her, "!" she shouted...

Wait, what?

Miranda looked to her friend who appeared to be yelling at her to do something, but no voice came out. Was Anna messing with her, or did Miranda's fear cancel out her ability to hear? Miranda could hear the wind harshly scrape against her face and the sound of her board sledding along the snowy ground, so she wasn't going deaf... But-

Anna's eyes widened and something made her point ahead of Miranda while she watched her speechless friend. Miranda glanced back to her front only to get a glimpse of a tree before she could comprehend it would be her fate.

Clover's body decided to spasm fiercely to wake her up. She gasped loudly while sitting up to recover from the shock. "Fucking jump scares..." she moaned and rubbed her eyes to see around in a clearer way. A couch in Fluttershy's living room provided as a sufficient bed during her stay. The shy pony offered her own bed several times, but Miranda declined to try and bat away the feeling of imposing she had already built up.

The human felt more welcome and less like she was a burden when they started conversing about fun stuff they enjoyed doing in their spare time. Activities they enjoyed turned into stories about their friends. Stories about their friends turned into Clover's military service. Clover's military service turned into politics. Politics turned into something Clover shouldn't have brought up...at all.

The timid pony was shocked to hear some of the things her new human friend spoke of. Soon enough, the topic broke apart as the marksman realized she should probably avoid the discussion due to the rules her CO's placed. Though the pegasus was both appalled and fascinated with the claims made by the Onyx member; they both decided it was best to get some sleep for the following day.

Speaking of timid ponies, the pale gold pony poked her head up from the other side of the couch with concerned eyes. Clover cocked her head thinking her mind was playing tricks on her, but Fluttershy smiled warmly to prove otherwise. She then drifted back to her worried gaze, "Did you have a bad dream, Miranda?"

"Uh... no," which earned her more of the pony's stare, "Sort of. See, I was snowboarding down a mountain with my friend, and I jittered awake when I thought I slammed into a tree". Then the marksman thought about whom she was talking to, "Oh yeah, snowboarding is taking a board that straps to your feet-... or hooves and you ride it down a snowy incline…mountain in my case".

The pegasus continued studying her, but she had shifted from worried to absolute neutral in emotion. The look made Clover fidget to sit upright on the couch instead of having her whole body on and lying parallel with it. "You're alright though, right?" the worried pony asked.

Fluttershy then stretched her cheeks to grin, "I always wake up this early to feed my forest friends; you just seemed troubled when I was walking by". A white rabbit hopped up on her back then atop her head successively.

It was enough to get Clover to smile. Reassured that she was in a pretty nice place to be now, she stood up to stretch and do little hops to get her body in the moment and fully wake up. "Thank you. And thank you again for letting me sleep here, I'll do my best to keep you from getting hurt by those changelings," she smiled.

"Did you need some help with the-?" she continued, but paused to squint at something beyond Fluttershy. The pony turned to note that her new human friend was looking out the window. The Goddesses of day and night kept the sun and moon on a transferring schedule of 6PM and 6AM, but that was based on what Onyx presumed when examining how the time shifted yesterday... and what the ponies had explained to them about the deities doing it manually.

However, the sun had failed to rise on time so far and the atmosphere remained as dark as it was when the sun was replaced by the moon hours ago. With these factors in place; what Clover spotted was merely a silhouette... an outline of some large serpent-looking thing that had to be at least forty meters from the cottage. The creature slithered right for Ponyville.

"'The heck is that thing?" the Onyx member questioned.

"I'm not sure; it's too dark to make out. It didn't look like something that Ponyville would normally have around," Fluttershy replied nervously. "Do you think your friends will be able to handle it if it's something dangerous?"

"I guess I'm gonna find out. You can stay here and feed your animals; I need to give help where it's needed," Clover said as she kneeled to recover her SRS from the side of the couch... along with her vest, boots, backpack, G19, pants, holster, and sleeved shirt. She had stripped down to her socks, undergarments, and bra to sleep more comfortably overnight.

I'm telling you; they've got this! Don't worry!

