‘Day 3’

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

All this technology is amazing. I can’t help but ask thousands of questions to the SICON troopers. They don’t know a lot though so not all the information I have is accurate. The transports picked up something of Sunset’s called a ‘Marauder’ I think its some kind of Gollem but I have yet to ask, il be back journal.

‘Day 16’

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

It has been a hard time getting the old castle defensible but thanks to some of my experience here the troopers have been having an easier time at it. I’ve even begun training with them and learning how to be a proper trooper. It’s hard but so exciting. Mister Gauss said he is making me my own suit from some spares. I’m so excited journal. I just wish my friends were here to see.

‘Day 48’

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

I have been with these troopers for more than a month now and I must admit that it has been an interesting experience to say the least.

In total there of 40 of us here comprised of 36 M.I. troopers from a wide variety of squads that had been on Nemerosa and three fleet pilots for the two retrieval ships and myself. All of them have been very kind to me and I have made a fair number of friends amongst them, most notably Guss Gauss and Hether 'Doc' Turner who were fellow Marauder pilots from Sunset's unit.

Speaking of Sunset, we have been trying to break through the mind block unsuccessfully, it hasn't thrown me across the court yard yet so I'm not complaining. We have also been observing the limits of my new ability's along with all the military training that I seem to have unknowingly gained through my time in Sunset's memories and the on the job training.

I have been waking up early and exercising and training with the troopers. Sunset has taken command of the humans here seeing as she is a Sargent and the highest ranking one out of all of them. Which surprised me but I kept it to myself.

We have been hiding out at the old castle of the two pony sisters but the pilots keep their ships in two separate hidden locations, we don't want Celestia or the guard finding our hideaway until we're ready.

We also have the ships make appearances in the badlands so it looks like we are there, and because they are capable of getting up and out of the atmosphere they can be in the badlands or Appleloosa one minute and be back at their hiding places without anyone seeing them.

I have to go now Journal, something's spooking the wild-life and we're about to go on a patrol to investigate.

A squad of troopers crept though the dark forests of the Everfree, their weapons at the ready in case of attack as they remained low to the ground and made as little noise as they could. Stalking alongside them was Twilight Sparkle in her new power suit which fit her like a glove and made her feel like something out of those comics Spike would read.

Gauss had managed to cobble it together from a spare power suit so Twilight could have more protection in case of an attack, it was the same an average power suit but with a few modifications to accommodate her physiology. Such as holes in the helmet for her horn and ears and lighter Armor on her wings, which Gauss had staked his life that it wouldn't impair her flight which he had since been proven right.

"Twilight, you getting anything?" Sunset's voice came over the radio for the 7th time in the last five minutes, the Sergeant's team was waiting a few dozen meters to Twilight's team's right.

"Not yet Sarge. Give m-" Twilight stopped talking as she felt something nearby.... Something alien "Hold up!" she whispered loudly as she concentrated on the alien mind.

"Warrior, ten meters dead ahead." Twilight reported and heard the others in her squad making sure their Moritas were ready.

"It hasn't detected us yet.... I'm going to see if I can use its connection to the hive mind to track any others nearby" Twilight whispered and crawled prone to the ground.

"Ok... But be careful" Shimmer said and told her own squad to keep talking to a minimum. Once Twilight got within a good enough range to the Arachnid warrior she let her mind ease into the bug's, slowly infiltrating its hive connection and seeing the world through its eyes. Everything was red and distorted, the warrior sensed nothing but knew that behind it were about 36 Warriors. Mostly just wandering around aimlessly and searching for food or something to take out their endless aggression on. Twilight relayed the information to the squad.

"Good work Twilight, mark their locations and draw them back to us. No risks I want all you apes (and pony) back on at base so I can destroy you at pinochle."

Twilight rolled her eyes at the mention of the card game, Sunset had clearly cheated in the last game they had together, Twilight didn't know how but she was sure Sunset had cheated. She would have liked to take a peak in Sunset’s mind and confirm this but Twilight had made a vow never to use her psychic abilities for petty causes like seeing if Sunset was playing fair and not without consent.

