Doppler's Log

-June 8, 2021

Last chapter recap for those who skipped it: Bellhop, after driving Discord away with the help of the Element Bearers and his team, remembered that Onyx hadn’t reported back to his CO’s once since they arrived in Equestria. As Bellhop, Mercury, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash head to Pripyat; Fluttershy introduces the herd to feminism.

Delta operatives Piers, Kale, Oaks, and Stafford meet with the Onyx combatants and two ponies that accompanied them. Bellhop explains what the circumstances with the changelings are and the newer threat, that Celestia wasn’t yet aware of, Discord. The Delta squad merges with Onyx to provide assistance with their changeling ordeal. Twilight accidentally reveals that she had known more about The Zone than she let on.

The changelings actually live in huts around a marshy area within a jungle. A hollowed-out and huge willow tree holds medical staff as well as Queen Chrysalis. The changelings had survived the harsh months, after their defeat at Canterlot, by kid napping ponies and providing them hospitality. In return, the changelings received nourishment; the civilians eventually grew fond of the creatures and their predicament. One 'Miss Light', a red earth mare, is revealed to have come to the changelings rather than being taken from her home.

On the way back to Ponyville, Twilight explains that she had one day of adventuring on Earth a few years ago. With the help of a Stalker, she made it back safely and never mentioned the ordeal to any of her friends. The portal remained unfound in Equestria as well… Or maybe it wasn’t there anymore when she came back?

Fluttershy had riled up Applejack and Rarity about the subject and they scorned the operatives when they returned. Kale steps up to the claims made and gets in a small debate with Clover. The two cannot finish though, as Bellhop stresses that getting to Celestia is more important than arguing over which sex gets more cookies. With four new members in the squad, special operation members no less; Onyx is confident that the changelings' will fail to negatively affect Equestria any longer.

-Equestria, Eagle Pointe

-7:02 AM

The previous night had been a long one for Lift and his two changeling prisoners. The gryphon revealed enough about his crush to keep the shape shifters from starving, but he fell asleep within an hour of talking. Though they opened up, as promised; he hadn't learned much about what the changelings' goals were before that. Lift understood that they were stealing ponies from their homes and using them to rob them of their emotions, but was too tired to be surprised.

The sister had actually taken a legitimate interest in his feelings, and offered friendly advice about confronting Mist. Of course... Randomly tackling and fiercely nuzzling the person you want to get to know better probably wasn't very good advice. Barron, trying to defend his little sister's advice, claimed that he had seen it work before, but Lift made it clear that he wasn't going to attempt that. Mist seemed like the sort of gryphon that would maul a pony over that rather than show affection in return…

...Lift certainly hadn't acted like an interrogator.

Since Lift had fallen asleep, Barron's sister had tried to plot out an escape method. The duct tape wasn't even a problem; they could just wiggle their hooves until it came undone. The two needed to make it look like they it kept them bound until they figured out a plan of getting out. "How about if another one shows up, we can knock 'em unconscious and nab the keys?" she wondered out loud. A yawn quickly followed it, for the restless night took away most of their energy. She remembered that Lift had fallen asleep through the first interrogation attempt when Eos was present; he wasn't going to wake up if they spoke freely.

"I don’t know, Skit’s," he questioned to receive no answer. "Sister?" Barron asked again while turning to see that she had fallen asleep on him. He shook his head in displeasure at this, for it meant they weren't getting out soon. The changeling decided he would remain awake to see if another idea popped up or if one of the gryphons showed up.

Lift jittered once in his slumber and rolled over, still asleep. Barron grimaced at the sight. "Maybe talking about his crush wasn't the best thing to bring up right before he slept," he thought; now wishing the clothes of EPOW recruits covered their lower regions as well. The extra positive emotion never hurt though...

Spade worked solely as an interpreter during his short amount of time in Syria. The ridiculous things some of the soldiers he met would say made him wonder why he ever bothered learning any other language than his own. But then he figured that everyone thinks the same exact thing: their country, culture, or language is the best out of any other. At least he got paid for his knowledge...