It would not have been an issue if she didn't have to put it all back on in such short notice... The unarmored marksman fumbled with several items clumped up in her arms while others dropped to the furniture. After ten seconds of wiggling; her pants dangled loosely, her shirt clouded her vision, and her sniper rifle strapped itself over her bare skin with the sling in a poor fashion. The black sleeved top muffled her sigh. The pegasus giggled, "Did you want some help?"

"Um, actually, do you see that little metallic curvy thing on the cushion? That's my radio piece. Could you hoof it to me? My arms are a bit wedged here," said Clover who was passively smiling at her predicament. She seemed to really buy into the whole pony society she was in right now, despite only having known it existed for a day. Fluttershy wasn't complaining and would have enjoyed giving her props for being so accepting, but there was a problem at hand...hoof...forelimb, whatever.

The Element of Kindness scraped the earpiece off of the couch and clenched it easily with her teeth. Next, she dropped it out into Clover's hand with a subtle "pleh". Fluttershy got to laugh quietly to herself while the human fiddled and worked the gadget on properly, her shirt sinking over her chest finally; easy enough after she removed the rifle from her body.

"Alright, *Captain?*" the marksman asked over her radio while pulling up her pants. She didn't really find her exposure to the pegasus embarrassing, for she figured that Fluttershy was used to seeing every creature naked anyways... Then she thought that maybe ponies operated in the exact opposite way about clothing. Maybe they thought clothes were arousing since they never wore them. But that was too simple a thought for her; societies are never just vice-versa like that.

She forced the thoughts on pony sexuality out of her mind when getting a response, *Yes Clover, you sleep alright?* It was Bellhop, no doubt. He had been awake for twenty seven hours straight (three spent on a helicopter to Pripyat; woke up one hour before boarding. Twenty three spent in the mission so far), but still managed the firm voice of a leader.

*Um, well enough. 'Shy and I spotted some serpent looking thing and it seemed to be heading for Ponyville. We're not sure what it was and the night made it a bit difficult to make out. I'm coming to you to see what it is, 'kay?*

*I hear ya; I'll keep a look out and try to get the others up. 'S about time everyone woke up anyway,* Bellhop said. Moments later, he muttered some lines over and over a few times to get responses (some more ornery than others) from other team mates and rouse them from slumber.

Clover pulled her pants up all the way, tucked her shirt in, and took the rifle with its sling off her back. She wasn't quite sure why she put the sling on before her other equipment first. As Clover continued getting dressed appropriately; Fluttershy observed with concern, "I could come with you, if you'd like."

"That'd be fine," the marksman smiled while weaving her left arm through the backpack. "It might be something that could hurt you though. ‘Sure you don't wanna stay here and tend to your furry critters?"

"It's okay; they're used to waiting a bit," she said while ignoring the white bunny stomping on her head now. "Also, I've got to help you with your argumentation when you approach Mister Smith, right?"

"Argu- what?" Clover asked before coming to the slow realization.

"About Fe-"

"Um... I really don't think we need to talk to my friends about it. They don't seem like people who would want to have an open mind towards it... Also, Alex is trying really hard to keep things rolling here. I don't need to put more weight on his back with social issues back where we're from."

"But if you don't stand your ground, nothing will get done, right?" Fluttershy put on her worried glare again. It twisted the Onyx member's heart; you simply could not say no to such a face. In all honesty; Fluttershy only wanted to help.

"I suppose we could... discuss it with him when we all get together," she sighed.

"Great! Let's find out what that thing was then," the pony grinned while heading for the door. Clover grimaced, knowing that she'd try everything she could to avoid the topic Fluttershy wanted to get into with her team. She quickly equipped the rest of her gear and made for her new pony friend.

Another feature of the HUD visor that Onyx members use (and abuse to a lesser extent) is its ammo counter. The visor displays the number of bullets left in an individual magazine by registering distinct sounds of the weapon fired. When a magazine release button is hit, the visor resets the counter…

-Ukraine, Pripyat

-Investigate whereabouts of Onyx Team

-5:57 AM

The blades flicked the air surrounding the UH-1 loudly outside, but the four soldiers and two pilots inside weren't bothered by noise. It was relatively quiet inside the vehicle which allowed one of the operatives to sleep... Actually, ever since Matt, Michael, and Dale stepped aboard an hour ago; their fire team leader had been asleep.