Twilight flipped her visor down with a twitch of her head. She then collected her rifle from her back with her magic and aimed at the nearest warrior. She was specifically aiming at its nerve stem, which would kill the bug instantly, she checked that the two troopers around her were ready before slowly squeezing the trigger. A single round tore through the shell, flesh and bone reducing the nerve stem to a green bloody mess. It let out one cry of agony that alerted the others. Twilight and the other troopers were already running by the time the warrior had hit the dirt with a thunk and its fellows were chasing after the troopers.

The other troopers had taken down two more bugs as well before falling back. Bringing the bug death total to 3, this was enough to royally piss off the other 33 warriors which were now screeching and roaring through the trees intent of vengeance for the deaths of their fellows. Normally this would inspire fear into the troopers that were getting chased, but at that moment in time Twilight and her accompanying troopers wanted this.

Dead ahead was a single line of large camouflaged figures standing behind a long shallow ditch. They were almost impossible to see with the camouflage netting up.

Twilight smiled and slid down, spinning mid slide onto her belly, and levitated her Morita up before setting it to full auto. There were five other troopers laying in the ditch with their Moritas ready but none of them fired a shot as the Bugs rushed into view.

"Hold your fire......... Steady......... FIRE!"

Sunset in her 'Hellhound' tore out of her camo net and set her Morita specials blazing along with Twilight and the other troopers. The charging Warriors were torn to bloody pieces by the Squad's combined fire and found their numbers reduced to 26, then 18, then 10, until Twilight put a bullet through the final one's nerve stem, Twilight's kill count tonight was 30. The others preferred to fire out long streams of bullets but Twilight preferred short controlled bursts to the nerve stems.

"Ok you apes fall in!" they all gathered around the Marauder and waited for Sunset to address them. It was hard not to miss the smile on her face.

"Ok that's the 5th group we've dealt with now, let’s head on back to the castle, check your gear. We move out in five!"

Back in the castle Twilight flopped down on her bunk and stretched out her aching limbs, the other troopers were doing the exact same thing and the snores of Jason and Wiggem already audible.

Twilight heard her wing bones click and crack as she stretched them, she was going to have to ask Gauss to re-adjust the armor around her wing in the morning, right now though Twilight just wanted to set her head down and sleep.

Moaning in discomfort, she dragged herself out of bed and began to strip her armor in front of the mirror she had salvaged from somewhere in the castle. Twilight was shocked by how much her body had changed in the last week thanks to the training and daily fitness that Sunset had her go through. Twilight understood why the Sargent did this, Twilight had insisted that she help in combat operations and Sunset had only agreed to it on the condition that she got in shape.

To a sense she had, two weeks after their escape from Ponyville she was allowed on her first patrol, she hadn't changed much with only gaining a bit of stamina, but during the patrol Twilight had slipped and fell into a field of White-ish blue flowers. No effects were noticed right away until a week later, Twilight had started to gain a more lean and toned body faster than should have been possible. When she had taken samples of the flower she found out that is let out an odd chemical like poison joke, but instead of being malicious the flower helped muscle growth and acted as a medicine when ground down into a paste, it temporarily boosted regeneration and the body's immune system. Doc had compared it to a fungus found on the bug’s home world of Klendathu that they ate to keep strong and healthy.

Twilight had decided to name the flowers ‘Curatio’ Flowers after Doc had mentioned it to her, it was the Latin word for healing, it seemed appropriate considering it was now being added to their medical supply and Twilight was sure that when this was all over the flower could be cultivated and save many lives.

‘I probably should have named it the ‘Sparkle flower’” Twilight thought to herself with a chuckle.

Twilight looked at herself in the mirror in thought. Thanks to the flowers halfway through her second month with the humans her physique could almost rival that of Applejack and Rainbow Dash's. She honestly thought that she might actually be an actual match for her two friends.

Twilight felt her mood darken at the thought of her friends and Spike. What had Celestia told them? Would they be able to forgive her for disappearing for so long? Sure, Twilight had no choice in the matter, Celestia would have just locked up Sunset and threw away the key. Completely ignoring her warnings about the Arachnid threat until it was too late.... But could she have spared the time to leave them a note explaining her actions? Why it was so important that she leave?

Twilight banished the thoughts knowing that they would only lead to restless nights, Twilight decided to take a walk in the courtyard, maybe the fresh air would clear her head.