-Equestria, Ponyville

-Consult Celestia

-7:04 AM

"Last call to Canterlot!" Steamer called out from the train's window to no one in particular. The train only held six other passengers as the earlier rides never scored as much attention. He liked keeping the options open for ponies that needed them however; those who planned trips earlier deserved some sort of reward for preparation.

Still, business had sulked by over the last couple of months; ponies didn't exactly pack the train to go sight-seeing at Canterlot. No major events, other than Princess Twilight's coronation, occurred at the decorated city which resulted in lack of incentive to go. Maybe he'd shut down the station for a bit when the train returned to Ponyville; then a repair pony could fix the broken windows from yesterday. Now that he thought on it; these changeling raids were probably going to make citizens think twice about boarding the train to get to Canterlot.

The earth pony sighed and tucked his head back in the engine car. Steamer pulled down a handle which made a whistle go off and shoveled some coal in the furnace to get the locomotive moving. The wheels squeaked against the tracks for three or four seconds before someone yelled out, "Wait!"

He looked out the side of the engine car and spotted six mares and ten of those newer creatures. Weren't there only six before? Steamer frowned as he held a hoof out to wave, "Sorry, Princess! You know that-" he fell to the floor as the train jolted to a stop. With a groan, he rubbed his head and stood up to see what just happened. Twilight had engulfed the lead car in her telekinetic grip to halt it.

She continued galloping to get next to the car as Steamer and the other passengers peaked out of the windows to see what was going on. "We're not too late, are we?" Twilight grinned sheepishly at the conductor's baffled stare.

He shook his head quickly to make sure he wasn't imagining this situation. With wide eyes and a glance of his surroundings, "I guess not? Do you have your tickets ready at least?"

She levitated multiple passes and four newly purchased tickets for the Delta operatives now accompanying them. "Of course," she said with a smile.

Since he couldn't really just back the train up; Steamer left the window and walked to the previous cart. He opened the sliding door and waved a hoof back, "Come on in then". Twilight turned to the group, several members having the same expression that Steamer did, and nodded.

"Oh, that kind of magic," Stafford said with a shrug.

"Twilight that was incredible! I've never seen you move something so heavy before!" Pinkie Pie bounced around with glee.

The alicorn hopped up to get in the box car while speaking, “I’m pretty sure I’ve lifted heavier stuff before, Pinkie. Besides, all I did was stop it before it picked up any momentum.”

“Yes, but please don’t make this a habit, Princess Sparkle,” Steamer sighed as the rest of mares climbed aboard. Bellhop stood back while the others entered first. If stopping a train, though moving slow, wasn’t difficult for her; Bellhop was glad they found the ponies first. He was also thankful Twilight decided not to maim him when they first arrived, though he had beaten down one of her friends right in front of her… Spade held a hand out for the Captain to grasp and ease his way up. With everyone on the successfully on the train, it was smooth sailing to Canterlot.

Twilight nodded in apology to Steamer and moved away from the engine car to find decent seats. The conductor closed the sliding door and blew the whistle again to signal take off.

Fortunately, Bellhop had yet to see that mint green pony from the previous day. Looks like the ride would be enjoyable this time around… Onyx, Delta, and the Element Bearers sat around the first car, which none of the original passengers used oddly. Bellhop scored a seat by the windo-… the thing was still broken from yesterday. Well, that explained the lack of ponies in their particular box car.

The train picked up decent speed and quickly turned Ponyville to a silhouette as Bellhop watched it, the wind crazily blowing at him. “I’ve actually been practicing a long distance teleportation spell so we might not need to use this thing anymore,” Twilight noted. She had to raise her voice a bit as the heavy breeze tried to silence her. “The princess said it may take a while to figure out completely though.”

“I’m sure you’ll get it,” Piers shouted, trying not to laugh at this situation. The magic was one thing, but the ponies just ignoring the wind made Piers chuckle. “’Think you could fix the windows with your current skills?”

“Probably not; I’d need all the pieces!” Twilight actually shouted back, for the train’s picked up speed made the gale louder.

*Just a heads up to all of ya; Twilight faked the attitude she was givin’ Alex yesterday,* Mercury said through his radio piece. He didn’t have to speak up for everyone to hear on the plus side.