Matthew Kale was growing bored of examining his KSV45 and stared up in disbelief of the person leading his squad. "Is he still sleeping?" the squad medic asked.

The others in the team gazed up to observe the fellow Delta member. Dale was looking at his phone for just about the entire trip so far while Mike had just been silently thinking to himself. The less up-beat of the two was first to speak though. "I think so. Aren't we gonna be landing in like half an hour?" Stafford questioned.

*ETA fifteen Mikes, Delta, the walk through the Power Plant should get some blood flowing through ya,* the co-pilot informed using radio. *You're probably going to want to have her up and about now so you don't have any hassle when you're getting off, Out.*

*Wait, what? What do you mean her?* Kale questioned skeptically. He then turned to his sleeping superior to examine closely. Dale Oaks had gotten up from his seat and shakily made his way towards the leader.

*Yes, her. Miss Piers will be guiding you through this operation; I thought you were all well aware of that,* the co-pilot shot back.

Oaks shook the sleeping soldier several times until she woke up while Stafford questioned, "Not really anything wrong with a female leader, Kale."

"Nothing wrong? When we all get back; she'll accuse us of trying to rape her or something stupid to get a free discharge. And Delta ain't no place for women," Mathew spat with a scowl. Piers yawned after becoming aware of her location and rubbed her eyes.

"Who raped what now?" she asked.

The skeptical medic rubbed his face in frustration while Oaks replied, "Dude how many women do you even know that have done that in the army?"

"Three," he stated bluntly. "Two of which actually accused me because I'm the big scary black guy that fits the picture of a sex offender flawlessly," Mathew finished with an eye roll. Stafford got a chuckle out of it while Oaks sighed and shook his head.

Piers didn't find it very entertaining either, "I wouldn't do that to any of you. We're just here to find Captain Smith and his team, right?” She was willing to be lenient to her minors. Maybe they had been discussing controversial before she woke up, so there might have still been some tension going through them.

"Of course you wouldn't. We're only gonna be there for a couple of hours, so you won't be able to pass that off as sufficient time for us abusing you when you take it to a marshal."

Then she furrowed her brows, "Okay, you're being absurd. I woke up at two in the morning to come and do this task. I'm not going to taint my trust with the CIA and the US military as a whole just to get some extra leave time. I like this job too much... uh...-" she paused when realizing that she had no idea what their names were. The text message she received didn't explain who Piers was leading or if she knew any of them.

Dale caught on to her ignorance, "I'm Sergeant Major Mike Wuzouski. This man, dis guy, is none other than Rodrigo Sanchez. He goes by the code name Jorge. Finally, dis man, mah main nigga, be none other than Black Sunshine."

She stood dumbfounded while Stafford laughed, "... Really?"

"No, of course not really!" Kale said while stretching his arms out to silently voice a "What the actual fuck". "He's Staff Sergeant Michael Stafford. He's Dale Oaks, an actual Sergeant Major. I'm your medic, Mathew Kale, Second Lieutenant. Follow, Ma'am?"

"Yes, I follow, and you're gonna smack the smart ass out of yourself if you want me to take you seriously, Lieutenant. Keep talking the way you are and I just might go ahead and say you fondled my boobs in my sleep," Piers narrowed her eyes while crossing her arms over her chest.

*Everything alright back there, you four?* the pilot asked. Though he had heard the entire discussion that went on; he wanted to stop it right here. Nothing good would come from a team that had issues within it.

*Yes, we're fine," Oaks sighed back into the microphone. He then scolded the two for their childish banter.

Piers grimaced and looked down, "I'm sorry, I just don't want you to think that me being a woman means that I'm gonna do all this stupid stuff you've claimed. I'd really appreciate it if you'd shove the generalizations aside for now; I am still the one leading your team, whether you like it or not. We all good now?"