It was a cool brisk night with Luna's moon high in the sky, Twilight chuckled as she remembered how long it had taken to convince the troopers here that magic was in fact real. Twilight and Sunset had spoken quite regularly about Twilight herself, Sunset had come around to the idea that magic existed just like the rest but she still believed that Twilight was a psychic considering that she had ability's like a normal psychic along with her magic. Twilight was staring to agree with her under the circumstances but had put up the question about why was she only learning about her gifts now? And why had she never heard of any other ponies with the gift? Sunset had held no answers for her.

Twilight breathed in the cool midnight air and stared to jog around to perimeter of the courtyard dispite her aching muscle’s protests. She took a moment to wave to Privates Wilhelm and Mik’hail who were heading out on guard duty near the front of the castle.

Twilight jogged and worked herself as much as she could but her thoughts were still plagued by thoughts of Celestia, they still had yet to gain any concrete evidence of a bug threat, sure they had engaged many bugs over the month and a half but all of them had acted like mindless animals and not an intelligent group of invaders. The only way to convince the eldest Princess of the danger was for something major to happen.

But even with the evidence Twilight still worried about the meeting that they would eventually have to have with Celestia. Twilight was pretty sure that she had lost the trust of her former mentor and maybe eveypony she knew, would they listen to her? Would they even care? Twilight had none of the answers to these questions.

"Looks like you've got something on your mind lass" Twilight nearly jumped out of her coat as Gauss fell into step besides her.

"Sorry for spooken you, but you look like you need somebody to talk to" Gauss's warm Scottish accent inspired confidence that whatever Twilight said would be kept safe. Some of the other troopers had called him an “Irish Santa Clause”, whoever that was Twilight didn’t know but assumed it was a good thing.

"Thanks Gauss... I'm just worried about Celestia and my friends, what if they hate me?" Gauss regarded her with warm brown eyes, he was a large man with rugged hair and a bushy beard, his right arm was fully prosthetic in place of the original. She had asked around about that and had only received rumors and speculations, some said that he lost it when he wasn't paying attention and a bug bit it off while others said that he ran out of ammo so he held a live grenade and shoved his hand into a Warriors mouth and blowing it up.

"Do you care for them?" Gauss asked.

"Yes... I would do anything for them, that's why I'm here, fighting so they won't have to." Twilight stopped as they reached the chasm that surrounded the ruins, beyond that lay the forest proper which now looked more menacing then it had ever been before, once all she had been worried about was the dangerous creatures that lurked in it. Like the Timber Wolves, Cockatrices and Manticores.... But now something more terrible and deadly had taken up residency.

"And do they trust you?" Twilight thought back, there had been a few times when they hadn't trusted her like during the changeling invasion and more recently they hadn't trusted her enough to take care of herself when they had had to surrender the elements of harmony to the tree of harmony.... But there had been more times of when they had trusted her unconditionally just as much as Twilight trusted them.

"Yes... and I trust them with my very life."

"Then if they trust you then they will understand that you had a good reason to do what you've done" he patted Twilight on the head, "If you want my advice... Don't dwell on the things you can't control. It will just upset you needlessly."

Twilight thought over the man's words as he walked away.

Out in the deep brush however, two storm grey eyes watched the lavender mare in both concern and curiosity.

I had watched Twilight and Gauss's conversation from a distance feeling pretty bad. If I had just been quicker and stopped that jungle spider before it broke that godforsaken mirror me and my men wouldn't be here and neither would the bugs, Twilight wouldn't have had to go against her friends and former mentor and remain in complete ignorance of all this. She might not have noticed it but she had changed much in the month and a half she had been with us, the physical changes were most notable thanks to that odd field of flowers she had fallen into. But it was the changes to Twilight's personality that worrying me the most, we already knew that she had inherited every ounce of skill and training during her time in my head and on that note it wasn't that bad since not only did it help her to defend herself but would also prove useful if they could prove the bug threat here was real.

But there had been less then desirable things too, I had expected Twilight to freeze up after killing her first bug, she had not and instead calmly moved onto the next one. She just treated it like any other task, just something to do.

I was starting to worry that if I didn't get this meeting with Celestia over with soon there would be very little of the innocent mare I has met all those days ago.

Before I turned away to head back inside I saw something moving in forest... Something big, I was still wearing my power suit so it was a simple matter flipping my visor down and zooming in....... What... Is that? Matter of fact, where the fuck are Willhelm and Mik’hail? I ignored the thought for now and kept my eyes on the new target.