Clover spoke up as well, *we found out that Applebloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo went home… Well, the orange one spent the night at Rarity’s with Sweetie. No harm done, you three.*

*’Not our fault; they wanted to stay up,* Spade claimed.

*Couldn’t you have just told them no?* Hazel asked.

“We’re gonna have to find those three when we get back. I’ll tell them you’re taking them on an adventure or something. Then when you say no; their faces 'll break your heart,” Bellhop said with a smirk.

Applejack raised a brow, “What?”

“He’s referring to our sisters and Scootaloo, I’m certain,” Rarity said.

“What?” the apple farmer asked again, failing to hear her over the wind.

Rarity rolled her eyes and looked to the operative she sat next to. Stafford had won a window seat, but the white pony failed to find a seat near her friends. She decided to give the laid back combatant a chance, for he may have felt uncomfortable as a newer member in Equestria. The Delta member, on the other hand, eyed her suspiciously. "You seem familiar," he noted with a chin rub.

She didn't expect that, "Er, how so? Captain Smith explained to us that colored ponies were an oddity in your home land.”

“I’m not sure… I think I’ll have to draw it the way I remember just to see if it matches. Think you could hold still when I compare it?”

“Draw me?” Rarity questioned and looked around for others' expressions to make sure she heard that correctly. When focusing back on the Delta member, "Right now?"

“I said I’d compare it to you; you don’t gotta wait around for me to finish.”

Confusedly, she nodded. Rainbow blurted out to the whole car, “Hey guys! Twilight told me ‘n’ the new ones that she went to their place before! Like way back then!” That scored all the passengers’ attention, for they all stared at Twilight in hopes that she would explain.

“Heh, uh…” the alicorn forced a chuckle, “it’s true; I’ve been there before.”

“Really? Did you get there from the portal like us?” Oaks asked.

“No, I returned using it though…”

There is a disadvantage to the ammo counter for Onyx’s visors. When reloading, the device assumes that a soldier is loading a fresh magazine that is completely full. If a user of the device was fond to the practice of reusing magazines that weren’t completely spent, then the feature would eventually mislead the person as to how much ammo was left in their magazine…

-7:28 AM

“Train’s in sight! Bog, split off with group two and search the grasslands for Barron and his sister!” the lead changeling called out. The one he spoke to broke off from the flock after nodding, several others followed him closely to search for their friends. These particular black creatures chose to work with the UMP45’s, for the shorter length and higher caliber of the guns were going to help them overpower anyone in close quarters. They didn’t come in hopes of fighting anypony; they just needed one or two new subjects for the colony’s prospering... whether they wanted to help or not.

As of now, it was rolling on tracks that soared a good fifty feet above ground because it had recently passed through a mountain. That and it probably smoothed out the ride since so many hills soared around the grasslands. What originally gave Onyx trouble maneuvering before would probably come in handy as cover now… The tracks wouldn’t lower altitude from this point on, as Canterlot settled on the side of a mountain as described before. The changelings needed to act fast because there wasn’t much more time until the train arrived at the decorated city.

A moment more of swift flying got them to the roof of the locomotive. They were extremely cautious of letting the firearms hit the train when landing so they would avoid making too much noise. They were lucky enough that the nopony spotted them so far. When the squad of four all successfully gathered atop the desired car, one before the engine room of course, they shifted forms.

As human-morphs, they could effectively use the weapons to their advantage and threaten any of the passengers to comply with their demands. The leader of the four spoke loudly enough for only his friends to hear, “Alright, Meek, you and I are gonna grab one each. Sap and Noble, you keep others from interfering, got it?” They nodded to show they understood.

He pulled out a cylindrical object with hexagonal caps on its bottom and top, the top one had an inscription that read 'M84'. A large ring wiggled as he brought it up for inspection. The changeling looked over the edge of the moving train to see which window he'd toss it through. “Five seconds. Drop in, get them, and head straight home,” he said while grabbing the primary pull ring...

“He told me some farewell in that language they all spoke over there… and I never saw him since then,” Twilight explained, focusing all attention to her. She turned to her rainbow-maned friend, “to answer your question from way earlier, Dash, I don’t know how somepony never came across that thing. I thought it would be illogical to try and go back because Nicky told me he was going to destroy it. I guess he failed.”