Matt swiped a hand over the top of his helmet and let the limb fall to his lap afterwards to show forced out dissatisfaction, "Fair enough, I suppose..."

"Great. My name's Courtney, but surnames are what we'll be going by throughout this op, so call me Piers. Is there anything important I should know about you three before we get there? If not, I still need to know your roles so we can perform more efficiently in combat if it’s required at some point."

They swapped glances briefly and Michael shrugged. He described his role as a designated marksman while showing off his M417. The others would do the same as they waited to draw near the nuclear fallout zone.

Hazel spent most of her time in Syria leading fire teams quickly through objectives as a leader. She always seemed to have some odd sixth sense and situational awareness when in combat. Flanking routes and areas that were least prone to being lit up were easy for her to spot and direct her team to…

-Equestria, Ponyville

-Investigate unknown specimen

-6:03 AM

The sun had still failed to rise to what most Equestrians would consider on time.

Bellhop rubbed his eyes thoroughly to try and cope with the fact that he kept himself awake for the past twenty seven hours, and he was going to keep himself awake for another fourteen at least as of now. The second day shift seemed like an odd one to the Onyx leader, for his internal clock was telling him it was time for bed. It would probably continue to say that relentlessly as the hours stretched on.

For now, eye rubbings would suffice. He made sure to squeeze in a final one before putting down his ballistic goggles to ensure complete head protection. He shook his head left and right quickly to get his focus and situational awareness up, for something was crawling about that he didn't like the sound of...at least how Clover described it. Some... snake thing was bound to be trouble.

Only moments ago had Bellhop successfully woken up his team. Some were more ornery than others... Mercury in particular, while Ingot and Hazel sounded just fine with their amount of slumber overnight. However, several of the mares would be left out of the know, and would come to finding out what was going on when they woke up on their own schedule.

With a sigh the Captain sat down and waited for his team to regroup on him to help with the possible threat. He leaned his back against the side of a residence for some level of comfort. Without much else really to do, except maybe keep an eye out for the thing he was supposed to look for, Bellhop looked up to the sky and watched the glimmering stars... along with that painfully brilliant moon.

He had to squint at the damned thing because, while it may not be half a bright as the sun, he wouldn't deny it if a local proposed you'd go blind staring at it. Then there was that odd engraving on it. Yes, the moon appeared to have a picture etched into its surface. Something that the Onyx member made out to be a wad of cotton candy that someone smashed into the inside of a bowl while it was attached to the paper stick, and that image was the result.

Okay, he didn't actually think that. He knew it was a depiction of a pony with a horn right away, but his mind wanted to experiment. One thing was certain though: he couldn't keep looking. It made his eyes sore, so he stared back down, ready for anything and ready to look for threats to Ponyville. What he got was a face full of purple that clearly wasn't amused.

"That was-"

"Jesus fuck!" Bellhop yelled while tumbling to his left and out of the alicorn's face. "Don't do that!" he groaned after recovering from the shock and standing up.

She merely closed her eyes and perked her nose up, "I was trying to give you a little information about why the moon had that picture in it, but you seem to be more ornery than I thought. I suppose I should have rejected the night watch."

With a groan Bellhop retorted, "Sorry, I guess. My team mate spotted some creature that she didn't think looked safe for this town, so I've got them coming here now. The moon thing caught my attention for a second, and then you appeared out of nowhere, so it spooked me a bit."

Twilight nodded in response with a neutral facial expression. He continued, "Listen, I don't like this negativity going between us. I really don't, especially if I have to protect you and your friends now. That makes me feel like I have to babysit some bratty child and might make me end up doing a worse job because I had little motive to abide by. That fair? Can we make up?"

With an eye roll and a sigh, Twilight stuck a hoof out, "Oh, I suppose". The Captain assumed she meant it to be a hand-hoof-shake or something along those lines. The alicorn still paid him no attention by keeping her head turned away. He gently clenched the limb and gradually moved it up and down.

A giggle...