It looked like a bug, but not like anyone I had seen before, dull blue carapace with white dots that reminded me of snowflakes, it was about as large as an average warrior bug but unlike them it had two extra appendages which ended with a pair of claws that were clearly meant to pick something up. It was slowly walking towards the ruins with it's head down and it's clawed arms held to the ground.

“Is this a new breed of worker bug?” I asked myself, I wasn’t sure one way or the other but I also didn’t want to shoot a native so I decided to talk to Twilight about this. Walking over to where Twilight was still standing I drew my Morita but not aiming it yet, the bug was climbing across the bridge over the chasm slowly, I could hear the rope bridge creek under the bug's weight.

As it approached us I raised my Morita and hovered my finger over the trigger and was about to pull back on it for a warning shot when Twilight pushed my gun down "Wait, I know this one!" Hmmm maybe she still has some of her innocence left after all.

"Twilight its a bug... You know, giant killing machines?" I have to point out that the bug had been standing completely still as I said this looking at the floor and seemed to be trying to make itself as small as it could

"Why would I not kill it?"

"Because it saved your life!" Yea right, a bug saved my life.

"It's true, Snowflake carried you from the forest and to my house, and it doesn't know about bugs, it didn't even recognize the Ripplers that you killed" Oh god she's doing the big cute eyes again.......

"Please Sunset just hear it out"

Oh for god’s sake I can't say no to that face or my heart will literally melt and explode.... Twice.

"Ok but if it tries anything funny I'm going to put a bullet through its nerve stem" wherever that was on this thing.

Twilight nodded her gratitude and turned her attention to the bug she had called Snowflake... Now I thought about it the patterns on its carapace did look like snow and the blue did add an ice cold water look.... Strange.

"Snowflake how did you find me... And why are you here?" Twilight really was comfortable around this thing.

I nearly jumped when I saw the bug pull out a pad and pen from a bag wrapped around one of its arms. I am now officially upgrading this from odd to just plain ridiculous, and it started writing too.

‘It was not easy Twilight, but I followed my senses and they lead me to you a few weeks ago, I fea-‘

Wait was this thing in my head?! I turned to see if I was the only one to hear the voice, thankfully Twilight looked also surprised.

"Snowflake, how are you doing that?" Snowflake looked at us with confusion in it's storm grey eyes... That was another thing! Why did it's eyes look so huma- you know what there were bigger things to worry about right now.

The bug had flipped the pad to a new page and soon enough the voice was back.

‘What do you mean Twilight?’ The voice sounded so feminine and almost..... Well like a young woman's.

"That! We can hear you talking in our heads" it was difficult to read the Snowflake's body language considering that it... Or was it she now, was so alien in shape, but I was sure that the thing was surprised.

‘Y-You can hear me?’

"Yes pretty clearly too." I added "You sound like you didn't know you could do this?"

‘Because I couldn't.... At least not with ponies, I was only ever able to talk to animals and they aren't very good talkers (Sniff!) but now you can hear me!’ Oh god... Was she crying? Yep there are actually tears flowing from her gray, human-like eyes. But these weren't tears of sadness that she was shedding oh no... But tears of joy, of a creature that had spent most of her life not being able to speak a word to anyone unless it was through pen and paper.

Suddenly I felt years of animosity melt away. I quickly scanned Snowflake to see if she really was a bug, sure enough the scan showed Arachnid DnA but it was only about 38.5% of her genetic structure...Well that’s new. I would need Doc to do a more detailed analysis later but my thoughts quickly returned to why Snowflake was here.

"Look I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now on account of you saving me, Twilight trusting you and also because you intrigue me." Twilight mouthed a silent thank you to me and turned back to the crying Arachnid (Wow those were words I never thought I would put in the same sentence).

"Snowflake I know you’re really happy right now but what were you telling us before we interrupted you?" Twilight asked giving the bug a reassuring pat on the side.

‘R-Right (Sniff!) well I kept my distance because I was worried that you guys would kill me if I got close so I tagged along with you guys whenever you went out to kill the yellow and black bug things in the forest, I froze a few myself before they could catch you off guard, I'm only coming out tonight because I need to warn you.’

"Warn us of what?" I asked with genuine concern, I didn't really care that she was a bug right now, after all she had just admitted to killing her supposed own kin to defend us so I was counting Snowflake as an Ally for now.