“Twilight, why wouldn’t ya tell us ‘a this little adventure you had? It would’a been somethin’ nice to talk about at get-togethers,” Applejack noted with a smile.

“Well, I told Celestia first and she explained that I should keep it a secret. I’m not sure why she told me that, or why I listened,” Twilight said with a smirk forming. “It is a cool story, isn’t it? I think I just put the princess’s word above my reasoning again,” she said while hiding a chuckle.

“It’s okay, Twilight! Now that all that story balled up inside of you; it probably felt great to let us all in on it,” Pinkie said with a nod.

“Heh, yeah. I don’t even know why I was worried. It’s not like anything-.”

Something broke through the window beside Twilight. It bounced against the floor twice, while catching everyone's attention, and released a deafening ping. A blinding flash corrupted everyone's vision and forced them to bring a forelimb to cover their eyes. They cried out in distress, the mares making a larger commotion since nothing had ever affected them this way before.

“Fuck, flashbang!” Oaks called out while attempting to make out the offenders. He could barely hear his own voice over the ringing in his ears as he fell over. Stun grenades were awful things to encounter. They not only blind and deafen the targets momentarily, but it impairs the fluids in their ears which causes a loss of balance.

The operatives tripped over one another as the changelings swooped in. They were well aware that they were under attack, but they couldn't risk just firing randomly in this environment. Several combatants, or more importantly one of the ponies, were bound to get hit by mistake.

Sap fiddled with her sub-machine gun as she spoke shakily, “I-I think that’s-!"

"I know!" he shouted hastily. He pointed at Pinkie since she had been bouncing around as Twilight explained her experience on Earth... which resulted in her being the only one out of her seat and in the middle of the hall, "New plan! Only her! Go!"

Noble happened to be closest to the pink mare when they vaulted in the train. She quickly smacked Pinkie over the head once with the stock of her UMP45 to knock her unconscious. Quickly following the action, Noble morphed into her changeling form and latched her forehooves around the pony. The lead changeling nodded firmly at his friends and they switched to their original bodies to escape the locomotive.

Hazel shook her head and viciously scrambled against the floor to get to the window as she regained her vision. She saw them flying away with her pink friend as she drew up her X95, "Dammit! Guys, they got Pinkie!"

The other combatants recovered and scurried to get to the same side as the disheartened guide. The mares had a much harder time getting back to their hooves but still made it to the windows to see what Hazel was yelling about. They couldn't land a decent shot at this range... "Wha'd' we do?" she asked anxiously.

"Yards," Clover said.

"Tracking... Forty," Ingot said calmly as he peered through his binoculars. It seemed as if Clover just appeared next to the other operatives as they turned to their left to see the two. She had her SRS steadily aimed at the flying group of four. "Fifty yards," Ingot informed, warning her that they were creating a larger gap very quickly. The bullet drop would make it a far more difficult shot the distance became too great, especially since they were on a moving surface already.

"Wait!" Rainbow cried, Y-you might hit Pink-!" she stopped when Mercury put a hand over her mouth. Bellhop held up an index finger to his mouth while gazing at the ponies to let them know they needed to be silent... He hoped that they could figure out what the gesture meant.

Ingot found it difficult to continue his calm demeanor while continuing to pile up the distance, "Eighty yards... Ninety... One hundr-". An incredibly loud bang made the antsy ponies cover their ears. The bullet soared fifty feet above Equestria's plains until it met the unfortunate soul lugging Pinkie Pie around. It struck Noble's wing which she promptly screamed in agony at.

"Nice shot!" Kale exclaimed and turned to the marksman responsible. Clover removed her facial gear and smiled back at him, which made his awarding grin immediately drop to a disappointed frown. Matthew never did figure out the roles of each Onyx member... Clover couldn't find the time to call him on that because the ponies started shouting at them.

"They're falling!" Rarity yelled.

The changeling, as a result of Clover's rifle permanently tearing her wing, fell at a dangerous speed. Noble dropped the pony and kept falling, her swift wings flaps kept her from dropping as hard though. The other changelings tried to swoop down after her, but weren't fast enough... Noble slammed into the ground with Pinkie Pie as an unsettling crack rang through the air.