He raised a brow as she dragged it away, “I wanted to see if you’d actually kiss it, but then I lost it.”

“What…”

“I don’t usually act the way I’ve been acting in case you didn’t understand. I wanted to see how much farther I could push the façade.”

“Act…?” he twitched.

“Well, sure. I was going to stop at the library, but I wanted to see if I could out-do yours,” she smiled. “It was fun, but I guess you won after-.”

“Really?” He rubbed his face with his palm for a moment not expecting an answer. Sighing, “Really!? I come here with equipment that costs more money than I can make in three life times along with five other militants, we screw up the whole point of its use within an hour, we agree to help you solve a crisis that you cannot defeat on your own power, and now you’re telling me that you were being a dick just for fun!? Is that what you’re saying!?”

“I, uh…”

“My attitude is not an act, Miss! I did not fake my emotions on the train! Do you even care about the sanity of my team right now, or how about your friends? Did they know that you were doing this?”

“…Yes.”

Bellhop was about to tell her off further, but just grit his teeth and sighed heavily. The alicorn sat on her haunches as the Captain sagged to the grassy floor. Keeping his hands covering his face entirely, “You’re all insane. You have to be. Are you even a princess, or do people around here just pass around the title occasionally to make everyone feel special for a short term?”

“Actually, only a princess can have wings and a horn, so the title is-," she shook her head with a sigh, "Listen. I’m sorry I deceived your team about my trust in you. I know you mean well. I was just...kind of hoping that making you fight for my trust would insure your compliance… Which… It did somewhat. I needed to make sure you weren’t going to be something evil now…”

Bellhop kept staring daggers at her, hoping to make her feel as low as possible before the conversation ended. She forced herself to look away and chuckle, “But, ha-he-hey, look at that: we actually ended up needing your help after all! Y-you said it yourself; the changelings can only be overcome by your militant experience.”

It caused him to groan loudly again, “No one is going to believe any of this when I go back to-… Oh, shit.” He then planted his face into the ground and shook.

“What’s wrong?”

“We were supposed to report back to my commanding officers about this place. We’re late... very late,” he grunted while standing up.

“You have to leave already?” Twilight frowned.

“No, smart one, we already explained to you and your friends why Onyx came here. They wanted us to come back and report what we learned about every twelve hours ‘cause the radios won’t reach them when we’re here. As you can imagine; they’re probably worried sick since we came here around one o’ clock yesterday.”

He only got a blank stare and silence in return. Was that so much to comprehend? “Maybe I’ll just rename you short bus… Did you understand anything I-?”

She shook “no” and stretched a hoof to point behind him.

“I see you two are getting along fabulously.”

“Discord?” Twilight muttered.

Bellhop turned and backed up a bit to widen the very small space between him and the smug being. He eyed the smirking creature up and down: dragon-like head, bear’s right arm, some weird bird hybrid’s left arm, and a bunch of other animals clustered into one being which shaped entirely into a serpent. “Well, you look like the thing my friend was describing. Do you live here or-?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in Canterlot and helping the Princess?” Twilight interrupted.

“I’m sure Celestia will be fine without my magic. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I simply adore your new friends. Tell me, sir, do you fall into the category of human where you’re from?” he snickered.

“Uh… yeah? Twilight, who is this?” Bellhop turned to her.

She smiled and pointed a hoof, “This is our recent friend, Discord. He’s the God of Chaos who used his powers once to cause imbalance and discourse throughout Equestria. But now he’s-“

“Oh yes, here’s the part where I tell you that I’m not helping Celestia anymore and I wanted to go back to doing my own thing,” he smirked. Twilight widened her eyes and opened her mouth only to be stopped short again, “And this is where you question my desires and begin to panic because you cannot defeat me on the spot.”

“What? T-then what are you doing!? Why are you-?"

“I'm just going to do what I do best now: Cause chaos. And your mean old Princess isn’t going to stop me this time," Discord stated with vigor and snapped his fingers. He vanished quickly after a puff of smoke took his place.

