Broken Skies

Squads Delta, Bravo, and Peeps had rallied in the morning, prior to the eve of the Princesses speech. Ponies, Zeen 'To, and Humans had gathered in a building, quietly setting up a third phase for the rescue of prisoners.

"We send a team here, here, and here, surrounding them and hopefully freeing the captured ponies. However, we have reason to believe that they are on alert for finding blood on the walls and floor from our kills. So, we take precautions here-" Screech pointed to a choke point at a town plaza, "-and here-" and pointed to another choke point at a small bridge crossing a river, "- and here."

"So, what's our time frame?" questioned a Bullfrog.

"Twenty minutes at most." replied Screech.

"Twenty minutes?! That's not nearly enough time to rescue the prisoners!" exclaimed a pony named Prison Break.

"Funny hearing that from a pony named Prison Break." retorted another pony named Metal Streak.

"Hey, at least my cutie mark isn't some silly looking trail of bronze and gold!" replied back Prison.

"I thought we agreed to start calling them Stud Stamps now, what the hay?" angrily shouted Metal.

"Enough banter, we need to move." said a Bullfrog, ending the brief kerfuffle.

Rifles were loaded, swords were drawn, and barf bags were packed, the three teams of SpecOps troopers (and ponies) set off to their next objective. On the human homefront however...

-Planet Kip IV, Housing District-

"As of recent, new reports of a impending war with extraterrestrial beings first thought to be myths! Just in from the United Nations, the Conglomerate was funded to keep the peace. They were recently sent to seek out new planets for the ever growing trillions of people across the galaxy, and appear to have stumbled upon hostile aliens. More on this at 6, on the InterPlanetaryNews, channel 2."

"Oh my, Thomas was on that ship! I hope he is alright, he almost never got out of the last war..." dreadfully remarked "Screech"'s wife, Sarah Miles.

"Mommy, what is daddy doing on that funny looking planet?" questioned Thomas, or "Screech"'s daughter, Mira.

"Honey, daddy is back to his job." quickly replied Sarah.

"I thought he was finished fighting?" retorted Mira.

"No, no, that will never end. The fighting I mean, but daddy can stop. He just has one more job..." stated Sarah.

-Appleoosa, Early Morning-

Looking into the scope of his Gr0P gauss rifle, Atom spotted multiple Griffon warriors patrolling the area, Two on the roof, about seven creeping on the ground.

"Mostly clear, got about nine of these guys watching over the plaza." Atom spoke into the radio.

"Copy, moving in." replied Bullet Monkey.

The team crept inwards, toward a small fountain surrounded by pavement and buildings. One could see a few ponies erecting a large Griffon statue, with about two Griffon overseers standing by with whips. Their normal, clean furry coats were ripped apart by the constant beating of leather tails beating upon their bruised, damaged skin. Dried blood could also faintly be seen, and dirt clinging to their fur was visible as well. Acting upon this, Delta moved in to provide overwatch in a building. This also was the building that had the two lion-eagle sentries. Bravo was sent off to deal with the seven ground infantry, and Peeps set off to free the prisoners. The plan was in motion, and the first acts of valiance would be revealed.

-Equestrian Border, Griffon 2nd Company-

"King High Cloud! We are nearing Appleoosa, how would you like to celebrate your victory?" questioned the King's assistant, Steel Talon.

"Good, I would love to watch as our foothold in Equestria grows even further." replied High Cloud.

The moderate sized group of royal bodyguards trudged through the desert heat, awaiting his new beachhead city's construction. Unknowing to them however, it was essentially going to be turned into the first battle in the Equus-Griffonic War.

-Ponyville, Equestria-

As per usual, commerce and friendly faces cantered about. Life was good, and pride of being an Equestrian was never higher. However, a few things had gone off to become different. Small royal guard recruitment posts were set up, and large lines flocked to each. New recruits were being formed regularly into organized companies, each sent to training grounds all across Equestria, the lucky ones getting the field set up nearby the Whitetail Woods, which happened to be set up by the aliens. It just so happened that Ponyville was the main exporter of guardsmen, mostly due to its close proximity to the peculiarly loud royal speech. Still, news of the war shocked many. Some were loyal to the cause, wanting to finally show their Equestrian might. Others however, disapproved of the conflict and wanted to try and end it in peaceful ways, however possible.

Twilight also had a grand time taking notes on the various humans coming and going from the town, even more so with the humanoid figures doing their duties. What really amazed her however, was their extremely advanced form of technological understanding and their Frack engineer allies. How they managed to get massive, metallic structures into the sky amazed her to outstandingly high limits, and the question that bugged her mind the most, was "How long have they been here?"

Were they recently formed creatures made by the Creator? Are they secretly machines? Each new question stabbed and jabbed endlessly, no end in sight. Her curiosity had peaked, and she had to go and meet with one of the scientists at the Whitetail Woods camp. Packing her bags, she set off for a new journey.