"Pinkie!" Hazel called out.

Mercury prefers closer range weaponry to successfully fight off anyone he needs to when tending to someone's wounds on the field. He chose to work with the FN P90 and Kel-tec KSG, a high capacity sub-machine gun and bullpup pump-action shotgun. Regardless of the weapons' effective ranges, they were as lethal as any other weapon. It made him consider if what Onyx used was overkill or not...

“Captain, are you seeing this?” Decker asked as he lowered his binoculars. He had spotted the changelings while scouting over the grasslands, particularly when they flew out of the train with Pinkie. Stride flew next to the recruit and squinted to try and see what he saw. “I think they just robbed that train, sir,” he said while turning to the worried gryphon.

Stride dug out his own set of field glasses to be sure he heard that right. Gilda, Helios, and Drift caught up to the two. Stride wanted to put the new militants to work right away since Gilda and Helios had been all of his team for a week and a half. Since he had Lift and Eos watching over the changelings from a few hours ago; Decker and Drift offered to scout over Equestria with them.

Gilda spoke while rubbing her eyes a bit, “What’s going on?”

“They stole a pony!” Stride yelled, which shook Helios into the moment. He had been a bit groggy, as well as Gilda from the prior night watch...

“Oh… What do you want us to do?” she asked showing minimum concern. She didn’t have the greatest history with the citizens of Equestria. Rather ironic, since this was a military group that specifically supported them without tossing all of Albatropolis’s air force into the complex. Her experience had more to do with Ponyville though... Half of her disconcern had to do with her lack of sleep, so it wasn't so much just disdain for the ponies.

Stride shook his head, “we save her, Lieutenant. Follow me, all of you!”

"Twilight, try to get Steamer to stop the train!" Bellhop shouted. He turned to his team while hopping up on the window-less window sill, "Ingot, Spade, on me; we're getting down there!"

"You might need a medic too; follow me n' Captain Smith, Matt!" Piers commanded.

Kale complied, "Got it!"

Bellhop let his rifle sag on his back as he gripped the roof of the train from the outside. He quickly lifted himself up and threw his lower body over the metallic top. Bellhop scanned the premise to make sure the train wasn't going through a tunnel soon while he waited for the others to make their way up. The changelings paced around anxiously and tried to recover their injured friend as well as Pinkie. He spotted some other flying creatures in the distance too...

Ingot had made his way up first and noticed what the Captain stared at from afar. He brought up his binoculars again to scout, "What the hell are those?"

"Can't be good news; follow me!" Bellhop replied while starting a jog to the back of the locomotive. Spade, Piers, and Kale had made it up now and followed Bellhop and Ingot with their weapons drawn. "Jump off so we can rappel down! Don't miss the tracks!" He shouted, in hopes they would catch that.

They had to make a few small jumps to get to the last car before that however. He took a running leap after landing on the caboose to soar off the train. Fortunately, the tracks didn't have an abundance of little nooks in between each wooden support slab, so there was little chance of them shoving their legs through on accident. When he landed, rather harshly on his legs at that, Bellhop heard the screech of the train's brakes behind him. He turned to see that the others had landed and that the train was stopping like he hoped.

Bellhop sounded off new orders, "'Need'a cable going down, now!"

Россия! "Ne problema," Spade said as he dragged out coiled up rope from his back. He tore apart the plastic band that wrapped the thing together neatly in an oval. Both ends had metal clips to make quick work of tying a knot. He found one of the openings in the tracks and wrapped the cord around the rail once, then clipped the rope to itself. He threw the jumbled mess off the track and stared down to confirm when it was unraveled completely.

*Captain, it doesn't look like those other cats flying to Pinkie are on the changelings' side. They're freaking out now that they spotted them from down there,* Hazel spoke up while squinting at the groups.

*Did you call them cats?* Piers asked quizzically.

*She just referred to them like that to sound cool. My mother said the same thing about her friends, but..." Clover humored her team mate as she scouted through her magnified optic, "I think that has partial credit though. Uh, are gryphons a real thing in this world?" she asked Fluttershy. Clover and Ingot had to be the only two that weren't blatantly worried over this situation...