‘The bad bugs... There's a whole swarm of them out in the forest behind me, they've got these ugly ones with them that spat this weird green stuff out of their mouths and melted though a full grown Manticore in a few seconds! I think they are heading here. Probably to attack within the hour!’

And they would have caught us completely unaware! Oh god that's why it was so easy to track and kill the tiny swarms of warriors, they were luring us into a sense of security and slowly figuring out where we were hiding! There was a strategy which meant there was an intelligence behind the swarm which meant that somewhere on this planet was a Brain Bug. We had our evidence that there was a major threat to Equestria and hopefully that would be enough to keep the princess from locking up me and my men…So long as we survive this attack that is, I could see Twilight was thinking the same thing.

"Thanks Snowflake! Looks like I owe you tw-" I felt something as I rested my hand on Snowflakes left side to show I was thankful, something wet and warm....

I pulled my hand into view of all three of us to see in in dripping with some sort of blue ichor, as Twilight saw this I saw her eyes widen in panic, I had a suspicion what the blue stuff was and walked around to Snowflake's side to a sight that I knew would have made me wretch if it had been on a human or even a pony. Snowflake had a long deep gash going down along her side from her head to her hind legs, and it was seeping with the blue ichor which I now noticed was dripping down into a small puddle on the floor.

Blood.

At the realization of the wound she carried Snowflake almost completely collapsed onto her stomach moaning in pain and blood loss.

‘But…but I felt no pain.’ Snowflake thought and began shivering in fear.

Thinking quickly I turned to Twilight who was already by Snowflake's side trying to keep the big creature awake.

"Twilight I need you to take Snowflake somewhere out of the way, I'll send Doc after you to help you. And before you ask I'll tell everyone that Snowflake is a friend and is under no circumstances should any harm come to her, I owe her my life and so do my men, now Go!" the lavender mare wasted no time and lifted Snowflake up carefully with her TK and carried her away, Once they were gone I switched on my radio.

"ALL TROOPERS YOU HAD BETTER GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASSES AND GEAR UP!" I still felt odd giving orders, but until someone better comes along I guess I'll have to do.

"WE'VE GOT AN IMMINENT BUG ATTACK! SO UNLESS YOU HAVE ANY INTENTIONS ON STAYING BUYING THE FARM TONIGHT GET OVER TO THE NORTH/WEST SIDE OF THE RUINS ON THE DOUBLE!"

"What kind of numbers are we looking at lass?" Gauss asked me.

"No idea, all I know is that two types of bugs in the swarm are Warriors and Blisters but other than that our source doesn't know" I clicked my radio to another frequency "Doc, I need you to head over to Twilight and help her friend."

"Yes sir, is it another pony?" Oh the rest of the guys are going yo love this "No... She's..... Ah...Bug.."

The medic's reaction was as expected "Say again mam but did you just say she was a bug?" Oh god why do I get saddled with this shit.

"I did, she apparently has no idea of her relation to the rest of the Arachnid race, get her back on her feet and pass the word around that she is friendly and is not to be shot" Burst of Outrage in three...two..one

"You want me to treat a BUG! Are you nuts?!" Might as well be "To tell you the truth Heather I really am questioning that myself, but apparently the bug, Snowflake she's called, saved my life the first night we got here and she may have just saved our behinds if she's telling the truth"

The medic was quiet for the longest time and I was convinced that she was going to refuse and march over to Twilight and shoot Snowflake, but I was a relieved when she answered me.

"Fine, I'll see what I can do" Oh thank the maker "Thanks Doc. oh and one more thing, do a DnA test on Snowflake, I did a scan of her earlier and she's only got 38.5% Arachnid DnA in her so I want to know what the other 61.5% is"

"I'll see what I can do"

I cut the line and waited for my men to assemble, I knew I would have allot of explaining to do after this fight but that was future me's problem and right now I have to stay in the present and not dwell on future for the sake of everyone under my command.

Sometimes I really hated being in command.

