We stand together

‘Engineer you ass!’ the grey pony shouted, ‘You’ve only gone and eaten the last damn Orchid!’

‘What?’ Engineer replied, grinning, ‘Those things are tasty!’

‘They’re for all of us Engie!’ groaned Lincoln, ‘I’m starving over here!’

‘You don’t need food Lincoln! You’re a unicorn, magic up some cake or something!’

‘You really think I’m powerful enough to do that? Flattered, I’m sure’

‘You two! Stop arguing!’ interrupted the grey one, ‘Engineer, since you ate the Orchids you can go to the pond to get some more and Lincoln, since you’re so keen to have a chat you can join him!’

‘Captain Suffolk, I don’t really think this is a good idea...’

‘Was that backchat?’

‘No sir...’

‘I’d jolly well hope not! Run along you two!’.

After they’d left, Bognor gave him a nudge,

‘You’re still a bit of an asshole Capp’n, just to tell you. Slacken off a bit’

‘Shut up Sergeant...’ he muttered.

There was a loud crash from quite a distance away. The orange pony named Sunshine, latched himself onto Bognor like some sort of limpet.

‘Wha- Wha- What was that!?’ he whimpered.

‘How the hay should I know?’ replied Suffolk, even though he knew that the question wasn’t aimed at him, ‘I say we go and check it out!’

Sunshine tightened his grip on Bognor.

‘Get off me ya big wuss!’ he joked and kicked him lightly, ‘Rotherham, can you tell where that came from?’

‘What am I, omniscient?’ replied the blue earth pony, ‘It sounded like it was somewhere to the south’

‘Alright then!’ shouted Lincoln, ‘let’s go!’ he began to walk off but Sunshine kept him back with his magic.

‘Sh- Shouldn’t we wait for Engie and Lincoln to get back? They- They’re our best fighters...’

‘Are you kidding me? We’re not gonna need fighters, it’s probably just a rockfall or something!’

‘But- but...’ he whined and put his head to the ground, whining quietly.

‘You know, he could have a point boss.’ chipped in Rotherham, who wanted to stand up for his friend, ‘You’ve heard about the alien attack on Ponyville, who knows how they got there?’

‘What, are you joining the sissy club now, Rotherham? I thought you were tougher than that!’

‘You know, “toughness” won’t really help you if you get mobbed by aliens...’

‘Shut up Rotherham. That’s an order!’

‘Yes sir’ he muttered and glared at the floor.

‘So are you coming or what?’

‘Go if you want to, we’re waiting for Engineer and Lincoln.’ replied Manchester, a brownish earth pony with striking red hair.

‘Well I’m not going on my own. I’ll wait here with you cowardly lot!’ he shouted, which caused Rotherham to smirk.

Nothing of interest happened whilst they were waiting for the two ponies but when they did finally arrive with the orchids, they were told to drop them where they were and move south with the rest of the squad.

‘Drop them?’ exclaimed Engineer, ‘Why not just eat them?’

‘Because we don’t have the time! We’ve already wasted enough waiting for you two to get back!’ replied Suffolk, just as Engineer shoved the entire stack of orchids into his mouth.

‘Mmph?’ he asked. All the rest of the squad snorted with laughter but Suffolk just stood there and fumed.

‘Damn it Engineer, you’ve disobeyed a direct order! I should have you deranked!’

‘And by my right as Sergeant I say you can’t derank him. That was bloody hilarious!’ chuckled Bognor.

Suffolk spat on the floor.

‘Let’s just get this over with’.

The seven ponies began to move south through the valley, towards where the sound had came from. There was no chance of ambush, as it was just flat desert and badlands, the most cover any attacker would have was a few small rocks. They eventually arrived at the southernmost point of the valley, to see that a huge rockfall had happened. ‘Well that’ll be it then!’ stated Suffolk, somewhat proudly,

‘Just a rockfall. Nothing to worry about.’

‘Well yeah,’ replied Lincoln, ‘If you don’t count a big chunk taken out of the top of the valley which just happens to be an exact cylindrical shape which points towards a place which we didn’t really look at on our way here as nothing to worry about.’

‘Uh...’ he started, ‘I knew that. I was just testing you. Come on everypony, there’s no time to waste!’