"What's the deal, Twilight? ‘He on your side or not?" Bellhop frowned while he drew his F2000 and scanned the area. The magic thing was still new to the Captain and he assumed it was just some trick that the odd ball figured out by watching Naruto or something... Then he remembered how full off ridiculousness his childhood leisure activities were.

Twilight snatched him away from those evil thoughts, "I... I don't know. He's supposed to be helping us with his magic since Flutter-..." she looked down. "Wait, that's it! Fluttershy!" she beamed then put a determined smile on her face while scanning around like Bellhop was. "Discord, where are you!?"

The Onyx operative shivered when feeling a head next to his own. Bellhop stumbled back while aiming at Discord. The creature, smug. Alex, annoyed. "I was about to strike up a rousing conversation with your new supposed friend, but I guess he's shy today." The Captain narrowed his eyes at that one. "But do go on and be a rude pony, what is it that you need to talk over Alex fo-?"

"How do you know me?" he stepped closer to the multi-hybrid and tightened his grip on the rifle.

Twilight stepped ahead of him and pointed a hoof, "I'm certain that Fluttershy wouldn't like what you've been up to if what you say is true! Are you sure you want to lose the one true friend you-?"

She gasped and tilted her head back when Discord popped in front of her and bopped her nose to emphasize punctuation with a neutral glare, "You don't what it is you are talking about. Think of this: I got to know some random pony for a day who only became my friend because she had to; six days if you count the ones where I messed with the day and night scheme of this world. You know, before you turned me to stone for another six months. It was for your prospering as a nation, whatever that garbage means these days."

Twilight's widened eyes turned into angered ones as she prepped a magic shot and lunged forward to hit him. Easily dodging it with another teleportation; Discord sat on her back and rubbed her hair into a scrunched up mess. "You think I care about what one pony's friendship. I am a God I'll have you know. You said it yourself. What would the likes of a God want with a common pony, let alone her friendship? It was an act. I knew you'd fall for it; just like you bought into my quote before I went back off to Canterlot."

He vanished and reappeared behind Bellhop, only to spin him around and smirk into his angry face, "Rate this on a scale of one to ten, Alex." He zapped a near-by hedge so it transformed into the shape of Fluttershy. It oddly jiggled against the grass and talked with an unmistakable copy of her voice. "C'mooon. Say it," the hedge pestered while pointing a hoof at Discord.

"Oh... alright." He sighed and held a hand up over his head pretending to be a damsel in distress, "Friendship is magic." Discord snapped his fingers again and the hedge turned into a copy of him. The dragon-morph offered a hand which the bush grasped with glee it seemed. The two started to tango as he continued, "See, I think the hardest part of that was faking the gag as I said the line. But why do I need to explain this to you? Alex tells me you're an expert in the acting fields. Just look how you handled his arrival so far."

"How does he know my name, Sparkle?" Bellhop frowned.

"I don't know, okay? I'm as lost as you are! I don't get the sudden change of heart... Agh, did she really mean nothing to you?" she asked nothing, for he vanished again. "What the-," again, Discord startled the pony by appearing behind her. She grit her teeth in frustration and lit her horn to prep an attack if he kept at it.

He laughed uncontrollably while pointing at her and clutching his stomach, "What do you plan to do exactly? Overwhelm my power and save the day just like the other time? You don’t have the elements on you; not like they would help this time. And don't think that you becoming an alicorn will make your skills par with mine. Your pathetic little parlor tricks will-."

Bellhop silenced the pest by smacking him over the head with his rifle. When Discord thumped down to the ground, Twilight gasped and prepped an outburst before only gasping louder. The Captain stomped the hybrid's face into the earth before she could mutter another word. Someone screamed it for her from afar though, “Discord!” Fluttershy yelled after she witnessed Bellhop crush her friend's head into the dirt. The pony zipped through the offending operative, nearly knocking him over, to examine Discord's injury. The blow fractured his skull and blood soaked his chin; that was a fatality… Clover caught up with her SRS pointed down while looking over to Alex.

The pony sniffled while staring up at the Captain, “W-why would you d-do this?”