An hour later my men were set up in defensible areas along the North/Western part of the ruins with all three of our Marauder's stationed in places where they would do the most damage. I had ordered the rope bridge severed meaning that the bugs would have to crawl up the Chasm wall to reach us, the main reason we chose the ruins was because they were only accessible by the North/West by the rope bridge, any attempts of approach from the West, South and East would be too hazardous and the bedrock under the ruins that had acted as the former castle's foundation meant that the arachnids couldn't burrow up behind them. in conclusion the ruins were a tactical goldmine, even in its ruined state the castle offered tactical advantages such as cover from air-born hostiles and from plasma fire if the bugs decided to field Plasma Bugs, we had also set up Sniper turrets at key points along the approach to pick off air-born buggers and to thin out warrior ranks, I had ordered ammo catches placed all around the ruins in case of emergency's and in fallback positions. As a last resort a we had a few charges ranging from Plasma's to one Mini-Nuke. So that even if my men and I were killed, the last man standing would trigger them and in theory take out an army of bugs and a sizable chunk of the forest with them.... Like I said, it was a last resort.

As much as the ruins posed a tactical advantage they also posed the problem of there being no escape route, luckily one of the Retrieval ships was out on a diversion run so if this siege went pear shaped I could still evacuate my men, well at least some of them.

The bugs however had both numbers, and diversity with their troop types, this coupled together with us not knowing their exact numbers gave them a very big advantage for they would use warriors and workers to soak up our ammo and then send in the big stuff to finish us off.

Comparing both us and them I came to the conclusion that one of us was royally boned..... I almost feel sorry for the Arachnids, because even if we had all only been together a month I was proud of every one of my men and knew they would kill a thousand bugs for every trooper who fell.

"Ok you apes listen up, I want grenades ready to soften their ranks but save the heavy ordinances for the big guys if they bring them to the table. You all know our fallback positions and last resort plan, are there any questions?”

"Hey Sarge, I heard you came up with a name for our merry band of castaways." I think that was Pvt. James.

"Maybe we should use it, after all I we are about to go into our first big fight in a new unit" Hmm maybe... Every Mobile Infantry squad had a name along with their assigned designation, a name they earn through battle, I had been considering one for a while but it had seemed a little corny to me at first... But I guess it would fit

"Ok.... The Timber Wolves" What could I say, those wooden hunters left an impression on me.

"Sargent Shimmer's Wolves... Not bad.." the name was met with approval form the rest of the men.

"Well lass, looks like we're Timber Wolves now, lets show these things our fangs!" Oh god Gauss did not just say that.... I should have gone with Shimmer's Kittys, or hornets.

"BUUUUUGS!"

Finally! Come get it you sons of bitches. Snowflake had been right about the Blisters as I could see large pockets of them of them among the attacking swarm.

What she hadn't warned me about was the new bright red bugs that looked like they were radiating magical energy (I was using the term Magic more loosely since I really didn't have anything else to call it.... Don't question me!) But Input this down to the blood loss.

I knew for a fact that I really didn't want those things anywhere near me and my men. Physically they resembled Blaster Bugs who luckily had been solely native to the planet Tophet and were now extinct, a Blaster's primary means of attack was to extract heat from their surroundings and ignite a bio-chemical reaction in their proto-thorax (Tophet was an extremely hot desert world so they would only effective there and no where else) before releasing an energy wave which can easily burn through a Power Suit.

I could only guess that instead of heat these Blaster bugs extract magic from their surroundings, I wanted them nowhere near my men so I made the call.

"Take out those Blaster Bug! Marauders lock plasma.

“Lets rain on their parade!" my fellow two Marauders and I fired our rockets, loaded with plasma charges, which exploded creating a wall of fire. Thankfully these Blasters hadn't inherited the heat shield abilities of their Tophet cousins so the blast incinerated most of the Blaster bugs, the wall burned for 20 Minutes in which time I had ordered the placement of our forward Sniper Turrets to different positions to give then more optimal firing positions and to confuse the bugs. It worked and the bugs ended up splitting their forces slightly, thinking the Sniper Turrets were manned by living troopers.

When the fires died away the bugs began charging again, I ordered my men to hold their fire until my say, no point wasting ammo on stray shots. The bug’s battle cries echoed over to us as they all swarmed down the chasm as fast as they could and began swarming up the other side.

As soon as they reached the edge of the chasm we began to mercilessly gun them down, corpses and bug juice fell down the and faint splashes could be heard over the roaring gunfire as they landed in the river below. A few of the dead bugs were likely landing on their brothers and knocking them to their deaths. It was going so well and I put this down to the bugs expecting to have the element of surprise which had been lost with Snowflakes warning. Of course a trooper by the name of Pvt. Gideon decided to utter something that should never be said on Equestrian.... Or in Equestria what so ever.... Or anywhere on this planet.