He began to walk away.

‘The direction of the hole would suggest whatever it was was over there, captain.’ Lincoln shouted after him, pointing towards the opposite direction that he was walking.

‘I knew that too!’ he yelled, suddenly changing direction, ‘Very observant today Lincoln, well done!’.

Engineer covered his face with his hoof.

‘Who put that hopeless asshole in charge?’

‘Princess Celestia, apparently’ replied Rotherham as he started to follow Suffolk.

‘Do we really have to?’ asked Sunshine, weakly.

‘Afraid so’ replied Manchester, ‘I’d hate to see what’d happen if we didn’t and it turned out to be some of those aliens.’

‘I’d hate so see what happens if we do and it turns out to be some of those aliens...’

They walked around for a while but could find nothing and by this time it was getting dark.

‘Strange...’ mused Bognor, ‘it seems a little early to be getting dark...’

‘We’re getting later on in the year,’ said Suffolk, ‘It’s getting darker earlier, nothing to be worried about!’

‘B- But... Isn’t this what happened in P- Ponyville?’ squeaked Sunshine, ‘It got dark early and then... and then...’ He let out a small squeal.

‘Ah, don’t be a baby! It’s just a little darkness, what’re you afraid of it?’

A noise similar to the scraping of hooves on a blackboard came from behind him. They could just figure out some basic language.

‘He’s not... But... you should... be...’ Suffolk whirled around to see a large, bug-like creature staring him down. It raised one of it’s pointed talons. ‘Krrcktt, Thsssh!’

It’s claw swung down, but Suffolk barrel rolled out of the way just in time.

‘WHAT THE FUCK!?’ he screamed as he drew his axes. All of the other members of the squad pulled out their weapons too. The creature stared at them, hatred burning in it’s eyes.

‘You... should... surren... surrend... give up...’ it clicked, ‘we... are more... than you...’

Other aliens came out of the shadows and bared their fangs menacingly at the group of ponies. The squad of ponies moved into position surrounding Sunshine, who was the medic.

‘Attack as one on my mark!’ yelled Suffolk, raising his axes above his head. ‘MARK!’

The six ponies (bar Sunshine) charged forward and plunged their weapons into the nearest creature.

‘We... warned... you...’ the lead creature spluttered.

Swarms of the bug-like things climbed out from behind boulders. The squad gathered again.

‘We’re way outnumbered, how’re we gonna pull this off?’ shouted Manchester, throwing his spear at one of the creatures and pulling out his sword.

‘The same way we do everything else!’ replied Engineer, ‘Together!’

He charged forwards and began hacking at a cluster of the things that were attacking. He decapitated one and stabbed another right through the top of it’s skull.

‘Come on then!’ he yelled, ‘Get some!’

He impaled a creature directly through what appeared to be it’s chest and was soaked with green blood. The other members of the squad had joined in with the butchery.

The invaders would have no chance against their finely tuned and elite fighting skills, but whenever they killed one, three more always seemed to take it’s place.

‘Suffolk! Me and Engineer are going to use the RB cans!’ Lincoln yelled over the screeches of the aliens.

‘What? Are you crazy? They’ve not been tested!’

‘But if they work, we can attack from the air!’

‘What about us!?’ shouted Rotherham and Manchester, also meaning Sunshine, who was too shy to speak up and was busy hiding behind a boulder waiting for somepony to get injured so he could heal them.

‘We’ve not got enough for everypony! Engineer’s an amazing fighter and it’d basically make me an alicorn!’

‘Fine! Go on then!’ Suffolk threw them two silver cans of liquid, which they downed.

The air around their backs flickered and robotic wings appeared out of nowhere. The two of them took off, along with Bognor and Suffolk, and began to kill the monsters from above.

‘This is easy! I don’t know how they had so much trouble in ponyville!’ chirped Bognor as he drove his longsword into the top of a creature’s head.

‘Ah.’ replied Engineer, seeing something burst from the ground, ‘It could be because of that thing.’

A vast, snake-like creature had erupted from the sand, with it’s claws flailing like mad things.

‘This doesn’t look like it’s going to turn out well...’ muttered Rotherham, just as another two of the abominations appeared,

‘Well, we may as well try, hadn’t we?’ The squad ran back into combat.