“N-now, Fluttershy, listen! He said he was going to start causing chaos again!” Twilight interjected before her friend’s emotions destroyed her heart. “H-he said he made the whole thing up about wanting to be your friend… He just didn’t want to be a statue anym-.”

“Well now he’s DEAD!” she whined. Followed up with more hacking and sniffs, “Did he even do anything to hurt you two?”

Bellhop shook his head while letting his F2000 sag against his back, “He was prepping a fight with Twilight. If it kept up; someone was going to get-.”

“Somepony DID get hurt, you-… you-!” She failed to find an insult, so she went back to sobbing over the corpse… a corpse that didn’t exist anymore. With her eyes closed, someone handed her a tissue. She accepted the thin paper and wiped her eyes with it, “…Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it, you gullible pony, you,” Discord smirked.

Fluttershy’s ears perked up as she gasped and turned to him, “You’re okay!”

“Fluttershy, who is this guy?” Clover asked as she took note of Bellhop drawing his weapon again. Twilight’s vexed expression made it seem like a brawl was imminent.

“This is Discord, the master of all things in disharmony. And he’s my close friend,” she said while hugging the draconeequs. She angrily stared at Bellhop and Twilight, “My close friend that you shouldn’t go and attack! Twilight, how could you!?”

“Me? He said he was going to cause chaos, so I took it at face value! Just like Alex here! I’d say his actions were somewhat in the wrong... I mean, killing him was a little extreme… But-.”

“Excuse me, but I do believe this is where I clarify my ambitions,” Discord rolled his eyes. He snapped his fingers and reappeared behind Fluttershy. She scanned around in confusion before something pushed her to the ground. “We aren’t friends, Fluttershy. We never were.”

The timid pony scrambled to get to her hooves, "What?"

"Cap' what's this one's deal?" Ingot called from afar. Looking around, Bellhop noticed that all other operatives made their way over. Ponies accompanied them too, but the only no-show was Rarity… Yeesh, how come no one likes Rarity?

"I don't know. Weapons ready," he said, keeping the rifle pointed at Discord. Besides Clover and Ingot, the others drew up their firearms to threaten the beast before them. "I'm asking you once: how do you know my name?"

"It's funny, because you already asked me that. Your new pony friends kept interrupting you though. Such nuisances, aren't-?"

"D-Discord, what do you mean?" Fluttershy asked, verging on tears again.

He groaned, "How many times must I elaborate?" He slithered over to her and tapped her head a few times, "We. Are. Not. Friends. Un-der-stand?"

"No! I-I-".

Clover narrowed her eyes, "You think you're tough picking on her or something?"

"Sure, why not? This reminds me. I actually came here because I wanted to become your friends. You see; I-"

"How the fuck do you know my name!? Who else do you know!?" Bellhop growled.

"Canterlot, imbeci- ah. Nearly blundered there, hah. For a stealth team with undisclosed information; you sure aren't a stealth team with undisclosed information. Did you simply forget that you gave out your real names to Celestia? I take it you forgot that I came here from Canterlot as well. I just listened."

Bellhop continued aiming at him, his expression unchanged. Discord sighed, "I wanted your help to-".

"Not happening, pal..." Hazel joined in.

Applejack frowned, "I think you'd best leave before something bad happens."

"You're outnumbered, and you've done enough as it is," Rainbow spat.

"You forgot to say "But we're outmatched" somewhere in there, but fine. I know when I'm not wanted." The draconeequs yawned then vanished suddenly.

Bellhop dropped his F2000 to allow the sling to take over holding it. He spun while quickly drawing up his sidearm to immediately point at Discord's head... After the second time it happened, he sort of just figured. Discord chuckled with an evil grin, "Not to worry, Alex. You'll be doing my work for me sooner than you believe."

The gun in his face didn't affect him in the least bit as he flicked it and walked off. He started a trail northwards while the team kept their weapons pointed to his back. Another sniffle caught their attention... Fluttershy cried softly as Clover sat next to her and stroked her mane.

They've got this... Don't worry...