The journey was brief, and the field was filled to the brim with trainees, with pegasi, earth, and unicorn troopers stomping and training for the coming conflicts. Magic bolts struck mannequins, swords and spears cut and stabbed different targets. It was a magnificent clusterfuck of noise and clambering recruits, and Twilight had to navigate her way through the walls of ponies in armor.  Guiding her way through the slits and gaps where she could, she had managed to deftly weave her way into the heart of the training region, the concrete building that housed multiple soldiers, scientists, and ponies. A brief knock, and the door was opened, to reveal a few unknown faces, and a single, familiar face. It was Keith, the scout trooper that she had briefly met during their "meeting".

Screech and the other teams had successfully bogged down the stationed Griffons, and they freed the nearby ponies. It was going to be a long day, and the rhythm of clearing each room became a simple process, open the door, flashbang, close door, open door, two the chest, one to the head. He repeated this over and over, and both of the other teams were getting sick of it. Still, they had to keep the fight going if they wanted to free anymore pony prisoners. Issuing a move order, they continued on with the mission. Suddenly, they found a massive gathering of slaves as they rounded a corner. Multiple Griffons looked over the populace as they worked away at building military structures. Hammers, saws, and other tools sang as they continued their envious chant,

"FREE US!" sang the saw.

"BREAK THESE CHAINS!" played the hammer.

"NEED FOOD!" hummed the mallet.

The three teams knew what had to be done. Guns were loaded and weapons were drawn, and the war fighters moved in to liberate more yet another group of ponies. However, the ponies were clearly out ranged due their melee weaponry. So, Prison Break and the other ponies had a decision to make. Get shot while fending off griffons by unknowingly powerful weapons, or stay back as the humans and humanoids fire away at crowds of griffons. It was hard choosing whether to get glory, or have it taken by aliens for their life, it was nearly unanimous. It also appeared that the teams of Bullfrogs had also understood their reasoning for staying down, below a small concrete wall where they could peer over to see what was happening.

Screech also had formulated a small course of action, such as removing their suppressors and using their weaponry's loud, thunderous noise to hopefully scare off and surprise the griffons. Telling the order to the others, the metal tubes on the end of their rifle barrels were removed. This had confused their pony allies, and they had asked similar questions.

"What is that?" queried Prison Break.

"What does it do?" questions Metal Streak.

"These,-" Bullet Monkey lifted up his now removed suppressor "-are suppressors. They lessen noise and keep stealth at a high cap."

In return, Prison Break asked, "Then why are you removing them?"

"You'll see." replied Screech.

The laser sights on their weapons flicked on, illuminated various griffon warrior heads, and opened fire. The roar of gunfire had actually surprised both sides, pony and griffon, equally. It was excessively loud, louder than any magic that the ponies had known. They sat there in horror, watching as multiple griffon heads exploded into showers of gore, and as multiple warriors charged helplessly toward their doom. Their melee weaponry was pointless in this situation, and many had retreated to call in their archery teams, but Atom knew where they were heading for.

He took a breath, looked into his scope, and saw a small group of five archers with bows setting up not far from the entry of Appleoosa. He moved his reticle a little bit above their heads to compensate for gravity, and pulled the trigger. A fraction of a second later, the high powered weapon devastated the archers' morale. They could only observe as their friends and fellow soldiers were mowed down by these "unknown" assailants. Blood, gore, and flesh spewed all about as the warriors looked. The pony guardsmen however, were mortified to even higher levels than the griffons. They had to deal with this. For the rest of the mission. The equines did not know of anything that held such brutality, and spewed it in such a casual, efficient way, that is mentally and physically scarred them. They shook to stand up, chills rocked their spines, and their minds were a scramble of recollection of what just happened.

"I-I don't know what to say..." Prison Break had managed to croak under his breath.

Trying to gather up what thoughts they could, they moved along as the N.C.G. Bullfrogs ran over to the captured ponies, who were equally as terrified as the guards.

"Stay back! Stay back you monsters!" shouted Braeburn, who managed to courageously stand in front of the trained soldiers.

"No! These.. humans, they are here to rescue you!" replied Metal Streak, trying to quell the rising hostility between the different races.

"I don't believe it! They brainwashed you didn't they! They-they're aliens!" shouted Braeburn.

"Woah, calm it down there." intervened Screech. "This has gone long enough, we're here to help."

"Then why weren't you here when the Griffons attacked?!" queried Braeburn.

Screech just calmy replied, "We stumbled upon that not long after we arrived."

"So, you a-are aliens?" curiously implied Braeburn.

"In your case, yeah." stated Atom.

A short chat after, the now freed ponies understood, and their predicament was revealed. Their country was at war with the Griffon Empire. It was a brief but unsurprising revelation, and their small religious buildings had also told of a great savior hailing from the skies. That savior, was the New Conglomerate, and its human and alien military.