"This is way too easy! I wish we had more of a challenge!" Note to whoever is reading this... Kill Gideon at earliest convenience... Or at least badly maim him because as soon as those words left his mouth great balls of plasma began to rain down on our positions. The blast wave from the impacts of the plasma shook the mountain and felt like an earthquake, some of the masonry in the castle actually started to crack from it.

Two baby plasma bugs entered view with six M-class Blaster bugs (The M was for Magic) standing guard in two clusters of three.

Our light cover was being decimated by plasma fire so one of the other Sergeants, Jefferson was his name, decided to duel wield two Tri-barreled missile Launchers Rambo style, like he was in some kind jof action movie, and fire both weapon's entire ammo supply at the plasma's after locking on.

While reckless I knew, it would have worked....If the Blasters hadn't shot them down mid-flight with two powerful magic energy pulses. They looked similar to a directed E.M. Pulse that fried the missile's electronics, the good news was that it seemed to have only a 20 meter range and the Blasters were staying with the bug's artillery.

I ordered my troopers back to heavier cover, while I kept the bugs distracted, my method? Every bit of napalm in my shoulder mounted napalm/Grenade combo cannon, I had already exhausted my grenades a month and a half ago and the Retrieval ships didn't carry my Marauder's type of grenades. But I still had a full tank of Napalm which I fully emptied along most of the edges of the cliff edge while unloading most of my rockets at the bugs like a mortar.

I lost focus for a moment as I watched bugs burn and heard them cry out in pain as they fell back, their exoskeletons turning a charred black color. I was so engrossed in my work I didn't notice the big ball of plasma coming towards me until it was too late. As I saw that big blue mass my, mind raced at a thousand thoughts per minute about how to avoid it, I couldn't shoot it since the resulting explosion would most likely kill me even in my Marauder and I couldn't dodge it due to how long it took my thrusters to warm up. I was out of ideas as the Ball of plasma was about to hit me so I just closed my eyes and-

*FLASH*

-Fell to the ground out of range of the plasma explosion out of my Marauder which I spun around and watched be blown apart by the plasma ball.... Farewell good old 'Hellhound' you served me well. I looked around and found Twilight crouched behind the same cover I was now laying behind.

"Eyes open, girl. I can't protect you all the time!" the Alicorn mare said with a grin as she levitated a Y8 Missile launcher to me.

"You shoot, I will stop those Blasters from firing.” He..he! Having the princess of magic as a team mate had its perks, like being one of the most powerful beings in Equestria and a greater mastery over the arcane then the bugs. Who by all intensive purposes were nothing more than a sideshow performance.

I rolled over onto my belly and set the launcher on my shoulder with its targeting screen deployed and showing a clear view of the left Plasma bug, the Bugs had made a great tactical error in their over confidence. They had both their Plasmas standing side by side almost close enough to touch, I waited for one of the Plasma bugs to charge up a shot before letting the missile fly, as soon as I did this it was enveloped in the pink aura that signified Twilight's magic, the bugs got a nasty surprised when they tried the same tactic they used to stop the last missile attack only for the missile to fly through the pulse unharmed.

Both Twilight and I covered our eyes as both of the Plasmas went critical and exploded, creating a wall of plasma that spread 50 or 60 meters out, incinerating all the bugs within range of the explosion perimeter.

As the light from the explosion died away I looked at Twilight and gave her a thumbs up, Twilight Grinned in appreciation. We were interrupted by bugs crawling up over the lip of our side of the Chasm and some of their own living worker bugs using their own bodies as bridges to pass over the Napalm I had sprayed earlier.

I drew my Morita and signaled Twilight to run.

There was still work to be done.

Author's Note

Here you go, please tell me what you think and how I may Improve.
On the subject of proofreaders and editors the search is still ongoing, as before I as that if you know anyone user who would be interested in any of these jobs please have them contact me by a message or by sending me a message with their user I.D so I may contact them.

other then that please enjoy and more chapters will be added soon.

also here is the website I have been getting my information about the cannon equipment and bugs of the Roughnecks Universe, Take a look if your interested here is the link http://misterhook.tripod.com/roughnecks/guide.htm