"Gryphons?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Uh, I think that might be Equestria's joint operation force. You should probably try to steer clear of them," she informed. The thought of harming Equestria's ties with the gryphons didn't sit right with her.

*Got it. Captain, they're gryphons apparently, and Rainbow Dash says that they're on board with the ponies' military.*

*Copy,* Bellhop responded, *Onyx, do not engage the other group of flyers.*

*What about us?* Piers asked with a smirk.

*Not a good time, Lieutenant!* Kale growled.

The humans didn't have time to stare in awe at such mythological creatures, for they had to rescue Pinkie. Spade roughly tugged on the cord to make sure it secured itself decently to the rail. "Rope is fine; let us move," he said while gripping it with both hands. The Russian quickly slid down the lengthy wire and tightened his grip as he neared the bottom to slow down. *You may go. Idti,* he said to inform the others they could rappel down without hitting him.

Ingot went next, followed by Kale, Piers, and then Bellhop. "The next train to pass by 'll cut the rope, no worries," Bellhop noted while waving a hand towards their objective. The fields actually had a few hills scattered around randomly. Fortunately, the group rappelled down behind one of them. "On me. We don't shoot unless shot at."

"'Little late for that, Cap'..." Ingot spoke up.

He started moving ahead quickly with his rifle out, "Fine. Just don't shoot the pony, got it?"

Piers pointed ahead of Bellhop, "I think they got some extra help!" She spotted more changelings coming to assist the first group of four. One landed and quickly went prone while switching to a more suitable form. He bipoded down his LSAT and started firing at the train in bursts, thinking it might give his friends trouble. The others crouched down and aimed their weapons around.

Bellhop crouched near the top of the hill and held a fist up to tell the others to halt, "Take out the LMG." He then backed up a few feet to speak safely, *Get the train to Canterlot without us; we can't risk the others getting hurt.*

*Yes, sir!* Clover replied who was ducking to avoid the changeling’s fire.

He looked back over the hill to notice Ingot flipped up the magnifier for his holographic optic and pointed straight at the group of hostiles. "Ten of 'em Captain. You want me to take the first one?"

"MG, hit 'm."

He shot right after the confirmation and hit the laying changeling in the side of the head. The chains of bullets stopped as the black creature automatically shifted back to his true form. It was a rather ironic way to confirm a kill... Some picked up to the responsible combatants and fired back. Ingot quickly crawled behind the hill to find his team mates. "Target down."

"Nice one," Piers said with a 'thumbs up'.

Ingot wavered off the compliment, "Still nine left, maybe six willing to fight back though. A couple are trying to recover Pinkie and help their friend that Clover hit."

Bellhop crouch walked to the right to try and start a path around the hill. "Piers and Kale, go left. Ingot, Spade, with me." The group split as he asked and made their ways to both angles of the hill. Bellhop aimed out to see that the changelings scanned the area and that the gryphons were speeding up to them. The Captain fired a burst at the kneeling ones to get another down. "Strike one."

"They were attacking the train a moment ago, go!" Stride called out. Helios, Gilda, Decker, and Drift tailed him quickly to give help where anyone needed it. "Save the pony! They get in your way; you kill them!" He sounded off, this time reaching both claws into his saddle bags. Stride whipped out two knuckle blades for each claw and gave them a cosmetic twirl before gripping them fiercely. The others pulled out similarly sharp melee weapons and stretched their forelimbs out to fight the wind and fly faster.

Gilda squinted at the set of doppelgangers, for the laying pink blur of a pony seemed familiar to her. Oddly, to the gryphons, another two changelings shouted in pain and fell over to switch back to their true forms. Stride was first to get to them. He hit the ground harshly with the others to draw their attention away from the train, "You're coming in to custody. Surrender the pony and follow us or you die, changeling."

"Meek, we can't go with them!" Sap shouted, holding back tears over her lost friends.

Stride walked forward with anger and looked very intimidating to the shape shifters, "That was your only warning..." he hissed.

Meek narrowed his eyes and pointed his UMP, making the gryphons stop. They never figured out if Helios's assumptions were true after taking the weapons back. They had dropped off the two captives and let Eos and Lift interrogate them while they were away. They also had the task of figuring out what the ACR was for or what it did, but we already covered that they fell asleep. "Same goes for you," Meek said coldly. "Bleak, Sap, you need to get Noble out of here... I'll get the p-"

"W-what about the Miasma!?" Bleak asked his brother worriedly.

"I don't care. All of you need to head home right-." Stride cut Meek's orders short as he lunged at the changeling. It swiped his leg, creating a cruel gash on his current fleshy skin and made him growl in retaliation. Meek spun to his left and crushed the sub-machine gun against the Captain's face. He turned to his friends as Helios came for him next, "Go, now!"

Meek's friends acted quickly. Bleak latched onto Noble after swapping to his regular form and immediately soared away. Sap scurried over to Pinkie Pie in hopes of making the hive a better place, but Gilda had got to her first. She hopped over Pinkie and pointed her blades at Sap, "Back off!” Sap complied and flew off in fear, giving Gilda time to see that the pink pony’s hind leg snapped. Gilda quickly spun the familiar mare over, "What the? You?"

Helios swatted at Meek with his knuckle blade, but heard a loud blast when he missed. Something burned near his stomach and made him look down. Hot blood seeped down his left leg and made him open his mouth in shock when spotting the hole in it. He couldn't react further, for Meek shot him twice more, one hitting him in the stomach and the other in his neck.

"Shit! Helios!" Gilda shouted. Stride got up and fully understood what the weapons were capable of. Helios fell to the grass and would continue pouring blood until he died... That or asphyxiation would get to him first. Meek threatened the others by pointing at them. His friends had abandoned him as he asked by this point.

"Stop there!" Bellhop shouted at the group. He needed them to stop before they hurt Pinkie. The operatives quickly paced towards the fighters with their weapons up.

Stride panicked, "More of 'em! We can't fight these guys; Decker, grab the pink one and head back!"

Decker did as his Captain asked and grabbed the pony. He looked at Eos's downed brother in guilt, "What about-?"

"He's dead, recruit! Let's go!" Stride yelled. Helios was a lost cause, for he already succumbed to shock...

Meek didn't want to cause any more trouble with the gryphons. His goal was to defend his friends while they fled, but he didn't expect them to leave. The lone changeling turned to the humans as Bellhop looked at the escaping EPOW. "Fuck!" he cursed, knowing they had two groups to stay after.

“Watch it!” Piers shouted. Bellhop quickly gazed left, only to topple over and fall to the ground to avoid a UMP smacking him in the face. Meek threw the gun, shifted to his true body, and immediately took off to head home. The changeling’s heart pounded so hard that he felt it might burst… Hopefully he could help Noble when he got back.

Piers continued aiming at Meek while he created a very large gap between them in very little time, but Bellhop rested a hand atop her CM901. "There's no point..."

*Guys, did you get Pinkie back? We can see the gryphons flying away,* Hazel spoke up.

Bellhop sighed and looked back at the bodies that this battle produced: Three changelings and one gryphon. He turned to the tracks where he expected to see his team, but realized what he commanded them to do during the battle. The train was gone, likely already in Canterlot... *Uh... The gryphons flew off with her. They mistook us for more changelings... That one that stayed behind flew off too after he threw his SMG at us.*

*Well, damn. What do we do now?* Stafford asked.

*We go after her...* Bellhop sighed.

*Rainbow Dash told me that they live in a city in the sky, similar to her home town." Oaks said and forced himself to disregard how weird that sounded. "Unless you guys grow wings; I think Canterlot’s your new destination. We’ll figure something out while you walk here, Captain.*

This only meant the day was nowhere near over. Bellhop was hoping to get back to the observations part of their mission after they spoke to Celestia again… They had to get Pinkie Pie back though; he promised the Princess that Onyx would keep them safe. He sighed, *Canterlot’s where we go then… c'mon.*

-Fun fact: The train actually needs to keep a constant speed of 32 MPH/51.5 KPH to get from Ponyville to Canterlot (26Km) in half of one hour.